May 5, 2022 • 46 mins
Miles and Jack were joined by Bally Sports Cleveland's Serena Winters on the latest episode of Mad Boosties. The trio continued breaking down the playoff action and discussed some of Serena's experiences covering the Kobe/Pau Lakers, the Blazers, Sixers and Cavs throughout the years.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, we've gone even deeper into the playoffs and we're
gonna have to talk about a few people. Finally. I
know you've been waiting to hear us talk about people
like Janice. We'll get to that, but before we do,
gott to let you know this episode, we have a
fantastic guests, uh the CALVS sideline reporter from Bally Sports Cleveland.
(00:23):
We got Sereno Winters in the building. I'm Miles Gray,
I'm Jack O'Brien and this is Miles and Jack got
mad crushed it. Okay, welcome, Welcome, welcome. We are deep.
We're deeper into the playoffs, shedding some teams, some players
(00:46):
are emerging even more. But yes, I just have to
say thanks for joining us again and we are thrilled
today to have with us someone who is talking about
the league in a very very professional way, unlike us,
which we appreciate it. It helps class the joint up.
Please welcome today's guests, Serena Winters. Yo yo yo, Yeah, hello,
(01:10):
I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me on.
Great to have you. Thanks. Sa Are you from so
Cal Originally I am from so Call literally a little
town called Honeyton, beach. Okay, hb okay, I hear you,
I hear you. I'm from the San Fernando Valley, so
I'm savvy. I'm savvy, okay, savvy. Yeah yeah, yeah, Well,
good to have you on. Good to have And I
(01:31):
lived in Dayton for five years. Yeah yeah, I'll represent
that's where I am right now. You know, not exactly
where dating is, but it's sitting here in my state,
in Cleveland, Ohio. So hey, we're repping all around. We've
we've we've triangulated precisely, precisely a little different than southern California,
(01:56):
DA Ohio. So my largest chunks of my childhood were
spenting Dating, Ohio and Wheeling, West Virginia, which I'm told
is the Huntington's Beach of West Virginia. So yeah, yeah, yeah, beautiful,
beautiful country. Um, well, thank you so much for joining
us exciting season of Cleveland basketball. But before we dig
(02:17):
into it, we we gotta we gotta talk playoffs. We
gotta talk Janice. I think you know. So we've we've
done the job episode. I think that was our first episode. Um,
we've done a Kyrie episode, and we we had a
feeling we were going to have the opportunity to do
a Janice episode at one point, and Janice Hath provided
(02:42):
Um with an amazing close out game against the Bulls
thirty three nine on eleven of fifteen shooting against the
Bulls and more importantly for his team, and just generally, uh,
you know, Game one against the Celtics. I think a
lot of people, I think the Celtics were like two
to one favorites to win the series. And then Joannice
(03:06):
was like, oh yeah, sorry, I'm playing playing in this series.
I don't know if y'all remembered. How's it been for you? Serena?
Just feasting upon the wonderful playoff basketball so far. I
mean it's bitter sweet, first of all, because to not
actually be covering the playoffs. It's been a while since
(03:26):
I haven't actually covered playoffs basketball, so it's weird watching
it from my couch or from a bar in Ohio
City or wherever I get to watch the playoffs. So
it's you know, I watch it with the with a
different lens, like you watch it with a fan lens. Right. Uh.
Some of these games have been absolutely incredible. I mean
(03:49):
Boston has had some incredible games. I mean it should
be dissect Maybe one of the more interesting moments from
the Bucks Celtics Game one, I think, which I certainly
have my on it because I thought I was watching
a highlight clip of me playing NBA Street on PlayStation three,
which I think is the backboard. Let's play honest, going
(04:13):
off the backboard Game one, let's roll the clip. Williams
Stout stepped through the Celtics inside. Wow. Um, great bench reaction,
which I I always appreciate. I feel like that always
(04:35):
adds a little bit um. But yeah, I mean heading
into the series, people were like, well, you know, the
Celtics have the toughest defense in the n b A,
and the Celtics were very tough on defense, and he
was just like making up new new things you could
do on a basketball court in a playoff game. Um
(04:56):
to to get around it, in this case, stepping to
an upfix, step through off the backboard dunk. I think
I think people have done it before, but it was
it was pretty it was pretty remarkable moment, very diff
from our superstar so in the league, right, Like, that's
exactly what we want to see in playoff basketball, those
(05:16):
moments right where you're sitting on your couch or whatever,
and you get up and you're just like, oh, you
right exactly. I flipped my couch over when that happened.
Who stands like ridiculously close to the tv? I don't
know if you guys are like this or not, arms crossed,
(05:38):
arms crossed, like in front of the TV like this, yes,
And I don't know if it drives my husband crazy
or if he just enjoys laughing at me. But I
don't even realize that I'm that close or that I'm
doing it. And I'm I'm I'm a solid this close,
you know, right as I'm watching, especially in the stay
at the end, Um, how do you guy? Do you
guys watch it like that? Or do you sit back
(05:59):
on your cow? How do you watch the playoffs? I
have no stress when I watched because I'm watching as
a neutral, as a Laker fan. I've I've had my
injuries and wounds that I've addressed, and I can watch
this with a neutral eye, So I'm relaxed. And yes,
it does get me out of my seat. But when
I'm a little bit more invested, or like at the
end of that Grizzlies Timberwolves game, when like I was
(06:21):
like oh, this is a game. I I stood up
a little bit, I started pacing a bit. But yeah,
I've been mostly relaxed with intermittent screams. Yeah, my body
doesn't know how to watch basketball neutrally. So I I
am watching the game and then I would look down
and realize what I'm doing with my body. Oftentimes it
is standing up. Um. I I will shout at the
(06:43):
top of my lungs, like I did in the couple
moments in the Grizzlies Timberwolves series. Um, the jaw dunk.
I think my boy thought something terrible had happened because
of my reaction. And then when he actually closed it
out with with a game winning layup, Um, you know.
(07:04):
Then she called the police but talked about a series.
Oh my gosh, that was incredibly fun to watch. I think,
do you ever do you ever do the thing where
you watch where you physically get involved to like where
you start like a shot goes up and you bend
your torch, or like sometimes like my leg is straightened
(07:24):
at certain points, I'm like, what do I think I'm
doing from this center? But clearly I'm like no, no, no, no, no,
just get that leg out and now I don't know.
Maybe it'll stay in bounce. I don't know. I just
get I just get awkwardly close to the TV. And
even though I can be neutral watching these games, like
for example, watching that Griz's Timberwolve series, I was neutral,
(07:47):
but I get so excited about the big moments of
the games that I don't want to miss anything. And
I'm worried that if I'm sitting back on my couch,
I'm not close enough to the action. I think, like
mo of not being there right right right, I've got
to be as close as possible so i can see
the plays develop. Um, But I mean, it's it's NBA playoffs, man,
(08:11):
I just do you have any rituals or superstitions as
it relates to watching your teams or before I know,
Jack has a magical hat um that he's currently having
a bad relationship with. Yeah, it's cursed. I'm a Sixers fan.
It is a cursed hat. I've kept it off for
the entire playoffs. After they closed out Toronto, I put
(08:33):
it on and immediately read the Joel and Be had
a fractured orbital and was out for Game one, And
I take all blame, and I'm you know, I'm here
too a tone, but by putting out this incredible podcast,
I did burn it and bury it in my backyards
as you could, as you especially. I mean, I now
(08:53):
I'm a little upset. I'm a little upset a shoot
and that reason I thought it was safe. It was
after or a closeout game, you know, unbelievable selfish, selfish exactly.
I was also having like a bad hair day, so
I just needed to throw it on and uh, I
paid the price. I mean, we have a clip of
Janice closing out the bulls. Um. That's exciting. His passing
(09:16):
has gotten really good. His mid range game has also
gotten really good, um, which is exciting because he reached
you know, he he kind of just outed himself as
the best player in the world in the finals last year,
came back from the off season, was like, oh and
also I'm better this year. Um, and I think we
(09:37):
saw that where we are seeing that in the in
the playoffs so far, the first round series, I've great
success all their whole floor as well. Bobby pulled st
fresh shot with a thrown down. They're going to start it.
I'm such a I'm such a honest fan. He's so
much fun to watch. But also, you know, one of
(10:01):
the things that we expect from our players in the
off season is for them to work on something and
then come back better and be able to see it
that next year. And not everybody does that, And I
think that that's what separates him as well. I mean,
besides his ridiculous athletic ability and what he can do
on the court, but the fact that he comes back
and like you're saying, we're seeing him in the playoffs
(10:24):
right now get to a new nice level. I just
have so much respect for him, him improving the weaknesses
of his game and us getting to see that right
now in the playoffs scenarios like that's everything, you know,
I just I just love to see that. Um So,
I just have so much respect for him, and I'm
such a honest fan. And he's so strong, Like I
(10:46):
think he got stronger that that one play where he
just spinned and Jayson Tatum was on the ground like
three ft away afterwards was also exciting. I mean, it's
like the Bucks are really given him problems and I
was like this again, and a couple that with Janice
and I'm I'm I'm feeling very good. I mean, I'm
watching as a neutral. I have no vested interest in
(11:08):
you don't have any relationship Celtics or the Bucks. You
don't know, I have nothing. I'm not putting my chips
behind one team or the other. But I love you
gotta say he's doing I'm on, I get to talk
to the Lakers fan and his Sixers fan, two teams
that I have worked for. This is why we were
so excited to talk to you, because we're later on
(11:29):
we're gonna I'm gonna be like, what was it like?
