Eric Nehm talks Bucks 2nd Half, MVP hypocrisy

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Indeed.com slash BlueWire, terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Good morning, everybody. What's up? My name is Bart Winkler.

It's February 2-3, Thursday. Still continuing my week on CBS Sports Radio filling in for Bill Ryder, Ryder than you. I will probably bring up Aaron Rodgers on the show on Thursday. I will probably have to do it. And I have to do it here. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it and get it out of the way.

I'm begging you. If you don't want to hear, just fast forward. I don't care. We got Eric Nam on today's show. I got a real good 30 minute convo talking about Bucks, talking about Giannis, talking about the second half, talking about Myers Leonard in the 10 day in that last spot, talking about rotations, talking about the MVP narratives.

I mean, some good stuff from name, some really good stuff. So if you don't want to hear anything regarding Aaron Rodgers, then just fast forward to that. I'm okay with that. If you're going to sit through this, it will be short.

I have one overall point I want to make one overall point. If you're going to listen, pop a gummy and then let's go. If it's the morning, get that mango one, get that THC free one, put that in there.

Those have helped me focus in the past. THC free, you'll be good. If it's later in the day or you got some time, this is a THCO situation. Delta 8, Delta 9, you're going to need something to take you to another place. There's no good. If it's nighttime, if you're listening to this at night, get that CBD CBN one.

Hopefully you fall asleep and forget all about this. These gummies and more can be found at Happy Place Hemp of course. Happyplacehemp.com. The promo code is BART. 25% off every order. They've got gummies. They've got the tinctures. They've got the creams. They've got the lip balm. They've got so much more. Check them out. Happyplacehemp.com. They are local.

They are in Muskego College Court. You can stop and tell them about the show. They'll give you 25% off that way and you get 25% off every single time. Every time.

Great deal. I'll play this clip from ESPN and get up. Jeff Darlington, who I really only kind of hear about during this office. I hear his report, but Jeff Darlington, it seems like I hear about in February and March every year. Jeff Darlington says this.

Well, here's what Jeff Darlington says on get up Wednesday morning. I've learned two things in the past 24 hours that make me kind of believe that the Jets, it's time for them to simply sign Derek Carr. The first of which is a conversation I had with a very important Green Bay Packers source, who quite honestly believes that Aaron Rodgers will be back with the Packers and that all of this is being overhyped. He looks at the contract that Aaron Rodgers signed last year, the commitment that he gave to the team, and believes that at the end of the day, Aaron Rodgers will be back with the Packers. There's another bit of information, and that is the impeccably sourced report from Diana Rossini talking about that the Jets told Derek Carr in his meeting that they believe that with the Jets, he will be a Hall of Famer.

Okay. If that's not just total BS, if they're just not trying to inflate him, which maybe that is the case, go sign Derek Carr right now. You're potentially waiting on a guy in Aaron Rodgers who might or might not be available when you have a guy who was just in your building who you believe will be a Hall of Fame quarterback as a New York Jets player. What are you waiting on?

All right. Was there anything new there? Why are people freaking out about that? First of all, I've been saying all week on writer than you that the Jets should sign Derek Carr. Don't wait for Rodgers.

It's stupid. What are you waiting for? Was Rodgers that much better than Carr last year? The answer is no.

That's why I asked the question. Don't wait for him. Sign Derek Carr. Get him in now.

Get him up to speed. By the time rookies come in, they're learning from Derek Carr, not Derek Carr and rookies are learning at the same time. It's so obvious to me the Jets should sign Derek Carr.

It's a Hall of Famer. That is weird, but sign him. Now, I don't want them to sign him as a Packer fan.

I want the Jets to I want to trade him for the Jets for a lot. We're going to do that. We're going to do this for we're going to do this for weeks. We're going to do this for weeks until it's settled. This is what we did last year. And this is what we did the year before that.

This is what we keep doing. The reports have gone too far one way. The reports have gone too far that Rodgers is going to leave. So now the reports are going to start to go the other way. Because the content machine needs to stay driven.

Well, everybody thinks that that Rodgers is going to be traded. Why read a new report on it? They're just going to say the same thing over here now over here. Complete opposite of that report. It's trending this way now.

Guess what? It's not trend. There's no there's no trend here.

It's not trending either way. They Rodgers wants. Well, I don't know what Rodgers wants.

It's a problem. The Packers want to move on. I guarantee you the Packers want to move on. I guarantee you the Packers have wanted to move on before.

But Gooty Gooty is doing what so many of us of us have done many times. Especially with our first or second girlfriend or boyfriend, ladies, men. We don't want to break up with the other person. We don't want to hurt their feelings. And it's hard to break up with someone.

So we want them to break up with us. Gooty wants Rodgers to break up with him. Good. He can't do it. Good. He can't do it.

