June 23, 2025 • 41 mins
Big Ben talks about Tyrese Haliburton going down with an Achilles injury in the 1Q of Game 7 of the NBA Finals as the OKC Thunder win the championship, Kevin Durant getting traded to the Houston Rockets, Maller to the Third Degree, Insta-Advice Line, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
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Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well, if you liked the NBA Finals, you're bummed out.
There's no more games. It's all over. Stick a fork
in and it's done. Welcome in the beginning of a
brand new week of the Benmahlor Show. We are in
the air everywhares we chatter away your nightline nexus, coast
(00:55):
to coast, border to border and beyond on the vast
and mighty powerful microphones of fsre emmundating live from the
paper that paper confetti coming down from the rafters of
the Fox Sports Radio studios, as approved by Kyrie in Okase,
(01:15):
the only one who consistently contributes to the show who
happens to be a real Thunder fan. There's one one guy.
That's it. That's all. It's Kyrie, nobody else now. This
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The Way Tire Buying Show be so our lead this hour.
Don't bury the lead, mom man. We'll go to the
sooner state. And if you had the NBA Finals having
(01:59):
a classic Game seven, you are a loser. Now. Much
of the chatter that people are excited about is not
Game seven. It's the Kevin Durant trade. Durant every three
years is traded. This time he goes to Houston. More
buzz on that we'll talk about as we go through
the overnight. But it was the end of the road
(02:20):
for pro bouncy ball. That's all she wrote. The NBA
regular season, I went back and I looked began two
hundred and forty four days prior to Sunday, two hundred
and forty four days. It began with the Knickerbockers playing
the then reigning champion Boston Celtics back in October October
(02:41):
twenty second before Halloween of last year, and it ended
exactly eight months later to the day. Eight months later,
the thunder and Pacers brought the curtain down. They didn't
bring the house down, they brought the curtain down there
in the NBA Finals, Game seven, Small Market Small Market
NBA Finals. Were you watching? Were you no? You were
(03:04):
not watching. I've seen the ratings. No one was watching.
There were seven people watching. That's it. But we watched.
It's our good mits for the day. We checked it
out so you would not have to. And what happened
well in game seven. The thing everyone's talking about is
not the game itself, something that happened early in the game.
But in the end, Shade jogis Alexander. He was inefficient,
(03:26):
but he had twenty nine points and ends up winning
the Finals MVP Award as OKC pulls away in the
third quarter and cements the lead in the fourth quarter
and they zoom passed a short handed Pacer team one
to three to ninety one turn out. The last the
(03:49):
parties over for Indiana and for Oklahoma for that matter.
Game seven of the NBA Finals in the books now SGA,
he needed twenty seven shots to get to twenty nine
points in game seven. I'm told that is not particularly good,
but it didn't matter. He still won the MVP eight
of twenty seven. That's my computer like brain tells me.
(04:10):
Twenty nine point six percent from the floor, nineteen misshots
in game seven, and he still ends up winning the
Finals MVP, which is the full body of work. But
the story here is the injury and how it impacts
the outcome of this game. So let us discuss yay
or nay? The Oklahoma City Thunder Championship for see jogis
(04:33):
Alexander downgraded downgraded because of the Tyrese haliburt and achilles
injury in the first quarter of the close out final
game of this series. So I've got tears for fears, spreadsheet,
and prison camp and we will combine all of these
(04:54):
things together and we are going to make a nice
banana cream pie that you can throw in some one's
face if you want. I don't care. So a to
answer the question, the Championship for Oklahoma City yay or nay?
The Shay jogis Alexander Championship for the thunder downgraded because
of the injury that Tyrese Haliburton pop goes the Achilles.
(05:18):
Is it yay or nay? So the error on this
one's pointing the direction of yay as in yes, as
in absolutely sorry, not sorry. I know how these things work.
We understand how these things work. It is not invalid.
I am not saying that the championship of Oklahoma City
is invalid. That is not what I am saying. Do
not misquote me. What I am merely saying is that
(05:41):
it is diminished. That is my point, okay, and you
can't fight me on that. That's the reality. Right, every man,
woman and child knows that was paying any attention to
the NBA Finals, that the moment Tyrese Haliburton went down,
that's it. It's like taking the engine out of a
car and expecting it to win the Indy five hundred.
(06:02):
Right now, Maybe once in a while it'll happen, but
normally you need the engine to win the race. And
that was the moment, by the way, we went and looked,
that's the moment Steven A. Smith started playing Solitaire that
he knew the game was all He picked up the
solitaire right there, he said, that's it. That's a solitaire moment.
Halliburton is the playmaker. We know that he's the head
of the snake and all those things, and so you
(06:25):
take him out of the equation. The arithmetic as much
different as obviously much to you're not facing the real
Indiana Pacers at that particular mallnet and so that's the reality.
That's not the same test. It's like the questions are
easier at that particular moment. And even with that, Indiana
still had a very slim lead midway through the game.
(06:47):
So twenty four minutes to go, Indiana had a slight lead.
But don't tell me that this is the same battle
tested Blood Soak Championship Game seven, iron willed win without
Halliburton on the court. It's just not It's simply not
true by any way you look at it. It's not
true right now. That being said, I know from doing
(07:10):
this show over the years, and we've been here when
this similar situation has happened, maybe not an achilles injury,
but a major injury in the NBA Finals in my
watch here at Fox Sports Radio behind these microphones. So
we've been here a while. And the thing that I
know about this is. It's like the old Tears for
Fear song memories fade, meaning like right now, in this moment,
(07:33):
we will bring this up, we will mention this, we
will say, hey, listen, that's downgraded. But over time it
gets talked about less and less and it just goes
to the back of history and just kind of fades
away and you'd have to like type it into chat
GPT to kind of get the right answer and that.
But just like Kevin Durant injured his achilles and Klay
Thompson messed up his knee in twenty nineteen, Toronto won
(07:55):
the championship. It's been six years since that happened. Do
people still bring that up?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Now?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
They don't bring it up, But the moment it happened,
people brought it up. They're like, well, that's not legit.
You know, way back twenty some years ago, the Pistons,
the Four Pistons with Rashid Wallace and those Cats playing
the Lakers, and Karl Malone was playing for the Laker.
He got hurt, he messed up his knee, if I
remember he was injured. They at the time around well,
(08:20):
there you go, that's why the Pistons were able to win.
But now twenty some years later, people forget about that.
They don't know about it. Now. The other part of
this page two, which blows me away, They shiver me timbers, right,
there are those out there morning after quarterbacks, if you will,
the morning after This was moments after the injury, who
(08:44):
were going on and on and on by well tyrees.
Halliburton should have never been allowed to play, should have
never been allowed to play for the Pacers. It's malfeasance
by the Indiana basketball team. They should never have allowed
him on the court. He had a pre exist condition.
Bad job by them. Oh no right, oh no, he
(09:06):
popped his achilles in the first quarter. So where are
you at on this one? Where are you at on
those that are screaming this is on the Pacers. They
should not have allowed him to play. Haliburton should not
have been out there. This is one of those things
that blows me away. And now I think some of
this is actually just people just busting balls and just
(09:27):
probably Boughty counts on those social media channels because it's
the freaking finals, Like, what are you even having that coming?
It's a chance to win a championship. No one, no one,
misses that game. And if you miss that game, you
might as well retire. If Halliburton had said I'm not
gonna play, I might pop my achilles. You might as
well go get a real job. You can't show your
(09:47):
face in any gymnasium anywhere from Maine to Maui. It's over.
You have to play in that game, game seven of
the finals. You've got to do it. And Halliburton and
he made some shots, so he had nine points. He
made three three point shots early. He got hurt. That sucks,
and that's part of the game. And all these morons,
(10:10):
I can't. I really hope this is not legit like
all this is just like people trolling and things like that.
I mean, come on, if there's anyone that actually believes
that you have the greatest loser mentality of all time,
science should study you. You are such a loser that
people should study how big a giant loser you are
and how you got to that particular point where you
wear the giant l on your forehead because you're a loser.
(10:33):
Right again, no ifs ants or but you got to play.
If you're Haliburton, you cannot not play. You can't. They
they have to amputate you let you gotta play like
there's no's no, you can't even in this soft modern
world we live, and you've got to play in Game seven.
And for those that are, you know, grumbling and again,
I'd like to think this is all nonsense. You should
(10:55):
have played in the game. Why he wasn't one hundred percent,
I would argue, I don't think I'm wrong on this.
