Speaker 1: Welcome in episode three forty What's Right with Nick Wright,
Speaker 1: presented to you by Boost Mobile. And this is an
Speaker 1: insane show we have today because last night we had
Speaker 1: something of the Yin and the Yang of historic NBA
Speaker 1: Finals performances, And that's not an exaggeration. It was as
Speaker 1: bad of a performance as you will see from a
Speaker 1: team's best player, from a superstar in a finals game
Speaker 1: in your entire life. And it was just about as
Speaker 1: good of a performance as you will see from a
Speaker 1: team's second best player in an NBA Finals game, as
Speaker 1: you'll see in a decade. And so we will get
Speaker 1: into all of that, and then we will also I
Speaker 1: am going to make something of a faustian bargain with
Speaker 1: the audience and we'll see how it works out. Because
Speaker 1: it has a little to do with politics, It has
Speaker 1: a little to do with solitaire, it has a little
Speaker 1: to do with interness in media beefs, and it has
Speaker 1: a little to do with the future of the Republic
Speaker 1: as a whole. And I know there are a lot
Speaker 1: of you that are not at all interested in a
Speaker 1: handful of those things, but are not like a moth
Speaker 1: to a flame. As soon as I say potential media beef.
Speaker 1: They're like, well, I guess I'm gonna have to stick
Speaker 1: around for it, So so all of that is coming
Speaker 1: later in the show. Also demandse you, if you would like,
Speaker 1: might actually be able to leave the show about twenty
Speaker 1: minutes early, because not only do you are you not
Speaker 1: obligated to participate in the last third of the show.
Speaker 1: I don't even know that I want you to for
Speaker 1: your sake, for mine, for ever everyone's so you're welcome
Speaker 1: to stick around, but you also are not obligated to
Speaker 1: and if you would like the legitimate deniability of I
Speaker 1: wasn't even there, you feel free to take the ear
Speaker 1: piece out and keep it moving. How are you doing
Speaker 1: this morning, sun?
Speaker 2: Doing pretty good? Puffs. Good to see you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good to see you as well. You sound great.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they changed your microphone or what,
Speaker 1: but it sound better than ever in my ear.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: We will get to Game five of the Finals in
Speaker 1: a moment, but first, thanks to our great friends at
Speaker 1: boost Mobile. Straight to Voicemail, brought to you by boost
Speaker 1: mob Mobile show Hey O, Tani pitches uh for the
Speaker 1: first time in a couple of years with the Dodgers,
Speaker 1: throws it inn we'll get to we won't actually get
Speaker 1: to that. That's why it's just missed the cut. Red Panda.
Speaker 1: Oh is Red Panda hall of Famer? Great take? Oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, it wasn't such a busy show. I would
Speaker 1: I could do at least five minutes on it. Red
Speaker 1: Panda has certainly offered more to the lives of NBA
Speaker 1: fans over the last twenty years than a lot of
Speaker 1: guys who actually made the Hall of Fame. That I mean,
Speaker 1: that is a great take right there. And Joey Chestnut
Speaker 1: returning to the Nathan to hot Dog eating contest a
Speaker 1: story I do not care about it all, but because
Speaker 1: once upon a time I made the case Joey Chestnuts
Speaker 1: the world's greatest athlete in a segment called Nick Wright
Speaker 1: Public Defender, Defend the Indefensible. The producers are convinced I
Speaker 1: care about Joey chestnutt no matter how many times I
Speaker 1: tell them, I actually do not care about Joey Chestnut.
Speaker 1: Remindered everyone like rate, subscribe, review, follow us on YouTube,
Speaker 1: subscribe on YouTube, check out the you Know on iTunes, Spotify.
Speaker 1: All of that lee five star reviews. I never asked
Speaker 1: for reviews. It actually helps a lot. I don't totally
Speaker 1: understand why, but that would be great. And here's the
Speaker 1: other thing about people watching live on YouTube right now.
Speaker 1: The listener questions today are going to be interspersed throughout
Speaker 1: the show based on the topics we're doing. We're not
Speaker 1: gonna have if if you have a question that's unrelated
Speaker 1: to everything, feel free to submit it and maybe we'll
Speaker 1: get to it Thursday. But we're not gonna do questions
Speaker 1: at the very end of today's show. So it's interactive
Speaker 1: for people who are watching right now, and also about
Speaker 1: the topics at hand. But demons, let's get to what
Speaker 1: is likely the deciding moment of these NBA.
Speaker 3: Finals deciding Yeah, so okay, see went up three to
Speaker 3: two last night. It looked like the Pacers were gonna
Speaker 3: erase another one of those big deficits.
Speaker 2: They couldn't do it. Huge game from Jada and Shay.
Speaker 3: Halliburton got a little dinged up there early in the game,
Speaker 3: had four points. You said, you have a crazy, crazy
Speaker 3: take about Halliburn. Do you mind laying that one on us?
Speaker 1: Well, I don't listen. I don't think it's crazy, and
Speaker 1: I think at times. So here's what happens sometimes in
Speaker 1: some kind of meta media criticism, if I will, if
Speaker 1: I may a little Amus boush before we get to
Speaker 1: real media criticism later in the show. Because there are
Speaker 1: so many prisoner of the moment knee jerk over the
Speaker 1: top takes on a daily basis, there are then times
Speaker 1: when something actually might be the worst you've ever seen,
Speaker 1: and it gets lumped into that doesn't it's a media
Speaker 1: version of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, and where it
Speaker 1: gets lumped into other Oh, well, how many you know?
Speaker 1: We've heard this is the worst ever eleven times in
Speaker 1: the last three years. And while maybe some of the
Speaker 1: tyrese Haliburton, why doesn't he score more? And the answer
Speaker 1: is because he's not a scorer. That's not where he
Speaker 1: makes his impact. Some of that maybe prior to Game
Speaker 1: five was a touch over stated. There is nothing that
Speaker 1: I can think of that could overstate what happened last night,
Speaker 1: which is on the very short list and maybe at
Speaker 1: the very top of the list of worst performances by
Speaker 1: a superstar and by a team's best player in a
Speaker 1: Gotta Have It Finals game. I have my other computer,
Speaker 1: so I have the computer I do the show on.
Speaker 1: I have my other computer, right here that I am
Speaker 1: going to have to glance at because because I have
Speaker 1: so many basketball reference pages open to try to find
Speaker 1: the context for what Haliburton did last night or didn't
Speaker 1: do last night, that I was worried this computer would
Speaker 1: glitch on the pod even didn't.
Speaker 2: You go ahead, and even with him being banged up.
Speaker 1: Man, unless the injury was he lost his vision for
Speaker 1: forty five minutes, that's not an excuse. It's I understand
Speaker 1: he had calf soreness. I get it, and I understand
Speaker 1: that he probably because of what we have seen with
Speaker 1: calf injuries, was a little tentative because of it. But
Speaker 1: zero for six, four points, a line of four seven
Speaker 1: six with three turnovers in thirty four minutes, simply in
Speaker 1: a game that somehow was a two point game in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter thanks to what, in all honesty the
Speaker 1: backup point guard TJ McConnell was able to do in
Speaker 1: his minutes. I've just never seen something like it, and
Speaker 1: I so here again just to go over the different
Speaker 1: qualifiers that I threw on there, and one other note,
Speaker 1: so Tyrese Halliburton last night again, game score is not
Speaker 1: a perfect metric, but it is pretty decent as far
Speaker 1: as a catch all stat fifteen is an average game.
Speaker 1: Anything above twenty five is exceptional, anything below ten is bad,
Speaker 1: anything in the negatives. It's one of the worst games
Speaker 1: in NBA history. Basketball Reference is able to do game
Speaker 1: score in the playoffs dating back to the late seventies.
Speaker 1: Halliburton last night had a game score of two point three.
