Former NFL offensive lineman and FOX Sports Radio Weekend host Ephraim Salaam is in for Rob, and he and Kelvin discuss the short and long-term ramifications of Jayson Tatum’s season-ending Achilles injury and tell us why the timing of Pete Rose’s reinstatement by MLB feels so strange. Plus, FOX Sports Radio NBA insider Marc Stein swings by to discuss the narrative that the NBA rigged the lottery to get Cooper Flagg to the Dallas Mavericks, what’s next for the Celtics, if the New York Knicks should be favored to come out of the Eastern Conference, the likelihood that Giannis actually gets traded this offseason and much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Odd Couple podcast. Be sure
to check us out live every weekday from seven pm
to ten pm Eastern four to seven Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio. Find your local station for The Odd Couple
at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
W. Let's get this parties, you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Welcome, welook to the Odd Couple.
Speaker 5 (00:37):
My man Rob is out, as you heard e Fram Salam,
and I'm kelvin Washington, and it is a trash talking Tuesday.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (00:45):
Uh oh, hey, hey, I feel weird when we play
that because I'm used to you being on the phone.
I know, I get it out here. You're I'm live
in the color yesterday, Ethram Salam in the building, folks,
we got a lot lined up for you today. We
got Mark Stein Fox Sports Radio, NBA Insider are going
to join us in a little bit. We'll talk some hoops.
We got some more conversations to be had. Deon Taylor,
(01:06):
father and CEO of Hitting Empire Film, grew down.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
That's your brother.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
And for those who don't know, Ephraim obviously is a Hooper,
he played in the NFL and a huge what do
you want to call it entertainment?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Hollywood? What do you want to call No?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
No, no, no, I'm because I don't consider myself Hollywood. I'm
just a a writer producer. Yeah you know, I just
uh you know, I've been producing films for eighteen years.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
No, no, no no. But it's most people don't know
because I just that's true.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I never really post things or you're not Parker, Okay, Parker,
So I just I just look, I come when we were,
when I was blessed enough to become successful, it wasn't
contingent on social media.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
That's do you That's all. We could have a one
hour conversation on this. So the struggle of self promotion brag,
I get.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
It, but I like my work to speak for it.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Like most people didn't even know I was a writer
until they were watching the television show and they So
I got a lot of people after my episodes and
whatever debut, they would be like, yo, you right, like
find out that way robes to me talking about what
I'm doing.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
This is how you know he has humblelitis because he's
talking saying the show but didn't even say the show.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
What the show was?
Speaker 5 (02:24):
What is the show? It's look I mean you just
look it up Google. I mean, it's computers out there.
You were I thought I was bad. I've been blessed,
but it's the truth. I've been blessed.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I've been you know, you know, compensated for for my
uh not only my physical prowess and endeavors, but also
now my mental and scholastic endeavors.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
So I get a duality of both worlds.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
When it talks about I made a living that changed
my whole family's trajectory with my physical prowess, and now
I get to do it on an intellectual level.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
So for me, it's the best of both worlds.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Now it's an example for my kids that it just
doesn't have to be all one thing in one way.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
All right, folks. So that was the eye couple. We'll
see you all tomorrow. Kelvin I actually have from it
promoting himself on let me play it. Do you know
who I am? I knew it. That's what he does autio.
I know how to put this kind of a big deal.
I'm kind of a big deal.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
Yeah, you trying to act humble in the airways, stop
it ogain a whole lot to get you today, looking
forward to spending some time. We got Jonathan Voltabole getting
ready to join us a little bit later on as well.
Again we're taking phone calls for trash talking Tuesday. And
just a little bit, by the way, let's you introduce
the Eye Couple crew. We can't do without him. We
got Rob g produced to extraordinary. We got Alex who
(03:48):
on the ones that choose. I can't see who is
doing updates? Oh Chris, you're doing it?
Speaker 4 (03:54):
What up? Chris? I don't know if you lee? Okay.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
We got Chris geting ready to get you with the
updates in a little bit. And of course the social
media alike alike Eli is gonna get us straight on
this on social media. Make sure you get all the
stuff up there. By the way, why did you y'all
keep him in the closet somewhere? He just pops up
like once a month. I've never one time seen him
walking around here. He's normally buried under somewhere Witness Protection program.
(04:20):
Whoever Alex supposed to get to hr down here see
if closet. I think I think there was a number
they were like all right, so Alice kind of an
honorary rob g John Parker Kelvin and like that's too
many minorities. You guys or you guys are planning something
and then we have to know the day maybe be
like Martin Weiss on up days too much. This is
(04:41):
going too much the revolution, they're burning it down. Yeah,
that's too many. So well, I we got to just
come on in once a month. We'll figure it out,
all right, man ah man. Obviously, the biggest news coming
out of last night's game, and it is now confirmed
as of today, Jason Tatum is torn his achilles. Anybody
unfortunately who was seeing basketball, you know, whether you played
(05:02):
it on the streets or you see it and we
see it immediately. It's one of the rare injuries where
you see it and you know exactly what happened new
it right away, Yep, when somebody doesn't look back, like
what just happened to? Somebody kick me non contact and
they fall on the ground and can't you know exactly
what it was?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
You know what it is when you can see the
player know what it is. Yeah, And that's the biggest thing.
Like watching Jason Tatum's reaction, I was like, Oh, it's you. Yeah,
it's that. It's that once you can't any other thing,
(05:38):
not a calf strain, not an ankle, not rolling your ankle,
not any of that. You can still move your foot yep,
when you're holding it and you there's no flexion in
it and you're covering your face because you're not. It's
not the pain. My son was watching it when me was,
oh my god, he's in so much pain. I said, no, no, baby,
(06:00):
it's not the pain. It's the actual knowledge he knows.
It's a rap of what's what he's about to sacrifice,
what he's going to miss out on. That's where the
emotion comes from, not just for this series, but for
his career now. And I'm not saying he's not going
(06:23):
to make a recovery, but the chance of winning a
back to back championship is gone, a chance for him
being ready for next season.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
The team.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
We all know the team will look different next year
because they can't. They don't have they can't, they don't
have the money. Al Horford is going to be gone.
It's a bunch of things that are gonna happen now,
and this is a catalyst to now different things are
gonna happen because now you're not gonna have them at
least at least and this is an early guestimation the
(06:58):
All Star Game at least. And so the tears in
the agony is there from him realizing, oh god, this
is now a journey and it has nothing to do
with basketball.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
And you can always see, specifically with this injury, there's
a look of disdain and a look of lost like
other ones. You mentioned ankle, and you know, anybody, if
you've ever rolled your ankle, that might be the worst pain. Yes,
a knee is more in the middle between the ankle
and the akises of pain. But you're like it hurts,
but that achilles the initial pain. But then it's the man.
(07:36):
But you know what, it's not even pain with the achilles.
You feel something something pop audibly, people hear it. It's
not a pain thing.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
It's like you'll look back and like, hey, what just
having somebody the realization after you realize you're by yourself,
there is no content after all of that, then you realize,
oh no.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
It's it's over, not forever, but for now.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
And you mentioned something that I want to touch on
right now is the looking at Jason Tatum's injury, and
just looking at how these things go.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
We all love hoops.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
If you're followed, if you're specifically NBA, you get these
magical windows. It ain't all sports in the NFL as well,
you get these magical windows where things can happen.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
You have the you can change the directory.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Of being a All Star, Perenny All Star to a champion,
from being a champion to a two time to a
three time.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
There's these little windows. I'll give you an example.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
If Kevin Durant doesn't come to the Wars, maybe Steph
A the time is just a one time and now
you can say he went after But that's because of
all the winning and you grew with it. They might
have blew the thing up earlier if they don't win again.
