May 20, 2024 • 47 mins
On a Monday edition of The Best of the Doug Gottlieb Show: Doug explains why the NBA needed this New York Knicks playoff run.
Doug and the crew share what they loved and hated most from the weekend in this week's edition of "Love AND Hate".
Doug does not think the Nuggets choked away game seven against Minnesota. Doug welcomes FSR NBA Insider Ric Bucher to talk about four teams left in the NBA Playoffs, the Knicks and all of the other major headlines coming out of the weekend.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
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Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio coming to you from
(00:23):
the tiret dot Com studios tyrat dot Com when we
get there, unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road has
a protection over ten thousand recommend and sellar tyrat dot
Com with the tire buying should be well, just like
we always thought, right, I mean it kind of has
an NCAA tournament sort of feel. We have a final
four in the NBA. Right oh, it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Let me tell you. Let me tell you about Mike
Stepsty and Roy Williams.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
No, no, no, Dick Vitel, No, that's not what it is.
It's the NBA, right oh, the final four. We got
Lebron and we got nope, nope, we got the Dependent
champions and nikolae Yo Kitchen. Nope No, Now we do
have Luca and the Mavericks and what was that was
an amazing basketball game in Game six to win in
(01:15):
Oklahoma City. We have the Minnesota Timberwolves, Minnesota timberlives. Yes,
now you're not stuttering, that's correct. And then we have
the Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics, and obviously the
Celtics I think are the prohibitive favorite to win the
whole thing. Now I believe like this could be the
(01:39):
the I'm here, I'm the best player in the world
moment for Luka Doncik if he can win both these
next two series. There's a lot to get to. And
there's Kyrie Irving, who suddenly has become a leader. H
all right, And as much as we want to say, ah,
it's hard for me to get into this series when
(01:59):
it Minnesota and Dallas and whatever. Kyrie against Boston in
the finals woo. And we have the Anthony Edwards who
continues his kind of NBA playoff takeover. Even though the
shooting wasn't efficient, the defense, the energy, some of the
shot making was pretty spectacular. But I don't want to
(02:22):
bury the lead. I you know, there are times in
which I look at sports and I think a lot
of people inside sports look at it differently than the
mainstream fan or the hater fan. Right, the hater fans like,
why are you always talking about the Knicks? And I
get it. The steven A thing. It can be a
(02:44):
little much, right, It can be more than a little much.
It can be a lot much. It can be a
little much. But man, I gotta tell you. You know,
my dad was a New Yorker and every summer he
take me back. And you know, my mom grew up
(03:04):
in Connecticut. He grew up in the Bronx, moved out
to Long Island when he's like thirteen years old, and
we would go to all the places in all the parks.
And again, remember this is the nineties, and back in
that part of the nineties, the Knicks were very good.
And when Jordan was out of the league and oj
was in the Chase, they were actually in the NBA Finals.
But New York, I mean, they're like any town. Any
(03:26):
town's a front running town. But the garden has been
full for the last twenty five years. The Knicks have
been good. The Knicks have been bad. The Knicks have
had Carmelo, They've also had Lynsanity, they've been atrocious, They've
been great. The garden has been full. And what happens
is people have been critical of Knicks fans. Hey, if
(03:47):
you really want change, you want James Dolan change, stop
showing up. But they can't. You know why it's a
basketball town and whether it was I mean, you name
the coach that has gone there. You've always asked, like,
why would Phil Jackson do it? You know, he played there,
he won a championship there. But the same reason Phil
(04:10):
Jackson did, the same reason Rick Patino did it, the
same reason that pat Riley did it the same and
you saw it in this past series. There is an
energy and a passion in that city for that team
that is remarkable. And look, obviously there's a little bit
(04:30):
of karma there, right you go, f you to Reggie Miller,
and now Reggie Miller gets to have the last laugh,
and we can sit here and say we know what
the outcome would have been. I mean, plenty of Knicks
fans were like, you know, Jalen Brunson didn't get hurt.
If you know, like you go through all the basically
their starting lineup was all out, you would think that
(04:53):
the Knicks would win if they were healthy. But we
don't know, and we don't know if Tom Thibodeau's style
allow them to be healthy, because he's all gas, no breaks,
all the time. But a blind man can see that
it's just different in the garden. A blind man can
see that the energy for that team is just different.
(05:19):
And this is not me excusing the fact that there
is a very high dB ratio, right, And by dB,
I don't mean defensive back. I think you know what
that an acronym is for. Here's a different, different energy,
(05:40):
and some of it turns nasty, some of it's not enjoyable.
I get it, I would agree with it, but it
has it's actually better than the Lakers, if you can
believe that. Don't get me wrong. The Lakers are regal.
The Lakers have the same number of championships. The Lakers
are are a spectacular franchise historically, right, because you go
(06:05):
back through the years in different decades, from George mike
In to Jerry West, to Magic Johnson, to Kobe Bryant
and fir Sin Shack and then Kobe and Pale and
then obviously to Lebron like they've had all these different
stars and they have all the Hollywood Stars, but so
(06:25):
does New York. But New York has this just energy.
It's unmistaknable, it's undeniable. Here's Jalen Brunson talking about the
game and the support of the fans.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
They have been nothing but amazing to myself, to this team,
to my family, and it's really cool, just so thankful
for them and everything, and the Knights that now we
needed energy they provided for us. And the games on
the road we need energy, they provided for us. And
(07:02):
so they're amazing and I can't really put in the
words of what they mean to me, but they deserve
much more than what we were able to do this
playoff fund. They deserve much more than that.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I mean, it's it's what the NBA has been missing. Right.
Ask yourself, why why would I watch college basketball? And
remember this is from the voice of a college basketball
head coach, And the answer, you know, the question is right,
why would you watch what's an inferior product in terms
(07:34):
of the overall talent? And the answer is because college basketball, usually,
especially at its best, possesses an insane amount of passion,
an insane amount of energy. You can feel it. You
feel like the players are playing harder, and you feel
like the fans are cheering harder, and you feel like
you're at like a rock concert, right And the NBA,
(08:00):
you know they're playing. They got a DJ playing while
they dribble the ball up the floor, or of course
in New York, they got an organist, you know, playing
the organ while you're walking the ball at the floor.
That's your view of the NBA. The NBA can be sterile,
the NBA can be lame. The NKBA can be a
show where fans just come to watch and golf clap.
(08:22):
Not New York, Not New York, the fabric of where
that city is. Sure, it's not like LA. It's arrogant, absolutely,
and arrogant for no reason because they haven't won anything
since the sixties. But we're in New York and you're not.
But you get that energy and those games felt different.
(08:47):
New York games, Garden for your games feel different, and
Nick games in the playoffs field. It's exactly what the
NBA needed because you can be the most ardent hater
of the NBA. And there's plenty of pe people like
they don't play defense the Knicks too, they don't play
with great energy. I mean, I mean, look at the
way Heart plays. I mean, Josh Hart's amazing. Everything is
(09:10):
just dunk or shoot shoot three point shots. Have you
watch Jalen Brunson. So this is not me saying the
wrong team won. I mean, look, they're so banged up
injury wise. I'm sure some of it is TIBs, some
of it's bad luck and the Pacers. I think Rick
Carlisle is an amazing coach. We talked about that early
in earlier shows. But it's undeniable that the NBA needs
(09:33):
the Knicks deep in the playoffs. The playoffs feel different
with them deep in that deep end. And if the
NBA is to ever get back to close to the
standing of previous decades now back when the NBA was
king New York, Chicago, La, Boston, they gotta be in Philly.
(09:54):
They gotta be involved.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
This is the best of the Done dot Lead Show
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Oh what about you, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio.
Coming to you from the tyrat dot com studios, tarret
dot com. What you get there on match selection, fast free,
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s ollars. Tyrat dot Com a's the way tire buying
should be. Okay, So we got a final four in
the NBA. I wasn't here for the Scotti Scheffler thing,
(10:27):
but you know, it's a Friday morning incident. We'll allow
that as part of the weekend discussion. You got Major
League Baseball another gambling investigation going on. I saw Jay
stew went out to see the Dodgers play. Great seats,
good seats, good seats. What else?
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
We actually have the PGA Championship, which was an awesome watch.
I mean, by the way, when did Valhalla become the
waste management open? That's that's a question that I have.
I mean, there were some dudes that were just wasted
watching that thing. Holy Holy cow. But what we do
every Monday is we all like sports. Sometimes we don't
(11:10):
always talk about sports within it, things that we loved,
things that we hated. We call it love and hate.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
What did you love?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
God, I love you, and what did you hate?
Speaker 5 (11:21):
These player hayes?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
All right, things you loved from the weekend? Uh, doude
do do do? I'll tell you what I loved. I
love being right about the MAVs and the thunder Ah.
So as you guys know, I used to work in
Oklahoma City. My dear friend is Mark Rogers. I popped
(11:47):
on his show and after Game one, I went to
Game one with my son Hayes, and uh, I remember
saying like, and even you go back to the previous
series where a couple of the games they kind of
got pushed around, Like, I think this series is going
to get really physical. I think Luca wins a game.
