The Jim Jackson Show: Greg Anthony

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Not available in all states or situations. Listen, I got a special guest that's about to come on, a good friend of mine. We actually play against each other in college, even though he's way older than I am. But we end up playing together in Portland, and I gave him a nickname, and we gave each other Yard Boy.

Hey Yard Boy from, if anybody saw Life at the Inn when Martin was together with Eddie Murphy, and they were working in the yard. Hey Yard Boy, what's happening, man? How you doing? I'm doing good. Oh, you know that other name we had from you, too.

Tyrese Banks. Oh man. And so the real question is, how'd you hit him today? You know what? I didn't, man. I'm actually on the mend from a torn Achilles.

Oh, that's right. I'm still trying to do too much. No, it was a frame break. I'm on a cruise with the family, and my youngest son and I were on the basketball court. He's getting ready to play. I'm just on the court while they all getting ready to go. I take a shot, miss it, of course, and go to get the rebound, and I plant. And mine was very much like Jason Tatum's, where I planted, and it just immediately. And so I'm thinking my golf game's completely over for the rest.

That's the first thought in my mind, obviously. And then come to find out, I have what's, again, news to me, a vertical tear, which is great news, which means I didn't have to have surgery. And this was about six weeks ago.

So I actually played for the first time yesterday with a buddy of mine down here in South Florida. So yeah. And I could have got out today, but we're redoing my daughter's room.

She's like 11, and so she's transitioned into teenage life. And so we had to get a room painted, and beds, all this stuff. So I've been in there on daddy duty doing that this morning. So no golf with me.

Maybe tomorrow though. Okay. Okay.

Well, good for you. But the former introduction, Greg Anhead, of course, you see NBA analyst Turner Sports, but also former NCAA champion with, of course, UNLV, kind of the iconic team of the late eighties, early nineties, New York Knicks, who I think more than anything, I think people can relate to who you played for, even though you were with the Grizz and you were with Portland, Seattle, and also Milwaukee, it's more like the Knicks are kind of synonymous when you talk about Greg Anthony. And speaking of which, and which is a really great transition, is that series right now, the current Knicks situation. And before we get into the current one, I do want to talk about the Knicks. I think it's very important because you were a part of that organization, especially in the early nineties, you were there 91 to 95, and you got a chance to play against the Reggie Millers of the world, Dominique Wilkins, but also more important in Chicago bulls in that Eastern conference for two years, 91, 92, 92, 93 was Eastern conference, semi-finals East Eastern conference finals. You lost to the bulls, but take me back to those battles as a young player against the bulls during those time periods between those two, I just talked about.

Yeah. You know, Jimmy, it was unique too, because, you know, we, we think of the bulls dynasty, but they had just won their first, right? So my rookie year was the year after they won it. And, you know, coming into the league, you know, we were all, and I know, especially you growing up in the Midwest, huge fans of magic and Larry, right?

Exactly. We got to watch that championship. And so, you know, I'm coming into the league as rookie and I'm like, so excited because I'm going to get to play against Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and while Michael was just starting, but those two guys at that moment still were, they were the NBA. And so then now the bulls beat the Lakers a year before, you know, the year before I came in the league, but it was really thinking you're going to get to be on the same court with those two guys. So two things came to mind. It's like, okay, I'm going to get the opportunity to play against those two guys and the chance to play in the garden and to play in the farm.

And so of course the irony, right? That was birds last year. He had the bad back, never, never played.

He, we, he didn't play in the game. He just laid on the floor and then Magic, the preseason, that was the year he retired, you know, and then on top of that, you get to play in Boston garden and with all that history and the first thing that came to my mind, it's like, man, this is a fucking dump. The locker rooms were like terrible.

What? I mean the floor, it was a dump. And I'll be honest with you, the form was a dump too. But listen though, it was a nostalgia. It was a nostalgia. Even when you went to the mad house on Madison.

Okay. At Chicago, think about the arenas we played in when we first came in the league. Chicago stadiums. Again, it was, it was also dump. So you, you, you came in the, I came in the year that I think American airlines opened for Phoenix.

So that was like the new brightest shiny 92. But before that, you think about all of the stadiums, Landover Maryland out in Cleveland and Ridgefield, huh? The spectrum, the spectrum, you know, market square arena, hemisphere, all these older arenas. We had a chance to play in locker rooms, messed up.

