Speaker 1: You're tuned into Heat Check with Triste Quick.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Heat Check, we got some
Speaker 2: breaking news out of Golden State, Baby and our dubs.
Speaker 2: Our dubs have received a blow. It's not good Steph
Speaker 2: Curry with a labrum injury to his shoulder. I get
Speaker 2: into some soccer and the NBA as well. You'll have
Speaker 2: to listen because it's kind of hard to describe. I
Speaker 2: talk about Russell Westbrook's resurrection and how pretty much everyone
Speaker 2: is avoiding talking about it because it doesn't fit the
Speaker 2: narrative that they thought about him. We go into the
Speaker 2: Charlotte Hornets and head coach Steve Clifford blowing the team
Speaker 2: pretty much up, throwing them under the bus because I
Speaker 2: don't know they stink at defense. And then we remember
Speaker 2: one of the old school OG's Hall of Fame player
Speaker 2: coach Paul Silas rest in peace hold out to Covernick.
Speaker 2: So drop that beat before we start the podcast, just
Speaker 2: to quick alert and FYI a PSA if you will.
Speaker 2: My dnnis says I'm not wearing my visilin enough tisk tisk,
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna wear it on the episode because when
Speaker 2: I take it off, I forget to put it back in.
Speaker 2: Then my teeth move. So if I say anything out
Speaker 2: of pocket, or if I sound like I've got a
Speaker 2: lisp like a fourteen year old boy, forgive me. So
Speaker 2: let's move forward. Things are going from bad to worse
Speaker 2: in Golden State. Our Dubs just keep taking blow after blow.
Speaker 2: Hate to see that. I'm not talking about their horrible
Speaker 2: road record either. They are two and thirteen currently on
Speaker 2: the road this year, second worst in the NBA. Actually,
Speaker 2: if you can believe it, never fear our Dubs. They
Speaker 2: will come. Road defensive efficiency a shocking one eighteen point
Speaker 2: eight that is bottom three in the league as well.
Speaker 2: These Dubs, our Dubs can't seem to win outside of
Speaker 2: the Chase Center. And now another blow. Steph Curry, the
Speaker 2: man who has been pulling this team together on his
Speaker 2: back MVP campaign level numbers out at least at least
Speaker 2: is the critical component three weeks according to THEO this
Speaker 2: is the bomb. This is the sound of the wosh
Speaker 2: bomb Golden State. Steph Curry is expected to miss a
Speaker 2: few weeks with his left shoulder injury. Sources tell that
Speaker 2: was one of those invisiline moments. Sources tell ESPN Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
Speaker 2: Let's just say he is out three weeks. That's the
Speaker 2: number that would put him on target for a Thursday
Speaker 2: Night TNT game against the Phoenix Suns on jail Anuary tenth.
Speaker 2: Between now and the earliest expected time, Let's go through
Speaker 2: their next ten games, shall we. The Warriors start with
Speaker 2: at Philadelphia, at Toronto, at New York, at Brooklyn, Memphis, Charlotte, Utah, Portland,
Speaker 2: Atlanta and Detroit. Boy, that is a tough slog without
Speaker 2: your primary score, and with Jordan Poole in a slump
Speaker 2: and Andrew Wiggins facing his own set of injuries. Oh boy,
Speaker 2: that team could be three and seven in its next
Speaker 2: ten and that would not be a surprise. Three is seven.
Speaker 2: That is a tough spot. Golden State fourteen and fifteen
Speaker 2: right now at the moment, could be looking at a
Speaker 2: two and eight stretch without staff. That will put them
Speaker 2: squarely at sixteen and twenty three, which would be at
Speaker 2: that particular moment on life support. Not saying that's forever,
Speaker 2: but that is at least three weeks. There could be
Speaker 2: more issues coming Labram issues if he needs to get surgery,
Speaker 2: for example, on a torn labrum. That would be bad.
Speaker 2: That would be one of those Steph breaks his hand,
Speaker 2: Put yourself in a suitcase and go home kind of moment.
Speaker 2: It's hard out here for us Dubs fans, just when
Speaker 2: we think we're back, just when we think the dominance
Speaker 2: continues and the dynasty just persists, sometimes it just happens
Speaker 2: like that. But we will persevere, will we not? Remember?
Speaker 2: The only time we go blooded or out is when
Speaker 2: we're out, and when there is a cold, dead body.
Speaker 2: Last time I checked, the Dubs are still alive and kicking.
Speaker 2: Check back in in April. But if Steph is out
Speaker 2: any longer, even I lifelong Dubs fan will start to
Speaker 2: feel a little weary. People were slandering Russell Westbrook, weren't they.
