Speaker 1: May twenty first, two thousand and nine, Staple Center, Los Angeles, California.
Speaker 1: In a city known for its glitz and glamour, it
Speaker 1: was the Denver Nuggets that shine the brightest. This is
Speaker 1: Game two the two thousand and nine Western Conference Finals. Hello,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Games with Names, presented by win Bet. I'm
Speaker 1: Samuel and I'm Julian Edelman, and we are on a
Speaker 1: search to find the greatest games of all time. And
Speaker 1: on today's episode, we're talking about the two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine Western Conference Finals Game two. Lakers burst the Nuggets,
Speaker 1: and I swear this isn't a podcast that hates the Lakers,
Speaker 1: but maybe kind of. They hate the Lakers a little.
Speaker 1: But we like Genny Bussy because we're Ginny Busy fans.
Speaker 1: But we both don't like the Lakers because it's but
Speaker 1: we like Genie Bussey's so and also the Lakers are
Speaker 1: the benchmark. Yeah, they're huge. Lakers and Celtics are the
Speaker 1: number one franchises win wise in the NBA. We got
Speaker 1: to trash them a little bit. That's called a measuring
Speaker 1: stick team. Every time you play them, you pull out
Speaker 1: the measuring stick. Later today we'll be joined by Kenyon
Speaker 1: Martin can't wait. We'll check in what was going on
Speaker 1: in the world in May of two thousand and nine.
Speaker 1: We'll take a look back at both these teams, and
Speaker 1: we'll wrap up by naming the game and scoring the game.
Speaker 1: But follow Games with Names on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter
Speaker 1: at Games with Names is the handle. Subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify,
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts, rate and review, and leave
Speaker 1: a comment. We want to hear from you. Why are
Speaker 1: we doing this match? I mean, this was a pretty
Speaker 1: cool game, This was a cool series. This is as
Speaker 1: high as the Nuggets have really flown in my lifetime.
Speaker 1: I can't think of like it because I grew up.
Speaker 1: I guess they had that big upset on the on
Speaker 1: the one seed Sonics in the nineties, but you don't
Speaker 1: think of them as having like a cool Now they
Speaker 1: have a cool team with the Ookics, But like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this was I think the toughest team they've had. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean they had Chauncey billups Kenyon Martin, and you
Speaker 1: always forget how good what's his name, Carmelo, Carmelo, You
Speaker 1: always forget his name. I always forget his name. No,
Speaker 1: he was, he was generational talent. In his prime, Mellow
Speaker 1: was unfreaking guardable. He couldn't be stopped, you know, even
Speaker 1: in the game. In game interview he said, no one
Speaker 1: in the world could stop him five teams. I love
Speaker 1: that he didn't care, and you saw it throughout the game.
Speaker 1: I mean, in those baby blue, sweet silky looking nuggets unis,
Speaker 1: can you call it a Carolina blue? Is it a
Speaker 1: Carolina blue? It might be even more powdery blue? Is
Speaker 1: it more powdery blue than the Carolin line blue? To
Speaker 1: do a color palette check, but George Carl is the
Speaker 1: Carolina guy, so he'd probably say yes. George Carl coaches team.
Speaker 1: A lot of the players have trashed him. We got
Speaker 1: to ask Kmart about that later. But like Kmart was
Speaker 1: on one of those sports shows being like he sucked,
Speaker 1: he's an asshole. I wonder if it was just tough.
Speaker 1: I wonder if he was just a tough coach to
Speaker 1: play for, you know what I mean, those nineties coaches,
Speaker 1: like guys like George Carl, Jerry Sloane. You know, they
Speaker 1: let some slurs fly. There's no way they weren't, you know,
Speaker 1: like they they definitely I mean, look, that's allegedly allegedly.
Speaker 1: We don't have any proof on this. It's just a
Speaker 1: mirror I get. If I met George Carr, I'd be like,
Speaker 1: did you say the N word? Maybe a couple was
Speaker 1: that the problem? There's something there's something hard nosed about him.
Speaker 1: He definitely did not seem like a player's coach. No,
Speaker 1: but this was an era where coaches were coaches and
Speaker 1: players were players, and you know it was it's all
Speaker 1: been miskewed because of how Phil Jackson was with his
Speaker 1: zen mentality. Because he He's had the best teams that
Speaker 1: had to, you know, get all these superstars to play
Speaker 1: well together, but most other teams were trying to beat
Speaker 1: Phil Jackson type teams. That's a great point. Phil Jackson.
Speaker 1: You picture him giving you like a navajo like feather.
Speaker 1: He's like this is from Runs with Bull And then
Speaker 1: you know George Carl's like run pussy. That was the
Speaker 1: two different vibes. Phil Jackson seemed like he'd be fun
Speaker 1: to play with, but he also you know what Phil
Speaker 1: Jackson feels like he would do. He feel like he
Speaker 1: would give you like a book and if you didn't
Speaker 1: read it, like the next day, he'd be like dude,
Speaker 1: I gave you a book. Yeah, he had that energy
Speaker 1: full mister Miagi vibes. I don't know why the Bonzai
Speaker 1: tree just came into my head, Uh thinking about that.
Speaker 1: You know, these little kind of weird, tedious drills to
Speaker 1: build team chemistry. But you know, screw the Lakers right now.
Speaker 1: We're here to talk about the Denver Nuggets. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: this team that had a shot and won this game too.
Speaker 1: They lost this series and six, but they won this game.
Speaker 1: And it was a tough matchup honestly for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: This was they The Lakers went on to win the championship.
Speaker 1: For one, they beat the Orlando Magic, Uh, Kobe, They
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard. Yeah, Turk Lou. That was a fun Magic team.
Speaker 1: This was a tough This was a tough Lakers team
Speaker 1: to beat. It was, but I think this was their
Speaker 1: toughest matchup in the playoffs. Yeah, I think this was
Speaker 1: a team that pushed him. But yeah, the Lakers were
Speaker 1: just destined away. It was one of those this is
Speaker 1: the championship. If we win this, we got the ship,
Speaker 1: no doubt. And they had, Uh, they had just come
Speaker 1: off that loss to the Celtics the year before, so
Speaker 1: It's like Kobe was like, I'm fucking winning, Kobe. This
Speaker 1: was Kobe's first ring without Shack. They had Andrew Bynham Young,
Speaker 1: Andrew Bynham, lamar Odom, Paul Gasol obviously. Uh, you know
Speaker 1: all these good role players like Derek Fisher. Uh, you
Speaker 1: know who is the guy you could jump out of
Speaker 1: the building, Shannon Brown Brown Jewish, Jordan Farmarm, I'm farmer
Speaker 1: and jew from U l A Farmer U c l A.
Speaker 1: Luke Walton Lou Walton, Arizona and future head coach of
Speaker 1: the Lakers, Luke Walton. Yeah, shout out. Even though you
Speaker 1: don't like his dad, he just criticizes the next two much.
Speaker 1: You just don't like his dad. I think he's fun.
Speaker 1: He's like it's like he is fun. It's like going
Speaker 1: down a crazy trip listening to him at like twelve
Speaker 1: o'clock at night from the East Coast doing a Pack
Speaker 1: twelve basketball game. If a person were tie die, he's
Speaker 1: a fun vibe for that. I hope we can get
Speaker 1: him on the pod one day. He'd be good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think we'd have to do a Blazers game though
Speaker 1: probably UCLA. You like John Woodens, he was like almost perfect,
Speaker 1: the pyramid of success. Yeah, I'm just I don't give
Speaker 1: a shit about your college ball. If you're on time,
Speaker 1: you're late five minutes before the meeting. If we're doing
Speaker 1: college ball, it's because one of these guys forced us.
Speaker 1: It's because Kyler's Like, come on, I know Jack fucking
Speaker 1: loves college ball, Davison, I don't give a shit. I'm
Speaker 1: a pros guy, dude. You know, real cities love pro sports.
Speaker 1: Big city, big city, Real big cities like pro sports. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's going on? In May twenty first, two thousand and
Speaker 1: nine number one movie Terminator Salvation. I never saw this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was weird. It was two side. It was like
Speaker 1: almost two sci fi e for me. Really, Yeah, Like
Speaker 1: I love Terminator two. Yeah, T two rules. T two
Speaker 1: was the best. Robert Patrick is a badass villain. Schwarzenegger
Speaker 1: is now the good guys. Kind of fun. Yeah. It
Speaker 1: was kind of like in wrestling when Hulk went to
Speaker 1: the bad guys and then the good guy. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean again? Right, Yeah, the he'll switch, he'll switch,
Speaker 1: but the other way around. But the Senegger became good. Yeah.
Speaker 1: T two is awesome. This is the one with Christian
Speaker 1: Bale isn't it. Yeah, and you want it to be
Speaker 1: good because I love Christian Bale as an actor. He's
Speaker 1: the best top five? Is he your tough? I think
Speaker 1: that's for this generation. It's debatable. I think it's you
Speaker 1: got it. He's not a top five for range. He's
Speaker 1: been there for everything started out. What was that one
Speaker 1: movie were he News? Remember that when he was a kid?
Speaker 1: Empire of the Sun, Empire of the Sun, newsy Is though.
Speaker 1: He's singing, dude, So that's that guy. We're giving range points.
Speaker 1: He's Batman, that he's I think he's the best. Bruce
Speaker 1: Wayan best by far, not even not even closed. And
Speaker 1: I'm a Keaton guy. I'm a Keaton guy. He's a
Speaker 1: Ken State alone, is he? He went to Kent State
Speaker 1: him and well, dude, fucking Christian Bale, American psycho and
Speaker 1: he's amazing. I didn't know he was British when I
Speaker 1: saw that movie. I didn't. I still don't know. He's British.
Speaker 1: The Fighter, The Fighter, the Fighter. Yeah, we're talking range.
Speaker 1: You got to put him in that conversation. This was
Speaker 1: also the the movie where Christian Bale had the legendary
Speaker 1: on set rant the y cinematographer for walking through during
Speaker 1: the scene. You're a great actor, not a good person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what'd he say? You're an amateur because I was walking around?
Speaker 1: Hey man, I mean we're talking about greatness, you know what.
Speaker 1: It kind of reminds me of It reminds me of
Speaker 1: DeVante uh with The Raiders. Oh when when a guy
Speaker 1: goes on the on on on the through the tunnel,
Speaker 1: he pushes him. Sometimes you got to get out of
Speaker 1: the way of the artists when they're working. It feels
Speaker 1: like Christian Bale is such an art artist type actor
Speaker 1: that you feel like this is clearly one he did
Speaker 1: for the money. Like, you know, he's not doing he's
Speaker 1: doing like you know, other movies for the art. He's
Speaker 1: doing the machinists for the art. But then he gets
Speaker 1: this one. He's like, yeah, this is They're paying me
Speaker 1: a lot of money. So he's probably already cranky to
Speaker 1: be there. Is he a method actor? He is? I
Speaker 1: think is did he have to feel like it was
Speaker 1: maybe he was in terminator mode? Maybe he was maybe
Speaker 1: he's in terminator Was he playing a dick in the
Speaker 1: movie John conn John Connor's like son or is John Connor?
Speaker 1: He's the kid indeed too grown up, that's what he is.
Speaker 1: I think I tried to watch it. I think he's
Speaker 1: the kid in two that was on the dirt bike
Speaker 1: all time and that Arnold was protecting. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: when he grows up, that's who he is. Oh man,
Speaker 1: have you seen Ed Furlong grown up? He does not
Speaker 1: look like Christian Bale. That movie is a best case scenario,
Speaker 1: even if it's the end of the world. Vibes yeah,
Speaker 1: boom pal, oh black Black Eyed Peas, No one's yeah,
Speaker 1: which one is that? Boom boom pom boom boom pal.
