It is! The JR Sportbrief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia.
Thank you to everybody tuned in locked in all over North America. I hope you're well. I hope you're great.
I hope you're amazing. I hope you've had a great start to your week. We've had a great start to the show. It gets started here every weekday 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.
I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our producer in New York City, Nico Scarlatos, for holding things down on the boards. And what did we talk about in the first hour?
Well, of course, we got into what took place over the weekend. The New York Knicks season is over and the Indiana Pacers are on their way to the NBA Finals to meet the Oklahoma City Thunder. The New York Knicks, the media, they're playing the blame game, beating up on Carl Anthony Towns, beating up on Josh Hart, beating up on Josh. Excuse me, Josh Hart and Tom Thibodeau's getting smacked around in the Pacers. Well, we'll see them get up and down a basketball court against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
There was a rumor today, a report that Giannis and the Raptors, Giannis and Terescumpo, both he and the Raptors have mutual interest in potentially consummating a trade. Well, the Bucs are going to be the ones that have to figure that out. We talked about a Detroit Lions who is no longer a Lion. Their center, Frank Ragnow, is done. He says, I'm too many injuries, too many foot issues. I'm done with the Detroit Lions.
I am retiring. The Lions have lost some coaches in Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn. They're now missing a key piece to their offensive line. I don't know.
I think the Lions may fall a little bit further down the pack. And we have so much more to get into as the show continues on. If you want to call me up, you can. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. You can find me online. I exist all over the place. I am at JR Sport Brief. I just told you everybody in New York, well, a lot of people in New York are playing the blame game. We're going to have a chat with our buddy Christian Winfield. He's going to come through in about 20 minutes to talk about what's next for the New York Knicks. We've got plenty of time, plenty of days to talk about the Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. We'll talk more about the Pacers and the teams that are actually still playing. We'll do that at the top of next hour.
So many things to get into as well. David Ortiz basically saying that Rafael Devers needs to be left alone. You might recall Rafael Devers has been asked to change positions twice. And he absolutely refuses to do it for the Boston Red Sox. The Mariners are retiring. Randy Johnson's number. Saquon is on the cover of Madden. I don't know if people in Philly appreciate that.
We know about the Madden curse being bandied about for years. So we got a lot to get into. 888-710-4ISN. Thank you for listening on the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. Sirius XM, channel 375. If you got Sirius and if you have a smart speaker, ask the speaker.
Talk to the machine. Demand that it play the Infinity Sports Network. You know, before we chat with Christian Winfield about what's next for the New York Knicks and potentially Tom Thibodeau. I can't believe people are like, bringing Mike Malone, bringing Mike Malone. I got to talk to you about another head coach. He is, not might be, he is one of the most famous coaches in the entire country, regardless of sport.
It's prime time. It's Deion Sanders. Deion Sanders is in the news. Why is Deion in the news? Because for the first time since the NFL draft a little more than a month ago, Deion has now come to the defense of his sons.
Not just Shiloh, who plays cornerback, who had to sign undrafted with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but his more famous son. Deion had to come to the defense of Chidor, who we all know, after Thursday came by in the NFL draft, not drafted. After Friday came in the NFL draft, not drafted. Chidor was drafted in the fifth round by the Browns, who, by the way, decided to select Dylan Gabriel in the third round before they even gave Chidor Sanders a call. Not what you expected when you think about all of the picks and quarterbacks who were taken in front of him, which there were five. It was really supposed to be Cam Ward, Chidor Sanders, and then everybody else. Jackson Dart went before Chidor to the New York Giants. Tyler Shuck went to the Saints, okay? Jalen Milro was selected, Dylan Gabriel, and then Chidor was drafted. And I give Chidor credit, after he was selected, he pretty much said, my job isn't to come out here and prove people wrong, it's to prove the people who selected me that I was the right choice in the decision, and we know the Browns. They got a lot of quarterbacks. Joe Flacco just last week says, hey, I'm not here to, you know, babysit or mentor anybody.
It doesn't matter what I say. You know, the media is going to flip it around. You have Kenny Pickett.
