Yo, what's up? It's the Rich Isaac Show Basketball Podcast. We're back. It's Wednesday, May 17th.
We are in it. Eastern Conference Finals tonight. Boston, Miami, game one.
Last night, Lakers, Nuggets, game one. Nuggets take it. NBA draft lottery. The Spurs win the lottery. TJ has a new team.
His former coach has an opening. They're going to bring back James Harden for some reason. There's so much happening. The guys are here. Adam, TJ, what up? What a fun Tuesday we had here in the NBA. It's been awesome. It's been a good week so far in the association.
A lot of drama. The week didn't start off good for all of us. TJ, let's just start with you. Therapy couch. Talk to us. How you feeling right now?
Talk it out. I go back. Game six, Celtics six. There's four minutes, 50 seconds. Because it was that moment that your fandom left you. I knew four minutes and 50 seconds. Jason Tatum had a corner three after playing worse than me and I was laying on the couch. And I knew the second that ball went through the hoop, actually before it went to the hoop, because I'm pretty good at like reading shots when they leave people's hands. That ball hit its crest and I went, OK, this is this is not good. So with 450 left, I knew that the season was over. As we sit on the big show, you know, our Hoops podcast doesn't know this. I stopped watching game seven in the middle of the third quarter to turn on one of my favorite wrestling matches because I was like, I'm not going to sit here and have a heart attack over this game. So I watched wrestling, I watched Wrestle Kingdom, I watched Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles because it's a tremendous wrestling match and it was fun. Better than anything that I was going to see in that game.
And you know, Doc is gone. We kind of knew that was going to happen, even though, you know, he had improved his win total every year, but we still couldn't get out of the semifinals. I personally look, I know basketball a little bit. I don't know as much as I guess the guys who watch our pod on YouTube and tell us we don't know ball maybe they could really break down X's and O's better than I can. But one thing I do know is when you have a man who's seven feet tall, when you have a man who's 280 pounds and when you have a basket, a rim that's 10 feet above the ground, you would think the best thing to do was to place this human condominium within a reasonable proximity of that rim in order for him to take that orange ball and put it inside. And yet there were multiple times during that game where Joel Embiid, who I love, don't get it twisted, but you can still be angry at stuff that you love.
You know, you know the thing like I love you, but I don't like you type thing. That's not even our thing. I love Embiid, but I don't understand how there are times when that man didn't even cross the foul line.
Like it was completely legal for him to step in that little green area. And that frustrates me. And the whole situation frustrated me. And it's, guys, it's year after year after year for me. Like I like the Clippers. I take a lot of crap.
It is therapy. I take a lot of crap, but I've lived here 23 years and I was a season ticket holder. I love the Clippers, but every year it's something with them. Somebody's finger breaks or somebody's knee blows up or a tendon snaps.
You know, with the Sixers, it's the same thing. So it was rough, man. It was rough and I really felt it.
And that was the other thing, guys. I realized that like I shouldn't be taking this so seriously. Like I gave myself migraines, as you guys know, and it's just I don't know, it's just not worth it. I can't do anything about what goes on the court. And it's just it's frustrating.
It's truly frustrating because. But I knew this, Chris. I knew we had the best player in that series, but I knew you had the better players. Yeah. And that's what it boiled down to. Adam did. Welcome to the show, Adam. Good to see you. The doctors are to lose his job for this.
Yeah, unfortunately, there's no other choice. I respect Doc. I remember watching Doc back in the day against the Bulls when he was on the Knicks.
I've known about him forever. But the amount of game seven losses he's had, the fact that he was up three to two in the series. And obviously, like we've said before, he's not on the court. He can't control what Joel Embiid and James Harden are doing. But at the end of the day, when you're up three to two in a series, you have a chance to clinch on your home court. You can't get that done. Then you lose in a game seven where your team just looks bad.
There's really no other choice. The guy that I was really frustrated with in that game seven for you guys, TJ was James Harden. There were so many times that I don't understand this where James Harden would have an open shot when he was driving into the lane either a floater or a layup, and he would pass to the corner every time and I'll pass into the corner. It's okay to do a couple times, you know, you get your three point shooters involved.
