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Speaker 1: Welcome in What's Driving the Great Episode four fifty nine.

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Speaker 1: This episode of What Driving the Grid is presented to

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Speaker 1: you by Boost Mobile. It is Sports Emmy's Day, so

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Speaker 1: a lot on my mind over the next you know,

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Speaker 1: ten ish hours, as I will be a presenter at

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Speaker 1: Tonight's Sports Emmys, and maybe hopefully prayerfully, even though I'm

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Speaker 1: not really the prayerful type, I could be a recipient

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Speaker 1: at Tonight's Sports Emmys. I know it's not cool to

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Speaker 1: admit your care, but I care any immense amount, So

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Speaker 1: that's going on tonight. I also find myself some to

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Speaker 1: my doing my own doing, and some do to a

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Speaker 1: just vivid and reckless imagination of a colleague embroiled in

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Speaker 1: a far more convoluted and far more mysterious sports media

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Speaker 1: beef than I could have ever expected. Little did I

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Speaker 1: know that there's a whole cabal of people discussing the

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Speaker 1: takes I should have and who I should go after,

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Speaker 1: and how I should time and word those attacks. I

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Speaker 1: thought I just text Demanse and Paul and Daniel and

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Speaker 1: everybody in the morning, like, Hey, I think I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: do this. I didn't know there was a whole you know,

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Speaker 1: we talk on first things first, Demanse, about the very

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Speaker 1: mysterious committee that does the NFL tiers. Little did I

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Speaker 1: know there was a separate committee for you know who,

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Speaker 1: the way to guide my ever impactful and influential media opinions,

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Speaker 1: to try to take people down a peg. But we'll

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Speaker 1: get to all of that. A ton to do today,

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Speaker 1: and you look great, Demanse. I can tell hair must

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Speaker 1: be growing in but not growing in full enough yet

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Speaker 1: to wear. It needs to stay under wraps until you

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Speaker 1: feel more comfortable. I like that approach. I respect it.

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Speaker 1: Let's get straight to voicemail, brought to you by boost Mobile.

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Speaker 1: The first story. We're breaking this news. We have broke.

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Speaker 1: We're breaking news. Our great producer Matt Ford claims he

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Speaker 1: was cut in line by Kyler Murray at the grove

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Speaker 1: to get pancakes, and Matt wanted that in the story.

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Speaker 1: He wanted people to know that Kyler Murray's a line

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Speaker 1: cutter and you know with his I mean, so listen, Matt.

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Speaker 1: This is sourced on the record reporting, and Matt wanted

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Speaker 1: it in the show, So it's in the show. Tennis

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Speaker 1: Corner French Open is underway. Sadly, of course, though no

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Speaker 1: al KaAZ and in one of the greatest Indie races

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Speaker 1: of all time, Felix rosen Quist wins the Indy five hundred.

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Speaker 1: It was a great race. Here was not great, demanse.

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Speaker 1: We had eight drivers on the show Thursday. We then

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Speaker 1: had two more drivers that Jamie Little or NASCAR expert

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Speaker 1: told us who weren't on the show but told us

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Speaker 1: she thought could win. So I was like, you know

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Speaker 1: what this is. Probably this is a little bit of

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Speaker 1: you know, playing all the numbers on the roulette wheel.

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Speaker 1: But why don't I just put a little taste with

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Speaker 1: my friends at hard Rock on every driver we met,

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Speaker 1: every driver we talked to, with the idea being that

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Speaker 1: today on the show. I knew Tuesday, after the Indy

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Speaker 1: five hundred we were gonna have the winner in studio.

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Speaker 1: I was like, so, you know, maybe I win a little,

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Speaker 1: maybe I lose a little, but whoever comes on, I'd

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Speaker 1: be able to be like, hey, look I believed in you.

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Speaker 1: I bet on you. Felix Rosenquist was not one of

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Speaker 1: the drivers we had on. He was not one of

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Speaker 1: the drivers that Jamie Little uh suggested. So what should

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Speaker 1: have just been a small loser small winner turned into

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Speaker 1: an old oh for ten on the nd five hundred.

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Speaker 2: Lost a little taste there, little taste there is.

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Speaker 1: The old zero for ten tickets. Hate to see it,

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Speaker 1: but you know, such is life, as as it might

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Speaker 1: be the theme of today's show, this is the life

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Speaker 1: I have chosen. Okay. More importantly, however, the New York

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Speaker 1: Knicks for the first time this century, for the first

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Speaker 1: time since my goodness, it the first year of was

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Speaker 1: was Clinton president? Was it? First year of w For

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Speaker 1: the first time since nineteen ninety nine? The New York

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Speaker 1: Knicks are going to the finals. Demons take it away?

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so the nixt steam roll the Calves in

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Speaker 2: Game four, Calves had no give, no fight for the

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Speaker 2: for the first time since nineteen ninety nine. Like you said,

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Speaker 2: the Knicks are heading back to the finals. Does this

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Speaker 2: squad have a feel of destiny to it?

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Speaker 3: So?

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Speaker 1: And it would be it was first time since the

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Speaker 1: Clinton administration, because Bush was elected in two thousand. Unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: Here's what I will say about the New York Knicks,

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Speaker 1: and then we're gonna spend a lot of time here.

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Speaker 1: And this is not a matter of opinion. This is

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Speaker 1: a matter of statistical fact. No team in the history

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Speaker 1: of the league has ever had a better eleven game

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Speaker 1: run than the Knicks just had. That is, regular season

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Speaker 1: or postseason. No team in the history of professional basketball

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Speaker 1: in this country has ever dropped through their competition the

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Speaker 1: way the Knicks have romped through these playoffs. And you

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Speaker 1: can say, well, the Hawks are okay but not great,

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Speaker 1: and the Sixers are a little dysfunctional, and the Calves quit. Certainly,

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Speaker 1: what is objectively true is there have been hundreds, if

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Speaker 1: not thousands, of eleven game stretches in NBA history when

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Speaker 1: you include the regular season where teams faced a softer

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Speaker 1: eleven game run than the twenty twenty six Hawks, the

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty six Sixers, and the twenty twenty six Calves.

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Speaker 1: And no team ever has annihilated its opposition to this

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Speaker 1: degree over this long of a stretch of time. It

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Speaker 1: is not an exaggeration to say the New York Knicks,

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Speaker 1: from a statistical standpoint, just completed the single most dominant

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Speaker 1: month of basketball in the history of the league. They

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Speaker 1: now and I have this, according to Nate Duncan, the

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Speaker 1: New York Knicks, and this is now playoff record, not

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Speaker 1: regular season record. The record four most lopsided three game

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Speaker 1: stretch in playoff history is the twenty twenty six Knicks.

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Speaker 1: The record for the most lopsided four game stretch in

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Speaker 1: playoff history is the twenty twenty six Knicks. The record

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Speaker 1: for the most lopsided five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,

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Speaker 1: and now fourteen game stretch in playoff history all belongs

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Speaker 1: to the Jalen Brunson, Karl Anthony Towns, McHale, Bridge og

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Speaker 1: and Nnobi, Josh Hart, Mike Brown, New York Knicks. Pardon

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Speaker 1: the language, but how unfucking believable is that this Knicks

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Speaker 1: team has now demands three consecutive series, got their opponent

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Speaker 1: to the brink of elimination, and one quarter into that

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Speaker 1: elimination game made their opponent quit. They demandse. They won

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Speaker 1: last night's elimination game by thirty seven, and it lowered

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Speaker 1: their average margin of victory this postseason in elimination games.

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Speaker 1: Coming into last night, their average margin of victory in

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Speaker 1: nation games was forty and now it's down to thirty nine.

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Speaker 1: They this is what this Knicks playoffs have been. Game one,

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Speaker 1: they beat up Atlanta. Game two, they are beating up

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Speaker 1: Atlanta and then have a four minute stretch of wait,

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Speaker 1: what the hell happened? Game three, they play a tight game,

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Speaker 1: Jalen misses CJ makes and they're in a moment of crisis.

