Sixers Done With Doctor's Orders (Hour 1)

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Additional terms apply. Live from the police show yet not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Tuesday edition of the Zach Gilb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app. 855-212-4CBS, the number to jump on in. 855-212-4227, you can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gilb, that's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Got two guests for you today, Bonta Hill is going to join us to talk about the Golden State Warriors at 7.20pm Eastern, 4.20pm Pacific, and John Marks from Sports Radio 94 WIP and also right here on CBS Sports Radio will join us at 8.20pm Eastern, 5.20pm Pacific as the Philadelphia 76ers.

They said parted ways, I'll just say the non-politically correct term, they fired Doc Rivers today, but I always love the wording that organizations do use when they get rid of a head coach to react to all the aftermath of the Doc Rivers firing with John Marks later on in the program. But producing the extravaganza first for the next four hours is no other than Hot Take Kiki. I don't know about that Hot Take Kiki. So we got the start of the Western Conference Finals coming up later tonight, you have the Denver Nuggets hosting the Los Angeles Lakers, the Joker going up against Lebron James, and that does lead to a poll question today, and that's where we're going to start the show. Which NBA star player's legacy benefits the most from winning it all this year? The options, Lebron James, Nicole Jokic, Jason Tatum, and Jimmy Butler. My answer right out of the gate is Lebron James. And I know you could sit there and say, Zach, what is there really more to add on to his legacy?

He's one of the greatest players of all time, already has all the MVPs, the four NBA championships, like we know what Lebron is doing in year 20 is all a bunch of gravy. But when you look at the conversation, which full disclosure, I hate this conversation of Lebron James against Michael Jordan. It's the dumbest and laziest conversation that we do in sports media, because all it does for sports radio is I just want to take phone calls. I don't really want to have an opinion today. So give me a call.

855-212-4CBS. Who's better? Is it Michael Jordan or is it Lebron James?

I hate, I despise that conversation. And the reason why I despise it is because you get people that call in, Oh, Lebron sucks, I'm a Michael Jordan fan. Or Michael Jordan sucks, I'm a Lebron fan.

But the impetus of that conversation is who is the greatest player of all time. And if Lebron James wants to get that tag, and some may already give it to him, he's going to have to get to six championships. He's currently on four. And we know how old Lebron James is getting. And we don't know how many more years Lebron James is going to play with him being 38 years old. But just when you think Lebron is, and I say this in air quotes, starting to slow down, or as my genius producer last week said, he doesn't have another great performance in him, like where he goes off for 30 something points and then he scores 30 points in his latest game. You get moments like that where just when you think with all the injuries, maybe Lebron is getting closer to the finish line, and then bam, out of nowhere, he's in the Western Conference Finals. Let me remind you, for a team that people thought, and I'll raise my hand to be the first one to admit it, that Lebron was never going to win a championship with the Lakers, and we know he got another championship with the Los Angeles Lakers a few years ago in the bubble.

So you make that two at Miami, one in Cleveland, which is the most important one, and then one in Los Angeles. When he gets to five, he's then one away from six, and the one knockout argument that the Jordan fan has over the Lebron fan is Michael Jordan got to six finals, and he won them all. Six championships, six appearances, won them all. But if you get six and you've been to more, that is more impressive because you got to more NBA Finals. Like I'd rather be, and right now Lebron is four and six in NBA Finals, let's just say Lebron James gets two more championships, which I don't even know if he's going to get.

I think Denver's going to win this series. But if he gets two more championships, he'll be six and six. If you ask me, would I rather be six and oh in the NBA Finals or six and six, I'd rather be six and six because that means I was advancing further throughout my career than just getting to six championships.

It's usually a stupid argument, and this is why I hate this argument, because it takes away from two great players, and it pins people in a corner where to build up your guy, you got to trash the other guy. But if you're into that conversation, that's why to this poll question, which NBA star player's legacy benefits the most from winning it all this year? I do think it's Lebron James.

And then number two, I believe it's Nicole Jokic. Because if the Joker wins this championship, he will be viewed as the best player in the NBA. And I would love to see on a side note, Nicole Jokic win four games against the Lakers and then four games against either Boston or Miami, because it's ridiculous. Some of the disrespect that Nicole Jokic has to deal with, how people call him boring and how people don't want to accept his greatness. The MVP conversation, and I don't have a problem with Embiid winning the award, was one of the dumbest conversations I've ever heard in sports media.

