It is the JR Sport Brief Show on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in all over North America. Happy Monday. Well, we're winding down Monday. I don't care if you're on the East Coast or the West Coast. I'm gonna get you a little bit closer to Tuesday, okay?
One day at a time, though. Thank you so much to our producer holding it down tonight, Nico Scarlatos. And thank you again to you for being here. You can always listen on the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. You got Sirius XM and Channel 375. And if you got a smart speaker, ask the speaker. Talk to the machine that is always listening.
Just say, hey, play the Infinity Sports Network. And we've had a full show already. We talked about Justin Tucker being released by the Baltimore Ravens. They said, how many allegations of sexual inappropriateness do you have?
No, thank you. You suck, too, by the way. It's time to move on. Baltimore Ravens said it was a football decision. We got the Knicks and Celtics who are underway. Take on the Timberwolves.
And how about this? In about 20 minutes, we'll have a chat with Steve Ashburner, NBA.com senior writer. Get his thoughts on everything going on in the postseason. Congratulations to the New York Islanders. They're going to get their first crack. Well, damn it, they're going to get the number one overall pick in this year's draft. Good for the New York Islanders. We heard from Greg Popovich kind of passing the torch earlier today to Mitch Johnson. So we have so much more to get into.
Of course, that's what we're talking about. At the end of the show, we'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history. We'll keep you up to date on everything going on in the sports world. The Knicks here, Boston. Later on, we have Oklahoma City Thunder. They'll be back in action. They haven't played in like nine days.
They'll be taking on the Denver Nuggets. That's J.R. Sportbrief. You got Facebook? I do, too. At J.R. Sportbrief. Well, I'm all over the place.
Not a difficult guy to find. Hey, you can call up, too, if you like. We got a phone number. It works. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Good stuff. Nico, we talked about this game right now. The Celtics are like, the Knicks were playing it close, and it's early.
Everybody's going to go on a run and an up and a down. It's now 48-38. Karl-Anthony Towns with 10 points. Jalen Brunson with 4. Knicks actually getting help off the bench. Deuce McBride with 8.
But meanwhile, for the Celtics, the shock of nobody. Tatum with 13, and Brown has 8. Devin White has 7.
Drew Holliday has 6. Christopher Porzingis hasn't even scored yet, and they have a 10-point lead. So, the Celtics just throwing bodies at them. And then you got Peyton Pritchard off the bench, the 6th man of the year.
Already has 10 points, 2-3. So, the Celtics got a lot of bodies, man. Yeah, it's what makes them so good. It's why they're the defending NBA champions, because they have so much depth, and that's honestly something that I think the Knicks lack, right? We talk about the starting five and how they build up this lineup with Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikael Bridges, but they gave up a lot of depth to get those two guys. So, it's gonna be interesting to see how that plays a factor in this series.
48-38. Speaking of coaches, we heard earlier in the show from Greg Popovich, who is passing the torch to Mitch Johnson, who's gonna take over the San Antonio Spurs on the court on a full-time basis. Greg Popovich is gonna move on upstairs and run basketball operations as president.
Not a bad president. This is someone who's been an assistant, obviously, almost 30 years as head coach. He was the GM. He hired himself to be the head coach, firing Bob Hill back in 1996. So, Greg Popovich, it was good to see him.
It was obviously a little softer in voice. It's good to see that he's recovering, and I wish him nothing but the best. That's not the only announcement that we got today, just in a general sense. On the NFL side of things, we started to hear some whispers over the past few days, and today it became official. The NFL draft in 2026 is taking place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The NFL draft in 2027? Well, take a listen to President Trump drop the news earlier today from the White House. Listen to this.
I'm pleased to reveal that the 2027 NFL draft, that's a big thing, will be held right here in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., on the National Mall, and you get a little glimpse of it. I was just saying to Roger, I don't think there's ever been anything like that. That's a good idea. In fact, maybe we could use it for other things also.
I have an idea. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be something that nobody else will ever be able to duplicate that, I don't suspect.
Okay, I don't know who else will be duplicating an NFL draft, but okay. They're expected to have more than one million people in attendance. One million plus people in attendance for the NFL draft at the National Mall. And that is a big deal. And if you've never been out to D.C., it takes place between the Washington Monument and then you move over and then you have the capital. And that's a huge space. And I will say this is probably going to be one of the more impressive spaces and places that they're going to have the NFL draft since they started really moving it around when they left Radio City in New York City.