Speaker 1: Remember Black Eyed Peas had Let's get retarded. I can't
Speaker 1: say that. That was like ten years ago and that
Speaker 1: was a number. They're like, you can't say anymore. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: but it was top forty. Like they made a lot
Speaker 1: of money off that word. Did you see eight? Antonio
Speaker 1: Brown's post to the Arizona Cardinals. What do you say?
Speaker 1: You can't say it? Well, he said it? What is it?
Speaker 1: It's like, what does it say? Like I'm starting a
Speaker 1: new team called like the Retardinals or something Retardinals And
Speaker 1: he did a photoshop with it and all, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a bad look. Yeah, I mean day and age
Speaker 1: for Antonio Brown, know the client, know the climate, you
Speaker 1: know it's you know, it's a bad look when we're
Speaker 1: saying it's a bad look for Antonio Brown. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: guy that I whipped it out in the tub. You
Speaker 1: you can't whip your dick out in the public tub,
Speaker 1: did he? Yeah? Over there in Dubai. Yeah, what do
Speaker 1: you mean I didn't hear this story. You didn't see
Speaker 1: the video. No, he was like sitting in a tub
Speaker 1: or a big pool in Dubai. The meat just pulled
Speaker 1: it out and then he jumped up and put his
Speaker 1: butt cheeks on this lady's head. He wasn't even with
Speaker 1: the ladies. You's just some random lady in the pool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what are we doing, buddy, Yeah, that's not you can't
Speaker 1: be doing that. He's actually such a charming guy in person. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like, Aba came over, we broke bread together. We
Speaker 1: only spent like six days together until you know, he
Speaker 1: was out of the building. But I thought he was
Speaker 1: such a charming guy. Yeah. No, I mean I think
Speaker 1: guys like that certainly have the ability to charm, But
Speaker 1: I don't think she was charmed by him at all
Speaker 1: that is CTA in full motion. That is You're lucky
Speaker 1: you got out, dude. Thank god. We don't want to
Speaker 1: see Julian Edelman whipping it out in a public pool.
Speaker 1: Thank god you got your shit together. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I kind of want to see it personally, but I think, like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a bad look. It's not a good look. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's not a good Glee premiered on Fox. Uh Glee? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was that was big Jane Lynch. I didn't really
Speaker 1: watch it. I just remember I watched it once on
Speaker 1: a flight and it was like it was good. It's
Speaker 1: a good show, which is not my cup of tea. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was a little too old. That was like when
Speaker 1: like being gay was edgy. That's when they were like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, a gay show is like on TV
Speaker 1: and you're like it's not a big deal, but they
Speaker 1: were like, it is. It's on Fox. Fox. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: just remember there was like, wasn't there a rapper date
Speaker 1: in one of the cast members And he kept on
Speaker 1: like referencing, my girlfriend works in Glee? What big Sean? Yeah,
Speaker 1: big Sean? He did Glee member who he date? Nia
Speaker 1: Rivera Yom Yom's on fire today that kid that kid
Speaker 1: died too, remember the one from Glee. That's Sad one
Speaker 1: of the main guys r ip alrighty dude, Yeah, drugs, drugs.
Speaker 1: Drugs are bad. Don't do drugs, dude, so bad. Facebook
Speaker 1: launches Farmville. Farmville was annoying. I didn't play it was
Speaker 1: you know what. I didn't play either, But like you'd
Speaker 1: always get those invites. Someone was like invite what what
Speaker 1: did you get points for inviting someone? It's like being
Speaker 1: It's like being a Jehovah's witness. They're like trying to
Speaker 1: get you to recruit. I'm like, get the fuck off
Speaker 1: my page, dude. Do you get points for recruiting? Is
Speaker 1: there like a Farmville afterlife or something? So? What was
Speaker 1: the concept to the game? You just farm I remember
Speaker 1: a lot of guys in the locker room being on it.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, farming for hipsters. You'd be surprised that all
Speaker 1: these little like phone games there was a phone game
Speaker 1: was yeah. Phone games would be so hot in the
Speaker 1: locker room in between meetings. This I remember Matthew Slater
Speaker 1: used to play this game a lot all the time.
Speaker 1: He's I'm like it's cool, Like, what are you doing
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, I just watering my crops. I'm like,
Speaker 1: we're in the training room. It was like an adult hamagachiyeh.
Speaker 1: Remember the Tamagatchi. Yeah, that was like a good test
Speaker 1: to see if you'd be a shitty parent. Your friend
Speaker 1: would just have one die immediately. I'm like, that's the
Speaker 1: person who left their baby in a hot car later
Speaker 1: in life. The guy who can handle a tamagatchi for
Speaker 1: like a day. Good sign. Speaking of premature deaths, Michael
Speaker 1: Jackson died at age fifty here, Yeah, that was my
Speaker 1: newest segue speaking of people who died before their time.
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson at fifty. That was that was one of
Speaker 1: the more shocking celebrity deaths of our time. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean Michael Jackson was single handedly probably the most famous
Speaker 1: person in the world, like one of the most beloved
Speaker 1: entertainers ever and he died. What does he have, like
Speaker 1: a heart attack from what was it? Profofle was that
Speaker 1: what it was called? Yeah? Profofall was what he ingested.
Speaker 1: They said. Conrad Murray was the doctor who gave it
Speaker 1: to him and was charged with involuntary manslaughter in twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: A lot of I bet there was a lot of
Speaker 1: celebrity who are like, dude, I need a prescription. Like
Speaker 1: a lot of people probably saw that he was probably
Speaker 1: like a celebrity doctor, right, definitely. Yeah, he got his
Speaker 1: medical license revoked, but they said as of twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: he's still visiting with some patients, so he's still I
Speaker 1: guess he's just gonna be. He's out of prison, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: after two years on parole of his four year sentence.
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's the dude in prison who like
Speaker 1: would get the hook up. He'd have a friend sneak
Speaker 1: in prescriptions and he's like, I got your shit, guys.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's like the popular guy in prison like that.
Speaker 1: That was definitely his value. He didn't have to do
Speaker 1: You ever have a doctor who would just hook it
Speaker 1: up for you. No, they got really serious with that
Speaker 1: stuff ever since the Sean Payton incident where they broken
Speaker 1: and the whole vikinging thing, like you couldn't even have.
Speaker 1: They used to be able to store medicine at the facility,
Speaker 1: like they have a huge like room full of it
Speaker 1: that would be locked and everything. But then once that
Speaker 1: that all happened, you had to go get your prescriptions elsewhere.
Speaker 1: You couldn't get it out like they used to on
Speaker 1: the planes on the way home from games. The trainers
Speaker 1: would just be like, who needs an ambien? Who needs something?
Speaker 1: And that all went away real fast. You guys must
Speaker 1: have popped like ambient the the You must be exhausted
Speaker 1: at night. You know a lot of guys would do that.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously pain pain meds were huge, sure for
Speaker 1: those guys. Sure never. I was never a pain med
Speaker 1: guy though. Fo up your shitting schedule? Interesting, it plugs
Speaker 1: you up. And if I my routines jacked up, like
Speaker 1: in the morning, I have my you know, five am,
Speaker 1: five point twenty dump, go on, like if I can't
Speaker 1: put first thing in the morning, Yeah, first thing, two
Speaker 1: dumps before practice, two two dumps before you got a
Speaker 1: sweet metabolism. Dude, it was it was on like clockwork, buddy,
Speaker 1: oh man, get that thing down. But yeah, the pain pills,
Speaker 1: like when I'd have surgery, I'd get off of them
Speaker 1: and like as soon as I could, because it just
Speaker 1: I didn't like I didn't like the feel. And also
Speaker 1: it's probably bad to be on those because you don't
Speaker 1: know where you're hurting. Really, No, that that that it
Speaker 1: wasn't anything to do with the pain relief that you got.
Speaker 1: It just was my shitting schedule. It was just poop.
Speaker 1: I could not not poop. You never you didn't. I
Speaker 1: mean you must have needed them sometimes, right. There was
Speaker 1: a couple of games early on in my career where
Speaker 1: I would do it, but you could take towardal Tordoll
Speaker 1: was a it's an anti inflammatory, like it's like gonna
Speaker 1: leave times a thousand, which that did the job for me.
Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't want to feel oozy. I remember
Speaker 1: one time I had a prescription and I took a
Speaker 1: like a vik it in. I had a bad back.
Speaker 1: I tackled Vince Young and I when I was playing defense,
Speaker 1: and I fucked up my back. This wasn't like skinny
Speaker 1: Vince Young. This was thick Vince Young. This No, this
Speaker 1: was Philly Phil. I remember Philly Vince Young where he
Speaker 1: had his little time and I hit him square in
Speaker 1: like the middle part of him. So I didn't take
Speaker 1: him low enough where he'd flip over and or high
Speaker 1: enough where he would go down. Hit I'm right in
Speaker 1: the middle and like my back like just jammed and
Speaker 1: I couldn't walk for like he was huge huge. And
Speaker 1: the next week we played the Redskins and I had to.
Speaker 1: I took a vik it end before the game and
Speaker 1: a turtle and like pre workout drink and I remember
Speaker 1: going out and getting called for a punt return and
Speaker 1: looking and seeing three balls. I saw, like three ball.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't do this anymore, almost muffed up punt.
Speaker 1: Three balls is too many for any occasion. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: like to cap it at too. Just keep it at too,
Speaker 1: Let's keep it. That's brutal, Dudeeah, did you catch the ball?
Speaker 1: I caught it, Yeah, but I just I just didn't
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, that's terrifying. Yeah. And did you feel
Speaker 1: okay to play though? Yeah? You were just you don't
Speaker 1: feel pain? You didn't, I didn't feel pain. But you know,
Speaker 1: did you feel like almost invincible when you were running
Speaker 1: with the ball because you didn't feel pain? No? I
Speaker 1: mean yeah, you always feel that way. Yeah, whenever you
Speaker 1: have the ball in your hand. It was, you always
Speaker 1: feel invincible. Fuck yeah until you jump up and get clobbered. Yeah,
Speaker 1: by like five guys. If you were that dude, you
Speaker 1: were that dude who would just get hit, get hit.
Speaker 1: You got hit a lot, especially when you're younger. When
Speaker 1: you're younger, you're young, dumb, full of come, don't have
Speaker 1: many opportunities to have the ball in your hand. So
Speaker 1: every time you were trying to make a touchdown, you know, second, third, fourth, efforts,
Speaker 1: just getting lit up. Yeah, but that was that was
Speaker 1: who you were. I always love Jeremy shocking the giants
Speaker 1: because he didn't do that ship and I was like,
Speaker 1: that was his thing. But that takes years off your career.
Speaker 1: Oh dude, he retired young. Yeah. I think he was
Speaker 1: a party animal too. I think I think once you
Speaker 1: start banging tar read your days are numbered. That's that's
Speaker 1: a bad sign. Tom Brady got it though. What Tom
Speaker 1: used to be back in the day, really before my time.
Speaker 1: I could either conform nor could I deny. Jules, you
Speaker 1: were going balls to the wall, letting Vince Young had it.
Speaker 1: But you recorded after the game is saying, with all
Speaker 1: these rules floating around in regards to hitting the quarterback,
Speaker 1: I wanted to hit him, but do it right. I
Speaker 1: just didn't want to get out of there and get
Speaker 1: a penalty of any kind. Wow. So you were thinking, hey,
Speaker 1: ahead of your time, you know you gotta I didn't
Speaker 1: want to have a penalty and then you know, and
Speaker 1: get a hit on the quarterback and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden see a little yellow Yankee and just trot
Speaker 1: over to the bench with Bill staring me down like
Speaker 1: he wanted to kill me because you extend a drive
Speaker 1: by No means that I ever want that. No means
Speaker 1: let's go to the NBA. In two thousand and nine,
Speaker 1: the Lakers ended up winning it all. As we said,
Speaker 1: they beat the Magic four to one. Kobe's first championship
Speaker 1: post shack. This was big. You know, that one in
Speaker 1: Boston really hurt him because he grew up, didn't He
Speaker 1: grew up a Lakers fan. Kobe. Let me look, I
Speaker 1: know I knew he well whatever, regardless, he was mister Lakers,
Speaker 1: so he knew what he knew what it meant to
Speaker 1: be Boston, that I meant to lose to Boston too.
