January 2, 2026 • 51 mins
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Nick Wright's best moments from the 2025-2026 NBA season! Nick reacts to the Dallas Mavericks firing Nico Harrison less than a year after trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, LeBron James' year 23 debut for LA, and Victor Wembanyama's dominant start with the San Antonio Spurs. #Volume
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the best of the week for What's Right
with Nick Right the best takes and moments from this
week on the show. Enjoy Tim McMahon, who is as
plugged into the MAVs as anyone with respect to Mark Stein.
Telegraph this a bit yesterday on The Great Hoop Collective podcast,
with he and Wendy and my pal timbon Temps talking
(00:23):
that Nico Harrison could be fired and Nico Harrison, Now,
I don't want to incorrectly report this as we record
live or we broadcast live at ten thirty four am Eastern,
Nico Harrison has not yet been fired. In a truly
(00:44):
mortifying end to a truly indefensible nine month reign of terror.
Nico Harrison has a meeting with MAVs ownership in twenty
five minutes where he will be fired. I gotta tell you,
(01:06):
I'm not sure I'd show up to that. Meaning if
Shams has it and the whole world knows that, you
know what guys with, this can be assumed. So the
impacts and implications of this are far reaching. Most notable
is the following. And this might sound shocking, this might
(01:31):
sound drastic, but I believe this to be true. Teams
around the league should immediately call Dallas and ask about
Anthony Davis's availability. Certainly teams around the league that would
(01:57):
be interested. And this probably is going to have to
be something far later once you see him if he
returns pre trade deadline, should ask about Kyrie Irving. And
that is because the Dallas Mavericks are now in total
build around Cooper Flag try to rebuild our draft capital.
(02:22):
To keep in mind, they do not either have they
either don't have well, they either don't have a pick
or don't have their own pick. In the next four drafts,
they had gone all in around historically great superstar Lukadancic,
(02:43):
and then, because of ego and hubris, Lukadanciic was traded
in the middle of the night in the type of
move that if there were ever cause for a fan
base to file a class action lawsuit against management, this
(03:10):
would be it. You had one of the greatest players
ever at the very beginning of the prime of his career,
and I said it at the time and I will
say it again, And because of nothing more than power
(03:33):
and ego, you lit the franchise on fire. Power and ego.
Everyone was searching for why Nico would have done this,
and the only logical and it's not logical, but the
(03:53):
only reasonable explanation was he did. I didn't like the
fact that someone within the organization had more power than him,
and that someone was Luca, So we got him out
of there. And it will go down in the annals
(04:20):
of sports history as one of the single greatest gaffs
in a front office has ever made. That is not
an overreaction, that is not an overstatement. That is simply
(04:44):
what it was the moment it happened, and now is
being exacerbated night in, night out as Luca instead of
coming off an injury as he was last year, reminds everyone. Yes,
I am the guy who dragged a Dallas Mavericks team
(05:05):
to the conference finals when I was twenty two and
to the NBA Finals when I was twenty four, And
now I'm twenty six, and I have more first team
All nbas under my belt than Steph Curry does, and
you got rid of me and I don't. I also
(05:28):
don't think this is an overstatement. Nico Harrison will never
work in an NBA front office again. He's gonna have
to work for Nike or an agency or something. But
this is you cannot recover from something like this and
the arrogance that less than you know. We are a
(05:55):
dozen games into this season and Nico after they spun
a one point eight percent lottery ball chance into Cooper Flag,
the fact that he said do you see the vision
now was one of the most tone deaf, ludicrous statements.
(06:20):
And I'm not a MAVs fan. Hell, I'm an adopted
I guess Laker fan because that's who Bron plays for.
So the Lakers getting Luca, who's my second favorite player,
was and he and Bron playing together was a true dream.