Let's think about this. Since they stopped in New York and decided to move around in 2015 and 16, it was in Chicago, in 2017 Philly, 2018 AT&T Stadium, 2019 Nashville, Tennessee. 2020, the NFL draft took place from Roger Goodell's basement. 2021, we went to Cleveland. 2022, it was in Las Vegas, Nevada. 2023, Kansas City. Last year was in Detroit. This year, Green Bay, Wisconsin. Next year, Pittsburgh.
In 2027, big deal. Washington, D.C. Nico, you going to Washington for this? I am not, but I guess like this would be a good time to tell you, I actually have been to an NFL draft before. In 2021, I went to the draft in Cleveland. OK, and you worked or you were just relaxing?
No, I was just there relaxing. I actually went to school for my undergrad in Ohio, Ashland University, and Cleveland was only like an hour away. So I was like, yeah, let's do it. Let's go.
Let's go to the draft. Check it out. And it was a cool experience. I'm not going to lie to you. I probably wouldn't go again, but something to definitely check out. Not not a bad experience. Yeah, I can't I can't tell you how many drafts I don't know, man. At this point, I been to New York multiple times and was out in Chicago. I think maybe I know I was definitely there for one of them. Past couple of years here in the studio. I remember being out in Vegas. We did the show live.
Zach and I, I think in Kansas City, Zach and I and Perloff did the show in Kansas City. Yeah, I've had my share of NFL drafts. They're fun. You know, it's cool.
I don't know. And now when you moving it around like Las Vegas was just they shut down the streets at the strip and you got to walk everywhere. You know, Las Vegas walking around through all the casinos is not necessarily the funnest thing in the world. All the outdoor activation. So, yeah, D.C.
I know D.C. very well. At least people will be able to walk around. But whatever they have to kind of secure off securing the National Mall to get people in safely and get them out. That is probably going to be a stretch.
Maybe they have multiple entrances. It's going to be a it's going to be a tough one, given the size and the density. And look, D.C. is going to be jumping that week. And it's a good spot. It's going to be visually appealing. This might be one of the best visually anything that the NFL has ever done from a draft perspective. So the NFL draft coming to Washington, D.C. And how about this in another five years?
Apparently from the reports that we got, the commanders will be back in the city playing at RFK, no longer in the burbs in Maryland. Eight, eight, eight, seven, ten for ISN. That's eight, eight, eight, seven, ten for ISN. In about 10 minutes, we'll be joined and have a conversation with Steve Ashburner, NBA.com senior writer, to take a look at at all the matchups that we have going on in the second round of the NBA. But right now, let's get to your calls. We got Edwin. He's calling from Maryland.
You're on the JR Sport Reshow. Edwin, what's up? Hey, JR. How are you doing? I'm excellent. What's going on? I want to make two quick points.
I want to just slightly touch on the waiver and then talk about. Edwin, hold on for a second. You sound you on Bluetooth. You sound like you're calling me from under the covers, man. You OK? Yes, I'm fine. OK, try again. All right.
There you go. Hello, can you hear me? Yes. Now, what did you what did you call me on the tin can? No, no, no, no, no.
My phone. Yes. Well, go ahead. Quickly.
All right. So the Ravens, I want to say, is definitely about performance because looking at their history, you know, they always they take all kinds of questionable guys, starting from Ray Lewis. I mean, it doesn't matter. You know, they'll have whoever on their team.
As long as you can play. Look at who they drafted. I mean, the guy with the allegations on the high school and college. It's about performance with the Ravens, trust me. As for the but it's not there's multiple factors. It's not just about performance. You know, when you have this many demerits on your report card or what have you, these are the type of things that make it easier to give you the boot because of your performance. To say I know to say it's not about these 16 issues of sexual misconduct and behavior is to be kind of foolproof.
But no, it's a fact, isn't it? OK. As for the D.C. and the skins and, you know, the draft and everything, it'll be nice to have the it's a beautiful space, the National Mall, you know, between the monument and Capitol Hill to have all the museums lined up along the ball is marvelous. But I mean, I just feel like that. Come on. An NFL draft in that space.