I mean, the visiting locker room, be lucky for shower work. It might be cold, especially in the garden. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

That is very true. And they didn't work in, in, in the garden. Now the irony of that too is that year, the garden Madison square garden, a pair of my own, the Knicks at that time, and they had just renovated the garden. So our home arena was basically a new arena. It was, it was incredible. So that part was really cool.

But again, like, you know, back then you still, you know, we didn't have the internet. You didn't have the same kind of perspective you, and you had a flawed perspective of the arena. Cause watching them on TV, like Boston garden looked great on TV, right?

Like sort of the form, especially the way they lit it. But then once you actually go in those arenas, like it was, it was a little disappointing. I mean, you still living your dream. You excited. But so for me, that was the first thing I remember.

Now, now fast forward into playing them. So the year before I get there, I came in with Riley, the Knicks were 31 and 51, the year, the year before I got there. So, so me and Riley turned that shit around. We went, I said, I said it again, cause I, cause I heard something I know I didn't think about.

I never, it never hit me like that. I should have said Riley and me. Okay. Okay. Okay.

All right. In all seriousness, we, we went from 31 wins to 51 wins and in essence the same roster, but that was the Riley effect. And so then we also, the first round, we knock off the piston first round was five games. We beat them three, two. And what was that? That was the backend was Isaiah and Joe was still still there.

Cause my rookie year, they were still there. Robin. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure. Okay. Yeah.

Sally land beer. I joined Joe. Yup. Yeah. They, they were, yes.

Yes. So we, we ended up taking them down in five tough series. You know, they still were a good team, but you know, they were trending down.

Right. Cause they, they had lost, I think at a conference finals a year before they got dominated by the bulls. The bulls finally broke through, knock them off, went on and beat the Lakers. And then, so then we go into that series, seven game series, you know, the bulls that had a great regular season, they're defending champs. And this was the year where I felt like, cause again, the league still was under the umbrella of magic and Larry, but the irony of it is that year, those guys had an essence played their last basketball.

So this is really the coming out party for Michael Jordan. And so we played them to a seven game series that year. That was a 92. That was a 92, 93 year, the seven games here in the Eastern conference finals. When they won their second title, Eastern conference finals. Right. No, we played them in the second round.

Hold on. Wait, I thought that was 91, 92 was the second round. So they were, they had only won one championship. They were coming in. This was going to be their second. Right.

So my rookie year would have been 91. Your year you came in was them going for the three people. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yep.

Yeah. So that year we've actually played them in the second round. We were the last back then the divisions matter. We were Atlanta division champs. But we were, I got, we, we, we were like maybe the four seed that that's probably to get them one versus four. So we were the four seed Detroit was five a year. And so they, they beat us in seven, but we were the only team to take them to seven, you know, cause they ended up winning the championship, I think in six. In fact, they had never, he had never, you know, MJ never played a seven game.

No, man, that's the fascinating part. So, so when you're playing against MJ too, and that's, it's different playing MJ in the regular season than it is in the playoffs. We never looked at as a competitor. Right. And you didn't look at anybody being different really. And quite frankly, we thought we could beat them like that. That's just, and that has nothing to do with whether or not a guy is great. We would have thought that about the Celtics if they were really good or were healthy, right? Like that's not, and a lot of that had to do with our coach, you know, cause that's all the famous, all the success he'd had and, and what he instilled in us, it was always about us and what we did. It didn't matter about Michael Jordan. And again, in fairness, like when we have these conversations for people listening, their perspective is Michael Jordan as having already become who we know him to be today. Our perspective is he is still ascending. He, he, at that point he had just become, he was just becoming the face of the league. And in our minds, we never viewed him that way. Cause we didn't talk in, oh man, we're going to get the face of the league.

We're going to get the Bulls. He's their best player. We, we had, this is what we have to do to have success against them. Right.

And that's really how it is. And I think sometimes fans don't appreciate that because, and I say this to people, you following, covering the game the way you do and, and you do a hell of a job at it as well. I'm a big fan of how you analyze the game, but you covered it.

Haven't played it. Like most fans don't understand, like players really are not in awe of anybody. You really aren't like we didn't look at him. Like we didn't not sleep at night, the night before playing against the great Michael Jordan. Like we, we knew how great we knew he's a great player, but they were all great.

