6-2-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Visit Max.com. The NBA Finals are off and running. And speaking of running, when the Denver Nuggets are aggressive, and they push the tempo, and they do fly around, and they're allowing Nicole Jokic to post up at the high post, or even higher than that, up near the three-point line, and they're running cutters, and they're flashing into the lane, boy, he doesn't even have to score to impact the game if the rest of the Nuggets are shooting and scoring the way that they did last night. Now, certainly, we've got the pick and roll, and he and Jomel Murray, Jokic and Murray, they have so many different wrinkles out of the pick and roll. Sometimes it's a pick and run a 360 around the defender by Jomel Murray.

There's all kinds of fun ways that they have learned how to exploit some matchups. And we saw also, I think, some fatigue from the Miami Heat. There's a reason why a guy who didn't play the entire Eastern Conference Finals, Gabe Vincent, and a guy who barely played at all in these playoffs, especially last round in Haywood Highsmith, that those guys had the best scoring nights, other than Bam Adebayo, who was due.

But Jimmy Butler, not shooting a ton, not as aggressive as we normally see him. And then Caleb Martin and Max Struth, they just look exhausted. Okay, maybe exhausted is a little bit too strong. They look tired to me.

There could be both emotional and mental fatigue, as well as the physical fatigue. This is what happens when you get to the final hour of live radio. We had a last hour of buzzing incident.

We don't know what happened. I was talking all of a sudden. Did you leave it in the podcast for people to enjoy? Should I? I mean, you're the producer of the show. I haven't got to that hour yet, but I'll see how it sounds. Yeah, okay.

I mean, if you think it would be entertaining. But that was not my fault. No, I still don't really know what happened there. Yeah, we're not exactly sure what happened. And then we were back on the air. I unplugged the microphone, plugged it back in, and whoa.

I saw a comment, someone on our Twitter was like, did you try unplugging it and plugging it back in? Yeah, that's always the key, right? Anyway, I'll try not to make up more words this hour. Our final hour of the workweek.

Happy Friday. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence and Roger Federer, I'll explain here in a second, here on CBS Sports Radio. We're asking you to find us on Twitter, After Hours, CBS. We've seen a ton of social media traffic this wheel. I credit the whale. I mean, I credit the whale video.

That's where it all started. And you all have just decided we're super cool because we put whale videos out there and we gauge whether or not they're real or AI. By the way, general consensus, absolutely real. Most people believe it's real. Not everybody. Some of you refuse to be duped.

If there's a chance you could be duped, some of you refuse. But for the most part, we agree that the whale video is real. Then we talked about best sports months on the calendar and you ranked them. Last night, it was yesterday morning, depending upon when you listen, it was those teams, those franchises, those fan bases that can say, hey, we got next.

Who needs a championship next? Oh, plus the whole ship or chip thing. We're still getting comments about that. You guys are cracking us up how philosophical and logical you are about it. Some of you are emotional. Others of you are actually trying to analyze whether it's ship or chip. And then some of you are completely oblivious, which I think those are my kind of people. Tonight, well, it's a completely different topic.

But we're getting just as much traffic and you all are just as goofy. So we're glad you're with us this week as we transition from the end of May now into June and we get ready to crown the champions of both hoops and hockey. The Denver Nuggets waited 47 years, 47 years to host their first NBA Finals game, and they had been off for nine days. I think they came out with great energy. I liked what I saw from them, not to mention it wasn't Jokic who was doing the scoring. It was Jamal Murray. It was Aaron Gordon who was going to the hoop.

We saw a bunch of different guys pitch in. Michael Porter, so athletic, guy can leap out of a building. And by Jokic moving away from the hoop, he's drawing the defensive bam out of bio with him. Because of course you have to guard him away from the hoop. He'll shoot a three. He'll shoot from anywhere on the court or he will drive past you in that awkward gangly way that he does.

It's just it's effective. He's a load. So you draw him away from the hoop and then bam out of bio isn't underneath serving as a shot blocker or whoever his defender is at the time. Definitely Miami is undersized when it comes to Jokic. I would say most teams have a mismatch problem when it comes to Jokic. But there are some other long, long lanky guys. Porter is one of those, right? Aaron Gordon one of those.

Bruce Brown then comes off the bench and brings athleticism and a commitment to defense. So they're a tough out for anybody. But when you consider that Miami maybe had been drained from the Boston series that they allowed to go seven. And then had to turn around and travel and try to get their footing.

