Speaker 1: On this episode of the Heat Check, why are the
Speaker 1: biggest stories in the NBA still fucking terrible reffing?
Speaker 2: These guys are Jabbronis.
Speaker 1: We get into the reffing shenanigans that are afoot surrounding
Speaker 1: the Pacers, Celtics and the Lakers Raptors game. You gotta
Speaker 1: hear this quote from Dark Oh, it is incredible. We
Speaker 1: also do a deep dive into the news around the league,
Speaker 1: including Draymond's return, the Bucks defensive disaster, and Eric Spolster's
Speaker 1: huge extension.
Speaker 2: That happened on the heels of a big divorce. Congratulations
Speaker 2: to Spo. You get to keep all that money plus
Speaker 2: a lot more.
Speaker 1: Get right into it, Anthony and drop that motherfucking beat
Speaker 1: that should be Rihanna. Oh okay, can we just be
Speaker 1: done with all this refin bullshit? That's the thing I'm
Speaker 1: fired out, fired up about today. The one big thing,
Speaker 1: as it were, all season long, We've got the refs
Speaker 1: on some bullshit tossing Jokic for saying the B word.
Speaker 1: Why did I say the B word? Saying the word bitch?
Speaker 1: Why did I say the B word? Like I'm on
Speaker 1: an FCC, I say fuck all the time and it's
Speaker 1: like oh, saying the B word, blowing calls and crunch
Speaker 1: time favoring one team over another. We got two huge
Speaker 1: stories though, from the past two days, and they both
Speaker 1: involve referees. Let's talk about the Celtics game first, because
Speaker 1: that one is also egregious game on Monday night that
Speaker 1: was once again marred by shitty reffing.
Speaker 2: Once again, the league came to the defense of their.
Speaker 1: Awful, no good sad sack, terrible, mediocre lazy riffs with
Speaker 1: three point two malicious. With three point two seconds left
Speaker 1: in a tie game, Jayalen Brown drove into a triple
Speaker 1: team and was straight mugged by Buddy Healed. They called
Speaker 1: the foul, but here's the kicker. Rick Carlisle is uh
Speaker 1: pocketing challenges like gold coins, so he throws the challenge
Speaker 1: the little thing that they do with their finger, and
Speaker 1: the call gets reviewed. Right to the shock of everyone,
Speaker 1: including the pacers. The call was reversed no foul, despite
Speaker 1: very obvious evidence that our man Buddy Healed struck.
Speaker 2: Down Brown on the head. Splat.
Speaker 1: On the other end, Porzingis gets fouled for a touch
Speaker 1: fowl gets called for touch fowl on Ben Mathrin who
Speaker 1: then nails two free throws and that was game.
Speaker 2: And the Celtics, if you.
Speaker 1: Might imagine, they have not calm down since, no.
Speaker 2: They have not.
Speaker 1: Alen Brown was irate, incensed and I don't mean nag champa,
Speaker 1: I mean screaming that's bullshit while he was on the floor.
Speaker 1: He has not calmed down in the postgame either. He said,
Speaker 1: I think you obviously hit me in the head. I
Speaker 1: think we definitely need to do some investigation.
Speaker 2: That's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: He went after the ref James Williams and asked if
Speaker 1: he saw Buddy hit him in the head, and he
Speaker 1: was like, no, I didn't, nope, which only made things worse.
Speaker 1: He said, that's what pissed me off, because I know
Speaker 1: I got hit in the head and you see it
Speaker 1: on the replay. It's pretty obvious I got hit in
Speaker 1: the head. Then you look at me in my eye
Speaker 1: and tell me that you didn't see it. I think
Speaker 1: that needs to be investigated. You cost my team a game,
Speaker 1: and of course I'm pissed about it.
Speaker 2: It was pretty obvious. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: Like seeing a man hit another man in the head
Speaker 1: is not something that you just can't see when it's
Speaker 1: on video. Buddy Healed tells Joe Miszula, Hey, I foiled him.
Speaker 2: I did. Angels were on my side, he says.
