JR SportBrief Hour 1

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The all-new season of The Kardashians premieres May 23rd streaming on Hulu. It is! The JR Sportbrief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. I hope you're good. I hope you're safe. I hope you are well. I'm going to be hanging out with you for the next four hours. Happy Wednesday.

It's time to help you get over the hump. I get started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia.

Thank you so much to our super producer and host, Ryan Hickey, holding it down for us in New York City. You can always listen on the free Odyssey app locally on your Infinity Sports radio station. I don't know what that station is where you live, but you can figure it out. Sirius XM Channel 158.

And if you got yourself a smart speaker, it's simple. Ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network. The NFL schedule is about to be released this evening. Stay tuned. The whole schedule. You'll be able to plan out your life. Or at least later on this year.

How you want to avoid your family, your friends, your wife, your kids, maybe your husband. You'll have some additional information in a little bit. Matter of fact, we have a couple of games that have already been announced. Last night, we had some ass flippings in the NBA. Nikola Jokic beat up on the Timberwolves and Rudy Gobert like they stole something from him. The Indiana Pacers got no heart.

Jalen Brunson took it and stomped on it. Today is Wednesday, so we're going to share with you a top six list. Tonight, we're going to take a look at the top six NFL quarterbacks who have the most to prove this upcoming season. Who actually know who they will face off against and that will be later on in the show. We also have two guests popping up this hour. Speaking of point guards for the New York Knicks, this man was on the team the last time they went to an NBA Finals. His name is Chris Childs. Chris Childs is going to join us in about 40 minutes or so to talk about the New York Knicks and what Brunson is doing. And then also to get a more journalistic approach, we're going to have a conversation with Steve Popper from Newsday.

He's going to come through and join us in about 20 minutes. So a lot of basketball, a lot of football, a lot of schedules that are being released. We even know the Christmas games for the NFL later this year. We got the Chiefs and the Steelers. We got the Ravens and the Texans.

What else is new? The Jaguars are going out to London twice. They might as well move out there. The Bears will meet them in London. The Patriots will meet them in London. And oh yeah, by the way, Jacksonville is getting a renovated stadium that they're paying about half of. The club, the city is paying for the rest of it. And it doesn't even seem like they want to play all their home games in Jacksonville.

Maybe if they get better over time. We'll see soon enough. Listen, if you want to be a part of the show, it's real simple. The phone number is 855-212-4227. If you use the internet, you can find me there as well. I'm on Twitter and X and Facebook and all of the like.

Instagram at JR Sport Brief. All my internet users out there sitting around on Facebook all day. Hickey, how are you, man? You good? I am good.

I am good. Exciting day today. A lot going on. Excited for the schedule release.

More just to get it like, I hate the preview of it. Oh, big schedule is coming. We already know the opponents. Just give me the dates and let's go. Okay. Well, you don't got to wait too much longer.

What do we got? About 90 minutes? Two hours? Something like that? Something like that. Thankfully, we're talking about hours and minutes, not days and weeks.

Yeah, soon enough. People can plan out their lives. Even Christmas. Plan out your damn Christmas based on the NFL calendar.

And by the way, get yourself some Netflix if you don't have it, because the NFL is going to air both Christmas day games. We're going to talk more about the schedule because this took place 24 hours ago, a little less than that. Let's talk about these ass whoopings that took place.

Let's get this one out the way first. Because I actually stayed up to watch Nicola Jokic abuse the Minnesota Timberwolves last night. I got off air. I went home, turned on the television, and it's like looking at a guy poke a dead body. Rudy Gobert is the defensive player of the year, and Nicola Jokic cooked him, abused him.

The NBA on TNT cooked them as well. The Internet was destroying Rudy Gobert because he might be the defensive player of the year. He might be 7-1, 7-2.

When he puts his arms up in the air, he can touch the sky. He can't keep up with Jokic. Jokic was bumping into him going to the basket. Jokic shot a 3, step back 3 in his face at the line. Jokic finished with 40 points, 15 of 22 shooting, 7 rebounds and 13 assists. He was looking at this man, approached the basket. Jokic did not care. He put his shoulder into his chest and he did whatever he wanted to do.

Up and unders, flip arounds, turn arounds, off the top of the glass. This was abuse. Jokic at one point even looked at Gobert and said, I don't care who's standing there.