We know who he is. Kenny Pickett is a backup. Deshaun Watson blown out Achilles. We know Deshaun Watson just might as well not even count in the equation. And then you have Dylan Gabriel, who upon being selected, people are looking at him for the first time and they're like, wait a minute. This Dylan Gabriel guy is kind of small, which makes you look at the Browns quarterback room and go, is Chidor not going to break out of this room?
Last week during OTAs and some of the practices, it appears that Chidor was the best quarterback on the roster. Well, Deion, he sat down on a podcast because why? Everybody has a podcast. Ahsante Samuel has a podcast.
I guess this is all about cornerbacks. And this podcast is called Say What Needs To Be Said. And Deion Sanders said exactly what was on his mind about his sons. And he doesn't appreciate some of the words about how his son was not prepared, not professional.
Take a listen to what Deion had to say. I know it was a lot of rumors about the next level, and I can't see that. Yeah, I can see the next level. And I think a couple of people who may have taken shots at my kids, they were afraid that I would go.
That's where the shots came from. All you got to do is just sit back and listen. People don't want to do that.
They want to create these narratives and create these stories and then attach them to a kid that ain't never done nothing wrong. How does that make you feel when you see your colleagues or your peers going in on you, man? How does that make you feel? You have no idea, man.
You have no idea. When you sit up there and say something like, he went in a meeting unprepared, like, dude, Chidor Sanders, who's had six different coordinators, who has still functioned and leveled up every time we brought somebody new in. And you're going to tell me he was in a situation. So it was some foolish stuff that went on.
But you know what? That gave them something that they needed. And that's something that they needed was to pin something on his son.
And I think we all knew this was potentially going to be the case. When you're Dion's son, people were going to look at this as a way to get back at Dion or to put Dion in his place. He's always been loud. He's been outspoken.
He says what's on his mind. And in a lot of cases, that's not appreciated. In a lot of cases, that's not wanted. And when you think about the NFL, when you have coaches and organizations who want to control the stories and just everything, they want to micromanage everything.
Bringing on Chidor Sanders and not knowing exactly what you were going to hear or get out of Dion, I think was too risky for a lot of teams. And I think this interview that you just heard or this clip of an interview from Ahsante Samuel, the podcast, is exactly one of the reasons. Look, I don't fault Dion Sanders for wanting to bite back and defend his son. I can't imagine a reason why he wouldn't want to. This is after the fact he's well within his right to say whatever's on his mind. But that's just an example, what you just heard, as to why I think some teams didn't want to draft him or didn't select him based on benefit of the doubt. This is what I believe.
And I've said this quite a few times. If Chidor Sanders was a no-doubt quarterback, if teams thought that bringing in Chidor was going to change their franchise's fortunes, they would have brought on Chidor. They would have swallowed the tough pill, they would have taken the medicine, they would have swallowed it and been like, look, we got Chidor, we will deal with Dion. Chidor, I don't think, was that much of a talent. He wasn't looked upon in the same way physically of a Cam Ward, where he was a no-doubter, where we just had to take him, we had to select him, and so he fell.
And so I think there were multiple factors in there. And so Dion could pound the desk and, you know, put in his two cents. The best and only thing that Chidor can do right now is ultimately win the job.
That's it. Like, Dion can't go out there and play for Chidor. Shiloh can't wake up and play for Chidor like nobody else is going to go out there and play quarterback.
He has to go and earn it. I mean, this is a little bit different of a situation, but we saw last year what took place with LeBron and Brony. Brony was a McDonald's All-American. Brony went to USC. It looked like Brony was going to be on an upward trajectory towards, you know, making an NBA team or roster, certainly being competitive.
He had a heart issue, or he had a heart issue. He had to put a pause to his basketball playing career. And then he was still selected number 55 in the draft by the Lakers. And we all knew it was a favor of thank you to LeBron James.
That's it. And LeBron James has had to go out of his way to defend his son so much that, I mean, he's threatening, you know, Stephen A. Smith to not talk about his boy and keep it about basketball. So fathers are going to look out for their sons. Dads are going to look out for their boys. I don't care how old they are, but there comes a point in time, I don't care what sport it is. Everything that happens is going to take place in between the lines. OK. I mean, I saw a report that the Lakers are hoping that Brony can turn into a rotation piece next year, coming off the bench, picking up 10 to 15 minutes.
Well, you know what? LeBron can't just gift it to him. Brony can't just waltz out there.
