Celtics are Headed to the NBA Finals (Hour 1)

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Auto Trader. The wait is over. That's right. Season five of the Kardashians is here. Just when you thought life couldn't get any faster, they're punching it into overdrive. Chris, Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, Kendall, and Kylie are back and continue to defy expectations in all their endeavors. So get ready to go behind the glitz and glamour of the most iconic family on television.

The all-new season of the Kardashians is now streaming on Hulu. Live from the police show getting out over the ostentatious studios of the Infinity Sports Network. This is a Tuesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course, streaming live on YouTube, 855212, 4227 is the number to jump on in, 855212, 4227. You could always get at me on Instagram or the good old cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Twitter X has been booming today with Jim Rome content. I think he was the second highest trending topic on Twitter today. Congratulations to our teammate, the franchise, the legendary Jim Rome himself, who did launch the extreme of the legendary Jim Rome show, which you could listen to right here on the Infinity Sports Network.

But now you can watch it on X. And I saw at one point there was over half a million or half a billion people watching. So that was actually crazy.

So crazy, crazy, crazy numbers. What, did I mess something up? Was it half a million?

What did I get wrong? Yeah, I think you corrected your half a million and said half a billion. Yeah, I don't know why I did that. See, I try to do something nice. Not that Jim needs my help in the pub, but I ended up messing up the numbers there.

You knew what I was trying to say, though. They had half a million people watching. Heck, if Jim had half a billion people watching, man, that would be really something. But Emmanuel Rodriguez is here with me. Stuart Kovacs as well.

We're rocking and rolling all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. Glenn Ordway, who was the voice of the Boston Celtics for a while and is a legendary sports radio personality in Boston. He's going to stop by coming up two hours from now as he will help us remember the life of Bill Walton, who I saw did pass away yesterday at the age of 71. Glenn was very close with Bill Walton. Bill actually got Glenn into the Grateful Dead, and they've been to a few concerts together, so I will give you my thoughts and I will share my eulogy, I guess you could say, on the legendary Bill Walton, who passed away at the age of 71 yesterday, coming up in 40 minutes from now.

But I just wanted to, right out of the gate, start the show by saying, rest in peace, Bill Walton. Whole lot to do today. Hope everyone had a phenomenal Memorial Day weekend.

I hope your barbecuing was safe and fun, and I hope you had a good time wherever you were. You know, on the East Coast, sometimes Memorial Day weekend in terms of the weather is tricky. Like, I remember some Memorial Day weekends, I'll go down to the shore, and as you could tell, I'm an idiot at times. And Manny Rodriguez, you know what, you're a real bastard, let me tell you that.

I'm a real idiot at times. Manny, without hesitation, shakes his head and goes, yeah, you absolutely are. Can we have some good support around here? Can we pick each other up instead of just trying to tear everybody down? I'm coming off a vacation. It's Tuesday after a vacation, a three-day weekend.

Everyone should be in a good mood. Stu comes up to me, hey, how you doing? Wonderful, Santa's not here. And then Manny goes, does it smell like Chinese food in here?

And I go, no. Delicious leftovers. It didn't say, I love Chinese food. Better the next day for leftovers, too. That's not how it takes.

Just reality. And Manny doesn't even say hello. His first thing is, does it smell like Chinese food in here? And then two minutes into the stinking show, you know, Manny's like, yeah, Gelb's an idiot. Gelb's a moron.

Gelb's a dope. Last time I ever helped you, my friend. In the words of my colleague at NBA radio, Rick Mahorn, you sound a little sensitive, buddy. Well, I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend. I know a lot of times, right, we have fun and you barbecue, you have your drinks. But I hope during one point of the long weekend, you do remember why we have Memorial Day weekend, and that's to remember the true heroes in our country.

And those are the great men and women who did make the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms. I had a good time. As I was saying, the weather is sometimes bizarre on the East Coast Memorial Day weekend. Whenever I hear Memorial Day weekend, that to me is the start of summer, even though technically it's not the official start of summer, if you want to be a real nerd about it and go by the dates. But once I'm in summer mode, I think that shorts and a T-shirt every single day. And there have been Memorial Days where I've gone down to the Jersey Shore, and it has been 40 degrees, raining, chilly, very cold. This year, I went to the Berkshires, and it was very good weather.

