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Paid for by NHTSA. Welcome in to another edition of the Jim Jackson Show. Of course, you can follow us, follow me on IG at Jim Jackson Show, but also YouTube.
It's richisonatyoutube.com or wherever you download your favorite podcast. Listen, thank you for joining me again once again, but it's been a crazy, crazy yesterday. What's today's date?
Today is the 9th. So Tuesday, April 8th was one of the craziest days that I've seen in the NBA. I thought Lucas was crazy being traded from Dallas to the Lakers, but what happened in Denver yesterday was bananas, or on Tuesday, the 8th was bananas, being that not only did you fire Mike Vallone, who was the head coach who won your championship a couple years back, but the gentleman, he was having a little friction, having a little friction with in the front office, the general manager, Calvin Booth, he fired him as well. And it's funny because the headlines piggyback, it was Coach Malone, Michael Malone gets fired, he gets fired, he gets fired, and then it's later on after everybody's like in shock and all of that, the other headline comes out that says Calvin Booth has been fired as well.
So a lot to kind of dig into and sift through. The NBA this year has been, I mean, with this, starting back with the firing of Mike Brown, who had kind of changed the culture of the Sacramento Kings and finally broke that playoff curse to what we saw with Luca and that trade and how everybody was just like blown away. Then Taylor Jenkins in Memphis in during the season on how that kind of went from here's a coach that had galvanized his Memphis squad and they really take the next step to, boom, change. And then this whole Denver thing just happened.
I don't even know what you call it. I mean, it's in the shock waves and I don't know if that's an indictment and I'm going to talk to my guest, Amin Alhassan, when he comes, when he tunes in, to dig into this a little bit more, kind of not just we know what happened, but why it happened, dig into the mindset a little bit of these owners who are now a lot different because they come from money. The valuations of the teams are so much more. The decision-making is based on different factors opposed to how it was in the past when David Stern had, you know, this stern grip and, you know, so to say on ownership in the league, it's so different now, how these decisions are being made. So we'll dig into that in this show, talk a little bit more about the Western Conference playoff race, which is so tight right now, especially, and how this move affects Denver and everybody else, trickle-down effect in the Western Conference that's placing themselves in the position to be in the top eight or to early on not to be in the playing games. And also the question is, can OKC break through that ceiling and kind of get it done this year from a championship or are they still too young and inexperienced for some of the other teams that are knocking on the door? And is it just in the Eastern Conference, is it just Cleveland and Boston and everybody else?
And if so, can Cleveland beat for all Boston if it gets to that point in the Eastern Conference championship to get themselves to compete for a world title or NBA championship? So stay tuned. It's going to be a good one. It's going to be a great one. A lot of insight coming your way. As promised, a good friend of the show, I mean, Al Hassan, former NBA exec with the Hawks, with the Knicks, and also recently, a few years ago with the Phoenix, formerly a ESPN contributor.
You've seen him on a Dan Levitard show, but also you have the all eyeballs show with Izzy Gutierrez. But what I wanted to get into, first of all, how are you doing, brother? First of all, how are you doing? Well, I'm happy to be here. I'm doing well. To all those who don't know, Jim was one of my first OGs ever in basketball was you and Rick Mahorn back in Atlanta. So as soon as the call came in, I said, oh, I got to do the show. Yeah, man. It's been a crazy, crazy, I'm not even going to say day.
I made a year in basketball. It's been bananas. I mean, starting, of course, back with Mike Brown firing and then kind of trickling down to what we saw the other day with Denver.
So I want to kind of dig into and dive into just getting your thought process from being in the front office, being around the NBA. Have you seen anything like this? Because Mike Brown winning coach gone, Taylor Jenkins winning coach gone.
These are during the season. And now three games left, I think for Denver, when it happened, when you had not only Michael Malone being fired, but the general manager and Calvin Ward being fired. I know this is a rhetorical question, but have we seen anything like this before? No, especially the last one seems to be the one that takes the cake because Michael Malone is someone who is the winningest coach in his organization's history, brought them to championship, took a Nikoli Jokic who was a second round pick, who they had, you know, decent hopes for, not three-time MVP hopes for, and he developed him into the player that he is today, the dominant player he is today, Michael Malone, who has a reputation of being a guy who's about the bottom line and, you know, coaching towards that. And then when you say three games left in the season, to me, it's unfair to Michael Malone.