(06:41):
And I'm still mad about this trade on behalf of
mav fans. I can't imagine what this is. This was
a sports felony inflicted upon a fan. And yes, now
(07:02):
the villain has been captured and is facing justice, but
it doesn't change the havoc he reeked and the long
term impact on your fandom. So I I want to
(07:26):
just revisit before we get to last night's game, before
we get to football, what I set off the top,
and credit to Tim Bond, TIMPs. He's been talking about
this for a while, but now it is to me
a more because it was never gonna happen with Nico
in charge, but the Dallas Mavericks have to consider a
(07:52):
fire sale the so let me, let me. I want
to give everyone the actual draft pick situation for Dallas.
In twenty twenty six, they have their pick, so my apologies,
I said that wrong. Twenty twenty six, they have their pick.
(08:16):
This year, they have their pick, and maybe that's good
because right now they're terrible. In twenty twenty seven, their
pick basically totally unprotected, protected only for spots one or two,
so unprotected goes to Charlotte. In twenty twenty eight, Jesus,
(08:41):
the rich get richer. The Thunder can swap with them.
In twenty twenty nine, their pick goes somewhere in a
swap and they do have the Lakers pick. And in
(09:02):
twenty thirty, my god, the Spurs can swap with them.
So first of all, in twenty twenty eight and twenty thirty,
the Mavericks first round pick is gonna go to the
Thunder and then the Spurs. Holy shit. In twenty twenty nine,
(09:29):
their pick goes somewhere. I can't figure it out. It
says two most favorable of Dallas, Houston, Phoenix to Houston
and then other to Brooklyn via Dallas and Phoenix to
Brooklyn via Dallas, or Phoenix to Houston via Houston. Swap
for Dallas or Phoenix. I don't get it, but whatever,
the MAVs will not after this coming year's draft. They
(09:53):
do not have control of their their first until twenty
thirty one until Cooper flag is in the midst of
his second contract, so they need to recoop picks they
(10:14):
need to figure out like Klay Thompson's contract is fully underwater.
Kyrie's an interesting one, and I it's just and by
the way, they're three and eight and I think, let
me check. I think they have literally the worst offense
(10:36):
in the NBA. I know, so let's just check in
real quick defense wins championships, because that's all we heard
from this this guy. All we heard from him. Their
offense is, oh, is it no longer dead last? The
(11:03):
hold on? Let me, I had it. I thought they
were dead last. Maybe I'm wrong because that says they're
fourteenth right now, so oh that's last year. I'm looking
at last year. It's like, hold on a second, this
can't be correct. They can't be the Mavericks having the
fifteenth offense. No chance, All right, here we go? Oh no,
(11:27):
if fair's fair, they don't have the worst offense in
the basketball. They have the second worst offensive basketball to
the Pacers. Who's best player Torre's Achilles in Game seven
of the finals and second best or third best player
left the team. Now, I mean this is just perfect,
(11:47):
just chef's kiss. Perfect defense wins championships. The Dallas Mavericks
are three and eight. They fired Nico Harrison. They currently
have the third best defense in basketball. Maybe that was
a miscalculation because you have the second worst offense in basketball.
(12:10):
Good luck, MAVs fans. I feel sick for you. Today's
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Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, so, as you know, we don't usually get too
deep into basketball until Christmas, but we got to talk
about some things going on in the NBA. Wimby yesterday
apparently was crazy. I didn't catch this one, but I
saw the highlights. Is it possible that this guy is
already the best player in the league.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I mean, here's the thing. Demon's eight. No, no shame
in not catching it live Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I was watching vij edge Combe welcome himself to the NBA.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Oh you were watching? You were watching a different game.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I was watching.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Okay, Oh that's I thought. I assumed you meant you were.
Oh good for you, buddy. Yeah, yeah, that's a VJ.
Edgecombe all time record for points. Take you and the
Sixers won that game despite him being.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Show and the almost got bad for VJ with him
missing those two free throws at the end of the
Celticspense pulled through. That would have been a damn That
would have been a.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Great win for them. Yeah. Yeah. And and Maxie, our
guy Maxie had forty cooked, but someone else had forty
and he's a seven foot five problem. So I I
was a gog at what I saw last night from
(15:54):
Victor WindMan Yama. So he is the best defensive player
in basketball. We knew that was going to be the case.