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Speaker 1: Game four, they beat Atlanta by sixteen. Game five, they

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Speaker 1: beat Atlanta by twenty nine. Game six to eliminate Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: they beat Atlanta by fifty one. They open the Sixers

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Speaker 1: series with a thirty nine point victory. They then play

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Speaker 1: one competitive game against Philly, beat them by six and

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Speaker 1: then beat them by fourteen to go up three to

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Speaker 1: zero in Philly and beat them by thirty to send

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Speaker 1: them home. Game one against Cleveland, they are down by

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Speaker 1: twenty two points with seven and a half minutes remaining,

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Speaker 1: force overtime and win by eleven. Game two they win

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Speaker 1: by sixteen. Game three they win by thirteen, and Game

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Speaker 1: four they're by forty five points in the fourth quarter

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Speaker 1: and win by thirty seven.

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Speaker 2: Where's all this coming from? Like during the regular season,

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Speaker 2: I felt like we thought they were gonna be good.

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Speaker 2: They kind of kind of tapered off, seemed like they

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Speaker 2: didn't have it figured out, and then now they're just

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Speaker 2: what happened? They figure something out?

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Speaker 1: No one knows where this came from anyone telling you

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Speaker 1: they know where it came from. Is lying? What? Listen?

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Speaker 1: There is a way to look at the Knicks as

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Speaker 1: well well. They started off the season two and three.

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Speaker 1: First couple of weeks who cares and then absent, and

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Speaker 1: then right around New Year's they had a two and

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Speaker 1: nine swoon. Okay, so two and three, two and nine,

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Speaker 1: that's four and thirteen. If you remove those two bad stretches,

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Speaker 1: they were forty nine and sixteen. It's a really good team.

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Speaker 1: It's a team like on a sixty ish win pace.

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Speaker 1: They were this year top I think six in the

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Speaker 1: NBA in offense and defense. They looked like a good

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Speaker 1: at times really good team. And maybe that one swoon

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Speaker 1: right around New Year's threw people off the scent that hey,

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Speaker 1: this could be a very good team. But being a

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Speaker 1: very good team and putting together a month consecutive of

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Speaker 1: dog walking playoff opponents the way the Shaq Kobe Lakers

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Speaker 1: never did, the Lebron Wade Heat never did, the Kadi

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Speaker 1: Steph Warriors never did, the Moses Doctor j Sixers never did.

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Speaker 1: We have had teams go through a postseason with only

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Speaker 1: one loss. The Knicks already have two. We have never

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Speaker 1: had a team go through a postseason just beating the

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Speaker 1: shit out of their opponent every single game, to the

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Speaker 1: point to where at the end the opponent cries uncle

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Speaker 1: and says, I don't want to try anymore. We are

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Speaker 1: not good enough, and I every single person involved deserves

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Speaker 1: credit for this. Jalen Brunson, remember not listen. Not only

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Speaker 1: is Jalen Brunson just an absolute A list superstar in

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Speaker 1: this league, which if there were any questions prior to

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Speaker 1: this postseason, they are now gone and we are going

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Speaker 1: to get a bit into the knicks very tortured history

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Speaker 1: this century. But it is worth it. It is worth

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Speaker 1: mentioning demonse that from the one season until they added

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Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson in twenty the twenty twenty two season, so

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Speaker 1: I guess from the two thousand season until they added Brunson,

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Speaker 1: they won one playoff series, one series. That's a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a d And now every year since then

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Speaker 1: they have won a series the last two and they've

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Speaker 1: gotten a little closer each year. The last two years

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Speaker 1: they've made a conference finals and this year they make

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Speaker 1: a finals. What so Brunson is flatley an A list

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Speaker 1: superstar in this league? Who is the definitional playoff riser

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Speaker 1: as much as anyone in the sport right now, he

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Speaker 1: gets as far as guys in their prime. He gets

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Speaker 1: the designation of who raises their game come the postseason.

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Speaker 1: Nobody's hand goes up quicker than Jalen Brunson, because while

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Speaker 1: he's been a star since he's been in New York,

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Speaker 1: this second round pick, who is first year in the league,

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Speaker 1: demons you know, wasn't a first two years in the league,

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Speaker 1: wasn't a starter, didn't really get a ton of opportunity

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Speaker 1: to shine until his final year in Dallas. Brunson with

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Speaker 1: the Knicks, since he's been the man in the regular season,

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Speaker 1: is twenty six points and seven assists a game. That

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Speaker 1: same exact guy, this undersized fire hydrant scoring point guard

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Speaker 1: in the postseason jumps from twenty six and six two

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Speaker 1: I want to get it exactly right twenty nine and seven,

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Speaker 1: and is as clutch as any player in the league.

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Speaker 1: So he gets massive credit for this. Carl Anthony Towns,

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Speaker 1: who has been mercurial to say the least bless you. Yeah, uh,

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Speaker 1: no problem, I didn't. I just wanted to say bless

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Speaker 1: you only because I didn't want the audience think you

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Speaker 1: were laughing. I could. I don't know if the audience

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Speaker 1: knew if that was a laugh or U to hold

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Speaker 1: back a sneake, Yeah, don't worry about it. Carl Anthony Towns,

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Speaker 1: who you know, has been a punchline at times, sometimes

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Speaker 1: for unfair stuff, but sometimes for fair stuff, like you

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Speaker 1: know when with a fouling him just declaring himself the

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Speaker 1: greatest shooting big man of all time, like the you know,

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Speaker 1: yeah that happened back when he was still in Minnesota.

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Speaker 1: Karl Anthony Towns this postseason taking on a slightly different role.

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Speaker 1: I mean, he's only seventeen a game this postseason, but

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Speaker 1: he's given you more than ten rebounds. He has been

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Speaker 1: one of the prime hubs of the offense, averaging six assists,

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Speaker 1: og Nanobi, coming back from the hamstring injury, and just

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Speaker 1: being nails every step of this postseason. McHale Bridges, who

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Speaker 1: best I can tell, hasn't missed a shot during this

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Speaker 1: winning streak. McHale Bridges started these playoffs off brutally and

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Speaker 1: then in the final game against Atlanta went ten for

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Speaker 1: twelve from the field, and then in Round two was

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Speaker 1: sixty four percent going into last night against Cleveland was

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Speaker 1: seventy five percent and then had an off night last night.

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Speaker 1: It didn't matter. Josh Hart the ultimate glue guy, and

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Speaker 1: Mike freaking Brown and you know what. More on Mike

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Speaker 1: Brown in the second. But first when I say credit

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Speaker 1: to everyone, Leon Rose and Worldwide West had the gumption

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Speaker 1: and the professional courage to tell Tom Thibodeau, I know

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Speaker 1: you just took us to our first conference finals in

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Speaker 1: a quarter century. I think we can do better. And

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Speaker 1: Mike Brown evolving as a coach into what is now

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Speaker 1: after he started his career as a coach is a

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Speaker 1: defensive you know expert, this offensive mastermind and bringing this

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Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors esque ball movement to the Knicks has

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Speaker 1: just been really a remarkable thing. And Mike Brown's had

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Speaker 1: such a unique coaching career. He got seemingly the jackpot

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Speaker 1: of He got hired by the Cavs going into Lebron's

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Speaker 1: third year, and his second year with Bron they make

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Speaker 1: the finals. His fourth year with Bron, they win sixty

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Speaker 1: six games. His fifth year, they win sixty one games,

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Speaker 1: but they can't get past Boston. Bron leaves he I

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Speaker 1: don't even remember. He got fired, and oh Yeah, he

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Speaker 1: got fired before bron left because the Calvs thought it

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Speaker 1: might encourage him to stay. He then, you know, goes

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Speaker 1: to the Lakers. His first year with the Lakers, they

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Speaker 1: losing Round two with Kobe, and then gets fired five

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Speaker 1: games into year two. Cleveland hires him back that one

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Speaker 1: didn't go well, and then he's in the wilderness. Demonse

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Speaker 1: for almost a decade in the wilderness is too strong.

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Speaker 1: But he's not a head coach. And in that time

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Speaker 1: he goes to Golden State, so I shouldn't say he's

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Speaker 1: in the wilderness. He's not a head coach. In that time,

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Speaker 1: he goes to Golden State, helps Steve Kerr, learned from

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Speaker 1: Steve Kerr, wins a bunch of championships, parlays that into

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Speaker 1: the King's job, and instantly the Kings have the most

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Speaker 1: success they've had since, you know, since you were in

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Speaker 1: junior high. They make the playoffs. As the Kings make

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Speaker 1: the playoffs, almost win fifty games, light the beam. The

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Speaker 1: next year they make the play in but lose, and

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Speaker 1: then early the next season the VECs like, no, you're fired, bro,

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Speaker 1: And for a lot of guys, that's I mean, that's

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Speaker 1: the Cleveland job. The Laker job, the Cleveland job again,

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Speaker 1: Sacramento job. Don't always get a fifth job. It took

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Speaker 1: him eight nine years between jobs four and jobs five

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Speaker 1: or job three in job four and the Knicks hire

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Speaker 1: him and he has crushed and he has a chance

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Speaker 1: to go down an absolute history in New York City.

