Antoine Walker- Former Celtics/Kentucky Forward (Hour 2)

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The number one pediatrician recommended brand. Alright, away we go. Hour number two of our radio program.

Antoine Walker will stop by 20 minutes from now. I'm sure he's in a good mood today as the Boston Celtics are up 2-0 in the NBA Finals. And John Fanta will join us an hour from now as we'll get his insight on Dan Hurley saying thanks but no thanks to the Los Angeles Lakers on a six year offer worth $70 million. I know people will say that's a respectable offer and the Lakers tried.

I say nonsense. Dan Hurley is in a great situation. Dan Hurley is royalty in college basketball right now. The NBA will always be there for him if he wants it and he does want it. He's made that clear before. So him talking to the Lakers is one thing. But if you seriously want him to be your head coach, you got to make him an offer better than $70 million over six years.

Like if that was for a first time coach. Oh, it's an outrageous offer. It's unbelievable.

It's sensational. I get it. He'd be a first time NBA head coach. But with the coach at that accomplished in college basketball and is very comfortable where he's at, he didn't have to leave.

And when Monty Williams, right, that was the framework I used going back to last week. You got off from at least 13 $14 million a year because that's what Monty Williams makes to coach the Pistons. And Monty Williams, we know, got the Suns to an NBA Finals, then got fired. But to get Danny Hurley to go from UConn to the pros, and I don't know if he would have succeeded. And I questioned if he was a fit in the pros, but the Lakers wanted him. The Lakers said they wanted him.

They, through woes, said he was their number one target. Then they needed to make him an offer. That bare minimum started with a nine, right? They needed it to be 90.

They need to be 95. Some reported, like John Fanta, that he was here and it was $100 million offer. If Hurley turned that down, then that's one thing. But the fact it was only 70 million over six years, like you're telling me, sure, it's a top six offer. You could present it like it was a good offer, but I see through that. As the kids would say, man, I don't think I'm old enough to say, as the kids could say, I don't. But I call cap on that. I do. I don't think that was an offer that Dan Hurley seriously needed to mull over.

And that's a thing, too, Samter, as well. It's like as the day did go on, like I'm fine with you meet with them on Friday, you wrap things up Saturday, you fly back, you go spend the night out of Billy Joel. You take Saturday, Sunday to talk it over.

But by Monday, you got to make a decision. And I'm sure he felt one way last night and you want to sleep on it. And obviously now we know that decision was to stay.

But when you start to delay, oh, I'm going to tell everyone at 12 and then it gets pushed back to two. My intent just went out because Dan Hurley isn't an idiot. He's obviously a smart man. And, you know, there's a reason why he's reached to this level of stardom in his profession. But the the two things that are in play here is, one, it benefits him if he's staying to let this story linger because it's more attention and more focus and more of a talking point of Yukon dominating the news.

But here's the other thing. If the Lakers and let's say if he told the Lakers yesterday, hey, I'm not taking the job, the Lakers would have already started their spin on this. So he literally kept the Lakers in the dark until some point today and then informed of the decision and then it got out.

That's how this went down. But he was smart to take the moment and keep people waiting. But if he would have kept people waiting and then go to the pros, who that would have been.

That would have been a bad look for Dan Hurley. And honestly, I wasn't as concerned about the, you know, a few hour delay because I just figured, listen, you're making a lot of sense. Yeah, but I mean, you're like he wasn't still mulling over the offer at that point, in my opinion.

I don't know. I don't think he was mulling all over the offer per se. But I think, listen, when you're making a life decision, you don't want to be like he's giving himself a noon deadline.

He wasn't like the Lakers like you have to tell us by noon. He just gave a noon deadline. Because his kids had practice at noon.

They were supposed to. But when you're making a life decision, maybe something else comes up or there's another conversation you have to have. Or maybe you want to talk to your dad about something else.

You want to talk to Bobby out in Arizona about something else. Two hours. Listen, if you waited two days, different story. Two hours, not the end of the world. It didn't really bother me that much.

But like, I don't know. Listen, I'm not judging the guy, whatever relationship you have with your wife and your family. Great. But if you really want to coach the Lakers, coach the Lakers.