I think we could all accept that. You know who else it's unfair to? It's unfair to David Adelman, who has to take over with three games to go, has to, you know, establish his voice as not an assistant, but as the head coach there, has to motivate these guys who, for whatever reason, the motivations have strayed. It's an incredible amount of pressure on a guy with no time to tinker, no time to mess up. It's not like he's been a head coach before, so there's going to be growing pains in all of this and for them to do this and disguise it as, oh yeah, this gives us a best shot to win a championship right now. That's what makes this one the most outrageous, I think, of the three firings.
Okay, so I didn't even mention the whole Luca thing. You know, with regards to being from the mindset of ownership, and this is where I want to dig into it with you because, you know, you've been at three different places and understand three different mindset. How do you come to a decision like this as, first of all, to fire the coach, but then to move a key player? Because there are two distinct kind of thought processes, in particular, firing a coach during the year when the team has shown success in the past. Yeah, so I'm gonna start with the coach because that one's more recent, but, you know, when you're in a situation, this is a very unique situation, they fire the coach and the GM at the same time, and it's not like these two guys were aligned, right? So usually when you see GM and coach are both fired, they're buddies or whatever, they're basically part, both part of the issue, so to speak. In this case, we got two guys who, from all the reporting, it was kind of, you know, a little bit of tension.
Yeah, a friction between the two. Calvin Booth, the GM, wanted coach Malone to play more of the young guys. Coach Malone said, no, give me vets.
Vets are what help us win games and win championships, and so that tension had been lasting a while. So typically, if we're gonna fire a coach, regardless of what part of the season, typically the GM is in on that decision, right? In this case, ownership has come down and said, everybody's out. Well, not everybody, because the assistant coaches are still there. So it makes it really unorthodox, because in essence, you, I mean, if David Adelman ends up being not just the interim, let's say David Adelman goes on and he goes on an incredible run and does win the championship, then he's your head coach, right? So that means you got to hire a general manager who didn't pick the head coach. He's like, hey, I just got to go on and get along and to me, that kind of perverts the order of operation. You're supposed to do things in a certain way when you're trying to clean house.
We talk about Luca, trading a franchise player. That one's different. That one is definitely a case where you have to have a conversation. First of all, whose idea was it? I'm still not totally sold, right?
What do you think? My gut feeling is it's ownership. My gut feeling is, because that's the number one job of being a GM. Uh, Jimmy, it's not to scout players. It's not to negotiate contracts.
It's not to do trades. Your number one job is to make that person up there happy. They happy. I'm happy.
Like happy wife, happy life, happy ownership, happy life. So my owner comes to me and he says, we got man, this dude is out of shape or whatever. I'm going to try to talk about it. It's like, no, you don't understand this kid is really special and, and just give them time to mature or whatever. At the end of the day, you're going to have to listen.
It's their team. You got to have to listen and you're going to have to take the bullets. You can't go up there in front of the cameras and be like, yeah, I want to keep them, but you know, you can't do that. You have to protect ownership. That's the job. Right. And so I just, based on the justifications, and I've talked to a lot of people, both around the Dallas Mavericks and around the league, the justifications just don't add up. Right. Because if you're worried about the long-term health of this guy, that's why you're doing it.
You can't go get someone who has one of the most decorated long-term health issues in the league. Like if that's what I'm getting, if my thing is, Hey, my Toyota Corolla, it's too small. It's too small. My family's going, I can't fit all my family into this Corolla. I need a new car. I can't go and get like a Honda Civic. I basically just said the same thing, right? I got to get a minivan.
I got to get SUV, whatever. And so they did the same thing here. They, they, they moved off of a player who by all rights is headed to the hall of fame right early in his career.
He's five years, six years in, and we already like, yeah, he's he'll be there. Right. And for a guy who, again, this isn't about Anthony Davis, the player, the talent is undeniable, but the health issues, the durability issues are there.
