NBA Conference Finals Preview (Hour 4)

Alrighty, rockin' and rollin'. Now we're number four of our radio program.

That's right, Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. The biggest thing in sports tonight. You got game seven.

Seattle Dallas end of one. No score there as the winner is waiting. The Vegas Knights are waiting to get the winner of this game as last night Vegas takes Edmonton down in six games. Edmonton ends their season on their home ice once again even with Connor McDavid and Leon Dryseidel. The goaltending situation was just absolutely horrendous and that's what is going to keep on costing Edmonton who have two of the best players in the sport. We know McDavid is going to win unanimous MVP.

Leon Dryseidel you could argue is the second best player in the game but they have two top five players. Just two unbelievable players and you got to get better goaltending and they just did not get that last night. So we're inching closer and closer to the final four in the Stanley Cup playoffs as you do of course in the Eastern Conference have the Carolina Hurricanes and the Florida Panthers all through. In the West you do have Vegas even with getting Bruce Cassidy in there. Now in the Western Conference semi-finals and you're just waiting to see who they're going to get with Seattle and Dallas in a game seven.

And what a story the Kraken are. A year ago their first year ever only 60 points this year 100 points and they are now 40 minutes away from going to the Western Conference Finals. They're going to win this game.

That'd be something. Vegas it's their sixth year in the league. Their first year they ended up going to a cup final when Gerard Gallant was their coach. And Seattle in your number two I would anticipate Dallas wins the game tonight but at 0-0 right now Pete DeBoer is 6-0 in his career in game sevens and he always just does wonders in his first year as a head coach with the team as you're seeing this year with Dallas. But right now it's 0-0 so even though I thought Dallas is going to win but if we see Seattle go to the Western Conference Finals it's pretty unique where you have two expansion teams. You know I know that you have Seattle in their second year but Vegas is in their sixth year from not that long ago. That would be pretty pretty unique for this sport. And I know you could always say expect the unexpected this time of the year with the Stanley Cup playoffs but who would have thought Florida who was the present trophies winners last year and this year the fewest points that any team in the playoffs would be in the Easter Conference final and you had all those teams out of the East, Boston and New York and I know Carolina's had a heck of a year but those would be your two teams in the East and in the West you would have two teams that are fairly new to the league.

It would be wild if that's the way that it ends up going. Imagine being a Leafs fan. We're talking about them getting out of the first round for the first time since 0-4 it's a big deal. And you could have a team in their second year make the conference finals. A team in their sixth year already now in their second conference finals. It was the longest time we could not get out of the first round.

Then once we do we get smoked in five games by the Panthers and here are these two teams that are brand new to the party and they're having immediate consistent success more than we've had in a long time. Yeah I actually think that it would actually be their third for Vegas. So half the time of their existence they've been in the conference finals.

Cause if memory serves me right when DeBoer took over for Gallant in season. I think that they got to the conference finals that year. Yeah they lost to the conference finals to Dallas in 2019-2020.

Unreal. So a team that's been around for six years has been in the conference finals three times. And a team potentially if they're crack and win tonight that's been around for two years would be in one conference final. Then again if you're some of these legacy teams especially the Leafs with all your postseason failures in the last two decades you guys throw your hands and say what the hell. What is going on?

I'm here. Yeah you're not wrong on that one. Man these fans got to be miserable. That's come from two Rangers fans. We've been to a few conference finals and a cup final in our lifetime.

Neither of us got to see 1994. And in terms of them hoisting the cup but you're exactly right. Maple Leafs fans you go from being on top of the world get out of first round then all those jackasses chanting. We want Florida. And Vinny Viola was like no you don't. And they got their wish all right.

My oh my. Have you been a Vegas fan? Yeah it's the greatest thing ever. Six years three conference finals. This is easy. This winning thing is easy. Outside of winning a Stanley Cup it's it's the greatest thing ever.

I'm jealous. Six years in and we had on earlier ever it fits you the play by play voice of the Seattle crack and even he was saying we kind of cautioned everyone that year one wasn't going to be like Vegas because if you're an expansion team in hot hockey and we just saw this last year with Seattle it's like oh what is Seattle going to do because six years ago or five years ago at the time you saw Vegas go to the cup final. It's crazy. Shame on them.

