Speaker 1: We lament the very unfortunate injuries to befall both Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler and Zion Williamson. We've got the latest on Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard and Giannis Antetokumpo. We highlight for you the best
Speaker 1: first round series in both the East and the West.
Speaker 1: And on top of all that, we're gonna go inside
Speaker 1: on Chris Haynes's appearance earlier this week on Inside the
Speaker 1: NBA that kind of went viral. All that's next. You're
Speaker 1: on a new edition of this League Uncut.
Speaker 2: Welcome to this League Uncut in the rule of twenty
Speaker 2: four hour NBA news, this news you love, Chris Hans.
Speaker 3: It's time, work's time. It's so time.
Speaker 2: This League Uncut is underway and on fire. This should
Speaker 2: be a good one.
Speaker 1: A hearty welcome in everyone to the latest edition of
Speaker 1: this League Uncut. Mark Stein here with Chris Haynes. We
Speaker 1: are recording Thursday and evening with no games in the
Speaker 1: NBA after to play in tournament games Tuesday night, to
Speaker 1: play in tournament games Wednesday night, two more Friday night
Speaker 1: before Saturday's full scale launch of the NBA Playoffs. And
Speaker 1: man just since Monday when we dropped the Bobby Portis
Speaker 1: podcast where Chris had a one on one conversation with
Speaker 1: Bobby Portis from the Milwaukee Bucks one on one because
Speaker 1: of some automobile travails that sidelined me and kept me
Speaker 1: from participating. Chris haynes Man, it is amazing everything in
Speaker 1: this league, everything in hashtag this league that has happened
Speaker 1: since the Portois podcast. The Warrior season is over. The
Speaker 1: Sacramento Kings were the team that at last eliminated Golden State.
Speaker 1: Major injuries in New Orleans with Zion Williamson in Miami
Speaker 1: with Jimmy Butler. We're still waiting on word if Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard can play in Game one for the Clippers, or
Speaker 1: we're still a waiting word on whether Kawhi Leonard can
Speaker 1: even play in Game one for the LA Clippers. We're
Speaker 1: also a waiting word on how long we have to
Speaker 1: wait before Jannis Antetokumpo can join the Milwaukee Bucks for
Speaker 1: their first round series. There was a ban of a player,
Speaker 1: John Tay Porter, banned from the NBA for gambling transgressions.
Speaker 1: Blake Griffin announced his retirement. USA Basketball announced its roster
Speaker 1: for the twenty twenty four Olympics. Award ballots went out
Speaker 1: and were turned in swiftly. This week award voting took
Speaker 1: place basically in the space of a day Monday, late
Speaker 1: Monday into Tuesday, before the playing tournament started. So many
Speaker 1: going on, and I'm sure my list has left some out,
Speaker 1: So sorry for the delay in getting to you, Chris Haynes,
Speaker 1: but man, it has been again. It's only Thursday, and
Speaker 1: it has been.
Speaker 4: A lot, probably a record number of occurrences that have
Speaker 4: happened over the last three or four days in the NBA,
Speaker 4: especially this time the season. Usually we're hyper focus on
Speaker 4: just the playoffs and the matchups out there, but it's
Speaker 4: always it always, let's see a little bit of air
Speaker 4: out of room when.
Speaker 5: Injuries occurse, particularly.
Speaker 1: To injury suck. Yeah, there's no way around it.
Speaker 5: The suck, especially this week.
Speaker 1: But this week has been brutal. It's been absolutely brutal.
Speaker 1: You covered one of those playing games. You covered Golden
Speaker 1: State's exit elimination in Sacramento, and we will get to that.
Speaker 1: We will get to both of the number ten teams
Speaker 1: that lost ten seeds in the playing tournament are now
Speaker 1: zero for eight in play in history in terms of
Speaker 1: getting out of the play in tournament Golden State, losing
Speaker 1: the Sacramento the Hawks routed in Chicago on Wednesday night.
Speaker 1: But again we will get to that stuff. Let's start
Speaker 1: with the injuries, because I mean, man, it was really
Speaker 1: tough to see what happened to Zion Williamson Tuesday night
Speaker 1: in the game of his life, and then last night,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler takes a hit, Kelly Ubray came down on him.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler. I mean, it's not gonna The Heat ended
Speaker 1: up losing in Philly by a point, so this is
Speaker 1: not gonna go into the Jimmy Butler playoff pantheon. But
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe it should to me. If you're
Speaker 1: playing thirty minutes on a spray knee, that's a pretty
Speaker 1: playoff Jimmy performance. But obviously the Heat lose by one
Speaker 1: in Philly, and now they've lost Jimmy Butler indefinitely.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be tough to overcome that. It's gonna be tough,
Speaker 4: and I know the Miami Heat way is the next
Speaker 4: man up.
Speaker 5: You know, they don't.
Speaker 4: They tend not to feel sorry for themselves, but this
Speaker 4: is gonna be hard to overcome. And now they have
Speaker 4: a matchup with the Chicago Bulls, who are playing some
Speaker 4: really good basketball to try to get that eighth seed.
Speaker 4: It's tough, it's time. But this is why again I
Speaker 4: don't want to beat a dead horse. But this is
Speaker 4: why I talk about the play in format and the
Speaker 4: way it's structured. With a team like the Atlanta Hawks,
Speaker 4: I believe they were.
Speaker 5: At like eight or no.
Speaker 4: I think they might have even been ten games back
Speaker 4: of Miami going into that play in But there can
Speaker 4: be there could be an injury to a key guy
Speaker 4: on the team who has the seventh or eighth seed,
Speaker 4: and then all of a sudden, you lose a game,
Speaker 4: or you lose two games and you're wiped away when
Speaker 4: you've already had a big lead and that's it. And
Speaker 4: you know they didn't play the Hawk so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4: But that's why I say, like, it's this is a
Speaker 4: real it's a real tough situation. Like Miami, they had
Speaker 4: a better eighty two game regular season, way better eighty
Speaker 4: two game regular season than Chicago or Atlanta.
Speaker 5: And that just.
Speaker 4: Points to my my margin that I talked about win margin,
Speaker 4: like if if it's six games or more like, let
Speaker 4: them let them advance to the playoffs because if not
Speaker 4: a team like a like the Atlanta really have any bit,
Speaker 4: I don't care if Atlanta wins too in a row
Speaker 4: in the play in did they really have any business
Speaker 4: making it to the playoffs? Answer is no. But back
Speaker 4: to the injury at hand. Tough, tough injury for Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 4: tough injury for the Miami Heat to endure is going
Speaker 4: to be real.
Speaker 1: Well, Listen, the next time Adam Silver does a press conference,
Speaker 1: which should be at the NBA Finals, I suspect now
Speaker 1: this is gonna come up, because Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think the play in tournament in the Grand Scheme has
Speaker 1: been fantastic. It is given the end of a regular
Speaker 1: season a boost. You know it. The positives have far
Speaker 1: outstripped the negatives when it comes to the play in
Speaker 1: tournament because what the league was trying to do was
Speaker 1: to entice more teams to play to the eighty two
Speaker 1: game finish line, and that has clearly happened. We saw
Speaker 1: a feverish last week in the regular season, teams trying
Speaker 1: to get to number six in each conference so they
Speaker 1: could avoid this play and mess. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: when you look at what's happened this week, and there's
Speaker 1: no way you can there's no insulation against injuries. There's
Speaker 1: no way to keep these guys in a bubble and
Speaker 1: ensure that there will not be injury. But the circumstances
Speaker 1: in both cases for Miami and New Orleans are awful
Speaker 1: because the Heat, as you say, finished seven games ahead
Speaker 1: of number nine Chicago. They finished ten games ahead of
Speaker 1: number ten Atlanta. And the Heat could rightfully say there
Speaker 1: should have been some sort of number here now figuring
Speaker 1: out what that number is. Is it four games, is
Speaker 1: it five games? Is it six games? What is the
Speaker 1: appropriate number where we say there should be no playing tournament?