And he had three blocks, but that doesn't really explain
it because he just dissuaded so much action because of
(16:15):
his length that I don't know what the advanced stat
is for, like shots not taken because you're scared this
guy's gonna swat it into the first row. But he
crushes in that so we had. So here's a good
comp we had on the show yesterday, A kim Olajuan
(16:41):
all right, and A Keem was never the best offensive
player in the league. But there was a two year
period when Jordan was a year and a half when
Jordan was retired, and the those two years when A
Keem was the best player in the league because he
(17:02):
was far and away the best defensive player. And those
couple of years probably like the fifth or sixth best
offensive player, and those two things can combine to make
you the best player. He usually goes in the other direction,
the best player in the league. Joker is far and
(17:25):
away the best offensive player, and then just for average defensive. Right,
And to deal with it with you know, it's very
rare you get prime. I shouldn't say it's very rare.
It's just special prime Giannis prime, Bron prime, Jordan, prime,
(17:45):
Kobe Kawhido. Also, I think was never the best offensive offense. Yeah,
I'm talking about a guy who can win the scoring
title while being the best defender in the league. Right,
it's only a handful of guys. If Wimby's gonna give
(18:07):
you forty let me put it like this. Here's why
it's so scary Tomanse and I loved that he only
took two threes, that he is stronger, his handles better.
I think Wimby. If Wimby averages twenty five points a game,
(18:35):
he might be the best player in the league like
that because of what he is defensively and if he's
gonna put up thirty. I I'm sorry to Joker and
I'm sorry to Shay, but I just I am. I'm
(18:58):
ready to have the conversation that this guy might just
be the best, like the best player in the league
right now.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
In the beginning, well, here's what I was probably more
on the injury side.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
It was two things. It was two things. One was
the injury stuff, which still anybody that size it worries me.
But that's about it. Was my skepticism on Wimby. I
guess was here were the three different levels of it.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I think it was him shooting too.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Yes, so I didn't like the style he was playing.
To me, he was trying to be Durant, and it's like, bro,
you're a half foot taller than Durant and Durant is
one of the greatest pure shooters ever. You're like the
So I didn't love that. The injuries potential concerned me
(19:48):
because literally every player in the history of the league
seven four or taller has dealt with injuries, and I
don't consider the blood clot an injury. I do, though,
I I'm gonna say it's.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Really I feel like that they're more prone to though,
just because they're larger guys.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I was about to say that exact same thing. I
was like, maybe this is dumb. Maybe a doctor's listening
is like, that's not how that works. But in my head,
that's how it works. It's like, I don't know, there's
more there's more error, you know, mileage for there to
be clots, like I don't know. But so that part,
and then the other part was I just thought we
(20:28):
were setting him up to be a disappointment by saying
if he's not better than a Chema LaJuan, he's underachieved.
I'm like, jeez, Louise Man, like he walks into the
league and it's if you're not one of the ten
greatest players of all time, you've you have failed. Yeah.
(20:51):
With that said, I mean I kind of get it.
I mean, this is fascial. This is really really special
and I don't know what you're gonna do with him,
and it does. He has become after one game Demanse
(21:20):
must watch every night and it makes me at least
with Len leaving, well, yeah, there's that, but yeah, but
also and so a couple things. It makes me take
(21:43):
the Spurs seriously. I mean, they obviously didn't even have
Fox and they beat the third and well, so that's
the other piece of it. If you were to ask
(22:04):
me going into yesterday, okay, if you are if you
can have any player in the league to try to
slow down Wimby on the defensive end, who is your
(22:25):
number one draft pick? It would have been a d.