Speaker 1: Text on it. J. Dubb had a game score of
Speaker 1: thirty SGAT game score of twenty seven. If you want
Speaker 1: to say, like, how does this compare to the other
Speaker 1: Halliburton games these finals, because it's not like he's had
Speaker 1: huge point games in the finals previously. His previous game
Speaker 1: scores were eleven, fourteen, twenty three, twelve. This was again,
Speaker 1: this was two point three. So I'm gonna throw some
Speaker 1: numbers at you, but I think they're noteworthy because it
Speaker 1: is not an exaggeration to say that in our lifetimes
Speaker 1: it might be the worst game a team's best player
Speaker 1: has had in a critical game finals game. So I
Speaker 1: threw this in the old stad heead not stat muse
Speaker 1: stat Head, which partners Basketball Right Difference Hall of famers
Speaker 1: who played at least thirty minutes and made zero baskets
Speaker 1: in a finals game with a game score less than
Speaker 1: five two times. Dennis Rodman did it. Makes sense, the
Speaker 1: guy was a rebounder and a defender. Old Jason Kidd
Speaker 1: did it. And then Ray Allen with a sneaky, horrific
Speaker 1: game in the finals in twenty ten that they lost
Speaker 1: to the Lakers. He had an OH for thirteen night,
Speaker 1: and Dennis Johnson for the seventy eight Sonics had an
Speaker 1: OH for fourteen night. So the Dennis Johnson game, who
Speaker 1: arguably was that team's best player, is the closest comp
Speaker 1: because Ray Allen, as great as he was, was in
Speaker 1: twenty ten the third best player on that Celtics team.
Speaker 1: If we expand it to okay, remove the Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame qualifier from it, and we do at play at
Speaker 1: least thirty minutes games score less than five field goals zero.
Speaker 1: The names on that list are I'm not going to
Speaker 1: read you all of them, but it's Horace Grant, it's
Speaker 1: Dennis Rodman, it's Bruce Bowen, it's Old Jason Kidd, it's
Speaker 1: that Ray Allen game, and that Dennis Johnson game. There's
Speaker 1: also the most recent one. The most recent ones were PJ.
Speaker 1: Tucker four years ago and Jay Crowder four years ago.
Speaker 1: If we then say, okay, Hall of Famer, remove game
Speaker 1: score and or game score less than five, and just
Speaker 1: have it be two or fewer baskets made again, he
Speaker 1: made zero. It's a couple man new Jenobli games. One
Speaker 1: Paul Pierce game that could qualify a Reggie Miller won
Speaker 1: for sixteen game. That one's rough, and I'm not picking
Speaker 1: on Reggie, but it is what it is. He was
Speaker 1: the best player on that team, and then a bunch
Speaker 1: of guys who weren't the best player on their team. Again,
Speaker 1: you just can't find it. Wes Unseld had a brutal one,
Speaker 1: Michael Cooper had a brutal one. Zero made baskets, best
Speaker 1: player on the team and playing thirty minutes. It maybe
Speaker 1: has happened once in NBA history. And demon'sa you seem
Speaker 1: like you are you think I'm being unfair because of
Speaker 1: the injury.
Speaker 3: The injury, I mean, he took six shots. A lot
Speaker 3: of those other guys you were saying, Denis Robins obviously
Speaker 3: not a score first throw them out. Neither neither is
Speaker 3: Tyrese Halliburn. You know, it's like the same thing. If
Speaker 3: he's not a guy that naturally looks for a shot.
Speaker 3: I think that in a game where he gets banged
Speaker 3: up early and he only takes six shots, like you said,
Speaker 3: Rayalna went oh for thirteen, it's I mean, he's if
Speaker 3: he's already he's looking to get his teammates involved. I
Speaker 3: think in a situation like that where his leg is
Speaker 3: already kind of tweaked, he's definitely gonna be looking more
Speaker 3: to get his team.
Speaker 1: All right, So this is where I guess I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be an old man. I I do not care if
Speaker 1: your leg is tweaked in Game five of the NBA Finals.
Speaker 3: Right exactly, That's why he played through it, right, But yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean you're I mean, he did play through it,
Speaker 1: and they had a they had a chance to steal
Speaker 1: a game, and he he was I I am not.
Speaker 1: I don't think I am known as like the like
Speaker 1: hot take negative guy. I might sometimes be known as
Speaker 1: the hot take positive guy. Mahomes is the greatest ever,
Speaker 1: Lebron's the greatest ever, like that, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Those types of things, And I think sometime people think
Speaker 1: of me as like the hot take trolling guy, like
Speaker 1: the Lamar James Harden thing, Like I know people that
Speaker 1: rub people the wrong way. I get all that. I
Speaker 1: do not often come out and be like, that's one
Speaker 1: of the worst performances I've ever seen. I'm just here
Speaker 1: to tell you. I went to bed last night thinking
Speaker 1: was that one of the worst Finals performances in NBA history?
Speaker 1: And I woke up this morning and I said, let
Speaker 1: me check, and I checked and the answer was yeah.
Speaker 1: The Lebron game that people will bring up to this
Speaker 1: day the worst moment of his career Game five against Dallas.
Speaker 1: He was three for eleven, eight, nine and seven were
Speaker 1: his stats. He had a five point nine game score.
Speaker 1: Worst game of his career. Worst moment of his career
Speaker 1: wasn't as bad as that. The Kobe game that people
Speaker 1: will bring up. In the two thousand Finals, he had
Speaker 1: a negative point four game score. He was four for
Speaker 1: twenty against the in a blowout loss to the Pacers.
Speaker 1: That one, I guess bothers me a little less because
Speaker 1: they were up three to one in a series they
Speaker 1: couldn't lose. Wilt had an unbelievable Wilton sixty nine Wilt
Speaker 1: Chamberlain in nineteen sixty nine against old man Bill Russell.
Speaker 1: In Russell's final Championship, Wilt had a four point, an
Speaker 1: eight point and an eight point game all in one finals,
Speaker 1: and one of those four point games he was only
Speaker 1: one of six from the field. The eight point game
Speaker 1: he was one of five from the field. The yeah,
Speaker 1: but to that is, in those three games where Wilt
Speaker 1: scored four, eight, and eight, he had nineteen, thirty one
Speaker 1: and eighteen rebounds. So I'm like, okay, like you really
Speaker 1: didn't do anything offensively. You did average twenty five rebounds
Speaker 1: a game. I don't really know. I didn't see those games.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. Bill Russell, you know, all time legendary guy,
Speaker 1: So I don't it. But if I am looking up
Speaker 1: like the historic, memorable worst lebron moment of his career,
Speaker 1: the four for twenty Kobe game, the one of the
Speaker 1: most famous Wilt series ever. Now again, you can say,
Speaker 1: those guys all are upper upper upper crust, top twelve
Speaker 1: players of all time, you know, Hall of famers, and
Speaker 1: this Tyrese Halliburton, and I totally understand that, and so
Speaker 1: I'm not holding him to that standard. What I'm saying
Speaker 1: is the best player on a team doing this in
Speaker 1: the finals does happen. It just doesn't even the Ray
Speaker 1: Allen game. He was the third option on that team.
Speaker 1: You I guess you could argue second he was the
Speaker 1: third option the Dennis Johnson in seventy eight. Is I
Speaker 1: guess the comp the issue with that one if that's
Speaker 1: the one like you want to use, because that, by
Speaker 1: the way, in fairness, was a Game seven that Dennis
Speaker 1: Johnson did that they came back to win the championship
Speaker 1: the next year, So it's like, oh, well that you
Speaker 1: know that at least kind of makes up for it.
Speaker 1: And so and I guess, listen, they maybe could yea,
Speaker 1: oh you know, no, no, no, so maybe they'll do
Speaker 1: that next year. He'll make up for it. But it
Speaker 1: is It's on the shortest list of worst Finals performances
Speaker 1: by a superstar ever. And not calling it that is
Speaker 1: actually more disrespectful to Haliburton than what I'm doing right now,
Speaker 1: because if you go on TV or on radio or
Speaker 1: on a podcast today and give him a pass, then
Speaker 1: what you're saying is, ah, I I don't really I
Speaker 1: don't think of you as one of those guys because
Speaker 1: everyone else that is the the old guys. Steph lebron
Speaker 1: kd would get cracked if they had this game. The youngs,
Speaker 1: the Anthony Edwards, Shay Luca would not be allowed to
Speaker 1: have this game. Jannis Joker, Jalen Brunson would not be
Speaker 1: allowed to have this game. And so is it an
Speaker 1: indictment on his career? No do I think, though what demonds.
