Speaker 1: Well, well, well, guess who's back. It's me and I
Speaker 1: only missed one of the most fun discussions talking about
Speaker 1: the gold medal game for Team USA. But guess what,
Speaker 1: We're only about thirty two days out from Media Days.
Speaker 2: And also look the Celtics Nuggets.
Speaker 1: Heading overseas for the NBA Abu Dhabi Games, So it's
Speaker 1: time to circle back start discussing expectations for the upcoming
Speaker 1: season plus a little bit of nineties player nostalgia as
Speaker 1: we'd like to do in this summer this year with
Speaker 1: the Volumes very own Jason Timp on today's episode, I'm Miles.
Speaker 3: Grant and I'm Jack O'Brien and this is Miles and
Speaker 3: Jack mans.
Speaker 2: Got it. Look at the Hicks ten o K.
Speaker 1: There you go, m B driving Spinny Fatter number eighteen
Speaker 1: that's been secured. The Celtics are NBA champions over the
Speaker 1: double TA be honest, Welcome, Welcome, Jason Timp of the
Speaker 1: Volume look providing a lot of great analysis on Twitter
Speaker 1: now working longside and for Colin Coward at the Volume Jason,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us, Man, welcome to
Speaker 1: my box, and Jack on Mad Boosti's.
Speaker 4: Of course man, thanks for having me on. Uh yeah,
Speaker 4: I really enjoyed the Team USA stuff. The one downside
Speaker 4: is is like I look up and it's August twenty yeah,
Speaker 4: and I feel like the season's really close already, and
Speaker 4: I was looking forward to some downtime, but the site
Speaker 4: just kept busy.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 4: Yeah right, yeah, I like, I'm gonna be enjoying these
Speaker 4: last this last month and taking it easy. But like
Speaker 4: we man, it's just it's crazy. It's crazy how long
Speaker 4: the season is.
Speaker 1: Seriously, and I mean the one silver lining is at
Speaker 1: least once Media Day comes, we get a new Jimmy pick,
Speaker 1: so you know.
Speaker 6: That'll be what do you think he's gonna go with?
Speaker 2: Oh man, maybe like what did she kind of.
Speaker 6: Like, what was the one to beatle Juice? There's gonna
Speaker 6: be a tie in.
Speaker 2: No wait, so it was emo Jimmy last year, and.
Speaker 3: Before that it was just like kind of long yeah yeah,
Speaker 3: he had yeah, he had like dreads.
Speaker 1: He had like long dreads. So yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know what the escalation, but it.
Speaker 4: Was just like two of them, right, It's just like
Speaker 4: two really long dreads.
Speaker 1: Yeah, correctly, Yeah, it's I don't know, I mean, it
Speaker 1: was definitely wow and I think it depended on how
Speaker 1: he styled it based on the press conference.
Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, and yeah yeah, but like a little
Speaker 3: thinner Angel hair Millie Vanilli.
Speaker 1: Angel hair Millies, Angel Hair Millies. Jason, I got to say,
Speaker 1: you know, we have a lot.
Speaker 2: Of people on this show, but you know on your Twitter.
Speaker 3: We're just going to tell you that up front show
Speaker 3: a lot of people, Vince Carter.
Speaker 6: With a lot of guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the one thing is, you know a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't have boosties.
Speaker 2: I saw your mixtape that you have at the top
Speaker 2: of your Twitter.
Speaker 6: In fact, it's kind of a rule. Yeah, like Dubari,
Speaker 6: don't be.
Speaker 3: Bringing people onto this show who have men and thus
Speaker 3: make us look like we don't have mad boosties.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The only people we will allow our NBA legends because
Speaker 1: but and then, but when it comes to other people
Speaker 1: who talk basketball and stuff.
Speaker 2: Like that, I'm like, I can't get postered by this guy. Dude,
Speaker 2: you're nice with it. I gotta say some you got
Speaker 2: some skills, bro, three.
Speaker 4: Sixty, I'm your textbook. I was a late bloomer, so
Speaker 4: I just have like a big chip on my shoulders,
Speaker 4: so like, I just take basketball way too seriously for
Speaker 4: a thirty three year old who doesn't care for a living. Yeah,
Speaker 4: but it is what it is. I thankfully have a
Speaker 4: wife who supports the obsession. And dude, I'm just I know,
Speaker 4: I have this like feeling like I know that this
Speaker 4: is like my last little window of being able to
Speaker 4: play a little bit. So I'm trying to just embrace
Speaker 4: it and lean into it and then yeah, yeah, then
Speaker 4: hopefully all age gracefully and accept the end when it comes,
Speaker 4: because what I don't feel like doing is getting cooked
Speaker 4: up by these old guys. I was literally talking to
Speaker 4: a buddy of mine who was just playing a pickup
Speaker 4: game with Joe lacub and I was like, what is
Speaker 4: his old ass doing out there? Like you do it like?
Speaker 4: And he and my buddy played at Stanford. I'm like,
Speaker 4: I feel like at a certain point, you just got
Speaker 4: to accept reality and walk gracefully into the sunset.
Speaker 3: So that doesn't make you good at basketball owning a
Speaker 3: team full of good basketball players. You aren't suddenly You
Speaker 3: don't suddenly acquire their skills shockingly not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was like hitting a free throw and going like,
Speaker 1: night night.
Speaker 2: Are we sure about this?
Speaker 3: You're sharing with seven to man, what do you what
Speaker 3: are you doing?
Speaker 2: Hey man? That last point was actually game? You know
Speaker 2: what I mean?
Speaker 6: You're just shooting free throws after the game?
Speaker 3: Oh man?
Speaker 2: But yeah, Jason, it's good to have you here.
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk a little bit about the season before
Speaker 1: we also get into our nineties discussion.
Speaker 2: He picked some great people to talk about. I'm excited
Speaker 2: to discuss some of those players.
Speaker 1: Jabari really started this off or producer Jabari with a
Speaker 1: very interesting question are the Celtics being overlooked or preemptively cast?
Speaker 5: Aside?
Speaker 2: Immediately after winning a ring and we.
Speaker 3: Were like, are they being cast Is it just that
Speaker 3: they're so good that it's boring to talk about them
Speaker 3: right right? And so we're just like, yeah, and the
Speaker 3: Celtics are probably gonna win, but like, well it's kind
Speaker 3: of the same team, Like they didn't do anything that
Speaker 3: interesting in the off season other than anything getting like
Speaker 3: mad that we can't get more playing time. But do
Speaker 3: we think anything is going to carry over from the Olympics,
Speaker 3: like or is Lebron gonna continue to look good will Tatum?
Speaker 3: Will it be in Tatum's head that he didn't get
Speaker 3: playing time?
Speaker 1: Do we get like like Olympics. RUI too, like, do
Speaker 1: we get all of this, all of the right, all
Speaker 1: of those things? I am in my Laker heart like
Speaker 1: your fan heart. I hope so, But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like it just you kind of
Speaker 1: tap into something different for the Olympics, and I think
Speaker 1: that's where that came from. But I would love to
Speaker 1: see a lot of these people take that into it,
Speaker 1: and also to see Jason Tatum continue to.
Speaker 2: Be humbled as he said, you know, really humbling.
Speaker 4: Ad in particular has a reputation for taking a few
Speaker 4: months off every summer and coming into the season like
Speaker 4: rusty and out of shape, and so I think he's
Speaker 4: the main guy who will benefit from it. I think
Speaker 4: Lebron too, Like I'd like, I don't know about you guys,
Speaker 4: but like I thought, you know, Lebron's, Steph and KD.
