Speaker 1: Welcome in What's Driving the Great Episode three thirty four.
Speaker 1: We are back on our regular schedule, and now is
Speaker 1: also when I would remind you all if you could
Speaker 1: to like, rate, subscribe, review, do all that stuff, because
Speaker 1: that does not only help us out a ton, but
Speaker 1: it also helps you guys out, because this time of year,
Speaker 1: sometimes we have varying schedules. You know when we're live,
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Speaker 1: doing great. iTunes and Spotify could serve to do a
Speaker 1: little bit better, So if you download us on both places,
Speaker 1: be awesome. Also, next week taking the show on the
Speaker 1: road kind of we're gonna do a show from Vegas.
Speaker 1: I don't really have any of those specifics locked in yet,
Speaker 1: and I told the producers about ninety seconds ago that
Speaker 1: that was happening. But next Thursday we will be live
Speaker 1: from the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, doing
Speaker 1: the show from there. Demands, how are.
Speaker 2: You pretty good? Pops? You doing good to see you.
Speaker 1: I'm good to see you as well. I realized when
Speaker 1: I saw Demons, I was like, oh boy, I've not
Speaker 1: actually spoken to Demonse since we signed off the pod
Speaker 1: last Wednesday. Not the best parenting job by me there
Speaker 1: probably should check in see how you're doing. But we
Speaker 1: have had I was in Indy, which we'll get into.
Speaker 1: Both of your aunts are in town and staying with us.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot going on over here, a lot
Speaker 1: going on in the sports world. And we know who's
Speaker 1: gonna win the NBA Championship. So all that is coming
Speaker 1: up on the show. Here's what missed the cut. Denver
Speaker 1: officially promotes Dave Adalman to the head coach position. Tim
Speaker 1: Shallomey sitting, that's a real fan going courtside to Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: I love that from him. And Alex Polow, my guy
Speaker 1: wins the Indy five hundred. He's also a Chiefs guy.
Speaker 1: He's also you know, the racer of this generation. And
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you the audience knows we brought in,
Speaker 1: you know, my goddaughter ci r Fidel to the f
Speaker 1: one minute. I am not historically a motorsports guy. I
Speaker 1: don't pretend to be a motorsports expert. I do, however,
Speaker 1: and this isn't pretending. Know that if you give me
Speaker 1: an assignment with enough lead time, I can learn pretty
Speaker 1: damn fast. And once we found out we were going
Speaker 1: to Indy. I was like, Okay, I'm gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: be interviewing people. We're gonna, you know, probably have Oh wait,
Speaker 1: this person wants to come on. So I got to
Speaker 1: be prepared. So I went back to my roots of
Speaker 1: when I was having to do postgame call in shows
Speaker 1: for lacrosse. In college, we did postgame call in shows
Speaker 1: for lacrosse for games that were road games that were
Speaker 1: only on the radio, so you couldn't watch it, and
Speaker 1: theoretically I didn't know the sport, and then I had
Speaker 1: to take people's calls about what happened in the game.
Speaker 1: And so I learned lacrosse, and so I kind of
Speaker 1: tried to flex that muscle again to learn IndyCar and
Speaker 1: now I mean, I'm basically an adopted member of the
Speaker 1: Andretti family. More on that later in the show, but
Speaker 1: in the meantime, Demons, let's get to the game last night,
Speaker 1: which was one of the best games of the playoffs
Speaker 1: and might have been the unofficial end of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Minnesota had bounced back in Game three and
Speaker 3: Okase responded with a win. Jada was cooking and looked
Speaker 3: pretty tired out there. Yeah, so the Thunder took took
Speaker 3: care of business. They're now of three to one. Like
Speaker 3: you said before, do they now seem inevitable to win
Speaker 3: the finals.
Speaker 2: Or this series?
Speaker 1: I guess at the very least no, No to both.
Speaker 1: They listen and this isn't like a take that the
Speaker 1: moment the Lakers got eliminated, I said, I think Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City's gonna win the championship. That I thought the Lakers
Speaker 1: were the only team that could beat them. Now maybe
Speaker 1: that was wrong, maybe nobody could beat them. But I
Speaker 1: have not been one of the people that has underrated
Speaker 1: at Oklahoma City or that has thought their youth was
Speaker 1: going to be a death knell for them. And we
Speaker 1: now now as we sit here today, and this is
Speaker 1: a team that is seventy nine and nine or eighteen
Speaker 1: on the year, and a team that yesterday won a game.
Speaker 1: It was such a weird game yesterday because there are
Speaker 1: a couple buckets of stats that if I give you, you're
Speaker 1: gonna be like, oh, well, obviously team X one, And
Speaker 1: then a couple of buckets of stats that if I
Speaker 1: give you'd say, oh, obviously team why one. So the
Speaker 1: first one for the Thunder they're big three combined for
Speaker 1: ninety five points. Shay forty, JDub thirty four, Jet twenty one.
Speaker 1: Their big three combine for ninety five points. Meanwhile, the
Speaker 1: three highest paid guys on Minnesota, well, I mean they
Speaker 1: don't really have one of them's go Bear. That's not
Speaker 1: fair because he's not a scorers. Minnesota's top two scorers,
Speaker 1: Aunt and Julius combine for twenty one. You hear that
Speaker 1: and you say, okay, well that's a thunder route. Thing
Speaker 1: I can tell you on the flip side of that
Speaker 1: is what if going into the game, I were to
Speaker 1: tell you, hey, Okc's bench is gonna go I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: Minnesota's bench, pardon me, is going to go twelve of
Speaker 1: eighteen from three and combine for an incomprehensible sixty four points.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get sixty four points off the bench. You
Speaker 1: would say, okay, well that's going too clearly be maybe
Speaker 1: not only a Timberwolf win, but maybe a Timberwolf route instead.
Speaker 1: Those two factors came together, the thunder Stars playing awesome,
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves role players playing awesome, and it was a
Speaker 1: classic game. I know that, like we've had so many
Speaker 1: great games these playoffs that a game that one team
Speaker 1: kind of leads throughout and then ends up winning doesn't
Speaker 1: feel like that should qualify as a classic. But the
Speaker 1: shot making and degree of difficulty from anyone and everyone
Speaker 1: involved in this game except for Minnesota's two best players
Speaker 1: is really a was a sight to behold. And the
Speaker 1: reason that I said right off the top of the
Speaker 1: show and when Demonte asked me that this series is
Speaker 1: over and this season is over, and that's with respect
Speaker 1: to the Pacers and the Knicks who will get to later,
Speaker 1: is OKC has now been on the ropes and has
Speaker 1: now responded in such a way that I think this
Speaker 1: counts as that extra step some people thought they needed
Speaker 1: to take, Like, all right, you make the playoffs and
Speaker 1: you get bounced in round two. Then you go on
Speaker 1: a deep run like the Celtics did to the finals
Speaker 1: and lose. Then you come back and win a championship,
Speaker 1: facing a Game seven against the best player in the
Speaker 1: world and blowing them out, and then responding the very
Speaker 1: next series by getting blown out like embarrassed. For the
Speaker 1: first time all year. They had only had one twenty
Speaker 1: point loss all season. It was to the Lakers. In
Speaker 1: the regular season. They lose by forty it's their first
Speaker 1: playoff loss as a group together by more than twelve points.
Speaker 1: And then the very.
Speaker 3: Agree they took their foot off the gas there in
Speaker 3: game three, though, right think that was like that was
Speaker 3: chalked up like if that was a situation high leverage
Speaker 3: and they needed that game, probably wouldn't have lost by that.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, totally agree.