Your brother is in Arizona. And I know that, you know, happy life is important. You know, happiness is important and you want your wife and your kids to be happy, all that. But like, if your dream is to coach the Lakers and you're turning it down because your wife doesn't like Los Angeles.

I feel like that's, that's a tough pill to swallow. And also, the offer wasn't good enough. No, it wasn't a great offer. Here's what I'll say.

But it was a good enough offer, especially for a guy who we can tell hates the portal. He's losing three of his biggest stars, right? Cling in there saying he might even go number one.

Like, there's. But he's still on a good team that year. Yes, but if they don't three-peat, A, they're not really expected to three-peat because he's losing so many players. But if they don't three-peat, it's a disappointment for him. Sure.

I get the. But no one's going to crush him for not three-peating. No, but if you miss out on a dream job because you're trying to three-peat with a team that is a long shot to three-peat, it's a tough pill to swallow if he falls short. I don't. If he's bringing back his whole roster and clinging to stains.

So two totally different things. Here's the bottom line. The Lakers didn't make him a good enough offer. I from what I'm told, and I don't know if it's out there or not, but two people that I trust that that are very much in the know what they told me what the offer was to Hurley.

And I'm talking about the Yukon offered to Hurley. What the Lakers offered him isn't enough. It isn't enough to make him say for a job where he was happy at.

Oh, I got to take that. Oh, I got to go move across country and I got to go coach the Lakers. It's just not the Lakers needed to make him a better offer. They needed to make him an offer.

He could have that he couldn't refuse and they failed to do that. Now, let's get to Caitlin Clark. I vehemently disagree with Team USA's decision to leave her off the roster. I'm not saying any of the women that are on the roster don't belong. But where we are with women's basketball, which is in.

A positive, great spot it is we have talked about in a national format. More about women's basketball in the last year, year and a half, then we probably have in the history of this network. That's not me putting down women's basketball.

It's just the reality of the situation. But right now, Caitlin Clark is not only the most popular player in women's basketball, but she is one of the more popular players in all of sports. Her individual brand is so big.

It is so huge. And as women's basketball continues to grow and continues to hopefully have a spot where we're talking about it a lot. I think it's just a bad business decision to not put Caitlin Clark on Team USA. And don't tell me, well, she's a rookie.

She doesn't belong. We've seen rookies before, people in college before make these teams. Go to the men's team all those years ago with Christian Laker. So with Caitlin Clark, there's not a player on the roster that I look at and say, wow, that person has to be off and she definitely has to be on it.

That's not what I'm saying. But in terms of a will you get me to watch in terms of what's best for the sport, Team USA with women's basketball, they dropped the ball. And I'll give credit to Samter for this when I did praise a lot of the women in the NCAA tournament from Juju Watkins to Paige Becker's to Angel Reese to Caitlin Clark and so on and so on. Samter was the one who said Caitlin Clark is the person that gets you to watch. Now, all those other ladies that I mentioned, you can develop a newfound respect for them.

You can talk about them in a glowing way. But the reason you got to watch them for most of us is because we were interested in Caitlin Clark and then it sparks other interests and it's a domino effect. But I would have probably said to Samter, he's wrong on this because I remember Sam said something along the lines of if Caitlin Clark gets eliminated, you know, he's not going to watch the rest of the women's tournament. And I was like, hold on, there's some other really good players there that give you a reason to watch. But where I'll say Samter is right on this, like the women's basketball for the Olympics, and I'm not a big Olympics guy.

I'm not. You know, I love the swimming with Phelps for all those years. For some reason, I kind of like the Winter Olympics more than the Summer Olympics. You know, I don't get all crazy and delirious over the men's basketball team. But when it comes to the women's game, because of the individual stardom of Caitlin Clark, and I don't know what her minutes would have been and she would have been coming off the bench to be clear.

But am I going to go out of my way and take my time? And trust me, I have a lot of time to go watch the women's chase a gold medal with Caitlin Clark not being in the mix. I'm just being transparent.

I'm not. You put Caitlin Clark on that team. I'm absolutely watching. But now that she's not on that team, it doesn't pique my interest in terms of me tuning in and they don't need her. They'll win gold. They won't lose a game in all likelihood. Heck, since 1996, the women's basketball team is 54-0 with seven gold medals in the Olympics.