But he was doing it every time with these open looks. He was just so passive and in a game seven, you just can't do that is one of the top two players on the Philadelphia 76ers. So if I'm a Sixers fan, like UTG, I'm frustrated with the MB situation, but almost in a way more frustrated with how James Harden played, especially with those two games where he scored 40 points or more, it's showing that he still can do it. He has the ability to score 40 points as he proved, but he just didn't show up in game seven. And that's been a thing with, you know, kind of hardened throughout his career. It's great. The regular season playoffs, something's weird.
Oh, my hamstring. But like you said, he did have two great games in this series. The shocker in game one to kind of give Philly the early edge and you're up three to you should probably close that series out with the MVP and a little and a player like Cardin Maxey, I thought had a really good series.
He's kind of taken it to another level. Unfortunately, you can't fire the players. So it's the coach that has to go. Were you surprised, T.J., that Daryl Morey kept the gig? I mean, I really don't understand how front office situations work.
I really that's one thing I don't get. So but I do know this doc got the job before Darryl got hired. Right. It wasn't. So I guess much like the sun situation with Monty Williams, with Matt Ishba, he wasn't his quote unquote guy. So maybe that was it. But, you know, Chris, my and none of my problems with the Sixers go, you know, far beyond just what we saw on the court in six and seven. It goes through a long line of just horrible front office moves and head scratching trades and keeping this player and letting this player go. And so it was more than just what you saw in six and seven. This was a combination of things.
And, you know, I thought about this in the shower today, which made it even worse, guys. We were the only team that had two MVPs on it. Am I wrong on this? Is there any other team in an NBA that has two former MVPs?
No. That I mean, that's one thing that I don't think anyone ever brought up. I just literally, you know, when you're in the bathroom, I think we all know sometimes you have your your most like aha moments. And I was like, that just made it even worse. You had two former most valuable players of the National Basketball Association on the team and you couldn't get it done in game seven. P.J. Tucker outscores James Harden. That should never ever happen.
And then nine of his points came in the first quarter in the first quarter. Right. So at that point, I'm like, oh, if P.J.
Tucker sitting, this is good for us. Right. Also another thing. We let two guys on the Celtics score 76 points. You let two dudes. We had 88 total as a team.
We let two dudes score 76 points at some point that maybe double teaming Jason Tatum. Was that ever a thought? I mean, did that happen? I don't know, because like I said, turn the game off.
I was so disgusted. But it just all around, it's just as a fan, it's frustrating. And, you know, I have nothing else really to say about that. Yeah.
All right. So let's put the Sixers to bed and let's move on. Great game. Last night in Denver looked like it was going to be a blowout. Joker had an unbelievable first quarter, first half for three first three quarters.
Great game. What did you see last night? Adam, did you expect the blowout? Were you shocked that the Lakers came back?
Is this a moral victory for L.A.? How did you read Game one last night in Denver? Well, first of all, if you're a basketball fan watching last night, it was just awesome to watch because that was high level basketball.
Yeah. You had all of the stars playing like stars in Jokic, obviously with a brilliant performance, triple double. Then you had Jamal Murray going for over 30 points. And then on the other side, Anthony Davis scores over these were 40 or 41. It was one of those 40, 40 and 10 in the LeBron.
So you have all the star players playing at the peak of their powers. I expected Denver to win last night. I didn't expect really a blowout. And when they were up by 20, I was actually pretty surprised when the Lakers made that comeback. I thought it was over around the third quarter. The Lakers were up 18. Excuse me, the Nuggets were up 18 and a half. And I thought it was really kind of over at that point, especially with how good Jokic was playing. To me, Jokic's game last night was one of the greatest performances I've ever seen of any player in any game like ever. When you consider the stakes that it's in the Western Conference Finals, when you consider that he's playing against LeBron James, there's a lot of pressure involved with the Denver Nuggets. They've been the competitive team the last few years. But this year, this is the one year I believe that the Nuggets have a lot of pressure on them.
Their scene is the favorite. So for him to come out that that way in game one and just show to a national audience who he really is, like we had in the big show, we had Lisa Salters earlier and she was saying and she obviously has been around sports for, you know, 20, 30 years. She even was saying that she'd never really seen Jokic play that much.