Speaker 4: All three of those guys have been getting a lot
Speaker 4: of like what I think is unfair analysis over the
Speaker 4: last year or two based on them being on pretty
Speaker 4: flawed rosters and like people going like, oh, these guys
Speaker 4: just don't have it anymore, and like really, it's like
Speaker 4: if you've got three or four really high level two
Speaker 4: way role players. It just makes life easier for superstars,
Speaker 4: and all three of those guys just don't have that,
Speaker 4: And so in a weird way, I actually think like
Speaker 4: all three of them embraced this summer as like a
Speaker 4: chance to play real basketball in like high stakes environments,
Speaker 4: and so I think all three of them probably feel
Speaker 4: competitively reinvigorated, and like Stephens and Steph had a really
Speaker 4: bad end to last season, I think he's gonna have
Speaker 4: a little bit of a bounce back type of season.
Speaker 4: I still think Lebron is playing like firmly at a
Speaker 4: top six or seven level when he's healthy, right like,
Speaker 4: and then Kevin Durant was you know, greatt in the
Speaker 4: playoffs and then great in the with Team USA. So
Speaker 4: I think all three of those guys are really good.
Speaker 4: It's just unfortunately they're going back to their their iffy
Speaker 4: situations and the Western Conference is such a blood bath
Speaker 4: it may not even matter, right, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, KD was so good in that situation. He's just
Speaker 3: like the ultimate person. Like whatever happens with the Suns,
Speaker 3: like if he can just like be a weapon on
Speaker 3: a really good team again at the end of his career,
Speaker 3: like that was fun to just like see somebody be
Speaker 3: able to bring Kady in and just be lights out
Speaker 3: for it five ten minutes.
Speaker 4: You know, I just want to see all of them
Speaker 4: play on like really great teams again. And it just
Speaker 4: it is what it is, all three of It's so
Speaker 4: funny because all three of them are in situations that
Speaker 4: should have been avoidable. Like the Warrior should have traded
Speaker 4: the kids two years ago, and if they did, they'd
Speaker 4: be in a much better position because now the kids
Speaker 4: aren't that good, so they're like stuck in this in
Speaker 4: between zone. And it's like for Lebron it was the
Speaker 4: Russell Westbrook trade. For KD it was leaving Golden State
Speaker 4: to begin with, and and his obsession with finding other
Speaker 4: pull up shooters to play with for whatever reason. But like,
Speaker 4: like all three of those guys, they just they're just
Speaker 4: in these unfortunate situations and it's a huge bummer. I
Speaker 4: don't know about you, guys. I'm sure you guys have
Speaker 4: hit really good numbers for your show with the Tmosa stuff.
Speaker 4: Theosa stuff has been crushing all over the place. I
Speaker 4: think a big part of that is, like all of
Speaker 4: us basketball fans, we just miss watching those guys playing
Speaker 4: big games and it, you know.
Speaker 2: And it was. I mean I was when when it
Speaker 2: was happening.
Speaker 1: I was texting Jack and Jabari like just about like
Speaker 1: how it was sort of I think most people saw that.
Speaker 1: It's like and this team, all of these players are
Speaker 1: showing up up with their exact specialized skill set and
Speaker 1: like cranking it up to ten in the best way
Speaker 1: where you're like, it felt like playing a video game
Speaker 1: where it's like you can't put all of them on
Speaker 1: the same team, like you're just gonna do what they did.
Speaker 2: And I was so exciting to watch.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm I am worried about the if the
Speaker 1: situation that the Lakers are definitely in for it.
Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3: At MGM they are currently let's see one, two, three,
Speaker 3: four or five light now they are the ninth favorite
Speaker 3: team to uh make it to win the championship.
Speaker 6: So okay, okay, yeah, okay.
Speaker 4: Let me let me ask you this, Miles, who is
Speaker 4: the best two way player on the Lakers other than
Speaker 4: Lebron and Ady.
Speaker 2: Oh Man.
Speaker 4: I think the answer is obvious and it's not a
Speaker 4: great answer.
Speaker 2: But who are you going to say?
Speaker 4: Is I was gonna say Austin Reeves Austin's become a
Speaker 4: decent point of attack defender, and I think he's a
Speaker 4: very good offensive player. But that's the main issue is
Speaker 4: like you go around, like go to Boston and it's like, Okay,
Speaker 4: you got Tatum and Brown, who how many like really
Speaker 4: good two way players they have, Like Derek White, really
Speaker 4: good two way player, Drew Holliday really good two way player,
Speaker 4: alhar Field a really good two way players.
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, they're cheating.
Speaker 6: They just like, build a team of all the best
Speaker 6: two way players.
Speaker 1: To another.
Speaker 3: Just do that fair. And that is also what I
Speaker 3: said when they built that team. I said, that's not fair.
Speaker 4: Well to the original question that you've pitched, Like, I
Speaker 4: don't think anybody who covers the league doesn't have Boston
Speaker 4: as the championship favorite next year. I think everyone respects them.
Speaker 4: I think you're also right that there's a certain amount
Speaker 4: of a boring element to the discussing them. Even within
Speaker 4: the eighty two it's like, Okay, Boston beat Atlanta again,
Speaker 4: Like you guys want to break it down, you know,
Speaker 4: it's just hard to get into get into all those
Speaker 4: kinds of things. I think a big part of it too,
Speaker 4: and I think this is part of like the kind
Speaker 4: of like the fan insecurity element that you're seeing a
Speaker 4: ton of coming out of Boston. Like I'm sure you've
Speaker 4: seen some of the stuff with like Boston fans like
Speaker 4: straight up being pissed about Tatum not playing even though
Speaker 4: they won the gold, which is completely absurd.
Speaker 6: It was like a conspiracy. Wait, let's just call it
Speaker 6: what it was, Jason.
Speaker 3: It was a conspiracy to get in the head of
Speaker 3: the Boston Celtics and their players.
Speaker 6: It's so funny to.
Speaker 4: Be though, because it's like, Okay, so Steve Kerr is
Speaker 4: jealous of the Celtics even though he just beat them
Speaker 4: in June two years ago. It doesn't make it. It's
Speaker 4: so asinine. But the main thing that I think is
Speaker 4: driving it is I think fans want to see the
Speaker 4: struggle and they want to see overcoming adversity. It's like
Speaker 4: it's like the gold medal, the dudo won the four
Speaker 4: hundred meter just straight up doing the triple jump across
Speaker 4: the finish line, like you right, Like you want to
Speaker 4: see that struggle and Boston just it looked easy. It
Speaker 4: looked easy, their stars weren't taxed, Like how often can
Speaker 4: you see a team's best player legitimately have the worst
Speaker 4: playoff runt of his career and it not matter. It
Speaker 4: just literally not matter. And that's the thing is, it's
Speaker 4: just Boston. There's no real like appeal to the casual fan,
Speaker 4: so no one cares about that title outside of the
Speaker 4: Boston fan base. And so as a result, like there's
Speaker 4: that kind of like that classic like we're not getting
Speaker 4: discussed or we're not getting respected kind of insecurity coming
Speaker 4: out of there.
Speaker 3: So from a team that's not being actually disrespected other
Speaker 3: than like in their fans heads, because they want to
Speaker 3: like create a narrative where nobody believed in us, and
Speaker 3: it's like, no, everyone believed in everyone much that they're
Speaker 3: bored by talking about I.
Speaker 1: Was dreading it the whole year, That's how much I
Speaker 1: believed in it as a Laker Fand they're just gonna.
Speaker 3: Not bought except for everybody who's not Jason.
Speaker 4: They got lucky too, by the way. They didn't get
Speaker 4: They didn't face a single one of the top five
Speaker 4: records in the league in the playoffs. Like all that,
Speaker 4: it's like who out east of it was like, Okay,
Speaker 4: are they going to be able to get through the
Speaker 4: healthy knicks or that Bucks team, and it's like they
Speaker 4: just didn't have to play it. It's like, how are
Speaker 4: they going to be able to beat Denver or like
Speaker 4: a team like Minnesota or a team like Oklahoma City.
