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. I locked in all over North America. I hope you had a tremendous Wednesday up until this point.
I'm going to roll with you. I'll be here with you for the next four hours. This is when the show gets started every weekday, 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.
I am in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our producer holding things down in New York City, Ryan Botcher. And thank you to you for tuning in. There is no show without you.
So if your wife didn't tell you thank you today, if your kids didn't tell you thank you, your students didn't tell you thank you, your co-workers didn't tell you thank you, JR says thank you. And we got a lot to get into. How about this? The tush push. Well, I'll tell you what happened to the tush push. You probably know already.
It hasn't been banned. That's great. Shay Gilgus Alexander, the world's worst kept secret. He's going to be awarded the NBA MVP later on this evening. We got more basketball. We saw what Shay Gilgus and the Oklahoma City Thunder did to the Wolves last night. Well, we'll see what the New York Knicks do with the Pacers tonight. We got Sam Quinn joining us from CBS Sports.
It is Wednesday. Of course, we have a new top six list and I'll explain the reasoning. Well, we got a top six list of some of the biggest crybabies in sports today. Today, we found out who is going to be highlighting and who will be highlighted during the NFL hard knocks, both the summer edition. And remember, now we got an in-season edition, so we'll get into that.
I'll give you a hint. Well, a team in western New York will be highlighted in the summertime, so that should be fun. So we got a lot to do, especially at the end of the show.
We'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history. If you want to be a part of the show, you can do that as well. It's real simple. Here's the phone number.
You ready? Don't write it down. Don't don't do that. 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN.
If you're driving in your car especially, don't write anything. Thank you for listening on the free Odyssey app, A-U-D-A-C-Y. Thank you for tuning in on your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. If you have SiriusXM, it's channel 375.
If you got a smart speaker, ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network. You can find me on the internet where people argue and hate each other and say all the mean things. Me, I just talk about my damn show in sports.
And I don't argue with people about Kaitlin Clark and Angel Reese. I'm not RG3. I'm not that other guy. Ryan Clark. I'm neither of those guys.
You can find me all those places, too. I am at JR Sportbrief. What a day. What a day.
What a day. Ryan Botcher, how are you, man? You good?
I'm great. I'm actually kind of mad at the NBA, though, for Shoms for releasing the MVP before the pregame show. Oh, boy. Well, we knew that was coming, right? Well, yeah, but it makes no sense to leak it before. But there's like hyping up, oh, seven o'clock right before the game and then drops.
Was it 340? Well, that's his job, right? He doesn't work.
Well, they're going to happen. It's on TNT, right? I know. It's just he doesn't work. He ruins everything. He doesn't work for TNT. He works for ESPN. So it ruins the draft. He ruins this.
Now it's it's a list. Well, you don't have you don't have to pay the guy any attention. You know that, right? It's hard not to because they spam notifications to like ESPN will send something out and then. Oh, yeah. I don't live my life like that. I don't if it's not a human being, I'm not hearing about it, OK? That's a that's a better mentality. Yeah, I don't need a I don't need vague messages just emanating from all over the Internet.
I don't need to be that connected in life. So we'll we'll get into Shay Gilgus Alexander next hour. I mean, we all knew for a while pretty much that he was going to win MVP and that ultimately, Nicola Jokic, who had a ridiculously amazing year, was was going to come in second. And ironically, last night, Michael Malone, his former head coach, who's now a contributor to ESPN, he had some words about Shay Gilgus Alexander winning MVP. These words were different than what we heard.
Well, before he got fired. So we'll get into that next hour. We should also have word officially from TNT. The official announcement should take place next hour before the New York Knicks take on the Indiana Pacers in New York City. And I know everybody in New York is pretty hyped about that. Hopefully after a win, maybe a win tonight.
The fans in New York City don't don't lose their their minds. We got more basket. We got a lot of basketball to get into. But before we get into some hoops and and get into Shay Gilgus Alexander and what he did last night with the Oklahoma City Thunder, I got to tell you, I am I'm thrilled. I am happy with one of the reports that we got today. Today was a big day in the NFL.