Yeah. I mean, you have a million man march there. You got to have a dream speech there.
You got like inaugurations there and then NFL draft. I mean, come on. It's a little it's a cheap thing of the space, honestly, if you ask me.
It's to each his own. I think about it in certainly the historical aspect that you just mentioned. It is a public space. The NFL is the biggest sports entity in business in this country. Not all that surprising. I'm going to figure you ain't going, huh? You know what? I'll go there and I'll have a huge rescue flag and I'll just wave it out. Hopefully we'll have won a Super Bowl with Jayden by then.
I would just be a huge pep route. You got to you got. Well, well, yeah, you got two seasons.
We'll see what happens. That went OK. All right. Thank you so much. All right.
Thank you, Edwin, for calling from Maryland. Yeah. I mean, when you think about the some of the historical aspects and events that have taken place at the National Mall, it is it's kind of odd.
I mean, they're not it's the NFL, right? This is I don't think it's cheapening the National Mall. If they were going to have it in D.C., where are they going to put it? Like, what are they going to do it right in front of the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue? Hell, no, they're not doing it there. That'd be pretty cool, though, with the NFL draft in front of the well. Yeah, well, that's a nice view, right? They're going to have a nice enough view anyway. Everything is kind of in line. It is.
There's no way else where they can have it. I'm fine with it. I don't care.
Don't matter to me. It's going to be nice. D.C. is is and then you can walk around D.C. You know, that whole area is you can pretty much walk. People are going to do a lot of walking.
You know, if they're going to go out there and attend the draft. Wild stuff. Couple of big announcements today. It's the J.R. Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break. And then on the other side, we're going to have a chat with Steve Ashburner from NBA dot com.
He's a senior writer. We'll talk about this game that's currently in action as the New York Knicks are trying to catch up to the Boston Celtics right now. It is fifty five forty five, about two minutes to go here in the first half. And then also later on this evening, we're going to have the Denver Nuggets trying to knock off the well rested Oklahoma City Thunder. We learned some things about the Cavaliers and their health. Not all that healthy right now.
Pacers already have a healthy lead. And so we're going to blink and we're going to be at the conference championship games. And so we'll have this chat with Steve Ashburner on the other side of the break.
So how about this? Don't go anywhere. Why?
Because you're locked in. It's the J.R. Sportbree show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. It is the J.R. Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're in the second round of the NBA playoffs. We've seen the Cavaliers and the Pacers go at it. We have a matchup currently underway with the Celtics and Knicks. We got a Western Conference matchup, the Thunder back in action against the Nuggets.
We got Popovich passing the torch. There's a lot going on in the league right now. It's time to have a chat with someone who has covered the league, covers the league extensively. He's a senior writer for NBA dot com. It's Steve Ashburner. Steve, how are you, man?
I'm doing good, J.R. Thanks for having me on. Well, thank you for being here.
I guess there's so much to get into. Let's talk about the game currently at halftime. The Boston Celtics with a surge there currently leading the New York Knicks 61 to 45 here in Game 1.
What are your overall thoughts? Do the New York Knicks have enough to knock off the defending champs? You know, I do not think they do. You know, I picked Boston at the beginning of the year to repeat and end this sort of variety pack of champions the NBA's had. I think they've had six different in the last six years. And I think Boston, you know, I thought they were going to put an end to this. I thought it all year.
And I still think that they're my favorite. I feel like they've been able to sort of pace themselves during the season. I think they're too deep for the Knicks.
I think they have too many weapons. You know, they've got defenders to to deal with the Knicks weapons. And I'm not sure that the guys the Knicks have can can take away enough from the Celtics offensively. Well, Steve, before we get out west, staying on the in the east, we saw the Cavaliers taking L to the Pacers yesterday.
I guess Tyrese Halliburton really trying to show people how, I guess, overrated he might be or is not. And you think about you think about some of these injuries that the Cavs are now facing with with Mobley and you got DeAndre Hunter. Is there a real possibility here that the Pacers just go to the Eastern Conference finals?
