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Speaker 3: A well, Hoops to night.
Speaker 2: You're at the volume heavy Monday, everybody obald You guys
Speaker 2: are having a great start to your week. Well, today
Speaker 2: we're gonna be diving a little bit deeper into some
Speaker 2: of the storylines. After the NBA Finals ended last night.
Speaker 2: The Thunder defeat the Indiana Pacers in seven games behind
Speaker 2: an incredible defensive effort in the third quarter. Last night,
Speaker 2: We're gonna break down a bunch of different elements. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna talk some big picture stuff, some kind of like
Speaker 2: narrative stuff surrounding the Oklahoma City Thunder kind of I
Speaker 2: want to have a moment to just remind Thunder fans
Speaker 2: that it doesn't really matter what anybody else says about
Speaker 2: your championship. Your trophy is your trophy and no one
Speaker 2: can ever take it away from you. Let's talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about next year and what the future looks
Speaker 2: like for the Thunder. After that, I'm gonna kind of
Speaker 2: go down the eight man playoff rotation for the Thunder
Speaker 2: and shout out each individual player for their contributions. Along
Speaker 2: the way, we have a shout out for the Indiana Pacers,
Speaker 2: and then at the tail end of the show, I
Speaker 2: want to briefly just take some a couple of minutes
Speaker 2: to reflect on this playoff run here at Hoops tonight,
Speaker 2: You guys are the joke before we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 2: to the Hoops and on YouTube channels. I don't miss
Speaker 2: any more of our videos, Follow me on Twitter and
Speaker 2: underscore jcnltcs. You guysn't miss announcements. Don't forget about ourocast feed,
Speaker 2: where you get your podcast on Hoops Tonight. It's also
Speaker 2: super helpful if you leave a rating and review on
Speaker 2: that front. Jackson's doing a great work on our social
Speaker 2: media feeds, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Make sure you
Speaker 2: guys follow us there. In the last but not least,
Speaker 2: keep dropping mail bag questions and the YouTube comments. We
Speaker 2: can get to them in our mail bags throughout the
Speaker 2: remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 2: So first of all, congratulations to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Speaker 2: As I talked about with Colin last night, it's not
Speaker 2: exactly atypical when you look back at the great teams
Speaker 2: in NBA history for their first title run to be
Speaker 2: a little bit uneven, a little bit sloppy. Like look
Speaker 2: at every team that has won consecutive championships. Let's pretend that, Okay,
Speaker 2: see wins again next year, and then we look back
Speaker 2: at it relative to other repeating champions in NBA history.
Speaker 2: You look at the Warriors in twenty fifteen, they're down
Speaker 2: to one to the Grizzlies. They're down to one to
Speaker 2: the Cavs in the second round, and in the finals,
Speaker 2: very similar to this year's Oklahoma City team the Heat
Speaker 2: in twenty twelve, they fall down to one to the Pacers,
Speaker 2: they fall down three to two to the Celtics. They
Speaker 2: fall down one oh to the Thunder. That's after a
Speaker 2: year where they lost in the finals. The Kobe pow
Speaker 2: Lakers lost in the finals to the Celtics before they
Speaker 2: won a couple in a row, the first Kobe Shack
Speaker 2: team in two thousand. They almost lost to Sacramento in
Speaker 2: the first round. Portland ends up taking them to seven games.
