We Need to Praise the Knicks (Hour 1)

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Plus, grab easy sides from prepared foods and cool off with refreshing drinks. Kick off your summer and shop in store or online at Whole Foods Market today. Live from the police show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of the Infinity Sports Network. This is a Wednesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, that free Odyssey app, and of course, streaming live on YouTube. 855-212-4227 is the number to jump on in. 855-212-4227. You could always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. I have Ryan Botcher with me today. I have Stuart Kovacs with me today. And we'll be rocking and rolling, jamming on out all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. We have a loaded guest list today.

Justin Termini is going to stop by 20 minutes from now, Sirius XM MBA Radio, at 4 o'clock p.m. Eastern time. Big, big, big, big, big guests, which I've been working on all throughout the week and even going back to last week, Stephon Marbury will stop by. Very, very, very excited to talk to Stephon Marbury.

It is a Winkler Wednesday that will come your way with Bart Winkler at 4.40 p.m. Eastern time, and then we'll preview the PGA Championship with Alex Myers from Golf Digest at 5.20 p.m. Eastern time today. I need to start off, though, with the New York Knicks. And there are two topics of conversation with the Knicks. Number one, it's praise of Jalen Brunson. And number two, it is the long overdue praise of Tom Thibodeau. So let's start with Brunson first, and I'll be a little bit more passionate about Tom Thibodeau second.

What Jalen Brunson has done all throughout the season is incredible. And I understand the NBA regular season product is bland, it's vanilla, and you're trying to figure out who is actually going to play. The Knicks and the beauty of the Knicks is that they're the antithesis of that. We don't see star players missing games just to miss games with the Knicks. This is a team that is gritty, they are tough, and most importantly, they are a good team that has over-exceeded all expectations. That's just the reality of the situation. Even Knicks fans will tell you, or maybe they won't because they have pride and they have ego, but no one walked into this season and looked at this team and said, they're going to be the two seed in the Easter Conference, or they would be one win away from going to the Easter Conference Finals.

No one would have said that. And this series has had its ups and downs where they were up 2-0, and I was at that electric game 2, then they go back to Indiana with a 2-0 lead, they lose a game in game 3 that was heartbreaking, and then in game 4, they got absolutely annihilated. Now, I have a very good friend here at the Infinity Sports Network. You may have heard of him. His name is Ryan Hickey. Hot take Hickey. And Hickey will always pick his team.

Hickey will always pump up his team. And before this series, Hickey said, hey, Knicks are going to win this series in five games. And I said, I think the Knicks are going to win the series, Ryan.

Isn't that a little disrespectful to the Indiana Pacers? And last night, as I'm walking out of the studio, and I'm having my conversation, my chat with Hickey, I said, what do you think about tonight? And remember, this is coming off the massacre of game 4, where the Knicks got emasculated, they have so many injuries, Julius Randle out for the year, Hardenstein now dealing with the shoulder, Mitch Robinson out for the year, you have Oji Ananobi with the hamstring injury that occurred in game 2, where he ran right past me and he was screaming, oh bleep, oh bleep, oh bleep.

And it's not because I was sitting behind the bench, it's because his hamstring was hurting him. And Hickey looked at me with a bleep eating grin, and he said, you know what, I'm nervous. And when Hickey says he's nervous, and when Hickey starts to doubt his team, I was like, uh-oh, the Knick fan, their confidence is really shook, their confidence has gone down the drain. And last night wasn't only a Knicks victory, the Knicks embarrassed the Pacers. And the Indiana Pacers, and I'll give Hickey credit, because at first I shredded him for saying Knicks in 5, and it's obviously not going to be Knicks in 5, because we're going to a game 6, with the Knicks having a 3-2 lead. But if the Knicks were healthy, this series wouldn't even be close. There is such a difference between the Knicks and the Pacers.

And if you can't see it, I don't know what game you're watching. Like the Knicks are doing this, where you have Alec Burks making a role in this series. It's wild to me.

He's making a play in this, starting Deuce McBride actually matters. Like when you look at these changes. So you see what the Knicks are doing right now.

It's surreal, it's sensational. And you look at this team, this should only be a good team. I don't think this is a great team.

But they're playing like one. They beat the Sixers. Jaylen Brunson was a star. Jaylen Brunson's been a star all season. You know, he should have been a finalist for the MVP.

If you go by the true definition of most valuable player. But last night, with him practically playing on one foot, because he suffered that foot injury in the second game of this series. And then from there, you go on to game three, clearly hobbled.