So there are so many moments and I'm looking at
this now as this is why you don't play with
your food. Ephrom If you're the Celtics, the projected everybody
(08:55):
had you winning this series fairly easy. The Knicks really
struggled against the Pissons outplay them. They just didn't out
finish them. They didn't know how to. They had to
get the experience. This is why you don't play with
your food in any capacity. When you have a chance
to beat somebody, put your foot on the throat and
move on to the next round. Because to me, you
(09:16):
can't be up twenty points one time.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
I'll give you.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
It happens better multiple times at home. And you lose
these games because you lose the opportunity for guys to rest,
for guys to sit out fourth quarters, for guys to
prevent injury injuries, because you maybe you sweep them.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Boom, we're out. We're on to the next round.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
And this is why when you get a chance and
you're supposed to be the better team, you're supposed to
be the Raginning champs, you don't play around because now
you're in a situation where you have to win it all.
Now they still have the talent. Just as far as
if I listed the roster, they.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Were eight and two this year without right including a
playoff win, without Jason Tatum getting the magic he was out.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Yeah, they absolutely.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Jalen Brown is current currently the Finals Ragning Finals MVP,
and a guy didn't get you twenty five thirty any night,
and you can argue is underperforming right now. And then
you got porzingis you got Drew Holliday, who he maybe
steps up more. Now we'd be forgetting they're so deep,
you forget how good Drew Holliday really is.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
The thing with Drew and watching this series, it was
like he got old in front of our faces. Like
watching him add to why, I think, well, of course,
and I know exactly what you're gonna say, but go ahead.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
I think when you've been relegated to just being hey,
just be around the corner of the perimeter, just shoot
three and like him with the bucks.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
And I know it's a couple few years back.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
He can post up any smaller guard, your left hand,
right hand. But when you've been and I think this
is they do a disadvantage to even Jason Tatum when
you just relegate him to shooting threes.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
He's so much better than He's way stronger than he looks.
He can post up great.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
But when you're just like, this is our offense the
way it's ran to me, it makes it easier to defend.
Now the shots might fall to night, you hit thirty
five threes, what am I gonna do?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
But it makes it easier to defend point.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
And I also believe that the fact that he has
to chase Bronson, that's a whole game. You can see
it wearing on him in the second half. You can
see because he's the primary and he's a tremendous wing
on ball defender, one of the best in the league.
But Jalen Bronson is so ball dominant in that Knicks offense.
(11:27):
You're going to have the ball eighty percent of the
time when he's on the court, and you defending that
someone who who can get any shot anywhere, is constantly
on the move. It just wears on your legs. That
just wears your point.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
That's a great and so I think it's all everything
we just mentioned. He is older, Yes, they're not using
him at his best compact. One of the best things
he did was he was just always stronger than most
guard kind of Sam Cassell, I put you in a
back Yes, Chauncey Houston do it a lot, just man.
You know, hey, I'm Gary Payton. These are guys who
knew how to take advantage of the side. And last point,
speaking of Chauncey Billups, I think this is now where
(12:07):
they might be.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
The O four.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
Detroit basketball Pistons a bunch of Eastern Conference final appearances
one one ring. They did get back to the finals,
go to Game seven versus Spurs and five that Piston team,
but and that was it, And it was like you'd
wanted one more.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Yeah, But I tell.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
You the difference there is they weren't looking to score
any points on that Detroit team.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
It weren't either.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
They were like, the final score is gonna be seventy
to sixty three, right, that's where that's where we're living. Yeah,
what they did to the Lakers in that finals, I
still couldn't believe it. I'm like, nobody can score nobody,
But that was there. That's what they hung their hat ons.
Then they knew that they were gonna muck it up.
(12:51):
They were And I will say this, shout out to
the NBA, Shout out to Adam Silver, shout out to
the referees for issuing in in this these playoffs a
more physical style.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Of play man. It was so welcomed.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
My gosh, it to me and to get back on
the Celtics and the Jason Tatum of it all. Their
formula for winning. It's not conducive when you're missing shots.
If you can't in the middle of missing forty four threes,
(13:28):
say hey, let's attack the high post, high to mid post.
Let's get uh Tatum drew Holiday in the post against Brunson.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Let's do let's run our action.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Through the post opposed to from the three point line.
Let's not just rely on the shot if it's not falling.
The thing with shooters, and they're all shooters, all five
of them, they're all shooting everybody. The thing with shooters
is they always think their next one is going in.
But when you string that together and step outside, and
(14:06):
now we look at those first two games, it's like, well,
dang couldn't Why wouldn't they just be like, hey, let's
draw up some things to get us closer to the basket.
And I think that's the problem. If they're going to
live and die by the three, then in this series
they're going to die by it because the Knicks are
not allowing them to get the open looks. And in
(14:27):
this past game, early on, Derek White in his first
four three, yep right, because number one on the first possession,
their defense, their transition defense, he was wide open.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
He hit that.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
When they came back, they swung the ball, swung the ball,
got it back to him wide open. They got that one,
came back down again, he came back, step back, got
off the ball, got it back hit that he was open.
Time out. Yep, Tims call the time out. And so
what happens is now it's like, we got to make
him earn this. And they shot fairly well from the
three point line this past game. But not having Jason
(15:02):
Tatum was carrying the team.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
Oh my god, yeah, what forty two before he went obviously,
and so you're in a situation and you still were
down in that game. That's that's the part I want
people to not man if he didn't go down, no, no, no,
y'all were down nine and a minutes left for a game.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
So don't don't. Let's not act like that.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
You know, you're still down and then you had the
best closer in the game is on the knick side
of the ball with Jalen Brunson. Uh So, is the
real question that becomes this Celtics team is the j
run over Jalen Brown Jason Tatum? Is this runover now
with the injury because we don't expect him to return
for the most part till the latter portion of next season.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Could you never know, could be all of next season.
We'll have to wait and see.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
Is this run, particularly with the Jays in the Celtics
over It is The Odd Couple Ephram and for Rob
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven
ninety nine. On Fox, It's The Odd Couple Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Rob Parker and kel Washington weekdays at seven pm
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Fox Sports Radio It is the Couple kelvin Washington for
Salam and for Rob. Not exactly sure what Rob's doing,
but shout out to Rob. It's a trash talking Tuesday.
I'm a woman that he's out of graduation. That's right,
shout out Rob at a graduate at Arizona, Right, let's put
his bitsiness out there.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
You can stream this show and all the Fox Sports
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Speaker 4 (16:44):
So it's gonna pop up right at the top of
your screen. So go do that now.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Ifan and I have a conversation about the Celtics, first
and foremost a game man, you know, wishing all the
speedy recovery and the best to Jason Tata, one of
the best players in this league and goes down. Really
sad to see it's gonna be a long recovery for him.
So we're wishing the best. But with that, what does
this do for the Celtics, don't I still think they
have the talent. I don't think they're going to come back,
but they have the talent to They just haven't been
(17:09):
producing like they probably wish they should for sure. Yeah,
I think when you get in a situation like this,
is there a doing for Tatum moment?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
No, not yet, and they are out of time for that.
So the first thing that happens when you lose someone
like that to your ball club is that sense of hopelessness,
the human emotion. You lose the best player, you start
(17:39):
to especially when you're down in a series. So usually
that next game you can come out with a fight
and a punch. But if that punch is withstood, then
it's demoralizing because you know that guy with the cape
and Jason Tatum has a new Superman commercial. He's not
(18:01):
coming in to save you. That's forty two points that
he gave you playing an excellent game, cooled off towards
the end of the fourth, but you were still down
by nine with him playing out of his mind. All
of that subconsciously is affecting that Celtics locker room.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Not quite sure what porzingis is going.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Through, but him not being in the starting lineup and
coming off the bench and really not giving you that
mismatch at the high post that they had so eloquently
executed and previous years and even all of last year, yep,
that's not there. So does Derek White become more of
a factor there. It puts you in a position where guys,
(18:46):
now Pritchard does he start this out? Is he coming
off the bench?