Speaker 1: You know, that would have to be negotiated and discussed,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure the league would look back at past
Speaker 1: history to try to come up with some kind of
Speaker 1: number if it ever got that far. But yes, the
Speaker 1: Miami Heat have a right to be pissed off that
Speaker 1: they were seven games better than number nine Chicago. They
Speaker 1: found themselves in a playing game. Jimmy Butler gets hurt.
Speaker 1: And now even if they can grit through and beat
Speaker 1: Chicago with no Jimmy Butler and Terry Rosier, they're not
Speaker 1: beating the Boston Celtics in Round one. They don't even
Speaker 1: have a chance without Jimmy Butler. They're not.
Speaker 4: But the thing is, say Miami loses to Chicago, and
Speaker 4: that's it's a very real chance that that could happen.
Speaker 4: Like now they're out after two games and they're missing
Speaker 4: their best player. And so say say they they did
Speaker 4: make the playoffs. Now you give Jimmy a time to
Speaker 4: get back. You know, he's not even gonna have time
Speaker 4: to get back. And that's why I say the all
Speaker 4: remember Stein I was talking about when I was talking
Speaker 4: about this, advocating for there being a wiz margin. I
Speaker 4: was talking about like the worst case scenario, the worst
Speaker 4: the worst case scenario was number one having a big
Speaker 4: large margin of wins, which Miami heat did, and number
Speaker 4: two I was talking about, what if a key player
Speaker 4: got hurt during that that play in when they already
Speaker 4: had a large margin. Like all the worst case scenarios.
Speaker 4: They they've happened over the last couple of days. And
Speaker 4: that's why I say, like you can't and you could talk,
Speaker 4: you know, you could talk about well Miami rested Jimmy
Speaker 4: throughout the season. They gave away some games during the
Speaker 4: regular season, Okay, well what did Atlanta do? What did
Speaker 4: Atlanta do this season? What did Chicago do this season?
Speaker 4: So again, like it wasn't fair in the West, play
Speaker 4: in was deserved. It should have happened in the East
Speaker 4: this year. It should that should.
Speaker 5: Not have been in the case.
Speaker 1: Should the margin be six?
Speaker 5: I say, six games?
Speaker 1: But why why six? Why not four? Why not five?
Speaker 4: I think four is still kind of within range. I
Speaker 4: think four you can say they had a better season,
Speaker 4: but not you know, not that much better than the
Speaker 4: next opponent. But six games, It's like, no, you had
Speaker 4: a better season. That's clear to me that six games here.
Speaker 1: No, Like I said, I think, I think it will
Speaker 1: be brought out now. I think this will become you know,
Speaker 1: it will be some sort of discussion. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know if I were in the Heat organization or the
Speaker 1: Sixers organization, I would be bringing it up at the
Speaker 1: next Competition committee meeting. Like we were so far ahead
Speaker 1: of the nine to ten in the in the East
Speaker 1: and we had to play these extra games. And in
Speaker 1: the West, Like you said, I think the playing is
Speaker 1: very justified and there should be no apologies because look
Speaker 1: how tight the West has been really from one to
Speaker 1: ten I mean, look at the Warriors at number ten,
Speaker 1: they won forty six games. Chicago at number nine in
Speaker 1: the East, won thirty nine, Atlanta at number ten in
Speaker 1: the East, won thirty six. I mean a full ten
Speaker 1: games off the Warriors pace in an easier conference. So
Speaker 1: with New Orleans, it's just horrendous, just horrendous luck. And
Speaker 1: that forty four point hammering that the Pelicans took in
Speaker 1: Vegas in the n season tournament. To that point, that
Speaker 1: was the largest stage that Zion Williamson had ever played
Speaker 1: on as a pro, because we're still waiting to see
Speaker 1: him in a playoff game. And then you fast forward
Speaker 1: to the play in tournament and this becomes the new
Speaker 1: biggest game of Zion's career. And after all the criticism
Speaker 1: he took all season about conditioning, what happened in Vegas.
Speaker 1: He played the game of his life. I mean, he
Speaker 1: had forty points, eleven rebounds. He was the best player
Speaker 1: on the court, the most effective player on the court
Speaker 1: in a game with Lebron James on the other side,
Speaker 1: with Anthony Davis on the other side. And I don't
Speaker 1: need to recount Anthony Davis's whole history in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: And then a new hamstring injury left hamstring, and Zion
Speaker 1: is out indefinitely like Jimmy Butler. And Okay, maybe the
Speaker 1: Pelicans can find a way to beat Sacramento at home
Speaker 1: and make the playoffs, because let's not forget the Pelicans
Speaker 1: are five and ohero this season remarkably against Sacramento and
Speaker 1: the teams have met. But even if New Orleans finds
Speaker 1: a way through a one game scenario just to extended season,
Speaker 1: the Pelicans would have to play the top seeded Thunder
Speaker 1: without their best player.
Speaker 6: And so.
Speaker 1: Then there's the flip side. If the Pelicans lose to
Speaker 1: Sacramento and don't even make the playoffs, they become just
Speaker 1: the second forty nine win team in league history to
Speaker 1: miss the playoffs entirely. So, I mean, your your play
Speaker 1: in arguments have definitely gained steam this week because there's
Speaker 1: been some there's been some cruel stuff going on.
Speaker 4: You thought I was crazy, Stein when I first said it,
Speaker 4: when I first called for it, Say you thought I
Speaker 4: was crazy, or I.
Speaker 1: Don't think I thought. I don't think I thought you
Speaker 1: were crazy.
Speaker 3: You this theme.
Speaker 4: He was like, you were one of those people that
Speaker 4: were saying, well, you know, you should have did the
Speaker 4: work during the regular season. I'm like, well, listen, this
Speaker 4: is any two game season. All games should matter.
Speaker 1: Ryan, did I ever say that? I think I'm being
Speaker 1: misquoted here.
Speaker 6: Ryan, I don't think you necessarily said exactly what Chris
Speaker 6: is trying to lay out here. You were more so
Speaker 6: in the you didn't believe it.
Speaker 1: I loved the plan. I think overall it has been
Speaker 1: very good for the league, but there are certainly still
Speaker 1: some flaws that Chris Haynes has been trumpeting here lately,
Speaker 1: and this week has certainly given steam and support to
Speaker 1: those complaints, because, I mean, the Pelicans have to be
Speaker 1: sitting there thinking, we won forty nine games, we would
Speaker 1: have been the seventh seed in the traditional one through
Speaker 1: eight system, and now they fail the prospect of being
Speaker 1: booted out of the playoffs completely, and even if they
Speaker 1: make it, they're not going to have their best player
Speaker 1: because of an injury he sustained in a playing game.