I think the MAVs win this thing in six or seven.
(12:08):
And I mean, you would have thought that I said
Oklahoma City smells like bo that was that was received,
and it turns out that I'm right. So I love
being right. I'm gonna take that one.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
I will say this, like, one of the most underreported
stories of the NBA season was Kyrie Irving, like keeping
his mouth shut, Kyrie Irving didn't get into trouble, he
didn't say anything offensive to anybody. And it's like it
comes full circle when he supposedly had this speech at
halftime or whenever it was in Game six, completing this
(12:45):
weird story that for whatever reason, like people couldn't stop
writing about Kyrie Irving when he retweeted that anti Semitic
documentary and then nobody wrote about the fact that he
kind of kept his mouth shut and kind of kept
the main thing the main thing this season.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Good for him, that's a great point. He's kind of
figuring it out. Like I, Yeah, he suddenly became his
leader and champion and speech giver. It's crazy, crazy, okay,
Dan Byer.
Speaker 6 (13:19):
I did love the PGA Championship. I know I'm not
a lot of golf fans liked the low scoring, which
was amazingly low, by far the record for the easiest
PGA championship. But you did have drama at the end.
Bryson de Shamba ends up turning baby face instead of
(13:39):
heal like there was a positive outlook with Bryson, the
shots that he made at the end, the putt that
Xander Schoffley made and trying to get the monkey off
of his back and never to have won a major.
It was a real good ending. I know it wasn't
There wasn't a lot of resistance given to the field
at Valhalla, but I was entertained on Sunday and Victor
(14:04):
Howlin back in it thought it was a great leaderboard. Yeah,
I thought it was a fun weekend and watching golf
even if the golf purist didn't absolutely love it.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I agree with you there. This is actually and Dan again.
If I'm wrong, feel free, Sam wrong. Wasn't that always
the accusation about the PGA before maybe the last ten years,
that it wasn't the US Open, It wasn't nearly as
tricked up a golf course so that the scores were
too low, and it wasn't the purest form of golf.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Yeah, somewhat.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
The problem with the PGA was it just never had
an identity. You didn't know what exactly it was because
the Masters well was the Masters, and the US Open
was the was the root canal of golf. Now it's
even moved a little away from that. The USBA hasn't
set up courses as paint steakingly difficult as they did
(14:56):
in the.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Past when Hinnacock with did the water to the green.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
Yes, there's and the Open Championship is just revered because
of its history and it's it's different. But it's funny
because the PGA would get criticized, even the USGA would
if it scores fifteen under power, But when people shoot
twenty under I'd seen Andrews. No one is saying a word.
They're just they're cool with it, so it's kind of
a you know, they may not be fair, but the
(15:19):
PGA really never really had an identity, and maybe it's
starting to form a bit of an identity. I'm not
too sure, but it's better off now than it once was.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Case doo.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Uh you mentioned it. At the start of the hour,
I went to the Dodger game mission I saw shoho
Tani walk off the Reds. Not only was that was
the first walk off hit for shoh hail Tani in
a Dodger uniform, which is great, and he's just ripping
it up in May. By the way, he's everything we're
paying for. I did find this to be funny, and
(15:52):
I love the fact that I can make fun of
the Angels as I'm propping up the Dodgers. You know
that Shohio Tani has only two walk off hits in
his entire career, and yesterday was one of them. That
just tells you how miserable the Angels were for the
last like six or seven seasons, right. I mean, you
think you would just like like accidentally have a walk
(16:15):
off hit four or five times if you're show haled time.
But the Angels wouldn't allow him to do that.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
I guess, no, no, Sam, you get something that you
love for the.
Speaker 7 (16:26):
Weekend, I do it would be a Kaitlin Clark's Saturday.
She still she had eight turnovers in her third game
the WNBA, but she did finish nine of seventeen, shooting
twenty two points, eighty six six, eight assists, six rebounds.
Perhaps she's starting to turn the corner and she's I know,
she's been clowned on a lot. She ran blindly into
(16:48):
Brianna Stewart, big old collision there, and she's still having
you know, her rookie moments. But she was much more
efficient shooting on Saturday. They're playing a ton of games
in a short amount of time. We could be seeing
the improvement here. Three four games in.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I definitely think she's getting better. A lot of people
under her teammates. I would also point out that like, look,
she is a thing, she is a happening. She is must.
Speaker 7 (17:14):
See seventeen thousand at the Barclay Center.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
But like, don't get it twisted. Look at the numbers
for the rest of the league, and it's not keeping up.
So I do wonder. I wonder what it looks like
in future years, anybody else have anything else they'd loved
on the weekend.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
I liked the I kind of liked the NASCAR fight.
We only had one of those in a little while.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yeah, who was the old guy?
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Oh, the guy that was taking care of business, like
the peripheral guy who was just clearing bodies. Yeah, yeah, no,
that was great. I did like that. You know, Kyle
Busch walked up to Ricky Stenhouse and the fight, I
would say, what had an underwhelming beginning, Like they're sitting
there talking to each other, and the words that really
(18:02):
got the punch going. It wasn't like, hey man, get
out of my face, you be word or it wasn't
anything like you know, you know, if if you got
something to want, you know, you won't you put your
fist where your mouth is. Whatever people say when they're
in fights. This was his walk off shot before he
threw the punch. Go back and watch it.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
That was weird. It was super weird.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Go back and watch.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
It, super weird. Really the weird. All right, let's get
to what we hated for the weekend. Let's get to
what we hated from the weekend. Doom, Doom, Doom. I
have plenty of things I hated from the weekend, But
(18:49):
when we talk about hatred, no one exudes more hatred
than Jason Stewart. We give him the floor.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
I mean, I was crafting how much what I loved
about the Nuggets winning the series. I was crafting it
in that third quarter yesterday. I couldn't wait to gloat
about my Nuggets. So I guess the converse is I
really hated that they choked. I hated that they gave
it all back and they kind of got Barkley and
(19:18):
steven A and Cowhard off the hook. Now I'm not
gonna say they got them off the hook completely, because
those guys said that they Nuggets would get swept and
they were far from swept. They made it obviously a series,
and then they were so far ahead that they choked
away the ending. So I hated that my Denver Nuggets
(19:38):
lost Game seven yesterday.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Okay, Dan Byer, some of you hate it from the weekend.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Well, I didn't like the challenge call.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
Again at the end, I just the thunder Mavericks game
because it's worst case scenario. Like sometimes as a parent,
you have to make that tough decision and really look
out for what's best, and I feel that the thunder
put all of their eggs in that one basket, and
by choosing to challenge the play, you really kind of
(20:06):
took it out of your hands. And if they wouldn't
have used the challenge, you would have had the timeout.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
PJ.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
Washington was a sixty eight percent free throw shooter, and
for him to make three of three numbers said that
it wouldn't happen. So you would have an opportunity to
get a two or a three if you had your
time out to advance the ball and get a game
winning shot. So that's I felt that they put the
entire thing in the hands of the referees and the
Dallas Mavericks to decide their fate.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Okay, things I hated over the weekend. I hate the
collapse of the Denver Nuggets. You know, I thought this
was I don't like when we win one championship, people
start talking dynasty and I had fears that their bench
wasn't good enough, but man up twenty in the second
half to losing and it wasn't particularly close. Well, I
didn't like watching that at all. I mean, I'm not
(20:56):
a fan of either team, but I did think that
there was something something unique about that team and playing
through their center. But then their old warts kind of
showed up. I hated that the Knicks suffered so many injuries,
especially Jalen Brunson. Now he was he was a single
handedly covering But you don't have Jalen Brunson, you don't
have Josh Hart Like you don't really have You don't
(21:17):
really have a chance, don't have a chance at all.
And then here's something I hate my whole childhood. Fourth
of July. Remember we had that run where it was
all owned by Will Smith. But fourth of July I
used to have always a big movie. Now I did
watch June too, but I can't think of any big
movies coming up. But I'm we're creeping closer and closer
to the summer. When did that? When did it turn
(21:40):
that summer is no longer about big blockbuster movies.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
You would think that the Oppenheimer Barbie thing would have
turned things around. Huh. I haven't heard one thing about
the summers movies. I have think never have been less interested.
I would say, COVID, what what is that? Righted R?
Is it a movie about COVID? Is it?
Speaker 6 (22:01):
There probably will be in the next five years. But
Doug asked what the turning point was, and I would say.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
COVID, do you think it'll ever come back?
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Didn't they come back for like a minute with like
was it Maverick was the top gun?
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (22:14):
Yeah, yeah, But that seems maybe to be the exception
to the rule.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Well, the good thing is that since Maverick was a
massive success, then now we have to see a happy
Gilmore sequel. We have to see a what was that
movie with Michael Keaton in the mid eighties, Tim Burton.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Beetlejuice.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Yeah, I'm excited for that one resets of eighties movies.