So I was I was kind of shocked when she said that. Yeah, so it's what it shows. I heard somebody else say this also on another show where like a lot of the fans of the NBA that are more like the casual fans, the casuals, as they call them on Twitter. They haven't seen Jokic play a lot because he's on the West Coast. The game certainly in the nuggets didn't have like, well, they're not West Coast, though. But a lot of times the Western Conference, but a lot of times the games. Well, yeah, just like game started at five thirty yesterday. Just like Altoona is not the East Coast. You shut your mouth.
It's late night. They're not. Yeah. Yeah. People just don't really understand how good he is. And so he, I think, showed to the national audience how awesome of a player he really is. Yeah, it's one of those things you like.
Oh, who's this guy? Yo, good. You can see his numbers in the box score and you're like, oh, that's pretty impressive. But to see him play and watch the game, you realize how dominant it is. It's like every possession that he has the ball, he makes the right decision. Yeah, there's never like a wrong decision with him. It's either he passes out of the double team or he makes a nice spin move.
He does that fade away that beautiful hierarchy shot. He's just awesome to wash. Well, rebounds in the first quarter yesterday. Yeah, I thought that was ridiculous. And also, you got to give the credit to Denver with their supporting cast. They came to play KCP, Michael Porter, Bruce Brown. All those guys had a significant impact on the game last night when those guys are hitting jump shots like that. Denver will just not be beat.
Yeah, great point. Bruce Brown, sixteen off the bench. Uh, KCP at 21 three threes. Michael Porter had three threes. Michael Porter had two amazing blocks that kickstarted fast breaks that I believe they scored on.
So he was kind of everywhere last night. Um, kind of the kind of your a plus nuggets game. I don't know if they're going to score 132 every night, but they're going to be in the one twenties and the Lakers need to keep up kind of what we mentioned earlier today on the big show. You need more than six points out of Lonnie Walker. You need more than eight out of Delo.
You need more than six out of Schroeder. That's probably the peak game of Austin Reeves. I don't know if you're going to get that again in this series. He had 23 and eight assists. Um, they're going to need the guys to step up. It can't just be a D scoring 40 LeBron, you know, one assist shy of a triple double last night, which was the quietest 26 12 and nine. I think LeBron James has ever had, uh, just Anthony Davis was so awesome last night. But again, Anthony Davis, like we talked about before, TJ, he played 42 minutes last night. LeBron played 40 minutes.
Austin Reeves played 42 minutes and that thin air is going to get to you. How much are they going to have left in game two? I don't know, but they need to get the Lakers need to steal game two. I think if they're going to win this.
Oh, absolutely. If they, they figured on Oh two, I think it's, I mean, look, it's kind of like the Tom Brady thing where I would say in football, look, I'm not going to bet against Tom Brady. I I'm at the point now where I'm not going to bet against LeBron until the series is over. But being down oh two in that altitude.
Yeah. I mean, that's it's not going to look good for the Lakers chances. So I you hate to say it's a must win in game two, but I think the Lakers need to win this game too. Do you think, uh, the way they come back, the way they fought Reeves is that it's a three to make it one 24, one 21 with like a buck change left. So they were fought right to the end. They could have easily packed it in. LeBron had a shot to hit a three to tie the game that I missed.
Yeah. They could have easily packed it in down 21. So you D do you think it was a moral win for LA yesterday? I mean, look, they, they won the second half of the game, 72 to I think 60.
They outscored them. So, I mean, some people believe in more victory. Some don't, but I would say that the Lakers should kind of feel happy. Remember, you're, you're really just trying to steal home court, right? So I'm sure, of course, in a perfect world, you want to win too, but you kind of know that you're not going to.
So your goal is just to get one game. And the way that game started out, like the first nine minutes when they went to the first commercial break, I think you'll catch had nine boards. Oh, yeah, you know, so I would have to say that I don't know if a team with LeBron is going to allow you to have a moral victory because he's so far advanced and pass the moral victory. But yeah, I would have to feel like you, you feel pretty decent the way you ended that game, because like I said, they outscored them in the second half. And there was one point where they went up a 9 0 run, I believe. And I think it was a 9 0 run run. Yeah. And I went, are the Lakers going to come back and win this game? There were two spots when it got to what was a 109, 100 or 108, 100. I think they had a score adjustment, but it was 108, 100 because they gave Murray a three and it was only a two.