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Like what?
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Now, You're not in that role that you normally are,
and it could take a game adjustment to do that.
And I think that's what in this is it. It's
just they have one game, I mean, and I think
they're in a position where it feels like we're gonna
do it for you, Jay, we got you. But the
(19:10):
hopelessness of knowing he is done and he can't come
help you climb out of this hole. It could be
too much, and not for everybody. Like Jalen Brown come
out here. He's not worried about it, but everybody has
to have that mentality.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
The only thing I'll add one, they're going home. Two.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
The Knicks offense can have these moments where you're like, hello,
is anybody there? And oftentimesim it is because it's always
a one or one meaning okay, cats having a nice
stretch and it's never a fluidity or Jalen Bronson is
dribbling the blood out the ball until he's going and
it works.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
But I'm like, that's it.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Whereas when you're rolling, you can have a saw last night,
Anthony Edward's going off, Julius Randall going off. You can see, okay,
this is this thing is happening.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
You know.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
Sometimes with the Knicks, they had his own word. They
don't know where to get the offense. And if Jalen
Brown of Jalen Brunton is his shot isn't going. You're
kind of like, oh, this is It's kind of and
it is not the greatest offense in the world. But
we'll have to wait and see how this all plays
out for them. All right, we got Mark Stein on
the other side right now. We got to get you
set up with what's trending.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live Join now.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
By Mark Stein.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Fox Sports Radio, NBA inside and distributor of the Stein
Line on Substack the Stein Line on x AKA Twitter.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Mark, what's up man? How you doing?
Speaker 6 (20:41):
I am good, guys, how are you holding up?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Good? We're doing good.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
So what's up? They got sticky envelopes or frozen envelopes?
What's going on with this lottery here?
Speaker 6 (20:51):
Oh? You guys don't believe it's rigged?
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Come on, do you believe it's rig Yeah, well tell
us it's not.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Then here's the thing.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
There's nothing I can say and millions of people. I
was on a live DLF podcast in Dallas when the
MAVs won the lottery and we have an you know,
we're doing a live YouTube show and it's with an audience,
that audience that wants the MAVs to win the lottery.
And they're all, you know, posting rigged, rig rig grig
(21:21):
rigged in our YouTube comments live and we're doing it.
So I know, I know there's nothing I can say
to convince people. But look, I've I've been in the
lottery room for for the Wemby lottery. I've seen it
with my own eyes. You can watch the video of
them doing it. The NBA posts the video. It's on YouTube.
(21:41):
It's about fifteen minutes long if you want to watch
what actually happened in the lottery room. If they can
rig the lottery with that contraption they used, and they
are magicians because there are you know, fifteen people in
the room. I mean, you know, I do not believe
that it is rigged. I really don't. You know, you
(22:01):
also have to point out that, you know, the Mavericks
had to win a coin flip just to get the
eleventh best odds instead of twelve with Chicago. And when
they made the trade, you know, everybody thinks, oh, the
lead told them to make the trade and then we'll
give you Cooper Flag. You know, when the map has
made the trade, they thought they were going to have
(22:24):
a healthy Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving for the rest
of the season. They weren't even supposed to be in
the lottery. So but I realized, like I said, there's
nothing you know, if you want to believe it's rigged,
I doubt that I'm going to be able to convince
you otherwise.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Okay, well, let's get to something a little bit more pressing.
And that's what happened on yesterday was a lot of
stuff was going on in the NBA. Let's talk about
the Jason Tatum injury and what exactly that means for
the Celtics, not only this series. We could pretty much
surmise what that means for this series, but in the future,
(23:00):
what does that mean.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
It's awful. It's it's just terrible to watch. I mean,
the Achilles injury is the most devastating and dreaded injury
in basketball, and you just hate to see any player
go through it. It was the same thing when it
happened to Damian Lillard in the first round. And you know,
Tatum has been so durable. He was putting together a
(23:21):
masterpiece game. And like, obviously, in the short term it's
devastating because it probably ends their title defense, but it's
it's far worse in the longer term because this injury
realistically is going to cost him all of next season. Now,
maybe he can recover faster. You know, he's about three
(23:43):
years younger than when this happened to Kevin Durant, and
Durant recovered from the Achilles about as well as anybody
ever has. I also want to shout out Dominique Wilkins,
who when I was just starting to cover the league,
this happened to Nick in his thirties, and you know,
he came back really strongly from it, and you know,
(24:04):
people forget that one, but it's it is a brutal injury.
And the Celtics were already facing just a difficult summer
with a team that's on track to be the most
expensive team ever. And now with you know, knowing you're
not going to have Tatum for all of next season,
you know, you have to think that they're going to
(24:25):
break this thing up, and you know, have to take
a longer term view with how they retool this thing
because again, you're you know, even if Tatum comes back
from this thing meek style, I mean, you're not going
to have him next year realistically, and so it's it's
(24:46):
it's really, it's really tough to watch. And last night
what you really saw, I mean, it was just the
wild tendulum swings of you know, these are landscape shifting
moves that we saw with Dallas in this three month
self imposed purgatory trading Luka Doncic in the middle of
the season, in the middle of the night, and a
(25:09):
fan base that turned on its own team like I've
never seen in more than thirty years of covering this league.
And then they win the lottery to get Cooper Flag
and that has changed the atmosphere in Dallas dramatically. There's
still a lot of work to be done, but I
mean it, you know, it is it is a thunderbolt
(25:30):
of good news that nobody was anticipating in Dallas because
they had a one point eight percent chance to win
the thing, and then you have the defending champions losing
Jason Tatum, and it's it's it's rough, it's it's really
it was really hard to watch.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Mark Stein, our guest Fox Sports Radio, NBA Insider on
with the odd couple Kelvin eaphrom and for Rob, I
want to stay in that series. For me for a second, here, Mark,
what the heck are the Knicks? They play the Pistons
who are young and not supposed to know any better.
But you could argue the Pistons, I'll play them for
the majority of that series. They just didn't know how
to close it. Then the Knicks are supposed to lose
(26:08):
the Celtics, and even before the injury, they're up in
the series, and before the injury, they look like they're
gonna win that game. Before the injury, despite forty two
from ten, are the Knicks good? And we just didn't know?
They lost four times in the Celtics. They couldn't beat
any good teams during the season. What the heck are
the Knicks?
Speaker 6 (26:25):
You know, it's true. I mean, if you just looked
at the way the Knicks played against Boston and Cleveland
and Oklahoma City during the regular season, you would have
thought that they had no chance. But it you know,
they have been you know, just look, they won those
first two games. They trailed for like eighty minutes in
(26:50):
those first two games and still found a way to win.
You have to tip your cap to this team in
a major way, and you're you know, you're right. Obviously,
the focus is going to be on Tatum and a
player of his stature getting injured and the severity of
the injury and Boston losing its best player to a
season ending injury. Those are that's going to dominate all discussion.
(27:12):
But you know, you said it in there. The Knicks
were winning that game when Boston lost Tatum. They were
on a track to win that game. And we're likely
going to win that game. And with the way road
teams have been so good in these playoffs, to win
game four in that scenario was another major statement from
this Knicks team. And look, we're on course.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Now.