They're now in year two and maybe on the brink of a conference final. It is an unbelievable story. And then last night in the association really one of the more weak performances you're ever going to see from a star player in this league and a guy that just won the MVP. Joel Embiid what he did at the end of game six in the final five six minutes where he after the games like I need the ball more I didn't touch the ball and then in game seven to no show like that.

That's embarrassing. And he looked disinterested. He looked out of shape.

He was huffing and puffing. And I'm not just saying this all because I got it right. But at halftime. Like I looked at the Sixers and I thought to myself even though at the time is only a three point game and I said it to my dad who was watching the game with they're going to get blown out. They're going to get run off the court because Tatum showed you in that first half he was ready to go.

And outside of P.J. Tucker hitting a few threes. No one on the Sixers showed me anything.

Hardin was irrelevant in the game and Bead was irrelevant in the game. And I even tweeted this out I go the only way the Sixers win this game. Is if like Tyrese Maxey goes for 30 plus and it still may not be enough. And to put that onus on Tyrese Maxey who's the third player on this team.

That's not right. So it was clear yesterday that that second half was coming. But 112 to 88 and Embiid did nothing. It just shows you the difference between Tatum and Embiid. Like Tatum after game six. I didn't play well the first three quarters the fourth quarter I showed you why.

You know humbly I'm one of the best players in the world. Joel Embiid tells you how he should be one of the MVP for all those years. And after game six Embiid is annoyed that he didn't get the ball down the stretch.

And you have that little aggression in game seven. I really do like Joel Embiid. But Joel Embiid started to look like a fake tough guy.

Where like he's the dude that he talks the talk. But eventually in the big moment I get it when he's done the regular season his talents unbelievable. In the in the regular season he just won an MVP. Like he's a great player.

But in the postseason if you're going to talk like you're in that class you got to back it up. And Tatum showed you your time is it now. And there's not much time left for Joel Embiid with all the wear and tear in his body all the injuries all that stuff.

And only started to play the game at 15 years old for this guy to have a shot to win. But it's crazy like the Sixers have been stuck on this step for years and years and years and years and whatever they try it does not work. And I'm not saying that they've always made the right moves. They made some bad moves. Martel Foltz remember they traded up to one and the Sixers move back the Celtics move back to three they got Jason Tatum. Ben Simmons was a disaster. Jalil Okafor, Nerlens Noel like you have all these picks that they had.

And they had Jimmy Butler. And the thing is the fact that they weren't able to keep Jimmy Butler really is what's going to prevent Joel Embiid from winning a championship. Because we say this all the time with Embiid. Embiid's a great player.

But Embiid needs a finisher. And for a while Hickey we kind of threw out like Denver with Nicole Jokic. We're not going to win a championship until Jamal Murray gets back and healthy and we're not wrong on that. But that's almost a disservice to Nicole Jokic because Nicole Jokic without Jamal Murray the last two years won an MVP back to back years. And Nicole Jokic never has a game like what Joel Embiid just had. Well that's the thing like a lot of it was we've seen now I think you can't win a championship by yourself.

No matter how great you are you need help. And that was Nicole Jokic the last two years where he has injuries to Jamal Murray. Michael Porter's been banged up. And he still played great and you would think with even more attention on him he would struggle and not play as well. And he's had great post seasons even though the Nuggets have not gone far.

And now you're right we've made similar comparisons. Now you see well even when the Nuggets and Jokic are getting eliminated it's not because of him. And then you see this year especially the Sixers get eliminated he goes oh yeah it's because of Embiid specifically. I know we'll get more into the conference finals and tomorrow you get the start of Denver going up against the Los Angeles Lakers. But out of these four teams I don't know if you feel this way. And I don't really care who wins. It's not going to affect me either way.

And I have no financial obligations like I had no future bet here or anything like that. But I kind of hope that Denver wins it all because it is just unreal to me. The amount of ridiculous hate that Nicole Jokic gets and the amount of excuses that people try to take away from his greatness like I love Kendrick Perkins but he tried to make the MVP about race was ridiculous this year. Then you also have people saying Nicole Jokic is boring to watch. I don't get how people say those things about Nicole Jokic. And the guy is just so consistent that it's almost like people get bored with him and like fatigue with him because he's always great like that doesn't make sense to me.