With some of the ways people were trying to prop their guy up and tear the other guy down. But for Nicole Jokic, the one thing missing off his already impressive resume that has two MVPs is a world championship. And he really has never had a chance to win a world championship until this year. I know he's been in the Western Conference Finals before. And the last two years he's been without Jamal Murray. But this is a year when you enter the postseason and a lot of you didn't want to say it, even though they're number one overall seed. But I've been a big supporter of Denver ever since they kind of got hot right before Jamal Murray tore his ACL back in 2021.

Where I was really believing in that team. But you look at this Nuggets team, they're a team that have had to prove so many people wrong even after having a great, and I mean a great regular season. So you look at Denver, it's very similar, Hickey, to the way that I view the Milwaukee Bucks with Giannis on to the Kumpa when he won the two MVPs. And everyone's like, oh, Giannis can't win the big game. You can't win a championship with Giannis. And boom, he eventually got a championship. And once Giannis won that championship, and it's kind of funny because the floodgates weren't open to him being the best player in the sport when he won two MVPs. The conversation of him being the best player in the sport didn't happen until he put up that 50 burger in the NBA finals, made almost all of his free throws, and won a championship with Milwaukee. And was winding up at Chick-fil-A ordering 50 chicken nuggets, which is one of my favorite videos of all time. When he goes up to Chick-fil-A, you have the lady taking the order by the drive-by window and through the drive-through, and he's like, I have all these followers on my Instagram Live right now.

Like, that was a good Instagram Live story compared to whatever John Moran's trying to do on Instagram Live these days. But that's the way that I would feel for Nicole Jokic if he wins this title and wins these next eight games or eight more games, he will then be viewed as the best player in the sport. But from a legacy standpoint, I do think LeBron is the most to gain because it puts him closer and closer to really the immortal Michael Jordan. And then, if you have to pick between Tatum and Butler, I actually think Butler would be third because if Jimmy Butler, even though Bam Adebayo is a really damn good player, if Jimmy Butler wins a championship, it's going to be viewed as him winning it pretty much on his own. Like, we've seen a few championships throughout the years where a guy gets credit for winning it on his own. Even though Giannis had Drew Holliday and Chris Middleton, and those guys have accomplished a lot in this sport, they're not viewed as superstars. So you look at Giannis, you look at really more so what Kawhi Leonard in Toronto won with. And even Dirk Nowitzki with the roster. And you're right, you had Jason Kidd on that team, but Jason Kidd wasn't the same player as he was throughout most of his Hall of Fame career.

There's very few teams that win championships with one superstar. And that's what Jimmy Butler has a chance to do. And then finally, it would be Jason Tatum in answering this question. We're Jason Tatum, we all know how great he is, we all know how young he is, we all know how many game sevens he's played in, and how far he has already gone, the one thing missing from his resume. And there's other things add on, like maybe he wins an MVP one day, things like that. But it's about championship or bust for Boston. If Tatum wins, that puts him in that category of all, I'm not saying it moves him past all these guys, because that would be crazy, because there's so much more of his career still left. But it puts him in that conversation of those great Boston Celtic athletes. And really, in the last 20, 25 years, the great Boston athletes, when you go through all the sports and all their championships that they've won, it gives him that moment with the Duck Boat Parade, and he gets to have his own chapter of Boston excellence.

So that's the way that I answer that one through four. Which NBA star player's legacy benefits the most from winning it all this year? One for me is LeBron James, because of the Michael Jordan conversation, it moves him closer and closer to Michael.

If you don't already have them past Michael. Two would be Nicole Jokic, best player in the league. Three for me, Jimmy Butler, that one superstar winning it on his own. And then Jason Tatum would be in at fourth. The early returns right now, and you can find this poll question, Hickey will retweet it at CBS Sports Radio.