Yeah, very much so. They were there last year. So, you know, this is not any they're not out of their depth when it comes to the second round and making it to the third round. They're a deep team. I mean, you know, I talked about Boston having a great roster. Well, and Cleveland does, too. Cleveland might actually have gone too deep into their into their rotation yesterday, but Indiana as well. And, you know, it's not a matter of you need more guys to share the minutes load. It's it's you can handle different situations.
You have these extra tools in your belt. And, you know, Indiana, when they're when they're rolling, when they're playing fast, you saw it last night. It was it was how early in the shot clock they like to to really attack.
And and, you know, if they can do that and keep Cleveland on the heels more makes a big makes a big difference. So, yeah, I think I think the experience of last year and you add, you know, they had to see him, you know, last year. He'd only been there, you know, for a couple of months. He's been there the whole time. He was an All-Star this year.
Halliburton seems like he's finally healthy again. Yeah, I'd say be very careful with the Pacers. NBA dot com senior writer Steve Ashburn here with us on the chair support we show the Infinity Sports Network. When you talk about the Cavs, we learned this evening that Kenny Atkinson has been named coach of the year in the NBA right now. More than ever, with the player salaries, the coaches salaries, the coaches seem even more disposable despite awards. We have coaches winning championships that are getting the boot. Kenny, Kenny Atkinson certainly vindicated after being fired by the Brooklyn Nets, but it's a nice award to have.
But everybody is seemingly on the nice. What are your thoughts on the coaching kind of vibe in a league right now? Well, you know what, coaches are vulnerable because they can be, you know, they're not factored into the salary cap. So, you know, somebody like Matt Ischia in Phoenix, he can fire, you know, coach after coach after coach. And sure, he's going to pay these guys off over time, but it doesn't freeze your team from other maneuvers. And so you can still, you know, do things with your roster no matter how many fired coaches you're paying.
So it's somewhere where they can actually control things and so ownership wants to do something and control it. You know, it is a players league and, you know, when you say that you don't want to minimize the importance of the head coach. Certainly their salaries in recent years have dialed up considerably to reflect that they're important too, but it still is the players. And a coach has to basically orchestrate everything, handle various responsibilities including the media, almost be a morale officer as much as any sort of an X and O's guy. You know, it's important in game situations, but, you know, you have a staff now of 8, 9, 13 assistant coaches. So there's plenty of ideas on everybody's table. Yeah, I think it's a little bit silly, but I think it has altered the profession where these guys, you know, they love what they do, but they just hope that they get a chance to continue doing it because the length of a contract doesn't mean much besides the fact you'll get paid.
Now that's pretty good for the average Joe. I would be happy to have somebody fire me with three years left on a four-year deal, but that's sort of the special status that these NBA coaches have. Well, Steve, you've covered the league and we heard and had the press conference today with Greg Popovich.
We're not seeing anything like that. I don't know, maybe Spolstra might be the next, the last guy to have, you know, that long of a stretch run. How important was Popovich and has he been in kind of being a stalwart and now passing the torch to Mitch? Well, I mean, it is going to be tough to come close to what Popovich did with his tenure in San Antonio.
I mean, part of that was being in a market that, you know, you don't have mass media breathing down your neck. Part of that was getting incredibly successful in multiple lotteries to land, you know, generational players. David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Victor Wemenyama now, you know, I mean, it's just a lot of teams would, you know, give everything they have to get one or two of those guys.
Never mind three. So, you know, there have been a lot of things that worked out well and, of course, he does such a great, you know, he did such a great job of building the teams and making sure that the character of his teams was something that he could live with and they could live with him. You know, when I said it's a players league a little while ago, it's like, well, yeah, but you know what? Not any player could play for Greg Popovich. So that he was able to select the kind of guys and, you know, there was always a heavy international influence to the Spurs teams. And I think that probably helped. I think there was a little bit more, I don't know what, I don't want to say not cerebral, but just more of a committed approach and maybe a mature approach. And it didn't focus on and dwell on individual athletic ability in San Antonio. There really was a lot of fundamentals to it. Now, having said that, I mean, David Robinson was one of the best specimens physically that the NBA has ever seen. But, you know, and the fact that these guys would handle the size of the San Antonio market and not, you know, have as many clubs to go to on the off nights or whatever.