Now you could do that. You could make that deal for an older player who has health issues as well. But then you got to tell me I'm getting one, two, three, four first round picks, three swaps, something like that. When you see what Rudy Gobert went for, when you see what Drew Holliday went for, when he got traded to Milwaukee, when you see what Mikel Bridges went for to New York, it's hard to sit here and say, well, we got one first round pick for Luca.
Yeah, it's, it's true. And if, if, to your point about the health issues, if they're concerned about that, there are covenants you can place into his contract that adhere and address that situation regarding full pay. If he's not healthy, if he's not, it's kind of like what they did with Zion. Now, whether he signs off on it or not, we don't know, but you could put that out there, um, in their contract negotiations. But what I'm, what I'm looking at, cause what they did with Adrian Griffin kind of, he was above 500. They were one of the top teams in the East is there now an indictment and not in a bad way, but in a different way of ownership, kind of peeling back some of the control, how much did the CBA play into this?
Um, I don't know. It just seems like ownership right now is bolder in these situations, especially with the moves they've made during the season with these particular coaches. That's certainly the case. So what we have also, we got to acknowledge that ownership has changed across the league a lot in the last 10 years. So I think most of these owners at this point, weren't even around for David Stern, right?
Which was a very different regime as far as how you are supposed to, you know, operate. And what I say by that, what I mean by that is technically the commissioner works for the owners. He's appointed by the owners to look out for their best interests. David Stern approached that job like, nah, y'all work for me. Exactly.
Right. And so there was not a whole lot of tolerance for things that went out of the ordinary. Cause if they did, you would get a call from that 212-465 number. And then, and then you would hear about it.
And that's if they didn't make you get on a plane and fly in and hear about it in person. So some of the, like when you operate under that, and now you grow up, if you're an owner, you're growing up under a regime where it seems like they're a lot gentler and kinder, but also more willing to allow things to happen. You really don't have that kind of discipline, I think.
And this is, make no mistake, it's about discipline, right? Mike Brown gets fired. This is an organization at the time, had been in the playoffs one time in 15, 16 years.
Right. And that one time was Mike Brown. He fixed something that everyone said couldn't be fixed. He brought discipline. He brought structure. And as he's in season three of this, he's looking around and saying, y'all slipping.
You act like you made it, but you haven't made anything. And we have standards here. And Jimmy, you know this as well as I do. In every NBA organization, there's going to come a time where one or multiple players, they don't like the way coaches did this or said that. And they go to someone else. That someone else might be an assistant coach. It might be someone in front office. It might even be the owner. And they do the, man, you know, like they do that little complaint. And it's at that moment, I call it the moment of truth.
Because if your organization is about upholding standards and you know that guy who's doing a job is good at his job, like Mike Brown was, when that comes to you, you say, Hey man, that's coach. You got to listen to him. If you do the, well, you know, and you try to listen to you open the door. Oh, they don't even believe it.
They don't believe it. Every day when we're on the road, people around us endanger themselves and others by using their phones while driving. They think they're hiding it, they think they're hiding it, but we've all seen them and know exactly who they are. For instance, there is the sneak peeker who darts their eyes between the road and their texts. There's also the got a ticketer looking upset because they just got a ticket for using their phone while driving. And what about the fast scroller who can't drive five minutes without updating their social feeds or the nightlighter who has that mysterious glow illuminating the inside of their car after dark.
Do any of these sound familiar? If they remind you of yourself or someone, you know, rethink your behavior before you find yourself becoming the fender bender, the veering off the rotor, or worst of all, the driver who killed someone put the phone away or pay paid for by NHTSA. Don't let the urge to sing along to that catchy tune distract you from that truck drifting towards your lane or that lane splitting biker creeping up beside you. Fortunately, every Hyundai offers advanced safety features that can alert you to potential dangers around you. And Hyundai is over 120 IIHS top safety awards since 2006 because Hyundai is always working to ensure the road doesn't get you.
Hyundai vehicles have won over 120 IIHS top safety awards from 2006 to 2024. And you know what I found too, it's your point about David Stern. David Stern because he took the league from not generating the kind of revenues and the valuations of the team to this global product. And he had that level of control. A lot of these owners now are coming in from a multi billion dollar business, they've ran it, they got money.