Good. He wants to dump Rodgers so bad. He can't do it.

You can't do it. He's so close. He's got the letter written. He put it in her mailbox. Oh, then he ran back over to her house and took it out. He called her. He called her.

He left a message and then he hacked into her phone and deleted it. He wants to break up with Rodgers, but he won't do it. So you're going to keep getting these reports. Also these reports, just like every report from listen from this moment on until the draft or a free agent is signed.

Every report you start to hear, you got to, where did it come from? Why is it getting pushed out there? This is all a game. We're all in a game. We're all in a game and all this information we scatter around and we see, and you, you're, you're, you probably called your dad last night or your brother or whoever. And you said, Oh yeah, well, I'm hearing, I'm hearing now that Rodgers wants to stay. You're not hearing anything. You're, you're being told what the thing.

So the narrative can continue. That's the point I want to make. Also when I hear this, I just, I don't want them to be the quarterback. I can't root for it. I can't do it anymore.

They're not winning a Superbowl with them. I don't, I want to see Jordan love. I am. I am so eager to see Jordan love. I need it. I need to see it. I want it so bad. I'm so curious.

Give me, give me excitement again. Give me, give me, we know that I've read that I've read the same children's book a hundred fucking times. I can't read it again. Yeah. The Gruffalo's scared of the mouse.

I know been there. Give me a new book kid. Why do we go to the library every week and bring home nine new books? If we're reading Gruffalo for the one hundredth time, I need a new story.

I need a new quarterback, man. Let's go. I can't do it no more. All right.

That's my rod. We're driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search match with Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors according to Indeed data and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast.

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You need Indeed. When Cynthia came to TurboTax, she just launched her new side gig, a true crime podcast. I'm a first rate detective with a golden voice. As her TurboTax expert, I made her second income count by guaranteeing 100 percent accurate filing and her maximum refund. What did she do with that refund?

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Experts only available with TurboTax Live. You are now going to hear an interview I did with Eric name. He writes for The Athletic. He is great at his job. He really is. And we appreciate his time.

During All Star Week, when he wasn't doing jack shit anyway. Ladies and gentlemen. Eric name making his podcast debut to The Bart Winkler Show, not his podcast debut podcast extraordinaire, making his Bart Winkler Show podcast debut, not as Bart Winkler Show debut, either longtime friend of show.

That's true. It's Eric name, Eric name. Hey, what's up, buddy? Hey, we're getting together for the Women's World Cup like we did for the men's. Yeah, absolutely. 8 p.m. Friday night is the first one. That's a perfect time.

Just wait. What month are we starting in? Like is is the NBA season be over?

Like are the NBA finals going to be over or is it June? Oh, it might be July. OK, as long as it's July, we're good. It might be August. One of those two months is totally fine. June. I will probably be busy. Well, I hope so. And if you're covering the Bucks, we hope so, too. July 21st.

U.S. women's team versus Vietnam. Great. Can't wait.

Eight o'clock. July 21st. Mark your calendars. All right. Friday to. Oh, yeah. Friday.

That's a win. All right. So let's talk about the Bucks here. Sure.

Your thoughts on the season up to this point. Vague question. And I'm going to ask you, but then I'm going to tell you mine. OK, great. So I'm not going to answer yet. OK, great.

Go for it. Tell me what you think. Everything's fine so far. Everything's been going fine. Giannis got hurt. Seems he'll be fine. Middleton was hurt.

Then he was hurt maybe longer than he'll probably be fine. Rotations going fine. You know, some things here. There may be play this guy more.

Maybe not. For the most part, the team is right where they should be. And not to call out Bucks Twitter again. But I think the level of overreaction to certain events do not are not required for what's happening.

Everything is just fine. I've said that this season is a Broadway rehearsal. We'll see the play come the playoffs.

Just figure out over eighty two games. Who's going to do what? How guys are going to fit in? I think everything is going just fine. Yeah, I don't think that's crazy. I think with this team, the standards have gotten incredibly high over the years. If you're like if you're keeping track during the Mike Boonholzer era, all they do is win. They just win in the regular season no matter what. And they win and they win money on my mind and I never give it up.

Sure. But that's just what they do. They just win a lot.

And I think that if you're a fan of the team night to night, that that isn't like fun or interesting to discuss or anything like that. Right. Like, oh, they won again.

They sure did. OK, sounds good. We'll talk again tomorrow. No, like you want to discuss things and try to figure things out.

So I get it right. I got if you want to be upset or mad about anything, whatever, that's totally cool. I don't try to tell people how to be fans. I used to. I don't do that anymore.

It's not worth it. Oh, I've leaned more into it. The older and wiser I get, the more I realize my way is the way.