What do I know, though? I do the overnight show
that nobody is one hundred percent. By the time you
get the Game seven of the Finals, you've been playing
for eight months of basketball, although many of the players
take a lot of time off et cetera. It's one
(11:16):
of those things. You patch it up, you rub some
dirt on it, get some dirt, get some mud, rub
it on there, and you go. And that's what you're
supposed to do. That's you gut it out Game seven
NBA Finals. That's what you want Halliburton to do. What
he did it. Now, there is a dimension in the
multiverse where Halliburton goes out there and he doesn't pop
(11:36):
his achilles, same scenario leading into the game. He goes
out there and plays and plays well, and the Pacers
end up winning Game seven, and rah rah, And there's
a parade in Indianapolis in a couple of days and
all that. So when you dig a little deeper, though,
I had an epiphany as I was cruising over here
to the hallowed hallways of Fox Sports Radio where legends
(11:57):
like Rich Horrera and others James Washing used to work
back in the old days here, and I was walking
in from the parking lot and I walked by the
trash which hasn't been picked up since Friday. It's a
nice smell, nice aroma. So I walked in there and
I hear what this is. This is the spreadsheet warriors
(12:17):
that have taken over yet again. Another example, another example.
It's been about fifteen years or so since this has
become prevalent in modern sports. That is, the spreadsheet Warriors
have led to the brain rot among a segment of
sports fans, the Analytical Nerd Society of North America that
(12:41):
have said, hey, I've got a graph that shows injury assessment,
injury risk assessment, and this guy I cannot play out
of an abundance of caution, cannot do it right. And
they're all up in arms and it's not right. He
didn't follow the probability model Tyree's I'll dare him, And
(13:01):
to that, I say five. Wait, fright is what I
say again, Haliburton, if he hadn't played, he'd be healthy
right now, he wouldn't have a pop Achilles and he
would have been haunted by the Kulda woulda should have
for the rest of the man's Indiana. He's not getting
back here. It's not like the Pacers. It'll be another
(13:23):
generation before the Pacers get back to the NBA finals.
And you're telling me he shouldn't have played, all right,
tell me you dumb without telling me you're dumb right now.
Last word, So let's address the Komodo dragon in the room. Now,
what is the Komodo dragon in the room? Well, the
Oklahoma City Thunder have just won their first championship as
the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now some will say, well, I'll
(13:44):
go back to the Sonics. I don't count the ghosts
of Seattle because I believe it, in the next couple
of years, the Sonics will be born again. They will
have the SuperSonics back in Seattle, and all the championships
and all the glory will go back to Seattle and
all that so those ghosts I leave behind. The team
unceremoniously hijacked out of the Pacific Northwest and they abandoned
(14:06):
Seattle because of the oil tyrant that bought the team
from the Starbucks dopes and then moved it to Oklahoma City.
But now we're hearing the whispers and we've seen the
comments on social media and the gas bag gasps. Well,
they've already been labeled dynasty. It's they won one championship. Dynasty.
(14:26):
Here we go, dynasty in the making. Is that how
you see it? So I'll go first here. I look
at this like a prison camp. Okay, team wins title
and everyone and their mother becomes hypnotized and mesmerized. Prisoners
(14:47):
of the moment, prison camp, prisoners of the moment. Slow down,
have your little champagne there, have you a little parade,
knock yourself out and let the confetti hit you, and
then let it hit the ground. At least it can
hit you and then hit the ground and all that stuff,
and you can probably hold off on building a statue
for SGA at least not yet. It's a classic recency bias.
(15:09):
We heard the same things last year with the Boston Celtics.
Winning the championship. They're on their way now. The Celtics
are going to control the NBA for years to come
because they have Tatum and Brown and oh my god
and all that stuff. Now, one ring does not become
the forecast for three or four or five and one finals,
(15:32):
MVP Award, you don't become the face of the NBA.
You're not catapulted up to that level. And Sam Presty,
my god, he's got the cleanest ass in the NBA.
Every TV guy, every media guy in the NBA has
been kissing Sam Presty's ass, going on and on the
executive for Oklahoma City. But they suddenly the new gold
(15:53):
standard and all that stuff makes me want to puke
in my mouth. The dynasty stuff is rather ridiculous. Those
acquire something called repetition, which is a problem relevance over
the period of time more than I don't know, one year,
and they are earned because of overcoming injury like surgeries
(16:15):
and players getting you know, getting unhappy. They're in a
small town. They want to go somewhere else. You also
have the salarycap. You've got to juggle because everyone's gonna
get a lot more money and all that. So I
just don't see it. For the Thunder, I don't I
don't see it. I maybe I'm wrong. I don't see
them as a dynasty. They can prove me wrong if
(16:35):
they want, you know, run it back, do it again.
But even that's not a dynasty. You gotta do it
at least a couple more times. And do it when
guys get hurt, go out and win again with injuries, right,
and when contracts expire and players demand, hey, I want
more money. The disease of me. Pat Riley used to
talk about that egos, getting away all that stuff, and
do it when you're being targeted and you're not the
(16:59):
fresh faced under dog, upstart team and you have nothing
to lose and all that. Now, as for the building
of the roster, I would like to address that. Have
the Thunder crack the code? Have they given us the
blueprint that all the other NBA teams are gonna copy?
That would be a no, no way. The Thunder. I
(17:20):
look at them like in baseball, the Tampa Bay Race.
These are two teams that can do what they have
done because of where they are right. The Thunder are
like the Tampa Bay Rays in baseball. It's Frankenstein's Lab
is what it is. You've got no media pressure. It's
a po dunk town Oklahoma City. You've got that small
(17:44):
town fan base that's just happy they have pro sports there.
You've got zero pressure and you can trade away and
just play the lottery game, lottery ball for years to come.
I can do that. That playbook will not in a
big league city. Right in a big league city, there
(18:05):
will be pressure to have star players. There will be
pressured to have success, and you will become irrelevant because
the word apathy will apply. If you try to do that,
people will come apoplectic, they will not watch your product.
You will become irrelevant. You can't do it. You can't
get away with it. But in time like Olahoma City,
you can do it. Just like the Tampa Bay Race,
they don't nobody cares. They just they have a good
team every year, but they don't have stars. And they
(18:27):
get stars, they get rid of them and that's it.
That's that. Now, what about the dopes and I'm getting
some of this crap. They're like cockroaches. They come out
here and they're like, oh man, this gotta be a
tough day for the Clippers. You know, ripping like somehow
I'm the spokesman for the Clippers, which I'm not. I
don't trust man. I don't go to those games much
anymore I used to back in the day. I hope
(18:47):
the Clippers do well, but the idea and we'll just
address it like this. The dopes that are out there,
what do you make of this? Wow, the Clippers, this
should have been their championship. They traded away SGA. This
is embarrassing for the Clips. My god, Now I understand
where this is coming from. Listen, I love busting balls
as much as the next person. I know that's all
you're doing. I get it. You know, who Miller, you
(19:10):
should feel so bad. You know, it's low information trolling
at its finest, and that's really what social media is
all about. I get it. You know you're just busting chop.
You know you couldn't name two guys on the Clippers
or the Thunder. It's revisionist history. And to say that
the Clippers shouldn't have made that trade. I would have
made that trade one hundred out of one hundred times.
(19:32):
Even after Oklahoma said he just won the championship, right
as Emin m crooned, no regrets, right, Kawhi Leonard was
the player everyone won. Every single team in the NBA won,
and Kawhi Leonard the price of admission. It was a
claw game to get the claw. He said, I want
Paul George, which is a dumb decision, but that's his choice.
(19:53):
That's his choice. Kawhi Lenners says, I want Paul George,
Paul George Blouse, but that's who Kawhi Leonard wants. So
you trade Sga. That's it. That's the price of admission
fresh off a title in Toronto. That's what you had
to do. You do it every single time. You don't
look back. That's it. And you make that trade, and
(20:15):
you know the Clippers they're still relevant and they'll be
a contender for the foreseeable future. They have a legit
owner and all that. But of course you'd make that
trade and Sga hasn't become what he became with the Clippers.