Speaker 1: After the game, Missoula has not calmed down either, keeping
Speaker 1: those crazy eyes on peak, he says, I just can't
Speaker 1: wait till four o'clock, referring to the NBA's last two
Speaker 1: minute report.
Speaker 2: I just can't wait for four o'clock. You know how
Speaker 2: bad it is?
Speaker 1: So even lebron James, who has been doing the lord's
Speaker 1: work trying to get Darbnham fired, pouting talking about how
Speaker 1: his son could actually play for the Lakers, when he
Speaker 1: knows that his son, Bronnie James can barely play for
Speaker 1: the USC Trojans. And he knows that because he goes
Speaker 1: to every Trojan game where Bronni's getting like fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: a game, averaging four point seven points or something per game.
Speaker 1: I think it's like six point seven. But still now
Speaker 1: for the effect, it's not much. So let's be real, Braun,
Speaker 1: your son can't play for the Lakers anyway.
Speaker 2: He is wouldn't even wish Ricky Rubio a.
Speaker 1: Sincere retirement because he was all pissed off because they're
Speaker 1: losing games. He tweets about the game. See what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: JB clearly got hit in the back of the head.
Speaker 1: They reviewed the play just to reverse it and say
Speaker 1: he didn't. Man, what good ass game to have an
Speaker 1: ending like that. And y'all see why I be going
Speaker 1: gorilla ape shit out there. When it happens, he does
Speaker 1: g gae shit. Lebron absolutely loses his.
Speaker 2: Mind when a call is not called in his favor.
Speaker 2: So okay, So the NBA releases.
Speaker 1: Their final two minute report, and of course, because they
Speaker 1: are the mob, they say.
Speaker 2: That there was no foul on the play, even though.
Speaker 1: They do say Porzingis's touch fowl should have not been called,
Speaker 1: probably should have gone to overtime.
Speaker 2: But the lengths folks that the league.
Speaker 1: Will go to cover up for their own to really
Speaker 1: just make a mockery of the sport. Bad refing, the
Speaker 1: bad refings is shocking. So can we please not have
Speaker 1: these refs in the mix anymore? Can we not have
Speaker 1: the refs be a major plot line this season? Because
Speaker 1: someone on Twitter did a little investigation, what do you
Speaker 1: think they found about James Williams. So James Williams is
Speaker 1: not only from Indiana, went to school at Indiana and
Speaker 1: as shockingly reffed a ton of Pacers games. Do you
Speaker 1: know what the Pacers record is? A team that's been
Speaker 1: in the dregs for a while.
Speaker 2: Now, Let's be honest.
Speaker 1: It's not we're talking about peak Lebron James Miami either.
Speaker 1: We're talking about the Pacers. Do you know what the
Speaker 1: Pacers record is? When James Williams is reffing on the floor,
Speaker 1: just guess thirty five and three? Are we serious? I
Speaker 1: don't even think the seventy three and nine Warriors had
Speaker 1: a thirty five and three under one ref. That does
Speaker 1: not make the NBA does have to investigate the Pacers
Speaker 1: their past history. Should not five and three against Muncy
Speaker 1: Central High. I am telling you something is wrong. And
Speaker 1: if that isn't bad enough that one ref scenario, we
Speaker 1: got another full blown conspiracy on our hands, courtesy of
Speaker 1: our man Darko Razovich, ra haf Rakovic, whatever you know
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, raw Hakovic, ra Hakovich. I think
Speaker 1: that's it. The Raptors lost to the Lakers last night.
Speaker 1: It was an awesome game, very back and forth, very
Speaker 1: high scoring. Raptors were taking it to the Lakers, but.
Speaker 2: They handed out in.
Speaker 1: The fourth quarter, twenty three free throws to LA, twenty
Speaker 1: three free thows to the Lakers in the fourth quarter alone,
Speaker 1: and just two to the Raptors. Do you think the
Speaker 1: head coach felt some kind of way about that?
Speaker 2: You're sure? What do you think he said?
Speaker 1: Probably something mild meek, Hey, we got to check these
Speaker 1: refs out.
Speaker 2: Here, something.
Speaker 1: No, it was an all time epic rant. You must
Speaker 1: hear here.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 3: Thank you Doug, Thank you Doug.