Speaker 1: So the Pelicans are certainly not loving the playing tournament
Speaker 1: right now, and the Miami Heat, to Chris's off sited point,
Speaker 1: have to be even more furious because they won forty
Speaker 1: six games and were clearly clearly seven games better than Chicago,
Speaker 1: ten games better than Atlanta, and according to Commissioner Haynes,
Speaker 1: should not have even been playing a playing.
Speaker 4: Game, shouldn't have a stein you know, you know, I
Speaker 4: play a lot. I kid a lot, and I talk
Speaker 4: about Miami because yes, I do like my trips to Miami.
Speaker 4: But let's give proper respect to the Philadelphia seventy six
Speaker 4: ers because they shouldn't even play that one game playing
Speaker 4: game they were Let's talk. I know I talk about
Speaker 4: the discrepancy between the Heat and those teams, but Philly
Speaker 4: was eight Let me see, Philly was eight games ahead
Speaker 4: of Chicago and eleven games ahead of Atlanta.
Speaker 5: I don't care if Philly loses the first game.
Speaker 4: There is no way in the world that Philly should
Speaker 4: have to play Chicago or Atlanta to try to get
Speaker 4: into the playoffs.
Speaker 5: That is blasphemy. That's it.
Speaker 4: Just come on, now, we gotta do something about this.
Speaker 4: This This is I don't I get New Orleans. I
Speaker 4: hear you gripe with New Orleans. No gripe to me.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry. Like your two three games up up from
Speaker 4: the next team, which was the Kings.
Speaker 5: Three games now, that's fine. Play in go ahead and
Speaker 5: go ahead do the play in.
Speaker 4: But what happened in the East, Travesty should not have
Speaker 4: been a player in the Eastern Conference. Now the problem
Speaker 4: is Steyn say they do implement a racial rule. Right,
Speaker 4: That's something that league I believe does not want to
Speaker 4: happen because you know, you've given away money. You're throwing
Speaker 4: away a play in, just just a Western Conference play
Speaker 4: in this season and no Eastern Conference playing. Well, that's
Speaker 4: money you're given away, TV revenue you're given away.
Speaker 5: So I get why they don't want to.
Speaker 4: But this all the worst things happen in the East
Speaker 4: to where it should be something in play.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I said, I'm really curious to see the
Speaker 1: Sixers and or the heat the teams most justified to
Speaker 1: be as riled up as Commissioner Haynes. Will they say
Speaker 1: something at the next Competition Committee meeting that they have
Speaker 1: a representative at, because yeah, this has been rough week.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad you brought the Sixers up because they
Speaker 1: that was a very gritty showing for them to come back,
Speaker 1: because I mean, Jimmy is just from another planet, like
Speaker 1: to have a knee injury like that. It looked ugly
Speaker 1: just watching the replays and he played on. He played
Speaker 1: on for pretty much the rest of the game and
Speaker 1: didn't come out and Miami almost won that game, but
Speaker 1: Philadelphia got down double digits. Your guy, Nikola Batoum really
Speaker 1: helped Philadelphia turn that thing around. And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: about to spend some time at that Mass Clippers first
Speaker 1: round series. I'm thinking the Clippers have never missed but
Speaker 1: two more than Wednesday night if they were watching on TV,
Speaker 1: as he drained a number of threes and really helped
Speaker 1: the Sixers rally out of a pretty dire situation.
Speaker 4: And lastly, on this guy, you know I sit coach
Speaker 4: spost a text of my my video comment when I
Speaker 4: was talking about the play in situation on inside the NBA,
Speaker 4: and Spoe text back, we made our bed. We will
Speaker 4: have to do this the hard way. That's the deal.
Speaker 4: We'll be ready. That was before the playoffs started.
Speaker 1: And that to me is such a heat answer. Deal
Speaker 1: with it and face it, deal.
Speaker 5: It and face it. But that was before the play
Speaker 5: and started.
Speaker 4: Now he may feel they feel differently now that Jimmy
Speaker 4: Butler's out a while.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Look, I mean I gotta be because I did Power
Speaker 1: rankings on Tuesday. My last Power rankings of the season,
Speaker 1: and I just I wrote a bazillion words. So fans
Speaker 1: of every team that wanted to read about their team,
Speaker 1: there's your team is covered in detailed fashion. But I
Speaker 1: I put Miami despite this season, despite we made our bed,
Speaker 1: as Spose says, I still had the Heat at number
Speaker 1: umber ten in my final rankings, and I said, I
Speaker 1: wrote more than once in the piece. I'm sure I
Speaker 1: have the Heat higher than any power rankings institution on
Speaker 1: the planet. But you know what, I'm not writing the
Speaker 1: Heat off until they're eliminated. I am fully a believer
Speaker 1: that they will always find a way and that they
Speaker 1: are just the toughest out you can imagine. But that
Speaker 1: was all predicated on Jimmy Butler being able to play
Speaker 1: and activate Playoff Jimmy mode, and obviously now that's impossible.
Speaker 1: He did activate playoff Jimmy mode in the playing game
Speaker 1: just by being able to finish that game, but realistically,
Speaker 1: the Heat will not see him again until next season.
Speaker 1: So I mean, their season for all intents and purposes,
Speaker 1: is over, even if they find a way to get
Speaker 1: past the bulls Man rough.
Speaker 4: Yeah, take it their nut number ten on your list now.
Speaker 1: Well, like I said, Jimmy Butler was factoring into those
Speaker 1: calculations from the Committee of Won factoring in heavily. What
Speaker 1: about Okay, and then we still have major injury question
Speaker 1: marks both with the Clippers and the Bucks Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: As of Thursday, Game one is Sunday lunchtime, LA time.
Speaker 1: Still not clear if Kawhi Leonard is going to be
Speaker 1: able to play. He's obviously trying. The Clippers are hopeful
Speaker 1: that he's going to get out there, but I mean
Speaker 1: we have to remember, I mean, Kawhi Leonard has not
Speaker 1: played a game this month. He last played for the
Speaker 1: Clippers at the end of March. So even even if
Speaker 1: he can play, I think it's fair to pose the
Speaker 1: question how effective will he actually be in game one?
Speaker 1: And the Clippers are relying hugely. I mean, Kwhi Leonard
Speaker 1: is their most important player. This is a deep Clipper team.
Speaker 1: They've got a lot of weapons and at their best,
Speaker 1: we've seen how dangerous they can be. But when countering
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic for the Clippers, that starts with Kawhi Leonard,
Speaker 1: And so how healthy will Kawhi actually be even if
Speaker 1: he does get out there.
Speaker 5: Again?
Speaker 4: A brutal time to be dealing with something like that
Speaker 4: when you have to deal with two of the top
Speaker 4: perimeter players we have in this league, and Luka Doncis
Speaker 4: and Kyrie Irvin. You need your you need your wing
Speaker 4: defenders out there in full throttle. And hopefully Kawhi is
Speaker 4: able to get close to that, because you want to
Speaker 4: see some good games like really starin there's a you know,
Speaker 4: I know we're gonna talk about it later, but there's
Speaker 4: a lot of good intriguing first round matchups. Like the
Speaker 4: NBA has to be really really happy with the matchups
Speaker 4: that we have thus far.
Speaker 1: All right, but you know, let's just let's just do that. Now,
Speaker 1: Let's just let's just get to get to that. Now,
Speaker 1: let's pick what is the standout matchup. We'll do one
Speaker 1: in each conference, so there's eight first round series. Of course,
Speaker 1: as we're taping this, we don't officially know who Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City or Boston those teams do not know their opponents,
Speaker 1: and to.