You can retweet it at CBS Sports Radio, and also find it on my personal Twitter, at Zach Gelb. The early returns right now have Nicole Jokic in at first place with 34.8% of the vote. LeBron James in second with 31.9% of the vote. Jimmy Butler, 18.8% of the vote in third. And then in fourth, Jason Tatum, 14.5% of the vote. So the audience right now that's on Twitter just disagrees with me on one and two.

As I have one and two reverse. LeBron one, Joker two. And Twitter goes Joker one, LeBron two. And then we both are in agreement that it's Butler third. And then Jason Tatum fourth for which NBA star player's legacy benefits the most from winning it all this year. Hickey, let me open this question up to you before we open it up to the phones.

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227 if you want to jump in to that conversation. Which NBA star player's legacy benefits the most winning it all this year out of those four options? Nicole Jokic. He jumps to a stratosphere that no other player out of these four would get to. He would jump I think the highest, the furthest of any of these four players. You mentioned you win a championship, you are now universally without a doubt considered the best player in the NBA. He's been a very polarizing player. Not in the way he plays, not in his skill, but in the way people perceive him.

Where some, and it's a very small minority but a vocal minority, don't give him the respect he deserves. Don't give the Nuggets overall as a team the respect they deserve. And if they win a championship, not only does that shut everyone up, but now there's no argument. Like what else are you going to say about Nicole Jokic? The guys won two MVPs, arguably maybe should have won three, and just won a title and has a ring. Nothing else you could say about him. And that stupid argument goes away and I think he's universally seen as the best player in the NBA.

I'll go Joker. So if LeBron wins his championship, and I don't think the gap is as big as what people make it out to be, some with LeBron and Michael. Michael Jordan still to me is the greatest basketball player of all time, but if you want to tell me it's LeBron I'm not going to sit there and yell at you. But for me, I argued that I think this is more important to LeBron because it continues to narrow the gap. I would think in that conversation, if you think that LeBron still needs to narrow that gap, which there are a lot of people that do operate that way.

And it gets him closer to six. Why does the best player just right now in the sport for you win this argument compared to maybe the best player of all time when I use the word legacy? Because I just don't think at this point there's a debate. Like people are dug in on either side. If you're a Michael fan, you're a Michael guy. And nothing you could do could change it. If you're a LeBron guy, you're a LeBron guy.

Maybe 30 years from now we can look at it a little bit more clearly. But it's like they are already neck and neck to me at least, even though there's a two championship gap. There's a lot of other areas that LeBron James has passed Michael Jordan in.

So it's just like sure, it adds another layer and now it's six to five. But for me at least, it's just not moving the needle as much as Joker becoming now the best player in the NBA and everybody kind of universally seeing that. Let me also ask you this because I'm not trying to diminish the two championships in Miami. And I'm not trying to diminish the championship that he won with the Lakers. But those pale in comparison when you talk about the importance of the championship that he won in Cleveland. Getting it done in Cleveland, going back, being down 3-1, the huge block in that Game 7, the 3-1 comeback, all that stuff. We're all in agreement that's the most important championship of LeBron James's career. If he wins this one at the age of 38, where they got off to a terrible start to this season, they've been dealing with injuries all throughout the year. If he's able to win the, you know, eight more games, would this championship mean more than the Cleveland one in your mind?

Which is without a doubt right now, by far and away, his most important championship. No. For me, not even close. Really not even close. It would be the second though, wouldn't you agree?

Yes. I think it's more important than anything he got in Miami, better than the bubble. You consider his age and his production at his age and the fact that nobody in NBA history has played anywhere near the level LeBron has. Second most, but I think there's still a wide, wide gap between 2016 being number one and then, in this case, 2023 being number two.

I would agree that it is one and two. I'm actually surprised, though, that you said that. Because you like get caught up in the moment, I feel like, and then you try to start to say with other players like, Oh, this takes away from that and this and blah, blah, blah. You know, you did it with Brady when he won that championship in Tampa with all the things that you were just spewing.

So, I actually thought that Hatekeke in the moment was going to say that if he gets eight more wins, that'd be his most important championship. So, I'm surprised by you. I'm impressed by you. Sometimes I get caught up in the moment.

This is absolutely not one. What Brady thing are you talking about? I don't even remember what... Yeah.