Speaker 1: Okay, no, one hundred percent agree. But my point is,
Speaker 1: not only did they lose that game, they get blown
Speaker 1: out ants feeling good. Because they get blown out, the
Speaker 1: Timberwolves don't have to play you know they're and because
Speaker 1: they're not as deep of a team in theory, they
Speaker 1: don't have to play Aunt and Julius huge minutes. So
Speaker 1: they should be able to come into Game four fresh
Speaker 1: and feeling like, you know what we about to make
Speaker 1: this a series and all the Timberwolves others played out
Speaker 1: of their mind and the OKC Big three Flatley said, Nah,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. Shay, who will get more into later,
Speaker 1: was absolutely brilliant. Shae was brilliant, And I obviously have
Speaker 1: been vocal about the flopping and the Jabbroni stuff of
Speaker 1: hooking the arms and all that stuff you can hold
Speaker 1: two thoughts in your head at the same time. One
Speaker 1: is the free throw merchant stuff is a fair criticism,
Speaker 1: and I find it to be an unappealing brand of
Speaker 1: basketball when he's doing that, while also believing even without
Speaker 1: any of that stuff, he's a superstar. And last night
Speaker 1: it was both. He was getting to the line. There
Speaker 1: hasn't been as much flopping about by him since Game one,
Speaker 1: and but in addition to getting to the line, he
Speaker 1: was getting to the basket. His mid range was on point,
Speaker 1: as it's been all year, and he just played an
Speaker 1: outstanding A plus MVP level game. And then Jalen Williams
Speaker 1: added his twenty four or thirty four on twenty four shots,
Speaker 1: and every time it felt like Minnesota had a chance
Speaker 1: to grab some momentum, there was Chet Holmgrench, either hitting
Speaker 1: a three or with a putback dunk or a big block.
Speaker 1: He was awesome. And so.
Speaker 2: I just you were nervous about Chet coming into this series.
Speaker 1: Too, absolutely, And I thought that the Julius piece of
Speaker 1: this for the Timberwolves is pretty brutal, because he was
Speaker 1: so good in Round one against the Lakers and so
Speaker 1: good in Round two against the Warriors. He was so
Speaker 1: good he did something that I didn't know was possible,
Speaker 1: which is force honesty out of Draymond Green, like, no,
Speaker 1: I got my ass kicked in that matchup like that,
Speaker 1: which he did. And then he was the only guy
Speaker 1: on Minnesota to really show up in Game one, so
Speaker 1: I was like, man, this he is just rewriting this
Speaker 1: playoff narrative. And then in game two, in game four,
Speaker 1: he's a combined three of eighteen from the field and
Speaker 1: eleven points total and just brutal. And so yeah, I
Speaker 1: thought that Julius versus Chet was going to strongly the Timberwolves,
Speaker 1: even though I picked Oklahoma City to win the series.
Speaker 1: That's not what happened to her at all. And while
Speaker 1: I think we are, you know, I gave Danny a
Speaker 1: hard time. Let me find the tweet I sent to
Speaker 1: Danny Parkins. Either last night or this morning, I don't remember,
Speaker 1: but Danny tweeted, if I can get my phone to work,
Speaker 1: something about uh about the runway? That what the heck?
Speaker 1: This sucks? Twitter? Can I just say something Twitter sucks?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 1: It doesn't. I can't even find my own tweets. Danny
Speaker 1: tweeted about the thunder having basically the next ten years
Speaker 1: here's what he wrote. I found it. I feel sorry
Speaker 1: for all the self professed NBA fans who say they
Speaker 1: hate SGA's game. The next ten years or so of
Speaker 1: hoops is gonna be pretty miserable for them. He's gonna
Speaker 1: be in a lot of big games. And so I
Speaker 1: replied to him, giving SGA the next ten years feel strong. Listen,
Speaker 1: windows are never open as long as people think they
Speaker 1: are going to be in the moment, and every team
Speaker 1: that wins the championship, in the moment that they're winning
Speaker 1: the championship, it feels like, well, they're just gonna keep
Speaker 1: winning championships, I guess. And obviously right now it feels
Speaker 1: that way with OKC. But it felt that way with
Speaker 1: Boston twelve months ago, and it felt that way with
Speaker 1: Denver twenty four months ago, And it felt that way
Speaker 1: with Milwaukee forty eight months ago, and it felt that
Speaker 1: way with the Lakers sixty months ago. The only team
Speaker 1: that he didn't really feel like they were about to
Speaker 1: reel off a bunch was the Warriors, because they had
Speaker 1: already reeled off their bunch, like that was the end
Speaker 1: mark rather than what it felt like was a beginning. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: Toronto obviously, but that was if Quiet stayed. No, but
Speaker 1: if Quiet stayed, maybe people would have thought they were
Speaker 1: going to keep winning. And so I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: ready to talk down the road for OKAC because that
Speaker 1: ownership group as a doesn't have a tendency of paying
Speaker 1: the luxury tax. And I'm not sure. However, I know
Speaker 1: they have a bunch of picks, and they have a
Speaker 1: smart GM and all that stuff. What I am ready
Speaker 1: to say is nobody's fucking beating them this year. And
Speaker 1: it was there was a window where in that game
Speaker 1: last night where it felt like, well, if Minnesota can,
Speaker 1: if they can win this game with Aunt and Julius
Speaker 1: playing poorly, can they then win one of the next
Speaker 1: two because Aunt and Julius go off, and then you're
Speaker 1: in a game seven, and then you roll the dice.
Speaker 1: And even if they were to lose the game seven,
Speaker 1: then OKASE goes into the finals coming off back to
Speaker 1: back seven game series and maybe they're a little bruised,
Speaker 1: a little battered, a little worn down. Instead, Okac's going
Speaker 1: to end this tomorrow night, and they are not going
Speaker 1: to demonte let their foot off the gas twice in
Speaker 1: one series. They are critically going to be at home.
Speaker 1: Where what of the thunder done? Let me just look
Speaker 1: at home this postseason. They beat Memphis by fifty one.
Speaker 1: They then beat Memphis by nineteen. They lost to Denver
Speaker 1: in was that the game one against Denver? Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was the Aaron Gordon game, the game winner, the game winner.
Speaker 1: So they lost to Denver. They then beat Denver by
Speaker 1: forty three. They then beat Denver by seven. They then
Speaker 1: beat Denver by thirty two. And now they have beaten
Speaker 1: Minnesota by twenty six and by fifteen, and they face
Speaker 1: another one. So they have multiple victories at home by
Speaker 1: thirty plus and they have one loss and it was
Speaker 1: a buzzer beating dunk.
Speaker 2: So it's been done. They could lose.
Speaker 3: If Minnesota goes over there and Julius Randall and a
Speaker 3: cook and they turn it around, what do you think
Speaker 3: the chances of them pulling away, you know, bringing it seven,
Speaker 3: winning the series on Minnesota.
Speaker 1: I think this is dead. I think this series ended
Speaker 1: last night. I think that there is I think that
Speaker 1: there is no no real way to convince yourself that
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves have a chance to win two in a
Speaker 1: row with one of them in Okac, much less three
Speaker 1: in a row, with two of them in okac Their
Speaker 1: moment was last night, their moment to make it so
Speaker 1: we can get to a game seven without ever having
Speaker 1: to win on the road and then see what the
Speaker 1: hell happens. And I just give Oklahoma City a ton
Speaker 1: of credit. Man. They are obviously, and we've talked about
Speaker 1: it all year, and not historically great but contemporarily great defense.