That's what we have Maverick to think, thanks a lot,
Tom Cruise.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Well, that's what I hate. I hate that we don't
have these great, big blockbusters in the summer. Maybe if
it's maybe it's because almost all of those stars have
been canceled by now, right, Like, oh wow, we got
some bad people there, bad people there? Anyone else, anyone else?
You got to get it out. I got a quick okay, Sammy,
what you got?
Speaker 4 (23:05):
I uh.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
I did not care for Mike Malone's response to this question.
If if listeners missed it here, it is. Here's the exchange.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
How hard is it just to absorb ale loss like this?
After going ahead by twenty? Next question, Man, the season's over.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
That's what's hard being up twenty season's over.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
You don't understand that the season's over. It's hard.
Speaker 8 (23:29):
Stupid questions.
Speaker 7 (23:31):
I think that other reporter understands that the season is over.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Listen.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
You know is a question over it's over because of
what happened to that game? You know the questions Dan, is.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
The season over because I because I think the season's over.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Yeah, I think it is. Yes, the references, So you're
saying the season's over.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
The season's over, right when it's over?
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Is it really over? Listen? I know it's a sore.
Is it really sorry? Go ahead? Just like he knows the.
Speaker 7 (23:58):
Questions coming, He's obviously very sore in the moment. Sure,
I think I can find that.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
I would also say that he then answered the question
if it was so dumb, how come you gave him
a great, great SoundBite which explained like, honestly, if you
were the if you were a head coach and answered
it in the correct way, it would be like, it
doesn't matter whether you wouldn't by one or lose by
one or lose by twenty, blow up twenty point lead,
(24:24):
fifty the season's over. That's the toughest part right now.
It wasn't a dumb, dumb question at all.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Dan, What did you say if you were what you said?
If you're what you should answer the question?
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Oh, I don't.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Even remember you said if you were the head coach?
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Oh yes, anybody?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah me me? Are you here?
Speaker 7 (24:48):
This guy?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
All right?
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Okay ahead, I'm sorry, was the question.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Coach?
Speaker 6 (24:52):
The uh this does this lawsus accent?
Speaker 1 (24:56):
So we like, we like really played up. This is
really good? Like yeah, lead, yeah, is there is there?
Speaker 6 (25:02):
Does it make it more difficult to uh to lose
this game because you blew a twenty point lead? Is
it is? Does that make it more difficult?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yes? I mean, look, I hate losing more than I
like winning. But when you have a twenty point lead,
data will tell you that you're upwards of ninety percent
I think above ninety percent, like ninety one, ninety two
any point time to game. If you have a twenty
point lead or more, you got like a in the
(25:34):
nineties to win the game. So yeah, I mean it
shows what we're fully capable of. We can get up twenty.
We shouldn't be losing by ten. So absolutely, it's something
that a burn inside me. I hope it burns inside
them and that we next year understand how to close
games that we should win. We felt like we should
(25:54):
win today.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
It's home.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
It's but here's the thing with him, Like, Michael is
a really good coach, and I get that usually comes
out kind of I'm defending my players, but like, what
was the point of going off on that on the reporter?
Like there wasn't a poorly asked question. He was kind
of tepid in asking the question. But yeah, that sounded
(26:18):
that did not sound great. That sound great, And that's
love and hate.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation yet. Catch all of our shows at Fox
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Speaker 1 (26:34):
Doug gottlib Show Fox Sports Radio. The Doug Gottlieb Show
rolls on here live from the tyrat dot com studios.
So the Nuggets lose in seven games, right, and they
lose to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and I think a lot
of the it's it's really hard for us to wrap
our heads around the fact that Minnesota's really really good, right,
(26:56):
Minnesota was the three seed in the West, but they
hadn't accomplished anything in the playoffs. But it's like, look
if I told you they had, you know, Rudy Gobert,
and we can make fun of Rudy Gobert and say
how much he hurts them at times and whatever they have.
Rudy Gobert is a former Defensive Player of the Year.
You have Mike Conley, who's a long time just stud
(27:18):
of a point guard. And then you throw in the
fact that they have Anthony Edwards, and then you throw
in that they have Karl Anthony Towns and you look
at those names like, Okay, well I'm a little but
I still think we're struggling with the lack of brand name.
Lack of brand name. I mean, think of the breakthrough
brands in and you're buying cars, right, and we were
(27:42):
always it's like Kia, when the Kia Luxury Ones or
the Hyundais, it's very hard for us to fathom that, huh,
I could buy a Mercedes, or I could buy a Lexus,
or I could buy a Cadillac, or I could buy
a Kia. But at some point in time, who makes
(28:06):
the actual best car. But Jason Stewart told me that
he thought the Nuggets choked, and I thought that was interesting. Jayce,
do what about the Nuggets makes you say they choked?
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Starting at ten minutes left in the third quarter yesterday
when they were up twenty, that's when the choke starts.
I'm not saying the series was a choke. They were
down two games to nothing. It was pretty remarkable that
they even came back. But the actual choke job occurred
yesterday when they're up twenty in the third quarter, with
(28:45):
the best player in the world at home, they had
all the championship experience. If you're going to acknowledge choke,
a choke job is a thing in sports, because I
know a lot of athletes don't want to acknowledge that.
But if you're going to, if you're gonna have choke
in the vernacular in sports, if that isn't a choke,
then what is.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
I guess the problem with calling it a choke is
did they play poorly because of the pressure or did
they play poorly because the other team? Right, like, the
other team plays a factor in there, A choke is
by Okay, so I'll give you my definition of a choke,
and you tell me if you're okay with the definition, fair,
(29:30):
go ahead. A choke is when the pressure of the
moment is what causes you to perform far below your
normal level of success.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
That is, whence the pressure of the moment causes you
to perform at a lower level than we are accustomed to.
And what makes Derek Jeter, for example, one of the
all time greats, is not actually because of the plays
that he's made, you know, the famous plays he's made
in the playoffs. It's because Derek Jeter's batting average is
(30:03):
exactly the same in the regular season as it is
historically in the postseason. In other words, it doesn't matter
the pressure. He's the same guy. So I guess the
question is losing a twenty point lead with ten minutes
to go in the third quarter and ultimately getting sort
of run out of your own building? Was it because
(30:25):
of the pressure or was it because they don't have
a very good bench? The other team's really good, they
run a level gas. I think it's a really fair question.
But do you like my definition of choke?
Speaker 4 (30:38):
I do? I do, And I think if you take
like the biggest choke job in the history of sports. Maybe, uh,
Jean van der Veld's choke job in the ninety nine
Open Championship, there was somebody behind him making shots. I mean,
there's always going to be a factor of the other
people playing well.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, but just because they're actually playing defense, they're actually
trying to stop you. I mean, look to me, the
Nuggets lost this thing when Bruce Brown was gone, when
they never figured out their bench. Their bench gave him nothing,
well that five points off their bench. They just can't
do it. You can't do it. They don't have the
ability to play differently, and they became too dependent upon
(31:22):
Aaron Gordon, who at times last year, at times this
year proved to be kind of that third star guy,
but he wasn't. And I'd also give a ton of
credit to Minnesota, which where their roster was constructed in
a way that felt like specifically designed to beat the
to beat the Nuggets. So I don't view it as
(31:44):
a choke. I don't beat it when you win. Look,
they won three games on the Nuggets home floor, three games.
I thought that the size and length and activity gave
Jamal Murray fits, especially late yesterday, I did think I
(32:06):
thought that some of these lulls we had seen before.
If you go back even the Lakers series in Game four,
should have wanted the thing in Game four, and they
just they kind of played with their food and then
they just don't have the ability to go to the
bench and get anything. All right, let's talk to NBA
hoop with one of my all time faves. He's one
and only, Rick Buker of course, Fox Sports, Fox Sports one,
fox Sports dot Com, and he joins us now on
(32:27):
the Doug Gottlieb Show on Fox Sports Radio. Bukum, in
your crystal ball, did you see Minnesota Dallas in the
Boston as our final four?
Speaker 5 (32:43):
No? No, I did not. I going into those series,
coach I had.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
There you go. It does slide off the tongue.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
It does, it does. I thought I thought there was.
The longer that series, the New York Indiana series went, uh,
the more likely it was that Indiana was going to
win the series. All things equal, I expected New York
to be in the conference finals, and I and I
thought it's full forced. They were capable of getting to
(33:13):
the finals. But TIB's never never adjusted to what Rick
Carlisle Carlo is. He's an evil genius. I mean, he
basically was like, I know you, Tibbs, I know I
know what you're gonna do. I'm going to dare you
not to play six players. We're gonna play fast, We're
gonna run it, even make er miss, We're gonna run it.
(33:36):
I'm going to play a deep rotation and we'll see
if your guys can hold up to are playing the
same pace we did during the regular season. And uh,
and eventually we saw saw what we saw. So Dallas, Yeah,
I thought Dallas would would beat Oklahoma City. I did
(33:56):
not expect Minnesota beat Denver. And I rewatched the game,
uh this morning, and and I've just thrown away by Denver,
just ran out of gas. And they they looked like
they were out of gas at various points through these playoffs.