Oh. I don't know if you were doing it just to try to get under my skin, but when he won the championship in Tampa, you said to me on more than a few occasions, this is his most important championship. This tops everything he did in New England. People are going to remember him as a buck. You were being like 85% of a jackass, but it's just something that I do remember.

And it always carries with me. The last part I would, obviously, okay, that's needling. This is, you know, this is... Because you're very sensitive about your guy with Manning. But, I mean, that's, I mean, doing it on his own first year with all those circumstances, that's probably number one.

It's not even a top two championship of his career. Ooh, I don't know about that. 28 to 3? Thank you. Okay, number two.

Nope. Number two. The Deflategate Super Bowl against Seattle coming right off all those allegations. And then down 10 in the fourth quarter to the LOB. And bam, bam, bam. A lot more impressive than going up against a Chiefs team that didn't have two offensive linemen and their defense was Swiss cheese in that Super Bowl.

But anyway, I don't need to prove anything to you on this point. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll take a break when we come on back. Doc Rivers out in Philadelphia. Who's next?

We'll discuss. Zach Gelb show, CBS Sports Radio. Doc Rivers just released a statement on Instagram earlier this morning. He was fired as the head coach for the Philadelphia 76ers.

This is the statement. I really enjoyed my time in Philadelphia. What a great city. I want to start by thanking my staff, the players, and the ownership group for their support.

We got a lot done in a short amount of time. I'd also like to thank the 76ers fans. You guys are tough. And I think you've learned I'm tough too. I absolutely loved your commitment to the city and its teams. Never lose that. I wanted just as badly as you to bring another championship to Philadelphia.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to lead, to learn, and to love this great city. That is from Doc Rivers. I do think the firing is justified. I don't really see the growth that this team has made under Doc Rivers. Under Brett Brown, they were stuck in the second round. And now through three years of Doc Rivers, they've been stuck in the second round as well. Sure, Joel Embiid finally got an MVP.

But here's what I'll say. Even though I just said the firing was justified, it doesn't mean that this instantly improves the 76ers chances. Because this is the farthest thing from just a coaching problem. James Harden has too much control.

Daryl Morey, who I actually think is the biggest problem, overrated Daryl. And I just couldn't stand him at the end in Houston when he was celebrating losing up against the Golden State Warriors. But there was a report the other day from Mona Shelburne that she did not believe both Doc and James Harden could be back. Because Doc and James Harden would go at it at times this year. And I think Doc was actually more so in the right because he was kind of questioning James Harden's commitment level with how much that he goes out.

And then sometimes you see a drop in play on the court. And I know James Harden had a great game one and a great game four. But if you recall, when Doc Rivers was let go by the Los Angeles Clippers, you heard some things from Kawhi Leonard and Paul George as well. And it was really about showing up and being able to get on the court as well is really what Doc got annoyed at.

So this is pretty much happening. Here you go again. But the Sixers, Doc Rivers is not a great coach. I know he won a championship. He has blown so many leads in the postseason. He is a great guy, but he's not a great coach. He's lost 10 game sevens. That is almost impressive how you've lost 10 game sevens. But Hickey, these Sixers' problems are not just all on Doc Rivers.

Sometimes you just need a coaching change and boom, then your team breaks through. Daryl Morey has blind loyalty to James Harden. He's going to try to do everything in his power to bring back James Harden. And he doesn't even know if James Harden wants to come back. Because there's reports about maybe him going to the Suns or him going back to Houston, which has been there all throughout the season. So the more and more that you go through this, the Sixers still don't have a finisher for Joel Embiid. Joel Embiid comes up small in the big moments and did not play great in game seven.

We know that. He was horrible. Was horrible in the final few minutes of the fourth quarter in game six.

And that's been a problem for years. But it's been shadowed and overlooked by just the incompetence of Ben Simmons. And Ben deserved every bashing that he got. And also James Harden not being a big player. But you also look how much money they tied up into Tobias Harris. That dude is not worth the money that they're paying him.

Tyrese Maxey, I think he's going to be really good. And I think he can be a great player in this league. He shows those signs, but he's still really young. And he needs some more experience. So you look at the Sixers team, you just get rid of Doc. That does not mean next year, oh expect the Sixers in the conference finals.