For sure? So I mean I think to go along
with it. Do you want to do we want to
play one of the clips or should we go into
some of the funny or honest stuff for a time on? Yeah,
I mean the finals block we have, but I think
everyone's seen that. I do just want we were talking
about reactions. So after the finals block where he's uh,
(11:51):
you know, guarding Booker as he comes into the land,
Bookers throws the alley oop and then he gets over
and uh manages to block eight at the at the
catch as he's going into dunk is um. There there
have been some there have been some blocks this year
that are like you know, obviously supernatural and spooky, like
(12:12):
Jammer jumping and almost hitting his head on the top
of the arena. But that one was still like every
time I watched it, I'm like that, wait, like you
it's almost like you do you just want to keep
watching it to see how he did it, like frame
by frame here, Yeah, we can, we can play it driving.
(12:39):
So I think the busiest way, because this is a podcast,
I understand the easiest way to describe what is happening
is any other time I was like, oh, that looks
like a clean all. Oh my god, he block because
the passer and the receiver in um in one second,
which sho you usually can't be done. That one, I
(13:01):
found myself just running down the middle of the street, uh,
you know, three blocks from my house when I when
I came to that was my reaction to that one
that just burst through the front door. As a neutral,
not having any history with the Phoenix Suns in that
postseason at all, I was like, this is fantastic basketball.
And I too, was very very celebratory in that moment,
(13:22):
I must say. And then he started spreading rumors that
he was going to sign with the Lakers as Lakers
fans are want to do. Immediately he start putting the
jersey's up. No, no, that's not me. I don't I
don't have the following to start a rumor. I can
barely you know, start rumors about myself that are good.
(13:43):
But I think to go along with that though, I think,
like we're saying on top of already is just you know,
fantastic ability. I hate to use the word freakish because
i'd be word just used all the time with him.
But for me, the other thing I really love about
your honest is obviously it's easy to can act to
his you know, his talent as a basketball player, but
his authenticity as a person is like this other thing
(14:06):
that is very intoxicating about him that you can really
tell that. I feel like I'm seeing the authentic person
as he is every time I see anything of him
off the court, and that's something I really appreciate, because
the person that he kind of is off the court
is a very fun, loving, sincere, kind person. So we
got we got a highlight reel of Johannese being nice
(14:28):
is what suproducer Jabari called it, and I think that's
a good description. I love your moment. What do you
think of your first cobblehead? I think they make me
a little bit and I'm going to get someone for
the game lunch cross bath really Ford digging my day
off the motto, you know, enjoying my pepperoni pizza, my
(14:50):
chicken wings, you know my smoothie. Uh you're you're okay? Hey,
give me the steak one with the mustard Machi. I
met good cheese please? All right? So just just a
series of Johanna's enjoying food. Um. At one point, he
(15:10):
takes a sip of a smoothie and makes a it's
it's the face that John Travolta makes after he drinks
the five dollar milk chicken pulp fiction Like me, He's
just like, oh my, what the The persons like, are
you okay? Like are you having gastro intestinal issues? And
he's like no, this is just a really good milk shake.
(15:30):
He just he uh is somebody you get the sense
really enjoys being Janna Santa Takupo like, which, which is like,
I think that's fun to see because I think we
all feel like, yeah, I'd enjoy that too, But that
looks fun to be able to eat whatever you want. Uh,
and be the greatest athlete in the world. There's also
(15:53):
clips in there where he is four inches shorter than
he currently is and like has not like baby fat,
but right now he appears to be chiseled from fine marble,
and like back then, he just looks more like a
yeah boyish, like yeah, still still growing, which is pretty wild,
(16:14):
Like I think Jabari put it like, that's one of
the fun things about his career is you know, it's
it's a great joy of the social media um era
that you get to just like watch the literal development
of one of the all time greats in real time
and then like go back and watch him be silly.
(16:36):
I mean, how about his recent obsession with oreos? Wait,
what's his How how obsessed is he with orios right now? Oh,
you haven't seen. He's very orios. He discovered or It's like,
it's like he discovered oreos, Like yeah, you got to
watch him discover and discover oreos and also the trick
of dunking them in milk. That's see, That's what I'm like,
How can you not? What is there to dislike about him?
(17:00):
And his love for the card game Uno, which is
a personal favorite of mine. So it's ticking all the boxes.
How does he stack up for you, Serena, Like with
players you've seen in your time just reporting on the
league in terms of like a likability factor, do you
rank him as up there with some of the goats
of likability in the league. Oh my gosh, Yes, absolutely.
I think that as NBA fans, what we crave from
(17:26):
these athletes is the vulnerability, is the feeling like you
actually kind of know the person right, and Janice gives
us kind of that window into who he is, what
it's like to be him, um, And then we all
appreciate that. And not all players do that, and especially
(17:49):
not all superstars. So I think that what's so unique
about Janice is you have this superstar m VP player
that you it to laugh with about their love of
discovering oreos and smoothies, um, that loves to tell these
dad jokes in postgame press conferences, Like, we don't just
(18:13):
love the n b A because of the game. Most
of us fell in love with the NBA because of
our love of the game. But I think that all
of us, whether you fell in me, fell in love
with the NBA because of basketball. Some people fall in
love with the NBA because of a guy like Janice, Right, Like,
there's people out there who love the books because they
(18:35):
fell in love with Janice as a person that got
them interested. Um, And I think that that's what makes
him so unique. And for me as a reporter and
covering the league, I mean, what more can you possibly
ask for an incredible athlete? Um, you know, championships in
(18:57):
a small city, in a small market, and somebody who's
so much fun. So I mean he winks right up
there for sure. And there's like also the Rookie of
the Year factor where you feel like you're watching him
discover he has superpowers kind of all over the course
of the career, his career where he's almost like whoa
(19:21):
holy cow? That was? That was cool? What my what
I just did? Like Peter Parker seventy two hours after
the spider bite. Yeah, he's like hold on. It was
like it's like hold on, how do I put this together?
You're like, yeah, keep calling, keep going. And also he's
like so joyful, like the stuff with the oreos and
stuff with you know, the stuff with that smoothie. There's
also um during the final celebration last year, there was
(19:44):
like I think he's just face timing with his brother
and was singing that pop smoke song for the Night,
which I had heard before, but like seeing the joy,
and he wasn't singing it well by the way, he
was not hitting all the notes, but he was just
so happy, and it like became my favorite song for
like the last year because I don't know, I just
(20:05):
associated with like the pure joy of watching Janice like
really be in love with that song. Alright, let's take
a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk about a
couple other playoff performances, and we will get to know
you a little bit better, and we're back. So Luca
(20:31):
continues to be amazing. Chris Paul, I mean, I think
that was one of the coolest things we've seen in
the playoffs in a long time. Was Chris Paul going
four team for fourteen uh, one for one from three,
four for four from free throws in a close out game.
Anyone else expect him to decline and then he just doesn't. Yeah,
(20:53):
that's this is after he was supposed to not be
Chris Paul anymore, and he's better than he's ever been,
which again seems impossible, Like it doesn't it that that
is another way, like we've talked about like some of
the things like outlet passing and like dribble moves where
they're putting English on the ball and then the heights
(21:17):
the jaw jumps on on blocks like as being progressive
and like things we've never quite seen before in the league. Uh,
longevity of of players who really you know, take care
of themselves and uh, you know, push the limits of
sports science is also something that like we don't know
(21:38):
the ceiling yet. We don't you know, we we don't
know how good he can be for how long, but uh,
he appears to be better than he's ever been before.
Yea is it? I mean, I don't know if you agree,
Sirena like it. It feels like there's a he's intersecting
with this like intern His desire to win is like
at the highest it's ever been, along with his like
(22:00):
time generated wisdom of the game, and they're like feeding
off of each other to make his just very efficiently effective.
And if that's kind of like what we're seeing, it's wild.
You know, you growing up in So calumb being a
Lakers fan. You know, I think when I think Chris Paul,
the first thing that pops into my mind is Chris
(22:21):
Paul was almost a Laker, right, And um, I mean
that's a story that that whole situation is a story
for a for another day. But I think about that
that time being potentially like what his prime. Yeah, what
we thought, right, And that was so long ago, that
(22:42):
was so long ago you look at him now where
he is at. I mean, I can tell you that
when the Son's got Chris Paul, I didn't think that
they were going to be a championship team. I mean,
I thought they were going to be much better than
they were, but I didn't think be contending for a championship. Yeah.