They're looking at it as an additive to what they've already done. And they've run the business. And I love Matt Ishby. Matt Ishby has a mindset of a CEO Corporation. I'm gonna go buy talent.
He tried that in Phoenix. Okay, I'm a buy talent. I know what I'm doing.
I know how to organize. So with Adam Silver, because he had lighter hands on the steering wheel, so to speak, he allowed a lot of things to kind of happen player wise and ownership wise, I think we find ourselves in a situation where teams are not negotiating with the league and players anymore. They're looking at it like, Hey, this is what I got to do. I don't know what the Gronkie family whole mindset is because they're multiple owners of professional sports teams on what their books look like and what they're thinking. But what does this say about the league in general? Because we've had a lot of stuff. We don't see this in football. We don't see this in baseball.
Um, what is it? What does it say about the league in general? I think you hit the nail on the head. The relationship between owners and the commissioners office is very different. When it went from man, we were worth 10 $15 million. Now we're worth 200 $300 million versus a man I paid $300 million for this thing. I could do whatever I want. That's a huge difference in relationship, right? So when you start with that, that I paid all this money for this, I get to play with my toy the way I want to.
Then you throw onto it. Maybe it's a younger owner that there's a little impatience in there. So the kronkie family, Stan kronkie, big Stan is technically the head of kronkie sports, but because of the bylaws, he's not allowed to be the main owner of the nuggets because he owns an NFL team. So his son, Josh kronkie is the one who's in charge. Josh is probably around my age, went to Missouri, uh, played at say Thomas Moore in high school. So he's a younger guy.
So he's more likely to have a kind of reactionary vibe about him than someone who's been around 40, 50 years older, maybe a little bit more measured and more mature in that way. But again, you look all across the league, all these guys making these moves are whether it's Matt Ishby and Phoenix. Again, he, he came in, paid a lot of money. Vivek came from tech, paid a lot of money for the Kings.
Um, in Memphis, Robert Pera came from tech, made a lot of money. And the one thing about all these billionaires that I know is that some point in their lives, they were told you can't do this or that's not going to work. And they made it work. And so in their mind, you can't tell me nothing.
Right? Like, cause they told me I wouldn't be a billionaire. Look at me now. And so when you tell them, Hey, that's not how you run a team, that's not how this works. They're like, wait a second.
They told me that about mortgages, about tech, about whatever. Right. So they're almost more emboldened to take these large swings and not listen to kind of, uh, advice or counsel on that decisions like this.
Okay. So late in the season, Denver was right. What third place at the time when that happened, catapulted up, they'd been playing well, they dropped some games. How does this affect in your mind, Denver moving forward? And how does it affect this tight playoff race with like two to three games left to go? Yeah. Well, that race is crazy because right now they're fourth, but, uh, they're tied with the Clippers and the Warriors and Memphis. So it could be in the plan, like one loss, you know, in the next game and one win by someone else. And all of a sudden you're in the plan. And that's, that's very different from having home court advantage, obviously in, in the playoffs. So, um, again, I got to stress this enough. They put David Adelman in a tough spot, man.
You got zero room to learn. And yes, he's been an assistant coach for years, but Jimmy, you know, there's a difference when you move in this chair to that chair, there's a difference. And the players know it too, because they could tell that first time, man, I'm not going to name names, but I got a buddy, my long time NBA player was playing on a team and their coach, uh, left in the middle of the season and assistant coach who had been interviewed for jobs. And he was a former player and long time. Like he, this guy had the pedigree. He said he got that first game. They gave him the clipboard. That thing was like spaghetti like this.
They were like, Oh, no, sir. Right there. He lost, he lost the team on the, in the first huddle of the first game. That's how, that's how cutthroat this business is. And so most of the time when you get a brand new head coach, it's a guy who's been building towards this, maybe, uh, coached elsewhere, maybe coached down in the G league. Uh, so I had some reps and stuff or they've had an off season. They went, they did summer league.
They did all that. And now they're walking into camp and they've got, you know, some confidence about them. I hope David Adelman, who's a great guy, a great coach. I hope for his sake that he's successful, but I'm gonna be honest with you, man. The circumstances just aren't great for someone to come in and be immediately successful.