A little rain yesterday, but when you get Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a very good weather, only like two or three hours of rain on Monday, I will take that for a Memorial Day weekend. So let's get the show underway. We'll start about the Boston Celtics. And by the way, Manny, I'm not just saying this because you just poke fun at me. I found your social media content the other day to be insufferable. I think there is nothing more of a loser personality in sports when your team can't beat a team, and then a week or two after your team loses, the other team goes out and right away, you had the memes, you had the gifts, you had everything ready to go as you had to poke fun at the Indiana Pacers, who your basketball team couldn't beat. So now, I'm just saying, you couldn't beat them.

That's a factual statement. Yes, I will acknowledge, and I've said this before, that if the Knicks were healthy, they would have taken care of the Indiana Pacers. And it ended up going seven. So it showed that the Pacers really weren't a team that is a usual feel of a team that's in the Easter Conference Finals.

That's why I picked the Boston Celtics in five. I guess I was too benevolent there. But for you to go online right away and poke fun at Terese Halliburton, who was injured and didn't even play the last two games, I just thought that was low class, and I do believe in something called sports karma, and sports karma is going to bite you in the you-know-what.

It's not going to bite me. It's going to bite the Indiana Pacers because they were frauds. They didn't deserve to be in that situation. No, they beat you, so they did deserve to be there.

No, come on. They beat an Indiana Bucks team that had no Giannis. It was a fluke. Draymond wants to talk about flukes and how the Knicks were a fluke. The Pacers are a complete fluke. They're not even going to sniff the Easter Conference Finals for the next five years. And you're so confident that the Knicks, who I am rooting for, I have family-friend ties to the Knicks. I want to see the Knicks do well, so this is not me bashing the Knicks right out of the gate, but you are telling me without a doubt, and this is the arrogance now of the Knicks fan.

A little success. A few second round appearances, and now they walk around, they shroud around the studios like they're a peacock, and now they think they're the team to beat in the NBA, and they're going to be a year in and year out. Well, you know what? No, I'm looking at it as a non-biased NBA fan.

You want to know why you're a fraud? Because let's just say if roles were reversed, and it was the Knicks who were fully healthy, and it was the Pacers who were decimated with injuries. If I got on the radio and said, oh, the Knicks don't belong there after they advance but the other team was injured, you would be mother bleeping me up and down the radio dial. You know that is true. You know that's 100% true.

Try to deny it. No, no, because I know what the Indiana Pacers are. You know what the Indiana Pacers are. You knew what the Indiana Pacers are. They're a good but not great team.

They're a perennial playoff team. How old are you? 26.

I'll be 27 in a few weeks. Okay, so you should have no hatred for the Pacers in previous series, maybe early on in the second round series. Roy Hibbert blocking Carmelo Anthony.

Roy Hibbert served you your lunch. That is my Reggie Miller choking moment. Okay, but there should be no Reggie Miller hatred for you in your age because you weren't around. You weren't even alive for the Reggie Miller days. No, no, I wasn't.

But I mean, just because I wasn't alive for a big moment in basketball history in my favorite teams franchise. But it's fake outrage. You complaining about me going off on social media is fake outrage. No, it's not. I'm serious. Don't take it so seriously.

It's social media. Stu, do me a favor. Stu, do me a favor. On the rundown for this show, the opening segment, does it mention anything about Zach mentioning Manny Rodriguez?

It does not. How about the second segment? Nope. The third segment?

No, no, no, no. The fourth? Nope. The fifth? Nope.

You brought me up. The sixth? Nope. The seventh? Nope. The eighth? Nope. The ninth?

No. That was all impromptu because sometimes you see things and then when you see someone, it triggers a reaction. And when I saw you and I turned on the microphone, something went off in my brain that said, oh, Manny came off like a sports loser from yesterday when the Indiana Pacers got eliminated from the Celtics. That's all I'm saying. All I'm saying is there is nothing more lame in sports in this fun way that we talk about it. When you can't beat a team and then you celebrate when that team goes down because some other team did your dirty business.

That's all I'm saying. You know who you're like? You were like Chase Claypool. Now, hopefully your career doesn't turn out to be Chase Claypool.

But remember when Chase Claypool couldn't defeat the Cleveland Browns in the playoffs with the Pittsburgh Steelers, then he gets on. It was some streaming thing. It wasn't as popular as Jim Rome's streaming thing, of course, from earlier today, but it was some streaming platform. I think it may have been Twitch. I don't know. He was doing some gaming and he was saying, oh, the Chiefs will get them next week. The Chiefs basically celebrating that the Chiefs are going to take care of their business.