The owners sat around, had their meetings, ate fancy food, acted like a bunch of rich guys that they are. And they made a decision today on something that bothered me and irritated me. Not that the this the fact or issue irritated me.
The fact that it was being debated to me was weak. I'm referring to the push. I want you to listen to this great news that came down the pipe earlier today, courtesy of CBS Sports HQ. We got breaking news on the NFL here on HQ, where the push will remain part of the NFL. The Packers proposal to ban the Eagles signature play failed to get 75 percent of the votes at today's owners meetings in Minneapolis. That came after owner Jeffrey Lurie, a retired Eagles center.
Jason Kelcey spoke out in favor of keeping the play to the owners today. Good. Good, good, good, good, good. I've been taking calls all week. I've been talking about this for months. The idea of removing the tush push was a load of crap. OK. Unfortunately, the Green Bay Packers decided to be the team to carry the flag on behalf of the NFL to eliminate the tush push. I got calls and callers from Wisconsin telling me, oh, JR, the push and pull. Since when does Pete since when do people care about the rules so damn much? OK, it's real simple. Is it holding?
Yes or no? Is it pass interference? OK, the guy was held like outside of that.
Since when do people care so much about? Well, he was pushing or pulling the guy. Who cares? You know, if I see a running back, if my running back, he has the ball. And three offensive linemen come from behind him and shove his ass into the end zone.
Guess what? I do not care. OK. And if I'm rooting against him, I also do not care.
Send three of my guys to go push him back. This is the NFL. You got people running around claiming, oh, it's rugby. It's not an NFL play. Oh, even these ridiculous comments about, you know, from Mark Murphy about, oh, it's not good for the game.
Did you see Frankie Louvou jump over the the line? It's just not good for the game. And you play, but you just relax. It's football. I mean, I got 60 minutes of the game, sometimes more.
Figure it out in between the lines. You know, as long as nobody is punching somebody in the groin or stepping on another dude, then please. Play ball. This is not what we had to go through.
I remember just just a couple of months ago. Packers President Mark Murphy, he's been the chairman of banning the tush push. This man was sitting down on up and Adams and he basically said, oh, this is not a football play. This is not good. We need to ban this. And, you know, we tried to ban it, but we're going to vote again in May. And they voted today and they got voted down.
Listen to this stuff. I just don't think it's a good play for the game. It's, you know, we put forward a proposal to ban it and the vote on it. And the league meeting in March was, you know, 16 to 16. So we tabled it. We're going to go back. We're going to look at and probably adopt or propose the language that was in place 2005 and basically prohibited pushing or pulling runners.
Oh, come on, man. I'm glad it was voted down. I'm glad that NFL owner said no. I'm glad that Eagles owner Mark Lurie. I'm glad that Jason Kelsey, former Eagles player, future Hall of Famer.
I'm glad that he was out there. And they were just like, no, why are y'all going to ban this? Why are y'all being punks? I don't know if I'm allowed to call. I don't know. Is Sissy a good word anymore? I don't know.
Not calling anybody is to see. I'm just somebody told me, is it OK for me to say I'm not sure. Yeah, you're good.
No, thank you. Yeah. Go ahead. Go. You go.
I would go loser. Complainer. Yeah. There's a whole lot of other words you can use to know that they are.
I want to make sure that I say the right ones, not the wrong ones of the dumb button ready. Thank you. At the end of the day. The NFL went soft on this one, OK? And they had the Eagles, a loser team, go out there and and carry the flag. The Eagles and all of their pettiness and their own response. The Philadelphia Eagles online on social media had a post ready for when the ban was voted down. That post was simply a tush push play getting ready to be ran between the Packers and the Eagles. And it just simply had a there's a caption that said push on. That's it.
And good. Play football. Everybody all of a sudden cares.