Like that's the other problem, Like the is there anyone
in the league demands a better in theory equipped to deal.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
With Wimby on the Celtics. I think it's the last
name is Vet someth Vet.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Okay, all right, you're I don't I don't know who
you're talking about, and you're being ridiculous. There is the
the I mean, maybe you're not the I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Nobody's guarding the van. Nobody can go the He's a
freak of nature.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Hold on, who are you talking about you're talking about Queta. Okay,
all right, yeah, okay, you were being silly. Uh No,
I'm just saying like a d is seven feet can
play on the perimeter, can play down low. It has
been one of the of his era. Yes, and Wmby
(23:23):
made him look silly. I don't so so, like who
is the Spurs? What's the Spurs next game? So the
Spurs next game is? Their next three games are New Orleans, Brooklyn, Toronto.
The hell is anybody gonna do? Like? Who on New
(23:45):
Orleans is gonna be? Like it's Trey Murphy It I
don't think New Orleans. I guess MESI I don't know, man,
this is so I do think. I do think Demonde.
It's on the board that he's the best player in
(24:07):
the league this year, and that would.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Be mind is right too, Like I just don't see
it's like he's going to do everything possible to stay afloat.
I see him taking care of his body, taking care
of himself and the.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Off Yeah, oh yeah, we haven't had a guy be
in the argument for there's only been I just want
to make sure I get this right. The only no
(24:45):
one since Broun has had a real argument that they
were the best player in the league. In year three,
like Broun in your was second in MVP voting. He
had a real argument. Tim Duncan in year three might
(25:06):
have been the best player in the league, but he
was a four year college player. Shack in year three
was I think, let me, I want to see if
I have this, had an argument he was second in
MVP voting and Jordan was retired, and they made the
(25:28):
finals but lost to a team those are best player
in the league argument? By year three, it's just the
holy grail of NBA guys, really, and this is this
(25:48):
is something else. This is really really something else. I'm
amazed by it, and I I I'm lost of words.
I didn't understand what I was watching last night. And
(26:13):
we'll see how it continues. Oh wow, what's the MVP Hodds.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, so he climbed the top two in MVP odds
at plus two seventy five, and he was around plus
twelve hundred in the preseason. So do you see you
see after these three games him potentially being the favorite?
I mean, I don't see.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I mean, maybe here's the thing. The thing is this,
I just, in principle, if yesterday I could have gotten
to bet at twelve to one. I can't bet it
today at less than three to one.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
And here's a lot of those tickets out there. I
feel like one us. Yeah, I feel like there's a
lot of those out there.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Oh yeah. And I would have told you. I would
have told you one day ago those are dumb tickets,
just because I would have said, you know this injury Fling, Well,
he's coming off an injury. He might not play enough games,
and it's so hard to win MVP if you're not
a top three seed and you know how many games
(27:20):
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(28:05):
course do apply Lebron's back and I have a lot
of takes. So no athlete in my lifetime has generated
(28:28):
more idiotic and immediately self refuting opinions than Lebron. And
it's because I think it's because he's been for basically
as long as daily sports television has existed, Lebron has
(28:52):
been one of, if not the main character, and because
he has played, you know, throughout the entirety of this medium,
and because he has been at the eye of the
NBA storm, which while the NBA has never in his
career been the country's most popular sport, but it has
(29:16):
been at various times in his career the country's most
talked about sport. When it comes to sports debate and
sports TV and sports talk radio, Lebron is the Lebron
commentariot has spawned just some truly ridiculous and upon reflection,
(29:43):
hilarious moments. And these are for me, friends and foes alike.
I mean, we are twelve twelve? Is that right? No,
it's not right. Eighteen years ago, my dear pal Dan
(30:04):
Lebtard announced Lebron was on the downside and Miami had
gotten the best of him. That was thirteen years ago.
And I'm gonna talk about guys that I love an adore,
so it doesn't seem like I'm trying to take cheap
shots here. Famously, the owner and founder of this company,
(30:28):
my mentor Colin, eight years ago said Lebron hanging up
whenever you want. We've got the NBA's got it from here.