Speaker 2: The NBA playoffs are hard for everyone, and that is
Speaker 2: no exception even for the great teams that especially when
Speaker 2: they're in these situations earlier in their runs where they
Speaker 2: don't have a ton of experience. Going into this postseason,
Speaker 2: I had Oklahoma City second in my contender rankings behind
Speaker 2: the Boston Celtics, and I did pick the Thunder in
Speaker 2: all four of their playoff series. But their shortcomings were
Speaker 2: clear coming into the postseason. They're a really young team
Speaker 2: that wasn't very resilient on offense. This was the year
Speaker 2: to beat them if you were going to upset the
Speaker 2: Thunder and kick them out, kind of like the Heat
Speaker 2: did in twenty eleven, or the Lakers in two thousand
Speaker 2: and eight. This was the year to beat them. This
Speaker 2: was the year they weren't quite as much of a
Speaker 2: sure thing, and they got it done anyway. And now
Speaker 2: their shortcomings can be pretty easily addressed internally. Shay's inconsistencies
Speaker 2: as a processor, those will improve in time, and I
Speaker 2: would argue him always getting it right in the big
Speaker 2: games when everything was hanging in the balance is a
Speaker 2: great sign that he gets it and how important that
Speaker 2: part of his game is. Chet will continue to develop offensively.
Speaker 2: J Doub will become more consistent. Role players will process better,
Speaker 2: shoot the ball better. All of that can come in time.
Speaker 2: This Thunder team can get way better and has a
Speaker 2: real chance to join the ranks of the truly great
Speaker 2: teams in NBA history. I think they have a better
Speaker 2: chances than even Boston did last year or Denver the
Speaker 2: year before that. We're gonna talk a little bit more
Speaker 2: about that concept in a minute. But never ever, ever
Speaker 2: take this for granted. Enjoy this title for as long
Speaker 2: as you can. I know there are a lot of
Speaker 2: Thunder fans that are annoyed today. Maybe you're annoyed because
Speaker 2: of the public discourse after Tyree's Tours Achilles and people
Speaker 2: saying that that just means Indiana would have won if
Speaker 2: he was healthy because he hit some threes before it happened.
Speaker 2: Or maybe you're annoyed because you're you feel like your
Speaker 2: team's not getting enough credit. First and foremost, who the
Speaker 2: hell cares what anybody else thinks. They are all just
Speaker 2: mad because their team didn't win the title. There are
Speaker 2: cas fans still complaining about Kyrie and Kevin Love getting
Speaker 2: hurt in twenty fifteen. There are Warriors fans still complaining
Speaker 2: about Andrew Boget's injury and Draymond Green suspension in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2: They are fans saying Denver didn't play any real teams.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty three. They are fans saying Boston didn't
Speaker 2: play any good teams in twenty twenty four. Alex Crusoe
Speaker 2: made a joke last night at the podium about the
Speaker 2: Bubble Championship because of how prevalent that bitching and moaning
Speaker 2: has been over the course of the years, people complain
Speaker 2: that's what they do. It literally cannot take the trophy
Speaker 2: away from you, and it cannot take away your love
Speaker 2: for your team, even with like me and my complaints
Speaker 2: about Shay's foulgrifting. That's a big picture basketball opinion I
Speaker 2: have about the league, aet large that also includes two
Speaker 2: guys on my favorite team, guys like Luca and Austin.
Speaker 2: Austin reeves. You don't think if the Lakers won the
Speaker 2: title next year, I promise you there would be thousands
Speaker 2: of people bitching and moaning about the whistle that Luca
Speaker 2: and Austin get as they should. It's bad television, but
Speaker 2: I'd be there saying, bring us the damn trophy. The
Speaker 2: trophy is sacred. Nobody can ever take that away from you.
Speaker 2: No amount of complaining, Twitter trolling, stupid media comments on
Speaker 2: television or time can take that trophy away from you.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, never delude yourself into thinking
Speaker 2: it's easy to get there and win another one. I
Speaker 2: do think this Oklahoma City team, because of their talent
Speaker 2: and because of their youth, is more well equipped to
Speaker 2: repeat than Boston or Denver was. But both of those
Speaker 2: teams in the moment did feel like teams that could repeat.
Speaker 2: Let's go back even further, like twenty twenty with the Lakers.
