June 17, 2025 • 40 mins
DP reacts to the Thunder going up 3-2 in the NBA Finals. Did Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams have one of the best NBA Finals duo performances of all time? Newly crowned U.S. Open Champion J.J. Spaun breaks down his winning performance and shares the story of having to take a trip to CVS at 3 in the morning during the tournament. And NBA analyst Brian Scalabrine breaks down Boston's tax-troubled future and compares Cooper Flagg to LeBron James.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Every batman needs a Robin, Michael led Scottie Lebron, had Wade,
Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, Shaq and Kobe. You can go
down through history and it feels like there was a
batman and there was a Robin. Ok See already has
their Batman and the MVP and Shay Gilgiss, Alexander and
last night it became really clear to the uh well
(00:27):
probably the NBA population watching this OKAC team, probably for
the first time. Jalen Williams is a sidekick of sorts,
but he's his star in his own right. He was
third team All NBA. He went to Santa Clara, He
had scholarship offers to Hofstra Santa Clara, one other school
(00:48):
in there, and that's it. He had forty points last night,
biggest game of his young career. So you got Shay Gilgiss,
who's twenty five, Williams who's twenty three and wasn't afraid
of the bright lights last night. He was the best
player on the floor for a good portion of that game. Now,
(01:08):
I know, we get caught up in big names, and
rightfully so if you start to look at mich Linscotting,
Lebron and Kyrie, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry. The performance
last night between Shay Gilgis, Alexander and Jalen Williams is
one of the best in the last fifty years. So
hear me out on this. They combined to score or
(01:30):
assist on one hundred and three points. That's the most
by a duo in an NBA Finals game in the
last five decades. The stat of the Day brought to
(01:52):
you by Panini America, the official trading cards to The
Dan Patrick Show. But eight minutes and thirty seconds to go,
it's a two point game. Tyrese Halliburton is banged up.
He didn't score a basket. He had four points. He
couldn't even get shots up. And then you started to wonder,
and I wondered at halftime would he even play in
the second half. Because you can live to play another game.
(02:14):
You have another game back in Indiana. You're guaranteed that
no matter what happened last night. That's what I didn't
understand with Rick Carlile. And we can talk about how
great a coach he is. I did not agree with that,
but I'd like to know more, and maybe more will
come out because the next game is on Thursday. The
relationship that the coach has with his star player. Did
(02:36):
the star player want to come out? Does the coach
say to him, I want you to come out because
you don't want to take out your best player or
one of your best players. But he was hurting you
and TJ McConnell was wonderful when he came in in
the third quarter. He actually took over. Here is Rick
Carlyle talking about Tyrese Haliburton.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
He's not one hundred percent. It's pretty clear, but I
don't think he's gonna miss the next game. And you know,
we were concerned at halftime, and uh, he insisted on
playing and I thought, I thought he made a lot
of really good things happened in the second half. But
he's he's not He's not one hundred percent, you know,
and there's a lot of guys in the series that aren't.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, but this was really pronounced. You could see that
he was struggling. But here's Haliburton talking about deciding to play.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I mean the NBA Finals.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
It's the finals, man.
Speaker 6 (03:28):
I've worked my whole life to be here, and I
want to be out there to compete, you know how
my teammates anyway, I can you know, I was not
great tonight by any means, but you know, it's not
really a thought of mine to to not play here.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
You know.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
If I if I can, uh, you know, walk, then
I want to play. So you know, they understand that,
and uh, you know is what it is, and uh
you know, gotta be ready to go for game six.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
You can be hurt and you can be injured. If
you're injured, then you shouldn't play. If he's just banged
up a little bit, then okay, I understand he wants
to go out there, but at some point you have
to realize they're going to take advantage of him being
out there. And the fact that TJ McConnell was playing
so well kind of exacerbated that. I didn't want Haliburton
(04:14):
out there. And I want him to be great in
game six. I don't want him to be average in
game five and then average in Game six. I would
have shut him down at halftime, said it at the time,
don't play him now. They had a big lead. They
did cut that lead. Then it's a two point game
with eight and a half to go, but he was
not a factor, and nobody was able to stop Jalen
(04:35):
Williams or Shay Gilgs. I mean Gilg just had an
Oh by the Way game when he had thirty two
in ten assists, like an OH by the Way game,
thirty one and ten oh by the way. Talk about efficient,
talk about where that He's one of those players where
you go he had how many? Certain guys you go wait,
(04:56):
he only had that many. He's one of those guys
where you go, wait, he had that many and it's
all two pointers. Him and Williams, like this is a
box score out of the nineties where you got a
couple of three pointers and that's it. They're just scoring.
But Indiana still has another game back at home on
(05:16):
Thursday night, and I hope we get to see the
best of Halliburton because he has had an incredible playoff run,
one that will remember for a long long time, and
you could put him up there with clutch shooters, clutch players.
But last night I needed to help him help himself
and not play the second half of the game. Now
(05:38):
you might be saying, all right, we're going to lose
this game, but you were only down two with eight
and a half to go, and that's where you have
to rely on your other players. Haliburton wasn't able to
and that's where you ask your team to step up.
And they made it interesting. And then all of a sudden,
a minute and a half to play, and then all
the starters came out. I was like, okay, yeah, Marvin.
Speaker 7 (06:02):
If there's a team that would do something like that,
where hey, Tyrese, you take a backseat, Wi'll handle this,
it's the Pacers because you have a bunch of those
guys that are willing to step up in those moments.
A Lah and them hart A, TJ. McConnell, Nee Smith,
those guys will they would be ready to step up.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, ob top And I mean they do have players.
But okay, okay, see play defense. Everybody plays defense. It's remarkable.
I mean even SGA plays defense. But like you have to.
That's and lou Dort doesn't care Hartenstein doesn't care about
They don't care about offense. Now you want me to
(06:41):
choot a three. Dort can do that. But to be
able to have a team that understands how that team works,
sometimes that's the biggest hurdle because everybody wants to be
a star. And if I would have said to you
prior to letting you know that Jalen Williams was, you know,
thirteen NBA, you never would have thought that. Yeah, Marvin, he's.
Speaker 7 (07:04):
Kind of got a Chris Middleton feel to him, where
it's like, okay, man, this guy is so good. But
if you're not a hardcore NBA fan, you have no
idea who this is?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Third team o NBA. Now, they might reward OKAC because
you have sixty eight wins. Okay, SGA, Well, he's not
doing it alone. And then sometimes you'll single out somebody
else on the team. Jalen Williams showed you last night.
Hey I'm good. Huh, I'm only twenty three years of age. Yeah, Paul.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
I saw some.
Speaker 8 (07:34):
People complaining on social media about the refs not calling
more fouls against OKC. But it feels like Okac is
that old. Remember the Seattle Seahawks defense foul on every possession,
you know, rough people up on every possession. You can't
call them all and it's working so far.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So the thunderbeat the Pacers one twenty to one oh nine.
You got hockey coming up tonight. The Oilers at the Panthers.
Panthers a chance to go back to back Seaton question today,
which series would you rather go seven games? NBA, NHL
(08:11):
H I think if I knew that we were going
to have Edmonton win, then I would love for it
to go seven. Yeah, I knew who the winner was.
Definitely said yeah, okay, see Indiana. If you said we
(08:32):
got a game seven, it doesn't matter who wins. I'm
fine with that. But with hockey, if Edmonton had a
chance to bring the Cup back to Canada, that'd be
pretty special. It's just Florida. They knew how to win.
YSH And by the way, Dylan, our resident gambler, said
that the over under. I think they've gone over with
(08:55):
goals scored every single game. I think it's six and
a half goals coming up tonight, which means it's going
to go over again. That's what Dylan goes. That means
it's going to go under, right, I go, I have
no idea you gamble, I don't. Yes, yes, I.
Speaker 8 (09:14):
Thought you were supposed to bet against trends as a
gambler because trends don't last.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
But if it's lasted five games.
Speaker 8 (09:22):
Then you're I think an analytics person would tell you
it's has to even out because of and you'ld bet
against it.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I think what other pole questions you have seen? Uh?
Speaker 9 (09:35):
Well, I kind of wanted to stick with hockey a
little bit, but this might be over our skates, if
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
See what I said there? Yeah I did. Unfortunately Connor McDavid.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Oh no, did I just get gone?
Speaker 5 (09:59):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
It was that was a polite gong. That's crazy. I've
been accused of premature gonging before.
Speaker 9 (10:06):
I feel I'm going to appeal that premature gonging.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Okay, I don't know that that was gong work. You know,
I was just seeing if it was hooked up, ready
to go, ready to go, anticipating gong. Yes, the guy
next to you is going to get gong today guaranteed.
Speaker 9 (10:21):
Yeah, that makes sense, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
But you did lokate JJ Spahn for the show, so
you're already you're you're one up. It's plus one for
you too.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Does that distance yourself from the gong a little perfect?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
A little bit? Yeah, a little bit?
Speaker 5 (10:33):
All right?
Speaker 2 (10:34):
What else do you have? Uh?
Speaker 9 (10:36):
You know what, let me jump ahead to one that
Todd has so I could get a gong in here
real quick, okay, make it. Todd is very upset about this,
well not maybe not quite very upset, but it's his
lead story for sure. Making no attempt to get to
avoid getting hit by a pitch to ruin an opponent's
perfect game is dot dot dot.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, gauge Wood, nice name. Arc And saw a pitcher
through a no hitter, missed out on a perfect game
as he hit a batter, and then Fritzi was all
upset that the batter didn't get out of the way.
