Jason Jackson, Miami Heat Radio Play-By-Play Broadcaster

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Also does a great job for Sirius XM MBA Radio. And the Jack Show is kind enough to join us once again right now. Jason, I would ask you how you're doing, but I think I know the answer to that with your team being up 3-1. First of all, I am literally getting off the bus from the plane from Miami. I'm on the streets of Manhattan unloading from the bus as I join you now.

So I'm ready to roll. I'm surprised you're not getting booed because a lot of Knicks fans are very unhappy right now with the way that this series is going. Listen, why would they boo me? They've got to leave their own issues to deal with. Come on, leave me alone. I'm not doing anything but calling the hell out of this thing.

What a fun time. How do you put it into words? We all know how special the player Jimmy Butler is, but to have this start to happen again and what he's done through the first two rounds, you've seen every great Heat player that's ever existed.

How do you kind of put this one into words? Yeah, the tough thing for me is we're not done yet, right? But we've seen the greatest scoring performance in the history of Heat playoffs. A top five scoring performance overall in the history of the NBA in the postseason. I'm looking forward to seeing the, I think some of it, I don't want to call it manufactured fuel, but the fact that the hundred people who are tasked with naming the best defenders in the league decided to leave Butler off. The first and second team, it's absolutely laughable. And it's something else for him to kind of just put in the tank and take out on the opponent. It's not just New York. It's watching him do what he does.

It's first of all, super tactical, right? I mean, he is on the other side of 30 now. And so being very clear about when he needs to be at his best, doing his best isn't as simple as saying, even though he said it, that's the simplest thing.

I really start playing after the All-Star break. It's a medical training, basketball, personal decision that's made with a lot of input from a lot of experts, both with the team and his own personal team to get him ready for this time of year doing what has to be done. And him leading the team either with 50 and 40 point games or being the guy that's leading it on the defensive end or being the guy that just sees what's needed as you have another 10 assist game from him last night, setting other guys up, it's just fun to watch. He truly keeps the game simple by just whatever is needed, whatever the defense is allowing, he just attacks that.

He doesn't make it much more complicated than that. And I just don't see a way how the Knicks are going to come back in this series when Julius Randle last night is saying maybe the Heat just want it more. I just don't think that the Knicks have that toughness, even though it's been a good year for them right now to prevent Jimmy Butler from just winning one more game.

I was surprised to hear, but I mean, the history is the history, right? It's over 90% of the time, you're down 3-1, you're done. It may not be game five, but it's hard. It's hard to do what any team has to do from the position that the Knicks find themselves in. Listen, you look back at the one game they won. What is the most important aspect of that game? It's not the six minutes that they grabbed control of the game in the fourth quarter, it's that Jimmy Butler wasn't playing.

Tomorrow night, he's playing. He's playing with a chip, playing with the idea that you don't mess around when you have an elimination opportunity, which the Heat have already had on the road against the number one seed, not just in the East, but the number one seed in the entire playoffs, and they're not playing anymore. It's also kind of crazy to me, Jason Jackson, how I feel this from a lot of people, how they're like perplexed how the Heat are up 3-1 in this series. Maybe just because I live in New York and Knicks fans, when they win, they go crazy as they should because they've been tortured for the last 20 years. But I don't know how people actually thought that the Knicks were going to win this series. Listen, the joy I get, it's been a while to have a team that is young and you feel like it's going to be the core for you and can bring more than just bodies into MSG, that's the thing I've always marveled at. Knicks fans come hell or high water. They're in the building. Are they happy about being in the building?

That's a whole other thing. And so far this season, through the regular season and through the first round, that joy was on point. But for anyone, Knicks fan or not, who didn't really watch the Heat's regular season, they would be confused because you just look at the record, you look at the positioning, maybe even just watch the play-in games. And it just didn't, everything just seemed off. This entire season was off. Nobody missed more games due to injury than the Miami Heat. Every star role player had some time that they were away from the floor.