Right. And I remember thinking, huh? It's an eight point game like this was just like 20 and it was a lot a second ago. And then when Reeves hit the three, I thought they're going to win. I really when when Reeves hit the three, I was thinking, wow, the Lakers are going to really steal this.
And then all we're going to talk about tomorrow is we could still get one championship favorites. That would have been devastating for the nuggets if they would have lost. I don't know if they could have overcome that. Yeah, they had to have won. They had to win that game, which fortunately for them, they did because you have that great of a game from Jokic. Right. And you in 30 plus points for Murray and you still lose the game at home.
That would have been brutal for them. After the first quarter, I thought Jokic was going to have like a 30 30 game. And so I and so I sort of started looking up who are the guys in NBA history to have 30 30 in a playoff game has ever been done.
I will. Maybe Bill Russell had a 30 and 40 game once. Oh, OK. And I feel like Wilt's done it. I feel like that's the list.
I'm pretty sure it's just Wilton Bill. Just the only player in the NBA where I would not actually be shocked if he had like a 30 point 30 rebounds 20 assist game. I wouldn't be shocked. I'd be like, well, that's cool. But I would not be shocked.
Yeah, it was wild. I kind of would be because that's just 20 assists is really shocking even for a player. I mean, that to me, I'd be shocked, though, because that's so far from believable. You know, that's like how he had a 30, 40, 15, I guess that I don't know, 20 is 34, 21 and 14 like tag.
That's just it doesn't even make sense. And like I said a few weeks ago, man, he's not highly athletic. He can't jump over a phone book. He seems slow until until every now and then he'll like find that second gear like he pulled the board yesterday and he moved. And I think he hit, I want to say Aaron Gordon for a layup and it was just like, where did that gear come from? So he's he's deceptively does look slow. When he's running, it looks like he has like a lot of like stuff in his pocket. He's like, you know what I mean?
They're kind of dragging him down. He's got his phone in there, a heavy wall. He just looks like he's pulling his pants up. He forgot to wear his belt. Like it just always looks like that with him.
It is super. I don't know if it's I don't think uncoordinated is the right answer, but yeah, he's got stuff in his pockets. He's trying not to spill.
He's holding a pizza. And then all of a sudden right pass layup right past three or he finishes himself himself. It gets the lay the rebound. He does that little finger roll that he always does. He's just everywhere. And that shot he had at the end of the third quarter was just so ridiculous over A.D. where A.D. could do nothing but smile. Yeah.
And you look even Phil Nurse on the bench. He was laughing because what can you do at that point? You know, you just know when somebody's got it going on. And I think also they probably appreciate like if you love good basketball, it's like, yeah, you got me.
How could you not really appreciate that? Because if they could have called a foul on A.D., that's how tight he was playing him. Like he actually hit his hand and it's still guys still like rainbowed in a three. And thank God he kind of made that for Denver. Right. Yeah. That turned out to be a big that Reeves bucket would have tied the game. Well, Braun would have had a shot to win. Maybe he doesn't take a three there.
Maybe he drives, gets fouled, whatever. Yeah. Every song matters. Yeah. That that shot did. Yeah. Huge. Yeah. Okay. How do you feel about this series?
Did it change your mind at all? Do you still think Denver is going seven? Adam, what do you think right now?
You want to make it? I'm slightly favoring Denver and I think it's going to go seven games. I think this is going to be a really close series.
If I had to predict right now, I'd say now gets in seven. They match up really well. We didn't mention earlier what I really thought was good for the Lakers was in the fourth quarter. They decided to switch up their defensive matchup where they where they put Roy Hachimora on Jokic instead of Davis.
And I thought that made a difference. He played a really good game. Roy played really good defense. So I think that they'll probably start with that match up in game two. And obviously the Nuggets will have to counter that because when the when the Lakers have Roy guarding Jokic, Davis is able to roam a little more on defense.
Yeah, he has points. Yeah. And so and so what what they need to do is figure out a way if Roy's guarding Jokic to get a commitment from Davis to either double team him or have an alley-oop to Aaron Gordon, whoever he's guarding. So they're gonna have to figure out that strategy. But that'll be interesting to see that chess match in game two and see the the new strategy.
Yes. The coaches are interesting. Not sure what what this means, but the three bench players. So both teams only played eight guys.