I don't get why people hate on Nicole Jokic. And the only thing you could say about him is he doesn't have a ring yet. And I think that's like kind of ridiculous because he hasn't really had a shot the last few years to win a ring with Marial.

So I kind of hope now with Murray being back, you're having a good roster with Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. too being healthy right now. And Nicole Jokic just playing his ass off night in and night out. Out of these four teams, as much as it would be awesome to see Jimmy Butler get a ring and it'd be well deserved. Jason Tatum, it would be well deserved. The LeBron story would be incredible, especially where that team started the year and how there was legitimate concerns about the Lakers even making the playing tournament.

Like all these stories would be great. But I really think the best one would be Nicole Jokic because it would be a giant middle finger to like anyone that just ridiculously hates and tries to question how great of a player Nicole Jokic is. Yeah, for me, I'm with you easily. The Nuggets, by far the most likable team. The team I'm pulling for with no dog in the fight anymore. I hope they win.

I'm rooting for them to win. They absolutely deserve for Nicole Jokic. And then, I mean, look, I think if he wins the championship this year, we're talking about Nicole Jokic, who's right now the best player in the NBA.

It's absolutely on the table if he wins the title. And that's the respect he finally deserves. And sometimes kind of with Giannis too.

It was the same. I was just gonna say Giannis at the tip of my tongue. You win a championship all of a sudden, it shouldn't be this way, but for a lot of people it is. No, it should be.

All of a sudden now the way you look at that player changes. It should be because that's part of it. It is part of it winning that championship. And for Giannis, even though he won two MVPs, it's like he didn't really get that praise until he won a world championship.

You have to have moments like that. And I hope Nicole Jokic gets eight more wins. But really, you look at any of these four teams, I don't have a single problem with any of these teams winning at all. Jimmy Butler would be a feel good story. Jason Tatum would be a great story. Lebron James in year 20 would be a great story.

And Nicole Jokic obviously would be a great story as well. By the way, I'm going to game five. My brother-in-law and sister live out in Denver, so I'm going to visit my niece as they just had a beautiful baby girl. So I'm making another trip out there. Uncle Zach's coming to town. And I'm going to game five with my brother-in-law on Wednesday next week.

I'm going to do the show in Denver on Thursday and then fly back early Friday morning and do the Friday show right before Memorial Day weekend from our New York City studios. So I actually, I wonder if I should get a Nuggets t-shirt now, Hickey. I wonder.

I have Lakers shorts from our trip to the Super Bowl when I forgot to pack enough shorts and I went into the team store and just bought some Lakers shorts. Do I wear the Lakers shorts to the game with a Nuggets shirt and just try to get a bunch of clicks on the media and be an attention-seeking whore? Is that what I do on Wednesday? Wow.

Next Wednesday? Split loyalties here. Look at this guy.

You know that would be like a picture. Is this guy confused? Like, what the heck is this moron doing? How can you room for the Lakers and the Nuggets? They're playing one another. Especially the t-shirt the Nuggets give out is gold. And so you can have gold on gold. You give me the gold, man. Gold t-shirt, gold shorts. Would they give out a gold t-shirt against the Lakers? Gold rush, maybe?

I don't think so. Denver has some good old school kinds of shirts too. I do like the colors a lot. Their retro unis are beautiful. They are. Beautiful.

So, I don't know. I think I'm just going to go neutral to that game. I don't even want to show up with any gear. No swag.

No swag. Just a neutral observer that hopes both teams have fun. I'm just looking for a good game. I want to go ahead.

Cole Oakes, LeBron James. Hello. That's going to be awesome. I'm really excited. And I may.

This is not a lock yet. I may do a quick trip to Miami this weekend. A buddy of mine lives in Miami. We've been talking.

And he has a little connect with the heat. So, I'm wondering if I fly down Saturday morning. Game 3 would be Sunday night. Then fly back Monday morning. Get these frequent flyer miles. Actually, the airlines owe me so much money for how many times they screw me this year. I have so much. I have credit out of the wazoo.

I don't think I'm paying for any of these flights actually with how much credit I have after the disaster the airlines have been. But there's a chance on that Game 3 up against Heaton Boston in Miami. And then a few days later at Game 5 for a little Denver and Los Angeles. Look at me, Mr. Basketball. They're going to start calling me Hoopskeld. Move over Hoops Weiss.