Speaker 5: Be honest, you don't care. It doesn't matter who.
Speaker 1: For all your ranting about the play in tournament, this
Speaker 1: should be a central element of your argument that it
Speaker 1: needs changes because one of the most again, I love
Speaker 1: the playing tournament in the grand scheme, I think overall
Speaker 1: it has been far more positive and negative. But to me,
Speaker 1: one of the huge negatives here it is not fair
Speaker 1: to the Celtics or the Thunder that they're not gonna
Speaker 1: know their first round opponent till Friday night. When those
Speaker 1: are the teams that possess the number one seed in
Speaker 1: the conference. That's not fair. And so that's another element
Speaker 1: of this thing that I think the league has to
Speaker 1: look at. Because Boston sixty four wins run away best
Speaker 1: record in the NBA, and the Celtics know it's gonna
Speaker 1: be Miami or Chicago, but that's all they know. And
Speaker 1: obviously from a coaching and scouting perspective, they certainly would
Speaker 1: have liked more advanced notice than they're gonna get.
Speaker 4: I guess the league figures that as the number one seed,
Speaker 4: you're going to get a bad team coming in, so
Speaker 4: you don't need much of a heads up to prepare
Speaker 4: for them. But that is I didn't think about that scenario.
Speaker 4: That is that is a.
Speaker 1: And that's look, and I think you're I think you're
Speaker 1: exactly right. I think that's kind of the the rationale
Speaker 1: they can use to try to explain it. But like
Speaker 1: in the I mean even in the East, but in
Speaker 1: the West, there are no bad teams in the West.
Speaker 1: So in the West it is I'm sure the thunder
Speaker 1: is not loving having to rush this preparation. And Boston,
Speaker 1: you know again, was so good in the East that
Speaker 1: they deserve better. But let's let's do this. Let's and
Speaker 1: we'll we'll work our Yannis injury discussion into this section
Speaker 1: because I have a feeling I know what will be
Speaker 1: your preferred pick in the East. But tell me the
Speaker 1: East series that you most look forward to. Is it
Speaker 1: Boston against Heat or Bulls Nicks, Sixers, Bucks Pacers or
Speaker 1: the NBA TV Invitational Cavaliers. Magic means how many how
Speaker 1: many sideline games were you signing that zero? We should
Speaker 1: we can't break that news too. And one of the
Speaker 1: another one of the shots looking headlines of the week
Speaker 1: that I didn't work into my intro, is it true
Speaker 1: that you're starting in the East next week You're on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I believe I'll be East the whole way. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I'll be East the whole way.
Speaker 1: I didn't see that. I thought you'd be in the West.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I start out in New York. So I got
Speaker 4: that Nicks uh that Nick Sixers game.
Speaker 1: Tell Jalen Brunson offer him that trade. Yeah, we'll go
Speaker 1: on the We'll go we'll we'll go on the roommates
Speaker 1: pod if they come on our pod.
Speaker 4: I think I think Jalen has more more important matters
Speaker 4: to ten two around this time of year. But we'll
Speaker 4: see if I get them along, we'll see, I'll see
Speaker 4: what type of mood he's in. But I'm gonna shock
Speaker 4: you with my pick the most intriguing.
Speaker 1: Okay that means that means it's not Bucks Pacers, then no.
Speaker 4: It is Bucks Pacers with the Bucks Pacers. And if
Speaker 4: I'm going with the Bucks Pacers, because there's been a
Speaker 4: ton of storylines between these two teams throughout this season.
Speaker 4: There was the end season tournament the Pacers took eliminated
Speaker 4: the Bucks. There was Tyrese Halliburton tapping his wrist doing
Speaker 4: the dame, doing the Dame signal. You had Yanna's getting
Speaker 4: a career high at home against the Pacers, and then
Speaker 4: he trying to get the ball, but the Pacers took
Speaker 4: the game ball and was trying to give it and
Speaker 4: try to give it to a rookie who scored his
Speaker 4: first point, not his first basket. He actually scored one
Speaker 4: free throw. He made one of to his free throws,
Speaker 4: and that caused Jannis to try to storm back to
Speaker 4: get back there to the Pacers locker room. So it's
Speaker 4: just a lot of talk we have, and I have
Speaker 4: Malik Beasley come on my Bleacher Report Live obsession and
Speaker 4: he said he wants to see the Pacers and you know,
Speaker 4: they're not gonna know where hit him coming. Excuse me,
Speaker 4: They're not gonna know what hit them when we come.
Speaker 4: So that is the matchup, that is the series that
Speaker 4: I'm looking for to. Even though Janni's looks like Giannis
Speaker 4: won't be there for a little bit, I'm still looking
Speaker 4: toward for to that matchup because I still think it's
Speaker 4: gonna be competitive.
Speaker 1: Do you think plays in any of that series?
Speaker 5: I do. I think he makes it.
Speaker 4: I think he can make a return at some point
Speaker 4: in that series, Yes, I do.
Speaker 1: Can they beat the Pacers without him?
Speaker 4: I believe they're capable of of doing it. Can they
Speaker 4: They got Milwaukee has home court advantage. You gotta give
Speaker 4: him that. Yeah, I think they can. It's gonna be tough,
Speaker 4: though Dame has to Dame has to be Dame. Dame
Speaker 4: has to be Dame. One thing about Dame is that
Speaker 4: he's comfortable in that lead role. So, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: I know he's been getting treatment all this week. He's
Speaker 4: been focused, narrowly focused, telling you focus. You know, we
Speaker 4: have a there's a group chat that him and uh
Speaker 4: that I'm in with him and a couple other people,
Speaker 4: and he's really he's active on that chat, but not
Speaker 4: this week. This week he's zoned in. He's laser focused.
Speaker 4: So they're capable of doing. But that's the matchup I
Speaker 4: want to see.
Speaker 5: There's just so much. There's so much that happen between
Speaker 5: these two teams this season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, look, the Pacers play at a faster
Speaker 1: pace than just about anybody, although it has slowed to
Speaker 1: bit some here late in the season. But obviously we
Speaker 1: know they want to play fast and make the game
Speaker 1: pacy for the Bucks. And how Milwaukee will cope with
Speaker 1: that if they don't have Giannis for a game, for
Speaker 1: two games, for three games, whatever, It is one of
Speaker 1: the major question marks in the first round. But we
Speaker 1: also have to say, you know, Tyrese Haliburton, he has
Speaker 1: not been the same Tyrese Haliburton we saw before the
Speaker 1: hamstring injury. Before the hamstring injury, he was an All
Speaker 1: NBA lock and really one of the ten best players
Speaker 1: in the league.
Speaker 3: And his NO.
Speaker 1: Numbers took a significant drop when he came back from
Speaker 1: that injury. Shooting dip to the forty four percent range
Speaker 1: from the field, his three point conversion went way down
Speaker 1: below thirty five percent. Scoring dropped to about sixteen a.
Speaker 3: Game, So.
Speaker 1: That will be another thing to really watch in that series.
Speaker 1: What is the state of Halliburton's game. I mean the Pacers,
Speaker 1: they were only twenty three and eighteen. After acquiring Pascal Siakam,
Speaker 1: I thought they would be better, but they finished the
Speaker 1: season with a reasonable bump, and I'm sure they think
Speaker 1: that they can shock the world and knock Milwaukee out
Speaker 1: because again, Indye did win four of the five regular
Speaker 1: season meetings, even though they were all before I mean,
Speaker 1: I think they were all wrapped up by January third.