Speaker 1: That was a tough one. And then they well, he
Speaker 1: got his revenge in twenty ten. I used to go
Speaker 1: to that that went to that game. Those games they
Speaker 1: played again in twenty ten. This was a crazy series.
Speaker 1: This is a crazy year because yeah they did and
Speaker 1: that's when Kobe got them. But this was a crazy
Speaker 1: series because, uh, or season, because the Calves had the
Speaker 1: best record in the East, the Lakers had the best
Speaker 1: record in the West. The Caves were sixty six and sixteen.
Speaker 1: I believe this is the series they lost to the
Speaker 1: Magic where Delante had sex with Lebron's mom. Let me
Speaker 1: take we double check, but I think it's I think
Speaker 1: it's pre is it pre is It didn't Lebron go
Speaker 1: to the Heat. In twenty ten, Cleveland lost four to
Speaker 1: two to Orlando in this playoffs in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Speaker 1: Let me look up. I think this was the Delonte
Speaker 1: West had sex with Lebron implosion. Can't fuck the captain's mom.
Speaker 1: That is something you definitely should not do. You should not,
Speaker 1: especially if it's the generational talent player of the world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no one on the Patriots would have tried the fuck
Speaker 1: Tom Brady's mom. No. Oh, First off, she's a sweetheart.
Speaker 1: Second off, I'm not getting anywhere near anything like that. No,
Speaker 1: it's draw, it's bad for the team. The MVP was
Speaker 1: Lebron that year, Wade was a leading scorer and they
Speaker 1: teamed up the next year. The Rookie of the Year
Speaker 1: was a young Spry, A Spry Derek Rose athletic. He
Speaker 1: was unlike anything you'd seen at that point, a guy
Speaker 1: who could jump like that, and he was kind of
Speaker 1: like Russell Westbrook. Yeah, he had that same explosiveness. He
Speaker 1: was better and then you know when Russell was cooking.
Speaker 1: I mean he was the youngest MVP of all time too.
Speaker 1: I mean he was unreal. Had really good commercials with
Speaker 1: Adidas too. He made Adidas look cool for sure. Remember
Speaker 1: he had like he would do the jog outside of
Speaker 1: because he was from Chicago, right, he was from Chicago
Speaker 1: When he played for the ball. It was kind of
Speaker 1: like an incredible story. It was unbelievad It doesn't happen often. Man,
Speaker 1: it sucks that injuries he's had. You know what, though,
Speaker 1: give him credit. He's had an amazing second half of
Speaker 1: his staying around because he's been good to last few years.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean he could have been. He's like
Speaker 1: if I could. If there's one NBA player who I
Speaker 1: wish never had an injury, it's probably Rose. I mean,
Speaker 1: Grant Hill and Penny are in the convo too, But
Speaker 1: before games I would listen to like these mashups of
Speaker 1: like inspirational speaking and there's like one of Derek Rose
Speaker 1: saying like, why cannot be MVP? Why can't I go
Speaker 1: play for like my hometown, like, and I would listen
Speaker 1: to him, he'd fire me up. So shout out Derek Rose.
Speaker 1: He were so soft spoken too. Yeah, he was a
Speaker 1: good pro around the league. This was the first season
Speaker 1: of the Oklahoma City Thunder. They had a young KD
Speaker 1: in Westbrook, and the good people of Seattle were deprived
Speaker 1: of an awesome young team. Maybe KD doesn't leave if
Speaker 1: he's in a city like Seattle. Good fish, good fish,
Speaker 1: and Seattle is a good city. It just always cloudy.
Speaker 1: It's depressing, it's a little I mean, that's where Grene
Speaker 1: was invented. So yeah, you know those people aren't let's
Speaker 1: just say the most happy people. Weird vibes. You've got grunge,
Speaker 1: then you got frasier. It's a weird combo. Right, that's Seattle.
Speaker 1: But uh, two thousand and nine, what were we doing.
Speaker 1: I was in college still, I guess, Julian, you had
Speaker 1: just been drafted by New England. I just got drafted
Speaker 1: to New England. I was like in a whole different world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just changing positions, changing sceneries, being the big man on
Speaker 1: campus to a slap dick rookie for the New England Patriots,
Speaker 1: which were like the benchmark of that generation. How pumped
Speaker 1: were you to be going to New England? I was
Speaker 1: like legit bro I had so I was so fired up,
Speaker 1: like I was having epiphanies that you know, Wes Welker
Speaker 1: and me and the slot Randy Moss on the outside,
Speaker 1: Joey Galloway Maroney in the back field. And it didn't
Speaker 1: geel like that at all. I rode the pine and
Speaker 1: became a special teamer for like a few years, and
Speaker 1: you played your way in man. Yeah, that must have
Speaker 1: been older Joey Galloway, right, old Joey Galloway still could
Speaker 1: a run though. Oh dude, I remember Cowboys. Joey Galloway
Speaker 1: keep a smile. Yeah, that was Those were some good receivers.
Speaker 1: Smile speed they had. He they said he ran like
Speaker 1: a four to two, Like there was like like old
Speaker 1: folklore that he ran like four to one at the
Speaker 1: Ohio State Pro Day and and he was like almost
Speaker 1: forty and still running like four four. Damn it was.
Speaker 1: It was fun. But uh yeah, but that's a stacked
Speaker 1: receiving team to join. It was. That's why I didn't
Speaker 1: think I was going to make the team, and that's
Speaker 1: why I had to, you know, make myself versatile enough
Speaker 1: where I could give enough value to the team to
Speaker 1: not cut me. You know, return punts, cover kicks, and
Speaker 1: you know, be a good viable backup. So it was, uh,
Speaker 1: it was definitely. It was a crazy time in my
Speaker 1: life as far as just being hit with just where
Speaker 1: am I? Yeah, you know what I mean, finally getting
Speaker 1: to have your name called in the draft and you're
Speaker 1: wearing a Patriots jersey. I mean putting that on the
Speaker 1: first time must have been. I mean I used to
Speaker 1: just stay in the locker room until like ten thirty
Speaker 1: eleven and uh, you know, just marvel at my my
Speaker 1: my helmet and my my jersey and the fact that
Speaker 1: we got like free Gatorades and Kent State. You know,
Speaker 1: we didn't have the budget, let's just say, of an
Speaker 1: NFL football team and be at the facilities. It was
Speaker 1: a it was a cool year. It was a cool year.
Speaker 1: Who was the first of those receiving guys who was
Speaker 1: the coolest to you, Sam Aikin, Uh, you know those
Speaker 1: guys like Randy and and West and Joe. Those guys
Speaker 1: were like the stars, you know, and I was kind
Speaker 1: of a kid who was you know, I didn't know
Speaker 1: to get into receiver stance. Bro. Yeah, and uh you know,
Speaker 1: but Sam Aikins, he was a receiver that was you know,
Speaker 1: special teams captain and he was kind of like an
Speaker 1: older brother figure that like put his arm around me
Speaker 1: and knew that I was all over the place mentally
Speaker 1: because you know that they're evaluating you every day and stuff.
Speaker 1: You have a bad practice, you think you're getting cut,
Speaker 1: and you know, Sam, maybe you get your dream and
Speaker 1: you're like, I could lose this in a in a second.
Speaker 1: You know. That was that was a thing. You get drafted,
Speaker 1: you hear your name and then you go to rookie
Speaker 1: camp and you see that there's ninety guys and they're
Speaker 1: only going to keep fifty three. You know, he started
Speaker 1: playing numbers game. Am I going to be here? And
Speaker 1: how many of them were the best dude on their
Speaker 1: college team? It's like everyone was the best in their
Speaker 1: college a high scho everyone was the best football player around. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, but it was it was a great start.
Speaker 1: That was the start of it. Man. Awesome. Well, let's
Speaker 1: get into this game. The Denver Nuggets head coach George
Speaker 1: carl As we said, uh, fifty four and twenty eight
Speaker 1: franchise is best record since is that nineteen eighty? Damn?
Speaker 1: Who was on that eighty seventeen? Was that like Alex English?
Speaker 1: Those are those old jerseys were fucking nice. It was
Speaker 1: like those were like those blue and yellow the rainbow.
Speaker 1: Let me see that. Yeah, pull those up, the Alex
Speaker 1: English Nuggets jerseys, the blue ones. Yeah, those are sweet.
Speaker 1: Alex English was on this team. He was the number
Speaker 1: one score of the nineteen eighties in the NBA. People
Speaker 1: sleep on this, dude. I'm a fucking hoops Jones. You're
Speaker 1: a hoops historian. You're hh. I love it, dude, all right.
Speaker 1: So they were the number two seed in the West
Speaker 1: behind the Lakers. I believe this is when they shipped
Speaker 1: Marcus Camby to the Clippers before the season. Camby was
Speaker 1: a DPO why that guy was a fucking killer and
Speaker 1: as a Nick was one of my favorite players. I
Speaker 1: love Marcus Camby. They sent iverson to Detroit for Chauncey
Speaker 1: Billups Antonio mcdce. I mean, Billups was the glue for
Speaker 1: this tea. He was the missing piece on this team
Speaker 1: because Iverson was great, but he was a little past
Speaker 1: his prime. He was too similar to Carmelo. You know,
Speaker 1: they're both scorers. You know, when you have two major scores,
Speaker 1: you need someone to be able to delegate. And that's
Speaker 1: what Chauncey did. He delegated. He was a floor general.
Speaker 1: He was a general, such a good defender. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: had Mellow Nanay who if you go to a Fogo chow,
Speaker 1: the Brazilian steakhouse, you might see it in a Jersey.
Speaker 1: The one in New York has when I know, uh,
Speaker 1: Brazilian's finest, Brazilian's finest dude, right after the pussy wax.
Speaker 1: It's him and the vagina wax. And that's their claims.
Speaker 1: The fames uh, Dante Jones, Duke, Chauncey Kmart coming off
Speaker 1: the bench. They had my guy j R. Smith x
Speaker 1: Nick six Man a year was great Birdman who didn't
Speaker 1: love Birdman. He was a fun character. He was was
Speaker 1: wrongfully accused of child pornography acquitted. Yeah, you don't hear
Speaker 1: that often. That's so yeah, that's usually that's the sinking ship.
Speaker 1: I think he was the first to get catfish. There's
Speaker 1: a huge catfish story about him, right wasn't that what
Speaker 1: that was about? Something like looking at the catfish. He
Speaker 1: definitely got a cute. That's something you don't want to
Speaker 1: be accused of, innocent or guilty, but if you're guilty,
Speaker 1: you do deserve it. But he wasn't. This is a
Speaker 1: fun team, great tattoo team. They all were tatted up,
Speaker 1: mellow and Kmart had the head bands, the sleeves. Swag team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they were swaggy. They beat New Orleans four to one
Speaker 1: to get to the Western Conference Finals after beating Dallas.