They couldn't take care of the week before. All I'm saying is, do you want to be like Chase Claypool? Do you want to be a loser? You should shut up. You should have no opinion on the Indiana Pacers because they beat you.

You should not be entitled to having an opinion. All right. That's crazy.

That last bit is a little crazy. Well, I don't think so. Like, Stu, do me a favor. I can't use your football team because they don't beat anybody.

You can't. No. Let's say when the Lakers. Yeah. Let's say when the Lakers give me a playoff opponent that maybe you haven't loved recently of the Lakers. The Nuggets. OK. So, oh, yeah, perfect example, when the Nuggets beat the Lakers, then the next round.

I know that, you know, the next round, let's say the you know what they go down that way. The Nuggets ended up losing. Yeah. Were you were you celebrating over the demise of the Nuggets and saying, yeah, the pace, the Timberwolves did what we couldn't do?

No. Well, it's more for two years ago, really. Yeah, it wasn't. I honestly was kind of rooting for the Wolves only because of the story and the up and coming and Anthony Edwards and all that. But it wasn't like an anti Nuggets. Like, I wasn't happy they lost because they beat the Lakers. Do the Nuggets and the Lakers have this history that goes back 30, 40 years? No, but last year was really ugly. It was really ugly in that conference final sweep when LeBron made it all about himself sitting at the podium and was like, oh, maybe I'm going to retire and wouldn't even give the Nuggets any credit. So that got a little ugly. But like, stop.

You have in your lifetime, you have one moment. One moment of hatred with the Indiana Pacers. And it was a second round series where in reality, the Knicks showed they didn't actually belong. If you want to talk about teams not actually belong, all I'm saying is you lose to a team. I don't need you to see see Manny Rodriguez yesterday dancing on the grave of the Indiana Pacers. Now I'm going to do it more now.

It's fine. You look like a loser. Then you look like more of a loser and then you'll end up like Chase Claypool.

You'll bounce around from three networks and then no one's going to want to employ you. And then when they do bring you in and then when they do bring you in, you have to have Sean McDermott. Oh, we're trying to revitalize Chase Claypool.

Chase is trying to get back to to what he once was. So get your Rolodex ready, you know, whoever runs ESPN these days. Get them going. Scott Shapiro at Fox. Get them going. So sensitive over there.

I'm not sensitive at all. Just David Maranick. No, we have Chase Claypool here at the Infinity Sports Network and he's that rat.

Manny Rodriguez. I hear that rat is a good looking fellow. I don't know. Do you have the mustache comb today? I must ask you a question. I do have the mustache comb somewhere in my bag. OK, good.

The mustache comb saves you from me just shredding you for the next three hours. Anyway, the Celtics are off to the NBA finals. Their season, though, really does not start until Game 1 of the NBA finals. I think that is the perfect way to say it.

It is not an in the moment take. It's been something I've been saying ever since the playoffs did officially commence for the Celtics on April 21st. Because if you want to call a spade a spade, you look at the opponents in the East. In the regular season, I know it's one thing, but then going into the postseason, they were all inferior just in the East to the Boston Celtics.

Did they get some lucky breaks along the ways? Yes, Jimmy Butler being out for the entirety of the first round. You had Donovan Mitchell miss two games against the Cavs.

Terese Halliburton missed two games, you know, for the Indiana Pacers. But in reality, none of those three teams, even if they were fully healthy, and even if Manny's Knicks were fully healthy and got through the Pacers, none of them were going to defeat the Boston Celtics four times in a seven game series. So the Celtics is getting to the finals, should it make me say, let's throw a parade and let's have all the confetti rain down right now because the standard for success of the Boston Celtics is winning an NBA championship.

And that changes. But when this has been a team that has been consistently there in the conference finals, has been to an NBA finals before, you got to take care of business in the NBA finals. And it's looking like it's going to be up against the Dallas Mavericks. They're up 3-0 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Boston could have sleptwalked through this series up against Indiana. They choked away the Pacers game one, and quite frankly, they choked away game three. I don't call last night a choke job, but it was another blown lead by the Indiana Pacers. So with all that being said, I'm not going to throw a parade today because the Celtics are in the NBA finals. But the official start of their season is now, and it's coming up in the early part of June and June six when they tip off game one of the NBA finals. Because if they don't win the NBA finals, assuming it's up against the Mavericks, or even if Minnesota finds a way to be the first team to come back from down 3-0 in the history of the NBA playoffs, if they don't win the finals, I don't care that they won the Easter Conference or the regular season, the separation from the first or the second seed was like 15 games. I don't care that they only dropped two games to get to the NBA finals and win the Eastern Conference. It's all about winning a championship for the Boston Celtics this year and raising banner 18.