(34:19):
Like I thought against the Lakers, I thought it was boredom,
and then.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
I don't think I don't think it's boredom. I think
they I mean, I think they lost because of their
bench construction.
Speaker 5 (34:29):
I think definitely their bench construction. And then Minnesota compounded
that by the fact that they could throw three seven
foot type guys at Jokic and nobody like Jamal Murray Friede.
He wasn't going to get anything done against Anthony Edwards
or or Jade McDaniels. That was a lost proposition. Aaron
(34:50):
Gordon wasn't. They needed him to be special and he wasn't.
I thought the turning, like the psychological turning point point
was with what like four or five seconds on the
shot Blox, Minnesota inbounds it. They're up by two. They
inbound it and Rudy Gobert takes a fall away fifteen
(35:13):
foot jumper that I've never seen him. Let's make he
gets nothing but net. And then they go to the
other end and Aaron Gordon has a dunk that that
Carl Anthony Towns prevents from going from going down and
in Minnesota recovers. And I thought right there, from that
point on, Minnesota just looked like the fresher, more energetic team.
(35:37):
And so you're right. I mean, ultimately it was their bench,
and I would say their their lack of size, Like
Carl Anthon town didn't have to do everything, because Nasri
could give you something, Rudy Gobert could give you something.
Outside of Jokic, I just didn't see anybody anybody stepping
(36:00):
up and giving him that second star to get it done.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
No, I didn't. I didn't see that. I didn't see
that one either. Rick Buker joined us here on the
Doug Gottlib Show on Fox Sports Radio. It could be me, okay,
And I feel like that what we saw from the
Knicks fan base, and I understand the people. I was
(36:27):
ESPN talking so much about the Knicks. That's the energy
in that market that this league so desperately desires. That's
the reason that That's the reason Phil Jackson went there,
That's the reason Carmelo wanted to go there. That's the reason,
like you picked for the last Yeah, I mean, pat Riley,
you name, you name all the different coaches that have
(36:48):
because the guy who wins there will be in in
the the lore for New York. But can can Tibbs
You mentioned how stubborn he is. Can Tibbs win there?
Considering this is, at the end of the day, who
he is?
Speaker 5 (37:06):
Yeah, I don't see how. It's not Tibbs per se,
It's Tibbs approach. Yeah, And I think he I think
he gets teams to overachieve. And I think Jalen Brunson
is the perfect Jalen Brunson Jimmy Butler. Those are the
perfect stars for Tom Thibodeaux because they are overachievers and
(37:31):
they are they are grinders, and that's the kind of
team that works best with Tibbs. I honestly don't know
if Tibbs can coach talent, temperamental talent, the kind of
temperamental talent that ultimately you need to some level to
(37:53):
win a championship. And I give him credit and that,
I don't know that they get to to where they
are and have the season that they had and are
the number two seed all of that without him creating
the culture and the approach that he had and those
guys just being so vout in pledging allegiance to kids.
(38:16):
But I don't know that that formula and that approach
wins you a championship. I think it makes you an overachiever.
I think it makes you a team that a city
takes pride in because it's kind of got a blue
blue collar underdog type feel to it, or if you're
(38:37):
talking about winning a ring like honestly, I don't know
how you feel, but I thought what was damning is
that when he injuries forced him to go into his bench,
you were reminded, Hey, you know what Alex Berton play like,
pressures that you can do some things for you. Why
did you have to play a six and a half
(38:59):
man rotation? And then what was even funnier is he
loses he loses his guys, some of his guys and
he's got to go into his bench and.
Speaker 8 (39:08):
He still plays the six and a half rotation Like
it was, I'm.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
Not willing to play this many guys. I was wondering
if it got to the point where like didn't have
enough guys to have five like, or didn't he he
didn't have the guys that he wanted to play. He
just goes, screw it, I'm just gonna play four guys.
I like, I'm only gonna play with four guys I
want to play. So that's that's where the fact that
he has not changed at all over the years has
(39:35):
in one way work for him. But I think that
it has a shelf life where it has a ceilings
that you cannot break going through that, going that approach.
I actually I'm writing a story about this because I
asked one of my NBA confidentials for Fox sports dot
Com and asking people around the league, like you quit
(39:57):
TIBs for their success or do you blame him whether
they ultimately they fell apart? Right, And it's funny because
if it actually was mixed, like people gave him his
flowers and one DM who was like, he wouldn't he
(40:18):
wouldn't even necessarily equate the injuries with the approach he said.
I don't know if if it's totally fair to do that,
he said, but I would never have my guy do
it like I would never. I would never allow my
coach to take that approach. So there you have it.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Awesome stuff. Rick Buger joining us here on the Doug
Gottlieb Show on Fox Sports Tradio. Let's get to the
coach and you called me coach. Course I didn't coach
in college and now I'm the head coach at at
Green Bay. Where are we with JJ Reddick and the Lakers.
Speaker 5 (40:54):
Honestly, I wish I could tell you specifically where they are.
I know that they're they're they're slope play. Saying this
in terms of, you know, they want to they want
to make sure that they've at this point since it's
you know, it's just JJA really going to work, and
who would they get. I think this is really vital
(41:17):
is who do you get to fill that staff if
you end up hiring him? I mean, that's that is
as vital as hiring JJ, maybe more vital. I haven't
heard definitively that he's the guy. I know that that's
sort of being reported. I do think he's He's solidly
in the mix.
Speaker 8 (41:38):
But there the here's the big here's the biggest issue
with why there's the uncertainty about where they're going to
go and the fact that they haven't made a decision
yet is because you really do have two different factions
(41:58):
in that front office. You have the you have the
Kobe faction.
Speaker 5 (42:05):
With Palinka and Company, and then you have the Magic
Fact faction with the rambuses and and with Magic and
they still you probably put Phil on the Kobe side
of the equation. And both of those factions are have
(42:27):
an influence on the decision making ultimately by Geneva. And
so that's why these that's why this takes so long,
and it's why it feels like it's all over the
map and their approach because you don't have you have
warring factions within that within that front office, and and
(42:50):
so you get what you get, like the confusion over
there is kind of understandable considering how they're constructed.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
You awesome stuff as always, man, really really good. I
guess I'm I guess the question is right is if
if would Lebron actually look at playing elsewhere?
Speaker 5 (43:15):
I don't see I honestly, I know, you know it's
showing up in Cleveland and and all of that. I
find it hard to believe that he would leave for
a year or two, uh, to go someplace else. And
I don't know, like, and I've explored this with teams
(43:38):
around the league, like, uh, is it going to take
I mean teams where he would be a contender. He's
going to have to play for forty millions less at least,
like it's gonna he haven't played for less than ten
million dollars. I just don't I don't see him doing that.
(44:00):
And I don't see him having the same authority that
he has with the Lakers. And it's just moving and
living someplace else for a year or two when his
family is is based in LA. I still think when
when he if he puts together a list of the
pluses and minuses, the ability to stay in LA and
(44:23):
play with Brownie in La still trumps, you know, the
idea that he would go someplace else. I think he
wants to leave that uncertainty in the minds of the
Lakers to have a celebrity if he can. But I
just I don't see a way in which that way
in which that happens.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I don't either, And I know he's playing the game,
but I just wonder if anybody ever calls his pluff.
Nobody has, But I just you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (44:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's I mean, everything says not.
But he also, like you know, with the whole JJ
thing and where they're going to go and and and
what that means. Like Lebron's kind of weird in that
that he's not overtly going to tell them this is
(45:14):
who I want, but he's going to let you know
if you took if you pick the guy that he
doesn't want, like he'll he'll make that clear. And so
that's what Also another element of uncertainty is that it's
got kind of a passive aggressive approach to his influence
on a team, which is this, whatever you do better
(45:37):
please me. But I'm not going to tell you exactly
what I what I want to please me, And we'll
just see if you if you get it right, and uh,
and that's you know, that's what it then it then
it gives him plausible deniability in terms of, uh, you know,
if the enop hiring JJ and it's a disaster, which like.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
There's a there's a possibility it could be. Right, Like,
I know that you can.
Speaker 5 (46:09):
I know that you can draw up plays, right. I
know you may not have coached in college, but but
I'm not worried about your ability to operate. I mean,
as the son of a coach, like you've you know
what that job requires, and I have no question that
(46:30):
you can execute those things. I don't know, like you know,
Jaja's smart. He understands the nuances of the game. But
understanding the nuances of the game and knowing how to
apply them with your personnel and under certain situations and
particularly in games, Uh, that's a whole, whole, whole other animal.
(46:52):
And then there's just being to appeal, being able to
appeal to your players and get the most of them,
and be able to connect to them emotionally and psychologically.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
I think I think that's his strength. I think the
question is all the other stuff, right, I think he
can be a relationship guy and he can know you know,
set Sky or whatever. But there's a there's a lot
of other moving parts, a lot of other moving Partsue
You're the best. Thanks so much for join us. We'll
see you on Fox Sports one. Thanks for our guests,
(47:24):
pleasure
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
three to five Eastern twelve two Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for The Doug Gottlieb Show at
Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR boom Up America.
Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio coming to you from
(00:23):
the tiret dot Com studios tyrat dot Com when we
get there, unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road has
a protection over ten thousand recommend and sellar tyrat dot
Com with the tire buying should be well, just like
we always thought, right, I mean it kind of has
an NCAA tournament sort of feel. We have a final
four in the NBA. Right oh, it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Let me tell you. Let me tell you about Mike
Stepsty and Roy Williams.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
No, no, no, Dick Vitel, No, that's not what it is.
It's the NBA, right oh, the final four. We got
Lebron and we got nope, nope, we got the Dependent
champions and nikolae Yo Kitchen. Nope No, Now we do
have Luca and the Mavericks and what was that was
an amazing basketball game in Game six to win in
(01:15):
Oklahoma City. We have the Minnesota Timberwolves, Minnesota timberlives. Yes,
now you're not stuttering, that's correct. And then we have
the Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics, and obviously the
Celtics I think are the prohibitive favorite to win the
whole thing. Now I believe like this could be the
(01:39):
the I'm here, I'm the best player in the world
moment for Luka Doncik if he can win both these
next two series. There's a lot to get to. And
there's Kyrie Irving, who suddenly has become a leader. H
all right, And as much as we want to say, ah,
it's hard for me to get into this series when
(01:59):
it Minnesota and Dallas and whatever. Kyrie against Boston in
the finals woo. And we have the Anthony Edwards who
continues his kind of NBA playoff takeover. Even though the
shooting wasn't efficient, the defense, the energy, some of the
shot making was pretty spectacular. But I don't want to
(02:22):
bury the lead. I you know, there are times in
which I look at sports and I think a lot
of people inside sports look at it differently than the
mainstream fan or the hater fan. Right, the hater fans like,
why are you always talking about the Knicks? And I
get it. The steven A thing. It can be a
(02:44):
little much, right, It can be more than a little much.
It can be a lot much. It can be a
little much. But man, I gotta tell you. You know,
my dad was a New Yorker and every summer he
take me back. And you know, my mom grew up
(03:04):
in Connecticut. He grew up in the Bronx, moved out
to Long Island when he's like thirteen years old, and
we would go to all the places in all the parks.
And again, remember this is the nineties, and back in
that part of the nineties, the Knicks were very good.
And when Jordan was out of the league and oj
was in the Chase, they were actually in the NBA Finals.
But New York, I mean, they're like any town. Any
(03:26):
town's a front running town. But the garden has been
full for the last twenty five years. The Knicks have
been good. The Knicks have been bad. The Knicks have
had Carmelo, They've also had Lynsanity, they've been atrocious, They've
been great. The garden has been full. And what happens
is people have been critical of Knicks fans. Hey, if
(03:47):
you really want change, you want James Dolan change, stop
showing up. But they can't. You know why it's a
basketball town and whether it was I mean, you name
the coach that has gone there. You've always asked, like,
why would Phil Jackson do it? You know, he played there,
he won a championship there. But the same reason Phil
(04:10):
Jackson did, the same reason Rick Patino did it, the
same reason that pat Riley did it the same and
you saw it in this past series. There is an
energy and a passion in that city for that team
that is remarkable. And look, obviously there's a little bit
(04:30):
of karma there, right you go, f you to Reggie Miller,
and now Reggie Miller gets to have the last laugh,
and we can sit here and say we know what
the outcome would have been. I mean, plenty of Knicks
fans were like, you know, Jalen Brunson didn't get hurt.
If you know, like you go through all the basically
their starting lineup was all out, you would think that
(04:53):
the Knicks would win if they were healthy. But we
don't know, and we don't know if Tom Thibodeau's style
allow them to be healthy, because he's all gas, no breaks,
all the time. But a blind man can see that
it's just different in the garden. A blind man can
see that the energy for that team is just different.
(05:19):
And this is not me excusing the fact that there
is a very high dB ratio, right, And by dB,
I don't mean defensive back. I think you know what
that an acronym is for. Here's a different, different energy,
(05:40):
and some of it turns nasty, some of it's not enjoyable.
I get it, I would agree with it, but it
has it's actually better than the Lakers, if you can
believe that. Don't get me wrong. The Lakers are regal.
The Lakers have the same number of championships. The Lakers
are are a spectacular franchise historically, right, because you go
(06:05):
back through the years in different decades, from George mike
In to Jerry West, to Magic Johnson, to Kobe Bryant
and fir Sin Shack and then Kobe and Pale and
then obviously to Lebron like they've had all these different
stars and they have all the Hollywood Stars, but so
(06:25):
does New York. But New York has this just energy.
It's unmistaknable, it's undeniable. Here's Jalen Brunson talking about the
game and the support of the fans.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
They have been nothing but amazing to myself, to this team,
to my family, and it's really cool, just so thankful
for them and everything, and the Knights that now we
needed energy they provided for us. And the games on
the road we need energy, they provided for us. And
(07:02):
so they're amazing and I can't really put in the
words of what they mean to me, but they deserve
much more than what we were able to do this
playoff fund. They deserve much more than that.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I mean, it's it's what the NBA has been missing. Right.
Ask yourself, why why would I watch college basketball? And
remember this is from the voice of a college basketball
head coach, And the answer, you know, the question is right,
why would you watch what's an inferior product in terms
(07:34):
of the overall talent? And the answer is because college basketball, usually,
especially at its best, possesses an insane amount of passion,
an insane amount of energy. You can feel it. You
feel like the players are playing harder, and you feel
like the fans are cheering harder, and you feel like
you're at like a rock concert, right And the NBA,
(08:00):
you know they're playing. They got a DJ playing while
they dribble the ball up the floor, or of course
in New York, they got an organist, you know, playing
the organ while you're walking the ball at the floor.
That's your view of the NBA. The NBA can be sterile,
the NBA can be lame. The NKBA can be a
show where fans just come to watch and golf clap.
(08:22):
Not New York, Not New York, the fabric of where
that city is. Sure, it's not like LA. It's arrogant, absolutely,
and arrogant for no reason because they haven't won anything
since the sixties. But we're in New York and you're not.
But you get that energy and those games felt different.
(08:47):
New York games, Garden for your games feel different, and
Nick games in the playoffs field. It's exactly what the
NBA needed because you can be the most ardent hater
of the NBA. And there's plenty of pe people like
they don't play defense the Knicks too, they don't play
with great energy. I mean, I mean, look at the
way Heart plays. I mean, Josh Hart's amazing. Everything is
(09:10):
just dunk or shoot shoot three point shots. Have you
watch Jalen Brunson. So this is not me saying the
wrong team won. I mean, look, they're so banged up
injury wise. I'm sure some of it is TIBs, some
of it's bad luck and the Pacers. I think Rick
Carlisle is an amazing coach. We talked about that early
in earlier shows. But it's undeniable that the NBA needs
(09:33):
the Knicks deep in the playoffs. The playoffs feel different
with them deep in that deep end. And if the
NBA is to ever get back to close to the
standing of previous decades now back when the NBA was
king New York, Chicago, La, Boston, they gotta be in Philly.
(09:54):
They gotta be involved.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
This is the best of the Done dot Lead Show
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Oh what about you, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio.
Coming to you from the tyrat dot com studios, tarret
dot com. What you get there on match selection, fast free,
shipping free where it as protection overber ten thousand reommends
s ollars. Tyrat dot Com a's the way tire buying
should be. Okay, So we got a final four in
the NBA. I wasn't here for the Scotti Scheffler thing,
(10:27):
but you know, it's a Friday morning incident. We'll allow
that as part of the weekend discussion. You got Major
League Baseball another gambling investigation going on. I saw Jay
stew went out to see the Dodgers play. Great seats,
good seats, good seats. What else?
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I mean?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
We actually have the PGA Championship, which was an awesome watch.
I mean, by the way, when did Valhalla become the
waste management open? That's that's a question that I have.
I mean, there were some dudes that were just wasted
watching that thing. Holy Holy cow. But what we do
every Monday is we all like sports. Sometimes we don't
(11:10):
always talk about sports within it, things that we loved,
things that we hated. We call it love and hate.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
What did you love?
Speaker 1 (11:18):
God, I love you, and what did you hate?
Speaker 5 (11:21):
These player hayes?
Speaker 1 (11:25):
All right, things you loved from the weekend? Uh, doude
do do do? I'll tell you what I loved. I
love being right about the MAVs and the thunder Ah.
So as you guys know, I used to work in
Oklahoma City. My dear friend is Mark Rogers. I popped
(11:47):
on his show and after Game one, I went to
Game one with my son Hayes, and uh, I remember
saying like, and even you go back to the previous
series where a couple of the games they kind of
got pushed around, Like, I think this series is going
to get really physical. I think Luca wins a game.
I think the MAVs win this thing in six or seven.