Speaker 6 (27:34):
You know, I don't think Cleveland's coming back from three
to one down. Maybe they can prove me wrong, but
I you know, I certainly don't think the Celtics are
coming back from three to one down without Tatum. So
we are headed for most likely headed for a Knicks
Pacers conference finals that is going to be really, really
(27:56):
interesting because this is a tremendous opportunity or the Knicks,
who based on seeding, should be the favorite. But I
would say the Pacers have played the best basketball in
the Eastern Conference in these playoffs, the most consistent basketball,
and they you know, they play a style. You know,
they have a very clear identity with their team. They
(28:19):
know what they want to get done, and that's going
to be that is going to be a classic matchup
that you know, again, we'll see, you know, if the
Knicks can finish this thing off and get to the
conference finals. On one hand, that should give them tons
of confidence, but it will be interesting to see again
when they are cast in the role of favorite and
(28:39):
know they have this amazing opportunity to get to the finals,
how they handle that weight.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Who who do you think is coming out of Who's
playing the best basketball of the West to meet them
in the finals in your opinion?
Speaker 6 (28:55):
I mean, look, Minnesota has been very impressive, but the
Warriors have only had Steph Curry for a quarter in change,
so that's obviously a major major factor that makes it
difficult to truly assess where the Wolves are. I mean,
I would say the Thunder's defense is probably the most
trustable thing there is on the board in the West,
(29:19):
but you know, Denver has Denver has that series is
I mean, it's obviously close, and you know, I think
the Thunder probably wins it, but it has not been
in the resounding fashion you would have expected from a
team given where the Thunder. I mean, the Thunder's regular
(29:41):
season resume was so impressive and they just have not
played to that level in this series. And even with
Jokic struggling offensively like we've never seen, the Thunder are
having trouble getting separation from this Nuggets team that doesn't
have a lot of depths. So I mean, honestly, it's
(30:02):
it's it's all hard to call, and there really is
no favorite, and I prefer it this way. Like I
think in basketball, we've always, you know, for so long
we heard, you know, it's better when you have a
Jordan led Bulls or the Dynastic Warriors, when there's this
one behemoth that everybody is chasing and everybody wants to beat,
(30:24):
and a lot of people like it that way. Me personally,
I like this better where it's you know, it's up
for grabs. It is it is. You know, you could
say wide open, and I you know, I think that's
a fair characterization.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Hey, Mark, lesson a minute here, can you don't want off,
I'm gonna throw this out to you, Jannis, open to
something that might fit better for him?
Speaker 4 (30:49):
You buying it? You? Just what do you make of that?
And if so, are there a few options?
Speaker 6 (30:54):
The reality of that story, he has not told the
Bucks yet what he wants to do. Until he either
says I'm staying or I want to trade, there isn't
much of a story there. But look, the whole league's
talking about it and anticipating, and the anticipation is that
he's ultimately going to ask them to move. But it
(31:15):
hasn't happened yet, and until it happens, the Bucks are
going to hold out hope that they can convince him
to stay, because obviously they're not going to trade him
unless he says, guys, I want to go, And that
hasn't happened yet, so I think we have to wait
for that to happen before we can really dig into it.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
All right, Well, you're being patient and being responsible. I
don't think everybody else is doing that. Mark out of here.
Thank some people. Oh let's run with that, Mark Stein,
Thank you so much. As always, we appreciate you.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
Okay, guys, take care, talk soon, all right.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
So there's something that happened in baseball that a lot
of people. It only took maybe the death of somebody
for it to happen. We'll tell you what we're talking about. Siakable,
Kelvin Ephraman for Rob, stay with your boys Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
Fox Sports Radio. It is the odd couple. Kelvin Washington,
E from salam And for Rob. Hopefully you're having a
great Tuesday wherever you may be listening. We appreciate you
spending time with you boys. For over forty years, sire
Iraq has been helping customers find the right tires for how,
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(32:35):
mobile tire installation tireraq dot com. It is the way
tire buying should be. All right, Rob Gi, we were
just talking. We had Chris giving us an update there
about all of a sudden, you have these folks who
now have an option, the chance to get into the
Baseball Hall of Fame. One of them being Pete Rose
posthumously he passes away. I think we were literally live
(32:57):
when the air Why don't wed that day, like right when
it was happening, And the conversation becomes, well, is it
right to do it now? If he was never worthy
of being in? Do you just never get in if
he's banned your band? And I just think it's interesting
a frohim that we were talking about a little bit
off the air. I mean, dang, Like soon as Bruh
(33:20):
gets in the casket a couple months a few months later,
they're like, all right, cool, you can be eligible now.
And to me, it's almost like an insult of no, no, no, no,
no dead. All right, you can get in now if
people vote you in. And I know that's just kind
of how it goes. We got to having some more
people on this list as well, But I just thought, man,
I don't know if I felt if I was his family. Now,
(33:43):
I'm not a fan of him being in because he
didn't make it easy on himself. He never kind of
bit the bullet, apologize, so contrition, all of that, but
just to all of a sudden, my dad, my granddad,
whoever died, and now he can put him on the list.
It's kind of like I'd rather him just not be
on then.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yeah, But there's also a lot of baseball fans and
historians that think it's the travesty that he's not on.
I mean, talent wise, that's not talent wise, I mean, goodness, gracious,
you know, you think of you know, comparable players in
today's baseball, and he still stands out as one of
(34:21):
the greatest. Now, Pete had his own way of doing things.
He was gonna be He's gonna be. He was gonna Pete,
and he was gonna be unapologetic, and he was just
gonna just be himself, which rubbed a lot of people
the wrong way. And I think that, you know when
I think he's not actually eligible until twenty twenty seven,
(34:44):
but I think once he's eligible, then he will be
put in because now where they're saying, hey, now just
look at what he did on the on the diamond
on the baseball field, opposed to.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
All of the things he did off and judge him
on that. Now, now it's okay to judge him on this.
See if that's work is weird to me, it's either
I either enough time has passed you forgave me and
I'm in or it just was that much of a
black eye that I'm never in like to do it
when I'm dead, When we know he spent his entire
(35:19):
life wanting it. Now he didn't have the articulation to
say it in a more contrite way. And you know,
people made mistakes and I grew and now that I
look back it, so what, Yep, he didn't Mike vict
this thing where Mike Vick kind of fell on the sword,
did all the right things, and I believe and you
would know, I'm sure you know him went and literally
(35:42):
kind of went through the psychology of like why what
made me be okay with that? Where I'm from wise,
I know it's cultural and certain parts of every country
do this in other countries. And now he's with helping
Peter p Rose never really did that. It was like
a I kind of did it, but I didn't do it.
But so what if I did it, I ain't never
gonna tell, you know. And yeah, and so I can
see why he continuously rubbed baseball the wrong way. But
(36:05):
so now to me, all right, he's dead, he got
a shot to get in. It's kind of like what, well,
we'll give it to him five years ago.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Now, I'll say this, if this was always on, if
this is on track to this is when they were
gonna take lift the Band, prior to knowing he was
going to pass away, then okay.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
But if this happened.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
After he passed away and it was like, oh, then
that's the conversation that's that is the discussion.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
He's dead, all right, cool, put him on right now.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
If this was always gonna be a twenty twenty five,
will lift the band right that and they set that
I don't know what five ten years ago, then okay,
say that right, Like, but now if it's not that,
and it's like, okay, he's gone now now we can
let him in. Now, that's the conversation that's petty had
because that's petty. That to me, that'll rub you the
(36:58):
wrong way.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Yeah, so it'd be interesting. I'll say this to your
earlier point.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
I do think there's a contingency, and I think as
voters become younger, I think a guy like a Pete Rose,
I think guys who did steroids, they're gonna have an
increasing shot to get in or at least or even
guys who are around the cloud of steroids. Maybe we
don't know officially, because I think there will be an
element of man, everybody was doing it. How you're gonna
get mad at this guy, this guy, and this guy
(37:25):
when the rumors are seventy eighty percent of the league
was doing it. That was just what baseball was in
that era. We're not not gonna put Barry Bonds in
arguably split his career in half. He would have been
in the first half or the second half. Yeah, and
when you talk about greatness like that, you know, what
about a rod?
Speaker 4 (37:42):
What about you know, a whole bunch of people?
