Celtics Are NOT In Trouble (Hour 1)

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Price and coverage match limited by state law. Where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb. We got a whole lot to do today. Ryan Holland's going to stop by an hour 20 from now. We'll chat some NBA playoffs with him. I will get into why I'm not worried about the Boston Celtics in just a second.

And why Nikola Jokic also should not have won the MVP this year. But I am in a interesting mood today and I'm on one today. And I woke up, was in a great mood.

My God, it's a Friday, going to be a wonderful weekend. Went to the gym, did my hour on the elliptical, was feeling real good. Made a little protein shake, got my Starbucks coffee. And then when I was walking to the block that it is to get to my Starbucks, I start to see that it's raining in the city. So I go, okay, I'm running a little bit late.

Got to get in the shower, get ready for the show, do all that. And I said, I'll take an Uber to work today. Now, I live an eight minute Uber drive to get to work. The Uber driver picked me up. And all you have to do for my apartment is go a mile straight down one road. You make a right, you go two blocks, you make a left, and then you're at the office.

That's how easy it is. For some reason, this Uber driver, and there's a little traffic that's forming on a Friday, he goes away from the GPS. Now, if you go away from the GPS, you need to know where you're going.

And it was abundantly clear that he did not know where he was going. So at first I'm like, I'm not going to say anything. And then when I realized he didn't know where he was going, I'm like, you have to turn left. He's like, no, sir, I know where I'm going.

So I'm like, okay. And then this dude, because he's impatient, and that's the reality of the situation, because when you eventually turn left on the road where our work is, you have to stay in the left lane. If you do not stay in the left lane, it eventually puts you into the Holland tunnel, which then takes you to New Jersey. So as this is happening, he gets up to the point where they cut you off and don't let you take a left on Hudson. He's like, the road's closed. I'm like, the road's not closed. And I'm not yelling at him to be clear.

I'm yelling now, but I wasn't yelling at him. I'm just like, the road isn't closed. You just don't know where you're going. So then the guy, the office is all the way to the left. Then the guy starts going all the way to the right, and I'm like, can you please just listen to me? Like, I'm not great with directions, but I know how to get to the damn office. And finally, he listened to me. And then you would think, because I don't like to negatively rate Uber drivers.

I don't, because their rating impacts their livelihood probably to some extent. So I usually always give five stars. But a little common courtesy after it took 28 minutes to get to work on what should have been an eight-minute drive. You probably just should have said, hey, I'm sorry.

Have a good weekend. Drops me off on the wrong side of the street, by the way, and doesn't even say anything. So I'm like, you know what?

Two stars. I did. Okay, he was just rude.

He was given attitude and he just took. I'm very simple. All you need to do is just take a little accountability.

That's all you need to do. If you just said, I'm sorry, I'm wrong. Like I've said that before in my life. I've done things wrong.

Hey, I'm sorry, I'm wrong. But he's blaming it on the GPS. No, it was because you were impatient and you didn't want to wait like two minutes when there was a little bit of traffic.

So that got me in a bad mood. And while I was in the car for an extra 20 minutes, some Pacers fans got a hold. Timing is everything of my Rick Carlisle take. Now, remember when Bart Winkler joined us in the first round and he was going after Pacers fans and I had no reason to have any issue with Pacers fans up until this point. I don't really have a dog in the fight with the Knicks and the Pacers. So I have no reason to have an issue with Pacers fans, right? For the Knicks, I know Leon Rose.

For the Pacers, I went to also sleepaway camp, ironically enough, with people in the Simon family who only Indiana Pacers. So I just want to see a good series. If anything, I was trying to put some respect on the Pacers name before the series did commence. When you have guys like Hickey saying Knicks and five, Knicks and five, the Pacers suck.