I don't think anyone proved me wrong. He proved off
(23:06):
of us who didn't think so wrong. Um. And you
talked to anybody around the league and players that have
played with him, and they they'll talk to you about
his his his competitive desire. I think it just goes
back to what you said. It feels like they're messing
right now. And look, we don't know for how long.
But then again, I don't know who would have thought
(23:27):
this would be happening right now, right, Yeah, and for
us old heads being me, uh, you know, I I'm
in my forties. I like to think I'm only getting
smarter with age and bragged the young people about like
how you have to get up much earlier in the
morning to uh pull that crap around me. Um, and uh,
(23:53):
you know, Chris Paul, I can now say I'm the
Chris Paul of this podcast stuff. But you haven't. You
haven't gone vegan yet though. That's the next part that's next,
that vegan podcast diet. I think they googling that like crazy. Um. Alright,
let's let's move on to uh, just get to know
(24:14):
you a little bit better. Serena. So you're currently working
for Ballet Sports Cleveland. Previously you've covered the Lakers, Blazers Sixers.
We like to ask each guest this, like just one moment,
one thing that someone did on the basketball court that
was like the wildest thing you've ever seen someone do
on a basketball court. Like it can be a single play,
(24:35):
it can be like a game that someone had, like
final game, Kobe dropping sixty. I've heard about this, Yeah, Miles,
did you know that this had happened? No, I've heard
tell of this Kobe Bryant, but not of this mythical game.
Were you covering the team at the time. I was there.
Oh goodness, So I mean I know I was. I
(25:00):
was screaming up and down, like like embracing all my
friends because we couldn't believe this, like fairy tale that
was happening. What was that sensation like for you, as
a human being who likes basketball, observing with your own eyes,
what is happening right there? I can tell you that
being in the building for Kobe's final game and watching
(25:20):
him drop sixty, I mean I'm actually getting goose bumps.
I can see them over this zoom call and We're
not even a h D right now, and I'm sweating
because I have a beanieon and I'm just talking about
it and get my I mean, I literally have goose bumps.
It was the single most incredible experience. I mean, I'm
(25:49):
not saying even sports experience. I have ever been a
part of the energy in that in Staple Center. When
Kobe drops sixty his final game game, it was it
was like the only time where everybody was there for
one thing, right, Like, so I was there for Game seven,
(26:11):
um championship. Not everybody is there for one thing, right
mostly Flakers fans there, not everybody there was Lakers fan.
I was at that game, and I was there for
the hot Dogs. Actually, I just really am a big
fan of hot Dogs. Everybody in that arena was there
(26:33):
for one thing. And it's hard to even put into
words the feeling. Um. I remember, like Cody started off
the game and everybody's kind of like, oh, man, like
always final game, he's gonna go out like this. He's
jacking a bunch of shots, missing shots, and then all
of a sudden he's at like, you know, thirty five points,
(26:55):
and you're kind of thinking like, okay, like he could
drop forty in his final game, like that, that'd be
a good that would be a good way to to
go out dropping forty. And then he sur passes forty,
and all of us who are sitting by each other
like with each point, we're just looking at each other.
But he's getting close to fifty and we're like, no way,
he's gonna have fifty in his final game, like that's incredible.
(27:16):
And then he passes fifty, and and then he just
keeps going and then he encroaches on sixty. I mean,
you just can't even you can't make this stuff up.
You can't make it up and we all felt it.
And I mean I know that when you're standing up
(27:37):
as a media member or like your jaws dropped as
a media member and I'm looking over at you know,
guys like Ja donde Um or Bill Plashkey, like you know,
we are taught to not show our emotion, right we're
covering the game. All bets were off for this one
because that was how could you not how could you
not show your emotion? You were seeing something that you
(28:00):
couldn't even put into words. So it was it was
like twenty years of the most incredible basketball player packed
into all the emotion from twenty years packed into those
three hours. I mean for me, it was more like
twenty four hours because the whole I mean, I was
there from sun up till sundown. I pulled an all
(28:21):
night or that night, I didn't sleep. I stayed at
Staple Center and went straight from Staples Center to the
practice facility. Actually because we had extra interviews the last day,
so I think I took a half an hour and
app in my car at the Lakers practice facility. Um.
But yeah, that that was single handedly the most incredible
experience I have been a part of. Even your description
(28:44):
of it, it's very clear, like you trying to find
the words. I was like, I was there too. Now
I feel like thank you for that. I was, yeah,
I can just off of your even you trying to
find the words. I think even for somebody who made
you know, we have listeners who might not have seen
the game or new to the game. In that just
your description alone, I think is a very compelling. The
(29:07):
argument is why people should watch, go back and see
that again. But it was incredible, so that that for me,
as I was older and covering the league, favorite moment
as a fan. As a kid, my favorite moment was
point four d fish. I mean that that was my
favorite basketball moment on the court before I was covering
(29:28):
the league. But in terms of actually being there, I mean,
nothing compares to Kobe's final games. Thread renters, we'll get
a chance to take the lead, and look who has
football with half of it. It's a play for the league.
(29:51):
Body parts. League's so you s this is you know,
think's legendary before this game. This is this Tysi and
actually never level. I'm absolutely another level. And like in
(30:15):
your time reporting, you've you interact with a lot of players.
You're in moments you're like, I'm not surprised that I
see you honest play so far, I can't believe I'm
here for Kobe's game. What's been like the most surprising
interaction or experience that you've had, like with the game
where you you learned about a new dimension of a
player or something you hadn't considered, And what is there's
(30:37):
anything like that you can share with us? Sure, you
know it's it's funny, not that this would maybe be
the most interesting one, but for me, it's the first
one that comes to mind when you ask the question
because it's probably the most recent. UM and it's actually
getting to know Rajon Rondo a little bit. M Yes,
I grew up playing basketball. Why the Lakers Lakers Celtics
(31:02):
rivalry And so when you're younger, right when you're in
high school, when you're in college and you're not covering
the league yet and you're watching Lakers Celtics games, um,
and you're just a fan. You see your opposing team
or your enemy, you know, like okay, um. And getting
(31:29):
to no Rondo a little bit over the past couple
of months after the Calves acquired him, that was really
interesting for me because I didn't know him at all, um,
except from being a fan of the NBA and growing
up watching the Lakers and Celtics rivalry. Um. So getting
(31:52):
to see him as a person and be around him
UM and have a completely, I don't want to say
complete different opinion because I didn't know him to have
an opinion before the kid's acquired him. But getting to
be around him and see how gracious that he is
um versus the player that I grew up watching and
(32:16):
yelling at at the TV. That was kind of eye
opening for me. And he's like incredibly smart, right, Like
isn't I guess he's like a very smart basketball player,
but very smart basketball player. Yet, like there was a story.
Who is which coach was telling this story? I want
to say it was carl It was either Carlisle, or
(32:37):
it might have been Doc obviously he played for Doc
for so many years. But Um, one of the coaches pregame,
I was asking about Rondo and he said, usually there's
no player that would ever watch film more than a coach,
Like coaches watch more film than any player ever would,
except Rondo. And he was a guy where like in films, Acion,
(33:00):
you better know what you're talking about as a coach,
because if you make a mistake, he'll call you out right.
There's a Scalbrini anecdote where like, uh, I mean Scalbrini
tells it. I guess it's a Mark Jackson anecdote. But
Mark Jackson called a play that was a bluff. He
just yelled forty two cross for his team, but it
was like a bluff. They didn't actually have that, but
(33:21):
he was just trying to, like, you know, the way
that like a baseball catcher will like throwout multiple hand
gestures and like trying to try and confuse anybody trying
to steal signs, and like nobody would know that it
was a bluff. Rondo looked at Jackson and was like,
for you two cross, for you two cross. You don't
have a forty two cross. Mark Jackson was like, how
(33:42):
the hell did he just know that? But he knew
their entire playbook and also like I knew that they
didn't hadn't edit it somehow, which is why were you
talking to Did you ever roller skate with Rondo? Because
I was the one little thing I learned about him
when he was at the Celtics, and I was like
(34:02):
he loves roller skating, and he's like good at him,
like okay, okay, no, no, no roller skating And probably
a good thing because he dealt with plenty of injuries.
Uh yeah, hammies could be be a tough thing. So
maybe too much roller skating, you know, it was affecting
(34:23):
the hammies could be Yeah, but you hear about him
mentioned a lot as like if this guy wants to
be a coach, he's going to be like an all
time great if he's in the right situation. Um, and
his teammates like always seem to respect him a lot.