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Speaker 1: He was and go ahead, No, he was.

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Speaker 2: He was asked if he had ever seen a leader

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Speaker 2: like Brunson. He said, Steph and Duncan did not mention Lebron.

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Speaker 1: I don't think Lebron was that e lead of a

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Speaker 1: leader his first time around in Cloyland. Yeah, you know what,

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Speaker 1: I think that he I think that's part of what

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Speaker 1: he learned in Miami. So like that doesn't that doesn't

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Speaker 1: shock me, you know what I mean? The he got

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Speaker 1: like Bron left Cleveland in the summer of twenty ten.

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Speaker 1: Where so how old was I because it's the same age,

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Speaker 1: so he's twenty five years old, you know, So I

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Speaker 1: just don't think so. Mike Brown was an assistant coach

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Speaker 1: with the Spurs. Now, Duncan was young when he was

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Speaker 1: an assistant coach there. Duncan, though, has always kind of

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Speaker 1: been you know, four year college guy, a different type

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Speaker 1: of thing. Step obviously great leader, but this is this

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Speaker 1: is an ultimate ultimate the sum of the parts is

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Speaker 1: greater than any individual part. Victory for the Knicks, and

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Speaker 1: again they are dog walking everyone. And now I do

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Speaker 1: want to spend a minute talking about what this means

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Speaker 1: for Knicks fans because I and I want to make

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Speaker 1: this part very very clear. I do. I am not

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Speaker 1: a Knicks fan. I am not all of a sudden

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Speaker 1: going because I live here and because of the story

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Speaker 1: I'm about to tell you, Guys, claim like this means

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Speaker 1: something extra to me. I don't get any claim whatsoever

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Speaker 1: on how die hard lifelong Knicks fans feel today and

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Speaker 1: it felt this whole playoff run. It is a die

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Speaker 1: hard and special fan base that has been desperately waiting

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Speaker 1: for this moment or a moment anything like it for

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Speaker 1: a quarter century. So I say down front end. With

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Speaker 1: that said, as the audience knows, if you're a real

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Speaker 1: like I shouldn't say the audience some of the audience knows.

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Speaker 1: The first basketball team I ever loved as a little

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Speaker 1: kid was the Knicks. I've told the story that what

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Speaker 1: I thought made me fall in love with the NBA,

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Speaker 1: which was more than football, my favorite sport as a

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Speaker 1: little little kid. Because if you guys again, if you remember,

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Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna make the NBA, and then

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Speaker 1: I was very worried I was gonna have a Moses

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Speaker 1: Malone type of end of journeyman career. I've told that story,

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Speaker 1: crying about that my dad was going to be disappointed

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Speaker 1: in me if I got traded. A lot doesn't matter.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety three, I went to Game eighty two

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Speaker 1: of the season Nicks Bulls the Demon's. I went with

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Speaker 1: debbian Arne. Yeah yeah, debbian Arnes, Yeah yeah. They took

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Speaker 1: me my mom's best friend from my mom's from New

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Speaker 1: York City, my mom's best friend from childhood, and her husband.

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Speaker 1: It was like it was an all time great by

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Speaker 1: the way weekend for me. They then we went to Bristol,

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Speaker 1: they took me on a tour of ESPN I it

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Speaker 1: was like the all this cool stuff happened. But so

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Speaker 1: the spring of ninety three I officially said like, I'm

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Speaker 1: a Knicks fan. And then the very next year they

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Speaker 1: make the finals, Jordan retires, they make the finals, I'm like,

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Speaker 1: this is sick YEP. Nineteen ninety five, Young Nick Right,

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Speaker 1: first time sports ever made me cry. The Patrick Ewing

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Speaker 1: finger roll in Game seven of the conference semifinals against

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Speaker 1: the Pacers. Again, I'm ten years old. I've been a

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Speaker 1: fan of this team for one year. They made the finals. Huge,

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Speaker 1: he just whifted. Oh you've never seen the clip. It's brutal.

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Speaker 1: It's game seven. He gets the ball from like the

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Speaker 1: dotted line inside the free throw line, seemingly just has

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Speaker 1: a layup for the win finger roll back of the

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Speaker 1: backboard or back to the back of the rim, and

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00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:09,080
Speaker 1: it just over does it and it goes back. Game over. Okay,

334
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:13,160
Speaker 1: game over. But still they're still in the mix though.

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Speaker 1: They're a super relevant team every year. Okay, nineteen ninety six,

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Speaker 1: Jordan's back. Jordan kicks their teeth in as he always did.

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Speaker 1: Nineteen ninety seven. And again, this is my experience as

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Speaker 1: a Nick fan. And then I'm gonna give it to

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Speaker 1: the actual Nick fans because I just want to kind

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Speaker 1: of paint the picture of if you're around my age,

341
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,600
Speaker 1: because they won the Listen, they were an awesome team

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00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:42,840
Speaker 1: in the seventies. Awesome. They went to three finals in

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Speaker 1: four years, they won two of them. They beat the

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Speaker 1: you know, the Lakers in the in both finals. They

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00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:54,639
Speaker 1: lost to the Lakers in one finals, Like that was

346
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 1: an awesome not dynasty, but Lakers Nicks in the finals.

347
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Speaker 1: Was great, all of it. But if you're my age,

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00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:07,040
Speaker 1: you don't know any of that. Hey, you don't. You

349
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:08,960
Speaker 1: know it, but you don't remember. What you remember is

350
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Speaker 1: the nineties. You remember the Charles Smith game, which predates

351
00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 1: you know, that was the predates my fandom. But so

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00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 1: maybe I should go I'll just go back a little

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Speaker 1: bit further because maybe if you're a fifty year old

354
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Speaker 1: Knicks fan, okay, you have ewing, You're in the mix

355
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Speaker 1: every year, You're in the playoffs every year. And in

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, Jordan beat you, and in nineteen ninety

357
00:28:41,640 --> 00:28:45,200
Speaker 1: the Bad Boy Pistons beat you. And in nineteen ninety

358
00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:50,959
Speaker 1: one Jordan sweeps you. And in nineteen ninety two, Jordan

359
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: beats you in seven. And in nineteen ninety three, you're

360
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Speaker 1: up two oh on Jordan, and he comes back and

361
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 1: wins four straight and beat in six. Yeah, in nineteen

362
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Speaker 1: ninety four, my first year, you know, as a Knicks fan,

363
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:16,880
Speaker 1: my temporary childhood Knicks fandom, you're up three to two

364
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:24,000
Speaker 1: in the finals. John Starks shot in the corner to

365
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Speaker 1: win the championship. A team jumps out from the block,

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Speaker 1: gets a fingertip on it, blocks it. We're going to

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Speaker 1: a game seven. In that game seven, John Starks two

368
00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:43,840
Speaker 1: for eighteen from the field over eleven from three. You loose, okay,

369
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Speaker 1: But but we're in the finals. We're yeah, We're We're

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Speaker 1: in the finals. Nineteen ninety five. Ewing finger roll off

371
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Speaker 1: the back rim nineteen ninety six. Jordan's back full full

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Speaker 1: go Jordan Beacha nineteen ninety seven. One of the most

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Speaker 1: honest to god traumatic sports events of my life. I

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Speaker 1: will I'm still mad about it, even though I'm not

375
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Speaker 1: a Knicks fan, but I was as a kid. The

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Speaker 1: Knicks are playing the Heat. They are up three to

377
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Speaker 1: one in the series. At that point in time, I

378
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Speaker 1: think one team ever had come back from three to

379
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Speaker 1: one down. It's happened more often now, or is one

380
00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 1: team certainly in recent memory, I think it maybe two

381
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:35,720
Speaker 1: teams ever had done it. The Knicks are up three

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Speaker 1: to one. It's Game five. The Heat going to win

383
00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:45,200
Speaker 1: Game five. But that's fine, it doesn't matter. With seconds

384
00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:49,880
Speaker 1: left in the game, Demonse, Charlie Ward and PJ. Brown

385
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:54,040
Speaker 1: get into it during a free throw line box out. PJ.