Or dare I say, at the NBA finals. Because this roster really hasn't improved all that much throughout the years. And everyone was loving the Daryl Morey move. Because everyone loves Daryl Morey. Please, this dude may be one of the most overrated executives that I've ever seen. People talk about him like he's won like ten championships. And he's the greatest and smartest thing to ever grace a basketball front office. What has Daryl Morey done that's been so impressive the last few years with the Philadelphia 76ers?

Because they're stuck in the same problem that they were with different names that were making the decisions in Philadelphia. It is not a coach on this planet right now that could coach this group of, you know, this current team as they're constructed to the Eastern Conference Finals or the Finals. Doc Rivers is not a good coach.

But firing him does not change much because as long as Embiid and Harden and Harris are all there. No one is coming in and drastically taking this team to the next level. Because it's not a coaching issue, it's a player issue.

It is a player issue. Now I'm not going to say that there's no coaches in the NBA even with my critique of the organization. Because they were just in a spot where they were up 3-2.

And there was a failure of focus by this team and a lack of aggression by this team in game 6 and then also game 7. But here's the thing. And you could have a parade today if you're a Sixers fan. Okay, you got Doc Rivers out.

The true Sixers fan knows there's still a lot of moves that need to be made. But you look at these names that Woester out there. I'll ask you right now, Hickey. Buzz or like no buzz when you just hear the name. Mike Budenholzer. No buzz.

Really? For the Sixers, no. Just winning a championship with Giannis?

No? He's not been a great coach. Sam Cassell.

No buzz. And Sam Cassell is on that staff right now. Mike D'Antoni. There'll be buzz in terms of it'll be entertaining but in terms of getting to the Easter Conference Finals, absolutely not. If Mike D'Antoni is the next coach of the Sixers, which I think is a possibility.

Daryl Morey should be fired on the spot. Because you're basically just trying to recreate the Houston Rockets when he was there. Where you basically, and it's a big swap out. You swap out like Chris Paul and you throw Joel Embiid in. Which Embiid's a better player but my oh my, it's like you're still gonna need James Harden to hit a big shot. And how many series did you see James Harden be historically bad in the fourth quarter? So you could have Mike D'Antoni, Daryl Morey, James Harden, PJ Tucker who was on some of those Rockets teams.

I mean we're almost halfway there in terms of being Rockets North. Nick Thirse. I like Nick Thirse a lot. Buzz in terms, I think he's the best option but no buzz in terms of him being the difference in getting them to the Easter Conference Finals. Frank Vogel.

That's the one you have to think on? I like Frank Vogel. He's a better coach that he gets credit for. He did a solid job with the Pacers, the Magic of Disaster. Everyone's pretty much been a disaster with the Orlando Magic. And with Los Angeles, he did win a championship.

It wasn't his fault that they flamed down the first round in 2021 and I don't think it's his fault they've missed the playoffs entirely in 2022. He's a good defensive coach which they definitely need help in but I will still say no buzz. Monty Williams.

No buzz. So I just went through all those names and you had no buzz on any of those names. Nick Thirse is the closest and I think the best hire out of that group. But again, out of that entire four or five names, none of those guys are coming in and I think elevating this ceiling compared to what it is right now. I think the two best names on that list, Nick Thirse and then Mike Budenholzer.

Monty Williams, it would not surprise me if he's the guy. And the moment when they lost that Game 7, I tweeted out, watch Monty Williams be the next coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. But that's tough when you have a team that has an issue showing up in the big game. Bringing in Monty Williams who just had in back to back years, teams be so bad up against the Mavericks. And this year historically bad when they allowed a 17 to nothing run in three minutes at the end of the first quarter.

And then they allowed 81 points to Denver, which is the most that a road team has ever had in the first half of a playoff game. So it's tough to sell Monty Williams. So I do think it's a good coach, had an ugly ending, but it's tough to sell Monty Williams right now. You know who the guy should be? It 100% should be this guy.

I don't know if he'll take it, but you have to give him a call. And that is Jay Wright. The Sixers should make a phone call to Jay Wright.

