It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in all over North America, everybody on the highways, the byways, my people leaving work, going to work, sitting at work, people making money, minding their business, doing whatever the hell they got to do to get on by. Thank you for being locked in. This is where I'll be for the next three hours.
This show does get started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. You can find me online everywhere at JR Sport Brief. You can find me online at JR Sport Brief. You can call me up here. Here's the number. You got it ready? 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Now we got a lot to get into. We talked about some silly things that have taken place over the past several days, things that took place in the playoffs and just in the world of sports. What the hell we got going on?
Hey, how about this? I briefly told you about the Oklahoma City Thunder. Are they getting enough respect? They smoked the Grizzlies 131 to 80 in game one of their playoff series. We're going to talk some Thunder basketball.
How about this? Rylan Stiles will join us in about 20 minutes. Are the Thunder really going to win the championship? Are they really underrated?
Are people really looking at their age and their youth and kind of pointing that out as a detriment? Possibly, maybe. Next hour, we're going to have a chat with Antonio Daniels. Antonio played in the NBA.
Point guard running up and down the basketball court. We're going to get his thoughts as he broadcasts on Sirius XM NBA radio, and we'll talk to him about everything going on here in the playoffs. Lakers losing to the Wolves and the Celtics and Mama's boy, Jason Tatum, the Warriors on that run and Steph Curry, hot already. And so we'll have that chat. So Rylan will come through in 20 minutes to talk about the Thunder, and then next hour we'll have a chat with Antonio Daniels. He'll come on through to talk about everything going on in the NBA.
If you missed a minute or second of our show last hour, you can go ahead and hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. We talked about some of these blowouts that we saw. We talked about Steph Curry, Jason Tatum's mom kind of checking in on his son. Do you need me to go to the Magic locker room? Damian Lillard might be back for the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow.
AJ Brown. He got his car back. It was stolen in Philadelphia. It doesn't matter if you're a Super Bowl champion.
Doesn't matter if you're Joe Blow. You live in Philly. Anybody can get got and talked about the craziness here in Atlanta, GA. Kirk Cousins. Apparently the Atlanta Falcons are asking for too much money.
They're asking for potential trade partner to put too much money on the table. If they're going to acquire Kirk Cousins and then the Atlanta Hawks, well, they fired their GM today. What a surprise. Hickey, I used to see not used to. I say used to like he, well, he just got fired today. Hickey, you would see him all over the arena. He would be gone from the suites. He'd be watching from upstairs.
He'd be on the floor like he was very present as a GM. And now he's fired. Maybe that was part of the reason why. Why? Too much time walking in between, missing, maybe he wasn't watching all the game. Oh no. Hickey, man.
This guy, I guess this is part of the job, like paying attention to what's going on. Hickey, before the games, like Kyle Korver was the assistant. I guess Kyle is still here.
I didn't hear nothing about him. The boss, the owner of the team would like have a chat with them before the game. These guys would just be standing in front of him.
They'd just be shaking their heads. Yes. Yep.
Mm hmm. Yep. Yep.
Yep. And I'm like, okay, what type of crap is this? Like, like they don't, they didn't, they didn't get a word in when they would talk to this guy. So I don't want to say I feel bad for bad for Landry Fields, but hey, Hawks ownership, not the, the tightest ran of ships. And so maybe they'll, and this is crazy to me. Hickey, they're hiring a GM before they hire a president of basketball operations.
I got, how ass backwards is that? Very. And I think that just highlights right there what you're just saying of this organization not being very well run.
And I think also resulting for the most part outside of one year, not a lot of play of success. I don't, none. And I don't know everything about what's going on down here. Hickey, this guy that they hired as the assistant, the now the GM, they promoted him. I've never seen this guy in my life. And I had to Google what he looked like. And I looked at him and I said, I've never seen this guy.
This is a distinguishable figure. It's a ball head man with a big beard. I've never seen this guy in my life.