Speaker 2: They were saying some mean things. They were saying he
Speaker 2: was gonna be waved. They were saying he was never
Speaker 2: gonna play basketball ever again. They were saying so many jokes,
Speaker 2: angry comments, slander libel. People said he would never come
Speaker 2: off the bench. Everyone said, oh, if he does come
Speaker 2: off the bench, he's not gonna be happy. He's gonna
Speaker 2: fake an injury. Everyone said, oh, yeah, if he continues
Speaker 2: to be off the bench, comes off the bench and
Speaker 2: he's happy. He'll suck fair fair warning. What do they
Speaker 2: say like a just for full disclosure? That was me
Speaker 2: as well. I said that as well. Those comments, those predictions,
Speaker 2: they were wrong, wrong and wrong, and I think that
Speaker 2: needs to be discussed the media, NBA fans, we have
Speaker 2: a narrative and no matter what happens, we stick to
Speaker 2: that narrative. Right, we have struck out on Russ, and honestly,
Speaker 2: like I liked Peak Russ, I did. I'm stoked that
Speaker 2: Russ is having this re emergence. I am as he
Speaker 2: as someone who gets considered to be a hater. I
Speaker 2: like this version of Russ and it made me think,
Speaker 2: why do we treat Russ like he's been posting things
Speaker 2: that are anti Semitic on the internet. Why do we
Speaker 2: treat Russ like he coughed on a microphone, gave the
Speaker 2: entire NBA COVID and then started liking tweets from Elon
Speaker 2: Musk about prosecuting Fauci being his name designation. Russ has
Speaker 2: done nothing but ball. Even when he's stunk, all he
Speaker 2: did was ball. He's coming off the bench for twenty
Speaker 2: three games now, averaging twenty eight, fifteen, six and eight
Speaker 2: twenty eight minutes, fifteen points, six rebounds, eight assists with
Speaker 2: one and a half steals and blocks per game. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: He had a seven game stretch where he shot fifty
Speaker 2: percent or better from three from three people. He was
Speaker 2: a brick layer, and all of a sudden, he's Steph
Speaker 2: Curry when he comes off the bench. He's come back
Speaker 2: to Earth, of course, because he's not really a great
Speaker 2: three point shooter thirty one percent, but he's shooting better
Speaker 2: than Trey Yung. How about that? Way ahead of where
Speaker 2: he was as a starter. And guess what the best
Speaker 2: thing is. He's happy, he's smiling, he's living in his hometown.
Speaker 2: His family is in his hometown, his friends are there.
Speaker 2: And that coincides, folks, with the Lakers actually being five
Speaker 2: hundred with the real shot to make the play in tournament.
Speaker 2: And who saw that coming? Who did you see it coming?
Speaker 2: Because I didn't see that coming. And now Sam Ammick
Speaker 2: is saying, but because of this very good play off
Speaker 2: the bench, he's the leader in the clubhouse plus one
Speaker 2: ninety to win six Man of the Year. Wait, excuse me.
Speaker 2: The John Havlicek Award which quickly. They already gave the
Speaker 2: MVP with Michael Jordan's face and body on it to
Speaker 2: Jokic today. They made it, created it, shoved it down
Speaker 2: our throats, and then gave it to him. Amazing. Darvin Haam,
Speaker 2: of course, deserves credit for this Russell Westbrook adjustment. But
Speaker 2: what's interesting is the Amex article sort of says, the
Speaker 2: insiders believe that Russ is going to improve from here
Speaker 2: moving forward, and we all love a redemption story unless
Speaker 2: it's somebody that we already hated. Let's face facts, that's
Speaker 2: what it is, right Like, you can't redeem yourself if
Speaker 2: we've always hated you. And that's what's happening to Rust
Speaker 2: right now. I don't understand it because I was never
Speaker 2: a Russ hater, and then I was like, yeah, he
Speaker 2: stinks right now he's making forty seven million dollars a year,
Speaker 2: but like we treat him like villain, We treat him
Speaker 2: like one of the worst humans on earth. We won't
Speaker 2: give Russ any credit. Have you seen NBA today or
Speaker 2: for take or NBA radio be like, hey, by the way,
Speaker 2: Russ is on an absolute heater right now, responsible for
Speaker 2: the Lakers winning No No because why we're treating him
Speaker 2: like he went one hundred and fifty five miles per
Speaker 2: hour in a thirty in a school zone on Mollie.
Speaker 2: That's how we treat him. All he was doing was
Speaker 2: playing hoops and wasn't in making bricking a lot of
Speaker 2: shots hitting the side of the backboard. That's all he's
Speaker 2: been doing. Damn. It's like the narratives. Once. Once those
Speaker 2: narratives are over, we just pretend that they never existed,
Speaker 2: and then we wait in the shadows and we hide
Speaker 2: in the weeds until Russ starts playing bad again, and
Speaker 2: then we're like, yop, we said it. Russ stinks. You
Speaker 2: see it. Four games in a row, Oh for seventeen
Speaker 2: fifteen turnovers like yo yo yo, yo yo. Twenty five
Speaker 2: games now Russ has been balling. You wait to talk
Speaker 2: about Russ for those five games. Media is fucked up, man,
Speaker 2: The media is fucked up. I am happy for us.