Everybody all of a sudden is so interested in the pushing or pulling of a defender. How about I care if my guy catches the ball? How about I care if my quarterback can actually throw a touchdown and not an interception? How about I care if my running back, you know, maybe he can gain about five yards to carry. Maybe my field goal kicker can knock in a chip shot at 30 or maybe push it to 40 or 50. Maybe he can go 60 plus yards.
That's what I care about. I want to see my defensive end. I want to see him get a sack. Two sacks, three sacks, four sacks in the game. I want to see the defensive backs grabbing interceptions and taking it to the house for six. We'll see onside kicks.
We got people who are really been brainwashed and start complaining. About the pushing and pulling of an offensive player like they sat down and wrote the damn rules. And we have Frankie Louvou trying to jump over the line and who knew who knew that the referee could jump up and say, hey, by the way, if this guy does this crap again. And by the way, he's the only guy to do it a million times in a game that I've ever seen. Whoever knew that you could be awarded six points automatically because this guy is screwing up the game.
The referee says, oh, yeah, by the way, I have the power to do that. None of y'all knew that, huh? The reality about the Tush push, it's not that big of a deal.
I said this earlier this week. It accounts it for point twenty eight percent of all plays ran in the NFL last year. Let me let me help you out with some math. I'm not a math major.
OK, but I can add one plus one. I know one hundred is one. One out of one hundred is one percent. Let me tell you, it's less than one percent. Point to eight.
OK, not half of a percent, a little over a quarter of a percentage point, barely none. And the only two teams that really ran out there and got it done were the Eagles and Bills. They are the only two teams last season that ran the play more than five times last year. This is just a matter of, well, we can't beat them. So let's just change the rules. Hey, we got that guy over there is doing too many dunks in basketball. No more dunks in college. OK, what are we going to do, ban the three point shot? Should we have banned the three point shot because Steph Curry was shooting from range that other guys couldn't? And yeah, we had a bunch of idiots and had no business shooting threes thinking that they were Steph Curry.
But the next time we have a dominant player, we should just change the rules. The Eagles were dominant. They found a play. They ran it. Nobody else could run it at the same success rate that they have. That's an 86 percent success rate over the past two years for the Eagles. When it comes down to the tush push, if it was so damn easy, then everybody else would be doing it. Mark Murphy's like, oh, well, we're going to have other teams that are going to do it.
How about now? But they know what they're doing. I remember a few months ago, the other NFL owners meetings, Nick Sirianni, who just got himself a brand new contract extension. Nick Sirianni was sitting down with CBS Sports and he pretty much explained as the head coach of the team and now Super Bowl champ, like there's a science to this. Why do you, the Packers, why do you, the NFL, want to punish us? Because we can do something better than everybody else.
Listen to Nick Sirianni. We work so hard at that. I'm a little insulted in the sense of it's like, well, it's just a gimme. We work so hard at that play. We're talking about banning it.
I think that's a little unfair. And again, a little insulted by that in the sense of AJ Brown's really good at catching the deep ball. I don't think we're going to ban that. Patrick Mahomes is a phenomenal quarterback.
We can't ban all those things that he does so well. I think what's so exciting about that play also is that you're seeing it at every level of football. And I see a high school team, it brings so much joy to me that a high school team is doing it. My son in a football game this last year scored on that play. Really? His son scored on it.
I guess his, well, osmosis, right? My son can pick it up from me. Other NFL teams can't pick it up besides the Buffalo Bills. I'm thrilled the other NFL owners did not punk out.
I'm thrilled we got NFL teams that said, fine, let's keep the tush push. Now let's do everybody a favor. Table it.
Leave it alone. And if you want to take the injury angle, who's gotten hurt so far? Nobody. And by the way, guys getting hurt in the NFL all the damn time, OK?
All the time. Let's not single out a play that the NFL already said we have no data on. Let's not single out a play that the NFL said we have no information. Oh, yeah.