We're not going to mention the A word because no one wants to hear about it. But there is sometimes a challenge going from one series right into another. And the Nuggets have been sitting around waiting.

So I think you could see how they had tired legs, especially with some of their regular guys who were logging big time minutes. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Again on Facebook or on Twitter. Good to hear from you. Happy Fri-day to you.

Happy Fri-yay if that's what you prefer. Right away you could see the game plan for Denver. Again to pull Jokic away from the hoop. He didn't even take a shot until late in the first quarter. Let other guys get inside, score, use their athleticism. And I kind of like the idea of Jokic being a decoy.

Although eventually he is going to find a groove as well. I mean this guy now has nine triple doubles in the postseason. I'd have to confirm this but I did see the stat on social. There are only 12 triple doubles total in the NBA playoffs. And he has nine of them.

So he can hurt you a variety of ways. Jokic driving a dish over to Jamal Murray. Murray goes through the lane, lost the basketball, got it back. Put it up in and a foul as well.

There you go. 20 point for Murray. Murray dribbles over to the Jokic side. Jokic and Duncan Robinson mixing it up. Three pointers up and in by Bruce Brown.

Timeout call by Spolstra. 2.51 left in the corner. Denver leads it by 19. Jokic has it inside the arc. Back behind him over to Brown. A little floater up and in for Bruce.

Nuggets lead it by 24. Kick out over to Robinson. He gets triple-teamed. Throws out of it. Three-pointers truce.

That one's no good. Rebound tipped and grabbed by Christian Brown and there's the horn. And the Denver Nuggets have a 21 point lead through three quarters of play. And ball arena to its feet.

Jason Kosmicke on Denver Nuggets radio. Yeah, the Nuggets did put together a nice third quarter and they were able to pad that lead to the point where, you know, you're hearing the term blowout on TV and radio. Except what do we know about the heat? They could be dog tired. They could be playing like total dog poo. And they always seem to make a run late. Unless, of course, the starters are pulled out.

Like she was at game five in Boston maybe where the starters didn't play the fourth quarter. But the point is, they operate at their best. Now I'm not telling you they win every time. But they operate at their best when they have no other option. When they're out of options. They seem to find that tenacity and dig down deep. That's why they have, what is it, eight now double-digit comebacks in the playoffs.

This is who they are. And so, of course, we were going to see them make a run in the fourth quarter. Jimmy has the rock outside the right block. Ward in front.

Gets up top. Moves it to Caleb for three. He got it. His first make of the game in seven tries. Lowry for three and he gets one to go. Seventh make for Miami in 26 tries. His first make in three tries from downtown. He has five points. It just matters about time and score.

Is there enough time and enough execution? To make this a game. Lowry to Duncan. Right side of the arc. Back out top to Lowry.

Uses a left screen. He's got room for a three. He made the three. Kyle Lowry now three of five from downtown.

He has eleven. It's a ten-point game. That's Jason Jackson on Heat Radio. And by the way, for both Jason and the other Jason. For both Jason's who are calling these NBA Finals for their respective teams. It is their first time.

At least with these teams obviously. So congratulations to them. Super cool for them to have the honor.

I know for me as a play-by-play announcer that would be awesome. An 11-0 run. Pulls the Heat within single digits there in the fourth quarter. Again, not telling you they're going to win every time. In this case, they put themselves in too deep a hole. But this is who they are.

This is the Heat culture. They tend to play better when they're chasing. Not when they're being chased. And they also play better under pressure.

It's not a great quality to have. But also I think consider the fact that a lot of their shots were not dropping early. Wide open shots.

Because of what they've just come through. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Ultimately, 9 was as close as they got. The Nuggets slammed the door. Take Game 1. Nikola Jokic with 27 points, 14 assists, and 10 rebounds.

And yeah, there's a lot of great stuff out there. Aaron Gordon with 16 points. Michael Porter with a double-double.

Bruce Brown with the great defense and 10 off the bench. But Mike Malone? Yeah, this guy's got to the point now where he expects championship level basketball. And I've said before, certainly there is something to be said about unrealistic expectations. But for the most part, when you have a team that's playing at such a high level. When you have a team that is capable and that is a contender. A coach who's never satisfied to me is actually an indication of how much he or she believes in that team.