Speaker 2: He went from one of the biggest names MVP in
Speaker 2: the NBA on a team that was sixth in the West,
Speaker 2: first time ever that he wins the MVP. He's getting
Speaker 2: triple double after triple double, just every damn night, he's
Speaker 2: getting one and people are saying he's unemployable. Unemployable. We've
Speaker 2: got people out here that you don't even know their
Speaker 2: name with jobs in the NBA. We got Drew U
Speaker 2: Banks out here getting minutes, no shade, Drew U Banks
Speaker 2: ten day God, But like, are you serious? And now
Speaker 2: he's a lock for the sixth Man of the year.
Speaker 2: It's a cold game out here. It's a cold game.
Speaker 2: It's a redemption arc. I am getting behind and if
Speaker 2: you don't get behind it, it's because you never liked
Speaker 2: Russ in the first place. I've been stunned by this development.
Speaker 2: As a lifelong basketball fan, I think I'm in love
Speaker 2: with soccer. I am never like soccer in my life
Speaker 2: except for during World Cup time. But I think it
Speaker 2: has stuck. I think the soccer bug is in my system,
Speaker 2: and I think it's I think it's terminal. I do
Speaker 2: because why it reminds me of hoops. It reminds me
Speaker 2: of hoops. I've been watching the World Cup right like
Speaker 2: a lot of people, and I'm not gonna pretend I'm
Speaker 2: some kind of soccer guru, because I'm not. I like, no,
Speaker 2: almost nothing. I don't know. I don't know what words mean.
Speaker 2: I don't know what player positions are. All I know
Speaker 2: is what my two basketball minded eyeball see, and I
Speaker 2: love it. And I have loved this knockout stage. There's
Speaker 2: just something about the passion and the pageantry that has
Speaker 2: sucked me in. Never mind all the human rights abuses
Speaker 2: and probably killing a journalist for making a statement about
Speaker 2: you know, love is love. Who knows? We're gonna just
Speaker 2: put that to us to the side for a second.
Speaker 2: Rest in peace to Grant Wall in all seriousness, he
Speaker 2: was not absolute awesome dude. But if you watch hoops carefully,
Speaker 2: you can understand soccer pretty well as well. Right, It's
Speaker 2: like the NBA. It's like spacing and flow and star
Speaker 2: players star studs, just like the association. One of the
Speaker 2: more astounding stats in the NBA. We've talked about this
Speaker 2: before is that no team, no team has won a
Speaker 2: championship without since the late nineteen seventies without a current
Speaker 2: or former starting All Star on the team. Think about that.
Speaker 2: That's crazy. If you don't have an All Star who
Speaker 2: started in an All Star Game, either either last year
Speaker 2: or in previous years, you are cooked. And that's pretty
Speaker 2: much the same with soccer as well. Without a world
Speaker 2: class goal scorer, bucket getter, striker. US men's national team
Speaker 2: absolutely cooked. They have talent. But I could tell very quickly,
Speaker 2: oh boy, this team with Christian policit they're not the one.
Speaker 2: He's not the one. He's no cold blooded killer. He
Speaker 2: doesn't want no smoke. He doesn't have it like that.
Speaker 2: He doesn't even me, the rube that I am about soccer,
Speaker 2: could tell, oh, no, we don't have what's this kid's name,
Speaker 2: Memphis de Pay. We don't have a Memphis Depay. I
Speaker 2: just learned about him and I was like, he's much
Speaker 2: better than our best guy. Like you could just tell
Speaker 2: that when we lost to Hall and it was very
Speaker 2: clear he's very good. He's pretty good. No shade to
Speaker 2: Christian Polisic, the darling of US men's soccer. Our standards
Speaker 2: are much lower than the rest of the world in
Speaker 2: terms of what we need in order to extend and
Speaker 2: improve our game. But we don't have a Christian all Ronaldo.
Speaker 2: We don't. We don't have a messy. We do not
Speaker 2: we don't have a Harry Kane. Holland striker. Memphis to
Speaker 2: Pay is probably my new favorite player, Like I loved
Speaker 2: him and the US Hall went home obviously round of sixteen,
Speaker 2: because that the jig was up when Polisic had the
Speaker 2: opportunity to score five minutes into the game, pretty much
Speaker 2: one on one and all of a sudden couldn't get
Speaker 2: it out. There's no shade, no shade, but it was.