I'm like, I feel like this could be a six or seven game series. I'll take the Knicks and seven. So all these Pacers fans are delusional and a lot of them are dolts. OK, if you actually think, especially this year, that the NBA is determined off the officiating because the officials favor big market teams compared to smaller market teams, you're just a sycophant for the organization that you root for in the Indiana Pacers. There's no other way about this, because if the officials just favored the small market teams, why are the Thunder the one seed? Why are the Minnesota Timberwolves now the favorite to win the NBA championship? Why did the Milwaukee Bucks win an NBA championship a few years ago? And oh, yeah, by the way, because, right, the referees are favoring the big bad Knicks because they're in a big bad market. Why have the Knicks practically suck for 20 years? So those two things, a bad Uber driver and dumb Indiana Pacers fans went from this being like a wonderful Friday, a very happy-go-lucky Friday to now myself just being very annoyed with the world, because I just want to see accountability taken in this world.

And I don't want to deal with stupid people. Okay, let's have a good Friday show, everybody. This is that Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network.

I got Michael Samtar, I got Stuart Kovacs with me. We're rocking and rolling all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. You know what, guys, can we get a three-shot, please, on the YouTube stream, just so people watching on YouTube can see this? Can we just have like a moment of Zen for a second? You know, everyone, just take a big deep breath. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. All right, it's going to be a wonderful Friday. Let's have a good Friday here. I always close my eyes.

Did Stu, Samtar, no wait, did Samtar, did you breathe in and breathe out there? Oh, yeah, I have a lot of methods of anger management. So yeah, you've seen me at my best and you've seen me at my worst.

So you know that I need as much help as possible. Maybe I should have consulted you. And listen, if the U2 Green Day concert situation was any indication, I am not good in that situation either. I was yelling at cab drivers in Vegas myself. And I hate to be that person.

I love it. I cringed when that driver in Vegas took every wrong term as we were trying to get to the Green Day concert. I was cringing when Samtar was in the mood. But I was not like you, to be clear, in this Uber driver.

I was just telling him try to where to go and I was being polite. I don't like to be that guy. But today I thought I almost had to be that dude. Like, you know how well you won't know because you haven't seen the movie. And like Mike, they go to tie their shoes.

They're like, like, Mike, I almost like hit my chest today to get myself in the in the mode and say, I'd be like Mike, except Mike Samtar, not Michael Jordan. Alrighty. I'm not worried about the Boston Celtics.

Let me be clear. I'm not worried about the Boston Celtics in order for their chances to get to the NBA finals. I am not a believer, and I'm not of the thought that the Celtics are going to win the NBA championship this year. And what you saw last night, a lot of people will be like, up, here comes the Celtics again. And here comes the Celtics that we always doubt.

That's not me today in the Eastern Conference because we just did this. I don't know, a round ago when Boston won game one, and then in game two, Miami shot the lights out of the building. They stole game two in Boston and drop another game at most, at most. Now, this is only going six games. You know, maybe the Cavs get one on their home court, but even if it goes to a game seven, even though I would be surprised, I think there's a zero percent chance that the Celtics aren't at least advancing to the Eastern Conference final. And then you look at the potential opponent that they'd be going up against, the Indiana Pacers, who have crybaby Carlisle, and then you also have the Knicks, who are now like the decimated Knicks. If the Knicks were healthy, maybe the Knicks could take down the Celtics. But Jalen Brunson, who's just a machine, is not playing 100 percent.

Ojian Anobi is dealing with the hamstring injury. We know Julius Randle is out for the season, and the Pacers have a solid team. They have a good team. Now, I like Pascal Siakam.

I like Terese Halliburton. TJ McConnell, how about Rick Carlisle stops bitching about the officials and he actually puts him back in the game. But I don't think either of those teams are going to take the Celtics down four times in a seven-game series. Like, if the Celtics don't get to the NBA Finals this year, and let me be abundantly clear, it is championship or bust for the Boston Celtics. But the road in the East has never been easier for Boston to get to the NBA Finals. The Bucks, home.