Michael Malone believes that this Denver Nuggets team is poised to be a champion. Going back to 2020, when the pieces started to fall into place. Then they were delayed because of the injury to Jamal Murray. But they've continued to work. They've continued to grow as a team. He's continued to grow as a coach.

And because he has sky-high expectations and believes in them so much. He's not going to be satisfied by them winning when they allow the heat back into it in the fourth quarter. We're up 1-0, that's great. But we have to close games out. We're up 21 to start that fourth quarter.

And they open up with a quick 8-0 run. Turnover, layup. We miss a few open shots against the zone. Give up some threes. So in the finals, man, you can't pick and choose when you want to play.

We've got to play much closer to 48 minutes. That's why they're great and they're really intelligent. Everybody knows what they're doing. That's a hard team to beat because they keep playing the same way the whole game. And they're really, really smart about how they're doing it.

They have a big goal in mind. You can't dwell on the negative. If they're playing well, you've got to just do better and be in a better mind state to do it. You can't hang your head every time out. We did a good job after time.

I was just coming in locked in. No matter what they do, just executing and playing the way we play. Jamal Murray was hot out of the gate, which is what he's done lately. He's playing some great basketball right now. And it was an overwhelming offensive onslaught by the Nuggets against the Heat.

The Heat will play that tenacious defense, but they've got to have the offense to match. And they just didn't. But they're not going to go away. They're not going to lay down.

That's just not who they are. And everybody knows it. Our boy, Aaron Gordon. I shouldn't say that.

I love Aaron Gordon because he reminds me of me. First of all, he's got a tude. He's aggressive. He's blunt. He's in your face. He attacks every task on the basketball court.

Have you noticed? Nothing without his entire heart and soul and emphasis with authority. I mean, this guy takes basketball personally, which is kind of like me.

I don't do anything halfway. So I identify with Aaron Gordon. He's a great pickup and a great addition because he brings a tude. A lot like a Bruce Brown.

And I know I've said this before, but if you didn't catch it, this is a loose comparison. But Bruce Brown is like the Draymond Green of the Denver Nuggets in terms of the attitude and the tenacity. And Gordon brings some of that edge and that intensity as well. So yeah, they don't expect the Heat to just lay down, which is why it's really impressive to see how so many different guys get into the action.

It's not going to be an easy series by any means. That team is really, really good. And they don't quit. That's the biggest thing about them. They're resilient.

And you saw in that fourth quarter, there was no quit in them. So we know we're going to have to battle for the rest of the series. It was great. Everybody was on the string.

Everybody knew what we were supposed to be doing. Huge shout out to Mike. I've seen a few things of him not being a great defender, but he was great for us tonight, challenging at the rim, getting blocks, and rebounding. So kudos to him.

Yeah. Bruce Brown, who has ten off the bench but always takes pride in defense, he shouts out Mike, meaning Michael Porter, who had the double-double with 13 boards. And I swear, every time I looked, Porter was either grabbing a ball out of the rim, or out of the cylinder, excuse me, or he was sky-in for some defense.

I mean, just so athletic. A lot, like I say, a bam out of bio, who also had a big game last night for the first time in a while, but just not enough from the rest of the heat, I should say. So a big celebration in Denver, and the Nuggets are still unbeaten at home in the playoffs. They trailed for all of 24 seconds last night. I don't necessarily think that's indicative of what we're going to see moving forward, but remember, Miami had won every other series opener on the road to this point until Denver. You know, I reminded our group, if they didn't know, that Miami went into Milwaukee and won Game 1. They went into the Garden in New York City and won Game 1.

They won Game 1 up in Boston, so we did not want them coming in here, taking control of the series on our court. Proud of our guys for going out there and getting the win. Michael Porter, double-double. Jamal Murray, double-double.