Seven. 54-0 and seven gold medals. So they'll survive without her. But it seems like a missed opportunity for women's basketball. Because there's so many of us that have fallen in love with Caitlin Clark that we just want to see her play more. And when you're on such a big stage like the Olympics, her not being there, even though there's better players than her right now on that team, it doesn't make me say, OK, I'm going to go out of my way to find the Olympics and find Team USA and watch. But if she was involved in it, I absolutely would. So, Sam, that's where I'm kind of at on this one. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense.

I get it. But I just I look at it as a situation where it's kind of like it's a difference between like if you're looking at like an article, what's more important? Being right in the article and being and having good information or like being clickbait. Having Caitlin Clark on the team is clickbait. But she's deserving. Well, is she?

Yes. I mean, she's the best player in college basketball. In college basketball. But we're talking about the WNBA and the pros. There are these other players who have earned their way onto the team.

And Caitlin is she's she's within that conversation. Sure, I'm not saying that she doesn't deserve it all. But these are other players who have done more in their careers, at least professionally, than Caitlin Clark has.

So they put in that they've earned that in a different kind of way. I agree that she probably should be on the team because it's close enough that you can at least make an argument that she she belongs. But here's the other part of it. She'd be on the team and she's going to get three to five to six minutes a game. Well, that we don't know. She's not going to get a lot of minutes. She's going to be the last person on the bench and she's she's going to get in the game at the end. And people are going to be pissed.

So then you have that part of it, too. Do you put her on the team? Well, she still may make the team because of injuries. And I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on how great of a player she is. But Chelsea Gray and that situation, it's OK. Will she be ready in time? So there's a chance because she's currently out with the injury for the Las Vegas Aces. There's a chance she still may get on the team. But this is just one of those scenarios where it's like to turn in microphone, if you don't mind.

I just I hear the type of the typing and it's distracting me. It's just one of those scenarios where you have an opportunity right now where you're getting more eyeballs on your sport than ever before. An unprecedented amount of eyeballs. And the reason why people are tuning in, not saying there aren't other great players because there are, is because of Kaitlyn Clark. And whether she would have got 15 minutes or she would have got two minutes, having her a part of the team will pique a lot more people's interest to tune in and continue to grow the game, rather than not putting her on the team, even if she only got two or three minutes.

So that's the thing. Are you still watching? Like maybe that first game you're going to watch because like I want to see. But if after like two or three games, she's only getting four or five minutes towards the end of a blowout game. Are you still watching to watch that last four minutes of Kaitlyn Clark in a 30 point game against Latvia? It still has my my interest. I'm still captivated because she's a part of the story.

Her not being a part of the story. It's going to they'll still win a gold medal. They still won't lose a game. But in terms of viewership, it's going to hurt in a big way.

It is a Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. Celtics are up 2-0 in the NBA Finals. Do the Mavs have any hope? And what are the Celtics doing so well up against Kyrie Irving?

We'll talk to former Celtic Antoine Walker when we continue in five minutes. Instacart knows nothing gets between you and the game. That's why they make ordering from your couch easy. Stock up today and get all your groceries for the week delivered in as fast as 30 minutes without missing a minute of the game. You have 47 new voice mails. Download the app to get free delivery on your first three orders while supplies last.

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All right. It is the Infinity Sports Network Zach Gelb show here with you on a Monday. I was watching a video that I guess happened a day or two ago. Maybe it was walking around Boston. I don't know if he was at the games or not.

I know NBA and TNT is no more for the rest of the season and has what we think one year left. But Charles Barkley was walking around and he was walking past. I guess a Mavs fan who's like a streamer and someone that just like harasses people just to get clicks and all that stuff. And this fan yelled, You are Michael Jordan's son. Imagine not winning an NBA championship like yelling at Charles Barkley. And Barkley got heat a little bit. And some people were like, Oh, you know, Barkley should have just kept on walking instead of like entertaining this guy. Quite frankly, I thought Charles Barkley should have punched this punk's ass.

I'm not even kidding. I think he should have just knocked this kid out. Whoever is yelling these things like think about how disrespectful that is. You know, it's one thing to have an opinion and it's one thing to give a take. But here's Charles Barkley just walking around and he's got to deal with someone running up to him and yelling right in his face.

Oh, you never won a championship. And clearly it's just someone that was trying to get a video in and get a bunch of views. But that's a scenario that that was at hand.