Speaker 1: They beat Dallas, a good Dallas team. They beat Derrek
Speaker 1: Kirk Yeah, and the Lakers head coach Phil Jackson records
Speaker 1: sixty five and seventeen. Really good year killer. Coming off
Speaker 1: a year where they lost to the Celtics in the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals, Andrew Bynum was back healthy. There was high
Speaker 1: hopes for this team, expected to be a title contendered
Speaker 1: top seed to the West. Had the best record of
Speaker 1: the West all season. Their starters were Kobe Andrew Binam,
Speaker 1: Derek Fisher, Trevor Aresas he was lighting it up to
Speaker 1: this he was lighting it up, dude. Nicks traded him
Speaker 1: for a washed up Steve Francis and that was like
Speaker 1: a heartbreaker because we all were like, oh shit, Oriza
Speaker 1: is like a good defender. He can you know in
Speaker 1: this game. You know, you see he can shoot the three,
Speaker 1: and he's athletics. He dunked on someone too, he posterized
Speaker 1: and they had pale Gasol. Yeah, Hall of Famer, I mean,
Speaker 1: very good, very good basketball player. This season would mark
Speaker 1: the Lakers' thirtieth NBA Final appearance. That's crazy, thirty thirty
Speaker 1: finals appearing in grade fan base too. Just a bunch
Speaker 1: of fucking ingrades. But they do have cool fans. I mean,
Speaker 1: the stars were out tonight. Jack Nicholson was there, Macenroe,
Speaker 1: Tom Cruise, Will Ferrell, John Cena, a lot of I
Speaker 1: mean Nicholson was sitting next to his boy, Robert town
Speaker 1: his former roommate, the guy who wrote Chinatown. Love seeing
Speaker 1: them together. A lot of what the Lakers need. They need,
Speaker 1: They need to get Jack back. He's too old to
Speaker 1: put up with this horse shit. Does he know he's
Speaker 1: got to be eighty five or eighty four. He doesn't
Speaker 1: want to sit through this whatever this team is. Eighty
Speaker 1: five eighty five five? Yeah, Nicholson maybe here, maybe the
Speaker 1: coolest movie star in American history. Really and I mean,
Speaker 1: he's up there, gotta be. He's so, he's so cool.
Speaker 1: He's cool, he's funny, charming, he's the best. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: was a This is a good jersey matchup too, those
Speaker 1: those powder Blues versus the classic Laker yellows denver ended
Speaker 1: the first half on a fourteen to two run. Billups
Speaker 1: had this had that sick inbounds pass off Kobe's butt,
Speaker 1: throws it off, his butt, grabs it, savvy play love
Speaker 1: that shit. And this was kind of, as we said,
Speaker 1: the kind of the Trevor Reza game. He dropped twenty.
Speaker 1: He played amazing d The series of Lakers win one five,
Speaker 1: one three. Mello had thirty nine, but Kobe had forty.
Speaker 1: That matchup was prime Mello versus prime Kobe's to Kobe
Speaker 1: thing too. He got thirty nine, I'm getting forty, so true.
Speaker 1: Game two, the Nuggets won one O six one oh
Speaker 1: three Game oh. Game two, rather game three, the nugget
Speaker 1: Lakers win one O three ninety seven. Game four the
Speaker 1: Nuggets win it with a two two series. The Lakers
Speaker 1: won Game five. In Game six, the storylines were Kobe
Speaker 1: versus Mellow. Could the Nuggets get over the hump, and
Speaker 1: you know, Denver broke a record streak with their game
Speaker 1: to win their first playoff win against the Lakers since
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five and coming to the Western Conference finals,
Speaker 1: Mello is bawling out. You know a lot of he
Speaker 1: gets a lot of shit for not being like a
Speaker 1: playoff performer. When you put a team around him, he
Speaker 1: was pretty damn scary. He could not not score. It
Speaker 1: was unreal just watching him shoot threes, mid range. He
Speaker 1: could take it to the rim. He was everything. Man,
Speaker 1: he was. It was a fun matchup to watch because
Speaker 1: you know Kobe being you know what was his an
Speaker 1: eighth year in the league at this time, goes on team.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe it was his two thousand and nine, Yeah,
Speaker 1: thousand and six. Yeah, yeah, he'd been there a mina.
Speaker 1: He's been there a minute. And then you got the
Speaker 1: young gun, you know what, was mellow in his third season, third, fourth, fifth.
Speaker 1: He was young. He was young. He was in his prime.
Speaker 1: This was his prime. This was Kobe. I mean, Kobe's
Speaker 1: prime was just so long. But yeah, you're right, that's
Speaker 1: what we forget about that Kobe had like he had
Speaker 1: rivalries with guys like Iverson and t Mac and then
Speaker 1: he had rivalries with Lebron and Mellow in the next generation.
Speaker 1: So it's a testament to Kobe's longevity. This is This
Speaker 1: is Kobe podcast. We just talked about Kobe all the time.
Speaker 1: But you know what, it's it's hard not to get
Speaker 1: caught into Kobe like rabbit hole, Like I'll be on
Speaker 1: Instagram and I just can't not watch his clips and
Speaker 1: there's so many tributes and he was he was incredible
Speaker 1: generational player. I mean that's he's one of the goats.
Speaker 1: And all the young guys revere him. You see what
Speaker 1: the way Tatum talks about the way Devin Booker talks
Speaker 1: about him like he he was that dude, Dwayne Wade
Speaker 1: talks about him, all of them. Mentality Mamba, mentality baby.
Speaker 1: And let's get to the gaming Corner presented by I
Speaker 1: Win Bet. What's the prop bet gonna be on this one?
Speaker 1: How many times we can say k Matt k ma
Speaker 1: mat kmart. Yeah, it's gotta be something. What can we do? Uh?
Speaker 1: What's it? M You'll have the insides of this one.
Speaker 1: It's a tough one. Yeah, I mean I I remember
Speaker 1: when they beat the Knicks, they swept the Knicks, and
Speaker 1: I had to quit smoking weed. I had like two
Speaker 1: really bad basketball related highs. One was in the USA
Speaker 1: lost to Puerto Rico, and the other one was one Yeah,
Speaker 1: fucking Carlos or Royo couldn't miss a fucking shot. Uh
Speaker 1: USA lost, And then the Knicks got swept and Kmart
Speaker 1: lit us up. Jason kitten Kmar just throwing alley oops
Speaker 1: all the Kmart in his prime was a fucking gazelle. Dude.
Speaker 1: He could jump, He could jump out of the fucking arena.
Speaker 1: What yeah? What is the k Mart? How many times
Speaker 1: we could say Rocky Mountain High? Did you ever get
Speaker 1: Rocky Mountain High? Yeah? That was the altitude you get
Speaker 1: drunk in that city quickly, two or three beers in Denver?
Speaker 1: You feel that shit? Yeah? I never, I never. I
Speaker 1: don't think I've really gone out in Denver like that
Speaker 1: great city. All right, we got to think of a
Speaker 1: good one. J R. Smith? Maybe? Yeah? How many times
Speaker 1: can you remember when JR. Smith DM de girl and
Speaker 1: it got screenshot and he just wrote to her, you're
Speaker 1: trying to get the pipe and that became Nick's shirts.
Speaker 1: Knicks fans of wear shirts saying you're trying to get
Speaker 1: the pipe. Let's let's see how many times we can
Speaker 1: ask him if he's ever talked to jar about trying
Speaker 1: to get the pipe? I like it. What do we think?
Speaker 1: How many times? I mean you can only ask him
Speaker 1: maybe twice? One five? All right, we got to find something.
Speaker 1: But all right, we're going to be joined by Kenya
Speaker 1: Martin after this break. Well, Kenya, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: joining us. Man, this is a it's a privilege to
Speaker 1: have you on. I'm a Knicks fan, so that that
Speaker 1: year you gave us meant a lot to me. A
Speaker 1: great career, new jersey nets at the end, the Clippers
Speaker 1: and the Bucks. But we're talking about the Nuggets today,
Speaker 1: which was I think one of the all time cool
Speaker 1: NBA teams. And we had you, we had mellow Billups Jr.
Speaker 1: Bird Man, just a fun group of guys. Is right
Speaker 1: after you guys lost Camby but you know obviously a
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Bearcat. Great your numbers hanging the rafters that you
Speaker 1: see and thanks for joining us today, man, no problem. Man,
Speaker 1: appreciate having me. What do you what are you doing
Speaker 1: these days? Post retirement? Post retirement man? Family stuff mostly Man,
Speaker 1: I'm a father of six from twenty one to four. Yeah,
Speaker 1: keeping me busy that regard business things, man, Just staying
Speaker 1: out of harm's way for the most part, just enjoint
Speaker 1: but most in Portland, joint retirement. That's that's that's that's
Speaker 1: that's the most important thing, man. Just not not having
Speaker 1: mandatory things to do besides be a dad. So that's
Speaker 1: I'm feeling that, Well, that's not mandatory either. There's some
Speaker 1: a lot of dead beats out there, but oh yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely a lot of definitely a lot of dead beats
Speaker 1: out there. But no, I tried definitely not to fall
Speaker 1: in that category. No. I mean, just the way you play,
Speaker 1: there's not a chance you could be a dead beat.
Speaker 1: You were a badass in the court. You're probably Its
Speaker 1: funny I saw you take a hit from that pen
Speaker 1: earlier because I think you're a big reason I had
Speaker 1: to quit smoking pot because I had a really bad
Speaker 1: high when you guys swept the knicks. I think you
Speaker 1: injured Tim Thomas and I was like, I can't handle
Speaker 1: that's not See, that's the narrative out there. It wasn't me.
Speaker 1: It was Jason Collins. Listen, let's get it straight. I
Speaker 1: ain't read, but we can go look at the field.
Speaker 1: It wasn't me, but I got I got called out
Speaker 1: and you know what I'm saying, Yeah, but definitely swept
Speaker 1: the man in Game four, Yeah yeah, I put Yeah,
Speaker 1: I put foot to ask in game before in the guard.
Speaker 1: It hurt. And I remember Tim Thomas was like, I
Speaker 1: want to I want to box Kenyan Martin, and even
Speaker 1: as the Knicks fan, I was like, dude, do not
Speaker 1: challenge Kenyan Martin to a fight that is not gonna end. Well, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I'm all that box is missing. Man. I'm just like
Speaker 1: we was there to play basketball, man, and it just
Speaker 1: it got taken to a point that you know, hey,
Speaker 1: Missen whatever, I got a question. You ever do you
Speaker 1: ever hurt your goddamn shoulder after dunking on someone and
Speaker 1: giving one of the arm the arm things in mid
Speaker 1: air used to get I'm paying for it now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like both of them, Jack, both of them jacked up
Speaker 1: like this. I think I need to go see somebody.
Speaker 1: But yeah, and I don't just I don't know what
Speaker 1: made me start swinging off of it, man, I just
Speaker 1: just enthusiasm, Like I guess it's the same as I'm
Speaker 1: saying you was going under this spike in the BA, all,
Speaker 1: I guess you know what I'm saying. I guess that's
Speaker 1: the I'm saying the equivalent, like, I guess it's one
Speaker 1: of them, man. And then it got to a point
Speaker 1: where I got really good at it, and I start
Speaker 1: timing the ball coming out the neck like when I
Speaker 1: dunk it. I start timing and I could hit the
Speaker 1: ball come out the neck. So I started, Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it was. And then I started doing some ignorant stuff.
Speaker 1: I started trying to hit the reff with the ball
Speaker 1: because I like certain riffs. And but yeah, you were
Speaker 1: such a tough guy. I mean, it was undeniable that
Speaker 1: you you backed it up. Do you look at are
Speaker 1: you one of those guys that looks at the modern
Speaker 1: guys no matter who they are soft or there are
Speaker 1: there guys right now that you're like, he's a tough guy.
Speaker 1: Is Draymond a tough guy? Draymond plays hard? I was
Speaker 1: in this NBA Draymond is considered a tough guy. Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: in your NBA He's not like not necessarily they he
Speaker 1: like Draymond play as hard as they as you can
Speaker 1: possibly play all the time, and sometimes that getting misconstrued,
Speaker 1: as you've been a tough guy or or a dirty
Speaker 1: player or something like in that regard. But in my opinion,
Speaker 1: like tough guy, I am saying you had to necessarily
Speaker 1: get in a fight on on floor in game, but
Speaker 1: that was part of it, Like for the for the
Speaker 1: world to see you fight somebody like that, that that
Speaker 1: put that image in people's head and not just hearing
Speaker 1: about it, but when you see it, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like they give people that that notion like, man,
Speaker 1: he'll take it right there with you. So I look
Speaker 1: at guys in that regard like and it was a
Speaker 1: lot of them, guys in the eighties and early nineties.