I don't care if you're coming over to help. I'm going to dunk the ball. And so Jokic had 40 points. Gordon Murray each had 16. This was just a sad story as the Nuggets smacked up the Wolves 1-12 to 97.

Nikolai Jokic, a real funny guy, Mr. Enthusiasm himself, he talked about his dunk in the first quarter, how athletic he is. I mean I had an open lane. I'm a freak of nature. Why not show my athleticism? Why not show his athleticism?

That's right. Someone who's a real freak of nature. A 22 year old Anthony Edwards.

He's the one flying off all over the damn place. He had 18 points. Karl Anthony Towns had 23. Mike Conley was out with a busted achilles.

This might spell bad news for the Timberwolves throughout the rest of the series. Edwards the real freak of nature? He said, it's simple. You didn't notice? Jokic is the best dude in the NBA. I just laugh.

That's all I can do. I mean, I can't be mad because he's good, man. I think I said that after game one when we won, and in game two. He's the MVP. He's the best player in the NBA. He showed it the last three games tonight. He was special tonight. I got to give him the spot. I mean, I don't know what we were supposed to do. He was that guy tonight. Yeah, what are we supposed to do? This is like when you want to laugh instead of cry.

Just to kind of soften the blow just a little bit. Anthony Edwards, you can't do anything but laugh because you can't stop him. Chris Finch, he ain't laughing. He has to figure out a strategy.

And there is none. The head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, he said, yeah, you can't do nothing with Jokic. I mean, you saw it.

He had an MVP, best player in the world performance. I mean, it's, you know, we tried to do a bit of everything on him and he had it all going. So we didn't really have an answer for him. And honestly, we haven't had a great one from last couple games. Hey, Hickey, there's like a theme here.

Help me out. Am I understanding this correctly that Jokic is like really, really good? I think you can safely assume that.

Everybody thinks that except for, I don't know, Gilbert Arenas probably, right? Yeah, maybe he was coming around after last night. But sounds like from how he's talked to him before. I think you're right. Doubt that. Yeah, doubt it. Well, I mean, when the opposition is bigging you up while they're getting destroyed, his teammates see this every day.

How the hell do they feel? Aaron Gordon, I told you he finished with 18 points. He's flying all over the place dunking. He's a star in his own right, at least in the dunk contest. Aaron Gordon said, I can't believe what this guy does. He was just getting to his spots. He was getting to his spots and he was making him pay regarding him one on one.

I'm not even entirely sure when I just watched it. He saw a ghost ticky like he didn't know what he just watched. Imagine being that good. Like you said, you see him every day. You see him in practice. I'm sure he's seen him, you know, at his best and then just to be like almost speechless is just incredible.

And that's what his game was yesterday, but just incredible. He is. Jokic is and tell me if I'm right here.

What you think? I feel like when he plays basketball, he's like the YMCA player who's bigger than everybody, a little out of shape, is not athletic. That's why he made his own joke about being an athlete. But he's the most skilled and the smartest, and he's just destroying everybody. Jokic looks sloppy and off balance throughout the entire course of the game. But he is in control. He looks sloppy, but he's in control. He does what he wants.

He gets to where he wants to go. I mean, it was absolutely hilarious. It was the most one of the most impressive things I saw besides the step back three with Gobert directly in front of his face. It reminded me of what he did to Anthony Davis last year. At one point, Rudy Gobert came over to block his shot.

Any other human being on earth would have said, Hey, I am also almost seven feet tall. Let me just try for a layup. And Rudy Gobert would have blocked it.

Jokic kissed the ball way off the top of the glass for what was an easy layup. And it's just like, this man can do whatever the hell he wants. He doesn't even look like a basketball player. And he's just whooping ass. I don't want to see him the YMCA.

I don't, Hickey. And it's not just the scoring. It's not just the footwork.

It's even the passing. There was one play, I think it was in the third quarter where the Timberwolves missed one. He gets the rebound and in one motion gets the rebound on his fingertips, turns around, throws an 80-foot pass to the other end. I think it was Jamal Murray there by himself. Floats it over the only Wolves defender that was anywhere near. It was a better touch pass than anything I've seen from Patrick Mahomes make with the Chiefs. And it's just like, he does it so effortlessly. We see it all the time. It's still amazing.