So I would have had no problem with Charles Barkley beating the crap out of that person that was just yelling at him. Anton Walker is going to join us coming up in just a second. I see he just popped into the Zoom, so we'll bring him up in just a moment as the Boston Celtics are up to 0 in the NBA finals. And this series going to shift back to Dallas coming up on Wednesday. And we'll see if this starts to become a series. And Dallas has to win these next two. And Dallas does not win these next two.

And this series gets the three one. I don't see a way that Boston loses this series. And I still don't think Boston has played their best yet in this series. And they're still up two games to none. And there were moments last night, especially in the first half, where Boston was kind of begging for Dallas to go win the game and still at halftime, the Celtics were able to have a three point lead. Now joining us, former Boston Celtic.

He, of course, is Antoine Walker with the C's up 2-0 in the NBA finals. Antoine, always great to have you on. Thanks so much for doing this. How you been? I've been good, man. Thanks for having me on.

Well, thanks so much for coming on. So through the first two games of this series, just what has been your biggest takeaway when you look at the Boston Celtics? I think it's the depth. I think when you look at the depth of the Boston Celtics, they seven, eight deep and get great production from those guys. The depth is starting to run. And we talk about the stars of this series.

You talk about Korea, Luca, and then we'll talk about Jason and obviously Jalen. But to me, for the Celtics, just early after two games, holiday has to be the MVP of this series. He's been terrific. A guy they traded for, made a big move, gave him extension. He's been the difference maker. And if you go back to game one, another guy they traded for, Impa Zingas. Those guys have been the difference makers this time around with the Celtics being the finals and with those two guys.

And then obviously we know Derek White's been a rock all year long. So the Celtics, I think, are just much deeper and the others are playing really, really well. You hear Shaq say this all the time about the others. When you look at the Celtics, others, they're the ones that's making a difference. And I think a big credit has to go to Brad Stevens. I know for a lot of us, Brad Stevens may be out of sight, out of mind just because he's not coaching the team. But you talked about it, getting Kristaps Porzingis and trading away a fan favorite and Marcus Smart.

You also in that deal got two first round picks and one of those picks were used to get Drew Holliday. Brad Stevens, who was good as a coach, he's been pressing all the right buttons as of late ever since becoming the president of basketball operations. Oh, without question, they got a window.

And I think one thing I think if you look at Brad, obviously I'm not in the war room, but they looked at they got two young stars in jail and Jason. And let's do everything to put the right pieces around them and see if we can win us a couple of championships. Came up short, obviously, I guess, a veteran team in Golden State a couple of years ago.

But now I think it's the doors open for them. And I know you guys still got a job to do this series, but to be in the finals for the next three, four years and get itself a chance to win another title or multiple titles. And I think that's what Brad Stevens has done.

He said this team to be very good for the next three to five years and have a chance to win legitimate titles. And Tom Walker here with us the defense. And I know you touched on it a little bit, but Kyrie Irving has done nothing through the first two games of the series. I know Luca showed up in a big way, had twenty three points in the first half last night. What are you seeing right now out of the Celtics defenders up against Kyrie Irving?

Well, we don't talk about it enough. The Celtics have multiple defenders. We don't talk about how great a defender Holliday and Derek White are. Both of those guys are elite defenders. Jalen Brown came in his league as an elite defender.

He made his name Ben Leaf and obviously his offensive game has grown over the years. And then Al Horford has been a great defender in his especially when he was younger in his career. So they just have multiple guys that can guard.

This is a different series than what Dallas has seen coming from the Minnesota series. They don't have two seven footers that necessarily are not mobile and that can't move. The Celtics can switch one through five. Al Horford can stay in front of a Luca diamond.

So you got different the matchups. I think because the Celtics won so much this year and they were so great offensively, we forget how good they are defensively. And we're seeing it now in the finals.

Talking to Antoine Walker right now. So I don't want to take away from what they're doing defensively because they've been sensational defensively. But Kyrie Irving going back to Boston the last two. Clearly that building has been a house of horrors from hit for him ever since he left the Boston Celtics. How much does that maybe impact a player where, sure, Boston's been great defensively, but it seems like Kyrie's a little bit more focused with the fans rather than the task at hand on the court. It's tough there. You know, it's tough sometimes for your own to be a Boston Celtics again, if you don't play great. They're going to really get on top of you.