And actually, someone tagged me in this today or DM'd it to me today. I didn't even know this, but on October 28th of 2022, I did a segment and it was out there on Twitter. Zach Gill predicts, and this was like six games into the Sixers season, Zach Gill predicts that Jay Wright is coaching the Sixers next season. Now, I did reach out to Jay Wright today. I did send him a text, see if he would come on, talk about the playoffs, you know, the year that Jalen Brunson just had. And I would have obviously asked him about his future, but Jay Wright did not respond. So we did not get a response out of Jay Wright. But Jay Wright at first was like, yeah, I'm done with coaching. And then like shortly after that, he did leave the door open and he has been linked to that Sixers job for a while. I know he was close with Brett Brown.

I don't know if he had any relationship with Doc Rivers, but he still lives in that area and you wouldn't have to move. If I'm Jay Wright Hickey, personally, you're retired for a reason. Maybe you don't want to deal with all the NIL stuff in college basketball and the changing landscape of college athletics. But if I'm Jay Wright, I would be sitting on this comfy TV job and all the money that I've made in my career at the age of 61 and probably never coaching again.

But that's easy for me to say because, you know, these coaches, they they're addicted and you can't just shake that off that easily. I was just going to ask, if you're Jay Wright, what is the appeal for the Sixers? Like we're talking about a core that is broken. There's not a lot of flexibility in terms of bringing new guys in and rebuilding this roster.

It's kind of like you mentioned yesterday, like if you're going to make any moves, it's kind of trading and beat and blowing it all up. Like if James Harden leaves or let's just say you, the Sixers ask him kindly to not come back. Who's out, like who are you going to get to then replace him? And even if you do get a decent upgrade, you still have Tobias Harris and that Albatross of a contract. You still have depth issues as well. It's just like there's no quick fix and it feels like this entire team, the way it's constructed is stuck. And so if you're Jay Wright, do you want to take over that number one or oversee a rebuild and maybe not last long enough to see the fruits of that rebuild in two, three, four years from now? Once again, first off, if they rebuild, Jay Wright would get the chance to really rebuild that. I don't think they're going to fire him after a few years. But once again, let me be clear. I would make the phone call and I would have to hear him say no before I go to anybody else. I would anticipate that it's more likely that he's going to say no than yes because of the points that you just laid out. But you never know what coaches, right?

They're as addicted as they come to this profession. If he took the job, he would put a suit on. Now, I know you wore the quarter zip and the last year Villanova, but that's a man who... Is that really where your mind goes? Yes. In the TV booth, he got to wear the suit again.

He's a guy that is known for looking good in the sideline. I just wonder... You know, that was more lively than your peanut butter review today that you posted, which the entire company... More lively? Yeah. There's not a lot of energy in that peanut butter review.

I would disagree with that. Put me asleep. I think the whole... And it was dry too.

The whole company is shredding you today. You should have had a take like that. That at least got a chuckle out of Ack. And I thought it was very entertaining. I thought my peanut butter review, honestly, was pretty good, to be honest.

And on Instagram was the whole five minute video. If you really want to... Oh, I watched the entire thing. If you really want to get nuts, I liked it personally. When I woke up this morning, I saw two things. Your peanut butter review and then Ack. I was shocked by this one.

What's that? Ack is shredding UPS on Twitter today. Well, did you see why? Good for you, Ack.

No, it's about... I'll read the tweet right now. It's criminal. Shame on you, UPS. This is an Ack tweet.

Not only did you fail to deliver a Mother's Day present on time, you delivered a repackaged empty box and tried to pass it off as delivered. A total disgrace. I was not expecting Richard Ackerman to be shredding anyone on Twitter.

Because I know, you say this all the time, whenever you are going to retire, whenever that happens, you're going to delete Twitter the day you retire and walk away. Yes. I was debating. I had debated for about 12 hours. And it was still bothering me. And I said, you know, somebody's got to know about this.

Yeah. And they responded to you. They did, but it's... An automatic message. Yeah, it's a bogus response. Because they obviously didn't read it. You don't think Catherine exists?

Maybe she does, but she didn't do a good job of reading it. So you got your mom a gift. Actually, it was my brother who got the gift. And sent it to you. It was a Junior's cheesecake. Oh, that's nice.

Yeah. And it was supposed to arrive Friday. UPS doesn't deliver Saturday or Sunday. So it did not arrive before Mother's Day.