Speaker 1: Oakley would fight you. Oakley is a dude. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone wanted a piece of that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. Like I'm I'm glad me and oak never like,
Speaker 1: we wasn't around at the same time. Who were dudes
Speaker 1: that you were? Oh sorry, were there any dudes that
Speaker 1: you were like? No, not at all, No one, No
Speaker 1: one intimidated you. No, no. Now did this mentality point
Speaker 1: where did this mentality come from? Did it come from
Speaker 1: Bob Higgins or Huggins? And in a uc over in
Speaker 1: the natty or not. This is just where you grew
Speaker 1: up with Cincinnati at eighteen. Yeah, just from Old Cliffe, Texas. Man,
Speaker 1: Old Cliff Texas, Oldcliffe, Texas. So I don't ask anybody
Speaker 1: around Dallas where Old Cliff is. Man. It's like like
Speaker 1: Dennis Rodman went to Old Cliff High, Like that's South
Speaker 1: Oakcliff High is where you went to high school. I'm
Speaker 1: from pretty much the same area as Dennis is from.
Speaker 1: We grew up a little different. Dennis Path was a
Speaker 1: little different. A lot of guys that's from Dallas, but
Speaker 1: not a lot of guys that's from Dallas that played
Speaker 1: the NBA from Cliff like where I'm from. So I
Speaker 1: brought I took mine to Cincinnati with me, Like I
Speaker 1: had a fight with the starting center on the team
Speaker 1: my freshman year. I'm a freshman, heir senior, Like I
Speaker 1: put hands on it my freshman year. So it wasn't
Speaker 1: like nah, I brought mine with me. It wasn't. It wasn't.
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I went backing down from nobody, and I
Speaker 1: went back and down. Is anyone in today's NBA a
Speaker 1: tough guy to you? Or no? You have guys that
Speaker 1: play hard like people think Jimmy Butler is a tough
Speaker 1: guy because Jimmy play is extremely hard, Like, I don't.
Speaker 1: There's a few guys like the Morris Twins people look
Speaker 1: at it's probably tough guys outside of them. Two, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's James Johnson is still around the guy that you
Speaker 1: know jiu jitsu. Yeah, yeah he won't. Yeah he won't
Speaker 1: issues like he won't fucking problems with people like and
Speaker 1: like like you can't have issues and won't know that
Speaker 1: ship it won't and won't problems like it just don't
Speaker 1: like you looking to go cause problem with people like
Speaker 1: other than them? Three guys, Nah, who do you like watching? Now?
Speaker 1: Who are players that you enjoy? Jannie, Yes, I like
Speaker 1: watching Giannis play man, I'm I watched I like Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: I actually I like Golden State's team. I love watching
Speaker 1: them play outside of my own child like I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm a big time kJ fan, Like I'm I like
Speaker 1: watching kJ play basketball. I'm biased, but I like watching
Speaker 1: him play. I like Jimmy, but I like the way
Speaker 1: he approached the game. Uh. I like a few dudes
Speaker 1: skill set, Like, I think a few dudes are really
Speaker 1: really good. I think Joki is really good. I think
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray is really good. I think Kawhi and Paul
Speaker 1: George are really talented. I like Chris Middleton. I like
Speaker 1: his growth and development because I was there, I was
Speaker 1: around him early. I like those guys. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: a I don't. I don't watch a whole lot of
Speaker 1: teams play because I can only stand to watch very
Speaker 1: minimal bad basketball, and I'm forced to and and by default,
Speaker 1: I'm forced to watch the Houston Rockets play. So that's
Speaker 1: my bad. That's enough. Fucking bad basketball will last me
Speaker 1: listen a lifetime, so I have to watch them. But
Speaker 1: but now, yeah, man, I just like watching guys who
Speaker 1: do it the right way, who play the game the
Speaker 1: right way. Man. That's why I love watching the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors played, man, because they just they played the
Speaker 1: game the right way. Well, you, your son is on
Speaker 1: a rebuilding team in Houston. You coming to the league,
Speaker 1: You're on a good team already. I mean, what's the
Speaker 1: difference is I mean, you're playing with Jason Kidd as
Speaker 1: a baby, right, well, yes, and no, like my rookie year,
Speaker 1: we won twenty six games. My rookie year, Jay Kidd
Speaker 1: wasn't there. I had Stephan and you got kid the
Speaker 1: next year. So we won. Yeah, we won twenty six games.
Speaker 1: Traded for Steph the next year. We want fifty two.
Speaker 1: So when Jay Kidd came, I was twenty three years old. Ohow,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So I wouldn't. I was.
Speaker 1: I was? I was, I was. I was a grown
Speaker 1: man basically, you know what I'm saying. Wait, I got
Speaker 1: a quick question that you just talked about. You grew
Speaker 1: up in Oakcliffe, Texas. I actually when I was twelve
Speaker 1: years old, I played a super Bowl in Florida against Oakcliffe,
Speaker 1: Texas Redskins. Okay, did you ever play football growing up?
Speaker 1: Because that was a good football area. Yeah, the Redskins
Speaker 1: and the comments I played for the Cedar Crest comments
Speaker 1: and the Redskins were they were Yeah, absolutely so yeah,
Speaker 1: so you get that played up my sophomore year. That's dude.
Speaker 1: I always watch you taking these alley oops and just
Speaker 1: dunking on fools, and I just think to myself, you
Speaker 1: could have been an unbelievable tight end or a receiver,
Speaker 1: red area target. Just throw it in. I played tight
Speaker 1: end up to my sophomore year in high school. Man, Like,
Speaker 1: my last year playing football is my sophomo year in
Speaker 1: high school. See, that's that's why he was so tough
Speaker 1: and hard because he played football. You had that football
Speaker 1: in your bloodline when you when you grew up in Texas. Well,
Speaker 1: they love that stuff. Man. You have to look like
Speaker 1: like like you have to man, Like I broke my
Speaker 1: wrist when I was twelve playing football like stiff throwing.
Speaker 1: The guy tried to break my fall. He pushed me.
Speaker 1: I tried to Yeah all that. Yeah, my my sophomore year,
Speaker 1: I ran a four six forty. Man, damn Like I
Speaker 1: was six six seven. I ran a four six forty
Speaker 1: so I was yeah, yeah, catch everything like tough, like
Speaker 1: play defensive end on defense, It's like, yeah, I couldn't
Speaker 1: imagine trying to block him. He is a fast defensive end.
Speaker 1: Now take us back to two thousand and nine when
Speaker 1: you're with the Nuggets. What was your life like in
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine at the beginning of the season
Speaker 1: before everything goes down, you guys make it to the
Speaker 1: playoffs and play what you guys did? What was going on?
Speaker 1: Could you guys feel you guys had a team that
Speaker 1: was going to be able to contend. Yeah, I think so, man,
Speaker 1: I really think so. I think just us having Chauncey
Speaker 1: there man and him settling things for us. What was
Speaker 1: that iverson trade? Like, were you guys bump to see Allen?
Speaker 1: Were you pumped to get Chauncey? What was the vibe? Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: we were. When Ai was there. It was probably some
Speaker 1: of the funnest times I had as a prof the floor.
Speaker 1: But having him and Mellow it wasn't gonna work basketball wise,
Speaker 1: and with the coach that we had, so it was
Speaker 1: multi layer. What's some of that fun off the court
Speaker 1: you guys had? It was like the Beatles on the
Speaker 1: fucking road, man like, because we all had like our
Speaker 1: own following of course. But I was watching Dion's sixty
Speaker 1: minutes interview and the coach and somebody asks him, I've
Speaker 1: been around stars before, but I ain't ever been around
Speaker 1: a superstar like we were stars here, a superstar like
Speaker 1: Ai superstar, like he a rock star. So having that
Speaker 1: kind of a following, man, and and we're out there
Speaker 1: winning and just some of the late night card games
Speaker 1: and playing rides and going to gambling casino with him
Speaker 1: and just like just seeing seeing the love that he
Speaker 1: gets what was what was everybody? What was the casino
Speaker 1: like with iverson? What? What's his game? What are you
Speaker 1: guys playing together? Are the women circling the whole table? Uh,
Speaker 1: he's he's he's playing big money as we like. I've
Speaker 1: I've seeing him fluctuate him be up like one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty. I leave, go do something, come back, he
Speaker 1: down two hundred, then get back up one hundred. So
Speaker 1: he playing black jack, man, and he playing big hands,
Speaker 1: like big big hands and playing two hands as well. Man. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I like our card games on the plane were
Speaker 1: like like legendary, like not to them numbers at times,
Speaker 1: but but the consistency of it being twenty five thirty,
Speaker 1: forty thousand dollars pots, fifty thousand dollars pots, like it's
Speaker 1: regular like and you have to have a certain amount
Speaker 1: of money to get on the plane to play. Are
Speaker 1: there certain guys that are trying to play with you? Guys,
Speaker 1: you're like, dude, you're on a ten day contract. Get
Speaker 1: the fuck out of here. Oh yeah, no, we won't
Speaker 1: let you play. No, certain certain guys. Now, if you
Speaker 1: if we think you're trying to quit liquors or you're
Speaker 1: trying to just come in for one flight and all this.
Speaker 1: No you if you play, you play. There's no hitt
Speaker 1: an quit you ain't ain't none of that shit going
Speaker 1: on with us, Like we ain't win' allowed none of that.
Speaker 1: Like we we the same four or five guys like them,
Speaker 1: was I car Budd And we knew like somebody might
Speaker 1: play for a little while and if they started losing,
Speaker 1: if they if they had a bad four game road
Speaker 1: trip and they they might not play the fifth like
Speaker 1: they might not play for a while. So we so
Speaker 1: we had a few guys that was like that, and
Speaker 1: we knew that about them. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: now we wasn't let just anybody play now was it
Speaker 1: was it liar's poker, That's what That's what we used
Speaker 1: to play a lot of We played a lot of
Speaker 1: people play like some yeah, some some teams they play
Speaker 1: guts and ship like that. But I don't like guts.
Speaker 1: Ain't no thinking to it. Ain't no, ain't no, ain't
Speaker 1: no thought process to guts any tonks. Early on my
Speaker 1: next days, you know, we played talk with Rod Thorn,
Speaker 1: like Rod Throne is the president gym. So Rod played
Speaker 1: with us man that was that was a great experience
Speaker 1: earlier having him, like getting to know him and getting
Speaker 1: to know his competitive nature as a front office guy,
Speaker 1: Like yeah, like that was dope. Now having him there
Speaker 1: like that was that was dope. Now what I'm saying
Speaker 1: throughout my Denver days, my Mick days, Clippers, Yeah we
Speaker 1: play we played by all right, So let's get back
Speaker 1: into the Denver Nuggets. You guys get Chauncey the year
Speaker 1: before you get what you get swept by the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, Mello is like, I
Speaker 1: want to guard Kobe. What were your thoughts going into that? No, hey,
Speaker 1: let him do it. Hey, it's a collective effort, man.
Speaker 1: It ain't just gonna be one guy. Like we all
Speaker 1: know that. Like we we we've been there. We know
Speaker 1: what's what what Bean was capable of doing. So it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: Melo gonna have this turn. I'm gonna get something, Jarr
Speaker 1: gonna get something, Dante gonna get some. Chon's is gonna
Speaker 1: get something, like we always and gonna do the best
Speaker 1: job we possibly can do. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: make make each each possession tough, Like I'm all about
Speaker 1: making each possession tough as possible, man, no matter what
Speaker 1: it is. And now going up against greatness. So and
Speaker 1: we knew that, and we knew his competitive nature, man,
Speaker 1: so we just trying to meet that. Was he the
Speaker 1: greatest you ever went against? You think? I mean you
Speaker 1: went against a lot of amazing assignments. I mean you
Speaker 1: guarded Tim Duncan, you went against Kobe. I mean who
Speaker 1: is the hardest. Yeah. I think Kobe and Tim Duncan
Speaker 1: are arguably in anybody's top five NBA players of all time.