Speaker 2: You don't think after twenty twenty when Lebron was looking
Speaker 2: like the best player in the world and Anthony Davis
Speaker 2: was looking like a top five player, and they still
Speaker 2: had good years ahead of them, that you know that
Speaker 2: they wouldn't have a really good chance to repeat the
Speaker 2: next year. But no, Lebron turns his ankle, ad has
Speaker 2: a groin injury. By the time they recovered, they make
Speaker 2: a stupid trade. All of a sudden, they're not as
Speaker 2: good the twenty twenty three Nuggets. Oh, Jokic is the
Speaker 2: best player in the world. All of our starters are
Speaker 2: in their mid to late twenties. Like, we are set
Speaker 2: up well to try to make a dynasty out of this,
Speaker 2: and then it's like, oh, oh, actually, you know, you
Speaker 2: lose a couple of valuable role players, a couple other
Speaker 2: teams get better. Suddenly they're losing in the second round
Speaker 2: to a bad matchup the twenty twenty four Celtics. You
Speaker 2: don't think the Celtics last year, five thirty million dollar players,
Speaker 2: Tatum didn't even play well. Tatum's gonna play better, right,
Speaker 2: All these different things that could lead to them potentially repeating.
Speaker 2: We haven't even had a team make the conference finals
Speaker 2: two years in a row since Kevin Durant left the Warriors.
Speaker 3: The league is deep.
Speaker 2: Other teams are coming. Houston will be interesting with Kevin Durant.
Speaker 2: San Antonio. If they somehow get Yannis, they'll be a
Speaker 2: real threat. Denver is still a bad matchup for Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2: The Lakers have Luca now, you can't write them off.
Speaker 2: The Warriors are all in. All it takes is one
Speaker 2: of those teams to reach a level of special basketball to.
Speaker 3: Be a true threat.
Speaker 2: So all I'm saying is, don't get caught up in
Speaker 2: dynasty talk or any of that kind of thinking, yet,
Speaker 2: really take the time to enjoy this title. This was
Speaker 2: a remarkable title. It was a highly entertaining playoff front.
Speaker 2: You played some really great teams. That Denver team in
Speaker 2: the second round. That's the best player in the world
Speaker 2: who hung forty on you multiple times and was an
Speaker 2: indomitable offensive force. And you guys withstood that and controlled
Speaker 2: them in the key moments in Game four and in
Speaker 2: Game five and in Game seven. Well, Minnesota was red
Speaker 2: hot coming into that series. I remember when I was
Speaker 2: talking with Colin right after the matchup got secured, my
Speaker 2: initial gut feeling I was like man, like Minnesota might
Speaker 2: be able to do this.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I woke up the next morning and watched a bunch
Speaker 2: of film and it was like, Nope, I'm picking Oklahoma City,
Speaker 2: but like Minnesota was a real threat. You guys walked them,
Speaker 2: You got them out of the building easily. And then
Speaker 2: that Indiana Pacers team, in addition to being a truly
Speaker 2: special basketball team, was riding some crazy voodoo, dark magic
Speaker 2: shit where you had to beat them five times in
Speaker 2: every series because Tyree's Halliburton would steal a game from
Speaker 2: the jaws of defeat. This was an incredible championship. So
Speaker 2: I just wanted to say congratulations to the thunder in
Speaker 2: their fans.
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Speaker 3: For this next exercise.
Speaker 2: What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go down most
Speaker 2: of the Oklahoma City roster their top eight guys in
Speaker 2: the playoff rotation. I'm gonna shout out each individual player
Speaker 2: for their contributions, starting with Shae Gills of Alexander. He
Speaker 2: finished the playoff run at thirty points per game, five
Speaker 2: rebounds and seven assists, with two point six stocks steels
Speaker 2: plus blocks, and fifty seven percent screw shooting in terms
Speaker 2: of his efficiency. Now, yeah, it was somewhat uneven in
Speaker 2: that Shay's decision making did play a role in some
Speaker 2: of their rough offensive nights. But as I always talk about,
Speaker 2: the NBA playoffs are about solving puzzles, and every time
Speaker 2: the thunderseason was really hanging in the balance, he was fantastic.