I thought one batter didn't get out of the way,
but they called him out. But the other one just
got hit by the pitch. Todd.
Speaker 10 (11:14):
Yeah, but in the eighth inning, the one that lost
the perfect game was the hit by pitch of the
foot and the guy kind of just stood there.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Like a statue.
Speaker 10 (11:20):
And I know the ball dipped in and it kind
of curved and maybe you didn't see it coming in.
I guess you want to get on base anyway you can.
It's the World Series and all that. But I've seen
people get out of the way all the time. I
had a problem that he didn't make any effort to
move his foot a little bit. That's the way you're
gonna get on base and ruin some guys.
Speaker 8 (11:36):
Yes, Paul, So, the Murray State Racers batter who is
in an elimination game in a college World Series that
team has never been to before and the eighth inning
should not do everything he can to get on base.
Speaker 10 (11:47):
I would think in a situation like that, it would
be almost instinctual if a ball's coming out of you.
I know it's not coming out of his head or anything,
but if your ball looks like it's about to hit you,
instinctually you kind of dance out of the way a
little bit. He just stayed perfectly still, watching the ball
hit his foot in his perfectly happy to ruin his perfect.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Game and take his base.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
Okay, I didn't love.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I know of all the things that happened. Otani took
the mound last night. You got a hockey tonight. Spawn
is gonna be on the show. Okay, see on the
verge of winning a title for the first time, Taj Like,
I can't believe, did you see that hitter? You didn't
even get out of the way.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Tony went five innings and struck out twelve and give
up one hit. And then I'd be like.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Wow, Tony, the things that bother you. Yes, Paul, this
is starting to bother me.
Speaker 8 (12:30):
This is the last situation where you should help out
a pitcher in a perfect game. This is the opposite
of a regular season game where you wouldn't do anything
to get on base during a perfect game.
Speaker 10 (12:39):
I'm just thinking, like, of all the unwritten rules in
baseball that to me would be in that group, standing
perfectly still as a ball which was not thrown particularly hard,
dips into your toe and you're like, oh, man, there
goes the perfect air.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
It was a wild curve ball, though maybe the hitter
was fooled a little bit.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Look like he had ample time out of I'm one person.
I'm not saying everyone should.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I know, you're one person, but you speak for like
fifteen I'm.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Saying I was personally bothered by it. That's as I mean.
Speaker 10 (13:08):
I'm not trying to convince everyone else that that's a
long thing to do.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I know, but they it was weak.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
It was weak. It was bush league, and that's the story.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I had no problem with it. Whatever. I remember Johnny
Bench tried to bunt in the seventh inning of game
against Kenny Holtzman of the Cubs and Holtzman threw a
no hitter, and I remember I was with guys and
they're like, that's so cheap to try to go what
are you talking about. Wait, I'm supposed to just go
up there and swing and help you out here.
Speaker 10 (13:37):
But then someone try to bunch off Nolan Ryan through
and Noan Ryan let him know what he thought about that.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, okay, but that's a regular season game. This is
the College World Series time, the elimination game for Murray State. Anything.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
It takes y'all for him, the good job. Nice to
keep you putting there?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah, see Ali rally monkey.
Speaker 9 (14:00):
Well, I think part of the problem is that when
you play baseball, you have to stay in the batter's box.
You have to stay in on a pitch, right. Well,
if you start getting out of the way every time
there's a breaking ball coming towards you, you're the chances
of you you're gonna strike out way more than you
get hit by a pitch.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
But you can dance out of the way of a
pitch that's inside. You can. Yeah, I mean, guys, get
out of the way of you know, pitches that get
away from pitchers. They do, But do you think it
was bush League? What happened where they are? Oh? No, okay, Marvin,
do you think it was bush league that the batter
you know, stayed in there to get on base? No, okay,
I give him way more credit.
Speaker 9 (14:42):
You ever got hit by a baseball, especially in your foot,
it hurts, It hurts like hell, it kills.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
The pitchers should be more mad at himself.
Speaker 10 (14:49):
And I know I only pitch baseball Little league, so
I'm not making any comparison other than to say if
I was in that position, I'd first be mad at
myself that I'd let it get that close to a batter,
But right behind that, I'd be like, I mean, you know,
I wouldn't approach.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
The batter, but in my head, I'd be like, I
can't beif you.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Couldn't move, you're gonna get on base getting hit by
a pitch, or you're going to strike out.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
To me, it's not that black and white. It would
depend on the situation.
Speaker 9 (15:13):
No, this situation game is it's just a regular season game.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Is the World Series game?
Speaker 5 (15:17):
I think yesterday's situation instinctually, I would have tried to
get out of the way.
Speaker 10 (15:21):
If I see the ball curving towards my foot instinctual,
without even thinking about perfect games or push the league
or what I would be. I would always look to
get out of the way of getting hit by a pitch.
That would just be an instinct.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
But you could get on base.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
But it's also like it's elimination.
Speaker 10 (15:35):
This guy's dominating us the only way perfectly, still and
let this ballad is true.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
That is true.
Speaker 8 (15:41):
Yes, In the following inning, would hit a batsman and
the batter dipped his elbow. At least the umpires called
him for dipping his elbow into the pitch. That's example,
according to the umpires, of a guy not getting out
of the way so much that he went into the
pitch and they called him out because.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
The umpire missed one. You could have moved your foot
out of the way.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
He he leaned into.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
That that guy should have been out to alrighty.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
We accomplished absolutely nothing right there. But Todd has set
the tone once again, starting the show. Come on, let's
rally here, let's let's come on, let's go, let's let's
get together here. Bush not really around.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Smattering. We've had a lot of smatterings.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Okay, flopping Oh.
Speaker 9 (16:25):
You know, it's been a long week.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
It's Friday. Get through the show.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
I polified made it feel like it should be Friday
or any because.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
It really is.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yesterday. You made it feel like it was Friday, so
you can imagine now it feels like it's Saturday.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
It feels like we're working on the weekend.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Right, how about we take a break.
Speaker 9 (16:44):
It sounds like some kind of like like a line
you could write to your wife or something that goes wrong,
like baby. You make every day feel like it's Friday,
but for somebody to hear it doesn't work or.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Something got a very negative connotation the way he said, how.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
About we take a break here? All right?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Fox Sports Radio has the best shorts talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. He just won the US Open. He's JJ
Spahn getting ready to join us on the program. I
mentioned this yesterday at when we were at Pebble a
(17:18):
couple of years ago. He came up and introduced himself,
and I thought the line was just so oh, there
he is JJ Spahn. Official introduction here, JJ spawn US
Open Champ joining us on the show. Do you remember
how you introduced yourself to me at Pebble Beach a
couple of years ago.
Speaker 11 (17:36):
Exactly? No, but I do remember being there with you.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, you walked up and you said, on the other
black guy on tour.
Speaker 11 (17:44):
Yeah, yeah, I remember that now. I remember that.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Congratulations. Give me the second favorite shot that you hit
at Oakmont.
Speaker 11 (17:56):
The T shot on seventeen on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
But that was the risk and the reward there was.
I mean, we've seen guys die in the rough there
around seventeen, but there was no hesitation.
Speaker 12 (18:10):
No, I mean, that was the strategy all we long,
is to send driver up there and just try to
get up and down and actually hit almost an identical
shot in the practice round on Tuesday, where I flagged
it to about twenty feet away. But it's a blind
T shots. You can't see the green. You can just
see like the top half of the pin. And you know,
(18:31):
that was the one shot that got me the lead
and you know, led me to victory.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
But also you're listening for the crowd's reaction to it.
Since you can't see it, you can kind of differentiate
between that was a good shot, that was a great shot.
That was an unbelievable shot.
Speaker 12 (18:49):
Exactly, and that's exactly what happened. You know, you can't
see anything, but there's tons of people up there, big grandstands,
and I you know, once I hit it the ball,
you can see it one hop and then it disappears
and all you hear is just this growing roar the stands,
and you know, you can tell, like a clap would
(19:10):
be like, okay, that's probably somewhere near the green, and
then all of a sudden you hear whoa, and you're
building up like it's going in.
Speaker 11 (19:17):
Like I literally thought I was gonna make this shot.
Speaker 12 (19:19):
And then it was like the oh, like adjustments, So
I knew it was relatively close before I got on
the green.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
How do you pay back Victor Hobblin for giving you
the read on eighteen?
Speaker 12 (19:33):
I gotta give him a nice bottle of wine or
something whatever he wants. That was a nice teach, and
I think that was just one of those things that
has to go your way to win not only a championship,
but a major championship. And I'm just happy to have
capitalized on that that little advantage.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
How surprised were you that it went in, though.
Speaker 11 (19:55):
Oh stunned, I would.
Speaker 12 (19:58):
I mean, you can tell by my react that putt
going in.
Speaker 11 (20:02):
You know, my lab hot.
Speaker 12 (20:03):
My lab putter was so hot I had to toss it,
you know, with that back nine finish.
Speaker 11 (20:08):
But I did, you know, I didn't. All I was
trying to do, obviously, was get it to tap in.