Speaker 3: Every single player that you list are just so different
Speaker 3: from this player specifically, like every.
Speaker 2: Single one, like they they all the all the.
Speaker 3: Players that you just listed might be more similar to
Speaker 3: each other than Haliburton is to any of them, like,
Speaker 3: and it's just.
Speaker 2: Like, if that's right, if that's already not.
Speaker 1: The guys are passed first point guards.
Speaker 2: Right like and if that's already his style. But it's
Speaker 2: we'll see what he does in the next game. You'll see.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing here. I get what you're saying, but
Speaker 1: it's not like he had thirteen assists. It's not like
Speaker 1: he like, so you're if it was just low scoring,
Speaker 1: which is what it's been for him in a few
Speaker 1: of these finals games, you can deal with it. But
Speaker 1: his assists, by the way, have been six, seven, eleven,
Speaker 1: great six six. The he he's turned the ball over
Speaker 1: three plus times in all of these games. He didn't
Speaker 1: get to the he didn't get to the line, which
Speaker 1: he hasn't done. I mean, he has seven free throws
Speaker 1: this series. I I you're right, demons that and I
Speaker 1: talked about the other day how history says, man, if
Speaker 1: your top guy is not a go get you a
Speaker 1: bucket guy, if you don't have the best defense in basketball,
Speaker 1: your name's not Magic Johnson, You're you're not winning the championship.
Speaker 1: I understand that, But oh for six and four points
Speaker 1: in the finals is OH for six and four points
Speaker 1: in the finals. And if we can't, if we can't
Speaker 1: call that for what it is, then I don't know.
Speaker 1: We don't have to spend more time on it. But
Speaker 1: it's it is. It is as much of a no
Speaker 1: show as you will see in a finals game by
Speaker 1: a superstar if you live a hundred years, it's what
Speaker 1: it was. And to have that come off the heels
Speaker 1: of them blowing Game four.
Speaker 2: I.
Speaker 1: Again, I don't I'm not even one of the people
Speaker 1: that doesn't like Haliburton. So I don't love that. I
Speaker 1: And I'm curious what other people are gonna say today.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I hope I'm not like the face of like Anti
Speaker 1: Tyre's Halliburton it's not what I'm trying to be. But
Speaker 1: and this is the this is the part that will
Speaker 1: probably make you, because you're naturally a bit of an impath, uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: I think Tyre's Halliburton's gonna think of about these last
Speaker 1: two games for the rest of his career because I
Speaker 1: don't know that I think the Pacers are going to
Speaker 1: be right back here. I don't know that, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think it's probably the smart bet that Tyrese Halliburton
Speaker 1: that when his career is over, we look at the
Speaker 1: two The two biggest games of his career were these
Speaker 1: last two. And now, if Pacer fans are yelling, they
Speaker 1: are not anywhere close to there without him. Absolutely, it's
Speaker 1: still an all time playoff run. You bet your ass.
Speaker 1: He has imprinted himself on NBA history with the clutch
Speaker 1: shots in this postseason and in thirty years when whoever
Speaker 1: the hell is going on an all time playoff run
Speaker 1: and the guy hits his third de facto buzzer beater
Speaker 1: of the playoffs and people say this is the greatest
Speaker 1: clutch shooting run in playoff history. Our AI over lords
Speaker 1: are gonna pop a graphic that says, nope, Tyrese Haliburton
Speaker 1: had four in one year, Like that's gonna happen. And
Speaker 1: but man, oh man, the flip side is in thirty
Speaker 1: years when somebody has an over in a de facto
Speaker 1: deciding game of the finals and people are like, has
Speaker 1: a team's best guy ever done that before? His name's
Speaker 1: gonna pop there too.
Speaker 3: When do we decide that he was the unanimous best
Speaker 3: player on the Pacers? What about Pascal Siakam Oh?
Speaker 1: I think he's clearly the best player. I think everything
Speaker 1: runs through him. I think it's like his style and
Speaker 1: his and like Siakam's the best scorer. But I think
Speaker 1: he's the best player the team. I mean, to me,
Speaker 1: that's it's fair. But that's that's not a to me,
Speaker 1: that's not a question, all right. Ask a couple of
Speaker 1: these questions from the listeners or viewers.
Speaker 3: I guess Argent asked, do you regret having Holly in
Speaker 3: club Superstar?
Speaker 2: And is he still in the club?
Speaker 1: No, I don't regret it, and I and yes he's
Speaker 1: still in the club. I I think that I think
Speaker 1: he's one of the twelve best players in the league.
Speaker 1: And he's had an unbelievable postseason.
Speaker 2: And he.
Speaker 1: Carried a team that no one thought was going to
Speaker 1: be in the finals to the finals. But I mean,
Speaker 1: this is this is this is really really, really really bad.
Speaker 1: Ask Liam and Alden's questions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Liam's in line with me. He says, why hog
Speaker 3: the ball when injured?
Speaker 1: I let's not hog the ball, man, Let's get a bucket.
Speaker 1: Get get one bucket. I'man again like the I mean
Speaker 1: I and also I the maybe I'm looking at the
Speaker 1: injury different than you guys. I hit he had calf tightness.
Speaker 3: I mean he almost did like the same thing that
Speaker 3: Paul George did. I feel like, like I want to say,
Speaker 3: like hyperintended totally and Paul George is gone after that happened.
Speaker 1: I man, he but he was. He was running around
Speaker 1: like he did. This was not this was not og
Speaker 1: Nanobi in the playoffs last year against the Pacers, where
Speaker 1: it's like I have a strained hamstring, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: out there and I'm limping up the court like I
Speaker 1: don't know. Man, that's a It's a tough one, all right, last.
Speaker 2: One for him?
Speaker 3: Move Adrian ass If you had to compare Halliburn's performance
Speaker 3: yesterday with the recent postseason performance, but NFL quarterback.
Speaker 2: Which one would it be.
Speaker 1: Justin Herbert's four picks? I mean, that's that's the answer,
Speaker 1: Like the in a in a very winnable game that
Speaker 1: he threw four picks and didn't, But it would be
Speaker 1: it would have been that if briefly Justin Herbert left
Speaker 1: the game, his backup quarterback came in and started dealing,
Speaker 1: and then he came back in and immediately threw another one.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not good, guys. All right, NBA Finals
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Speaker 1: All right, demons, let's get to the flip side of
Speaker 1: that coin. Jalen Williams.
Speaker 3: Last night, Yeah, we talked about how the burdens little's
Speaker 3: talk about jadobs hies.
Speaker 2: He dropped forty yesterday.
Speaker 3: Do you want to put that into context and being
Speaker 3: the second man and all that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, listen, the example everyone's going to go
Speaker 1: to correctly is Kyrie twenty sixteen Game five. Lebron scored
Speaker 1: forty one. Kyrie scored forty one in an all time
Speaker 1: duo performance. This to me, I I'm not gonna this
Speaker 1: was different than the Kyrie one in that SGA was
Speaker 1: like even in that Kyrie performance, I think for Lebron
Speaker 1: it was he had forty one eight and eleven and
Speaker 1: he had forty one sixteen and seven and back to
Speaker 1: back games. I don't know which one was Game five
Speaker 1: and which one was Game six, but even in that game,
Speaker 1: Lebron was the driving force and Kyrie was right alongside him.
Speaker 1: This game, j Dub as good as Shay was, and
Speaker 1: Shay was excellent. J Dubb was their best guy last night.
Speaker 1: And I had heard somebody I forget who be like, man,
Speaker 1: could Jalen Williams be kind of this generation Scottie Pippen?
Speaker 1: And when I heard that, my initial reaction was that
Speaker 1: is so ridiculous and so disrespectful to Scotty. Now this
Speaker 1: is going to be prisoner of the moment. He But
Speaker 1: now I'm like, I don't know. Maybe Scotty's career playoff
Speaker 1: high with Chicago career high was thirty two. He had
Speaker 1: he never scored forty in the playoffs. I know he
Speaker 1: had one huge scoring game with Houston in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I remember it, but it wasn't it was so high thirties.