Speaker 2: We talked about it last night with call him. He
Speaker 2: had just seven assists in the rough games in the finals,
Speaker 2: in the four games, Game one, Game three, Game four,
Speaker 2: in game six, he had thirty assists in games two,
Speaker 2: five and seven. Tennisis per game in every pivotal moment.
Speaker 2: You lose Game two, you go down two zero, you
Speaker 2: lose the series. You lose Game five, you go down
Speaker 2: three to one, you lose a series. You lose Game seven,
Speaker 2: you literally lose the series. And he was great in
Speaker 2: every single one of those games as a processor from
Speaker 2: start to finish. The in Game four, even though I
Speaker 2: thought he was rough for most of that game, down
Speaker 2: the stretch, hitting the big three out of the two
Speaker 2: man game with Jalen Williams at the top of the key,
Speaker 2: it's at three off of the right wing, hitting that
Speaker 2: little jumper on the left base line against Aaron E. Smith,
Speaker 2: drawing a couple of fouls on Nie Smith and Iso.
Speaker 2: He made the plays he needed to make to win
Speaker 2: the game. To put it very simply, the Thunder needed
Speaker 2: Sga to be great, to play like a true superstar
Speaker 2: in order for this team to win the championship, and
Speaker 2: he did. As a result, He's just logged one of
Speaker 2: the great shooting guard seasons in the history of the NBA.
Speaker 2: He's the only player other than Michael Jordan in the
Speaker 2: history of the NBA to win a scoring title, make
Speaker 2: First Team All NBA, win the MVP, and win Finals
Speaker 2: MVP in the same season. I was asking Colin about
Speaker 2: this last night in a Microsoft segment like he's seen
Speaker 2: a lot of greats come through the league, and all
Speaker 2: I could think is he is admirably filling the shoes
Speaker 2: of the greats that come through before him. I've you
Speaker 2: know again, I know you thunderfans have had your frustrations
Speaker 2: with me, as I've had my frustrations with some of
Speaker 2: the foul grifting, which is again a big picture NBA
Speaker 2: tape that even applies to some guys on my favorite team.
Speaker 2: I just hate watching the finals on ABC, and you know,
Speaker 2: seeing some of the grifty stuff that I see, I
Speaker 2: don't want to see it from anybody. But that doesn't
Speaker 2: change the fact that Shay Gilga Alexander just put together
Speaker 2: one of the great start to finish superstar seasons in
Speaker 2: the history of the league. That doesn't change the type
Speaker 2: of basketball player that Shay is. If anything, the grifting
Speaker 2: stuff is part of his competitive advantage and his willingness
Speaker 2: to take every single thing that he can take to
Speaker 2: help his team win a game. I was incredibly impressed
Speaker 2: by Shaye in this playoff run Jay Dubb, I'll talk
Speaker 2: about the idea of just making a play right within
Speaker 2: a game. You have a rough game, but it's you
Speaker 2: know two point game, five minutes left and you get
Speaker 2: a big rebound, you hit a big spot up three,
Speaker 2: you have a big transition defense possession where you get
Speaker 2: back and you solow them down. Whatever it is, you
Speaker 2: make a couple of plays, you help your team win.
Speaker 2: No one's gonna care. JDub had a rough start to
Speaker 2: this postseason. He was good against Memphis, Memphis not a
Speaker 2: good team, but against Denver, in the first six games
Speaker 2: of the Denver series, he was at just sixteen and
Speaker 2: a half points per game on thirty four percent from
Speaker 2: the field twenty one percent from three. From Game seven
Speaker 2: of the Denver series through the rest of the playoffs,
Speaker 2: JDub averaged twenty three points per game on forty seven
Speaker 2: percent from the field in thirty six percent from three.