Speaker 4: Is that they just didn't have to play it like
Speaker 4: they they went I want to say, like I can't
Speaker 4: remember off the top of my head, I want to say,
Speaker 4: they went three and five against the top four seeds
Speaker 4: in the Western Conference and they just didn't have to
Speaker 4: play any of them. So, like, there's so even though
Speaker 4: I think they were the best team and I think
Speaker 4: they deserve to be the favorite, they want credit for
Speaker 4: being the most dominant team in recent NBA history, And
Speaker 4: it's like, You're just not gonna get that credit from
Speaker 4: the rest of the people.
Speaker 6: I don't think, No, you're not, definitely not on this show.
Speaker 3: Maybe yeah, they did, all right. I will say we
Speaker 3: gave them that credit in the lead up in an
Speaker 3: attempt to reverse yangst them, and it didn't work unfortunately.
Speaker 4: All Right.
Speaker 3: So the the thing that I'm surprised by is people
Speaker 3: are hard on the Oklahoma City thunder bandwagon. Okay, like
Speaker 3: gamblers are, like they are the number two team, like
Speaker 3: odds wise to win the title next year, which I
Speaker 3: don't know, like I think, Yeah, they definitely made some
Speaker 3: good adjustments kind of in the background, but I don't
Speaker 3: I don't see it as them being like hyper like
Speaker 3: they're two spots ahead of the Nuggets.
Speaker 6: The Nuggets are ranked fourth.
Speaker 3: On a bunch of odds the MGM site. So what
Speaker 3: do you think? I Like, I see the case right
Speaker 3: adding Cruise on. Yeah, yeah, no, that's awesome, Like, but
Speaker 3: it's also those aren't It's not like they added a
Speaker 3: like number two or three person. They added like really good,
Speaker 3: really solid four or five people, which I'm excited about,
Speaker 3: Like I probably would put them near the top of
Speaker 3: my list, but I'm a little surprised they're ahead of
Speaker 3: the Nuggets.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I still have Denver as the top team
Speaker 4: in the West. I think people are writing them off
Speaker 4: way too fast. I thought they were clearly just out
Speaker 4: of gas when they got to the postseason last year,
Speaker 4: just from a tough couple of years and a couple
Speaker 4: like both KCP and Jamal Murray were banged up going
Speaker 4: into the playoffs, which was something that continued to kind
Speaker 4: of PLA like them a little even without KCP. That
Speaker 4: obviously is a downgrade going to Christian Brown in the
Speaker 4: starting lineup. But it's just, to me, really simple. It's
Speaker 4: like you've got a couple of really good two way
Speaker 4: players and Nikole Jokich and a shot maker that can
Speaker 4: play with him. I think it's silly to write them off.
Speaker 4: The reason why, I think people are really high on
Speaker 4: the Thunder and I do have them as a top
Speaker 4: tier contender now. Last year, to me, it was just
Speaker 4: Boston and Denver. To me, Oklahoma City has entered into
Speaker 4: that group. And I think there are a couple other
Speaker 4: teams that you could consider there. But like the thing
Speaker 4: with Oklahoma City is they were already really good. Like
Speaker 4: look at last year, they were a foul on a
Speaker 4: three point shooter in the corner away from forcing a game.
Speaker 4: It would have been a game seven back in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 4: So like they were this close to the conference finals.
Speaker 4: And they had two gigantic weaknesses. They were a terrible
Speaker 4: defensive rebounding team and you could really go through their
Speaker 4: front line. And so Isaiah Hartenstein addresses both of those.
Speaker 4: And then there was one other issue, which is they
Speaker 4: kind of always seem to have like a question mark
Speaker 4: around that fifth guy in any life, up, and now
Speaker 4: Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Cruso give you two definitive looks.
Speaker 4: A small ball look where Cruso is the fifth guy
Speaker 4: and you're going with j Dub and Shay and Dort
Speaker 4: alongside Crusoe and Chet. And then they have a big
Speaker 4: look where you pull Crusoe off, or maybe you pull
Speaker 4: Dort off and you put Hartenstein next to Chet, and
Speaker 4: so they have clearer fives with a little bit more versatility,
Speaker 4: and they address their two gigantic weaknesses in terms of
Speaker 4: their front court strength and their ability to rebound, and
Speaker 4: they're more experienced. I don't know those the end of
Speaker 4: the series against Dallas, I thought Shay was kind of
Speaker 4: going blow for blow with Luca, if not even like, yeah,
Speaker 4: there were there were games where he was playing better
Speaker 4: than him too. So like I'm a believer in Okay. See,
Speaker 4: I just can't put him over that Denver team. Yet.
Speaker 4: I still think they're just a little bit of a
Speaker 4: safer bet. God, Dan, you just brought back how close
Speaker 4: we were. I bet Okay in the off season at
Speaker 4: like some crazy number. I would have made eleven thousand
Speaker 4: dollars on a one hundred dollar bet if they had
Speaker 4: won the title. So I was living and dying with
Speaker 4: every single one of those things you just mentioned last
Speaker 4: season that was that was pain.
Speaker 1: Bring it up again, man, Hey, can I transfer the
Speaker 1: cigaret for this season.
Speaker 2: To do that?
Speaker 6: No you thought it was for this? No?
Speaker 2: No, no, no, bro?
Speaker 6: Oh come on.
Speaker 4: In the odds right now? Are they?
Speaker 3: Are?
Speaker 4: They second by in Boston?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the plus seven fifty at MGM, which is wild.
Speaker 3: They opened it plus one thousand, So it's crazy.
Speaker 6: It's just a lot of it seems like a lot
Speaker 6: of public money.
Speaker 3: A lot of people like have read two articles in
Speaker 3: the off season, like, uh, I think I have, because yeah,
Speaker 3: they started out below Denver and since then have kind
Speaker 3: of shot up.
Speaker 1: And then Denver in the and Philly seemed to be
Speaker 1: around the same and the next.
Speaker 4: It's the scary thing is what is jub going to
Speaker 4: be because like he had a somewhat rough playoff run
Speaker 4: expected for a for a first time in that kind
Speaker 4: of situation, but like he's one of those guys that
Speaker 4: I think I think he's His upside is like Jimmy
Speaker 4: Butler with a reliable jump shot, Like I think that's
Speaker 4: his upside. And so like the question of how soon
Speaker 4: he gets to that near ish. That level is such
Speaker 4: a huge question mark surrounding not just the thunder for
Speaker 4: this season, but in the future too, because like all
Speaker 4: the intel behind the scenes is that Shay is the
Speaker 4: kind of guy that kind of liked you know, he's
Speaker 4: big into fashion, he likes he's got a big personality.
Speaker 4: He's kind of a big city type, and so there
Speaker 4: is kind of a more brief, urgent window for Oklahoma
Speaker 4: City than you would think, and a lot of that
Speaker 4: comes down to j dub and just how quickly he
Speaker 4: becomes awesome.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he might be moving to like Dallas or you know,
Speaker 3: one of those big cities.
Speaker 6: We don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what all right, you sound like somebody who knows
Speaker 3: stuff about basketball. How do you feel about my Philadelphia
Speaker 3: seventy six ers.
Speaker 4: They're going to be a really interesting team to see,
Speaker 4: just the way they come together in terms of like
Speaker 4: their their chemistry and the part of the season, just
Speaker 4: because it kind of reminds me of a lot of
Speaker 4: the other kind of super team builds where it's like
Speaker 4: it's just a bunch of guys that got thrown together.
Speaker 4: That said, I'm as big a Tyres Maxie fan as
Speaker 4: you'll find. I think he's awesome. And one of the
Speaker 4: big things with Tyres Maxi was like last year he
Speaker 4: just shot the laces off the basketball and catch and
Speaker 4: shoot situations, but he struggled off the dribble for whatever reason.