386
00:30:54,240 --> 00:31:01,160
Speaker 1: Brown picks Charlie Ward up and dumps it. Okay, the

387
00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:06,960
Speaker 1: Knick is so there's a whole fracas. David Stern goes

388
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:10,400
Speaker 1: letter of the law because it was a blowout, so

389
00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:13,960
Speaker 1: all the Knick's best players were on the bench, goes

390
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: letter of the law. If you stepped off the bench

391
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:21,760
Speaker 1: during the fight, you're suspended. So many Knicks gets suspended, Demons,

392
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 1: you Wing, everybody, so everybody. They have to split it

393
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:30,720
Speaker 1: up into suspensions for a game six and seven instead

394
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:33,440
Speaker 1: of just having it all happening. And the Heat come

395
00:31:33,480 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 1: back from down three to one. Next year, next year, uh,

396
00:31:42,280 --> 00:31:44,800
Speaker 1: you lose the Pacers. I don't even really remember that season.

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Speaker 1: And then nineteen ninety nine, okay, the magical nixt season.

398
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 1: They are the eight seed. It's a weird year because

399
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,120
Speaker 1: it's a lockout year or strike year, whatever it is.

400
00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:06,040
Speaker 1: You don't have a full season. At that point in time,

401
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:08,520
Speaker 1: only one eight seed had ever beaten a one seed.

402
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:15,240
Speaker 1: You're playing those same hated Miami Heat. You have a

403
00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:26,200
Speaker 1: game five down, one couple seconds left. Alan Houston gets

404
00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 1: the ball. You Wing's asking for it, he doesn't give

405
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:32,240
Speaker 1: it to him. Runner from the free throw line, front rim,

406
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:37,640
Speaker 1: back rim, backboard. In you beat the Heat, you advance

407
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:43,920
Speaker 1: as the eight seed. The next round you sweep the Hawks. Okay,

408
00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:47,880
Speaker 1: now we're cooking. The next round you're gonna get the

409
00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:51,000
Speaker 1: Pacers again, who have other than the Bulls kind of

410
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:53,480
Speaker 1: bulls Heat Pacers all been kind of your rivals. The

411
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:57,280
Speaker 1: second Pacers beat you the last year. The Pacers are

412
00:32:57,280 --> 00:33:02,520
Speaker 1: the team that you missed the finger roll against. In

413
00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:08,520
Speaker 1: that series, Patrick Ewing blows out his achilles. You win

414
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:15,160
Speaker 1: the series anyway, make the finals, and then Duncan and Robinson. Shockingly,

415
00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: you have no You probably would have lost anyway, but

416
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:19,800
Speaker 1: you have no Ewing. You have nothing that you have,

417
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:23,920
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing to be done about. Duncan Robinson. They win

418
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:30,560
Speaker 1: in five. That's nineteen ninety nine. The next year you

419
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:36,760
Speaker 1: make it back to the conference finals, and from that

420
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 1: moment forward until Jalen Brunson got here, they won one

421
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:49,200
Speaker 1: playoff series. They fired Jeff Van Gundy. They the following

422
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:53,920
Speaker 1: people are their head coaches between now and Mike Brown.

423
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:56,240
Speaker 1: And I'm sure there's gonna be some interims in here.

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00:33:56,560 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 1: Jeff Bean Gundy, Don Cheney or Herb Williams, Lenny Wilkins,

425
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:04,520
Speaker 1: Herb Williams again because he was Enterim, Larry Brown, Isaiah Thomas,

426
00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:08,880
Speaker 1: Mike D'Antoni, Mike Woodson, Derek Fisher, Kurt Rambis, Jeff Hornacheck,

427
00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:17,040
Speaker 1: David Fizdale, Mike Miller, Tom Thibodeau into Mike Brown. You

428
00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:21,120
Speaker 1: had Carmelo for his entire prime. You won one playoff series,

429
00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:25,840
Speaker 1: your best year that you actually thought you had a

430
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:30,120
Speaker 1: great team. You get Miami in round one, first or

431
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: second year of bron Wade. That's not gonna go well.

432
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:39,200
Speaker 1: The next year with Mellow, you finally win a playoff series.

433
00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:42,800
Speaker 1: You run into the best Paul George Pacers team preus

434
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:48,040
Speaker 1: leg injury. You lose there. It is just been Payne

435
00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:56,480
Speaker 1: and again, I long abandoned any Knicks fandom I had.

436
00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:01,759
Speaker 1: I've told that story many a time. I you know,

437
00:35:02,560 --> 00:35:08,040
Speaker 1: I once Ewing and Spree and Houston were gone, and

438
00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:11,399
Speaker 1: then I was seeing this guy in the same high

439
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:14,960
Speaker 1: school class as me, playing on TV for Saint Vincent

440
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:17,719
Speaker 1: Saint Mary's. I said, forget this, I'm gonna be a

441
00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:20,680
Speaker 1: fan of wherever he goes. And so I don't get

442
00:35:20,719 --> 00:35:24,560
Speaker 1: to revel in this at all. The way Knicks fans do.

443
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:33,800
Speaker 1: But I was a fan during the nineties glory years.

444
00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:37,640
Speaker 1: I was not a fan and did not have to

445
00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:43,799
Speaker 1: deal with the pain of the two thousand's awfulness. And

446
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:51,200
Speaker 1: for these fans that witnessed so much bad basketball and

447
00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:57,279
Speaker 1: bad draft picks and bad management and multiple seventeen win

448
00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:02,920
Speaker 1: seasons and trading for Mellow, but trading all the pieces

449
00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:06,280
Speaker 1: you would have needed to compete with Mellow to get Mellow,

450
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:09,759
Speaker 1: and putting a ceiling on that era. To now have

451
00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:18,200
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452
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453
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Speaker 1: All right, demonte let's go to the other side of

493
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:25,640
Speaker 1: that series.

494
00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:29,000
Speaker 2: Coming into these playoffs, people would have thought Cleveland was

495
00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:31,080
Speaker 2: going to blow it up if they had an early exit.

496
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:34,320
Speaker 2: So Cleveland didn't have an early exit, but the fashion

497
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:36,839
Speaker 2: that they lost these playoffs in was pretty bad. Where

498
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:38,279
Speaker 2: do you think that they should go from here?

499
00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:45,359
Speaker 1: I don't know about you. I feel like everything's on

500
00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:48,160
Speaker 1: the table. Yeah.

501
00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:52,520
Speaker 2: I like heart Harden and then Mobley or Jared Allen.

502
00:38:52,680 --> 00:38:54,359
Speaker 2: I don't know which one of them like. I don't

503
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:55,880
Speaker 2: know which one you rather keep, But I feel like

504
00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:59,560
Speaker 2: you got to get rid of one of them.

505
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:05,400
Speaker 1: And I don't think it's a stone lock. They that

506
00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:08,719
Speaker 1: Donovan's not on the table. I think it's unlike. I

507
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:14,040
Speaker 1: think Donovan's unlikely to get moved, but I think it

508
00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:23,440
Speaker 1: is certainly possible. I Evan Mobley has been considered previously

509
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:29,040
Speaker 1: kind of untouchable for them. I don't think if I

510
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:34,560
Speaker 1: do think that they've got to now really consider what

511
00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:39,279
Speaker 1: a Yanni's trade looks like, what they think if they

512
00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:45,879
Speaker 1: think it's worth it. Now. Yannie is thirty one. Yeah,

513
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,799
Speaker 1: he turns thirty two in December, so he's, you know,

514
00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:52,120
Speaker 1: thirty one and a half. I guess Evan Mobley's what

515
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:58,120
Speaker 1: twenty five? Oh, he'll be twenty five in a couple weeks,

516
00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:05,000
Speaker 1: so mobilely six and a half years younger than Yannis obviously,

517
00:40:06,600 --> 00:40:14,760
Speaker 1: you know, at least somewhat healthier than Yannis. I Harden

518
00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:21,160
Speaker 1: is I I've spent enough time on the like Harden

519
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:25,200
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. We've discussed it. Last night was another

520
00:40:25,480 --> 00:40:28,200
Speaker 1: two for eight with five turnovers. You don't even bat

521
00:40:28,239 --> 00:40:31,959
Speaker 1: and I but he's got a forty And I don't

522
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 1: know what handshake deal they had with Harden when he

523
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:39,560
Speaker 1: because he left the Clippers because they didn't want to

524
00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:41,839
Speaker 1: give him an extension and he wanted to go get

525
00:40:41,880 --> 00:40:45,360
Speaker 1: his money. But he's had handshake deals. It would appear

526
00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:47,879
Speaker 1: blow up in his face in the past he has.