(12:08):
And I mean, you would have thought that I said
Oklahoma City smells like bo that was that was received,
and it turns out that I'm right. So I love
being right. I'm gonna take that one.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
I will say this, like, one of the most underreported
stories of the NBA season was Kyrie Irving, like keeping
his mouth shut, Kyrie Irving didn't get into trouble, he
didn't say anything offensive to anybody. And it's like it
comes full circle when he supposedly had this speech at
halftime or whenever it was in Game six, completing this
(12:45):
weird story that for whatever reason, like people couldn't stop
writing about Kyrie Irving when he retweeted that anti Semitic
documentary and then nobody wrote about the fact that he
kind of kept his mouth shut and kind of kept
the main thing the main thing this season.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Good for him, that's a great point. He's kind of
figuring it out. Like I, Yeah, he suddenly became his
leader and champion and speech giver. It's crazy, crazy, okay,
Dan Byer.
Speaker 6 (13:19):
I did love the PGA Championship. I know I'm not
a lot of golf fans liked the low scoring, which
was amazingly low, by far the record for the easiest
PGA championship. But you did have drama at the end.
Bryson de Shamba ends up turning baby face instead of
(13:39):
heal like there was a positive outlook with Bryson, the
shots that he made at the end, the putt that
Xander Schoffley made and trying to get the monkey off
of his back and never to have won a major.
It was a real good ending. I know it wasn't
There wasn't a lot of resistance given to the field
at Valhalla, but I was entertained on Sunday and Victor
(14:04):
Howlin back in it thought it was a great leaderboard. Yeah,
I thought it was a fun weekend and watching golf
even if the golf purist didn't absolutely love it.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I agree with you there. This is actually and Dan again.
If I'm wrong, feel free, Sam wrong. Wasn't that always
the accusation about the PGA before maybe the last ten years,
that it wasn't the US Open, It wasn't nearly as
tricked up a golf course so that the scores were
too low, and it wasn't the purest form of golf.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Yeah, somewhat.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
The problem with the PGA was it just never had
an identity. You didn't know what exactly it was because
the Masters well was the Masters, and the US Open
was the was the root canal of golf. Now it's
even moved a little away from that. The USBA hasn't
set up courses as paint steakingly difficult as they did
(14:56):
in the.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Past when Hinnacock with did the water to the green.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
Yes, there's and the Open Championship is just revered because
of its history and it's it's different. But it's funny
because the PGA would get criticized, even the USGA would
if it scores fifteen under power, But when people shoot
twenty under I'd seen Andrews. No one is saying a word.
They're just they're cool with it, so it's kind of
a you know, they may not be fair, but the
(15:19):
PGA really never really had an identity, and maybe it's
starting to form a bit of an identity. I'm not
too sure, but it's better off now than it once was.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Case doo.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Uh you mentioned it. At the start of the hour,
I went to the Dodger game mission I saw shoho
Tani walk off the Reds. Not only was that was
the first walk off hit for shoh hail Tani in
a Dodger uniform, which is great, and he's just ripping
it up in May. By the way, he's everything we're
paying for. I did find this to be funny, and
(15:52):
I love the fact that I can make fun of
the Angels as I'm propping up the Dodgers. You know
that Shohio Tani has only two walk off hits in
his entire career, and yesterday was one of them. That
just tells you how miserable the Angels were for the
last like six or seven seasons, right. I mean, you
think you would just like like accidentally have a walk
(16:15):
off hit four or five times if you're show haled time.
But the Angels wouldn't allow him to do that.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
I guess, no, no, Sam, you get something that you
love for the.
Speaker 7 (16:26):
Weekend, I do it would be a Kaitlin Clark's Saturday.
She still she had eight turnovers in her third game
the WNBA, but she did finish nine of seventeen, shooting
twenty two points, eighty six six, eight assists, six rebounds.
Perhaps she's starting to turn the corner and she's I know,
she's been clowned on a lot. She ran blindly into
(16:48):
Brianna Stewart, big old collision there, and she's still having
you know, her rookie moments. But she was much more
efficient shooting on Saturday. They're playing a ton of games
in a short amount of time. We could be seeing
the improvement here. Three four games in.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
I definitely think she's getting better. A lot of people
under her teammates. I would also point out that like, look,
she is a thing, she is a happening. She is must.
Speaker 7 (17:14):
See seventeen thousand at the Barclay Center.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
But like, don't get it twisted. Look at the numbers
for the rest of the league, and it's not keeping up.
So I do wonder. I wonder what it looks like
in future years, anybody else have anything else they'd loved
on the weekend.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
I liked the I kind of liked the NASCAR fight.
We only had one of those in a little while.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yeah, who was the old guy?
Speaker 4 (17:40):
Oh, the guy that was taking care of business, like
the peripheral guy who was just clearing bodies. Yeah, yeah, no,
that was great. I did like that. You know, Kyle
Busch walked up to Ricky Stenhouse and the fight, I
would say, what had an underwhelming beginning, Like they're sitting
there talking to each other, and the words that really
(18:02):
got the punch going. It wasn't like, hey man, get
out of my face, you be word or it wasn't
anything like you know, you know, if if you got
something to want, you know, you won't you put your
fist where your mouth is. Whatever people say when they're
in fights. This was his walk off shot before he
threw the punch. Go back and watch it.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
That was weird. It was super weird.
Speaker 4 (18:27):
Go back and watch.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
It, super weird. Really the weird. All right, let's get
to what we hated for the weekend. Let's get to
what we hated from the weekend. Doom, Doom, Doom. I
have plenty of things I hated from the weekend, But
(18:49):
when we talk about hatred, no one exudes more hatred
than Jason Stewart. We give him the floor.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
I mean, I was crafting how much what I loved
about the Nuggets winning the series. I was crafting it
in that third quarter yesterday. I couldn't wait to gloat
about my Nuggets. So I guess the converse is I
really hated that they choked. I hated that they gave
it all back and they kind of got Barkley and
(19:18):
steven A and Cowhard off the hook. Now I'm not
gonna say they got them off the hook completely, because
those guys said that they Nuggets would get swept and
they were far from swept. They made it obviously a series,
and then they were so far ahead that they choked
away the ending. So I hated that my Denver Nuggets
(19:38):
lost Game seven yesterday.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Okay, Dan Byer, some of you hate it from the weekend.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Well, I didn't like the challenge call.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
Again at the end, I just the thunder Mavericks game
because it's worst case scenario. Like sometimes as a parent,
you have to make that tough decision and really look
out for what's best, and I feel that the thunder
put all of their eggs in that one basket, and
by choosing to challenge the play, you really kind of
(20:06):
took it out of your hands. And if they wouldn't
have used the challenge, you would have had the timeout.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
PJ.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
Washington was a sixty eight percent free throw shooter, and
for him to make three of three numbers said that
it wouldn't happen. So you would have an opportunity to
get a two or a three if you had your
time out to advance the ball and get a game
winning shot. So that's I felt that they put the
entire thing in the hands of the referees and the
Dallas Mavericks to decide their fate.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Okay, things I hated over the weekend. I hate the
collapse of the Denver Nuggets. You know, I thought this
was I don't like when we win one championship, people
start talking dynasty and I had fears that their bench
wasn't good enough, but man up twenty in the second
half to losing and it wasn't particularly close. Well, I
didn't like watching that at all. I mean, I'm not
(20:56):
a fan of either team, but I did think that
there was something something unique about that team and playing
through their center. But then their old warts kind of
showed up. I hated that the Knicks suffered so many injuries,
especially Jalen Brunson. Now he was he was a single
handedly covering But you don't have Jalen Brunson, you don't
have Josh Hart Like you don't really have You don't
(21:17):
really have a chance, don't have a chance at all.
And then here's something I hate my whole childhood. Fourth
of July. Remember we had that run where it was
all owned by Will Smith. But fourth of July I
used to have always a big movie. Now I did
watch June too, but I can't think of any big
movies coming up. But I'm we're creeping closer and closer
to the summer. When did that? When did it turn
(21:40):
that summer is no longer about big blockbuster movies.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
You would think that the Oppenheimer Barbie thing would have
turned things around. Huh. I haven't heard one thing about
the summers movies. I have think never have been less interested.
I would say, COVID, what what is that? Righted R?
Is it a movie about COVID? Is it?
Speaker 6 (22:01):
There probably will be in the next five years. But
Doug asked what the turning point was, and I would say.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
COVID, do you think it'll ever come back?
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Didn't they come back for like a minute with like
was it Maverick was the top gun?
Speaker 4 (22:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (22:14):
Yeah, yeah, But that seems maybe to be the exception
to the rule.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Well, the good thing is that since Maverick was a
massive success, then now we have to see a happy
Gilmore sequel. We have to see a what was that
movie with Michael Keaton in the mid eighties, Tim Burton.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Beetlejuice.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Yeah, I'm excited for that one resets of eighties movies.
That's what we have Maverick to think, thanks a lot,
Tom Cruise.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Well, that's what I hate. I hate that we don't
have these great, big blockbusters in the summer. Maybe if
it's maybe it's because almost all of those stars have
been canceled by now, right, Like, oh wow, we got
some bad people there, bad people there? Anyone else, anyone else?