Speaker 2: It was not something that a cold boy killer would
Speaker 2: have done. And the US has never really had a
Speaker 2: true killer since Landon Donovan. So they say, I don't
Speaker 2: know a lot about land and Donovan, but I hear
Speaker 2: he was a stone cold killer. And just like the
Speaker 2: NBA contender needs a bucke getter, soccer team that wants
Speaker 2: to move on needs a relentless finisher as well. So
Speaker 2: all of this is a large setup to say I've
Speaker 2: been thinking about star players in soccer and the expectations
Speaker 2: put on them, and then the star players in basketball
Speaker 2: and the expectations put on them. Right, So I was
Speaker 2: thinking about Messi and all the expectations on him, Rinaldo
Speaker 2: doing a little googling. Then that led me to the
Speaker 2: rabbit hole that is Lebron James and all the expectations
Speaker 2: put on him that he's surpassed time after Tom, which
Speaker 2: got me thinking about Victor Wamanyama. I know it's a reach.
Speaker 2: Let me explain. Probably like only a few players in
Speaker 2: history have had as much expectations as Christiano Ronaldo. Right
Speaker 2: since he burst on the scene as a teenager, people
Speaker 2: were tabbing him as the next best thing, just like
Speaker 2: Lebron the kid from Akron twenty years ago. This week,
Speaker 2: as you know, Lebron burst on the scene on the
Speaker 2: national stage with his first ESPN television game, leading Saint
Speaker 2: Mary's to a win over the number one high school
Speaker 2: team in the nation. As an aside, which is crazy,
Speaker 2: think about this years ago to the day that was
Speaker 2: Lebron's first high school game that was televised, and this
Speaker 2: week as well, the same anniversary, Lebron James's kid played
Speaker 2: against Carmelo's kid on ESPN in a high school game.
Speaker 2: It's fucking nuts. That's fucking nuts. Anyway, moving on back
Speaker 2: to Renaldo and Lebron. At aged eighteen, they were on
Speaker 2: every magazine cover with the highest expectations that you could
Speaker 2: put on any individual in the world, more famous than
Speaker 2: anyone in sports. They became internationally famous before they could
Speaker 2: legitimately drink in America. As an aside, Lebron James has
Speaker 2: like almost a half a billion followers on Instagram. Ronaldo
Speaker 2: I think has like three hundred million. Just crazy stuff, right,
Speaker 2: And they both went out and did the incredible despite
Speaker 2: the insane hype. They didn't just meet them. They didn't
Speaker 2: just meet the expectations, they exceeded them soundly. Right, that's insane.
Speaker 2: We had expectations that Lebron was going to be the
Speaker 2: next Michael Jordan, right, the kid from Akron maybe was
Speaker 2: gonna at seventeen enter the Draft before high school was
Speaker 2: even over. That was what he was trying to do.
Speaker 2: When I was in high school, I remember that he
Speaker 2: was trying to break the rules and go his senior
Speaker 2: year and we're like, oh my god, how good could
Speaker 2: he be in order to do that? Blah blah blah,
Speaker 2: And all of a sudden, from year one, it was instantaneously, Yes,
Speaker 2: he's that guy. He is him. You can make the
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame and still be a disappointment, and he
Speaker 2: is obviously he's what thirty seven years old, almost thirty eight,
Speaker 2: and he has continued continued to deliver when he should
Speaker 2: be in an NBA old folks home, he should be
Speaker 2: getting his NBA Aari peep card his NBA pension fund
Speaker 2: right now, and he is continuing to be transcendent. Bron
Speaker 2: is transcendent. Rinaldo transcendent, so is Messi, so is neymar
Speaker 2: so is Imbape. Kobe Jordan rare enough to be known
Speaker 2: by one name, right, which is what brings me to Victor.
Speaker 2: We're already calling it brick for Vic right, tank for
Speaker 2: Wambanyama eighteen years old, seven to four, already been called
Speaker 2: the best NBA prospect in NBA history, better than Braun
Speaker 2: Right now, the hype on Victor Wembaniana is higher than
Speaker 2: Lebron James. Maybe it's social media, maybe it's the time
Speaker 2: that we're in. Maybe it's the fact that Lebron James
Speaker 2: delivered on that. But talk about insane expectations. No one
Speaker 2: in Hoop since Lebron James, Ronaldo and Messi and soccer
Speaker 2: have had that kind of weight on them. None before
Speaker 2: playing a pro game. Victor Womaniana is playing pro in France.
Speaker 2: But you know what I'm talking about this game right.