And by the way, it's only run zero point two eight percent of the time. Focus on the field goals. Focus on the holding. Focus on the pass interference.
Focus on other things. I hope the Eagles run the tush push against the Packers next year. Every play I hope they inch their way down the field into the end zone. Packers come across like a bunch of. Water carrying crybabies full of tears. The NFL did this to you, Packers, and you fell in line.
Bunch of suckers. The J.R. sport show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm glad we still have a brotherly shove, a little push push. We got so much more to get into as the show continues on. We're going to get into Shay Gilgus. Alexander expected to win the end up. Well, not the NFL. He can't do that.
Too skinny. Expected to win the NBA MVP officially next hour. We got another basketball game coming up tonight. Game one of the Eastern Conference finals between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers. We found out who's going to be on hard knocks.
Both editions in season and this summer. We got the Buffalo Bills for the summertime to talk all things basketball. We'll be joined by Sam Quinn next hour.
We got a top six list coming your way in a few hours. Top six crybabies in sports. Is Juan Soto a crybaby? I don't know.
He seems to be moping around New York City right now, despite having a seven hundred and sixty five million dollar contract. We'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history. And speaking of beating people down. Last night was a beatdown. The Oklahoma City Thunder.
They ran the wolves out of the building. We talked about it last night. I just think the size, the length and the defense of the Thunder. I think they're going to win this series. And last night, I believe, was just a taste.
We're going to talk about the Thunder, who looked like they're on their way to the NBA finals, if you ask me. If you want to call me, you can. Where are all the tush push apologists at?
OK, where's everybody from Wisconsin saying that we should ban the tush push? You can call me. 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN.
The phone lines are open. OK, we'll talk about the Thunder on the other side. A lot to do. The JR Sport Brief Show, the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief.
It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. I need you to think. Yeah, use your noodle. Use your noggin. 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. 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. We opened up the show by talking about the tush push. It's not going anywhere. The NFL owners said, no, we're going to keep it.
Great. That means a good majority of the NFL owners are not a bunch of punks. Not a bunch of fraidy cats willing to just let the Eagles do what they need to do because they're better at something than you are.
It's terrible. Good for them having a backbone. And then we're going to talk about what took place last night. Forget backbone. I need the Minnesota Timberwolves to, yeah, they need to find their backbone. They need to find their whole spine.
Because they just didn't have it last night. And I think ultimately the Oklahoma City Thunder, they're going to, they're just going to run all over these guys. They have it. I think they have all of it.
They're going to take it to the NBA Finals. The phone line's open if you want to give me a holler. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We got Brian. He's calling from South Carolina.
You're on the JR Sportbreeze show. What's up, Brian? Hey, man. Thanks for having me.
Sure. What's up? I just want to say I agree completely with you on the tush push. It is kind of, you know, football's a man's game.
Supposed to be a tough guy, you know, if you play it. And then they're trying to basically make a play against the rules that other teams can't stop. Kind of makes me think back about the time I ate it here, but when Jim and Jonathan coached Miami, you know, they used to beat people by 100 points. If you don't like it, stop it.
Same way with the tush push. You know, if you don't like it, stop it. Tell them, Brian. That's right. Yeah, I mean, just kind of like I'm going to take my dawg and go home. Yeah, well, we've seen kids do that before.
Them punk ass kids want to take their ball and go home. Yeah, that's right. And I had another question I just want to get your opinion on. Yes. You briefly mentioned Jay Wilkerson Alexander, who is a great player, by the way. But in your opinion, do you think and I know this kind of this can relate to Michael Jordan as well.
All right. Do you think Joe can win the MVP again this year? What do you think, Sam?
Well, Brian, I think you're in for unfortunate news. It's been reporting via Sean's Charonia that Jay Gilgus Alexander has won the MVP and that the formal announcement is going to come, I'd say, in probably less than an hour from now on TNT. So it doesn't look like it doesn't look like Jokic is going to win another one. Stay tuned. We're going to talk about this whole MVP situation as it unfolds next hour. OK. All right. Thank you, Brian, for calling from South Carolina. No doubt about it.