And now he's running the basketball team. I haven't yet seen a picture of what he looks like. Is it Robert Salas brother?
No, no. There's a guy, I don't think, I don't think his last name is Sala. Is it? No, I thought it was.
It's like Omni Omni something, right? I don't know. No, I think it's as an Aunty Sala. Am I making this up? Did I, am I getting my it is on see something right now? Oh yeah, no, it's, it's Sala. Yeah. It is. Does it look like Robert Sala?
Like, you know, no, no, no, not at all. This is all Ted. I said a vision to immediately Robert Sala running down. You know, Rob Sala had that beard for a little bit. This guy's beard is almost James Harden-esque.
Okay. Oh wow. So if I would have saw this guy, maybe I thought he was team security or something, but I know team security too.
I'd never seen this guy in my life. So good luck to the Hawks. This apparently this gentleman worked for the Golden State Warriors at some point and maybe he'll be a great GM. But when no track record and, and maybe the Hawks will hire a president and they expect this guy to know what he's doing and maybe this dude will be the pseudo GM.
I don't know. It's just, it's sad. I feel bad for the fans here.
We, we getting kind of a jerked around when it comes to the Atlanta Hawks. It's just a sad, sad situation. But on another note, before we get back to basketball with our guests, Rylan Stiles in about 15 minutes, I got to get into a very, very sad story.
This is a pathetic one. Nico, he and Maliava. We heard almost basically a little more than a week ago that this man was out from Tennessee, that he wanted to shake more money out of Tennessee's collective in order to return and play quarterback. At almost the last second, he didn't show up for spring practice. He wanted more money.
His dad denied it. Ultimately, Tennessee said, we ain't paying you no more money. And he left and out of all places for him to go play football. After trying to stick up his school for more cash, he's going to UCLA. Now I mentioned this last week. UCLA is no, ain't no football powerhouse.
Okay. It's not even USC. They got a new coach last year. Remember running back Deshaun Foster, that's their new coach.
They went five and seven. They're now playing in the big 10. And yes, the big 10 has some big schools. We got some champions that have come out of the big 10 the past couple of years. UCLA ain't it.
They're trying to crawl out of the toilet. Chip Kelly couldn't get the job done. The last time they had success, you had Mara who was out there. And so for Nico Iemaliava to go from Tennessee to now formally, it's been formally announced, go to UCLA. It's a step backwards. It's more than a complete money grab. You were going for the money grab at Tennessee, playing in the SEC, trying to grow your stock as a quarterback, maybe go to the NFL, make some more money. You've completely obliterated the long-term development to make big money by making short-term money by going to UCLA. Like what are we expecting out there?
Who are you working with? And I don't know, maybe Nico Iemaliava will turn out to be the best quarterback that we've ever seen from a development standpoint. It just seems like let's take the money and progress that forward by moving backwards on the football side of things. This is awful for Nico Iemaliava. The Big Ten, UCLA, the talent that he will be playing with and against on a day-to-day, week-to-week practice basis, game-to-game, it ain't the SEC. And you ain't got to take my word for it. I don't agree with a lot of things that this guy says, but Cam Newton was on his podcast, The Fourth of One, and he basically said, Nico Iemaliava, he is just screwing up his career.
Listen to this. Whoever gave him the advice to sit out killed that kid. Regardless of how you bounce back from this, you will be the example.
He will have this as a stain on his career. What NIL was and is intended for. It's just to make your college experience comfortable. This is not forever money.
There is not a more influential person in my life than my father, but there are certain things that my father can and cannot advise me on, and that's just respect. Ooh, how about that, right? I don't know about Cam Newton. He's like, hey, this is not supposed to be forever money. This is supposed to make your college experience comfortable.
I don't know about that. You're trying to go out there and make as much money as you can, however you are, wherever you are. But you got to think about the long game. You got to think about the short game. And I agree with Cam, they are not thinking about the long game. You stay in the SEC.