Speaker 2: Tony Parker has seen this up close and personal. Parker
Speaker 2: was born in Belgium, grew up in France, became an
Speaker 2: All Star and an NBA champion in San Antonio. He's
Speaker 2: known Victor since he burst on the scene, right, so
Speaker 2: he said in a recent INNA this My advice to
Speaker 2: Victor is to make sure he has his own expectations,
Speaker 2: because it's impossible to please everyone. Everyone's gonna think, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: you should play like this, Oh yeah, you should play
Speaker 2: like Kevin Durant. Just be you, though, have your own expectations.
Speaker 2: Very yoda, very yoda of Tony Parker. Don't you agree?
Speaker 2: I do tremendous advice because while I just watched Messy
Speaker 2: dribble through traffic hit his teammate with an absolute nasty
Speaker 2: dime to give Argentina a goal against Croatias Croatia, And
Speaker 2: I asked myself, how great does Victor Wanbayama have to
Speaker 2: be in order to exceed those more than Lebron James expectations?
Speaker 2: And the answer is, I think he has to be
Speaker 2: the best player of all time. I think he has
Speaker 2: to be the best player of our generation, at least
Speaker 2: of his generation. The hype, I believe is that big.
Speaker 2: And you could say like, oh yeah, yeah, Victor didn't
Speaker 2: ask for this, just like Zions I didn't ask for
Speaker 2: he was on the SI cover, he was supposed to
Speaker 2: be the next Lebron James. He's not saying he's going
Speaker 2: to be the greatest. He's not, but enough people as
Speaker 2: a groundswell are saying it. Enough. People are filming his
Speaker 2: pro games in France on ESPN. Who does that? They're
Speaker 2: only filming his right, it's already fucking up the way
Speaker 2: that we see him. Think pieces are dropping every single
Speaker 2: week about him. They're following his every move. They're saying
Speaker 2: he's going to change the game as we know it, transcendent.
Speaker 2: They call him the unicorn because there's never been anyone
Speaker 2: like them, except for maybe Ralph Sampson. Right, who can
Speaker 2: live up? Can anyone live up to this hype that
Speaker 2: Victor Wamanyama is having right now. Lebron did rinaldo? Did
Speaker 2: un mess? He did? So? Parker had these final words
Speaker 2: to say about Victor. I'm just always worried because people
Speaker 2: are putting him so high. I know, he says he's
Speaker 2: ready and he's ready to take on anything. But people,
Speaker 2: when they put you up so high like this and
Speaker 2: compare him to Lebron and Michael Jordan, it's almost unfair.
Speaker 2: He should have just been hiding in obscurity, just entered
Speaker 2: the draft. No one knows. I mean, we haven't seen
Speaker 2: these seven footers come out of nowhere before. But it
Speaker 2: was like someone discovered him and now he's it. Now
Speaker 2: he is him, and that is the world that we
Speaker 2: live in. It's very unfair. Fair or not, he's going
Speaker 2: to be judged on whether or not he's better than
Speaker 2: what Lebron James became with the expectations, better than Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 2: better than Christabs porzingis, and is he some new variation
Speaker 2: of the greatest player we've ever seen. He'll never be
Speaker 2: compared to a guard, but he will be compared to
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant because he's seven foot tall and he's skinny
Speaker 2: as hell and he shoots threes. Think about Chet Holmgren,
Speaker 2: same thing. Whether he ends up the next Lebron or
Speaker 2: the next Ronaldo remains to be seen. But one thing
Speaker 2: is for sure. Victor Wamanyama cannot be a bust. That
Speaker 2: would be a very very bad thing for the NBA.
Speaker 2: Nobody wants to be dark. Oh, nobody wants to be
Speaker 2: Freddie Adou and God forbid he's like Greg Odin or
Speaker 2: Sam Bouie. That would just be a goddamn shame. Charlotte
Speaker 2: Hornets have slid under the radar. When you're a bad
Speaker 2: team and everyone knows you're gonna be bad, and then
Speaker 2: you are bad, it's like your inadequacies, your mediocrity even worse,
Speaker 2: like the train wreck that is your team, it just
Speaker 2: goes completely unnoticed, doesn't it. They have slid under the radar.
Speaker 2: I think for too long. No one in the NBA
Speaker 2: right now is playing worse defense than the Charlotte Hornets,
Speaker 2: No one. They just they're giving up like one hundred
Speaker 2: and seventeen points per game, one hundred and seventeen point
Speaker 2: seven per game, that is twenty seventh in the NBA.
Speaker 2: They are twenty eighth in the NBA in rebounds allowed,
Speaker 2: twenty fourth in the NBA and assists allowed, twenty fourth
Speaker 2: in the NBA. In opponent field goal percentage, I mean,
Speaker 2: there's not a defensive metric that they do well. If
Speaker 2: you could find one, uh and tell me, let me know.
Speaker 2: They're basically in the bottom quarter in every single category.