Speaker 12 (20:13):
I didn't even want like a three footer. But when
I hit it, I knew it was good pace. I
just didn't know if it was the right line. It
was raining and misty. It couldn't even really see the
hole from that far away. And you know, I'm glad
I didn't have to tap in a little three footer
for the win.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Do you retire that putter?
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Heck no, Dan, come on.
Speaker 12 (20:36):
That thing's been so hot for me. My lab putter
has been like one of the best kind of components
of my game. That's always been a part of my
statistically my game where I've struggled, But I think it's
been a great equalizer now and it's kind of helped
keep rounds going, whether it's making a clutch six footer
to keep momentum going in the right direction during a round,
(20:57):
or making a sixty four footer to when the US open.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Talking to JJ spawn US open, chant, let's clear up
the overnight CBS trip for your sick daughter. What exactly
happened and why can't you send your caddie to CBS.
Speaker 9 (21:11):
I know.
Speaker 12 (21:13):
It was a crazy sort of Sunday morning, early Sunday
morning where the tournament had a daycare provided for all
the players, and she must have caught some sort of
stomach bug from one of the other kids running around
in the same classroom as her, And all we can
hear in the other room next to us was her
just kind of puking up stuff and crying. So we
(21:35):
kind of tended to her, made sure she was okay,
but she wasn't trying.
Speaker 11 (21:39):
She couldn't hold anything down. She's crying for water. Poor things.
Speaker 12 (21:42):
She's two years old, and you know, little does she
know any sip of water kind of you know, makes
her feel worse. But yeah, I was up at three thirty.
I was looking for twenty four hour pharmacies. You know,
did my best to get her what she needed. And
you know, fortunately, you know, we we got her some
PDA lot and we just tried to, you know, help
her get on the mend and she's doing a lot
(22:04):
better now.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Though I smell a sponsorship there pd a lie. How
important was the rain delay? Maybe that sounds strange to say,
but was it a great opportunity for a reset?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
It was huge?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
You know.
Speaker 12 (22:22):
I think if if things were going the other way,
where I was like really hot starting off and kind
of all of a sudden leading, that would be kind
of the last thing you want. But it's almost like,
you know, being down twenty points going into the the halftime,
you know, break a NBA final to kind of regroup,
you know, get a game plan reset.
Speaker 11 (22:43):
I even changed my clothes.
Speaker 12 (22:44):
I was like, I want to feel like a completely
different person going out there. Because I had ten holes
to play. I was still four shots back. But it's
the US Open, you know, like people aren't running away
with this tournament. In the field kind of tends to
come back. But my team, my caddie, we all said, hey,
if you were four back going into the back nine
at the US Open on Monday, knowing that you would
take it, so don't worry about your start. Let's just
(23:07):
go back out there and try to execute our game plan.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Okay, but was there a point when you bogie five
to the first six where you go, well, I had
a good run.
Speaker 12 (23:15):
Yeah, I think on number number six when I couldn't,
I've made one par on a par five and it
was still a grinding par. But I'm I'm hitting flag sticks,
spinning off the green, hitting rakers, rakes that are bounding
just outside the bunker where I can't even hit the ball.
I was just like, Okay, I guess it's not meant
to be. But maybe that kind of helped me. You
(23:37):
have the right mental aspect to where you know if
it's meant to be to happen.
Speaker 11 (23:41):
If not, then I'll just take what it gives me.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Congratulations, a lot of fun. As rich Lerner said on
the Golf Channel, that you beat the best, but you
beat the beast as well. That was Oakmont.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
I love that.
Speaker 11 (23:53):
Thank you, Dan, I'm so honored.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Congrats Thanks Dan, Thank you JJ spahn us Open champ.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Brian Scalabrini's Celtics analyst and co host of the starting
lineup on Sirius XM NBA Radio won a title with
the eight Boston Celtics. Help me understand when a player
is hurt. I don't know if he's injured, but he's
hurt Tyrese Haliburton, and he hasn't played well, and you
know you're going to play a game six back in Indiana.
(24:34):
Why have Tyrese Haliburton go out there and played the
second half last night?
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yeah? I don't. I think that's up in the air.
Hurt or injured? Right If a guy is hurt and
it's the NBA Finals, you can't punt on a game.
So you guys got a roll with it. I mean
they got it within two they There could have been
a few things that could have happened. I know he
wasn't playing well, but his impact was still there. Even
if you look at the play that Nemhard turned the
(24:58):
ball over, they were still fai starting Tyree Halliburn thirty
forty five peep from the basket. So he was impacting
the game. He was on a run. He's had those
heroics throughout the playoffs. You got to roll the dice
on that.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Yeah, I just I know I get another game. I
want him to be really good. In game six. I
just don't want him to be kind of average the
way he was last night, and the bench was unbelievable,
Like I would have stayed with that. And look, I'm
sure Rick has far better intel than any of us
of how Tyree's was really feeling. He couldn't even get
(25:33):
shots off though, Brian, yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
He couldn't get by people. But Dan, you saw what
he has done throughout the playoffs. If you're banking on
a guy to help you, if it's a close game,
that's what you're banking on. And by the way, like
it wasn't him, like the Nemhar turnovers, that little sequence
right there, that was it and they had it. I
mean they did a great job of cutting that back. TJ.
(25:56):
McConnell did a great job of like just to you know,
bringing the energy. But you know, I just think with
a guy like Haliburt, you never know. Listen Michael Jordan
during the Flu game, he was out there playing and
you know he kind of figured it out as you win.
I'm not comparing the two, but it's just one of
those things, right, you never know. And I don't think
you can ever just say, like, well, live to fight
(26:17):
another day. Especially when TJ. McConnell and that group, that
bench group got him back into the game. I would
have done the same thing with Haliburton.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Seems like Okac is going against the analytics because they're
not about shooting threes. Yeah, I don't know what they're
going to basketball. They may ruin basketball as we know it.
Speaker 5 (26:35):
Because they're not firing up threes, or they could be
saving basketball. And I mean they won a game when
they made three three pointers. You know, it's a copycat league.
I think the pendulum kind of swung too far. Everyone
trying to copy the Boston Celtics. It would be really
interesting to see if there's a few teams out there.
You've noticed that the Orlando Magic just acquired Desmond Vane
(26:57):
and they're not a great three point shooting team, but
they are great rim attack team and they're a great
defensive teams. So you know, maybe we should look at
that team a little bit differently now now that teams
are doing a much better job of guarding the three
and taking the three away.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
You're a part of the Celtics broadcast team. What kind
of changes any big changes in the offseason for Boston?
Speaker 5 (27:18):
Yeah, I mean, I think the It was one of
those moments, like when Tatum went down with the injury,
I think their path would have looked very different this
year than when now that like we don't know if
he's going to miss the entire year. But the clictive
bargaining agreement, the second apron them punitive repeater tax, like
they just don't make it feasible to keep these teams
(27:39):
together anymore.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
So I don't know.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
Who's the guy. I don't know if it's Holiday or
Perzingis or both or Brown, you know, like, I don't
know what's going to happen. I just know that the
Celtics are going to make a conscious effort to get
underneath that tax, and we'll kind of kind of we'll
see what they end up doing after that. But it
kind of gave them a natural reset with Tatum getting hurt.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Is Kevin Durant still that attractive?
Speaker 5 (28:07):
Yeah, it's hard when you have so there's a few
things right, So they're in the second apron. You can't
aggregate salaries unless the team has space, so you have
to take a young team with cap space. And yet
if they have cap space, they usually have like a
few good players. Yeah, Phoenix wants those good players. So like,
(28:28):
when you add it all up, and if Kevin Durant
was thirty, it'd be very different. But when you add
it all up, it's going to be a weird trade
and the Phoenix Suns are not going to get the
value they need and the teams are going to say,
we're fine, we don't need Kevin Durant. You better take
what we give out there. It's not anything we've ever
experienced before. Remember those trades nine players for two, Like
(28:51):
those things can't happen anymore with the way the rules
are so complicated. Yes, talk to general managers or scouts
or all these people that know CAP Like, it's there's
not as many options out there for Kevin Durant where
he could pick his pick and choose where he wants
to go, and then Phoenix doesn't have to send him
to the places he wants to go. So I think
(29:11):
this trade is very, very complicated.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
And it feels like nobody cares about draft picks anymore.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
They do, they do.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
If you're in the lottery, you care after that.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
All right, So do you feel Dan that the East
is wide open with Indiana making this run? Wouldn't you
say like yes, okay, Like no one picked Indiana to
win a championship. I mean make maybe one person out
one hundred, right, So I just think that that puts
a lot of pressure on these other organizations. And what
do you want, Like, let's the Desmond Bine deal. Is
(29:44):
a pick this year, a pick next year, and two
players that probably can't help you win a championship. Let's
just throw that out there at coldwell, Pope, you would
think yes, but he misshot, So let's just say no. Well,
that can end up being like forty million dollars of
salary the next two years, and you're not sure that
those guys are going to you get over the hump.
Now you could send all that's in a couple more
assets and you're getting a guy like Desmond Binge where
(30:05):
you feel like you can. So I think the teams
because of Tatum's injury, because of what Indiana did, maybe
the fact that you don't need all this three point shooting.