Tight rotation. Both all of all three bench players from the Lakers were in the positive. Plus ten for really plus five for Vanderbilt. Plus three for Lonnie Walker. The three bench players for Denver. Jeff Green, Bruce Brown and Braun. Christian Braun.
No relation to Nick Braun who plays cousin Greg on succession. None of you watch. Those three guys were minus ten minus five minus sixteen. So the Lakers supporting cast outplayed Denver's in the plus minus and outscored them. Twenty three. Nineteen.
Interesting. Maybe those guys get some more run in game two for L.A. All right. Game one tonight in Boston Heat, Miami. Another one of these. I was hoping to not play Miami at all in this playoffs.
Nobody wanted to take care of them. I guess I'm glad it's not Milwaukee. We don't have to go to Milwaukee and play Giannis. But this is the fourth time now in the last, you know, six years with Tatum and Brown that we're playing Miami in the playoffs. It's kind of wild. Last year was seven games. Kind of came down to Jimmy Butler's three with 15 seconds left last year.
We know the bubble. Bam blocks Tatum at the rim. It's been wild playing this. I kind of expect another knock them, drag them out series.
What do you think tonight? Adam Celtics Heat game one. I think a lot of people are underestimating how good the Miami Heat are and not giving them a chance in the series. I do favor the Boston Celtics in this series. But to me, it's going to go six or seven games. You can't discount how good Jimmy Butler has been this whole playoff series.
And excuse me, the whole yeah, the whole playoffs. Obviously, you have Bam Adebayo who causes havoc on the defensive end. He's going to be really important. You need double doubles out of him in a couple blocks a game for them to really have a chance and then it just depends for Miami for them to have their shooters shooting. Duncan Robinson needs to hit a bunch of threes.
Gabe Vincent, Caleb Barton. These guys need to step up if they have a chance against the Celtics. I do favor the Celtics though. I think the just the better team.
And yeah, I think it'll be a good, hard fought physical series. Yeah. TJ, it was interesting what Shaq said today on the big show. And I think he's bet on which Jason Tatum shows up tonight. Is it the Tatum of the last five quarters or is it the Tatum from games three, four, five and most of game six against Philly? I think I think that's kind of the big question tonight.
Yeah. I mean, obviously Tatum is going to set the tone for you guys, right? Because I just can't see him playing as poorly as he did. And it's kind of weird to say a guy who finished the way he did play poorly. But if you watch the previous games, he didn't play great.
But again, I always go back to the effort, right? Knicks fans are mad at Julius Randle because when his shots aren't falling, when he's not playing well, they say it affects the rest of his game. It affects his body language, his his posture, the way he just puts the vibe out there with Jason Tatum, though. One thing for sure, even when he wasn't scoring and playing well, the effort was always there, man. He was playing defense. He was blocking shots. He was rebounding. Sure, his shots weren't falling, but he wasn't afraid.
You know what I mean? And that that says something to me like you're never going to completely take him out of a game. So I feel like you're going to get a good Jason Tatum.
I think you're going to get that that guy. I just can't see him playing or scoring as poorly as he did those games against the Sixers. But again, even if he's not, you know, the effort's going to be there.
And I appreciate that. And I'm sure as I know as a Boston, so his fan, you were upset that his points weren't there. But you have to appreciate the fact that that guy's still going to make a difference on that court.
So, yeah, you're dead on about that. And in game six, he's won for 10 in the first half, but he has seven rebounds and six assists. So that just tells you while his shot's not falling, he's still confident and he's still engaged. Yeah. You know, and as he said after the game, what did he say?
Oh, he goes humbly speaking. I'm one of the best players in the world, one of the best players in the world. So why would I stop shooting? You know, it's like and that's a Kobe mentality. Exactly. Yeah.
It's what we talk about all the time. I'd rather a guy go 0-30 than 0-9. Oh, really?
Why? 0-30? That's awful. Yeah, but he didn't stop.
Yeah. 0-9 meant that you quit. You tapped out. You quit. You're like, it's not happening tonight.
I don't have my I don't have my game going and I'm just going to go do something else. You know, Tatum stayed engaged and saw him rewarded for that. And then the monster game seven. Yeah, I kind of expect I expect him to pick right up where he left off on Sunday, honestly. Who do you think?