All the great players. When you, when you one of the top dogs in the league, we respect that, but we're trying to beat your team. And so we didn't lack a confidence or a belief. And so going into that, we didn't look at, listen, if you go look back and people tend to not do is go back and look at, we would have games where he would go nine for 30, you know, we would have success defending him and it would get physical and it would, it was rough.

Like they were battles. And, and, and so we, we definitely felt like we had an opportunity and we could beat them again. It's a little different dynamic than what you get when you look back in retrospect, right? Cause now it's everything's been established and decided, and now we're looking back.

But in those moments, when you have a chance to be great, that's how you feel. I remember like even being in Portland, when we played, or Utah, but personal, even like, cause this is when Kobe was just kind of becoming a great player, we would go, our game plan would be to go at Kobe. Like, you know, we wanted to attack him. Like we didn't, you just were not in awe of, of great players.

Like you're in essence playing for the same thing. And, you know, we got one of them dudes too, you know, Patrick was one of those guys. So we didn't look at Michael it, you know, just being heads and shoulders above our best player. And we also felt like our, the rest of our roster was more than capable of competing against what they brought to the table.

And so that's kind of the approach you had to it. And then being able to play in the garden you know, with Spike being there and the, in that fan base and how passionate they were. Now the post season is a different animal. So when I say a different Michael, we didn't approach him being differently. Like we had a game plan.

That's the beauty of a seven game series of what we want to do. We knew everything he was capable of. We knew tendencies. We knew what they ran. We knew where they liked to go with the ball in certain situations.

We, you know, you have all that stuff and there's an understanding of what you need to do to be successful. But what was different, especially for a rookie was how much more intense and physical the game was. And you see it even now, it's not no different today. Like you see how much more physical the post season is to the regular season.

And when you haven't gone through it, you know, it's hard to have that perspective. And so that was, when you go and look back at it, that was one of the things that was so impressive because he had a mind of steel. Like he was obviously one of those dudes. He was a hell of a competitor. The guy just brought it and never was deterred. And that's the thing you appreciate about the truly great ones. Like I said, he might be nine of 30, but he always felt like the next one was going in. Whereas an average player, if they missed five in a row, they're not going to be as apt to pull that six one, right? They're going to be trying to find an easy one, something that they know they're going to make so that their confidence doesn't weigh.

It doesn't weigh. And Michael was unique in that regard. He was a hell of a talent. And in that era, the bulls, it was incredible. It was, it was awesome to experience it, to be a part of those moments, to play in the garden. It really was, you know, I was blessed to play a long time in a lot of playoff games and, and awesome, really good team, but that was just nothing for me, like playing in the garden. And what I would always say is, it's nothing like performing in the garden.

It's a difference between playing and performing. Let's talk O'Reilly Auto Parts people. They're in the business of keeping your car on the road. O O O O'Reilly Auto Parts offers friendly, helpful service and the parts knowledge you need for all your maintenance and repairs. They've got thousands of parts and accessories in stock, either in store or online.

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Call 562-314-4603 for details. The beauty about New York fans is just because they love basketball. And even if you're in opposition and you're performing at a high level, at some point, they know what it is just because they acknowledge it. They may boost it, but at the end of the day, they know it's basketball.

And it's great to see the garden kind of lit back up into it. And we transitioned into the current Knicks right now. And you have a player with Jalen Brunson who is of that Ilkin mindset of what you talked about Jordan. I'm not comparing the two. I'm comparing the mindset. He can be, he can go heading into that fourth quarter, five for 15.

It doesn't matter. If he gets to a spot, he's still comfortable, confident enough that he can make a play happen, make a shot to will his team to win. We saw what happened in game five with Boston in Boston, all the emotion of Jason Tatum being out. It was a pressure situation, do or die. You get to deal with the circumstances of losing the Boston and New York didn't play their best game. Jalen Brunson got in foul trouble. They allowed the Woodson will kind of controlled a little bit more. Wasn't as physical, but with this next teams here, going back home, give me your thoughts on what they have to do to beat this tough minded Boston team in order to advance to the Eastern conference fund.

Yeah. Listen, I think, and I love how you characterize it. Cause cause Jalen Brunson is a truly special player and a lot of it stems from his, his mindset and his approach.