Speaker 4: That's that's that's outrageous what happened tonight.
Speaker 3: This is completely bias. This is shame. Shame for the referees,
Speaker 3: shame for the league to allow this.
Speaker 4: Twenty three free throws for them, and we get two
Speaker 4: free throws.
Speaker 3: In the fourth quarter, Like how to play the game?
Speaker 4: I understand respect for all stars and all that, but
Speaker 4: we have star players on our team as well.
Speaker 3: How's possible as Scottie Barnes.
Speaker 4: Who is all Star caliber player in this league, he
Speaker 4: goes every single time to the rim with fours and
Speaker 4: trying to get get to the rim without flopping and
Speaker 4: and not trying to get foul calls. He gets two
Speaker 4: free throws for the whole game. How's that possible. How
Speaker 4: are you gonna explain it to me? They had to
Speaker 4: win to night if that's If that's the case, just
Speaker 4: let us know so we don't show up for the game.
Speaker 3: Just give them a win. But that was not fair tonight.
Speaker 4: And this is not happening first time for us. Scottie
Speaker 4: Barnes is gonna be all started. He's gonna be the
Speaker 4: face of this league. And what's happening over here during
Speaker 4: the whole season, I've been calling the back it's a
Speaker 4: complete crap.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you're getting any explanations at all?
Speaker 2: That offensive foul? Did you did you see like get
Speaker 2: any ap?
Speaker 3: No? No, there is no explanation.
Speaker 4: They just they just come up there, they review what
Speaker 4: and they see what they want to see. They don't
Speaker 4: want to hear us what we got to say. They
Speaker 4: don't want to hear the players. They don't just want
Speaker 4: to protect us. Over again, they got three six free throws,
Speaker 4: twenty three free throws in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3: What are we talking about? What are we talking about?
Speaker 4: How are we gonna supposed to play?
Speaker 3: There's a one off.
Speaker 4: You feel this happening to your.
Speaker 3: Team at It's happening a lot.
Speaker 4: But I'm telling our guys be professional, keep fighting, keep
Speaker 4: going for the next one, but on kill the when.
Speaker 3: For how long?
Speaker 1: This is incredible? I love Darko. I want to hear
Speaker 1: Darko talk about anything. It's giving me real forty year
Speaker 1: old virgin vibes. And I tell you what, it was epic.
Speaker 1: Here's the context to Darko's mountdown. So Toronto went ten
Speaker 1: for ten from the field to close out the game,
Speaker 1: twelve for twelve if you count the pair of baskets
Speaker 1: that got way for offensive fouls. In other words, the
Speaker 1: Raptors offensively were perfect down the stretch, still could not
Speaker 1: close a one point gap. Why twenty three free throws
Speaker 1: to two free throws. The disparity of the free throws
Speaker 1: were crazy. And when you play as well as Toronto did,
Speaker 1: I just don't think you should lose a game like this.
Speaker 1: I just don't think you should.
Speaker 2: The Lakers are widely.
Speaker 1: Seen as getting, let's be real, a very favorable whistle
Speaker 1: Lebron Jay James, any team he's on, very favorable whistle?
Speaker 1: Why because, like you said, he goes ape shit whenever
Speaker 1: he doesn't get a call.
Speaker 2: I'm curious is Lebron gonna weigh in on this one?
Speaker 1: Too, because I feel like he's very interested in refs
Speaker 1: fucking around and getting calls wrong.
Speaker 2: It feels like maybe this would be one he would
Speaker 2: want to get involved in.
Speaker 1: Also, Darko was furious at Ben Taylor and his team,
Speaker 1: and he did not hold back by the way Ben
Speaker 1: Taylor has had He was the one that Fred van
Speaker 1: Fleet was saying was fucking terrible. I think Ben Taylor
Speaker 1: has a grudge against the Toronto Raptors. Now the NBA
Speaker 1: has another roughing controversy on their hands, and as Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown said so poignantly, so classily, so perfectly, the shit's
Speaker 1: gotta be investigated, and these fucking refs have to stop
Speaker 1: putting themselves into the spotlight before.