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Right, It's so it's a situation where it's like, hey,
let the greats in and then police it from there.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
Yep, the lottery, cold envelopes, sticky envelopes, rigged or not,
will tell you it's Fox Sports Radio rig
Thanks for listening to The Odd Couple podcast. Be sure
to check us out live every weekday from seven pm
to ten pm Eastern four to seven Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio. Find your local station for The Odd Couple
at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
day on the iHeartRadio app by searching fsr.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
W. Let's get this parties, you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Welcome, welook to the Odd Couple.
Speaker 5 (00:37):
My man Rob is out, as you heard e Fram Salam,
and I'm kelvin Washington, and it is a trash talking Tuesday.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (00:45):
Uh oh, hey, hey, I feel weird when we play
that because I'm used to you being on the phone.
I know, I get it out here. You're I'm live
in the color yesterday, Ethram Salam in the building, folks,
we got a lot lined up for you today. We
got Mark Stein Fox Sports Radio, NBA Insider are going
to join us in a little bit. We'll talk some hoops.
We got some more conversations to be had. Deon Taylor,
(01:06):
father and CEO of Hitting Empire Film, grew down.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
That's your brother.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
And for those who don't know, Ephraim obviously is a Hooper,
he played in the NFL and a huge what do
you want to call it entertainment?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Hollywood? What do you want to call No?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
No, no, no, I'm because I don't consider myself Hollywood. I'm
just a a writer producer. Yeah you know, I just
uh you know, I've been producing films for eighteen years.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
No, no, no no. But it's most people don't know
because I just that's true.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I never really post things or you're not Parker, Okay, Parker,
So I just I just look, I come when we were,
when I was blessed enough to become successful, it wasn't
contingent on social media.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
That's do you That's all. We could have a one
hour conversation on this. So the struggle of self promotion brag,
I get.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
It, but I like my work to speak for it.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Like most people didn't even know I was a writer
until they were watching the television show and they So
I got a lot of people after my episodes and
whatever debut, they would be like, yo, you right, like
find out that way robes to me talking about what
I'm doing.
Speaker 5 (02:16):
This is how you know he has humblelitis because he's
talking saying the show but didn't even say the show.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
What the show was?
Speaker 5 (02:24):
What is the show? It's look I mean you just
look it up Google. I mean, it's computers out there.
You were I thought I was bad. I've been blessed,
but it's the truth. I've been blessed.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I've been you know, you know, compensated for for my
uh not only my physical prowess and endeavors, but also
now my mental and scholastic endeavors.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
So I get a duality of both worlds.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
When it talks about I made a living that changed
my whole family's trajectory with my physical prowess, and now
I get to do it on an intellectual level.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
So for me, it's the best of both worlds.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Now it's an example for my kids that it just
doesn't have to be all one thing in one way.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
All right, folks. So that was the eye couple. We'll
see you all tomorrow. Kelvin I actually have from it
promoting himself on let me play it. Do you know
who I am? I knew it. That's what he does autio.
I know how to put this kind of a big deal.
I'm kind of a big deal.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
Yeah, you trying to act humble in the airways, stop
it ogain a whole lot to get you today, looking
forward to spending some time. We got Jonathan Voltabole getting
ready to join us a little bit later on as well.
Again we're taking phone calls for trash talking Tuesday. And
just a little bit, by the way, let's you introduce
the Eye Couple crew. We can't do without him. We
got Rob g produced to extraordinary. We got Alex who
(03:48):
on the ones that choose. I can't see who is
doing updates? Oh Chris, you're doing it?
Speaker 4 (03:54):
What up? Chris? I don't know if you lee? Okay.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
We got Chris geting ready to get you with the
updates in a little bit. And of course the social
media alike alike Eli is gonna get us straight on
this on social media. Make sure you get all the
stuff up there. By the way, why did you y'all
keep him in the closet somewhere? He just pops up
like once a month. I've never one time seen him
walking around here. He's normally buried under somewhere Witness Protection program.
(04:20):
Whoever Alex supposed to get to hr down here see
if closet. I think I think there was a number
they were like all right, so Alice kind of an
honorary rob g John Parker Kelvin and like that's too
many minorities. You guys or you guys are planning something
and then we have to know the day maybe be
like Martin Weiss on up days too much. This is
(04:41):
going too much the revolution, they're burning it down. Yeah,
that's too many. So well, I we got to just
come on in once a month. We'll figure it out,
all right, man ah man. Obviously, the biggest news coming
out of last night's game, and it is now confirmed
as of today, Jason Tatum is torn his achilles. Anybody
unfortunately who was seeing basketball, you know, whether you played
(05:02):
it on the streets or you see it and we
see it immediately. It's one of the rare injuries where
you see it and you know exactly what happened new
it right away, Yep, when somebody doesn't look back, like
what just happened to? Somebody kick me non contact and
they fall on the ground and can't you know exactly
what it was?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
You know what it is when you can see the
player know what it is. Yeah, And that's the biggest thing.
Like watching Jason Tatum's reaction, I was like, Oh, it's you. Yeah,
it's that. It's that once you can't any other thing,
(05:38):
not a calf strain, not an ankle, not rolling your ankle,
not any of that. You can still move your foot yep,
when you're holding it and you there's no flexion in
it and you're covering your face because you're not. It's
not the pain. My son was watching it when me was,
oh my god, he's in so much pain. I said, no, no, baby,
(06:00):
it's not the pain. It's the actual knowledge he knows.
It's a rap of what's what he's about to sacrifice,
what he's going to miss out on. That's where the
emotion comes from, not just for this series, but for
his career now. And I'm not saying he's not going
(06:23):
to make a recovery, but the chance of winning a
back to back championship is gone, a chance for him
being ready for next season.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
The team.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
We all know the team will look different next year
because they can't. They don't have they can't, they don't
have the money. Al Horford is going to be gone.
It's a bunch of things that are gonna happen now,
and this is a catalyst to now different things are
gonna happen because now you're not gonna have them at
least at least and this is an early guestimation the
(06:58):
All Star Game at least. And so the tears in
the agony is there from him realizing, oh god, this
is now a journey and it has nothing to do
with basketball.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
And you can always see, specifically with this injury, there's
a look of disdain and a look of lost like
other ones. You mentioned ankle, and you know, anybody, if
you've ever rolled your ankle, that might be the worst pain. Yes,
a knee is more in the middle between the ankle
and the akises of pain. But you're like it hurts,
but that achilles the initial pain. But then it's the man.
(07:36):
But you know what, it's not even pain with the achilles.
You feel something something pop audibly, people hear it. It's
not a pain thing.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
It's like you'll look back and like, hey, what just
having somebody the realization after you realize you're by yourself,
there is no content after all of that, then you realize,
oh no.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
It's it's over, not forever, but for now.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
And you mentioned something that I want to touch on
right now is the looking at Jason Tatum's injury, and
just looking at how these things go.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
We all love hoops.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
If you're followed, if you're specifically NBA, you get these
magical windows. It ain't all sports in the NFL as well,
you get these magical windows where things can happen.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
You have the you can change the directory.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Of being a All Star, Perenny All Star to a champion,
from being a champion to a two time to a
three time.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
There's these little windows. I'll give you an example.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
If Kevin Durant doesn't come to the Wars, maybe Steph
A the time is just a one time and now
you can say he went after But that's because of
all the winning and you grew with it. They might
have blew the thing up earlier if they don't win again.