Speaker 1: So it's been a long time since we've seen these
Speaker 1: teams that really don't like each other. That is the
Speaker 1: standout series in the East. I'm not gonna pretend it's not,
Speaker 1: but just to be a little different and to expand
Speaker 1: the convo, I do think Nick's six ers is another
Speaker 1: good one that you know, New York wanted the number
Speaker 1: two seed, even though that meant that they were gonna
Speaker 1: get Philly or Miami. They wanted the smoke. They're gonna
Speaker 1: get it now. Philly has to be feeling really good
Speaker 1: about itself again to play such a tough team like Miami,
Speaker 1: go down by fifteen, find a way to dig themselves
Speaker 1: out of that hole. We know that gritty wins in
Speaker 1: the playoffs have not exactly been plentiful in Philadelphia over
Speaker 1: the years, so that was impressive. And you know, the
Speaker 1: state of Joel Embiid's health is another major health topic
Speaker 1: that we need to keep our eye on because he's
Speaker 1: only been back for ten games or so, and I
Speaker 1: think you saw in the playing game there were times
Speaker 1: he was clearly fatigued. He is still not anywhere close
Speaker 1: to one, but still a great shot maker, drained a
Speaker 1: few clutch threes, big pass to Oubre to spark that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter surge, and just obviously having Embiid on the floor,
Speaker 1: the gravity of what he's capable of offensively changes the game.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be a real That Knick sixer series,
Speaker 1: I think is also gonna be really good.
Speaker 5: I agree with you.
Speaker 4: That would have been my number two pick in the
Speaker 4: Eastern Conference. I'm looking forward to that. I actually have
Speaker 4: Game two that Game one, so my first game will
Speaker 4: be Monday, Nick Sixers, looking forward to that.
Speaker 1: But don't you also have a Boston game in there.
Speaker 4: Right after Nick Sixers. I got Game two Boston and
Speaker 4: whoever they face?
Speaker 1: Yea, see, even you, even you can't prepare because you
Speaker 1: don't know who the other team is.
Speaker 4: I'll be all right, issue, I'll be all right. I'm
Speaker 4: I'm in much better position than Boston. I'll be okay.
Speaker 1: I'll make producer Ryan any votes for Calves Magic.
Speaker 6: See, the problem is, you guys are a bunch of elitists,
Speaker 6: and I will take the NBA TV Invitational in Calves. Listen,
Speaker 6: you got a young Magic team. They've been waiting for
Speaker 6: their time to come back and finally win another playoff series.
Speaker 6: You got Palo ban Cao. Could he be the next
Speaker 6: big star in the Eastern Conference. And look the Calves.
Speaker 6: They made a big move for Donovan Mitchell. It hasn't
Speaker 6: necessarily paid off for a long postseason run. Is this
Speaker 6: the year or is you know some of the whispers
Speaker 6: we've been hearing that perhaps teams could start sniffing around
Speaker 6: looking for a future Donovan Mitchell trade once again. So
Speaker 6: I'll go ahead and take it. You guys. You guys
Speaker 6: aren't taking it. You guys are making your little jokes,
Speaker 6: taking your little pot shots.
Speaker 1: Alrighty not me, r not me.
Speaker 6: That's all star star, that's guilty by association.
Speaker 5: Well, hey, well, this this is the question I have.
Speaker 5: Rye up.
Speaker 4: But first of all, I start, you know, I don't
Speaker 4: know what NBA TV did the start to make him
Speaker 4: do that, just throw a shots like that. But Brian,
Speaker 4: since you're selling it, you're promoting it, You're you're, you know,
Speaker 4: selling the stars that we have in that series. Are
Speaker 4: you saying that these two teams should not be an
Speaker 4: NBA TV invitational and that they should be a TNT
Speaker 4: ESPN primetime game.
Speaker 5: Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 6: Well, listen, I think NBA TV provides its own value,
Speaker 6: so there's no need to say that there's any type
Speaker 6: of promotion or demotion based off of the network that
Speaker 6: you're on. And Plus, by the way, we got to
Speaker 6: pull for the great Jamal Moseley, friend of the show
Speaker 6: guest on the show, So I'll go, I'll go with
Speaker 6: the Orlando Magic in the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Speaker 1: Well, a couple things here. There is no question that
Speaker 1: there is a great deal of curiosity bubbling league wide
Speaker 1: about Donovan Mitchell's future and will he sign a contract
Speaker 1: extent this offseason and if he doesn't, will that force
Speaker 1: the Cavaliers to admit that they need to trade him
Speaker 1: before losing him out right because he would only have
Speaker 1: one guaranteed season left on his deal. And obviously how
Speaker 1: well the Calves do in the playoffs figures to be
Speaker 1: a factor in that extension calculus for Donovan Mitchell. So
Speaker 1: you know what, though, Ryan, since you are so high
Speaker 1: on this series, I think we're gonna make it a
Speaker 1: feature of the next couple of pods that you We're
Speaker 1: gonna We're gonna carve out a little time so you
Speaker 1: can give us some updates on how that series is
Speaker 1: playing out, because yes, we'll just you are you are
Speaker 1: the Calves Magic correspondent for this league on cot star Stein.
Speaker 4: That would actually require require producer Ryan to get NBA TV.
Speaker 5: Hey come on, now, come.
Speaker 1: On, Producer Ryan has it. His day job is like
Speaker 1: you know, he's the glue of the whole Colin Cowhart operation,
Speaker 1: so he watches every game copious notes.
Speaker 3: I have no doubts.
Speaker 1: I have no doubts that we will be getting some
Speaker 1: glorious insights from the NBA TV Invitational. Calves Magic can't wait. Okay,
Speaker 1: best series in the West, best first round series. Your
Speaker 1: choices are Oklahoma City, which does not yet know if
Speaker 1: they'll be playing the Sacramento Kings or the New Orleans Pelicans.
Speaker 1: They will find that out for sure Friday Night, the
Speaker 1: defending champion Denver Nuggets against the seventh seeded LA Lakers.
Speaker 1: The Lakers, by the way, the first team in league
Speaker 1: history to qualify for the playoffs three times via the
Speaker 1: NBA Tournament twice as a number seven seed. Now is
Speaker 1: a number eight seed. The Lakers are three and zero
Speaker 1: in their pit history. Three qualifications for the playoffs through
Speaker 1: the play in for the Lakers. Then there's the three
Speaker 1: to six. This is tough. Minnesota Phoenix, the most successful
Speaker 1: season on paper in wolve's history, and they've got to
Speaker 1: open up in Round one against the Suns, team that
Speaker 1: has won all three regular season matchups between the teams,
Speaker 1: and in the series, not the season, the series that
Speaker 1: I'll be covering Clippers Mavericks four to five, Act three
Speaker 1: in the Luka Doncic Versus the Clip Show trilogy. Third
Speaker 1: time in five years that the Mavericks and Clippers will
Speaker 1: be hooking up in the playoffs. Chris Haynes, you get
Speaker 1: the first pick. What is the best first round series
Speaker 1: out of the four on offer in the West?
Speaker 4: Well, that's a great slate of games in the Western
Speaker 4: Conference field. I will say that I don't think you
Speaker 4: can go wrong with pretty much any of those selections.