Game four, he's clearly hobbled. And to see what Jaylen Brunson did in game five, where this dude just rolls out of bed, could have one foot, and he puts up 40-something points. He had 44 points last night, Jaylen Brunson. And this dude has been great his entire life. You may not have known it, but if you see what he did at Villanova, and I was at a lot of those Villanova games, and you see that killer mentality, and he won championship and national player of the year, this dude's just a winner. And you look at him, you don't think he's a great player. Like, just by the eye test, you're not saying, oh, this guy's a great player, when you just size him up. But he was a great player in college, and now, after having some good moments in Dallas, remember when they got to a Western Conference Finals, when he was with the Mavericks, and the Mavericks didn't pay him, and then Leon Rose, who knows him better than anybody, because of his relationship with the Brunson family, they brought him to New York.

And what did people say when they brought him to New York? Overpay. Four years, $104 million. No, he's not paid enough.

In the NBA League, where they usually overpay a lot of players, like, you look at somebody, you're like, how is this dude making $25 million a year? Jalen Brunson's not one of them. Jalen Brunson is a star.

Jalen Brunson is sensational, and he just finds a way. And not only did he find a way last night, on one foot, with 44 points, taking a 3-2 series lead, the game wasn't even close. Sometimes you usually have to sweat out those epic postseason victories.

This was a 30-point victory for the New York Knicks. And now all the pressure goes to Indiana. It shows you momentum. We talk about momentum. We obsess over momentum.

We have no clue what momentum is. That's what I've learned in this NBA postseason. The Nuggets were down 0-2. Now they're up 3-2.

Everyone thought, including yours truly, that series was over. The Knicks were up 2-0. Now they were tied at 2-2. Now they're up 3-2, when everyone thought they were going to lose last night. Now, even look at Dallas and the Thunder. In that fourth quarter, when it started, you're thinking Dallas is going to go up 3-1. Now OKC with Shay Gilges-Alexander, they win that game down the stretch. It's 2-2, and now you think the Thunder are going to win. You can't predict this NBA postseason right now. And I'm not the biggest NBA fam because the regular season product, for the most part, is garbage. But this has been exciting.

This has been fun. And there's no super team. And you are seeing these great dynamic duos.

You really are. But here's where the Knicks are different. The Knicks aren't a dynamic duo right now. Like, don't get me wrong. Josh Hart's a good player.

Dante DiVincenzo's a good player. But they don't have a legit number. Like, Isaiah Harden's not at 17 rebounds last night. I couldn't believe that.

That's wild. Like, the Mavericks. They have Luka. They have Kyrie. The Nuggets. They have Nicole Jokic and Jamal Murray. The Celtics. They have Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

Like, you look at these teams. The Timberwolves, Anthony Edwards, and Carl Anthony Towns. They have legitimate two stars. Some people didn't want to call Jaylen Brunson a star until they started watching him play in the postseason. He's a star.

Julius Randle, he's supposed to be the next star, but he's out, he's hurt. And to be able to do this is just magnificent. It is really crazy.

And that leads to a man that's deserving of credit. And you had so many dopes that after Game 4, they're like, oh, Tom Thibodeau, he's too demanding. He coaches too hard. That's why all the Knicks are injured.

Shut up. All Tom Thibodeau has done since he's come to New York has win basketball games. He's won basketball games. No one thought this team was going to be a win away from going to the Easter Conference Finals before the year started. No one thought this team was going to be a two seed. And Tom Thibodeau gets the most out of this team. And they are exceeding expectations. And it's because of his demanding coaching style. It's because he makes these players grind and he wants a team that's full of grit. Because if you look at this roster, they can't just win on talent alone.

They need to go the extra mile or two. And that's what Tom Thibodeau demands. And for some reason, because we coddle all these players right now with this load management bullcrap and you have to put all these players in bubble wrap, when a coach actually makes his players play and he plays them and he requires them to just be tough dudes, all of a sudden you got players saying, oh, I don't want to play for Tom Thibodeau.

Well, you know, I don't want you on my team. And this dude has been unbelievable. He has been sensational. And it's time we start, and I'm on a national show, we start giving Tom Thibodeau more national praise.

Because this dude doesn't get enough praise. What he has done with this team is sensational. And they'll win one more game. I don't think Indiana's finding a way to win game six and game seven. And I get it, the Knicks are the walking wounded, but they were the walking wounded last night and they won the game by 30 points. You can put your feet up in the fourth quarter and pop open a few beers and some champagne. Oh, who's going to drink champagne?