I think teams think about Niece Smith and Nemhar like
second round pick and a guy that Celtics traded are
starting in the NBA Finals and they have a chance
to win a championship.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
I think it fast.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
Forward to a lot of timelines out there.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Yeah, I agree, the East is open. I don't know
if I could say the Knicks are, you know, going
back to the Eastern Conference finals. If the Celtics were healthy,
then they don't get there, Cavaliers. It feels like, you know,
all things fell into place for the Knicks. I still
believe though, Brian, that the Knicks we're going to fire
(30:50):
Tom Thibodeaux before the playoffs started, they were going to
fire him. Then all of a sudden, you have success,
which you know, the optics were bad, like, oh my god,
he got you the Eastern Conference funds. I just think
he he won his way into good favor with the
fans of the reaction, but management wasn't going to keep him,
and then they don't have a successor that's what's surprising
(31:13):
right now.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
Yeah, the whole thing is strange. And the goalpost was
classically moved here. You got to beat Detroit or you're
going to get fired. Oh you can't get blown out
by the Celtics, or you're going to get fired. Then
you beat the Celtics and somehow, all of a sudden,
like we look at the Pacers, I think we all
can agree, like no one has analyzed that team correctly.
They're really good. They guard, they move it, Kyri's Halliburn's good.
(31:37):
And when they lost to the Pacers, somehow like they
management spun it, like the Pacers weren't a good basketball team.
So I just like, I think, I think you're right.
They had it in their mind and they were just
looking for a reason to do it.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Brian Scalabrini, Celtics analysts for NBC Sports Boston, co host
of the Starting Lineup on Sirius XM NBA Radio. Give
me your non white guy comp for Cooper Flag.
Speaker 5 (32:02):
Oh oh, I don't do the white guy. I think
I think it's Lebron James, but without having to be
like two hundred and sixty pounds and like a freight train.
Cooper Flag is a supercomputer, a super dan. He's a
super computer. Everything you tell him, within twenty four hours,
he figured it out the next time you tell him
something else. I was working him ount in Maine. On
(32:25):
day two. I pretty much came to him and his
parents and said, listen, I can't help you anymore.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
You need to reach out explain how this happened.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
So his trainer and me are really close friends. When
Cooper was not even a high school student yet, he
was a freshman, but he hadn't played a high school game.
Cooper came down to play in my pickup game down
here in Boston. You know, it's about a three hour drive,
maybe four hour drive. He came down and he wanted
his trainer wanted me to get my eyes on Cooper,
and he told me I got a thirteen year old
(32:57):
that could play against you main kids and he can
hold his own. And Dan, I don't believe that for
one second. It's another over exaggeration of a kid. But
after seeing him, I totally believe it. And he said
it would always be the same thing. He'd kind of
take like fifteen twenty minutes to figure it out, and
then he's like right there neck and neck with twenty
three year olds, twenty two year olds when he's thirteen
(33:19):
years old. Right. I saw it for myself. It was
the same thing when he came down and played with us,
and from then on, like I kind of like made
some phone calls like John Shire and USA Basketball to like, no,
I don't think you guys understand this guy is like
I've never seen anything like that before and over time
I've been close to him and worked him out and
(33:40):
stuff like that, and they got to a point where
I just couldn't help him anymore. He was just too good.
He just picked things up. Workouts were supposed to be
challenging and you're supposed to push guys to do something
better than they normally can, and he just kept mastering
every single thing. And you talk around around the NBA,
and you talk around about guys they're always seeing the
Ron is like that. Like Lebron can act like he's
(34:02):
not paying attention to shoot around, and he can call
every action, every play on what they're trying to get
and how they got this on with four thirty six
to go at this much in the fourth quarter, so
watch out for it. And he's kind of like not
even engaged. So I'm not saying Cooper's like not engaged,
but I'm just saying I've never met and I've been
around a lot of players, I've been around Hall of
(34:23):
Fame players, I've never met someone that just can pick
up things at such a high rate. And I think
that that's when people talk about NBA players, they wonder
how this guy make it? And this guy's six to eleven,
and he's long, and he's athletic, but he doesn't make it.
A lot of it has to do with their computer,
their processor, and he just processes on a rate that
I've never seen before. So I'm only assuming that it's
(34:45):
like Lebron James.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
What's the best performance you ever witnessed in person?
Speaker 5 (34:53):
Probably Lebron in Game six against the Celtics when they
were down three to two gainst in Miami, and he
just came in and like forty five thirteen and nine
and he didn't even break a sweat. It was probably
that I saw Paul Pierce when I was playing with
the nets. He had a subpar first half and he
dropped forty eight in the second half in overtime, and
(35:16):
I couldn't believe it. I could not believe what I
was watching. And I didn't think like Chamberin could score
one hundred points in the game. I thought that that's crazy.
Then I watched Pier score in a second half forty
eight in overtime that was up there. And then I
think that Vince Carter eight minute flurry of like twenty
five points or something like that in the first quarter,
and I was on his team at that time, like
other worldly performances.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
It's weird when I watched Paul Pierce because I don't
know if he does anything, he did anything really well
other than score, Like he's just meant to be a scorer.
And I watched SGA and now SGA can get to
the hoop in mid range jumper. But there's no highlights there.
There are just certain guys who were scores do it
(36:00):
in a methodical way that you know what's happening. It's
not I'm going above, you know, I'm the rim or anything,
you know, crossing you over crazy. And Pierce and SGA
kind of remind me of each other.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
That's funny that you bring that up, because I actually
he reminds me a lot of Jalen Williams, like the
guy who just scored forty last night. I'm like, it's
Jalen Williams, like a more athletic Paul Pierce. But Dan,
it comes down to this, and SGA's in this category,
and there's a few guys that are in this category.
It's the ability to navigate space with people on your body,
like typically when you are you know, like you are
(36:37):
playing defense and you have a guy on your body
and you can dictate them, right, that's what we do
for a living, Like that's how we guard. But Paul
was never affected by that no matter. He like almost
looks and seeks out contact and encounters contact. And that's
what makes those guys, like you said, they're not. When
you're on a guy's body, it's hard to elevate way
above the rim, like it happens with separation. Michael Jordan
(37:00):
the greatest player ever because he separates, and because that
when he separates, he can elevate. Well, those guys don't separate,
but they stay connected, but they can navigate their space
while connected. That's what makes those guys special, but also
doesn't create super highlights.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Who's the best scorer? Who is the worst defender? The
best scorer, who was the worst defender? I mean, it's
gotta be some guy that doesn't play well, no, like
you know Barkley wasn't a good defender, or Larry Bird
wasn't a good defender.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
It's going to be based off of size, Like.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Iverson didn't you know really play def.
Speaker 5 (37:40):
Yeah, you can't throw the ball anywhere near his vicinity,
you know what, Like I'll tell you a guy that
I covered, and this I don't want to be disrespectful
to Isaiah Thomas, but he was a six scorer and
it's not like he didn't try. He did try, but
he's like five to nine, right, I think it's more
about that. Like people talk about James Hard seems hard
(38:01):
as big as hell, and he has quick hands, so
you could say he doesn't defend or anything like that,
but he's long, he's big. His size comes into play
most of the time in the NBA. When a guy
can't defend, it's hard to even pick up. It's the
cumulative effect of one hundred possessions of a guy being
short with short arms that becomes an issue. But those big,
(38:23):
strong guys like Barkley was the defensive rebounder. You can
give him credit for that, right, There's a lot that
goes into it, but being an undersized guard is really challenging.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah, I brought that up, you know, Kendrick Perkins brought
up that the Joker wasn't a good defender and therefore
he shouldn't be the MVP whenever. That was a couple
of years ago, and I said, that's silly, because it's
called a defensive rebound yeah. Yeah, and he's a really
good rebounder. Yeah. But all of a sudden, Joe ell
Embiid should win because apparently he played more defense I
(38:53):
guess than Joker.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
I just find it.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
We pick and choose on who plays defense and who doesn't,
are going to call them out because they don't play defense.
Steph Curry doesn't play defense. I mean he plays the
passing lanes.
Speaker 5 (39:06):
Yeah, I mean he's not He's not awful. He's in
world class shape and he's strong as hell. So I
think I think the limitations for these guys are going
to be based off the size. Like Jalen Brunson in
the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
You know, like he's not a good defender, but.
Speaker 5 (39:20):
It's just based off of size, Like it just adds
up over time. Every pass is not as contested, every rebound,
everything adds up when you are dealing with guys who
are small. But it's also credit to those guys how
remarkable they could be as players.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Okay, wait, how about Karl Anthony Towns. He can't play defense.
Speaker 5 (39:40):
I don't know, Go watch the go watch the Denver
series last year. He's pretty good. I saw him that year,
I know, but giving him a pick and roll with
Tyreek Caliburn.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
I know you gotta be careful because you know I
don't have to be careful.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
I'm saying like, like it's one of these things that
Rudy Gobert. Here's a great example of that. Rudy Gobert
and Luka Doncic. Everyone is killing Gobert on that. Gobert
is one of the most the best defensive players of
our generation impact wise, but he gets isolated two times
(40:15):
on Luca and they think he's terrible. That that's that's
a small snapshot of what a guy does. His size
is a factor.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
So it's like Luca doesn't play good defense.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
For his size. He doesn't play good defense. And you
know what, finally just came. You know what, Dan, you
just saw the equation. He's probably the best scorer who
doesn't guard. There you go.
Speaker 10 (40:39):
There.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
We eventually got around to it. All right, Hopefully I
didn't get you in trouble.
Speaker 5 (40:43):
I probably will be every time I want your showing
in trouble.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Thank you, Brian. All right, that's Ryan Scalabrini.