This is this is a diehard fan base. They're going to make it really tough on them. Obviously, the situation him leaving was not great. So they're going to they're going to be on them.

They're going to give them a hard time. I mean, I feel for him. He probably can't even go to dinner.

I mean, let's think about the off the court, too. I mean, probably only feel comfortable going to dinner. So he's basically in a hotel for four or five days. Well, he came and go out and enjoy the city a little bit and get a good meal.

He probably doesn't want to go out. I think it plays a part. I can start to wear you as a player. You know, we all are human. We all go through these things.

So I think being at home, I'm expecting to see a better Kyrie Irving game three or four because being at home and being in front of his home crowd. But I feel for him. It's a tough situation.

I mean, it's something that you got to deal with. It didn't work out well in Boston. And the fans in Boston are really diehard fans. And, you know, they love their Celtics.

So they're going to get out. It's all in the fun of competition. I'm glad nothing's happened besides nothing but booing. You know, I mean, that's what we want to keep it at. It's one thing to play better when you get home. And I think it'll be better. You can't really get worse than what happened last two games, but we'll be better enough to then take both games three and four. Like I kind of go into these next two games thinking Boston's going to find a way to split. Yeah, I had to sell this in five.

That was my prediction early on. Luca and Kyrie are two outstanding, great stars in this league. You got to figure they're going to figure it out. Texas kids, a great coach. They'll figure out a way to get one. I just think Boston from top to bottom are a much better team.

I think, you know, you got to. When you think about the contributions and things of that nature, who can be that third, fourth guy for Dallas? And I think they role players are playing particularly well. I mean, we had to look at the first two games. Kyrie hasn't been great, obviously. I mean, Luca has put some numbers up, but the eight turnovers hurt last night.

So the stars have to be stars. But you also need your role players to step up and somebody else to be that third or fourth guy. It'll be interesting to see if a P.J.

Washington or somebody can step up. You said something earlier that I 100 percent agree with that the Celtics are the better team. There are a lot of people, though, from the conversation I heard.

And I get it. We had a long layoff in the conference finals of the NBA final. So people are looking to just say things. But it seemed like a lot of people were not only picking the Mavericks, but they thought the Mavericks were the better team. Is it just that Boston, since they've been close and haven't got the job done, people weren't believing they would get the job done? Because this team has been pretty much flawless the entire year with the record they've been putting out. Well, I think people probably maybe didn't understand how good the Celtics were. I mean, you will think with their record and having the best record, people will understand this team was really, really good. But also, the experience factor, you've got to think their two best players went through, been in the finals and had disappointment. These two young stars, so they got to, you know, they want to rebound.

They want to make sure that they play well. You bring in a guy like Holliday, an NBA champion who's been there before. He's ready for this moment. You've got Alan Horford, a guy that's hungry, who's never been in this moment. He's played a ton of meaningful games.

He's got a chance to get him a title in his career. Porzingis, who's been another guy who's got a chip on his shoulder. The Dallas Mavericks traded him. You forgot about that. Traded him and obviously, you've got to think about now he's in a situation. So the Celtics have a lot of great storylines.

Missoula's been there before as a head coach. He learned from his mistakes. The Celtics are built for this moment. They made the right moves.

They made the right decisions. And their two stars are ready for this moment. Wrap it up with Anton Walker who joins us right now. Celtics up 2-0 in the NBA Finals. Tatum has not gone off in the point production department.

I know he had double-digit assists last night and he was 6-22 from the field. That's another thing I keep on liking Boston in this series. Boston has played fine. They played good. They're up 2-0.

I think though they could get to another gear. How about what you expect out of Tatum in Game 3? He's been great. He's done what he had to do to help the team win.

Obviously, you want efficient. You would love for him to be a little bit more efficient on the offensive end. But that's a stat line he had. That means that he's not concerned with just scoring the basketball when he's able to rebound and assist and continue to play. That speaks values.

That speaks maturity. That speaks to a guy that's been in this moment before and he's played in a ton of meaningful games. Knowing that because of the team that Brad Stevens has built around him, he don't have to get 35 for them to win.