And yesterday he just put on another encore performance. I think the Denver Broncos, I know they just drafted Bo Nix. I know they have Jared Stidham.

You know, what the hell do I know? Jokic might be the best passer in the entire city. They might need to just bring him over to the Denver Broncos when he's free for some Sundays. No Nuggets games later on. At least he has all of September.

Maybe as part of October as well. Just get Jokic out onto the football field. We've talked about football players transitioning over into basketball and basketball players transitioning over into football. Just put Jokic on the football field. Amazing passer. Rebounder. Scorer. Shooter. For a dude who came over to the United States of America just taken down, I don't know, four liters of coke every day. And now he's just busting.

Instead of killing himself with coke, he's killing opposition. Go ask Rudy Gobert. Rudy Gobert must have said, man, for all of this abuse, I could have just stayed in Europe. The Nuggets have a chance to close things out tomorrow in Minnesota. Yes, they have won three consecutive games after starting this series down 0-3.

You can't make this stuff up. And oh yeah, since we're on a roll of people kissing Jokic's ass, let's listen to his teammate who shouldn't even be out there. He ended up also as well with 16 points yesterday. It's the man who wants to throw heating packs onto the floor and should have been suspended.

It's Jamal Murray. Listen to what this man had to say about his teammate and how Jokic, oh yeah, he's almost the whole damn team. He had 40. He missed seven shots on the defensive player of the year and felt like he had 50.

So whenever he gets going like that, you just kind of let him dictate the way the game's going to go. Listen, they gave that man his MVP award last night. And I guess Nikolay Jokic said, I'm the MVP. That's the defensive player of the year. I'm going to go out here and show you who's more dominant. And Jokic, I think South Park, the little cartoon with the foul-mouthed kids takes place in Colorado.

And Eric Cartman, the filthiest of them all, this guy runs around saying, man, I'm grown. I do what I want. Jokic, that's a grown man on a basketball court against the defensive player of the year, a future Hall of Famer, a four-time defensive player of the year, mind you. Jokic just woke up and he did whatever he wanted. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbree show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Wanted to talk about that game.

And you know what? We'll talk more about Jokic later on in the show. Vic Lombardi is going to join us from out in Denver from Altitude TV. On the other side of the break, that wasn't the only ass-swipping that we got last night. The New York Knicks took the lunch money, the breakfast money, the dinner money, the plates, the utensils.

They took everything away from the Pacers, who really looked soft as hell. To talk about it, Steve Popper is going to join us from Newsday out in the New York City metropolitan area. We're going to talk all about the NFL with the schedule release. I'm giving you a top six list of quarterbacks with the most to prove this upcoming season. We found out who's going to be on hard knocks this year.

We got a lot to do. I'm warming up. The J.R. Sportbree show, the Infinity Sports Network. Dive into the start of summer at Whole Foods Market. Check out their summer splash event with sales on fresh organic produce, organic strawberries, and a fan favorite sale on Ben & Jerry's and Tolenti. Explore deals on grill-friendly meats like organic air-chilled chicken breast, beef and chicken kebabs, all with no antibiotics ever from our meat department. Plus, grab easy sides from prepared foods and cool off with refreshing drinks.

Kick off your summer and shop in-store or online at Whole Foods Market today. Call from Mom. Answer it. Call silenced. Instacart knows nothing gets between you and the game. That's why they make ordering from your couch easy. Stock up today and get all your groceries for the week delivered in as fast as 30 minutes, without missing a minute of the game. You have 47 new voicemails. Download the app to get free delivery on your first three orders while supplies last.

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That's right. Season 5 of The Kardashians is here. Just when you thought life couldn't get any faster, they're punching it into overdrive. Chris, Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, Kendall and Kylie are back and continue to defy expectations in all their endeavors. So, get ready to go behind the glitz and glamour of the most iconic family on television.

The all-new season of The Kardashians premieres May 23rd, streaming on Hulu. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. The Denver Nuggets weren't the only team that put the hammer down on the opposition last night. The New York Knicks did the same thing in Madison Square Garden. They ran the Pacers out of the gym. They ran them back to Indianapolis.

The final score, 121-91, Jalen Brunson with 44 points. To talk about what the New York Knicks did last night at the Garden, what they might be able to do the rest of this series, maybe even the rest of the playoffs, it's time to have a conversation with Newsday's own Steve Popper. Steve, thank you for joining us. Anytime.

Glad I could do it with you. No doubt about it. I guess the first question is, Jalen Brunson, his foot is okay now, huh? They don't talk about it, but I guess he's fine. Seemed okay. I asked him before the game yesterday morning, without giving the usual, I'm fine, which is what his stock answer is even if he can't walk.

Use another word, he just said I'm good and he was better than good. The guy is tough as nails and whether it's a regular season game in February or a game in the playoffs, if he can play, he's going to be out there and I think what we saw yesterday was he's going to find a way. It's just kind of amazing to think of what he's going through, what we've seen limited for him that he's able to produce the way he is. A 44 point night basically dominating everything that the Pacers tried to throw at him defensively. Well Steve, we saw the ascent, we saw him become an All-Star and then we saw what he continued to do when Julius Randle went down with the shoulder. Would we see this version of Jalen Brunson, would he have elevated his game to this space if Julius Randle did not go down? I don't think he could have and that's not a knock on Julius at all.

I think Julius was learning to fit and the two pieces were working together. And look, there's a lot of days where I think Nick Bands will admit you're missing Julius, you really need that second option who can really change the gravity of a defense. But given the opportunity to take the ball and dominate it the way that he has, he's just as his usage has gone up, his efficiency, his production and the belief of the entire team I think has changed. It's crazy to think of where they are right now with a chance to clinch this and go to the Eastern Conference Finals with the pieces that are missing here. A two-time All-NBA guy in Julius, it's just amazing. Mitchell Robinson, Ojian Anobi, even Bogdanovic was an important piece to what they were trying to do here. It's amazing to me that they're playing the way they are and essentially with a lineup that includes one guy and Jalen who was the starter on opening night.

Steve Popper is here with us courtesy of Newsday. When you talk about the team that Coach Thibodeau has been able to roll with and have success, he's received and faced a lot of criticism. Josh Hart had to tell everybody, relax, you don't know what we do here. What are your thoughts on the usage and I guess the necessary usage of some of the bench plays or lack thereof?

I kind of argued this all season. I guess for Josh's first point that the Knicks do not practice the way people think that a Thibodeau team would. They don't do the hard contact drills. They don't do the three-hour practices.

A lot of what they do now is film work and just rehab stuff and just walk through the mental preparation. It's a different game than it was for Thibodeau years in the past. But I think what we're seeing now is not just the Knicks.

I think it's all around the league. Teams are going to go with their best players as long as they can in the playoffs because every win, every minute is essential. The Knicks played seven people last night and they got great production out of them.

But they're not going to, when the game is on the line, waste a minute. I think we see it every night in the series, whether it's this series where the Knicks are trying to survive any couple of minutes they take bunting out of the game. Look at the first round when the Sixers, the Joel Embiid minutes on the bench were brutal for them and the Knicks just repeatedly took advantage. Teams are going to go with their best players here and I don't think anybody's feeling fatigued. The Knicks talked about on Monday having a day off and Josh Hart talked about going to get a pedicure and manicure with his wife.

It was a relaxation time, a time to unwind and catch their breath here. The rest is when you're in the cold tub and the production and minutes on the court are just essential and no one is going to go away from that right now. When you talk about Thibodeau and his future, there was a report that he is in line for a contract extension.

Is there any truth or facts to that? I have not got that confirmed and we've tried and we've talked to people and I think obviously I would give you the most obvious thing here is Jaylen Brunson has known Tom since he was a child and I think Tom was a big part of Jaylen coming here. As long as Jaylen is in Tom's corner, I think Tom's job is safe as long as he wants to be here doing this. To me, it makes sense and it's always made sense. This group that is here is very tied together from Leon Rose, Tom Thibodeau, Gerson Rosas and Jaylen Brunson and not to mention Rick Brunson who's had such a long relationship with Tom and Tom has brought him with him everywhere he's been. I think they're in this together as long as Leon is here, I think Tom has a place and as long as Jaylen is here, everyone associated with him is secure.

Steve Popper is here with us courtesy of Newsday. When you talk about this series specifically, it can go up and down. The Knicks had a Mother's Day Massacre on Sunday, they bounced back to bring down the hammer themselves. What do you expect the rest of the series, still looking at the Knicks, as you can't deny they're short-handed?