A great analogy, by the way. Green Bay Packers basically said, ah, we can't stop the push. The ball belongs to us.
We leaving. We all know that kid, right? I mean, were you five? Were you 10 years old? I don't know.
Maybe you might have been in high school. It's like you get your well, somebody's getting their behinds kicked. And instead of going out there and growing and becoming better and strategizing and figuring it out. They just go on. I'm done. I'm taking my ball. I'm going home.
If I can't win, nobody wins. Punk. As. Kid. Anyway, there was a bunch of people complaining last night.
And I understand it, but I guess that's just what people do is complain. Why? Kavech. Moan.
Find an issue with something and everything. And last night it was the dude who's going to win MVP. It was Shay Gilgus Alexander. How many free throws is this guy going to take? He took 14 free throws last night, knocked down 11 of them. And yes, sometimes the referees say they're giving them the benefit of the doubt. And sometimes they give them too much benefit of the doubt and and call in ticky tack files. I will agree with that. What the hell you want from Shay Gilgus Alexander?
The man knows how to draw and attract contact. It's a part of the game. I'm not going to complain about his style of play.
It's just like any and everybody else. We have players out here who are so damn skilled or have just physical attributes that are so much different than the other players. That they can take advantage of the rules. That's a part of the game. And for everybody complaining about Shay Gilgus Alexander, you know what's going to change?
Nothing. That man is still going to get his fouls called. He's still going to go to the free throw line and knock down a good majority of them. And you're still going to sit down and watch.
So leave Shay Gilgus Alexander alone. The Thunder wiped out the Wolves. 114 to 88. Minnesota led 48 to 44 at the half. Julius Randle, who's taken this game to another level here in this postseason, he had 28 points. But he only had eight points in the second half. We had Anthony Edwards.
We talked about this live on the air last night. I'm watching the game. The next thing I know, I see Anthony Edwards.
This man is he's running to the back. Anthony Edwards had an ankle issue. He came back, only had 18 points, five of 13 shooting. He took one shot in the fourth. I mean, he was launching threes. I was just like, he got no push to the basket?
Is his leg that screwed up? And we had a caller last night. I said, look, the Thunder are huge. Like they're forcing turnovers. They're grabbing rebounds. They're stealing the ball. Yeah, I know Julius Randle is big and strong. But I mean, there were times I saw Nas Reed and Julius Randle go into the chest of Chet Holmgren. And it's not about just blocking the shot. It's about altering the shot. I saw one of them guys go up. Chet Holmgren lifted up his arm and they had to fling up a layup.
It just missed everything. OK, like there's a difference in just having length, having monstars like like from Space Jam. Remember, like Sean Bradley was in space. You're just having a giant guy go out there and just lift up his damn arms can make a huge difference in a basketball game. Minnesota shot 51 threes last night, 51. Yeah, they must think they're the Celtics of the West.
They only made 15 of them. And Anthony Edwards, knowing that he only took 13 shots despite the ankle, really didn't drive to the basket. This is one of the most freaks of nature that we have in a game and was settling for threes.
This is what Anthony Edwards had to say about fixing their offensive struggles. I definitely got to shoot more. I only took 13 shots. But I'll say probably just get off the ball a little more. Play without the ball.
I think that would be the answer, because playing on the ball, they're just going to double and sit in the gaps all day. So I've got to go watch some film and pick it apart. We'll figure it out.
Yeah. And I said, I'm not no basketball genius, by the way. I did work for NBA TV. Never shot a basketball professionally in my life.
I think that speaks for something. Rudy Gobert. Rudy Gobert had two points and three rebounds.
I said last night, I said, I believe that he would be neutralized because he can't shoot the ball. And they got two giants out there. And so they put Nas Reed out there.