You put on the best showing. You get drafted. Where you get drafted, you make the most of it wherever you land.
But going backwards to a lesser football program, not a good look. And then you tack on the questions to your commitment. Who's running your life?
Who's running your business affairs? These are all questions that these NFL teams, whether, and I think to a certain degree, justifiably so, they look at. I mean, some of the questions that teams, you know, use to evaluate prospects are ridiculous. That one time I think they asked some kid's mother, you know, about her life. I'm like, whoa, you can't, you can't ask some kid about his mama. That's not cool.
And some of the questions are dumb. But when it comes to decisions like this, nobody wants to deal with nobody's crazy dad. Nobody wants to deal with nobody's crazy mom. Nobody wants to deal with somebody who doesn't have their own head on their shoulders and can't speak for themselves.
And good. Nico Maliava, he's still a young man. He can't make decisions on his own. Does he have to take the advice on his father? And yes, we all know everybody's household is different.
Everybody's raised differently. But what does this mean for Nico Maliava as he continues to progress from being a college student, quote, unquote, businessman into being a pro? Maybe they don't think he'll be a pro. We'll find out sooner than later. And Hickey, you're filling me in like UCLA's former QB.
Like, what did they do? They it's like wife swap. The former QB is not going to Tennessee.
That's it is exactly like wife swap. Nico is going to UCLA, UCLA before even knowing his availability in the portal. Last time the winter transfer portal got former App State quarterback Joey Aguilar to be their starting quarterback. Well, now Aguilar jumped on the portal once Nico committed to UCLA. And now Aguilar is going to Knoxville and the two quarterbacks have swapped places and will be starting for each other's teams in 2025. Oh, man, wouldn't it be a funny story if Joey Aguilar had a better year than him?
I had a better year than him. And by the way, Joey, he never played for UCLA. Wasn't he somewhere else?
App State? Yeah. He transferred there in January, went through spring practice and transferred out as quickly as he transferred in.
Wait a minute. He did spring practice where? At UCLA.
Oh, my God. He just showed up, did practice and now he's leaving. And now he's gone and now he's going east, back east, actually.
This is why we need we need some type of regulations when it comes to the transfer portal. This guy went from App State. He had a cup of coffee and a practice with UCLA. And now he's leaving to go to Tennessee like this is ass and backwards. There's a lot of people who for years have told me, yeah, I like college, but I don't like the pros. I don't like the business of the pros and I don't like the players making money and I don't like this. And this is why I watch college, because it's pure sports. Well, I guess at this point in time, you just you just go sit down and watch nothing. Because what's going on in college athletics right now?
Because there's no there's no guardrails, because there are no rules. This is worse. Worse than the pros, like you could get mad and you could get angry about how much money Otani is making and Soto and who's the highest paid basketball player? Is it Embiid? That non-playing ass guy makes the most money I think, right? I think you're right.
He got like the latest mega supermax deal. It's either him or Tatum making like 70 mil a year. You can get mad at all those guys making all that bread and all that cash. You're gonna be mad at these student athletes.
You might as well, because it is ridiculous. A guy went from one school just finished, had practice with another school that he committed to, is now leaving that school, hasn't even played a game, and now going to another one. Like, where does that make sense? Last year for App State, he threw for 3,000 yards, 23 touchdowns, 14 interceptions. Good luck in Tennessee. At least he'll have a better showing than Nico Iamaliava.
These two are going to be compared all year long. What a world. What a crazy world we live in.
Get it together on the college side. These guys are young. They're young men, but the decisions that they're allowed to make right now is absolutely crazy. It's the JR Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break. And speaking of young, young stirs, we're going to have a chat about the Oklahoma City Thunder. Oklahoma City Thunder just went out and did some damage, knocking off the Grizzlies, 131 to 80, a historic blowout, and a game one for an NBA first round playoff series. Are people taking the Thunder serious?