You get the point. And eat a bunch of popcorn, for crying out loud. And look what Tom Thibodeau's doing. Tom Thibodeau is the perfect coach for Jalen Brunson. He's a perfect coach for Josh Hart, Isaiah Hartenstein, Dante DiVincenzo. I love what I'm seeing from coach Tom Thibodeau.

I really am. And you know what? He used to come on my show a lot when we were in the 6 to 10 p.m. Eastern time slot and even when I was doing the weekend overnights from 2 to 6 a.m. Eastern time. And back in June of 2019, when he was out of a job, I asked him just straight up about his aggressive coaching style, his demanding coaching style, and how maybe he needs to change that to get another job because that's maybe why people were holding back on going all in with Tom Thibodeau.

And this is what he had to say back in June of 2019. Your coaching style is always under the spotlight. Hey, you're not the first coach to be aggressive and demanding.

I don't think you're going to be the last. What do you have to change, though, with your coaching style? Because the athlete now is different and some athletes expect to be coddled. Well, I think you're always, you know, you're looking to learn and grow. You never want to stay the same. So, you know, you want to study the trends of the game. I think you want to study, you know, who the players are, how you motivate them, how you communicate with them, those types of things. And there's all different personalities in terms of coaching. So I think the most important thing is you have to be yourself. You have to stay true to yourself. And you have to have the things that you believe in. I think I have a pretty good understanding of what wins in this league. And, you know, I'm just looking forward to the right opportunity. You got to stay true to yourself. And you have a good understanding of what wins in this league.

And you have to get the right opportunity. Tom Thibodeau has stayed true to himself. He clearly knows that his style can win in this league and exceed the expectations that have occurred out of the New York Knicks, regardless of how the rest of the season goes, and he needed the right spot. And what Leon Rose is building with World Wide West, with this team, how they are not a great team on paper, was the perfect, perfect landing spot for Tom Thibodeau. And look at what Tom Thibodeau has done with this squad. It's time to put some respect on Tibbs' name. 8-5-5-2-1-2, 42-27.

8-5-5-2-1-2, 42-27. Whole lot to do today. We'll come on back. We'll talk some more hoops with Sirius XM, NBA radio host Justin Termini.

He'll join us on the other side. You're listening to The Zach Gelb Show. Crazy night of hoops last night. Knicks blow out the Pacers by 30 points, and then the Nuggets have won three straight games to take a 3-2 series lead-up against the Minnesota Timberwolves. We saw 40 points from the Koliokics.

We saw 44 points from Jalen Brunson. And now joining us from Sirius XM, NBA radio. You can catch him Monday through Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. Eastern time. He is Justin Termini. Justin, appreciate the time, as always. How you been, my man?

I'm doing well. I mean, it's an easy day to do a show. You can't talk about last night with your eyes closed, basically, for three hours, which I'm about to do, then you can't do the job because last night was something else in both games. So we led the show today with the excellence of Jalen Brunson, but then we really did hammer home the point that people need to start giving Tom Thibodeau more credit. I know you were talking about that throughout the game and how a lot of people after Game 4 were getting on his demanding coaching style, and now today it's all praise for Tom Thibodeau. Yeah, well, it hasn't just been, like, after Game 4. Oh, Thibodeau pleases guys too much. I mean, it's been for years, and you can't please anybody because everybody's ripping people for, like, load managing. Then you're ripping Tom Thibodeau for actually making guys go out there and work.

So, like, where's the happy medium? And guess what? This is a guy that's doing all of this with the roster that he's been given, so how about turning it around a little bit and saying, hey, he's missing his starting power forward, a guy that's made an All-NBA team the last couple of years. He's missing OGN and OMI. Now he's missing the starting center from the beginning of the year. He's missing his leading scorer off the bench in the postseason in Bogdanovich, and he's got him on the precipice of going to the Eastern Conference Finals. I mean, what do we hear in Philadelphia, Zach, every single year? Oh, well, we haven't reached the Conference Finals because, like, this guy's banged up and envied.

We hear it with Giannis the last couple of years. Like, he hurts the knee in the first round. They lose to Miami. This year they lose again.

Like, it's always an excuse for these different teams. Yeah, Thibodeau's losing guys left and right, and they're about to go to the Eastern Conference Finals. How far are you willing to go on your praise, just wondering, of Jalen Brunson when you look at the entirety of the league? I mean, I think he's been the second-best player in the postseason. It's been Jokic and him, also. I mean, I think that's pretty high praise.