He would never become that with the Clippers, so it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Turns out the sun has set on the Kevin Durant
Era in Arizona. There's a shocker wel gum. In the
beginning of another hour of the Ben Mahler Show. We
are in the air everywhere as we babble in a
(20:57):
dimly lit retreat coast to coast, voter and beyond on
the mast and herculeanly powerful microphones of FSR am monating
live from the bubble inside the bubble of trust the
Fox Sports Radio Studios has approved by mister Irrigation and
(21:19):
this portion of the Ben Maler Show made possible in
part by our friends at ty Iraq. For over forty years,
ty Iraq has been helping customers find the right tires
for how, what and where they drive, ship fast and
freeback by free road hazard protection. That's right. That is
the way to go, with convenient installation options like mobile
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tire installation ti iraq dot Com The Way Tire Buying
showb So our lead this hour is from the pro
Bouncy Ball World. The finals are over, but a story
that upstaged the NBA Finals From the high Speed Sports
Wire the Chatterbox. Kevin Durant. He's on the move again.
(22:03):
Oh boy, Kevin Durant. We've become Rhodes Scholars at Kevin
Durant trades. So if you have not heard, if you
were out doing stuff on Sunday, he didn't pay attention.
We learned the Phoenix Suns are saying bye bye to
the Slim Reaper, unloading the aging Kevin Durant to the
Rockets for a trade package that includes Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks,
(22:28):
the number ten overall pick in this week's draft, and
not one, not two, not three, not four, but five
second round picks. So using Malormath, that's an eight for
one swap. Eight for one. Sun's got eight players, well
really two and then six other draft players and the
(22:50):
trade will be formally completed when the new league year begins.
I always get excited about this, the new league year
that'll be July sixth. Was on stage at something called
fanatics Fest, where they jack up prices and get fans
to pay exorbitant amounts of money for memorabilia in New
(23:11):
York and the trade was announced and Durant gave his
immediate reaction. He said, being part of the Houston Rockets,
I'm looking forward to it. Durant said, crazy, crazy, Last
couple of weeks. But I'm glad it's over with close
quote all right, so let us discuss the question. Kevin
Durant headed out, headed out of Arizona and headed to
(23:36):
the Rockets. At first glance, what stands out? What stands out?
So I've got brat, Instagram and pot luck and we
will combine all of these things together and we are
going to put the WHAMMI on the zami is what
we're going to do. So number why I said number?
(24:01):
So Kevin Durant has done it yet again. Bravo to
Kevin Durant. Way to go as he continues to move
locations out, foxing authorities yet again, one step ahead of
the NBA law. Kevin Durant the all time master of
migration K and D. You never know where he's gonna be.
(24:23):
You don't really want to learn where he is because
it's just going to change. The Slim Reaper the traveling
circus now heading to the Lone Star State as he
will play for the rock Cats there. Now, since his
days in Oklahoma State was in Seattle, they moved to
Oklahoma City. Since he left there, Durant has been a brat.
He's been like a military brat moving to a new
(24:43):
base in a different state or a different part of
America every three years or less. That's not my opinion.
It's a fact. Three years in Golden State. Check, he
went to Brooklyn. Three years there, one of them hurt
from his days in Golden State. Three years in Phoenix. Check.
(25:04):
So nine years, three and three and three, and now
he goes to Houston. The Malor report card the only
report card that matters on trades, the Malor report card.
The Roquettes get a B. The Suns get a C.
Not an overwhelming trade. Not an overwhelming trade. This didn't
(25:24):
get me all excited. I was like, that's fine. Durant's
a name, we know who that is. But from a
business standpoint, the reason I'm giving the Rockets a B
is not because I think Durant is in the peak
of his superpowers. He's a diminishing asset. However, from a
business standpoint, it makes sense. Duran is still box office.
(25:45):
He's got the fifteen time All Star on his resume,
the Great Finals performances with the Golden State Warriors. He's
got that. So that moves the needle. So that from
the business side of it, for the casual fan, the
dumb fan that buys the tick. It's the casual, it's
not really a sports fan. But hey, we got this
guy named Durant. Let's go buy some tickets. Yeah, he'll
(26:05):
bring that, he'll bring some eyeballs, he'll be some bring
some curiosity to see if it actually works this time.
It didn't work the last couple of times he put
these super teams together in Brooklyn and in Arizona, and
so he said, well, maybe it's time will work. Now.
This will be different, right, this will be different. And
as for Phoenix, like, you know, they gave up a
thirty seven player. Thirty a guy who's gonna turn thirty
(26:28):
seven this year. Is a declining asset of a player.
And it's not like they got that much in return.
And they're mopping the floor essentially in a flood, is
what they're doing here. They swung from the heels with Durant.
They whiffed. They didn't get anywhere close to what they
thought they were going to be get. In we're close
(26:50):
to where they thought they were going to be now
Page duo. The Kevin Durant Tray to the Rockets, the
Championship Odds on Draft next season have gone from plus
twelve hundred prior to the trade for Houston to plus
seven point fifty. That means now the Rockets, as a
direct result of this trade, now have the second best
(27:14):
odds to win the championship next season. Is this an
over reaction? Is this an over reaction to the Kevin
Durant trade based on the odds on DraftKings? So I'm
nodding my head. Yes, this is a classic overreaction. Is
a defensive move by the books. It's a defensive move
(27:34):
because the casuals will see Durant and he'll be introduced here,
They'll hold up the jersey with his name on it,
and then it'll be a lot of chatter on social
media about the urrant and this, that and the other thing.
And so you look at that, you say, okay, here
we go. So people are gonna loss money on Houston
to win the championship, so you have to cover that.
And this is a proactive move, not a reactive A
(27:57):
proactive move by the sportsbooks there cover themselves just in
case lightning hits and catches in the bottle there for
Kevin Durant and Houston. Does anyone expect that to happen
raise their hands. No, I don't see anyone anyone raising
their hands, So I don't hold your breath on that.
And here's why. After a minutes long deliberation on the
(28:18):
career of Kevin Durant post Golden State, post Golden State,
Kevin Durant is like an Instagram model, Right, looks a
lot better on your smartphone. Right, it looks really good
on the smartphone, and then you take all those filters
away and you're like, oh man, I mean it's not
that pleasant. You know, it's not bad, but it's just
not that not that. There's a lot of stuff going on.
(28:40):
There's a lot of deception. There's camera angles, there's makeup,
there's clothing option choices like all of that, and the filters.
So it's like an Instagram model, Durant. You know, you
put them on there. It looks pretty good. Then but
upon further review, it's like, eh, you know, Durant will
get some numbers, he'll score some points. You can still score.
And he has proven with Brooklyn, he has proven with
(29:01):
Phoenix that his ability to build a super team is lacking.
He's got some kryptonite in that area. It is an
issue he is not the final piece to the jigsaw
puzzle unless the puzzle includes Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and
(29:22):
Klay Thompson and spoiler alert, spoiler alert, I looked at
Houston's roster. They don't have that, So they don't have that.
It's gonna be electric or explosive or maybe like putting
a electronic device in a bathtub. Not a good idea.
We're already hearing about the bromance. All what a bromance
(29:43):
between Kevin Durant and Eme Udoka that they bonded at
some international basketball tournament the I think it was the
Olympics And to that, okay, great, I'm glad they're buddy
buddy and all that stuff. I'll believe it when I
see it. And it doesn't matter what they do in
regular season, Durant, it will be judged in the playoffs.
That's how this works. Nobody pays attention to the regular season.
(30:05):
It's all about what you do in the playoffs. You
have to validate yourself in the postseason. So we will
not know until next summer. That's it all right now,
final point, So how are things looking in the Phoenix
part of the equation? How are things looking in Phoenix
with the hall the Sun's got for Kevin Durant eight
for one, eight for one. So I would not call
(30:28):
it a hall. Let's start with that. I would not
call it a hall. That is being delusional and overly
optimistic to say it's a hole it. This is more
of a pot luck dinner type situation.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
You got some deviled eggs over here with the suns.
You got some of that. You got a little brocoli salad.
Nobody likes broccoli salad, but somebody brought brocoli salad with
to the pot luck. So you've got some broccoli salad
over here, and then you've got some chicken cash roll
over on this side. And then you've got some mac
and cheese. And that's all kind of in the middle.
It's a quantity play, not a quality play. And Jalen
Green was the star of the trade. He just was
(31:11):
the star of the trade. He's a high, very athletic,
high scoring guard. He led the rockheats and scoring last
season he had to be traded. He rode the vomit
comet to the next level, to the moon and beyond
in that playoff series when he had one if I
Remember he had one really good game and the rest
of the time it was like less than ten points.
(31:33):
He was gun shy, he froze. They had to trade him.
He bought himself a trade. Now they end up getting
to rant for him. Jalen Green could not come back.