Speaker 1: But with the Bulls. I looked it up this morning,
Speaker 1: it was thirty two. And now Scotty Jadob's an excellent defender.
Speaker 1: He's not Scottie Pippen defensively, but I mean he's also
Speaker 1: not a fully formed player yet. I Jalen Williams what
Speaker 1: he's his ARC is super fascinating and super fun to
Speaker 1: talk about in a positive way because Jalen Williams in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. If someone wanted to say, why
Speaker 1: did the thunder lose last year to the Maps other
Speaker 1: than Luca was unbelievable and the MAVs shot the lights out.
Speaker 1: If your answer to that question is Jalen Williams didn't
Speaker 1: show up, that's a fine answer. Last year Round two
Speaker 1: against the Maps, seventeen points a game on forty two
Speaker 1: percent from the field, and his prime I Mary Guard
Speaker 1: or one of them, Luca just lit them up right
Speaker 1: for him to respond. And then this year in the
Speaker 1: Nuggets series in the same round, it looked like, uh oh,
Speaker 1: is Jalen Williams gonna be one of those playoff guys,
Speaker 1: and not in a good way. When we saw him
Speaker 1: in that Game four that they ended up winning, he
Speaker 1: goes two for thirteen. Game five, he's five for fourteen.
Speaker 1: Game six, he's three for sixteen, and it's like, uh oh,
Speaker 1: are they gonna have sneakily a Jalen Williams problem. And
Speaker 1: then Game seven of that series he was exceptional. And
Speaker 1: then in these Finals, after two pretty non descript offensive games,
Speaker 1: he scored two twix on fifty percent in Game three,
Speaker 1: twenty seven on forty four percent in Game four, and
Speaker 1: forty on fifty percent in game five. And this is
Speaker 1: another thing I looked up, like forty point games in
Speaker 1: the finals. Demonse, forty point games in the finals is
Speaker 1: thirty ever in NBA history. If we switch it to
Speaker 1: and then in fact, let me just leave that there
Speaker 1: just for a second. So guys who are not on
Speaker 1: that list, Larry Bird not on that list. Tim Duncan
Speaker 1: not on that list. This one's not a big Oh
Speaker 1: Magic is on that list? Shout out Magic? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, what am I thinking about? The most famous
Speaker 1: game Magic s career, Game six, when he jump center
Speaker 1: filling in for Kareem as a rookie, he scored forty
Speaker 1: as a Magic as a rookie Game six, played center
Speaker 1: and scored forty And it was the only time you
Speaker 1: ever scored forty in the finals. But so when we're
Speaker 1: talking about like all time, guys, a team not on
Speaker 1: that list, if we want to zero it in and
Speaker 1: I just switch it to, uh, if they're active or
Speaker 1: not there we go, let me click active, yes, get
Speaker 1: results all of the active players with forty point finals games.
Speaker 1: Lebron's got the second most all time with eight. Second
Speaker 1: by the way, two. If it's not Michael demons, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna throw this one at you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well no, I was talking to myself, but now I'm
Speaker 1: gonna throw it to you. It's Jordan's got six, Lebron
Speaker 1: got eight.
Speaker 2: So it's so Lebron's two, Jordan's three, and then there's
Speaker 2: this number one.
Speaker 1: Game correct, correct. So I'm gonna give you one hint.
Speaker 2: Oh, this is is final, Final Finals.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you a hint. He's a guy that,
Speaker 1: in the last couple of months, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: we didn't impromptu like eight minutes on his career, and
Speaker 1: how great but unlucky he won.
Speaker 2: It's us, is it? Russ? No, no, no, ok great but unlucky.
Speaker 2: Jerry West Oh, Jerry Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Jerry West as has ten Okay. But here is the
Speaker 1: full list of active players with a forty point Finals
Speaker 1: game Bron eight, Giannis three, Kyrie, Steph Booker shout out
Speaker 1: Booker two each, and then one apiece Russ so you
Speaker 1: were close, Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler, Chris Middleton, Joker, Jalen Williams.
Speaker 1: That's the list. So that's remarkable. I mean, that is
Speaker 1: utterly and thoroughly remarkable. It is it is in line
Speaker 1: with and the best example of that performance is the
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton game. And I should have mentioned this before
Speaker 1: I mentioned the Kyrie game, the game down to one
Speaker 1: to the Suns, the game that is famous for the
Speaker 1: Yiannis block on eighton Chris Middleton dropped forty on fifteen
Speaker 1: of thirty three from the field. And similarly to how
Speaker 1: Shay was really good but not exceptional Giannis twenty six,
Speaker 1: fourteen and eight and that blocks, I mean, that's might
Speaker 1: be exceptional. That's pretty damn good, but you know, didn't
Speaker 1: match his score it And so if I this, doing
Speaker 1: it as a second option is just such a special
Speaker 1: and unique thing. And I'm that's the only he's the
Speaker 1: only guy on that list. Well, fairs Fair Russ in
Speaker 1: twenty twelve would have been the other one. Russ he
Speaker 1: had forty three on a you know, Durant obviously was
Speaker 1: on the team, so he would be the other of
Speaker 1: the active guys. That was a true and Kyrie, who
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, a true second option to go out
Speaker 1: there and drop forty And it really does for a
Speaker 1: kid who just turned twenty four and is an awesome
Speaker 1: two way player for him to get better and better
Speaker 1: and explode offensively like this. That is the type of
Speaker 1: thing that makes you incredibly optimistic about what. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: thunder future. Another like all time game by a team's
Speaker 1: not their best player, the famous James Worthy game that
Speaker 1: kind of I don't want to say got him the
Speaker 1: nickname Big Game James. Oh you know what that game?
Speaker 1: I'm wrong, I'm looking at it now. That's not the
Speaker 1: game where he's because Worthy scored forty in a finals loss.
Speaker 1: Worthy had some big ones, but his only forty point
Speaker 1: game was a finals loss, And so like Kobe as
Speaker 1: great as Kobe was young Kobe, I mean scored forty
Speaker 1: with Shack. He scored forty once in the finals, and
Speaker 1: it was when he the first championship they won without Shack.
Speaker 1: It's a special thing this kid just did, and you
Speaker 1: have to raise the ceiling of what they and he
Speaker 1: can be because of it.
Speaker 2: Uh, Like, well ahead with that game that he just had.
Speaker 3: If Shae where to like say, okay, see wins the
Speaker 3: next game they win the finals, Jadab drops like thirty six,
Speaker 3: thirty seven or something. Shae drops like twenty two to
Speaker 3: twenty three points. You think there's a chance Shadeo gets
Speaker 3: finals MVP over Shae.
Speaker 1: So I saw that percolating. That to me would be crazy, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think that right now. In the series, Shae
Speaker 1: is averaging thirty two, five and five with two and
Speaker 1: a half steals in two blocks. Jadab is averaging twenty six,
Speaker 1: six and four with one steal a game and zero blocks,
Speaker 1: and Shay's been more efficient. So I think that.
Speaker 2: Hard to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it would take kind of what you described,
Speaker 1: Like if listen, it's it's only seven or nine voters,
Speaker 1: it's in the heat of the moment, you just vote
Speaker 1: for one name. So is there a scenario like if
Speaker 1: Jadub goes out and drops thirty five plus again and
Speaker 1: Shaye is Shae? Would the thing is this? And I
Speaker 1: don't think this can happen. Really, Shaye would have to
Speaker 1: be bad like Shaye would. They would have to win
Speaker 1: despite shit, Yeah, he'd have to have like fourteen Like
Speaker 1: could you imagine if he was like zero for six
Speaker 1: with four points? Well, that's impossible and so like I
Speaker 1: So I don't right now, I would say Shaye has
Speaker 1: to be minus one thousand for maybe that maybe you
Speaker 1: guys can look that up for finals MVP, And so
Speaker 1: I I don't I get it, But I think Shae
Speaker 1: I also am of the belief demands that if it's
Speaker 1: close and right now, it's not close. Right now, it
Speaker 1: is clear right now if the it's last night was
Speaker 1: the clinching game, yeah it should be. Also, she is
Speaker 1: only minus five point fifty and the thunder to win
Speaker 1: the series or what like minus fifteen hundred or something,
Speaker 1: so that they're saying it's closer than I think it is.