And you hit it on the head. Like I, and I, when I talk to young players about this and it's so hard to do this, but you always got to keep your mind on time and score and not on stats and not because you, and I remember I say this about, I remember John starts the year. We lost the rockets in the championship. John had that, that famous game where you really struggled. And so I would say, I said, you know, you got to understand John was one of our franchise players. So if your franchise player is struggling, but it's a one or two possession game, you're not taking him out the game. You know how many times I saw Johnny had a game like that. And then in the fourth, get on a roll, make three in a row. And then we ended up winning the game, right? Like that, that happened time and time again. And that team, this current version of the Knicks and Jalen have a similar psyche and approach.

Like they know it. And he's proven it time and time again, that if they got a chance to win it, if we give him the opportunity, he's going to make the play. And so I think that's something that's extremely impressive about him and more so impressive because he doesn't have the physical tools that a lot of the truly greats tend to have. He doesn't have great positional size. Now he has some physical attributes.

He's strong as hell. He is great at understanding leverage. He's got as good a footwork as anybody in the league. And so he knows how to play the game. You know, he knows how to attack angles, create leverage, create space, get to his spots. You know, he is an incredible player in that regard. And so them going back home, it'll be chat. Listen, the Celtics have won it and the Celtics have also had success when they've been short-handed.

Yes. So I, and I would say this yesterday, you know, Oh, you know, you think that I was like, I expected the Celtics to win yesterday. I really did. I just felt like they're too prideful and they're too good. I just couldn't see a scenario where you're going to beat them three times on their home court, you know?

And so I thought they wouldn't. Now, having said that, I don't know, especially if they're short-handed, no porzingis, right? Al's getting up there.

Drew hasn't been the Drew holiday we've seen in years past coming off that hamstring. This team, the totality of it isn't, they're not where they were a year ago and this Knicks team is better. And now the Knicks, I think they do have a belief. Now, having said all that, they think they're the better team, the Knicks do. They're going to, I'm sure they have the expectation to come out and play really well tomorrow night.

I would expect them to, but it's one of those things, Jimmy, you and I are both in there. You just want to, if you're the Celtics, you just want to make them feel you. I did the Cavs-Pasters game. Well, I did basically all of them, but the Closeout game, the Cavs were up, I think they were up 18. And I said at the time, about four or five minutes, maybe six to go in that second quarter, I think it was. And I said, this is the most important stretch of the game. I said, it either goes to 25 or you get it down around single digits. And if you get it down around single digits, now you start putting pressure on the Cavs, right? Because now they get tight.

And what happened? The Pacers were able to get that lead down because the Pacers knew their, the Pacers are a really good team. And if they get to that point where they get a little momentum, they're going to feel like they had a great chance. And so I think if you're the Knicks, you have a similar dynamic. I think the Knicks have better trust than the Cavs do. Like they're not going to get out of character. And I felt like the Cavs, when it got tough, they got out of character.

You know what, G? And I think this is the key too, with the Knicks. And I said this all year, but even going into the playoffs that I thought they were the best team to match up with Boston. And the reason why is because of their wings and their positional size. You got McHale bridges, OG and a nobody that can guard Josh Hart may be a little undersized, but he can still guard.

Okay. And he plays big with cat. I thought that they could guard without getting exploited and mismatch against more so than Cleveland because Cleveland having a smaller back court, and then you had liabilities with Ty Jerome and also max truce. I know that went out and got DeAndre Hunter, but yes, they had the, the size inside, but I thought the wing defenders favored the Knicks more. And you know, in the physical kind of game, and they just truly believed it. And now we're seeing it now, you know, again, it's a different thing. Again, this Boston team without Jason Tannen is not the same.

It don't operate the same. The offense does it, but that's not the next fall. You can, you can go through the history of the league and see where injuries played a role in the team advancing or not. And it's never not played a role. It's never not played a role. There's been one, there's been a stretch where somebody wasn't available for someone. Every season we've had, there's never been one where everybody's healthy always.

That's just part of it in the nature of it. Part of winning championships is being lucky. And Jimmy, the other thing I will say about the next two, the Knicks are tougher mentally and they're tough physically.

Now, you say that tougher mentally than the Celtics, the team that won. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yes. Yeah. I agree with you on that.

I agree with you on that. They're built. They're just a more physical, tough minded team.