Speaker 4: And then that kind of came through for him in
Speaker 4: the playoffs. I mean, you guys saw him hit that
Speaker 4: big shot that tied the game and what was a
Speaker 4: Game five or game I think it was Game five
Speaker 4: against Yeah, I think he have forty something in that
Speaker 4: game is insane fifty And then, like Paul George, he's
Speaker 4: in like the perfect role on this team because he's
Speaker 4: basically a tertiary shot creator. He's basically like a juiced
Speaker 4: up superstar version of Michael Porter Junior. In this matchup
Speaker 4: where it's like Tyres Maxi and Embid are still going
Speaker 4: to be running the primary action the majority of the
Speaker 4: time down the floor, I would think, and then he's
Speaker 4: just going to be kind of working off of that
Speaker 4: that'll allow him to devote more of his energy to
Speaker 4: the defensive end. I think really it just comes down to,
Speaker 4: like how many of those kind of role players that
Speaker 4: you threw together are you going to be able to
Speaker 4: turn into useful rotation pieces and that that's just gonna
Speaker 4: be something we got to figure out. I thought, uh uh,
Speaker 4: the Yabuseli signing was interesting because he kind of fits
Speaker 4: the build of like that modern His archetype has become
Speaker 4: sneakily like one of the most valuable archetypes in the league,
Speaker 4: which is like the big, strong four that can be
Speaker 4: useful offensively, but that can like guard the other teams
Speaker 4: big so that you can use your center as a roamer.
Speaker 4: This was the big thing that Boston did, if you guys,
Speaker 4: remember by putting they just put their They put Tatum
Speaker 4: on the center every single time. Because Tatum could box
Speaker 4: out centers and he couldn't be bullied on the block.
Speaker 4: That allowed them to just use chrisps Porzingis or or
Speaker 4: Al Horford to always guard the weakest above the break
Speaker 4: shooter on the other team, and then they could try
Speaker 4: to funnel things towards you know. That's how they beat Dallas, right,
Speaker 4: And so that's the thing is like I don't think
Speaker 4: Kelly Ubre is big and strong enough to guard centers,
Speaker 4: but I think where Sean is. And so that's kind
Speaker 4: of an interesting kind of look where you don't have to.
Speaker 4: You don't need him to be super vertically athletic. You
Speaker 4: just need him to box out centers and not get
Speaker 4: bullied on the block. And now you can use em
Speaker 4: beat as more of a roamer, and I think that
Speaker 4: could be a really useful look for them defensively.
Speaker 3: For listeners who don't know, Yabuseli is the guy you
Speaker 3: googled in the middle of the USA France game who
Speaker 3: is like just yoking on people and having an incredible game.
Speaker 3: And so when you googled him, you found out that
Speaker 3: he was like the number sixteen pick with the Celtics
Speaker 3: a number of years ago and like just kind of
Speaker 3: sat bench for them. But yeah, I mean the reason
Speaker 3: we were all googling him was because he he looks
Speaker 3: like he he can do it, at least play some
Speaker 3: some big minutes. So yeah, that's exciting. That's the thing
Speaker 3: you're getting me, not crazily like I'm always surprised. I'm
Speaker 3: always pleasantly surprised by like when he does good stuff
Speaker 3: because I just like don't believe in him. But he did,
Speaker 3: like play some good minutes last year. I just but
Speaker 3: I really like the Yabooselli signing, Like I like the
Speaker 3: guy that got from the heat, you know, like I
Speaker 3: just yeah, Kale Martin, Like I like those guys. And
Speaker 3: then obviously the Paul George thing is exciting. If he
Speaker 3: can stay healthy, it's.
Speaker 4: An interesting look. Yeah, but Maxie Martin, because Martin then
Speaker 4: becomes your athlete guard that guards the other team's best guard. Yeah,
Speaker 4: that Maxie Martin, Paul George, Ubre Embiid is really fast,
Speaker 4: believe it or not, which I think is important because
Speaker 4: Embiid is slow and he struggles and transition in up
Speaker 4: and down game. So surrounding him with a lot of
Speaker 4: speed and athleticism I think is really smart.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it'll be interesting.
Speaker 3: I was, yeah, as I was talking about in the Olympics,
Speaker 3: just watching him be slow to the ball, slow to
Speaker 3: defensive rebounds, I was having flashbacks and.
Speaker 6: I don't know right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what, Jason, Uh, that's that's the thing
Speaker 3: that you could have said seventy percent of his career unfortunately.
Speaker 3: So I'm hoping, I'm hoping this is the year you
Speaker 3: know that we like managed to you know, he's he's
Speaker 3: in shape when he needs to be, he's healthy when
Speaker 3: he needs to be.
Speaker 6: And yeah, and then we're in business.
Speaker 3: We are our number three on MGM's list of second round. Baby,
Speaker 3: that's all I want. Just get me out of the
Speaker 3: second richest. Yeah, just me out of the second.
Speaker 4: The Drummond pickup was huge too, because, like, you know,
Speaker 4: Maury's gonna basically tell Nick Nurse like mbads capped at
Speaker 4: fifty games or something like that. Yeah, and yeah, they're
Speaker 4: gonna be like, no back to backs, no more than
Speaker 4: three games in a week, Like you know, they're going
Speaker 4: to be holding him down. And so Andre Drummond was
Speaker 4: like sneaky and awesome pickup because he's one of my
Speaker 4: favorite I've ever had. Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, because
Speaker 4: that's right, he was there a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: Back.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he was all right, we should take a break.
Speaker 3: This went long, and we do have some nineties players
Speaker 3: to talk about, so we'll be right back after this.
Speaker 6: And we're back.
Speaker 2: We are back.
Speaker 3: We're back, and we are back in nineteen nineties. What
Speaker 3: the nineties, What a time to be alive. We the
Speaker 3: Democratic National Convention last night. We got to got a
Speaker 3: reminder when they played the Bulls intro music of Her
Speaker 3: gives people.
Speaker 1: I'm surprised the lasers didn't come out too, I know,
Speaker 1: but yeah, we've been talking about our favorite nineties players
Speaker 1: with our guests. We've had a list that we show everybody.
Speaker 1: Everybody picks a couple of names they want to talk about. Jason,
Speaker 1: you picked Alan Iverson, the Dream and the Worm, uh,
Speaker 1: and these are I'm I'm very excited to talk about
Speaker 1: these three players.
Speaker 2: And I don't know who who do we Who do
Speaker 2: we want to start with?
Speaker 1: I mean we've been we were just talking about the
Speaker 1: same so maybe we just continue that by talking about
Speaker 1: Alan Iverson. Yeah, I mean, I guess Jason set us
Speaker 1: up here. We'll tell us why when you say I
Speaker 1: want to If we're gonna talk about nineties players, these
Speaker 1: are three people that picked.
Speaker 2: Why do you want to talk about Alan Iverson?
Speaker 4: Well, I think Allen Iverson falls into this group kind
Speaker 4: of with Kobe to Tracy McGrady a little bit as well,
Speaker 4: where like the new generation of basketball fans vastly under
Speaker 4: rates because of some statistical anomalies compared to some of
Speaker 4: the skill guards you see today, and I think that
Speaker 4: it's a gross misunderstanding of just how different the game
Speaker 4: was back then. I mean, like to put it simply,
Speaker 4: every team was basically running two big lineups all the time.
Speaker 4: The power forward was basically just a six ' nine,
Speaker 4: two hundred and sixty pound gigantic human being who functioned
Speaker 4: like a big There was just very little space to
Speaker 4: get all the way to the.
Speaker 3: Basket, and so you actually lead Donnis Haslumsnas has Live.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. It was like, Okay, you're playing the Lakers.