Be like me. Sure. Sure. One hundred percent. So overall, this team is really good when everyone's healthy. They're going to be really good. And I think those are some of the things that you have to start to worry about. How healthy is everyone? Are they going to be able to play?

What is all of this going on? Like so, for example, with Giannis. Right. He gets a second opinion on something. You tend not to get a second opinion if the first opinion says you're all good. So like there was some genuine concern within the organization like, oh, man, maybe he's not just going to get back to it and be totally fine because he's a superhuman that doesn't get hurt ever.

But ultimately, they were wrong. He is a superhuman that doesn't get hurt ever. And he'll probably be fine.

Chris Middleton, you know. Asking Mike Boonholzer questions about injuries is is just not something that ever ends up with great answers. But I did think, you know, taking years off your life, I see it. It's my job, though.

But in doing this, you learn some things. Right. So I like I thought on Thursday before the Bulls game when I asked, you know, was this a setback? And Bud said no.

But then when I asked, was this expected? And he said no as well. Like that actually told us something right that, OK, you don't want to say Chris is going backwards. That's fine.

But he didn't go forwards in the way that you wanted. And that, I think, is a little bit concerning. Like, I think you do want to keep seeing it ramp up.

And that's kind of the words that we've heard and how you want it to go. And that didn't happen going from Tuesday against the Celtics to Thursday against the Bulls. And that is something that, OK, hopefully, you know, you get the all star break, you get all this rest and Chris can continue on the ramp up. And this is just a blip.

But maybe it's not. And and those are the things that you worry about, because ultimately, like you said, like we've been talking about. This team, when healthy, is very good.

They're going to be very good. That's just how this works. But that requires you to be healthy. And that's where I think the concerns are. But the night to night stuff, who's in the rotation, who's out of the rotation?

I don't think that is as maybe impactful as it once was. I think when you had a big three that included Eric Bledsoe, that stuff really mattered. Like you couldn't lose on the margins. Now when you get to a playoff series and you can play Giannis and Chris and Drew 40 minutes a night in do or die playoff series. The baseline is very high, like your floor is very high. Those three are very good basketball players and you're gonna be fine. And now you have a bunch of different ways to combat different lineups. You have Rick Lopez, if you need to go big, Bobby Portis, if you need to go big, if you need to go small, you have Joe Ingles, you have Jay Crowder, you have Pat Connaughton, like you can go up and down the scale. You can do it different ways.

You, you are flexible. And bud has shown a willingness to do those things. And granted, I know people want to see more of the honest center in the, in the regular season. They want to see more of Marsha and boat champ.

They want to see more of the, all these other things. And that's great. And like, I'm okay with people wanting more of that, but ultimately when it comes down to it, like bud tends to pick out pretty good lineups and be like, it's not, I'm not going to say it's not hard to, but when you have a baseline of talent, that's very high and you can play them lots and lots of minutes, which is something he didn't do at the start of his tenure in Milwaukee, like he was playing on us like 36 minutes in a playoff, like do or die game. That wasn't enough. Like that's not okay.

You can't do that. That was a criticism, but now that he plays everyone, I think they're going to be pretty good. And, and I think we're heading towards bucks, Celtics, as long as both sides are healthy and bucks, Celtics is going to be an absolute war and it's going to be amazing basketball and bucks fans are going to be very stressed during all of it because the Celtics are legitimately good, but that's something to look forward to. That should be really fun as long as both teams can get their healthy.

Well, yeah. And that, that's the caveat we'll talk about with all this is everybody's staying healthy. And I think with the Celtics, I think that there was a lot of, you know, looking back at that game last week between the bucks and the Celtics, these games without seeding or tiebreakers, you just want to win both sides because you can tell that the buck bucks fans know if someone's getting in their way, it's Boston, but the Celtics fans know that too, that if someone's getting in their way, it's Milwaukee. So when there's all this back and forth about you barely beat our scrubs, uh, in overtime, first of all, we did win. Second of all, I don't know that I'm calling some of these guys scrubs, right? I mean, they're, they're, they're depth is pretty good. So, but again, if you can combat that with 40 minutes of these guys and broken Bobby, and we'll talk about some of those other ones, but I think that, you know, I'm, I'm trying to figure out where that matchup is going to be. One is a coaching. Is it, is it the stars?

Is it the bench? I don't know, but it's going to be very interesting to see that if we don't get to that, something else would have happened, but that is what it should be. Because those are the two best teams in the league in one humble man's opinion.

No, for sure. And I think, I think they're the class of the league and it was funny. I was talking to a couple of people over the weekend about the bucks because that's, those are just conversations I tend to have. Um, but one thing I had said was that was like the reaction to my story from the night app, like from that night from Buck Celtics on Tuesday, Wednesday morning, the reaction to my story was like among the most inflammatory reactions I've gotten from like both fan bases. Like I, like the Celtics fans were legit mad when I was like, wow, incredible defense by Drew holiday to make a clutch play in like defensively.