We're not getting a token appearance so we could have a father and son on the basketball court as cool as it was. Brony's going to have to earn those minutes. And Chador, Dion could do all the interviews in the world. He could pop up here.
He could pop up there. Everything that anybody feels about Chador is going to happen because he's better than Kenny Pickett or he's better than Dylan Gabriel, which, you know, certainly he's going to want to prove, and that he can take the job from Joe Flacco, who's 40 years old. And so there's a good chance that we see Chador this year. I think there's a good chance we see Chador playing multiple games.
I feel strongly that he's going to go on a stretch where it's going to be his job to ultimately lose. Is it going to come in September? I doubt it.
Chador might have to wait until, I don't know, October, November, maybe early December before he gets a good stretch of games, but his time is going to come and it's going to have absolutely nothing to do with Dion. You want to talk about being served some humble pie? The Sanders family got it.
You know, you can't deny the success of the family and the family name and the fame and the fortune. Chador has to eat some of this, too. This is someone who said, hey, look, if you're an NFL team in a franchise, you know, if you want to turn around your team, draft me. Every team said no multiple times.
The Browns said, damn it, he's a deal at this point. We might as well bring him on. Are you going to turn around the Browns?
I'm not so sure. We'll see. But I think I'm not giving Dion Sanders advice. He's going to say and do what he wants to do. After I've said this, I'm not talking about Chador no more. I'm going to let that man go out there and stand on his own two feet.
I've put in my two cents. I said what I feel happened to him because of me, and I'm just going to let him go to work. I don't want to be a distraction.
I don't want nobody to ask Chador about Dad. I'm just going to let him go out there and ball out. So if I'm Dion, I'm done.
You want to talk to me about Colorado, let's do it. But this is Dion. I don't think he's going to stop. Nico, what are your thoughts on these comments by Dion? Should he just kind of leave this alone at this point? I'm not surprised he's a dad talking about his son, but what are your thoughts on what he had to say? Yeah, it's one of those things where obviously, like you said, it's his son, so of course he's going to want to go out there and defend him. But all there's left to do now for Chador is prove it on the field. No words that come out of his mouth, his father's mouth, his brother's mouth are going to do anything other than stir the pot and cause negative attention. So the only thing he can do now, and I know it's not up to him necessarily as to whether or not he's going to start right away, but if he goes out there and does what he needs to do in OTAs, does what he needs to do in training camp, puts on a good show in pre-season, I'm sure it'll all work out for him in the end.
This is not the most profound, this isn't the deepest, the craziest question. Do you think Dion is, and he was on a podcast with Asante Samuel, so it's not like he was standing in front of the media at Colorado. I don't think he's going to stop. I don't think he's necessarily, he's going to slow down a little bit obviously because his son is no longer playing there with him. But do you believe that Dion is going to chill out by the time we get to later this year or are we just going to get an ongoing commentary as the Buffaloes are moving on this season? This may not be good for Dion as well, especially if Colorado can't continue to grow. Yeah, he's got to find a line between focusing on what he has to focus on, which is coaching Colorado like you said, and also letting his son do his thing. I don't see him slowing down because in my opinion he should have slowed down a while ago and never did, so why would he stop now?
You're right. Well, you see this, all things considered, you see the success that he's had as a coach, he's been able to coach his sons at every level, we see the success that they've had, and now it's up to them to go ahead and take the next step. It sounds crazy, if we go back a few months ago, just thinking about the Dallas Cowboys and their head coaching vacancy, people were talking about dream scenarios where Dion would end up back in Dallas as their head coach, and Shadore Sanders would be on board now as their quarterback of the future.
It's crazy to see how much dreams and how fast they can be dashed. Dion had to answer questions about speaking with Jerry Jones about the Dallas Cowboys coaching vacancy, so there's a lot to think about, father and son now separated, this ain't peewee, this is not high school, we are not at an HBCU, this is not Jackson State, this is not Colorado, this is the NFL and Dion is still in college, and I think it's time to see if they can find success without each other, and if they can be best, I do me and you do you, we'll talk on the phone every now and then, do a little FaceTime, sit down and have a great meal, but in public, I think it's time for everybody to stand on their own, especially Shadore, who has not had the success separate from his dad. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network, we're going to take a break, speaking of coaches, man this is one coach, he's probably the most criticized coach in the entire NBA, his name is Tom Thibodeau, his New York Knicks were just eliminated, we're going to have a chat with Christian Winfield from the New York Daily News, Christian is going to join us on the other side to talk about what's next for the New York Knicks, besides vacation. It's the JR Sport Reshow, Infinity Sports Network.