So yeah, he's like you know what I mean, I'm
in the time outs the heddles, and I'm always listening
in and um, he's that guy that's always always yelling
(34:48):
or not necessarily yelling, but just like he's always involved
in the time out. You know, like coach would come
over and he's like all right, Ronald, like you know,
sit down, I gotta hit me coach please. Yeah, things
like that, And I mean it sounds like you've I know,
I saw a post where you were talking about pau
Gas Saul and that you two were close as a
(35:11):
Laker fan. That warms my heart, because I've always been
an admirer of his and always suspected he was like
a very genuine person, and it was very nice for
me to see your heartfelt post or you're like, no,
this is a very sincere, sweet person. He's so sincere,
he's so genuine, possibly the most genuine player I've ever
(35:32):
met in the league. Look, so I was a I
interned for the Lakers when Pau was there as well,
and as an intern, you know quiet, you keep your
head down. I was, I think I was, I don't know.
I was working some event and it was by myself,
(35:52):
and Paps came over to make small talk like just
you know, something as simple as all a nice shoes
like something like that, to to go out of his
way to make me feel like, hey, it's all right
to talk to me, and we're just doing being too.
And I can't tell you how much that means to
somebody um like me. So from I mean, I knew
(36:14):
him as an intern, obviously covered him for many years.
So I can tell you that whether I was just
a little intern or a reporter or whatever stage I
was at in my career, he was always the same.
He was always genuine. He was always gracious and he
was like that with everybody. So whatever you've heard about
pal Um in terms of the genuine stuff, I can
(36:36):
tell you first hand it is all true. Yeah, he was.
I remember so my dad was coaching the Celtics during
his draft and like they wanted him more than anybody
in the in the draft, and he went over and
interviewed in him and he was like, I think he's
going to be a doctor if he doesn't get drafted
in the NBA. Like that's he was saying that, and
(36:58):
like his grades are that good, Like he's just like
a super again. Uh like Rondo, very very smart, interesting guy.
I feel I feel like with with the with the
Rondo thing and like the intelligence, Like I feel like
we've seen that a couple of times in the playoffs
this year, where people predict plays before they happen. There
was the Yokich thing where he like said that's something, Yeah,
(37:21):
that's been happening a couple of times like that. I
feel like that might be something we're also seeing with
just so much more tape available, guys are watching so
much film now right, and like in the playoffs, you know,
with the Calves, for example, they had books right for
the plan for the teams, so books that had plays
in them, and they're they're watching film with the assistant
(37:44):
coaches are going over what the plays are it shoot
around right, Like there's so much more of that now
than there used to be. Yeah, I mean watching Uh,
like my dad's career developed, like it went from when
video first became a thing. Like they were the only
people who could get like the cut down of like
all right, every offensive play, like every offensive series where
(38:06):
they run this play. But now like everybody can, like
you could do that on your iPhone. Like that's it's wild.
I was saying the scouts, um, well, oh, the Calves
playing game against Brooklyn, and I had a couple of
scouts next to me. We got to chatting and it
was wild listening to them because we're watching the Calves
(38:28):
nets and they're writing down every play. Um, And I
asked them, like, you know, it's excited. It's exciting for
you guys when you can call what the out of
downs play is, right because before the play comes, like
I can hear the guy next to call the out
of downs play to the scout next to him and
he goes no, he goes what's most exciting for us
is if there's ever a new play like we haven't seen,
(38:49):
because usually we've seen all of the plays and it's amazing,
you know. They it's like they don't miss a thing
um when they're there. But I don't know if they're
sat next to scouts that are watching a game for
other plays, but it's and then they give it to
the team, and so everybody knows everybody's place, right, So
the matter of studying the yeah, who's the more studious.
(39:11):
That's like, yeah, that's the next thing we're going to
see on the back of a basketball card. It's like
studying studiousness off the charts. Well, Serena, it's been such
a pleasure having you on Milon and Jack got Matt
Boosti's I know you have to run, but thank you
so much for joining us. Is there where where can
people find you? Follow you all that good stuff from
(39:33):
me on Twitter at Serena Winters. You want to go
to Instagram, We're not at Serena Underscore Winters and someone
to the old Serenat We hate that. Yeah, yeah, all right,
well thanks so much for joining us. This is fun.
Thanks for having me fellas all right, and we are
going to go to a quick break and then we'll
(39:53):
be right back to wrap it up with a couple
of funny clips and we're back. Um, And that was
It's like, it's there's nothing better. When I'm like, what
were they like in real life? It's the only thing
(40:16):
I want to know. Really, Yeah, we're blessed to be
able to pick people's Hey, Miles, you know, one of
the best ways to find out what people are like
in real life is putting a microphone on making them up.
That's right, it's Miles and Jack I mat boost Mike up. No,
I just turned into a Morning Zoo dj um. So
(40:39):
one is the ref Scott Foster is talking to Ed Malloy,
I'm told, uh, and the it's the Celtics Bucks game one,
I believe scanning the crowd. Who's that over there? Who's
this guy? So Jack Harlow was at the game and
like big celebrity presents and yeah, I I was personally
(41:04):
I know who Jack Harlow is. I like his verse
on that one little Nozac song. Um. But I'm kind
of with Scott Foster in the sense that, like I did,
I I was a little surprised by the amount of
coverage that his presence at a playoff game was getting.
But here's here's Scott Harlow's Mike Dop moment, Scott Harlow matchup,
(41:25):
Scott Scott Foster's here's Jack Carlow's a guy over here,
right here, it's in that white shirt behind you. Oh no,
go ask you. I've never felt more like I never
I never thought I would say this. I've never felt
more like an NBA ref in my life. I mean, like,
I know of Jack Harlow and I know what he does,
(41:47):
but and that that that that was I've that resonates
with me as I become an elder, geriatric millennial and
I'm not up on all the new celebrities and I'm like,
who's that huh in the white shirt? Okay, and they're cool, okay,
cool cool cool? Yeah, knew that. Uh, And then I
just liked, you know, Jordan pool Is. We we've talked
a little bit about, you know, him being the third
(42:11):
Splash Brother, but like he's you know, he has continued
to be like maybe the most dangerous weapon the Warriors have.
Like I don't know, it's a it's hard to compare,
but uh, he's been so good. And at one point
during so he was miked up and uh, there was
(42:31):
a jump all that he was involved in and he
was going up against Yokich and uh he he had
a funny moment. Yes, so they're going so so they're
(42:52):
about to do the jump all and he like puts
his hand up like like the players, you know, like
when they're about to do the jump all. They both
put their hand up a little bit. But he like
did almost like a kind of it felt like a
Renaissance painting of like a bohemian dandy. Yeah. Yeah, he
was like, so you're supposed to like lock arms with
(43:14):
them or what is it? Uh? And by the way,
that was Ed Malloy that he was asking. Look, I'm
a big Ed Malloy fan. Alright, big Ed Malloy fan.
Don't make fun of me just because I have an
Ed Malloy ref Jersey. Most people don't know that that's
what it is. But I got the number. People don't know.
They said, if you and you always you always posted
(43:36):
on Twitter you're wearing it, and you take a picture
of the number and you always tag it I y
K y K if you know you know, all right,
a second there to do that joke, and right, all right,
and then and then Luca was miked up well during
the first round. And you know, I mean, I feel
like we see a lot of Luca highlights, but you don't.
(43:57):
You don't get to see the man behind Luca. And
this is a fun miked up moment. Just about every game,
different suit looks nice. He's just like talking about people
(44:18):
looking nice. And he's he's started to talk like like
my old uncle or something. He's like, all right, man,
new suit every night, must be nice, like you're a millionaire.
But I still like that the humility that you operate from,
which is very endearing. Luca telling him he looks nice.
(44:39):
You know, nobody, nobody doesn't like to hear, Hey, man,
you look great. That's a nice suit. Just don't tell
him that if it if it's not nice, because if
you tell me a nice shirt sarcastically, I will be
wearing that shirt three times a week for the next
five years. So just like, don't mess with my oceans
(45:00):
like that. Just it is what it is. Man. Alright,
there's another one in the books, another one, other classic
all time great uh maybe the greatest, maybe the greatest
NBA Podcast of all Time, But another another week of
playoffs to look forward to. Is there is there anything
that you're this buck series I'm very excited about. I'm
(45:23):
excited to get my boy Joel back. Yeah, I'm excited
for I'm honestly every there's always something fun to watch,
so I really can't complain. I'm really I've I mean,
as of now as the recording with we haven't seen
the Warriors grizz Game two. Yeah. I mean that's like
we went through this whole episode and didn't even talk
(45:44):
about like all time classic game one. Uh, the Warriors Grizzlies.
That game was incredible. Yeah, I mean they've seen, they've heard,
they know, but what a what a game? Man? Almost
bit my nails off at then. Hm. I thought you
weren't nervous Miles, you didn't care. Yeah, I am. I
was just really hungry. You're just you're really hungry and
(46:08):
waiting for this game to be over, to get a
whiz whiz. I couldn't just leave in the middle of
the game, so I said, you know what, I'm gonna
eat my finger nails. That's what happened. Nervous deal. All right, Well,
that has been another episode of Miles and Jack. We'll
see y'all next week. Obviously, Bye bye,
Oh, we've gone even deeper into the playoffs and we're
gonna have to talk about a few people. Finally. I
know you've been waiting to hear us talk about people
like Janice. We'll get to that, but before we do,
gott to let you know this episode, we have a
fantastic guests, uh the CALVS sideline reporter from Bally Sports Cleveland.