You know, is that a fair assessment? Because I think there's a gap between Jokic and him right now in the postseason, but there's a gap between Jokic and everybody in the sport right now. He's one of the 15, maybe 20 best players in the history of the sport in climbing.

And then you've got Brunson, and nobody thought this was possible. The regular season, I voted him fourth for MVP, behind only Jokic, Luka, and Shay Gildas-Alexander, and he's been even better in the posties. When he enters next season, Jalen Brunson, from a national perspective, do you think people will refer to him as a top-10 player in the league? I mean, you have to, based off this year, and I guess we'll see what he does like the rest of this series, what he does in the Conference Finals. Jason Tatum's viewed as a top-10 player in the league.

He's probably viewed as like a top-7 player in the league, first team all-NBA last year, should make it again here this year, I would assume, and if he outplays him against Boston, then I think that'll help out his case as well, but he already outplayed an MVP and envied in the first round, and right now he's been the best player on this series as well. Talking to Justin Termini from Sirius XM NBA Radio. Okay, let's get to the other game last night.

What has happened? We know how great Jokic is, and we know that Denver is the champions, and they weren't going to go out easy, but this was 2-0 going back to Minnesota. Now it's 3-2 going back to Minnesota in favor of Denver. What have you really seen, and what's been your big takeaways from the last three games? I mean, do we really know how good Nikola Jokic is?

I'm not talking about you, but people in our industry. I mean, while he's down 0-2, and maybe he didn't deserve even one MVP, never mind three, then you'll look at what this guy's done right now. Last night was his master. Last night was the best game that he's ever played. I think, Zach, he's arguably the greatest offensive player I've ever seen, and I don't say that lightly, and it's not just because of last night.

I've been saying it for a while. You can throw him up there with Michael and Bird and Magic and Curry. I'm not saying all-around player, because clearly he's not the defender that Michael was, but when you just look at the offensive side, he is as good as there has ever been, and I think last night was the best game that he ever played, especially when you consider what was at stake in regards to maybe falling behind 3-2, and then you take into consideration that he's doing it against whether you think he's the defensive player of the year or not. He's done it four times, and Rudy Gobert did it against him, did it against the best defense in the NBA, so you roll all that into one.

I think it was the best performance of his career, and even before last night, I felt that he was one of the best offensive players in the history of the sport. Yeah, and to people that are still skeptical, and they're like, oh, I don't want to eventually say he'll be a top-10 player of all time, like, the way that I'll just say it is, and there's been a big debate on Kevin Durant recently, where we know he's in the top 20, you know, probably in the top 15, but to me, he's not in the top 10. When it's all said and done, we will talk more glowingly about Nikola Jokic than Kevin Durant. I think that's how you get some people to understand it right now in the moment.

Yeah, well, you should be doing that already. I mean, I was on with Simmons last night on his podcast, and he said he's the top 15 guy, and I brought up the name Kevin Durant. I said he's got to be ahead of Durant. Now we're talking, like, you know, Shaq, Hakeem, guys like that. We're not talking about Durant anymore. This guy's got three MVPs. Durant has one. Durant needed Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and Draymond Green to win a championship.

You know, I think Jamal Murray's awesome. He's not Steph Curry. You know, he's maybe Klay Thompson, and he's not the all-around guy that Klay Thompson is because Klay was a better defender. He's never made an all-star game. You know, he hasn't been fantastic in this postseason, so he's a better player already than Kevin Durant, and he's only 28 years of age, and he's got several years to add to the legacy.

And here's the crazy part to me. I don't get why some people hate on Nikola Jokic. They're like, oh, he's boring. Like, I watch him play the passing, the way he hits some of these shots. You know, I've never seen anything like him at his size and how just well diverse his game is.

It's amazing to me how people watch him, and they go, oh, he's boring. Well, those are the people I would never want to play, like, pickup basketball with if they think that Nikola Jokic is boring because that might be my first pick in regards to the guy that I want to play with, right? And to me, I'll give you the list right now, and I don't mean to bring up Mount Rushmore because I don't like that, but he's on the level of the three other guys that I've enjoyed watching the most throughout my years living, and that's Magic, Bird, Steph Curry, and him. Now, there's been better players, Michael, LeBron, but I didn't get as much joy out of watching those guys as I got out of watching those four guys, meaning Curry, Bird, Magic, and Jokic, and at least with Jokic, Magic, and Bird, they had something very similar. All four of them. All four of them are just very unselfish, and three of them are three of the five best passers of all time. Curry's not in that mix for the best passer of all time, but he is unselfish as all could be.