Speaker 1: But if it is close, I think the best player
Speaker 1: should get it. And right now I don't think it.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's close. All right? What are some
Speaker 1: follow ups before we get to.
Speaker 3: How comfortable do you think okay See should be going
Speaker 3: into this next game comfortable at all?
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna be quite comfortable. De Monsey, I
Speaker 1: think the Pacers know they missed their shot.
Speaker 2: I hope that's not how they feel.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think they absolutely have a shot with
Speaker 3: this next game being at home. I mean, hopefully the
Speaker 3: Hallerbird injury isn't getting everybody's head. You know, you've got
Speaker 3: a couple days to rest, got him at home. Those
Speaker 3: role players for okay See, or like night and day
Speaker 3: when it comes to playing in Oklahoma or Indiana.
Speaker 1: So listen, I've underestimated Indiana every step of the way,
Speaker 1: so you might be right now. I mean, I also,
Speaker 1: if Oklahoma City wins Game six, it will so validate
Speaker 1: why Bet of the Year was Bet of the year.
Speaker 1: They lose a game on a buzzer beater. The Pacers
Speaker 1: are playing better than anyone could have possibly expected. TJ.
Speaker 1: McConnell has a game, Benedict Mathern has a game. Like,
Speaker 1: all of these things happen, and Bet of the Year
Speaker 1: still comes in.
Speaker 2: If you're hedging, you know you can't.
Speaker 1: Really, here's the thing. It's very very difficult. Not that
Speaker 1: I would, but it's very very difficult to hedge minus
Speaker 1: odds bets. This was a minus two sixty ish bet
Speaker 1: to begin with. So now all of a sudden, like
Speaker 1: and and so now I'm gonna bet the Pacers plus
Speaker 1: you know what's the Let me look the Pacers on
Speaker 1: the money line for Game six. I mean, I'm not
Speaker 1: thinking about it. No, I was gonna through, but there's
Speaker 1: no chance I'm doing it. And so no, this is better.
Speaker 1: The year was better the year for a reason, boys
Speaker 1: and girls. Now I will tell you Friday night in
Speaker 1: Miami watching Game four, the bet of the Year was
Speaker 1: dead because is the Pacers were gonna win that game.
Speaker 1: And I still think the Pacers are going to look
Speaker 1: back on They had four consecutive possessions demand at the
Speaker 1: end of the third quarter of Game four, up ten,
Speaker 1: where the Thunder had gone empty trips four straight times,
Speaker 1: and it was a McConnell miss back to back top
Speaker 1: and missed free throws and then two Siaka misses, and
Speaker 1: it just felt like that was their moment to take
Speaker 1: the game and maybe take control of the series, and
Speaker 1: they couldn't do it. All right, let's move on to
Speaker 1: the Thunder as villain's theory.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, so you know how about that? So you
Speaker 2: know how every time a team gets.
Speaker 3: Good or there's the threat of a dynasty, everybody starts
Speaker 3: to hate him. You know, Shay's Foal Bayden in Indiana
Speaker 3: being a leveable team and then beating him. How long
Speaker 3: do you think it'll take for fans to start hating Okay, see.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to It's very hard to go
Speaker 1: from uh apathy to hate, and I I apathy is
Speaker 1: too strong. But I don't think there's a ton of
Speaker 1: people right now that have super passionate opinions about the
Speaker 1: Thunder in a negative or positive direction other than obviously
Speaker 1: their fans, and like die hard basketball fans that just
Speaker 1: really appreciate what they've built and who they are. So
Speaker 1: I like this. At one point won three championships in
Speaker 1: five years. They were never hated at least I don't
Speaker 1: think they were. And by the way, as far as Foubating,
Speaker 1: I know he wasn't their best player, but nobody was
Speaker 1: in NBA history was more guilty of that than Manu.
Speaker 3: Wait wait, wait oh the Falbating You said, ye, yes,
Speaker 3: Spurs is just a different team. I feel like, okay
Speaker 3: sees those guys are just monotone to me. I don't know,
Speaker 3: Like you can't listen right, So that you're saying that
Speaker 3: the thunder Avenue.
Speaker 2: More personality, very.
Speaker 1: Gen z, I mean, yes, they are very They would
Speaker 1: be our first true gen Z champion, and in god,
Speaker 1: I don't even know if they're even are they Zoomers.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if they're gen Z, Like I'm
Speaker 1: not even sure, like uh, and so or is it
Speaker 1: jenn Alfa, I don't even know, but uh, but I
Speaker 1: don't think I also, and you thought I was premature
Speaker 1: when I did this after Game five of the Western
Speaker 1: Conference I'm sorry East after game after game four of
Speaker 1: the Western Conference finals, when I did the thunder winning
Speaker 1: the championship of pump the breaks on the dynasty talk,
Speaker 1: I wasn't premature. They are winning the championship, and I
Speaker 1: still say pump the breaks on the dynasty talk with
Speaker 1: the caveat of let's see how much better Jadab can get,
Speaker 1: because I am not just like I am not going
Speaker 1: to underreact to Shay's performance last night, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to underreact to Jadab's performance either. Uh, And I think
Speaker 1: that is a stop you in your tracks. Wait a
Speaker 1: minute here, what can this guy be at twenty four
Speaker 1: years old when he does this type of moment. It's
Speaker 1: forty points in the finals. Again, thirty guys ever have
Speaker 1: done it forty points as a second option in the finals,
Speaker 1: Kyrie Russ, James Worthy, Chris Middleton, and we're close to
Speaker 1: the end of the list. So that is that's something
Speaker 1: really really special. All right, So let's let's ask some
Speaker 1: of these chat questions before him move on.
Speaker 3: TS, do you think Shay is essentially what Jordan would
Speaker 3: look like in the modern NBA just more shifty, but
Speaker 3: less athletic and not the best guy in the league,
Speaker 3: but like top five.
Speaker 1: No, listen, Michael Jordan would be the best guy in
Speaker 1: the league right now. Yeah like that. I mean, guys,
Speaker 1: you're Jenna. I understand that. I think Jordan's legend might
Speaker 1: be a little overstated. But prime Kareem and prime Lebron
Speaker 1: are not active in the league. So I am couple
Speaker 1: saying Michael Jordan, like prime Michael Jordan would pretty comfortably
Speaker 1: be the best player in the league. So that's first
Speaker 1: of all. Second of all, I am very I do
Speaker 1: think there are I think that's a fair comp like
Speaker 1: a killer in the mid range, But Jordan's prime Jordan's
Speaker 1: Jordan before the first retirement. His athleticism was just so unbelievable,
Speaker 1: and like Shay is more, you know, more of an artist.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, uh and so but I understand the I
Speaker 1: understand the point. I like Scott's question.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: Scott says, well, SGA in spar king A to want
Speaker 3: to be basketball players more than ever before.
Speaker 1: I bet if the MVP of the league and champions
Speaker 1: from your country, like that's one of the great things
Speaker 1: about the game expanding and the you saw once the
Speaker 1: NBA got some stars or not even necessarily stars, just
Speaker 1: big time players from Eastern Europe. We're getting getting paid
Speaker 1: the dividends now. Dream comes over the NBA puts a
Speaker 1: real investment in Africa, that we're getting paid the dividends now,
Speaker 1: Like yeah, I mean I would imagine, I you know,
Speaker 1: Steve Nash had a real impact on this as well,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, I mean I think I think that
Speaker 1: when you have a true superstar from a place that
Speaker 1: otherwise wasn't producing stars, that yeah, that there is a groundswell.
Speaker 1: I think there's no there's no doubt about that. All right.
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Speaker 1: speeds not available in all areas. All right, let's get
Speaker 1: to some of the NBA trade stuff before we get
Speaker 1: to lying media beefs and the future of the Republic
Speaker 1: as a whole. So go ahead to mind.