(00:23):
We got Sereno Winters in the building. I'm Miles Gray,
I'm Jack O'Brien and this is Miles and Jack got
mad crushed it. Okay, welcome, Welcome, welcome. We are deep.
We're deeper into the playoffs, shedding some teams, some players
(00:46):
are emerging even more. But yes, I just have to
say thanks for joining us again and we are thrilled
today to have with us someone who is talking about
the league in a very very professional way, unlike us,
which we appreciate it. It helps class the joint up.
Please welcome today's guests, Serena Winters. Yo yo yo, Yeah, hello,
(01:10):
I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me on.
Great to have you. Thanks. Sa Are you from so
Cal Originally I am from so Call literally a little
town called Honeyton, beach. Okay, hb okay, I hear you,
I hear you. I'm from the San Fernando Valley, so
I'm savvy. I'm savvy, okay, savvy. Yeah yeah, yeah, Well,
good to have you on. Good to have And I
(01:31):
lived in Dayton for five years. Yeah yeah, I'll represent
that's where I am right now. You know, not exactly
where dating is, but it's sitting here in my state,
in Cleveland, Ohio. So hey, we're repping all around. We've
we've we've triangulated precisely, precisely a little different than southern California,
(01:56):
DA Ohio. So my largest chunks of my childhood were
spenting Dating, Ohio and Wheeling, West Virginia, which I'm told
is the Huntington's Beach of West Virginia. So yeah, yeah, yeah, beautiful,
beautiful country. Um, well, thank you so much for joining
us exciting season of Cleveland basketball. But before we dig
(02:17):
into it, we we gotta we gotta talk playoffs. We
gotta talk Janice. I think you know. So we've we've
done the job episode. I think that was our first episode. Um,
we've done a Kyrie episode, and we we had a
feeling we were going to have the opportunity to do
a Janice episode at one point, and Janice Hath provided
(02:42):
Um with an amazing close out game against the Bulls
thirty three nine on eleven of fifteen shooting against the
Bulls and more importantly for his team, and just generally, uh,
you know, Game one against the Celtics. I think a
lot of people, I think the Celtics were like two
to one favorites to win the series. And then Joannice
(03:06):
was like, oh yeah, sorry, I'm playing playing in this series.
I don't know if y'all remembered. How's it been for you? Serena?
Just feasting upon the wonderful playoff basketball so far. I
mean it's bitter sweet, first of all, because to not
actually be covering the playoffs. It's been a while since
(03:26):
I haven't actually covered playoffs basketball, so it's weird watching
it from my couch or from a bar in Ohio
City or wherever I get to watch the playoffs. So
it's you know, I watch it with the with a
different lens, like you watch it with a fan lens. Right. Uh.
Some of these games have been absolutely incredible. I mean
(03:49):
Boston has had some incredible games. I mean it should
be dissect Maybe one of the more interesting moments from
the Bucks Celtics Game one, I think, which I certainly
have my on it because I thought I was watching
a highlight clip of me playing NBA Street on PlayStation three,
which I think is the backboard. Let's play honest, going
(04:13):
off the backboard Game one, let's roll the clip. Williams
Stout stepped through the Celtics inside. Wow. Um, great bench reaction,
which I I always appreciate. I feel like that always
(04:35):
adds a little bit um. But yeah, I mean heading
into the series, people were like, well, you know, the
Celtics have the toughest defense in the n b A,
and the Celtics were very tough on defense, and he
was just like making up new new things you could
do on a basketball court in a playoff game. Um
(04:56):
to to get around it, in this case, stepping to
an upfix, step through off the backboard dunk. I think
I think people have done it before, but it was
it was pretty it was pretty remarkable moment, very diff
from our superstar so in the league, right, Like, that's
exactly what we want to see in playoff basketball, those
(05:16):
moments right where you're sitting on your couch or whatever,
and you get up and you're just like, oh, you
right exactly. I flipped my couch over when that happened.
Who stands like ridiculously close to the tv? I don't
know if you guys are like this or not, arms crossed,
(05:38):
arms crossed, like in front of the TV like this, yes,
And I don't know if it drives my husband crazy
or if he just enjoys laughing at me. But I
don't even realize that I'm that close or that I'm
doing it. And I'm I'm I'm a solid this close,
you know, right as I'm watching, especially in the stay
at the end, Um, how do you guy? Do you
guys watch it like that? Or do you sit back
(05:59):
on your cow? How do you watch the playoffs? I
have no stress when I watched because I'm watching as
a neutral, as a Laker fan. I've I've had my
injuries and wounds that I've addressed, and I can watch
this with a neutral eye, So I'm relaxed. And yes,
it does get me out of my seat. But when
I'm a little bit more invested, or like at the
end of that Grizzlies Timberwolves game, when like I was
(06:21):
like oh, this is a game. I I stood up
a little bit, I started pacing a bit. But yeah,
I've been mostly relaxed with intermittent screams. Yeah, my body
doesn't know how to watch basketball neutrally. So I I
am watching the game and then I would look down
and realize what I'm doing with my body. Oftentimes it
is standing up. Um. I I will shout at the
(06:43):
top of my lungs, like I did in the couple
moments in the Grizzlies Timberwolves series. Um, the jaw dunk.
I think my boy thought something terrible had happened because
of my reaction. And then when he actually closed it
out with with a game winning layup, Um, you know.
(07:04):
Then she called the police but talked about a series.
Oh my gosh, that was incredibly fun to watch. I think,
do you ever do you ever do the thing where
you watch where you physically get involved to like where
you start like a shot goes up and you bend
your torch, or like sometimes like my leg is straightened
(07:24):
at certain points, I'm like, what do I think I'm
doing from this center? But clearly I'm like no, no, no, no, no,
just get that leg out and now I don't know.
Maybe it'll stay in bounce. I don't know. I just
get I just get awkwardly close to the TV. And
even though I can be neutral watching these games, like
for example, watching that Griz's Timberwolve series, I was neutral,
(07:47):
but I get so excited about the big moments of
the games that I don't want to miss anything. And
I'm worried that if I'm sitting back on my couch,
I'm not close enough to the action. I think, like
mo of not being there right right right, I've got
to be as close as possible so i can see
the plays develop. Um, But I mean, it's it's NBA playoffs, man,
(08:11):
I just do you have any rituals or superstitions as
it relates to watching your teams or before I know,
Jack has a magical hat um that he's currently having
a bad relationship with. Yeah, it's cursed. I'm a Sixers fan.
It is a cursed hat. I've kept it off for
the entire playoffs. After they closed out Toronto, I put
(08:33):
it on and immediately read the Joel and Be had
a fractured orbital and was out for Game one, And
I take all blame, and I'm you know, I'm here
too a tone, but by putting out this incredible podcast,
I did burn it and bury it in my backyards
as you could, as you especially. I mean, I now
(08:53):
I'm a little upset. I'm a little upset a shoot
and that reason I thought it was safe. It was
after or a closeout game, you know, unbelievable selfish, selfish exactly.
I was also having like a bad hair day, so
I just needed to throw it on and uh, I
paid the price. I mean, we have a clip of
Janice closing out the bulls. Um. That's exciting. His passing
(09:16):
has gotten really good. His mid range game has also
gotten really good, um, which is exciting because he reached
you know, he he kind of just outed himself as
the best player in the world in the finals last year,
came back from the off season, was like, oh and
also I'm better this year. Um, and I think we
(09:37):
saw that where we are seeing that in the in
the playoffs so far, the first round series, I've great
success all their whole floor as well. Bobby pulled st
fresh shot with a thrown down. They're going to start it.
I'm such a I'm such a honest fan. He's so
much fun to watch. But also, you know, one of
(10:01):
the things that we expect from our players in the
off season is for them to work on something and
then come back better and be able to see it
that next year. And not everybody does that, And I
think that that's what separates him as well. I mean,
besides his ridiculous athletic ability and what he can do
on the court, but the fact that he comes back
and like you're saying, we're seeing him in the playoffs
(10:24):
right now get to a new nice level. I just
have so much respect for him, him improving the weaknesses
of his game and us getting to see that right
now in the playoffs scenarios like that's everything, you know,
I just I just love to see that. Um So,
I just have so much respect for him, and I'm
such a honest fan. And he's so strong, Like I
(10:46):
think he got stronger that that one play where he
just spinned and Jayson Tatum was on the ground like
three ft away afterwards was also exciting. I mean, it's
like the Bucks are really given him problems and I
was like this again, and a couple that with Janice
and I'm I'm I'm feeling very good. I mean, I'm
watching as a neutral. I have no vested interest in
(11:08):
you don't have any relationship Celtics or the Bucks. You
don't know, I have nothing. I'm not putting my chips
behind one team or the other. But I love you
gotta say he's doing I'm on, I get to talk
to the Lakers fan and his Sixers fan, two teams
that I have worked for. This is why we were
so excited to talk to you, because we're later on
(11:29):
we're gonna I'm gonna be like, what was it like?