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Every batman needs a Robin, Michael led Scottie Lebron, had Wade,
Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, Shaq and Kobe. You can go
down through history and it feels like there was a
batman and there was a Robin. Ok See already has
their Batman and the MVP and Shay Gilgiss, Alexander and
last night it became really clear to the uh well
(00:27):
probably the NBA population watching this OKAC team, probably for
the first time. Jalen Williams is a sidekick of sorts,
but he's his star in his own right. He was
third team All NBA. He went to Santa Clara, He
had scholarship offers to Hofstra Santa Clara, one other school
(00:48):
in there, and that's it. He had forty points last night,
biggest game of his young career. So you got Shay Gilgiss,
who's twenty five, Williams who's twenty three and wasn't afraid
of the bright lights last night. He was the best
player on the floor for a good portion of that game. Now,
(01:08):
I know, we get caught up in big names, and
rightfully so if you start to look at mich Linscotting,
Lebron and Kyrie, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry. The performance
last night between Shay Gilgis, Alexander and Jalen Williams is
one of the best in the last fifty years. So
hear me out on this. They combined to score or
(01:30):
assist on one hundred and three points. That's the most
by a duo in an NBA Finals game in the
last five decades. The stat of the Day brought to
(01:52):
you by Panini America, the official trading cards to The
Dan Patrick Show. But eight minutes and thirty seconds to go,
it's a two point game. Tyrese Halliburton is banged up.
He didn't score a basket. He had four points. He
couldn't even get shots up. And then you started to wonder,
and I wondered at halftime would he even play in
the second half. Because you can live to play another game.
(02:14):
You have another game back in Indiana. You're guaranteed that
no matter what happened last night. That's what I didn't
understand with Rick Carlile. And we can talk about how
great a coach he is. I did not agree with that,
but I'd like to know more, and maybe more will
come out because the next game is on Thursday. The
relationship that the coach has with his star player. Did
(02:36):
the star player want to come out? Does the coach
say to him, I want you to come out because
you don't want to take out your best player or
one of your best players. But he was hurting you
and TJ McConnell was wonderful when he came in in
the third quarter. He actually took over. Here is Rick
Carlyle talking about Tyrese Haliburton.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
He's not one hundred percent. It's pretty clear, but I
don't think he's gonna miss the next game. And you know,
we were concerned at halftime, and uh, he insisted on
playing and I thought, I thought he made a lot
of really good things happened in the second half. But
he's he's not He's not one hundred percent, you know,
and there's a lot of guys in the series that aren't.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, but this was really pronounced. You could see that
he was struggling. But here's Haliburton talking about deciding to play.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I mean the NBA Finals.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
It's the finals, man.
Speaker 6 (03:28):
I've worked my whole life to be here, and I
want to be out there to compete, you know how
my teammates anyway, I can you know, I was not
great tonight by any means, but you know, it's not
really a thought of mine to to not play here.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
You know.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
If I if I can, uh, you know, walk, then
I want to play. So you know, they understand that,
and uh, you know is what it is, and uh
you know, gotta be ready to go for game six.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
You can be hurt and you can be injured. If
you're injured, then you shouldn't play. If he's just banged
up a little bit, then okay, I understand he wants
to go out there, but at some point you have
to realize they're going to take advantage of him being
out there. And the fact that TJ McConnell was playing
so well kind of exacerbated that. I didn't want Haliburton
(04:14):
out there. And I want him to be great in
game six. I don't want him to be average in
game five and then average in Game six. I would
have shut him down at halftime, said it at the time,
don't play him now. They had a big lead. They
did cut that lead. Then it's a two point game
with eight and a half to go, but he was
not a factor, and nobody was able to stop Jalen
(04:35):
Williams or Shay Gilgs. I mean Gilg just had an
Oh by the Way game when he had thirty two
in ten assists, like an OH by the Way game,
thirty one and ten oh by the way. Talk about efficient,
talk about where that He's one of those players where
you go he had how many? Certain guys you go wait,
(04:56):
he only had that many. He's one of those guys
where you go, wait, he had that many and it's
all two pointers. Him and Williams, like this is a
box score out of the nineties where you got a
couple of three pointers and that's it. They're just scoring.
But Indiana still has another game back at home on
(05:16):
Thursday night, and I hope we get to see the
best of Halliburton because he has had an incredible playoff run,
one that will remember for a long long time, and
you could put him up there with clutch shooters, clutch players.
But last night I needed to help him help himself
and not play the second half of the game. Now
(05:38):
you might be saying, all right, we're going to lose
this game, but you were only down two with eight
and a half to go, and that's where you have
to rely on your other players. Haliburton wasn't able to
and that's where you ask your team to step up.
And they made it interesting. And then all of a sudden,
a minute and a half to play, and then all
the starters came out. I was like, okay, yeah, Marvin.
Speaker 7 (06:02):
If there's a team that would do something like that,
where hey, Tyrese, you take a backseat, Wi'll handle this,
it's the Pacers because you have a bunch of those
guys that are willing to step up in those moments.
A Lah and them hart A, TJ. McConnell, Nee Smith,
those guys will they would be ready to step up.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, ob top And I mean they do have players.
But okay, okay, see play defense. Everybody plays defense. It's remarkable.
I mean even SGA plays defense. But like you have to.
That's and lou Dort doesn't care Hartenstein doesn't care about
They don't care about offense. Now you want me to
(06:41):
choot a three. Dort can do that. But to be
able to have a team that understands how that team works,
sometimes that's the biggest hurdle because everybody wants to be
a star. And if I would have said to you
prior to letting you know that Jalen Williams was, you know,
thirteen NBA, you never would have thought that. Yeah, Marvin, he's.
Speaker 7 (07:04):
Kind of got a Chris Middleton feel to him, where
it's like, okay, man, this guy is so good. But
if you're not a hardcore NBA fan, you have no
idea who this is?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Third team o NBA. Now, they might reward OKAC because
you have sixty eight wins. Okay, SGA, Well, he's not
doing it alone. And then sometimes you'll single out somebody
else on the team. Jalen Williams showed you last night.
Hey I'm good. Huh, I'm only twenty three years of age. Yeah, Paul.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
I saw some.
Speaker 8 (07:34):
People complaining on social media about the refs not calling
more fouls against OKC. But it feels like Okac is
that old. Remember the Seattle Seahawks defense foul on every possession,
you know, rough people up on every possession. You can't
call them all and it's working so far.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So the thunderbeat the Pacers one twenty to one oh nine.
You got hockey coming up tonight. The Oilers at the Panthers.
Panthers a chance to go back to back Seaton question today,
which series would you rather go seven games? NBA, NHL
(08:11):
H I think if I knew that we were going
to have Edmonton win, then I would love for it
to go seven. Yeah, I knew who the winner was.
Definitely said yeah, okay, see Indiana. If you said we
(08:32):
got a game seven, it doesn't matter who wins. I'm
fine with that. But with hockey, if Edmonton had a
chance to bring the Cup back to Canada, that'd be
pretty special. It's just Florida. They knew how to win.
YSH And by the way, Dylan, our resident gambler, said
that the over under. I think they've gone over with
(08:55):
goals scored every single game. I think it's six and
a half goals coming up tonight, which means it's going
to go over again. That's what Dylan goes. That means
it's going to go under, right, I go, I have
no idea you gamble, I don't. Yes, yes, I.
Speaker 8 (09:14):
Thought you were supposed to bet against trends as a
gambler because trends don't last.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
But if it's lasted five games.
Speaker 8 (09:22):
Then you're I think an analytics person would tell you
it's has to even out because of and you'ld bet
against it.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I think what other pole questions you have seen? Uh?
Speaker 9 (09:35):
Well, I kind of wanted to stick with hockey a
little bit, but this might be over our skates, if
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
See what I said there? Yeah I did. Unfortunately Connor McDavid.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Oh no, did I just get gone?
Speaker 5 (09:59):
No?
Speaker 2 (09:59):
It was that was a polite gong. That's crazy. I've
been accused of premature gonging before.
Speaker 9 (10:06):
I feel I'm going to appeal that premature gonging.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Okay, I don't know that that was gong work. You know,
I was just seeing if it was hooked up, ready
to go, ready to go, anticipating gong. Yes, the guy
next to you is going to get gong today guaranteed.
Speaker 9 (10:21):
Yeah, that makes sense, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
But you did lokate JJ Spahn for the show, so
you're already you're you're one up. It's plus one for
you too.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Does that distance yourself from the gong a little perfect?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
A little bit? Yeah, a little bit?
Speaker 5 (10:33):
All right?
Speaker 2 (10:34):
What else do you have? Uh?
Speaker 9 (10:36):
You know what, let me jump ahead to one that
Todd has so I could get a gong in here
real quick, okay, make it. Todd is very upset about this,
well not maybe not quite very upset, but it's his
lead story for sure. Making no attempt to get to
avoid getting hit by a pitch to ruin an opponent's
perfect game is dot dot dot.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, gauge Wood, nice name. Arc And saw a pitcher
through a no hitter, missed out on a perfect game
as he hit a batter, and then Fritzi was all
upset that the batter didn't get out of the way.
I thought one batter didn't get out of the way,
but they called him out. But the other one just
got hit by the pitch. Todd.
Speaker 10 (11:14):
Yeah, but in the eighth inning, the one that lost
the perfect game was the hit by pitch of the
foot and the guy kind of just stood there.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Like a statue.