Speaker 2: We all lose our damn line.
Speaker 1: Let's move on a lot of quick hitters to catch
Speaker 1: up this midweek episode from the Heat Check. We start
Speaker 1: with a little update out of Brooklyn. So last week
Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about Ben Simmons. We noted
Speaker 1: that the Nets put out a release in December twenty
Speaker 1: if that Ben was increasing his on court work and
Speaker 1: they would update his status in two weeks. So to
Speaker 1: my quick math on the calendar, it has been two
Speaker 1: weeks and we have no updates on Ben Simmons and
Speaker 1: what's going on. It's been crickets over there in the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn organization.
Speaker 2: Nothing.
Speaker 1: He was last seen on November sixth, when he had
Speaker 1: two points in thirty three minutes in a four point
Speaker 1: loss to the Bucks. Since then, we have seen no
Speaker 1: hide nor hair of Ben Simmons in a uniform. Lots
Speaker 1: of fit fits for the league, lots of you know, sweaters,
Speaker 1: multi colored cardigans, lots of ice. You know, Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: one of the best dressers in the league, but no
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons in a uniform. So to that, I say,
Speaker 1: it's very incredibly sad. I've never seen a player with
Speaker 1: the stranger career arc than Ben Simmons. I don't doubt
Speaker 1: that he does have those back problems, but like if
Speaker 1: you've got back issues and you also really don't want
Speaker 1: to be somewhere, the back issues are just tough to overcome.
Speaker 1: You're gonna need to be one hundred and ten percent
Speaker 1: in order to feel comfortable to come back.
Speaker 2: Why because you probably don't want to be there anyway, right,
Speaker 2: And so if you don't really want to be there,
Speaker 2: then you got a little tweak, You got a little paeni,
Speaker 2: a little swarmness, and you're like, I'm just not feeling
Speaker 2: up to it. I'm just not ready to go out there.
Speaker 2: The nets won't even let us hear from him.
Speaker 1: They treat him like he's in witness protection. He's played
Speaker 1: forty percent of his games as a net, and it
Speaker 1: looks like that number is going to continue to shrink
Speaker 1: because he's obviously nowhere close to.
Speaker 2: Seeing the court.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just very bizarre. I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: we'll see him before the All Star Game.
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I mean, that's what I'm month
Speaker 2: from now.
Speaker 1: At that point, would anything be shot shocked if you
Speaker 1: got shut down for the rest of the year Because
Speaker 1: this team is going nowhere very fastic. What is happening
Speaker 1: with Ben Simmons. Nobody's asking either. It's almost like we
Speaker 1: don't care. He's a lost cause. If Ben Simmons was
Speaker 1: playing to the caliber or the level that he was
Speaker 1: playing in the good times of Philly and then he
Speaker 1: was just shut down for months on and we would
Speaker 1: be wondering where he is. But the fact that his
Speaker 1: production has gone down so severely, we think it's like
Speaker 1: a joke. We think Ben Simmons is just not even
Speaker 1: requiring an inquiry.
Speaker 2: We don't care.
Speaker 1: We don't care when he's coming back to the court,
Speaker 1: the point of the court, because he's not effective anymore.
Speaker 1: Just like a very unique player, a very unique arc.
Speaker 1: In his last game, he scored two points. He also
Speaker 1: had fifteen rebounds and four assists, and he was a
Speaker 1: lockdown defensive player.
Speaker 2: And it's the way that Ben Simmons was marketed. Really,
Speaker 2: that's the problem.
Speaker 1: As a point guard, guy that can score, a guy
Speaker 1: that's gonna be an all NBA caliber dude defensively and offensively,
Speaker 1: but he's not.
Speaker 2: He's a player that can help a team win. He's
Speaker 2: just not who he thought he was. And that's okay.
Speaker 1: From the sound of it, or I guess the lack
Speaker 1: of sound of it, It's gonna be a long time
Speaker 1: before we see any Ben's.
Speaker 2: In a uniform again, all right.
Speaker 1: Moving on, Draymond Green's back in the news because after
Speaker 1: about three and a half weeks, he has been cleared.