What do we need to pay attention to? We're going to have a chat with someone who's covered the Thunder all the way through this season. Rylan Stiles is going to join us covers the Thunder for the locked on network. You're on the JR Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Don't move. You're listening to the JR Sportbree.
It is the JR Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I appreciate you for listening. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Hey, is somebody else? I think we need to appreciate them. Maybe, possibly. I'm a little pessimistic. I'm personally pessimistic. The Oklahoma City Thunder.
I'm going to draw my attention to the Thunder momentarily. This is something that you need to know. It's very important that you think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.
Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Here's a phone number. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Before we got to Nico Iamaliava and talked about his terrible decision that he made by leaving Tennessee to go to UCLA. We talked some NBA basketball action to open up the show because we had a lot of ball that was played over the weekend, a lot of shots that were made, a lot of shots that were missed, but we had a lot of ugly games. We had some blowouts. There was no bigger blowout than what we witnessed and what we saw yesterday. The Oklahoma City Thunder completely ripping the Memphis Grizzlies to shreds. The Thunder ultimately won 131-80. Shea Gilgas Alexander didn't even have the biggest game that you would expect from him. The man only had 15 points.
John Moran, known as Quick Draw McGraw, John Moran only finished with 17. And there's a full expectation that the Thunder who went out this past season and won 68 games, that they would beat the Grizzlies. Not by 51 points. Thunder is a young team. A lot of expectations after being eliminated last year to talk about what we can expect from them going forward and maybe what we need to be paying attention to. Joining us right now with someone who covers the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Lockdown Thunder podcast as well as Sports Illustrated, it's Ryland Stiles. Ryland, how are you, man? I'm doing good. How are you doing? I'm excellent.
Thank you for taking the time to join us. I mean, for a team that just went 68-14 and just had a historical blowout in game one of the first round against these Grizzlies. You've been following this team all the way through. Are you surprised at what they just did? Yeah, I was surprised that they were able to have such a dominating win. I mean, they did sweep the Grizzlies in the regular season and they won the games by an average of 18 points.
But this was something completely different. Clearly Memphis was on the wrong side of things in more ways than one with having to play Friday night and then Sunday morning. But you look at last year's Thunder team who in game one after a week-long layoff almost lost to a Zion-less Pelicans team had CJ McCollum's three bounced in. Memphis was not even competitive. They just outright quit after a quarter and a half of basketball.
And that was shocking. I thought that you would see Jama Rant debuting his shoes and you'd see John Payne and Jaron Jackson Jr. really try to rally around one another. I picked Thunder in five. I thought game one was one that earmarked that OKC could have lost just given their long layoff. This Thunder team hasn't played competitive basketball in over a month. They've had everything locked away in terms of their seeding and records. Memphis on the other hand has had to play two do-or-die games in the last week. I thought maybe you compare it to college basketball where the number 11 seed gets hot in the play-in, plays spoiler and that's their one win of the series instead. It looks really dark for Memphis right now.
It looks real dark. Rylan Stiles is joining us. Covers all things Oklahoma City Thunder. When you consider the fact that Shay Gilgus-Alexander only had 15 points, was 413 from the field. He's likely going to be this season's NBA MVP. What does that say towards the depth on this team?
Because a lot of people across the country hear Shay Gilgus-Alexander you're familiar with Chet Holmgren but it pretty much stops there. What does it say about the depth of the squad? Yeah the Thunder have the most depth in the NBA. That's why they were able to have the biggest pullout win in playoff history for game one because whenever their version of waving the white flag is still playing guys that Memphis would kill to have in their rotation with as lackluster as Memphis's roster is. I thought that the main thing it said though was Jalen Williams was taking a leap from where he was a year ago where against Dallas he just had nothing offensively. He was still really good on the defensive side of the floor in that series but offensively he left a lot to be desired which is no problem because it's his first ever time in the playoffs but you looked at how he played last night particularly in that second quarter to lead the Thunder to a 30-5 run and blow this game out of the water.