Speaker 1: And they're young stars are all growing up in front
Speaker 1: of us. And so the one other piece of caution
Speaker 1: that I would give to folks who are going to
Speaker 1: get out ahead of the dinas deep part of it is, Man,
Speaker 1: I don't know that any team's ever looked more poised
Speaker 1: to go on forget a ten year run, a fifteen
Speaker 1: year run in Oklahoma City in twenty twelve, when they
Speaker 1: had Durant, Russ, and Harden all well under twenty five
Speaker 1: years old. They might all been under twenty four years
Speaker 1: old actually, and they were making their first finals and
Speaker 1: that's their only finals. Like and it's a you can say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: they traded Harden guys with this new CBA. I don't
Speaker 1: know how. I have no idea what teams are and
Speaker 1: aren't gonna stay the exact same year to year. What
Speaker 1: I do know is the Thunder winning the championship, and
Speaker 1: they will be rightful champions. It will not be an
Speaker 1: injury luck championship. It will not be ah look at
Speaker 1: who they faced and root to it championship. It won't
Speaker 1: be any of that. It's going to be from day
Speaker 1: one of this season until the last day of the season,
Speaker 1: they were the best team. They had the guy who
Speaker 1: had the best season, and they were the deepest and
Speaker 1: damn near impossible to blow out, and they're going to
Speaker 1: finish the year. So they were I do this. I
Speaker 1: did this on the fly, and then I thought I
Speaker 1: screwed it up. They were sixty eight and fourteen. They
Speaker 1: have lost four times this postseason, so they are that's
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen losses. They have won eleven times this postseason. Yes,
Speaker 1: I had it right. They're seventy nine and eighteen, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and guess that they finished the
Speaker 1: year eighty four and twenty. I think they lose two
Speaker 1: more times the rest of the way and they go
Speaker 1: into next year as big favorites, which again the defending
Speaker 1: champ keeps going into the years the big favorites We'll
Speaker 1: see how they do on that end. And I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to put a period on this NBA season, but
Speaker 1: to me, this NBA season ended last night, and that's
Speaker 1: not a bad thing. That's not the it's well, it is.
Speaker 2: It is what it is.
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot of basketball to play, and
Speaker 1: I'm still and I'm super excited for the rest of
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA Finals. To me,
Speaker 1: will be whomever. It is a real David versus Goliath situation,
Speaker 1: and you'll be excited to see, Hey, can something. Can
Speaker 1: Halliburton or Brunson have just a holy shit, what just
Speaker 1: happened moment? Can one of those guys like do a
Speaker 1: Dirk Novitsky twenty eleven levitate above the game? Wildly outmatched?
Speaker 1: But I don't think so.
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Speaker 1: All right there, I know you have a bunch of
Speaker 1: follow ups here and then we can get to the
Speaker 1: next topic. But go ahead to many.
Speaker 3: So Aunt looks super gas last night, and this is
Speaker 3: right around the time that he got gas last year.
Speaker 2: Do you think that this is just who he is?
Speaker 1: I don't. It is surprising to me that Aunt accepts
Speaker 1: passivity the way he has at times, and his comments
Speaker 1: after the game when he's like, listen, I don't think
Speaker 1: I struggled. I made the right play again and again.
Speaker 1: And I guess you can make the argument. Listens teammates
Speaker 1: wereritting shots. They scored one twenty six. He was still
Speaker 1: busting his ass on defense. But when you're up against
Speaker 1: the MVP Demanse and you undoubtedly feel like I'm better
Speaker 1: than him. But listen, he's not better than Shay. But
Speaker 1: I guarantee you Ant believes he's better than Check. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like that, he has to, like, that's how he's wired.
Speaker 1: Seeing him take two shots in the first half was shocking. Legitimately,
Speaker 1: shocking in a half. His team was trailing the whole time.
Speaker 1: It's not as if, well, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: everything's working great, whatever it is. And so he did
Speaker 1: he said he ran out of gas in the last
Speaker 1: year in the conference finals. But that was so different
Speaker 1: because though I took that to be a physical and
Speaker 1: a mental thing, because beating the defending champ in round
Speaker 1: two is a bit of a that's a huge favorite,
Speaker 1: is a bit of a championship in and of itself.
Speaker 1: We are kind of seeing it happened to the Knicks.
Speaker 1: The Knicks beat Boston and then exhaled, and by the
Speaker 1: time they get their breath again, they're down two oh
Speaker 1: to Indiana. Right, So I thought last year ant and
Speaker 1: Minnesota have a shocking three two comeback, and then Game
Speaker 1: seven comeback against Minnesota and then it's like, oh man,
Speaker 1: we got another that we're only halfway to the goal. Dallas,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, you know, was a pretty well
Speaker 1: oiled machine at that point, having just beaten OKC and
Speaker 1: they're down three to zero. They being Minnesota before they
Speaker 1: realize it's a fight. This year that wasn't at at all.
Speaker 1: Minnesota didn't even seem to really face any adversity in
Speaker 1: round two or round one, and so I just think
Speaker 1: this is part of ant growing up. But for those
Speaker 1: of us that were like, hey, lead a team to
Speaker 1: the finals before you turn twenty five, that's a pretty
Speaker 1: the exclusive list. He has a chance to join it.
Speaker 1: That's now done that that you know, and so at
Speaker 1: twenty three, just get better and better each year. But
Speaker 1: he needs to find a way to be at his
Speaker 1: best come late May, and that's yet to happen for him. Okay,
Speaker 1: Uh so there's go ahead and we can talk rules
Speaker 1: before he talks Shay and Ann.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you think the team should be allowed to
Speaker 3: foul up three as much as they want.
Speaker 2: It might have made the game. It was a little
Speaker 2: boring there at the end.
Speaker 1: So okay, So I don't understand why teams or by
Speaker 1: the league listen free advice. There are three very simple
Speaker 1: rule changes that could be implemented in the offseason, and
Speaker 1: there is close to zero downside for any of them.
Speaker 1: Rule one is the one I proposed on TV yesterday,
Speaker 1: self proclaimed take of the year. It's an unimpeachably great take.
Speaker 1: The league could institute it immediately. There's no downside to
Speaker 1: it whatsoever. And it would fix this immediately. Which is
Speaker 1: just like, every player on the court at any time
Speaker 1: can call time out, and if you go like this,
Speaker 1: the referee grant you a timeout. Any player on the
Speaker 1: court at any time can do the whoo the challenge signal,
Speaker 1: and the referee will grant that challenge. Okay, you have
Speaker 1: a challenge, you're challenging it. And within a week, demons,
Speaker 1: every player on every team would have been drilled by
Speaker 1: the coaches. Don't You're not allowed.
Speaker 2: To do that.
Speaker 3: I was about to say that the coaches would not
Speaker 3: ride with that one. It's like, it's just my choice
Speaker 3: if we're challenging it or not, you.
Speaker 1: Know, correct, But it's also the coach's choice if we
Speaker 1: call time out or not. But the players can call it,
Speaker 1: and so it would no player would go rogue. Guys
Speaker 1: would learn very quickly, Oh shit, that's binding. I better
Speaker 1: not do that. And added bonus, let's just say there
Speaker 1: is a oh use joker as an example, a really
Speaker 1: smart veteran player. It's late in the game. He knows
Speaker 1: they have challenges in timeouts left, and he knows that
Speaker 1: ball did not go off me, and he looks over
Speaker 1: at the bench and he's like, oh, man, the dude
Speaker 1: dropped the tablet. They're they're they're about to inbound the ball.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna get it in no challenge challenge. So
Speaker 1: it would reward smart players and discipline teams. It would
Speaker 1: briefly penalize teams that have a bunch of dopes on them,
Speaker 1: and within a week you wouldn't immediately see an end two.
