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At Atlassian

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tap the banner or visit this episode's page

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to learn more. Welcome

2:02

to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining

2:05

me. He does every Thursday night from the

2:07

ringer.com. It's Kevin O'Connor AKA Kevin Obama, Kevin

2:09

O'Connor, Kevin O'Flymer, Kevin O'Cameraman, Kevin

2:12

O'Complex, Kevin O'Candyland, Kevin

2:15

O'Blazarian, Kevin O'Sphere. Kevin.

2:18

How are you doing,

2:20

man? Look at you.

2:23

For the people listening to the podcast.

2:26

We are not all on video yet. However,

2:28

we do put out social clips and

2:31

you have a new crystal clear

2:33

HD 4K video. You're

2:36

looking sharp. We're just, we're coming up

2:38

in the world, Kevin. We're really, we're

2:40

really coming up in the world.

2:42

A shout to one of our

2:44

listeners who we met at our

2:46

live show in Memphis, Jack Hampton,

2:48

who has become a very successful

2:51

YouTuber with his YouTube channel,

2:53

Hampton Sports. He's the one I,

2:56

after we had met him at our live

2:58

show, I had watched

3:00

his videos and I said, man, your videos look

3:02

so good. What do you use? And

3:05

he sent me all the links and I was like,

3:07

I'm in, I'm in. So

3:10

maybe I'm just going to become video guy now. You

3:12

never know, Kev. You never know.

3:14

I would love if the mismatch were all

3:16

on video every episode. I think that'd be

3:18

cool. Yeah. Free the mismatch. Why are we

3:21

not on video? I mean, Spotify is good

3:23

video. Why not? I

3:25

feel like it's because they

3:27

think we're not handsome enough. And

3:32

they're probably right. They're

3:35

probably right. Uh, I

3:38

think one time when I asked, they said

3:41

you are clip

3:43

handsome. You're not

3:45

show handsome. So we are

3:47

worthy of 30 max like

3:50

minute and a half clip. And I

3:52

know you try to, you try

3:54

to really go over the edge and you

3:56

just post your own clips and do it

3:58

natively, but I just want to. Everybody to

4:00

know Kevin does that on his own. Nobody

4:02

at the ringer does that or Spotify. They

4:04

would never let us be on camera for

4:06

longer than a minute and a half. So

4:08

Kevin just goes back to 30 seconds. Yeah.

4:10

The clips our social team does are a

4:13

rule. 30 seconds only. Kevin

4:16

goes rogue and does them himself. All

4:18

right. We are going to play everybody's

4:21

favorite game show. And I swear, I

4:23

mean, the people have

4:25

been clamoring for that's true. That

4:28

might be true. That's ridiculous. And so we're going to

4:30

give the people what they want. We're going to play

4:32

that in a little bit with

4:34

a lot of different subjects included. Everything

4:37

that's kind of taken place through the week

4:39

is included in this week's

4:41

episode. But first, there were

4:43

a couple of games before we are coming

4:45

on tonight. The

4:47

Celtics mashed the heat. Now,

4:50

I watched the heat last night as well because

4:52

they were playing against the Grizzlies. And

4:55

it was basically not the

4:57

Grizzlies. It was basically the Memphis

4:59

hustle. And it wasn't even the

5:01

Memphis hustle that has been like

5:03

together because Scotty Pippin Jr. who

5:06

just got off the team like a couple of

5:08

days ago. He's playing

5:10

like closing minutes against Miami. And it was

5:12

part of it, which was like, wow, this

5:14

is a great effort by a bunch of

5:17

young guys that are getting their opportunity. On

5:19

the other side, I thought,

5:22

my God, this heat team, like,

5:25

I'm never falling for it again. They're like,

5:27

what's wrong with them? You know, do they

5:29

have some issues? Whatever. Like we

5:32

just, if nothing else, we learned our lesson

5:34

last year when they got into the play in and

5:36

next thing we know they're in the finals. They

5:39

just, you really never know when they're

5:42

going to come out and give

5:44

a big effort. And I

5:46

felt like I was texting much of my buddies

5:48

and it was like, all right, they're going to

5:50

turn it up in the fourth quarter. And

5:53

then you're either going to make some shots and

5:55

not let them come back or they're just going

5:57

to get every stop. They're going to start treasuring

5:59

the ball. and playing like the

6:01

game matters, but they're going to give

6:04

about 15 really tough minutes

6:06

to you, or 12 probably.

6:09

And you're going to have to navigate through those.

6:11

They'll try at the end of the third, they'll

6:13

try at the first six minutes of the fourth,

6:15

and if the game's in range, then they'll play

6:18

it out. If it's not in range, then they'll

6:20

just cash it in. But I

6:23

just thought that's a

6:25

veteran team that doesn't care where

6:27

their seed is. And so they

6:29

are, to me, the

6:31

absolute hardest by a wide margin

6:33

to judge or

6:35

evaluate during the

6:37

regular season, because we've just seen

6:39

this a thousand times. And that

6:41

is a credit to Boston who

6:44

does not do that. Like on

6:46

regular occasion, they give big effort, and

6:49

they go in there and they

6:51

smoke Miami tonight and run

6:54

them off the court. And so I'd

6:57

like to think that that

6:59

is super indicative of what would happen if

7:01

they played big-stakes basketball. But just after what

7:03

I saw last night, it's hard for me

7:06

to believe because I'm like, man, this team,

7:12

they give it everything they've got in the playoffs, but

7:14

it is so few and far between that you feel

7:16

like they give it all they've got until they get

7:18

to that point. I mean, you

7:21

said it, like that last year, they were, they

7:23

almost got eliminated in the playoffs. They were just

7:25

in the play, and they were down in the

7:27

fourth quarter to the Bulls. It

7:30

was almost all over in the middle of April

7:32

before the playoffs even began for them.

7:35

And they, I mean, who knows, we'll see how the

7:37

standings fall for the remainder of the season. If

7:41

they flip to seven, they'll be in the play.

7:43

And again, it's not impossible that happens. But

7:46

I think for Boston, they are clearly

7:48

in, we are trying to run

7:50

through everybody during the entire regular season, though. They're

7:53

not letting up except for resting Porzingis, which,

7:55

I mean, he turns his ankle tonight. He

7:57

said after the game, he's... fine.

8:00

It looks worse than it actually was. But

8:03

I'm sure he'll be resting even more

8:05

often moving forward. But aside from that,

8:07

Boston's been going full throttle. Miami's doing

8:09

the same thing they've been doing for

8:12

years now. I do think it is

8:14

interesting how Jimmy Butler after

8:16

the game said like, we have to,

8:18

you know, get back to having fun.

8:20

We have to find joy. How much

8:22

of that is the fact that you're

8:24

bored during the season per usual or how

8:26

much of that is there is maybe something

8:29

different chemistry wise compared

8:31

to recent years where they actually did make

8:33

those runs. That's just something that, you know,

8:35

keeping tabs on after you. Well, and I,

8:37

and you know what, and it's Jimmy

8:40

can say whatever Jimmy wants to say. I think

8:43

that feet in that team feeds off him greatly.

8:45

And like, there's a lot of

8:47

these games, he may shoot the ball 10 times.

8:50

Things that are never happening when the game

8:52

has high stakes. He'll

8:55

just kind of coast. Yeah, yeah,

8:58

that's true. He had 11 shots night. You had

9:00

10 last. What do you have? I don't know.

9:02

It'll be a 10 last night. He

9:04

had 10 left.

9:06

He was four of 10 last night. Here's his

9:09

numbers during the losing streak. I'll just give you

9:11

all five of the glosses in a row. Six

9:14

of 11, eight of 10, five of 10, four of

9:16

10, seven of 11. Perfect. Yeah.

9:19

That's why you can't judge anything.

9:21

They do because during

9:23

the post-season he's shooting double 20 times per

9:26

game. That's his average last year in the

9:28

post-season 20 the year before 19. So I

9:30

mean, just

9:32

like a dramatic difference, Jimmy

9:35

Butler's usage. So I

9:37

mean, and that sounds like you're not reading into

9:39

it that much, but they

9:42

are really on a serious skid

9:44

here. You know what you

9:47

notice? They miss Harkins.