Nicola, triple-double. I felt Aaron Gordon's play on both ends of the floor in that first half really set the tone, and I thought Bruce was really good off the bench. You know, so this was everybody stepping up, doing their job, but knowing that we can all be a lot better come Sunday. Had a chance to catch up with Scott Hastings, former NBA big man, and, well, I don't know if you could call him a bad boy, but he was part of the Detroit Pistons, the bad boys when they won their second title of the back-to-back, so late 80s, early 90s, and he's great stories. We actually had him on going back to 2020 when the Michael Jordan Last Dance documentary was airing on ESPN, right, when everything else was shut down, and he had such great insight as someone who played in that era and who played against Michael. Anyway, he finished his career with the Nuggets, and he's now on Altitude TV, and it was really cool to hear his perspective on what it means to finally host an NBA Finals game, what these guys have been saying, so he's the one that interviewed Aaron Gordon, that clip that we played for you from Altitude TV, but also the arc that they have taken, the route they've taken to build this team and where it started and how they got to this point, and he also gives great insight on Jokic as well. There's still people out there calling him Jokic, but I don't know if that's intentional. It's either willful ignorance or it's intentionally being obtuse, but he explains, again, as a former NBA center himself, why Jokic is such a load and why he's so good, and he kind of gives you some of the insight.

It's not just what you see, right? There's other parts to, he calls him Joker, to Joker's game, but I also asked him about waiting around, right, and the fact that they had to sit week plus to wait for this matchup. Of course, they could watch what was happening in the Eastern Conference Finals, but it was interesting to hear Jokic after the game admit he actually was just chomping at the bit to get back on the court. To be honest, I couldn't wait to start just because when the game started, it felt normal. Everything else didn't feel normal. The whole media didn't last yesterday or the day before.

I think people are making something bigger than it is, and when the game started, I felt really comfortable. It's always the media. He's taking a page out of Michael Malone's book, The Day in Media, all the time.

Welcome to the dark side, baby. Okay, before we take our break, this is why we're asking you about Roger Federer, well, while we're bringing up Roger Federer as our example. He is partnering with Waze. He's one of the latest voices for the Waze driving app, the Waze Directions Act.

Hello, it's Roger here. Come behind the scenes as we've just been shooting everything for Waze, all the different voices, English, French, and German. So I'm going to try to get you from A to B as safely as possible, as quickly as possible. I hope you enjoy it. Make sure you pick my voice and we'll have a good time doing it together as partners.

Hazard reported ahead. That's so sharp. See you next time. See you next time. See you next time.

See you next time. I need to get a Waze app just so that I can try all these different voices. For me, it's Yoda because I feel as though he would keep me calm and I would be flowing in the force. Even as I'm getting stressed out, my heart rate is going up in crazy traffic. Some of you have got voices that I think would stress me out far more, but would be highly entertaining.

So, yes, send your responses. If you could have anyone give you directions from the world of sports or the world of entertainment, who would it be? So far, very few women.

Why are you in there giggling away? I just saw someone answer with Harry Carey. Very few women, although a couple people have mentioned me, which I think is fun.

We have so much fun with it because I drive it like I stole it. So I'd be, you know, let's go. I did see a Lucille Ball in there. Lucille Ball? Yeah. I guess if she was making jokes, that would be fun.

I don't know. I think that one would get, I don't know, a little annoying on a long drive or a traffic drive. Well, you could change the voice then.

I could. ALawRadio on Twitter, on our Facebook page, too. You all are cracking me up. It's a funny Friday here on After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Murray gets a pick from KCP, lobs it in the paint to Jokic, a little floater up and in. Let's do that.

Thank you. 94 to 82 is the score. Denver leads it by 12. Gordon has it. Back over to Jamal. Now Jokic in the paint. Kick out over to Casey who attacks to the nail. Jumper. Good.

Big bucket there, man. AlawRadio has it. He's at the elbow guarded by Nikola Jokic.

He gets to the dotted line. Jump shot no good. Rebound joker. And there's a triple-double from Nikola Jokic, the second player in NBA history to debut in the NBA finals with a triple-double.

Jason Kidd, the only other one to do that. Definitely comfortable with the shots we took. You know, I feel like we had a lot of open shots tonight. Ball just didn't go in. That's part of the game, but I feel like our shooters have bounced back.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Bam Adebayo says, hey, we got the shots. They just weren't dropping. Well, he had the game that we've been waiting for. Didn't have a great offensive game. Maybe the last four against the Celtics, even when they won in game seven. But 26 points, 13 rebounds and five assists for Bam. Pretty much he was the highlight. Other than Heywood Highsmith, who had 18 points off the bench and shot the best. Why? Because he had fresh legs.