Speaker 10 (11:20):
And I know the ball dipped in and it kind
of curved and maybe you didn't see it coming in.
I guess you want to get on base anyway you can.
It's the World Series and all that. But I've seen
people get out of the way all the time. I
had a problem that he didn't make any effort to
move his foot a little bit. That's the way you're
gonna get on base and ruin some guys.
Speaker 8 (11:36):
Yes, Paul, So, the Murray State Racers batter who is
in an elimination game in a college World Series that
team has never been to before and the eighth inning
should not do everything he can to get on base.
Speaker 10 (11:47):
I would think in a situation like that, it would
be almost instinctual if a ball's coming out of you.
I know it's not coming out of his head or anything,
but if your ball looks like it's about to hit you,
instinctually you kind of dance out of the way a
little bit. He just stayed perfectly still, watching the ball
hit his foot in his perfectly happy to ruin his perfect.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Game and take his base.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
Okay, I didn't love.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I know of all the things that happened. Otani took
the mound last night. You got a hockey tonight. Spawn
is gonna be on the show. Okay, see on the
verge of winning a title for the first time, Taj Like,
I can't believe, did you see that hitter? You didn't
even get out of the way.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Tony went five innings and struck out twelve and give
up one hit. And then I'd be like.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Wow, Tony, the things that bother you. Yes, Paul, this
is starting to bother me.
Speaker 8 (12:30):
This is the last situation where you should help out
a pitcher in a perfect game. This is the opposite
of a regular season game where you wouldn't do anything
to get on base during a perfect game.
Speaker 10 (12:39):
I'm just thinking, like, of all the unwritten rules in
baseball that to me would be in that group, standing
perfectly still as a ball which was not thrown particularly hard,
dips into your toe and you're like, oh, man, there
goes the perfect air.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
It was a wild curve ball, though maybe the hitter
was fooled a little bit.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Look like he had ample time out of I'm one person.
I'm not saying everyone should.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I know, you're one person, but you speak for like
fifteen I'm.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Saying I was personally bothered by it. That's as I mean.
Speaker 10 (13:08):
I'm not trying to convince everyone else that that's a
long thing to do.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I know, but they it was weak.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
It was weak. It was bush league, and that's the story.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I had no problem with it. Whatever. I remember Johnny
Bench tried to bunt in the seventh inning of game
against Kenny Holtzman of the Cubs and Holtzman threw a
no hitter, and I remember I was with guys and
they're like, that's so cheap to try to go what
are you talking about. Wait, I'm supposed to just go
up there and swing and help you out here.
Speaker 10 (13:37):
But then someone try to bunch off Nolan Ryan through
and Noan Ryan let him know what he thought about that.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, okay, but that's a regular season game. This is
the College World Series time, the elimination game for Murray State. Anything.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
It takes y'all for him, the good job. Nice to
keep you putting there?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Yeah, see Ali rally monkey.
Speaker 9 (14:00):
Well, I think part of the problem is that when
you play baseball, you have to stay in the batter's box.
You have to stay in on a pitch, right. Well,
if you start getting out of the way every time
there's a breaking ball coming towards you, you're the chances
of you you're gonna strike out way more than you
get hit by a pitch.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
But you can dance out of the way of a
pitch that's inside. You can. Yeah, I mean, guys, get
out of the way of you know, pitches that get
away from pitchers. They do, But do you think it
was bush League? What happened where they are? Oh? No, okay, Marvin,
do you think it was bush league that the batter
you know, stayed in there to get on base? No, okay,
I give him way more credit.
Speaker 9 (14:42):
You ever got hit by a baseball, especially in your foot,
it hurts, It hurts like hell, it kills.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
The pitchers should be more mad at himself.
Speaker 10 (14:49):
And I know I only pitch baseball Little league, so
I'm not making any comparison other than to say if
I was in that position, I'd first be mad at
myself that I'd let it get that close to a batter,
But right behind that, I'd be like, I mean, you know,
I wouldn't approach.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
The batter, but in my head, I'd be like, I
can't beif you.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Couldn't move, you're gonna get on base getting hit by
a pitch, or you're going to strike out.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
To me, it's not that black and white. It would
depend on the situation.
Speaker 9 (15:13):
No, this situation game is it's just a regular season game.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Is the World Series game?
Speaker 5 (15:17):
I think yesterday's situation instinctually, I would have tried to
get out of the way.
Speaker 10 (15:21):
If I see the ball curving towards my foot instinctual,
without even thinking about perfect games or push the league
or what I would be. I would always look to
get out of the way of getting hit by a pitch.
That would just be an instinct.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
But you could get on base.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
But it's also like it's elimination.
Speaker 10 (15:35):
This guy's dominating us the only way perfectly, still and
let this ballad is true.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
That is true.
Speaker 8 (15:41):
Yes, In the following inning, would hit a batsman and
the batter dipped his elbow. At least the umpires called
him for dipping his elbow into the pitch. That's example,
according to the umpires, of a guy not getting out
of the way so much that he went into the
pitch and they called him out because.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
The umpire missed one. You could have moved your foot
out of the way.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
He he leaned into.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
That that guy should have been out to alrighty.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
We accomplished absolutely nothing right there. But Todd has set
the tone once again, starting the show. Come on, let's
rally here, let's let's come on, let's go, let's let's
get together here. Bush not really around.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Smattering. We've had a lot of smatterings.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Okay, flopping Oh.
Speaker 9 (16:25):
You know, it's been a long week.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
It's Friday. Get through the show.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
I polified made it feel like it should be Friday
or any because.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
It really is.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yesterday. You made it feel like it was Friday, so
you can imagine now it feels like it's Saturday.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
It feels like we're working on the weekend.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Right, how about we take a break.
Speaker 9 (16:44):
It sounds like some kind of like like a line
you could write to your wife or something that goes wrong,
like baby. You make every day feel like it's Friday,
but for somebody to hear it doesn't work or.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Something got a very negative connotation the way he said, how.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
About we take a break here? All right?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Fox Sports Radio has the best shorts talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. He just won the US Open. He's JJ
Spahn getting ready to join us on the program. I
mentioned this yesterday at when we were at Pebble a
(17:18):
couple of years ago. He came up and introduced himself,
and I thought the line was just so oh, there
he is JJ Spahn. Official introduction here, JJ spawn US
Open Champ joining us on the show. Do you remember
how you introduced yourself to me at Pebble Beach a
couple of years ago.
Speaker 11 (17:36):
Exactly? No, but I do remember being there with you.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, you walked up and you said, on the other
black guy on tour.
Speaker 11 (17:44):
Yeah, yeah, I remember that now. I remember that.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Congratulations. Give me the second favorite shot that you hit
at Oakmont.
Speaker 11 (17:56):
The T shot on seventeen on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
But that was the risk and the reward there was.
I mean, we've seen guys die in the rough there
around seventeen, but there was no hesitation.
Speaker 12 (18:10):
No, I mean, that was the strategy all we long,
is to send driver up there and just try to
get up and down and actually hit almost an identical
shot in the practice round on Tuesday, where I flagged
it to about twenty feet away. But it's a blind
T shots. You can't see the green. You can just
see like the top half of the pin. And you know,
(18:31):
that was the one shot that got me the lead
and you know, led me to victory.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
But also you're listening for the crowd's reaction to it.
Since you can't see it, you can kind of differentiate
between that was a good shot, that was a great shot.
That was an unbelievable shot.
Speaker 12 (18:49):
Exactly, and that's exactly what happened. You know, you can't
see anything, but there's tons of people up there, big grandstands,
and I you know, once I hit it the ball,
you can see it one hop and then it disappears
and all you hear is just this growing roar the stands,
and you know, you can tell, like a clap would
(19:10):
be like, okay, that's probably somewhere near the green, and
then all of a sudden you hear whoa, and you're
building up like it's going in.
Speaker 11 (19:17):
Like I literally thought I was gonna make this shot.
Speaker 12 (19:19):
And then it was like the oh, like adjustments, So
I knew it was relatively close before I got on
the green.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
How do you pay back Victor Hobblin for giving you
the read on eighteen?
Speaker 12 (19:33):
I gotta give him a nice bottle of wine or
something whatever he wants. That was a nice teach, and
I think that was just one of those things that
has to go your way to win not only a championship,
but a major championship. And I'm just happy to have
capitalized on that that little advantage.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
How surprised were you that it went in, though.
Speaker 11 (19:55):
Oh stunned, I would.
Speaker 12 (19:58):
I mean, you can tell by my react that putt
going in.
Speaker 11 (20:02):
You know, my lab hot.
Speaker 12 (20:03):
My lab putter was so hot I had to toss it,
you know, with that back nine finish.
Speaker 11 (20:08):
But I did, you know, I didn't. All I was
trying to do, obviously, was get it to tap in.
Speaker 12 (20:13):
I didn't even want like a three footer. But when
I hit it, I knew it was good pace. I
just didn't know if it was the right line. It
was raining and misty. It couldn't even really see the
hole from that far away. And you know, I'm glad
I didn't have to tap in a little three footer
for the win.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Do you retire that putter?
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Heck no, Dan, come on.