I just hate this heat. Do you think so? Do you think Jimmy Butler will guard Tatum or Brown? What do you think?
That's a good question. You know, for Miami. Yeah, what are they going to do in terms of the matchups? You're probably going to put smart on Butler. You would think I would think Marcus Smart is going to play. But whereas Kyle Lowry will guard Kyle Lowry will guard Marcus Smart, but not on the other end. You've got to put smart because you need I mean, honestly, you need that little you need the pest.
We need we need smart to irritate. We need him to get all up in Jimmy Butler's face and make it as uncomfortable as possible for him. I mean, because Jimmy's the same way.
It's weird. Smart and Butler are kind of the same player. You know, Butler is obviously a little more skilled offensively. Yeah. But just mentality. They both think they're, you know, they're just total dogs. Yeah. They don't think they're dogs.
Those guys are dogs. This is going to be a wild series. Like what BAM do we get? You know, Miami fans have been so frustrated with BAM for the last year or so.
Are you going to get the shooting? Max Drews has killed Boston. He killed us in the playoffs last year. What are you going to get from him? What are you going to get from Duncan Robinson? Is Kevin Love have anything left? It's going to be a real interesting series. Boston, I think, obviously has more talent and should win in five or six games.
Who knows? We're going to get a weird Jimmy Butler twenty free throw game and they're going to steal that one. You know, you know, also like giving some love, even though I didn't feel that way when this happened, like one of the guys who probably frustrated me the most on the Boston team was Malcolm Brogdon. Like that guy. It just seemed like every time he shot, it went in the hole like he had a really, really good series. You know, just a smart player, good player, like, you know, former rookie of the year and six man of the year.
He's another guy who, like the casual fan, probably knows nothing about. But he played a huge role and you guys went in that series and what an important offseason acquisition that was and his willingness to accept the sixth man role and come off the bench and kind of lead that second unit. And you don't want to lose anything when you go to guys on the bench. Like, you know, we just talked about it like Miami.
There are three. But I mean, Denver, the three bench guys were all minus. You don't want you don't want the level of play to go down a little bit and you don't lose that with Brogdon. He could easily be a starter.
Yeah, for sure. Same thing with, you know, Derek White. And they went back to Robert Williams and they went to the big lineup the last two games. You think Williams will be guarding Bam or you think more that's like Horford? I think it's going to be it's going to be a mix.
Yeah. I'm wondering, I'm curious to see if they go with the with the Robert Williams and the starting lineup like they did for game six and seven because they had been starting Derek White. But he has kind of lost his stroke a little bit in the Phillies series. He was so good against Atlanta. He was much better than Marcus Smart. And now it's kind of flipped out.
Smart has had really good games the last few games and White's kind of struggled. So I'm curious what's going to happen there. Maybe you just go with the momentum and the fact that they won game six and seven. Just go with it. Right.
Right. We'll see what happens. We'll talk more about it. Who knows what this series will be when we come back to you guys next week. Brogdon, I was just thinking you're going to be in Jacksonville this weekend. You know, you can you might make a little side trip to see your Celtics play. Won't they be playing?
Oh, I don't know if I'm enough. No, I actually don't think Jacksonville, Miami. Close.
Yeah, never mind. That's like that's like being in Portland, Oregon, and want to go to San Diego, Florida, Florida, sneaky, long down, down that East Coast predictions. What do you think for this series? I'm going with the Celtics in six. OK, TJ, I mean, I I've been struggling, man.
I really I have no real idea. Miami's such a weird thing to predict what they're going to do. If you know, if I were to lose to the Knicks, right, if I went away to the cabin in the woods for like two weeks and came back and you said, hey, the Heat one in five, I'd go, oh, OK. Or if you say the Celtics one in five, like, I really don't know. But if I have to make a prediction now, I'll say Celtics in seven.
That's where I'm at now. Yeah, but man, I think this is going to be a really good series. Yeah, it's going to be it's going to be a dog fight. It's definitely not going to be high scoring either.
It doesn't feel that way. I think you're going to have a lot of like 90, 90 in the 90s. Yeah. Total for tonight is to 11. Whereas last night we got we closed at what two got to two six to sixty one last night, one thirty two, one twenty six to fifty eight last night. And tonight's total is to 11. That's going to be crazy.