Miami, home. The Knicks, a good team. I think their ceiling this year is just getting to the conference finals. So, yes, you don't like to see what happened to Boston last night, where the Cavaliers just took it to them in the second half. And I can understand why some people say, hmm, here goes the Celtics. Here goes the Celtics again. Just when people start to buy in and just when people start to think this is going to be a quick series, they're going to make it a lot tougher than what it needs to be. And some of that may be true.

Maybe it is tougher than what it's going to need to be. But as long as Jason Tatum is healthy, and I don't like what Jason Tatum said after the game last night, but as long as he is healthy, I don't see a way where the Celtics don't get to the NBA Finals. Now, I'm not telling you I believe that the Celtics are going to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy. If Minnesota gets there, I'm taking Minnesota. If Oklahoma City gets there, right now I'm probably taking Oklahoma City. If Denver comes back and defeats the Minnesota Timberwolves, I'm probably taking Denver. You know, the Mavericks, they bounced back last night.

They got a victory. And Luka Doncic had 29 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists. And you had PJ Washington with just a very efficient performance, 7-11 from behind the arc, and he registered 29 points. I'm just concerned still about that knee for Luka Doncic with the knee sprain that he's dealing with. And you saw it be really, really, really impactful in Game 1 and hinder his performance in Game 1, and they were able to get the victory in Game 2. So I guess you got to see the matchup and how everyone is from a health standpoint, but I will not sit here and say today, the Celtics losing last night means they're not going to find a way to win three more times up against the Cavaliers and then four more times up against either New York or Indiana. I'm not telling you that I believe they're going to win the championship. I'm just not going to panic and do the show today, all doom and gloom about the Boston Celtics at the Celtics are screwed because they're not screwed in order to get to the NBA Finals. Can they win a championship this year?

They're going to need Kristaps Vrzingis back. Can they? Yes. Do I think they will? No.

Alrighty, let me play you though, and this I did not like. This is Jason Tatum after losing Game 2 last night, listen up. I mean, that's the narrative that you might see on TV, the idea that we have a super team is twofold, right? We didn't have a coach of the year, we didn't have an MVP, we only had two All-Stars, so say we're a super team, but we didn't get rewarded like we are. We know we got a good team, we're not perfect, we played it right away, more often than not, and we know we got to be better, but for, I guess, the same people that are spoiled from our success, we don't pay attention to those things. You know, we don't pay attention to those things. We just go out there and control what we can control.

So here's my problem with that. The Celtics weren't deserving of Joe Missoula winning coach of the year. Jason Tatum wasn't deserving of winning an MVP. Heck, quite frankly, I don't even think Brad Stevens should have won executive of the year, but he did.

So to bitch about two awards that you didn't win and not acknowledge an award that you did win, I don't love that, but quite frankly, you lose game two, I don't need to hear you sitting there and worrying about individual awards, and maybe I'm wrong here. When did anyone ever call the Celtics, this version of the Celtics, a super team? This is an era of dynamic duos. The dynamic duo for the Celtics is Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Now, did they add some good other pieces? Yes, Kristaps Porzingis is a good other piece. You know, the trade they made with the Bucks, they added another good piece, but to sit here and act like, oh, the Celtics got screwed and the Celtics haven't got respect. What is he talking about? But this is what happens when you've been a group that's been together for so long and hasn't won a championship.

People start to doubt you. So I hear that. And I thought, Jason Tatum, who I like a lot, just came off really soft last night. And if I'm a Celtics fan, I don't want to hear that. I don't need to hear you being concerned about individual awards that this team didn't win. And quite frankly, if we're going to talk about MVP and we're going to talk about the MVP award, I love Nicole Jokic and I get what happened. No one really took a firm grasp on the MVP this year. It was open, so it ended up going this year to the best player.

And it's not always the case. Like there's been years where LeBron has been the best player and he didn't win the MVP. But if I was voting for the MVP and I don't have a vote, I would have considered two people for my first place vote this year. And those two people would have been Jalen Brunson and Shay Gilges Alexander.