Speaker 12 (20:36):
That thing's been so hot for me. My lab putter
has been like one of the best kind of components
of my game. That's always been a part of my
statistically my game where I've struggled, But I think it's
been a great equalizer now and it's kind of helped
keep rounds going, whether it's making a clutch six footer
to keep momentum going in the right direction during a round,
(20:57):
or making a sixty four footer to when the US open.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Talking to JJ spawn US open, chant, let's clear up
the overnight CBS trip for your sick daughter. What exactly
happened and why can't you send your caddie to CBS.
Speaker 9 (21:11):
I know.
Speaker 12 (21:13):
It was a crazy sort of Sunday morning, early Sunday
morning where the tournament had a daycare provided for all
the players, and she must have caught some sort of
stomach bug from one of the other kids running around
in the same classroom as her, And all we can
hear in the other room next to us was her
just kind of puking up stuff and crying. So we
(21:35):
kind of tended to her, made sure she was okay,
but she wasn't trying.
Speaker 11 (21:39):
She couldn't hold anything down. She's crying for water. Poor things.
Speaker 12 (21:42):
She's two years old, and you know, little does she
know any sip of water kind of you know, makes
her feel worse. But yeah, I was up at three thirty.
I was looking for twenty four hour pharmacies. You know,
did my best to get her what she needed. And
you know, fortunately, you know, we we got her some
PDA lot and we just tried to, you know, help
her get on the mend and she's doing a lot
(22:04):
better now.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Though I smell a sponsorship there pd a lie. How
important was the rain delay? Maybe that sounds strange to say,
but was it a great opportunity for a reset?
Speaker 5 (22:19):
It was huge?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
You know.
Speaker 12 (22:22):
I think if if things were going the other way,
where I was like really hot starting off and kind
of all of a sudden leading, that would be kind
of the last thing you want. But it's almost like,
you know, being down twenty points going into the the halftime,
you know, break a NBA final to kind of regroup,
you know, get a game plan reset.
Speaker 11 (22:43):
I even changed my clothes.
Speaker 12 (22:44):
I was like, I want to feel like a completely
different person going out there. Because I had ten holes
to play. I was still four shots back. But it's
the US Open, you know, like people aren't running away
with this tournament. In the field kind of tends to
come back. But my team, my caddie, we all said, hey,
if you were four back going into the back nine
at the US Open on Monday, knowing that you would
take it, so don't worry about your start. Let's just
(23:07):
go back out there and try to execute our game plan.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Okay, but was there a point when you bogie five
to the first six where you go, well, I had
a good run.
Speaker 12 (23:15):
Yeah, I think on number number six when I couldn't,
I've made one par on a par five and it
was still a grinding par. But I'm I'm hitting flag sticks,
spinning off the green, hitting rakers, rakes that are bounding
just outside the bunker where I can't even hit the ball.
I was just like, Okay, I guess it's not meant
to be. But maybe that kind of helped me. You
(23:37):
have the right mental aspect to where you know if
it's meant to be to happen.
Speaker 11 (23:41):
If not, then I'll just take what it gives me.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Congratulations, a lot of fun. As rich Lerner said on
the Golf Channel, that you beat the best, but you
beat the beast as well. That was Oakmont.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
I love that.
Speaker 11 (23:53):
Thank you, Dan, I'm so honored.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Congrats Thanks Dan, Thank you JJ spahn us Open champ.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Brian Scalabrini's Celtics analyst and co host of the starting
lineup on Sirius XM NBA Radio won a title with
the eight Boston Celtics. Help me understand when a player
is hurt. I don't know if he's injured, but he's
hurt Tyrese Haliburton, and he hasn't played well, and you
know you're going to play a game six back in Indiana.
(24:34):
Why have Tyrese Haliburton go out there and played the
second half last night?
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yeah? I don't. I think that's up in the air.
Hurt or injured? Right If a guy is hurt and
it's the NBA Finals, you can't punt on a game.
So you guys got a roll with it. I mean
they got it within two they There could have been
a few things that could have happened. I know he
wasn't playing well, but his impact was still there. Even
if you look at the play that Nemhard turned the
(24:58):
ball over, they were still fai starting Tyree Halliburn thirty
forty five peep from the basket. So he was impacting
the game. He was on a run. He's had those
heroics throughout the playoffs. You got to roll the dice
on that.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Yeah, I just I know I get another game. I
want him to be really good. In game six. I
just don't want him to be kind of average the
way he was last night, and the bench was unbelievable,
Like I would have stayed with that. And look, I'm
sure Rick has far better intel than any of us
of how Tyree's was really feeling. He couldn't even get
(25:33):
shots off though, Brian, yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:35):
He couldn't get by people. But Dan, you saw what
he has done throughout the playoffs. If you're banking on
a guy to help you, if it's a close game,
that's what you're banking on. And by the way, like
it wasn't him, like the Nemhar turnovers, that little sequence
right there, that was it and they had it. I
mean they did a great job of cutting that back. TJ.
(25:56):
McConnell did a great job of like just to you know,
bringing the energy. But you know, I just think with
a guy like Haliburt, you never know. Listen Michael Jordan
during the Flu game, he was out there playing and
you know he kind of figured it out as you win.
I'm not comparing the two, but it's just one of
those things, right, you never know. And I don't think
you can ever just say, like, well, live to fight
(26:17):
another day. Especially when TJ. McConnell and that group, that
bench group got him back into the game. I would
have done the same thing with Haliburton.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Seems like Okac is going against the analytics because they're
not about shooting threes. Yeah, I don't know what they're
going to basketball. They may ruin basketball as we know it.
Speaker 5 (26:35):
Because they're not firing up threes, or they could be
saving basketball. And I mean they won a game when
they made three three pointers. You know, it's a copycat league.
I think the pendulum kind of swung too far. Everyone
trying to copy the Boston Celtics. It would be really
interesting to see if there's a few teams out there.
You've noticed that the Orlando Magic just acquired Desmond Vane
(26:57):
and they're not a great three point shooting team, but
they are great rim attack team and they're a great
defensive teams. So you know, maybe we should look at
that team a little bit differently now now that teams
are doing a much better job of guarding the three
and taking the three away.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
You're a part of the Celtics broadcast team. What kind
of changes any big changes in the offseason for Boston?
Speaker 5 (27:18):
Yeah, I mean, I think the It was one of
those moments, like when Tatum went down with the injury,
I think their path would have looked very different this
year than when now that like we don't know if
he's going to miss the entire year. But the clictive
bargaining agreement, the second apron them punitive repeater tax, like
they just don't make it feasible to keep these teams
(27:39):
together anymore.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
So I don't know.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
Who's the guy. I don't know if it's Holiday or
Perzingis or both or Brown, you know, like, I don't
know what's going to happen. I just know that the
Celtics are going to make a conscious effort to get
underneath that tax, and we'll kind of kind of we'll
see what they end up doing after that. But it
kind of gave them a natural reset with Tatum getting hurt.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Is Kevin Durant still that attractive?
Speaker 5 (28:07):
Yeah, it's hard when you have so there's a few
things right, So they're in the second apron. You can't
aggregate salaries unless the team has space, so you have
to take a young team with cap space. And yet
if they have cap space, they usually have like a
few good players. Yeah, Phoenix wants those good players. So like,
(28:28):
when you add it all up, and if Kevin Durant
was thirty, it'd be very different. But when you add
it all up, it's going to be a weird trade
and the Phoenix Suns are not going to get the
value they need and the teams are going to say,
we're fine, we don't need Kevin Durant. You better take
what we give out there. It's not anything we've ever
experienced before. Remember those trades nine players for two, Like
(28:51):
those things can't happen anymore with the way the rules
are so complicated. Yes, talk to general managers or scouts
or all these people that know CAP Like, it's there's
not as many options out there for Kevin Durant where
he could pick his pick and choose where he wants
to go, and then Phoenix doesn't have to send him
to the places he wants to go. So I think
(29:11):
this trade is very, very complicated.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
And it feels like nobody cares about draft picks anymore.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
They do, they do.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
If you're in the lottery, you care after that.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
All right, So do you feel Dan that the East
is wide open with Indiana making this run? Wouldn't you
say like yes, okay, Like no one picked Indiana to
win a championship. I mean make maybe one person out
one hundred, right, So I just think that that puts
a lot of pressure on these other organizations. And what
do you want, Like, let's the Desmond Bine deal. Is
(29:44):
a pick this year, a pick next year, and two
players that probably can't help you win a championship. Let's
just throw that out there at coldwell, Pope, you would
think yes, but he misshot, So let's just say no. Well,
that can end up being like forty million dollars of
salary the next two years, and you're not sure that
those guys are going to you get over the hump.
Now you could send all that's in a couple more
assets and you're getting a guy like Desmond Binge where
(30:05):
you feel like you can. So I think the teams
because of Tatum's injury, because of what Indiana did, maybe
the fact that you don't need all this three point shooting.
I think teams think about Niece Smith and Nemhar like
second round pick and a guy that Celtics traded are
starting in the NBA Finals and they have a chance
to win a championship.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
I think it fast.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
Forward to a lot of timelines out there.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Yeah, I agree, the East is open. I don't know
if I could say the Knicks are, you know, going
back to the Eastern Conference finals. If the Celtics were healthy,
then they don't get there, Cavaliers. It feels like, you know,
all things fell into place for the Knicks. I still
believe though, Brian, that the Knicks we're going to fire
(30:50):
Tom Thibodeaux before the playoffs started, they were going to
fire him. Then all of a sudden, you have success,
which you know, the optics were bad, like, oh my god,
he got you the Eastern Conference funds. I just think
he he won his way into good favor with the
fans of the reaction, but management wasn't going to keep him,
and then they don't have a successor that's what's surprising
(31:13):
right now.