Speaker 4: But I'm gonna go similarly to what I did with
Speaker 4: Milwaukee and the Pacers. I'm going with history. What's a
Speaker 4: series that has history? And then I'm gonna take a
Speaker 4: page out of producer Ryan's playbook. He gave a shout
Speaker 4: out to coach Jamal Moseley came on, So I'm gonna
Speaker 4: talk about the other head coach that came on our
Speaker 4: show where we actually did a live show live from
Speaker 4: Las Vegas.
Speaker 5: I'm going with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver.
Speaker 4: Nuggets because of their history, because coach Ham said he
Speaker 4: wanted some get back for what Denver did to them
Speaker 4: in the playoffs last year. In the Western Conference finals,
Speaker 4: to be exact, they wanted this opportunity, and instant people
Speaker 4: were talking about the Lakers should lose the game and
Speaker 4: against New Orleans to try to beat the ninth or
Speaker 4: ten seed for the eighth seed, just so they don't
Speaker 4: face Denver in the first round.
Speaker 5: Who does that? What competitor does that?
Speaker 7: Like?
Speaker 4: How can you like lose the first playing game and
Speaker 4: then just rish your whole season on trying to win
Speaker 4: against a team that just won and they got some confidence,
Speaker 4: Like it don't make any sense. If you're a competitor,
Speaker 4: you play to win. Lakers did what they were supposed
Speaker 4: to do. They handle New Orleans. Now they're facing Denver,
Speaker 4: and this is what I want to see. This is
Speaker 4: what everybody wants to see. It might it might have
Speaker 4: it been in the Western Conference finals as far as
Speaker 4: what win people wanted to see them, But we want
Speaker 4: to see this matchup. The history is there, let's get
Speaker 4: it going. That's my intriguing matchup in the West Oknference.
Speaker 1: Look, you go with Nuggets Lakers, and you are more
Speaker 1: than entitled. I do just feel the need to remind
Speaker 1: you that Darvin Ham, who we loved beyond words, having
Speaker 1: on that line show in Las Vegas. But I do
Speaker 1: need to remind you that if we're gonna make that
Speaker 1: a requirement. Coach of the Year candidate Jamal Moseley in
Speaker 1: the East, He's been on the show, Tylu Clippers Coach,
Speaker 1: He's been on the show. Chris Finch, Timberwolves coach, has
Speaker 1: even done a live show with us, like Darvin Ham
Speaker 1: And I think I'm leaving somebody out. So I think
Speaker 1: those are all the coach I think those are all
Speaker 1: the playoff coaches who've been on with us. There might
Speaker 1: be more that I just can't fully remember somebody.
Speaker 4: Damn, Can I pick the whole field? Or do I
Speaker 4: have to pick a series? I mean I gotta pick.
Speaker 4: I gotta pick something you can pick.
Speaker 1: No, we only want you to pick one series. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying that a coach appearing on the show might
Speaker 1: not work as the as the driving force behind.
Speaker 4: Well, it worked for producer Ryan. And you just say
Speaker 4: a word. And now that I said, now you want
Speaker 4: to condemn me.
Speaker 3: I was just shocked too.
Speaker 1: I was just shocked at producer. I was caught off
Speaker 1: guard that producer Ryan actually wanted to talk. I thought
Speaker 1: I was throwing him a grenade but he was hyped that.
Speaker 1: I put him in the corner to.
Speaker 6: The coach that's still alive, Uh, coach Mike Brown of
Speaker 6: the Kings.
Speaker 3: Make Brown.
Speaker 6: We don't know officially if they will be in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: As I left somebody out are still alive. So like sick?
Speaker 6: What is that?
Speaker 1: Six of the five or six of the sixteen playoff coaches?
Speaker 1: And you said if Mike Brown's not in the playoffs yet,
Speaker 1: but let's see if they can beat the Pels. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so if Mike Brown makes it, that's one, two, three, four,
Speaker 1: at least five playoff coaches have been on this show.
Speaker 5: Hold on, what are the coaches again? You know what?
Speaker 5: That's why I think coach fence. Thank you, coach Fence.
Speaker 5: You know why I think coach Fence. He broke the.
Speaker 4: Streak because for for a while, the all we did
Speaker 4: was have black hair coaches over. I was like, what's what's.
Speaker 5: Going on here?
Speaker 4: Why we can't why wha why why do we only
Speaker 4: get these black coaches here? I love them, I'll tackle,
Speaker 4: I accept them. But thank you Coach Finch. The first
Speaker 4: non black head coach to come on this league podcast.
Speaker 5: I could say it.
Speaker 1: So let me see We've had Coach Moseley, We've had
Speaker 1: Coach Brown, We've had Coach Ham, We've had Coach lou
Speaker 1: We've had Coach Finch. Am I leaving anybody out?
Speaker 5: I believe that. I believe that's it. I believe that's it.
Speaker 1: Because Jason Kidd and Rick Carlottle Jason Kidd and Rick
Speaker 1: Carlisle came on my radio show, but they have not
Speaker 1: yet been on this podcast.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you, thank you, Coach Finch.
Speaker 4: He made history on this league uncut podcast.
Speaker 1: History history. All right. My choice for the sexiest first
Speaker 1: round series? I bet you're thinking that I'm automatically gonna
Speaker 1: say MAVs Clippers, and look, MAVs Clippers is really good.
Speaker 1: But I mean, am I allowed to do it? Toss up?
Speaker 1: I'm really intrigued by Wolves Sons. Wolf's Sons is fascinating
Speaker 1: to me because, again, this is ground we've covered in
Speaker 1: the past. But the Minnesota Timberwolves thirty four prior seasons
Speaker 1: in franchise history, they've only won two playoff rounds in
Speaker 1: all that time, in thirty plus years. Poor Scott Shapiro,
Speaker 1: friend of the show and iHeart podcast, maestro, longtime, long
Speaker 1: suffering Wolves fan. He's only seen his team win two
Speaker 1: playoff rounds in thirty something years, so there's is huge
Speaker 1: pressure on Minnesota. Plus you've got this crazy ownership scandal
Speaker 1: that's hanging over the whole franchise. The Wolves were in
Speaker 1: the mix for the number one seed the whole season.
Speaker 1: They end up dropping to number three, even though they
Speaker 1: finished only one game in the standings behind Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: and Denver. And now the Wolves as a third seed,
Speaker 1: they have to open up against the very dangerous Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 1: And if the Wolves win that series, then they've got
Speaker 1: a deal with Denver and the Nuggets will have the
Speaker 1: home court advantage. So Minnesota's playoff path is about as
Speaker 1: difficult as it could be. So look, obviously I am
Speaker 1: going to be dialed in and locked in to Clippers
Speaker 1: MAVs Part three, but I put Wolves and Sons right
Speaker 1: in the same tier. Producer, Ryan, I guess for you
Speaker 1: that leaves OKC and whoever makes that, whoever makes that,
Speaker 1: whoever advances out of the plan, tell us why you're
Speaker 1: excited about OKAC as the number one seede.
Speaker 6: Well you know this is fitting if I do say
Speaker 6: so myself. If you remember very early in the regular season.
Speaker 6: I had said, I, go, are we supposed to be
Speaker 6: buying into the Thunder? Do we think the Thunder are
Speaker 6: for real? And you, Mark Stein, you laughed at me.
Speaker 5: You laughed at me.