Speaker 3: NBA trade season has opened up. Memphis traded Desmond Bane
Speaker 3: to Orlando for Contavious Cabo, Pope, Cole Anthony, four first rounders,
Speaker 3: and a swap. So now the Magic have the fifth
Speaker 3: best odds to win the East next year.
Speaker 2: Where's your reaction to this trade?
Speaker 1: All right, bunch of quick hitters. First one is this
Speaker 1: it's a low key diss of the Pacers. Here's what
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 2: Because they're saying we could take the East right now, right,
Speaker 2: They're saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Magic are like, well, Paul is our guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if Indiana can do it, why can't we? So like,
Speaker 1: I don't I I'm not exaggerating when I say I
Speaker 1: don't think this trade happens if Jason Tatum doesn't tear
Speaker 1: as Achilles, honestly, Like, I know that sounds silly, but
Speaker 1: I think that the Magic look at it and they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: Paolo is gonna take a step. We like Franz, we
Speaker 1: could not shoot at all. Let's go for it. I also,
Speaker 1: I am not as certain. I know there's been some reporting that, oh,
Speaker 1: the Grizzlies, they're not making any more moves though they're
Speaker 1: standing pat with Triple J and Jaw eh maybe and
Speaker 1: Brew and I talked of this yesterday. He's like, well,
Speaker 1: do you really want to sell low on Jaw? And
Speaker 1: the question is do you think this is selling low
Speaker 1: or even because here's now the new problem with Jaw.
Speaker 1: Even if he has cleaned up everything off the court,
Speaker 1: which I don't know if he has, but let's say
Speaker 1: he has, he now has a different red flag, which
Speaker 1: is the injury stuff. He missed a bunch of time
Speaker 1: this year. He got hurt in the playoffs again, Like,
Speaker 1: so you might be selling low or it might you know,
Speaker 1: it might only feel low now compared to where he
Speaker 1: was a couple of years ago, but will feel high
Speaker 1: compared to where he is a year from now. So
Speaker 1: you know, I do think the Magic are real, a
Speaker 1: real threat in the East. If Paolo takes one more
Speaker 1: little step forward. They needed shooting, they now have shooting.
Speaker 1: Here's my other reaction to this trade, demonse, So what's
Speaker 1: Austin reevesworth if Desmond Bane is worth four first rounders?
Speaker 1: Because I know KCP is a negative value contract, so
Speaker 1: maybe one of those first rounders was to take CACP
Speaker 1: off their hands. So then it's three first rounders in
Speaker 1: a swap. You also got Cole Anthony and those first
Speaker 1: rounders are not nothing like, they're not gold. But it's
Speaker 1: the sixteenth pick this year. It's a weird like triple
Speaker 1: swap between Washington and Phoenix. Next year it'll probably it'll
Speaker 1: will probably end up being Phoenix's first round pick next
Speaker 1: year that should be top half of the draft, and
Speaker 1: then unprotected Orlando twenty eight and thirty and any team's
Speaker 1: unprotected thirty is interesting because the NBA is so crazy
Speaker 1: because things change. So those picks aren't fake first rounders,
Speaker 1: none of them are, like you know, an unprotected Utah
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. I like, it's not, holy shit, this
Speaker 1: is gonna be a top five pick guaranteed. But they're
Speaker 1: they're not. I would say they are good, not great
Speaker 1: first rounders. And if that's what Desmond Baine gets you,
Speaker 1: then is the Lakers real path to getting a center?
Speaker 1: A three team trade where I will use Utah as
Speaker 1: an example where Utah doesn't want Austin Reeves because they,
Speaker 1: you know, don't want to compete yet. But you flip
Speaker 1: Austin Reeves to a team that does want him, that
Speaker 1: has a bunch of picks. Those picks go to Utah
Speaker 1: and Walker Kessler goes to the Lakers. Like, if that
Speaker 1: if Desmond Baine's worth four first round picks, Austin Reeves
Speaker 1: worth three and a half first round picks, Like, is
Speaker 1: it is it fair? Tell me if you disagree with
Speaker 1: me to Monse? Is it fair to say Baine and
Speaker 1: Reeves are the same tier of player? Different players? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but like if we're ranking players, they're within a few
Speaker 1: spots of each other. Bain's a better defender and a
Speaker 1: way better shooter. Reeves is a better shot creator and
Speaker 1: a better driver to the basket like Bin's on four years,
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty five million left on his deal.
Speaker 1: Reeves has one year, thirteen million left on his deal,
Speaker 1: which just means you're gonna have to extend him for
Speaker 1: you know, thirty five plus million a year. Probably So
Speaker 1: I So, I think that if Mikale Bridges goes for
Speaker 1: five firsts and Bain goes for four firsts, then the
Speaker 1: price of cost controlled relatively quality top fifty but not
Speaker 1: top twenty five players has been set. Uh, And I
Speaker 1: know it. It is a lot. And I also though,
Speaker 1: don't I know. Listen, the Luca trade was obviously a disaster.
Speaker 1: I get that, but people were like, you get four
Speaker 1: first for Desmond Baine and one first for Luca. You
Speaker 1: got Anthony fucking Davis with Luca.
Speaker 2: I was just conversation with producer this morning, like I.
Speaker 1: Don't understand, like the I'm if they wanted, I'm you
Speaker 1: could have gotten I'm sure five first for Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: So if you're Dallas, you would have felt better if
Speaker 1: you got six first round picks. But no, Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: and Max Christy was probably worth one first round pick,
Speaker 1: like you got two players in the deal. And so
Speaker 1: KCP on his two years forty million left on his
Speaker 1: deal is worth a negative first round pick. Cole Anthony
Speaker 1: is probably worth just less than a first round pick.
Speaker 1: So those two kind of cross each other out. Uh so, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the Luca trade something different entirely. All right,
Speaker 1: let's do Kevin Durant before we get to the other stuff.
Speaker 3: Kevin Durant has preferences. He would like to be in Houston,
Speaker 3: San Antonio, or Miami. Sham's reporter, he doesn't want to
Speaker 3: be in Minnesota with his boy Mark Spears report of
Speaker 3: Katie Kity wanted to go to the Knicks, but they
Speaker 3: weren't interested for some reason, being said that.
Speaker 2: They'll take the best deal available. How do you think think?
Speaker 2: How do you think? How do you think things change
Speaker 2: for Katie in the market so far? I'm sorry for
Speaker 2: the mill, You're fine.
Speaker 1: I don't think the Bay trade impacts Kevin Durant's trade much.
Speaker 1: They're just such. One guy's ten years younger than the other.
Speaker 1: One guy's on a contract that you know exactly what
Speaker 1: it is. The other guy's got a year left but
Speaker 1: probably wants to extend. And if you trade for him,
Speaker 1: you want to extend him, but you have to make
Speaker 1: for two years one twenty. You got to make sure
Speaker 1: he'll do it. You know, the Magic are taking a
Speaker 1: long view of things. Whoever trades for Durant, you have
Speaker 1: to feel like you can win. Right now, I just
Speaker 1: think Houston makes the most sense. Uh. I think that
Speaker 1: I don't think Katie wants to live in the cold,
Speaker 1: and I think that might be one of the reasons
Speaker 1: he's not high on Minnesota. And I know every like
Speaker 1: everyone's gonna mock Kevin Durant for that.
Speaker 3: I I don't know man Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I for being like, oh like, I just I
Speaker 1: think that there's the so like in our business, right,
Speaker 1: let me just defend Kevin. If it's true Katie doesn't
Speaker 1: want to go to Minnesota, and it's just like I
Speaker 1: don't want to live in Minnesota. I want to live
Speaker 1: in Texas where I went to college, or I want
Speaker 1: to live in Miami because that's sweet. Here's the defense
Speaker 1: of Kevin Durant on that. Okay, in our business sports talk, right,
Speaker 1: there's hubs in LA, hubs in New York City, and
Speaker 1: a hub in Bristol, Connecticut. LA is also New York's awesome.