What once was a 12-point game and Memphis felt like they could kind of punch you without Shay on the court. It was Jay Dub who had a massive step forward and that's that's an offensive gear that he didn't have a year ago. His facilitation was great, his ability to get downhill was great and if that keeps up and that trend continues it's why the Thunder will be a popular pick to win a championship but it goes all out to where you point to Aaron Wiggins who didn't play a single minute of the first quarter despite the Thunder flipping through 11 guys and then he starts the second quarter in his three straight threes and continues to help the Thunder gain that separation.
So from top to bottom this is a team that's littered with talent rich players and they're all under contract for next season as well. Well Ryland you talk about what the team had to go through last season what they did this year their largest off-season acquisition is someone from the New York Knicks. Him leaving the Knicks hurt the Knicks it's Isaiah Hartenstein he certainly helped step out. What dynamic has he added to this team? Yeah Hartenstein's just been a great addition to Oklahoma City in terms of the way that he's fit the culture especially I had an exclusive article with him talking about why he signed in Oklahoma City and it was deeper than just the payday which was obviously nice but he really embraces everything the Thunder are about the zero and zero mentality coming into work every day and putting your best foot forward and then the selfishness of this team where this is the guy who has been willing to come off the bench whenever Chet Holmgren returned from injury and they've tried that out they've tried to double big lineups out to start and he has no ego about it and ultimately they've landed on starting that two big lineup for the majority of the time that those two guys have been healthy but it's not because of the unwillingness he's more than willing to do whatever it takes to win and I think that he and Caruso just provide a steadiness that the Thunder did not have a year ago and you know you can credit him with what he said at practice today. Hartenstein he was talking about that game one is over now it doesn't matter and you win by one point you win by 51 points it doesn't matter at the end of the day it's only one of the wins you need to win a playoff series it's all about game two so I think that you're going to see tomorrow what Hartenstein's brought to this team it's that professionalism and it's that mentality of what you need to try to win a championship and a guy who can get you over the hump.
Rylan Stiles is here with us on the JR Sportbreeze show. Rylan covers the Thunder for the Locked On Thunder podcast as well as Sports Illustrated. When you think about the Thunder it's 68 games that they won this season but all things considered outside of Che Gugas-Alexander they've been relatively quiet it's like oh they won again and you know is it him or Jokic and that's pretty much been the extent of it. Do you think this Thunder team has been overlooked by the country? I do I think they've been overlooked especially from a standpoint of what they've had to go through to get here and how much better that they can actually be because you look at the Thunder I think that you see them at the top of the west and you kind of just cast them aside because they were the one seed last year and because after the additions of Hartenstein and Caruso they were picked to be the one seed again this year and how seriously they take the regular season comparatively to the rest of the NBA teams nowadays but the reality is last season they were the number one seed in name only I mean it was a three-way tie they went out of technicality and if Devante Graham doesn't hit the shot of his life then the Thunder are not the number one overall seed. This year they lapped the field in the western conference and they did so while missing 20 games from Hartenstein while missing Chet Holmgren from November 10th all the way through February 7th with a broken hip and they somehow got him back and ready to play off of a broken hip an injury never before seen in the NBA. You've seen Caruso, J-Dub, you've seen J-Will, you've seen Kinrich, you've seen all their rotational players miss significant time and be in and out of the rotation and it hasn't wavered them one bit because of their strong-mindedness because of their togetherness and because of their depth that we've already touched on so now they're healthier than they've ever been.