Speaker 1: Every time a ball goes out of bounds, players on
Speaker 1: both teams are doing the twirl in the air. That's
Speaker 1: rule change one. Rule change two. How do we get
Speaker 1: rid of hack a player? Because people can say, oh,
Speaker 1: make your free throws. Oh, it's a fine strategy. And
Speaker 1: this is all a cousin of my tush push take,
Speaker 1: which is that all sounds finding good except for when
Speaker 1: you remember these are just polar It's just polar bears
Speaker 1: ice skating. It's just entertainment. There is no there, There
Speaker 1: is no oh, a moral part of this or greater
Speaker 1: good for the world. It's entertainment, and things that work
Speaker 1: against the entertainment value should be eradicated when possible. There
Speaker 1: is nothing less entertaining than watching a basketball game grind
Speaker 1: to a halt because a team just wants to foul
Speaker 1: away from the ball a bad free throw shooter. So
Speaker 1: how do you fix that? Very simple, take a page
Speaker 1: out of the NFL's book. Outside of the last two minutes,
Speaker 1: because in the last two minutes you might need to
Speaker 1: foul for to come back. Outside of the last two minutes,
Speaker 1: you can decline the foul. Just be like, no, we decline,
Speaker 1: We'll take its side out. That's all. Be like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: oh it's we can shoot for those. No, we decline,
Speaker 1: thank you, we appreciate it. We'll to go side out
Speaker 1: of bounce. That's all you make that. There's no doubts. Again,
Speaker 1: you can't do that the whole game. But you already
Speaker 1: can't do haka inside the last two minutes. So we
Speaker 1: already have made specific rules based on timing. You can't
Speaker 1: do haka inside the last two minutes. So it's that simple.
Speaker 1: And so those are these. Then we get to the
Speaker 1: fouling up three. Oh my goodness, what are we gonna
Speaker 1: do about this fouling up three? It's terrible for the league. Agreed,
Speaker 1: it's terrible for the viewer. Agreed. How do you fix it?
Speaker 2: Guys?
Speaker 1: It's the simplest fucking thing ever. If you commit a
Speaker 1: foul with the shot clock turned off, meaning the final
Speaker 1: twenty four seconds outside of the three point line, it's
Speaker 1: a three shot foul, whether the guy is shooting or not. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's that simple. And then that's done. It's guys, it
Speaker 1: is It is intuitive simple rule changes. Rule one is
Speaker 1: just a fun one to penalize the whiners. The twirl
Speaker 1: is binding, and you're gonna your team's gonna be out
Speaker 1: of challenges within ninety seconds, your coach gonna be super pissed,
Speaker 1: and you might then early in the season when you're
Speaker 1: not used to it, also rack up technical fouls because
Speaker 1: you've done the twirls so many times and your team
Speaker 1: is out of timeouts, and that's now a technical fine.
Speaker 1: That'll fix itself.
Speaker 2: Rule two.
Speaker 1: In the instance of hacker Mitch Robinson coming into play
Speaker 1: the Knicks or any team subject to the hacka thing
Speaker 1: can say, we would prefer to have the ball side
Speaker 1: out of bounds rather than get free throws. That's all
Speaker 1: the foul counts, it goes all of it, but we
Speaker 1: would prefer to have the ball side out of bounds
Speaker 1: if we can decline the free throws. If you hack,
Speaker 1: if you foul us in outside of the last two
Speaker 1: minutes and the last one to end the scourge of
Speaker 1: fouling up three. If the shot clock is turned off
Speaker 1: and you commit a foul outside of the three point line,
Speaker 1: it is not a two shot foul. It is a
Speaker 1: three shot foul. That's all very simple.
Speaker 2: The first one I go on board with.
Speaker 1: But the other, yeah, the take of the year. You
Speaker 1: like when guys do.
Speaker 3: This, I don't like it. I just like, I understand
Speaker 3: how much they're going to be doing that. And I
Speaker 3: know you're saying, I know you're saying, have some discipline,
Speaker 3: don't do it.
Speaker 2: I don't think that.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's a it's as annoying as you
Speaker 3: think it is when they will make it.
Speaker 1: Just like I would like to. It's it's it's that
Speaker 1: it's annoying, but it's also that it is it's a
Speaker 1: too much boy who cried wolf. It's they know that.
Speaker 1: It's almost like they feel like they have to. Like yesterday,
Speaker 1: you saw it on Alexander. I mean he slaps him
Speaker 1: on the never a Doubt tattoo and he's like, no, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean so, uh, But do you like my how
Speaker 1: to get rid of foul?
Speaker 3: I'm totally on board with those other two ones. The
Speaker 3: three three free throws outside of the three point line
Speaker 3: makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and again it's the you can't just say
Speaker 1: any foul gets you three free throws because you don't
Speaker 1: want all of a sudden, you know, teams down too
Speaker 1: and driving to the basket and then they you know they, uh,
Speaker 1: you don't want that, but it is it's an easy fix.
Speaker 2: You know what.
Speaker 1: You know now that we have a friend of the show,
Speaker 1: I know she's retired, but friend of the show Michelle Roberts,
Speaker 1: former president of the NBA Player Association, who I see
Speaker 1: almost every day because she lives on our block and
Speaker 1: I hang out out side. Now that the weather's nice,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna ask.
Speaker 2: Her to pitch it, Adam or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, something, or let me pitch it. I'm over. Like
Speaker 1: I would have thought I would wanted to pitch get
Speaker 1: me an NBA awards vote, But that ship has sailed.
Speaker 1: I'm never getting an awards vote.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you create a rule for the NBA.
Speaker 1: Rule, what a legacy, What a legacy this would be
Speaker 1: if people are like in thirty years people, if you
Speaker 1: see an amazing finish to a game. We see an
Speaker 1: amazing finish of the game. People are like, you know,
Speaker 1: we used to not get those game tying threes because
Speaker 1: guys would foul. Really, Papa, what changed that? Well is
Speaker 1: this guy named Nick Wright, he did a podcast with
Speaker 1: his son explained it. Yeah, yeah, I think that'd be exciting.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk more Shane.
Speaker 2: Go ahead.
Speaker 3: Uh so, yeah, you've you've been pretty vocal on SGA's
Speaker 3: foul baiting. He saw how worked out the other day
Speaker 3: when he got to the line four times. And also
Speaker 3: Ant has this problem with fatigue late in the late
Speaker 3: in the year. Who do you think who do you
Speaker 3: think's problem is bigger? As far as trying to be
Speaker 3: the face of the league type of guy.
Speaker 1: Well, listen, Shay's thing isn't a flaw. It's just irritating. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's listen it. People can debate about the skill
Speaker 1: it takes and the I'm not gonna Shay the player,
Speaker 1: I'm just talking about the manipulating the reps it is.
Speaker 1: And I was I'll be honest, I was shocked by
Speaker 1: the number of people who pushed back on some of
Speaker 1: the Shay stuff like it was and there was a
Speaker 1: lot of you say this and you're a fan of
Speaker 1: and then they either said Luca Lebron or Mahomes. So
Speaker 1: let me address each of those if I may. Luca
Speaker 1: does not flop. Luca complaints. There is a distinction. Luca
Speaker 1: finishes through contact. Luca is not flailing. Luca is whining
Speaker 1: at all times. Now you can find that irritating, and
Speaker 1: I totally understand that. I find it somewhat irritating.
Speaker 2: But he is here with SGA.
Speaker 3: He also doesn't really complain to the refs, I think
Speaker 3: because he gets froding advice to his house for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: But but no, I mean, Luca is just yelling at
Speaker 1: the refs the entire game. When he gets a call,
Speaker 1: he's angry he didn't get it faster when he doesn't
Speaker 1: get a call. So that that is that, you know,
Speaker 1: that to me, is uh a crazy comp to be on.