Those would have been the two guys. If you go by the definition of not just who's the best players, but who's the most valuable to his team, look at what Brunson has done with the Knicks that led them to a two seed. He went from someone that we thought was at the time an overpaid player, someone that was good into a great player this year. And then for Shay Gilges Alexander SGA, he averaged over 30 points per game and was a one seed. So those two guys to me should have been the MVP over Nicole Jokic. And for Jason Tatum, yeah, he was a one seed. Yeah, he's the Celtics best player. But if you want to say maybe he should have been the third name on the list, okay, like you could argue it.

You know, Luka Doncic also has to be in the fold too, and Nicole Jokic as well. But I don't think Missoula was deserving of coach of the year. I don't think, quite frankly, Brad Stevens is deserving executive of the year and he won. I don't think Jason Tatum was deserving of the MVP.

So that's the part for me, Samter and Stu, where I get lost. It just, it seemed like, and correct me if I'm wrong, Samter, it seemed like last night Jason Tatum was doing like the woe is me, woe is us. You know, we get called the super team, which you don't, but we don't get the respect like one. Well, that timing's a little bit off because you guys lost last night.

So you want to shut everyone up. No one's going to give you praise for just getting to the NBA finals. This is an easy road this year for you guys. You don't get to the finals just for starters, absolute failure. But this needs to be the year when young stars are emerging and starting to now have a lot of team success, like SGA with the Thunder, Anthony Edwards with the Timberwolves, where you have now had proven guys for a while, and you've tinkered with the roster a little bit to make it better, and you need to go win the championship.

So I don't get why his feelings all hurt when people are asking him fair, legitimate questions. When you lost the game to which in the past, the Celtics team has made a tough run than what they've actually needed it to be. I think his point to an extent is not necessarily that he's complaining that they didn't win awards or that he's saying that people call them a super team. Basically, he's saying, listen, we have a team that has two very good players and a good coach, but we win because we just play really well together. We're not a super team.

We're not, you know, we're not the dream team Eagles, and we're not the, you know, the dream team Eagles. We're not the Golden State Warriors with multiple Hall of Famers on the roster. He's like, we're just a good team who knows how to play together. And this idea that we're like a dominant team just because we're so good and that we have so much talent.

It's not true. We're good because we play well together. I'm not arguing here, just to be clear. They were 15 games better than everybody else in the Easter Conference. But the point is that, like, yes, they were 15 games better than everybody else. But you know who finished higher than Jason Tatum in MVP voting? Jalen Brunson, Giannis, and, you know, those two guys who finished behind them in the Eastern Conference, right? Jalen Brunson didn't get a first or second place vote for the MVP.

Now, I don't think he should have won MVP. But if you're 15 games better than everybody else and you don't get a first or a second place MVP vote, you got one third place vote. Basically, what you're saying is this is a team that doesn't have superstars. This is a team that has a lot of really good players that play well together.

And that's kind of what he was saying. We don't have the best coach. We don't have the best player.

We don't have multiple Hall of Famers. We're just a really good team that plays really well together. And we deserve the respect of being a team that plays well together.

But here's the thing, though. They don't deserve the respect. And the reason why they don't deserve the respect is this. There are teams before that we've seen them have great regular seasons and come postseason time, they've come up short. Look at Lamar Jackson. Does anyone care that Lamar Jackson won his second MVP this year? No, because what he does in the regular season now is irrelevant when you don't get to a Super Bowl. The same thing was with Giannis Antetokounmpo and also Nikola Jokic until they won a championship. There are certain players and there are certain teams that have been there for like Josh Allen. Will anyone give a rat's ass if Josh Allen is the one seed next year in the AFC and he wins at MVP?

No, because the regular season doesn't matter for some of those teams in the way that we view it, because it's OK. We've seen you been great before in the regular season. I've seen Jason Tatum be great before in the regular season, but you have to break through and win a championship. And guys like Giannis did so. Guys like Nikola Jokic did so. Josh Allen hasn't yet.