Hoopskeld is here. Isn't that funny? Trash the NBA all throughout the regular season. Tell them how bad their product is. Can't stand that. Imagine if I get seated next to that spineless commissioner too in one of these games. I mean, look where they put some executives. I mean, you might be second to last row. There's Adam Silver. You're sitting next to him.

Let me tell you. If I go to any of these games and get seated within like 5 or 6 rows of Adam Silver, there's a good chance I get kicked out of the game. Very good chance. What would you chirp at him? Spineless Silver! Spineless Silver! You know how they ring with the cowbell like you were saying and Bob Meyers here in Sacramento? I would just be screaming Spineless Silver.

Would you give him a reason why? Like load management. You do nothing. He does nothing.

You do nothing. No, no. Just Spineless Silver. I'm not advising you for trash talking. Well, I'm just saying if you scream Spineless Silver, you probably have no idea what you're talking about. It's very easy.

Let him know why you're screaming it. He has done one thing so far in the NBA and it was the easiest thing ever, which had to be done getting rid of Donald Sterling after the disgusting things he said. But after that, I've never seen someone get praised for doing basically nothing. And that's what Adam Silver has done ever since then. Hey, you're talking about the father of the play-in tournament and the soon-to-be father, expecting father, of the in-season tournament. And you know me, I hate the in-season tournament. I think that's dumb. And the play-in tournament, he's got lucky that his star players have been in the play-in tournament because if you haven't had the stars, it would have been a disaster. Oh yeah, by the way, that was designed to prevent tanking. Had that work out with the Dallas Mavericks this year.

So, Spineless Silver. I would love to see him out of the sport. I would love to see someone else be NBA commissioner. I ranked him as the worst commissioner.

I had man-fraud in front of him. At least he got the pitch clock going. Gary Bettman is 2, and I can't believe I'm saying this. Roger Goodell is 1. Look how much I've matured in life, where I'm putting Roger Goodell as 1.

I'm not saying it's well-deserved here, but I have a Roger Goodell clown t-shirt. Anyway, Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. Do onsides, offsides next. Alrighty, onsides, offsides time. Hickey, I'm actually going to ask you a question first before you ask me the five questions.

So, we're going to get a bonus question today. So, a source just told me that Marco Belletti is not going to be doing updates here this evening on CBS Sports Radio because he's actually hosting down the hall on WFAN in New York. So, big little hosting debut, I believe, on WFAN for Marco Belletti. Now, Marco told us last week on the air, and we've known this for a while, that he's having a third child, and his wife is expected to pop, as Marco said, any day now. Onsides or offside? Marco's wife will go into labor as he's getting his hosting debut on the fan tonight in New York City.

Offside! Ah, you're no fun. The child knows better. They'll probably be listening and want to stay in the womb until the show's over, then you can come on out.

How crazy would that be? You get a hosting shift on the fan, and then you get a call at like 2.30 AM in the morning. Uh, honey, you need to leave. I think my water just broke. Imagine you got the call on the air. Like, you know your wife is going to labor. It would actually be great for his career if his wife likes to give birth tonight.

It's a national story, if it is. You are answering the call, right? Yes! There's very little breaks, you know, over and I tell you, it's just like you can go, oh, I gotta go to break and answer. You've been in a relationship for how many years?

Uh, five and a half. Okay. You're telling me, with the way that you understand your girlfriend, that if your girlfriend was ever pregnant, and she called you, and you were close to that date, you're not picking up? No, I'm just more confirming.

I wasn't asking, I was more confirming, just making sure. I'm like, oh, you're right. Then it's like, well, guys, I got a situation here.

My wife is in labor. You know, I gotta run or someone gotta get here ASAP. If Chertoff was still our boss, he'd be like, Marco, you need to finish the shift, okay? I can't find anyone right now to fill in, and we can't put whoever the producer is on the air, okay? It just can't happen. That would be, I mean...

It wouldn't surprise me now if management says, yeah, you gotta stay. That's a... Oh, I just texted Marco. I texted Marco like I was gonna prank phone call him tonight, and I was messing around, and I go, watch your wife go into labor. He goes, you ain't kidding.