You got to get it out. I got a quick okay, Sammy,
what you got?
Speaker 4 (23:05):
I uh.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
I did not care for Mike Malone's response to this question.
If if listeners missed it here, it is. Here's the exchange.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
How hard is it just to absorb ale loss like this?
After going ahead by twenty? Next question, Man, the season's over.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
That's what's hard being up twenty season's over.
Speaker 5 (23:26):
You don't understand that the season's over. It's hard.
Speaker 8 (23:29):
Stupid questions.
Speaker 7 (23:31):
I think that other reporter understands that the season is over.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Listen.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
You know is a question over it's over because of
what happened to that game? You know the questions Dan, is.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
The season over because I because I think the season's over.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Yeah, I think it is. Yes, the references, So you're
saying the season's over.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
The season's over, right when it's over?
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Is it really over? Listen? I know it's a sore.
Is it really sorry? Go ahead? Just like he knows the.
Speaker 7 (23:58):
Questions coming, He's obviously very sore in the moment. Sure,
I think I can find that.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
I would also say that he then answered the question
if it was so dumb, how come you gave him
a great, great SoundBite which explained like, honestly, if you
were the if you were a head coach and answered
it in the correct way, it would be like, it
doesn't matter whether you wouldn't by one or lose by
one or lose by twenty, blow up twenty point lead,
(24:24):
fifty the season's over. That's the toughest part right now.
It wasn't a dumb, dumb question at all.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Dan, What did you say if you were what you said?
If you're what you should answer the question?
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Oh, I don't.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Even remember you said if you were the head coach?
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Oh yes, anybody?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Yeah me me? Are you here?
Speaker 7 (24:48):
This guy?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
All right?
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Okay ahead, I'm sorry, was the question.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Coach?
Speaker 6 (24:52):
The uh this does this lawsus accent?
Speaker 1 (24:56):
So we like, we like really played up. This is
really good? Like yeah, lead, yeah, is there is there?
Speaker 6 (25:02):
Does it make it more difficult to uh to lose
this game because you blew a twenty point lead? Is
it is? Does that make it more difficult?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yes? I mean, look, I hate losing more than I
like winning. But when you have a twenty point lead,
data will tell you that you're upwards of ninety percent
I think above ninety percent, like ninety one, ninety two
any point time to game. If you have a twenty
point lead or more, you got like a in the
(25:34):
nineties to win the game. So yeah, I mean it
shows what we're fully capable of. We can get up twenty.
We shouldn't be losing by ten. So absolutely, it's something
that a burn inside me. I hope it burns inside
them and that we next year understand how to close
games that we should win. We felt like we should
(25:54):
win today.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
It's home.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
It's but here's the thing with him, Like, Michael is
a really good coach, and I get that usually comes
out kind of I'm defending my players, but like, what
was the point of going off on that on the reporter?
Like there wasn't a poorly asked question. He was kind
of tepid in asking the question. But yeah, that sounded
(26:18):
that did not sound great. That sound great, And that's
love and hate.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation yet. Catch all of our shows at Fox
sports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Doug gottlib Show Fox Sports Radio. The Doug Gottlieb Show
rolls on here live from the tyrat dot com studios.
So the Nuggets lose in seven games, right, and they
lose to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and I think a lot
of the it's it's really hard for us to wrap
our heads around the fact that Minnesota's really really good, right,
(26:56):
Minnesota was the three seed in the West, but they
hadn't accomplished anything in the playoffs. But it's like, look
if I told you they had, you know, Rudy Gobert,
and we can make fun of Rudy Gobert and say
how much he hurts them at times and whatever they have.
Rudy Gobert is a former Defensive Player of the Year.
You have Mike Conley, who's a long time just stud
(27:18):
of a point guard. And then you throw in the
fact that they have Anthony Edwards, and then you throw
in that they have Karl Anthony Towns and you look
at those names like, Okay, well I'm a little but
I still think we're struggling with the lack of brand name.
Lack of brand name. I mean, think of the breakthrough
brands in and you're buying cars, right, and we were
(27:42):
always it's like Kia, when the Kia Luxury Ones or
the Hyundais, it's very hard for us to fathom that, huh,
I could buy a Mercedes, or I could buy a Lexus,
or I could buy a Cadillac, or I could buy
a Kia. But at some point in time, who makes
(28:06):
the actual best car. But Jason Stewart told me that
he thought the Nuggets choked, and I thought that was interesting. Jayce,
do what about the Nuggets makes you say they choked?
Speaker 4 (28:24):
Starting at ten minutes left in the third quarter yesterday
when they were up twenty, that's when the choke starts.
I'm not saying the series was a choke. They were
down two games to nothing. It was pretty remarkable that
they even came back. But the actual choke job occurred
yesterday when they're up twenty in the third quarter, with
(28:45):
the best player in the world at home, they had
all the championship experience. If you're going to acknowledge choke,
a choke job is a thing in sports, because I
know a lot of athletes don't want to acknowledge that.
But if you're going to, if you're gonna have choke
in the vernacular in sports, if that isn't a choke,
then what is.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
I guess the problem with calling it a choke is
did they play poorly because of the pressure or did
they play poorly because the other team? Right, like, the
other team plays a factor in there, A choke is
by Okay, so I'll give you my definition of a choke,
and you tell me if you're okay with the definition, fair,
(29:30):
go ahead. A choke is when the pressure of the
moment is what causes you to perform far below your
normal level of success.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
That is, whence the pressure of the moment causes you
to perform at a lower level than we are accustomed to.
And what makes Derek Jeter, for example, one of the
all time greats, is not actually because of the plays
that he's made, you know, the famous plays he's made
in the playoffs. It's because Derek Jeter's batting average is
(30:03):
exactly the same in the regular season as it is
historically in the postseason. In other words, it doesn't matter
the pressure. He's the same guy. So I guess the
question is losing a twenty point lead with ten minutes
to go in the third quarter and ultimately getting sort
of run out of your own building? Was it because
(30:25):
of the pressure or was it because they don't have
a very good bench? The other team's really good, they
run a level gas. I think it's a really fair question.
But do you like my definition of choke?
Speaker 4 (30:38):
I do? I do, And I think if you take
like the biggest choke job in the history of sports. Maybe, uh,
Jean van der Veld's choke job in the ninety nine
Open Championship, there was somebody behind him making shots. I mean,
there's always going to be a factor of the other
people playing well.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, but just because they're actually playing defense, they're actually
trying to stop you. I mean, look to me, the
Nuggets lost this thing when Bruce Brown was gone, when
they never figured out their bench. Their bench gave him nothing,
well that five points off their bench. They just can't
do it. You can't do it. They don't have the
ability to play differently, and they became too dependent upon
(31:22):
Aaron Gordon, who at times last year, at times this
year proved to be kind of that third star guy,
but he wasn't. And I'd also give a ton of
credit to Minnesota, which where their roster was constructed in
a way that felt like specifically designed to beat the
to beat the Nuggets. So I don't view it as
(31:44):
a choke. I don't beat it when you win. Look,
they won three games on the Nuggets home floor, three games.
I thought that the size and length and activity gave
Jamal Murray fits, especially late yesterday, I did think I
(32:06):
thought that some of these lulls we had seen before.
If you go back even the Lakers series in Game four,
should have wanted the thing in Game four, and they
just they kind of played with their food and then
they just don't have the ability to go to the
bench and get anything. All right, let's talk to NBA
hoop with one of my all time faves. He's one
and only, Rick Buker of course, Fox Sports, Fox Sports one,
fox Sports dot Com, and he joins us now on
(32:27):
the Doug Gottlieb Show on Fox Sports Radio. Bukum, in
your crystal ball, did you see Minnesota Dallas in the
Boston as our final four?
Speaker 5 (32:43):
No? No, I did not. I going into those series,
coach I had.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
There you go. It does slide off the tongue.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
It does, it does. I thought I thought there was.
The longer that series, the New York Indiana series went, uh,
the more likely it was that Indiana was going to
win the series. All things equal, I expected New York
to be in the conference finals, and I and I
thought it's full forced. They were capable of getting to
(33:13):
the finals. But TIB's never never adjusted to what Rick
Carlisle Carlo is. He's an evil genius. I mean, he
basically was like, I know you, Tibbs, I know I
know what you're gonna do. I'm going to dare you
not to play six players. We're gonna play fast, We're
gonna run it, even make er miss, We're gonna run it.
(33:36):
I'm going to play a deep rotation and we'll see
if your guys can hold up to are playing the
same pace we did during the regular season. And uh,
and eventually we saw saw what we saw. So Dallas, Yeah,
I thought Dallas would would beat Oklahoma City. I did
(33:56):
not expect Minnesota beat Denver. And I rewatched the game,
uh this morning, and and I've just thrown away by Denver,
just ran out of gas. And they they looked like
they were out of gas at various points through these playoffs.