So there are so many moments and I'm looking at
this now as this is why you don't play with
your food. Ephrom If you're the Celtics, the projected everybody
(08:55):
had you winning this series fairly easy. The Knicks really
struggled against the Pissons outplay them. They just didn't out
finish them. They didn't know how to. They had to
get the experience. This is why you don't play with
your food in any capacity. When you have a chance
to beat somebody, put your foot on the throat and
move on to the next round. Because to me, you
(09:16):
can't be up twenty points one time.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
I'll give you.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
It happens better multiple times at home. And you lose
these games because you lose the opportunity for guys to rest,
for guys to sit out fourth quarters, for guys to
prevent injury injuries, because you maybe you sweep them.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Boom, we're out. We're on to the next round.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
And this is why when you get a chance and
you're supposed to be the better team, you're supposed to
be the Raginning champs, you don't play around because now
you're in a situation where you have to win it all.
Now they still have the talent. Just as far as
if I listed the roster, they.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Were eight and two this year without right including a
playoff win, without Jason Tatum getting the magic he was out.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Yeah, they absolutely.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Jalen Brown is current currently the Finals Ragning Finals MVP,
and a guy didn't get you twenty five thirty any night,
and you can argue is underperforming right now. And then
you got porzingis you got Drew Holliday, who he maybe
steps up more. Now we'd be forgetting they're so deep,
you forget how good Drew Holliday really is.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
The thing with Drew and watching this series, it was
like he got old in front of our faces. Like
watching him add to why, I think, well, of course,
and I know exactly what you're gonna say, but go ahead.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
I think when you've been relegated to just being hey,
just be around the corner of the perimeter, just shoot
three and like him with the bucks.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
And I know it's a couple few years back.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
He can post up any smaller guard, your left hand,
right hand. But when you've been and I think this
is they do a disadvantage to even Jason Tatum when
you just relegate him to shooting threes.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
He's so much better than He's way stronger than he looks.
He can post up great.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
But when you're just like, this is our offense the
way it's ran to me, it makes it easier to defend.
Now the shots might fall to night, you hit thirty
five threes, what am I gonna do?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
But it makes it easier to defend point.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
And I also believe that the fact that he has
to chase Bronson, that's a whole game. You can see
it wearing on him in the second half. You can
see because he's the primary and he's a tremendous wing
on ball defender, one of the best in the league.
But Jalen Bronson is so ball dominant in that Knicks offense.
(11:27):
You're going to have the ball eighty percent of the
time when he's on the court, and you defending that
someone who who can get any shot anywhere, is constantly
on the move. It just wears on your legs. That
just wears your point.
Speaker 5 (11:44):
That's a great and so I think it's all everything
we just mentioned. He is older, Yes, they're not using
him at his best compact. One of the best things
he did was he was just always stronger than most
guard kind of Sam Cassell, I put you in a
back Yes, Chauncey Houston do it a lot, just man.
You know, hey, I'm Gary Payton. These are guys who
knew how to take advantage of the side. And last point,
speaking of Chauncey Billups, I think this is now where
(12:07):
they might be.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
The O four.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
Detroit basketball Pistons a bunch of Eastern Conference final appearances
one one ring. They did get back to the finals,
go to Game seven versus Spurs and five that Piston team,
but and that was it, And it was like you'd
wanted one more.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Yeah, But I tell.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
You the difference there is they weren't looking to score
any points on that Detroit team.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
It weren't either.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
They were like, the final score is gonna be seventy
to sixty three, right, that's where that's where we're living. Yeah,
what they did to the Lakers in that finals, I
still couldn't believe it. I'm like, nobody can score nobody,
But that was there. That's what they hung their hat ons.
Then they knew that they were gonna muck it up.
(12:51):
They were And I will say this, shout out to
the NBA, Shout out to Adam Silver, shout out to
the referees for issuing in in this these playoffs a
more physical style.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Of play man. It was so welcomed.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
My gosh, it to me and to get back on
the Celtics and the Jason Tatum of it all. Their
formula for winning. It's not conducive when you're missing shots.
If you can't in the middle of missing forty four threes,
(13:28):
say hey, let's attack the high post, high to mid post.
Let's get uh Tatum drew Holiday in the post against Brunson.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Let's do let's run our action.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Through the post opposed to from the three point line.
Let's not just rely on the shot if it's not falling.
The thing with shooters, and they're all shooters, all five
of them, they're all shooting everybody. The thing with shooters
is they always think their next one is going in.
But when you string that together and step outside, and
(14:06):
now we look at those first two games, it's like, well,
dang couldn't Why wouldn't they just be like, hey, let's
draw up some things to get us closer to the basket.
And I think that's the problem. If they're going to
live and die by the three, then in this series
they're going to die by it because the Knicks are
not allowing them to get the open looks. And in
(14:27):
this past game, early on, Derek White in his first
four three, yep right, because number one on the first possession,
their defense, their transition defense, he was wide open.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
He hit that.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
When they came back, they swung the ball, swung the ball,
got it back to him wide open. They got that one,
came back down again, he came back, step back, got
off the ball, got it back hit that he was open.
Time out. Yep, Tims call the time out. And so
what happens is now it's like, we got to make
him earn this. And they shot fairly well from the
three point line this past game. But not having Jason
(15:02):
Tatum was carrying the team.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
Oh my god, yeah, what forty two before he went obviously,
and so you're in a situation and you still were
down in that game. That's that's the part I want
people to not man if he didn't go down, no, no, no,
y'all were down nine and a minutes left for a game.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
So don't don't. Let's not act like that.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
You know, you're still down and then you had the
best closer in the game is on the knick side
of the ball with Jalen Brunson. Uh So, is the
real question that becomes this Celtics team is the j
run over Jalen Brown Jason Tatum? Is this runover now
with the injury because we don't expect him to return
for the most part till the latter portion of next season.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Could you never know, could be all of next season.
We'll have to wait and see.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
Is this run, particularly with the Jays in the Celtics
over It is The Odd Couple Ephram and for Rob
eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven
ninety nine. On Fox, It's The Odd Couple Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Rob Parker and kel Washington weekdays at seven pm
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Fox Sports Radio It is the Couple kelvin Washington for
Salam and for Rob. Not exactly sure what Rob's doing,
but shout out to Rob. It's a trash talking Tuesday.
I'm a woman that he's out of graduation. That's right,
shout out Rob at a graduate at Arizona, Right, let's put
his bitsiness out there.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
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Speaker 4 (16:44):
So it's gonna pop up right at the top of
your screen. So go do that now.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Ifan and I have a conversation about the Celtics, first
and foremost a game man, you know, wishing all the
speedy recovery and the best to Jason Tata, one of
the best players in this league and goes down. Really
sad to see it's gonna be a long recovery for him.
So we're wishing the best. But with that, what does
this do for the Celtics, don't I still think they
have the talent. I don't think they're going to come back,
but they have the talent to They just haven't been
(17:09):
producing like they probably wish they should for sure. Yeah,
I think when you get in a situation like this,
is there a doing for Tatum moment?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
No, not yet, and they are out of time for that.
So the first thing that happens when you lose someone
like that to your ball club is that sense of hopelessness,
the human emotion. You lose the best player, you start
(17:39):
to especially when you're down in a series. So usually
that next game you can come out with a fight
and a punch. But if that punch is withstood, then
it's demoralizing because you know that guy with the cape
and Jason Tatum has a new Superman commercial. He's not
(18:01):
coming in to save you. That's forty two points that
he gave you playing an excellent game, cooled off towards
the end of the fourth, but you were still down
by nine with him playing out of his mind. All
of that subconsciously is affecting that Celtics locker room.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Not quite sure what porzingis is going.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Through, but him not being in the starting lineup and
coming off the bench and really not giving you that
mismatch at the high post that they had so eloquently
executed and previous years and even all of last year, yep,
that's not there. So does Derek White become more of
a factor there. It puts you in a position where guys,
(18:46):
now Pritchard does he start this out? Is he coming
off the bench?
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Like what?
Speaker 3 (18:49):
Now, You're not in that role that you normally are,
and it could take a game adjustment to do that.