Going back to training camp they didn't have care they didn't have J-Will and they lost and then they lost Hartenstein in the preseason they've never been as healthy as they are right now and they still won 68 games and they still had the most double-digit wins in NBA history leading them to the best point differential in NBA history. This is the the start of something that could be really special in Oklahoma City and I don't think that people have quite grasped how how good they are it wasn't maximizing all these top talent teams right it wasn't maximizing their top rotation it wasn't just outworking teams in the regular season it was a combination of their depth because they really needed it with all of their adversity so this team isn't battle tested in terms of playoff games right like most of their rosters only played now 11 playoff games but they all are battle tested through the adversity that they've had to go through throughout the 82 game season. When you think about the Thunder do you see them representing the West in the NBA Finals or do you see them as the the overall favorite to win the championship? I think that right now you have to just get out of the West. I would not be shocked I think that Boston should still be considered the NBA favorites just because of how great that they are as a team and they've been there and they've done that and it would be exceptionally hard for the Thunder to win a championship this season it would take Jay Dub and Chet Holmgren and their second ever playoff run to go do it that's something that's rarely ever been seen in the NBA but I think that winning the West is more than obtainable for this Thunder team because they're so dominant and we've went through their records but you look at the playoff bracket it's it's one tough matchup to get to the Western Conference Finals like Memphis is a pushover you just got to go take care of Denver or the Clippers and if you're as good as your record says that you are you should be able to handle that one tough matchup and then you're in the West Finals and you're a step away from the NBA Finals where the bracket could still break better for you so long as the Lakers are not in that mix if they lose to the Timberwolves or before then so I think the Thunder should be the favorites too in the West because they have the cleanest path. And so you're saying the Los Angeles Lakers would be their toughest competition of advancing to the Finals? Oh for sure to me with all due respect to the rest of the West Luka Doncic is an amazing playmaker and that's what you're seeing Memphis lack like Memphis cannot take advantage of whatever holes the Thunder defense gives up which typically is conceding the corner three-point shot they cannot expose that because they don't have the guys capable of making those corner threes that are open but also more importantly they don't have the guys capable to get the ball there they can't even throw the ball to the corners because they're being harassed and hounded and you saw Luka Doncic all last postseason while he had one of his worst scoring series he had his best playmaking series of just spoon feeding open looks to PJ Washington and Derrick Jones Jr. and his role players and they delivered for him you look at his Laker role players they're a lot better than PJ Washington I mean Dorian Finney-Schmidt's been there done that Gabe Vinton's been there done that leading teams as co-stars to deep runs in the postseason in each of their histories before and oh yeah he's got LeBron and he's got Austin Reeves so they'd be the toughest matchup not not an infallible flow for the Thunder but for sure it would be the toughest test. Hey Ryan last question for you we got a lot of teams all over the NBA just trying to build anything I mean today the Atlanta Hawks Scott Redelandri-Fields is their GM we see the disaster that is Nico Harrison with the Dallas Mavericks Sam Presti has gone through Russell Westbrook and Ibaka and James Harden and Kevin Durant going through a period of transition to having another team here what has Sam Presti done and do the fans really appreciate how he's been able to bridge and come out of what was one era to another? Sam Presti could be the governor of the state if he wanted to be that the fans love him so much because what he's done would be impressive in any NBA market but to do it in the smallest NBA market and have sustainable success with only two years of a true rebuild under your belt is phenomenal and I think that more teams need to adopt his style of team building where he circles his guys like Chet Holmgren was always his guy the entire draft and Jalen Williams who had a rising stock in his draft cycle late after the combine but even him what was viewed as like okay maybe you reached a little bit at 12 but you reached on your guy who cares what the consensus is on some of these players and then the willingness to go out on a limb and try and fail like you go and try for Pokushevsky you go and try for these you know high end players who have very low floors but whenever you're in a market like OKC your best bet on hitting on a star isn't free agency and isn't even really the trades it's finding them in the draft through those crevices so you've got to be willing to fail and you've got to be willing to let young players play I think that oftentimes teams just look at the record and then the Thunder went through two seasons where they won 20 