9:51

Yeah. Oh, Harkins is great. They miss

9:53

him though. It's just another guy. Once

9:55

they lose him in the rotation,

9:57

it's another guy they're down and it's like.

10:00

He has been so so outstanding for

10:02

them The shooting

10:04

percentage he's just not always even so good.

10:07

He's been so efficient And

10:09

so when you're extracting that from the lineup,

10:12

it's just inevitably going to less

10:14

efficient players Then

10:16

he and and then they got it

10:18

now They got to try to figure out the roger thing on

10:20

the fly as well, which is gonna take

10:23

a minute, of course Yeah integrating any

10:25

new player Hard to take

10:27

anything out of it Super

10:29

impressed with the Knicks like I

10:31

got a little blowback after Talking

10:35

the Knicks up and talking about their crazy stats

10:37

the other day. They're like, hey, why don't you

10:39

wait until they play somebody? Okay, they played Denver.

10:41

That's good. And they crushed him. They destroy him

10:44

right out of the eight Is Denver

10:46

good? Is that a good enough one? Like who you want

10:48

him to play? Yeah, like if

10:50

you've seen what you've seen and I've

10:52

seen that team in person I

10:55

was like and I saw him without Brunson and

10:57

I'm like man They got the goods like as

10:59

we've been saying like I think that Knicks team

11:01

I think they're really good and I think that

11:04

they've got a bunch of guys that

11:06

they could throw at you They've got

11:08

wing defenders like and they got a

11:10

plethora of them. They got wing

11:12

defenders They've got a guy that could get

11:14

you buckets You

11:17

know whenever he needs to get you buckets

11:19

and then they've got guys that could come

11:21

off the bench and do some stuff for

11:23

them And so and they've got the the

11:26

bigs and they didn't even have you know, I think

11:29

this is It's

11:31

interesting. They didn't have Hartenstein

11:34

tonight. Yeah, and so of course

11:36

the down Robinson They're down Hartenstein

11:39

and you wonder if in some

11:41

ways That was

11:43

a better It

11:45

forced them into what might have actually been

11:47

better against yokich And

11:50

I know yo, yo, he's always gonna have his

11:52

numbers. He's always gonna have his

11:54

numbers. He's always gonna be efficient doing it

11:57

But in terms of being smaller

12:00

getting out, going, all

12:02

that kind of stuff. Like, you know, there's no great

12:04

answers for Yokich. Teams try to go small,

12:06

they try to go big, but I don't

12:08

know if you

12:10

for sure would have played your big guy a

12:13

lot if he's there, but

12:15

you didn't have a choice in the matter. And

12:17

so you end up having to play small in

12:20

this game and it was amazing

12:22

for them, amazing. I

12:25

mean, and also, I mean, O.G. and

12:27

O.B. showed his value throughout the entire

12:29

game. I felt like, I mean, offensively,

12:31

just the basic numbers. He had

12:33

26 points in the game on 18 shots, but

12:35

defensively, he was the primary defender on Jamal

12:37

Murray. And I thought he

12:40

did a tremendous job defending Murray on the

12:42

perimeter. He made things

12:44

hard on him. He showed his versatility throughout

12:46

the game, as he has in literally every

12:48

single game ever since he was inquired by

12:51

the Knicks. But I thought it was like

12:53

really O.G.'s best overall game for

12:55

the Knicks when you factor in how well

12:57

he played on offense. But that

12:59

dude's been a massive difference maker.

13:01

And I think you look back at

13:03

the time of the trade, the analysis, it

13:05

was like, well, could the Raptors have actually

13:08

won this trade because quickly could pan into

13:10

something. RJ could get better and that's 100%

13:12

true, but it

13:14

wasn't talked about a lot like, well, what could O.G.

13:16

turn into? And O.G. is like

13:18

in that defensive scheme, in that situation,

13:20

he feels like an even more valuable

13:22

version of the guy that we've seen

13:24

for years with the Raptors. Another

13:28

thing worth mentioning is, the Pacers

13:30

really good win against the Sixers

13:32

without Halliburton, though, less. And

13:34

I think one of the things, they can

13:37

be very balanced and then they've

13:39

got another guy that could do the 25 plus

13:41

thing now, right? In

13:44

the absence of, they got

13:46

another guy that could get you that 25 plus

13:48

that you really need. And Tennessee

13:50

score. Tennessee tonight, the creation. That like, isn't

13:52

that what we talked about all year old?

13:54

They need another guy who can create. Tennessee's

13:58

two turnovers tonight. He was really crazy. for

14:00

Indiana. Yep. All right. You

14:02

ready for the game?

14:05

You're ready. I don't know if you're ready,

14:07

Kevin. I don't know any of the questions per usual.

14:09

None of them. None of them. I know nothing. I

14:13

know that might be true. That's ridiculous.

14:16

All right. We will begin with

14:18

the following. LeBron

14:21

being a 20 time

14:23

all star is

14:25

his most impressive accomplishment.

14:30

Ridiculous. So

14:33

10 times in the final during

14:35

the modern era, in my opinion, going

14:38

to the final 10 times in

14:40

this era of basketball is

14:42

his most incredible achievement

14:45

of all for sure. Getting

14:47

the files is difficult regardless of what you want

14:49

to say about the Eastern Conference through

14:51

some of those years. It's an

14:53

incredibly difficult accomplishment year after year

14:55

after year after year after year

14:58

to do to always be playing until June. An

15:00

all star game. Yes, it's

15:02

amazing. But you have to be healthy. Like you

15:04

have to be available. You have to be healthy

15:06

to be available for 10 finals

15:09

as well until June. I

15:12

get it. But Kevin, his

15:17

20 all NVA's is more impressive

15:19

than his 20 all stars. 20

15:22

is like impossible. But

15:25

he also he will at the end of the year

15:27

have an equal amount of all NVA appearances too. That's

15:29

more impressive than all stars because

15:31

that's 15 roster spots.

15:34

Take this into consideration. This

15:37

is ridiculous. Like right

15:39

now, Giannis has been to

15:41

I think eight. Yeah. So

15:44

he would have to go to 12 more

15:47

in a row. And

15:49

that would put him like in his 40s. And to get to

15:51

10 finals, he'd

15:54

have to go to nine more. Yeah.

15:58

I know you don't know about the files. down there in

16:00

Memphis yet, but maybe someday you'll, you will. And,

16:02

and you know how hard it is to get

16:04

there. What's his record in those? Four

16:07

and six. Okay. I was

16:09

just checking. Um, there's

16:12

only four guys

16:14

in the history of sport. You'd rather get to,

16:16

I know you wouldn't, you'd rather get to the

16:19

finals and lose than just not make it at

16:21

all. It's better to make it. I

16:23

think that's true. Um, Gordie

16:26

Howe, Stan Musial. Wait,

16:29

what is it? LeBron. These are guys

16:31

that have been to 20 all-star games. Okay. All right. Gordie

16:34

Howe in hockey, Stan Musial.

16:37

And, uh, I think Willie

16:39

Mays as well. LeBron. And

16:42

then Hank Aaron is like 25. 25

16:46

all-star games. I mean,

16:48

that's, come on. Yeah. 25

16:51

is just absurd, but that's

16:53

in all of sports, in

16:56

all of sports doing that. So

16:58

I think you're, I know, I know

17:00

you're on as nuts about the finals

17:03

thing, but. You know how many players

17:05

have been to 10 championships? What's the list for that?

17:07

Did you compile that? I don't

17:09

know. I don't know how many guys

17:11

played in 10 finals. Yeah. I've got

17:13

many. Yeah. I don't know. I

17:15

don't know. I don't know how many guys had to get

17:17

past Roy Hibbert. Oh my

17:20

God. I'm kidding. Come on. Come

17:22

on. I think, I think there were some other guys on that

17:25

team, but Roy Hibbert was the big one. Um,

17:27

literally the big one. He was literally seven foot

17:29

two. Uh,

17:32

let's see here. So we do have

17:35

the, okay. Oh, let's just say with the all-star

17:37

thing, New York should be ashamed of themselves for

17:39

not getting Brunson into

17:41

the all-star game because of the fan vote.