He don't have to get 40. It's a difference. You look at a team where Luke and Kyrie, I don't know if they can win a game without Luke and Kyrie both maybe coming up with 70.

You know what I mean? This team was built different. And that's why Brad Stevens got executive of the year because he put pieces around these two young stars so that when they have a bad game, you got other guys that will step in and make sure that they take care of business. And that's what you're seeing. You're seeing the depth of the Celtics play a big part in this series.

And just wait. Jason Tame is going to have one of the moments. He's going to have one of them games. It could be game three, maybe game four.

You don't know when it's coming, but he's going to have one of those moments where he has a monster game. And that doesn't sit well for the Dallas Mavericks. What did you make of kids' comments, Jason Kidd's comments after game one, saying that Jalen Brown is the Celtics' best player. Was that a little bit of some mind games, or do you think that's just J. Kidd's honest opinion? I think if these guys were in their first and second year, but these two guys have been together for a long time now, and they've played in so many meaningful games, they're not focused on that. If they hadn't been to the Finals before, if they haven't played the Golden State team, they've been to wars. They're young, they've had a lot of success early on. I don't mind Jason Kidd doing it. Anything you can do to try to help your team maybe get a little edge in that nature is cool.

It's good for the tablet. Like you said, we had a bunch of days off. You can start thinking of a bunch of stuff to try to think about. But honestly, top to bottom, you're talking about the Mavs. Mavs had a good season. They didn't have a great season. They're a sixth seed. They were sixth seed.

They have two stars. You're playing against the best team in the NBA, and the Celtics are showing that. The Celtics are showing why they're the best team in the NBA. And matchups are everything, and I'll say this before we go.

Everybody will understand. It's a bad matchup for the Dallas Mavs. The Celtics have multiple guys they can put on them on both of your stars. They're not limited in their system. They play small. They can play small. They can play big.

And they're deeper. It happens sometimes. Playoffs are about matchups. Sometimes you just don't match up well with a team, and you need a lot of things to go your way. And unfortunately, the Celtics are healthy now.

They have full strength. They can play a lot of different ways, a lot of different lineups, and just a bad matchup for the Dallas Mavs. Anton Walker, let me just get your thoughts on Dan Hurley passed up the Lakers offer. Six years, 70 million is going to stay at UConn.

When you saw that today after the long wait, as we were all waiting that news, what was your reaction? I thought he made the right decision. When you look at the Lakers roster and where they at right now, LeBron's going to be 40 AD. You know, he's in his prime, but you don't have the third guy. DeAngelo Russell's going to free agency. You don't know if he may opt out. He may become a free agent. It's just the roster's not good enough for him to leave UConn when you think about it.

It's just not. He's got an opportunity to make history, to win his, to three-peat a legitimate chance. He's done a terrific job there.

And guess what? In two years from now, I still believe an opportunity to go to the NBA will still be there for him. I don't think he has to jump at this. I think he'll still be there because he'll still be coaching and his teams will be playing at a high level. He'll be competing for championships.

I don't think he has to jump at this. It's just tough because of the Lakers. If we understand the organization and the history that they have and being able to coach the Lakers team and obviously to be able to coach LeBron, but you're not coaching LeBron at 25. I don't know how excited I'm going to be to coach LeBron at 40, even though he's playing at a very high level.

But I just think it's different. And he's also too. I played Rick Pitino came, and I'll say this last thing. Rick Pitino came in and took over in Boston. And we all know the success he had at the collegiate level.

It's tough, man. This is a player's league. This is a player's league. And if you're not willing to understand that it's a player's league, then you got to stay in the college ranks where you still have a little control as your program, you still kind of control things. In the NBA, you have to bow down to the players. It's the player's league. And I don't necessarily know if some of the great college coaches want to do that. They like to stand in a position where they run the program and they're able to develop. But when you get in the league, it's a player's league. And I think Hurley looked at that because he's looking at LeBron and AD. You know, everything, you just got to sit down with them every day and see if they want to practice, see how we want to do the schedule.

You know what I mean? It's a lot of things that he has to do in the NBA that he don't have to do in college. And I think he's making the right decision for himself. Last thing I'll ask you, Antoine Walker. Calipari now at Arkansas. Your guy, Mark Pope, is now the head coach of your Wildcats.