Definitely. And that's not to take away from the cat cabs are really good team. And the cabs, again, cabs will hurt. They had three starters miss the game. Phil should have won the game, but you know, like it is hard to overcome injury. And the Knicks have their Knicks are deep. You know, they they're basically playing six and a half guys, you know, but that's, I know it's hard to do, but gee, I think a lot of stuff people don't understand too. When it comes into playoffs, your starters are going to play more minutes. Your top role players are going to play more minutes. You probably, if you're lucky to get to an eight man rotation, depending on what team you and what you've been doing, that's how generally it's a strong seven. And that eight man may come in and do 10 to 12 minutes, but your starters are going to play six to eight minutes, maybe more than what they're accustomed to playing, depending on how the game goes, especially when you start advancing. So I'm not mad. I understand.

I want my best players on the court and the best coaches. You know, it is G figure out ways to steal minutes of rest for their key players, whether that's through timeouts, whether that's through their offense, where they allow somebody else to operate defensively, they may do some things. So you're stealing real game time minutes minutes during the timeout, during the commercial breaks, but in game minutes, when you can hide a player for some possessions that they can maximize the time that they're on the court.

And to the end of the game, You hit it on the head. And I tell people this as well, like they're called X. You also have exhale possessions where like, if I'm Jalen Brunson, I'm just going to let somebody I'm going to stand in the corner and just be a decoy. I might do that five or six possessions a game.

And really all I'm doing is you don't know I'm resting, but I'm resting. I'm just going to take this possession off. I'm going to let the offense, we can afford, you know, if we score, it's a bonus. We don't even have to score. We just don't want a live ball turnover. Right. And we just want to get a shot on the rim and we can survive.

So I can have four or five of those a half as a great player, just your presence on the floor is going to have an impact. And you're spot on with that. I will say this though. And this is, this speaks to the evolution of the game. The game has changed. Look, it wasn't that long ago when Steph Curry changed the game and I'll never forget to talk with all my buddies. You know, you do the group chat and they're like, oh, that's a bad shot.

And I said, you know what? When you grew up playing, it was a bad shot, but it ain't now. They've proven they can make those shots. So it's not a bad shot.

And then I would also say to your point about the depth. I just watched OKC the other night. They didn't have anybody play more than 35 minutes in a game that was a must win game that came down to the end. It's the first time I've seen in a post-season in a game like that, a 2-2 game, you know how big those are and you add more pressure even on you when you're the home team.

And they, they stayed with their game plan. I had to tip my cap, but it's always outliers. It's always outliers though. It's always outliers.

The outlier is what changes your thought process though. Yeah. But you got to have that kind of roster to do that too. But you still got to trust it.

Yeah. It's a lot of, it's a lot of rosters that are built that you may not trust as much as he trusted in a way that we haven't really seen. And the point I made about making this because just like Steph changed it because the game is the also the thing about the game today. And so I'm not, I'm not one of those old heads that like always try to act like the game was so much better than we played and the guys were better. And I mean this sincerely, it doesn't take away from any of the guys. Cause when you, whatever era you played in, those were the best players.

The game was the best. You know, I hate the fact with the top 75, I said that I was like, we should have the top 25 from the first 25 years of the league. The next 25 should be from the second 25.

And then the third 25 should be from the last, because, because the game has changed so much. It ain't fair to judge a guy that played 50 years ago against the guy that's playing now. I always hit folks with this stat. I said, you know, you know, the great Bob Coosie, one of the greatest guards ever played, you know, Bob Coosie never shot 40%. Never, never, never shot 40%. Not one season.

Nope. How about this one? Bill Russell never shot 50. Not one time his whole career.

Think about that. Cause he always, and he was always in the paint. So like that just as perspective and it doesn't mean they were the best ever at that time, but it ain't fair to then try to judge them against someone else. That's just not the way it works. So that's because the game is not the same. If the game stayed consistent and it stayed the way it was, then you would have comparable information to say, okay, who was, what, what was up, but you don't. And I, and I, I want you on the old man, get off my lawn is that with young players, men and women today, you got to meet them where they're at. What they know in the NBA is Steph shooting threes, LeBron, KD, mellow back.