527
00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:52,279
Speaker 1: I think he believed Cleveland was going to sign him

528
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:56,520
Speaker 1: to some type of extension. I have no idea how

529
00:40:56,560 --> 00:41:01,160
Speaker 1: anyone could watch these playoffs, and I actually think somehow

530
00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:04,840
Speaker 1: it's worse de Mon's because he had such a solid

531
00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:09,239
Speaker 1: regular season. He was twenty four points eight assists per

532
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:12,440
Speaker 1: game in the regular season, which somehow makes the playoff

533
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 1: performance even more ominous, where he was down to nineteen points,

534
00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:20,760
Speaker 1: five assists, five turnovers a game. Where it's like, man,

535
00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:23,759
Speaker 1: it's not just like you got old and you're not

536
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:26,920
Speaker 1: quite as good anymore. You were excellent this regular season.

537
00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:31,359
Speaker 2: And then yeah, with the wear and tear, I don't

538
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:33,920
Speaker 2: think there's any excuse for it, but with him being older,

539
00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:36,719
Speaker 2: it being more games that you're playing in, like maybe

540
00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:41,600
Speaker 2: they taper off. But this has always been Harden's identity.

541
00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:42,840
Speaker 2: I mean to say that.

542
00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:48,040
Speaker 1: He was thirty eight percent from the field with four

543
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:52,040
Speaker 1: and a half turnovers a game in Round two, including

544
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:56,279
Speaker 1: a two for ten in Game seven, that nobody cared

545
00:41:56,280 --> 00:42:02,120
Speaker 1: about because they won. He was thirty eight percent with

546
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:05,400
Speaker 1: four and a half turnovers per game in Round three,

547
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:12,400
Speaker 1: didn't have a single twenty point game, had two games

548
00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:20,080
Speaker 1: with more turnovers than made baskets, and is on a

549
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:24,920
Speaker 1: forty two million dollar player option next year. Like, the

550
00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:29,239
Speaker 1: obvious question is are they gonna make a run after Lebron?

551
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:37,880
Speaker 1: And I do think that Donovan is a good running

552
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:40,960
Speaker 1: mate with Lebron as far as he can take on

553
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:44,359
Speaker 1: the majority of the offensive load. But Lebron can run

554
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:53,719
Speaker 1: the offense. But when you get beat this soundly, everything's

555
00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:59,680
Speaker 1: on the table. And they also here's the other thing

556
00:43:00,680 --> 00:43:03,799
Speaker 1: that I'm sure some of the audience knows. This is

557
00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:06,520
Speaker 1: the most expensive team in the history of the NBA,

558
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:10,960
Speaker 1: so the most extensive team. They're the only second apron

559
00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:16,000
Speaker 1: team in the league. This year it is and listen,

560
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:20,920
Speaker 1: they made the conference finals for the first time, and

561
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:24,680
Speaker 1: last year the Knicks made the conference finals. This year

562
00:43:24,719 --> 00:43:27,120
Speaker 1: they're in the finals. The year before, the Pacers made

563
00:43:27,160 --> 00:43:29,640
Speaker 1: the conference finals. The next year they made the finals.

564
00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:32,279
Speaker 1: Before that, the Heat made the conference finals. Then they

565
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:34,960
Speaker 1: were in the finals the Celtics. I understand you might

566
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 1: be to be like, well, these are just steps.

567
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:40,320
Speaker 2: Cleveland struggled at every step of this playoffs, though.

568
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:46,960
Speaker 1: That they won, that's a very important designation. At no

569
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:52,200
Speaker 1: point did they look awesome. Yeah, they faced elimination against Toronto,

570
00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:55,800
Speaker 1: they faced elimination with the hell yeah, they faced elimination

571
00:43:55,880 --> 00:44:00,359
Speaker 1: against Toronto, they faced elimination against Detroit, and then they

572
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:06,480
Speaker 1: got swept by the Knicks. I also think Kenny Atkinson

573
00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:10,400
Speaker 1: might have talked his way out of his job with that. Analytically,

574
00:44:11,560 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 1: we're in good shape and that's just such all he

575
00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:21,080
Speaker 1: needed to say was not that right. But he could

576
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:24,960
Speaker 1: have made the same point by saying, listen, we're down

577
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:28,200
Speaker 1: three to zero and we're not playing well enough, but

578
00:44:28,320 --> 00:44:31,280
Speaker 1: I like the shots. We're getting getting good shots. Yeah,

579
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:33,920
Speaker 1: we're getting good shots, and I believe our guys are

580
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:36,759
Speaker 1: gonna start hitting them. Like that's all he instead of

581
00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:39,840
Speaker 1: being like, well, I know some people you know don't

582
00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:43,759
Speaker 1: care about process, but it's just like that, it was

583
00:44:43,840 --> 00:44:53,279
Speaker 1: so tone death. I will say this while I am,

584
00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:57,920
Speaker 1: I am leaning more towards the conventional wisdom that Lebron

585
00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:04,240
Speaker 1: is going to stay in LA if they fire Kenny

586
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:13,920
Speaker 1: Atkinson and if they hire Jason Kidd I my Lebron

587
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 1: to Cleveland radar will be perked up a bit. Lebron's

588
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:24,960
Speaker 1: got a really good relationship with Jay Kidd. He's a

589
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:29,680
Speaker 1: guy that he has wanted to you know that. I

590
00:45:29,719 --> 00:45:33,040
Speaker 1: think he's advocated to get head coaching jobs in the past.

591
00:45:33,680 --> 00:45:38,719
Speaker 1: Jason Kidd was with the Lakers on Vogel staff when

592
00:45:38,760 --> 00:45:47,319
Speaker 1: they won the championship. And I do that, and I

593
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:49,160
Speaker 1: think that is go ahead.

594
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:53,480
Speaker 2: Is that the under the assumption that Harden isn't there anymore?

595
00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:57,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I listen, if Lebron were to come back,

596
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:04,120
Speaker 1: I would think either Harden would be gone or if

597
00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:08,480
Speaker 1: Harden just opts into the deal, that Harden would be

598
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:11,960
Speaker 1: a guy that before the trade deadline, he would be

599
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:14,600
Speaker 1: a forty two million dollar expiring contract they would look

600
00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:18,680
Speaker 1: to trade because obviously, like the it wouldn't it would

601
00:46:18,719 --> 00:46:24,400
Speaker 1: be redundant skill set wise. But I do think I

602
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:27,840
Speaker 1: think Lebron plus Donovan and the two bigs is interesting,

603
00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:35,200
Speaker 1: And Lebron plus Donovan with Mobiley and other stuff swapped

604
00:46:35,200 --> 00:46:41,640
Speaker 1: out for Giannis is obviously interesting, and so I think

605
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:49,080
Speaker 1: I think all of that is on the board. I

606
00:46:49,120 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 1: think the likely outcome is Lebron stays in in Los Angeles,

607
00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:00,480
Speaker 1: and if that's the case, I do think it is

608
00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:08,000
Speaker 1: very possible that, aside from changing head coaches, Cleveland just

609
00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:13,319
Speaker 1: kind of runs it back. Wow, because I don't I

610
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:20,960
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't think Giannis is going to force

611
00:47:21,040 --> 00:47:25,440
Speaker 1: his way to Cleveland. I don't know that Hardin is

612
00:47:25,480 --> 00:47:29,120
Speaker 1: gonna opt out of his deal. And I and I

613
00:47:29,200 --> 00:47:33,120
Speaker 1: wonder if they'll be like, hey, we got a step further.

614
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:37,560
Speaker 1: Let's follow the knickt model. We got to the conference

615
00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:40,279
Speaker 1: finals for the first time in forever, we had a

616
00:47:40,320 --> 00:47:45,200
Speaker 1: disappointing showing in the conference finals. We you know, we're

617
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:47,480
Speaker 1: gonna run it back with a new coach. I think

618
00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:54,600
Speaker 1: that is I think that is a very possible outcome.