Speaker 2: And this is coming off of a season where their
Speaker 2: head coach was fired because they finished twenty seventh in
Speaker 2: the NBA in points given up With you guessed it
Speaker 2: same exact amount, one hundred and seventeen point one points
Speaker 2: per game. So actually are worse this year. They fired
Speaker 2: my man, James Brago Broad and Steve Clifford, and they
Speaker 2: are statistically worse defensively than they were last year. So
Speaker 2: I took a lot of flak because I said that
Speaker 2: the Charlotte Hornets could be the worst team in sports.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's not true, Okay, James Dolan exists, no shade
Speaker 2: to James Dolan. Loved James Dolan, love your work, love
Speaker 2: your music, want to be at MSG. So we're good
Speaker 2: on that. You might say that Dan Snyder is worse,
Speaker 2: totally fair. You might say that Homie from the Suns,
Speaker 2: Robert Sarver, was worse. Okay, but all we know is
Speaker 2: that they're in the dregs, all of them. Michael Jordan
Speaker 2: is in the dregs. But Steve Clifford, new coach Steve Clifford,
Speaker 2: but actually old coach Steve Clifford, because he was a
Speaker 2: head coach there once before, has had enough of the
Speaker 2: Charlotte Hornets bullshit. What did he do? He just destroyed him,
Speaker 2: not just destroyed him on the internet, not just destroyed
Speaker 2: him in private. He decided he was going to do
Speaker 2: a full dress down on video. Yes he did. Last
Speaker 2: night is what happened. Charlotte Hornets went to OT against
Speaker 2: the Pistons, a team without Kid Cunningham. And let me
Speaker 2: remind you he's out for the year now. We should
Speaker 2: probably mention that because last episode we didn't know. In
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes after the episode got recorded, it was announced.
Speaker 2: I hate to see it. That's just life in the
Speaker 2: NBA circles, right, And this was Lamello's return after a
Speaker 2: month on the aisle. Lamo ball fouls out with twenty
Speaker 2: nine point six seconds remaining in regulation and the Hornets crater.
Speaker 2: They lost one forty one thirty four in OT and
Speaker 2: Steve Clifford, I tell you what, he was big mad.
Speaker 2: This is what he did in his postgame presser, pretty
Speaker 2: much blowing up the bridge.
Speaker 1: Until we care about something besides how many points we score,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna win much. Can't play like that. I mean,
Speaker 1: we scored. Our offense was good. That's five of the
Speaker 1: last seven games. We've been pretty good on offense. We
Speaker 1: are playing no defense, not one guy. There's not a
Speaker 1: bright spot.
Speaker 2: Not a bright spot, not one bright spot on defense.
Speaker 2: Not one. That is damning, is it not? When when
Speaker 2: someone says this whole team stinks, and I mean every
Speaker 2: single player, there is not one good player. Like, so
Speaker 2: if you reside on this team, you should know you stink.
Speaker 1: Keep going, pick and roll stuff, all stuff that was good.
Speaker 1: I think we're as high as like twelfth or thirteenth
Speaker 1: in defense about ten games ago, and we're right back
Speaker 1: to where we started, a ground zero. All we want
Speaker 1: to be is let's try to outscore the other teams.
Speaker 1: Doesn't work in the.
Speaker 2: Pause in this game really fast and watching this video
Speaker 2: they shot fifty one threes. Are you serious? They went
Speaker 2: seventeen for fifty one from three. Wow, that's insane.
Speaker 1: Keep GOINGBA unless you're well, actually never works. Okay, So
Speaker 1: what I just told them this is either you build
Speaker 1: a game that will actually work at the end of
Speaker 1: the year when you play the important games, or you don't.
Speaker 1: That's it. That's what the NBA is all about. Okay.
Speaker 1: It's not that we don't have the talent to do it.
Speaker 1: All we care about is scoring. And if you're going
Speaker 1: to try to play like that, you better have like
Speaker 1: five all stars. We don't have that kind of talent.
Speaker 1: So it's not something that will work.
Speaker 2: Did you just say you better have five All Stars?
Speaker 2: Was that a ricochet shot at the Warriors? Warriors play
Speaker 2: some defense now normally not this year work.
Speaker 1: We're either going to decide to get back to playing
Speaker 1: with a defensive effort. It's not that we're not trying
Speaker 1: to win as we go about it all wrong? Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean watch team after team, right, there's always a
Speaker 1: team every year that they get there and what happens.
Speaker 1: They get drilled because they don't have a game. They
Speaker 1: don't have the right kind of game. You can't just
Speaker 1: outscore people in the NBA. You can't. You can't, and
Speaker 1: you can't decide that you're not going to do the
Speaker 1: things that take effort, like rebounding or getting loose balls
Speaker 1: or putting your body in front of the ball. You can't.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't work that way. And that's what we're
Speaker 1: trying to do right now.