Speaker 1: Bristol Connecticut is Bristol, Connecticut. I'm not just you know,
Speaker 1: small town and not a lot to do other than
Speaker 1: you know, the As Dan Patrick put it, the mothership
Speaker 1: is there. Guess what, guys, every single person that has
Speaker 1: found themselves with enough juice that was working in Bristol
Speaker 1: got moved, Like every single one. Greeney wanted to be
Speaker 1: in New York. They went to New York. Will Bond
Speaker 1: and Corneiser were like, we're staying in DC if we're
Speaker 1: doing the show. They did it. Levittard was like, I'll
Speaker 1: come to you, guys, but I'm staying in Miami. They
Speaker 1: built a thing in la Like Scott Van Pelt was like, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do the eleven BM Sports Center. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be awesome at it. I'm also from Maryland. I'd like
Speaker 1: to live there, like.
Speaker 2: You got it.
Speaker 1: Like there's the people who have like options on this stuff.
Speaker 1: The usually end up. Where they live is a big
Speaker 1: part of what they use their juice for. So Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant at the end of his career is like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't want to live in Minnesota. I don't And
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's what it is or not,
Speaker 1: but if it, everyone's like that would be ridiculous. I
Speaker 1: don't find that ridiculous. I would like I would understand it,
Speaker 1: and I understand Durant doesn't have, you know, a wife
Speaker 1: and kids, but he's still got people. I'm sure, people
Speaker 1: that you know kind of move where he moves and
Speaker 1: stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Like if we're like five ten years ago, I think
Speaker 3: it would have been crazy. I don't think crazy, but
Speaker 3: it would be like just because of the weather man
Speaker 3: you don't want to live in the cast, right.
Speaker 1: Or if you would never want a championship, or if
Speaker 1: you had been kind of an underachiever or any of
Speaker 1: those like, but if he looks at me, it's like, man,
Speaker 1: I think there is about as good of a chance
Speaker 1: to win a title next year, the Cup, next couple
Speaker 1: of years in Minnesota, San Antonio or Houston. So uh,
Speaker 1: send me to the place that's the state I went
Speaker 1: to college has better, whether you know is I'm more
Speaker 1: comfortable no state taxes, whatever it is now. The Miami thing,
Speaker 1: I would look a slight a scance at because I
Speaker 1: just feel like you can't win. But maybe you'd be like,
Speaker 1: it's the East, I can win. So I don't know, like,
Speaker 1: but I think Houston should be the team that doesn't.
Speaker 1: I think Jalen Green plus a guy, I said Dylan Brooks.
Speaker 1: I know other people have said Jabari Smith. I try
Speaker 1: to keep Jabari and give Phoenix back the pick of
Speaker 1: theirs that you have. And I think Phoenix with that
Speaker 1: coach with if you just just think about Houston this
Speaker 1: year with Kevin Durant, that series against the Warriors, even
Speaker 1: place of Jalen Green was Kevin Durant. I mean that's
Speaker 1: a that defense. Shingoon be in the hub of everything.
Speaker 1: That's a real thing. So I would like Houston. It
Speaker 1: seems like some people think Scham's like body language like
Speaker 1: told us it was the Spurs. I don't know that.
Speaker 1: I'm buying that. The Spurs are certainly an option. Also
Speaker 1: the argument of hey, Katie's bad at picking his teams.
Speaker 1: So you know, he picked the Nets, it didn't work.
Speaker 1: He picked the Suns. It was a disaster, so you
Speaker 1: should send him where he doesn't want to go. That
Speaker 1: sounds good, but teams are only gonna want him if
Speaker 1: he wants to be there, because if you trade for him,
Speaker 1: you want to sign the extension. Okay, Demonse, you're sticking around,
Speaker 1: are you leaving?
Speaker 3: I'm gonna watch it. I'm gonna. I'm gonna watch it later.
Speaker 3: I think you're gonna.
Speaker 1: You're out of here, all right, demons out, Thank you pal.
Speaker 1: So here's the deal. So I am going to talk
Speaker 1: about the Steven A. Smith Solitaire thing, but it's going
Speaker 1: to be quite the bridge I build to get there,
Speaker 1: and you're going to have to deal with what I'm
Speaker 1: sure some of you will think are is a lot
Speaker 1: of political commentary. It's not a lot, but all of
Speaker 1: you will think is some. And so it's kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, got to eat your vegetables to get the
Speaker 1: dessert at the end of the meal. But we're going
Speaker 1: to have a real conversation for I don't know tenish
Speaker 1: minutes here about a scary direction to me the country
Speaker 1: is heading in which the country is heading, And I
Speaker 1: promise I'm not being over dramatic in my view when
Speaker 1: I say that. So I think right now, the single
Speaker 1: biggest problem in our country is lying. I saw a
Speaker 1: couple months ago a tweet that was like a long
Speaker 1: form tweet talking about how we need to get back
Speaker 1: to treating outright lies as moral degeneracy. And I've thought
Speaker 1: about that tweet probably one hundred times since I saw it,
Speaker 1: because I one hundred percent agree, and here's why. And
Speaker 1: here's why I think it's important for us that we
Speaker 1: make outright line, not shading, not presenting facts in a
Speaker 1: way that they're most beneficial to you, but outright, bald faced,
Speaker 1: undeniable lies need to be a subject of shame and
Speaker 1: ridicule once again, because while a lot of people of
Speaker 1: a lot of different political stripes, for very different reasons,
Speaker 1: feel we're in a dangerous place in this country, our
Speaker 1: collective inability to agree upon singular truths, actual facts that
Speaker 1: did or that, facts that are or aren't true, events
Speaker 1: that did or did not happen, and any a lack
Speaker 1: of any real societal or media pressure to stay true
Speaker 1: to objective facts, especially when we're in the midst of
Speaker 1: a fledgling age of deep fakes and real actual fake news,
Speaker 1: and artificial intelligence and different things that can really paw
Speaker 1: at our conception of reality in a way our brains
Speaker 1: probably are not yet fully equipped to deal with. I
Speaker 1: think as a society, our moving away from the way
Speaker 1: debates work on. Everyone agrees what happened, but then we
Speaker 1: argue about what should be done about it, moving to
Speaker 1: a all of the time that should be spent arguing
Speaker 1: about what should be done is actually spent litigating what
Speaker 1: actually has already occurred. Is incredibly damaging and incredibly dangerous,
Speaker 1: and it wrecks our ability to live in a collective reality.
Speaker 1: And no matter where you stand politically on anything, this
Speaker 1: should be scary, okay. And so that is the premise
Speaker 1: with which I am going to explain to you why,
Speaker 1: and eventually we will get to solitaire why I have
Speaker 1: not talked at all about something that I personally have
Speaker 1: found horrifying. Seems like you know about half the country
Speaker 1: as as well, and half the country hasn't. But I
Speaker 1: haven't said a word about it. And that's the ice
Speaker 1: raids and the different things that are been happening to
Speaker 1: immigrants in this country. The reason I have not talked
Speaker 1: about that, and some people are like, Nick, you have platform,
Speaker 1: you have strong opinions, you have you know, a voice
Speaker 1: that matters or doesn't.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: The reason I have stayed out of that is because
Speaker 1: as much as I hate it and I think it's
Speaker 1: anathema to what America is supposed to be, and I
Speaker 1: think a lot of it has been lawless, it is
Speaker 1: exactly what they said they were going to do, and
Speaker 1: I do believe in democracy. I don't believe that the
Speaker 1: election was rigged.
Speaker 2: Or.
Speaker 1: Voting centers were hacked or anything of that nonsense. I
Speaker 1: think the guy who said we're gonna deport twenty million people,
Speaker 1: as insane as that sounded to me, and kept saying it,
Speaker 1: and at the rallies they had signs that said mass deportations.
Speaker 1: Now all of it. I think that guy won as
Speaker 1: much as I hate it. In a way, they're just
Speaker 1: doing what they said they were going to do, and
Speaker 1: we had a contest to see if people liked that idea,
Speaker 1: and that you know, that guy won. So it feels
Speaker 1: it has felt to me a little set like almost
Speaker 1: sour grapesie for me, in my position, who's not a
Speaker 1: political commentator by trade, to talk about that a lot
Speaker 1: or at all, because it has felt like, well, they
Speaker 1: said they were going to do it, and they're doing it.