Speaker 2: You could really tell that it dawned on him that
Speaker 2: nobody can keep him from getting to the rim. The
Speaker 2: stats were crazy on this front before Game seven against Denver.
Speaker 2: In those first six games in the series, he averaged
Speaker 2: just four attempts in the restricted area per game. From
Speaker 2: Game seven of that series onward, he averaged six point
Speaker 2: seven restricted area attempts per game, almost doubled his output
Speaker 2: at the rim. That's him figuring out that he is
Speaker 2: a downhill forced to be reckoned. With seven restricted area
Speaker 2: attempts per game is a big number, guys. That's like
Speaker 2: encroaching on like the kind of stuff you see from
Speaker 2: the Lebrons and the Yiannises or like those guys are
Speaker 2: in like the eight to eleven restricted area attempts per
Speaker 2: game and JDub was up there at like seven. Truly
Speaker 2: remarkable stuff from Jay Dubb. There's a ton of pressure
Speaker 2: on Jadub as a twenty four year old second option
Speaker 2: on a Big Finals favorite, to come through against some
Speaker 2: elite defenses. Against some elite defenders, he had three games
Speaker 2: in the Finals with at least twenty five points. He
Speaker 2: had a forty point game in game five. Did his job,
Speaker 2: and he did it extremely well. Salute to Jalen Williams
Speaker 2: chet Holmgren. Yes, it was a rough offensive postseason from
Speaker 2: him on several fronts.
Speaker 3: Who cares.
Speaker 2: You won the title and he's got another summer to
Speaker 2: get better. Now. I thought he was the guy that
Speaker 2: tied the Thunder defense together. Who've talked about this a lot.
Speaker 2: You need bigs on the floor. BIG's help you rebound, bigs,
Speaker 2: helpy screen bigs unlock a lot of things. So what
Speaker 2: ends up happening is, you know, we talked about it
Speaker 2: last night on playback. All of these teams, if you
Speaker 2: go back, have great perimeter defenders. Yeah, Oklahoma City has
Speaker 2: more of them, but like all these teams have great defenders. Boston,
Speaker 2: Drew Holliday and Jalen Brown were two of the most
Speaker 2: disruptive perimeter defenders in the league. You go back to
Speaker 2: previous year, Contavious Calledwell, Contavious Callwell, Pope, Bruce Brown, these
Speaker 2: are Christian Brown. These are great perimeter defenders twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: Gary Payton Andrew Wiggins. Like there are all sorts of
Speaker 2: elite perimmeter defenders on champions when you go back their
Speaker 2: NBA history Drew Holiday in twenty twenty one, Alex Crusoe
Speaker 2: and KCP in twenty twenty that's kind of a hallmark
Speaker 2: of championship teams. But the big Guy ends up being
Speaker 2: the vehicle with which teams can get around that problem.
Speaker 2: And Chet just presents another big, giant problem at the
Speaker 2: big like in high, drop in low, drop in switches
Speaker 2: protecting the rim and help. He was devastating at every
Speaker 2: level of Oklahoma City's defense, and even if they happened
Speaker 2: to get a guard off of them, Chet was so
Speaker 2: good at sliding his feet and keeping the ball in
Speaker 2: front and making them take contested shots in the mid range.
Speaker 2: Countless blocks on drives. He had eight blocks in their
Speaker 2: last two wins in this series, the most blocks ever
Speaker 2: in the history of the NBA Finals in a game seven.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable defensive playoff run from Chet Holmgren, Lou Dorton, Alex
Speaker 2: Crusoe wrecking balls in every big moment. Both of them
Speaker 2: were amazing last night. Alex Crusoe all over the place defensively,
Speaker 2: Lou dort poke away steals, offensive rebounds. The two guys
Speaker 2: combined for twenty seven made three pointers in twenty eight
Speaker 2: steals in the NBA Finals. That's for steels and four
Speaker 2: to threes made per game. Book it from Dorton Crusoe.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable performance. Cason Wallace a little bit of a rough
Speaker 2: offensive series at times, but provided a similar impact on
Speaker 2: defense to those other guys. Twelve steals in this series.