That's why. Jimmy Butler, 13 points. And he knows the offense really couldn't get into much of a rhythm. We shot a lot of jump shots myself, probably leading that pack, instead of putting pressure on the rim, getting layups, getting to the free throw line. You know, when you look at it during the game, they all look like the right shots. And I'm not saying that we can't, as a team, make those. But got to get more layups, got to get more free throws. And whenever you miss and don't get back, the game gets out of hand kind of quickly. We gave up too many layups, which we also can't have happen.

But that's it as a whole. We got to attack the rim a lot more, myself included. They're a force offensively. They got one of the best passes in the league that gets everybody involved. I think we had a much better second half, so we adjusted well. And that's going to be the name of the game right now is, you know, just adjusting what they do. They're a different, unique type of style team. And I think we'll be a much better game too. So Caleb Martin on Valley Sports South said, Hey, we figured some things out.

Gabe Vincent said the same thing. You know what that reminded me of? The Lakers. Remember after game one, they made a, they kind of made a push toward the end of game one. In the second half, they had switched up their defense.

So, I mean, this is getting in the weeds. But Anthony Davis was no longer guarding Jokic. Instead, he was on the back line and they felt like that was a formula they could use moving forward. Huh. I mean, maybe it helped a little, but they still got swept in four games. And Mike Malone was so ticked that people were talking about the adjustments the Lakers made instead of the fact that they had just won the first game of the Western Conference Finals. So let's not make that mistake again.

You put that in your pipe, you smoke it. Exactly. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Maybe they are going to make adjustments. There's a reason why the Heat have survived at this point. And we know that Eric Spolstra and the veterans he's got on his team, they are capable of doing that. But a lot of it will come down to which offensive team we see moving forward.

This has been the M.O. of the Heat. Yes, they're tenacious. They play great defense. They fight you. They will fight you.

They push you. But they've also been so inconsistent with their offense. Throughout the regular season, the number one reason why they barely made the playoffs, the number one reason why they scuffled for most of the regular season is because their offense, specifically their shooting percentage, was among the worst in the league. They were terrible from three-point land.

And what did we see last night? And because they were settling for too many jump shots and not going to the rim, well, that's why they only got two free throws. I mean, that was clear that they weren't forcing the issue last night. So, yeah, it's not the fault of Caleb Martin and Max Truce, but they were a combined one for 17 from the field.

So tough there, to be sure. We had a couple of interesting thoughts from Adam Silver as the commissioner doing his state of the state in the NBA before the finals tipped off, including the ruling for Ja Morant and when we could hear the decision. He also talked about the veteran coaches getting fired after kind of a short period of time, and even if they've won championships, they're out a couple years later. So that was interesting. Speaking of that, Nick Nurse has landed in Philadelphia, and he actually would like James Harden to return. He's got a pitch for him. And then Brad Stevens answers the question of whether or not Jalen Brown should be given a new contract, should be brought back to Boston. So a little bit of that, but we're going to get to your answers because a lot of them are really funny.

Ricky wants to hear his directions from Bruce Buffer. Sam says, Macho Man Randy Savage is a need for those you don't like, Yoko Ono. Actually, I've seen a few women now, which makes me happy, but I'm not sure this classifies because she's a cartoon. Jessica Rabbit. Remember Jessica Rabbit? What was that from?

What was that from? Is she from How to Frame Roger Rabbit? Yes. Was she? I don't know. That's a little before my time. Why do I not remember what Jessica Rabbit was from?

I'll have to Google it. Todd says Bugs Bunny, which is funny. And then Lee says, for me, I got to have Sofia Vergara giving me directions. He says, I want over the top Sofia that was on Modern Family.

It would be hilarious. Who? Who would you like to give you directions on the Waze app in light of Roger Federer becoming their newest celebrity voice?

Either on Twitter, A Law Radio or on our Facebook page. I do appreciate the attempt to send me a few female voices, but we'll get to more of these straight ahead because it's a funky, funky, funny Freaky Friday. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Hey, Doug. Are you planning to be the coach of the team next year? Yeah.

I think I got two years left. Given the tenor of what you've seen happen in the last two or three days where coaches of the year, guys with titles. Yeah, no one's safe in our business, you know, and I get that.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Turned out to be prophetic words from Doc Rivers. It wasn't long after that he was fired as the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, only to be replaced by another head coach who would want a championship who was also fired.