Anything short of that is a failure. And here's the thing. I will say this, two parts about Boston. Because I do believe a lot of Celtics fans are going to be like, oh, this is national media hate of the Boston Celtics.

I have no reason to hate the Boston Celtics. Big part's going to be Kristaps Porzingis coming back. You did not need him to get to the finals.

I think you need him to win the NBA finals. And the other thing, and you saw it yesterday, Drew Holliday is a championship player. And I think that's one of the stories that's not going to get a lot of recognition today when talking about the Boston Celtics, because we all know Drew Holliday is a very good player.

And it was a very smart move to bring him to Boston via a trade. But a lot of talk with the Celtics today is going to be, now their season really starts. Jalen Brown winning the Eastern Conference finals MVP. Jason Tatum maybe needing to be a little bit better and taking his game to the next level. The health of Kristaps Porzingis, those are going to be the storylines. But even though I'm not going to give the Celtics an abundance of praise for what they've accomplished so far, because all of it was expected, they need to win four out of their next seven games.

They need to raise the Hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy and raise another banner at TD Garden. But Drew Holliday has restored a championship culture in Boston, because Drew Holliday has won a championship in the past with Milwaukee. He's one of the more respected players in the league. And I really think he was the missing link for this team, because Tatum has been there for a while. He's the top 10 player in the league.

Brown is one of the better two-way players in the league. You've seen the emergence of Derek White. You know how important the health of Porzingis is. But this team was right there, and they needed to get to the top of the mountain.

They were very close to getting to the tippy top of the mountain. And when I look at Drew Holliday, I think that's what is going to be a big part when we all are said and done with the NBA Finals on boosting them to the top of the mountain. So I want to just say that out of the gate and talk and highlight the importance on both ends, the excellence of Drew Holliday, who probably gets underappreciated a little bit nationally and is deserving of more praise. But if that's the matchup, Mavs and Celtics, which it looks like we know the Celtics are already through, and the Mavs, I just can't see them choking.

They're up 3-0. Oh, that's going to be fun, because Luke is a top five player in the sport. Luke is the best player remaining in the postseason. And also, you have the Kyrie Irving connection. Kyrie going back to Boston to square off against the Celtics, as there's a lot of animosity there. We'll take a break. It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. When we come on back, Jason Kidd deserves a lot of credit.

I'll tell you why when we return. It is the Zach Gelb show where we love all, including Manny Rodriguez, right here on the Infinity Sports Network. The wait is over.

That's right. Season five of the Kardashians is here, just when you thought life couldn't get any faster. They're punching it into overdrive. Chris, Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, Kendall, and Kylie are back, and continue to defy expectations in all their endeavors. So get ready to go behind the glitz and glamour of the most iconic family on television.

The all new season of the Kardashians is now streaming on Hulu. Look around. You can buy cars like these on Auto Trader. New cars, used cars, electric cars, maybe even flying cars. Okay, no flying cars, but as soon as they get invented, they'll be on Auto Trader.

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That's greenlight.com slash odyssey. All right, it is the Infinity Sports Network, and it is the Zach Yelb show. You know, I got to give a lot of credit to Jason Kidd. The Mavs are one win away from going to the NBA Finals. We know when that does happen, everyone is going to talk about Luka Doncic, everyone's going to talk about Kyrie Irving, and I totally get that because 9.9 times out of 10, when it comes to the NBA, when we're talking about it in a positive way, we give credit to the players first rather than the coaches. I have a love-hate relationship with Jason Kidd.

Let me be the first one to say that. He was my favorite player as a kid growing up, but Jason Kidd, when he became the coach of the Nets, I was so thrilled, but then I was so disappointed because it only lasted a year, and then he made that big power play when he was trying to get more power, and in reality, he didn't deserve the power because his highlight in that one year as the coach of the Brooklyn Nets was when he bumped into his own player intentionally to get that cup of water spill to try to delay time and get more time to draw things up and to execute something in the huddle. So when Kidd did that, I felt betrayed, and since then, in a weird way, I developed a little bit of an animosity towards Jason Kidd, who, let me remind you once again, at one point was my favorite player in the league, and in Milwaukee, he really didn't do much. They made the playoffs twice.