He couldn't do no better. This defense is crazy for the Oklahoma City Thunder and multiple players go out there and score in double figures. They can go off. Minnesota just doesn't have the same type of depth.
They don't. Shea Gilgus Alexander. He says, you know what?
All this back and forth. And he had a crappy start to the game himself. Two of 13 from the field to start. Eight of 14 in the second half. He finished with 31 points.
He says, you know what? This game? Yeah, we were down at the half, but we came back and won. It's a chess match. Come on. Use your brain. Yeah, it's always a chess match out there. You go out there.
You have a base coverage. You have something that you you want to start with and you see how the game goes. And then you just read and react and adjust from there. They make a move.
You make a move. It's back and forth. And it's going to be like that throughout the series. They're a really good team. They'll make adjustments. They'll get better for sure.
We have to continue to get better as well. Yeah, well, we know how he plays. I just told you there are a bunch of complainers on the Internet who don't like how he plays. Taking all these free throws, free throw merchant.
I mean, they mentioned that Doris Burke did. When he aired last night, he's a free throw merchant. He's selling calls and trying to sell the referees.
You would think that he's an arms dealer out here the way that people are talking about him. And Chris Finch, Minnesota Timberwolves head coach, he was asked about all the free throw attempts that Shea Gilgas Alexander took last night and just his propensity to draw fouls. And this is what Chris Finch had to say. Yeah, there was a lot of frustration out there, but we got to we know we talked about that before the series started. And, you know, we got we have to be able to kind of put that aside and get on with the next play mentality. So, yeah, get over it. That's it. Suck it up.
Get over it. On to the next one. I don't think there's going to be any different from Minnesota. I think they'll pick up at least two games. I thought that this will be a six game series. I don't think it will get pushed to seven. Let's see if Minnesota can steal one on the road.
I do not think so. They pick up a victory and or two. It'll likely be on the road or excuse me, at home and or maybe with their backs up against the wall as Oklahoma City maybe relaxes. I think the Thunder are on their way to an NBA finals. We'll see. I think we have an idea where Shay Gilgus Alexander is going on his way to an NBA MVP.
We expect that announcement as soon as an hour from now or less. Anyway, we got more basketball to get into. We'll talk about the Knicks and Pacers on the other side of the break. And we'll get into the MVP talk. We talked about the touch push. We'll get into NFL hard knocks. We've had some teams that have been released. We'll have a chat with Sam Quinn from CBS Sports next hour.
I'm giving you a top six list of crybabies in the world of sports. We have so much to do. But right now, this minute, this second, it's time for a news flash here on the Infinity Sports Network with Rich Ackerman. You are listening to the J.R. sport brief.
Yeah. Why don't we all just get along? Or we'll be a better place.
It is the J.R. sport show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. I can tell you about two folks that don't get along, won't get along. There will be no peace. At all.
None. It's the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers. We're a little more than an hour away from tip off game one of the Eastern Conference finals in New York City, Madison Square Garden. New York Knicks have not been. To an Eastern Conference finals in twenty five years. The New York Knicks haven't been to the NBA finals since nineteen ninety nine. OK. Indiana Pacers a couple of years after that, they actually beat the Knicks to advance to the NBA finals, then they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers. Indiana Pacers had a chance and an opportunity last year to advance to the NBA finals, but they lost to the Celtics in the East finals. So the Pacers, I guess this this team has a little bit more experience.
They have been Matheran coming off the bench and scoring, which they did not have last year. And the New York Knicks adjustments. Well, they got guys like Bridges and and an OB is healthy. And you picked up Carl Anthony Towns, Isaiah Hartenstein. I mean, he's now balling out for the Oklahoma City Thunder. But the Knicks.
They're in a space that they haven't been in forever. And appropriately, the Knicks fans have been out here losing their minds. Ryan Botcher, how many Nick fans have you seen today? A lot just at work or are you being crazy in the street? I actually haven't seen many, but after they did beat the Celtics, I think I saw Knicks gear for the next like three days after that.