Just how about how all that played out since we haven't talked to you in a while? I'm happy for both sides. Cal has been nothing but great to me in his tenure at Kentucky as far as allowing me to be back, taking care of me, making me still feel a part of the program. So I have a lot of respect for Cal. And I also got to add, my best friend is one of the assistant coaches too.

Ron Coleman on the staff. So I have a lot of respect for Cal. I've got to know him personally and through my best friend. I know how much a great guy he is. So I'm happy for Cal. But I'm also happy for Mark Pope.

Obviously been playing two years with Mark and knowing Mark real well. He'll do a good job. It'll be a little different.

It won't be the same as Cal. He won't probably won't be able to get every big time five-star guy. But he'll compete. He gonna work hard. He'll put a productive and competitive product on the floor. And eventually he'll have the chance to make a deep run in the tournament. He'll be that.

And with the transfer portal, anything is happening because you can put together a team in a transfer portal. So I'm happy for both guys. Excited for Mark getting the opportunity to go back to Kentucky and to coach at his alma mater.

It's something special. I'm looking forward to see him do that. But I'm also happy for Cal that he's getting an opportunity to coach. But like I said, my big friend is on that staff.

And so I root for those guys just as much. Antoine, always appreciate the time. Thanks so much for doing this, my man. All right, thanks for having me, man.

Yeah, there you go. Antoine Walker joining us on the Zach Gelb Show. Always enjoy our conversations with him as we get his thoughts on Kyrie Irving and what has happened the first two games in Boston with that series. Now shifting back to Dallas with the Celtics up 2-0. And obviously the big news of the day, Danny Hurley saying thanks, but no thanks to the Los Angeles Lakers going to be staying at UConn.

All right, well, come on back. Mike Tomlin got a three-year extension. What's kind of the state of the Steelers right now?

We still believe in Mike Tomlin. All right, it is the Zach Gelb Show on the Infinity Sports Network. Samter just brought something up during the break that's a very big development and a good point.

And I did see this yesterday when it was published. I did not watch the entire thing. I just watched like a little clip of it. Our favorite hockey fan, the Oilers girl, who showed parts of herself to people when she was celebrating at a watch party when the Oilers scored a goal and won the game up against the Dallas Stars in that crazy game five, which was in Dallas, and she was obviously at Edmonton at the Oilers watch party. She has been found. The identity was not revealed to this person for a long time, but the Spitting Chicklets, right, hockey podcast, sensational hockey podcast through Barstool, they got in contact with her and they brought her on their show. And Samter, I think the funniest thing is she had no problem showing a lot of her in that moment, and maybe she didn't think it was gonna go as viral as it was, and maybe I can't speak for herself, I didn't watch the entire thing.

You have a few drinks, you're having fun, you do something in your seats that you don't think you'll become like the most obsessed thing when it comes to hockey for a little bit. But when she went on the podcast yesterday, she, I think, had a sweatshirt on, and not only had a sweatshirt on, she had these enormous sunglasses so you could barely see her face. So two things.

One, and I wanna just make this clear, I did not watch the entire clip. I only watched when they brought her on and surprised everyone on the show. Number one, is that actually the lady? And number two, it's so funny when we know so much about what and how you look that when you go on, you don't really want the attention even though you're doing the interview and you have these big sunglasses to try to hide your face when everyone already saw her face and a lot more sampler.

Yeah, so I watched a little bit more of the interview. She does take off her glasses. Oh, she does? She does. Okay. Is it the real person? Sure, maybe.

There's no way to verify it. So you watched more than I did. I just saw the one clip when they brought her on. How much did you watch the interview around? About two minutes, three minutes or so, something on those lines. So you didn't leave the two or three minutes thinking that's definitely her?

I mean, the way she was speaking, it sounded like it definitely could have been her. She said that it initially was on, that she had it removed and then somehow it got back on and that's when it went viral. So the first time that it was there, apparently. Like on social media, you're saying in the video? On social media, nobody paid any attention to it.

It wasn't until they went to the cup that people started taking notice. There was one other moment and I was trying to find the clip that I can play it, but I wasn't able to get it in time. But they straight up asked her the very important question. Can I guess what the question is? Yeah. Well, does it have to do something with that New York Post article that there were certain websites that were trying to find out who she was because they wanted her services? No, it's not that? Okay.