Speaker 1: At least it would have to be so definitely top ten,
Speaker 1: but a lot of people top five. So yeah, Now,
Speaker 1: just having knowing what he is and knowing what he
Speaker 1: is about brings the best out of you. It brings
Speaker 1: the best out of a competitive nature, bring the best
Speaker 1: out of your game. And going against Tim Duncan as well. Man,
Speaker 1: I think Tim Duncan made me get better, made me
Speaker 1: become a better basketball player, made me become a a
Speaker 1: deeper thinker when it comes to the game. And man, Kobe,
Speaker 1: but most of my matchups with team like I had
Speaker 1: to I had to dig deep in my thought process,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, in my thought bag to try to how
Speaker 1: to riddle how to figure that out because he couldn't.
Speaker 1: He always played at the same speed. So yo, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but them guys, man, like what I'm saying, they brought
Speaker 1: it out of us. But wait, oh nine man, we
Speaker 1: made it to the Western Cooms finals. We had a chance,
Speaker 1: man like, we had a chance like, well, yeah, we
Speaker 1: had a chance to get them. Boards did that narrative
Speaker 1: of that the the Nuggets couldn't beat the Lakers in
Speaker 1: the playoffs? Did that seep into the locker room at
Speaker 1: all or did you guys say fuck that this is
Speaker 1: we're gonna We're gonna do this. Well, we never talked
Speaker 1: about it as a group. I don't know if some
Speaker 1: guys paid attention to it, but I didn't fear nobody,
Speaker 1: man like, they had that number for a little while.
Speaker 1: But we were in the position to get them. So
Speaker 1: it wasn't wasn't no if anybody had that thought process
Speaker 1: that we we can't beat this team, that I don't
Speaker 1: want you around you know what I'm saying. But we
Speaker 1: knew we had what we had in the locker room.
Speaker 1: We knew what we was gonna be, man, and it
Speaker 1: was it was special. It was special. Who is talking
Speaker 1: to you during this game, like, did any players get
Speaker 1: in your year? Was mellow? Vocal? Was Chauncey kind of
Speaker 1: an emotional leader? Were you leading people like? Was anyone
Speaker 1: kind of keeping the morale up? Because this is a
Speaker 1: team with a chip on his shoulder, this Lakers team
Speaker 1: coming off losing the Boston the finals. You know how
Speaker 1: much Kobe wants this. Who was the motivator in the
Speaker 1: locker room? I always did. I've always been that kind
Speaker 1: of a basketball player within on the bench, in the
Speaker 1: locker room, I've always been that guy to where I'm
Speaker 1: going to voice whatever negative or positive, I'm all in.
Speaker 1: And having a voice like Chauncey there was was very
Speaker 1: I'm saying, helpful, relaxing because he's been there, you know
Speaker 1: for a lot of the guys that had been on
Speaker 1: that stage yet. And he beat Kobe. Yeah, so for
Speaker 1: me and him, yeah yeah. And and it beat the
Speaker 1: Lakers already, so he knew how to go about it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just experience with some guys. Bad situational
Speaker 1: basketball by us, bad coaching, it was. There's enough blame
Speaker 1: to go around. Did you hate playing for George Carl
Speaker 1: because I've heard you say that before. Oh, Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I couldn't stand it, man, Like, it's just just bad,
Speaker 1: just coaching one aspect of the game, man does it
Speaker 1: doesn't make you a great basketball coach. He has a
Speaker 1: lot of wins, been blessed with talent over the years.
Speaker 1: But no, I'm not a big George Carl fan, not
Speaker 1: at all. Was that was that tough playing for a guy?
Speaker 1: And you see Phil Jackson on the other end, You're like,
Speaker 1: this is guy's considered one of the great coaches ever?
Speaker 1: Was not? Was it just you who felt this way?
Speaker 1: Or do you think all the guys like this guy sucks? Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of guys felt that way. But ain't nobody
Speaker 1: gonna say it. Ain't nobody gonna challenge him what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: But yeah, certain guys that would and certain like this.
Speaker 1: I think we made it as far as we did
Speaker 1: because of Chancey. Like in Situational Basketball, Chancey told George
Speaker 1: I got this, so basically, sit your ass down and
Speaker 1: don't fuck this up, like I got this, Like that's
Speaker 1: who Big Shall was, Like that's just who he was,
Speaker 1: Like he had earned that right when those moments and
Speaker 1: big moments, close games and all that, Like you don't
Speaker 1: need to coach this right now, I got this. The
Speaker 1: only thing we need you to do during time mouse
Speaker 1: is drop a play like everything else I got. So
Speaker 1: then that was that. That was That was the like
Speaker 1: he he like I said, he calmed things down, and
Speaker 1: he knew when to get other guys involved, when to
Speaker 1: get his shot, when we need to lean o Mellow.
Speaker 1: If Mellow had it going distribute the ball, he gonna
Speaker 1: get here. So that was that was part of being
Speaker 1: the leader, you know what I'm saying. That's why we
Speaker 1: got as far as we did, man, because we had him. Now,
Speaker 1: you guys are playing in Staples. You guys are battling
Speaker 1: you guys. You guys pretty much hold Kobe pretty well
Speaker 1: throughout the game. What's it feel like to play in
Speaker 1: the Staples Center, play the villain and and win this game?
Speaker 1: Like did you guys going into this? You guys are like, hey,
Speaker 1: what was it? What was the series at? They were?
Speaker 1: I think you were down two to one, two to one,
Speaker 1: it was one zero zero. Well, also to go along
Speaker 1: with Julian saying Nichols, Jack, Nicholson's there, Tom Cruise is
Speaker 1: there all these do you do? You look over and
Speaker 1: the party you like, fuck you Nicholson, I'm about to
Speaker 1: throw it down. No, it's however, many people at see
Speaker 1: if you ain't cheering for up, then it's fuck everybody,
Speaker 1: man Like. That's just that's the way we're approaching That's
Speaker 1: damn sure the way I approached it, like I didn't
Speaker 1: I want to shut everybody up, like, And we had
Speaker 1: a lot of guys that fit that had that same
Speaker 1: that same thought process, man like, like, we want to
Speaker 1: shut you all up in there. I loved that. We
Speaker 1: knew we had a shot. That was one of my
Speaker 1: favorite things, villain. Yeah, when you go up, absolutely the
Speaker 1: crowd's going crazy. It's third and fucking ten. You get
Speaker 1: a fourteen yard completion of the silence of the Wold stadium.
Speaker 1: You know, that's what you live for as an athlete,
Speaker 1: if you're a real tough guy. Right, Oh, that's what
Speaker 1: you used to do, you know that's what Hey, that
Speaker 1: was your thing. Hey, them big third down completions and
Speaker 1: big big red zone catches and plays and end the
Speaker 1: rounds and all that. Like, yeah, I'm with you, and
Speaker 1: then they might let you go out there and throw
Speaker 1: you on you know what I'm saying. So I had
Speaker 1: to campaign for that for fucking eight years before Bill
Speaker 1: let me do it. It was fucking bullshit. I'm with you,
Speaker 1: I'm against my coach. Hey, hey, he told you we
Speaker 1: brought you here to fucking catch passes. We got a
Speaker 1: pass through it. God damnit. Listen, I'll let you know
Speaker 1: if I need your services. That's exactly what he said.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what he said. Now, you guys win the game,
Speaker 1: but you lose the series. Is there anything that you
Speaker 1: wish you guys would have done differently in two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine to keep that bad boy going? Yeah? Man,
Speaker 1: it's two out of bounds plays, man, Like two out
Speaker 1: of bounds plays. We should have had the world withal
Speaker 1: to run something different. Because it happened the first game.
Speaker 1: We threw it away. Anthony Carter threw it away because
Speaker 1: they took the same they took our out of bound
Speaker 1: side out of bounds play away. Had a bad turnover
Speaker 1: that incident. Next game, I think I threw it away
Speaker 1: in the same situation or or or a similar situation
Speaker 1: because they knew, like I sighed, out of bounds was horseshit.
Speaker 1: Situational basketball. Lose your time score situation, time score situation.
Speaker 1: I'll know it I'm saying, you know it, Jules, it's
Speaker 1: all two minutes. I'm saying, So you got a four
Speaker 1: minute drill, you got a two minute drill. You got it.
Speaker 1: You got no time outs, one time out, all that shit.
Speaker 1: You know how it is. So you played with Mellow
Speaker 1: here in the Nuggets. You played with him again on
Speaker 1: the next That was a really fun next team. You know,
Speaker 1: I remember when they signed you. I was like, holy shit,
Speaker 1: Kmart can still jump, he can still get blocks, Like
Speaker 1: he's still he still totally had it. And uh, did
Speaker 1: you have a good relationship with Carmelo You felt, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's my young man man, like he was. I came in,
Speaker 1: Mellow was in the second year. I'm saying, he was
Speaker 1: still a kid. So yeah, we always had a dope relationship.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of winning together, man. We kicked a
Speaker 1: lot of ass together, a few heartaches together, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So we know what it is. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: I think we Yeah, we dire's some special things. Man.
Speaker 1: I witness a witness greatness right in front of me.
Speaker 1: Some of the one of the purest scores that I've
Speaker 1: of the basketball that I've ever seen. Man score effeless.
Speaker 1: I've seen him grow up right before my very eyes.
Speaker 1: I've seen him become a man, seen him go own
Speaker 1: New York try to do things there was able to
Speaker 1: join him over there. You know, it's I look at
Speaker 1: Mellow in a different light than a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Like a lot of people look at Mellow at selfish,
Speaker 1: A lot of people look at him. It's not a winner.
Speaker 1: A lot a lot of people look at him and
Speaker 1: all like different various things. Is hint to Whyle. He
Speaker 1: probably don't have a job right now. A lot of
Speaker 1: people the outside don't know the inside though. That's that's
Speaker 1: outside noise. But how cool is yeah? Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: can I ask you to go along with that? Because
Speaker 1: I think that's really interesting. I mean, do you think
Speaker 1: that Russell Westbrook is getting kind of an unfair treatment
Speaker 1: right now? Because I feel like he's been the butt
Speaker 1: of every negative common with the Lakers. Meanwhile, their front
Speaker 1: office has done a dog shit job. Who in they
Speaker 1: right mind? Thout Hi and Rob plincoa was a good
Speaker 1: fucking decision in the first place. Just be honest, man,
Speaker 1: the man was an agent. Like that shit is wild
Speaker 1: to me. Like just because you can go and get
Speaker 1: a guy to sign with you as an agent. Don't
Speaker 1: necessarily mean you can put a fucking team together? Man?
Speaker 1: Does it make you man feel the criticism that Russell's
Speaker 1: getting right now as a former player, you kind of
Speaker 1: like what's going on? Yeah? No, I think it's a
Speaker 1: crock of shit, to be honest with you. It's just
Speaker 1: like just a social media aspect of it. But Russ
Speaker 1: doesn't make it easy on people going out there and
Speaker 1: going oh for eleven and shit like that. Like he
Speaker 1: don't make it easy, true, well hard on him. He
Speaker 1: don't make it hard on him. Rather so he don't
Speaker 1: make it hard on He makes it easy for them
Speaker 1: to have ammunition at times. But it's just like it's
Speaker 1: that power on shit man, which is unfortunate for what
Speaker 1: he's done done for the game, the first ballot Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer man, Like, how can like we go through
Speaker 1: things that athletes like you have up, you have downs,
Speaker 1: you have good games, you have bad games, like and
Speaker 1: the people who criticize couldn't do a percent of what
Speaker 1: this man has accomplished. Yeah, that's that's why I keep
Speaker 1: my mouth shut because I couldn't and he and he
Speaker 1: does a good job at basically saying fuck him, like
Speaker 1: because it could it definitely probably when when it's affecting
Speaker 1: your family, it's going to affect you. Because he can't
Speaker 1: tell me that it's not affecting him because it's affecting
Speaker 1: his family. So he has to hear when he get home,
Speaker 1: his wife has to deal with his kids, has to
Speaker 1: deal with it. It's unfortunate air regard because it's sports.