Speaker 1: Like they're just very Now you can say that's more irritating,
Speaker 1: you hate that more, that's fine, like that's a matter
Speaker 1: of preference. But Luca is never, never strong but close
Speaker 1: to never trying to manipulate the officials. He's just trying
Speaker 1: to mother f the officials. So that's the first one.
Speaker 1: Lebron gets less calls per drive to the basket, and
Speaker 1: almost any player in modern NBA history, certainly older Lebron
Speaker 1: and Lebron I know that over the course of a
Speaker 1: twenty two year career. Whenever you see these Lebron flopping compilations,
Speaker 1: what you will see almost all the videos have in
Speaker 1: common is he got hit. People just think he is
Speaker 1: not supposed to be as hurt as he appears to be.
Speaker 1: So what Lebron will do is sell how hurt he
Speaker 1: is or the violence or velocity of the impact. But
Speaker 1: he is. Lebron is not like driving to the basket
Speaker 1: and then just falling or hooking your arm to try
Speaker 1: to get the call. Again, you can say I hate
Speaker 1: that one more, but those are different. Then there's Mahomes,
Speaker 1: which again the football basketball comps I never like at all,
Speaker 1: but we can get into that if you'd like. Of
Speaker 1: all the quarterbacks in the league, the idea that there
Speaker 1: is any evidence whatsoever that Patrick Mahomes is more protected
Speaker 1: or does more flopping when Josh Allen exists is just
Speaker 1: one of the wildest things that I've ever heard anyone
Speaker 1: put voice to. And while here would be my response
Speaker 1: to the Mahomes SGA thing, because the Mahomes thing really
Speaker 1: hit a fevered pitch in the Texans playoff game. If
Speaker 1: Mahomes did what he did in the Texans playoff game
Speaker 1: every single game all year long, then you would have
Speaker 1: the SGA comp for it. It was jarring because it
Speaker 1: was so obvious what on two of those plays. Again again,
Speaker 1: it was two total plays he was doing. But that
Speaker 1: was one game in the guy's career versus SGA. It's
Speaker 1: made up an art form out of it. So the
Speaker 1: now to answer your question, though, demonte uh And is
Speaker 1: not going to be eligible for Face of the You
Speaker 1: can't be eligible. You're not gonna be Face the League
Speaker 1: until you're winning MVPs and or championships. And he's done neither.
Speaker 1: His game theoretically and personality is more attractive to fans
Speaker 1: and Face the League stuff, but he's got to be
Speaker 1: playing big games late late late in years SGA. I
Speaker 1: I think the I think the foul stuff is a
Speaker 1: wave that has crested. I think he and the refs
Speaker 1: reacted to the criticism of Game one and he stopped
Speaker 1: getting quite. He said, listen, he's look goting to line
Speaker 1: a ton but most of those are warranted. He's since
Speaker 1: fall over. Correct. It's just the it. It's really just
Speaker 1: two things we're talking about. One is falling over on purpose. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's wait right, And the other one is the hook
Speaker 1: the like that, which is just a first cousin of
Speaker 1: Durant's ripped through. Like Durant got so good at the
Speaker 1: ri you'd put your hand down and Durant would rip
Speaker 1: through it and go up that they changed the rule
Speaker 1: to where that's a non shooting foul, hardened than evolved
Speaker 1: it to you put your arm there, I will then
Speaker 1: hook you and then go up and it will be
Speaker 1: a shooting foul. And Shade does that brilliantly. So maybe
Speaker 1: that is a rule tweak that I can't figure out. Again,
Speaker 1: I gave you three great rule changes and make the
Speaker 1: NBA twice as good. I can't give you four. But uh,
Speaker 1: but the it's really just the falling over. Like the
Speaker 1: falling over is just so unbecoming and nobody likes it.
Speaker 1: I know you have one follow up.
Speaker 3: Here to Yeah, so you're you're heavily against his fallibating
Speaker 3: and you say it's been all year, but he is
Speaker 3: your MVP guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think again, So I think that maybe
Speaker 1: surprises people. They're like that I said, he was clearly
Speaker 1: the MVP. He was clearly the MVP. He was the
Speaker 1: scoring champ, good, not great, but good defensively, unbelievable offensively
Speaker 1: for a sixty eight win team.
Speaker 4: He was.
Speaker 1: Listen, I hate the toush push. I don't come on
Speaker 1: here and be like that plays no good. It's actually ineffective.
Speaker 1: Like I might not like some of the stylistically, some
Speaker 1: of the way Shaye plays, but he was the MVP
Speaker 1: of the league this year, and I would have voted
Speaker 1: for him for it, like the it is. It is
Speaker 1: odd to me that people are surprised that I can
Speaker 1: hold both those thoughts in my head at the same time.
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Speaker 1: co slash b ball. All right, demonse, let's go to
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 3: All right, So we know that New York, I mean,
Speaker 3: Indy stole the first two in New York and then
Speaker 3: Game three, New York bounce back coming back from that
Speaker 3: twenty point win or twenty point deficit.
Speaker 2: It seems like something to do often. Now, will one
Speaker 2: team pull away? Is anybody gonna no? Listen?
Speaker 1: I think this is gonna be a seven game series.
Speaker 1: But in order for that to happen, the Knicks need
Speaker 1: to win tonight, and I think they are gonna win tonight.
Speaker 1: Brew and I disagreed on this yesterday, but I I
Speaker 1: saw there there were some things that happen in Game
Speaker 1: three of that series that to me were at least
Speaker 1: somewhat worrisome for the Pacers, which is it felt like
Speaker 1: Carlisle was forced to start reaching a bit. Now you
Speaker 1: might say shit, Thibodeau definitely was with Delon Right Landry
Speaker 1: Shammitt playing minutes got it And this was the point
Speaker 1: I was trying to make on TV that I did
Speaker 1: a poor job of. But I'll try again here. The
Speaker 1: Knicks are used to playing seven guys and getting contributions
Speaker 1: from seven guys, so them all of a sudden potentially
Speaker 1: getting contributions from Guy eight and Shamit or Guy nine
Speaker 1: and Delon Wright is almost just like a bonus. The Pacers,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, are reliant on had been reliant
Speaker 1: on Ben Matherin being good for them. I mean, this
Speaker 1: guy was sixteen a game each of the last three years,
Speaker 1: sixteen a game this year, and Carlisle seems to soured
Speaker 1: on him in this series. Obi Toppin, who has been
Speaker 1: really valuable to them in the since he's come over
Speaker 1: there as like an energy guy and still getting you
Speaker 1: ten to eleven points, he has been somewhat ineffective this series.
Speaker 1: That then leads to them all of a sudden being
Speaker 1: like Tony Bradley, are you gonna give us some real minutes,
Speaker 1: Ben Shephard, are you gonna give us some real minutes?
Speaker 1: And it feels a little more grasping. You then add
Speaker 1: to the fact that the Knicks were able to execute
Speaker 1: that comeback to Monday with Jalen Brunton playing really poorly
Speaker 1: until the final two minutes of that game, and Karl
Speaker 1: Anthony Towns obviously was unbelievable in the fourth quarter. He
Speaker 1: had four points going into the fourth quarter. So for
Speaker 1: all those reasons, I just think the Knicks go into
Speaker 1: tonight's game far better position. And I think that this
Speaker 1: series was you can't be tied through three games, but
Speaker 1: if you could be, this one would be like the
Speaker 1: Knicks in historic fashion Blue Game one, the Pacers in
Speaker 1: much more gradual fashion Blue Game three, Game two. What
Speaker 1: was that a one point? Was it a one point
Speaker 1: or three point game? With fifteen seconds left? Like that?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pull it up because I said that. That's
Speaker 1: another thing I said on TV. YESA I was like,
Speaker 1: did I get that wrong too? No, I'm right. It's
Speaker 1: it's one ten, one oh nine with fifteen seconds left
Speaker 1: and the Knicks damn near steal the ball at mid
Speaker 1: court and just don't get it, and you know, the
Speaker 1: Pacers end up Jalen misses the three at the end
Speaker 1: and the Pacers win. So this is a dead even
Speaker 1: series that I think, And this is one more thing
Speaker 1: that then I'll get your take on it, Demonte. I
Speaker 1: think that as devastating as Game one was for the Knicks,
Speaker 1: losing it in that fashion, game three is a different
Speaker 1: type of devastating for the Pacers because they are up
Speaker 1: ten going into the fourth quarter to go to the finals.