So, you know, it's just it was just a bunch of ingredients or almost like the tumblers of a lock falling into place. And he was able to preside over that. I mean, 300 plus coaches have come and gone since Popovich took this on the Spurs bench in 1996.
So, you know, that that's just unheard of. I don't think we'll see that anytime soon. NBA.com senior writer Steve Ashburner is here with us on the JR Sportbreeze show. You talk about coaches changing, getting moved around. We saw the Nuggets make a coaching change with the championship coach Michael Malone gone. Now the Nuggets are on their way to take on the Thunder. What do you think that this matchup is going to look like for a novice head coach getting ready to take on this this young Thunder team? You know, I don't know what to make of David Edelman taking over that team. You know, I've heard rumblings out of Denver where they say, well, they would not they would not have beaten the Clippers in the first round had they not made the coaching change. And somehow there was a pressure relief valve or something that that allowed them to relax and focus on basketball. On the other hand, we saw what Memphis did. Memphis blew out their head coach and they went right down the tubes. So, you know, you can't say that, oh, well, you know, there's a there's going to be a trend now in this copycat league of contenders firing their coaches heading down the stretch of a season. I don't know.
We'll see. You know, Edelman's been around that team for a long time. So it's not like this is a new voice. He knows them. They know him. I just think they're headed towards a pressure in, you know, Casey. I think the Thunder, you know, they've been idle for a week or more now and they they they don't relax. They go hard in practice. They treat it like another training camp. I think they're eager to sort of get out there and flex again and remind everybody. I mean, you know, they're trying to get noticed. I mean, you see them in commercials and things, but they're trying to make a name and put OKC, you know, up there in the bright lights.
And how do you do that when you're shut down for a week? Because you were too quick in winning your first round series. So, yeah, I think OKC is they've got everything they need. And, you know, on the heels of that regular season, you know, I I think I think they're well, they're my favorite to reach the finals from the West.
Be a very difficult team to stop. Well, Steve, as we start to wrap things up, you see OKC going all the way to the finals. What are your thoughts on this Timberwolves and Warriors matchup? Wolves too big, Warriors too experienced.
What are your thoughts on how this will go? Well, I don't want to underestimate the Warriors. I mean, you could say you could talk about Steph Curry and Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler's ages all you want. But when you've got days off in between games and, you know, sort of a chess chess match going on on the court, you know, the age becomes rather immaterial.
I'm in Minnesota. I landed here a few hours ago and I'm going to be doing the first two games of the series here. And I'm looking forward to it because I think in some ways. Minnesota is a similar team to Houston, except with more experience. Yeah, except with a bit more, I think, you know, rugged defense and the fact that their coaching staff, led by Chris Finch, could go to school. And what the Rockets did or didn't do well to get that series to seven.
So, you know, I'm sure he's he's taken copious notes and will do everything he can. And I just, you know, there's nobody on the Houston Rockets that can take over games like Anthony Edwards. Jalen Green is supposed to be that guy, you know, incredibly inconsistent at this point. So, yeah, I think this is for the Golden State Warriors.
I think this is basically, you know, you're you're hitting the nitrous oxide and the opponent you just had and having to deal with the opponent you're about to face. Well, Steve, you mentioned Jalen Green. I mean, yes, six, seven, eight, nine, eleven points in the postseason isn't going to cut it with someone with his talent and athleticism. It's been it's been said that the Rockets will likely try to move on. Do you think they'll try to move him for someone like Durant or will they stand pat?
Oh, you know, I'd just be guessing on that one. I mean, you know, but but the fact is that they might have they might have thought that they could be like the funder and have their all star, their leader sort of emerged from within, like SGA. But Jalen Green doesn't seem like he's on that track. I mean, they have looked like a team that needed a star rather than was going to birth a star. So, yeah, they could use a, you know, a tent pole kind of a guy. I saw Giannis Antetokounmpo's name thrown out there.
I think Kevin Durant is probably a little more realistic. I think he could help that team a lot. If you had to give up Jalen Green for Kevin Durant, I think if Houston would do that, I think they should do it at least because, you know, you've got you've got other players that they want to win. They want to win soon. And I mean, Jalen Green, unless he has some remarkable summer and were to come back a, you know, much changed and confident and reliable player, you can't be waiting anymore.