Speaker 2: By the league to come back.
Speaker 1: Woj Is reported that next Monday at Memphis should be
Speaker 1: Draymon's return to hoops. Imagine being gone so long on
Speaker 1: a suspension, you have to recondition yourself to get there,
Speaker 1: and Draymond said, to be honest, he'd be fine to
Speaker 1: come back right away, but he didn't think that it
Speaker 1: was the right thing for the team, right thing for him.
Speaker 2: Maybe he injures himself.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's bad for the team's success, even though the team,
Speaker 1: Let's Be Real, is dead already. But that's not really
Speaker 1: why he's in the news. He's in the news because
Speaker 1: he dropped this episode of The Draymond Green Show. It
Speaker 1: was the first thing I listened to yesterday, By the way,
Speaker 1: I woke up, opened my little eyes, and I went
Speaker 1: to the good old YouTube, and I watched the whole thing,
Speaker 1: all fifty one minutes of it, all the entire breadth
Speaker 1: and detail of his suspension.
Speaker 2: You've probably seen.
Speaker 1: Viral clips by now, like Steve Kerr and him out
Speaker 1: in the lawn of his house, crying, holding hands, kumbayawing,
Speaker 1: listening to Enya.
Speaker 2: He nagged, chompa something like that. He comes over. We
Speaker 2: had a good old cry.
Speaker 1: How Adam Silver talked him out of retiring, even though
Speaker 1: he's in the middle of this deal which worth hundreds
Speaker 1: of millions of dollars, which is obviously false. The fact
Speaker 1: that he's upset that Kevin Durant so that he needed help,
Speaker 1: the fact that he was very butt hurt by what stephen.
Speaker 2: A said so interesting.
Speaker 1: Stephen A does not believe that Draymond Green was ever
Speaker 1: close to retirement because he said this, brother, Draymond Green
Speaker 1: thinks about his future every day and it's got dollar
Speaker 1: signs attached to it.
Speaker 2: In facts facts, He's not turning down that money.
Speaker 1: Mostly though, the interview was a fascinating look at how
Speaker 1: somebody who loves the limelight and says that they want
Speaker 1: to stay out of it is also devastated by it
Speaker 1: and yet still attract to it like I'm off to
Speaker 1: a flame.
Speaker 2: He will not stop making content.
Speaker 1: We know that from this big long YouTube episode. He's
Speaker 1: got a big deal coming out with Volume. I'm sure
Speaker 1: it took him a year and a half to concoct
Speaker 1: and figure out that deal, so I'm.
Speaker 2: Sure there's a lot of money on the line. I
Speaker 2: promise you.
Speaker 1: No matter how much his therapist tells him, hey, you
Speaker 1: should probably stop making content, He's not stopping making content.
Speaker 2: That deal is done a lot of it.
Speaker 1: I think the things that are dangerous to him and
Speaker 1: the issues and devastation can come from the stigma of
Speaker 1: having to ask for help, not just like a male thing,
Speaker 1: but also from where.
Speaker 2: He comes from kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And Draymond was very clear about that he needed and
Speaker 1: needs help. He needed to talk to somebody. He's wanted
Speaker 1: to go to therapy, but was terrified about it. He
Speaker 1: was very clear about where he grew up in Saginaw,
Speaker 1: asking for help was not really thought about on that subject.
Speaker 1: Stephen A said this about Draymond quote, as a black man,
Speaker 1: when you are confronted by the consequences of your own actions,
Speaker 1: it's one thing to be suspended, but when the label
Speaker 1: is therapy and that you need help, and you think
Speaker 1: that narrative is being created about you, it hits you different.
Speaker 1: Stephen A knows about this too, because remember he ended
Speaker 1: up getting fired from ESPN, and he said he had
Speaker 1: to do a little soul search in himself, a little
Speaker 1: changing of his mindset and getting past the patterns of
Speaker 1: his behavior from where he grew up to But it's
Speaker 1: hard to ask for help under even the best the circumstances.
Speaker 1: And when you grow up without resources in a culture
Speaker 1: that looks at therapy as weakness.
Speaker 2: When you get.