So my brother was obviously able to get a refund, which was very nice. But then it comes Monday and it just comes in a box. It's like an empty box of cake? Yeah, you open up the box and there's nothing in there. Oh, can I ask a question? Do you think the delivery guy or gal opened it up and ate the cake?

That's the only conclusion one can draw. Because let me be real with you... All there was was wrapping paper in the box. I have some restaurant... But it was repackaged.

I have some restaurant experience. The box was retained. And when I worked at Five Guys, there'd be some times I'd go in the back of the kitchen and take some cheese, you know, take some things and just eat on the job. But this was like, they didn't leave us.

Like, the whole thing was gone. Oh, you can't just take one little bite out of the cake. Oh, I'm just saying... How do you deliver cheesecake? It's packed in dry ice. It's actually done very, very well.

I highly recommend it, as a matter of fact. So that's a very nice gift. And your mother didn't get to have a great Mother's Day because UPS messed it up. You know, there was a little missing.

I mean, we planned to have it for dessert, you know, and she likes Junior's cheesecake a lot. It was a very nice gesture on my brother's part. But, you know, it's one thing that if it gets lost or whatever, that I understand.

That's fine. You know, a lot of packages. But to deliver it and then send an email saying the package was delivered and it's an empty box is wrong. Oh, so mom got the box?

She got the box yesterday. And she opened it up and there was... There was nothing in there.

It was nothing in there. It was repackaged. I thought at first your brother sent it to you to then go bring it to your mom on Mother's Day.

No, no, no. It was sent to the house and... So did your mom... Oh my God, I can't imagine. Did your mom call your brother and you're like, where's the cheesecake?

No, no, no. We told her what had happened. That it wasn't delivered. And we wrote it off. So... Was she annoyed? No, she was okay with it. You know, I mean, like, it's disappointment like anything else. But, you know, again, if that was the end of the story, that would have been okay for me. You know, but to get the box and you open it up and it's empty, I mean, I mean, really? And then they send you that email, oh, sure, we delivered this. Now if you're a UPS driver around there and you're listening right now and you ate a slice of junior cheesecake, you screwed over Rich Ackerman's mother and we will not tolerate that. And you should be ashamed of yourself.

That's just low. You're listening to The Zach Gelb Show. The Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio. We will get to this Peacock exclusive wildcard game in just a second. But let me take one right here.

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. We go to Rick in Philadelphia. Rick, what's happening? What's up, man?

I want to talk just about the Dock Rivers. But first, in terms of the Nuggets-Lakers, I think they're going to prevail. I think they're going to get it done in six.

Who? I think they're going to play well with AD and Joe Kitch outplaying each other, canceling each other out. I think the factor is going to be Murray.

This is tailor-made for him series. And I think just playing in Mile High, they're just flawless at home. And that's what I think they prevail. I think the Celtics battle heat, I think it's going seven. So I see the Celtics, Nuggets, NBA Finals. In terms of Dock Rivers, even though I'm not a sixer fan, I'm going to credit the organization.

This has to be made to me. Dock Rivers is a fraud. I think he's been living off that one title 15 years ago for far too long. They had no excuse to lose as many Game 7 series and series leads as he has, especially this series, Game 6. They had the Celtics down and out. And to not have Joel Embiid touch the ball for the last five minutes, he should have been fired after Game 6, because you know he never wins Game 7.

So I'll credit them. To me, James Harden is good as gone. Let him go. He's not going to UC. I think that's his agent leaking stuff out. I think the guy they need to get is Nick Nurse. To me, he's in that mold of Thibodeau and my Knicks. I think he's a hard-nosed, tough guy. I think he can adapt to this talent well. And I think he can build around and beat and maxi for the Sixers to actually get past the second round. What do you think in terms of that?

I don't think they get it. Monty Williams is not the guy. I think Nick Nurse is going to be the guy they're going to build around. Well, that's why I said, yeah, I'd put Nick Nurse 1 and then Mike Budenholzer 2.

Here's the thing with Nick Nurse, Hickey, that I'll make this comparison. Nick Nurse kind of has some Spolstra vibes to him. And we all know how respected Eric Spolstra is.