Lamar Jackson hasn't yet. And it's just one of those things where that's the reality of the situation. I'm not saying it's easy because you like a little praise, but all throughout the year in the regular season, I'm like, OK, the Celtics are much better than everybody, but it even puts more pressure on them. Because it's not just getting to the finals. They've been to the finals before. They have a team that on paper is good enough to win a championship. You have Jason Tatum, star Jalen Brown, very good player, all star. You have Drew Holliday won a championship before you get Porzingis back. We know what he's capable of. You know, Derek White has turned into a really good player for them. They have enough.

Now you have to do it. And now you have to be mentally tough to overcome not only adversity, but people doubting you because it's not as if people's doubt about the Celtics is unfair because they haven't won a championship. And also part of that, I know we got to take a break, but part of that is they came onto the scene so early and they had so much success early where they overachieved. Now, though, we're way past that point.

Now the window is open and you have to capitalize. So, no, I have no sympathy for Jason Tatum last night. I have no sympathy that Missoula didn't win coach of the year because he shouldn't have or Tatum didn't win MVP because he shouldn't have. And hey, Brad Stevens won the executive of the year.

He shouldn't have either, but he did. So this idea that people aren't praising the Celtics or they disrespect them. And it's just nonsense. You need to go win a championship. And until you do that, people are going to view you in a, as a player who's really damn good, but doesn't have the title coming on back in a sec.

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Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. 15 now he's at 205, so he has lost £10 from last season. Since 2022, he's lost £25. What does that tell you? Sam, Sir, is there a take that you have that's elicited from the news that Lamar Jackson has been cutting down on theLB's a little bit?

it. I was actually happy when he gained the LB just from a health standpoint, but in reality, for the most part, Lamar has been healthy most of his career. So it's possible that after his MVP season, he just realized, you know what, maybe putting on that weight actually hurt me a little bit.

As long as I can stay healthy, I can drop back down and be even more effective. Because before the MVP season, which was this past year, he had back to back seasons where he got hurt and he ended the season on the sideline. But I will say to your point, all things considered with Lamar, he doesn't take a lot of hits.

For a guy that runs that much, he does not take a lot of hits. Stu, is there any reaction that you have to this story? Because I see people are making a big deal. Like they're wondering if this is a good thing or a bad thing for Lamar Jackson to be losing this weight. So kind of aligned with Mike a little in terms of, I don't feel like it was something where like, okay, he's out of shape. He needs to lose weight. Like, you know, we've seen with like some basketball players, like James Harden has been a classic example. Zion?

Yes. They have to lose weight. They're out of shape. Lamar Jackson is definitely not out of shape. And I don't think it's to the point where him losing weight is going to help him. Like it's not going to make him faster.

I don't think that's possible. So I'm kind of in the mindset of, I'm not sure why he would do this. I don't think it changes much, but to me, I question a little why he would do that. So I actually, and maybe this is a stretch.

I will preface it this way because I really think this is not that big of a deal and it's not really that much of a story. But last year when Todd Munkin took over, Lamar and also Todd Munkin and the Ravens told you what? They told you they were going to throw, throw, throw.

They were going to throw a lot more like never before. And in that AFC championship game, I was actually confused why they didn't use Lamar in his best way possible. I thought they should have ran him more and used his legs more in the AFC championship game to win that one game. And I thought last year at times, the Ravens were trying to make a point to you. And I think Lamar is a better passer than when he gets credit for it, to be clear.

But I think the Ravens last year, because of all the conversation about Lamar, we're trying to say, yeah, we're a team that we haven't won yet, but we are going to win and we're going to do it the way that a lot of people think we can't do it. And that's making Lamar throw the football more. So I do wonder, not that Lamar needs to get faster, but him cutting off an additional 10 pounds this offseason is maybe him trying to get faster. And just maybe the Ravens are going to go back to running the football a lot more with Lamar Jackson this year. And Lamar thinks he needs to cut some of this weight off to get faster. That's the only thing that I could think of in terms of, and let me preface it by saying the over analysis with this conversation that's done.