So the cohesion is right on time at the best time. And the really good thing for Miami Heat is they have a bunch of, I told you I was on the street, right? I mean you hear all this now, right?

I'm a New Yorker. I'm used to it with the horns. This doesn't faze me whatsoever, Jason.

Exactly. So it was, the fact now that you have Kevin Love, Jimmy Butler, and Kyle Lowry all as the, and let's not leave you down a sazzle mouth even though a lot of people like to, that you have this group of knowing what it takes. And Jimmy's the only one in that group that I just mentioned that doesn't have the ring, but he's the best player of all the names I'm noting, and the hunger on top of that knowledge is real.

It may not be something you can put on a stat sheet or have in your analytics laboratory, but it's what's needed when the roads get a little rough, when the waters start splashing over the edge. People you can turn to and go, okay, what do we do now? And those answers have come more than not from that group that's leading this team now, who hasn't lost a playoff game at home yet, and is in its second elimination game in so many series. I just don't get, Jason Jackson, why people can't just tip their cap to the Miami Heat because you have Mike Greenberg and Jalen Rose on ESPN talking about the weather being why the Knicks just got their ass kicked in Miami.

Yeah, and both of them love vacationing in Miami, so I was surprised at both of them. I don't know, man, that stuff I feel like sometimes, you know, becomes of the work that they have to do in those tight blocks and trying to turn heads and turn things around. You just kind of double down on stuff that makes no sense, and it also is a little bit of a slap in the face into a Miami team that just was very good defensively during the regular season, and you find me a better defensive team playing among these eight teams now, and I'll be stunned. That's why the Heat are in this position. They are dominating defensively, both the Bucks and now in this series, even better, and I think it kind of got clouded in the Bucks series because both teams were willing to score and get after it rather than lock it down and kind of keep it in the dirt. But you start looking at the percentages now. I mean, this is a Knicks team that averaged, I would say, averaged 116 points.

They're averaging less than 100 in this series now. Jason Jackson here with us. I also, when I watch Miami, and maybe this has just been with some of the players they've attracted in the past and the destination too, everyone keeps on throwing out Dame Lillard's name there. Has that got some buzz? Has that generated some heat down there in South Beach?

Not really. I think everybody's distracted and rightfully so by the main thing, which is these games. There'll be time for all that. That's hopefully June, July discussion for Heat Nation. But listen, Pat Riley's still in charge, right? And so Andy Ellsberg still has the ledger.

He's still staring at it. Whatever it takes, whatever situation presents itself that makes sense in making the team better, the Heat team is always going to be involved in. But then nobody's going to rush based upon outside inferences or too early hot stove for basketball. What do we call it? It's not really hot stove for basketball, is it?

Summer splash or something like that. Whatever we want to call it for Hoop. We'll wait on that until there are no more Heat games to play. Jason Jackson, the other series in the East, all tied up at two. I've been disappointed that the Celtics really haven't displayed that killer instinct. Do you still think that the Celtics prevail in that series? Are you starting to take maybe Philadelphia a little bit more seriously to get to the conference finals? Man, it's so tough to call that one because I just don't know how good Joel's body is right now. If he's at his best, that's a handful to deal with if he's the leading edge.

And which James Harden are you going to get? Boston is probably not where they want to be, right? So close having an opportunity to get up 3-1 the other day. But they've got their hands full and when you're looking at it from this side of the bracket, you're like, yeah, won't they? You know what? They can take it all the way to seven.

That'll be entertaining for all of us. But if Boston's going to be at their best, they're not worrying about trying to be a part of a shootout. They are elite defensively.