They lost in the first round. That team ended up going on to win a championship without him years later, and then for a while, anytime a job would pop up, you know how James Franklin at Penn State, whenever there's a job that's open, his name will get linked to it? That was the case with Jason Kidd for two or three years, and I think he was the assistant for the Lakers too, right? But every time he was somewhere, his name would get popped up, and he would never get the job, and I was like, who's his agent just to get his name out there because he wasn't successful as a head coach in Brooklyn. He didn't really succeed in Milwaukee, and the team got better without him, so why would you give him a third job?

And I say this all the time. You look at NBA and NHL coaches. These coaches, and I say this in a polite way, are coaching whores.

They really are. How many times they go from team to team to team to team, and they keep on getting hired, and you start to wonder, is there just a faulty process in the hiring of these coaches because they just recycle the same damn names? But I got to give credit to Jason Kidd because in Dallas, they got to the conference finals. They got swept by the Warriors in his first year. Last year, they missed the playoffs, and that looked like it was going to disaster mode. People didn't think Kidd was the right coach for the job. People were wondering, when was Luka Doncic going to force a trade? Then you also had them missing the playoffs and the tanking at the end of the year, and you looked at Kyrie Irving.

Kyrie looked like he was going to be a malcontent in Dallas, right? And if you thought otherwise, and trust me, I have takes out there. You could go find them if you want.

Be my guest. I don't care. But I have takes out there saying that the Kyrie Irving era in Dallas will end in a disaster because that's what always happens, where you look at what happened ever since he left Cleveland in Boston, a disaster, his fault, in Brooklyn, a disaster, his fault. But here's what we missed, and here's what we all missed. And this is why, when you look at the success of the Mavericks and them being one win away from going back to the NBA Finals, why Jason Kidd needs to be talked about more. And I get why people are going to talk about Luka first, top five player in the sport going on a championship run or trying to go on a championship run. I get why people are going to talk about Kyrie Irving getting back to focusing on basketball and basketball being the story. But a big chunk of the Kyrie Irving praise needs to be credited to Jason Kidd because Kyrie Irving grew up as a massive Nets fan. Kyrie Irving grew up as a massive Jason Kidd fan. Kyrie Irving, at one point in his life, looked up to Jason Kidd as a basketball player. I think Kyrie Irving was at Jason Kidd's Hall of Fame ceremony. So Kyrie Irving respected Jason Kidd. Kyrie Irving has worked with other legendary backcourt players before that he didn't respect. One of them being Steve Nash. And remember when Kyrie and Kevin Durant basically like, oh, one night I'll coach a team, one night Ky will coach a team, one night Jock Vaughn will coach a team, one night Steve will coach a team. They didn't respect Steve Nash. KD and Kyrie were just trying to use Steve Nash. Kyrie Irving, because he idolized Jason Kidd growing up, respected Jason Kidd. And now look, Kyrie Irving is on his best behavior in Dallas. And when he's on his best behavior, and you could get him to lock in for a few months, he's still a top 10 player in the league.

He is so difficult to stop. He is so fun if you just focus on basketball to watch. And here they are, one win away from going to the finals, and not only one win away from going to the finals, they are on the verge of sweeping the Minnesota Timberwolves who, when Minnesota did go up 2-0 against Denver, was everybody's pick to win the championship, or almost everybody's pick to win the championship. So we are one more Mavericks win away from the Timberwolves story going away for now, even though I do believe in Anthony Edwards for years to come.

A lot of people talking about Kyrie Irving, a lot of people who should be praising Jason Kidd. And this sets up a matchup where it's Luka and Kyrie going up against Boston, Boston being a team that has been there more frequently than the Mavericks, even though the Mavericks have made two out of the last three conference finals. But this is going to be, on paper, a sensational NBA Finals, assuming that Dallas takes care of business.

And I don't know about you guys, and I'll get to the phone lines just a second, 855-212-4227. I don't know about you guys, but if I just went around the room right now, and let's say that this matchup does go down where it's Boston up against Dallas, what do you think the series is going to be? Just give me the team and how many games I'll start with, Stu.