Speaker 1: Resources even ones to seek help, to find someone to
Speaker 1: help you sort your shit out, which is, by the way,
Speaker 1: very expensive. You know you can it's like four or
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars per session sometimes for therapists, even just
Speaker 1: mediocre ones. So the resources are kind of a critical
Speaker 1: component to getting the help. But even when you have
Speaker 1: one hundred million dollars, I get it hard to get
Speaker 1: the help that you need.
Speaker 2: Draymon's gonna be back on the court. He promises, no antics.
Speaker 2: How many days until we get antics? We move on.
Speaker 1: Just a few days ago, Yanna said this in his
Speaker 1: postgame after another just terrible defensive performance by the books.
Speaker 1: So he said this, we have to be better. We
Speaker 1: have to play better, we have to defend better, we
Speaker 1: have to trust one another better. We have to be
Speaker 1: coached better, every single thing. Everybody has to be better.
Speaker 2: Everybody.
Speaker 1: It starts, It's best part. It starts with the equipment manager.
Speaker 2: Have you ever heard those lines? Ever?
Speaker 1: It starts with the equipment manager. He has to wash
Speaker 1: our clothes better.
Speaker 2: Is there a stain?
Speaker 1: Is there a stain on Giannis's clothes that he shows
Speaker 1: up to the game and there's like a little piece
Speaker 1: of smudge on his jersey, the leaders. He has to
Speaker 1: wash our clothes better. The bench has to be better.
Speaker 1: The leaders of the team have to be more vocal.
Speaker 1: We have to make more shots. We have to defend better.
Speaker 1: We have to get better strategy. We have to be better.
Speaker 1: We have four months to get better.
Speaker 2: So let's see this boy's out. He's out.
Speaker 1: I don't think I don't think he's staying. I know
Speaker 1: he signed an extension, but I don't think he's staying.
Speaker 2: I don't think Dame's long for Milwaukee, and I don't
Speaker 2: think Giannis is long for Milwaukee. Honestly, can you blame mom?
Speaker 1: There's so many better places out there in the United
Speaker 1: States to play basketball than Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Oh, shade to Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: with big shade to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: But let's go back to Giannis's comments.
Speaker 1: You called out the equipment manager all the way from
Speaker 1: the equipment manager to the head coach.
Speaker 2: By the way, because this man was slandered.
Speaker 1: The Bucks equipment manager tweeted out a photo of Gianni's
Speaker 1: game jersey, pristine, white and clean. So he's like, listen,
Speaker 1: I don't be calling me out for fucking washing your clothes.
Speaker 1: They can't be more pristine than they are right now.
Speaker 1: The Bucks clearly took that to heart, because the next
Speaker 1: day they played the Jazz at home.
Speaker 2: What do you think happened there?
Speaker 1: Milwaukee showed their hearts of champions by getting blown out
Speaker 1: yet again, giving seventy seven points up in.
Speaker 2: The first half to a team many.
Speaker 1: People don't even know who's on that team outside of
Speaker 1: Lori market, and they fell behind thirty in the game
Speaker 1: that they lost by sixteen points on Pride night. God
Speaker 1: damn it, the Milwaukee Bucks. They have no pride, they
Speaker 1: have no shame. They lose to the Bucks. They lose
Speaker 1: to the fucking Houston Rockets. And I know Dame wasn't
Speaker 1: there in the game, had personal personal reasons, big eye
Speaker 1: emoji type stuff.
Speaker 2: Like probably sortain stuff out and we'll see it's probably
Speaker 2: not good, let's be honest. And that took someone the floor.
Speaker 1: With one hundred and nineteen defensive rating, so in addition
Speaker 1: by subtraction to a degree, defensively, but I'm starting to
Speaker 1: think Adriene Griffin doesn't know how to use his players defensively.
Speaker 1: That scheme that he has involves pressuring the ball well
Speaker 1: above the three point line. But there's Nobody on the
Speaker 1: team that can move their feet like Drew Holliday.
Speaker 3: Nobody.
Speaker 1: Dame is a turnstyle and he's trying his best. He is,
Speaker 1: his deflections are up, his steels are up, but he's
Speaker 1: he's a turnstyle. Let's be honest, Drew's not there anymore.