Speaker 4: It's like you're playing two bigs tonight. You know what
Speaker 4: I mean, You're you're you're playing the Calves. Here comes
Speaker 4: Drew Good and then Zydrona Sougawskaz. You know, it's just
Speaker 4: always like a two big type of look. And so
Speaker 4: you actually needed guards to eat up usage and to
Speaker 4: take a lot of really tough shots. And so, like
Speaker 4: I'm of the opinion that a guy like Alan Iverson
Speaker 4: in particular, especially with the way that those sixers teams
Speaker 4: were constructed basically around defensive personnel. Like if you took
Speaker 4: Alan Iverson circa two thousand and two, two thousand and one,
Speaker 4: and you have dropped him in the Dallas Maverick system,
Speaker 4: in the Kyrie Irving role or in the Luka doncrich roll,
Speaker 4: like I think he would have been a sixty percent
Speaker 4: true shooting type of guy, and it's just it's just
Speaker 4: the reality of the way the game is. And so
Speaker 4: I think, like a lot of times, like he gets
Speaker 4: kind of miscast now is like this bad you know,
Speaker 4: bad teammate, a guy who was inefficient and just a
Speaker 4: shot chucker, and it's just really unfortunate and like to me, like,
Speaker 4: I'm I'm only thirty three. So like, even as we
Speaker 4: get into some of these guys from the nine, these
Speaker 4: I don't have as much like live experience watching them
Speaker 4: from when I was a kid. But like for my
Speaker 4: generation of Hoopers, Alan Iverson was one of the most
Speaker 4: influential guys, and so many of the guards that I
Speaker 4: play with picked parts of his game and tried to
Speaker 4: replicate it. And I just I wish he was remembered
Speaker 4: more fondly. Let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think for people that remember, he's
Speaker 1: remembered fondly. And I think if you're kind of piecing
Speaker 1: together what like a memory of Alan Iverson based on
Speaker 1: like clips you're seeing or articles you're reading, like after
Speaker 1: the fact, that I can see how some people are like, well,
Speaker 1: this guy seem like I'm a bit of a like
Speaker 1: that selfish guy. But I but I just remember someone
Speaker 1: who was so aggressive, uh and just you couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: For like his height, You're like, there's no this is
Speaker 1: like six feet and he he is not afraid of anything.
Speaker 1: I thought that that was captivating for me as a
Speaker 1: kid because I remember seeing him at Georgetown and.
Speaker 2: Those man those uniforms. I still think about those.
Speaker 6: Great forms that I really I went to Georgetown largely.
Speaker 6: I'm going to ask you.
Speaker 2: I was like, did shorts were dope?
Speaker 6: They were so dope? Yeah, this show was just like
Speaker 6: a cool school because of those John Thompson. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But I mean I just remember, you know, even in
Speaker 1: the two thousand and one finals too, just uh watching
Speaker 1: him and being like it was like one of those
Speaker 1: moments where it was easy for me to be dismissive
Speaker 1: of the opposing team because I was such a Laker fan.
Speaker 1: But party is also like, man, I love Alan Iverson
Speaker 1: even though he's prevented us from going fully sixteen, And
Speaker 1: oh I.
Speaker 6: Just watched him. Uh.
Speaker 3: I just watched like some highlights of him, and it
Speaker 3: reminds me of It's like Jaw when he's got someone
Speaker 3: on skates or like when he you just he's just
Speaker 3: like at his most unstoppable, but like with a great
Speaker 3: mid range game before mid range jumpers were outlawed by
Speaker 3: a basketball analytics and but just the most dramatic crossovers
Speaker 3: and just like he would do things to defenders where
Speaker 3: you'd like see their body just like give up on
Speaker 3: the court just with their crossover. Antonio Daniels, Yeah, there
Speaker 3: was was that on the Lakers. No, no, no doubt
Speaker 3: he did something to a Lakers garden again the death.
Speaker 2: And he stepped over.
Speaker 6: No, no, it wasn't the time. It wasn't the tie
Speaker 6: low one.
Speaker 3: This one was he crossed somebody up and their body
Speaker 3: just like kept going like four steps backwards and then
Speaker 3: they just fell over.
Speaker 6: It's like it's in the middle.
Speaker 3: It's like five minutes in this highlight reel that we'll
Speaker 3: link off too in the show notes. But it's, uh, yeah,
Speaker 3: he was just like even what he did to Jordan
Speaker 3: as a rookie, like where Jordan's like moving his body
Speaker 3: back and forth and he just looks like me out there,
Speaker 3: like Jordan just looked three steps too slow.
Speaker 1: I like it. After though, when he like people asked
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan about that and he's STI playing. He's like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: He's like, I'm not gonna, you know, be out here
Speaker 1: and say this guy doesn't have it. He's like, because
Speaker 1: I'm I'm more trying to deny those opportunities for someone
Speaker 1: to do that. He's like, but you know, he'll learn
Speaker 1: how to play bas ball, like he'd had to sun
Speaker 1: him in the same thing.
Speaker 2: You know, he will learn how to play basketball. You're like, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm kids a lot of potential.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when he learned how to play the game at
Speaker 1: a higher.
Speaker 2: Level, you know, he's really relying on physical ability at
Speaker 2: the moment. And you're like, that is true. But also
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 4: Michael Well, his big sweeping crossover like that was like
Speaker 4: it was just whatever whatevery kid did when they went
Speaker 4: I mean, heck, it influenced players too. I mean Kobe's
Speaker 4: crossover when he was young looked just like AI. It's
Speaker 4: like big sweeping out to the side. Yeah, crazy length.
Speaker 3: Yeah, broke my game, but it was worth it because
Speaker 3: the amount of times they called me for a carryover.
Speaker 2: They're like, I'm sorry, kid, what are you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you're you're holding the ball up like this
Speaker 1: I'm like, your hands aren't making enough.
Speaker 6: Sorry, all right, let's talk the dream.
Speaker 3: Uh really, I don't know, thirty years after his prime,
Speaker 3: even with all the advancements and overall, you know, the
Speaker 3: progressive nature of the game, there aren't that many big
Speaker 3: men as fluid as he was there. I feel like
Speaker 3: he you could put him at any point in time
Speaker 3: and he would be dominant right like he is there
Speaker 3: anyone whose game is like more of a just like Surefire.
Speaker 3: Put him in and he's a top five player right now.
Speaker 3: I feel like he's right there, right yeah for sure.
Speaker 4: Well absolutely because he was because he was so good
Speaker 4: defensively too, yeah, which I think people forget, but like
Speaker 4: he would like it's so funny when people compare and
Speaker 4: be to him, because I do see some of it
Speaker 4: in the sense where it's just this massive human that's
Speaker 4: doing some guard stuff really, but the big difference is
Speaker 4: like a King was in really good shape, so like
Speaker 4: he had this like really quick quick feet. Like it's
Speaker 4: so funny because people think of him as this is
Speaker 4: this high level post player, which he obviously was, but
Speaker 4: he also was like just a really good mid range
Speaker 4: pull up jump shooter, so like he would face up
Speaker 4: and like do a jab step and like hard move
Speaker 4: to the left and shooter like he would rip through
Speaker 4: the right and do a wonderable pull up like he
Speaker 4: was a two guard and he had the right shoulder
Speaker 4: fade he had would hook over his left shoulder. But
Speaker 4: he had all these like mid range jump shots that
Speaker 4: looked a lot like the two guards of the time.
Speaker 2: And so he was.
Speaker 4: He was this like Anthony Davis level mobile super lanth
Speaker 4: defender who was blocking a ton of shots mixed with
Speaker 4: like the one of the best face up games in
Speaker 4: the league at the time. Watching him, I don't think people,
Speaker 4: I think I think the the the Joel Embiid comparisons
Speaker 4: are borderline offensive when you compare the difference in just
Speaker 4: his mentality and how how seriously he took his his
Speaker 4: body and his health and just his it. Just he's
Speaker 4: just at another level in my opinion.
Speaker 3: Yeah, two times deepoy, two times Finals MVP, which I
Speaker 3: don't think Embiid has won either of those.
Speaker 4: I don't think.
Speaker 6: I don't think we have a finals MVP.