Stu, which team, how many games? Yeah, me and Manny had this conversation during the break. I think we have very similar thoughts on how this is going to go. Oh boy, so I will refrain from giving my answer and then fade you two if you guys are in agreement. We both believe it's going to be Dallas, and we believe it's Dallas in six. Dallas in six, and here's the thing, I think I'm hearing a lot of that. Ever since Dallas did go up 3-0, also, you know who's on Dallas in six?

Hot take, Kiki. All right, Celtics in, and six it is. Celtics sweep.

Sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep. Kind of like the Eastern Conference. I do think because of Luka and Kyrie, and Kyrie being locked in, a lot of people are going to pick Dallas. Right now, you put a gun to my head, I'm taking the Celtics and the Celtics in seven.

And I get it, right? The Celtics right against Miami, Jimmy Butler was out for the entire series. They would have beat them even if Jimmy Butler was there this year. The second series against the Cavs, I know Allen was hurt, Mitchell was hurt, doesn't matter, they were going to beat the Cavs either way. The Pacers, they didn't have Halliburton for two games, didn't matter, they were going to beat the Pacers either way. The Celtics have been on cruise control.

Now they have to turn it up. And I do believe with them being close for so many years, it's just their time to pull through. And I believe in this postseason so far, there's always been a team of momentum that you start to get hot. One of them was Denver going in, then Denver goes down 2-0, everyone's on Minnesota, then Minnesota almost blows that, they're down 3-2, they win six and seven, then everyone's on Minnesota, and now it's Dallas, right? Dallas is about to take care of Minnesota, now everyone's going to be on Dallas. Right now you asked me today who's going to win the NBA championship, I'm going to take the Celtics in seven. Who's going to win? The Celtics.

Because there's no other reason why. The Celtics are the balls. I was going to play that coming up in a bit when I went to the next guy who's on the line, but it's all right. We're a little premature on that, but that's fine. Manny's had a big day today. You know, once you're running the board for the Rome Xtreme launch, which had half a million people watching, it's like, then you got to work on the Zach Gelb show, and it's like, okay, this is where I can have fun and play around with a bunch of things.

Yeah. All right, let's go to Sully. Sully is on the line. My man, Sully, what's happening? Zach, I want everybody, I'm still with Manny, I'm taking your money. Or Betton, I'll text Zach what the money's going to be.

I hope everyone keeps talking about Dallas. Oh, and Manny, you have a lot of anger that I think you need to work through, and it's okay, man. Damn right.

If you take all your anger off because the pace is lost to the Celtics, come on, man, you're better than that, Manny. I am not. I don't even know you, and you're better than that. Zach, I know you.

You're fine. You're Zach. Zach, I need your help and guidance on this one, obviously I'm going to be very biased. Why are people already thinking, which is a dangerous thing to look ahead of anybody when anybody's up 3-0, 2004 Red Sox, 3-1, we don't have to talk about the Panthers.

You got to knock them out first. But did anybody watch Jalen Brown this last series? Well, Sully, you know why this is.

Derek White? But Sully, you know this, you're watching it from the lenses of a Celtics fan. Everyone else is looking at the Eastern Conference, and they're saying, there's no real competition for the Celtics in the East. I get you could only play who is on your schedule, and it's not your problem, but the Celtics, with how close they've been recently, a lot of people have this feeling that they're never going to get it done. And we see it a lot of times in sports, teams have been close, close, close, close, close, and they get to the top of the mountain. So since there hasn't been an impressive moment yet up against a team that actually people think is worthy, they're just waiting for the other shoe to just drop on the Celtics season.

That's what it is. But what I don't understand, Zach, is the Celtics were down 3, 10 seconds left. Indiana chokes, throws the ball away, Jalen Brown drills a 3, and they're winning overtime.

So I don't understand the whole, well, they had no one to compete against. No, they should have lost that game. And then they're down again, come back in the fourth quarter.

This series... Well, people don't think that formula, and I do agree. If they play like that, they will not beat the Mavericks. They just have to take their game to the next level. But when you have Tatum and Brown who are now older, more mature, and now the expectation is to win, True Holiday is a championship player. You have Derek White, they're going to need Porzingis back. There's no reason why I'm going to sit here and confidently say that the Celtics should lose the NBA Finals. I think it's going to be a very fun back-and-forth series, and the Celtics win in seven if the Mavericks get there, which it looks like they do. They will. Celtics in six, Zach, and let me know how much money I'm taking from your staff. Well, Sully, you come from pretty good coin. I don't think it's very nice to take from my staff on the other side, all right?