Speaker 2: All right, that was a two minute dressed down. The
Speaker 2: question though, that I have is like where has Steve
Speaker 2: Clifford been? You know, like where was he last year?
Speaker 2: Where did what was he doing when the Charlotte Ornets
Speaker 2: gave up one hundred and seventeen point one points per game?
Speaker 2: What did he think was gonna happen? Did he think
Speaker 2: what he was gonna when he took the job, Like, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna turn Kelly Ubra into Dennis Robmin What Like?
Speaker 2: Who who told him it was gonna be any different?
Speaker 2: This is this is how they are. This is their
Speaker 2: entire moo. We put up buckets, we show fifty one
Speaker 2: to threes per game. We don't get back on defense.
Speaker 2: We yell at the ref. LaMelo is, legit the only
Speaker 2: player that has any interest in playing defense at all.
Speaker 2: LaMelo says, Oh, yeah, we gotta lock in on defense
Speaker 2: and figure that out. As soon as we do, we
Speaker 2: will turn this thing around. LaMelo ball defensive rating, I'm
Speaker 2: pretty sure is not commensurate with his desire to play defense.
Speaker 2: One hundred and fourteen point three defensive rating for LaMelo Ball.
Speaker 2: So I want to be a supermodel, but you know what,
Speaker 2: I'm five to five. So it's just not happening for
Speaker 2: your girl. And that's what's happening for the Charlotte Hornets.
Speaker 2: You don't have the personnel to play defense. You have
Speaker 2: what we call chuckleheads on your roster, and many of them,
Speaker 2: and you don't have a ton of length and athleticism
Speaker 2: to make up for it on the back end. This
Speaker 2: is like, this is what we've been saying about Charlotte
Speaker 2: for three years. I don't even know why Steve Clifford
Speaker 2: is ranting about this. This is something we just kind
Speaker 2: of all know. The Hornets now seven and twenty one
Speaker 2: worse than the Pistons, meaning currently the Charlotte Hornets have
Speaker 2: the worst record in the NBA, and the Charlotte Observer
Speaker 2: noted that the main reason that they are this bad
Speaker 2: is this. Staying in front of the guy with the ball,
Speaker 2: one of the most basic defensive principles, seems foreign to Charlotte.
Speaker 2: Running back on defense to prevent the easy layup another
Speaker 2: concept seemingly hasn't been introduced. Folks, this is crazy. This
Speaker 2: is so insane, but like absolutely bonker stuff that we
Speaker 2: have to talk about. This the issue. There's no way
Speaker 2: to fix this, Like how do you get a guy
Speaker 2: or a team to buy into defense and just all
Speaker 2: of a sudden start strapping players, Like how do you
Speaker 2: get Terry Rozier to stop being like, yeah, I'm gonna cook.
Speaker 2: How do you stop Kelly Ubre from being like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I cook, I'm a chucker. What I'm gonna play defense.
Speaker 2: Portland's probably the best example, and let's be honest, they're
Speaker 2: not like some juggernaut. For many years, the Portland Trailblazers
Speaker 2: worth thirtieth in defensive rating. They had to blow up
Speaker 2: their fucking roster to do it, too. They had to
Speaker 2: get new guys. Jeremy Grant, Josh Hart, Gary Payton the
Speaker 2: second he's not back yet, but he will be there.
Speaker 2: Niciir little had to get more time. You had to
Speaker 2: move CJ. McCollum. That was an absolute sieve on defense.
Speaker 2: You had to figure out a way to get guys
Speaker 2: to protect Dame Lillard, who's an absolute sieve on defense.
Speaker 2: No shade Dame Lillard, Love you, Dame Lillard. That's prett
Speaker 2: much Charlott's teacher, is it not? Blow it all up?
Speaker 2: Get rid of everyone, get rid of everyone but Lamello
Speaker 2: Ball and protect him with guys who are wings who
Speaker 2: can defend. Figure it out. You're a team that's gonna
Speaker 2: be in the lottery. I don't know. Maybe they'll get
Speaker 2: Victor Wambiniama, which would be a goddamn shame. Clifford ended
Speaker 2: his presser by saying all we want to be is
Speaker 2: let's outscore the other team. That doesn't work in the
Speaker 2: NBA never works. A more true, true statement never been said.