It was actually nine years ago, and that's an all
time clip. A because Lebron would go on to win
(30:51):
multiple championships after that, but b because he was saying
that Ben Simmons is gonna take over. I listen, Colin,
I was as high on Ben Simmons just about anybody.
I have to hold that l as well. And there,
of course is all the skip stuff with the clutch
and then the latest stephen A stuff with the real
personal I don't like that guy so much of it
(31:14):
just outright silliness. And then we got an unexpected dose
of it in the week's leading in the week or
so leading up to Lebron making his debut, which was
Hey Will Lebron be able to fit in with the Lakers,
(31:37):
even though we saw Luca and Lebron and Austin Reeves
play together last year. Hey, will Lebron actually make the
Lakers worse? Will he screw up what they have going on?
These were real conversations, real discussions about the most malleable,
(31:58):
most uh flexible as far as how he can help
your team player in NBA history, about arguably the only
guy in the history of the league that can legitimately
(32:18):
and has literally made an All NBA team at all
five positions on the court. Check his Basketball reference for
that was an All NBA center one year for the
Lakers and an All NBA point guard the year after
that for the Lakers. Late stage, Lebron was an All
(32:44):
NBA shooting guard as a young player early and then
obviously All NBA small forward and power forward throughout his career.
That that guy that can play all five, and certainly
the younger version of him, and to a degree the
older version of him can guard all five, that that
guy was gonna screw up a team. And then Lebron
(33:10):
comes in keeps his double digit point streak alive, which
is going to be a very fun and funny thing
to watch this year because it's obviously an untouchable record
and we'll get more on the Lebron untouchable record stuff
(33:34):
in a moment, but he wants to keep it going.
But he is, I believe, going to play a very
different style this year. That game Tuesday Night, that's the
fewest shots he's ever taken in a game he didn't
leave with injury. And speaking of the double digit point streak,
(33:58):
one of those games that he left with injury, because
there's only been two games in his career he took
fewer than seven shots, which is what he took Tuesday night.
One he didn't play the second half because he took
an elbow from to Kim Bae Matumbo, and one he
left early when Solomon Hill fell into his ankle and
(34:20):
derailed the Lakers title defense in the twenty twenty one season.
But that game involves one of my favorite Lebron moments
of all time, which is Solomon Hill falls into his ankle,
Lebron recognizes he has suffered the first truly significant injury
(34:47):
of his entire career up to that point and is
going to be out months and his city at seven
points and the streak is dead, and despite suffering an
injury that is going to knock him out for the
(35:09):
next two months, he pretends he's not hurt badly, stays
in the game, gets the ball, takes a corner, three hits,
it keeps the double figure point streak alive, and then
is out for the majority of the rest of the season.
(35:34):
But that's sidebar Lebron being dropped in as a team's
ultimate Swiss Army knife and Lebron taking pride in that ability,
and Lebron then saying after the game with a smile, Yeah,
(35:57):
I heard what was being said. I've been a you know,
you could put me on any team and I would
make it work. Is just obviously true. And people's you know,
people say that about Kevin Durant all the time, like, oh,
you just drop him in anywhere, And yes, that's true
(36:20):
about other players, great players, You drop them in and
they would make any team better. The distinction is can
you drop a player in and can they instantly do
at a high level the exact thing that team needs
(36:42):
them to do. This Lakers team right now might need
Lebron to be more facilitator, cutter, screener than score unlike
some of the other great players in this league, he
has the skill set at forty in year twenty three
(37:08):
to be excellent all at anything. Now, is he the
best player in the league anymore? Of course not. Is
he a top five player in the league anymore? No?
But is he still have a legitimate shot at being
right around top ten? And is he, assuredly when he's healthy,
(37:30):
still a top fifteen guy in the league. Yes? And
that guy with that malleyability helps any team in the
history of basketball. Now, is it all right? Now a
moot point for the whole NBA because of who and
(37:51):
what OKC is. Maybe everybody might be playing for second
this year, but we'll see things happen. And there's an
element of, I don't want to say lack of appreciation,
(38:14):
but numbness to what we are seeing at this moment.