We've already had two scares last week already. That, I think that'd be the best thing for Marco. Host has to leave first-ever shift on WFAM because his wife goes into labor. That'd be a feel-good story. Let's go to Janice in New Jersey. Janice, you're on the fan.

Hey, it's actually your wife. I'm pregnant. I'm actually en route to the hospital.

Can you come now? That would be an insane way to find out. All right, go ahead. We'll see. Yeah, hopefully Marco has no incidents like that for sure.

Actually, if we're going off your predictions, the hickey-hex is a thing. As you predicted, Joe LMB was gonna have the best game of his career and was gonna have his biggest moment yesterday. Watch. You just said Marco's wife is not gonna go into labor tonight. Lock it up.

2.35 a.m. Eastern. Marco, you gotta leave the fan. Marco, I'd make a call right now to get a replacement ready.

That's all I'll say with the way my picks have gone recently. You actually should be here on standby tonight. That could be a nice little opportunity for you. You should just lurk in the newsroom since you predicted that Marco's wife is not gonna go into labor tonight.

That means she 1,000% is. And you wait for Marco to like frantically, I've never seen Marco frantically run, but run out of the studio and there you are. You get to go host for like 90 minutes or two hours.

Although knowing my luck, she would go into labor like 5.01 when Marco's off the air. And I'm sitting around all overnight waiting for the call that does not come. And I just wasted an entire overnight of not sleeping, getting ready for the call that didn't.

Then that probably is more my luck. Alright, ask me the questions. Let's go. Speaking of Joel Embiid and a prediction by someone who was a little off. The MVP of the league had a rough, rough Game 7. He shall not be named. He's like Voldemort.

The name we do not speak of. He scored just 15 points on 5 of 18 shooting in that Game 7 blowout loss to the Celtics. Now you go back into Game 6, chance to close out that series at home. Embiid in the final four minutes to not attempt a shot or grab a rebound as well. Now in the regular season, right, he won the MVP. In that time he averaged 33.1 points per game. In the playoffs, he averages 23.7. That drop off is the largest by that year's MVP in NBA history. Onsides or offsides, Joel Embiid is not a number one on a championship team.

I just found the tweet by the way. Ryan underscore Hickey three. Game 7 is about one man and one man only. Joel Embiid after pulling a Houdini in the final four minutes of Game 6, I think he bounces back in a big way today. Prediction, 42 points and 13 rebounds in the biggest game of his career. Sixers win.

Man, Philly hates you today, I'll tell you that. As Jay Williams once said, I was hacked. Someone tapped into my account, tweeted that out, knowing, you know, the Sixers had no chance.

And so it's now actually me making that prediction. And you remember what Jay Williams was claiming to be hacked about, right? It was about the Celtics. As he congratulated Eme Odoka for being the first ever black coach of the Boston Celtics.

So me and Jay Williams had something in common, getting hacked about something regarding the Celtics. Yeah, so Joel Embiid isn't a number one in a championship team. So it's weird, we've always been asking for the Sixers to find him his finisher. But he would be number one in Philly. Like if he goes to another team, we all know he's a great player.

He's a ridiculous talent. Like if he goes to the Warriors, Steph Curry's the better player. It's like, but Steph Curry would also be the role of the finisher. Like, you know where Embiid could go be the number one and could go get a finisher? It's the Knicks actually.

And Leon Rose was his agent. Imagine you get Embiid traded to the Knicks with Jalen Brunson. Like Embiid's the one on that team, but Brunson did a heck of a job with Luca Doncic. They got to a conference final. And this past year got the Knicks, the bleepin' Knicks to the second round.

And at least he showed up in that final game, even though you were criticizing him on Twitter. Him and Embiid were the opposite. In this game of the season, Brunson balled out and Embiid disappeared. Yeah. So, it's a tough question because the guy just won an MVP.

But I'm going to go offside. Because I think Embiid is best being the second best player on the team. And you just have a mega star who also has the ability to hit that big shot late. So yeah. So while Embiid and the Sixers no-showed in that game, Jason Tatum- Oh sorry. I should answer that onsides then. Embiid isn't a number one in a championship team. I agree with him.

I agree. He's not. I apologize for hitting the button. No, I said offside, I think. You did.

It's okay. It's also- Checks and balances don't work well here. Dexter Henry gave me a look. And he was like the judicial branch here.