something games but in those two seasons their young guys played their young guys got better and their young guys were with the same coach who instilled in them the defensive schemes that you're seeing have such success today and take them to such historic heights so the patient approach from Sam whenever everybody was begging for him to cash in these future first round picks on the trade market and instead he just remained pat and get stuck to his plan that that willingness to be patient is lost on a lot of NBA teams oh yeah we certainly see that a lot of guys at the top of the totem pole the owners just try to hit the button a little too fast we see that in Phoenix with a guy like Matt Ishby and now he's uh he's paying for it and paying for it in more ways than one hey Ryland I appreciate the time and your insight as it relates to the Oklahoma City Thunder where can people follow and listen to you and your work covering the team yeah I appreciate you having me on this was a lot of fun you can go check out locked on thunder anywhere you get your podcast from and thunder on si.com as well and on twitter at Ryland underscore styles but I appreciate you having me on this is a lot of fun oh absolutely Ryland let's see what happens uh the rest of of the playoffs to have a chat maybe again real soon sounds good no problem that Ryland styles you just heard him covers all things thunder for the locked on thunder podcast as well as sports illustrator let me tell you don't win 68 games by accident I don't think there are that many NBA teams as many that are trying to go out there and tank and get draft picks I don't think they're that many that are trying to go out and just take an L okay let's see what the thunder can do certainly it would be a disaster a massive disappointment if they don't end up at minimum in the NBA's western conference finals they have to do that at minimum it's the JR sport reshow here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network I mentioned a disaster in Nico Harrison oh my god this guy opened up his mouth today and now that the Dallas maverick season is uh well now that it's non-existent Nico Harrison spoke to the media again he put his foot in his mouth again we'll get to that and then you know what immediately on the other side of the break we'll talk about an individual he may be one of these Sam Presti draft picks but maybe not this is going to be a fall if this guy makes it anywhere past number one we had a guy who declared for the draft today I'll tell you who it is if you don't already have an inkling you're listening to the JR sport brief it is the JR sport reshow here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network thank you oh so much oh so much thank you to Rylan Stiles for joining us in the last break to talk about the Oklahoma City Thunder and what we can expect from them already blew out the Memphis Grizzlies by 51 points in game one of their first round playoff matchup this is a team that won is 68 games typically you win that many games people are looking at you and they're just like uh where's the championship and as Rylan said as I believe it's still the Celtics it's still the Celtic championship to lose they went out and won the championship last year the strongest team you would think in the in the east not a lot of people talked about the Celtics all year and because there's a full expectation that they're just going to go out there and whoop up on the competition like those we we don't care what you do in a regular season the season starts now for a team like the Boston Celtics and it's going to be up to the Oklahoma City Thunder to even meet them there or whoever the hell is going to come out of the east so thank you so much to Robin Stiles for joining us I mean a lot to be honest a lot of the clips that I see from OKC have seen throughout the course of the year Shay Gilgus-Alexander it's them messing with that reporter like to put hats and scarves and clothes on them they're always messing around with that guy Hickey that's that's like the biggest thing I see out of that team they all are jokes they're a fun loving loose team that's also extremely talented and deep best combo you can have right now Hickey let me tell you something how about this how about this if they don't win this year just just the champ okay let's start at the championship right or let's even go as far to look at the western conference let's say they don't even get to the finals okay if they come back next year now they have to be serious they have to knock that stuff off right there's no more fun and games um interesting I think you can have it both ways where your folk like if they play better or looser and it's obviously in two regular seasons at least worked really well I don't think you should change who you are entirely because you haven't gotten to your goal in the playoffs yet I think they can still have fun but also bring up maybe a little bit more of a focus yeah as well I don't think so I think if they don't have at least whatever their benchmark for success is if they don't have that this year like somebody will tell them hey guys knock it off like they're gonna be looked at they're gonna be looked on as a joke it's one thing to be the young team and to do all of this right now it's another thing to have championship aspirations and of course a season is long but when you win 68 games and you're beating everybody up every night you