Just out on the street, on the subway, the street. They spawned out of nowhere. It was almost as bad as a random Yankee hat. Wow. Well, you see. Wow.
You see random. Everybody's wearing Yankee hat. So now everybody is wearing Knicks stuff around the city. Yes.
It's like you'll see the jackets and hats and and sweaters. It's a lot. Wow. Look at this. People, people. The New York Knicks are not a joke anymore.
How about that? You see nobody getting garbage thrown at them. You haven't seen the Pacers fan, right? Oh, I saw the clip on Twitter where a Pacers fan was on the Fifth Avenue or Seventh Avenue after the Knicks beat the Celtics. And he got basically assaulted by Knicks fans because he was wearing a Halliburton jersey.
Yeah, he was a firefighter, too. They were beating up a firefighter, throwing trash. They were throwing those big blue trash bins at this guy.
Well, not the bins, the bags. Not that it's better, but that's not good. But he's also not smart to wear a Pacers jersey in the city. Yeah, bad idea. You know, why not?
And I know that hate may not be there in the same way, but about 20 years ago, why not just, you know, go to Fenway Park in a Yankees jersey and then just leave afterwards and just, you know, tell me how people feel about you. And they're not even playing your team either. That's another issue. Yeah, another another issue. Yeah, he set himself up for that. Where are Padres jersey in the bleachers at Dodger Stadium?
Tell me how that'll work out for you. Anyway, that guy's now getting a free trip to whatever the hell they call this place. Used to be Conseco Fieldhouse.
I can't keep up. Whatever the hell they call the arena in Indianapolis. And Halliburton is nice enough to get him a trip and get him some tickets to the game because he was assaulted while we're in the jersey. Very nice.
And maybe I should stage something to get some tickets, although no one will ever believe me. And besides all of that stuff, they're going to have some beef on the court. Tyrese Halliburton is a pain in the ass. In the playoffs, he's averaging 18 points and 10 assists. Pretty close to his season averages, but he has hit some big shots. I mean, against Cleveland, he had 31 points to eliminate them. We know about that big three to eliminate Milwaukee. He had 26 points in that game. That's the game where his dad absolutely lost his mind and decided to taunt Giannis Atetokounmpo.
I'm expecting just as much hate. I'm expecting this series to go to seven games. And I'm really only giving the edge to the New York Knicks because of home court advantage, but then also because of Brunson. Like he's the best player in the series.
He's the purest scorer. I think if he stays healthy and Mitchell Robinson can stay on the floor. I think the New York Knicks have a good chance to go out here and win. This is going to be a great series all the way around, and someone who believes that they are going to actually win.
Of course, why wouldn't they? The pace is Pascal Siakam. Pascal Siakam took the approach of. We went here last year to the Eastern Conference Finals. We lost to the Boston Celtics.
Now it's time for us to win against the Knicks. He said we got some added motivation now. Once you go back to after last year, you know, you we put a lot of work in and we want to come back and want to be better. We back where we was that last year. So it's an opportunity to get better and improve from what we did before. I don't constantly think about it, but I know that there is an opportunity for us to to improve upon what we did last year and the run that we had.
And it's nothing to improve upon, but just just advance. That's it. Is that could you imagine? Oh, man, he'd be insufferable. He's already popping up on WWE television. He'd be insufferable. Tyrese Halliburton would be if he made it to the NBA finals. I don't know if I trust him in a big moment. I mean, not to carry a team all the way through. He has his ups. He has his downs. We know he can knock down a big shot.
I don't trust him. I am worried about Carl Anthony Towns for the New York Knicks. He has his ups. He has his downs. Sometimes I think he lacks aggression and trying to relieve Jalen Brunston. Sometimes I think he falls to the background. Sometimes he can knock down some big shots and big threes. He can go to the basket. Sometimes I think he's a little too passive. He's averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds this season or this postseason. He's putting up some numbers. I think sometimes he can do more.