Maybe... They're going to teach them a lesson, Zach. If they're going to run their mouth, it's time to pay up. Pay up, Manny and Stu. Let's go.

Okay. Well, I'll let you two guys, or three, figure it out and what you guys want to bet. Just here's a piece of advice to Manny and Stu, because I'm always here to lend a helping hand. Just bet Sully something with food, and then Sully will eventually end up picking up the tab. But if you reach into your pocket and go, I'm going to pay, and I'm going to pick up the bill, then Sully will be like, nah, I got you guys.

You guys are two good dudes. But yeah, you guys should have some... Maybe make a friendly wager with Sully. Maybe you bet a tattoo. Do a tattoo bet. Imagine how weird it would be to not Mavericks fans having to get like a Celtics tattoo.

Yeah, for me, that would be the worst. Oh yeah, you're a Lakers fan. No, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah. All righty, we'll take a break. Hey, real quickly, Ack is here. Ack, is that right when we remember the legendary Bill Walton?

What's that? That you sat very close to Bill Walton, what was that, game seven of the Stanley Cup Final? Right behind him. You know who was right next to him?

Your father. My father was, I think, in the radio booth for that? Iron Eagle was there, Dov Kramer, who works in FAN a long time. There was a whole WFAN contingent. My uncle literally sat the seat next to Bill Walton.

There you go. My friend who was with us and working for the agency that represented Bill at the time said, we all looked at each other like, what's Bill Walton doing? Just kind of waltzes in by himself and, you know, you obviously can't miss the guy. And he sits down and some of my friends says, Bill, what on earth are you doing here? And he just looks at him and he goes, when there's a championship to be won, I'm in the building. It's a great line.

That is a great line. Thirty years later, I still remember it. And you had some other encounters with Bill. I saw some photo yesterday of you and Bill Walton. What was that, the NBA story? Yeah, I hosted, when his book came out, I guess it was like 2016, I was asked to host the book signing and honestly it was the easiest money I ever made because I said, he literally grabbed the mic from me, literally, I mean that literally, and the rest of it, he just went on.

Grateful Dead, mushrooms, basketball. I mean, he did, I was like, I just put up my feet and just enjoyed it. But you know, look, I was only, only too happy to do it and would have been thrilled to, you know, talk to him a little more, but he was, he was a show. But somebody, as I was waiting for him to come out, he was being interviewed by some magazine writer and I never saw, I didn't know who it was and I never saw where the article came out, but he, I heard him say, heard him ask the question, which of the championships, you know, do you like the most? And it was another great answer, he goes, championships are like children, you love them all and love them all the same. I was like, you know what, that's great. That's a good one.

That's, you know, that's one of those, I've used that many, many times since then. So and there was one other time, he came on a Saturday morning, early 2000s, to the WFA in Studios then in a story at Queens, on a Saturday morning, and he was probably staying in the city, but it wasn't, wasn't exactly an easy, you know, commute. And he came and he, he just sat down and he came early and we were just, you know, talking casually and we just got into one story after another and he looks at us and he goes, that's what I love about you guys, the love of the game. He was a wonderfully nice person, I mean, just, I mean, couldn't say enough nice things about him and it's, it's just, it's a terrible shame.

We will, we remember the life of Bill Walton, who passed away yesterday at the age of 71 when we come on back, you just heard the voice of Rich Ackerman, let's get his latest Infinity Sports Network update. Selling a little or a lot. Shopify helps you do your thing, however you cha-ching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business.

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Minimum $10 per order. Additional terms apply. All right. It is the Infinity Sports Network and it is the Zach Gelb show. The defensive player of the week is sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union who proudly serves the armed forces, DOD veterans and their families and members of the mission.

Learn more at Navyfederal.org. This week's player is Celtics guard Derek White in yesterday's series, clinching win over the Pacers. White had five steals and three blocks, which are both game highs.

White has now blocked three or more shots on three separate occasions this post season. So the Celtics are off to the NBA finals. That will get underway on June 6 and you have the Western Conference finals, which could be over as soon as tomorrow with the Timberwolves down 3-0 in this series. And my oh my, when you take a glance at that series right now where it is with Minnesota being down 3-0, I did not anticipate that whatsoever. Like if you wanted to tell me, excuse me, game fours tonight between the Timberwolves and the Mavericks.

My brain was on Monday still and I just realized that today's Tuesday with yesterday being Memorial Day weekend. But that could be over as soon as tonight. And you have the Mavericks are up 3-0 in the series.