And it was, it was undeniably incredible. Like drew holiday is amazing at making plays like that. And no one makes clutch defensive plays like your holiday. That that's just not a thing that great play don't matter who it's against. It doesn't matter who it's against. And Oh, by the way, it was against Derek white. Who's one of your starters. So it does like, it was a one-on-one play.

He picked Derek white clean and dunked on them. Okay. You can say it doesn't matter, but that's a thing that could happen in the playoffs. So Celtics fans were like, it was the B team.

They barely snuck out. You're a Homer idiot. Okay, cool.

That's fine. And then bucks fans were like, Whoa, this bucks team, man, they, they just, aren't that good this year. They can barely beat the B team and you know, this didn't matter. But then also on the other side, it was like, there were Celtics fans were like, wow, Drew holiday really is incredible. And there was also bucks fans that were like, what a great game.

I'm so happy we beat the Celtics. So like the widest possible set of emotions for a game on what February, I don't even know what that date was 14th, but it shouldn't matter. It's like everything Valentine's day.

You wouldn't know that you loser. That's that's true actually. Um, so on February 14th, you're sitting here and you have like fan bases, all lathered up, ready to go.

They are jacked up. They are like angry about a story I wrote about the 55th regular season game. And we've been taught that these things shouldn't matter in the NBA, but it did that night.

And it did because it's exactly what you said. Those are the two best teams in the league and both fan bases know it in both fan bases know that this is what you should want. You should want those two teams in the Eastern conference finals. Like that should be the one and the two seed, no matter how it ends up, like however the tiebreakers work or these final 24 games play out, those should be the one and two seeds.

And we should all be given the opportunity to see that series with both sides healthy because we are robbed of it last year and it was still a great series last year, but we were robbed of it last year and we deserve to get it this year. So as the bucks make their moves, you know, Jay Crowder comes in and we think, well, that's a move specifically for the series against the Celtics. If that happens, there's a lot of easy ways and yeah, to connect it to the PJ Tucker move. So what do we expect from Jay? Cause PJ started, I don't know. I mean, I don't know that Jay starts. I don't know how much he plays.

What have you gotten for like, what, what the bucks plan to do with Crowder? Yeah. So I think the, the thing that's interesting about PJ is he did start in the, in the may finals, in the Eastern conference finals and in the second round, he wasn't starting before that.

Like w we all now memorialize, he's not dead, but we memorialize him like, right. Oh my gosh. PJ Tucker. He made it was transformative. It was unbelievable.

Yeah. During the NBA finals, there's a lot of smart people that were like, Oh, should PJ Tucker like starting anymore? Like he's not really that good. Like there's smart people that you go back. You'll you'll find people that you respect like the Zach Lowe's of the world. We're saying that. And they were right to say that I wrote about it. It was an interesting conversation because, you know, he, he wasn't that good, but it is now they made the PJ Tucker deal. That's why they won.

And, and I think both parts of this are actually true, right? Like you, you have to look at it in totality and you have to realize PJ Tucker came here. He had an injury that he demanded the rockets, let him play through in the bucks. We're like, no, dude, you're go sit out. Like you're going to go sit out for 15 games and you're gonna get this thing right.

And you're gonna get healthy. So like we, we always remember like the playoffs and him wanting to fight Kevin Durant and all of that. And that was great.

It was, it was wonderful theater, but also the buildup like was a little bit anticlimactic. Like he wasn't really playing that much and all of that. So I think you have to remember that PJ Tucker was like situational. And I think that'll be the same thing with Jay Crowder is that he will be situational to start there. I don't think you're going to see the bucks all of a sudden start, start a small ball lineup where Yanis is that center and Jay Crowder is your power forward.

I don't think that's going to happen. I think Brook Lopez is still going to be that guy, but now you have a guy in Jay Crowder that can come in and be the, the small ball for however you want to say it, you can move Yanis to the five. Uh, but also the bucks have Joe Ingles who can do that as well. They also have Pat Conaton, who's been there small ball for even during the championship run.

It was Pat Conaton. So I think Jay Crowder is another tool in the toolbox for Mike Boone Holzer. It gives them more options. I think where it gets interesting is the bucks deciding on what their identity is. And in the championship run, they decided that we are going to be a defensive first team and it is going to get ugly on offense. It's going to be gross. You know, Yanis and Chris and drew are going to go on one-on-one every possession. And that's how we're going to break down defenses and we're yeah, we're going to play PJ Tucker and no, no, one's going to cover them. They don't care. They're just going to let them sit in the corner. That's okay with us, Brook Lopez.

They're probably gonna put a smaller plan on them. We're not posting Brook up. All we're going to do is those three guys, the three guys that we got our big three, they're going to ISO and we're going to ugly up the game.

We're not going to turn it over. We're going to get a bunch of offensive rebounds and that's how we're going to win. Could the bucks do that again? Possibly, but Jay Crowder isn't that guy in the offensive glass like PJ Tucker was you knew PJ Tucker wasn't getting covered, but that dude was going to hit three dudes on his way in to try to get the offense rebound and you were going to get the shit beaten out of you every single night on both sides of the ball. If you play the Milwaukee bucks, I think Jay Crowder can do that defensively. Can he do it offensively? I don't know.

We'll see. So then you have to think, Oh, is it Joe Ingles instead? Are we a little bit prettier on offense? Cause we have Joe Ingles, but not as good on defense.

Cause Joe Ingles can't move his feet like that. Uh, we saw in that Celtics game, he get, he got targeted every possession to start over time. The Celtics were just like, all right, where's the old white guy. You Oh, come on, come set a screen.

I'm going to take you to the basket. And that's what, that's what they did. And it will look worse when Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown are out there. So the bucks have multiple pitches. Jay Crowder is a new, interesting pitch for them to throw, but we'll have to see what like their fastball ends up being on, man, I'm mixing sports and stuff, but yeah, you know, we'll see what we'll see what their fastball is. Come playoff time.

Like we don't know what it is yet, but it'll be interesting to figure out. And the bucks have a bunch of talented players to figure that out with, and they kept Grayson Allen in the trade. So like they have even another pitch, like the smaller guy that can hit threes.

They actually have that guy still. So, um, I dunno, it's going to be interesting to see how they figure out what their identity is this time around, because ultimately they're trying to win another championship. What would be more believable if I told you that Joe Ingles was my brother or that Mike Budenholzer was my dad? That's interesting. Um, it's gotta be Bud as your dad, because I would wonder why you had a six, eight brother. Like, even if you look the same, I'd be like, that doesn't totally add up.

But having like a, I think Bud's probably like six foot, maybe shorter. I don't have the same luggage bags under our eyes. Sure.

Sure. So like you two together make a, make more like the, the height, that would be a real problem. I would just have to wonder how he got to be six, eight in you ended up being shorter, but you think Joe looks more like me.

That's so much. I think, I think Bud is probably looks a little bit more like you. I would say, and we have the same body too.

You know, you can talk about your body, however you want, buddy. All right. So this buyout situation. Sure.

You know what the buyout market's like? It's like when you go to your grandpa's house or your whatever and, or your pet. No, you're going to, you're going to your parents' house and you have a kid and you look through your old, you look through your old closet and be like, I remember playing with that John wall. I remember playing with that Kevin love. Yep. Oh, remember we used to play that Russell Westbrook all the time.

Would you like to play with this now, son? That's what the buyout market is. So all this discourse about Myers Leonard one way or another, he's our last guy. I mean, I also think with Myers Leonard, it's a 10, it's a 10 day. Like they didn't give him the remainder of the year contract. Uh, I would guess typically how the books do it is they give one of those out at some point to a veteran. And the fact that they didn't give it out to Myers Leonard would suggest that he's probably not going to be the guy for the rest of the year.

So they needed a body. Bobby Portis isn't all the way back yet. You, you know how the bucks are going to ramp guys up. It's going to do an agent a favor or something.

It's going to take some time, right? Like Bobby is going to probably start out at 15 minutes that bud won't disclose before the game. And then the next time he'll go up to 17 minutes, that bud won't disclose before the game. And then I'll move up to 20 minutes before the night that you know, that bud won't disclose before the game, like they will ramp him up. And if Yanis does end up missing some time, which does seem likely, right? Like it, it wasn't such a serious injury that he was going to miss so much time, but he's probably going to miss some time at the start of the post all star break, uh, season.

Like you just need a big body. And I know I've seen some bucks fans be like, well, why isn't it to Marcus cousins? And it's like, did you miss last year? Did you, they got rid of him after his best game? That was very sad.

It was, but it's clear that that was an unhappy marriage. Uh, that, that those, that those two parties that boogie cousins and the mucky bucks, weren't going to get along. So if you're curious why they didn't take boogie cousins instead, well, that, that, that should answer the question for you.

It didn't work out last time. So I don't think boogie cousins, even though no one else in the league has signed them is signing up to be like, yeah, I'll come back to that place that as bucks fans have told me many times before treated him poorly. Uh, and yeah, he's not going to sign up for that again.

So that's why they sign Myers Leonard and he'll fill some time and he's seven feet tall and 260 pounds. And yes, I understand the baggage that comes with it. I'm not trying to deny all that. Um, but while I dealt the sincerity of Kyrie Irving's apology because of his previous, like his actions after his apology, Myers Leonard, uh, genuinely has put in the work. And, and again, I understand if, if you're a bucks man and you want nothing to do with that, dude, I get it.

That's totally fine. But I do think he has actually shown remorse. He has actually apologized like a real apology, not like, Oh, I'm sorry. You were offended by my words apology. Like, Oh, I actually am. Sorry.

I did something wrong. It was a real apology and he's put in the work. So like, he'll be around for 10 days.

It'll be fine. And then on the bio market, who knows what they end up finding, right? The, as you said, biomarker guys tend not to make a big difference. Um, I think the bucks have gotten somewhat lucky in the past. Like Jvonne Carter, that was a solid buyout ad.

Um, it tends not to go that way. Most of the time on the bio market, you're having someone that isn't that good or someone that's not going to play that much. Or also it's the 14th player on your team.

You don't really need that. Well, no fan base cares that much about the 14th guy than we do. Sure. Sure. This is, but again, this is, this is everywhere.

Everyone cares about everything all the time, everywhere. Like bucks fans, aren't unique in that and being angry or excited or whatever, like fans are fans and it's fine. Like I understand getting excited about it and thinking about it, but ultimately it's, it's a player at the end of the roster.

They're probably not going to play a whole lot. All right. Last one. Sure. The NBA media collectively. Oh yeah.

This is going to be great. Collectively. Yep. One entity. Yep.

That I can speak for all of as one person. Yes. They have an enormous amount of stock in the Boston Celtics. Okay. They love the Celtics.

Okay. They're very transparent about their love for the Celtics. They root for the Celtics.

They also have a very large amount of stock in Nicola Jokic winning a third MVP. Why? I don't know.

Why doesn't he get the health of the same standards that Yanis did years ago? I don't know. Why, why are the nuggets? Have they been to a Western conference finals? They have not, right?

They did in the bubble. So no, why, why look, I've had one interaction with Jokic. He was an absolute Dick, absolute Dick. There were reporters from where is he from? Whatever that he talked to an hour, made two other guys wait. The two other guys talked to him. He said, I have no time for questions.

Gave him real short answers. Yanis is the greatest human on earth. Hashtag fake humble.

Screw you yet. Jokic. We're just going to give the third MVP to because the nuggets shift his minutes on the court for when he can be the most statistically productive. It's garbage.

It's garbage. Why do you, not you, but you NBA media love Jokic so much. So I will say, I think what Jokic is doing this season is ridiculous.

It is absolutely preposterous. I would have to look, I mean, I I'm, I'm going to do it right now because I want to make sure I get it right. Cause I don't, I don't need people coming back here. So I'm going to basketball reference Jokic right now. Just to make sure that, that I get the statistics correct.

Cause I don't, I don't need people in my mentions talking about it later. He's shooting 63% from the field. He's averaging 24.7 points, 11.5 rebounds in 10.1 assists per game. So he's averaging a triple double shooting 63% from the field. That's not from, from the rim, the any of it 63% from the field. And he's shooting 39.1% from the three point line.

Those are ridiculous numbers. That is a spectacular season. I think last year he was rewarded.

I voted for him for MVP. Bucks fans got very mad at me because I'm so pissed at you. It's okay. I wouldn't even have you on if I didn't need a shoulder fill. I appreciate that. Just kidding. I love Eric. I love you too, Bart. So I think Jokic has been very good, but I do think, and I've been arguing with Matt Moore about this the last couple of days and I clapped back, clap back.

Is that a thing that people still say I clap more is very pro Jokic whether he wants to admit it or not. No. Okay. So we've gone back and forth, uh, over the last couple of days. And the thing that I don't think he understands and he's kind of made this clear is that I don't think any bucks fans thought Yana should win his third trade MVP in that season, the bucks were working through a bunch of stuff. They had added drew Yana says numbers. Weren't quite as good. Like they were trying some stuff out.

And if you followed my work during that time, they pretty much openly admitted it, right? Like, Hey, we're not going for, we don't care about the one seed. We're going to try to figure out how to be a better basketball team and do all that stuff. And the thing I keep telling Matt is bucks fans. Aren't telling you Yana should have won the MVP, his third straight. What they're telling you is that people that we all respect, I believe Zach Lowe said it, I believe Tim McMahon said it said that when you're thinking about giving a guy a third straight MVP, you have to think about the historical precedent and you have to think about the fact that you're giving all that, that like voter fatigue, essentially, right?

Like that was a thing for Yannis. That was a reason why his candidacy that year was not considered in the same way. And I'm not saying he should have won it, but people admitted that that was going to keep them from voting for him and considering him in the same way.