And without a shot of a doubt. Hey, Steve, last question for you. This is dated to something we learned about last week, but it's been bubbling and been bandied about for a while. We heard from the commissioner that the league might be looking for and towards an all star game with international players versus players domestically here in the United States of America. Do you think that is a fix? Do we have enough players in an international pool that that would be all stars? What are your thoughts on how the NBA might try to rectify that? Well, I think there would be some some pride involved and that could help with the effort put out there on an all star Sunday by the league's best players.
That's been a real problem. And so maybe that would be a, you know, this is our game kind of thing. And, you know, meanwhile, the best international players would, you know, say, well, we got, you know, we've already sort of taken over the league. If you look at the MVPs, you look at some of the all NBA selections. I mean, the globe is well represented. I think the hard part of that would be there's a lot more U.S. born players in the NBA. So you're drawing all stars. You're going to snub more American players than you're going to snub international players, I think.
So, you know, so that that's not ideal. I wish they would just go back to the East versus West, go with tradition, quit trying to reinvent this wheel. Many tournaments, please. I mean, you know, whether the NHL, you know, has success or not.
I know they had that that series this year and that had a lot of interest because of some of the rivalry between the U.S. and Canada. But, yeah, I think some professional pride by the players. Try to stay in front of your man. Nobody is saying you have to, you know, bust a gut and put yourself at risk defensively.
Don't take charges. I don't like seeing that in playoff games. Never mind all-star games.
But just stay in front of your man and put some energy into both ends of the floor. I used to look forward to those things as a kid and even, you know, even when I started covering this. But they've gotten progressively worse and the playground selection of the squads, that was interesting for a minute.
And then that didn't seem to have any effect. And, you know, when I saw the, you know, the I mean, before 200 points in a game and they just make a joke of the record book and, you know, I just I don't know. I don't want to concede, though. I don't want it. Well, let's just let's just get rid of it. Let's just turn it into flag football. You know, it's like, no, you know, this is part of the sport. You're all benefiting tremendously from the sport. How you can go in there and decide to maybe just expand the teams and let the coaches be kind of ruthless and say, look, if you're not going to play, I'm going to sit you down.
It's going to be an honorary thing for you. And I'm going to play this guy. You know, they think there should be 15 players per team anyway, because there's 15 teams per conference. I mean, the you know, the all-star roster is six to 12.
Even the league has gone from 17 to 19 to 23 to 30. So, you know, they are they are to increase the roster. And I know coaches used to say, well, yeah, but I can't play everybody then. No, we'll just play the guys who want to play. That makes it easy.
Yeah. And those guys are definitely going to be the ones who want to show that they're worthy of being all stars. We'll see what happens, I guess, next year. We'll definitely see what happens in another month as we start winding down towards the finals.
Hey, Steve, thank you so much for joining us. Tell everybody where they can find your work and read everything you do at NBA.com. Well, it's on NBA.com. Usually you go into the news tab and you know, you can find our stories on there. Or I end up, you know, putting posting a lot of links to my stuff on X. And my my handle there is at Ash ASCH NBA. So that's that's the best way. Our site is a little muddled.
You know, stuff is also on the NBA app, but it's you got to really be an archaeologist to to uncover just exactly where the stuff is some days. Hey, it's no problem. Well, they can just go ahead and search a Steve Ashburner. Hey, Steve, that works, too. Appreciate it. You're welcome.
Catch you down the line. That's Steve Ashburner, NBA.com senior writer currently in Minneapolis getting ready for that match up tomorrow with Golden State and the Wolves. It's the JR Sportbreeze show on the Infinity Sports Network. You know, we'll actually hear from some of the participants on the Western Conference side of the playoffs on the other side of the break. It is the JR Sportbreeze show here on the Infinity Sports Network.