(34:19):
Like I thought against the Lakers, I thought it was boredom,
and then.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
I don't think I don't think it's boredom. I think
they I mean, I think they lost because of their
bench construction.
Speaker 5 (34:29):
I think definitely their bench construction. And then Minnesota compounded
that by the fact that they could throw three seven
foot type guys at Jokic and nobody like Jamal Murray Friede.
He wasn't going to get anything done against Anthony Edwards
or or Jade McDaniels. That was a lost proposition. Aaron
(34:50):
Gordon wasn't. They needed him to be special and he wasn't.
I thought the turning, like the psychological turning point point
was with what like four or five seconds on the
shot Blox, Minnesota inbounds it. They're up by two. They
inbound it and Rudy Gobert takes a fall away fifteen
(35:13):
foot jumper that I've never seen him. Let's make he
gets nothing but net. And then they go to the
other end and Aaron Gordon has a dunk that that
Carl Anthony Towns prevents from going from going down and
in Minnesota recovers. And I thought right there, from that
point on, Minnesota just looked like the fresher, more energetic team.
(35:37):
And so you're right. I mean, ultimately it was their bench,
and I would say their their lack of size, Like
Carl Anthon town didn't have to do everything, because Nasri
could give you something, Rudy Gobert could give you something.
Outside of Jokic, I just didn't see anybody anybody stepping
(36:00):
up and giving him that second star to get it done.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
No, I didn't. I didn't see that. I didn't see
that one either. Rick Buker joined us here on the
Doug Gottlib Show on Fox Sports Radio. It could be me, okay,
And I feel like that what we saw from the
Knicks fan base, and I understand the people. I was
(36:27):
ESPN talking so much about the Knicks. That's the energy
in that market that this league so desperately desires. That's
the reason that That's the reason Phil Jackson went there,
That's the reason Carmelo wanted to go there. That's the reason,
like you picked for the last Yeah, I mean, pat Riley,
you name, you name all the different coaches that have
(36:48):
because the guy who wins there will be in in
the the lore for New York. But can can Tibbs
You mentioned how stubborn he is. Can Tibbs win there?
Considering this is, at the end of the day, who
he is?
Speaker 5 (37:06):
Yeah, I don't see how. It's not Tibbs per se,
It's Tibbs approach. Yeah, And I think he I think
he gets teams to overachieve. And I think Jalen Brunson
is the perfect Jalen Brunson Jimmy Butler. Those are the
perfect stars for Tom Thibodeaux because they are overachievers and
(37:31):
they are they are grinders, and that's the kind of
team that works best with Tibbs. I honestly don't know
if Tibbs can coach talent, temperamental talent, the kind of
temperamental talent that ultimately you need to some level to
(37:53):
win a championship. And I give him credit and that,
I don't know that they get to to where they
are and have the season that they had and are
the number two seed all of that without him creating
the culture and the approach that he had and those
guys just being so vout in pledging allegiance to kids.
(38:16):
But I don't know that that formula and that approach
wins you a championship. I think it makes you an overachiever.
I think it makes you a team that a city
takes pride in because it's kind of got a blue
blue collar underdog type feel to it, or if you're
(38:37):
talking about winning a ring like honestly, I don't know
how you feel, but I thought what was damning is
that when he injuries forced him to go into his bench,
you were reminded, Hey, you know what Alex Berton play like,
pressures that you can do some things for you. Why
did you have to play a six and a half
(38:59):
man rotation? And then what was even funnier is he
loses he loses his guys, some of his guys and
he's got to go into his bench and.
Speaker 8 (39:08):
He still plays the six and a half rotation Like
it was, I'm.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
Not willing to play this many guys. I was wondering
if it got to the point where like didn't have
enough guys to have five like, or didn't he he
didn't have the guys that he wanted to play. He
just goes, screw it, I'm just gonna play four guys.
I like, I'm only gonna play with four guys I
want to play. So that's that's where the fact that
he has not changed at all over the years has
(39:35):
in one way work for him. But I think that
it has a shelf life where it has a ceilings
that you cannot break going through that, going that approach.
I actually I'm writing a story about this because I
asked one of my NBA confidentials for Fox sports dot
Com and asking people around the league, like you quit
(39:57):
TIBs for their success or do you blame him whether
they ultimately they fell apart? Right, And it's funny because
if it actually was mixed, like people gave him his
flowers and one DM who was like, he wouldn't he
(40:18):
wouldn't even necessarily equate the injuries with the approach he said.
I don't know if if it's totally fair to do that,
he said, but I would never have my guy do
it like I would never. I would never allow my
coach to take that approach. So there you have it.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Awesome stuff. Rick Buger joining us here on the Doug
Gottlieb Show on Fox Sports Tradio. Let's get to the
coach and you called me coach. Course I didn't coach
in college and now I'm the head coach at at
Green Bay. Where are we with JJ Reddick and the Lakers.
Speaker 5 (40:54):
Honestly, I wish I could tell you specifically where they are.
I know that they're they're they're slope play. Saying this
in terms of, you know, they want to they want
to make sure that they've at this point since it's
you know, it's just JJA really going to work, and
who would they get. I think this is really vital
(41:17):
is who do you get to fill that staff if
you end up hiring him? I mean, that's that is
as vital as hiring JJ, maybe more vital. I haven't
heard definitively that he's the guy. I know that that's
sort of being reported. I do think he's He's solidly
in the mix.
Speaker 8 (41:38):
But there the here's the big here's the biggest issue
with why there's the uncertainty about where they're going to
go and the fact that they haven't made a decision
yet is because you really do have two different factions
(41:58):
in that front office. You have the you have the
Kobe faction.
Speaker 5 (42:05):
With Palinka and Company, and then you have the Magic
Fact faction with the rambuses and and with Magic and
they still you probably put Phil on the Kobe side
of the equation. And both of those factions are have
(42:27):
an influence on the decision making ultimately by Geneva. And
so that's why these that's why this takes so long,
and it's why it feels like it's all over the
map and their approach because you don't have you have
warring factions within that within that front office, and and
(42:50):
so you get what you get, like the confusion over
there is kind of understandable considering how they're constructed.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
You awesome stuff as always, man, really really good. I
guess I'm I guess the question is right is if
if would Lebron actually look at playing elsewhere?
Speaker 5 (43:15):
I don't see I honestly, I know, you know it's
showing up in Cleveland and and all of that. I
find it hard to believe that he would leave for
a year or two, uh, to go someplace else. And
I don't know, like, and I've explored this with teams
(43:38):
around the league, like, uh, is it going to take
I mean teams where he would be a contender. He's
going to have to play for forty millions less at least,
like it's gonna he haven't played for less than ten
million dollars. I just don't I don't see him doing that.
(44:00):
And I don't see him having the same authority that
he has with the Lakers. And it's just moving and
living someplace else for a year or two when his
family is is based in LA. I still think when
when he if he puts together a list of the
pluses and minuses, the ability to stay in LA and
(44:23):
play with Brownie in La still trumps, you know, the
idea that he would go someplace else. I think he
wants to leave that uncertainty in the minds of the
Lakers to have a celebrity if he can. But I
just I don't see a way in which that way
in which that happens.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I don't either, And I know he's playing the game,
but I just wonder if anybody ever calls his pluff.
Nobody has, But I just you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (44:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's I mean, everything says not.
But he also, like you know, with the whole JJ
thing and where they're going to go and and and
what that means. Like Lebron's kind of weird in that
that he's not overtly going to tell them this is
(45:14):
who I want, but he's going to let you know
if you took if you pick the guy that he
doesn't want, like he'll he'll make that clear. And so
that's what Also another element of uncertainty is that it's
got kind of a passive aggressive approach to his influence
on a team, which is this, whatever you do better
(45:37):
please me. But I'm not going to tell you exactly
what I what I want to please me, And we'll
just see if you if you get it right, and uh,
and that's you know, that's what it then it then
it gives him plausible deniability in terms of, uh, you know,
if the enop hiring JJ and it's a disaster, which like.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
There's a there's a possibility it could be. Right, Like,
I know that you can.
Speaker 5 (46:09):
I know that you can draw up plays, right. I
know you may not have coached in college, but but
I'm not worried about your ability to operate. I mean,
as the son of a coach, like you've you know
what that job requires, and I have no question that
(46:30):
you can execute those things. I don't know, like you know,
Jaja's smart. He understands the nuances of the game. But
understanding the nuances of the game and knowing how to
apply them with your personnel and under certain situations and
particularly in games, Uh, that's a whole, whole, whole other animal.
(46:52):
And then there's just being to appeal, being able to
appeal to your players and get the most of them,
and be able to connect to them emotionally and psychologically.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
I think I think that's his strength. I think the
question is all the other stuff, right, I think he
can be a relationship guy and he can know you know,
set Sky or whatever. But there's a there's a lot
of other moving parts, a lot of other moving Partsue
You're the best. Thanks so much for join us. We'll
see you on Fox Sports one. Thanks for our guests,
(47:24):
pleasure
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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