Speaker 5 (31:13):
Yeah, the whole thing is strange. And the goalpost was
classically moved here. You got to beat Detroit or you're
going to get fired. Oh you can't get blown out
by the Celtics, or you're going to get fired. Then
you beat the Celtics and somehow, all of a sudden,
like we look at the Pacers, I think we all
can agree, like no one has analyzed that team correctly.
They're really good. They guard, they move it, Kyri's Halliburn's good.
(31:37):
And when they lost to the Pacers, somehow like they
management spun it, like the Pacers weren't a good basketball team.
So I just like, I think, I think you're right.
They had it in their mind and they were just
looking for a reason to do it.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Brian Scalabrini, Celtics analysts for NBC Sports Boston, co host
of the Starting Lineup on Sirius XM NBA Radio. Give
me your non white guy comp for Cooper Flag.
Speaker 5 (32:02):
Oh oh, I don't do the white guy. I think
I think it's Lebron James, but without having to be
like two hundred and sixty pounds and like a freight train.
Cooper Flag is a supercomputer, a super dan. He's a
super computer. Everything you tell him, within twenty four hours,
he figured it out the next time you tell him
something else. I was working him ount in Maine. On
(32:25):
day two. I pretty much came to him and his
parents and said, listen, I can't help you anymore.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
You need to reach out explain how this happened.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
So his trainer and me are really close friends. When
Cooper was not even a high school student yet, he
was a freshman, but he hadn't played a high school game.
Cooper came down to play in my pickup game down
here in Boston. You know, it's about a three hour drive,
maybe four hour drive. He came down and he wanted
his trainer wanted me to get my eyes on Cooper,
and he told me I got a thirteen year old
(32:57):
that could play against you main kids and he can
hold his own. And Dan, I don't believe that for
one second. It's another over exaggeration of a kid. But
after seeing him, I totally believe it. And he said
it would always be the same thing. He'd kind of
take like fifteen twenty minutes to figure it out, and
then he's like right there neck and neck with twenty
three year olds, twenty two year olds when he's thirteen
(33:19):
years old. Right. I saw it for myself. It was
the same thing when he came down and played with us,
and from then on, like I kind of like made
some phone calls like John Shire and USA Basketball to like, no,
I don't think you guys understand this guy is like
I've never seen anything like that before and over time
I've been close to him and worked him out and
(33:40):
stuff like that, and they got to a point where
I just couldn't help him anymore. He was just too good.
He just picked things up. Workouts were supposed to be
challenging and you're supposed to push guys to do something
better than they normally can, and he just kept mastering
every single thing. And you talk around around the NBA,
and you talk around about guys they're always seeing the
Ron is like that. Like Lebron can act like he's
(34:02):
not paying attention to shoot around, and he can call
every action, every play on what they're trying to get
and how they got this on with four thirty six
to go at this much in the fourth quarter, so
watch out for it. And he's kind of like not
even engaged. So I'm not saying Cooper's like not engaged,
but I'm just saying I've never met and I've been
around a lot of players, I've been around Hall of
(34:23):
Fame players, I've never met someone that just can pick
up things at such a high rate. And I think
that that's when people talk about NBA players, they wonder
how this guy make it? And this guy's six to eleven,
and he's long, and he's athletic, but he doesn't make it.
A lot of it has to do with their computer,
their processor, and he just processes on a rate that
I've never seen before. So I'm only assuming that it's
(34:45):
like Lebron James.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
What's the best performance you ever witnessed in person?
Speaker 5 (34:53):
Probably Lebron in Game six against the Celtics when they
were down three to two gainst in Miami, and he
just came in and like forty five thirteen and nine
and he didn't even break a sweat. It was probably
that I saw Paul Pierce when I was playing with
the nets. He had a subpar first half and he
dropped forty eight in the second half in overtime, and
(35:16):
I couldn't believe it. I could not believe what I
was watching. And I didn't think like Chamberin could score
one hundred points in the game. I thought that that's crazy.
Then I watched Pier score in a second half forty
eight in overtime that was up there. And then I
think that Vince Carter eight minute flurry of like twenty
five points or something like that in the first quarter,
and I was on his team at that time, like
other worldly performances.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
It's weird when I watched Paul Pierce because I don't
know if he does anything, he did anything really well
other than score, Like he's just meant to be a scorer.
And I watched SGA and now SGA can get to
the hoop in mid range jumper. But there's no highlights there.
There are just certain guys who were scores do it
(36:00):
in a methodical way that you know what's happening. It's
not I'm going above, you know, I'm the rim or anything,
you know, crossing you over crazy. And Pierce and SGA
kind of remind me of each other.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
That's funny that you bring that up, because I actually
he reminds me a lot of Jalen Williams, like the
guy who just scored forty last night. I'm like, it's
Jalen Williams, like a more athletic Paul Pierce. But Dan,
it comes down to this, and SGA's in this category,
and there's a few guys that are in this category.
It's the ability to navigate space with people on your body,
like typically when you are you know, like you are
(36:37):
playing defense and you have a guy on your body
and you can dictate them, right, that's what we do
for a living, Like that's how we guard. But Paul
was never affected by that no matter. He like almost
looks and seeks out contact and encounters contact. And that's
what makes those guys, like you said, they're not. When
you're on a guy's body, it's hard to elevate way
above the rim, like it happens with separation. Michael Jordan
(37:00):
the greatest player ever because he separates, and because that
when he separates, he can elevate. Well, those guys don't separate,
but they stay connected, but they can navigate their space
while connected. That's what makes those guys special, but also
doesn't create super highlights.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Who's the best scorer? Who is the worst defender? The
best scorer, who was the worst defender? I mean, it's
gotta be some guy that doesn't play well, no, like
you know Barkley wasn't a good defender, or Larry Bird
wasn't a good defender.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
It's going to be based off of size, Like.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Iverson didn't you know really play def.
Speaker 5 (37:40):
Yeah, you can't throw the ball anywhere near his vicinity,
you know what, Like I'll tell you a guy that
I covered, and this I don't want to be disrespectful
to Isaiah Thomas, but he was a six scorer and
it's not like he didn't try. He did try, but
he's like five to nine, right, I think it's more
about that. Like people talk about James Hard seems hard
(38:01):
as big as hell, and he has quick hands, so
you could say he doesn't defend or anything like that,
but he's long, he's big. His size comes into play
most of the time in the NBA. When a guy
can't defend, it's hard to even pick up. It's the
cumulative effect of one hundred possessions of a guy being
short with short arms that becomes an issue. But those big,
(38:23):
strong guys like Barkley was the defensive rebounder. You can
give him credit for that, right, There's a lot that
goes into it, but being an undersized guard is really challenging.
Speaker 2 (38:32):
Yeah, I brought that up, you know, Kendrick Perkins brought
up that the Joker wasn't a good defender and therefore
he shouldn't be the MVP whenever. That was a couple
of years ago, and I said, that's silly, because it's
called a defensive rebound yeah. Yeah, and he's a really
good rebounder. Yeah. But all of a sudden, Joe ell
Embiid should win because apparently he played more defense I
(38:53):
guess than Joker.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
I just find it.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
We pick and choose on who plays defense and who doesn't,
are going to call them out because they don't play defense.
Steph Curry doesn't play defense. I mean he plays the
passing lanes.
Speaker 5 (39:06):
Yeah, I mean he's not He's not awful. He's in
world class shape and he's strong as hell. So I
think I think the limitations for these guys are going
to be based off the size. Like Jalen Brunson in
the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
You know, like he's not a good defender, but.
Speaker 5 (39:20):
It's just based off of size, Like it just adds
up over time. Every pass is not as contested, every rebound,
everything adds up when you are dealing with guys who
are small. But it's also credit to those guys how
remarkable they could be as players.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Okay, wait, how about Karl Anthony Towns. He can't play defense.
Speaker 5 (39:40):
I don't know, Go watch the go watch the Denver
series last year. He's pretty good. I saw him that year,
I know, but giving him a pick and roll with
Tyreek Caliburn.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
I know you gotta be careful because you know I
don't have to be careful.
Speaker 5 (39:55):
I'm saying like, like it's one of these things that
Rudy Gobert. Here's a great example of that. Rudy Gobert
and Luka Doncic. Everyone is killing Gobert on that. Gobert
is one of the most the best defensive players of
our generation impact wise, but he gets isolated two times
(40:15):
on Luca and they think he's terrible. That that's that's
a small snapshot of what a guy does. His size
is a factor.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
So it's like Luca doesn't play good defense.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
For his size. He doesn't play good defense. And you
know what, finally just came. You know what, Dan, you
just saw the equation. He's probably the best scorer who
doesn't guard. There you go.
Speaker 10 (40:39):
There.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
We eventually got around to it. All right, Hopefully I
didn't get you in trouble.
Speaker 5 (40:43):
I probably will be every time I want your showing
in trouble.
Speaker 2 (40:47):
Thank you, Brian. All right, that's Ryan Scalabrini.
Hosts And Creators
Todd "Fritzy" Fritz
Dan Patrick
Patrick "Seton" O'Connor
Paul Pabst
Marvin Prince
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