Wrap it up with Justin Termini. Okay, let me get to the other two series, Celtics and Cavs. You have no Donovan Mitchell tonight. It feels like he's probably played his final game with the Cavs.

Would you agree with that? Yeah, which is unfortunate because Cleveland's an awesome sports town, and all you've heard with Donovan Mitchell for years and years is, oh, I want Miami, oh, I want New York, oh, I want Los Angeles, and clearly the Knicks have been taken out of the mix because he is not as good, as good as Donovan Mitchell is. He is not Jalen Brunson to my estimation. Brunson has kicked his butt two consecutive years in the postseason. He did it last year with New York.

He did it the year before when he was in Dallas and Donovan Mitchell was in Utah, and he's not getting the spotlight away from Jalen Brunson, so I guess it's Miami, it's L.A., or it's Brooklyn, but it seems like the guy is desperate to get there, which, again, I feel bad for the Cavs fans. So where's your confidence with your Celtics? Like, hey, they're going to win this series. I think they'll beat either New York or Indiana. I think they have a pretty good road to get to the finals.

You've been saying that all throughout the year. The question is, do you believe that they'll finally get the job done now in the NBA Finals with this group? Well, I mean, they better get there because if they don't, that's one of the more, you know, regardless of who it comes against. You know, and the Knicks just scare me because they don't have nearly the talent, but, I mean, they play hard, and they've been playing at a high level for months now. It seems like the Celtics have been sleepwalking, and I guess rightfully so.

They haven't really had to wake up, and I think that could be a punch to the jaw next round when they're facing, like, Josh Hart running around a million miles per hour. But they get to the finals, and it's against Minnesota. If it's against OKC or Dallas, who I don't see getting there because they're too banged up, I think they can beat those teams.

I just don't see any way that they're going to beat Denver if they get there. Now, let me get to the Mavericks and the Thunder. You know, it looked like Dallas is going to take a 3-1 series lead.

Then SGA happened down the stretch. Now it feels like the Thunder are going to win this series. Is the Thunder your pick, or are you going with the Mavericks? No, yeah, I got to go with Oklahoma City right now just because of the health of Luke Adoncich. If Luke is healthy, I think it's pretty clear Dallas would have won the series because even last game, what, it was a four-point game? It came down really to free throw shooting.

They were 12 to 23, which is absolutely unacceptable. But Luke has played, I think, so far in the eight postseason games. It's four of his eight worst postseason games of his career. So he's just with a knee. I'm not going to crush the guy, but, you know, in some cases, you can crush a guy. James Harden doesn't perform well in the postseason. He seems like he's perfectly healthy. Crush him.

Luke is hurt, and they're not going to be able to win if Luke is hurt. So I got OKC. So we all know the Joker's the best player in the league. When you wrap out Justin Termini's top five players in the league right now, who are your top five players?

Oh, God. So that's difficult putting me on the spot like that. But Jokic is clearly number one. I would still go with Giannis at number two. Lucas, you know, maybe I would put Luke at number two. Shaye Gildas-Alexander has now done it, I think, two years in a row. So put him in the top four, and then maybe there's a little bit of a gap after that, like from four to five.

But really, there's also a massive gap between one and two. Maybe Embiid, just because Embiid won the MVP last year, but are we getting sick of watching Joel Embiid not? Like, Jason Tatum's outperformed him in the postseason several different occasions. There's other better players in the postseason come, you know, than Embiid.

But, you know, Embiid's in the mix, I guess, for the fifth spot, along with a couple of other guys. The only reason I ask this is because when you go through this conversation, you just kind of realize how good of a spot the NBA is moving forward, because we don't have Durant, we don't have LeBron, Steph Curry anymore in the playoffs. And you look at these teams, you know, we know what Tatum's done with the Celtics. You look at the Knicks and their great story with the Jalen Brunson. We talked about the Mazz with Luca, SGA with the Thunder, Joker and Murray with the Nuggets. And then, obviously, Anthony Edwards with the Timberwolves. You know, this is a fun time to be an NBA fan, and that's kind of been my takeaway this postseason, is that the younger guard, the new guard is here, and it's been spectacular. Oh, 100 percent. Like, LeBron went there and sat, and I guess I'm bringing up his name now, but he sat out at that Cavs game.