It is the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We just talked about one coach, that being Deion Sanders, his comments on his son Shadore, and his fall in the draft, and coaches in any sport, we know one thing, especially in the pros, they are up for criticism, and they are a whole hell of a lot easier to get rid of when the team doesn't have success. We saw the New York Knicks fall to the Indiana Pacers four games to two this past Saturday, and so the blame game is already underway in New York City. Is it Thibodeau's fault?
Is it Karl Anthony Towne's fault? Let's get rid of Josh Hart to talk about the New York Knicks, what's next, now that we know it's not the NBA Finals. Joining us right now, our guest, Christian Winfield, who covers the Knicks for the New York Daily News.
Christian, how are you man? My man, when I tell you, I understand why players can be so worn down from the travel schedule. Just from this playoff run alone, the most exciting part about coming home is getting to sleep in my own bed.
I got a good night's sleep for the first time in what felt like a month and a half to two months, and it just goes to show you how much action. Number one, it just goes to show you how far of a run this team made. You know, if you go back to the beginning of the season, I don't know if anyone thought that this Knicks team would get to the conference finals, would beat the reigning champions. Obviously, Tatum goes down. I don't think anyone had them still being one of the four or the last three teams standing, but at the end of the day, they got there and then things fell short, and when you fall short, when you're so close to the NBA Finals, you start looking at all the things that went wrong and how to correct them. So I'm sure we'll get into it, but big offseason coming up for the Knicks, that's for sure. Well, you talk about big offseason.
If we discuss what we just saw, it was only a matter of hours, it feels like, post elimination. Tom Thibodeau has been a punching bag for years in every stop that he's coached in the NBA, but Carl Anthony Towns is the one who was beat up for his defensive shortcomings. I don't think any of this was a surprise when he was traded over to the New York Knicks. What are your thoughts on Towns and how he played and now this reaction to him? You know, I thought it was a little unfair. Number one, this is a guy who clearly, like we all saw Carl Anthony Towns writhing in pain, holding his knee, looked like he wasn't going to come back into the game, let alone play another game in that series, gets up, limps to the scorer's table, and is giving everything he's got on the defensive end.
We knew he was compromised. I'm talking about a guy who, after game six, pretty much needs assistance getting from the podium all the way out of the building because he's hobbling on one leg, and this is a guy that gave you everything he had, and when you look at the stats and you look at the impact that he was able to have in the minutes he was on the floor, I'd argue that the Towns minutes were some of the best minutes of the series, especially when you consider how the rotations were staggered around him in an effort to combat some of the defensive shortcomings that the starting unit had, right? So, you know, there's obviously a lot of blame to go around, right?
There's also, you know, there should be some praise to go around, too. Listen, like I said, I don't know that anyone had this team get into the conference finals, especially when you consider, you know, big offseason trades, guys getting hurt in preseason, guys getting hurt regular season, and then you come into the first round, you get Detroit, which everyone expected you to win, but that's a physical series, and then you get to round two, and quite frankly, you stun the defending champs. Yes, I know we're talking about Tatum going down, but in my opinion, that series was over before Tatum got injured. The Knicks took the fight out of the Celtics. Granted, Porzingis is playing sick, you know, Sam Houser gets hurt in game one or whatever game it was, so, you know, obviously the runway there with the nonhealthy Boston team is a little bit easier, but to get to the conference finals for the first time in 25 years is no easy feat, right? Now, as we mentioned, now you run into an Indiana team that exposes all your shortcomings.