So that's what I just thought a little bit when trying to figure out what it could be. But I've seen a lot of conversation about this where I don't really understand for the most part, a lot of people thinking like this could be negative because it's not as if really throughout this entire career and Lamar suffered injury, that Lamar's size has put him in danger of getting hurt because he does a good job with how much he used to run and still runs to this day and not taking the big hit. Like when he broke, I think it was Michael Vick's record, yeah, he took a big pop a few years ago.

That's like one of the big pops I vividly remember seeing Lamar Jackson take. For the most part, for a guy that we talk so much about how he runs, doesn't really risk himself or put himself at risk all that much. And for me, I don't think that like if you think about Lamar's game and Lamar's abilities and all these things, like to your point, it doesn't seem like getting faster or stronger or any of those things are what really is holding him back. What's holding him back is just performing in the playoffs. Is just putting it out and doing what he does during the regular season in that AFC title game because he's done everything. He's won games with his arms, he's won games with his legs, he's won games while he was heavy, he's won games while he was light, he's won MVPs, he's won division, he's done all of it. He just hasn't won in the playoffs and I don't think gaining or losing weight is going to change that. That's up here, right?

That's not in the gut, that's not in the arm, that's in the head and the heart and he just has to get that part done and once he does, he's going to get there eventually. He's too good of a player not to. Is Secretariat a cheater? I got to use this as a tease. Is Secretariat a cheater? We'll tell you one prominent name who thinks so next. It is the Zach Gomesha on the Infinity Sports Network.

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Visit Fidelity.com slash wealth, investment minimum supply Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC member NYSE SIPC. Welcome back to the infinity sports network. It's time to ask the pros. We're the listener gets us a question. It's brought to you by a Raleigh auto parts. Simply tweet your question at INF sports net or at Zach Gelb using the hashtag as the pros be listening later in the show when we might answer your question. You can think a rally auto parts right car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly auto parts and for my dear dear dear friend large and parks of the YouTube chat.

He loves my singing. Oh, oh, oh, oh, Riley auto parts. Let's get to a news brief time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. All right, let's start it off with the new Heights podcast.

Jason Kelsey. All right. He believes secretary is a cheetah.

Uh huh. What's it all major speed records in the triple crown races are still held by secretary who sent them in 1973 which is wild. It's not that wild because secretary was juiced to the gills. Secretariat just so happens to be right in the heart of the steroid era. 1973 every NFL player, every baseball player, they were juicing up to the gills. You don't think secretary it was juiced to the rafters.

Of course it's the fastest horse of all time. They did drug test secretariat the way they did mystic Dan. Nobody talks about it. Secretariat was doping.

There's no chance secretary wasn't dope. Why does anyone care about this? Santa, why are people, I've seen the reaction and sometimes I see people lose their mind on social media and I go, why is anyone taking something that's clearly in like a fun mood with Jason Kelsey so seriously here, but why so serious?

I'll be like the joker. I think it's twofold. One, I mean, you're accusing a horse that can't, have you ever, you've seen my father was a drinker. Why so serious?

We do a good Heath ledger. I think it's twofold. One, he's accusing a horse who can't, who a is deceased and B can't defend itself as being a cheater, which just feels unfair to just kind of throw it out there. And B, he also accused every baseball and NFL player of using steroids during the seventies. Now that opens up a whole new can of worms with all the talk of PEDs in the nineties and the early two thousands. If guys were cheating and roiding up back in the seventies, then all those got to shut their traps and let all these other PED users in the nineties and two thousands in like bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Palmeiro and all those other guys. But here's the thing to your point. Baseball players could have said no, football players could have said no.

The horse couldn't say nay to steroids. There's your cheesy joke of the day. I'll be here all night. All right, now let's get to Matt Eberfluss starting fresh with his rookie QB, Caleb Williams. It's really a great opportunity, right? It's it's refreshing to be able to do that. I know the whole building's excited about working together, not only with Caleb, but with everybody.

And it's certainly nice to have that fresh start. Has he been told that he's the starter going to training camp? Have you to have to have that conversation? No conversation. He's the starter. I like that. He's ready to go.