Speaker 1: You got opposing point guards blown by the first point
Speaker 1: of contact, and then you've got the slow foot of
Speaker 1: defensive guys like Brooke Jannis conaton portis coming up way
Speaker 1: more exposed front of ram just easy blowbys. Now, Jannis
Speaker 1: and Lopez are too far away from the rim to
Speaker 1: do what they do best protect it. Fans are clamoring
Speaker 1: for Marcus Smart or Alex Crusoe. I'd be clamoring for
Speaker 1: Marcus Smart as well, But what does it cost to
Speaker 1: get either one of them? How does that put that
Speaker 1: team even further closer to contending. The Bucks are gonna
Speaker 1: win a lot of games because they have Honest and
Speaker 1: they have Dame, and they're both very world class offensive dudes.
Speaker 1: But it's hard to see this team that's as composed
Speaker 1: making a deep run in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: I just don't see it. The last time I said that, though.
Speaker 1: They won a title so let me just keep my comments.
Speaker 1: Tell my goddamn self, the bucks inability to play defense
Speaker 1: will be a major story moving forward, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: be keeping.
Speaker 2: Our eyes closely up on moving on.
Speaker 1: Big news out of Miami where the Heat are surviving,
Speaker 1: not thriving. They are currently in fifth place, but they're
Speaker 1: one game out of ninth place, so they're basically in
Speaker 1: ninth place. That's how tight the East is. They're twenty
Speaker 1: one and fifteen. That's a forty eight win pace, which
Speaker 1: is pretty much what they do every year. Forty eight wins,
Speaker 1: eight seed, seven seed, sometimes three seed, that was one seed,
Speaker 1: and then given the disaster of this offseason, that's pretty
Speaker 1: pretty good.
Speaker 2: For Eric Spolster in the Miami Heat.
Speaker 1: Eric Sposter one of the best coaches in the league,
Speaker 1: probably the best coach in the league, which is why
Speaker 1: pat Riley decided to reward Spoe with an eight year,
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty million dollar contract, making him the
Speaker 1: highest paid coach in the NBA at fifteen.
Speaker 2: Million dollars per year.
Speaker 1: The man deserves it. He's taking a broken down Heat
Speaker 1: roster to three Eastern Conference finals. You had to roll
Speaker 1: out Max Strups, you had to roll out gay Vincent.
Speaker 1: Gay Vincent came on the scene for Team Nigeria in Tokyo.
Speaker 2: That's when that guy might have gotta shine. You had
Speaker 2: Caleb Martin getting his shun. The only reason you like
Speaker 2: Caleb Martin is because he plays with the heat. Let's
Speaker 2: be real.
Speaker 1: You got all kinds of randoms Heywood, Highsmith making their way,
Speaker 1: Nicola Yovich, he finds ways to turn water into wine.
Speaker 1: Two NBA finals nobody saw coming. He's been the final
Speaker 1: six times and thirteen years. I think that's the best
Speaker 1: in the league pretty much, given the nature of the league.
Speaker 2: What does this mean is gonna be around for a
Speaker 2: long asstime.
Speaker 1: He's pretty young too, a lot younger than a guy
Speaker 1: like Greg Popovich. Since he took over in Miami, there
Speaker 1: have been one hundred and sixty seven coaching changes in
Speaker 1: the NBA, and by the time his contract is over,
Speaker 1: that number is probably going to be closer to three hundred.
Speaker 1: He's the last man standing. He is the man who
Speaker 1: wins the Hunger Games. We talk a lot about heat culture,
Speaker 1: but that culture comes down really to two guys set
Speaker 1: in a tone, pat Riley and Eric Spolstra. Riley just
Speaker 1: made sure when he steps down because he's seventy eight.
Speaker 1: His legacy is going to continue through Spoe and I
Speaker 1: know that we really quickly. There's a total aside one
Speaker 1: thing that we like to talk about, and I like
Speaker 1: to talk about because everyone's like, oh, yes, Spolstra pulled
Speaker 1: himself up from his bootstraps.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a working class man.