Speaker 3: Three times black champ uh just but like again, just
Speaker 3: a beautiful person to watch play basketball.
Speaker 1: Just yeah, yeah, And I get those like the Jokic
Speaker 1: comparisons to Like to a certain extent. And I think
Speaker 1: there's also the interesting part with like team too, is
Speaker 1: just he also has like a soccer background too. He's
Speaker 1: like one of those like bigs who has the soccer
Speaker 1: background who's just just because of that is looking at
Speaker 1: bald distribution a little bit differently, like yeah, how or
Speaker 1: like a lot of the guys who are coming from
Speaker 1: Europe and stuff like that. But the other part that
Speaker 1: I think I remember as a kid always thinking he
Speaker 1: was boring to watch because it wasn't like as flashy.
Speaker 1: And then as I got older and was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the foot like and you actually begin to understand footwork
Speaker 1: and appreciate it that and you're like, yeah, that's that.
Speaker 1: That should be impossible, Like your knees should be done
Speaker 1: if you're that big moving like normal, No, not at all.
Speaker 1: And then once he's like then I started like hearing
Speaker 1: more stories about just how like aggressive he really was,
Speaker 1: Like like you just duff people out, like on the
Speaker 1: court in an arrow when like the fine was like
Speaker 1: thirty bucks for hitting a guy and he's like, yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll do that.
Speaker 2: Watch this full one.
Speaker 6: You can't have your locker room six pack, right.
Speaker 2: Buddy, Yeah, yeah, yeah, He's like, well, you have to
Speaker 2: get through me.
Speaker 4: The nastiness is such an underrated basketball try. We're like
Speaker 4: looking at players and like, it's so funny how when
Speaker 4: we look at the guys that disappoint us, it's almost
Speaker 4: always they don't have that nastiness. Yeah, right, like that
Speaker 4: that the like desire to just not just win, but
Speaker 4: to embarrass you in the process. Like that, it's almost
Speaker 4: like a mean streak.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a personality defect that works perfectly for competitive sports.
Speaker 6: People will be like, oh my god, you guys Wenby
Speaker 6: is a jerk. Yes, yeah, he's mean. That's great, dude.
Speaker 2: He took a little baby's lollipop. No, yes, okay, his shoulders.
Speaker 4: Are getting for autograph and he told him to screw off.
Speaker 2: He said, I'm not Victor.
Speaker 6: Wow.
Speaker 2: Wow, what else could it be?
Speaker 1: But yeah, I again, I think but one of those
Speaker 1: people too. I think for a lot of younger fans
Speaker 1: just do not really talk about much. I think like
Speaker 1: a lot of older heads obviously do and though they
Speaker 1: hear it, because a lot of the older players are
Speaker 1: still always like people need to remember how good a
Speaker 1: cheme Elijawan was, But yeah, for the U just.
Speaker 3: I think the one place then the comparison makes sense
Speaker 3: to me is just that we got to see their
Speaker 3: games like develop into people with like beautiful touch and footwork,
Speaker 3: like from when they first got to college they were
Speaker 3: so raw and like just completely different players. And then yeah,
Speaker 3: so like that's that's the one place where it makes sense.
Speaker 3: But in terms of like the game, that like the
Speaker 3: scope and greatness of the game, I think you're right.
Speaker 4: It's I think it's realistic. I think you're right. I
Speaker 4: think I think if you had to compare and be
Speaker 4: to one single center in NBA history, it makes sense
Speaker 4: that it would be a game. It's just you can't
Speaker 4: you can't say he's like him.
Speaker 1: He just has some similarities, you know, right, Yeah, it's like,
Speaker 1: well that rectangle looks like a square.
Speaker 2: Technically they are parallelograms, so we will we'll take that.
Speaker 4: And a lot of those throw a lot of those
Speaker 4: Queen comparisons were thrown out early on when he was
Speaker 4: in better shape and he was more healthy. I shouldn't
Speaker 4: say more healthy because he was injured right away, but
Speaker 4: when we were not we were it looked like do
Speaker 4: you remember that first year, the first year and a
Speaker 4: half when he started playing where it was.
Speaker 6: Like holy twenty ones or so. Yeah yeah, and like there.
Speaker 4: Was definitely that phase there where it was like maybe
Speaker 4: this is what he could be, you know, but it
Speaker 4: just pretty quickly turned into something else.
Speaker 3: Yeah sure, and then Rodman, this was my favorite part
Speaker 3: of the Last Dance, which was one of my favorite
Speaker 3: basketball experiences of yeah, the past ten years, was when
Speaker 3: we got to we needed something, the Last Dance came
Speaker 3: through and watching Rodman like getting to see his process,
Speaker 3: how much he studied, Like just I didn't studied a
Speaker 3: thing that I didn't really know you could study, but
Speaker 3: like where you know, knew where everybody was gonna miss too,
Speaker 3: was there before the ball got there.
Speaker 2: When he's talking about he's.
Speaker 1: Like it'll go ping and then go that way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this one and then it will be this one. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't what what kind of omitry do you call him?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's just like watching a different game than like
Speaker 3: when he's watching a game, he like gets excited about
Speaker 3: the misses because he's like, yo, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: That that clip got some real meme mileage around the
Speaker 4: I remember I mind you COVID, so the bar was
Speaker 4: a little lower.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, we we were just like anything.
Speaker 3: Fine, let's give Judd Buschler his own podcast based on
Speaker 3: at this moment.
Speaker 6: Uh, but yeah, Robmin, what great pick.
Speaker 3: I don't like, there's not really a comparison, Like there's
Speaker 3: been people who are like kind of close to the
Speaker 3: rebounding totals.
Speaker 4: But what Yeah, we'll just talk about why why.
Speaker 6: Did you pick Robmin?
Speaker 4: Well, he's kind of the opposite of a Keem in
Speaker 4: the sense that, like, I don't think he has the
Speaker 4: same level of like translatability from ara to era in
Speaker 4: some ways, although it's it's it's always hard to tell
Speaker 4: because you wonder about a guy like Rodman if he
Speaker 4: was raised in this era, if his skill development would
Speaker 4: have look different and he would have been a better
Speaker 4: I always got to be careful with that. It's like
Speaker 4: I always hate when younger people say like, oh, MJ
Speaker 4: couldn't shoot threes, and it's like I have a feeling
Speaker 4: if he came up now, he would have been a
Speaker 4: very good three point later Like you like that, Like
Speaker 4: he just wouldn't allow that to not be the case,
Speaker 4: you know. Uh, But like I think it's you know,
Speaker 4: we talked about the two big kind of look that
Speaker 4: most teams had. You know, it was just something you
Speaker 4: could get away with back then, having a player with
Speaker 4: some more offensive limitations. But uh, you know, I think
Speaker 4: anybody who's ever played basketball at any level knows that
Speaker 4: the when it comes down to winning in real high
Speaker 4: stakes environments, there's just it mostly comes down to dirty work,
Speaker 4: and you got to have people who are willing to
Speaker 4: do that sort of thing. And and you know, he's
Speaker 4: just been a part of a lot of winning teams
Speaker 4: within that context.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean, like the thing that's also I
Speaker 1: remember one of my first book reports or like middle
Speaker 1: school book reports. I did that as bad as I
Speaker 1: want to be his like biography that came out in
Speaker 1: the nineties. They're like what, and I'm like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: want to write about this. This is the one I'm
Speaker 1: talking about.
Speaker 6: Literature in college, right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The reason he wore the wedding dress was to actually
Speaker 1: symbolize the a malleability of our idea of what masculinity
Speaker 1: is or is not. But like with Rodman, like the
Speaker 1: thing that was so unbelievable is like you'd hear it's
Speaker 1: like he'd play a game and then like lift weights
Speaker 1: for like two hours after the game and then stay
Speaker 1: up till five in the morning partying, and then you know,
Speaker 1: show up on game day and then give you twenty
Speaker 1: rebounds and like rinse and repeat. And I think that's
Speaker 1: like a really wild part about is like you realize
Speaker 1: just how much of a physical specimen you have to
Speaker 1: be to have that kind of schedule and take that
Speaker 1: just I pardon me, is like, God, imagine if you
Speaker 1: went to bed at night or whatever, but then parton
Speaker 1: like I don't know if you ever.