And that would be Nick Nurse introduced on Thursday in Philadelphia as the new head coach of the Sixers. It was ten great years in Toronto. Masai Ujiri and Larry Tannenbaum, Bobby Webster, everybody, they treated me really well there. It was a fascinating city, fascinating country. Lots of good players, et cetera.

So very, very grateful for those ten years for sure. And saying that, I am super excited to be here. This is a very good team, first of all.

The tradition of the city as a sporting city and of this organization is amazing. And I'm honored and humbled and excited to be the new head coach of the 76ers. Now, according to the reports, he did speak to Joel Embiid during the interview process, but not James Harden. What about James Harden? Nick Nurse actually said he's going to pitch him with winning. That's how you get him to return. James Harden's a great player.

That didn't answer the question. Well, I would say this is that James has a decision to make and I'd be very happy if he came back. We're going to pitch him with winning.

Winning to the second round and then all bets are off. I don't think he likes that. I don't think that's his thing.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. I know James tends to be the punchline of many of my NBA jokes, especially when it comes to missing threes. Adam Silver was asked about whether or not he's concerned that there are a lot of experienced, even championship coaches who are getting fired and whether or not it's too high of a standard to meet in the league. Now, remember, for the sake of perspective, he works for the owners.

OK, he's not autonomous. He's essentially the CEO of the NBA and the NBA is made up of the owners. So he represents the owners, which means he can't be up there lambasting owners for firing their coaches. No, the owners, they are allowed to do what they want with their franchises. And Adam Silver speaks for them.

I wouldn't say it's concern because when you look at the numbers, it's actually not that aberrational. You've been doing this a long time to David that there is that, you know, revolving door of coaches. What's interesting is some of those same championship coaches, of course, have already been hired on other teams.

So it's a marketplace. But again, I think that's something that ultimately has to be controlled by the teams. I am, though, just personally because I've been at this a long time and they're personal friends. And I think that sometimes I get it from a team or a fan standpoint, you're doing everything you can to win. But it's rough to get fired. It's rough on that coach's family.

It requires dislocation. It's embarrassing. But the good news is seemingly the great coaches, the ones that have proven track records get rehired somewhere else. And it may just be not. And I don't think they go from being championship level coaches to bad coaches one or two seasons later. For whatever reason, that sometimes change is just necessary, a different voice.

I mean, we all know how that works. But the good news is it seems that talent continues to get recognized and and the great coaches get rehired somewhere else. Right, but there's still a few out there. I mean, Monte Williams just got hired in Detroit, though he's not a championship guy yet. Nick Nurse has been hired in Philly, but Doc Rivers is still out there. Mike Butenholzer is still out there.

We'll see where the carousel stops. But it is extraordinary the number of veteran proven head coaches. And at least Adam Silver said, hey, they didn't coach to championships or coach at the highest level. And then all of a sudden forget how to coach.

I appreciate that because that's what I laugh sometimes about. How quickly fans can turn on athletes. Oh, yeah, he is a great quarterback, and then he just forgot how to throw the ball.

It doesn't happen quite that quickly. That'd be like me. I had a bad radio show or even a bad week of radio shows. And then all of a sudden I suck. Did I forget how to do radio? No, just sometimes people don't perform at the highest level.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Ja Morant, of course, a major source of, you want to talk embarrassment for the NBA, but also right now a big conundrum for Adam Silver and for the NBA Players Association. Can they agree on how to handle Ja's latest grievance? In assessing what discipline is appropriate, if that's the case, we look at both the history of prior acts, but then we look at the individual players' history as well. And the seriousness, of course, of the conduct.

So those are all things that get factored. It's not an exact science. It comes down to judgment at the end of the day on the part of me and my colleagues in the league office. In terms of the timing, we've uncovered a fair amount of additional information. I think since I was still asked about the situation, I would say we probably could have brought it to a head now. But we made the decision, and I believe the Players Association agrees with us, that it would be unfair to these players and these teams in the middle of this series to announce the results of that investigation.

And given that we're, of course, in the offseason, he has now been suspended by the Memphis Grizzlies indefinitely. And so nothing would have changed anyway in the next few weeks. It seemed better to park that at the moment, at least any public announcement. And my sense now is that shortly after the conclusion of the finals, we will announce the outcome of that investigation. So longer answer from Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA.