He saved our ass at the end of the day. Wait, what look did I give you? You gave me a look at what Hickey and I just said wasn't right. And you gave me a good checks and balances look there. You saved our ass there, Dexter Henry.

Listen, I'm all about helping the show. Dexter Henry did his best impersonation of Jason Tatum because just like he saved the show, Tatum saved the Celtics. Dropping a Game 7 record 51 points in that win. Also grabbed 13 rebounds and committed 0 turnovers while shooting 6 of 10 from 3. Tatum assisted or scored on 62 of Boston's 112 points.

Quick math, that's over half. Onsides or offsides. We just watched the greatest Game 7 performance in NBA history. Don't get me wrong, it was a great performance, but it was in the second round. So, that's why I gotta go offside on that one.

Offside. It's a great performance, most points ever. The 51, he said the same thing about Steph. Like I think you asked this about me a few weeks ago with Steph Curry. When he had 50 points and had the most points ever in a closeout game in Game 7, it's the first round. We've seen bigger performances later on in the post season in a Game 7.

So that's why I have to go offside. Not taking anything away. It was a great performance, unbelievable, spectacular.

Won me a bunch of money yesterday. Because it was so obvious at halftime to live bet the Boston Celtics at minus 5.5. But I can't say it's the best Game 7 performance in NBA history. Dallas just scored by the way to make it 1-0. So, that 0-0 tie is now broken with 4-1 left in the second.

Go ahead. So the final four teams in the NBA post season are set as the Nuggets will face the Lakers. While the Celtics will take on the Heat. Now despite a turbulent post season so far, Boston is a massive favorite over Miami. As according to DraftKings, Boston is minus 5.25 to win this series while the Heat are plus 400.

Wow. Now the Western Conference is a lot closer. The Nuggets are the favorites to win that series. They're at minus 155. So drastically different Western Conference versus Eastern Conference.

Onsides or offsides. Both favorites will win and the NBA Finals will be a matchup between the Celtics and Nuggets. Yeah, I think the Heat have to go get another star. And they've been to the finals before with Jimmy Butler. Also all this nonsense a few years ago from a bunch of dope. So, it's a bubble championship.

It doesn't count. A few years later we have the same final four as we did in the bubble. But I do think the Celtics are a better team than the Heat. The question just is how long is Boston going to really make this series. You know Miami is going to get two games bare minimum. I'll go Celtics in six. And I do think Denver is going to win this series. I think they're the better team. Having Jamal Murray there now back and healthy is huge. And Nicole Jokic has been unstoppable. I hate picking against LeBron this late in the post season but I'm doing it here.

I do think it will be Celtics and Nuggets in the finals. No. Sorry, that's me. My finger slipped. I'm sorry.

I don't know what I was doing there. You're so drunk from your Mother's Day celebration yesterday. I'm like Embiid just screwing up here in the biggest moments. Jeez, yeah you are Embiid in this moment here. This is bad. This is really bad.

You actually just made Embiid look like he showed up yesterday. We'll redeem ourselves here in question number four. Jon Morant has been suspended. What is in that cup of yours that you have on the other side of the glass is my question. Allegedly water. Because I once had a producer when I did the weekend overnights. What? I had a producer when I did the weekend overnights.

He was dipping on the air. And by mistake he, and I've never laughed harder in my life, I saw him take a sip and then directly spit out what he just took a sip of because he got a mistake in his coffee and his, or maybe it was his soda and his dip spit cup. I thought you were going to say you had a producer drinking on the job. That's what I was going to say. Wow. No, no, no, no. That's where I thought you were going to go.

Maybe at Fox Sports 920 The Jersey my first job potentially. They did have us at a lot of shows at bars. Wow.

Low budget operation too. Confirm nor deny there. And honestly, some of those shows in my earlier days you may have needed to have a few drinks to listen to me. Holy smokes.

All right. Jon Morant has been suspended by the Grizzlies indefinitely after being seen on Instagram Live over the weekend brandishing a gun in a car. Now, earlier this season, Morant was suspended eight games after a video surfaced of him holding a gun intoxicated in a Denver nightclub. Now earlier today in Get Up, Woes reported that the NBA is considering a significant suspension for a job onsides or offsides.