Speaker 1: So we can fight back against it, but we can't
Speaker 1: say we didn't see this coming. But I do find
Speaker 1: it abhorrent, and I find it so important that I
Speaker 1: find anyone in bed with them or aiding and abetting.
Speaker 1: I think the packaging of it uh to be a
Speaker 1: real sting and a staying on the country that I
Speaker 1: don't know if we're gonna quickly recover from. And so
Speaker 1: with all that said, and with everything that's happened over
Speaker 1: the last few months, the thing in relation to these
Speaker 1: raids and deportations and the military and the streets and
Speaker 1: all of that that really struck a chord with me
Speaker 1: was not when Senator Alex Padilla got you know, kind
Speaker 1: of shoved and then pushed to the ground and handcuffed,
Speaker 1: but that the response to that, despite it being on
Speaker 1: video and everyone knew it was on video, the response
Speaker 1: was blatant line and everyone just accepted that that, oh,
Speaker 1: of course, that the immediate message was he lunged at
Speaker 1: Secretary Gnome and that he quote never identified himself, and
Speaker 1: that as soon as he identified himself, he was you know, unhanded. No,
Speaker 1: and none of that was true, and they knew that
Speaker 1: none of that was true, but they said it anyway.
Speaker 1: And so it's not that I'm more bothered by one
Speaker 1: United States senator being roughed up than I am by
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of people being deported or anything like that.
Speaker 1: It's that one thing was, Hey, we're gonna do this
Speaker 1: if we win the election. We won the election. We're
Speaker 1: doing it. The other one was just fiction, and it
Speaker 1: was fiction that they knew. They they felt they could
Speaker 1: get away with because they felt that either people are
Speaker 1: numb to it or in an effort to both sides everything,
Speaker 1: folks will justify it, or they won't flatly call it
Speaker 1: what it was, which is degenerate line. And so when
Speaker 1: I then saw a guy who I have always really respected,
Speaker 1: a guy who I've always liked, a guy who I've
Speaker 1: always had a good relationship with, that last of which
Speaker 1: is sadly probably in the past tense at this point,
Speaker 1: but maybe not, Steven A use his massive platform to
Speaker 1: essentially kiss the ass of the people who were lying
Speaker 1: about what happened to Senator Padilla, didn't care that they
Speaker 1: were lying about it, and abandoned any obligation, in my eyes,
Speaker 1: to truth or fairness in just a relentless pursuit of
Speaker 1: a bigger and bigger tent and larger and larger audience
Speaker 1: and more eyeballs. I found it just awful, And I'm like, really,
Speaker 1: your takeaway from this was he should have acted with
Speaker 1: more decorum, which, by the way, is a fine opinion
Speaker 1: to have. I suppose, but everyone's takeaway, the top takeaway
Speaker 1: should have been they're lying and we saw it, and
Speaker 1: they know we saw it, and we know they're lying,
Speaker 1: and they don't care. And then you saw an even
Speaker 1: more egregious example by the Utah Senator Mike Lee on
Speaker 1: Twitter this past few days after those horrific political assassinations
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, just outright lying about what happened there, and
Speaker 1: folks barely noticed because we've become numb to it. We
Speaker 1: become numb to the fact that folks with all the
Speaker 1: power that we've been trusted so much society and are
Speaker 1: unrepent liars. And this part, I think is important, lying
Speaker 1: without actually hoping to get away with it. It's not like, oh,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna know, it's that they know they're gonna
Speaker 1: be called liars. They don't care because there is no
Speaker 1: damage right now to being a liar, and they just
Speaker 1: want to muddy the waters enough that people can then
Speaker 1: claim there's a disagreement or a debate or confusion about
Speaker 1: what happened, and they don't have to confront any real truth,
Speaker 1: which oddly and hilariously brings us to Solitaire, because here
Speaker 1: is the truth. I and I don't think many people
Speaker 1: actually give a shit that stephen A was playing solitaire,
Speaker 1: don't I think that it was just an easy way
Speaker 1: to hit a guy that they don't like. And I
Speaker 1: do think it's objectively funny that it's solitaire. But he
Speaker 1: would have been just as distracted if he was doing
Speaker 1: online banking or sports betting or on Twitter. The sin
Speaker 1: of not being locked in on the game would have
Speaker 1: been just as it would have been just the same,
Speaker 1: but it wouldn't have been as memorable or as you know,
Speaker 1: just objectively funny. And so people are I think, feigning
Speaker 1: a bit of outrage about how awful it was that
Speaker 1: during a game he wasn't locked in because they don't
Speaker 1: like him. So and I don't really care. It's funny
Speaker 1: and solitaire of all the games, like if you were
Speaker 1: playing chess. Some people were like, oh, how about that.
Speaker 1: My issue is with the response because the response was
Speaker 1: instantaneous and easily disprovable as a lie during a time out,
Speaker 1: knowing he's a very smart guy, knowing uh, if someone
Speaker 1: took a picture, someone might have a video, they have
Speaker 1: a video, the court might be in it, or sound
Speaker 1: might be on or someone or in the picture. Everyone
Speaker 1: in front of me is standing. Even in the still picture,
Speaker 1: it sure looks like the game is going on. But
Speaker 1: so the response just lie because who cares. And then
Speaker 1: even when it's the video comes out and it's clear
Speaker 1: you lied, turn it into your own joke and meme
Speaker 1: and move on because ah the truth, you know, And
Speaker 1: that actually is the lying or at least what I
Speaker 1: would call not as a greevous but lying to Jason
Speaker 1: behavior is what really caused my first tete a tet
Speaker 1: with steven A, which was I thought it was that's
Speaker 1: not lying, to be fair, but a misrepresentation of the
Speaker 1: Lebron stuff and a misrepresentation of what Lebron was mad about,
Speaker 1: and a misrepresentation of you know, things that have been
Speaker 1: said in the past. And so here's the sad thing
Speaker 1: for me is I don't like I said. I I
Speaker 1: have always had a really uh positive even though we've
Speaker 1: never worked together, a relationship with steven A. He's always
Speaker 1: been very kind to me. He's said nice things about
Speaker 1: the show. He is very tight with brew and I
Speaker 1: do think there are a lot of things about his
Speaker 1: sportscasting that are unfairly maligned, and I've said as much
Speaker 1: and I would imagine he probably is not gonna listen
Speaker 1: to this whole thing. And I don't know if you
Speaker 1: listen to this whole thing or just a clip, if
Speaker 1: it would be better or worse, But regardless, but I
Speaker 1: am I I am certainly not making my life easier here. Uh.
Speaker 1: But now that Stephen A has decided two, at this
Speaker 1: moment in this country, in our history, to swim in
Speaker 1: real political waters, and he wants to have a real
Speaker 1: political voice, whether or not he ever runs for office,
Speaker 1: which I would doubt, but I do think he will
Speaker 1: have real impacts when we're talking about, you know, the
Speaker 1: left needing a Joe Rogan and the impact of podcasts
Speaker 1: and media and all of it, and he is dove
Speaker 1: headfirst into these discussions. I think it's important that those
Speaker 1: people are held accountable. And I think that in a
Speaker 1: time where we cannot rely on the people who have
Speaker 1: actual power and our elected officials to give two shits
Speaker 1: about what is or isn't the truth, what is or
Speaker 1: isn't reality, what is or isn't easily disprovable, I think
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 2: And you have.
Speaker 1: In concert with it what I would call a lot
Speaker 1: of very very gullible media of which I am not
Speaker 1: lumping stephen A in at all, who just the last
Speaker 1: thing they were told is what they believe and can
Speaker 1: be duped and tricked when you have those things going on,
Speaker 1: I think it is wildly important for people of which
Speaker 1: I think I am. I check all these boxes. I
Speaker 1: think Steven A checks all these boxes. Smart, more often
Speaker 1: than not, on the right side of important things, knows
Speaker 1: what truth actually is, and has the ability to really
Speaker 1: move people with their words that those people move us
Speaker 1: back in a direction where we have at the very
Speaker 1: least a collective dedication to the truth mattering. And right
Speaker 1: now we're losing that one game of Solitaire at a time.
Speaker 1: I guess talk to you guys Thursday. We'll train