I mean, Colby, they know that stuff. So they is relevant to them and how they play, but more importantly, how they got taught to play. So as much as we want them to understand how to bang and be physical in the nineties, their reference points are, okay, I can pull it up on YouTube, but when I go hoop every day, and when I get taught how to play and when my coaches are telling me in order to play, I have to do this, they can't relate to it. And I get it. That doesn't mean you can't, you can't appreciate the past.

I think you got to appreciate the past understanding of how the game evolved, but I can't expect a 17, 18 year old, 19 year old to want to post up 20 times a game and want to play inside the paint. It's just not going to happen. Welcome to AutoZone. What are you working on today? My car is making this noise. Sometimes it's like, and sometimes it's like, Do you have a dash light on?

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Carrollton, Texas. This is the other part for me too. Like, cause everybody's all, you know, your air was so much the defense. I like, look, people got to understand how the game has changed. The court is so much bigger today than when we played. More space.

You're working with way more space right now. We didn't have to guard a guy at 39 feet. Nobody even thought about shooting out there unless it was a heave at the shot clock. And you couldn't even shoot the ball.

Generally, if you go look, most guys couldn't actually take a normal shot from 38, 39 feet. Yeah, it was a push. It was a push.

And they sure as hell wasn't going to keep it off the dribble. Yeah, no, no, it was a push. It was a push. It was a push.

It was a push shot. And so like, so when I try to explain to people, like people say, oh, the defense, I said, look, it's like, if you look at football, the way they play football, if you put a wide receiver out in space and ain't no safeties over the top and you give a quarterback six seconds to throw it, ain't no cornerback going to stop that receiver from getting open. It ain't going to have consistency, not consistently, not a great receiver, not a great receiver.

And a great quarterback. Now what I'm saying is that today's game, like even with the great bigs of our era, what would change today? You could go have a great big that could post, but three beat two. And what they're going to do to that great big is what we did. And I heard that you're going to, that great big is going to have to guard 70 pick and rolls, 38 feet from the basket. And I guarantee you it's not going to go over well for him.

He's going to struggle because he's not comfortable. I always tell people a great center in our era. And the paint was the great center in our era was like a great white shark. And the paint was the ocean. And when they in that ocean, you don't want to, you don't want to fuck with it.

You do not want to be in there. But if I took that great white and I put him up on the beach and he just flailing around, you'll go up and kick him. You do anything you want to him.

Cause you're not worried about him. If that big, that, that dominant center, if he got to go guard at 35, 36, 37 feet, he's going to struggle. He's going to struggle big time. Well, we see, we see it with Gobert.

I mean, a lot of times when you bring Gobert out to paint and you know, that that's, that's the interesting part. And I think that's, and we got to get on the talk about that cause that's a whole nother dynamic about today's game versus next year. I mean, last, I mean the today's game versus the past and the players and how to compare, but I want to circle back to this Nick, do the Knicks get it done? I think so.

No, no, no, no. Do you think, or do you think, okay, listen, I expect them to, I just, I respect Boston as a defender champ and you know, them wounded dogs, man, you got to be careful about the one at all. And I think they got to get it done. They got to get it done.

They got to get it done Friday, which is tomorrow. Yeah. And I think they will.

Okay. Now the next thing, and shout out to Minnesota for taking care of the business. You know, I know they didn't have the regular season. They thought they would have, but a lot of moving parts were in that. They kind of got it together, found their mojo that after the all star break the last month and a half of the season and what they were able to do to dismantle, you know, the first and second round and really golden state again, golden state, short-handed, but that team kind of finally got it together. I love the components of it, but is the storyline is G the Ascension and expectations finally being met for the timber wolves, or finally people are realizing that it's an end of an era for golden state. We know the era that we know. Yeah, I think it's both, except still a great player, just like LeBron, still a great player, but they don't cast as big a shadow as they used to these young guns coming there.

And, and, and there was just one of them. And I, and I said this, if Julius Randall plays at the level he's playing at, if OKC comes out, I don't know if they're going to beat them. So what's the difference now with Jewish? We all knew Jewish was talented. Okay. And his playoff numbers are reflecting, I think his comfortability within the system, but what his role is in that system. Yeah. I think, I think the way they play and the way he's, he's also, I think a better fit with this group. More so than Carl, right? Carl and I think Carl's a better fit with the Knicks.

Yep. And the reason I say that is because with this group, they're so athletic and long across the board. And I think this is where, and he does, he's not in terms of the experience and he's not where Brunson is yet, but the difference with and is, and has learned to allow his physical tools to impact the game.