And they shouldn't get away from that too much. I know they're gifted, there's talented scores on that team and it's always tempting to find yourself, you know, listen, we could put the ball in the basket. But when you have an ability to lock teams down, particularly this time of year, you've got to lead with that aspect of the game. Out of 100%, how likely do you think it is? Give me a number that the Warriors find a way to come on back down 3-1 to LeBron and the Lakers. Come back to force game seven. Win the whole thing. Oh, win the whole thing? You're going to put me on the record for that one? I think the number is zero. I don't see how LeBron James loses three games in a row and there was a lot of mental mistakes last night by the Warriors.

It's just tough. Because I respect the splash, I will go 30% above your zero. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's a game seven in that series either. I would be surprised on that one. But hey, you watch a lot more basketball than I have, Jason Jackson.

Yeah, but they also pay me to watch it. It's unfair. Last thing I'll ask you, Suns and Nuggets. After four games of what you've seen so far, Denver was dominant the first two. Then the last two, the Suns just can't miss right now.

Landry Shammet and Lonnie Walker in both those games have just been sensational. What's going to ultimately decide that series between the Suns and Nuggets? Let's first of all note that the Nuggets are absolutely beyond luck. What's the word?

Beyond luck, beyond fortune, whatever that is. That they have their big man available for their next game. There is a red line in the National Basketball Association. I don't care if you own a team or if you're sitting up in the 400 level, players cannot touch fans. Period. Period.

That's where, that's the end of the discussion. And I know the Westbrooks of the world and I believe PG probably even went this direction. This game petered on mayhem in the Malice in the Palace.

And then there was a very thick line draw. You're not wrong, but the owner was also an idiot too. He should not have held on to that basketball.

He's standing there holding the basketball. Should he, shouldn't he? We can have a separate debate. I'm talking about the player's responsibility.

I don't care what type of idiot you are, you don't deserve a forearm shiver from a seven foot monster. At all. Ever. In this league. That man should not be playing tonight.

Period. But they're fortunate, they're going to be at full strength, they'll have all their guys. It seems like the most comfortable team in that series is the team that's at home. So if that's going to be the scenario, again, we'll be entertained at the highest level.

But I don't, I'm not surprised that even without Chris Paul, that the scoring firepower that's available to the Suns might be the thing that kind of rises in the situation. It's just tough. And listen, I've only broadcasted games in Denver and I'm huffing and puffing.

It is a legit thing to try to go there without doing it a lot. And the only team that does it a lot is Denver. And really being at your absolute best.

Particularly when you're nip and tuck, you know what I mean? And you're really like, you're playing to exhaustion in this stage. And all these teams are good. And so if this comes down to just the home team being the team that's most comfortable, obviously Denver earned that opportunity in a game seven. That's what I thought this series was going to go the whole way. And I think we're going to get that.

The CP3 throws it off a little bit for me. But man, what a fun thing to watch. Do you think the league maybe told Ishbia, the owner of the Suns, to just put out that statement? Because that was waving the white flag and you never would see that from an owner.

It was helpful. And he's new. And he's a businessman. Got some brownie points with the owners. Exactly.

So just moonwalk yourself out of it. I don't think that has to be orchestrated. I think people read the room well that you don't become a multi-billionaire being unaware of the things around you. And I think it's going to be great, by the way, for this league. What he's already doing from a broadcasting standpoint, just getting the content to the people and not worrying about what's happening in bankruptcy court or trends or the things that you should or should not do. That's already telling me that he's willing to be outside the box.

And obviously that place needs a whole different vibe from a work environment standpoint of all the things that we've learned about what happened on the business side. So I'm going to applaud the Ishbia addition and say if you happen to spend a few billion dollars by a team and you want to hold a basketball a few seconds longer than you should, you still shouldn't get a left forearm in your grill. Well, enjoy the horns and the lovely sounds of New York City and everyone's screaming at you. Just don't be looking up at the buildings and walk around like a tourist because that's when you get an elbow tee. All right. Come on, man.

Eyes on the ground straight ahead. I know how to do it. Thanks so much. Good to catch up with you, Jason. Can't wait to do it again.