Speaker 1: He worked his way up through the heat front office
Speaker 1: from a Vedo coordinator job on the Blazers and rags
Speaker 1: the richest story.
Speaker 2: Let's be real.
Speaker 1: We have to say it every time we talk about
Speaker 1: this bo because it's like we're shining the truth on
Speaker 1: the matter.
Speaker 2: Eric Spolster is a neo baby, I'm gonna say it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, his father John Spolstra, GM of the Portland Trailblazers
Speaker 1: for ten years, GM of the Nuggets and the Nets
Speaker 1: as well. So yeah, you know, I got that scrappy
Speaker 1: kid in the mailroom. His dad owns Paramount. Sorry, he's
Speaker 1: been tabbed. Like you being in the mailroom and him
Speaker 1: being in the mailroom is not the same you working
Speaker 1: in the mailroom. You're not gonna become a head coach
Speaker 1: of an NBA team. Only the guys who have parents
Speaker 1: who have put them into the mailroom because they need
Speaker 1: their kid, who's a NEPO baby, to feel what it
Speaker 1: means to be in the trenches. Like that's a lesson
Speaker 1: for them. You or two are not the same. Okay,
Speaker 1: if you believe that, you're fucking out of your mind.
Speaker 1: We all remember Spolster as the architect. Eric Spolster's dad
Speaker 1: is the architect of the Sambui debacle, where the Blazers
Speaker 1: passed on Michael Jordan, greatest player of all time, in
Speaker 1: favor of a man who had already had catastrophic stress
Speaker 1: fractures that caused the man to miss an entire year,
Speaker 1: followed by another stress fracture causing him to be in
Speaker 1: a cast, a cast for forty four weeks to miss
Speaker 1: another year. Yeah, the Spolster family, thanks for taking a
Speaker 1: guy with catastrophic leg injuries instead of the guy who
Speaker 1: ended up being the greatest of all time. He missed
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty three weeks due to injury over
Speaker 1: a guy who won a national championship on the last
Speaker 1: second shot.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I'm not bitter or anything.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of miraculous that the son of
Speaker 1: that guy is the greatest coach in the NBA, maybe
Speaker 1: one of the greatest of all times, because, like clearly,
Speaker 1: his dad not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed
Speaker 1: in terms of talent evaluation. Maybe that's why Eric Spolster
Speaker 1: he's so good. How do I turn dogshit players that
Speaker 1: my dad chooses and make them into somebody usable? I
Speaker 1: love Spolstra, but let's not act like this is some
Speaker 1: sort of rags the richest story. That being said, he
Speaker 1: completely fully deserves this contract. He's the best coach in
Speaker 1: the NBA. He has been the best coach in the
Speaker 1: NBA for a long ass time. Him getting extended means
Speaker 1: heat culture continues with its annoying, just absolutely inciting fan base,
Speaker 1: and they will be alive and well for at least
Speaker 1: another decade and we will be beefing until the end
Speaker 1: of time.
Speaker 2: And I like them too, They just don't like me.
Speaker 1: And you might be wondering about the timing of this news, Like, really,
Speaker 1: just January tenth, we get Eric Spolstra announcements of a
Speaker 1: contract extension.
Speaker 2: Strange timing.
Speaker 1: Apparently the extension was delayed until after Eric Spolster's divorce.
Speaker 2: Was finalized, So fuck them.
Speaker 1: Host pat Riley, the original Godfather and Eric Spolster doing
Speaker 1: his best Michael Corleone.
Speaker 2: That's all the.
Speaker 1: Time that we have for this episode The Heat Check.
Speaker 1: Come back tomorrow for all new episodes, because we give
Speaker 1: you content every single day, despite whether I want to
Speaker 1: or not. Love talking to you all, though I really
Speaker 1: do check the feed for past episodes and many episodes
Speaker 1: which drop every single day like the last leaf of fall.
Speaker 2: Do not forget to follow the heat Check all season long.
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Speaker 1: Big shout out to my new producer Anthony and stealing
Speaker 1: a game against the Toronto Raptors because he's a Lakers fan.
Speaker 2: We'll see you next time.