But you get essentially the information that you're looking for, which is they are considering prior acts. There was one not that long ago for which he was suspended eight games. And you would expect that considering that, as well as player history, that this is likely to be a longer suspension. He was, let's see, set down by the Grizzlies on the 14th of May.

So it's been three weeks or so. But he makes a great point, Silver does, that they don't need to do anything right now because he's not with the team anyway. And he's been suspended indefinitely. They want to make sure they don't steal the thunder of the NBA Finals and wait until that's done. And then, as you can imagine, and he did, sounds like they've got a consensus already. I like how he was coy about player discipline.

If we decide to go that route, if we decide that's necessary. Oh, OK. It's after hours, CBS Sports Radio. All right, one more from the NBA since I did mention this and want to make sure that I pay off on this. Brad Stevens as the head of the Celtics, the guy who has to make the decisions. His team president now, of course, was a coach for a long time. Not only does he believe that Joe Mazzulla is the best man for the job. So he was asked about the coach, who's no longer an interim, but took over not even a year ago for the suspended Imea Doka. Stevens called him a terrific leader. I can quibble with that, considering the situation that he took over and the fact that they get back to the Eastern Conference Finals. But he was also asked about Jalen Brown and whether or not the Celtics want him back.

Because he not only is a free agent, but could be eligible for a supermax without a doubt. Like we want Jalen to be here and he's a big part of us and we believe in him and I'm thankful for him. And, you know, and I and I've and I said this earlier, I'm really thankful for when those guys have success. They come back to work and when they get beat, they own it and they come back to work. And so I know that that's what they're about. And that's hard to find. Kind of like what I talked about with leadership earlier.

That's those qualities aren't they aren't for everybody. So, you know, Jalen had a great year, all NBA year. He's a big part of us moving forward in our eyes. Answers that question, though, until he has a contract. It's not signed, sealed, delivered.

Also, I read this, which is interesting. I guess I could have tacked this on with the Joe Mazzulla. But three of the assistant coaches with the Celtics are reportedly leaving to go join Emei Udonka in Houston. So Emei gets hired in Houston. Of course, they would love to have.

Well, he has said that he would like to have James Harden there, which I think is interesting. Anyway, three of the assistant coaches, they were under contract, so they couldn't leave. But now they're leaving to join Emei and Joe will essentially be able to put together his staff.

Now, I don't know. Would you take that personally? I probably would take it a little personally, though those guys could be loyal to Emei because he hired them.

Yeah, that's how I would say it. But he also hired Joe. So, but obviously Joe is not going to leave a head coaching job at. I would take it a little personally, honestly. I mean, it's hard not to because you're blatantly showing that you'd rather go join his staff than stay on with his.

Plus Houston stinks right now. Yeah, they got some good young pieces, I guess, if you want to. But I mean, I just think of it more as those guys committed to Emei's staff and where he goes, they're going to go. So it's kind of like maybe a loyalty thing.

They feel like they owe him that. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that's how I'd see it. All right.

I'm going to run through a bunch of your responses in this last 90 seconds to our question. Roger Federer has teamed up with Waze. Who would you like to give you directions and be along for the ride? On Facebook, David says Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sean Connery. Dave goes with Tom Brady. Jason has a great one. He goes, he's, I like this Bob Euchre because of his flair.

He goes with the just a bit outside left turn ahead. Let's see. Jason says Amy Lawrence. Wow. Mike goes with Ozzy Osbourne. Igor says Cookie Monster.

Fantastic. And he actually said a few years ago, Waze did have Cookie Monster. Hey, Charlie wants producer Jay to give him instructions for the Waze app. Gary says Anthony Hopkins. Carol goes with Morgan Freeman. I love this one from Shane.

Howard Cosell. And then Joseph goes with Anthony Daniels, who is C3PO. Good stuff. A lot of Samuel L. Jackson, a lot of Morgan Freeman, which I think is really cool. On Twitter, we finally got a celebrity who's off the charts and is female, Halle Berry.

Vernon wants Halle Berry to voice his Waze app. Another James on Twitter, A Law Radio says I want the armorer from the Mandalorian because every single time I make a turn, she would tell me this is the way. I like that.

Yeah, that's really good. Lots of James Earl Jones, Macho Man Randy Savage. Let's see. Christopher Walken is in there a bunch too. Chewbacca. Oh, here we go. Paris Hilton, negative Ghost Rider. Have a great weekend. It'll be a Sunday night. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Boom!