Yeah, I think it's going to be a little bit more of a defensive battle between these two. All right, let's finish up real quick with the draft lottery. Now, TJ, you had said on the big show that you are giving up your Sixers and Clipper Phantom. That was that you're done.
You're just done with those teams. As of right now, it's just it caused me too much pain. As of right now, the wounds are still fresh.
Yeah, they're fresh. And I might be overreacting a little bit. But man, when something hurts you so much, it's like, why do you keep going back to it? Like people that are in loveless marriages just like leave, like don't don't stay for the kids, the marriage counselors.
I mean, like at some point you got to go, you got to do what's right for you. And right now, like I said, I got two teams that I get crapped on for and they both just find the most asinine ways to lose. So yeah, man, it's just I was talking to my buddy Riley and he and I since 1999 have been going to Clippers games together and he's from Detroit. So he could have been a Pistons fan where he was before he moved here. We're both like, maybe we should just whoever team gets Victor, maybe we should just make that our team because, you know, expectations are going to be low where no one's expecting 50 wins no matter how much they think he's a generational talent. The Spurs ain't winning like 50 games next year. So it could be fun just watching this generational talent just kind of grow. But it's hard to say.
Like I said, I'm hurt. The Chicago Cubs went over 100 years without winning the World Series. 100 years.
Yes. But how many how many of those years was it written that, oh, the Cubs are World Series favorites or they may not not many four years out of that time. Not many but you have to stick with your teams because when they finally do win which the Sixers and the Clippers will win championships and the Clippers have never won a change in the Cubs in for 100 years and people were saying the same thing. So when they do win TJ, it's going to be that much more sweet for you. Yeah, I said that I remember having that conversation in 2001 as I sat in the stands of the Staples Center. So they one day we're going to win. It's going to be 2024 soon. And guess what we still ain't. Hey, once once the Clippers get into the into it, don't into it.
Don't any college atmosphere toilets where you can go toilet pee. Your fans won't have to be worrying about having any action. Exactly. They're going to be there the entire time. I think Spurs nation is ready to welcome you with my goodness. The amount of like DMS I've gotten from Spurs fans.
They like want me to come. I know it feels like the Buffalo Bills. There was a time here when I first started on the show that Bill's Mafia really wanted me to become a fan and I felt like I felt honored and right now spur but again, I do have ties to the Spurs as you guys know, my God brother once played for the Spurs in the early 80s.
I mean, I was way too young to really remember it but you know, but hey, we'll see. We'll see right now. I think you should do it as soon as they're available. Get the Crown Vic Jersey totally embrace it shocked that the Spurs got it. How lucky can this franchise gets on real? You get David Robinson. First of all, a franchise level superstar.
Then he's out. He gets injured for a year. You stink and then you end up with the greatest power forward of all time in Tim Duncan. You end up drafting. I think in the second round or whatever Tony Parker.
Yeah, and then you get Manu you get these obscure guys who support Tim Duncan perfectly. They end up winning multiple championships. You get five championships. You do it right. You stink afterwards.
You are terrible. And then what happens you get the first pick in the draft a guy that supposedly is the best prospect ever ever pop is a lucky man. And now he's going to be coaching until he's 90 years old.
He is going to see this through with when be whatever you want to call him the Frenchman. It's on a real unreal. It's unreal certain franchises just are lucky and certain are in the San Antonio Spurs. They're lucky.
I saw a great I saw a great tweet today. The NFL equivalent of this is if the Patriots just somehow tank next year and get and get kids saw that. Yeah, like that's that's what the Spurs a five time champion a a a blue blood NBA franchise one of the best franchises in the league of the last 25 years.
And then all of a sudden hey, congratulations. Here's here's the best prospects since LeBron James. And that also goes back to my point about the Sixers, you know, in 97 when Duncan was the first pick. I know the Celtics had the statistically had the highest chance that we had the most but you you're you got two picks and they were both done by like pick six, I think right so that it comes down to the Sixers and the Spurs for the number one pick and to this day. I can remember kneeling in front of the TV like oh my God, please please and then the envelope opened and it was the Sixers and the Spurs got the first pick so Spurs get Tim Duncan. We get Keith Van Horn who we flipped for Tim Thomas and I mean look with all due respect to those two was all right. They're not Keith. I mean Keith Van Horn and Tim Thomas are not Tim Duncan and you know, and to this day I just sit and I dream what if Iverson and Duncan could have played together what could have happened and we won't know it just you know, another thing about being a Philly sixer fan man.