One of those is you have two starters, you know, that aren't really known for their defensive prowess, but, you know, this is what happens this offseason where you got to start looking into it. I don't think you can pin the blame solely on Towns. Towns played an incredible offensive series. Part of the reason we're frustrated is because they didn't give him the ball enough, right? When you got a guy who can dominate at will kind of the way he did in this series, you got to hunt that, and the Knicks didn't do that in this series because they haven't done that all season, right? So I think there's enough blame to go around in terms of ways the ball should be distributed, ways that plays should be run and called, but at the end of the day, to put it all on Towns, I don't think that was fair or accurate. Well, we know, Christian, that Tom Thibodeau, as I mentioned, he's always looked upon as to how he utilizes his bench, his depth, how he plays or does not play rookies or young players. We saw him dip into that bench as the series against the Pacers went on.
Tom Thibodeau, I can't expect that he's going to get the boot given his relationship to everybody on the team in management, but do you think he needs to change or adjust? Has this been overblown over the years? Well, let's look at it. We take a step back and we look at the two teams that are going to the NBA Finals.
What's the common denominator between both of them? They played 10 players, right? They've played 10 players all year long. They've got guys outside of their 10-man rotation where if somebody goes down, you're confident in the next guy stepping up because he's seen minutes during the regular season.
The Knicks have not had that, right? The Knicks have had eight guys at most during the regular season, and sometimes you cycle in Landry Sherman. Well, you didn't really cycle in Landry Sherman until later on.
You were cycling in campaign. Mitchell Robinson was hurt, didn't really see much of pressure that you were. The rookie, Dottie A, didn't play, or Kolek wasn't in the rotation. Delon Wright, you get mid-season and you don't really play him consistently until all your point guards go down. And then you go away from him even though he had some pretty good net rating statistics during that time. You don't bring him back until the Conference Finals. So there's always going to be a conversation about minutes, especially with Tom Thibodeau, because we know historically he's a guy who likes to keep his rotation short. And you play your starters minutes. You play the guys that you trust more minutes. But sometimes you've got to try to trust and build trust with guys on the outside of the rotation, right? It's like even if you do, say, for example, you do make some adjustments to this team where you get more depth, what's to say or who's to say that Tom puts those guys in the game, right?
So there are different questions in terms of roster building and how you're going to use those players. But at the end of the day, you're talking about the head coach who just got you to the Conference Finals for the first time since 2000. You're talking about the head coach who's orchestrated back-to-back 50-win seasons, including last year where that team is gritted down to nothing because of injury and you somehow get to 50 wins and you probably could have got to the Conference Finals if one of your players are healthy, but you run into Indiana and they wear you down. The issue is, and you'll see something about this from the New York Daily News tomorrow, the Knicks were obviously built to beat the Boston Celtics when you consider getting bridges and you get Ananobi. Now you got, that's not what the bar is anymore because Boston could be out of the picture for a while now with no Tatum. You're looking at teams like Cleveland, teams like Indiana that are deep, that have quality rotations, and you're going to have to find a way to combat that.
So not only is that with adding quality guys to your bench, but it's also trusting beyond the 7th and 8th man that the guys 8, 9, 10 on your roster can get it done. We don't know that we've seen that from Tom Thibodeau yet. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast-to-coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Man, this is what happens when you talk about the New York Knicks. We're right in the middle of a conversation with Christian Winfield from the New York Daily News about their future and what may happen.
And the next thing you know, it's like lines get cut. Welcome back, Christian Winfield from the New York Daily News. Christian, is this what Madison Square Garden does?
Is this how this works? Yeah, that's called defensive miscommunications all over the floor right there. We got to get you on track, man.
That was crazy. But listen, man, I think we were talking about, actually, what were we talking about? Were we talking about Tibbs? Were we talking about where this team goes next?
Where were we going? We were talking about roster construction and then thinking about how Tibbs is always on the firing line. But I did want to follow that up with what do and what can the New York Knicks do this offseason, if at all?
You talked about how this team was built to compete with the Celtics and they kind of ran off the floor with the Pacers. What can they do? Who can be moved?
Or do they just run it back? You know, I don't think you can run it back with the rosters currently constructed. You know, I think when you look at it and you look at kind of what the meta is that we were talking about, which is deep roster rotations, you've got to find a way to add quality pieces off your bench. And because you don't have these draft picks, because you're salary capped out and don't really have cap space to add free agents, you know, that typically means you're going to have to trade. And when you have so many big contracts and you've got to go like, oh, gee, that's making more than 30 million a year. When you've got a guy, Mikhail Bridges, who's up for a contract extension that could be four years, 156 million. You've got Jalen Brunson's contract extension about to kick in next year. Well, this upcoming season for another, what, 34 million and up for the next few years. And you're already paying cat 50 million a year and only going up like your options here in terms of improving the roster via free agency. And it really sounds more like improve the roster via trade.