And it not just have to be scoring and can go get the biggest rebound, make the biggest pass, make the biggest defensive play. And he understands that's equally as important as him scoring. And now he knows, man, if I got another dude that can get 30 efficiently, you going to have a problem with how they defend. And I think that's, I think he and Julius have finally really connected and I give in a lot of credit. I think his leadership is what I don't think people appreciate it. And it's hard because dude, he 20, was he 23?

Yeah. But it's all, but it's authentic because with the leadership like this, again, it could have went, it could have went another way when he early in the year complained about being double-teamed and not being able to have the freedom and the space and movement. But what he did, what I think with Ant, because he worked so hard, he wants to be the best and he's supportive of his team. And he doesn't just talk about it defensively. He shows, so he can't tell somebody when they miss an assignment, you got to be there and you ain't playing D that ain't Ant and his basketball IQ is continuing to grow. So in the game, I think everything that happened this year, what Ant just take away the turnovers he had last night, but he controlled the game, like you said, Dre, by not scoring. So you build up all that he's been through and learned and, and said, he wants to be the best that he wants to lead his team, but he did it in a different way when they needed it to close out a series. It was how he controlled the game when the ball was in his hands, when it was out of his hands, defensively, that's the sign of maturity and leadership that you're talking about, that a lot of people, I think the novice fan don't attach themselves to and really see.

Yeah. And I know it's good, but I wanted to make one more point to think about Ant. That's now this is similar to Ant can actually be the best defensive player on the court. Like he can dominate a game defensively.

He can go guard your best offensive player one through three and a half, you know, you, you know, you, you're not going to put him on jokage for the whole game, but he can go and be locked down defensively. And that's the, what's unique about him. Like a lot of guys can't do that. And he can physically do it. And he's learning. What's scary, man is, you know, his best basketball feel ahead of him.

That's what's scary. You know, he's still growing, man. He says it's unreal, but to watch his growth and to me is the mental part. And now understanding the little nuances of how to get a shot, when to get a shot, when to draw, when to give it up, that end to be more efficient as he does it. That to me from a young man who was physically gifted, but now is understanding the basketball one-on-one.

I mean, one old one on how the game really is operated at a high level between the ears. And that's the beauty of the wise. I just noticed G that it'd be ironic if it's Minnesota and the mix and with all the storylines because of the movable parts. But then, you know, it's just one of those things too, where you got some young talent mixed with some guys who are a little bit older that now have a chance to do something special.

You know, the, my colleagues of the world, you know, have a chance to really do something special. It's going to be something, man. I'm looking forward to the game tonight with this Denver OKC game to see what's up with that. But I think, I think a lot more people are intrigued with this when this Boston, you know, series hits and not a Minnesota's waiting out there, what happens in the next round and what ultimately is the finals. I'm with you there, man. I agree. I'm pumped.

I can't wait to watch. Okay, brother. All right, man. Listen, hit them straight, hitting them, but not too often tomorrow. I know you're not, even though you're getting back, bro, game, game, still kind of tight. I said, I know it is brother. Much love, man.

Appreciate the GA. All right, later. I really appreciate Greg Anthony coming on because the wealth of knowledge of going through kind of like me with playing in a certain area, but now era, the early nineties and two thousands, but then covering the game now as we do, he does it on the professional level. I do it on the professional level, but also on the collegiate level to watch how the game is played. He has a different perspective too, because he had to go through and I did too a little bit later. Cole Anthony is younger than my son, but so he had to look at it from the, you know, ground roots level AAU coming up and coaches and Duke and then watching his son play.

But the information I think is there and it's authentic. And I think he evaluates games with an open mind, understanding the past is the past and the greatness of the past is still there, but you can't discount what these young men and women are doing it right now, currently in front of us with the way the game is being played and trying to appreciate. I think some of that, again, each era has its pros.

Each era has its cons, but the beauty of basketball is watching the best perform and watching these young, talented people come up and kind of take the game to another level. So I appreciate GA all day, all day, even though he talks a lot on the golf course, I give him that, but it was good to have him on. I really appreciate all the wealth and knowledge, especially talking about back in the day with the, the battles with the Bulls in the Knicks back in the nineties special. Thanks for tuning in.

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