The NBA should suspend Jon Morant for the entire 2023 2024 season. And the wording of that Woes tweet was something like, if it is a gun in the video, the NBA is going to have a serious suspension. I'm not an expert on guns, but how the heck was that not a gun? Well, he was saying that if it was a video that was altered.

Okay. Like just confirming it's a gun, like just kind of giving any and all benefit of the doubt. That is the legal part of it where if there is the slimmest of chance, somehow it wasn't a gun. Like the 0.00000001% chance it wasn't a gun that Morant doesn't come back to sue Adrian Anowski. But I did find it funny yesterday when everyone was like, it was allegedly a gun. At first, like when I saw the video, I'm like, what gun are they talking about?

And then you see the still shot at like 13 seconds in that video. I don't get how the NBA is going to be able to suspend Morant for an entire season. I think the NBA player association would fight that to the fullest. He does need a lengthy suspension because whatever they did for eight games and he went to rehab.

I'm not sure what he went to rehab for, but he got back very quickly and clearly hasn't learned anything. And it's just stupid. Like what good is going to come out of twirling a gun while you're in a car listening to music? Like you could accidentally shoot someone, you could shoot yourself by mistake.

And if you're on Instagram live, it's not going to make you look good when you just had something happen a few months ago. So like, this is just one of those things where it's just stupid, really stupid what John Morant is doing. And this dude has a $200 million contract.

I used to really enjoy the story of John Morant. We were all over it when he was at Murray state, but he's just lost me here and he's trying to act like someone that he isn't. But the entire season, I don't think the NBA can actually suspend the entire season. So therefore I will go offside on that one. Nothing has to happen where he actually understands what he's doing is just dumb because whatever happened in those eight games, he clearly didn't get that message.

Clearly did not. And finally, after meeting in the 2021 NBA finals, the Bucks and Suns are both looking for new head coaches. Now both teams do have clear strengths and clear weaknesses. Milwaukee is one of the best players in the league in Giannis, but two key pieces in Chris Middleton and Brook Lopez are question marks with their futures moving forward. Phoenix on the other end has Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, but they have zero depth, zero draft picks, and are reportedly looking to move on from both Chris Paul and DeAndre Eden this off season. Onsides or offsides, the Bucks head coach opening is more attractive than the Suns.

Yes, and here is why. Giannis with the ability to get more around Giannis for me is more attractive than basically being a coach, but not actually being a coach with Kevin Durant because you saw it in Brooklyn. Kevin Durant made bad decisions. Now you need to make all these decisions in Phoenix and it's tough for me to trust KD that he's going to make the right decisions.

Booker is a great player. We all know that, but I just, I have a hard time trusting right now, even how great of a player he is, Kevin Durant with the way that he handled things in Brooklyn. So I will trust more Giannis and whoever they surround Giannis with. I don't think Chris Middleton's going anywhere.

Probably Drew Holliday's going to be on his way out. But I personally would rather have the Bucks head coaching job than the Suns head coaching job. I think it's more of a coaching job than it is with the Phoenix Suns and how much you're kind of just someone that's sitting there where, remember KD and Kyrie, they're like, oh, I could be a head coach one night. You know, then we could have Joc Von the head coach one night, ended up being the head coach. And then, you know, we could actually let Steve Nash be the coach. I just think you're a puppet if KD is the player on your team. So I'd rather go to the Bucks.

All right. Zach Gelb Show CBS Sports Radio. We will take a time out. We'll come on back with the closing bell, tell you whose stock is booming, whose stock is dooming.

You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Another day is in the books and we're taking stock of the sports world. It's time to find out who's up and who's down. Let's end the day right and hit the closing bell.

Only on the Zach Gelb Show. We start things off on the ice. What a wild hockey game last night. In the first two minutes and 43 seconds, we saw three goals. You had Las Vegas take the 1-0 lead, Riley Smith, and then McDavid got the game tied up at 1-1, and then Edmonton made it 2-1. But then in that second period, the Knights heading into that period were down 2-1. And it was the period of Jonathan Marchessault who had three goals in that period. And here was the final one to make it 4-2. The Vegas Golden Knights ended up winning the game 5-2. And they're off to the Western Conference Finals for the third time in their six years of existence. Let's listen up to the Golden Knights Radio Network.