Speaker 4: Needed this easy if he slept, yeah.
Speaker 1: But even then without it all, like so many players
Speaker 1: stories about him were just like I can't believe how
Speaker 1: this guy I was living and then the performances he
Speaker 1: put in or like I think who was it Dirk
Speaker 1: was talking about when he played on the Mavericks. He
Speaker 1: was like did this guy didn't even know anything like
Speaker 1: any of the schemes we were running at all. Like
Speaker 1: he would take a shower like right before like apparently
Speaker 1: did this before every game, forty five minutes before the game,
Speaker 1: cold shower, miss all the meetings and then just get
Speaker 1: out there and be like all right, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: do my thing and still like perform at that level
Speaker 1: and you're like how how Yeah.
Speaker 4: There are a few times in NBA history where the
Speaker 4: numbers just don't make sense. Like you look back at
Speaker 4: like Wilt when he was like in the early early
Speaker 4: phase of the NBA, the scoring numbers and the rebound
Speaker 4: numbers he put up, and there've been just a handful
Speaker 4: of other examples of that, and like Rodman's rebounding numbers
Speaker 4: in the nineties are like that. You look at him
Speaker 4: and you're like what, like how yeah, Like how in
Speaker 4: the world did he do this? It wasn't just leading
Speaker 4: the league seven years in a row. He was hitting
Speaker 4: just preposterous numbers. And then I think we're actually going
Speaker 4: to see this with Wemby now with the blocks and
Speaker 4: steals like this, dude's just going to perennially be at
Speaker 4: like five or six stocks per game. And I think
Speaker 4: we're going to look back at and be history and
Speaker 4: be remember, like be like remember Wemby in the mid
Speaker 4: twenty twenties like that, Like I think I think that
Speaker 4: was what Rodman was in the nineties, where just as
Speaker 4: a complete like outlier in terms of statistical performance.
Speaker 3: Eighteen eighteen seventeen seventeen fifteen, sixteen fifteen, that those were
Speaker 3: his average rebounds from ninety one through his third championship
Speaker 3: season fourteen point nine.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what it's a year, but ye under fifteen a game.
Speaker 2: He's like, I wasn't going to the casino enough that year.
Speaker 2: That was the problem.
Speaker 1: And then I got it together and then we won
Speaker 1: another two championships.
Speaker 6: The stories of Ivor said, I'm Robman, like just rolling
Speaker 6: in from being out the night before, like right before
Speaker 6: the game, and uh and just putting, you know, giving
Speaker 6: the other team fifties.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like I mean, if either of you
Speaker 4: guys ever played eighteen holes and then gone to play pickup, no, no, no, dude.
Speaker 4: So I did that for the first time. It would
Speaker 4: have been it was about a month and a half
Speaker 4: ago now important context. It was in Arizona in July,
Speaker 4: so it's a little but I went to play and
Speaker 4: I was like, oh my god, I'm dying out here.
Speaker 4: And all I could think, I think is like, how
Speaker 4: is it that Jordan was playing thirty six holes and
Speaker 4: then going and then going to play that night, Because
Speaker 4: like golf is like it, it actually does take it
Speaker 4: out of you more than you'd think you know, well
Speaker 4: you're just like walking around.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Then there's also that famous story about him going
Speaker 3: out and like, you know, having a bunch of beers
Speaker 3: on the golf course and then going out and putting
Speaker 3: up forty Yeah. Right, I have had a beer and
Speaker 3: then like tried to run, like go for a run,
Speaker 3: and I was like, oh, why am I running through concrete?
Speaker 2: Like my sides are ripping?
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's just built different. Yeah, all right, should
Speaker 3: we take a break and come back? Ye, rabid fire.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and we're back and we're back.
Speaker 1: Oh, Jason, it's been a really fun conversation up until
Speaker 1: this point because you are now in the hot seat.
Speaker 2: This is the rapid fire round of budding.
Speaker 1: These are the fastest question and answer segments that we
Speaker 1: have ever done in the history of podcasting ever. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna ask a question. You just answer it quick,
Speaker 1: don't think too hard. Just give us the instant reaction.
Speaker 1: And if you take too long and threaten our title
Speaker 1: as fastest question and answer segment in podcasting.
Speaker 2: History, we will be very rude.
Speaker 3: Okay, just don't make me look like a full in
Speaker 3: front of the NBA, Jason, don't we promise them? We said,
Speaker 3: the show is going to be mediocre, but the fastest, say,
Speaker 3: the rapid fire segment is going to be.
Speaker 1: So fastest you've ever seen. No, trust me, we will
Speaker 1: be able to dunk on everybody we have on the show.
Speaker 1: Just so you know.
Speaker 2: And your threat, it's a big you are.
Speaker 6: Different angles.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we don't like you.
Speaker 2: We don't like it, but it's back. Get the confidence back.
Speaker 2: Here we go, Jason, are you ready? Yeah, let's do
Speaker 2: it all right? Then here we go, Brian start the
Speaker 2: clock right, Yeah, yeah, I'm just nervous, man. I was
Speaker 2: just I was just rewatching the video and Jason's Twitter.
Speaker 3: Filelight real clean you wake off to the highlight reel
Speaker 3: and the footnote the show.
Speaker 2: Wow wow wow? Uh here here, here we go. Uh
Speaker 2: you should we do one?
Speaker 6: Should we do one?
Speaker 1: I mean sorry, I'm nervous again. I just I was
Speaker 1: looking at another replay him.
Speaker 6: Why why don't we kick it off here?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 4: You want to go?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll go. Okay, this is the fastest question and
Speaker 2: answer segment. Just so you know, Jason, this isn't us
Speaker 2: being rusty.
Speaker 1: This is a little bit of this is how we
Speaker 1: fake them out, you know what I mean a little
Speaker 1: bit of fake.
Speaker 4: Is this like when you're on the polygraphere they ask
Speaker 4: you all the boring questions first, Rea right.
Speaker 1: And just like a polygraph, this is also pseudo scientific.
Speaker 1: Here's the first question, Jason, this is from our discord.
Speaker 1: Is there a current comp for pre injury Grant Hill?
Speaker 4: I don't think so that that, like super springy two
Speaker 4: guard pull up shooter hadn't really been I mean, it
Speaker 4: is the closest thing we've had to but most of
Speaker 4: the two guards we've had are like the Booker and
Speaker 4: Hardin types, which are a little bit less athletic, a
Speaker 4: little more skill based.
Speaker 6: Mm hmmmmmm. Okay, okay, that's correct.
Speaker 5: That is correct. That is correct.
Speaker 6: You got that one. I know you said, no way
Speaker 6: he gets this one.
Speaker 2: But he got it.
Speaker 5: He nailed it.
Speaker 2: I'm nervous now.
Speaker 6: It is currently NBA Dunk Week.
Speaker 3: So what's your all time favorite in game dunk and
Speaker 3: your four dunkers in your all time fantasy dunk contests?
Speaker 6: Dunk say dunking?
Speaker 4: There you go, and and admittedly biased, but the Lebron
Speaker 4: dunk over use of Nurkic every time I see the highlight,
Speaker 4: I still don't know how he did it. His body
Speaker 4: was moving kind of like away from the rim, and
Speaker 4: he took off from like the third hash outside the
Speaker 4: block and was like this and just that was absurd.
Speaker 4: Vince Carter's always number one for me all time that
Speaker 4: Strow Miles Swift video. Every single time it comes around.
Speaker 6: I just have to watch it.