619
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:58,200
Speaker 1: But everything is on the board for the Caves. Everything

620
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00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:49,759
Speaker 1: this was I guess inevitable. So I'm gonna let you

633
00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:53,759
Speaker 1: go ahead and set this up and then I will

634
00:48:53,800 --> 00:48:58,279
Speaker 1: toss to some pieces of audio and then we'll just

635
00:48:58,320 --> 00:48:59,320
Speaker 1: see how this goes.

636
00:49:00,280 --> 00:49:03,320
Speaker 2: Uh So, last Tuesday, you kind of got into the

637
00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:07,960
Speaker 2: Jalen Brown Stephen A. Smith media beef and then Steven A.

638
00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:12,160
Speaker 2: Smith gave your rebuttal. Jalen Brown gave his own rebuttal

639
00:49:12,200 --> 00:49:12,600
Speaker 2: after that.

640
00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:17,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, what buttles on rebuttals. There's all this stuff, there's

641
00:49:17,440 --> 00:49:22,040
Speaker 1: a there's a conspiracy. There's a lot to unpack here.

642
00:49:22,680 --> 00:49:28,239
Speaker 1: So I am going if people want to see my

643
00:49:28,480 --> 00:49:35,280
Speaker 1: full ten minutes on my thoughts on what I thought

644
00:49:35,560 --> 00:49:44,680
Speaker 1: was very unfair to Jalen Brown comments and what I

645
00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:52,919
Speaker 1: perceived as not so veiled threats to do journalism by

646
00:49:53,000 --> 00:49:58,600
Speaker 1: Steven A to Jalen Brown. It's posted on our YouTube channel, right,

647
00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:02,160
Speaker 1: so you you can see the full thing in context.

648
00:50:02,480 --> 00:50:05,719
Speaker 1: I'm obviously not gonna play the full thing in context

649
00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:08,880
Speaker 1: here because you can you know, you can not just

650
00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:14,000
Speaker 1: spend ten minutes there replaying something. I also think it's

651
00:50:14,600 --> 00:50:18,520
Speaker 1: not really all that instructive to play because my guess is,

652
00:50:19,120 --> 00:50:21,799
Speaker 1: again I don't know, and as you are going to

653
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:24,200
Speaker 1: see over the course of these next few minutes, I

654
00:50:24,280 --> 00:50:29,719
Speaker 1: will be very clear, unlike some others about things I know,

655
00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:36,560
Speaker 1: things I'm guessing, and things I'm just making up. So

656
00:50:36,680 --> 00:50:42,799
Speaker 1: I don't know what stephen A saw or he didn't see.

657
00:50:42,920 --> 00:50:47,320
Speaker 1: My guess would be if he saw anything, he saw

658
00:50:47,760 --> 00:50:51,440
Speaker 1: the clip that we put out on Instagram and Twitter

659
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:56,319
Speaker 1: and wherever. So I will again under the assumption this

660
00:50:56,520 --> 00:50:59,360
Speaker 1: is what made it to stephen A's very busy desk.

661
00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:03,520
Speaker 1: This is the clip from last week roll It. Once

662
00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:07,520
Speaker 1: upon a time, stephen A was a legitimately great reporter,

663
00:51:07,719 --> 00:51:11,360
Speaker 1: put every level of work in imaginable to Worry's the

664
00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:14,040
Speaker 1: biggest name in the space and still works as much

665
00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:17,560
Speaker 1: as anybody in the business at all times is working.

666
00:51:17,640 --> 00:51:20,840
Speaker 1: But talking to these guys like you're a mob boss

667
00:51:21,000 --> 00:51:24,480
Speaker 1: and they better watch what they say, there's harm in it.

668
00:51:24,719 --> 00:51:27,640
Speaker 1: I know stuff. I know. Technically it's my job to

669
00:51:27,680 --> 00:51:29,320
Speaker 1: report the things I know, but I know it, and

670
00:51:29,320 --> 00:51:31,680
Speaker 1: I'm giving my back pocket in case I ever have

671
00:51:31,760 --> 00:51:33,960
Speaker 1: to use it. Like the big joker in a spades game.

672
00:51:34,040 --> 00:51:37,080
Speaker 1: Give me a break. If you have real information about

673
00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:40,480
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum's feelings about Jalen Brown, you should report it.

674
00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:44,000
Speaker 1: If you have real information about the Celtics organization how

675
00:51:44,040 --> 00:51:47,120
Speaker 1: they feel about Jalen Brown that you're just sitting on, yes,

676
00:51:47,200 --> 00:51:50,440
Speaker 1: you should report it. The answer is not go to

677
00:51:50,480 --> 00:51:53,440
Speaker 1: the mattresses and escalate and it makes all of us

678
00:51:53,480 --> 00:51:55,920
Speaker 1: look bad. And also, here's the other thing, You're the

679
00:51:55,920 --> 00:52:02,759
Speaker 1: only guy who does it, Okay, debt. I then am

680
00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:07,200
Speaker 1: at the Indy five hundred on my way to the

681
00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:14,720
Speaker 1: Indianapolis's Horseshoe Casino Friday night, and I get a text

682
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:19,080
Speaker 1: saying did you see this? And someone has sent me

683
00:52:20,120 --> 00:52:26,040
Speaker 1: the Joe Budden clips guy has clipped. I mean that's

684
00:52:26,080 --> 00:52:30,040
Speaker 1: the guy's Twitter handle. Is something about Joe buden clips

685
00:52:30,560 --> 00:52:35,200
Speaker 1: has has clipped. Steven A had a response to everybody

686
00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:38,080
Speaker 1: who got mad at his jail and Brown comments because

687
00:52:38,080 --> 00:52:40,600
Speaker 1: I was not the only one who thought they were

688
00:52:40,640 --> 00:52:45,759
Speaker 1: a little off putting and here is his response to

689
00:52:45,800 --> 00:52:49,640
Speaker 1: me without saying my name, but it's pretty clear who

690
00:52:49,640 --> 00:52:50,520
Speaker 1: he's talking to.

691
00:52:50,680 --> 00:52:54,640
Speaker 4: Go ahead, So when one of my contemporaries tries to

692
00:52:54,719 --> 00:52:57,680
Speaker 4: mention me as a mobster, then I'm coming across as

693
00:52:57,680 --> 00:52:58,200
Speaker 4: a mobster.

694
00:52:58,400 --> 00:53:03,560
Speaker 1: He knows better. You can.

695
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:06,319
Speaker 4: Once you figure out who I'm talking about, you can

696
00:53:06,360 --> 00:53:10,200
Speaker 4: gauge his motives. He should be ashamed of himself. But

697
00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:13,360
Speaker 4: I'll leave it alone and let him hang out with

698
00:53:13,400 --> 00:53:16,799
Speaker 4: his crew. And he knows that I know who they are.

699
00:53:18,680 --> 00:53:28,680
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, So now I'm a little upset, and now

700
00:53:28,719 --> 00:53:34,600
Speaker 1: I would like as silly as this all is, I

701
00:53:34,640 --> 00:53:39,200
Speaker 1: am going to eventually make a few requests here that

702
00:53:39,320 --> 00:53:48,080
Speaker 1: I mean very very very sincerely. But before I get

703
00:53:48,080 --> 00:53:51,200
Speaker 1: to that, I would like to say some things directly.

704
00:53:53,520 --> 00:53:56,560
Speaker 1: I do not know better, and I am not ashamed

705
00:53:56,600 --> 00:54:06,360
Speaker 1: of myself what I said. I stand by one hundred percent.

706
00:54:09,480 --> 00:54:15,319
Speaker 1: If anybody took my comments as if I were implying

707
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:23,239
Speaker 1: that the most successful guy in my industry was an actual,

708
00:54:23,600 --> 00:54:29,160
Speaker 1: literal mobster, for that, I apologize. I don't think anybody

709
00:54:29,239 --> 00:54:34,600
Speaker 1: thought I was truly saying there is an organized crime

710
00:54:34,680 --> 00:54:39,480
Speaker 1: element to this. I thought it was quite clear I

711
00:54:39,640 --> 00:54:49,720
Speaker 1: was using a very obvious and very almost cliche analogy

712
00:54:49,840 --> 00:54:53,960
Speaker 1: of talking to a guy like a mob boss, like ooh,

713
00:54:55,400 --> 00:55:00,840
Speaker 1: better be careful, never know what it happened to you.