I think sometimes he disappears. And Carl Anthony Towns says, we, the New York Knicks, we can still take our game to another level. We haven't played 48 minutes of great basketball.
I thought that last game in the Boston series, we finally looked like a team that got closer to playing all 48 minutes. We got to find a way to accomplish that every game now. You know, this is the time to be at our best and we need to be at our best. Man, you need to be at your best.
This guy's popping up on, you know, New York Yankee games and he's showing off his T-shirt and we won and all that. Hey, man, when the next series, OK? Like everybody in New York is happy right now about the New York Knicks. But go out there. And when? Go to the NBA finals.
I think they will. But they got to slow down Halliburton. This guy runs the offense. He does not turn the basketball over. The offense is crazy. They don't care who gets the shots and who gets it. They get the rebound. They're off. They're running. They're moving in transition.
They got to figure out how to stop it. Pascal Siakam, he talked about the offense and how anybody can get going at any time. You just got a bunch of guys that want to play for each other. You can't have egos. You have to focus on the team. And that's what we preach. We preach to the team and that's the only thing in our minds. And I think once you have that mentality, it's probably not easy, but you'll probably be able to achieve that and do that selfless basketball and just playing for one thing, which is winning. Yeah, just go out there and win. That's why they play the games, right?
Everybody plays to go out there and win. I'm picking a New York Knicks to win this series. I'm picking a New York Knicks to win in seven. We're going to get another one of these classic New York Knicks-Indiana Pacers matchups. They have met in the playoffs six times from 1993 to the year 2000.
You know what? And this is pretty even of a series. Last year, the Pacers eliminated the Knicks, stopping them from advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Outside of last year, we're talking even, OK? After last season, all time, the Indiana Pacers have 26 victories in the postseason to the New York Knicks 22. I think in about a week, a week and a half, I think the New York Knicks are going to jump them. I think the New York Knicks are on their way to the finals because the Pacers don't have a Brunson. But the New York Knicks, there is a concern, I would say, about their depth. I mean, they brought on Mikel Bridges. He has certainly had himself a great postseason, playing some great defenses, woke up. Oji Ananobi, I mean, helping to stop some of the Boston Celtics, those big comebacks before Tatum and Brown went down.
Admirable. I am concerned about the Knicks depth, especially as the Pacers want to get up and down the court. But I think the New York Knicks can kind of slow things down.
I think that will be their approach. Go out there and win in the half court. I think we're in store for a great series. Pacers could certainly advance to the NBA Finals. I'm going with the Knicks.
Hey, Batcher, what do you think about this series? I, deep down as a Nets fan, want the Pacers to win. But I think the Knicks will take this in six.
I just think they have the better star power of the two teams. Look, when it comes down to the nitty gritty, every team needs somebody to go out there and get the job done. Now, the Pacers do have plenty of depth. Pacers have guys who can go out there and just get buckets. As Pascal Siakam just said, hey, our offense is random. I mean, there's times when T.J. McConnell comes off the bench and I'm like, oh, man, this guy has gotten hot. I mean, Matherin, I mean, he was getting buckets at all times before he got hurt. I mean, I'm talking about last year.
Now he's just out here getting buckets. They can get the job done. They got multiple dudes who can go off at any moment in time. But I got the New York Knicks in seven and I hope New York City is prepared. Because if the Knicks go to the finals, everybody outside will be going insane.
It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Jalen Brunson, he's the MVP of the New York Knicks. He's, I think, the deciding factor as to why they will win this series.
We're going to take a break when we come back. We're expected to learn about who is going to win. The NBA MVP is supposed to be Shay Gilgus Alexander.
Did he deserve it over Jokic? We'll get into that. We got Sam Quinn coming up. We found out who's going to be on NFL Hard Knocks. We got a lot to do. J.R. sport re-show. Infinity Sports Network.