17:44

Well, what, what does Dame and Milwaukee, the

17:46

Dame's team and the bucks, you know, all

17:48

of what's causing they have bots or something

17:52

or Nick's fans just lazy and

17:54

not realizing that they all had a vote to

17:57

get Brunson in, I think it's,

17:59

I saw you. You say it's

18:01

a crime, everybody complaining

18:03

about it, and I think rightfully so. But

18:05

there's nobody to blame but the fans. Everybody

18:11

else did right on this. The

18:14

fans didn't do right on this. And

18:16

they are in media market number

18:18

one. There's no excuse for this.

18:21

No excuse. Isn't that something else? Like, you

18:24

know, they're the big one of the biggest

18:26

markets in the world, New York

18:28

City. And Bronson was sixth?

18:31

Who was the guy that got in because of the

18:33

K-pop fans? Who was it? It

18:35

was a couple years ago. It was egregious

18:37

and you defended it. Oh,

18:39

it was Andrew Wiggins! Oh, it was

18:41

Wiggins? Gross. Andrew

18:44

Wiggins starting in an All-Star game was embarrassing.

18:46

Yeah, Wiggins. What an embarrassment that

18:48

was. Yeah, from

18:50

a K-pop star. Yeah,

18:52

maybe Bronson said it started like a

18:54

K-pop. Bam-bam. Bam-bam

18:57

is the K-pop star who assisted

19:00

Wiggins. Yeah, that looks great

19:02

in retrospect, doesn't it? Yeah.

19:05

Yeah, I heard you on Simmons Pod saying that

19:07

he has to be attached to something to get

19:09

traded. It's falling off. You

19:12

guys started in the All-Star game two years

19:14

ago. Now

19:17

he's got to be attached to something to get rid of him? What

19:20

in the world? I agree. J.

19:23

LaBronson should be starting the All-Star game.

19:25

Crazy. Six. Six.

19:28

And fan voting. Wow. Dame

19:31

and Dame was... He didn't hit the ballot box.

19:34

Dame was fifth in meteorite. So

19:37

you didn't even answer. Are you saying that's true? New

19:40

York should be ashamed? I

19:42

mean, I don't know. I think the fan voting

19:44

is... I don't know. I

19:46

just think it... Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

19:50

No, no, I don't think so. Get me those chicken?

19:52

Fuck! Say it. Say New

19:54

York should be ashamed. That

19:56

might be true. That might be true, but... Something

19:58

like the other... It's not sure because

20:01

I don't like the fan voting process. Like

20:03

they have days where votes count times five,

20:05

double votes. So I don't know. I just online,

20:08

there's a lot of bots on social media. I've

20:10

had everybody else get it right. Well,

20:13

I mean, did, did it, was everything else

20:16

perfectly right? I for

20:18

the fan vote. Next question. Every

20:21

other all star is absolutely right.

20:24

And worthy. Uh, no, I mean,

20:27

I think 80 probably should have started over

20:29

in LeBron. So I'd say that might be

20:31

true. I don't, I mean, I'm not going

20:33

to argue against LeBron making it. Sounds like

20:35

you are, but, but 80, 80

20:37

should be the choice over LeBron for start. You're

20:42

going to give him this captaincy too. And

20:44

I think they, so just looking, let's go through

20:46

it. LeBron stands, get out. Let's, let's, let's go

20:48

through it. Let's just, just some people who are

20:51

listening, they may not even know the all stars

20:53

in the West, the guards, Luca and SGA that's

20:55

true. I think people got that right. And

20:57

no hurry. Correct. SGA

21:00

and Luca deserve it over Curry and

21:02

over ant for that matter. And the

21:04

West, the front court was

21:07

LeBron, Yokich and Kevin Durant, uh,

21:10

over 80 Kawhi, Paul George.

21:13

I mean, I think, you know, Yokich is obviously

21:15

correct. You can make arguments against Katie. I had

21:18

him on my ballot. I would, I did go

21:20

with 80 over LeBron if I remember correctly. And

21:23

so I'd say that might be true.

21:25

It's close. And in the East, the

21:27

guards, Halliburton and Dame, we just talked

21:29

about Dame. He had the tiebreaker over

21:31

Bronson cause of the fan boat. Halliburton

21:33

is the correct choice over Trey Mitchell,

21:36

Maxi white and the East front court,

21:38

I had the identical ballot. Yana's Tatum

21:40

and bead. That's correct in my opinion.

21:42

So overall that might be true. People

21:45

did a good job for the most part. I'd say, how

21:47

about Halliburton being number one across the board?

21:49

Isn't that something else? Number three in Indiana

21:52

has the all star game factor as well.

21:54

Fans are motivated there. There's far seeing billboards

21:56

around the city and all that. I

21:59

also think. that the

22:02

NBA did a

22:04

very good job in accentuating his

22:06

rise to start them through that

22:09

entire in-season tournament thing. Totally agree.

22:11

You and I were both in

22:13

Vegas. There were damn billboards of

22:15

Halliburton all over the place. And

22:19

they made that a very

22:21

big event and he was

22:24

so great in two of the

22:26

games. And so we I remember

22:30

the pod we recorded in Vegas and

22:32

it's like this has been the story

22:35

of this is this

22:38

ascent to superstardom that

22:40

is taking place in front of our

22:42

eyes because he just mowed Milwaukee. We

22:44

had just watched that game and it

22:46

was like dude that was superstar

22:49

stuff like I'm the best player

22:51

on the floor of this game and

22:53

he was doing memories doing the

22:55

dame time stuff and tapping his wrist and

22:58

it's like whoa now this is a big

23:00

coming out party and it just

23:02

kept on carrying over and I'm I was

23:04

super impressed by that. I get it that

23:06

they're having the all-star game. Of course their

23:08

fans are going to be super enthused but

23:12

Halliburton was not

23:14

a he was not a

23:17

guy that transcended the hardcore

23:19

fan to the casual fan

23:23

and this year he just broke

23:25

through that completely to

23:27

the point where he's now he's

23:30

now a big name in the league and

23:33

it all happened rather quickly. It

23:35

really did and it was

23:37

some huge games on national TV. So

23:40

I think for star making

23:42

because that's not a team that's on

23:44

national TV a lot. So people saw him

23:46

on the end season tournament. They're like Jesus.

23:49

That's awesome. That was his

23:51

first TNT game. Right. Right.

23:54

And you see what an impact it had. You

23:56

know, I was happy for him. Getting

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25:32

right. Next one. The Milwaukee

25:34

Bucks screwed this up by hiring Doc

25:36

Rivers. Here's

25:43

the way I'll put it. I'll

25:46

say that's ridiculous. And

25:48

here's why. You're

25:50

going from the worst coach in the league to

25:52

an above average coach. He's either worst coach in

25:54

the league. We know Griffin. Griffin was one of

25:56

the worst coaches in the league. Griffin

25:59

was terrible. I mean, a 30 and 13

26:01

team just fired their head coach. The

26:04

team was a disaster behind the scenes ever

26:07

since training camp. That's why

26:09

they fired their coach when they were

26:11

30 and 13. They

26:13

knew he was a disaster. And so they

26:15

had to pull the plug and hire somebody who's reliable.

26:19

He knows how to gain the respect of

26:21

his team. This is a veteran, mature group

26:23

of players who can take a

26:25

straight message from him. And he

26:28

knows how to at least install a system. Making

26:30

adjustments in the postseason, that's where it can

26:32

become a mistake because he's

26:34

been slow to make adjustments in the past. We

26:36

saw that. I think Doc does deserve a

26:38

bit of credit for making Embiid

26:40

and Harden work. Embiid was not

26:43

a screen and roller until they

26:45

got Harden. He became an MVP.

26:47

He was optimized during the regular

26:49

season. They did not implement enough

26:51

motion and movement. They have

26:53

better motion movement players this year,

26:56

which has helped Nurse install that system that should

26:58

have been installed in past years. Under Doc. But

27:01

I think Doc is... Look, I've

27:03

always been critical of Doc. I know you

27:05

have. That's what I'm asking. I always have.