I'll tell you this, I don't know where that game came from. I'm at every Knicks game all year and for way too many years doing this. I've never seen this group have a game like that where they never made a run, where they never looked like they were in it.

I think it was one where they threw the film out, wiped that one away, changed the lineup, made a significant move adding Deuce McBride to the starting lineup and everything suddenly fit in better. I don't think we'll see anything like that in the Knicks again and I don't think they fear going on the road. They enjoy the hostility, they had a very good shot to win Game 3 on the road. To me, I may not expect what I saw last night but I don't expect Game 4 either. I think the Knicks are going to be in this and try and close this out.

Look, there's a desperation, they want to get this done. I think every team now sees every game you play you're risking a chance of an injury that can derail your hopes. You talk about injuries and Knicks are a familiar last question for you Steve.

The country, I think even fans in the tri-state area in New York, everybody is finding out more and has found out more recently about Isaiah Hartenstein. We know he's going to get paid. We know he felt he got screwed out of his first payday. Does this mean and guarantee that he's no longer going to be a Knick and the Knicks will be priced out come summer?

It's a strange situation. Look, I think he wants to be here. I think he likes to fit.

I think they like to fit. I think they want to find a way to make it happen. But because of the collective bargaining agreement that has some quirks in it and they can't pay him as much as say a Philadelphia or an Oklahoma City or an Orlando can. The Knicks don't have the cap space and they don't have the ability to pay him an unlimited number to match an unlimited number.

So I think they've got to come to an understanding and figure out a way to make this work at a reasonable number and I think roll and fit probably do have things to do with it. But he's definitely going to be chased by some teams in need of a big man. I think you can look at an OKC or New Orleans or teams like that and think this is a guy who would fit very nicely there guarding the rim and also playmaking the way he can.

It's going to be interesting. Like I said, I think he likes to fit here. I think it's fortuitous by the Knicks as much as it has upped his price giving him this long run as a starter since December.

I think he's kind of felt at home here and become very much a part of this sort of cult of Jalen here. So I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to make it work even if you get a little more somewhere else. But it's going to be interesting. I think they've got to talk to him long term about how we make it work now and maybe the next deal we take care of you better. It's a tough situation for both sides really.

Absolutely. Hopefully he hasn't priced himself out. 17 rebounds yesterday.

A Knick record, 12 offensive. Steve, thank you for taking the time to join us. Where can people follow you and your work with Newsday? Just at NewsdaySports.com and on Twitter. Just at Steve Popper.

Very simple. Thank you Steve and enjoy the rest of the ride. It's going to be a fun one hopefully. Thanks for having me. It's always been more interesting than I've seen in years so it's a fun ride.

It's been many, many years. Thank you Steve Popper for joining us from Newsday. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network.

If you want to holler at me it's simple. 855-212-4227. Let's get a call in quick and then we should have Chris Childs on the other side of the break. Greg is here from Michigan. You're on the JR Sport Reshow. Greg, you are live on the radio. JR, Mr. Positive. Hey, thanks for taking my call my friend.

Hope all is well. I've got to tell you, the way you did the Joker and his body, YMCA, oh my god I was laughing off my you know what. With Ant-Man, Anthony Edwards, the comparison to Jordan, do you think that's getting into his head? I think he's playing way too hard. He's got to play his game. I think he's fantastic and I think he brings a lot of excitement to the game and I think he's got a good career ahead of him.

What say you my friend? I think he has an excellent career ahead of him and thank you Greg for calling for Michigan. I mean let's be real, he's really had one bad game. Okay, yes he had 18 points last night, starter of worse than that. A couple of games ago the first loss of the series they had 19 but the man in victories had 43-27.

He had 44 on the loss. I don't think the guy's letting anything get in between his ears because I think his ears, his head is screwed on straight and that's why I do think he has an amazing future. He stopped or asked for people to chill out with the Michael Jordan comparisons and I get it.

I think he's perfectly fine. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. When we come back, we're going to keep talking Knicks. We'll continue even talking Nets. Vince Carter getting his jersey retired. We're going to look for Chris Childs.

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See site for details. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Yeah, Carmelo Anthony, he's at the Garden. Everybody's at Madison Square Garden. Walt Clyde Frazier, Patrick Yoo. These are guys that I thought would never be together in one room at the same damn time.