Some of these coaches like, oh, we need to have a competition stop. We all know as long as he's healthy, Caleb Williams just started week one and it was just confirmed by the coach. So Big Baby Davis is going to jail, I think it's for 40 months. It's never a good idea once you find out that you're going to jail, that you decide to go on like Instagram Live or something live.

I think this is IG Live, which he did go on. But this is Big Baby Davis going to prison. Damn, I got a cold imagination, though, you know, I do that active s***, I got a cold imagination. I'm gonna have to choke the chicken in the bathroom.

That's crazy. I'm gonna be swole, though. I swear to God, I'm about to get in so much shape on God. That's the only way you can stop me from eating hamburgers is put me in jail. I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna stop eating hamburgers and put you in jail. You don't want to stop eating hamburgers and Cheetos, you're going to jail.

So now I'm gonna come to rock. And he was convicted in November of 2023 in an alleged scheme to defraud the league's health care benefits plan, the NBA's health care benefits plan. Could you imagine needing to go to jail in order to stop eating hamburgers and Cheetos? And not only just to go to jail, okay, you know, maybe go to jail for a month, you get in some good shape. He's there for 40 months. That's when he got convicted, 40 months, so maybe he gets out for good behavior or something like that.

But we're talking about three plus years. That's wild to me, absolutely wild to me. Let's go to Anthony Edwards. Did he look up to Jamal Murray or any of the Nuggets?

Here we go. Hey, you talked in that Phoenix series a lot about the way you saw Kevin and how that motivated you. And at your age, it's gotta be fun to see all these OGs right in front of you.

Is there anything like that in this series? Like, what's your... Nah, these guys, three, four years older than me, man, yeah. I mean, Jamal's been around for a minute. Is that a guy that you've been tracking at all? Nah, hell nah. Like I said, he... What is he, 27? I think so.

I'm gonna turn 23, dog. Yeah. KD, 36, 35. Yeah. Come on, man. There's no disrespect to Jamal.

I don't know what you're trying to start, but he's no, not at all. So there's a lot of people that are stupid in the media, and I've been in a lot of these press conferences. Like, there's a lot of talk show hosts that don't go to press conferences.

I enjoy going to games and going to press conferences. And a lot of times in the playoffs, there's like cheesy newspaper writers or TV reporters that are trying to do a standup. And the question I hate the most is, someone wins, hey, how does it feel to go to the NBA finals? But sometimes when you're writing a story, you're trying to get quotes for your intent purpose of the story, so you ask a specifically worded question, what story is that person writing or doing where they think that Anthony Edwards is looking up to anybody on this Nuggets team?

And I would understand if it was last series going up against KD, or if they were going up against the Lakers and it's LeBron, or even Steph Curry. But to do this story now, and I'm sure it's about Anthony Edwards being the younger player, like the face of the league, but to make it as if he's looking up to Nikola Jokic, who's not even 30 yet, or Jamal Murray, who's what, 27, that's just stupid. And that's what, and it's a bad look for all of us involved in the media. When you have stupid people that write stupid stories, and they think they're on to something, and then the athlete just goes, this is just dumb. So good on Anthony Edwards.

Josh Hart, I love him. Rick Carlisle kept on saying how the NBA gives preferential treatment to these big market teams over the small market teams. Here is Josh Hart's response to that. That's so stupid, bro. I mean, like, I mean, we say the big market always wins, the Knicks ain't gonna chip in 51 years.

That don't really hold much weight. So I don't fully understand that, sorry, New York, for the reminder, but I think that's just idiotic. At the end of the day, it's who's playing the best, and I've never seen a ref shoot a free throw or make it three or miss a rotation. It's all timing. If Carlisle would have said what he said after game one, no one kills him. But after game two, when the officials weren't the story, the only one that actually believes what Carlisle is saying are some of those dopey Indiana Pacers fans. Let's go to Artemi Panarin's game-winning goal last night.