27:07

But I still think in some regards, it's

27:09

almost like... Which don't

27:12

you like? Is it the 32 closeout

27:14

games that he's lost? Or is it

27:16

the seven series where he's been up

27:18

three to two? Or is it the

27:20

10 game sevens? Or is it the

27:23

12 series when he's

27:25

held a series lead? That's

27:27

exactly what I don't like. And why

27:29

are I always... Doc is the past

27:31

because he is so charming and so

27:34

cool. That's the truth. Everybody

27:36

knows that. But I don't think I've ever given him a

27:38

pass. I've always been super critical of Doc and said he's

27:40

not great enough as a coach for that team. But then

27:42

how can you not think they made a mistake here? Because

27:44

they went from 30th best coach to like 14th, 13th best

27:46

coach. It's

27:49

an upgrade. They had to make a move.

27:52

They had to. Okay. And they got the best

27:54

guy available. Who are you gonna... Who's gonna

27:56

hire? A guy from another team? You gonna go get

27:58

Kenny Atkinson from the Warriors? So like who are

28:01

you gonna hire Jeff Van Gundy who

28:03

haven't coached for over a decade? He hasn't

28:05

coached for a decade. They said the ones

28:07

they talked to right were Van Gundy, McMillan

28:09

and Doc That was the report I saw.

28:11

Not as good as Doc. Like who's the

28:13

candidate you're gonna hire mid-seas? Well,

28:15

yeah, I mean He

28:17

is actually responsible for one of

28:19

those Bloem series leads. You know

28:21

when the Hawks beat the Sixers

28:25

The mistake was interviewing Griffin in the first

28:27

place Making him a

28:29

candidate for Giannis to enjoy he had

28:31

13 E's he himself said he had

28:33

13 head coaching interviews Before the Bucks

28:36

he was this 14th interview 13

28:38

teams said no thanks and

28:40

then the 14th one gave him a chance That

28:43

was the mistake in the first place giving

28:45

the interview and hiring him That was the

28:47

mistake But they're trying to reverse that and

28:49

make up for it by hiring a coach

28:52

with decades of experience Who's respected around the

28:54

league and can at least at

28:56

least improve on what's been there. You'd

28:58

hope Did you read that

29:00

thing about my best friend John Horst?

29:04

Did you read that thing about his dog No,

29:08

I didn't see this Published

29:10

this morning. I didn't see it dog is

29:12

named Griff after

29:14

Adrian Griffin Gonna

29:17

change that dog name. No, but it's

29:19

like an old dog now. They met

29:21

when he was just working Wow,

29:24

he had just he had gotten a job with the Bucks

29:27

Adrian was like working as an assistant

29:29

coach with the Bucks and they

29:32

lived in the same building Wow,

29:34

and they named the dog Otis and then

29:36

they were on the elevator one day and

29:38

talking and he's like no The

29:41

dog's name should be Griff He

29:43

was one of my favorite players when he

29:45

played in the NBA loved how hard-nosed he

29:47

was or whatever and I'm like This is

29:49

crazy. This is crazy. And then The

29:53

damn thing went on to say That

29:56

they got they whittled down the

29:58

guys took for the job and

30:01

that Holliday, Middleton

30:05

and Giannis all

30:07

interviewed the candidates. They

30:09

all interviewed them. The different

30:11

guys. And so that's how like

30:14

so this was a player

30:16

thing and then it kind of goes on. I think

30:18

it was a Call Yours article on espn.com. I think

30:20

that's the one that this is from. And

30:22

then it goes on and it it says

30:24

in there that basically

30:27

he had this plan of this

30:29

attacking defense with Toronto that he

30:31

had brought there and whatever and

30:34

and then they got rid of Holliday. And

30:36

so it was like that he wasn't coaching

30:38

the team that he thought he was going

30:41

to be coaching, you know,

30:43

when he made his pitches and he got

30:45

the job and whatever and then obviously struggled

30:47

to adapt on the

30:49

fly. And that's why the players immediately

30:51

went to him and were like, Oh, we suck on

30:54

defense. Can we please change this? He lost to back

30:56

to what we're used to. Right.

30:59

That's right. That's right. Well, and obviously the

31:01

stock thing was a debacle. Of course,

31:03

having having that thing go down. What about Terry

31:05

Scott? That would have been the craziest

31:07

move to hire Terry Scott. That'd

31:10

have been like to hire the guy.

31:12

Yeah. Got berated at practice and quit.

31:14

If he had stuck around, maybe he

31:16

would have been, he probably would have

31:18

been hired as head coach. Probably a

31:20

hundred percent. That's why they installed him.

31:22

Yeah. And that's probably why there was

31:24

tension there. Yeah. Cause Griffin felt like

31:26

he was being undermined even though stops.

31:29

I think it was just trying to be

31:31

an assistant coach and help, which

31:33

is what he was hired for. That's why the bucks

31:35

brought in doc to be a consultant.

31:37

They're like Griffin needs help. He

31:40

needs a better. I'm going to miss doc river

31:42

so much on Simmons pod. I am doc became

31:44

really good. He's great. He's

31:47

great podcast guests. Yeah. But

31:49

I mean, he gets a pass

31:51

on his playoff. Does he though?

31:53

I don't know. I'm busy. I don't know

31:55

about that. Chris. I've been critical of him

31:58

on this part on social media. Who

32:00

was ripping? Did you see anybody ripping

32:02

the hire? I get it.

32:05

That you're going, right? It's just because

32:07

it's Griffin. But honestly, people want to

32:09

go on that. Bro, you can't fire

32:11

Mike Boonholzer and then go to Adrian

32:13

Griffin and then Doc River. Wait a

32:15

minute though. But Chris, like I

32:18

tweeted about this a bunch over recent

32:20

days. I wrote an article about it. I

32:22

saw a lot of people replying to me saying,

32:24

but they hired Doc. There's a

32:27

lot of people saying that. I'm saying media

32:29

doesn't. Fans will. Yeah,

32:31

the media loves Doc. They always do. I can't get

32:33

to it. I can't speak for any other media. I

32:35

don't know. But I mean, his playoff

32:39

record stinks. Yeah, I know. He's blown

32:41

tons of leads over the years. He's

32:43

been slow to make adjustments. That's

32:45

why it's worrisome. That's why he got rid

32:47

of booted holes during the first place is

32:49

because even though he could install a great

32:52

system and lay the foundation, making the tweaks

32:54

on the postseason was often too slow with

32:56

some of the in-game decisions, management, some of

32:58

the game to game adjustments were too slow.

33:00

So I think with Doc, that's where the

33:03

concern is. And we'll see come postseason time. But

33:05

all I know is I trust him to fix

33:07

some of the wacky decisions

33:09

that Griffin had installed on

33:11

defense, like having Giannis and Portis, which

33:13

as much as, as much as they

33:16

do, some of the still aggressive perimeter

33:18

defense rather than playing more conservative, like

33:20

in past years, offensively, you can

33:22

still run way more Dame Giannis pick and roll

33:24

like you did with Hardin and Bede. Like there's

33:26

still more things that they can do to be

33:28

even better than they've been. And then

33:30

here's the thing. It doesn't even matter. Like

33:33

he's good with stars. Stars love him.

33:35

Yeah. And you got Damien

33:38

Lillard and Giannis. You're going to have a chance at

33:40

winning the whole thing. If you put Adrian

33:42

Griffin was going to have a chance at winning the whole thing.

33:45

Anybody was going to have a chance at winning the

33:47

whole thing. I'm not sure. Yes, they are. Yes,

33:50

they are. He's 30 and 13. I

33:52

know. But any, you're going to have a

33:54

chance. Yeah, the schedule gets harder in the second

33:57

half of the season for them, though, as

33:59

well. I got you,

34:01

but what's the worst you could see them being?

34:03

Seriously. I think I could see them

34:05

being a first-round exit. We just talked about Miami. Like,

34:07

what if they slip to the seven seed? The Bucks

34:09

could have been a first-round exit. Sure. Really?

34:13

Yeah. They

34:15

were last year. I got you.

34:17

They got Damian Lillard now. And I know

34:19

everybody's like, oh, okay, Damian Lillard. And he

34:21

doesn't deserve to be in all sorts. Damian

34:24

Lillard is still friggin awesome. And if you

34:26

get into a playoff game, and it's the

34:28

last three minutes, I want him. We're

34:30

choosing guys. I want him. It's funny. My

34:33

week with Damian is like, I'm arguing with

34:35

Bill back and forth about Dame. It's like

34:37

being the right choice for the Bucks. And

34:39

then today, I like Bronson should have been

34:42

an All-Star over him. Dame should still be

34:44

an All-Star candidate, but I don't think he

34:46

should have been the starter over Bronson. But

34:49

the fact is, his Dame is still awesome.

34:51

And I hope Doc finds ways to really

34:53

get him going more like Portland did. There's

34:55

still more that I can do with him

34:57

creatively in the half court on offense. I

34:59

want to see some more of like, take

35:01

what the Blazers did a little bit. Next

35:05

statement. Yanis and

35:07

Dame saying that they were

35:09

shocked by the Griffin hiring is

35:12

believable. That's

35:15

ridiculous. It's the clearest lie ever.

35:18

It is such

35:20

a lie. Yo,

35:22

they were acting. Did you

35:24

see the dancing? I know they were so happy

35:26

and having a good time. And no, no, we

35:28

didn't know about it. I have nothing to do

35:30

with it. Media makes up these narratives. Yanis says,

35:33

Oh, I invited him

35:35

to my wedding. That's

35:38

what he said. So funny. Yeah,

35:41

it was it was actually to serve the

35:43

hors d'oeuvres, but I did invite him. I

35:49

mean, what are they talking about? How could they

35:52

come out there with a straight face? And all

35:55

these headlines everywhere today were

35:57

Yanis and Lillah shocked by

35:59

Griffin. firing like shut the hell

36:01

up why were you guys dancing

36:04

like it was the

36:07

biggest party ever before

36:09

the game I guess they're just showing

36:11

unity or whatever and you don't think

36:13

John horse my best friend went and

36:16

told them give

36:19

me a break you don't think that they

36:21

had any input like I get it no

36:25

they don't want any blood on their hands but

36:29

can we slow down on the I

36:31

was shocked as you we didn't

36:33

see this this is out of nowhere

36:36

I swear to God there's an article like that

36:38

I think one of the headlines let me go look

36:40

it up real quick like this do

36:42

they think we're stupid it's like Giannis

36:44

multiple times this year is complained in

36:46

front of a media we don't have

36:48

a plan we don't have a strategy

36:50

so the coaching needs to be

36:52

better the players in a bit be better the

36:54

equipment manager needs to be better remember that quote

36:56

when he tried to cover up for himself after

36:59

saying the coach needs any better look

37:01

I just typed this in I typed in

37:03

on Google Giannis shock Giannis on to two

37:05

Kupo denies having a hand in the firing

37:07

of Adrian Griffin Giannis on to two Kupo

37:10

discusses Griffin firing I loved

37:12

the guy Giannis on

37:14

the Kupo says the firing came as a

37:16

surprise quote I loved the guy and

37:19

then the end of the I mean they're

37:21

all it's all

37:24

the rest of the stuff right and

37:26

then he said oh

37:29

this is great it says it

37:33

took one game without Adrian Griffin for the Bucks to

37:35

rediscover their mojo they erased the 126 or ease to

37:39

a 126 116 win over the

37:41

Cleveland Cavaliers blah blah blah blah blah blah

37:44

on to the Kupo had reportedly quote

37:46

lost faith in Griffin amidst the Bucks

37:48

defensive struggles this season but the Greek

37:50

free told reporters following the win against

37:52

Cleveland he was not responsible for the

37:54

coaches firing and it's less power in

37:56

the organization that some people think which

37:58

by the way I just told you

38:00

there was a report, he

38:02

interviewed the coach. He

38:06

interviewed, he literally interviewed

38:08

the guy. How can

38:10

you, how can you sell me on you have

38:12

less power than I think you do. What?

38:17

Next, on to the Cuba told

38:19

reporters that he loved Griffin even go so far

38:21

to invite him to his wedding and

38:24

said after that, after all the

38:26

bucks remained among the NBA's best teams, despite some

38:28

of those struggles defensively, the end of the day,

38:30

I trust the ownership decision. I trust the front

38:32

office. They've never done me wrong in the past.

38:35

They've always created blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

38:37

We did very, very, very well

38:40

with Griffin and whatever. And

38:42

then, uh, he says,

38:44

Jan is a company may

38:47

have been shocked and saddened by

38:49

Griffin's firing, but there's

38:51

no denying that there were some

38:53

jubilation. Bucks players were shown

38:55

dancing on the court together before the opening.

38:59

The vibe seemed happy if

39:02

not celebratory. And

39:04

then, you know, these guys, uh, yeah,

39:06

they're all dancing around and everything. She's

39:09

the least those guys. They

39:11

had no idea what was happening. Uh,

39:14

all right. Another job question, Kevin,

39:17

the wizard's job is the worst

39:19

job to have. That's

39:22

true. I mean, the ghost

39:24

kind of goes without explanation, right? Would

39:29

you like to tell what's the guy's name? I

39:32

apologize. If you're ranking,

39:35

uh, if you're ranking the

39:37

best assets, Brian Keith, sort of sort

39:39

of is the new interim

39:41

head coach, but if you're, if you're ranking

39:44

like best assets in the

39:46

league, Wizards are 30. So

39:48

yes, it's the worst. You

39:50

would say their ass. Yeah.

39:55

The Wizards are ass. They're

39:57

ass. The Wizards. I

40:00

mean shots to what's his name?

40:03

Keith. Brian Keith. Brian Keith. How

40:06

about my man, Wes Hunsell Jr. He

40:08

didn't get fired. He moved up to the

40:10

front office. Again, again, and that probably upgrades

40:13

early. That's amazing. That's

40:15

amazing. I don't know. That

40:19

wizard's job. That's a tough one, bro. Like

40:21

at what point do you think you're winning? Maybe

40:24

they'll hire a Belichick. Somebody

40:27

needs to. There's a question a little bit

40:29

later. We'll get to him. Okay. All right.

40:32

A Bulls Pistons-Lavigne deal would make sense.

40:34

No, that's ridiculous. Why would the Pissons

40:36

trade for Zach Lavigne? Hold on. I'm

40:38

about to tell you. What

40:41

would they do to that for? This is

40:43

reported by the Athletic. It doesn't matter what

40:45

you say. It's ridiculous. The

40:47

Pistons and the Bulls have discussed

40:49

a trade center around Zach Lavigne.

40:51

It's desperate. The

40:53

Bulls would like a

40:55

return of Boyan Bogdanovich and

40:58

one of Kate Cunningham, Isur

41:00

Thompson, Jaden Ivey, or Jaylen

41:03

Duren. See you later. Hanging off the

41:05

phone. No, thank you. Here's

41:07

what's happening. One of two things are happening. Either

41:10

A, this report and interest

41:12

that we've heard from them about like

41:15

Jonte Murray, Siakkum, and some of these

41:17

veteran guys are looking for help. And

41:19

now Zach Lavigne, it's either A, they

41:22

have genuine interests, or B, they're

41:25

just trying to make Cade happy to make it seem

41:27

like they're trying to make adjustments to

41:30

get the team better. I hope it's B. What

41:32

are they doing? Because if it's A, I

41:35

don't know why you'd be going for Zach Lavigne.

41:38

He doesn't help you be like a team that's

41:40

going to make a sustained run. He

41:43

literally did this with Jeremy Grant a couple of

41:45

years ago. And it's like,

41:47

for what? Like why? So

41:49

that was cool. Jeremy Grant came there and averaged

41:51

20 something points a game and they lost every

41:53

night. Fun. And then they moved

41:55

it off of him. And it's like,

41:58

either constantly like talking. talking about guys

42:00

that don't fit a time watch. Like,

42:03

you've already torn it down, they've gotten

42:05

these high draft picks. Now get some

42:07

real vets around these kids, teach them

42:10

how to win, and move

42:12

in this direction where

42:15

you decide which of these guys you want to

42:17

be in your core, and then

42:19

you grow them together. And then by the time they're

42:21

23, 24, 25, they're winning something. Here's

42:25

the thing, and here's the real problem with the Pistons.