And I'm not calling him Spolstra, but maybe like Spolstra Lite. Because he won that championship and he didn't really get any credit because of the fact that it was Kawhi Kawhi Kawhi. Kind of similar to when Spolstra's winning two championships with a much better team.

When you have LeBron and D. Wade and Chris Bosh. But Nick Nurse the last few years and Kawhi was only there for one year. Not that they were fantastic, but with the lack of talent that was on that roster. I thought Nick Nurse did a good job.

Just kind of how you've also seen Eric Spolstra and he's taken it to a different level. The guys got to an NBA Finals without those great players. But you kind of seen Nick Nurse even after losing Kawhi. That team won 53-19. Then they missed the playoffs. Then they lost in the first round.

They missed the playoffs. So you've seen some success post Kawhi Leonard that shows me that the guy is a good coach. Outside of just a guy that won a championship with Kawhi Leonard.

Oh yeah, without a doubt. Very good defensive mind. Again, he's showing you that he can win, you know, do more with less. But again, it's like when you look at the Sixers it's more player because that's obviously in Game 6 and Game 7. Nothing Doc Rivers did lost in the game.

It was all in the players themselves and you can only do so much. There's only so much Nick Nurse can do if James Harden is going to go 4-15 from the field. And Joel Embiid is not going to demand the basket.

Right, and look like he'd rather be on the bench than playing. I put this more in the players than I do Doc Rivers. I'm not saying that Doc gets exonerated of all blame, but when do people start pointing the finger at Daryl Morey too?

I feel like it's myself and Howard Eskin, Spike's father, that we're on an island where we're the only two people. I saw Howard just go off on Daryl Morey today and I was like, thank you finally. Someone has joined me on this island of just telling you that Daryl Morey is just not all that. But he's going to still get the power to run this organization. I guarantee you this, the Sixers are not winning a championship. The Sixers will not get to an NBA Finals as long as Daryl Morey is in that organization. He's not going to get this right. If he hires Dan Toney and gives James Harden a ridiculous contract, he's a moron.

Because that's someone that's stubborn and just does not learn from his previous mistakes. Alrighty, so Peacock, this was announced yesterday, is going to become the home of the first ever exclusive livestream NFL playoff game presenting an NFL wildcard playoff in primetime. And that game is going to be Saturday, January 13, 2024. It was announced yesterday by NBCUniversal and the NFL. So it's going to be an entire NBC slobberfest on that Saturday as you will have the late afternoon game be on NBC and Peacock. But then the night game is just going to be exclusively on Peacock.

So Hickey, if I'm reading this right, if the night game on that Saturday is exclusively just on Peacock, that would have been last year Chargers and Jaguars in that epic game where the Chargers just had a collapse and Trevor Lawrence survived all those interceptions and staged a great comeback. Here's what I'll say. For people like us, we'll be able to find it. It's a little bit of a pain, but it's not the end of the world. I hate to, I feel like we should be past this, but just the frustration of my dad on that Saturday in 2024 trying to find out where the game is. That conversation that he's going to call me, how do I find this?

How do I locate it? I'm just not looking forward to. And all you people that puff your chest out about cutting the cord, and I'm not a big fan of cutting the cord, I still have cable. This is what happens and now it's going to be a streaming game. If you live in the market, the local market of the two teams participating in the game, it will still be on local television. But this is just an inconvenience.

It's not like the end of the world, but it is an inconvenience. But if the NFL could find a way to make more money, you know they're going to and it wouldn't surprise me whatsoever down the road, Hickey, if the NFL just exclusively goes to streaming and they sell all their games to one company to stream and it just becomes a big bidding war and it's like pay-per-view in order to watch the NFL one day. It's already started, right? We have Amazon every Thursday night. You have now ESPN Plus exclusive for one of the international games. I believe it's a London game.

I forget which one. You have now the Peacock game. I think you have a Peacock exclusive game too in the regular season. Slowly trending that way, which I'm with you, it stinks. It's annoying. Yeah, because not that Amazon was horrible this year, but there's some times where you have some buffering issues or someone else was ahead of you and then you're on Twitter and then the plays get leaked out. It's just a pain in the ass. I miss the days of just everyone having cable and that's how we get our football. News Brief next.