And on top of that, you look at guys who maybe aren't part of that. You look at Josh Hart, who is an amazing young saying in terms of just charisma and got energy guy on the floor. But it was just tough to play him in some of these minutes. You need a consistent three point shooter. You need a guy who can go out there and not just shoot threes, but can also defend multiple positions consistently.
Josh had some defensive lapses in every series, it feels like. Right. So that's something that you look at. And you also just look at, you know, where can you improve in terms of adding depth? Sometimes that means taking a guy who's making 20 or 30 million and turning that into a couple of guys who are making nine, 10, 11 million. Right.
So you've got to find a way to add some quality depth. And then you also have to look at the backup point guard position. Right. You didn't have a real answer behind Jalen Brunson. Right. What if you were able to get.
That's one of the differences in the series. TJ McConnell comes off the bench for Indiana and TJ McConnell on the floor. Tyrese Halliburton off the floor. The Pacers offense is still humming. Jalen Brunson off the floor.
The Knicks didn't have a real floor general. You looked at campaign that that went left pretty quickly and then you're left with going with maybe McBride, maybe Dylan Wright, maybe Landry Shannon coming in. You're going to need another option there at the backup one spot. Right. So I do. And that's that's where the front office comes in.
What's the decision here? Are you improving around the margins or are you looking at guys that you have and are you looking at stars that might become available? Do you try your hand at Giannis? Do you try your hand at some of these guys that that could potentially be franchise altering players that you get?
It's just a matter of like we just touched on. This is the most successful Knicks team of this century, pretty much right. You're talking about winning 50 plus games, get into the conference finals. There is a case to be made that, hey, if we just improve on the core as is, you know, maybe we get lucky and maybe we end up in an NBA Finals appearance and then you rely on the greatness of guys like Brunson and Townes. The issue is, you know, if you dig into the numbers, the numbers with Brunson and Townes during the playoffs on the floor were not that good in terms of defense. But once you take one of them off the floor, you know, you're able to kind of cover up a little bit more for the others defensive shortcomings.
So how do you how do you address that? You know, is it getting a backup point guard in there so you can, you know, play Jalen more fresh in some of these minutes and not have to rely on him so much? The front office has its work cut out for them, that's for sure. Well, Christian, knowing what you know about this Knicks team, you had mentioned Giannis and Terecumpo. We saw a report coming out of Toronto today that Giannis and the Raptors have mutual interest. Kevin Durant's name is certainly getting thrown around. Do you think that the New York Knicks will make a splash ultimately or do you think they'll just kind of go around to fringes?
That's a good question. I'm not sure because you have to remember this team doesn't have draft capital. Right. You just gave up five for McHale. You know, you're looking at the Wizards pick in twenty twenty six.
You don't have any in twenty twenty five. You look at the Wizards pick in twenty twenty six. But that's top eight protected.
And if that doesn't convey, it becomes a pair of second. So you really can't like trading a first right now is difficult. But it's it's it's a tough situation for this team to be in. And on top of that, the second round picks, you have a few, but you don't have enough to really make a compelling case for a team to move off of somebody. So getting one of those star players is going to be tough.
If you're going to get Giannis, for example, you're probably going to have to trade cat. Right. Or at minimum.
And I don't know where the appetite is to do that. I could be wrong. We came into training camp and I didn't see the Julius Randle and Dante DiVincenzo for a cat deal coming at all.
So we could be wrong. This front office has done it. It's make a move that it thinks is going to put it closer to winning. And when you look at what happened last summer, they made the moves and made the conference finals. Right. So so this front office has done a decent job at reading the room.
It's just a matter of what do they want this to look like? You have to find a way to match up in terms of depth with some of these teams. And you also got to understand that you had a you had a pretty successful season. Right. If you take a step back and look at it from a big picture perspective, you had street signs coming up because of your playoff performance.
Right. You survived a lot of the different curveballs that the regular season threw at you. And you come a couple of wins. If you don't blow game one and game two at the Garden, it could be the Knicks that are that are in the NBA finals right now and not the Indiana Pacers if you protect on court. So there's a case to be made, as I said, to run this thing back and maybe just improve a little bit around it in terms of adding depth. But at the same time, you've got two critical flaws here, which is that you're two best players. And I've written about this when your daily news over and over. Your two best players are liabilities on defense. And it's hard to win like that. So how do you address it?
A Christian. Last question for you, my man. Is New York going to be a little quieter now? Seventh Avenue going to be a little cleaner.
Nick fans are going to have high expectations for next year, but for now, everybody can relax, huh? It made me so sad to see. I forgot who posted an Indiana Pacers jersey over the Statue of Liberty.
I saw I saw I saw so much trolling going on. And it's just unfortunate because I went outside of the Cambridge Fieldhouse after the Pacers closeout game. Granted, an hour after the game. But I just knew if it was the Knicks that won this series outside would have been jumping like they would have been a party until the sun came up. And I'm walking around downtown Indianapolis.
I see a little crowd of people here, a little crowd of people there. Sure, there's people honking in the middle of the street, but if it was New York, they'd be standstill traffic. You won't be able to get anywhere anytime soon if the Knicks were headed to the NBA finals. So it's just just a cultural moment that the city has to miss out on and be the punching bag for the Indiana. The Indiana Pacers go by the yes, sirs. I mean, come on. The Knicks got beat by the yes, sirs.
It's just it's a terrible way to go. And on top of that, you had a shot. You if you put these rosters side by side, you should win this series. And you can you can talk yourself into if you win game one, if you make certain strategic adjustments before the series starts, maybe it's the Knicks going to the finals.
And that's the toughest part. I think that if you just stack the roster side by side, you should you have a Knicks team that has the talent to win this series. They just didn't execute and they got just outplayed, out everything, outplayed, out coached, out hustled to this title appearance. So, yeah, this is going to be one Nick sense after where. And on top of that, we can end on this. It's the second time the Pacers beat you in a row.
That's that kind of thing for a while. It's just two times now that the Pacers have packed the Knicks up. Yeah, it's not not looking good. The expectations have certainly still gotten higher for the New York Knicks. I know their fans are going to be itching to see what they do this offseason.
Hey, Christian, thank you so much again for the time and all the reports as these Knicks have gone on the run that they haven't been on in about 25 years. Please tell everybody where they could find and keep up with you. You can find me on DND, my brother. My season is over. I'm going to be in bed. I will be chilling. I will be hanging out, relaxing. But no, in all seriousness, the New York Daily News sports section. I'll be having some NBA Finals coverage as well. We have a big Knicks offseason that I'll be covering on Twitter. You can find me at Chris Splash. And once these games start back up, you know, you can find me at Madison Square Garden. Hey, Christian, thank you so much.
We'll catch you on down the line. OK, be well. My God, thanks for having me.
Anytime. No doubt about it. That Christian Winfield covers all things New York Knicks for the New York Daily News.
Yeah. New York Knicks always. Well, their fans always looking for a pound of flesh if things don't work out. And for a New York Knicks team that hasn't had success, hasn't even been to a Finals since 1999, you just know that everybody is going to be chomping at the bit. And next season, the expectations ridiculously high.
Nico, did things chill out just a little bit over the past couple of days? Are Knicks fans still losing it? They're still losing it for the most part. But I think more than you would expect are starting to calm down and realize that what the Knicks did this season was was very.
I don't like using the word successful because I am a true believer that unless you win the championship, nothing is a true success. But it was a positive step in the right direction for this Knicks franchise. But do the fans react that way? It's like I saw some videos after the New York Knicks lost. And this is why I think a lot of the country and I don't know, I don't want to pin it on Knicks fans or New Yorkers. But there's the what you see that goes viral, like Christian just mentioned. There's that obnoxious feeling like, hey, act like you've been there before.
And I get it. The Knicks haven't. But you think about the fan base is just it comes across obnoxious if you're just looking at what's going on online.
People want to fire everybody. You would think that the New York Knicks just had the worst season ever. And they almost were almost at the NBA finals. Yeah, and I can understand the frustration because the Knicks were favored to win this series against Indiana. There are a lot of Knicks fans that believe that they were better than the Pacers both this year and last year.
I think at least last year they had the injuries to blame. So it wasn't like they were, you know, as angry at the team after they lost last year. But this year they expected them to win, which is ironic because no one gave them a chance to beat the Celtics. So it's funny how quickly the expectations of what this Knicks season was going to be changed after they beat Boston and then went up against Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals. Well, when you think about the expectations like, OK, the Celtics should have beat them.
You thought that they were. I thought the Celtics were going to beat the Knicks. I think a lot of people, like you said, thought that they were going to beat the Knicks. I thought the Knicks would have beat the Pacers in seven games. And I think losing that game one was was really even though it was the first game, it was the death knell for the series. Ultimately, I think things would have been different if the New York Knicks won that.
But what does it matter? Coulda woulda shoulda. They did not. And they got they got ran out of the building. I think a big part of it is just people tend to forget where this organization was.
And they're not looking at where it's gone. And so it's I think I'm answering my own question here as to the fans and the expectations. And oh, my God, we got a fire tips. We won't win till we win tips. Well, the Knicks didn't win until he got there. They didn't win until you got a guy in there like a jail in Brunson.
And now you have one of the best big man scores in the league in a Karl Anthony Towns. And so I think the bar in New York and you can go ahead and ask, I don't want to say also obnoxious Yankee fans, but the bar is always moving. Like if you think about the Yankees, this is a team that pretty much every single season always wins. The Yankees. Oh, my God. It's a poor year if the Yankees only win 85 to 90 games.
People are getting ready to jump off of bridges. But the expectation is set so high. It's just like, hey, World Series, a bust. Otherwise, it's a failure. The next years, they don't even make the playoffs. They haven't had success. They haven't been to a conference finals in what, 24, 25 years. So it is just I think sometimes people have to meet reality. I think New York Knicks fans have to meet reality. But I think there's certain cities which just like we don't we don't care about being second. Like the Steelers are tired of going to the postseason every year. They don't care about Mike Tomlin and his record over 500.
Everybody's just like, OK, but when can we go back to a Super Bowl? And I think to a certain degree, in the case of Yankee fans, I think they're spoiled. I think you have Laker fans who are spoiled. And I think you just have some fan bases who are just a little little delusional. And I think there's a pocket in a segment of New York Knicks fans that are delusional. I think even Dallas Cowboy fans, I don't even know if we can call some Dallas Cowboy fans delusional anymore.
I think most of their fans look at Jerry Jones now and just go. This is the this is the reason why we're not winning. And so congrats to Nick. Nick, Nick fan, right? That's right. Yes, sir. Mets fan.
Yep. OK. How do you feel about Yankee fans? Would you put them in a delusional category?
Are they unrealistic in their expectations? What would you say about Yankee fans? Yeah, well, you actually said exactly what I was thinking, which is when you look at last year in New York baseball, the Mets got to the NLCS and lost and the Yankees got to the World Series and lost. Now, neither team won the championship. They both lost to the Dodgers, actually. But the Yankees were the ones that got further than the Mets. And all winter, Mets fans were excited and Yankee fans were disappointed. So it's weird how like the Mets fan was just happy to be there when the Yankees were like, oh, my God, I can't believe we didn't win. But it's getting to a point where, like, you haven't won in 15 years, now 16 years.
So why is that the expectation? Even for the Knicks, like they haven't won a championship since 1973. Who gives you the right to expect them to win a championship? Yeah, it's a it's a crazy situation when you think about it. I think I may have a new top six list coming this Wednesday. I think I'm going to take a look at the top six most is is it delusional fan bases? Is that what it is?
Yeah, I guess you could use that word. I think I might be looking at a new top six list. Top six delusional fan bases in sports. I don't know. I don't know what the Yankees be at the top of that list.
I got to I got to think about that. Are we talking Yankees? Are we talking Dallas Cowboys? I think there's an an interesting mix of teams or fan bases that we could put in that delusional category. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break when we come back on the other side.
Speaking of delusional, we're going to talk about Bill Belichick. June 1st came and went and something very important happened for Bill. We'll talk about it on the other side. We'll get into the NBA finals.
We got more to do. The JR Sport Reshow, the Infinity Sports Network.