42:28

And this is what the Pistons need to sort out. Their

42:31

young guys don't fit. That's

42:33

the real issue with Detroit right now. You've

42:35

got a bunch of non-shooters. Thompson,

42:38

Killian can't shoot threes yet.

42:41

Duran's not a three-point shooter as a big.

42:44

You got these guards that with

42:46

overlapping skills, Ivy's a below average

42:48

shooter. You drafted in four consecutive

42:50

years. Killian, Cade,

42:53

Ivy, Thompson, four young

42:55

guys, and you traded into the first round to

42:57

get Marcus Sasser. So you have five

43:00

guards that all deserve the

43:02

ball and deserve touches and developmental

43:04

opportunities. And

43:06

a lot of those guys can't shoot. You need to

43:08

figure out the mix of young guys

43:10

that you want. So to me, if I'm Detroit,

43:13

I'm not going after veterans.

43:16

I'm trying to flip those young

43:18

players either for one or two things.

43:21

Other young guys currently in the league that you feel it's

43:23

fitting more, or on draft night,

43:26

fitting another rookie specifically that you feel like is

43:28

better suited to fit against the guys you want

43:30

to keep. And by the way, just to put

43:32

it out there, Cade would be one of those

43:34

guys that'd also be open to moving. I

43:37

think Cade's been spectacular. I wouldn't want to

43:39

move him, but he's not an untouchable in

43:41

my eyes if a team's willing to go

43:43

way over the top and make a severe

43:45

overpayment. So I just think that thought is

43:47

important to put out there, that there are

43:49

no untouchables on the Pistons. I'm open to

43:51

anything as long as I'm building young and

43:53

not trying to rush things. It's ridiculous. Stop

43:55

doing this. You never know what their plan

43:57

is. And

44:00

is it something dumb? Okay.

44:05

I take it back. You do know what the plan

44:07

is. Next.

44:13

Dream on green, not being on

44:15

team USA in the pool of

44:17

the team USA is crazy. That's

44:20

ridiculous. What?

44:24

It's a new era. Is

44:27

it? Tell LeBron. He's

44:30

assembling the Avengers for this. I'll

44:33

be serious. If we're having to go in

44:35

there and we're trying to win this for

44:37

the country, you don't want dream on, on

44:39

that team. Maybe. Maybe

44:43

that might be true. That might be

44:45

true. What

44:48

do you want? Like you just don't you want

44:50

him? Yeah.

44:52

What happened to Jaren Jackson Jr. Last year?

44:54

How dare you? This isn't about Jared. Yes,

44:57

it totally is. They play the same roles

44:59

in a team. But seriously,

45:01

like for international basketball, you

45:04

wouldn't want to, you wouldn't want to have green

45:06

in the next on that. That might be true. Green

45:09

Hill was saying his, his suspensions did

45:12

like that. Basically it's a reason it's

45:15

not over completely, but like he's not on

45:17

that list. This

45:19

is an interesting one because it's

45:21

one of those where we do have to

45:23

separate ourselves from whatever our personal thoughts are

45:25

about the guy or the warriors or anything

45:27

else. Like we're all rooting for TV USA.

45:30

So if I'm trying to put together a team that can go

45:32

and win, like,

45:36

man, I do want some dogs on there.

45:38

Why they want some hard nosed guys. They

45:40

Chris Paul still on the list. Dude

45:43

can't even get for the rim anymore. Let's be

45:45

serious. Bam at

45:47

a bio, Jared Allen, Paulo Ben Caro,

45:50

AD and bead. Oh

45:54

yeah. I forgot him beads playing with us. Okay.

45:56

We don't need him. We don't have Jared Jackson

45:58

Jr. I forgot about the. Walker

46:00

Kessler, I don't know. To me, I

46:02

lean. I mean, it might be true.

46:05

The MB thing changes everything. Because I

46:08

forgot about that. It only might be

46:10

true in the sense that like, Draymond

46:12

is such a character. He's liked

46:14

by some of the veterans on that team. But

46:18

I lean towards that's ridiculous. You know, need him to

46:20

win gold. You should be winning gold anyway. I

46:25

forgot about the MB thing. Because

46:29

look, I don't want Jared Allen going in there

46:31

against, you know, you know,

46:33

like you saw the big

46:35

brutes. These teams

46:37

all have these big like

46:39

brutes, like bringing arms

46:42

or hair on their shoulders. And they

46:44

just push you around if you're not,

46:47

if you're not going to be physical. They

46:49

play a physical brand of basketball. And

46:52

they punish you down low. And

46:54

I certainly want some

46:56

size there. A.D. has gotten a

46:58

lot more physical. And so

47:01

that, but so I'm not

47:03

particularly worried about it. But I did find

47:05

it interesting that his, that is something that

47:07

his antics have cost him. Because

47:09

guys do take pride. And this is going

47:11

to be, it's going to be a very

47:13

serious team that they put together for this last

47:15

go round. It's going to be a hell

47:18

of an Olympic team. Yeah. It

47:20

is going to be a great honor to

47:22

be a part of that. Whatever the 12

47:24

guys that end up on that team, it's going to be

47:26

a great honor because it's going to be a who's who.

47:29

Because they're taking it seriously now after what took

47:31

place. And especially after losing

47:34

to Canada the last time

47:36

around. Next one. Luca

47:39

was being soft with getting a fan kicked out

47:41

of the game last night. That's true. That's true.

47:43

Without a doubt. Did you see

47:45

on TNT, he said, when I'm wrong, I'm

47:47

wrong. And I shouldn't have done

47:50

that. I was surprised that he did that

47:52

though. Do you think it was genuine? I

47:55

think he felt the backlash.

47:57

Yeah. had

48:00

to turn it into everybody

48:02

making it about him and Timmy McMahon.

48:05

And that didn't go. It

48:07

basically turned into bro stop.

48:10

But this isn't about negative stuff

48:13

written about you. This is about

48:15

a guy yelling at you in

48:17

the crowd and you wanting to

48:19

get him kicked out of the game. And

48:23

if you were cursing and saying something that got under your

48:25

skin terrible in the first half, then you would have told

48:27

him in the first half to get him out of there.

48:29

He had gone, if he had crossed the line

48:31

then, but he, he was

48:34

frustrated with the game. They were

48:36

losing and God just said

48:38

something rather innocent that pushed him over the

48:40

edge. And so he

48:43

got mad about it and you got

48:46

the God, you know, I guess the guy did

48:48

not, I guess the guy just relocated. He didn't

48:50

actually get kicked out of the game. The guy

48:52

kind of left at his own volition from what

48:55

I gathered today. But yeah,

48:57

I think he probably felt the blowback from that. And

49:00

it was like, all right, I probably shouldn't have

49:02

done that. Right. But

49:05

I get him being frustrated. I've

49:07

been going to games for over 20 years. I don't, I've

49:09

seen it happen maybe three or four times,

49:11

like ever. Usually

49:14

like something deeply

49:16

personal, family related, whatever. I

49:19

saw, I saw Westbrook try to get guys

49:21

removed from the front row of a game

49:23

last year. They wore a Westbrook

49:26

shirt. And

49:30

this is like right after he had been real sensitive

49:32

about it. And he tried to get

49:35

him removed from the game. I

49:39

saw JJ Reddit get a guy kicked out one time.

49:42

I don't know what he said. I

49:45

don't know what he said, but I've

49:47

seen, I've seen, I've seen it happen a

49:49

very few times, very

49:52

few times. I wonder what the JJ

49:54

one was. Usually if

49:56

the trolls like,

49:59

you know, I'm saying the in-person

50:01

told usually drunk God, they're usually

50:03

yelling. And usually if the players

50:05

interact with them, like

50:07

they usually clam up pretty quickly.