For sure? So I mean I think to go along
with it. Do you want to do we want to
play one of the clips or should we go into
some of the funny or honest stuff for a time on? Yeah,
I mean the finals block we have, but I think
everyone's seen that. I do just want we were talking
about reactions. So after the finals block where he's uh,
(11:51):
you know, guarding Booker as he comes into the land,
Bookers throws the alley oop and then he gets over
and uh manages to block eight at the at the
catch as he's going into dunk is um. There there
have been some there have been some blocks this year
that are like you know, obviously supernatural and spooky, like
(12:12):
Jammer jumping and almost hitting his head on the top
of the arena. But that one was still like every
time I watched it, I'm like that, wait, like you
it's almost like you do you just want to keep
watching it to see how he did it, like frame
by frame here, Yeah, we can, we can play it driving.
(12:39):
So I think the busiest way, because this is a podcast,
I understand the easiest way to describe what is happening
is any other time I was like, oh, that looks
like a clean all. Oh my god, he block because
the passer and the receiver in um in one second,
which sho you usually can't be done. That one, I
(13:01):
found myself just running down the middle of the street, uh,
you know, three blocks from my house when I when
I came to that was my reaction to that one
that just burst through the front door. As a neutral,
not having any history with the Phoenix Suns in that
postseason at all, I was like, this is fantastic basketball.
And I too, was very very celebratory in that moment,
(13:22):
I must say. And then he started spreading rumors that
he was going to sign with the Lakers as Lakers
fans are want to do. Immediately he start putting the
jersey's up. No, no, that's not me. I don't I
don't have the following to start a rumor. I can
barely you know, start rumors about myself that are good.
(13:43):
But I think to go along with that though, I think,
like we're saying on top of already is just you know,
fantastic ability. I hate to use the word freakish because
i'd be word just used all the time with him.
But for me, the other thing I really love about
your honest is obviously it's easy to can act to
his you know, his talent as a basketball player, but
his authenticity as a person is like this other thing
(14:06):
that is very intoxicating about him that you can really
tell that. I feel like I'm seeing the authentic person
as he is every time I see anything of him
off the court, and that's something I really appreciate, because
the person that he kind of is off the court
is a very fun, loving, sincere, kind person. So we
got we got a highlight reel of Johannese being nice
(14:28):
is what suproducer Jabari called it, and I think that's
a good description. I love your moment. What do you
think of your first cobblehead? I think they make me
a little bit and I'm going to get someone for
the game lunch cross bath really Ford digging my day
off the motto, you know, enjoying my pepperoni pizza, my
(14:50):
chicken wings, you know my smoothie. Uh you're you're okay? Hey,
give me the steak one with the mustard Machi. I
met good cheese please? All right? So just just a
series of Johanna's enjoying food. Um. At one point, he
(15:10):
takes a sip of a smoothie and makes a it's
it's the face that John Travolta makes after he drinks
the five dollar milk chicken pulp fiction Like me, He's
just like, oh my, what the The persons like, are
you okay? Like are you having gastro intestinal issues? And
he's like no, this is just a really good milk shake.
(15:30):
He just he uh is somebody you get the sense
really enjoys being Janna Santa Takupo like, which, which is like,
I think that's fun to see because I think we
all feel like, yeah, I'd enjoy that too, But that
looks fun to be able to eat whatever you want. Uh,
and be the greatest athlete in the world. There's also
(15:53):
clips in there where he is four inches shorter than
he currently is and like has not like baby fat,
but right now he appears to be chiseled from fine marble,
and like back then, he just looks more like a
yeah boyish, like yeah, still still growing, which is pretty wild,
(16:14):
Like I think Jabari put it like, that's one of
the fun things about his career is you know, it's
it's a great joy of the social media um era
that you get to just like watch the literal development
of one of the all time greats in real time
and then like go back and watch him be silly.
(16:36):
I mean, how about his recent obsession with oreos? Wait,
what's his How how obsessed is he with orios right now? Oh,
you haven't seen. He's very orios. He discovered or It's like,
it's like he discovered oreos, Like yeah, you got to
watch him discover and discover oreos and also the trick
of dunking them in milk. That's see, That's what I'm like,
How can you not? What is there to dislike about him?
(17:00):
And his love for the card game Uno, which is
a personal favorite of mine. So it's ticking all the boxes.
How does he stack up for you, Serena, Like with
players you've seen in your time just reporting on the
league in terms of like a likability factor, do you
rank him as up there with some of the goats
of likability in the league. Oh my gosh, Yes, absolutely.
I think that as NBA fans, what we crave from
(17:26):
these athletes is the vulnerability, is the feeling like you
actually kind of know the person right, and Janice gives
us kind of that window into who he is, what
it's like to be him, um, And then we all
appreciate that. And not all players do that, and especially
(17:49):
not all superstars. So I think that what's so unique
about Janice is you have this superstar m VP player
that you it to laugh with about their love of
discovering oreos and smoothies, um, that loves to tell these
dad jokes in postgame press conferences, Like, we don't just
(18:13):
love the n b A because of the game. Most
of us fell in love with the NBA because of
our love of the game. But I think that all
of us, whether you fell in me, fell in love
with the NBA because of basketball. Some people fall in
love with the NBA because of a guy like Janice, Right, Like,
there's people out there who love the books because they
(18:35):
fell in love with Janice as a person that got
them interested. Um, And I think that that's what makes
him so unique. And for me as a reporter and
covering the league, I mean, what more can you possibly
ask for an incredible athlete? Um, you know, championships in
(18:57):
a small city, in a small market, and somebody who's
so much fun. So I mean he winks right up
there for sure. And there's like also the Rookie of
the Year factor where you feel like you're watching him
discover he has superpowers kind of all over the course
of the career, his career where he's almost like whoa
(19:21):
holy cow? That was? That was cool? What my what
I just did? Like Peter Parker seventy two hours after
the spider bite. Yeah, he's like hold on. It was
like it's like hold on, how do I put this together?
You're like, yeah, keep calling, keep going. And also he's
like so joyful, like the stuff with the oreos and
stuff with you know, the stuff with that smoothie. There's
also um during the final celebration last year, there was
(19:44):
like I think he's just face timing with his brother
and was singing that pop smoke song for the Night,
which I had heard before, but like seeing the joy,
and he wasn't singing it well by the way, he
was not hitting all the notes, but he was just
so happy, and it like became my favorite song for
like the last year because I don't know, I just
(20:05):
associated with like the pure joy of watching Janice like
really be in love with that song. Alright, let's take
a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk about a
couple other playoff performances, and we will get to know
you a little bit better, and we're back. So Luca
(20:31):
continues to be amazing. Chris Paul, I mean, I think
that was one of the coolest things we've seen in
the playoffs in a long time. Was Chris Paul going
four team for fourteen uh, one for one from three,
four for four from free throws in a close out game.
Anyone else expect him to decline and then he just doesn't. Yeah,
(20:53):
that's this is after he was supposed to not be
Chris Paul anymore, and he's better than he's ever been,
which again seems impossible, Like it doesn't it that that
is another way, like we've talked about like some of
the things like outlet passing and like dribble moves where
they're putting English on the ball and then the heights
(21:17):
the jaw jumps on on blocks like as being progressive
and like things we've never quite seen before in the league. Uh,
longevity of of players who really you know, take care
of themselves and uh, you know, push the limits of
sports science is also something that like we don't know
(21:38):
the ceiling yet. We don't you know, we we don't
know how good he can be for how long, but uh,
he appears to be better than he's ever been before.
Yea is it? I mean, I don't know if you agree,
Sirena like it. It feels like there's a he's intersecting
with this like intern His desire to win is like
at the highest it's ever been, along with his like
(22:00):
time generated wisdom of the game, and they're like feeding
off of each other to make his just very efficiently effective.
And if that's kind of like what we're seeing, it's wild.
You know, you growing up in So calumb being a
Lakers fan. You know, I think when I think Chris Paul,
the first thing that pops into my mind is Chris
(22:21):
Paul was almost a Laker, right, And um, I mean
that's a story that that whole situation is a story
for a for another day. But I think about that
that time being potentially like what his prime. Yeah, what
we thought, right, And that was so long ago, that
(22:42):
was so long ago you look at him now where
he is at. I mean, I can tell you that
when the Son's got Chris Paul, I didn't think that
they were going to be a championship team. I mean,
I thought they were going to be much better than
they were, but I didn't think be contending for a championship. Yeah.
I don't think anyone proved me wrong. He proved off
(23:06):
of us who didn't think so wrong. Um. And you
talked to anybody around the league and players that have
played with him, and they they'll talk to you about
his his his competitive desire. I think it just goes
back to what you said. It feels like they're messing
right now. And look, we don't know for how long.
But then again, I don't know who would have thought
(23:27):
this would be happening right now, right, Yeah, and for
us old heads being me, uh, you know, I I'm
in my forties. I like to think I'm only getting
smarter with age and bragged the young people about like
how you have to get up much earlier in the
morning to uh pull that crap around me. Um, and uh,
(23:53):
you know, Chris Paul, I can now say I'm the
Chris Paul of this podcast stuff. But you haven't. You
haven't gone vegan yet though. That's the next part that's next,
that vegan podcast diet. I think they googling that like crazy. Um. Alright,
let's let's move on to uh, just get to know
(24:14):
you a little bit better. Serena. So you're currently working
for Ballet Sports Cleveland. Previously you've covered the Lakers, Blazers Sixers.
We like to ask each guest this, like just one moment,
one thing that someone did on the basketball court that
was like the wildest thing you've ever seen someone do
on a basketball court. Like it can be a single play,
(24:35):
it can be like a game that someone had, like
final game, Kobe dropping sixty. I've heard about this, Yeah, Miles,
did you know that this had happened? No, I've heard
tell of this Kobe Bryant, but not of this mythical game.
Were you covering the team at the time. I was there.
Oh goodness, So I mean I know I was. I
(25:00):
was screaming up and down, like like embracing all my
friends because we couldn't believe this, like fairy tale that
was happening. What was that sensation like for you, as
a human being who likes basketball, observing with your own eyes,
what is happening right there? I can tell you that
being in the building for Kobe's final game and watching
(25:20):
him drop sixty, I mean I'm actually getting goose bumps.
I can see them over this zoom call and We're
not even a h D right now, and I'm sweating
because I have a beanieon and I'm just talking about
it and get my I mean, I literally have goose bumps.
It was the single most incredible experience. I mean, I'm
(25:49):
not saying even sports experience. I have ever been a
part of the energy in that in Staple Center. When
Kobe drops sixty his final game game, it was it
was like the only time where everybody was there for
one thing, right, Like, so I was there for Game seven,
(26:11):
um championship. Not everybody is there for one thing, right
mostly Flakers fans there, not everybody there was Lakers fan.
I was at that game, and I was there for
the hot Dogs. Actually, I just really am a big
fan of hot Dogs. Everybody in that arena was there
(26:33):
for one thing. And it's hard to even put into
words the feeling. Um. I remember, like Cody started off
the game and everybody's kind of like, oh, man, like
always final game, he's gonna go out like this. He's
jacking a bunch of shots, missing shots, and then all
of a sudden he's at like, you know, thirty five points,
(26:55):
and you're kind of thinking like, okay, like he could
drop forty in his final game, like that, that'd be
a good that would be a good way to to
go out dropping forty. And then he sur passes forty,
and all of us who are sitting by each other
like with each point, we're just looking at each other.
But he's getting close to fifty and we're like, no way,
he's gonna have fifty in his final game, like that's incredible.
(27:16):
And then he passes fifty, and and then he just
keeps going and then he encroaches on sixty. I mean,
you just can't even you can't make this stuff up.
You can't make it up and we all felt it.
And I mean I know that when you're standing up
(27:37):
as a media member or like your jaws dropped as
a media member and I'm looking over at you know,
guys like Ja donde Um or Bill Plashkey, like you know,
we are taught to not show our emotion, right we're
covering the game. All bets were off for this one
because that was how could you not how could you
not show your emotion? You were seeing something that you
(28:00):
couldn't even put into words. So it was it was
like twenty years of the most incredible basketball player packed
into all the emotion from twenty years packed into those
three hours. I mean for me, it was more like
twenty four hours because the whole I mean, I was
there from sun up till sundown. I pulled an all
(28:21):
night or that night, I didn't sleep. I stayed at
Staple Center and went straight from Staples Center to the
practice facility. Actually because we had extra interviews the last day,
so I think I took a half an hour and
app in my car at the Lakers practice facility. Um.
But yeah, that that was single handedly the most incredible
experience I have been a part of. Even your description
(28:44):
of it, it's very clear, like you trying to find
the words. I was like, I was there too. Now
I feel like thank you for that. I was, yeah,
I can just off of your even you trying to
find the words. I think even for somebody who made
you know, we have listeners who might not have seen
the game or new to the game. In that just
your description alone, I think is a very compelling. The
(29:07):
argument is why people should watch, go back and see
that again. But it was incredible, so that that for me,
as I was older and covering the league, favorite moment
as a fan. As a kid, my favorite moment was
point four d fish. I mean that that was my
favorite basketball moment on the court before I was covering
(29:28):
the league. But in terms of actually being there, I mean,
nothing compares to Kobe's final games. Thread renters, we'll get
a chance to take the lead, and look who has
football with half of it. It's a play for the league.
(29:51):
Body parts. League's so you s this is you know,
think's legendary before this game. This is this Tysi and
actually never level. I'm absolutely another level. And like in
(30:15):
your time reporting, you've you interact with a lot of players.
You're in moments you're like, I'm not surprised that I
see you honest play so far, I can't believe I'm
here for Kobe's game. What's been like the most surprising
interaction or experience that you've had, like with the game
where you you learned about a new dimension of a
player or something you hadn't considered, And what is there's
(30:37):
anything like that you can share with us? Sure, you
know it's it's funny, not that this would maybe be
the most interesting one, but for me, it's the first
one that comes to mind when you ask the question
because it's probably the most recent. UM and it's actually
getting to know Rajon Rondo a little bit. M Yes,
I grew up playing basketball. Why the Lakers Lakers Celtics
(31:02):
rivalry And so when you're younger, right when you're in
high school, when you're in college and you're not covering
the league yet and you're watching Lakers Celtics games, um,
and you're just a fan. You see your opposing team
or your enemy, you know, like okay, um. And getting
(31:29):
to no Rondo a little bit over the past couple
of months after the Calves acquired him, that was really
interesting for me because I didn't know him at all, um,
except from being a fan of the NBA and growing
up watching the Lakers and Celtics rivalry. Um. So getting
(31:52):
to see him as a person and be around him
UM and have a completely, I don't want to say
complete different opinion because I didn't know him to have
an opinion before the kid's acquired him. But getting to
be around him and see how gracious that he is
um versus the player that I grew up watching and
(32:16):
yelling at at the TV. That was kind of eye
opening for me. And he's like incredibly smart, right, Like
isn't I guess he's like a very smart basketball player,
but very smart basketball player. Yet, like there was a story.
Who is which coach was telling this story? I want
to say it was carl It was either Carlisle, or
(32:37):
it might have been Doc obviously he played for Doc
for so many years. But Um, one of the coaches pregame,
I was asking about Rondo and he said, usually there's
no player that would ever watch film more than a coach,
Like coaches watch more film than any player ever would,
except Rondo. And he was a guy where like in films, Acion,
(33:00):
you better know what you're talking about as a coach,
because if you make a mistake, he'll call you out right.
There's a Scalbrini anecdote where like, uh, I mean Scalbrini
tells it. I guess it's a Mark Jackson anecdote. But
Mark Jackson called a play that was a bluff. He
just yelled forty two cross for his team, but it
was like a bluff. They didn't actually have that, but
(33:21):
he was just trying to, like, you know, the way
that like a baseball catcher will like throwout multiple hand
gestures and like trying to try and confuse anybody trying
to steal signs, and like nobody would know that it
was a bluff. Rondo looked at Jackson and was like,
for you two cross, for you two cross. You don't
have a forty two cross. Mark Jackson was like, how
(33:42):
the hell did he just know that? But he knew
their entire playbook and also like I knew that they
didn't hadn't edit it somehow, which is why were you
talking to Did you ever roller skate with Rondo? Because
I was the one little thing I learned about him
when he was at the Celtics, and I was like
(34:02):
he loves roller skating, and he's like good at him,
like okay, okay, no, no, no roller skating And probably
a good thing because he dealt with plenty of injuries.
Uh yeah, hammies could be be a tough thing. So
maybe too much roller skating, you know, it was affecting
(34:23):
the hammies could be Yeah, but you hear about him
mentioned a lot as like if this guy wants to
be a coach, he's going to be like an all
time great if he's in the right situation. Um, and
his teammates like always seem to respect him a lot.