only lost 14 games this is a long ass season they only lost 14 games it's different when now hey you guys were supposed to win and you didn't do that hey you you were supposed to compete for a title you didn't do that I think sir somebody has to go all right let's let's we gotta be hickey they gotta be killers you can't kill them with kindness is it's too much of a and this might be good and fun now it's too much of a college atmosphere if it doesn't work this year if they have a disappointing end to the season it doesn't have to finish in a championship but if there's a disappointment they gotta knock it off just a little bit and speaking of just knocking things on we'll get to nico hickey i still can't believe what this man said earlier today about the mavs you already said about uh luca he didn't know how important he was to the fan base unfortunately i did hear that like are we are we getting punked are the mavs the mass fan base is getting punked right i think i think ash and kuch is ready to jump out right now and say right boom gotcha yeah right that's just it's just sad like they're punking the entire uh mavericks fan base but we'll get to nico collins at the top of the hour uh somebody that won't be drafted by the dallas mavericks somebody that won't get drafted by the oklahoma city thunder because they're actually a good team you know they have all these draft picks it's cooper flag cooper flag expected to go number one overall in this nba draft for for about three days it was like oh well he loves college so much he might stay uh hell to the nah cooper flag said i'm leaving i'm getting the hell up out of duke i'm going to the nba not a surprise this guy won player of the year as a freshman he's gonna be busting ass in the nba at least that's the expectation and people that i've spoken to people that we had here on the air have said he's anywhere from andre kirolenko to you know a smaller kevin garnett he's just a full overall overall basketball player he can play defense he can block shots he can knock down a three he can initiate an offense so he can do a lot of the things someone that's going to miss him but will certainly wish him well is john shire because on duke social media he said great having you here and thank you for getting us to the final four at least uh good luck in the nba really proud of cooper for the special season that he had this year you know i think the accolades speak for itself with what he did you know winning every national player of the year award his highlights his statistics uh the the ways he impacted the game on both ends of the floor uh really in every category was off the charts as good of a freshman season that the guys had here hickey somebody why doesn't somebody tell him he doesn't need to kiss his ass anymore like what are we doing criticizing for for him doing too much against houston oh my goodness what what for shy or a flag uh flag oh great player great career but yeah coop could use a few more shots there in the end oh you talking about oh you're talking about at the end oh yeah john shire is just like you know just in case they they want to get rid of me here at duke you know maybe i can make myself a good case with cooper uh you know go to the nba i mean it's uh i guess there's a possibility i'm like man how much i get it very nice for him to do but it was a lot of ass kissing in that regard and uh cooper flag you heard the awards that john shire mentioned that he won national player of the year national freshman of the year consensus first team all-american acc player of the year acc rookie of the year and about a year ago in the summertime cooper flag was playing against the grown men of team usa basketball yeah those same guys that went to france went to paris and won gold lebron james and stuff curry jason tatum yeah he was out there playing against those dudes and there was a stretch where they said he just kind of controlled the game what i don't care if it was three possessions the fact that you're on a basketball court hickey can he buy he can't buy a beer yet can he he can't right he's what are you 18 years old 18 19 years old oh no oh my god no booze for him he cannot buy a beer hickey he could have had three good possessions against team usa basketball he's 18 years he doesn't turn eight he doesn't turn 19 until december 21st and he's out there playing with lebron and duran and tatum what what with most of those guys close to if not more than double his age yeah that's crazy yeah well durant is twice his age steph curry is what just about twice his age lebron james is slightly older than twice his age duran is exactly twice his age yeah this that's crazy that's insane that's crazy and he's out there just uh hanging in with the future is bright whatever the hell is going to be for cooper flag so yeah he'll be in the nba draft not a surprise and he'll also go number one overall unless some type of alien lands from outer space and uh takes the spot it's the jr sport brief show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network we're going to take a break when we come back we'll talk about someone who needs to get sent to outer space nico harrison the gm of the mavs put his foot in his mouth again talking about luka doncic the world doesn't agree charles brockley doesn't either we'll talk about it don't move you
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-04-21 22:56:06 / 2025-04-21 23:12:52 / 17