And I think that's what in this is it. It's
just they have one game, I mean, and I think
they're in a position where it feels like we're gonna
do it for you, Jay, we got you. But the
(19:10):
hopelessness of knowing he is done and he can't come
help you climb out of this hole. It could be
too much, and not for everybody. Like Jalen Brown come
out here. He's not worried about it, but everybody has
to have that mentality.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
The only thing I'll add one, they're going home. Two.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
The Knicks offense can have these moments where you're like, hello,
is anybody there? And oftentimesim it is because it's always
a one or one meaning okay, cats having a nice
stretch and it's never a fluidity or Jalen Bronson is
dribbling the blood out the ball until he's going and
it works.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
But I'm like, that's it.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Whereas when you're rolling, you can have a saw last night,
Anthony Edward's going off, Julius Randall going off. You can see, okay,
this is this thing is happening.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
You know.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
Sometimes with the Knicks, they had his own word. They
don't know where to get the offense. And if Jalen
Brown of Jalen Brunton is his shot isn't going. You're
kind of like, oh, this is It's kind of and
it is not the greatest offense in the world. But
we'll have to wait and see how this all plays
out for them. All right, we got Mark Stein on
the other side right now. We got to get you
set up with what's trending.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live Join now.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
By Mark Stein.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Fox Sports Radio, NBA inside and distributor of the Stein
Line on Substack the Stein Line on x AKA Twitter.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
Mark, what's up man? How you doing?
Speaker 6 (20:41):
I am good, guys, how are you holding up?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Good? We're doing good.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
So what's up? They got sticky envelopes or frozen envelopes?
What's going on with this lottery here?
Speaker 6 (20:51):
Oh? You guys don't believe it's rigged?
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Come on, do you believe it's rig Yeah, well tell
us it's not.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Then here's the thing.
Speaker 6 (20:59):
There's nothing I can say and millions of people. I
was on a live DLF podcast in Dallas when the
MAVs won the lottery and we have an you know,
we're doing a live YouTube show and it's with an audience,
that audience that wants the MAVs to win the lottery.
And they're all, you know, posting rigged, rig rig grig
(21:21):
rigged in our YouTube comments live and we're doing it.
So I know, I know there's nothing I can say
to convince people. But look, I've I've been in the
lottery room for for the Wemby lottery. I've seen it
with my own eyes. You can watch the video of
them doing it. The NBA posts the video. It's on YouTube.
(21:41):
It's about fifteen minutes long if you want to watch
what actually happened in the lottery room. If they can
rig the lottery with that contraption they used, and they
are magicians because there are you know, fifteen people in
the room. I mean, you know, I do not believe
that it is rigged. I really don't. You know, you
(22:01):
also have to point out that, you know, the Mavericks
had to win a coin flip just to get the
eleventh best odds instead of twelve with Chicago. And when
they made the trade, you know, everybody thinks, oh, the
lead told them to make the trade and then we'll
give you Cooper Flag. You know, when the map has
made the trade, they thought they were going to have
(22:24):
a healthy Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving for the rest
of the season. They weren't even supposed to be in
the lottery. So but I realized, like I said, there's
nothing you know, if you want to believe it's rigged,
I doubt that I'm going to be able to convince
you otherwise.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Okay, well, let's get to something a little bit more pressing.
And that's what happened on yesterday was a lot of
stuff was going on in the NBA. Let's talk about
the Jason Tatum injury and what exactly that means for
the Celtics, not only this series. We could pretty much
surmise what that means for this series, but in the future,
(23:00):
what does that mean.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
It's awful. It's it's just terrible to watch. I mean,
the Achilles injury is the most devastating and dreaded injury
in basketball, and you just hate to see any player
go through it. It was the same thing when it
happened to Damian Lillard in the first round. And you know,
Tatum has been so durable. He was putting together a
(23:21):
masterpiece game. And like, obviously, in the short term it's
devastating because it probably ends their title defense, but it's
it's far worse in the longer term because this injury
realistically is going to cost him all of next season. Now,
maybe he can recover faster. You know, he's about three
(23:43):
years younger than when this happened to Kevin Durant, and
Durant recovered from the Achilles about as well as anybody
ever has. I also want to shout out Dominique Wilkins,
who when I was just starting to cover the league,
this happened to Nick in his thirties, and you know,
he came back really strongly from it, and you know,
(24:04):
people forget that one, but it's it is a brutal injury.
And the Celtics were already facing just a difficult summer
with a team that's on track to be the most
expensive team ever. And now with you know, knowing you're
not going to have Tatum for all of next season,
you know, you have to think that they're going to
(24:25):
break this thing up, and you know, have to take
a longer term view with how they retool this thing
because again, you're you know, even if Tatum comes back
from this thing meek style, I mean, you're not going
to have him next year realistically, and so it's it's
(24:46):
it's really, it's really tough to watch. And last night
what you really saw, I mean, it was just the
wild tendulum swings of you know, these are landscape shifting
moves that we saw with Dallas in this three month
self imposed purgatory trading Luka Doncic in the middle of
the season, in the middle of the night, and a
(25:09):
fan base that turned on its own team like I've
never seen in more than thirty years of covering this league.
And then they win the lottery to get Cooper Flag
and that has changed the atmosphere in Dallas dramatically. There's
still a lot of work to be done, but I
mean it, you know, it is it is a thunderbolt
(25:30):
of good news that nobody was anticipating in Dallas because
they had a one point eight percent chance to win
the thing, and then you have the defending champions losing
Jason Tatum, and it's it's it's rough, it's it's really
it was really hard to watch.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Mark Stein, our guest Fox Sports Radio, NBA Insider on
with the odd couple Kelvin eaphrom and for Rob, I
want to stay in that series. For me for a second, here, Mark,
what the heck are the Knicks? They play the Pistons
who are young and not supposed to know any better.
But you could argue the Pistons, I'll play them for
the majority of that series. They just didn't know how
to close it. Then the Knicks are supposed to lose
(26:08):
the Celtics, and even before the injury, they're up in
the series, and before the injury, they look like they're
gonna win that game. Before the injury, despite forty two
from ten, are the Knicks good? And we just didn't know?
They lost four times in the Celtics. They couldn't beat
any good teams during the season. What the heck are
the Knicks?
Speaker 6 (26:25):
You know, it's true. I mean, if you just looked
at the way the Knicks played against Boston and Cleveland
and Oklahoma City during the regular season, you would have
thought that they had no chance. But it you know,
they have been you know, just look, they won those
first two games. They trailed for like eighty minutes in
(26:50):
those first two games and still found a way to win.
You have to tip your cap to this team in
a major way, and you're you know, you're right. Obviously,
the focus is going to be on Tatum and a
player of his stature getting injured and the severity of
the injury and Boston losing its best player to a
season ending injury. Those are that's going to dominate all discussion.
(27:12):
But you know, you said it in there. The Knicks
were winning that game when Boston lost Tatum. They were
on a track to win that game. And we're likely
going to win that game. And with the way road
teams have been so good in these playoffs, to win
game four in that scenario was another major statement from
this Knicks team. And look, we're on course.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Now.
Speaker 6 (27:34):
You know, I don't think Cleveland's coming back from three
to one down. Maybe they can prove me wrong, but
I you know, I certainly don't think the Celtics are
coming back from three to one down without Tatum. So
we are headed for most likely headed for a Knicks
Pacers conference finals that is going to be really, really
(27:56):
interesting because this is a tremendous opportunity or the Knicks,
who based on seeding, should be the favorite. But I
would say the Pacers have played the best basketball in
the Eastern Conference in these playoffs, the most consistent basketball,
and they you know, they play a style. You know,
they have a very clear identity with their team. They
(28:19):
know what they want to get done, and that's going
to be that is going to be a classic matchup
that you know, again, we'll see, you know, if the
Knicks can finish this thing off and get to the
conference finals. On one hand, that should give them tons
of confidence, but it will be interesting to see again
when they are cast in the role of favorite and
(28:39):
know they have this amazing opportunity to get to the finals,
how they handle that weight.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Who who do you think is coming out of Who's
playing the best basketball of the West to meet them
in the finals in your opinion?