But they are. Wild stuff. Thank you so much to Steve Popper from Newsday for joining us in the last break. The New York Knicks, they won against the Pacers last night, 121 to 91. Jalen Brunson, 44 points playing out of his mind. And as I asked Steve Popper, like we saw the ascent last year of Jalen Brunson. We saw Jalen Brunson get better this year. But then Julius Randle went out and you would think that Jalen Brunson would just the efficiency would go down and what have you.

That's not the case at all. Jalen Brunson has been playing and it sounds weird to say this, but he's been playing like a superstar. And I don't know, maybe with increased runway next year to see him do it. He is a superstar. He's no doubt an all star. And if the New York Knicks and Jalen Brunson eliminate Tyrese Halliburton, there's something very clear here to me. Jalen Brunson is better than Halliburton. And I know he suffered a hamstring injury earlier this year.

And I know Tyrese Halliburton made the U.S. Olympic team. We will see him out in Paris passing the ball to everybody. But I think all things considered, who would you want right now? It'd be Jalen Brunson.

It really would. You think about what they did last night. It's been abuse. Jalen Brunson has been consistent all playoffs long, even with that busted up foot. Rick Carlisle, the head coach of these Pacers, he said, man, my team sucked. They didn't even play hard.

Very poor effort, obviously. Lost every quarter. Annihilated loose balls and rebounds. Gave up 20 offensive rebounds and 29 more shots. So we all own it, but very embarrassing.

Very embarrassing and a hard lesson. Well, the New York Knicks, they played hard. And speaking of playing hard, this man played hard for the New York Knicks from 1996 to 2001. Also played for the Nets. Went after it for the Raptors.

Had to work hard coming out of the CBA. Joining us is former New York Knicks point guard Chris Childs. Chris, thank you for taking the time to join us.

The JR sport reshow coast to coast. Not a problem, guys. Thanks for having me. It's an important time. Knicks are on their way. Let's talk basketball.

Well, let me ask you this. When you sit down and watch this current group of New York Knicks, what's the thing that stands out to you about how the team operates? Effort. Just flat out effort. No matter what the score is, no matter what the situation is, it's effort. To see the garden back to what the garden used to be with the energy and seeing how the players play.

I'd say I retired in 2004. In 20 years, I have not been able to watch a whole basketball game until this year and watching these Knicks perform. It's exciting, man, to see the effort.

The guys are on one accord. Everybody knows their roles. Nobody has to stand out. The kids have done a great job. The players have bought in.

The city has been involved. It's just a great time to be at Knicks. Former New York Knicks Chris Childs is here with us at the JR Sport Brief Show. You talk about Coach Tibbs. He's been around a long time on that staff with Jeff Van Gundy. You're familiar with the coaching. What do you have to say about Coach Tibbs? He gets a lot of crap from people about his style and his perceived style.

What can you say about him that you know? Well, from experience and being in the locker room, being someone that I'm a film buff. I watched film a lot when I was playing and I know Tibbs does as well because I've watched him with it. He used to bring the VCR.

I'm telling my age, but he used to come to my room and drop off the VCR and we would watch film together. He was attention to detail. I think the transition from when he was in Chicago was a little different because this team now, he wants you to push because they play smaller. He wants you to push the tempo. As long as you play defense, he's not going to get on you about the shot selection. But if you're not playing defense, you're going to sit down because that's his mainstay. But he's evolved just like the game has evolved and he's allowed this Nick team, the Bulls team that he coached when he was assisting in Boston, that it was a half court game, but the game has evolved. And he lets these players talent shine. And when I watch the game, I want to be out there because I see how they compete. I see how this plays defense, how Josh Hart plays defense. And I know Robinson is not healthy right now.

And I always mess up the big guy, number 55. I love his effort. Stein, I ain't going to call him Hart or Stein. I just love his effort. Because if you watch him play, he's a big body, but he understands the rules of how the referees are calling the game and he puts his hands straight up. He jumps, verticality. He doesn't lean over to get unnecessary foul.

Sometimes he does. But for him to step up the way he has lately, and then Josh Hart getting rebounds and giving us extra possessions, this is a fun team to watch. And the city should be proud of what they've been able to do. And we're on our way.