Think Seinfeld. Are they real and spectacular? So they asked that question. Her answer might surprise you. She said, no, they are not real. Really? Is what she said. Wow. That's actually stunning.

I thought for sure those were real. I did. I was very careful with my wording there.

I just wanted to make sure that I said that in an appropriate manner and reflecting Infinity Sports Network in the best of my ability. But have you seen the other video, just wondering? Sully sent this to me. Our good friend, Sully, which I don't know if I should be saying this on the air, but everyone has seen this video.

There was a hype video. I guess a few years ago, a model went to a Florida Panthers game and she was sitting right on the glass and she did something very similar to what the Oilers fan did. Now, those did not look real. I thought for sure the Oilers gal, her tatas?

I guess that's what we'll go with. I thought for sure those were real. So that was actually a conversation I had with someone in my family when the video first happened. And they said, oh yeah, those are definitely real.

And they thought because she was leaning back a little bit, maybe they looked bigger than what they actually were. And that was a heated conversation that myself and my father were having. So anyway, wow. That's a stunning development, Samter.

I'm going to sound like Mraz for a second when he said I'm stunned to a noose when he said that on the DA show. That is a stunning piece of information. Here it is in her own voice. Oh, you have it?

Okay, let's listen up. Are they real? I think that's one other question that a lot of people had. Is that a rude question to ask? No, they are not real. Wow.

That's actually kind of flattering, right? I mean, we all thought they were real. Oh, I thought 100% they were real. She kind of seemed disgusted that they even asked. Like, how dare you think those are real?

Play that one more time, Chris S. Give me that clip one more time. Are they real? I think that's one other question that a lot of people had. Is that a rude question to ask?

No, they are not real. That's a weird noise at the end. She was laughing, but I had to cut out some of the laughing because they were all talking. Everyone was cackling. Yeah, cackling and yakking.

It's a good guess spot. I will watch the Stanley Cup Final tonight with the Panthers going up against the Oilers. And the Oilers, they dominated the Panthers in Game 1 from a shop production, but Bobrovsky was just spectacular and kind of felt like a lot of times how the Panthers looked up against my Rangers with the way the Oilers were playing, except the Panthers ended up winning the game, and I like the Panthers to win that series. Anyway, Mike Tomlin gets a three-year extension. We'll get more into this conversation in just a bit. I think the interesting part, just to kind of set it up before we get to John Fanta, who's going to join us coming up in eight minutes, is the approach here by the Steelers. Like, I think if...

I don't want to say... I can't speak for everyone, but I do think there is a strong contingent of Steeler fans that are tied with Mike Tomlin, and I think Mike Tomlin is a top-ten coach in the league. You know, he's right in that top-five conversation. You can make a case for it, but the Steelers' standard is to be Super Bowl or bust. The Steelers have not had a Super Bowl or bust feel to them in quite some time, and since 2016, 2016, that regular season, that year, the 2016 football season, that was the last time the Steelers ended up winning the game in the postseason. So no playoff victories in 2017, 18, 19, 22, 22, 23, and then 24.

None of them. That's kind of crazy, that when you go through all those postseason years, they have not had... And I know they haven't always made the playoffs, and there's been some years where they've been above.500 and they just don't get in, but to not have a playoff victory since the 2016 regular season, I could understand, even though we all acknowledged Tomlin's a really good coach, and the Steelers were like, yeah, we got to move in a different direction. But I respect what the Steelers are doing because of this. A lot of times you have a really good coach, and you get rid of that really good coach, and Tomlin will be a Hall of Famer.

You get rid of that coach, and then you're never able to find someone that could come close to that coach again. And I understand why some Steelers fans are like, oh, we got to try something new because you haven't won a playoff game since 2016. That's not the standard for the Steelers. But the Steelers organization has only had three coaches. You know, when you look at Knoll and you look at Kauer, and then obviously you look at Tomlin, and that's going back since 1969, they're saying, we're going to continue to trust our guy. We're going to continue not only to trust our guy, give him another extension, a three-year extension. And we don't want to see what life is like without him.

But you got to start winning playoff games, or a playoff game if you're Mike Tomlin, because it's expected that you win another Super Bowl with the Steelers. You could spend the weekend doing the same old whatever, or you could conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey.