MJGMB #136: Opening Night and Wemby’s World with Tom Petrini

Miles and Producer Jabari were pleased to be joined by podcaster and Spurs analyst Tom Petrini for today’s episode. The trio discussed the continued dominance of the Celtics, expectations for the Knicks/Lakers/Wolves and the present and future for the Spurs!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, well, well, the day has come and I've been waiting.
We've been waiting, You've been waiting, We've all been waiting.
Even my mother has been waiting. Because NBA Action has
returneth and the regular season hath kick off. We're going
to react to opening night and over tonight it was
for me and my fellow Lakers fans, and we're also

(00:23):
gonna get into some of the latest news and notes
from around the league. And we're gonna do that all
with podcaster and Spurs analyst Tom Patrini on today's episode.
I'm Miles Gray and I'm producer Bori in for Jack
and this is Miles. Miles got man, Man, we got
the back, DoD Sorry, got it? Look a doit, hitch.

(00:47):
Ok there you go, be driving spinning Fat number eighteen
that's been secured the Suffix or NBA Champions over the
double Ta. Okay, So Top Petrini, you're back after a

(01:14):
little over a year. It's great to have your reporter
for the Silver and Black Coffee Hour. And as you admitted,
I remember before he said, Wow, I'm so glad. I
didn't know if you guys going to have you back
because I was bullish on the Spurs. Last time we
were talking about the Southwest preview. I remember that, and
that's fine because I didn't remember that. Most of us
didn't remember that. But we all got to see Wemby

(01:35):
and that's all that matters because his performance has erased
any sort of predictions anyone may have had, because he
delivered on the promise of being an alien. So and
that's all we wanted to see.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, I'm glad my takes are so forgettable, Miles, geez, but.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
I'm kidding you know what.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
I I think that the Wemby outperformed any reasonable expectations
set for him and the and the expectation seems pretty unreasonable,
and he cleared those two.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
You could have had some more blocks, Yeah, you know,
a few more.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
He would have, except for guys kept doing this thing
where they would drive and they wouldn't even be able
to see him. They would just like know he was
there right behind him somewhere, and they were like.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Right, yes, that's a better idea.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
That should be a data point is the fear, the
fear of the alien abduction. Basically what we call that
you don't want to be in an open field at
night with a white light hovering above you because that
could be a block coming your way.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
It's also like when you were playing in a driveway
against like an older sibling or like you're dad or
somebody and you know they're coming, but you're.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Still gonna Yeah. Yeah, you feel the shadow come over
you in the street light because you're playing at night.
I've already played this game before, but anyway, it's great
to have you back. There's so much to talk about.
I mean, just with the two opening night game first up,
Celtics versus Knicks. I had the pleasure of being in

(03:06):
New York City for about eleven hours yesterday for a
work meeting. But the energy was I walked by Madison
Square Garden on my way to Penn Station. The energy
was great. There was like a lot of excited Knicks fans.
There were like a ton of did you see that
meme of the guy who wrote his wife a letter
about watching the Knicks And he's like, dear wife, I
know we have been together for twelve years, but I

(03:28):
must confess something to you. And then you're like, what's
going on? He's like, tonight is opening night for the Knicks.
I will cease to be a husband. Or a father
as I revel in the basketball opening night.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
But anyway, I didn't see that, And I gotta say,
just like, as a man who's been in a relationship
for a while and as somebody who has spent you know,
I grew up in New York, I know what Knicks
culture is. If you spend any time as a Knicks
fan or a man in a relationship, you know how
dumb an idea that letter is. Yeah, yeah, right, like yeah,

(03:59):
don't is that any familiarity with either one?

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah? Yeah? That was a straight Twitter play and you
may have played yourself into a divorce or at least
being the doghouse. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
I saw tweets after, like I wonder how he felt
like going into halftime, like should I call it? Like yeah, actually,
you know what, babe, I thought about it, and it's
like I'm a Giants fan, right okay? And Week one
this year like like they gave me that little glimmer
of hope right out of date and then like immediately

(04:32):
smashed it to pieces in Week one And I was like, babe,
you know what, if you want to do apple picking
on Sundays, we can doday. There's a wonderful, clear, nice
Sundays for the rest of fall. I don't give a
damn Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah, yeah Tom. As a Raiders fan, trust saow and.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
It's always week one, I'm feeling like, hey, you know what,
this might be our year.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah right, we talk ourselves into it.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
So Celtics, it's ringing. As a Lakers fan, I don't
like to see the number be better than the one
on the back of my jerseys, okay, and that is
what has happened. And yes, Boston fans sip my tears
because they are running down my face as I have
to admit this. But yeah, I was like, let's see
what happens, because I think going into this I was

(05:21):
I think most people very excited about this new Knicks
team and you know, the added pieces there. But at
the same time, I'm like, this Celtics team does not
look weaker at any point going into the season. And
my fears were confirmed rather aggressively from the get I
mean it was close to maybe the first ten minutes,

(05:42):
I would say, and then slowly the three pointers did
not stop, and I was absolutely I was texting Jabari.
I was like, these guys are monsters and I don't know,
how how do we stop them? Jack was saying, it's
the same thing as last year. It's the Celtics versus
the field, and that's what it looked like. How did

(06:03):
you how did you take that in? Tom?

Speaker 3 (06:04):
I mean shout out to Wick grosspec Man.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
I mean, if if I ever had just a ton
of money and it was like, oh we we you know,
luxury tax, it'll be scary, Like I don't know, just like.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Do it do it whatever?

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Dad?

Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yo?

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Like yoloa the hell out of this roster construction. And
that's why there's such a unit. That's why they're they're
just an absolute juggernaut. Like I mean sports guy here,
Derek White, very you know, key addition, but like get
to see Al Horford get his ring right, a guy
who was like like a gigantic piece of that team

(06:46):
that was I think super underrated.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
They are.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
They are one of the best teams I have ever seen,
one through eight, one through nine, like ever ever And yeah,
I don't I don't know how you stop that. You
hope they miss. But they they.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Also played beautiful basketball.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
They moved the ball well, they play for each other,
they defend, Yeah, Tatum, I think statement game.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Oh yeah, chip in the form of a ring on
your finger and chip on your shoulder as well. He
came into that one.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
At the same time, he has nothing to prove to
anybody and also so much to prove.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
I think, like like crazy, but it's like no, we
get it, no, we get it.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Well, he's coming off a ring, like genuinely, the case
against him for MVP is you've got an amazing team
one through nine, right right, And so then he goes
out and drops thirty I think he had thirty. He
had thirty two like two minutes into the second half, right,
you know, right, like and yeah, he he's fantastic. The

(07:50):
Celtics in general are fantastic. And somebody's gonna have to
pay the piper at some point, yeah, like yeah, just
with money, but like you know right now, that's how
stuff gets done.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
So let's be present, let's be president, because right.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Now we're we're witnessing a machine, a basketball in the machine.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
To watch, Even for me as a hater, I'm like
I have to sit there again with tears streaming down
my face because I'm like this is unsd I don't
know how you how do you compete with this? Twenty
nine from sixty one to three point attempts twenty nine three.
But are they like eighteen in the first half?

Speaker 2 (08:25):
None of those are chucking like they generate so many
good shots. Yes, as an offense, and it's like, okay,
like pretty much every team that goes to face them
this season is going to go on to the floor
and feel like, oh, we're not the better team.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
I was talking to Miles about this before the show,
and the reality is, and let me say officially, I
am the biggest hater. I hate the way that they walk,
I hate the way that they talk, I hate the
way that they dress. And I will acknowledge everything you
said is one hundred percent accurate. They are going to
be the best team on the floor regardless. If ever
there were a time where a team would come off

(09:01):
sluggish or could you know, you could you could excuse it,
you know, like no pusingis you know they had the
long summer.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
No, they came out.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
And this is the part that I was, you know,
discussed with Mouse just ahead of the show, is they
have embraced like the city of Boston's attitude and that
should be very scary to the rest of us.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Honestly, that's terrible.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
I went to school up there, I lived there for
five years, and Boston's a lovely place. Lovely people in Boston,
a lot of them, but it is very much a
like like and dude, we got to talk about Missoula. Man,
that guy somebody did the like, uh true, detective, I
just want you to keep saying odd stuff like he

(09:44):
says the weirdest stuff and it's amazing, like there, you know,
he was asked like is there pressure, like you know,
do you guys feel feel pressure? And he was like,
we're all going to be dead soon and none of
you are invited into my funeral.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
To my funeral. That's what do you say to that? Yeah, transcendence, Yeah,
you talked about it.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
He talking about us meniscus and the surgery being fun.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
He's an animal. He's an animal, like he.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Might be the guy who was wearing the saw mask,
like right, that's who.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Yeah, he's he's a.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Little unhinged, and this whole team is a little unhinged,
and like there there always is sort of a Boston
against the world mentality and that that mass whole vibe.
And now they can talk all their talk, right because
they got that.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
Ring with all of those.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
I always love seeing that when they get the ring
and it's like, oh, this is eighteen diamonds here because
it's more than the Lakers, right, yeah, and that kind
of stuff.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
What do you mean right, you're just rubbing that in
Tom right, Well you've got.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
That first you brought. I actually hadn't thought of it.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Part of me almost fired off.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
You're seventeen to six, but I know he probably would
have come back with twenty seven to seven because yeah, yeah, sport,
our baseball teams are square enough.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Bring bro right here Lake Dodgers versus Yankees fans. That's
again this this is a great time to be a
sports fan.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
Oh man, it's so much fun.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
So is there do we see any any version of
reality and the multi verse of madness where this team
is not straight to the finals again? Because I'm I'm like,
that has to be one of the worst bets in
sports right now. It's like betting on the Celtics to win.
It's like, I don't know, man, what do you want
your money back?

Speaker 2 (11:28):
They're just so deep, so deep, there's so deep. There's
so deep that like I wouldn't I wouldn't touch that. Yes, yeah,
think about this. Both of our teams could use a
Lonnie Walker.

Speaker 4 (11:41):
They made it the day before the season, were like, hey,
you know what, thanks, thanks for your services. Like they're
they're waving actual rotation contributed because they're that deep in.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
That strong Lottie's.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Lottie is one of my absolute favorite guys that I've
gotten to know in covering the Spurs. And you know,
like also awesome story, awesome dude, and really rooting for
him to find a place where you can contribute because
like he's and and he was he was what an
interesting career, right, You play for Greg Pavovich, you play
with the Lakers and Lebron yea and and like and

(12:15):
you're you're a microwave score you got you got the
size and length to be like disruptive on the wing
when you're locked in and can't find a spot in
the league.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
Is kind of crazy.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah, So wishing the best for Lonnie Walker. But yeah,
I mean it's it's an embarrassment of riches for the Celtics.
Like I said, they're gonna have to pay for it,
but like I'm not gonna have to pay for it.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
I just get to watch, you know, It's not my
money rightly.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
And what of the Knicks now? And I get it
my expectations. I think we're through the roof. Also because
like I'll entertain any possibility. We're like, yeah, maybe maybe
the Celtics lose on Ring Night and then the Knicks
can do it. Also taking out the fact that you
know there they still need time to gel. This is
not like the finished product coming at you day one one,
game one. But what were you seeing? What I was looking?

(13:02):
First of all, I was really it was really nice
see Miles McBride like, really kind of step up. I
was like, oh no, okay, sir, not only do you
have a fantastic name, but what do you have? Like
twenty two points? I think he was like the I
think tied for points with Jalen Brunson. He was keeping
him in it for a while. Yeah, yeah, he really was.
And I was like, oh man, this is like, okay,
the pieces are there, but are you Do you feel
any less or more excited after that? Obviously given the

(13:25):
fact that this was the very first game and this
is they're getting used to this new team, how'd you
come away with that? Thinking about the Knicks, I've.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Got kind of more questions about the Knicks, Uh, not
really necessarily after that first game, but really after the
trade to bring Karl Anthony Towns in, right, because the
reason the Knicks were fun last year was because it

(13:52):
looked like just five dudes and Tim's like stomping on
whoever was in their way.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Defensively, it was like a rock fight. Yeah, and they
were you know, very physical, very aggressive in that way.
And it's you know, starting on defense, right, classic Tips
coach team. And now you have Karl Anthony Towns, who,
you know, one of the great big men shooters of

(14:19):
all time, surely is going to provide them a boost
in that area. But now, like, especially as the center
in a defensive scheme, like, you know, he did not
look great and drop coverage last night. They were having
a tough time when when he was getting put in actions.
And granted it's the first game and you're going against

(14:41):
the absolute gauntlet that is the Celtics roster. Yeah, but
I am interested to see how the grittiest team of
last year adapts to having a guy who's viewed as
like one of the softer like.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Stars in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Right, right, And he looked like he belongs in a
Knicks uniform, so it looks like he's been wearing that
for a while for some reason.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
And he's a man being a Knicks fan too.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah right, Yeah, Like there's there's a lot of stuff
here where it's like this should be good and this
should be fun and this should work better. But also
like I'm curious to see how how it all plays out,
and like they sort of yoled a little bit trying
to get that power of friendship next team together and
then like, you know, make this move right. And obviously

(15:28):
Dante DiVincenzo is not the like center of that, but
like what was a part of that? And like, you know,
I think they're gonna miss Hartenstein a lot more than
people expect in terms of shorten that metal. So yeah,
I think I think I have more questions than answers
about the Knicks, but like I hope they answer those
questions in a distinctly New York way.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
I think that last you know, that last beat like
just nails it on the head. They missed the dirty
work guy. They missed the guy who's gonna get in
there and rough it up. And I'm not even I'm
not even gonna take this as an opportunity to you know,
pile on cat, you know, Bodega cat.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
He is what he is at this stage.

Speaker 4 (16:06):
Like you, I was intrigued by, you know, you know,
by that move specifically because it's like, okay, well what's
round what's round two? With Tim's gonna look like for him?
You know, it wasn't necessarily the greatest fit, and I
think I mentioned this on last week's episode. It wasn't
necessarily the greatest fit when he was young, but maybe
at this stage in his career could be something different.
But to that original point, you know, a guy is
gonna be what he is, and they're probably going to

(16:27):
need to address that and need to get you know,
a dirty work big or two.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Yeah, yeah, oh man and Bridges, Poor poor macaude, the
shooting macau McCaw. That was really Chris. What wasn't he
like one of the best corner three point shooter last
season or something like that or a couple of years ago.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
You don't normally see jump shots get rebuilt when they work. Well, yeah,
this is confusing.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
So yeah, I'm ignorant as to the inner workings of
the professional basketball player's mind, but statistically, on paper, you
are looking at a player like him, You're like, yeah,
I'm having that. This is a great weapon to add.
And then it's like, hold on, this isn't broke, and
I'm gonna try and fix it. I don't understand what

(17:19):
it's like.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
A batting stance, Like, you know, you could refine everybody's
batting stance to be the most like efficient and you know,
mathematically perfect. You can take out the hitch and you
can what it. But if if if you got something
that you're comfortable with and you're hitting the ball, just
do that.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, exactly exactly were people coming at Andris Galaraga for
being so open, you know what I mean? I remember
that bat like this is he looking off to the side.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
But the weirdest batting stance you can think of. I'm
I'm a Yankee fan, but uclus always jumps to mind.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yo, Yeah the way the bat was Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that was just very But again, that's like one of
those things where each person knows their body and that's
just how they've played the game their whole life, and
that's how they've worked it out to be proficient at
a professional level.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
There's always at the why some like fifty year old
man whose shot looks like like it comes all the
way back here, right yep, and you're like, there's no
there's no way.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yeah, and somebody way, but you're yeah. It's like again,
I understand, like with sprinters or like racing where you're
you're you have to shave off milliseconds and that's like
the difference between gold and silver or whatever. But again
I am ignorant. I do not understand. It was just
very difficult to watch considering how like he was really

(18:43):
struggling with his shooting, and it wasn't Yeah, it wasn't
easy on the eyes. It was not easy on the eyes.
You shot twenty eight percent a little over twenty eight percent,
yea from three last night. That's tough.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
That's tough.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
All right, Well, let's take a quick break and we'll
come back to talk about the other side of the coin,
the team with no ring and the team that nearly
got close to losing to the Celtics. Uh. And that's
the Lakers and the Timberwolves. And we'll do that right
after this. And we're back, and I mean that literally, Jabbari.

(19:24):
We're back, okay, for the for the.

Speaker 4 (19:31):
For the non Lakers fans, out there. Let us have
this one game to be happy about. Can we have this?

Speaker 1 (19:37):
We want an opening night game that's a chip And
I know the bar is low, and you say that's
pathetic from a team who's trying to compete with the Celtics,
But look, I saw the Celtics. We're not getting close
to that right now. I can't. I'm let me live
in my little bubble sphere right now where that was
a great up. But it was a really fantastic night.

(19:59):
A d looked fantastic. What did he put up against Gobert?
Like thirty six three blocks? Bro woke up looking for
the brunckn I know, got that horn on him, that
kama see hey you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah,
I mean like it was it? I mean I again,

(20:20):
I was. This is my question to start off, because
we did look really good. We looked different. Is the
bar just so low because of Darvin Ham's tenure or
is JJ by just merely being more flexible, you know
with the plays and the lineups? That was that merely?
It would like if because I feel like the whole

(20:41):
time we're like I wish Darvin, like, can you call
a time out? Because if you don't this run is
going to you have to stop the bleeding. And he's like,
you're gonna let them work it out again again, where
it's like I again, tears streamed down my face for
two games last night. One is because I could not
believe how good the Celtics were. The second was because
JJ Read called a time out when the Timberwolves were

(21:02):
on a run that was about to just upside down
our lead, and I was like, I had not seen
anything like that in a few years, and I was like,
this is this real?

Speaker 4 (21:12):
He was even sharing coherent messages in the time out.
I'm sorry, man, like.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
People looked at the board real quick.

Speaker 4 (21:20):
Tom, We'll come to you for this. But I just
have to say this because it's in relation to that.
For two years, I was a Darvin Ham apologist. I
wanted to believe I did, and you know, like I'm
always good. I'm never happy, like when someone lose their gig,
man like so like when he got fired. While yes
it was time for them to move on, I didn't.
I wasn't celebrating that. But after I saw last night's game,

(21:42):
and that was all just to set this up. After
I saw last night's game, I said, you know what,
I'm glad your butts out of here, because quite frankly,
in one night they looked more in line and more
cohesive and more bought in than they ever looked at
any point last season. And you know what, maybe it's
simply the right maybe it's the right fit at the
right time.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
But honeymoon could be honeymooney. But I'm a lot more
optimistic than I was saying last year. Yeah, because I
look and I'm not quite ready to sign my JJ
I'm sorry card and send that in yet, but because
I'm not not gonna lie. I was like, I was
looking kind of funny at this this hiring. But this

(22:22):
guy is such a you know, basketball freak that I
do love that part about his coaching. And for me,
I love seeing my fellow Black and these brother Rui
Hachimura out there looking like renewed in a way that
we only saw in flashes. And I just feel like

(22:43):
everybody looked kind of they're like they're finding like, yeah, man,
he just needed some instruction, you know what I mean,
Like we just needed to know what time it was,
because I remember really saiding like I think it was
like maybe media day or one of the like one
of the he had a moment right in the off
season where he was like, yeah, the thirty to forty
games under him, we were just kind of like doing whatever,

(23:04):
and and it looked like that. And the fact that
like it was articulated, I'm like, oh, well, all it
takes is a bit of structure, and now we have
something that looks a lot different. Jackson Hayes looked fantastic.
Dalton connect in a gang in a gang being being banged. Bang.
What that was? I don't know. Again, my hopes are high,
by my eyeballs are just streaming tears. But yeah, I

(23:26):
really loved just kind of I'm I'm reserving it. I'm
not gonna go I'm not gonna go over, but we're back. Okay, Okay,
hang number eighteen up.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
I think you are right to be optimistic. Yes, I
saw last night because, like you said, the togetherness of
the team, the direction of the team, it felt, uh
you know, felt coherent and cohesive in a way that
Lakers games haven't felt in a while.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah, the stop the bleeding time out, like you said, Yeah,
that's fairly basic coaching stuff.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
No d something on the board, and guys like that
fairly bag.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
You know. That's like, this is the bar that I'm like,
that's where I felt like, am I just I have
no perspective anymore because of what happened last season or
last year.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
But so so, I think there were a couple of
things that jumped out to me watching that game and
after it as well, about Reddick, who's really not far
at all from his playing days, Like it's really not
long ago that he was on those floors competing against
a lot of these guys. Yeah, and there was a
moment in this game where and Edwards was near him

(24:33):
and J. J. Redick was like talking smack to him
a little bit. I think it was about like like
he was like it was it was late in the game,
and he was like he carried and and A gets
back at him and he's like, yeah, okay, yeah, but
he carried.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
And like it was just like that.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
But like, yeah, you don't really see coaches like smack
talk the opposing teams star player who's also like one
of the most prolific smack buckers in the league, a
guy who like takes things personal and puts a chip
on his shoulder. But then I was I was watching
ants after that, and he was like he was playing
a little angrier.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
But not necessarily better a little bit.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, it was it was a little like, oh, I'm
gonna show you a little bit. And then that didn't
work and he had to adjust because he started drawing
doubles and then he was passing out of it, and
then that was working. But like he kind of got
in the head I think of one of the like
true like rising star future faces, current faces of the league,
and and that was really cool to see. And then

(25:30):
after the game he had a comment about like, you know,
I don't know why we're playing with like fresh balls
that aren't worn in.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
Yeah, because he's like, can we tell the league I'm
fine with worn in basketballs. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yeah, they feel weird in your hand.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
And I didn't realize until like I got one later
in the game because it bounced to me and it
was like, you know, it's just like I think that
that locker room definitely could use the perspective and the
the all the accumulated knowledge of somebody who was in
the league very recently right understands how the modern game
of basketball has played, and like you can just tell

(26:06):
that he's been one of the smarter basketball people in
most most of the teams that he's been at, and like,
you know, just just by virtue of how much of
a basketball freak he is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And it's
kind of like you know what Wemby said, where like
kind of like I used to respect some of these people,
but now I see the kind of work they put in,

(26:27):
and I think it's bs. Yeah, Like like I can
imagine him sitting on the end of the bench like
watching you know, Van Gundi or whoever, like not call
a timeout and be like is he doing Yeah, like
fifteen plus years of that, yeah, build dub into Like Okay,
if I ever was in charge, how would I do it?

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Would yeah? Yeah yeah, And he's been thinking about that. Yeah.
Funny enough, when he was talking to aunt, I was
yelling at the TV like.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
Hey, hey, hey, hey, that's very much.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah. Yeah, you're right.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
But but it seems like he did it in just
the right way, right, it seemed to work out.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
He knew it was. It was just so matter of fact.
He's like, yeah, okay, whatever you carried, and he's right,
he was energy, yeah, because if he was matching that,
then he would have been like, yeah, yeah, okay, but
he's like, no, I logically just I'm ending the conversation.
Carry carry yeah, and that's it and whatever you can say,
that's fine, but anyway.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
I'll show you carry bro and got he got a
little bit like, you know, a little bit io ball.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
So yeah, no, it was.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Interesting, Jabari. What about you? I mean we've talked, we
texted throughout, We've shared many thoughts. Where do where do
you where you shaken out after this? And are we also?
Are you also kind of looking at the Wolves a
little some kind of way too, because let's not fully
even to fully be here and be like we have
need to look did that that was the best defense

(27:51):
in the league? And look at us?

Speaker 4 (27:54):
That's exactly where I'm at with it. I'm trying to
temper my you know, superants, not my exuberant but no, look,
the Lakers look. The Lakers look better than I anticipated,
and the and the Wolves look worse than I anticipated.
But I think there's something to that. The Wolves, you know,
we're missing it with the Knicks. The Wolves just made
a big trade right before the season. It's going to

(28:15):
take them some time to adjust. It did not look
like they had the same connectivity, you know, defensively, and
that's understandable. You know, they got new personnel in there
and probably going to take some time if they're able
to find that. But I'm going to be honest with you,
and you know last week we were talking about proved players. Yeah,
when I say this, take it with a grain of salt,

(28:35):
but Ant is a proved player to me this season.
And the reason is is because we were wondering are
they going to go all in with him or is
it going to be his team? Well, they have definitively
said this is your team moving forward. I'm not going
to be one of those people that says, like, oh,
he has to deal. He made it so far last year,
so he has to make What I'm looking for is
more maturity, more leadership along the way, heightened level of

(29:01):
understanding how to interact with the guys to get them
to you know, to put them in the best you know,
you know, the best places in your positions to win.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Now, obviously coaching, you know that coaching goes into that.

Speaker 4 (29:11):
But in my estimation, if you're going to be the
guy on a team, especially in the NBA, and it's
not there's nothing to do with like today, It's always
been a case you have to have that sort of influence.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
So that's kind of what I'm looking for this year.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yeah, I saw a little bit of it from Ant
in this game, where you know, on the bench and
on the floor, you know, trying to fire the guys
up a little bit, especially especially in those places where
the Lakers were building and extending the lead when there
were those lapses. He was the clapping his hands angrily,

(29:43):
come on, man like type of guy. And like he
definitely has the skill and the the hutspa to to
be like doing that as a young player in this league,
but that type of leadership is sometimesfficult for other people
to take, right. Yeah, and then I've sort of got

(30:04):
a question here largely do we think that Rudy Gobert
wins another Defensive Player of the Year award in his
career given his his countryman's descendants and voter fatigue and
people kind of seeing how he gets exploited all the time.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Right especially I mean it's like Ad just has his number, yeah,
which is like dominates this dude. Yeah, what was that
stat you posted like the last five games or something.
He's always put up at least like a thirty piece
on like.

Speaker 4 (30:38):
Last five games are in order, thirty eight on sixty
three percent true shooting, thirty eight on sixty five percent
true shooting, thirty one on sixty five, thirty three on
seventy seven, and in thirty six last night on sixty
one percent trew shooting. Yeah, catching things in the vacuum,
you know, like folks will get in trouble sometimes. So
I'm not going to say, like, oh, simply because Anthony
Davis does tour him yeah's you know he's not.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
But I will say there is no chance in hell
he's ever winning another one.

Speaker 4 (31:04):
And it's specifically because it's because Wemben Yama exists. It's
specifically because if they give anybody a sympathy one down
the line, it's gonna be Anthony Davis because he should
have won one by now to begin with. But that's
neither here nor there.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
But it's with that Academy Awards. Yeah, I mean where
he might get his Revenant, he might get that, but
you know.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Can you can you guys believe that Defensive Player of
the Year never went to Timmy Like isn't that like
a well, yeah, like absolutely nuts. But like I really
do think because you look at Wemby and it's like, Okay,
he's seven to five and flips his hips like a
slot corner, Like.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
What right do? Yeah? Yeah, you can't compete with that? Yeah, yeah, no,
there's it's just a new evolution.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Is it's the perimeter game that exposes Gobert every time,
and in Wemby you see a taller and more mobile
version of that. He can still be like a wrecking
ball inside exactly.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah. Man.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
And when he straight up said like after after Gobert
one of this year, I'm barely paraphrasing here, he was like,
congratulations to Rudy, good job, and after this it's not
his turn anymore.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
And that's almost a direct quote.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
And he was right.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
He said, yeah, that's the thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it
was along those lines.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
True. And we're gonna get to Wendy in a second,
but before we do that, actually, I do want to mention, obviously,
Bronny and lebron shared the court. I'm not nearly as
mad as other Laker fans about this. I think I'm
looking at this as like a you know, just a
fan and someone who's like a newly became a parent,

(32:53):
and I'm like, this is this was really cool to see.
I really enjoyed the fact that they were able to.
I think right after he came out the court, Lebron
had such a like you know, trademark Lebron just like
driving to the hoop and just slamming it. And I
was just thinking of like, if my dad, if my
like just pictures like that's my dad and we're on

(33:15):
the same car right now. He did that, Like just
the situation was blowing my mind in a way I
wasn't expecting. I was like, hey, kid, that's your dad
and you're playing on the court with him. Well, that's
that's something. It was just nice to see the whole
family sort of get that moment out of it. Now,
whether or not this is something that is sustained, I
think is obviously a much larger question. But I don't

(33:36):
I don't agree with a lot of people who are
just directing a lot of this anger at him, Like, dude,
he's a kid. This is just how the chips fell.
But I do think there's still some time for him
to develop, and I think he'll do that, and I
think he'll become something somewhat of a contributor down the line.
But yeah, it was a nice moment to see it was.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
It was super cool. I've become much less curmudgeonly as
I've grown. Sure, I feel like there's so much in
this screwed up world for us to be angry about, right,
and basketball shouldn't be one of those things.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
You know, This this is a.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
This is a to forget the bad stuff.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
Right, Like, you know, I just can't imagine working myself
up to get annoyed. It's like the thinking cap. This
actually sucks. Like, actually, I.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
Think it's cool.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
I think it's very cool that one of the greatest
athletes of all time gets to have this moment with
his son do something nobody's ever done before. And that's
something that even if like when I when I was
my first sports gig was writing like high school sports
features for the Boston Globe, and my mom is not

(34:50):
a sports person at all, if I started telling her
a story and an involved an athlete, brain shut off. Right,
this is one that passes the mom test. This is
one that everybody and look at and be like, oh,
that's neat. And we've got a whole bunch of people
who were like Actually I want to dump on this teenager.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
Right, Yeah, people were just waiting for the opportunity. We
know what this is. So the reality is this. It
can be two things. Is it a little bit exploitative?

Speaker 4 (35:19):
Is it a little bit you know, are there question
marks about like is it really in Bronni's best interest
to continue stay at this level and not be able
to develop?

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah, those are fair questions. But you don't have to
crap on the moment. It was a dope moment as
a matter of fact. That's humanstery. My human side loved it.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
Now you will say, I will say, my degenerate, ridiculous
Lakers fan side internally said, Okay, I'm glad we had
this moment, but Lebron, keep the family away, go ahead
and send him, go ahead and send him to South Bay.
Let him continue to develop, and you can have this
moment again down the road, especially if he starts he
starts to pop out and show and yet like and

(35:54):
that's completely fine. But for now, there's nothing wrong with
having a great moment on opening night.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
I have not crunched the numbers on this, but I
can't imagine there are many second round picks who got
first half minutes in the first game of the season,
like ever, right, no, so, but this is I understand
all of that part of it, right, but.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
Also who cares exactly one.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
It's nice, good for them, it didn't matter, and the
course of the game.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
No, And we also knew it was going to happen,
like every everyone was prepared. They're like, if it makes
sense and the games moving in the right direction, we
will see this happen. And also didn't Anthony vers he
didn't have to talk smack to him and be like, hey,
didn't he says like, bro, you don't even need a
shower bor you brought up.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
Like is it in Bronnie's best interest?

Speaker 2 (36:47):
Like there were some guys on the Timberwolves who were
like as soon as he got in, they were like.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
Oh, I'm going at him. Oh yeah, give me that
sitting around.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Pick welcome to the league, right yeah, And you know what,
all of that is compelling and interesting to watch fast
the crowd pop, the buzz.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, just enjoy it. Yeah, I'm here for it.
So wemby okay, uh kicking things off against Dallas right Thursday.
So by the time you're hearing this, this game may
be happening in progress. But again, just the photos, the videos,
the quotes coming out of Wemby. I'm so excited for

(37:26):
this second year for him. I like how people like
when there was that one viral photo where they're like,
oh my god, he looking He's looking like Dwight Howard
with those shoulders. What's just going on? But then he
also clarified, He's like, no, I'm not putting on a tunnel.
Did he say? He's like, I can't do something more
than five percent of my bodyweight a year. Oh so
I'm going to injure myself, which I'm also like, See,
this is why I like you. He knows this is

(37:48):
we have such good, such a good mindset around this
career from the beginning. It's about longevity. It's about developing correctly,
knowing you have the tools and and just letting that
blossom in the way that it needs to. But with
Chris Paul there you know, and Castle, I'm just Tom,
You're the Spurs guy. Tell me, why, tell me why

(38:10):
I should be so so much more excited than I
am because every look, like I said, Wenby's playing, I'm
so excited, but give me even more, give me more fuel.
For my dreams and my delusions.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Well, at the beginning of last year, you know Pop
experiment with Jeremy So and a point guard, right, and
that was a second year power forward playing at point
guard for twenty games, right, good for the long term
development of Jeremy So. Bad for the immediate winning of

(38:42):
basketball games and crunch time play, and overall floored generalliness
of the San Antonio Spurs during that time period. And
then now this season you've added not just Chris Paul,
who is you know, one of the most technically skilled
point guards to ever play the game in basketball and

(39:03):
one of the best floor generals ever, also had Harrison Barnes.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
Who want to gold medal with Pop.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Who listen, every single guy who comes through San Antonio
in the next ten plus years is not going to
be the best guy on the team, right, And he
is a perfect mentor in that regard of how can
you do the other things? How can you carve out
a career, how can you be useful in pursuit of
the ultimate goal?

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Right?

Speaker 2 (39:30):
So, with those sort of training wheels, this Spurs team
left a lot of meat on the bone in terms
of results last year. Oh, in that sports illustrated cover
story on wemby. I think it was thirty five games
where they had a double digit lead and they lost
twenty of them, and they played a lot of forty
five minute games.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
They last forty eight.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
And you can see already the Chris Paul effect where
it's not just spam pick and rolls like I would
in two K. Right, yeah, but the way that he
gets everybody in the right spots, it's quite something to watch.
It's it's really and in between timeouts, right, watch him

(40:11):
during the breaks. If you get a chance to go
to a game, right, watch what he is doing when
the ball is dead.

Speaker 3 (40:18):
He's always in somebody's ear.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
And Castle, I mean who like he looks right, yeah, yeah,
he looks correct. He looks like the no brainer picked
for them to make there. He looks confident. He looks
like he can guard anybody one through three just needs SI.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:36):
I'm interested in seeing like you know, like, yeah, how
CP three impacts all these guys. But there's a guy
and I mentioned him on last week's show, and and
and actually last summer we saw him in Summer.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
League City's so yeah, yeah, how far away already from
seeing him in regular action up with you know, with
the with the main squad.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
So City is a really interesting one.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
You said you didn't want to get in the weeds
before this, This is pretty in the weeds.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
It was only by chance because we were there watching
the Summer League and I was like, well, who is
this a socle cat? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (41:08):
Is so he played G League season before he got drafted, right,
Not many nineteen year olds have like an NBA ready body.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
He did. And yeah, French.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
Player with a really interesting combination of size and athleticism
and passing ability and playmaking. But still with that pro
experience and with a lot of last year in the
G League, his skills are still pretty raw, right, and
he doesn't really have a reliable outside jumper to sort
of compensate for that. So it becomes a question of

(41:39):
where does he slot into the rotation?

Speaker 3 (41:41):
What position?

Speaker 2 (41:42):
Right, I've been really impressed by Blake Wesley in the preseason,
and he's probably the third point guard behind Chris Paul
and Trey Jones. Castle probably won't even like he'll probably
come off the benches too, right. Yeah, so suddenly the
spurs are deeper, uh than maybe they seem. But CEDI

(42:04):
is a guy who could take a leap this year.
So he's definitely a really fascinating prospect. He kind of
gives me like young boristil a little bit.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
Mmmm that that was the comparison I was making last year.
I was like you Skinny Dio.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
Right, yeah, exactly, the one that cleared the whole VerTech machine.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
I wasn't expecting siska questions. That's great.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
Hey, well look I actually watched a lot of Spurs
basketball year. I watched a lot of basketball last year,
and I'm going to do it again this year.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
So it's going to be more fun this year.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
What do we think in is it?

Speaker 4 (42:35):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (42:35):
Do we do we turn up the heat on the
expectations stove? Or yeah, we still need to we still
need to be like let's let's let's let's let it
cook a little bit more. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
But I don't know, just seeing just hearing you talk
about that, seeing the wisdom and the potential that is
being put together, I think I'm not that I'm saying
this is something we're like, yo, this this is this

(42:56):
some some wild is about to have. But I feel
like there is going to be a markid improvement all last.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Yeah, it's it's you know, shoot for the moon, aim
for the stars.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Yeah whatever on the moon. Yeah, something like that.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
And in fairness is it's a it doesn't make any
sense because the stars are way further away, but whatever.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
Yeah, if you landed on the moon and you were shooting.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
But you know what I'm saying, like you got you
gotta be You.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Couldn't even go one par sec. Man couldn't even get
to Alpha Centauri baby the moon. Anyway, from my astronomy
fans out there.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
They need to be aiming for the play and I
don't think they're going to hit a guaranteed playoff spot,
but like I'm really interested to see here. And Jabari
kind of asked me this earlier about how active they're
going to be on the trade market.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
They've been stacking chips.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Wisely frugally for years now, started with the Kawhi trade,
but they have acquired literally dozens of draft picks, like
like it's an embarrassment they you know, they use their
cap space helps scilitate to move pick up a second
round pick. Brian Wright has just done a million of
those trades and some bigger ones, and one bigger trade

(44:09):
in particular that really set in motion not just where
the Spurs roster is now, but where it could be.
Is de Jontay Murray trade right? Traded this guy right
after an all Star season peak of his value for
essentially three first round picks twenty five a swap in
twenty six and twenty seven. Twenty five draft is coming up.

(44:31):
What are the Hawks doing?

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Right?

Speaker 3 (44:34):
Who could the Hawks trade Tray Young two?

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Right?

Speaker 2 (44:40):
And is there any way for them to get their
own picks if they stink this year? If they say,
you know what we want, Cooper Flag, the Spurs are like,
that's our pick.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Actually, yeah, sorry about that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
So that's a situation that I'm eyeing with extreme interest because, like,
the Hawks are basically at the bottom of a hole
with a shovel, and the guy who gave them the
shovel and told him to start digging is the one
standing up there like with his hand out.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
Maybe.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Yeah, I'm the only one who can really help you
out of this one, right, you just got to give
me Trey Young. Yeah, and it doesn't have to be
Tray Young, right, But like Chris Paul, they didn't bring
him in thinking this is going to be the point
guard that you know starts next to Wemby when they
when we went our first championship with him, right, he's more.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
Of a bridge, right, Yeah, absolutely, But.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Now you start asking a bridge to what. And that
Chris Paul contract, he took a gignormous pay cut, not
just to make it work in San Antonio, so that
it's a tradable number at the deadline if his stock
goes way up, because he throws a ton of lobs
to Victor women out right, right. So I think the
Spurs have positioned themselves. They have a ridiculous war chest

(45:59):
to work with, similar to what the Thunder we're able
to assemble and you know, a few years behind on that.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
Trajectory is sort of where I see it.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
But obviously with a extraterrestrial superstar who you know.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
It was.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
It was wild seeing Barack Obama talk about Wemby man,
Yeah right, you know, and and just say, like the
thing that we all think, which is that when he's
on the floor, you can't look away, no, because you've
just never seen anything like that.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
No, And that's I missed that. It's that feeling and
it's coming back all right, well, let's take another break
and when we come back, Tom Petrini, you are about
to enter the fourth quarter rapid fire round of questioning.
Your seat has become magma levels of hot. We'll be
right back, and we're back, Tom a treaty. We've really

(47:01):
enjoyed the conversation up until this moment, but I'm sorry,
and I don't want to change gears on you so quick,
but it is time for the fourth quarter rapid fire round.
Question This is the hottest, fastest, most aggressive question answer
segment in all of NBA pod not vodka podcasting history.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
Is this where you screw up all the report we've
been building you just.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
Maybe or maybe you mess it up by not answering
questions as quickly as humanly possible and using your mind
to create level headed answers. We're not here for that.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
I'm a little slow, but we'll we'll try.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Okay, Well, that's good as long as you're read, because
I hope you're ready. Brian Sir Jabari, Why don't you
Why don't you go ahead first? You know? Yes, yes, yes,
guest host first today. Yes, I believe you should go first.
Here we go, Here we go. Tom answer what's your
favorite color?

Speaker 4 (47:51):
No, does CP three wind up on that Spurs staff
as a coach down the line.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
I don't know if it's his first staff, but it
will be. He will be a head coach in this league.
I think if you, if you look around at this
at the NBA players who are in it now, who
could most follow that JJ Reddick career path, probably skip
the podcasting and go right onto somebody's bench.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Absolutely, and the Popovitch coaching tree grows evermore.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yep. Yeah, Okay, next question, We're gonna play pick up
hoops of musicians and we're just looking around. These are
all musicians in the court, and we just got the
first pick and I took my favorite rapper, Shack Diesel. Okay,
Unfortunately we had to create a role just right away
that nobody else is allowed to draft anybody who has
ever played professional basketball. So who are you taking next? Musicians?

Speaker 2 (48:46):
I don't know if he can hoop, but what I
saw Hosier this year and he's like six seven, He's
tall as hell, so he.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Take me to chat. Yeah, that guy is six seven,
that's coming from six to seven?

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Yes, bro, Wow, gorgeous, gorgeous, gigantic irishman.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Uh six seven.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
I could I could work with that, you know.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
I mean I did pick Shack Diesels just so you know,
so if that's your thing, and then.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
I don't, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Uh yeah, I mean check given anybody the business in
the paint, right, I'm hoping that Hosier's got like a
decent outside game, not a musician.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
Well actually yes, loophole. Yes, Oh so baby, give me Adam, say.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
Don't figure out that Adam Sandlers.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
Give me give me Adam Sandler at point guard, throwing
behind the back passes.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Uh, Hawaiian shirt one shorts.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
It's gonna be my low effort Halloween costume this year.
I feel free to steal it.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
Fellas.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Yeah, get some, get some and one shorts and literally.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
Anything that doesn't match it.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
Dress dress as ridiculous as possible. Go to the park,
drop dimes.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
Yes, orange, you bought it like a FedEx polo. Yes,
for some reason, Yes, like your name on it.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
Yeah, I feel like can hoop a little bit.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
Yeah, from what I've seen, he can play. Last last week,
just so you guys know, the answer was prince.

Speaker 5 (50:19):
And to play college ball. He played profess. Yeah, Percy
Miller to master Pe.

Speaker 3 (50:30):
Yeah, technically he played.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Pre season and Prince like had a basketball hoop on
the side of his stage during constant TV to watch
my yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
So yeah. And also when I saw that video of
Kevin Garnett talking about actually watching Prince play, and I
was like, oh, that's high praise, that's hype because he's
not giving it to you if you if you don't
deserve right looks. And Tom, Man, we got to keep
this all these details you brought up stuff man, The
rules were just one man.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Jam please write this ship all right, Tom.

Speaker 4 (51:07):
You can see court sided any arena of your choosing
which arena and what's your matchup?

Speaker 2 (51:13):
I think it would actually be this year Christmas. The
Almo Dome game was sick when they did that this
past year. But I'm a New York kid. I've seen
a lot of beautiful things happen in Madison Square Garden.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
It's the mecca, man uh. And that's the Christmas Day
game this year, right?

Speaker 1 (51:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (51:31):
I think it's Spurs Spurs at Knicks.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
After the New York Faithful chant that overrated at Wemby.
I want to be sitting next to Walclyde Frasier in
one of them suits, right, and I want to see
Wemby chant overrated back at them.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
The Garden.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Those Christmas games are great because that's what you got.
Spurs at Nick's Sixers in Boston, Lakers, and Golden at
Golden State, although those who knows where both of those
teams are going to be, and then the Nuggets at
the Sun. So we'll we'll see, we shall see. Okay,
how about this, Tom, If the NBA scheduled the finals
location similar to how the NFL or even college basketball

(52:16):
or even the UEFA Champions League does, where would your
next three finals be taking place?

Speaker 2 (52:21):
That's a great question. Seattle in Vegas? One more and
then yes, screw it. Alamo Dome why not?

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (52:32):
Yeah, back.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Very day when they did the fiftieth anniversary game, when
the Alamo Dome was the Spurs home, it was like
the Carrier Dome and they had a curtain.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
Right, yeah, yeah, exactly right, Yeah, I remember they still.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
Had like forty k for Spurs games.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Right.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
The Dome game that set the record for attendance was
sixty eight thousand for a basketball game in a football stadium, right,
Because they they reoriented the court and did the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
Vibe was tremendous. So that's my three.

Speaker 4 (53:05):
The Googles is saying that you can actually get up
to seventy three thousand in there, and that's wild boy.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
What that hell? That is kind of the atmosphere. Yeah yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah, that's actually that's a go to answer the thing.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
The thing is like, and I talked to some of
the guys about this, because you're in a gym that
open a lot of time, your visual references for jump
shots are like closer to you, right right, it's more
flat there, and so I was screwing some guys up.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
But yeah, right, I digress. Sorry, Tom, I'm I'm sorry. Sorry,
I'm sorry. You told me.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
I'm just curious if you if you recalled what I
said the segment, and then I told you as an aside,
you got it all this other stuff about perspective shift. Okay,
what like.

Speaker 4 (53:51):
This is our actual announce this last one for you,
and it comes courtesy of our Discord, all right. I
put it out there on Twitter, but then you know,
the Discord folk would shout out to all of them,
shout out to Paul Garavante and all of all of
our boosters, all of our boosters out there. Shout out
to our guy Johnny Davis, our guy Big and Scary
eight oh two, our guy Huckable.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
Let's see who else. Let's make sure I get everybody.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
Max r Donnie Baseball noise complaint. Shout out to all
you guys. We definitely appreciate you keeping the conversation going.
Let me get your predictions.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
M V p uh.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Jason Tatum, Jason, Jason Kidd he get it together, all right?

Speaker 4 (54:32):
Okay, Jason, I think I know this one defensive player
of the year, most improved somehow.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
Also Wemby, that's unfair, Rookie of the year.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Chat fir.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
Is this is this the being.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
No matter what? Yeah, all right, I'm gonna accept that
as the answer.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
First time All Star uh wenby.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Sleepers in each conference, one team teach M.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
I genuinely do think the Spurs are gonna sneak up
on somebody. But I think the Magic are going to
be good.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
In the East.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
Oh yeah, and yeah, Pallo Pallo, I think I think
this is his year. The West is tough man, the
West is like there's there's two bad teams like so
it's it's gonna it's gonna be a bloodbath over there,
and there's one team that's went in the East. But uh,
it's it's gonna be a fun NBA season. Thank you

(55:30):
guys so much for.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
For oh yeah, final win.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Celtics will play. I think it's Celtics Nuggets until somebody
knocks off the Nuggets for me. Actually, no, Thunder, Thunder,
Thunder get to the finals this year. Thunder get to
the finals this year, get ripped apart by the Celtics.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
Celtics. Okay, good well, Tom, those were the right answers.
You somehow get it. I don't know I did. I
didn't know if you could do it, but you did it.
And thank you Tom Patrini so much for joining us
on OUs and Jabbari got mad boosis. Where do the
people find you? Follow you, support your work, all that
kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
I am on Twitter at real Tom Petrini. The show
is called Silver and Black Coffee Hour, and we are
on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
And it's a ton of fun.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
Man.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
We going deep on Spurs stuff and you know, I
just like to have a fun time with it. Like
we did a mailbag episode and one of the questions
was who are all of the spurs as like Ninja
Turtles if Chris Paul is a message splinter, right, I
feel like there's a lot of negativity out there, man,

(56:42):
and you got super duper positive. So yeah, on the
internet and come to lazy days, get a coffee. That's
the stay job.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
I love that. So make sure you give us a
follow on Twitter. You can follow me at Miles of
Gray and I'm at jabari A Davis and also, of
course Jack is at jack Underscore O Brain. Yeah, and
follow hashtag mad boosties that's B double O S T
I E. S. That's where you get show links, That's
where you get updates. That's how you joined the combo
on the discard server. Okay, search that hashtag and find

(57:16):
your way and we would love to have you. Well,
that was another flawless episode in the books for us
this week. I'm not surprised the Lakers off to I
think we have one of the best records in the league. So,
you know, defeated undefeated. Baby. I didn't want to say that,
but stop to count. That's what it says. That's what
it says. We'll see where we're at next week when

(57:36):
you joined us for miles and Jack got mad booties.
We'll see you then. Bye bye,