714
00:55:02,560 --> 00:55:08,840
Speaker 1: I think that was crystal clear, and I want to

715
00:55:11,000 --> 00:55:16,600
Speaker 1: again reiterate I don't know better than to do that,

716
00:55:17,800 --> 00:55:23,240
Speaker 1: because that is exactly what I feel happened here with

717
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:27,520
Speaker 1: Stephen A and Jalen Brown, and it is part of

718
00:55:27,560 --> 00:55:32,040
Speaker 1: a pattern that we saw for the first time more

719
00:55:32,120 --> 00:55:41,000
Speaker 1: than a decade ago, when it appeared to me that

720
00:55:41,120 --> 00:55:49,040
Speaker 1: he threatened Kevin Durant with again fuzzy reportage about things

721
00:55:49,160 --> 00:55:54,000
Speaker 1: he knows that he's just holding on to. And the

722
00:55:54,040 --> 00:56:00,799
Speaker 1: irony is not lost on me at all that in

723
00:56:00,880 --> 00:56:07,719
Speaker 1: his response to me, he then did the same exact

724
00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:14,040
Speaker 1: thing that I was criticizing, vague, ominous. I know things,

725
00:56:14,640 --> 00:56:17,719
Speaker 1: but I'm not gonna say what they are right now.

726
00:56:18,320 --> 00:56:22,719
Speaker 1: So before I get to my request, which I am

727
00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:30,040
Speaker 1: very sincere about, I will do it for him. Cards

728
00:56:30,080 --> 00:56:36,280
Speaker 1: on the table here, and again this is my gut.

729
00:56:37,080 --> 00:56:41,080
Speaker 1: I don't know this, I can't prove this, but my

730
00:56:44,080 --> 00:56:48,440
Speaker 1: what I think he was implying there when he says

731
00:56:51,040 --> 00:57:00,600
Speaker 1: knows his crew, I think he's implying that because I'm

732
00:57:01,440 --> 00:57:09,799
Speaker 1: legitimately good friends with Maverick Maverick Carter, and because I

733
00:57:09,840 --> 00:57:15,120
Speaker 1: have I'm friendly with and have a working relationship with

734
00:57:15,239 --> 00:57:22,080
Speaker 1: Rich Paul, and because I occasionally am with those guys

735
00:57:22,080 --> 00:57:28,840
Speaker 1: in a social setting, that me going after him was

736
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:38,360
Speaker 1: some type of coordinated, planned attack using the jail and

737
00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:46,000
Speaker 1: Brown story as some proxy war for some ulterior lebron

738
00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:53,320
Speaker 1: steven A beef that I am the figurehead for. And

739
00:57:53,400 --> 00:58:01,680
Speaker 1: when he says I know his crew, I think he

740
00:58:01,800 --> 00:58:11,520
Speaker 1: is referencing a very specific moment in time. So again, I,

741
00:58:11,640 --> 00:58:17,640
Speaker 1: without revealing any confidences, will cards on the table for everyone.

742
00:58:17,880 --> 00:58:21,960
Speaker 1: And cards on the table is a very interesting word

743
00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:25,200
Speaker 1: choice by me because I think he's actually referencing a

744
00:58:25,240 --> 00:58:39,320
Speaker 1: card game, because back in September, I was in a fun,

745
00:58:40,040 --> 00:58:45,960
Speaker 1: not crazy I steakes, not anything, not the type of

746
00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:49,760
Speaker 1: game I go to Vegas for, but a fun, friendly

747
00:58:50,840 --> 00:59:02,200
Speaker 1: card game here in the city with not necessarily the

748
00:59:02,240 --> 00:59:05,200
Speaker 1: people I just mentioned there, but a group of people

749
00:59:05,200 --> 00:59:11,120
Speaker 1: that could be considered, you know, in that orbit. And

750
00:59:11,240 --> 00:59:16,520
Speaker 1: stephen A stopped by to say hello. And when that happened,

751
00:59:17,440 --> 00:59:20,640
Speaker 1: because I had heard on decent authority, he was upset

752
00:59:20,680 --> 00:59:26,840
Speaker 1: with me for my previous Lebron commentary. I stood up.

753
00:59:27,400 --> 00:59:30,720
Speaker 1: I shook his hand, and I said, hey, I hear

754
00:59:30,800 --> 00:59:36,280
Speaker 1: you're mad at me. Should we talk about it? And he,

755
00:59:36,760 --> 00:59:40,800
Speaker 1: to his credit I thought at the time, said nah,

756
00:59:41,280 --> 00:59:43,800
Speaker 1: I'm not mad at anybody. I'm paraphrasing I'm not mad

757
00:59:43,840 --> 00:59:46,960
Speaker 1: at anybody. I'm a grown man. I got more important

758
00:59:46,960 --> 00:59:50,800
Speaker 1: things to do. I said, Okay, got it, and I

759
00:59:50,880 --> 00:59:54,160
Speaker 1: sat back down and played cards. He said hello to

760
00:59:54,200 --> 00:59:59,760
Speaker 1: the people in the room, and then he left. The

761
00:59:59,800 --> 01:00:06,240
Speaker 1: old only possible explanation is to him saying, and I

762
01:00:06,360 --> 01:00:09,920
Speaker 1: know who your crew is is he thinks like that

763
01:00:10,320 --> 01:00:13,680
Speaker 1: room of people. First of all, like that that is

764
01:00:13,840 --> 01:00:18,120
Speaker 1: a regular hangout. It's not. And second of all that

765
01:00:18,320 --> 01:00:23,960
Speaker 1: those people somehow are feeding me takes are like, hey, man,

766
01:00:24,280 --> 01:00:28,240
Speaker 1: he's vulnerable in this frontier, which is again another weird thing,

767
01:00:28,560 --> 01:00:30,840
Speaker 1: because a lot of the people there he's friends with.

768
01:00:31,840 --> 01:00:35,760
Speaker 1: So I don't That's the only thing I can possibly

769
01:00:36,800 --> 01:00:43,960
Speaker 1: consider he was referencing. Other than that, none of it

770
01:00:44,040 --> 01:00:50,400
Speaker 1: makes any sense. But here's the more important thing. And

771
01:00:50,520 --> 01:00:53,280
Speaker 1: here is the thing that I do take really, god

772
01:00:53,360 --> 01:01:00,840
Speaker 1: dog seriously. And this is where I empathize massively with

773
01:01:00,960 --> 01:01:04,240
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, who I have no relationship with, or Kevin

774
01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:07,520
Speaker 1: Durant from a decade ago, or any of the other

775
01:01:07,640 --> 01:01:18,520
Speaker 1: athletes that this playbook has been run on him, sang

776
01:01:19,320 --> 01:01:26,800
Speaker 1: not saying implying that I was instructed, coached, fed anything

777
01:01:26,880 --> 01:01:31,280
Speaker 1: that had any of these other ulterior motives, other than

778
01:01:31,920 --> 01:01:36,920
Speaker 1: quite literally texting the producers of this show in demands

779
01:01:37,840 --> 01:01:43,320
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes before Tuesday's episode, you know what, I just

780
01:01:43,400 --> 01:01:47,680
Speaker 1: rewatched the Stephen A Jalen Brown thing that bothered the

781
01:01:47,720 --> 01:01:50,240
Speaker 1: hell out of me. Put it in the show, which

782
01:01:50,360 --> 01:01:59,480
Speaker 1: was the entirety of how this happened, him saying that

783
01:01:59,560 --> 01:02:05,919
Speaker 1: there was something more nefarious afoot is a flat out

784
01:02:06,640 --> 01:02:12,040
Speaker 1: one hundred percent fabrication. And so here's the request, and

785
01:02:12,120 --> 01:02:19,080
Speaker 1: I mean this one. I would like an apology or

786
01:02:19,120 --> 01:02:26,520
Speaker 1: a retraction or a clarification. And I'm going to stick

787
01:02:26,560 --> 01:02:32,720
Speaker 1: to that request because best I can tell, there are

788
01:02:32,760 --> 01:02:41,200
Speaker 1: only three possible options here. Option one made up out

789
01:02:41,200 --> 01:02:50,640
Speaker 1: of whole cloth, just had a gut feeling, an intuition,

790
01:02:52,160 --> 01:02:58,640
Speaker 1: had just enough circumstantial evidence of who I hang with,

791
01:02:59,080 --> 01:03:01,960
Speaker 1: who my crew is, and said, you know what, I'm

792
01:03:02,040 --> 01:03:06,040
Speaker 1: going with it, and I won't put myself in the

793
01:03:06,120 --> 01:03:09,880
Speaker 1: jackpot because I'll say I'll leave it at that, but

794
01:03:10,000 --> 01:03:15,440
Speaker 1: I know and just made it up. If that's the case,

795
01:03:16,840 --> 01:03:26,080
Speaker 1: then I would like an apology. Option two, he somehow

796
01:03:26,240 --> 01:03:31,880
Speaker 1: got someone to tell him on the worst sourcing imaginable.