50:10

I told you years ago,

50:12

I'll never forget that. My favorite one

50:14

ever was this

50:16

guy was standing up. This is like

50:18

the end of Mark Jackson's career. Mark

50:21

Jackson, you know, the TV guy, uh,

50:24

that everybody knows from TV, uh, obviously a great

50:26

player, one of the greatest system in the history

50:28

of the league and, uh, uh,

50:31

Nick pacer's, et cetera. And then also

50:34

he's been a major part of our

50:36

lives in the broadcast excite for many

50:38

years. He was at the very

50:40

end of his career and drug

50:43

guys stood up with the crowd and he

50:46

just screaming at him, just screaming

50:48

at him. And finally it's like

50:50

real quiet in the arena. And,

50:53

uh, Mark Jackson like it's kind

50:55

of like doing the old man walk, you know,

50:57

a roundabout way to get back to the free

51:00

throw line, whatever. And the guy's like, Mark

51:03

Jackson, where'd you just retire?

51:06

You're too old. You're too

51:08

old. Jackson just retire. Like he's like standing

51:10

up in the crowd. He's the only guy

51:13

standing up and mark Jackson walked straight over

51:15

to like the edge of the crowd. He

51:17

stares at the guy and he

51:19

points at him. He goes, you shut up. The

51:23

guy was like, okay, he's just hung

51:26

back down in his seat. But it was like

51:29

a man had just told this guy,

51:31

like he acknowledged him. He told him

51:33

to shut up and the guy was like, okay, all

51:36

right. This is the most

51:38

powerful thing I've ever seen. And that

51:40

totally disarms the guy most of the

51:42

time. And I will give Luke a credit.

51:45

When fans started jumping on him, when I

51:47

saw him in person this year, he

51:49

was, he would joke back with

51:51

them. Like, or he

51:53

would, he would jive back with them. I

51:56

just think, you know, that whole, that

51:58

whole son's mabs thing. some real

52:00

heat now. I love it. That

52:03

was fun last night when it

52:05

felt like the Suns and

52:07

the Mavs have got some real heat and

52:10

Chet and Wimpy have some real

52:13

rivalry potential with these

52:15

teams. Well

52:18

and now we got that Bucks

52:20

Pacers thing on that

52:22

other side, right? Where? Who

52:26

was it? Was it Milly Beasley that was saying

52:29

they don't want to see us in the playoffs or whatever? I

52:31

mean they got beat in 4-0.

52:33

I do wonder how

52:35

much of the Pacers winning

52:38

those games that we had talked about. I

52:42

wonder if the Bucks weren't 0-4 against the

52:44

Pacers if the Griffin things happened. And I

52:46

know that was not like one of the

52:48

most recent losses but I just think it

52:51

like okay you saw that same team

52:53

four times and like it just

52:55

did not instill confidence that

52:57

you were going to be able to get that done, right? And

53:00

that's the Pacers. It's like all right we gotta play

53:03

teams better than them and

53:05

they just worked us. Indiana has

53:07

been really good against

53:09

the top teams of the East. I know. They

53:12

beat Philly tonight. They've had

53:14

competitive games everybody up top. All

53:17

right last one Kevin. Bill

53:21

Belichick is a Tom Brady creation. No wonder

53:23

nobody's hiring him. That's ridiculous. He's

53:29

a defensive mastermind. He

53:32

is an innovator of system

53:34

and pushing the limits. Pushing

53:38

the limit. In the early 2000s going from

53:40

4-3 defense to 3-4 is bringing back nose

53:49

tackle. Belichick

53:51

is one of the greatest coaches of

53:53

all time. The decisions that he made

53:55

not calling the timeout against the Seahawks

53:57

and the Super Bowl letting the clock

53:59

run. sensing pressure on the opposing

54:02

sideline, sensing panic. He

54:04

always had his finger on the pulse. He

54:07

was an excellent head coach. He made

54:09

a difficult decision in

54:12

the front office, letting go of star players,

54:14

whether it was lawyer, more lawyer, Richard Seymour

54:16

back in the day, when big paydays were

54:19

coming and having replacements ready to go, he's,

54:21

he's a magnificent coach. He always

54:24

has been, always has been. Bill

54:27

Belichick's record without Tom Brady is 83

54:29

and 101. I'm

54:32

aware. Got to have a quarterback,

54:35

got to have a quarterback. And

54:37

that's where he's failed in recent years. Since

54:40

his drafting has fallen off a cliff, he

54:42

has not been able to find offensive weapons. It's one

54:44

of the reasons why Tom Brady left for the Bucks.

54:47

He has not drafted well at finding a

54:49

replacement quarterback. So, I mean, here

54:51

you are. Brady going and

54:53

winning hurt him. It did. It

54:56

hurt the perception. I mean, we'll see if, we'll

54:58

see if Belichick can go win without Brady. So

55:01

he's not, he's not going to have a job. He's going to be

55:03

working for the ringers. He might be. I'd

55:05

love that. Get a Belichick saving podcast. But I'd be

55:07

in favor, do that for a year and then go

55:09

back for coaching and get Shula's record.

55:12

He's old though. He should, I mean, like, you don't know how many

55:15

years you got. He's going to, if you want

55:17

Shula's record, it might have to be this year.

55:20

By, by the way, I say, I say all this. I'd

55:22

have given anything for the Cowboys to get rid of

55:24

McCarthy and Tyron,

55:27

but it is very Popovich ask

55:29

in that sense. You remember when

55:32

I used to try to get on Chase Arana's

55:34

skin, I used to say, he's just a Tim

55:36

Duncan creation. Yeah. Like go look at what

55:38

he's done. Like, is it him or

55:40

is it Tim Duncan, bro? So

55:42

is it him or is it Tom Brady, bro?

55:46

Which is it? The truth is, it's both. Is

55:49

it Tom Brady went to

55:51

Tampa and won. Yeah, but it is

55:53

false because in the early 2000s, Tom

55:55

Brady didn't take both for Tampa to

55:57

win. He took one. And

56:00

I'm saying in the early 2000s, Tom Brady

56:02

was more of a game manager. He

56:04

was not, he was, he, he fulfilled

56:07

his role. He was like a star in his

56:09

role, but he was not the dynamic thrower

56:11

that he became in the mid 2000s in 2007. In

56:15

the early 2000s, Belichick built those

56:17

defenses and constructed those game plans

56:20

to slow down Peyton Manning, to,

56:22

to, to contain a Ladini and

56:24

Tomlinson in the postseason. He

56:27

constructed those game plans on defense. And

56:29

so I think it's always been collaborative

56:32

between those two and both of them

56:34

deserve immense credit. It's not Belichick or

56:36

Brady. It's the both of them. It's

56:39

Brady and Belichick together. And if you've

56:41

got to pick one, of course, Belichick,

56:43

Belichick wasn't eating fresh herbs from his

56:46

garden and managing his inflammation. Okay. But,

56:48

but if you're picking one, I will,

56:50

I will always pick the players over

56:53

the coach, always, always,

56:55

I always will. I think it's always

56:57

the players who deserve credit above all

56:59

else, but the coach does matter a

57:01

lot, but it's, it's always, I

57:03

can't believe Atlanta didn't hire him. And I saw

57:05

where that means. Yeah.

57:08

The GM one, whatever. And it's like, Oh, come

57:10

on. And then the target, you dumb ass.

57:15

Our boss has been written. Desmond

57:17

Ritter's our quarterback. I don't want to hear about your, you

57:21

got Bijon Robinson, the cowpits. Washington

57:24

and Seattle, the two teams, and they're not

57:26

hiring until next week. Reports. So has

57:29

Belichick even been interviewed or has there been

57:31

any connection? No, no, neither connection with those.

57:33

I think, I think the, uh, Washington,

57:36

that's the one that, uh, Golden

57:39

State Warriors guy, Bob Myers, gonna make the

57:41

hire, right? Is

57:43

there, I think, I think Seattle is going to

57:46

be the Cowboys defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn. He used

57:48

to be their defensive coordinator during the Legion of

57:50

Boom. Is there any other team that could fire

57:52

their coach? Uh,

57:55

fire. I mean, certainly neither

57:57

surprise decision, you know, out of nowhere. They

58:00

fire and hire Bela check. It wouldn't be any

58:02

of the last four, obviously, that are in the

58:04

championship. We, you know, it

58:06

feels like you're kind of either given the, you've

58:08

either given the vote of confidence or you've bailed

58:10

on it by now, I think what's kind of

58:12

done is done. I

58:15

wonder how much of it is Bela check saying no to

58:17

the falcons gig is like, is he the one

58:20

passing on the opportunity to go there? No, it's

58:22

power bro. That's it.