I refuse to talk about it. That was an attention-seeking moment. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, it's not your turn, buddy. It's Anthony Edwards' turn. It's Luca's turn. It's Shaye Gilders Alexander's turn. It's Tatum's turn. It's Jokic's turn.

And I'm completely fine with that, because I'm loving these guys, and I'm also loving the attitude from these guys as well, with Anthony Edwards going, you know what? It's on me. I'm the reason that we lost Game 3. I thought that was refreshing. Tom Thibodeau going like, hey, listen, I'm not using injury as an excuse. That's refreshing, and that's something I don't think we saw with that older guard where it's, oh, it's Frank Vogel's fault.

Oh, it's Darvin' Am's fault. I love the fact that these guys kind of have a little bit of a different attitude, and it's refreshing that we're upon a new area here, Zach. You could listen to Justin Termini on Sirius XM NBA radio Monday through Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. Eastern. JT, appreciate it as always. All right, buddy. Appreciate you having me on.

You got it. There he is, Justin Termini, always full of energy joining us on the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. We will take a time out. The Nuggets have gone from almost being down and out to now in control of the series. We will talk about the greatness of Nikola Jokic next.

Well, talking about greatness, though, Ack is back in the studio, and he's ready to rock and roll with the latest Infinity Sports Network update. After the end of a good fight, you deserve an ice-cold reward. Medella is the mark of a fighter. You've earned this rich golden lager with a crisp, refreshing taste, because you know the bigger the fight, the better the reward. You put in the hours, the energy, the tough labor. You are a fighter, and Medella is your reward. Medella, the mark of a fighter. Prick responsibly.

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Do you guys have any idea? Did you guys see this story where there was an OnlyFans model? They have this thing in the city, which I guess is new, which I don't know why people would run up to this thing. It's probably some stupid dopey tourist thing, but they basically have, like, a big circle, and it's a camera, and you could see people in New York City. If you walk up to the camera, and it goes back to Dublin, and you could see people in Dublin and an OnlyFans model in New York City who was looking pretty, pretty, pretty good, if you know what I'm saying, did flash her hooters.

How do we not get dumped here on the radio? Her tatas? Is that okay? That's fine.

Those two are good. If Pete the Body Baladi was here, he probably would have already dumped me about 13 seconds ago, but she flashed the girls to the fine folks in Dublin, and it's kind of funny when you watch the video because I'm like, is it on a delay? Do the people in Dublin not realize what's going on?

And then you saw one person's face in Dublin as it's reflected back to you, the screen from Dublin to New York City, oh, this is what's going on. So we'll show you Botcher's shirt in just a second. Hopefully Botcher, though, doesn't flash us. No offense, right? You know, good-looking kid, but we don't need to see Ryan Botcher without a shirt on. No promises. Okay. Jeez.

Joking, joking. Maybe Botcher should start an OnlyFans. I'm sure there'd be a lot of people in the YouTube chat that would be signing up for the Botcher OnlyFans. I hope not.

A lot of people are big fans of Ryan Botcher. That's my lowest point then. Yeah, that'd be pretty damn low.

But if you go make like $400,000, $500,000 a year, it could be worth it. It's time to ask the pros where you, the listener, get to ask us a question. It's brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at infsportsnet or at techyelp using the hashtag askthepros. Be listening later in the show where we might answer your question. Think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all your car care needs.

Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Do we have, like, a three-shot? Stu, could we get a three-shot so we could show Botcher's awesome shirt, which this movie never gets old whatsoever. So you ready to go, Botcher?

You ready to show on the YouTube? You know, stand up. Model a little bit. No, I can't stand. I gotta... Why can't you stand up?

Because the camera shot is weird. Oh. Oh, yeah, right there.

Stop. So Botcher is wearing the McLovin license from the movie Superbad that came out in 2007. Isn't it funny how many people you know that look like McLovin? So, obviously, here at the network, Andrew Perloff was called McLovin on The Dan Patrick Show for all those years. I have a friend from college that looks just like McLovin.

Like, actually, it looks more like McLovin than Perloff does. And I was at that Sixers Knicks game, the elimination game, and I'm walking out of the building, and I start to see two people fighting. There was... How do I say this politely? A Burley, a Husky Knicks fan fighting a Sixers fan, and this dude, you know, a lot of Gaba Gold, all right?