Speaker 6: We would be making a topic out of the Thunder.
Speaker 6: And so guess what here we are. It is April,
Speaker 6: the playoffs are ready to begin, and they are the
Speaker 6: number one seed in the Western Conference. So look, we've
Speaker 6: seen this before with the Thunder. They got young talent,
Speaker 6: they draft, well.
Speaker 1: Our seats are made up. I don't remember any of
Speaker 1: these you know what I've been quoted for this second time.
Speaker 6: Okay, I backed you up on the misquote from Chris,
Speaker 6: but this was a real off air conversation.
Speaker 1: So okay, this might have really happened, and I just
Speaker 1: don't I really just probably don't.
Speaker 6: You said it in jes like, no big deal, just
Speaker 6: because I was fascinated to see this young Thunder team
Speaker 6: start the regular season so strongly. But yeah, no, Look,
Speaker 6: I think this is going to be fascinating to see
Speaker 6: if this young group of players for the Thunder, which
Speaker 6: have obviously shown great promise in the regular season, could
Speaker 6: do it in the postseason. And I think there aren't
Speaker 6: any questions about how long they'll be together, but obviously
Speaker 6: the comparisons are always going to live. That is this
Speaker 6: the next you know, Kevin Durant, Westbrook James Harden team
Speaker 6: that can make a run to the finals. So there's
Speaker 6: my pitch for why you should buy into the Thunder
Speaker 6: in this first round of the playoffs.
Speaker 5: So are the Thunder and whoever they play, are they
Speaker 5: in the NBA TV what do you call it the ball.
Speaker 1: NBA TV Invitational? I would say yeah, I would I
Speaker 1: would say I would say that that's a likely scenario.
Speaker 4: Well, producer Ry needs to subscribe to NBA TV so
Speaker 4: he could watch both of his marquee matchups. Uh, and
Speaker 4: definitely don't be on the road because you know it's
Speaker 4: hard to catch NBA TV on when you're in a hotel.
Speaker 5: Hey, listen, the playtales don't have it.
Speaker 6: The playoffs are all about role players understanding their job
Speaker 6: and executing. And I understand my role here. It is
Speaker 6: the NBA TV Invitational matchups and I'm just here to execute.
Speaker 4: All right, Hold on, real quick, sell the series like
Speaker 4: you sold Orlando and Cleveland. Sell this series, man, But
Speaker 4: you know both scenarios, this one.
Speaker 6: This one's okay both scenarios. Huh, all right, well man,
Speaker 6: I am I'm gonna struggle with this one.
Speaker 3: The East matchup was a lot easier.
Speaker 4: Why is he struggling, stive? Why is he struggling if
Speaker 4: this is his most He's composed. He shouldn't be struggling
Speaker 4: if this is his series, if this is his pit o, man,
Speaker 4: why was he struggling to sell?
Speaker 1: We're gonna give him a chance to redeem himself with
Speaker 1: some coverage of this.
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, yeah, the coverage is where I'll be able
Speaker 6: to back this up.
Speaker 5: You know, he couldn't sell it. He couldn't sell it.
Speaker 5: We gave him the products. He couldn't sell it. You
Speaker 5: will be a horrible drug dealer. Produce a Ryan horrible
Speaker 5: drug dealer.
Speaker 6: I guess, I guess I made the right choice in
Speaker 6: not pursuing that.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, let's try to end this show and restore
Speaker 1: a touch of order here, although I'm not sure that
Speaker 1: our final topic will exactly achieve that. But like I
Speaker 1: said from the beginning, there were twenty five things we
Speaker 1: could have talked about today, and you know we will
Speaker 1: as time goes on. We will get to future of
Speaker 1: the Warriors, Let's see if the Kings actually make the
Speaker 1: playoffs and see if knocking out the Warriors what that
Speaker 1: can do for the Kings going forward. Let's see if
Speaker 1: they can capitalize on that win Tuesday night and build
Speaker 1: off that and actually get into the Final eight by
Speaker 1: beating a week in New Orleans. Team We'll talk about
Speaker 1: Team USA down the road. Obviously, we have plenty of
Speaker 1: time to get into that, get into their roster, and
Speaker 1: we didn't make any time to get into the Johntay
Speaker 1: Porter story, which is just that's probably a podcast in
Speaker 1: itself to see the league and the ruling they issued
Speaker 1: this week to suspend him after an investigation that turned
Speaker 1: up a number of gambling transgressions. But we can get
Speaker 1: back to some of those topics in the future.
Speaker 6: M H.
Speaker 1: More timely and probably the more fitting end this week.
Speaker 1: Just the other day on Inside the NBA, before that
Speaker 1: Kings win at home over the Warriors, Chris Haynes was
Speaker 1: summoned to give his pregame report from Sacramento on Inside
Speaker 1: the NBA, and here's what happened.
Speaker 5: Oh, I was the MVP in the Filipino league that
Speaker 5: I'm in.
Speaker 4: Hereat I'm not.
Speaker 5: Philippa but you know I got I'm gonna guess.
Speaker 7: I know I'm gonna get it trouble to ask this question,
Speaker 7: how many the Filipino has been drafted into the NBA.
Speaker 5: That's gonna question many?
Speaker 1: Christ All right, enjoy the guy.
Speaker 7: I know it's Filipino name too. What's the Filipino name?
Speaker 7: You're right, man, was nice and.
Speaker 1: Lots going on in that clip, Chris Haynes, Lots going on,
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you this the minute. The minute you
Speaker 1: finished speaking, one of my readers on my sub stack
Speaker 1: instantly messaged me and said it was only a matter
Speaker 1: of time before Haynes started talking about his rec league
Speaker 1: play on inside the NBA. So it is well known nationally,
Speaker 1: you know what I have to say. One of my
Speaker 1: first takeaways though, watching that was the hey, EJ and
Speaker 1: Shaq knew your whole rec league history. It started to
Speaker 1: make me think, are these guys listening to the show.
Speaker 1: Maybe they listen, Maybe Ernie is a frequent listener to
Speaker 1: this league uncut and we just never knew it.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm gonna give you some background info that nobody
Speaker 4: knows about.
Speaker 5: Which would which would?
Speaker 4: I think it would get you to understand how that
Speaker 4: whole conversation came about on air. So prior to me
Speaker 4: going on inside the NBA, you know, they have you
Speaker 4: check in with the studio crew, make sure the sound
Speaker 4: and everything is right, and they say, all right, check
Speaker 4: in with Ernie.
Speaker 5: Check in with the boys.
Speaker 4: So you say hi to Ernie, say hi to Shaq, Canny, Chuck,
Speaker 4: make sure you can hear them, make sure they can
Speaker 4: hear you.
Speaker 5: And usually, you know, obviously with those guys, we start talking.
Speaker 4: And so Shaq said, you know what, I don't know
Speaker 4: what they were talking about before I came on, but
Speaker 4: then when I got on again, we're off air at
Speaker 4: this point. When I got on, Shack is including me
Speaker 4: in a two on two basketball game. He was like,
Speaker 4: all right, final, forget, forget it.
Speaker 5: It's Shaq. Shaq said, it's me and him versus Chuck
Speaker 5: and Kenny.
Speaker 3: And I heard that.
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh shoot, oh yeah, yeah, we got that shock.
Speaker 5: And Shaq said you with me. I'm like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 5: with your Shack. We got that.