Speaker 1: Because you go up three to zero, the series is over.
Speaker 1: The Pacers had this series one if they play one
Speaker 1: solid quarter of basketball, and they couldn't. So I wonder
Speaker 1: what type of impact that has on them emotionally. Similar
Speaker 1: to what we saw from the Knicks early in Game
Speaker 1: two when they didn't seem to be there emotionally after
Speaker 1: blowing Game one the way they did. I know you
Speaker 1: wanted to say something.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, yeah, I got I got the Pacers at
Speaker 2: six here.
Speaker 3: I don't think there's any way they can feel like
Speaker 3: deflated or negatively. I know they might have had the
Speaker 3: game in the reach and got to close out there,
Speaker 3: but they just took two in New York. I think
Speaker 3: they're gonna win today, and and I just like the
Speaker 3: Pacers more than the Knicks.
Speaker 2: It's no bad blood.
Speaker 3: Obviously, it'd be better for the Knicks to win the finals.
Speaker 3: Are go farther because it'd make more sense. The Celtics
Speaker 3: got knocked out, But the Pacers have a more consistent team.
Speaker 2: I like the Pacers more than the Knicks.
Speaker 1: And uh, well, so listen the Pacers. What is true
Speaker 1: about the Pacers this playoffs is they are zero to
Speaker 1: three in game threes and ten and oher in every
Speaker 1: other game. So the argument for them is they've gone
Speaker 1: up too oh in every series and then lost you know,
Speaker 1: game threes in every series. That the Knicks argument is
Speaker 1: for tonight. They have been much better on the road
Speaker 1: than at home this postseason. They are They were three
Speaker 1: and oh on the road against Detroit, they were two
Speaker 1: and one on the road against both and now one
Speaker 1: and oh against Indiana. So they are six and one
Speaker 1: on the road are the Knicks this postseason? And then
Speaker 1: one and two Sorry I'm doing this on the fly,
Speaker 1: one in two, two and one, So three and three,
Speaker 1: three and five at home, six and one on the road,
Speaker 1: three and five at home, which is really weird, but
Speaker 1: it is what it is.
Speaker 4: I also, I I this is gonna sound funny because
Speaker 4: of what game two was or Game one was.
Speaker 1: Pardon me, but I like how the Knicks have held
Speaker 1: Halliburton in check since game one. Game one, Halliburton was
Speaker 1: unbelievable and executed, you know, one of the greatest comebacks
Speaker 1: in playoff history. Game two he had I think two
Speaker 1: points at halftime and finished with fourteen. Game three he
Speaker 1: had twenty and seven assists. Like, I think they have
Speaker 1: to feel decent about what they've been able to do
Speaker 1: against Halliburton. And so now this is maybe just priors
Speaker 1: because I thought going into the series the Knicks were better,
Speaker 1: and I thought that they were gonna win this series
Speaker 1: in seven games, and I still think that. I just
Speaker 1: don't know. Is that what you said.
Speaker 2: Seven games before? I remember the way you were talking
Speaker 2: about the Knicks. Go. It's not like you thought they
Speaker 2: were gonna whirl through the Pacers.
Speaker 1: Oh I didn't. Maybe I didn't give a games pace.
Speaker 3: Ye I don't think you gave any four HS games
Speaker 3: yea seven the just did sond very convinced that the
Speaker 3: Knicks We're gonna.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I I once they beat the Celtics,
Speaker 1: I just kind of felt like this was the nixt
Speaker 1: moment and if they can just you know, execute a
Speaker 1: couple plays. At the end of Game one, we're feeling
Speaker 1: very differently, but they listen. That's the playoffs, that's how
Speaker 1: it works. I think they win tonight. If they lose tonight,
Speaker 1: I think they're cooked. But I think they win tonight. Uh,
Speaker 1: pardon me, all right, let's go to Halliburton.
Speaker 3: At the very beginning of the playoffs. You know, the
Speaker 3: poll came out of Halliburton say he was the most
Speaker 3: overrated player.
Speaker 2: In the NBA.
Speaker 3: And now fans, I think fans and the folks are
Speaker 3: starting to swing very far in the other direction.
Speaker 2: What do you think of proper rating for Tyres? Haliburton
Speaker 2: is right now.
Speaker 1: Listen. Club Superstar opens tomorrow on the TV show Back
Speaker 1: to Back Conference Final. Clearly the best player on the team, clearly,
Speaker 1: incredibly Clutch is kind of an old school pass first
Speaker 1: point guard. I he's clearly Demonse one of the fifteen
Speaker 1: best players in the league, and he has an argument
Speaker 1: that he's in that top twelve. I think that's I
Speaker 1: think that like, who are the guys in the league
Speaker 1: who are there is not even an argument better than him.
Speaker 1: So let me the let me maybe pull up a
Speaker 1: first draft of Club Superstar. So, no, you cannot argue
Speaker 1: that Haliburton's better than this player. How long is the list?
Speaker 1: Joker agreed, yeah, Jannis agreed, Shay agreed, Uh huh healthy,
Speaker 1: Tatum agreed. Yeah, I mean the Achilles is weird, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna keep Tatum where he is. Luca agreed, we're
Speaker 1: at five. I think listen, I there are five more
Speaker 1: players better than him. But as far as like it's
Speaker 1: under you, there is no argument. Okay, now, guys who
Speaker 1: you could make the argument he's better than but I
Speaker 1: don't agree with it. Steph Lebron, hold on, when I
Speaker 1: did that whole thing? Did I say? Shay said was
Speaker 1: like the fourth Movement got leave Shaye out, Steph Lebron,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was thinking Brunson like, but I was figured
Speaker 3: like I was just thinking of my head.
Speaker 2: That's pretty debatable, but right, that is right.
Speaker 1: But I think Brunton's better than him, but it's clearly debatable.
Speaker 1: And yeah, you're not sure.
Speaker 2: I'd say, I mean, yeah, I think better than me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's it's close, right, And then you get
Speaker 1: to I think two guys that are tough in how
Speaker 1: you're gonna rank them, Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant no
Speaker 1: embiid and bid. Yeah, I mean it's just yeah, but
Speaker 1: Durant and Anthony Davis are I like, they both have
Speaker 1: the Halliburton's way more available in those guys. They it
Speaker 1: feels like those guys have higher ceilings. But man, oh Man,
Speaker 1: Halliburton has more playoff moments this postseason than either one
Speaker 1: of those guys in the last half decade. So like
Speaker 1: there's and then there's I think he's Do you think
Speaker 1: he's better than Donovan Mitchell.
Speaker 3: I was thinking about Donovan Mitchell. Yes, actually I do. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I do too.
Speaker 1: I think for I think when it comes to winning, like.
Speaker 2: I think he's better exactly.
Speaker 1: So I guess my answer is the absolute highest you
Speaker 1: could have him is sixth I think that would be irrational.