He was That was absolute malfeasance by Jalen Green in
the playoffs, he went a wall. Guilty of going to
a wall. They had to get rid of him. And
(31:53):
three years into his NBA care effort, a lot of chat. Well,
that's a great player whatever I mean. His son's got
a super good player. He was the second pick in
the tra But if you look the numbers here the
Basketball Reference comps on Jalen Green, his career at this
point is similar to Tim Hardaway junior, not the old man,
Tim Hardaway Junior, Rodney mcgruegor whoever that is, and Quincy Pondexter.
(32:19):
So that's it. Now you know Dylan Brooks, Now he's
a glue guy. Dylan Brooks is a glue guy. He's
a pass he's an instigator. From his days in Memphis.
His nickname Dylan the Villain, so he lives up to that.
And those guys are nice when you're really about to
win a championship, you think you're about to win, and
you get a player like that, and we expect Phoenix
(32:42):
to regift Dylan Brooks and possibly even Green They're gonna
have to get. They got to give Rid to Bradley Beal.
The guard situation is a mess. Bradley Beal's got a
no trade clause. They got to find a way to
unload Bradley Beal to convince him to be traded, so
Devin Booker will be there with more empty stat for
the Suns. And then you got Dylan Brooks and he
(33:03):
could be traded. But the green's the other one, Green,
Devin Brooks, Devon Booker, and then also the guard Bradley Beal,
who put up numbers for the Wizards back in the day. Now,
as for Kevin Durant leaving, the argument is this is
addition by subtraction. It just didn't work out and all
this stuff, And it is true that the Durant experiment.
(33:26):
You don't fault the Suns for going for it. The experiment,
though in hindsight we didn't say this at the time,
but in hindsight, it didn't feel like it was gonna work.
But in hindsight, it was doomed from the very beginning.
The super team that had the chemistry of like a
wet sock and a toaster, it just did not It
(33:48):
just didn't work, and it sounded good. Devin Booker and
Bradley Beal as players that could score a lot of
points alongside Durant. Durant would open things up for Bradley
Beal to shoot three point shots and for Devin Booker
to slash the basket. And then it turned out that
they formed a band with three solo artists, right, three
(34:10):
solo artists, and they tried to play a symphony and
it just would not work. The notes did not work.
The only thing they orchestrated in two seasons was a
single first round playoff elimination. They didn't even make the playoffs.
This passing. You know how hard it is to not
make the playoffs in the NBA. They try to get
(34:32):
every team in. They had that Fugasey playing thing, which
is like half the playoffs. The Suns were so bad
they couldn't even get in the postseason. So they made
it to one postseason. They were swept in four games.
Didn't even qualify. This past year, and so now they're
going a different direction. They hired some no name guy
as the coach, and so that's where we are.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
We got that to the third degree. Here we go,
and think that gets grilled, gooblo.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
It was reported over the weekend that Jalen Ramsey would
prefer to be traded to the West Coast, specifically, either
the Chargers or the Rams. Ben, would you want Ramsey
back on the Rams or is he a falling star?
Speaker 1 (35:19):
All right? So first of all, I don't I'm not
like dying to get jail. If the Rams get him,
I'm fine with that. But he's thirty years old. He's
thirty years old, and you know how I feel. I
think he turns thirty to thirty one early in the
NFL season, So he's at that point where he's at
the very end of his athletic prime, if he's not
already past his athletic prime. So, like I know, he's
(35:40):
a veteran. He's not a falling star yet, but he's
teetering on the brink of being a falling star.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
Next, Robert Sala is back with the forty nine Ers,
and with his return, George Kittle has a warning for
the rest of the league.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Oh I got to hear this. He said, violence is coming.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
Really, yes, Ben, Do you think Sala's return will make
a noticeable impact in Santa Clara?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Well, the only thing about Robert Salah is you could
not watch a Niner game with this guy was the
Shenanigans when he was the defensive coordinator before the smooching
that took place from broadcasters desperately trying to get him
a head coaching job was so over the top, like
the TV guys Robert Selzer, all the jumping up and
(36:21):
down the South ultimates players. As we learned when Robert
Salad coached the Jets and had suck players, he was
suddenly a suck coach. So the Niners have some decent players,
not as many good ones as they had before. They'll
be okay, But it's not that I'm not expecting a
master class by Robert Salad.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
Next, the Tampa Bay Rays won two out of three
games in their series against the A leading Tigers, and
they did some in blowout fashion. But you think the
Rays are legitimate ken tenders in the American League.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Well, are they regular season contenders? Yes, it's like a
freak show Coop. Though it's like a freak show with
the race. I don't consider them a legitimate playoff contender
during the regular season. Yeah, it works during the regular season.
How do we know you passed? That's a wit? I
won the game, mister again, shot, hey you sports figure,
(37:09):
guy or girl? Who got here? Were you talking to?
So hear some interestant advice? Hold that though no one's
paid attention to me for ten whole seconds. And if
you don't like it, you.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
And no.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
We go.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
It's the inside advice line unscreened radio. The safety net
is off. Who needs our advice? Now? There were some recommendations.
I think we're pretty much on the same line of
thinking here as the NBA Finals came to an end.
This is unscreened radio. Your calls, no call screener. You're
live on the air when you hear my voice. Who
(37:44):
needs our advice now, Alfie alien Opiner said Tyrese Haliburton's Achilles.
I was thinking just Pacer fans in general, on how
to deal with getting to a Game seven, getting all
fired up. You got all the party goods right, you
got a big thing of booze, you got food, right,
you're grilling the whole thing. The weather's good, you're excited
(38:04):
about your team. You got shot to upset and win
Game seven. And then in the first quarter, kaboom goes
to the Achilles. So advice to Pacer fans, and if
you want to give advice to Tyrese Haliburton's Achilles, you
can do that as well. You're live on the air.
When you hear my voice at eight seven seven ninety
nine on Fox, do not attempt this at home. We
(38:25):
are trained broadcast professionals. We'll start out with you on
line one. Your advice to Pacer fans on dealing with
the loss. Line one, get some acupuncture and drink some
warm milk. All right. Line two your advice please, Line two,
that was solid advice. Advice to the Pacer fans. Line two,
(38:45):
all right, thank you for that. We'll go to line three.
Line three. You are on the air. What is your
advice to the Pacer fans? Line three? Yeah, in morning time,
just tell them to go watch the movie Troy.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
That's a Rick and Maryland legend on the show. Hello,
line four. You're on the ear. It's the instant Advice
line eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox. The phones
are working, call early, call off in Hello, line four.
Come the hell's a Mantezuma to the shores of Triple Lee.
We fight our country's battles in the air landing. Okay,
all right, thank you, yes, all right. The ferg Dog
(39:15):
their line of five. Hello, line five, you're on the
Airline five, Line five, not paying attention. Line six, you're
on there. I hear your line six. Hello, let me
hear all right, please my god, you what the James
I mean? Stay off the booze James. Line one, you're
on the air. It is the Insta Advice line, the
(39:38):
Insta advice line for pacer fans and Tyrese Halliburtons Popped Achilles. Hello,
line one.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Hey for the fild party. And even though we did.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Lose, there you go celebrate good times. They're probably at somewhere.
We're not in Oklahoma City, probably not much open on
a Sunday into a Monday. And now line two, Hello,
line two to my dude, Sean the hood guy.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Love roll up with that.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
All right, there you go, love for Sean the hood guy.
Line That was from Manuel and Guardina. Line three, you're
on the air line three. Hello, okay, okay, I need
some help. On line four, you're on the air at
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox the Insta advice
line unscreened Radio. Hello, line four. Oh, can you put
(40:23):
Blindscot on hold for the fourth No? I can't. I
cannot do that. Hello line five. Hello, line five, friends
don't let other friends drive drunk. And remember y'lcu before you. Oh,
that's some of my great work in public service announce
announcements of years past. That's supermarket Steve, a fan of
the PSA's Hello, line six, you're on the air, go Daggers. Shit.
(40:49):
Remember tiger Man used to call the show. You don't
call anymore. I don't know what happened. I guess we
upset him. Line one, Hello, line one, number one, love
you okay, go you're a drunk? Hello line two. There
you go. That's right. You can be saying that a
lot the next few years. Hello, line three. You're on
the Airline three.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Hello, my night, declare Oh Colahomas, no stop one more,
hurry up to one more, hurry on three fight for
you on the airline for godlighte.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Fucko, why are we talking about the Titans? Talk about
the Titans. Oh my god, we forgot about the Titans.