He was just pummeling away this one Sixers fan. And I turn around, because you hear the commotion, and I'm not usually someone that is recording fights. I don't like to be that guy. I like to get away from the fight. If someone needs help, you know, maybe walk over and try to rip them off, but there were so many people in front of me. So in that one moment of weakness, I said, I'm gonna record this.

Could be some good content. And the next thing I know, I look up, and it's my friend McLovin from college. Now, he wasn't in the fight, and I talked to him afterwards.

I'm like, what the heck were you doing? And he is a scrawny kid. He was trying to rip the Knicks fan off of the Sixers fan, not that he knew either one of them, because they were impeding his exit from the arena, because in the section we were in, that guy was that large. You couldn't walk around him. He was taking up the entire exit as he was pummeling the Sixers fan. And the video is funny because he was actually more effective than the security guards. There's one security guard that's like, oh, break it up, break it up, break it up, and then you got my buddy from college who looks just like McLovin. He ripped this, I don't know how he did it, because the guy is like three times the size of my buddy. He basically ripped the guy off and stopped the fight.

So you go to a Sixers-Nicks game in Philadelphia, you never know what the heck is gonna happen. But that's a very good t-shirt. I like that t-shirt. Well, when did you get that shirt since the movie did come out in 2007? Three years ago?

Two years ago? What was that, just like in a mall or something you got that t-shirt or no? I have no idea where I got it. Oh, really? Like, I don't know, hot-top.

Blacked-out botcher? You don't remember where you got it? I don't remember. Late-night purchase? I buy a lot of shirts randomly.

You do? Online? You a big online shopper?

Not really, just random stores in the mall. Okay. Walk around.

Gotcha. So, I'm always, see, I'm weird. I feel like I'm an old man, even though I'm not. Like, I buy a lot of things online, but you have no clue when you're buying something online how it's going to fit. And I hate when you buy something and then you got to return it. That annoys, even though it's like free, they send you back the label and everything. It just annoys me when you got to figure out, you know, you got to walk to the store and then you have to push it off. It's like, oh, returning. Then, oh, you got to do so in 30 days. So, I prefer to go into the store to buy my shirts. But, you know, when you're the size of me, you can't be too picky. So, anyway, this is Zach Yelp Show on the Infinity Sports Network.

Stu, I'm just curious. When we get into the greatness of Nicole Jokic, who has won three MVPs now, has an NBA championship, has a finals MVP, it looked like they were going to get eliminated in this round when you had Jamal Murray acting like a baby and he was frustrated where he was throwing a heating pad, throwing a towel onto the court. It looked like, you know, we did that show the next day and when it was 2-0, I was listening back to the segment today and I said, the series isn't over, but it feels over after last night and it feels like Minnesota's going to find a way to win and split on their home court.

And, you know, you now look back at this series, it goes from 2-0 to then it being 3-2 and Denver goes from being down 0-2 to now up 3-2 with them winning three straight. And last night, it felt like Denver was going to win going into the game, but you don't usually see a lot of personality from Nicole Jokic. When you're watching the game, you heard the announcer say it last night, he showed his killer instinct and his killer mentality on the court last night, where, yeah, Rudy Gobert won another defensive player of the year award.

So what? Nicole Jokic, where, hey, Jamal Murray was not their second best player last night. Aaron Gordon was the second best player last night for the Denver Nuggets.

And Nicole Jokic just said, you ain't stopping me? You know, going into the fourth, I think he had 12 assists. He finishes the game with 40 points. That's what this guy does.

And this is what makes him the most unstoppable player and the preeminent player in the sport right now. You want to just let him have his? He'll go and drop 40 points in your face. You want to then try to stop his passing or, you know, stop his passing? He'll kill you. Like, there's just no way to defend Nicole Jokic, and it's wild.

In game two, without Rudy Gobert, was the most loss that he's looked. It's really bonkers. And there's that debate. Do you just let him have his and then limit his teammates, or do you just find a way to take away the passing? And there's no good answer for it. You try to take away his passing, he drops 40 on you. There's no way to win. You then let him have 40. He'll still find a way to give you a 12-13 assist. He's the biggest nightmare matchup in the NBA. You can't take away his passing even if you try, and you can't take away his scoring even if you try. Wasn't that all last year, Stu?