The only thing on their side is they have the best player in the world. And that can erase a lot of, a lot of mistakes and a lot of issues. Well, is it, is it okay. So as we look at it, you talked about that. I mean, Joe Missoula is kind of like an outlier there coming in from the back of the bench and doing it. But as we look at, and I want to transition, as we look at this playoff rate, the play in scenario, everybody poo pooed on it at the beginning.
Oh, we don't need to do this. And I didn't think, I didn't think that if I'm in seven and all year, I've worked my butt off to be five, six, seven, eight games removed from eight, that I should have to go into a play scenario. That's what I felt, but I get the thought process and it's working because it's forced teams to who's in six, who's in fifth as tight to say, we can't, we can't not play, continue to play. And like Washington, when they got in, when they were in 10, 12 and they got up to 10, they just didn't lay it down. So if you got a game against Washington tomorrow, but they're in 12 and they need those two games, you're going to get your best from Washington.
So that scenario worked with me. You're crystal ball right now. OKC has dominated all year, but yet you see what the Lakers are doing. The Clippers are a threat in Minnesota.
Turn the corner. How much confidence do you have in the young OKC team who hasn't made it past the second round? Yeah, I would say, first of all, I love the play in because it, like you said, it gives us all a reason to keep competing through April, where in years past, people remember, like you said, we're five, we're good where we are. Or even even if you're like, if you were 10, you'd be like, well, I guess that's over.
Right. And now I think of a team like Houston last year where they were still in striking range of that play and they kept fighting and pleading. And by the way, I said it at the time, this is going to help them next year because now they know what meaningful basketball is like. Now they know, like, man, we dropped that game.
This is disastrous for us. Where in years past, they would have shut it down, played young guys and called it a day. So shout out to the play. But to your question about the Thunder, I look at this team and I talk to people all across the league. I said, what's their weakness? Although there ain't no weaknesses, they've got it all, they got perimeter scoring, they defended every position. Their bigs are talented and are playmakers and play inside and out.
They're deep. They've got a bonafide MVP leading them, who's one of the toughest guys to guard in the league. And he also defends. He's not a one way player.
The only thing we can come up with is, ah, man, y'all young, you haven't done it enough. But at some point, even that has to wear off. And so for me, I mean, I think the Thunder are the best team in the NBA now. What's working against them is what you mentioned. Every team in the West is great. There is no, your eighth seed is probably going to be either Minnesota or Golden State or one of these teams, maybe Memphis. Like these are not easy teams. That's not a walk in the park the way it's supposed to be in the first round. So they've got a tough road ahead of them as opposed to the Eastern Conference. At least you can say Boston and Cleveland and our first round matchup is going to be easy. It's going to be Atlanta or Orlando. It's going to be not quite as rigorous as what the guys in the West are going to see.
Well, let me see this. So the teams you mentioned, like for the Clippers, you got Kawhi, you have James Hart. For the Lakers, you got Luka, you have LeBron. For let's say Golden State, now you have Steph and you have Jimmy Butler. Yep.
A proven one and proven to a 1A, 1B. They have that with OKC because we know Shane can get it. But is Jalen the guy for a seven game series, that's that second guy when they try to take him.
I think that's a question that people have with having something there other than experience. We hope not. So that's the game plan is to get the ball out of Shay's hand early and let it get away. And then we see how the offense operates. I'm biased.
I live in the Phoenix area. Jalen Williams is from the Phoenix area with Perry High School. And I've seen him, I've seen the ascension and I think he's got it in him now. That might be an experience factor right there. Maybe not for the team as a whole, but that pressure point there, because as you said, it's different from when I'm on the wing and I'm getting action run towards me versus they force the ball out of Shay's hands. Now I got to bring it up. I got to initiate offense.
I have to be an aggressor. And part of that also is that feeling of I can make mistakes and keep going. You know this, Jimmy, there's guys that they get in that situation, miss a couple of shots. Now they don't want to shoot anymore. They feel like, man, I don't have it going. But when you're in that spot, you don't have that luxury anymore to be like someone else take it. That's got to be you. Do you have that kind of that mentality in you, that aggression to say I'll miss six, seven in a row, but I'll keep shooting because I'm going to make three or four in a row at some point. And those are going to be a crucial moment.
I guess I can accept that. I think Jalen Williams does have that in him, but I understand, I understand why people are asking that question. Yeah.
I don't think he's his personality, the way he's played since he's come into the league that he's wanted to shy away from the moment, but trying to wait from the moment and making the right decisions in the moment are two different things. In particular, when you have to man up the ship, if you're one, a is not doing it, how you initiate plays, facilitate plays, what shots you take, when you take it, do you get guys to ball? Do you get off those little things in pressure situation? Yeah. Sometimes either cause you to do the right thing or make these little mistakes that cost you the game. And now we got to see that from Jaylin issues.
I think we'll see a little bit more with these other teams on how they try to manipulate that. Okay. See office and get the ball out of, you know, SGA's head. So when I, when I look at the West too, and you know, of course I covered the Clippers and I'm watching how the roster has been built because it's built around before it was built around, you know, PG Kawhi and then James.
Okay. Then you had these bunch of complimentary plays that did do just they pounded you inside and get you a tough basket rebounded, but it's something about this team with you have the right balance of the offensive side. Now that Norman Powell has kind of ascended in that as the legitimate, maybe sometimes second offensive player to third James and, and Kawhi, but zoo is a valuable asset download that you can trust in a short road dump on the ball.
You can make play, but you have the Derek Jones Jr. You have the mere coffee. You have the Chris Dunn of the world, Nicholas platoon defensively that understand their role. They're ball movers. What, where do you, where's the Clippers land with you?
So the Clippers, first of all, I want to say, I've been looking at the sportsbook odds on who's going to win. It's blowing my mind that look, Kate Cunningham is a great player, but you need to explain to me how he's most improved. He's been, he was the number one overall pick and never disappointed at any point in his career. Why is he most improved the leader? Meanwhile, Zubac can't even get on the board.
I see Zubac since he was a Laker. I thought he's a good, big, a serviceable, big, what I've seen this year. He's a problem.
This isn't just a release valve of like James is, is driving defense collapse. He throws a lot of business. He's, he's, they throw it to him on the block. He's got the right hook. He's got the left hook and he's bodying guys.
And it's not just nobodies. I watched that Cleveland game when the Cavs came into, into it. And I said, man, that's, those are two of the best defensive bigs we have in the league.
And he's treating them like they're just little rag dolls. So Zubac to me is, is it's insane that he's not one of the favorites, uh, to win most improved player. I think you, the, the way the Clippers are built. So I said this in the off season when the Sixers signed, um, Paul George, I said, the Sixers made a risky move, even riskier. What I mean by that is you got Joel Embiid.
He's your star when he's healthy, he's great, but he's not always healthy. So normally you want to hedge your bets. You want to get something a little bit more reliable. They went out and got another unreliable guy. They almost did a parlay instead of hedging their bets. Well, you need both of these guys. And so they both were hurt and the season ended the way it did. Meanwhile, the Clippers, you say, I got quiet Leonard. He is a guy that gets hurt. He's great when he plays, but he gets hurt. So I'm going to pair him not with PG anymore, but with Harden who for all of the criticism he gets, he's durable as hell. He plays games and he plays minutes, right? He not no 32 minute kind of guy.
He's out here playing heavy minutes and playing games. Right. And so I know that, why were you not healthy? Are you not right? Don't worry. We got it. Cause James is like, he said, I'm a system, right? I don't fit systems.
I am the system. And then Norm Powell takes a step up offensively. Zubac takes a step up offensively. Amir Kavi takes a step up offensively. And then the other guys, Chris Dunn and Nick Patume, like you said, they, they know their spots, Derek Jones Jr. Now what we, so the team was doing decently to start the year. Now his quiet is healthier and he's playing more now. Really?
Oh, wait a second. This isn't just the little engine that could, they're a real life problem because they defend at a high level. They got a bonafide closer in Kawhi and they've got a guy in James Harden who innings eater can just get you through them. Second and third quarters where someone's in foul trouble or someone's not playing well, like just give it to James and let him keep going and going and hit, wear them out.
Yeah, they've done it. And then with, I think with Ty Lou and Jeff Van Gundy, it's funny because Ty and I both played for Jeff and Houston, but you know, just what I tell people about Jeff and the squad and how they react to the Jeff, a lot of people, a lot of the young guys don't know Jeff from coaching this from TV, but the respect that he's earned is, is phenomenal. I mean, it's incredible because when he talks about the defensive side of the ball and ball movement, you can see the eye, they're looking intently. So that means they're paying attention. So that, that move itself, I think empowered both before we get out of here.
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Our members are the mission insured by NCUA. Can both, can Cleveland beat Boston? I mean, that's kind of the same question about Oklahoma city that we're asking, right? Is that, is this Cleveland on paper, they seem to check all the boxes, acquiring Deandre hunter in the middle of the season was a massive move for them in terms of God gives them more versatility, both on, on both sides of the ball. But we're asking, man, y'all been knocked out in the first round and last year kind of second round. No, I don't believe anybody on the roster has made it past the second round.
Deandre hunter with the Hawks, but their main guys are all been second round knocked out type of guys. Can you walk into the champs building and beat them there and, uh, and surpass can they, I think, yes. Will they man, that's, that's, that's why we play the games, right? Like, because that's there, there comes a time where there is a confidence that teams that have been there have, and they can look in your eyes and see, Oh, you don't know where you at now. You've never been here. We've been here a lot of times.
I know for myself, 2010, uh, I was with the sons. We played the Lakers who were the defending champs in the conference finals. And, um, we went down to zero. We made some adjustments and we tied it up at two, two and game five. We almost had them. And then Ron, our test grabs that, that air ball lays it up.
They would be fine. We go back to Phoenix game six, they get out big on us. We come back and then Kobe God rest his soul.
He slammed that door shut. And, but it's one of those things where you see it in the moment where now they have a confidence of knowing, Oh, we've been here before we're going to figure it out. Versus when you haven't been there before you haven't been beyond that stage. There's a little bit of a, man, I don't know. This feels bad.
This is bad news right here. And so I, like, I, I wonder if in a close game, Cleveland can, can make that push beyond Boston. Is it, is it, or is, is there a matchup that could favor Cleveland with that lineup with Boston? The one particular, if you get over the hump, I know it's tough cause you got to cause you got to go to Boston, but is there a matchup that's favorable for Cleveland? I think, I think upfront, I think when you talk about Evan Mobley, he's the guy, he has to be the guy for them.
Uh, Porzingis obviously is no longer, but he's not a volume shooter. He's not a guy that he doesn't go get it like that. That's that's why, that's why that's, that's the next step.
That's the next step. I told, I told Kenny Atkinson at all star break. I said, you know who he reminds me of?
He said, who? I said, Rashid Wallace. Cause Rashid was smarter than everybody. He was skilled. I tell people Rashid shoot left-handed three pointers. He showed, I see Rashid shoot right hand and left hand at the same time, three pointer and make them. It sounds crazy.
I promise you. And it wasn't like a lucky shot. He does this right. But Rashid was a guy that wanted to play within the system. He wanted to be one of the guys. And that was the thing where it's like, if Rashid ever accepted kind of like, I'm going to be, I'm the dude, give me the ball, get out of my way.
Could average 30 easy. He could have been right up there with KG and C-web and Dirk and Tim Duncan and took that. But he was like, like Evan Mobley. I just want to be one of the guys. Now what happened to Rashid was when he got to the Pistons, that team was so deep. He could pick and choose when he wanted to be that guy.
And that ultimately helped them. So to me, I look at, at Cleveland and I say, Donovan Mitchell is going to get his and Darius Garland is going to get his, but if they're going to be Boston, that's going to be a time where Evan Mobley needs to step up and say, guys, get on my back. I got y'all. Yeah, man.
I agree with you. It's going to be fun. I tell you what, um, Houston is locked in at number two with the Lakers loss last night. So we know that right now it's still fluctuating in the West kind of three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Um, I tell you what the playoffs this year, especially in the Western conference is going to be something special to watch, especially the first round. Um, I'm looking forward to it.
Love the circle back around as we get deeper into playoffs, maybe the second round or maybe Eastern conference and Western conference finals before we get into the championship round and kind of dig into that too. But congrats on everything you do on my mind. You always add a lot of insight from a management perspective, but then also just from a logical perspective on what's going on.
I'm lucky. I got to work with so many great players over my career. Like I said, it started with you and Rick Mahorn in Atlanta, in New York. I work with Isaiah Thomas. I work with Trevor Risa and, uh, uh, Jamal Crawford went to Phoenix, Steve Nash, Shaquille O'Neal, Grant Hill, work alongside Mark West, the late John Shoemate.
I have people who have played everywhere from NBA in the sixties, all the way to the two thousand and twenties. And so I, I thank all of y'all for everything I know, because it's all from asking questions, for being around y'all, seeing how y'all react to things and how you think about the game. And I I'm able to steal all of that and call some of them my own. No, no, I appreciate it, brother. Enjoy it, man. It's going to be, it's going to be a great ride, man. Yes, sir.
Thanks a lot. All right. And I tell you what, it's some great information that I think, I mean, for joining me once again, because the insight part of it, and, you know, as we close, I was close to y'all just thinking about kind of where we're at with, with the NBA. And it's kind of a tough situation right now, because it seems like it's a little unstable with regards to the other sports, whether that's hockey, whether it's major league baseball or football, because of what has transpired this year with the coaching moves, the player moves. It doesn't seem like it's a strong grip hold on who actually has control in this league, whether it's the front office management, ownership players have too much control. The commissioner's office doesn't have enough control.
And it's, and it's, and it's not a good place to be. And I think if you're the NBA, because the product is really, really good, but there are a lot of factors that are detracting away from the product that don't allow you to really enjoy fully the product. And I'm not saying any, the other leads I just mentioned don't have their issue, but it seems like the NBA is more compounded. It's always one thing next thing, next thing that kind of, I think takes the love that, that our fans have away from the game, the passion because of all the extracurricular stuff, again, trades and coaches being fired, uh, disgruntled players, disgruntled owners, whatever that's part of every sport, but how, when it, how, and when it happens has a direct impact on kind of the viewership on the sentiment, um, that our fans have right now. So it's going to be very interesting to see as we end this season and jump into the playoffs. We have a lot of unanswered questions, a lot of things that needs to be settled, that where we land on this and where we land on this moving forward with the ownership player dynamic.
And on top of that is the commissioner's office. It's such a great product with some amazing young players that are playing this game. And I know there's a transition going on in the NBA, um, with the thought process on the way owners are now reevaluating, uh, their ownership and how they're making moves within their franchises. So it was just one of those times, man, where, um, it's a little pain that we're going through, but I think we'll figure it out.
Um, I think our fans deserve better, but understanding that within the business too, in the business model, some things that have to go through some Rocky moments sometimes to be in order for the product itself to be better overall. So, uh, another great show, another great, we've got a couple of games left in this NBA season, kind of filter out who's going to be playing who or who's going to play a game. So it's going to be fun. And I mean, and I both said the introduction to the play in, uh, games were met with a lot of force and negativity, but I think as we see it now playing out is added so much value to the entry to the end of the season that is making people kind of tune in a little bit more. And also, uh, placing teams in a situation where they have to be accountable and they have to continue to play in order to get to the playoffs and ultimately try to achieve a goal, which is when the championship, right? So enjoy this weekend, enjoy the games this weekend, enjoy the playoffs, playing games when it starts next week. And we'll be back.
All right. Every day when we're on the road, people around us endanger themselves and others by using their phones while driving. They think they're hiding it, but we've all seen them and know exactly who they are. For instance, there is the sneaker peaker who darts their eyes between the road and their texts. There's also the got a ticketer looking upset because they just got a ticket for using their phone while driving. And what about the fast scroller who can't drive five minutes without updating their social feeds or the nightlighter who has that mysterious glow illuminating the inside of their car after dark. Do any of these sound familiar? If they remind you of yourself or someone, you know, rethink your behavior before you find yourself becoming the fender benderer, the veering off the rotor, or worst of all, the driver who killed someone put the phone away or pay. Paid for by NHTSA.