That's why
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for the Benmalers Show at Foxsports Radio dot com.
You can find it there or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well, if you liked the NBA Finals, you're bummed out.
There's no more games. It's all over. Stick a fork
in and it's done. Welcome in the beginning of a
brand new week of the Benmahlor Show. We are in
the air everywhares we chatter away your nightline nexus, coast
(00:55):
to coast, border to border and beyond on the vast
and mighty powerful microphones of fsre emmundating live from the
paper that paper confetti coming down from the rafters of
the Fox Sports Radio studios, as approved by Kyrie in Okase,
(01:15):
the only one who consistently contributes to the show who
happens to be a real Thunder fan. There's one one guy.
That's it. That's all. It's Kyrie, nobody else now. This
portion of the Ben Malor Show made possible in part
by our friends at ty Iraq. For over forty years,
whoever forty years, Tyraq has been helping customers find the
(01:36):
right tires for how, what and where they drive, ship
fast and free back by free road hazard protection, with
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The Way Tire Buying Show be so our lead this hour.
Don't bury the lead, mom man. We'll go to the
sooner state. And if you had the NBA Finals having
(01:59):
a classic Game seven, you are a loser. Now. Much
of the chatter that people are excited about is not
Game seven. It's the Kevin Durant trade. Durant every three
years is traded. This time he goes to Houston. More
buzz on that we'll talk about as we go through
the overnight. But it was the end of the road
(02:20):
for pro bouncy ball. That's all she wrote. The NBA
regular season, I went back and I looked began two
hundred and forty four days prior to Sunday, two hundred
and forty four days. It began with the Knickerbockers playing
the then reigning champion Boston Celtics back in October October
(02:41):
twenty second before Halloween of last year, and it ended
exactly eight months later to the day. Eight months later,
the thunder and Pacers brought the curtain down. They didn't
bring the house down, they brought the curtain down there
in the NBA Finals, Game seven, Small Market Small Market
NBA Finals. Were you watching? Were you no? You were
(03:04):
not watching. I've seen the ratings. No one was watching.
There were seven people watching. That's it. But we watched.
It's our good mits for the day. We checked it
out so you would not have to. And what happened
well in game seven. The thing everyone's talking about is
not the game itself, something that happened early in the game.
But in the end, Shade jogis Alexander. He was inefficient,
(03:26):
but he had twenty nine points and ends up winning
the Finals MVP Award as OKC pulls away in the
third quarter and cements the lead in the fourth quarter
and they zoom passed a short handed Pacer team one
to three to ninety one turn out. The last the
(03:49):
parties over for Indiana and for Oklahoma for that matter.
Game seven of the NBA Finals in the books now SGA,
he needed twenty seven shots to get to twenty nine
points in game seven. I'm told that is not particularly good,
but it didn't matter. He still won the MVP eight
of twenty seven. That's my computer like brain tells me.
(04:10):
Twenty nine point six percent from the floor, nineteen misshots
in game seven, and he still ends up winning the
Finals MVP, which is the full body of work. But
the story here is the injury and how it impacts
the outcome of this game. So let us discuss yay
or nay? The Oklahoma City Thunder Championship for see jogis
(04:33):
Alexander downgraded downgraded because of the Tyrese haliburt and achilles
injury in the first quarter of the close out final
game of this series. So I've got tears for fears, spreadsheet,
and prison camp and we will combine all of these
(04:54):
things together and we are going to make a nice
banana cream pie that you can throw in some one's
face if you want. I don't care. So a to
answer the question, the Championship for Oklahoma City yay or nay?
The Shay jogis Alexander Championship for the thunder downgraded because
of the injury that Tyrese Haliburton pop goes the Achilles.
(05:18):
Is it yay or nay? So the error on this
one's pointing the direction of yay as in yes, as
in absolutely sorry, not sorry. I know how these things work.
We understand how these things work. It is not invalid.
I am not saying that the championship of Oklahoma City
is invalid. That is not what I am saying. Do
not misquote me. What I am merely saying is that
(05:41):
it is diminished. That is my point, okay, and you
can't fight me on that. That's the reality. Right, every man,
woman and child knows that was paying any attention to
the NBA Finals, that the moment Tyrese Haliburton went down,
that's it. It's like taking the engine out of a
car and expecting it to win the Indy five hundred.
(06:02):
Right now, Maybe once in a while it'll happen, but
normally you need the engine to win the race. And
that was the moment, by the way, we went and looked,
that's the moment Steven A. Smith started playing Solitaire that
he knew the game was all He picked up the
solitaire right there, he said, that's it. That's a solitaire moment.
Halliburton is the playmaker. We know that he's the head
of the snake and all those things, and so you
(06:25):
take him out of the equation. The arithmetic as much
different as obviously much to you're not facing the real
Indiana Pacers at that particular mallnet and so that's the reality.
That's not the same test. It's like the questions are
easier at that particular moment. And even with that, Indiana
still had a very slim lead midway through the game.
(06:47):
So twenty four minutes to go, Indiana had a slight lead.
But don't tell me that this is the same battle
tested Blood Soak Championship Game seven, iron willed win without
Halliburton on the court. It's just not It's simply not
true by any way you look at it. It's not
true right now. That being said, I know from doing
(07:10):
this show over the years, and we've been here when
this similar situation has happened, maybe not an achilles injury,
but a major injury in the NBA Finals in my
watch here at Fox Sports Radio behind these microphones. So
we've been here a while. And the thing that I
know about this is. It's like the old Tears for
Fear song memories fade, meaning like right now, in this moment,
(07:33):
we will bring this up, we will mention this, we
will say, hey, listen, that's downgraded. But over time it
gets talked about less and less and it just goes
to the back of history and just kind of fades
away and you'd have to like type it into chat
GPT to kind of get the right answer and that.
But just like Kevin Durant injured his achilles and Klay
Thompson messed up his knee in twenty nineteen, Toronto won
(07:55):
the championship. It's been six years since that happened. Do
people still bring that up?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Now?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
They don't bring it up, But the moment it happened,
people brought it up. They're like, well, that's not legit.
You know, way back twenty some years ago, the Pistons,
the Four Pistons with Rashid Wallace and those Cats playing
the Lakers, and Karl Malone was playing for the Laker.
He got hurt, he messed up his knee, if I
remember he was injured. They at the time around well,
(08:20):
there you go, that's why the Pistons were able to win.
But now twenty some years later, people forget about that.
They don't know about it. Now. The other part of
this page two, which blows me away, They shiver me timbers, right,
there are those out there morning after quarterbacks, if you will,
the morning after This was moments after the injury, who
(08:44):
were going on and on and on by well tyrees.
Halliburton should have never been allowed to play, should have
never been allowed to play for the Pacers. It's malfeasance
by the Indiana basketball team. They should never have allowed
him on the court. He had a pre exist condition.
Bad job by them. Oh no right, oh no, he
(09:06):
popped his achilles in the first quarter. So where are
you at on this one? Where are you at on
those that are screaming this is on the Pacers. They
should not have allowed him to play. Haliburton should not
have been out there. This is one of those things
that blows me away. And now I think some of
this is actually just people just busting balls and just
(09:27):
probably Boughty counts on those social media channels because it's
the freaking finals, Like, what are you even having that coming?
It's a chance to win a championship. No one, no one,
misses that game. And if you miss that game, you
might as well retire. If Halliburton had said I'm not
gonna play, I might pop my achilles. You might as
well go get a real job. You can't show your
(09:47):
face in any gymnasium anywhere from Maine to Maui. It's over.
You have to play in that game, game seven of
the finals. You've got to do it. And Halliburton and
he made some shots, so he had nine points. He
made three three point shots early. He got hurt. That sucks,
and that's part of the game. And all these morons,
(10:10):
I can't. I really hope this is not legit like
all this is just like people trolling and things like that.
I mean, come on, if there's anyone that actually believes
that you have the greatest loser mentality of all time,
science should study you. You are such a loser that
people should study how big a giant loser you are
and how you got to that particular point where you
wear the giant l on your forehead because you're a loser.
(10:33):
Right again, no ifs ants or but you got to play.
If you're Haliburton, you cannot not play. You can't. They
they have to amputate you let you gotta play like
there's no's no, you can't even in this soft modern
world we live, and you've got to play in Game seven.
And for those that are, you know, grumbling and again,
I'd like to think this is all nonsense. You should
(10:55):
have played in the game. Why he wasn't one hundred percent,
I would argue, I don't think I'm wrong on this.