And what I've tried to tell Matt is. Bucks fans aren't saying, yo, kids should win this year or lose this year or whatever. They just want the same standard applied to him. They want everyone to vote the same way. And I think one thing that has happened is that over the last, I'll say decade, um, the voting has become more transparent. Uh, the internet has cared a lot more about too much.

It's the only reason the regular exists, right? Who's voting for what, what they're voting there's the first week of November. Correct. So like it has become a bigger deal. And I think in the past voters could be like, you know what, we're not giving MJ a third straight. We're gonna go get one to come along, come along. Um, so we're going to give tough week. That's not great. Um, so we're going to give one to Carl Malone, right?

We're going to give one to Charles Barkley because we can't give him three straight because like just the historical precedent that we'd be setting, we're not going to do it. And everyone accepted that everyone was like, okay. Yeah, no, it makes sense. You look back at the history of the league and how players performed and that's okay. Like fine. And yes, there were Jordan fans and bulls fans are like, no, this is bullshit.

Like this is, this is crazy. He's the best player in the league. Just give him the award. Who cares if he's won eight in a row, he's the best player.

Yeah. Why have the award then just give it to him. But that was the standard that was set in now because everyone cares way more. If you vote a certain way, you get just attacked relentlessly. And again, bucks fans are after me last year and I didn't really care.

Jokic was put together a better season than Giannis last year. I told you honest to his face. I don't think he was happy about it, but I told them like, I voted that the way I voted because I believe that was the right thing. And we've gotten to a place where, because your votes are as public as they are because NBA players are campaigning against all the media's voting this way about all NBA and all this, like we have to take it serious.

We have to take it very serious and we can't use random logic, right? We can't just be like, well, I didn't like it. So no, back in the day, that was cool.

People were like, yeah, fine. That's okay. Whatever.

The internet doesn't exist. We don't care. What are we going to do? Write a letter to the editor? Like who cares?

Who cares? And now it's all changed. And again, like I've, and I'll just keep using that more as I've argued with Matt somewhere.

It's great that we've evolved past that. And it's great that, you know, we're getting closer to voting for the right people, but you telling people that, well, it doesn't logically make sense to me. I don't know why you're mad.

Yes, you do. You do understand why they're mad. Cause three years ago, there was a logic applied to the guy in the fan base, the fan base of this guy and this guy could not win a third MEP.

Even if he put together a great year, people said, we're not voting for him. All, all that bucks fans want is just the same standard to be applied and is the standard bad and wrong. Yeah. I think I I've kind of shown that I believe it to be bad and wrong, but the same standard should exist.

And it doesn't seem like it's going to this year. I don't know if it is or isn't, but it seems that way. And I think that overall is like the bigger problem, right? Like if you go back to, I don't know, 2009, bill Simmons writes the, uh, the book of basketball. Right. And he, he talks about this, this idea of like the pyramid.

Right. And this is how we should remake the basketball hall of fame. The grading criteria that he could use was, you know, all stars, um, all defense MVPs, all MBA, it was voted on a certain way in those years.

And we could all see that yes, MJ should have won this and maybe Kobe should have won that. And like, those were debates because the criteria was the same in those years, people voted on it in the same way. And in the last five to 10 years that has changed and it's to a spot where that's good, right? Like it's good that we're doing it better, but we can't deny that it was done a different way for the rest of the history of basketball.

And that's where the problem arises and you do have to have like a legitimate conversation. Like, is it better to continue to apply a flawed logic to MVP voting to keep everything, um, like uniform and consistent, or is it better if we evolve in our voting gets better and we are more willing to do this. And I think it's a real argument. Like, I think it is something that should actually be discussed and something that like is very important and relevant to the moment and ultimately like the history of basketball, right? Like if all of a sudden Jokic is a three-time MVP and no one's done it since Larry Bird, if all I have is the history books 30 years from now, I would have to say, man, if this guy won MVP three times and this guy won MVP three times and in between it is, what's it going to be 30 years, 40 years, 40 years in between. That means no one in those 40 years had a three year peak as good as that guy in that guy.

And that would not be true that, that it would just not be accurate two year peak was as good as Steve Nash's, right? Like those are all the things that you have to consider. And again, I think it's very important that like those discussions actually get had. Um, but also, I mean, it's going to be, you know, like internet discussion and internet debate and that just ends up being like a lot of yelling and not like a real legitimate conversation.

Um, but I do hope it happens because I do think it is important for us, like more perfectly representing the history of, of the game that hopefully we all love. It's never too late to do the right thing or the wrong thing to be right. Eric name. Love you.