Speaker 2: Consistently held up against post mismatches, forcing turnovers and misses
Speaker 2: forced turnovers at the point of attack. Great series from
Speaker 2: Cason Wallace. Aaron Wiggins ten for twenty two from three.
Speaker 2: That's huge in his series like this. Isaiah Hartenstein nineteen
Speaker 2: offensive rebounds in the series. Him and Chett did a
Speaker 2: ton of damage on the offensive glass in the series.
Speaker 2: There's a big part of how they won Game four.
Speaker 2: I'd argue they lose this series if it wasn't for
Speaker 2: the job that Chet and Isaiah Hartenstein did in the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter of Game four on the glass. Hartenstein in
Speaker 2: this series produced at a rate of eleven points and
Speaker 2: thirteen rebounds per thirty six minutes. Very good production from
Speaker 2: Isaiah Hartenstein. You got to shout out, Sam Preston, you
Speaker 2: do not win the title without Alex Crusoe and Isaiah Hartenstein.
Speaker 2: He came out of that series last year and said,
Speaker 2: I want to decrease our or I want to increase
Speaker 2: our margin for air. I want to give these guys
Speaker 2: some veteran presences, some guys that can help in some
Speaker 2: specific areas of need. A legit fifth starter for their
Speaker 2: small ball look, which they didn't have last year, right,
Speaker 2: Legit two big look, a more physical big to get
Speaker 2: to provide an option different from Chet. Isaiah Hartenstein. The
Speaker 2: job he did both Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso were
Speaker 2: the only reason like you lose to Denver if you
Speaker 2: don't have those two guys. Hartenstein throughout the series playing
Speaker 2: up on Jokic's right shoulder to force him to spin
Speaker 2: and drive left into Chet at the rim, which works
Speaker 2: so effectively that having two big centers on the floor
Speaker 2: really affected Jokic. Caruso in Game seven fronting the post
Speaker 2: against Jokich. Cruso was amazing in every big game in
Speaker 2: this postseason run. Sam Presty did his job to help
Speaker 2: his team win the championship. I'm really interested to see
Speaker 2: what he does this summer, if he runs it back,
Speaker 2: or if he tries to make some sort of improvement
Speaker 2: on the margin. Just congratulations again to thunder fans. A
Speaker 2: really special team, a special playoff run. Now you have
Speaker 2: the trophy. Tune out the noise, don't worry about all
Speaker 2: that shit everyone else is saying. Or if I bitch
Speaker 2: about Shay getting free throws, who cares? He's got a
Speaker 2: Finals MVP. Now if as long as you guys enjoy
Speaker 2: watching him, who cares what I think?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Just congratulations to thunder fans. They can never take that
Speaker 2: away from you, we have to shout out the Indiana Pacers,
Speaker 2: though I can't say enough about what the Pacers did
Speaker 2: to inject life into this playoff front. They were one
Speaker 2: of my favorite non champions that I've ever watched. They
Speaker 2: play a brand of basketball that was infectious, exciting, and
Speaker 2: impossible not to root for. Their resilience and commitment to
Speaker 2: playing forty eight minutes of great basketball every night set
Speaker 2: an example that honestly every basketball coach in the world
Speaker 2: should be looking to instill a similar type of basketball
Speaker 2: character into their teams. The moments man like Tyrese those
Speaker 2: four game winners. I remember I saw an Instagram reel
Speaker 2: shortly after Game one of the finals where all four
Speaker 2: of them were kind of stacked up on each other,
Speaker 2: and I was like, just an insane stretch of NBA moments.
Speaker 2: The Siakam dunk all over JDub in Game six, the
Speaker 2: TJ McConnell's scoring runs in the finals. There were just
Speaker 2: so many moments. I'll never forget this Pacers team, and
Speaker 2: it's just such a huge bummer because of the Tyree's injury.