What do I know, though? I do the overnight show
that nobody is one hundred percent. By the time you
get the Game seven of the Finals, you've been playing
for eight months of basketball, although many of the players
take a lot of time off et cetera. It's one
(11:16):
of those things. You patch it up, you rub some
dirt on it, get some dirt, get some mud, rub
it on there, and you go. And that's what you're
supposed to do. That's you gut it out Game seven
NBA Finals. That's what you want Halliburton to do. What
he did it. Now, there is a dimension in the
multiverse where Halliburton goes out there and he doesn't pop
(11:36):
his achilles, same scenario leading into the game. He goes
out there and plays and plays well, and the Pacers
end up winning Game seven, and rah rah, And there's
a parade in Indianapolis in a couple of days and
all that. So when you dig a little deeper, though,
I had an epiphany as I was cruising over here
to the hallowed hallways of Fox Sports Radio where legends
(11:57):
like Rich Horrera and others James Washing used to work
back in the old days here, and I was walking
in from the parking lot and I walked by the
trash which hasn't been picked up since Friday. It's a
nice smell, nice aroma. So I walked in there and
I hear what this is. This is the spreadsheet warriors
(12:17):
that have taken over yet again. Another example, another example.
It's been about fifteen years or so since this has
become prevalent in modern sports. That is, the spreadsheet Warriors
have led to the brain rot among a segment of
sports fans, the Analytical Nerd Society of North America that
(12:41):
have said, hey, I've got a graph that shows injury assessment,
injury risk assessment, and this guy I cannot play out
of an abundance of caution, cannot do it right. And
they're all up in arms and it's not right. He
didn't follow the probability model Tyree's I'll dare him, And
(13:01):
to that, I say five. Wait, fright is what I
say again, Haliburton, if he hadn't played, he'd be healthy
right now, he wouldn't have a pop Achilles and he
would have been haunted by the Kulda woulda should have
for the rest of the man's Indiana. He's not getting
back here. It's not like the Pacers. It'll be another
(13:23):
generation before the Pacers get back to the NBA finals.
And you're telling me he shouldn't have played, all right,
tell me you dumb without telling me you're dumb right now.
Last word, So let's address the Komodo dragon in the room. Now,
what is the Komodo dragon in the room? Well, the
Oklahoma City Thunder have just won their first championship as
the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now some will say, well, I'll
(13:44):
go back to the Sonics. I don't count the ghosts
of Seattle because I believe it, in the next couple
of years, the Sonics will be born again. They will
have the SuperSonics back in Seattle, and all the championships
and all the glory will go back to Seattle and
all that so those ghosts I leave behind. The team
unceremoniously hijacked out of the Pacific Northwest and they abandoned
(14:06):
Seattle because of the oil tyrant that bought the team
from the Starbucks dopes and then moved it to Oklahoma City.
But now we're hearing the whispers and we've seen the
comments on social media and the gas bag gasps. Well,
they've already been labeled dynasty. It's they won one championship. Dynasty.
(14:26):
Here we go, dynasty in the making. Is that how
you see it? So I'll go first here. I look
at this like a prison camp. Okay, team wins title
and everyone and their mother becomes hypnotized and mesmerized. Prisoners
(14:47):
of the moment, prison camp, prisoners of the moment. Slow down,
have your little champagne there, have you a little parade,
knock yourself out and let the confetti hit you, and
then let it hit the ground. At least it can
hit you and then hit the ground and all that stuff,
and you can probably hold off on building a statue
for SGA at least not yet. It's a classic recency bias.
(15:09):
We heard the same things last year with the Boston Celtics.
Winning the championship. They're on their way now. The Celtics
are going to control the NBA for years to come
because they have Tatum and Brown and oh my god
and all that stuff. Now, one ring does not become
the forecast for three or four or five and one finals,
(15:32):
MVP Award, you don't become the face of the NBA.
You're not catapulted up to that level. And Sam Presty,
my god, he's got the cleanest ass in the NBA.
Every TV guy, every media guy in the NBA has
been kissing Sam Presty's ass, going on and on the
executive for Oklahoma City. But they suddenly the new gold
(15:53):
standard and all that stuff makes me want to puke
in my mouth. The dynasty stuff is rather ridiculous. Those
acquire something called repetition, which is a problem relevance over
the period of time more than I don't know, one year,
and they are earned because of overcoming injury like surgeries
(16:15):
and players getting you know, getting unhappy. They're in a
small town. They want to go somewhere else. You also
have the salarycap. You've got to juggle because everyone's gonna
get a lot more money and all that. So I
just don't see it. For the Thunder, I don't I
don't see it. I maybe I'm wrong. I don't see
them as a dynasty. They can prove me wrong if
(16:35):
they want, you know, run it back, do it again.
But even that's not a dynasty. You gotta do it
at least a couple more times. And do it when
guys get hurt, go out and win again with injuries, right,
and when contracts expire and players demand, hey, I want
more money. The disease of me. Pat Riley used to
talk about that egos, getting away all that stuff, and
do it when you're being targeted and you're not the
(16:59):
fresh faced under dog, upstart team and you have nothing
to lose and all that. Now, as for the building
of the roster, I would like to address that. Have
the Thunder crack the code? Have they given us the
blueprint that all the other NBA teams are gonna copy?
That would be a no, no way. The Thunder. I
(17:20):
look at them like in baseball, the Tampa Bay Race.
These are two teams that can do what they have
done because of where they are right. The Thunder are
like the Tampa Bay Rays in baseball. It's Frankenstein's Lab
is what it is. You've got no media pressure. It's
a po dunk town Oklahoma City. You've got that small
(17:44):
town fan base that's just happy they have pro sports there.
You've got zero pressure and you can trade away and
just play the lottery game, lottery ball for years to come.
I can do that. That playbook will not in a
big league city. Right in a big league city, there
(18:05):
will be pressure to have star players. There will be
pressured to have success, and you will become irrelevant because
the word apathy will apply. If you try to do that,
people will come apoplectic, they will not watch your product.
You will become irrelevant. You can't do it. You can't
get away with it. But in time like Olahoma City,
you can do it. Just like the Tampa Bay Race,
they don't nobody cares. They just they have a good
team every year, but they don't have stars. And they
(18:27):
get stars, they get rid of them and that's it.
That's that. Now, what about the dopes and I'm getting
some of this crap. They're like cockroaches. They come out
here and they're like, oh man, this gotta be a
tough day for the Clippers. You know, ripping like somehow
I'm the spokesman for the Clippers, which I'm not. I
don't trust man. I don't go to those games much
anymore I used to back in the day. I hope
(18:47):
the Clippers do well, but the idea and we'll just
address it like this. The dopes that are out there,
what do you make of this? Wow, the Clippers, this
should have been their championship. They traded away SGA. This
is embarrassing for the Clips. My god, Now I understand
where this is coming from. Listen, I love busting balls
as much as the next person. I know that's all
you're doing. I get it. You know, who Miller, you
(19:10):
should feel so bad. You know, it's low information trolling
at its finest, and that's really what social media is
all about. I get it. You know you're just busting chop.
You know you couldn't name two guys on the Clippers
or the Thunder. It's revisionist history. And to say that
the Clippers shouldn't have made that trade. I would have
made that trade one hundred out of one hundred times.
(19:32):
Even after Oklahoma said he just won the championship, right
as Emin m crooned, no regrets, right, Kawhi Leonard was
the player everyone won. Every single team in the NBA won,
and Kawhi Leonard the price of admission. It was a
claw game to get the claw. He said, I want
Paul George, which is a dumb decision, but that's his choice.
(19:53):
That's his choice. Kawhi Lenners says, I want Paul George,
Paul George Blouse, but that's who Kawhi Leonard wants. So
you trade Sga. That's it. That's the price of admission
fresh off a title in Toronto. That's what you had
to do. You do it every single time. You don't
look back. That's it. And you make that trade, and
(20:15):
you know the Clippers they're still relevant and they'll be
a contender for the foreseeable future. They have a legit
owner and all that. But of course you'd make that
trade and Sga hasn't become what he became with the Clippers.