This was awesome. Sam Rosen on the Rangers Radio Network, I'll set the stage for you. Rangers up 2-0.

They're going to Carolina, which, by the way, all I hear about are how great those Carolina Hurricanes fans are. That was a Rangers home game last night on the road in game three of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the second round. Hurricanes make a goaltender change. They did strike first. Rangers tied up the game short-handed. They did take a 2-1 lead with about 90 seconds to go. The Hurricanes pull the goalie.

They tie it up. Svetlakoff and then in overtime, after having double overtime in game two, in overtime, this was a quick ender by Artemi Panarin as the bread man did deliver. Round the boards at goal.

Missed by Orloff. Played it. Score! Score! Yes!

Yes! The Rangers win it in overtime and lead the series three games to none. That was former captain, Rangers captain Dave Maloney, who stepped all on the toes of one Sam Rosen. And I know some people out of, like, traditional broadcasters will have an issue with that.

I don't. Because everything that Dave Maloney just said, yeah, score, score, is the way that I sounded in my apartment last night. The Dallas Stars in game one against the Colorado Avalanche were up 3-0. They blew the game. They lost in overtime 4-3 in game two. Not only did Dallas take a 3-0 lead once again, but then they made it a 4-0 lead when they got this short-handed goal. Let's listen up to the Dallas Stars radio network. Ben takes off his lane.

Number short-handed for Dallas. Harley leads with Ben. Harley saved Georgiev.

The rebound bounces out in front. Score! Tyler Sagan! An abs power play to try and get back into the game, and instead, Sagan and the Stars extended to their largest lead of the series. And then for a little bit, you thought, OK, this game was going to get good in the third as it did get to 4-3 at one point, but then Dallas did get the empty net goal to win 5-3, and now that series is all tied up at one apiece. Finally, let's hear Byron Scott on who should be the next Lakers head coach.

This is courtesy of FS1 and Undisputed. Make LeBron the coach. Let him be the player coach. Make him the coach. It's obvious to me, at least, that he's making a lot of decisions that's going on in this organization. You're going to allow him to make those decisions, sit on the bench, and make those decisions as well. Be the head coach. As far as I'm concerned, the only person that he's going to really trust is himself.

And since you're making a lot of these decisions anyway, why not put him in that seat? It will never happen, but I'm 100% with Byron Scott. LeBron James should be the next coach of the Lakers. It will probably be JJ Reddick. It looks like Mike Budenholzer is going to be the next coach of the Phoenix Suns. I think they're going to hire who LeBron wants. And Ty Lue's not going there. Jason Kidd's not going there.

We know that. And JJ Reddick didn't get the Hornets job. I think LeBron's going to make a push for JJ Reddick. And it feels like the Lakers are going to do everything this offseason to make sure LeBron gets what he wants, whether that's drafting Brony, whether that's getting to pick the next head coach.

So when he ops out, he resigns with the Los Angeles Lakers. Because it really doesn't matter who the coach is. LeBron is the coach of the team. So just make him the damn coach. Like, Stu, would you be fine if they just said LeBron, he's the next head coach of the team because he's basically coaching the team anyway.

Bingo. He already is. So what's the difference if he's making the official coach then?

Yeah, I agree. And could you... Oh, I don't want to steal his thunder probably on his first weekend as the Friday to Saturday, Saturday to Sunday host here on the network on the weekend overnights. But I bet your Shep will have that take, too, and he'll be like, imagine the legacy of LeBron James. If he becomes a player coach and wins a championship, could you imagine... Jordan didn't do that. What would that do for the legacy of LeBron James, 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27, this is the good Shep right here on the Infinity Sports Network. Take a timeout. We'll do a little draft.

Quarterbacks to win Super Bowls. Perfect. Here's why April chose to vaccinate her child. I think actually meeting someone who was not vaccinated and now has a lifelong struggle with a childhood disease really cemented for me that it's super important that we as parents continue to vaccinate our children.

Talk to your pediatrician or visit YVaccines.com. Brought to you by Merck. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

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