Speaker 2: He might have explained why he's going to be out
Speaker 2: of a job sooner than later. Because if you're allowing
Speaker 2: what like eleven uncontested layups per game to be made,
Speaker 2: I think that's what it is. I mean, you, sir,
Speaker 2: are not doing the very basics of your job. Paul
Speaker 2: Silas an absolute bucket, Hall of Famer father of Rockets
Speaker 2: coach Stephen Silas has passed away. He's passed away this week,
Speaker 2: the age of seventy nine, a little too young. There's
Speaker 2: been a bunch of great restrospectives out there, think pieces
Speaker 2: google him because Silas was an absolute bucket as a player,
Speaker 2: definitely deserving of the Hall of Fame. But for me,
Speaker 2: the thing that's the most interesting about mister Silas is
Speaker 2: he was a cold ass motherfucker. He was stone cold.
Speaker 2: He took shit from absolutely nobody, no one, and I
Speaker 2: could not love it more of old people that don't
Speaker 2: take shit like I love them, like hard rock old
Speaker 2: folks that's like yo, I will I will beat the
Speaker 2: shit out of you. If you wreck on me, that's him.
Speaker 2: There are endless anecdotes about Silas's warm nature, but underneath
Speaker 2: him stone col killer Maurice Lucas said the first time
Speaker 2: he played against Silas as a player, He's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I line up beside Silas at the start of the game.
Speaker 2: He barely speaks to me. The ref tosses the ball
Speaker 2: up and Silas elbows me in the face, knocks me out.
Speaker 2: That established how I would eventually play. Woo ooh, that's
Speaker 2: like hockey out there. The demeanor also carries over to
Speaker 2: the coaching career, which I think is amazing. According to reports,
Speaker 2: Silas once benched Eric Snow when he didn't come off
Speaker 2: the court fast enough, which is an amazing reason to
Speaker 2: bench a player, and then he banishes him to the
Speaker 2: locker room. Here's another good one. While coaching the Calves,
Speaker 2: Silas gets in to it with forward Ira Nuby, a
Speaker 2: former Hawk he wanted to play against his old team
Speaker 2: in Atlanta, but did not see the court at all.
Speaker 2: Paul Sillis was like, absolutely not so Newby comes after
Speaker 2: Silas right, and the altercation ends with Silas chasing Newby
Speaker 2: down the hall while screaming at nuby that he was
Speaker 2: a hip hop motherfucker finally the best one. Talking about Charlotte.
Speaker 2: He was coaching Charlotte in twenty twelve, so he gets
Speaker 2: into it with Bobcats player there the Bobcats at the time,
Speaker 2: Ty Thomas pins this dude up against a locker. Why
Speaker 2: what did he do? It was sogregeous, you might ask.
Speaker 2: He was too friendly to the opposing team after a loss.
Speaker 2: Did I mention Silas was sixty eight at the time.
Speaker 2: Do you know how cold and mean and ruthless to
Speaker 2: be to pin a young man up that you are
Speaker 2: coaching up against a locker at sixty eight years old
Speaker 2: for something just kind of normal about the NBA? Insane.
Speaker 2: Another time, while coaching in Charlotte, seven foot center Disagona
Speaker 2: d'op dropped the N word in practice, Silas immediately stopped practice.
Speaker 2: And remember Diop is from West Senegal or Senegal in
Speaker 2: West Africa. Excuse me, so English was like his second language,
Speaker 2: and he says, I used the N word when I
Speaker 2: was at school at Oak Hill Academy, but I didn't
Speaker 2: really know the meaning behind it. And Coach Silence went
Speaker 2: on to tell me the history the ugliness of the
Speaker 2: word and how it affected him while growing up. Big
Speaker 2: shout out to Paul Silas. What a what an interesting
Speaker 2: collection of anecdotes. And what I loved about all the anecdotes,
Speaker 2: Nubie Thomas d'opp They all loved him. They weren't wrecking
Speaker 2: his name when they told these stories. They were friendly
Speaker 2: with him, They were tight with him. They said he
Speaker 2: Knubi said, he's one of the coaches I treasure and
Speaker 2: I appreciate playing for the most. The guy who called
Speaker 2: him the hip hop motherfucker and chased him down the hall.
Speaker 2: That's like one of his favorite coaches. Like, imagine being
Speaker 2: chased by an irate coach and it's like, yeah, that's
Speaker 2: the best coach I've ever played for. He must have
Speaker 2: been awesome and other ways. His legacy lives on. Following
Speaker 2: the Rocket's recent victory over the Suns, Manni Williams embraced
Speaker 2: Steven Silas, which, by the way, you had to know
Speaker 2: that the Rockets were gonna win that game. He had
Speaker 2: just come back from a one game bereavement leave and
Speaker 2: on the verge of breaking down. MANI held his embrace
Speaker 2: and Silas just melted into his arms. Nothing would have
Speaker 2: made Paul Silas more proud of Mani and Steven than that,
Speaker 2: So rip to an NBA legend. That is all the
Speaker 2: time that we have for The Heat Check will be
Speaker 2: back Monday night, so Tuesday morning with an all new episodes.
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