So yeah, he's like you know what I mean, I'm
in the time outs the heddles, and I'm always listening
in and um, he's that guy that's always always yelling
(34:48):
or not necessarily yelling, but just like he's always involved
in the time out. You know, like coach would come
over and he's like all right, Ronald, like you know,
sit down, I gotta hit me coach please. Yeah, things
like that, And I mean it sounds like you've I know,
I saw a post where you were talking about pau
Gas Saul and that you two were close as a
(35:11):
Laker fan. That warms my heart, because I've always been
an admirer of his and always suspected he was like
a very genuine person, and it was very nice for
me to see your heartfelt post or you're like, no,
this is a very sincere, sweet person. He's so sincere,
he's so genuine, possibly the most genuine player I've ever
(35:32):
met in the league. Look, so I was a I
interned for the Lakers when Pau was there as well,
and as an intern, you know quiet, you keep your
head down. I was, I think I was, I don't know.
I was working some event and it was by myself,
(35:52):
and Paps came over to make small talk like just
you know, something as simple as all a nice shoes
like something like that, to to go out of his
way to make me feel like, hey, it's all right
to talk to me, and we're just doing being too.
And I can't tell you how much that means to
somebody um like me. So from I mean, I knew
(36:14):
him as an intern, obviously covered him for many years.
So I can tell you that whether I was just
a little intern or a reporter or whatever stage I
was at in my career, he was always the same.
He was always genuine. He was always gracious and he
was like that with everybody. So whatever you've heard about
pal Um in terms of the genuine stuff, I can
(36:36):
tell you first hand it is all true. Yeah, he was.
I remember so my dad was coaching the Celtics during
his draft and like they wanted him more than anybody
in the in the draft, and he went over and
interviewed in him and he was like, I think he's
going to be a doctor if he doesn't get drafted
in the NBA. Like that's he was saying that, and
(36:58):
like his grades are that good, Like he's just like
a super again. Uh like Rondo, very very smart, interesting guy.
I feel I feel like with with the with the
Rondo thing and like the intelligence, Like I feel like
we've seen that a couple of times in the playoffs
this year, where people predict plays before they happen. There
was the Yokich thing where he like said that's something, Yeah,
(37:21):
that's been happening a couple of times like that. I
feel like that might be something we're also seeing with
just so much more tape available, guys are watching so
much film now right, and like in the playoffs, you know,
with the Calves, for example, they had books right for
the plan for the teams, so books that had plays
in them, and they're they're watching film with the assistant
(37:44):
coaches are going over what the plays are it shoot
around right, Like there's so much more of that now
than there used to be. Yeah, I mean watching Uh,
like my dad's career developed, like it went from when
video first became a thing. Like they were the only
people who could get like the cut down of like
all right, every offensive play, like every offensive series where
(38:06):
they run this play. But now like everybody can, like
you could do that on your iPhone. Like that's it's wild.
I was saying the scouts, um, well, oh, the Calves
playing game against Brooklyn, and I had a couple of
scouts next to me. We got to chatting and it
was wild listening to them because we're watching the Calves
(38:28):
nets and they're writing down every play. Um, And I
asked them, like, you know, it's excited. It's exciting for
you guys when you can call what the out of
downs play is, right because before the play comes, like
I can hear the guy next to call the out
of downs play to the scout next to him and
he goes no, he goes what's most exciting for us
is if there's ever a new play like we haven't seen,
(38:49):
because usually we've seen all of the plays and it's amazing,
you know. They it's like they don't miss a thing
um when they're there. But I don't know if they're
sat next to scouts that are watching a game for
other plays, but it's and then they give it to
the team, and so everybody knows everybody's place, right, So
the matter of studying the yeah, who's the more studious.
(39:11):
That's like, yeah, that's the next thing we're going to
see on the back of a basketball card. It's like
studying studiousness off the charts. Well, Serena, it's been such
a pleasure having you on Milon and Jack got Matt
Boosti's I know you have to run, but thank you
so much for joining us. Is there where where can
people find you? Follow you all that good stuff from
(39:33):
me on Twitter at Serena Winters. You want to go
to Instagram, We're not at Serena Underscore Winters and someone
to the old Serenat We hate that. Yeah, yeah, all right,
well thanks so much for joining us. This is fun.
Thanks for having me fellas all right, and we are
going to go to a quick break and then we'll
(39:53):
be right back to wrap it up with a couple
of funny clips and we're back. Um, And that was
It's like, it's there's nothing better. When I'm like, what
were they like in real life? It's the only thing
(40:16):
I want to know. Really, Yeah, we're blessed to be
able to pick people's Hey, Miles, you know, one of
the best ways to find out what people are like
in real life is putting a microphone on making them up.
That's right, it's Miles and Jack I mat boost Mike up. No,
I just turned into a Morning Zoo dj um. So
(40:39):
one is the ref Scott Foster is talking to Ed Malloy,
I'm told, uh, and the it's the Celtics Bucks game one,
I believe scanning the crowd. Who's that over there? Who's
this guy? So Jack Harlow was at the game and
like big celebrity presents and yeah, I I was personally
(41:04):
I know who Jack Harlow is. I like his verse
on that one little Nozac song. Um. But I'm kind
of with Scott Foster in the sense that, like I did,
I I was a little surprised by the amount of
coverage that his presence at a playoff game was getting.
But here's here's Scott Harlow's Mike Dop moment, Scott Harlow matchup,
(41:25):
Scott Scott Foster's here's Jack Carlow's a guy over here,
right here, it's in that white shirt behind you. Oh no,
go ask you. I've never felt more like I never
I never thought I would say this. I've never felt
more like an NBA ref in my life. I mean, like,
I know of Jack Harlow and I know what he does,
(41:47):
but and that that that that was I've that resonates
with me as I become an elder, geriatric millennial and
I'm not up on all the new celebrities and I'm like,
who's that huh in the white shirt? Okay, and they're cool, okay,
cool cool cool? Yeah, knew that. Uh, And then I
just liked, you know, Jordan pool Is. We we've talked
a little bit about, you know, him being the third
(42:11):
Splash Brother, but like he's you know, he has continued
to be like maybe the most dangerous weapon the Warriors have.
Like I don't know, it's a it's hard to compare,
but uh, he's been so good. And at one point
during so he was miked up and uh, there was
(42:31):
a jump all that he was involved in and he
was going up against Yokich and uh he he had
a funny moment. Yes, so they're going so so they're
(42:52):
about to do the jump all and he like puts
his hand up like like the players, you know, like
when they're about to do the jump all. They both
put their hand up a little bit. But he like
did almost like a kind of it felt like a
Renaissance painting of like a bohemian dandy. Yeah. Yeah, he
was like, so you're supposed to like lock arms with
(43:14):
them or what is it? Uh? And by the way,
that was Ed Malloy that he was asking. Look, I'm
a big Ed Malloy fan. Alright, big Ed Malloy fan.
Don't make fun of me just because I have an
Ed Malloy ref Jersey. Most people don't know that that's
what it is. But I got the number. People don't know.
They said, if you and you always you always posted
(43:36):
on Twitter you're wearing it, and you take a picture
of the number and you always tag it I y
K y K if you know you know, all right,
a second there to do that joke, and right, all right,
and then and then Luca was miked up well during
the first round. And you know, I mean, I feel
like we see a lot of Luca highlights, but you don't.
(43:57):
You don't get to see the man behind Luca. And
this is a fun miked up moment. Just about every game,
different suit looks nice. He's just like talking about people
(44:18):
looking nice. And he's he's started to talk like like
my old uncle or something. He's like, all right, man,
new suit every night, must be nice, like you're a millionaire.
But I still like that the humility that you operate from,
which is very endearing. Luca telling him he looks nice.
(44:39):
You know, nobody, nobody doesn't like to hear, Hey, man,
you look great. That's a nice suit. Just don't tell
him that if it if it's not nice, because if
you tell me a nice shirt sarcastically, I will be
wearing that shirt three times a week for the next
five years. So just like, don't mess with my oceans
(45:00):
like that. Just it is what it is. Man. Alright,
there's another one in the books, another one, other classic
all time great uh maybe the greatest, maybe the greatest
NBA Podcast of all Time, But another another week of
playoffs to look forward to. Is there is there anything
that you're this buck series I'm very excited about. I'm
(45:23):
excited to get my boy Joel back. Yeah, I'm excited
for I'm honestly every there's always something fun to watch,
so I really can't complain. I'm really I've I mean,
as of now as the recording with we haven't seen
the Warriors grizz Game two. Yeah. I mean that's like
we went through this whole episode and didn't even talk
(45:44):
about like all time classic game one. Uh, the Warriors Grizzlies.
That game was incredible. Yeah, I mean they've seen, they've heard,
they know, but what a what a game? Man? Almost
bit my nails off at then. Hm. I thought you
weren't nervous Miles, you didn't care. Yeah, I am. I
was just really hungry. You're just you're really hungry and
(46:08):
waiting for this game to be over, to get a
whiz whiz. I couldn't just leave in the middle of
the game, so I said, you know what, I'm gonna
eat my finger nails. That's what happened. Nervous deal. All right, Well,
that has been another episode of Miles and Jack. We'll
see y'all next week. Obviously, Bye bye,
The Daily Zeitgeist News
Hosts And Creators
Jack O'Brien
Miles Gray
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