Speaker 2: It's just such a gut punch to Pacers fans that
Speaker 2: removes most of the excitement from this upcoming season. Similar
Speaker 2: to the Tatum injury, the sheer timeline of Achilles recovery
Speaker 2: dictates that will probably see some roster turnover by the
Speaker 2: next time Tyres Haliburton sees the floor. That's super unfortunate,
Speaker 2: but that playoff run will be burned into our brains forever.
Speaker 2: I'm thankful for pace for the Pacers. I can't even
Speaker 2: imagine for you Pacers fans what it must have been
Speaker 2: like rooting for that team. I just imagine it being
Speaker 2: like the peak of sports fandom, like you guys loving
Speaker 2: your team and watching the whole world fall in love
Speaker 2: with your team and like everything. But obviously at the
Speaker 2: end the Tyree's injury and not getting the trophy, I
Speaker 2: just imagine that was an incredible experience. And I know
Speaker 2: that it's hard to see that now after what happened,
Speaker 2: but that was a special Pacers team and again, I
Speaker 2: just it's just burned into my brain and I'll never
Speaker 2: ever forget that.
Speaker 3: Indiana Pacers team.
Speaker 2: Last thing before we get out of here today, I
Speaker 2: just wanted to take a minute to shout out to
Speaker 2: the Hoops Tonight crew and our fans. These playoff runs
Speaker 2: are brutal for us. At one point we went live
Speaker 2: thirty eight times at night out of forty one nights,
Speaker 2: in addition to waking up the next morning for film
Speaker 2: sessions and additional reaction content. About half of those days,
Speaker 2: we were easily doing over ten episodes per week for
Speaker 2: two and a half months. There is a ton of
Speaker 2: grueling work behind the scenes with editing for different feeds
Speaker 2: and for social media. One of our guys, Shane, was
Speaker 2: doing it all from the East Coast, so you can
Speaker 2: imagine the kinds of preposterous hours that he was up
Speaker 2: working for us. Jackson and Shane both did a ton
Speaker 2: of great work to make this playoff run run as
Speaker 2: smoothly as it's ever as it's ever gone. I just
Speaker 2: wanted to shout those guys out, make sure everyone realizes
Speaker 2: that this is a team effort, and I want to
Speaker 2: shout you guys out our fans for all the incredible
Speaker 2: support along the way. We did just under seven million
Speaker 2: views in the playoff run, which is a record for
Speaker 2: this channel. We crossed over one hundred thousand subscribers on YouTube,
Speaker 2: which was a huge moment for us. We're already about
Speaker 2: to pass over one hundred and ten thousand subscribers, Like
Speaker 2: I had a moment with my wife last night. We
Speaker 2: went out and sat by the fire pit. This was
Speaker 2: the already, it just the time's flying by. This is
Speaker 2: the fourth time since I started working for the volume
Speaker 2: that we've crowned a champion in the NBA, And it's
Speaker 2: just that the years, they just keep piling on top
Speaker 2: of each other, and like, it's just been such a
Speaker 2: remarkable experience, and I just can't say enough about how
Speaker 2: much I appreciate you guys and the support, all the
Speaker 2: kind words over the years, the incredible experiences that I've
Speaker 2: gotten to have because of you guys. Like I have
Speaker 2: a little bit of news this summer. My wife and
Speaker 2: I are actually moving to Denver. It's a long story
Speaker 2: of some stuff going on in terms of my wife
Speaker 2: and I've been trying to have a kid for a
Speaker 2: long time, and it's just been a little bit of
Speaker 2: a chance challenge, and there are obviously like steps that
Speaker 2: we could take to try to make that happen quicker,
Speaker 2: but we're not quite ready for that, and so what
Speaker 2: we're doing is trying to just take advantage of a
Speaker 2: little window in time here where we don't have kids
Speaker 2: and I work remote, so we can go do something
Speaker 2: like go up to Denver and I can. My wife