Speaker 1: It shouldn't shouldn't translate to your home life in their regard.
Speaker 1: But it's unfortunate a regard, but the sport man. I
Speaker 1: think he'll bounced out of it, whether it's with the
Speaker 1: Lakers or if they make a move or whatever. He
Speaker 1: loves to compete man, so he I think he'll get
Speaker 1: the last laugh. How's how's j R. Smith as a teammate,
Speaker 1: Joe's cool. Man. I understand my teammates, man, I understand
Speaker 1: who they are. I understand what they're about. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't put too much and own it,
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like I'm I'm I'm to mind
Speaker 1: my business kind of a teammate. If I fool Witch,
Speaker 1: I fool Wich and we can go out, we can
Speaker 1: hang out. But I'm a I'm a mind my business
Speaker 1: kind of a guy. If it don't affect me directly,
Speaker 1: I I don't. I ain't got nothing to do with it.
Speaker 1: But nah, I understood y'all. Like I was shockingly surprised
Speaker 1: how actually good Jerall was a basketball I thought he
Speaker 1: was just an athlete. When I got on the team winner,
Speaker 1: I thought he was just an athlete like that boy
Speaker 1: could listen. I'm like, yo, he can play like some
Speaker 1: of the ship he used to do in practice, or
Speaker 1: he used to put on exhibition in practice, like scoring
Speaker 1: exhibitions in practice. All right, So yeah, Nah, he was
Speaker 1: a better He was a well rounded. He was a
Speaker 1: better basketball player. And I thought before he got with us,
Speaker 1: but he definitely helped us man in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: And like, and I just keep going back to I know,
Speaker 1: it sounds like I'm beating the dead horse. If JR,
Speaker 1: if we had different coaching, if JR had different coaching,
Speaker 1: things be different. Yeah, what's his popcorn story? I'm saying yes,
Speaker 1: and not so April fools. As we know, we get
Speaker 1: four random drug tests in the league. We we used to.
Speaker 1: They test for everything. They tested for weeds, so we
Speaker 1: it's not it's documented that Jr. Partakes in the You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, So it's not like I'm telling
Speaker 1: the people something they don't know. So I guy's name.
Speaker 1: So I had the trainer put guy's name on the board,
Speaker 1: saying there was a piss test. Right, it's April. It's
Speaker 1: late in the season. Guys that's on their third test.
Speaker 1: They bob to think it's gonna be their fourth. So
Speaker 1: I put guy's name on the board. I put like
Speaker 1: six names on the board a few games. Guys who
Speaker 1: I knew that smoked, Guys I knew that didn't smoke.
Speaker 1: So just a mixture of guys. So they come in
Speaker 1: see their name on the board, and they hype the
Speaker 1: guys that partake, like, oh shit, I'm a fourth fist.
Speaker 1: So we go out for shooting around. Come back, ain't
Speaker 1: no names on the board. It's April. Foods on the board,
Speaker 1: high high high ki key, no harm, no foul, So
Speaker 1: I thought, so we got a game that night. I
Speaker 1: leave my car key in my locker. I don't play
Speaker 1: that night for the me was probably about the something
Speaker 1: I don't shut up. I'm in the suit. So the
Speaker 1: game over team bring it in. I'm the first one
Speaker 1: out of the locker room because I didn't play. I
Speaker 1: go get my car. I hit the lock. They don't unlocked.
Speaker 1: I hit go open the door. Popcorn and shit fall out.
Speaker 1: I leave a door open. I go right back in
Speaker 1: the building. And I threatened everybody in the organization life. God, listen,
Speaker 1: I need to I need to find out who did it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you got it. You on the clock, damnit, listen.
Speaker 1: I need it's a camera outside the locker room. I
Speaker 1: need to know who's in here doing the game. So
Speaker 1: they saw who was in here doing the game, they
Speaker 1: went and questioning him, and and he spilled the fucking
Speaker 1: beans right away. He said who put him up? He
Speaker 1: said who put him up to was a ball boy
Speaker 1: like he said, they'll put him up to it, and
Speaker 1: a liz He paid him and did all this. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so I threatened his life, j our life, and yeah,
Speaker 1: and everybody else. Castle and Brady were getting into it
Speaker 1: with pranks one year and they did the same thing.
Speaker 1: I think that's what makes the team team, though, Like
Speaker 1: you gotta have some of that bullshit prank shit. Of
Speaker 1: course you were probably pissed me. Yeah, but some people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know, I wasn't that kind of a key
Speaker 1: key guy, Like the April Fool's thing, the names on
Speaker 1: the board, that's one thing, Like you do something like that. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm a I thought it was high. Yeah, but everybody
Speaker 1: in the organization was like, of all people, you can
Speaker 1: do that too, Like j why you pick him? Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at that roster. You're my last pick on
Speaker 1: that roster. Who I would do that too? Yeah? Like
Speaker 1: why him? All people? You know how he is, but
Speaker 1: you know I want to Yeah, if I could have
Speaker 1: got JR address that night, I would have did some
Speaker 1: stupid problem. We loved in New York. I mean we're all,
Speaker 1: you know, Knicks fans love j R. Smith. He was
Speaker 1: a sixth Man of the Year here. He was great.
Speaker 1: I do remember when the the d M went viral
Speaker 1: of of j R. Asking a woman if she's trying
Speaker 1: to get the pipe? Do you remember that good or
Speaker 1: bad pickup line? Listen, man, hey, because he is describing
Speaker 1: his penis is a pipe. Sounds pretty big? Hey? Are
Speaker 1: you straight? Are you straight to the point? Hey, listen,
Speaker 1: she's gonna accept that she ain't. Yeah, are you a
Speaker 1: skyline chili guy? Or oh no, I need it one.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that ship. I don't get it either.
Speaker 1: I think I don't understand nuts. That ship is oh
Speaker 1: and it's sweet. And they put the ship over Spaghetti's sweet.
Speaker 1: All no, thank you for four years and we were
Speaker 1: like we had sponsorship up with them and all that
Speaker 1: they used to bring that ship to the games and
Speaker 1: all that. I'm like, no, no, no, before we get
Speaker 1: out of here, it's not it's not gonna happen. I
Speaker 1: gotta ask you, are there any Kobe stories you remember
Speaker 1: that are like maybe funny, or any any moments with
Speaker 1: Kobe that like stand out to you. Actually, my first
Speaker 1: time ever seeing it, I wasn't into big into the
Speaker 1: the like high school rankings and all that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just played basketball, like I lucked up and got
Speaker 1: an AAU team I had to cut. I caught a
Speaker 1: greyhound bus from Dallas to Newark to go to ABCD camp.
Speaker 1: Took me like twenty two hours on a greyhound to
Speaker 1: get there. And at that camp, all the names over there,
Speaker 1: like I didn't know nothing about these camps, so I
Speaker 1: was able to get an invitation to go there, and
Speaker 1: people like just falling this dude around like it's like
Speaker 1: a big deal. I'm like, yo, what who is that?
Speaker 1: Or what? Like? Why is everybody like that's the number
Speaker 1: one playing y'all class? I'm like what class y'all talking about? Man?
Speaker 1: Like because they was making us go sit in these
Speaker 1: sat classes and certain prepl I'm like like, oh, he
Speaker 1: good at school. I'm I'm like naive to this ship,
Speaker 1: Like I have no idea. He's walking around with a
Speaker 1: big ass radio music loud playing music. I'm like, who
Speaker 1: fuck is this dude? Like what what make him? Like? Man,
Speaker 1: that's like that's Kobe Bryant. I'm like, who, Like, it's
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant, Like he going straight to the league like
Speaker 1: and this, oh okay, and we went out the ABC.
Speaker 1: Then I saw why so you have your kids in
Speaker 1: the league. He's played against mellow, do you give him
Speaker 1: any inside? Any inside? Like, hey, he doesn't like this
Speaker 1: if you do that right here, you got it right?
Speaker 1: Every absolutely everybody, anybody anybody that played that I played
Speaker 1: against that's still in the league or was still in
Speaker 1: the league his first three years. Oh absolutely, Like his
Speaker 1: first time he played against Paul Millsap, hear me like ya, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think i'mna have to go out Paul Mills after night,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, what do I need to do? I told
Speaker 1: him how to play. You know what I'm saying, because
Speaker 1: Paul was my era. Play Paul. I play a lot
Speaker 1: of games against Paul. Yeah, with Mellow as well. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, force him here. You're gonna try
Speaker 1: to get into your body. You're gonna do this on
Speaker 1: the free throw line. You gotta get into early because
Speaker 1: he's gonna try to quick you in certain situations like that.
Speaker 1: Now I got you. Gotta give him his CHEEKO is that.
Speaker 1: It's gotta be so satisfying seeing young Buck play that,
Speaker 1: Like that's almost like an extension of your career. I
Speaker 1: have a five year oldhen we go to soccer practice
Speaker 1: and I see her do something good and it's like
Speaker 1: I just scored a fucking touchdown. I can't imagine watching
Speaker 1: my son in the league. Oh, I can only imagine
Speaker 1: how you're gonna have a footwork though. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. You're gonna have a footwork me on that
Speaker 1: socker on the pitch. You're gonna have You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I got her. I gotta like I gotta
Speaker 1: like tricker and like bribe her with candy to make
Speaker 1: her go out and practice and ship. It's a little
Speaker 1: different when girl she like nothing but you know, horses, Oh,
Speaker 1: you ain't got to tell me my daughter that seven
Speaker 1: soccer teams. She been doing the same ship for the
Speaker 1: last two and a half year, three year. Listen and
Speaker 1: I'll be out there. She tell me, Daddy, you can't
Speaker 1: keep yelling. I said, okay, baby, I'm sorry, Like you're
Speaker 1: making me nervous. I'm like, I'm sorry, baby, I try
Speaker 1: in the very next week. She look over there, she'd
Speaker 1: be like, I'd be like, I get it, dude, I
Speaker 1: get it. Man. We appreciate you coming at the basketball game.
Speaker 1: I could be that way at the Hoho games. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I'm loud in there. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, so everybody know I'm there. I sit
Speaker 1: in the front row, and I let everybody know it. Kenyan,
Speaker 1: do we miss anything about this era, about this game,
Speaker 1: about just any NBA stories that we that we missed
Speaker 1: out on here? Wow? Man, I think it was dude
Speaker 1: is dope. Man. I just just just the talking about
Speaker 1: Kobe Man and what he meant to what he meant
Speaker 1: the game and and those matchups. Man, I think people
Speaker 1: need to hear it. I'm saying how it was, Man,
Speaker 1: it was. That's why I like watching certain guys and
Speaker 1: certain teams play now. Man, it's just that competitive, Like
Speaker 1: I missed that. I miss watching guys compete at a
Speaker 1: high level, you know what I'm saying, And and it
Speaker 1: means something to more guys. Like that's just what I
Speaker 1: miss about it. And that's why I'm like, I enjoy
Speaker 1: watching my son play man because he embodies all that.
Speaker 1: It's different generation though, I'm the same way you watch
Speaker 1: the new generation play. And the thing to me though,
Speaker 1: like pregame, like guys are too key key with each other.