Speaker 4: And so then we were kind of talking about the
Speaker 4: leagues I was in then. So Ernie heard all of this.
Speaker 4: So that's why Ernie set me up. That's why Ernie said,
Speaker 4: isn't that cleve.
Speaker 1: So neither Ernie nor Shack have ever listened to this league.
Speaker 4: I'm about saying that maybe maybe Ernie did for us.
Speaker 4: Why he asked, I don't know, but Ernie asked a question.
Speaker 5: That's what got that.
Speaker 4: At the end of the clip, Ernie was like, Chris,
Speaker 4: I'm sorry I asked. I'm I'm sorry I asked. And
Speaker 4: so that's that's where that came up. So, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna.
Speaker 5: Try to get it going stun me and Shaq versus
Speaker 5: Kenny and Chuck, and they thought I was playing.
Speaker 4: I had to produce some receipts, so I had to
Speaker 4: show I had to tweet out some pictures of me
Speaker 4: holding the hardware, the championship trophy and the MVP trophy
Speaker 4: and me. Remember I told you about how I get
Speaker 4: my getting my team to bond, and I bought Filipino
Speaker 4: head bands for the whole team. So you see me
Speaker 4: with the Filipino headband on and the picture I tweeted
Speaker 4: out there. So uh, it's real over here in the field.
Speaker 4: But yeah, that's how that's how that came about.
Speaker 5: Einstein. I'm gonna say this, that.
Speaker 4: Video clip blew up and not just blew up in
Speaker 4: the country, bullet blew up in the Philippines and most
Speaker 4: of the most of the most of it.
Speaker 5: And they're just laughing.
Speaker 4: They appreciate, you know, being acknowledged because you know, basketball
Speaker 4: is very huge in the Philippines over there, and I've
Speaker 4: since got gotten a few offers so that they'll fly
Speaker 4: me out first class and come watch some the Filipino
Speaker 4: League Basketball League games.
Speaker 5: So I'm I'm gonnaell, I'm gonna take them up on
Speaker 5: that offer right right there. Stein.
Speaker 4: See, that's what I'm telling you, Stein, you can join
Speaker 4: my philip Filipino League starin and you don't know what
Speaker 4: is in store for you.
Speaker 5: We can both you know, we may.
Speaker 4: Still both have a career covering the covering the PBA
Speaker 4: all over there, or me even going playing as an import.
Speaker 1: The opportunity or maybe we need to all go there
Speaker 1: and do the show from the Philippines.
Speaker 5: Oh, they would love that. They would love that.
Speaker 4: Love absolutely loved that, and they it was so much,
Speaker 4: so much outpoint of love from the Filipino community. They'm
Speaker 4: just appreciate me even acknowledging the leagues. There's Philipino leagues
Speaker 4: all across this country and they're competitive, man and so.
Speaker 4: And the reason why I was laughing at Oh Star
Speaker 4: to say this real quick, A bunch of my Filipino
Speaker 4: brothers and sisters hit me back up with the response
Speaker 4: that they said, I should have said so. When Chuck
Speaker 4: asked how many Filipinos were drafted the NBA, A bunch
Speaker 4: of people, brothers, sisters in my Filipino community hit me
Speaker 4: up to say, you should have as many championship says
Speaker 4: as you got, Chuck. That's that's the response. They would
Speaker 4: have been saying. Listen, I'm not like Chuck. I'm not
Speaker 4: quick with it like that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Like I wasn't expected Chuck to go there, so I wasn't.
Speaker 4: I wasn't quite ready, and I knew what Chuck meant.
Speaker 4: Chuck meant like pure blood Filipinos, you know from the Philippines,
Speaker 4: Jalen Green and Jordan Clarkson, you know Filipino descent.
Speaker 5: Andre Andre blatch.
Speaker 1: Too, he played for the He played for the Philippines.
Speaker 4: Okay, but no, it was it was a cool segment.
Speaker 4: Gave them some love. So that's how that's how all
Speaker 4: of that came about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's two weeks in a row that this podcast
Speaker 1: was either name checked or tangentially mentioned on Inside the NBA.
Speaker 1: So that is a winning streak. We will gladly, gladly accept.
Speaker 4: You're you're subscriber. You said, he's a he's somebody who
Speaker 4: commented on.
Speaker 1: Your Yeah, yeah, one of one of one of the
Speaker 1: loyal readers of my sub stack. And like I said instantly,
Speaker 1: in fact, I was actually about five minutes behind the
Speaker 1: show real time, and he messaged me before how I
Speaker 1: had even seen this exchange about your rec league career.
Speaker 1: So then I hit play and fast forward and there
Speaker 1: you were on screen to give an update, a preview
Speaker 1: of Warriors at Kings, but it instead became an inside
Speaker 1: the a spin off of this league uncut, which was
Speaker 1: entertaining to watch.
Speaker 4: Well, listen, you know, you're always taught as a journalist.
Speaker 4: You know, as a reporter, you're not to be a
Speaker 4: part of the story. And so I didn't go in
Speaker 4: going in to talk about my heroics on the basketball court.
Speaker 4: But there was an opportunity that I saw and I
Speaker 4: was asked a question, and that's how it got.
Speaker 5: I blame Ernie.
Speaker 4: I blame Ernie is a Ernie is a great instigator,
Speaker 4: but then he knows how like quickly cut it off too.
Speaker 4: You know, you see you can hear that clip like,
Speaker 4: you know, all right, let's let's let's up cut this off.
Speaker 4: We don't want to get castled. So uh, he's good
Speaker 4: with starting it and then peeling it back like as
Speaker 4: if he didn't do anything, as if he didn't contribute.
Speaker 1: But you know that that was all that was.
Speaker 5: So you know, it's always, you know, you always have
Speaker 5: fun with those guys. You never know what to expect.
Speaker 1: All Right, I'm no Wheernie Johnson, but I'm gonna try
Speaker 1: to put a bow on this one.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 1: That is going to do it for this edition of
Speaker 1: This League Uncut. As I mentioned, there were about ten
Speaker 1: other things on our list that I was hoping we
Speaker 1: could get to, and even just restricting us to what
Speaker 1: we did talk about, this is gonna end up being
Speaker 1: one of our longer podcasts. I think we've gone about
Speaker 1: an hour, maybe even over. So Chris will be heading east.
Speaker 1: I'm heading west in the first round. But we will
Speaker 1: find a way to get together again soon and we
Speaker 1: will be back next week with two new editions of
Speaker 1: This League Uncut. As always, we kindly ask you to
Speaker 1: follow us, rate the show, review the show. We would
Speaker 1: love to get a five star review from you if possible,
Speaker 1: and you know, let us know if you are your producer, Ryan,
Speaker 1: we are expanding his role week to week. Are you
Speaker 1: enjoying that new wrinkle of the show, Let us know.
Speaker 1: And like I said, Chris and I will be back
Speaker 1: together again very very soon with the playoffs fully underway.
Speaker 1: By that point, that's gonna do it. Thanks everyone for listening.
Speaker 5: That's cold game.
Speaker 4: We announced that we're expanding Ryan's role, but now we're
Speaker 4: asking the audience to tell us if they lack it.
Speaker 5: Or that.
Speaker 4: I think we're supposed to do that before we announced
Speaker 4: the expatable.
Speaker 3: And that'll do it for us. See you next time.
Speaker 3: This league uncut it is and iHeartRadio production. Chris Haines
Speaker 3: did Mark Stein