That was the conversation with Nicole Jokic. Do you want him to have 40 and maybe only eight assists or seven assists, or do you want him to have, like, 28 and then go pummel you for 15 assists? It doesn't matter what you try to do. No one has had sustained success in trying to slow him down, and night in and night out, even when he doesn't play his best, and last night he was at his best, but even when he doesn't play his best, he still finds a way to just fill that stat sheet and be the most impossible thing to stop in the NBA. He really is, and he reminds me of a modern-day Shaq, and even Shaq was stoppable at times because, you know, you'd put him at the free throw line. He's a better shooter than Shaq. He doesn't have the flaw of not being able to make free throws like Shaq did, so he really is unstoppable, and he's just a total playmaker and dominant scorer inside and shooter all in one, which is honestly unbelievable. We're at a point where, when you went from Jordan to Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, LeBron, and you kind of went to, like, when is it, you know, are we gonna keep getting it? When does it slow down the all-time greats, you're saying?

Look, Jokic is right there, and Steph, I think, is in that discussion as well, but, I mean, Jokic is probably gonna end up as one of the greatest players to ever play a game. He already has three MVPs. Like, I don't know how long he's going to play, but you got to think he's gonna win, bare minimum, one more MVP. Probably right now, you tell me right now, one-and-a-half MVP awards for Nicole, like, you'd be a fool not to bet the over. So, like, I'm trying to just be, I don't want to be too benevolent here.

You know, I just want to take it at the bare minimum. Let's just say he wins one more MVP. You know he's gonna win another championship or two. So if this guy just wins, let's say, he has four MVPs and just say two championships, he's gonna be a top-ten player of all time.

And that's just being as cautious as possible. Like, there's a chance this guy wins, like, two to three more MVPs. Like, he could win five or six MVPs. And you're talking about maybe three championships?

Could you get four? I don't know. But right now, no one has an answer for him. And he's 29. He's been healthy. He's one of the great developmental stories that this league has ever seen. But that's why I said it's too determining.

Because, you know, I think it's an obvious statement now. But just for people to understand that are kind of like, eh, you know, they haven't either seen Nicole Yokichunara, they say he's boring, which is all just a bunch of jackassery. He's gonna go down easily better than Kevin Durant. And Kevin Durant's, like, not a career that you just blink at and you brush over. But you look at Kevin Durant, yeah, I get it. Durant's won two NBA championships and two finals MVPs. But Nicole Yokichunara's NBA MVP is already, or, excuse me, finals MVP and his championship are more valuable than the two that Kevin Durant won. And Durant only has one MVP award. You know, we're talking about Durant's a 14-time All-Star, a two-time champion, a two-time finals MVP, and has won a league MVP.

Nicole Yokichunara's already moved past him. And he's only 29. Kevin Durant is 35.

He turns 36 in September. And that's where I just start the illustration. But you are watching right now, assuming that this continues and there's no catastrophic injury, right, that derails his career, when it's all said and done, I don't know how this guy's not gonna be in the top 10. And I know those are tricky, because, like, right, you got Jordan, you got LeBron, you got Magic, you got Larry Bird, Kareem, Wilt, Bill Russell, you know, Shaq, Kobe, Timmy Duncan. Like, right there, there's already 10. There's others, obviously, too.

You know, I'm just naming off the top of my head you don't want to miss anybody. But that's how confident I am with this guy, because you look at a do-it-all type of player, you know, you want to take away his scoring, he'll hit you with 15 assists. You want to just say, go get yours and we'll try to limit yourselves, we'll go get you eight assists, and then he'll just drop 40 points.

I had 40 points last night and 13 assists. Heck, the passes that he made last night were better passes than any Denver Broncos quarterback that I've seen since Peyton Manning has walked. That full court pass to Murray was sick.

You just search in GIFs. Nikola Jokic pass, it's like a behind-the-back toss-over-your-head pass. He's wild. You know, I actually think the Broncos made a mistake taking Bo Nix at 12. They should have just signed Nikola, you should have just drafted Nikola Jokic. Hey, screw the NBA, come play quarterback for us. Imagine him at the goal line?

It'd be crazy. But this dude's just awesome, he's great, and he's on that trajectory of being a top-ten player of all time. He's already in the top 20. And he's only up and up and up in here. He's a three-time MVP. And if he wins a second championship this year and a second Finals MVP, what are the haters gonna say? But you were running out of things, it's stupid, you minuscule things to say right now, but you were running out of things and deservedly so.

Stephon Marbury joins us next on the Zach Gelb show. After the end of a good fight, you deserve an ice cold reward. Medela, the mark of a fighter. You've earned this rich golden lager with a crisp, refreshing taste. Because you know the bigger the fight, the better the reward. You put in the hours, the energy, the tough labor. You are a fighter, and Medela is your reward.

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