Thank you so much. NBA.com senior writer Steve Ashburner for joining us in the last break to take a look and break down what we've seen, what we can expect to see here as the NBA playoffs continue on. If you missed that conversation, go ahead and hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. I need you to 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. Thank you to Steve for joining us on the phone. If you want to call us on the phone, you can do that as well. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. And the matchup that's going on right now, the New York Knicks losing to the Boston Celtics 75 to 62. I feel like every time I look up, Mitchell Robinson is at the free throw line, just hitting bricks for the New York Knickerbockers. So we'll see if the Knicks can continue to fight on here against a much deeper team that won a championship last year. So we'll keep you up to date on that game. And then in about 40, 45 minutes from now, maybe a little longer than that, we have the Western Conference matchup between the Denver Nuggets and the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have not played a basketball game in nine days. OK, they've been itching, they've been waiting, as we just discussed with Steve, they have been ready to go chomping at the bit. And so you got one team that was just in action on Saturday versus a fresh Oklahoma City Thunder team. And so Mark DeNaul, who's going to be coaching against Adelman, who's now the head coach of the Denver Nuggets, he was asked, hey, have you noticed any differences in the in the Nuggets since they switched from Michael Malone to DeNaul or excuse me to Adelman?
This what he had to say. They're doing certain things a little bit more. They're doing certain things a little bit less. But the overall integrity of what they do is the same. It's very difficult for somebody to come in that late in the year and make like wholesale changes.
So there's there's subtle changes we've noticed, but nothing crazy. Man, you and you want to talk about coming in. This is a this is one of the storylines involved in this series. Russell Westbrook, he started his career with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He has an opportunity to go back in and try to knock the thunder off.
You don't think Westbrook would be interested in this? Russell Westbrook talked about his love for Oklahoma City, not this team. Always got like I told you, that's that's like home for me. I always got love for everybody there. The people, the fans. I know it's mutual, but they also know the reason why they do love me because I compete at a high level. And I'm going to do that every night.
So that's all I can do is go out and be myself and compete and, you know, try to go out and steal one there. Yeah, well, I don't know if we'll see the the angry version of Russell Westbrook that we saw in that blowout on Saturday night. Russell Westbrook pretty much telling everybody, go home, get out. He's given the Clippers the boot.
It was pretty aggressive. I don't know if we'll get the same thing against OKC. David Adelman just got here as their head coach and he talked about the Thunder and how good they are. Well, we know they just whooped everybody.
Listen to the new coach. I'll say this about them. They're the best team in the NBA throughout this season.
And I had a really good friend the other day make me feel awful. I said, yeah, we win the series, man. We got to play a team that's 68 and 14.
He said, no, man, there's 72 and 14. OK, that's right. Appreciate that, bro. So, yeah, we know we know what this is like. Their defense is so impactful.
They turn you over. They're great one on one players in depth. Very good coaching staff. This sets them up for, you know, to be the aggressive team they are on both ends. But, you know, you got to be confident going into it.
Man, it is so crazy. Nico, I listen to these coaches now and I'm like. He just got a job.
Another guy can get a job. None of these coaches matter at the end of the day. I feel like they all get fired. Yeah, it's been a never ending cycle, it seems like. I mean, I still it's been weeks later and they've even won a playoff series since then. And I still can't believe that Michael Malone is not the head coach in Denver. Yeah. If Michael Malone is not safe and there have been conversations and quotes even from Jokic saying, hey, ownership wanted to, you know, change the culture, the coach and the GM hate each other's guts. So now they're both gone. It's like nobody is safe.
And this has been known for a while. Like if you're a coach and we just had this conversation with Steve Ashburner, like you're not on the salary cap. Great point by Steve. You're making less money than the star players. The fact that these teams and organizations are so willing to just eat these contracts and move on without a second thought is just it's crazy.
You could literally win a championship today and be fired tomorrow. And the coaches there, they're paid lovely for it. We've had a similar conversation with college athletes, too, right now that they're getting paid NIL money. There's no they don't feel like they're they owe the coach anything. And now we're seeing a similar situation at the professional level. These guys are making so much money compared to the coaches that they feel that they hold the power.
And I don't know if that's the right way to go about things. Well, they they do. People pay to see the players. Nobody pays to see the coach. And I mean, from the college perspective, it certainly has lessened the power of coaches. We've seen the Sabans of the world now decide to leave.
We we've seen the J rights. We've seen the Coach K. They're exiting. And all of these guys leaving is there's a reason why they don't want to deal with any of this. NIL pay me stuff. The players are getting paid.
They got the power and there's no structure. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. We'll give you an update on everything going on on the other side of the break. This is the J.R. sport re-show. Don't move.