It's just it's frustrating. I was going to say though that if the Bulls didn't get Vic, which obviously didn't happen the team where you want him to be on is the Spurs in terms of I said that on the show in terms of him developing into the best player possible, right? That's the situation that's organization. You want him to be a part of obviously it would have been incredibly fun if Charlotte would have gotten the pick you have will mellow and Vic doing crazy pick and rolls 15 years.
It would have been incredible at the same time. That's the type of organization where obviously I'm a huge Michael Jordan fan, but there's no culture of winning there. There's no culture of success. So maybe he doesn't do that. Well, if that's him, so also is our championship organization also San Antonio, right? So it's not like New York, Miami, LA, you know, there's I don't know what the nightlife is in San Antonio, but I'm sure it's a much slower pace a much slower way of life. And I think that's a good spot for it for a 19 year old French kid to come in. You know, there's going to be expectations, but I think they'll be a little bit reduced because he's in San Antonio. So I think for him it did it kind of worked out pretty well, at least, you know, on paper. Well, obviously we got to see how he how he plays and how things come come to fruition.
But it seems like he landed in a good spot. I think they're going to make the playoffs next year. I think this is suddenly now a free agent destination. Pop's going to be reinvigorated. They already have some nice pieces down there.
Keldon Johnson, Vassal, they have some players. Apparently they're building a new five hundred and fifty million dollar campus. Wow.
It's supposed to open, I think, next year. Of course it is. It's perfect. Yeah. Perfect timing. Like I said, the stars that kind of align for for that team. Is he going to sign with Nike?
We get air Vicks. That's a good question. I don't I really haven't even checked what the sneaker situation is, but it's going to be interesting with his team in this industry. And we know the stereotype that big guys don't sell shoes. So does Nike invest one hundred million dollars in this guy?
They think he's that transcendent of a player, even though he's 74, which is and he's foreign, highly unrelatable to the average person here. Yeah. Does that still his English sounded pretty good with Wendy last night. But the thing is about this kid, he's known since he was about eight where his trajectory was going to go. So apparently, you know, from what I've read and I've read a lot about this kid over the last like two seasons, everything has been focused, hyper focused on getting him ready. I'm talking the food he eats. I read that they were training him to like have foods that will make his bones stronger, things that will make his ligaments stronger.
You know, he's been working on his English and see for years because he knew he'd have to you know, he knew eventually he'd be coming to America. So this kid, they've been preparing him for this for a long time. So, you know, we're going to see. We're going to see. But this is this is exciting as a sport. It's pretty exciting. Yeah, it's pretty exciting. And also, let's not forget, there are some really good players.
Yeah, the top three picks are all going to be awesome. Obviously, Vic, but Scoot and Miller, that whose names didn't even get mentioned yesterday. Have you seen Scoot, by the way? Scoot looks like a twenty six year old man. You know what I mean? And we saw Brandon Miller.
Yes, he's got pipes. And we saw what Brandon Miller did in Arkansas, you know, and take away, you know, that that unfortunate situation that happened. But that kid, I'm sorry, I said Arkansas.
I was thinking Bobby Bones because I was texting the other day. But yeah, Alabama, it's let's go, man. Fun, fun, fun, fun draft. There's the twins.
There's twins. Yeah. We're going to be in the top six, probably top seven. It's going to be a fun draft.
All right. Who wins tonight? Celtics win tonight. I got Celtics in a tough spot. We got to take game one. We got to. You never gave your series prediction. You did not. Well, I've been saying Nuggets, Celtics finals for a few weeks now, so I'm going to stick with it.
I think it was huge. If the Lakers had taken game one, I might have switched. And I think the Celtics, they should beat this heat team in five games.
Five. OK, they probably won't go five and probably go six, but they should win in five. All right. We'll be back next week. We'll see where these series are at. We just love basketball. So hopefully we get more basketball games. All right, everybody. Great job. See you guys later. Peace.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-05-17 23:03:03 / 2023-05-17 23:20:54 / 18