Speaker 1: Like I used to hate the fucking Jets. I used
Speaker 1: to want to fucking kill Bart Scott. I used to
Speaker 1: like I saw ray Lewis before a game, I want
Speaker 1: to spit near him. Like now everyone's like best friends
Speaker 1: hanging out by the way. Now you're like best friends
Speaker 1: with ray Lewis. It's different now we're on the same
Speaker 1: team on inside the end. But you know, I'm with it, man,
Speaker 1: all that, all that, Yeah, I just I'm I don't
Speaker 1: I don't like it. I'm with you, Jules, I just
Speaker 1: I really it irks my ass, man, Like it really
Speaker 1: chaps my ass at times. Yeah, all the hugging and
Speaker 1: dapping and helping helping opposing team up and all that shit,
Speaker 1: it chaps my ass man. I get it. Man. Well,
Speaker 1: I we appreciate you taking the time to come talk
Speaker 1: ball stories with us if you ever need anything on
Speaker 1: our end. Man, we were there for anything. So I'll
Speaker 1: be out in LA. We have to have to get
Speaker 1: together and talk some more stories. Sure, let's catch up man,
Speaker 1: all right, bro, we love the way you play, man,
Speaker 1: loved it like it feels like getting a time machine.
Speaker 1: Just your intensity and the way you throw down dunks
Speaker 1: and get blocks and compete. I love the enthusiasm. I
Speaker 1: mean it was it was a lot. You played in
Speaker 1: a lot of cool teams, including one that ripped my
Speaker 1: heart out. But this Nuggets team, that Knixt team you
Speaker 1: played on. As we say, once you're a Nick, you're
Speaker 1: a Nick for life, So Knicks fans will love you forever. Too.
Speaker 1: Played the game way it's supposed to be playing. And
Speaker 1: if you listen to him, like, look, no situational basketball
Speaker 1: student of the game, Like it's an honor to have
Speaker 1: you on our podcast. Man, and we appreciate you. Appreciate it, Mane.
Speaker 1: He was awesome, love him even more now. Intense. He
Speaker 1: was one of those guys that you didn't fuck with
Speaker 1: in the locker room, clearly as JR. Didn't know that
Speaker 1: with the popcorn story, some poor ball boy oh to
Speaker 1: deal with Kmart. He literally just thought he was part
Speaker 1: of a fun prank and then one of the toughest
Speaker 1: enforcers in the NBA is in his face. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I just love He's just an intense guy. You could
Speaker 1: tell he he just wanted to fucking slam basketballs on
Speaker 1: people and fight like that's that's a real tough guy.
Speaker 1: It's crazy. He played in an era where you couldn't
Speaker 1: smoke weed, and now I feel like every player smokes weed.
Speaker 1: I mean they did then too, but like you couldn't
Speaker 1: do it. They got drug tested. Yeah it there, that
Speaker 1: was a tricky situation. Yeah, Man, to hear some of
Speaker 1: his stories and it was just it was cool. Man.
Speaker 1: I love I always I always cleaned up with those
Speaker 1: kind of guys on the team that were just like
Speaker 1: hard motherfuckers like you always wanted. You always wanted a
Speaker 1: guy that ate a steak with like his hands, not
Speaker 1: a forking knife. And that's kind of guy kmart is,
Speaker 1: you know, just a tough motherfucker, doesn't care about this,
Speaker 1: doesn't care what other people think. Always had you talk
Speaker 1: to him about any of his teammates. He had all
Speaker 1: of his teammates back. Even when he would criticize someone
Speaker 1: that was with love. You could tell he's a dude
Speaker 1: that would go to war with you. Yeah, he's a guy.
Speaker 1: Definitely a glue guy. Jack. Did we hit the prop bet?
Speaker 1: I got a little I'm gonna give it to us.
Speaker 1: We got to did it? How we oh? Repeat counts? Okay,
Speaker 1: we hit it. I was scared to bring it up.
Speaker 1: At first. I was like, let's see if he's cool,
Speaker 1: and then he smiled. I was like, thank god, Wait
Speaker 1: who Jr's d m Uh, they're trying to get the pipe?
Speaker 1: But what's the bet? Was the beef? Right? It was?
Speaker 1: Would we would we get to or over? One and
Speaker 1: a Half's trying to get the pipe? Yeah? We went over.
Speaker 1: We went over because I said it. Then he said
Speaker 1: it seemed like Kenyon was a fan of that DM strategy.
Speaker 1: Also seems like, uh, yeah, they made T shirts Knicks
Speaker 1: fans would wear the you rock one I have before Jack.
Speaker 1: Jack's got all like the funny, cool, little niche stuff
Speaker 1: that was A j R. Was absolutely one of the
Speaker 1: most beloved necks of that era because he was reckless.
Speaker 1: He played the way he DM's. You didn't know what
Speaker 1: was gonna happen. He'd pull up from fucking way too
Speaker 1: far out. I mean, he was the king of the
Speaker 1: no no, no, yes shot strum, the air guitar. Oh ude,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he did do the this shit. That was
Speaker 1: one of the greatest celebrations. What's the legacy for this game?
Speaker 1: It's the game is more just the talk hoops with Kmart.
Speaker 1: It's not like it's a great series. The game itself
Speaker 1: is cool to see the Nuggets beat the Lakers, because
Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't like that Laker team. I respected them,
Speaker 1: But I don't know if it's a great uh game itself.
Speaker 1: It's a solid game. I mean it was. It's a
Speaker 1: It's an entertaining game. It's just not an iconic game
Speaker 1: like some of the ones we've had on here. It
Speaker 1: is a great game, don't get me wrong. It was
Speaker 1: great to see the players like Chauncey Billups and Kmart
Speaker 1: and Mellow against Gasol Kobe, Like there was great matchups,
Speaker 1: but you know, it still was a Game two of
Speaker 1: a Western Conference final. It was a little it was
Speaker 1: a little tough to find the legacy for this. The
Speaker 1: lasting image to me is Kobe and Mellow guarden each
Speaker 1: other because that was like a cool just a cool matchup,
Speaker 1: two dudes that respected the hell out of each other.
Speaker 1: The lasting image for me is probably the eyeballs that
Speaker 1: Kmart gave the ball boy as he asked him, who
Speaker 1: the fuck put the popcorn in my mother fucking car?
Speaker 1: Like that's my last That is, by the way, that's
Speaker 1: like a funny thing in movies. You don't realize that
Speaker 1: people actually do that as a prank. That's been done
Speaker 1: in Patriots. That's a rich guy prank. That's very rich
Speaker 1: guy prank. Yeah, Kmart's prank was fun. The drug test
Speaker 1: prank is fun. And then that's like when you do
Speaker 1: the one and then the guy takes it to Tan
Speaker 1: and you're like, you ruined a fucking probably really nice car. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it probably smells like whise buttery popcorn every time he
Speaker 1: takes a drive after that. I mean, I'm sure he's
Speaker 1: got a He probably had enough money to get that
Speaker 1: bad boy cleaned up. I hope so we'll get a
Speaker 1: new car. That's good. Imagine bringing that to a to
Speaker 1: a mechanic or whoever as the clean in that, and
Speaker 1: they're just like, what popcorn? Was it popcorn? Or was
Speaker 1: it popcorn from the packages? That's what we didn't ask
Speaker 1: because I think it could have been the popcorn from
Speaker 1: the packages. You know you put in like boxes when
Speaker 1: you ship shit. That's called popcorn too. I think old
Speaker 1: packing peanuts kind of vibe. Yeah, maybe it was that.
Speaker 1: I think it was popcorn. But yeah, om Rimmenbaker, the
Speaker 1: bounce off Kobe imbound and bounce pass is a good image.
Speaker 1: I think mellow and Kobe is what I think of.
Speaker 1: This the name of the game, I mean, there's not
Speaker 1: really a great name for this, to be honest. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's more like you name the series the Kobe Melo series.
Speaker 1: Almost to me, Yeah, it's got to be the Kobe
Speaker 1: Melo series. We'll name the series. So steaks are pretty high.
Speaker 1: It is the Western Conference Finals. It's what so, sorry, Jack,
Speaker 1: what do we forget? Oh? Not a lot? Good ep.
Speaker 1: I got a little deep dive on h went to
Speaker 1: the color palette hit tones. We were talking Powder Blue
Speaker 1: versus Carolina Blue earlier the nuggets. Powder Blue is Pantone
Speaker 1: p MS two seventy nine you and c Blue is
Speaker 1: a proprietary Pantone pantone five four two. For all you
Speaker 1: color heads out there, love it, we do. Hey, sometimes
Speaker 1: it's for the color heads, man, Hey, we want them all.
Speaker 1: We take all the head good Jack, The depth of
Speaker 1: research on this podcast knows no bounds. You're trying to
Speaker 1: get a job at the paint section at Lows after
Speaker 1: this clip that, Oh, let's score it steaks. I don't
Speaker 1: think the steaks are crazy high. I would go like
Speaker 1: seven two. I mean it is seven to two for sure.
Speaker 1: It was star Power. You gotta go crazy high on
Speaker 1: star Power because and Jack Nicholson are in there. It's
Speaker 1: a niner, Will Ferrell, Kobe Mellow. We'll go nine O.
Speaker 1: I know. Is that not high enough? Jack? That's that's
Speaker 1: real high. Yeah. But Jack, the Tom Cruise and Will
Speaker 1: Ferrell where the Terry Hatcher was there? I just saw
Speaker 1: Terry Hatcher. She adds, at least makes some nine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Terry Hatcher tipped the scales. That's what you're saying. Jack
Speaker 1: loves a good Terry Hatcher gameplay. It's a good game.
Speaker 1: It was good. They were down with Lakers were down
Speaker 1: fourteen at one point. It's a it's a great it's
Speaker 1: a great basketball game. There's a lot of entertaining players.
Speaker 1: Aresa with a great game. Kmar put up good numbers.
Speaker 1: Kobe and Mellow were incredible billups. You got to give
Speaker 1: it like an eight four eight four, a five. I'll
Speaker 1: give a five. Name is this is what we're going
Speaker 1: to get killed? I think it's like a two four
Speaker 1: or something. The name is not two six sick. We'll get,
Speaker 1: We'll get We'll give it a two six. What was that? Total?
Speaker 1: Lists up at six point eight? Not bad, six point eight.
Speaker 1: A great game. It's just not an iconic game. But
Speaker 1: it's a great game. It's really good. An iconic series,
Speaker 1: but it's not an iconic game. Yeah, we got it,
Speaker 1: you know it is. It is a game two. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this was game seven and they won. Could have been
Speaker 1: you know, a different different story. What do you got check?
Speaker 1: I see over there? That puts us right in between
Speaker 1: the Manning seven, which was Week one twenty thirteen Broncos
Speaker 1: Ravens and then just ahead of Ricky's record Texas first,
Speaker 1: Texas A and m it's good company eight. Yep, it's
Speaker 1: respectable that Manning seven was badass too, so it surpassed that.
Speaker 1: I mean, the star power really surpassed it. That's where
Speaker 1: we're really won. But yeah, I mean, this was not
Speaker 1: an amazing, like iconic game year because look the magic
Speaker 1: kind of trump, the Calves in six, then the uh
Speaker 1: then the Lakers won in five in the finals. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like a game that was as iconic as like
Speaker 1: the next year or the year before with the Lakers
Speaker 1: Celtics games. This was straight Lake Show year. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: was straight Lake Show year. We have to give it
Speaker 1: to them. But followed Games with Names on YouTube, tub Instagram, Twitter,
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Speaker 1: on Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts, rate
Speaker 1: and review, comment the game you want to hear us do.
Speaker 1: That's all for this episode of Games with Names, presented
Speaker 1: by win Bet. Thanks so much for listening again, and
Speaker 1: to our sponsors. I'm Sam Morrell and I'm Julian Edelman.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much to Kenyan Martin and we'll see
Speaker 1: you the next game.