797
01:03:32,400 --> 01:03:39,080
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I I'm part of a group that we're

798
01:03:39,080 --> 01:03:41,720
Speaker 1: in a group chat telling telling Nick what to say

799
01:03:41,720 --> 01:03:45,120
Speaker 1: about you as an opportunity to take you down a peg,

800
01:03:47,080 --> 01:03:53,200
Speaker 1: in which case it's just bad reporting. But that would

801
01:03:53,240 --> 01:04:01,240
Speaker 1: need a retraction. Option three would be maybe the most

802
01:04:01,280 --> 01:04:07,520
Speaker 1: gifted orator in the history of the space just fumbled

803
01:04:07,560 --> 01:04:11,120
Speaker 1: his message in words entirely, and that's not what he

804
01:04:11,240 --> 01:04:15,120
Speaker 1: was trying to say at all. That would demand a clarification.

805
01:04:17,720 --> 01:04:22,040
Speaker 1: But what's not going to happen here, and what I

806
01:04:22,120 --> 01:04:31,520
Speaker 1: cannot abide is utter and complete fantasy about how and

807
01:04:31,560 --> 01:04:41,040
Speaker 1: why I do what I do. I have spent my

808
01:04:41,520 --> 01:04:48,600
Speaker 1: entire career building what I do think is a rather

809
01:04:49,000 --> 01:04:57,160
Speaker 1: pristine reputation for honesty with the audience, for openness about

810
01:04:57,200 --> 01:05:01,600
Speaker 1: what biases I may or may not have, and for

811
01:05:01,680 --> 01:05:07,800
Speaker 1: not coming to any discussion without all my cards on

812
01:05:07,840 --> 01:05:15,200
Speaker 1: the table. And I've managed to do it without having

813
01:05:15,240 --> 01:05:21,360
Speaker 1: one of my go to moves be what, at least

814
01:05:21,400 --> 01:05:25,840
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the audience perceives as veiled

815
01:05:26,120 --> 01:05:31,080
Speaker 1: threats for anyone who comes back at me about having

816
01:05:31,280 --> 01:05:35,600
Speaker 1: comproment that I could reveal at any time. So I

817
01:05:35,640 --> 01:05:41,400
Speaker 1: don't take that shit lightly, and I don't love that

818
01:05:41,440 --> 01:05:47,240
Speaker 1: this now inevitably escalates. I hope to not discuss this

819
01:05:47,320 --> 01:05:54,720
Speaker 1: again at any point. With that said, for a number

820
01:05:54,760 --> 01:06:00,680
Speaker 1: of reasons, there are not many people in the space

821
01:06:02,720 --> 01:06:10,920
Speaker 1: that feel comfortable calling out what they perceived to be

822
01:06:11,160 --> 01:06:16,960
Speaker 1: bad actions by contemporaries in the space. And I think

823
01:06:19,040 --> 01:06:22,080
Speaker 1: the playbook that I felt Stephen A was running on

824
01:06:22,200 --> 01:06:25,520
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown was unfair to Jalen Brown. I don't know

825
01:06:25,640 --> 01:06:29,880
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, never talked to Jalen Brown. My guess is

826
01:06:30,400 --> 01:06:33,280
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown, if he knows me, doesn't like me. I

827
01:06:33,840 --> 01:06:35,560
Speaker 1: don't even think he has any reason not to like me.

828
01:06:35,600 --> 01:06:37,880
Speaker 1: But it doesn't seem to like much media. He's like,

829
01:06:38,040 --> 01:06:43,280
Speaker 1: he's very very anti media, and so I but I

830
01:06:43,360 --> 01:06:48,960
Speaker 1: thought it was bullshit what happened there. And Jalen Brown,

831
01:06:49,000 --> 01:06:53,320
Speaker 1: by the way, yesterday, you know, he responded, And it

832
01:06:53,440 --> 01:06:56,880
Speaker 1: turns out I wasn't the only one that got that

833
01:06:57,080 --> 01:07:02,439
Speaker 1: mob boss feel from Stephen A's first take comments, because

834
01:07:02,440 --> 01:07:04,080
Speaker 1: this is what Jalen Brown had to say.

835
01:07:04,320 --> 01:07:07,720
Speaker 4: Jalen Brown, be careful what you wish for? You really

836
01:07:07,720 --> 01:07:11,520
Speaker 4: want me to start reporting on that level? Come on, man,

837
01:07:13,440 --> 01:07:17,760
Speaker 4: Come on, Stephen al a topo you run in the

838
01:07:17,800 --> 01:07:20,960
Speaker 4: media cartel, my boy, Come.

839
01:07:20,800 --> 01:07:24,640
Speaker 1: On, man talking about how be careful? Man? Listen, I

840
01:07:24,640 --> 01:07:28,160
Speaker 1: ain't even gonna get into that yard. Yeah, I mean,

841
01:07:29,400 --> 01:07:32,720
Speaker 1: well done there by Jalen Brown. I mean okay, so

842
01:07:32,840 --> 01:07:40,640
Speaker 1: I just I And I also would like to issue

843
01:07:41,080 --> 01:07:48,160
Speaker 1: one apology here. I would like to apologize to my

844
01:07:48,480 --> 01:07:56,080
Speaker 1: friends and colleagues that want to be Switzerland in this

845
01:07:56,840 --> 01:08:02,320
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you know, I guess media beef

846
01:08:03,040 --> 01:08:06,280
Speaker 1: that I'm putting in a bad spot. I feel badly

847
01:08:06,320 --> 01:08:10,800
Speaker 1: about that, genuinely, and if you're upset with me because

848
01:08:10,800 --> 01:08:21,040
Speaker 1: of it, I understand, but I can't. I could not

849
01:08:21,240 --> 01:08:31,040
Speaker 1: allow the timeline of me in I thought the most

850
01:08:31,120 --> 01:08:46,439
Speaker 1: respectful manner possible criticizing someone for vague anonymized information in

851
01:08:46,640 --> 01:08:55,439
Speaker 1: threat form that my criticism of that be rebutted by

852
01:08:55,479 --> 01:09:02,439
Speaker 1: that person doing the exact same thing to me. And

853
01:09:05,960 --> 01:09:14,200
Speaker 1: one of the benefits to being as transparent and as

854
01:09:18,479 --> 01:09:25,439
Speaker 1: flaws and all naked to the audiences. Y'all know who

855
01:09:25,479 --> 01:09:32,400
Speaker 1: my friends are, y'all know how I carry myself. Y'all

856
01:09:32,439 --> 01:09:35,759
Speaker 1: know what I do or don't believe, and you guys

857
01:09:35,880 --> 01:09:41,040
Speaker 1: know whether or not. Wow, that doesn't sound like that's

858
01:09:41,120 --> 01:09:43,880
Speaker 1: not an opinion Nick would have. He must have been

859
01:09:44,040 --> 01:09:49,000
Speaker 1: fed that versus Yeah, that pretty much tracks with everything

860
01:09:49,280 --> 01:09:55,160
Speaker 1: we've heard him say before. And so I'll be waiting.

861
01:09:55,320 --> 01:09:59,200
Speaker 1: I won't be holding my breath. But in apology or

862
01:09:59,200 --> 01:10:03,680
Speaker 1: attraction or clarification I think's deserved, We'll wait and see

863
01:10:03,720 --> 01:10:07,160
Speaker 1: if I get it. Talk to you guys Thursday. Good

864
01:10:07,240 --> 01:10:09,479
Speaker 1: luck to us at the Sports Emmys. What's right