Speaker 6 (28:55):
I mean, look, Minnesota has been very impressive, but the
Warriors have only had Steph Curry for a quarter in change,
so that's obviously a major major factor that makes it
difficult to truly assess where the Wolves are. I mean,
I would say the Thunder's defense is probably the most
trustable thing there is on the board in the West,
(29:19):
but you know, Denver has Denver has that series is
I mean, it's obviously close, and you know, I think
the Thunder probably wins it, but it has not been
in the resounding fashion you would have expected from a
team given where the Thunder. I mean, the Thunder's regular
(29:41):
season resume was so impressive and they just have not
played to that level in this series. And even with
Jokic struggling offensively like we've never seen, the Thunder are
having trouble getting separation from this Nuggets team that doesn't
have a lot of depths. So I mean, honestly, it's
(30:02):
it's it's all hard to call, and there really is
no favorite, and I prefer it this way. Like I
think in basketball, we've always, you know, for so long
we heard, you know, it's better when you have a
Jordan led Bulls or the Dynastic Warriors, when there's this
one behemoth that everybody is chasing and everybody wants to beat,
(30:24):
and a lot of people like it that way. Me personally,
I like this better where it's you know, it's up
for grabs. It is it is. You know, you could
say wide open, and I you know, I think that's
a fair characterization.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Hey, Mark, lesson a minute here, can you don't want off,
I'm gonna throw this out to you, Jannis, open to
something that might fit better for him?
Speaker 4 (30:49):
You buying it? You? Just what do you make of that?
And if so, are there a few options?
Speaker 6 (30:54):
The reality of that story, he has not told the
Bucks yet what he wants to do. Until he either
says I'm staying or I want to trade, there isn't
much of a story there. But look, the whole league's
talking about it and anticipating, and the anticipation is that
he's ultimately going to ask them to move. But it
(31:15):
hasn't happened yet, and until it happens, the Bucks are
going to hold out hope that they can convince him
to stay, because obviously they're not going to trade him
unless he says, guys, I want to go, And that
hasn't happened yet, so I think we have to wait
for that to happen before we can really dig into it.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
All right, Well, you're being patient and being responsible. I
don't think everybody else is doing that. Mark out of here.
Thank some people. Oh let's run with that, Mark Stein,
Thank you so much. As always, we appreciate you.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
Okay, guys, take care, talk soon, all right.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
So there's something that happened in baseball that a lot
of people. It only took maybe the death of somebody
for it to happen. We'll tell you what we're talking about. Siakable,
Kelvin Ephraman for Rob, stay with your boys Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 5 (32:12):
Fox Sports Radio. It is the odd couple. Kelvin Washington,
E from salam And for Rob. Hopefully you're having a
great Tuesday wherever you may be listening. We appreciate you
spending time with you boys. For over forty years, sire
Iraq has been helping customers find the right tires for how,
what and where they drive. Ship Fast and free back by.
Free Road has a protection with convenient insallation options like
(32:35):
mobile tire installation tireraq dot com. It is the way
tire buying should be. All right, Rob Gi, we were
just talking. We had Chris giving us an update there
about all of a sudden, you have these folks who
now have an option, the chance to get into the
Baseball Hall of Fame. One of them being Pete Rose
posthumously he passes away. I think we were literally live
(32:57):
when the air Why don't wed that day, like right when
it was happening, And the conversation becomes, well, is it
right to do it now? If he was never worthy
of being in? Do you just never get in if
he's banned your band? And I just think it's interesting
a frohim that we were talking about a little bit
off the air. I mean, dang, Like soon as Bruh
(33:20):
gets in the casket a couple months a few months later,
they're like, all right, cool, you can be eligible now.
And to me, it's almost like an insult of no, no, no, no,
no dead. All right, you can get in now if
people vote you in. And I know that's just kind
of how it goes. We got to having some more
people on this list as well, But I just thought, man,
I don't know if I felt if I was his family. Now,
(33:43):
I'm not a fan of him being in because he
didn't make it easy on himself. He never kind of
bit the bullet, apologize, so contrition, all of that, but
just to all of a sudden, my dad, my granddad,
whoever died, and now he can put him on the list.
It's kind of like I'd rather him just not be
on then.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yeah, But there's also a lot of baseball fans and
historians that think it's the travesty that he's not on.
I mean, talent wise, that's not talent wise, I mean, goodness, gracious,
you know, you think of you know, comparable players in
today's baseball, and he still stands out as one of
(34:21):
the greatest. Now, Pete had his own way of doing things.
He was gonna be He's gonna be. He was gonna Pete,
and he was gonna be unapologetic, and he was just
gonna just be himself, which rubbed a lot of people
the wrong way. And I think that, you know when
I think he's not actually eligible until twenty twenty seven,
(34:44):
but I think once he's eligible, then he will be
put in because now where they're saying, hey, now just
look at what he did on the on the diamond
on the baseball field, opposed to.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
All of the things he did off and judge him
on that. Now, now it's okay to judge him on this.
See if that's work is weird to me, it's either
I either enough time has passed you forgave me and
I'm in or it just was that much of a
black eye that I'm never in like to do it
when I'm dead, When we know he spent his entire
(35:19):
life wanting it. Now he didn't have the articulation to
say it in a more contrite way. And you know,
people made mistakes and I grew and now that I
look back it, so what, Yep, he didn't Mike vict
this thing where Mike Vick kind of fell on the sword,
did all the right things, and I believe and you
would know, I'm sure you know him went and literally
(35:42):
kind of went through the psychology of like why what
made me be okay with that? Where I'm from wise,
I know it's cultural and certain parts of every country
do this in other countries. And now he's with helping
Peter p Rose never really did that. It was like
a I kind of did it, but I didn't do it.
But so what if I did it, I ain't never
gonna tell, you know. And yeah, and so I can
see why he continuously rubbed baseball the wrong way. But
(36:05):
so now to me, all right, he's dead, he got
a shot to get in. It's kind of like what, well,
we'll give it to him five years ago.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Now, I'll say this, if this was always on, if
this is on track to this is when they were
gonna take lift the Band, prior to knowing he was
going to pass away, then okay.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
But if this happened.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
After he passed away and it was like, oh, then
that's the conversation that's that is the discussion.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
He's dead, all right, cool, put him on right now.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
If this was always gonna be a twenty twenty five,
will lift the band right that and they set that
I don't know what five ten years ago, then okay,
say that right, Like, but now if it's not that,
and it's like, okay, he's gone now now we can
let him in. Now, that's the conversation that's petty had
because that's petty. That to me, that'll rub you the
(36:58):
wrong way.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Yeah, so it'd be interesting. I'll say this to your
earlier point.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
I do think there's a contingency, and I think as
voters become younger, I think a guy like a Pete Rose,
I think guys who did steroids, they're gonna have an
increasing shot to get in or at least or even
guys who are around the cloud of steroids. Maybe we
don't know officially, because I think there will be an
element of man, everybody was doing it. How you're gonna
get mad at this guy, this guy, and this guy
(37:25):
when the rumors are seventy eighty percent of the league
was doing it. That was just what baseball was in
that era. We're not not gonna put Barry Bonds in
arguably split his career in half. He would have been
in the first half or the second half. Yeah, and
when you talk about greatness like that, you know, what
about a rod?
Speaker 4 (37:42):
What about you know, a whole bunch of people?
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Right, It's so it's a situation where it's like, hey,
let the greats in and then police it from there.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
Yep, the lottery, cold envelopes, sticky envelopes, rigged or not,
will tell you it's Fox Sports Radio rig
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