58:25

So if you want to say that, say no, but

58:29

most of these places are

58:32

not going to let you have the power that

58:34

crap. Yeah. They want you

58:36

to coach the football team and they want to

58:38

still have their guys in power. So the power

58:40

to Bela check gained over the years and the

58:42

Patriots. But like what I'm saying is of

58:45

course the teams are going to spin it as, Oh, he

58:48

didn't, he didn't like, we want to give him the

58:50

power. We like our guys. What's

58:52

Bela checks? Actual reasoning. Is he actually saying,

58:54

you know what? I don't, I

58:56

don't like the situation here. I'm going to wait for a

58:59

better opportunity. He interviewed twice

59:01

and they chose somebody else. They chose

59:03

somebody they could tell what to do.

59:07

That is what football,

59:09

football, basketball, baseball, all

59:12

these front offices, and it's not,

59:16

it's not a bad

59:18

thing, but they

59:20

want it to be quote collaborative. Yeah.

59:22

And Bela check is, is, is a

59:24

dictator more. So they're not going to

59:26

be, yeah, he ain't collaborating with you.

59:28

What the hell do you know? I'm

59:31

still Bela check. Like

59:33

these guys are not collaborating with

59:35

you. Like they want to run it. They

59:38

want to run it. And, and that was what he

59:41

was allowed to do. It was a very fascinating. I read

59:43

a book about it years ago where that

59:45

was as a

59:47

young owner, Bob Kraft

59:50

understood where

59:52

his mistake was. You know, the famous, uh,

59:56

Bill Parcells, you think that

59:59

if they make cook the meal, they let you

1:00:02

choose the groceries. And

1:00:04

that was like a big thing. In

1:00:06

memory, he kept calling Terry Glenn a girl

1:00:08

or whatever. We drafted this girl. I thought,

1:00:11

it's terrible. It's all in bed. It was

1:00:13

a different world back then. But he,

1:00:16

you know, he had enough. And Bob

1:00:19

Kraft wanted his say in this stuff and the other

1:00:21

guys wanted their say in this stuff. And

1:00:23

then Bob Kraft realized like, I don't

1:00:25

know enough about football. That's

1:00:28

after the Pete Carroll thing. I

1:00:30

don't know enough about football and

1:00:32

I'm going to get out of football and I'm going to turn it

1:00:34

over to a guy that this is what he does.

1:00:37

And he did. And that's why he

1:00:39

became one of the greatest owners ever because he

1:00:41

got out of the way and he let the

1:00:43

football guys do the football stuff. You

1:00:47

know, and I

1:00:49

think that that is very

1:00:51

difficult to find now. I

1:00:54

listened to these owners during

1:00:56

these. This is not an NFL pod, but

1:00:58

I listened to these owners. I listened to

1:01:00

that guy in Carolina and I'm like, Oh

1:01:02

God, you got no frigging chance. I

1:01:04

listened to the girl in the

1:01:06

Titans that got rid of Rabel and

1:01:09

now is like move ran Carthon is moving.

1:01:11

I'm like, Oh, you got no

1:01:13

chance. Like they're just, you

1:01:15

know, new owners

1:01:17

that want to be really involved.

1:01:19

And you

1:01:22

know, I get it. If I bought a

1:01:24

team, I'd want to, I think I'd know what I was

1:01:26

doing too. Can I say one more

1:01:28

thing about Belichick? One thing he doesn't get enough credit

1:01:30

for ever. Bledsoe

1:01:32

gets knocked out by Mo Lewis and

1:01:36

he turned Tom Brady, his second

1:01:38

year quarterback instead of the veteran

1:01:40

backup Damon Huard. That's

1:01:42

right. He went with the second year guy with

1:01:44

no experience over Huard. He

1:01:47

chose Brady. Come on.

1:01:49

It's true. I mean, it's true. Brady

1:01:52

was rewarded. Belichick, one of the

1:01:54

things he always did. I went

1:01:56

to like every Patriots training camp

1:01:59

back. 2011,

1:02:01

2012, I forget the year exactly, maybe 2013. Whatever

1:02:04

year it was, it began to shift from

1:02:06

West Walker to Julian Edelman. And

1:02:09

I thought, me and my friend Bill, we went to every

1:02:11

training camp together, not Bill Simmons, my friend Bill, who I've

1:02:13

known since high school. And

1:02:15

we thought Edelman was awesome. We were like,

1:02:17

this guy is popping. He's

1:02:19

gonna blossom. Belichick rewarded

1:02:22

him the starting slot receiver position

1:02:24

over West Walker. In Patriots Media locally,

1:02:26

it was like, this is a disgrace.

1:02:28

What's Belichick doing? Belichick did what he

1:02:30

always did and rewarded the better performer.

1:02:32

That's what Tom Brady always talked about.

1:02:34

I got to look over my shoulder

1:02:36

and outperform the guys behind me because

1:02:38

they're gonna get the playing time. They're

1:02:41

gonna get the starting role. And

1:02:43

that's what happened that year. He always

1:02:45

instilled that type of mentality where you've

1:02:48

gotta be paranoid about the guy behind

1:02:50

you who's working harder than you, trying

1:02:52

to take that job. Brady took the

1:02:54

backup gig from Heward. He was rewarded, just

1:02:56

like Edelman took it from Welker. He was

1:02:58

rewarded until he got hurt that year. But

1:03:01

then he eventually did become the guy after

1:03:03

following season. So I think with Belichick, that's

1:03:05

one of the things, it's that culture that

1:03:08

he built of hard work

1:03:10

and being rewarded for that

1:03:12

and for getting better as a player. So

1:03:15

I think that's... I never, ever hear

1:03:17

that mentioned. The Mo Lewis hit on Bledsoe

1:03:19

and then going to second year Tom Brady

1:03:21

with no experience. That deserves a lot

1:03:23

of credit too. I

1:03:26

had no idea that we

1:03:28

would end up

1:03:30

talking so much football at the end of

1:03:33

this pod. I'm glad that we did. Felt

1:03:35

good. By the way,

1:03:37

just to close out at the

1:03:39

very end of the show, Bill

1:03:42

Russell went to the most

1:03:44

finals with 12. Following

1:03:47

Bill Russell on the list

1:03:50

is his teammate Sam Jones, who

1:03:52

appeared in 11 NBA finals,

1:03:56

And LeBron James and Kareem

1:03:58

Abdul-Jabbar. Have been to

1:04:00

Ten know the burger. Sore. On

1:04:03

Air or on your most

1:04:05

finals appearances. About

1:04:08

I'll even championship across

1:04:10

forces. Power. Not

1:04:12

too many either. Nine Finals:

1:04:14

Jerry West. Tommy

1:04:17

Heinz and. Magic.

1:04:19

Johnson. And.

1:04:22

The norms that are Brady has ten

1:04:24

Super Bowl appearances. From.

1:04:28

Is anybody with ten World Series appearances.

1:04:31

A little Not Yogi Horner reference. Just.

1:04:34

For reference, even though you said it was ridiculous

1:04:36

at the beginning. There are more

1:04:38

players that have been to ten finals. Then

1:04:41

I had twenty all star games. I

1:04:44

Kissed by your director The nineteen sixties

1:04:47

with mean The celtics. What? Would

1:04:49

like to. The world existed in a few sixty.

1:04:51

Kevin I'm far. As

1:04:56

the basketball game and editor boss

1:04:58

the guys. Be st

1:05:01

he should be saved yourself. The

1:05:03

kids grew up in Brockton, Mass fine.

1:05:05

I knew that I knew their Celtics

1:05:08

on the list obviously. Course.

1:05:10

Lamar. This is littered with celtics. Bill

1:05:13

Russell and say of Jones You. Sam.

1:05:15

Jones has been more final. The Le Bron James

1:05:17

okay. Leave

1:05:21

me alone Le Bron Fans of Just Kidding?

1:05:25

But he has You can look it

1:05:27

up. Such a set of Kevin it

1:05:29

is always a pleasure. They get our

1:05:31

executive producer Jesse Lopez's always and I

1:05:33

thought he had agree with that. Must

1:05:49

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