And did anyone see this? Like no one, no one could have seen this coming. If you want to talk to the Mavericks to win the series going in, no one would have rolled your eyes and no one would have said, what the heck are you doing? But the fact that this is at 3-0 in favor of Dallas and Minnesota, they couldn't find a way to win game two. And then in game three, that game going back and Anthony Edwards, by the way, he was taking the game over. I know it was at the end of the third quarter when he threw that dunk down. I'm like, oh, here comes Minnesota to make this what's going to be a very fun game for and you still another quarter to go, but at the end of that game, you could tell he was gassed because they were down big.

And then when he brought them back, Anthony Edwards just exerted all of his energy and he had no gas left to the tank at the end of the fourth quarter. But you take a look at the NBA finals, which could have a long layoff for, you know, if they wrap up tonight, how they're not going to move this up, does it make any sense to me? They would wait in one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, eight, nine days until the NBA finals would start. So you know that the NBA is hoping that you do get Minnesota to at least get one and we'll see if they could get that tonight.

But anyway, you got the news yesterday. I know the Celtics are off to the NBA finals, but the big news in regarding, you know, Bill Walton obviously passing away yesterday at the age of 71, played for the Celtics, won a championship with the Celtics, was the sixth man of the year for the Celtics, also won an NBA MVP and another NBA championship before that with the Portland Trail Blazers. And you also had a stop with the Los Angeles Clippers. But you look back at the basketball career of Bill Walton and you evaluate the accolades of Bill Walton. This is a guy that won two NBA championships. He was a finals MVP, a league MVP at UCLA, won two championships, was a three time National College Player of the Year. And we consider and talk about the accolades of Bill Walton for a long time. And I did not know that he had cancer.

He passed away yesterday at the age of 71 after a battle with cancer. You know, usually each and every year he's at Radio Row for the NCAA tournament. I was very much looking forward to speaking to Bill Walton this year because for years I was trying to get him on the show and we played phone tag for a while, I've talked to him a few times off the air. He left me once the longest voicemail ever. The two longest voicemails I've ever received, John Sterling, the former play-by-play voice of the Yankees, and then Bill Walton. But you know, we found out when we were going out to the Final Four that he wasn't going to make it there this year.

I didn't think much of it. And then you eventually, I don't know when he was diagnosed with cancer, but he passed away from a battle with cancer, which obviously cancer just sucks. And now, unfortunately, Bill Walton is no longer with us as he died yesterday at the age of 71.

But here's the thing. When you talk about Bill Walton, right, Hall of Fame career, we just went through the accolades. A lot of people will talk about, man, imagine that this guy didn't get hurt and have injuries to rail his career.

Look, at the Hall of Fame career he was able to have, even with all the injuries. But you know what is, it speaks to the true person Bill Walton is, is in the last 24 hours since this news did come out that he passed away, has anyone even really talked about the basketball memories? Has anyone even talked about what he did at UCLA? Has anyone ever talked about what he did in Portland and what he did with the Celtics?

No. Everything is about just the fun way that he lived life. And he is someone that was truly a gregarious soul. That is, that is who Bill Walton was. He loved living life. He was a larger than life personality. And he was just someone that was the life of the party.

That's Bill Walton. And it's very telling when you hear tribute after tribute and anecdote after anecdote in the last 24 hours, 99% of them have nothing to do with basketball. For a guy that had a Hall of Fame career, was great in college, I know he'd had a bunch of injuries in the pros, but still won an MVP, two championships in the NBA. And everyone's talking about how fun he was calling games, the tangents, and his love for the Grateful Dead.

You talk about a life well lived. Bill Walton is right up there at the top of the list of great just life's that there were. To have all that success on the court, and don't get me wrong, there's a lot to remember what he did off the court, but for everyone wanted to talk about just his stories and how fun he was, it just shows you the truly special person that Bill Walton was. And may he rest in peace, and I know he is probably somewhere above right now listening and having a concert somewhere up there in heaven, and probably doing a lot of things that would get you in a lot of trouble if you did them in the world right now. But it is the Zach Yelp show on the Infinity Sports Network, rest in peace Bill Walton. We'll take a time out, when we come on back we'll continue a conversation about Bill Walton, also get into the disappointment of the Minnesota Timberwolves being down 3-0, and the Oilers losing last night to go down 2-1 to the Dallas Stars, coming on back.