Love you too, buddy. Hey guys, my name is Bart Winkler. Let me quickly tell you, tell you about Omaha steaks.com Omaha steaks. Oh, they're delicious. They've got some of the finest products that you will ever find and you can get them delivered straight to your house.

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It's gotta be on the grill. That's all right, frames. I love you so much. I wish that they would give us a show again, but everyone in this town is too stupid and too full of Eagle and only hires their friends.

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Oh, that's right, frames. Oh God, I love you. All right, we've got some voicemails. Thanks to our friends at Carl's place.

Carl's place. Guys, put a golf simulator in your home. We just do it.

I'm gonna hypnotize you. Put a golf simulator in your house. Tax time. You should go rush to do your taxes this weekend. Get that big tax back. Say, hey, government, can I have the money back that you owe me that you collected interest on this whole time and that I couldn't use? Can I have it back? Also, I'm gonna pay someone to figure out how much you owe me. Weird system.

But when you do get it, spend it on a golf simulator. Tell them Bart sent you by going to carlofet.com backslash Bart, they bring you the voicemails each and every day. Most days, it depends on you. If you send them in or not, you can always call us, 402-915-B-A-R-T. 402-915-B-A-R-T. This one is from Patty. Hi, Bart, this is Patty. Long time, no talk. I wanted to just talk Brewers for a minute.

First of all, I just wanna say your last Friday episode, I think it was, that was just like a grade A rant and it was just so perfect given the news and all the shenanigans that have been going on. I just, they're kind of like the little brother where like, I feel like only I can make fun of them. If anybody else does, I get kind of protective about it. But if I've got something to say, like watch out cause I'm gonna say it. And I just feel like you kind of have that vibe as well. And it needed to be said.

I think we can all agree that this has been handled poorly from top to bottom. And I wanted to say too, today, I just find it really bizarre. I'm a 20-pack season seed holder and we have heard crickets from our rep regarding the opening day pre-sale. I posted on Twitter asking if any other season seed holders are getting the same and people are responding yes. Somebody saw some fine print in an email that single game tickets go on sale this weekend. But it's been literal crickets from everybody's rep. And apparently the season seed holder sale is tomorrow.

And apparently we're all gonna be getting an email tomorrow morning. So you wanna talk about poorly run? Like I don't know what's going on, but it's totally bizarre. And it just kind of reminds me of what, I think it was Spark guys voicemail the other day about seeing how poorly you can run the organization into the ground, like promoting low ticket sales and this and that.

It really got me to wondering, especially after what I found out today about how they're handling opening day tickets. So I don't know Bart, it's gonna be an interesting season to say the least, but we're a fan for life. So I guess we'll see how it goes. Anyway, have a great week.

Bye. Thanks Patty. And she sent that on Tuesday and I'm recording this on Wednesday for Thursday. And we found out more about the tickets since then with the single game going on sale. On tomorrow's show, I'll talk to Tim Shea a little bit more about some of the tickets coming out and things of that nature. Also the comments that Willie Adonis made, where he basically said, I wanna be in Milwaukee, I wish I could be, but you're seeing all the money that everyone's making.

So we'll talk more about that on Friday show. I think this is a good, like the brewers, you know, they're doing a bunch of things that it seems like, oh, okay, well now you can win a prize and hey, we're gonna have lower concession prices. It seems like they're a little late, but they are starting to do some things to try to get people in the ballpark. You know what though? All this stuff we're complaining about, Corbin Burns tickets, if they go out and start winning, that's, I mean, that's all that matters. This organization, I don't think has been run very well.

I really don't. I've been pretty, it's embarrassing, but they do have that in their back pocket at all times. If they win, we're there. And so it doesn't matter how bad they are. If they win, we're there.

And it'll always be that way in sports. All right, that'll do it for today's show. Hey, you want more Bart Winkler?

I'm on writer than you, nine to 11. Those shows do get podcasted. Sometimes you ask me about the weekend shows or some of the other shows I do, and they never podcast them, but the writer than you ones do. And if you missed any of it, oh, you may be in luck. You may be hearing some of that tomorrow too.

We'll see. Bart Winkler show on the fan. Also going to stop in.

I got a big week this week. I'm going to stop in on Friday, see my guys at Sun Ant Interactive. They're helping me with a website. And the website is going to be a one-stop shop where, and hopefully it has a shop at some point.

If you want to probably wear my name on your chest or whatever, but all the podcasts will be there. I'm going to try to do more content on there, blogs, other videos and stuff. So they've really been great helping me out.

Gonna do a crash course in learning how to design a website with them on Friday. And hopefully I have that. They've been ready to publish since I talked to them. It's just, I'm the one that's dragging my feet. Getting busy. Well, my kid keeps having snow days every time I want to work on this thing. It's another snow day around here. All right, Bar Winkler Show. Thank you. Thank you.