I'm giving a stock up to Jonathan Marchessault. It's a lame play-by-play call, Hickey. Especially in hockey, you gotta be going nuts.

I know it's not in your building, so you don't get the horn, but you gotta have more excitement there. That was the Golden Knights Radio Network? That was the Golden Knights. Messing it up and that was not Edmonton, you sure? No, I actually pulled it myself, because, yes, it was directed from the Vegas Knights Twitter account.

They tweeted it out, the radio one, yeah, maybe a little bit more joyful. Let's go back to Friday. Nick Cousins scores in overtime to win the game 3-2 and send the Panthers to the Eastern Conference Finals. Let's listen up to the Panthers Radio Network. That Eastern Conference Finals is going to be Florida up against Carolina. Gudas will lead the charge now, 3-on-2 for the Panthers.

Here's Cousins, over the offensive line, left circle, Cousins, front of the net, shot, he scores! Nick Cousins ends the game, ends the series, 3-2 in overtime, the Panthers win it. They take the series in five, and the Florida Panthers are going to the Eastern Conference Finals. Give a stock up to those Florida Panthers. That's what they always do when the game's in Florida. I just read this from front office sports, Joe Burrow recently agreed to pay for 20 local families at a Cincinnati Children's Hospital's medical treatment center to receive mental health treatment.

Burrow's father said his foundation couldn't narrow down a list of families that needed help so they helped all 20, heck of a job by Joe Burrow. Give him a stock up. Jason Tatum with an all-time great performance yesterday, 51 points, the most ever in a game 7. Boston rolls the 6ers. Give Jason Tatum a stock up. As much as we praise Jason Tatum, we have to criticize Joel Embiid because, my oh my, for years and years and years, he has had shortcomings in the postseason, but the finger's always been pointed somewhere else. Now the finger has to be pointed at Joel Embiid.

You can't be the league MVP and do nothing in the fourth quarter of game 6 and then followed up with that horrible performance in game 7. I love Joel Embiid, but give him a stock down. James Harden, it's reportedly him or Doc Rivers. James Harden, like the 6 should probably get rid of both, but you can't keep Harden and get rid of Rivers. It just does not make sense if you're going to cater to James Harden and just the arrogance of James Harden for actually thinking that he should have that power to get a coach fired after he no-showed the other night. Give a stock down to James Harden.

10th game 7, lost yesterday for Doc Rivers, woof, stock down. You know Stetson Bennett, what has he been at Georgia since 2017, Hickey, or is it 2018? I think 17, I think it's been like 5 or 6 years, it's been a long time. How the heck, I always thought he was there on like a graduate's degree, like he was going to get his graduate degree, or a master's something else. How the heck did he never graduate Georgia?

He never graduated undergrad. You didn't see the story of the weekend? No.

Yes! Wait a second. He's 100% true. That was going all over the internet this weekend. You missed that?

Completely? Well I saw the headline and I honestly kind of thought it was like a fake, to be honest with you, a fake article so I didn't bother wasting my time with it. There's no, I mean he left one year to go to like a, I think it was a junior college.

He really in that 4 or 5 years at Georgia did not graduate undergrad? I saw it everywhere this weekend. So holy cow. Oh.

I don't want to get too crazy. Judging by some videos, he could be a party animal, maybe he didn't go to class. A red flag for teams like, again I'm not trying to take it too literally or seriously, but that's, I mean.

He clearly didn't go to Georgia for school. Yo Cardell Jones. Give a stock down to Stetson Bennett. Also ESPN, that was disgraceful last night. You had to make sure that the Golden Knights came up against the Oilers, started at 10 p.m. Eastern because he didn't want to move a Sunday night baseball game.

Like the NHL should have just said put us on ESPN too. And by the way, ESPN too was where the game started and they, for the intro with Connor McDavid elimination game, it's like a countdown 10, 9, 8, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. It was horrible. And the announcer sucked last night.

That was just brutal. It was an embarrassing job by ESPN. That game should have just been played at 7 or 8 p.m. Eastern. Stock down to the NHL and ESPN.

And this is that Gil show on CBS Sports Radio. Big thanks ever to you for joining us earlier today. We'll be back tomorrow at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. Great job as always. We out. We'll be back tomorrow at 6 p.m. Eastern.