I'm not going to jinx because it's 3-2, but I'm a fan. Chris Childs is here with us, the JR Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network. You talk about the connection to Tibbs. You were also teammates with Rick Brunson, both point guards on the New York Knicks. What was it like looking at Rick and then also seeing Jalen out there? What happened as a kid 20-plus years ago that you can see him doing this now?

Well, I think I look at the same growth as Steph Curry and his other brother, Seth, and how Dale spent time with his kids. And it's not just on the court. It's off the court. And when you have that connection off the court, it becomes easier on the court because you're not going to put that pressure on them. Because when I'm off the court, I need you to do that.

When I'm on the court, now I'm your coach. So I think Rick has been able to balance that. And Jalen finally still wanted that his talent and his ability to play the game is warranted.

We saw that in Dallas. He was growing. He didn't get the ball in his hand as much because he was playing with other dominant players. But I give Tibbs and the organization a lot of credit that they gave Jalen the ball and said, hey, take us to the next level.

But then he gets a lot of credit because he's worked on his craft. He does things that other point guards don't do. And when Randall got hurt, Jalen became the post-president that you need in the NBA. That is very rare when you're a point guard. But you have to get points in the paint. And he was able to take his game to that next level. There's not a lot of point guards that's ever played the game that's able to get 20 points in the paint and 20 points outside the paint. And I think the only one I can think of is Kyrie at this stage right now. And it may be Donovan Mitchell who is not a point guard, but a lot of credit goes to Rick and his family.

A lot of credit goes to Jalen himself for putting in the work and bringing something different each year he's been in the NBA to be the player that he is right now. I think it was a disrespect. I mean, I'm not going to say disrespectful, but I think that the votes that he didn't get for MVP was very disrespectful.

Well, Chris, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, it's very disrespectful because without him, the Knicks probably wouldn't make the playoffs. So that should make him the most valuable player to his team. If you take Jokic out, they still have talent, they got first rounders, they won championships. You take Ant out, you take, who's the other? Jokic, Shay Gilgus, Alexander?

I thought Shay should have won it. That's just my pick. And they got on Shaq about that and they said, well, why would you say that to him in person when they did the interview?

But wouldn't you rather him tell them to his face instead of going to blogs and internet and saying that? So if I was voting, it would have been Shay, it would have been Jalen, and then the Jokic. That's just me. Chris Childs is here with us, the JR Sportbreeze show. Chris, as we're up against the break, we see the City embracing the Knicks. It reminds us of a time when you were out there with Patrick and Charles Oakley and we see a lot of these faces back in the garden.

They say once a Knick, always a Knick. When are we going to see you front? When are we going to see Oak back?

When are they going to get some love? When y'all going to be there? I called Oak last week. He called me back. I haven't returned this call.

I've talked to a couple of people in the organization. I haven't been back since I played there. And then I took a hiatus after the incident with Oakley. But I want to talk to him first before I make a decision on coming back because I was one of the only players that supported him during that time other than Mark Jackson verbally and through social media. But watching all the guys out there and my ex-teammates, seeing the fans and the city that adopted me that I loved and enjoyed and dreamt playing for, if they make it to, which I think they will, the instant conference finals, I would love to come if they'll have me. Well we would certainly love to see you back out there. Either way, Chris, how can everybody in the tri-state area, how can people listening across the country support you in the interim?

I'm sorry, say that again please. I said for everybody listening, whether they're New York Knicks fans or they're listening all across the country, how can they keep up and follow and support you? Well all you have to do is follow me on social media, Instagram, Facebook. It's Chris underscore Childs1.

The blue check is there. You can always follow me at that time. I've learned, and I have to give credit to my son about six years ago, because I was like Barkley, I'm not going to get on social media. But knowing that I influenced a lot of people, the time that I was in New York or my time in the NBA, and I have a lot of stories.

I have a lot of experience, a lot of things that I've gone through during my time playing, my father passing, and just a lot of different things that are going on in your life that might help someone in a troubled time in their life. Well thank you, thank you Chris. We appreciate that.

We're going to get cut off. Tell everybody IG one more time, it's Chris underscore Childs, right? It's Chris underscore Childs1 on IG. Thank you so much to Chris Childs for joining us here. We'll chat it up with Chris some more as these Knicks keep on rolling throughout the postseason. Chris Childs, former New York Knick, you are listening to the JR Sport Reshow here on the Infinity Sports Network.

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