Speaker 1: I think I have him eleventh, and I think the
Speaker 1: lowest you could have him is fourteenth. So I know
Speaker 1: that's that sounds like a bit of a cop out,
Speaker 1: but like I think that is he's better than Devin Booker.
Speaker 1: My answer is yes, yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean it's just like skill set exactly. I was
Speaker 3: just thinking, like, haller Burton's just more riable player than
Speaker 3: Donovan Mitchell or Devin.
Speaker 1: Wimby's a tough one, but Wimby's so still something of
Speaker 1: an unknown, you know. Wimby's almost as much of an
Speaker 1: ideas he is a basketball player at this point. All right, people,
Speaker 1: you go ahead and ask me about.
Speaker 3: Mister Halliburton is allowed back into the stadium for the
Speaker 3: Pacers home games, but he'll be in the booth for
Speaker 3: game four.
Speaker 2: Is there any.
Speaker 1: I know that means he's on the call?
Speaker 3: Is there is there any part of you that I
Speaker 3: would like to see him on courtside?
Speaker 1: All right, I I gotta tell you guys something. I
Speaker 1: have a very what's going to be an unpopular opinion
Speaker 1: on this.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: I'm old enough to remember how every single one of
Speaker 1: us felt the day after he came on the court,
Speaker 1: mocked the honest, waved that flag in his face, and
Speaker 1: then the next day did a TV interview where he
Speaker 1: had no remorse whatsoever and claimed he wasn't even looking
Speaker 1: at you, honest. And so not only do I not
Speaker 1: want him court side, I think he should still not
Speaker 1: be allowed to go to the games. Okay, so I'm
Speaker 1: the only person I think who feels like I felt
Speaker 1: a whole two and a half weeks ago when we
Speaker 1: all said he needs to be banned. Every single person
Speaker 1: was like, you've gotta ban him, And then Halliburton hits
Speaker 1: a game winner, and Barkley's like, free John Halliburton, and
Speaker 1: now everyone's like, oh, yeah, in fact, sit him next
Speaker 1: to Shalloman, like there is I have no reason to
Speaker 1: believe that. I don't think this was too harsh of
Speaker 1: a penalty.
Speaker 2: I don't was it just be until the end of
Speaker 2: this season. Was that the initial.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes? And then they and maybe they I thought
Speaker 1: maybe the rational was the Pacers are going to lose
Speaker 1: to the Cavs, so it's you know, it's all one
Speaker 1: round and now they won. I would be open to
Speaker 1: if they make the finals letting him back, but I
Speaker 1: don't like it. I I thought, what he again? We
Speaker 1: are people, people have such short memories. We were all
Speaker 1: discussing how impressive it was that Yiannis didn't punch that
Speaker 1: guy in the face, and we were all talking about
Speaker 1: what an impossible position he put Yannis in. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: And now eight games later we're.
Speaker 3: Like, ah, I think what you do it's probably just
Speaker 3: you know, people, people's emotions and like seeing Halibird and
Speaker 3: I are cooking, he's making a run, his dad's not
Speaker 3: able to go to the games.
Speaker 2: I also think people are starting to like Halivert more.
Speaker 3: I certainly liked Tyree's Haliburton, not more than I liked
Speaker 3: him two months ago.
Speaker 1: Sure, that's fine. I like his dad less. And I
Speaker 1: don't I the there, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean And when you when you said that he
Speaker 3: said that he wasn't looking at honest, and you when
Speaker 3: he said he was looking through him, did you think
Speaker 3: he was being uh disingenuous? There are you saying? Do
Speaker 3: you actually think that he wasn't trying to look at
Speaker 3: you honest? Or I think that when he said he
Speaker 3: was looking through.
Speaker 1: Him, he was taunting honest. He tried to claim he
Speaker 1: was not taunting.
Speaker 2: Honest, okay, because you made it seem like he kind
Speaker 2: of lied about it.
Speaker 3: I thought when he said I was looking through him,
Speaker 3: like he was saying like, yeah, I was looking at him,
Speaker 3: like I was looking right through him type of deal.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, that that interview. Maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: I see it was him saying, oh, I didn't even
Speaker 1: realize he was there. I was just in the moment
Speaker 1: and that I was just I just picked that spot randomly,
Speaker 1: and he happened to be there, and I didn't pick
Speaker 1: up on it because I was looking through him. I
Speaker 1: was looking at the crowd, and I'm like, that's not
Speaker 1: a guy that feels bad.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, and so maybe I'm.
Speaker 1: Miss interpreting it, but I didn't. I didn't like the game.
Speaker 1: I didn't love it. All right, Let's do one quick
Speaker 1: NFL thing and then get to some listener questions.
Speaker 3: Sakon Barkley told Red Blanket Ship and Cooper Degene on
Speaker 3: their podcast that the.
Speaker 1: Man, did you hold on? Did you know this demand
Speaker 1: before we even get to it? I bad news for us.
Speaker 1: We're now competing with a Red Blanken Hip, Cooper de
Speaker 1: Jene project. That's that's that's a nice tand my clear my, I'm.
Speaker 6: Gonna have to catch up on the archives there all right, man,
Speaker 6: oh man, I bet that's an insightful show. I'm excited
Speaker 6: to listen.
Speaker 1: Okay. Go ahead.
Speaker 3: Told him that that that twenty twenty four Eagles team
Speaker 3: the top five team in NFL history.
Speaker 2: You're obviously a NFL historian, How true?
Speaker 1: Is that not only is it not true, it's not even.
Speaker 1: You can't even you can't even make a credible argument
Speaker 1: for like and by the way, Sakuon said they were
Speaker 1: a top five team of all time and then listed
Speaker 1: five other teams in his top five, which then would
Speaker 1: make them, I guess, the top six team of all time.
Speaker 1: But one of the teams he listed was the two
Speaker 1: thousand Ravens, which is not a top twenty team of
Speaker 1: all time. Like, none of this makes sense, but the
Speaker 1: seventy two Dolphins that went undefeated had the number one
Speaker 1: offense and the number one defense and beat teams by
Speaker 1: an average of fifteen points a game. That's a top
Speaker 1: five team of all time. The eighty four Niners that
Speaker 1: went fifteen to one annihilated their postseason opponents start to finish,
Speaker 1: had a top two offense, top two defense. The eighty
Speaker 1: five Bears that everyone talks about the greatest defense of
Speaker 1: all time, which it had, but it also had the
Speaker 1: number two offense in the sport that year and beat
Speaker 1: their playoff opponents Demonse ninety one to ten is a
Speaker 1: top five team of all time.
Speaker 2: Bears quarterback ever throw up for more than four thousand yards.
Speaker 1: I know because they had defense.
Speaker 2: I guess it was amazing.
Speaker 1: But okay, the defense was amazing. They had an amazing
Speaker 1: running game. They scored the second most points of any
Speaker 1: team in the league that year. The the who are
Speaker 1: the other teams? I'm leaving out an obvious one nine
Speaker 1: to two Cowboys pretty good, seventy eight Steelers, which had
Speaker 1: I think eleven Hall of Famers, They're pretty good. The
Speaker 1: seven Patriots didn't win the Super Bowl. The the greatest team
Speaker 1: I've ever seen, the twenty sixteen Patriots that went fourteen
Speaker 1: and two and ran had a top two offense and defense.
Speaker 1: They were pretty good. The ninety eight Broncos en route
Speaker 1: to a back to back championship. Like listen, the Eagles
Speaker 1: had the number eight offense, number two defense, and were
Speaker 1: in one score playoff games in rounds one in rounds two? Now,
Speaker 1: did the Eagles have a top five Super Bowl performance
Speaker 1: because of what they did and who they did it to? Sure,
Speaker 1: I'll listen to that. You want to say, did they
Speaker 1: have a top five all time final two games by
Speaker 1: just dismantling the Commanders and the dismantling the Chiefs. Sure
Speaker 1: I'll listen to that. But top five? Yeah, but they
Speaker 1: still scored fifty five, you know what I mean, or
Speaker 1: whatever they scored like the sure. But I just people, again,
Speaker 1: everyone just leave the list to me. Your guys lists suck.