He would never become that with the Clippers, so it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Turns out the sun has set on the Kevin Durant
Era in Arizona. There's a shocker wel gum. In the
beginning of another hour of the Ben Mahler Show. We
are in the air everywhere as we babble in a
(20:57):
dimly lit retreat coast to coast, voter and beyond on
the mast and herculeanly powerful microphones of FSR am monating
live from the bubble inside the bubble of trust the
Fox Sports Radio Studios has approved by mister Irrigation and
(21:19):
this portion of the Ben Maler Show made possible in
part by our friends at ty Iraq. For over forty years,
ty Iraq has been helping customers find the right tires
for how, what and where they drive, ship fast and
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tire installation ti iraq dot Com The Way Tire Buying
showb So our lead this hour is from the pro
Bouncy Ball World. The finals are over, but a story
that upstaged the NBA Finals From the high Speed Sports
Wire the Chatterbox. Kevin Durant. He's on the move again.
(22:03):
Oh boy, Kevin Durant. We've become Rhodes Scholars at Kevin
Durant trades. So if you have not heard, if you
were out doing stuff on Sunday, he didn't pay attention.
We learned the Phoenix Suns are saying bye bye to
the Slim Reaper, unloading the aging Kevin Durant to the
Rockets for a trade package that includes Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks,
(22:28):
the number ten overall pick in this week's draft, and
not one, not two, not three, not four, but five
second round picks. So using Malormath, that's an eight for
one swap. Eight for one. Sun's got eight players, well
really two and then six other draft players and the
(22:50):
trade will be formally completed when the new league year begins.
I always get excited about this, the new league year
that'll be July sixth. Was on stage at something called
fanatics Fest, where they jack up prices and get fans
to pay exorbitant amounts of money for memorabilia in New
(23:11):
York and the trade was announced and Durant gave his
immediate reaction. He said, being part of the Houston Rockets,
I'm looking forward to it. Durant said, crazy, crazy, Last
couple of weeks. But I'm glad it's over with close
quote all right, so let us discuss the question. Kevin
Durant headed out, headed out of Arizona and headed to
(23:36):
the Rockets. At first glance, what stands out? What stands out?
So I've got brat, Instagram and pot luck and we
will combine all of these things together and we are
going to put the WHAMMI on the zami is what
we're going to do. So number why I said number?
(24:01):
So Kevin Durant has done it yet again. Bravo to
Kevin Durant. Way to go as he continues to move
locations out, foxing authorities yet again, one step ahead of
the NBA law. Kevin Durant the all time master of
migration K and D. You never know where he's gonna be.
(24:23):
You don't really want to learn where he is because
it's just going to change. The Slim Reaper the traveling
circus now heading to the Lone Star State as he
will play for the rock Cats there. Now, since his
days in Oklahoma State was in Seattle, they moved to
Oklahoma City. Since he left there, Durant has been a brat.
He's been like a military brat moving to a new
(24:43):
base in a different state or a different part of
America every three years or less. That's not my opinion.
It's a fact. Three years in Golden State. Check, he
went to Brooklyn. Three years there, one of them hurt
from his days in Golden State. Three years in Phoenix. Check.
(25:04):
So nine years, three and three and three, and now
he goes to Houston. The Malor report card the only
report card that matters on trades, the Malor report card.
The Roquettes get a B. The Suns get a C.
Not an overwhelming trade. Not an overwhelming trade. This didn't
(25:24):
get me all excited. I was like, that's fine. Durant's
a name, we know who that is. But from a
business standpoint, the reason I'm giving the Rockets a B
is not because I think Durant is in the peak
of his superpowers. He's a diminishing asset. However, from a
business standpoint, it makes sense. Duran is still box office.
(25:45):
He's got the fifteen time All Star on his resume,
the Great Finals performances with the Golden State Warriors. He's
got that. So that moves the needle. So that from
the business side of it, for the casual fan, the
dumb fan that buys the tick. It's the casual, it's
not really a sports fan. But hey, we got this
guy named Durant. Let's go buy some tickets. Yeah, he'll
(26:05):
bring that, he'll bring some eyeballs, he'll be some bring
some curiosity to see if it actually works this time.
It didn't work the last couple of times he put
these super teams together in Brooklyn and in Arizona, and
so he said, well, maybe it's time will work. Now.
This will be different, right, this will be different. And
as for Phoenix, like, you know, they gave up a
thirty seven player. Thirty a guy who's gonna turn thirty
(26:28):
seven this year. Is a declining asset of a player.
And it's not like they got that much in return.
And they're mopping the floor essentially in a flood, is
what they're doing here. They swung from the heels with Durant.
They whiffed. They didn't get anywhere close to what they
thought they were going to be get. In we're close
(26:50):
to where they thought they were going to be now
Page duo. The Kevin Durant Tray to the Rockets, the
Championship Odds on Draft next season have gone from plus
twelve hundred prior to the trade for Houston to plus
seven point fifty. That means now the Rockets, as a
direct result of this trade, now have the second best
(27:14):
odds to win the championship next season. Is this an
over reaction? Is this an over reaction to the Kevin
Durant trade based on the odds on DraftKings? So I'm
nodding my head. Yes, this is a classic overreaction. Is
a defensive move by the books. It's a defensive move
(27:34):
because the casuals will see Durant and he'll be introduced here,
They'll hold up the jersey with his name on it,
and then it'll be a lot of chatter on social
media about the urrant and this, that and the other thing.
And so you look at that, you say, okay, here
we go. So people are gonna loss money on Houston
to win the championship, so you have to cover that.
And this is a proactive move, not a reactive A
(27:57):
proactive move by the sportsbooks there cover themselves just in
case lightning hits and catches in the bottle there for
Kevin Durant and Houston. Does anyone expect that to happen
raise their hands. No, I don't see anyone anyone raising
their hands, So I don't hold your breath on that.
And here's why. After a minutes long deliberation on the
(28:18):
career of Kevin Durant post Golden State, post Golden State,
Kevin Durant is like an Instagram model, Right, looks a
lot better on your smartphone. Right, it looks really good
on the smartphone, and then you take all those filters
away and you're like, oh man, I mean it's not
that pleasant. You know, it's not bad, but it's just
not that not that. There's a lot of stuff going on.
(28:40):
There's a lot of deception. There's camera angles, there's makeup,
there's clothing option choices like all of that, and the filters.
So it's like an Instagram model, Durant. You know, you
put them on there. It looks pretty good. Then but
upon further review, it's like, eh, you know, Durant will
get some numbers, he'll score some points. You can still score.
And he has proven with Brooklyn, he has proven with
(29:01):
Phoenix that his ability to build a super team is lacking.
He's got some kryptonite in that area. It is an
issue he is not the final piece to the jigsaw
puzzle unless the puzzle includes Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and
(29:22):
Klay Thompson and spoiler alert, spoiler alert, I looked at
Houston's roster. They don't have that, So they don't have that.
It's gonna be electric or explosive or maybe like putting
a electronic device in a bathtub. Not a good idea.
We're already hearing about the bromance. All what a bromance
(29:43):
between Kevin Durant and Eme Udoka that they bonded at
some international basketball tournament the I think it was the
Olympics And to that, okay, great, I'm glad they're buddy
buddy and all that stuff. I'll believe it when I
see it. And it doesn't matter what they do in
regular season, Durant, it will be judged in the playoffs.
That's how this works. Nobody pays attention to the regular season.
(30:05):
It's all about what you do in the playoffs. You
have to validate yourself in the postseason. So we will
not know until next summer. That's it all right now,
final point, So how are things looking in the Phoenix
part of the equation? How are things looking in Phoenix
with the hall the Sun's got for Kevin Durant eight
for one, eight for one. So I would not call
(30:28):
it a hall. Let's start with that. I would not
call it a hall. That is being delusional and overly
optimistic to say it's a hole it. This is more
of a pot luck dinner type situation.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
You got some deviled eggs over here with the suns.
You got some of that. You got a little brocoli salad.
Nobody likes broccoli salad, but somebody brought brocoli salad with
to the pot luck. So you've got some broccoli salad
over here, and then you've got some chicken cash roll
over on this side. And then you've got some mac
and cheese. And that's all kind of in the middle.
It's a quantity play, not a quality play. And Jalen
Green was the star of the trade. He just was
(31:11):
the star of the trade. He's a high, very athletic,
high scoring guard. He led the rockheats and scoring last
season he had to be traded. He rode the vomit
comet to the next level, to the moon and beyond
in that playoff series when he had one if I
Remember he had one really good game and the rest
of the time it was like less than ten points.
(31:33):
He was gun shy, he froze. They had to trade him.
He bought himself a trade. Now they end up getting
to rant for him. Jalen Green could not come back.