Speaker 2: and I love to ski. It's like one of our
Speaker 2: favorite things to do together, so we want to like
Speaker 2: go up there and ski fifty sixty times and just
Speaker 2: enjoy the weather and enjoy the mountains, be close to
Speaker 2: an NBA city, be close to the best player in
Speaker 2: the world, and Nakola jokicch and it's just such a
Speaker 2: cool thing that we're going to get to experience, to
Speaker 2: get to just like pick up our family, our three dogs,
Speaker 2: and go up to Denver and just live for a
Speaker 2: couple of years. Because I happen to work remote, and
Speaker 2: because you guys have done such an incredible job supporting this,
Speaker 2: this job, this show over the years, and I just
Speaker 2: it's I just feel incredibly fortunate. And it's not lost
Speaker 2: on me that I can't like this entire experience is
Speaker 2: because of you guys, And I just hope you guys
Speaker 2: understand how much I appreciate you guys. And it's been
Speaker 2: our fourth champion, but we know there's going to be
Speaker 2: so many more, and I'm just so excited to see
Speaker 2: where the show goes next.
Speaker 3: What's the next big crazy thing that we do.
Speaker 2: How what kind of crazy NBA history are we gonna
Speaker 2: all kind of cover together and do together. We have
Speaker 2: plans for the show in terms of playback and like
Speaker 2: doing watch alongs and more other kinds of live streams,
Speaker 2: like who the hell knows what we can do surrounding
Speaker 2: the being in an NBA city next year in terms
Speaker 2: of our production. I'm just so excited for the future
Speaker 2: and so thankful for what we've accomplished to this point.
Speaker 2: And again, I just I hope you guys understand how
Speaker 2: much how much I appreciate you guys, how much I
Speaker 2: appreciate our team, And I just feel I'm just feeling
Speaker 2: very blessed and very fortunate today. But no rest for
Speaker 2: the weary. We are right back into it because of
Speaker 2: the NBA Draft and free agency in Summer League and trades.
Speaker 2: And I'm literally recording with Sam Vassini later this afternoon,
Speaker 2: and I've got a bunch of prep I need. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be watching film all afternoon, getting ready for our
Speaker 2: NBA Draft preview.
Speaker 3: But thankfully we're just a few weeks out.
Speaker 2: Once we get after that first weekend of Summer League,
Speaker 2: things really toned back and then me and my team
Speaker 2: will get a chance to relax, and then of course
Speaker 2: I'll be turning around and moving my entire life up
Speaker 2: to the North. But but yeah, we have exciting week
Speaker 2: ahead of us.
Speaker 3: Again.
Speaker 2: We've got that draft preview with Sam Vessini will most
Speaker 2: likely be coming out tomorrow morning. I believe the plan
Speaker 2: as of right now is to do a live reaction
Speaker 2: to the to the lottery on Wednesday night. But I
Speaker 2: will keep you guys posted. Just keep an eye on
Speaker 2: the Twitter feed and I'll let you guys know from there.
Speaker 2: And I've had people asking like, what are we going
Speaker 2: to do this summer? Lots of player ranking type stuff,
Speaker 2: big picture NBA stuff where I plan on doing some
Speaker 2: like rewatches on playback of like great NBA games and
Speaker 2: NBA history. Just keep an eye on twitter feed at
Speaker 2: Underscore Jason LT. I'll keep you guys in the loop.
Speaker 2: Wrong along the way. Thanks again, another year in the books.
Speaker 2: I'll see you guys tomorrow for some draft stuff.
Speaker 3: What some guys.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you for listening to and so
Speaker 2: sporting hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for
Speaker 2: us if you guys would take a second and leave
Speaker 2: a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you
Speaker 2: guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute
Speaker 2: to do that, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: The volume