Speaker 1: And again I just and he wouldn't even it was
Speaker 1: so his top Here were his top five teams of
Speaker 1: all time for the record, seventy two Dolphins because they're undefeated.
Speaker 1: Good job, eighty five Bears, good job, the two thousand Ravens,
Speaker 1: who it's not even a tenable opinion. And then he
Speaker 1: was like one of the Brady teams and one of
Speaker 1: the Mahomes teams, like that's not even like a thing,
Speaker 1: and so I just like whatever, Uh, all right, let's
Speaker 1: remember to everyone like rate, subscribe, review if you have
Speaker 1: time to, you know, when you're not listening to the
Speaker 1: Read Blank and Hip Cooper Degene podcast, if you want
Speaker 1: to check out What's right with Nick? Right, we'd appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You think I'm being rude there, Demansey.
Speaker 3: Hey man on the podcast, It's gonna be very insightful,
Speaker 3: and you know, I like.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go do a three cone drill after this
Speaker 1: after our pod. All right, what are some listener questions?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 2: Cale suggests another rule change.
Speaker 3: What do you think about there being a timer on
Speaker 3: replay reviews if the reps can't clearly overturn the call
Speaker 3: in one minute call stands.
Speaker 1: That's how it was when they brought it to the
Speaker 1: NFL initially, and that's of course how it should be.
Speaker 1: There was a real timer, and the logic was within
Speaker 1: thirty or forty five or sixty seconds, I don't remember.
Speaker 1: If we can't figure it out within this timeframe, then
Speaker 1: whatever we then it's not clear and obvious. The whole
Speaker 1: idea was. The idea behind replay was to fix egregious mistakes,
Speaker 1: not to parse hundredths of a second, you know, through
Speaker 1: zapruder film. That's not what it was there for. Let's
Speaker 1: go on to the next one.
Speaker 3: Jam as has there ever been a team that is
Speaker 3: the youngest and best team in the NBA like this?
Speaker 1: Okay, see team well, I mean OKC in twenty twelve
Speaker 1: had a shot and people can be like, oh, they
Speaker 1: weren't the best team. They were the favorites over Lebron's
Speaker 1: heat in the finals. They were the favorites and they
Speaker 1: won Game one, so you know that was they had
Speaker 1: a real argument for it. They just you know, Lebron
Speaker 1: and d Wade just weren't having it all right.
Speaker 3: Next, Uh, Curtis, if you manage the MAVs, would you
Speaker 3: rather have Luca and Brunson or Flag A D and Kyrie?
Speaker 1: Luca and Brunson. I mean, listen, Kyrie is coming is
Speaker 1: dealing with a catastrophic kne injury. Ad is thirty two
Speaker 1: and has real injury questions. And I like the idea
Speaker 1: of Cooper Flag But those other guys are two top
Speaker 1: eight players in the league. Uh, so that's not even
Speaker 1: a question to me, do Luca?
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean they did get traded away from
Speaker 3: each other's teams for a reason.
Speaker 2: Do those guys even work together like that? And considering
Speaker 2: their play style?
Speaker 1: No, I don't think so, but I do. I just
Speaker 1: think you could, you know, figure out a way to
Speaker 1: make it work, figure out a way or flip one
Speaker 1: for a real bounty, not what they flipped Luca for,
Speaker 1: you know all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Right all right?
Speaker 3: Next, Trey ass, what events are you playing in World
Speaker 3: Series of Poker this year?
Speaker 1: Great question? So I actually, uh, it's not at all
Speaker 1: what you guys expect. So I and now some hopefully
Speaker 1: I won't play in all of these because the final
Speaker 1: table for some overlaps with the other events. But theoretically
Speaker 1: I am playing in the ten thousand dollars Dealer's Choice Championship,
Speaker 1: which is an demons. It's an unbelieve. There are twenty
Speaker 1: two different games and every seven hands, a different person
Speaker 1: at the table gets to pick which game they're playing
Speaker 1: for those seven hands. So like, so there's twenty two
Speaker 1: different variations, okay, from seven card stud to Badoogie badou
Speaker 1: se five card draw which is like the you know
Speaker 1: old school game regular nolamit hold them big. Oh, and
Speaker 1: so you have to be able to play and know
Speaker 1: the rules and be sophisticated at all the games. So
Speaker 1: that is that's the tournament I want to play, and
Speaker 1: that's the tournament. So that so that's one. I'm also
Speaker 1: going to play the fifteen hundred dollars Badugie. A lot
Speaker 1: of this just has to deal with the tournaments that
Speaker 1: are being played while I'm out there. I might play
Speaker 1: what will be the most bananas tournament of the series
Speaker 1: and the first time they've ever held it, the fifteen
Speaker 1: hundred pot limit Omaha Double Board Bomb Pot Tournament, which
Speaker 1: is just going to be billful and then I'm probably
Speaker 1: also going to play in the ten thousand dollars seven
Speaker 1: Card stud Championship. So I'm not playing any traditional no
Speaker 1: limit hold'ems, and I'm playing all these different mixed games
Speaker 1: and i couldn't be more excited. So those are the
Speaker 1: ones that those are the ones I'm playing in. All right,
Speaker 1: go to Eric's question before we.
Speaker 3: Get out of the Drake May question here today, expectations
Speaker 3: for Drake May this year feels like he used to
Speaker 3: be higher on him, but have had.
Speaker 2: A count counter.
Speaker 3: Turbulence count counterbalance counter oh oh, counter turbulence is not
Speaker 3: a word.
Speaker 2: Counterbalance, Wild's optimism.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I listen. I like I like Drake May coming
Speaker 1: out of school because he's very young and very big
Speaker 1: and very strong. And that's how I like my top
Speaker 1: three picks.
Speaker 2: I want him.
Speaker 1: I don't want him to have sixty starts under their belt.
Speaker 1: I want him to be young and six four and
Speaker 1: big and all that stuff. And I thought he was
Speaker 1: fine last year. What the wild thing is that he's maddening,
Speaker 1: and it is that he has just completely changed what
Speaker 1: all of his rules ever were for grading quarterbacks were
Speaker 1: for this guy, and he is he is acting as
Speaker 1: if that he sees more in Drake May than he
Speaker 1: saw in mac Jones, which he should because Drake Mays
Speaker 1: objectively better than mac Jones. But he loved mac Jones.
Speaker 1: So to answer your question, yeah, I just got a
Speaker 1: I I Wild. It's so yeah. Wild is just so
Speaker 1: punch drunk on the fact that he has a quarterback
Speaker 1: that can throw, you know, could throw a ten yard
Speaker 1: out route through a couple plies of bounty, that he
Speaker 1: doesn't know what to do with himself. So that's it,
Speaker 1: all right, Everybody like rate subscribe review if you could.
Speaker 1: It actually really does help us out a lot. Great job,
Speaker 1: Demon's great job, Blue Dog, great job. Friends of the
Speaker 1: Volume and DraftKings. And if the game tonight is insane,
Speaker 1: maybe we'll do a show tomorrow, but the plan is
Speaker 1: to probably just do a show on Thursday, and my
Speaker 1: guess is on Thursday we will be discussing the Knicks
Speaker 1: having tied the series two games apiece, and the Thunder
Speaker 1: advancing to the second finals in team history. See you guys, then,
Speaker 1: what's right