Speaker 4: That's like one of my rules. I have a handful
Speaker 4: of rules as a human. You always watch the Strow
Speaker 4: Miles Swift video when it comes around. I'll go with,
Speaker 4: let's see so Carter lebron Stromile' if I have to
Speaker 4: give you a fourth, I'll go with I'll go with
Speaker 4: t Mac Yeah, yeah, tex Is getting got to you.
Speaker 2: Got to, you got to now.
Speaker 1: I guess this is something since we've been talking about
Speaker 1: in the nineties and how younger fans kind of put
Speaker 1: or just people who maybe not were as not engaged
Speaker 1: with basketball back then, have some misconceptions about the game.
Speaker 1: What is one of the biggest misconceptions that people have
Speaker 1: about the way the game was played in the eighties
Speaker 1: or nineties and the impact that it's had today.
Speaker 4: I think that the idea that that defenses are getting
Speaker 4: worse is a major misconception. I think like people forget that.
Speaker 4: Like the offense, the offense is always improving as we
Speaker 4: get better at schemes and understanding how to generate better
Speaker 4: shots for people, but also just the skill level of
Speaker 4: players is increasing. But at the same time, like it's
Speaker 4: not like the league isn't also trying to solve that.
Speaker 4: On the defensive end, it's like we're seeing it now,
Speaker 4: a team's trying to take away the three in the
Speaker 4: rim and in different pick and roll coverages that are
Speaker 4: designed to get the ball out of the primary ball
Speaker 4: handler's hands. Defense is actually better than it's ever been.
Speaker 4: It's just the offense is growing at a faster rate.
Speaker 4: And I think that a lot of times there's just
Speaker 4: a misconception about defense was better in the nineties.
Speaker 5: It wasn't.
Speaker 4: It was really good still, it's just as a league,
Speaker 4: the offense is outpacing it right now.
Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, you up a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah that was the right answer, Jason, But it took
Speaker 1: way too long for you to say that, So I
Speaker 1: don't know if we can count that one, just so
Speaker 1: you know, but that was the right answer.
Speaker 4: That was the right answer.
Speaker 3: Give us a dark horse team for this next year,
Speaker 3: and also a dark horse player.
Speaker 6: Who you want to see on the twenty twenty eight
Speaker 6: Olympic team.
Speaker 4: Dark horse team. I think a lot of people forget
Speaker 4: how good Memphis was. I think they're gonna be top
Speaker 4: we seed, like right away. I think they they kind
Speaker 4: of found a couple of forwards in their system between
Speaker 4: like guys like Vince Williams and and Gig Jackson and
Speaker 4: John Rant I'd like, I threw out this stat the
Speaker 4: other day, like he just immediately came in. It was
Speaker 4: awesome and helped them win a win a lot of
Speaker 4: games where he got hurt. What was the second part
Speaker 4: of the question, All right.
Speaker 6: Give me a dark horse player? Do you want to
Speaker 6: see on the twenty twenty eight Olympic team?
Speaker 4: On the twenty twenty eight Olympic Team? Ah, I'll go
Speaker 4: with how about Kevin Durant.
Speaker 6: Lebron's a given back out there, But if.
Speaker 4: There was an old guy who would come back, I'd
Speaker 4: be him, right because he's such a right right, Like yeah,
Speaker 4: like Katie just taking spot up jump shots.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's just like he's he's just stuck there in
Speaker 2: the corner. Man just find him.
Speaker 1: He's in love to hoop, all right, And I got
Speaker 1: to say we have seen your mixtape on the Twitter bio.
Speaker 1: But what is your personal highlight for you as a
Speaker 1: basketball player?
Speaker 2: Was the nastiest in game moment for you that you
Speaker 2: still think about when you put yourself.
Speaker 5: To bedtnit O.
Speaker 4: That's a good question. I would say, if I had
Speaker 4: to off the top of my head, I would say
Speaker 4: when I was at when I was in Juco, I
Speaker 4: had a tip dunk once that I surprised myself with
Speaker 4: where I was coming down the lane and I was
Speaker 4: actually just going to grab the offensive rebound. And when
Speaker 4: I went up and got it, I remember vividly in
Speaker 4: my head like looking over and seeing the rim like
Speaker 4: right here, and I was just.
Speaker 2: Like, oh yeah, But I mean we've had that happen
Speaker 2: to us, to Jack and I a lot like right there.
Speaker 3: Yeah too oft but it happens too often where I'm
Speaker 3: not prepared for how high I jumped.
Speaker 4: Spoob.
Speaker 3: I wish I could get it through my thick head.
Speaker 3: You have incredible springs down there, buddy.
Speaker 2: Got bunnies.
Speaker 4: I think I think that's probably it. Like I, just
Speaker 4: like everybody else, there's a there's it's basketball for me,
Speaker 4: and I'm sure it is for you guys. Too, Like
Speaker 4: it's it's a thing that's lasted for decades for me.
Speaker 4: So I just have, you know, a lot of memory.
Speaker 4: Like you know what I've had a lot of fun
Speaker 4: with is just like as an old guy playing in
Speaker 4: like money tournaments more there's cash on the line. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I just had I just had one a few weeks
Speaker 4: ago where I put in three hundred bucks as an
Speaker 4: entry feed. Me and a buddy of mine split the
Speaker 4: entry fee and we brought a team in and like
Speaker 4: it was double elimination and we lost in the first
Speaker 4: championship game. We had to like come back and win
Speaker 4: two in a row, and like the ac was broken
Speaker 4: in the gym. It was like eighty five degrees and
Speaker 4: like those moments when you like win the cash and
Speaker 4: like and you're with a bunch of dudes who used
Speaker 4: to play in college. Like, I've actually had a lot
Speaker 4: of enjoyment in the game post college, which is something
Speaker 4: that I didn't expect. The big part of that is
Speaker 4: I'm just a lot better now than I used to
Speaker 4: be when I was in college.
Speaker 2: WHOA, this is true. Some white men can jump. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it turns out.
Speaker 1: And I find it troubling perfectly, all right, Any time
Speaker 1: you get up there, Jack, You're like, why am I
Speaker 1: going so high?
Speaker 6: I'm too high?
Speaker 2: This is can't handle the landing?
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: Adjacent to thank you so much for joining us on
Speaker 1: Miles and Jack Got Mad Boosties. Where do the people
Speaker 1: find you? Follow you, hear you, support you, read you,
Speaker 1: all that good stuff.
Speaker 4: This is a lot of fun. I really appreciate you
Speaker 4: guys having me on the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel, Hoops
Speaker 4: Tonight podcast podcast feed, and then on Twitter at underscore
Speaker 4: json lt is where I'm most active. I'm trying to
Speaker 4: get better using Instagram, but Twitter's just where my biggest
Speaker 4: following is right now. So that's where I like tweet
Speaker 4: out show announcements and links and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Okay, cool, Well, you can follow the hashtag mad Boosties
Speaker 1: b sd I e s for show links and updates,
Speaker 1: and then you'll also be able to join the discord
Speaker 1: when you search for that hashtag. We have all the
Speaker 1: information there. You can follow me on Twitter at Miles
Speaker 1: of Gray. I'm at Jack Underscore O'Brien, and that.
Speaker 2: Was another fantastic episode on Miles and Jack. I'm mad
Speaker 2: most these.
Speaker 6: In Yeah, I think it was pretty fantastic.
Speaker 2: Sweet I think it was.
Speaker 4: Wait.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's not often you get three dudes who
Speaker 2: are just so used to being up there.
Speaker 1: You thought we had NASA suits on, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. But we are just three ortle men just
Speaker 1: enjoying the game of basketball. Thank you, doctor Nasmith for
Speaker 1: all you've done, and thank you to our calves for
Speaker 1: being springy.
Speaker 2: And muscular and taking us to heights unseen before. All right, y'all,
Speaker 2: that was it for us. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 2: Bye bye bye,