He was That was absolute malfeasance by Jalen Green in
the playoffs, he went a wall. Guilty of going to
a wall. They had to get rid of him. And
(31:53):
three years into his NBA care effort, a lot of chat. Well,
that's a great player whatever I mean. His son's got
a super good player. He was the second pick in
the tra But if you look the numbers here the
Basketball Reference comps on Jalen Green, his career at this
point is similar to Tim Hardaway junior, not the old man,
Tim Hardaway Junior, Rodney mcgruegor whoever that is, and Quincy Pondexter.
(32:19):
So that's it. Now you know Dylan Brooks, Now he's
a glue guy. Dylan Brooks is a glue guy. He's
a pass he's an instigator. From his days in Memphis.
His nickname Dylan the Villain, so he lives up to that.
And those guys are nice when you're really about to
win a championship, you think you're about to win, and
you get a player like that, and we expect Phoenix
(32:42):
to regift Dylan Brooks and possibly even Green They're gonna
have to get. They got to give Rid to Bradley Beal.
The guard situation is a mess. Bradley Beal's got a
no trade clause. They got to find a way to
unload Bradley Beal to convince him to be traded, so
Devin Booker will be there with more empty stat for
the Suns. And then you got Dylan Brooks and he
(33:03):
could be traded. But the green's the other one, Green,
Devin Brooks, Devon Booker, and then also the guard Bradley Beal,
who put up numbers for the Wizards back in the day. Now,
as for Kevin Durant leaving, the argument is this is
addition by subtraction. It just didn't work out and all
this stuff, And it is true that the Durant experiment.
(33:26):
You don't fault the Suns for going for it. The experiment,
though in hindsight we didn't say this at the time,
but in hindsight, it didn't feel like it was gonna work.
But in hindsight, it was doomed from the very beginning.
The super team that had the chemistry of like a
wet sock and a toaster, it just did not It
(33:48):
just didn't work, and it sounded good. Devin Booker and
Bradley Beal as players that could score a lot of
points alongside Durant. Durant would open things up for Bradley
Beal to shoot three point shots and for Devin Booker
to slash the basket. And then it turned out that
they formed a band with three solo artists, right, three
(34:10):
solo artists, and they tried to play a symphony and
it just would not work. The notes did not work.
The only thing they orchestrated in two seasons was a
single first round playoff elimination. They didn't even make the playoffs.
This passing. You know how hard it is to not
make the playoffs in the NBA. They try to get
(34:32):
every team in. They had that Fugasey playing thing, which
is like half the playoffs. The Suns were so bad
they couldn't even get in the postseason. So they made
it to one postseason. They were swept in four games.
Didn't even qualify. This past year, and so now they're
going a different direction. They hired some no name guy
as the coach, and so that's where we are.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
We got that to the third degree. Here we go,
and think that gets grilled, gooblo.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
It was reported over the weekend that Jalen Ramsey would
prefer to be traded to the West Coast, specifically, either
the Chargers or the Rams. Ben, would you want Ramsey
back on the Rams or is he a falling star?
Speaker 1 (35:19):
All right? So first of all, I don't I'm not
like dying to get jail. If the Rams get him,
I'm fine with that. But he's thirty years old. He's
thirty years old, and you know how I feel. I
think he turns thirty to thirty one early in the
NFL season, So he's at that point where he's at
the very end of his athletic prime, if he's not
already past his athletic prime. So, like I know, he's
(35:40):
a veteran. He's not a falling star yet, but he's
teetering on the brink of being a falling star.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
Next, Robert Sala is back with the forty nine Ers,
and with his return, George Kittle has a warning for
the rest of the league.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Oh I got to hear this. He said, violence is coming.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
Really, yes, Ben, Do you think Sala's return will make
a noticeable impact in Santa Clara?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Well, the only thing about Robert Salah is you could
not watch a Niner game with this guy was the
Shenanigans when he was the defensive coordinator before the smooching
that took place from broadcasters desperately trying to get him
a head coaching job was so over the top, like
the TV guys Robert Selzer, all the jumping up and
(36:21):
down the South ultimates players. As we learned when Robert
Salad coached the Jets and had suck players, he was
suddenly a suck coach. So the Niners have some decent players,
not as many good ones as they had before. They'll
be okay, But it's not that I'm not expecting a
master class by Robert Salad.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
Next, the Tampa Bay Rays won two out of three
games in their series against the A leading Tigers, and
they did some in blowout fashion. But you think the
Rays are legitimate ken tenders in the American League.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Well, are they regular season contenders? Yes, it's like a
freak show Coop. Though it's like a freak show with
the race. I don't consider them a legitimate playoff contender
during the regular season. Yeah, it works during the regular season.
How do we know you passed? That's a wit? I
won the game, mister again, shot, hey you sports figure,
(37:09):
guy or girl? Who got here? Were you talking to?
So hear some interestant advice? Hold that though no one's
paid attention to me for ten whole seconds. And if
you don't like it, you.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
And no.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
We go.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
It's the inside advice line unscreened radio. The safety net
is off. Who needs our advice? Now? There were some recommendations.
I think we're pretty much on the same line of
thinking here as the NBA Finals came to an end.
This is unscreened radio. Your calls, no call screener. You're
live on the air when you hear my voice. Who
(37:44):
needs our advice now, Alfie alien Opiner said Tyrese Haliburton's Achilles.
I was thinking just Pacer fans in general, on how
to deal with getting to a Game seven, getting all
fired up. You got all the party goods right, you
got a big thing of booze, you got food, right,
you're grilling the whole thing. The weather's good, you're excited
(38:04):
about your team. You got shot to upset and win
Game seven. And then in the first quarter, kaboom goes
to the Achilles. So advice to Pacer fans, and if
you want to give advice to Tyrese Haliburton's Achilles, you
can do that as well. You're live on the air.
When you hear my voice at eight seven seven ninety
nine on Fox, do not attempt this at home. We
(38:25):
are trained broadcast professionals. We'll start out with you on
line one. Your advice to Pacer fans on dealing with
the loss. Line one, get some acupuncture and drink some
warm milk. All right. Line two your advice please, Line two,
that was solid advice. Advice to the Pacer fans. Line two,
(38:45):
all right, thank you for that. We'll go to line three.
Line three. You are on the air. What is your
advice to the Pacer fans? Line three? Yeah, in morning time,
just tell them to go watch the movie Troy.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
That's a Rick and Maryland legend on the show. Hello,
line four. You're on the ear. It's the instant Advice
line eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox. The phones
are working, call early, call off in Hello, line four.
Come the hell's a Mantezuma to the shores of Triple Lee.
We fight our country's battles in the air landing. Okay,
all right, thank you, yes, all right. The ferg Dog
(39:15):
their line of five. Hello, line five, you're on the
Airline five, Line five, not paying attention. Line six, you're
on there. I hear your line six. Hello, let me
hear all right, please my god, you what the James
I mean? Stay off the booze James. Line one, you're
on the air. It is the Insta Advice line, the
(39:38):
Insta advice line for pacer fans and Tyrese Halliburtons Popped Achilles. Hello,
line one.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Hey for the fild party. And even though we did.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Lose, there you go celebrate good times. They're probably at somewhere.
We're not in Oklahoma City, probably not much open on
a Sunday into a Monday. And now line two, Hello,
line two to my dude, Sean the hood guy.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Love roll up with that.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
All right, there you go, love for Sean the hood guy.
Line That was from Manuel and Guardina. Line three, you're
on the air line three. Hello, okay, okay, I need
some help. On line four, you're on the air at
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox the Insta advice
line unscreened Radio. Hello, line four. Oh, can you put
(40:23):
Blindscot on hold for the fourth No? I can't. I
cannot do that. Hello line five. Hello, line five, friends
don't let other friends drive drunk. And remember y'lcu before you. Oh,
that's some of my great work in public service announce
announcements of years past. That's supermarket Steve, a fan of
the PSA's Hello, line six, you're on the air, go Daggers. Shit.
(40:49):
Remember tiger Man used to call the show. You don't
call anymore. I don't know what happened. I guess we
upset him. Line one, Hello, line one, number one, love
you okay, go you're a drunk? Hello line two. There
you go. That's right. You can be saying that a
lot the next few years. Hello, line three. You're on
the Airline three.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Hello, my night, declare Oh Colahomas, no stop one more,
hurry up to one more, hurry on three fight for
you on the airline for godlighte.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Fucko, why are we talking about the Titans? Talk about
the Titans. Oh my god, we forgot about the Titans.
That's why
Host
Ben Maller
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