And this is something that you know I've said before,
but I don't know that people like fully take it in,
(38:36):
and especially because you know Steph is playing at such
a high level at an advanced age. Durant is playing
at such a high level at an advanced age. But
see whether you want to focus on the age forty
(38:57):
part or the year twenty three. Part the it being
without precedent is such a wild understatement, Like Kobe Bryant,
the late great Kobe Bryant. How old do you think
(39:20):
Kobe was when he played in his final playoff game
with the Lakers. I'm gonna give it a pause so
you can actually think about it. How old was Kobe
in his final career playoff game? Are you shocked when
(39:40):
I tell you the answer to that is thirty two.
Kobe Bryant did not play in a playoff game with
the Lakers after the age of thirty two. Like a
(40:00):
little context to that, Lebron joined the Lakers when he
was thirty four. So obviously, Jordan Fit, you know, stop
(40:25):
what that was done with the Bulls at thirty five
thirty six. Obviously, we've never seen a player play in
a year twenty three, and the only one to get
to a year twenty two was Vince It's I said
this a couple of years ago and people laughed. I
(40:45):
think we are now seeing it in real time. He'll
simply never be bad and he could easily play at again,
not an MVP level, but a high level throughout his forties.
Barring again, barring, you're always at this age of a
(41:09):
catastrophic injury away, but he's ducked that up to this
point in his career, and people can have the argument
about the greatest player of all time that is going
to age so well on my end and so poorly
for so many other folks, because it is when it
(41:32):
does come to And this isn't the whole discussion, but
it is at least a piece of it. The record books.
With the way things are going right now as far
as injuries, load management, guys not being able to make
it through a full season, Lebron's longevity records are going
(41:58):
to win. People look back on him in forty years.
It's going to be like if you look at complete
games in baseball right now and you're like, wait, a
guy had forty in one year. Like all of these games, minutes, points,
(42:19):
the playoff records are going to be Chamberlain esque, untouchable
and farcical in the numbers to future generations. And I'm very,
very interested to see the full role Bron takes on
(42:43):
with the Lakers, because in Game one of year twenty three,
he was like, Okay, I'll be late stage Magic Johnson,
and that's pretty damn good. There's one other Bron adjacent
(43:04):
thing I wanted to talk about, And this is one
of those things that I imagine will do well on
social media or YouTube or and might cause me a
little grief, but I just I can't leave it unaddressed,
(43:27):
and I don't. I'm not I'm not trying to start anything,
but this is so it was maddening when I heard it.
So the greatest sports podcaster of all time, the guy
who in some ways invented the medium, and a guy
(43:50):
I like a lot, Bill Simmons, brought the mail bag back,
which is awesome. It's vented Simmons. It's part of the
reason that he's who he is, and it's awesome, and
because I'm a fan who's listening. And he gets asked
(44:12):
about the biggest sliding doors moments in NBA history, and
he goes to the Draymond Groin shot of Lebron in
Game four of the twenty sixteen Finals, which is a
(44:37):
legitimate sliding doors moment, there's no doubt about it. And
he talks about how if the Warriors win that title,
Durant can't go, you know, to Golden State. So then
who wins the next two does Lebron ever win in Cleveland.
Does Lebron ever go to the Lakers. There's that is
(44:58):
you know, what does it mean for death? Back to
back championships? He and Lebron then at that moment would
have been two to two. He would have had back
to back league MVPs, including a unanimous There are it's
He's Simmons talks about all of it, and he's correct
about that being a sliding doors moment. But there's two
(45:21):
pieces of that commentary that are just one is enraging
and it's not about Bill, and the other one is
I he just must talk to very different NBA people
than me, because what Bill said was the conspiracy theory
(45:48):
that people believe more than any other conspiracy is that
the NBA suspended Draymond because they wanted Cleveland to win
the title. And I've literally never heard that. Now. I
certainly have heard the conspiracy that they suspended Draymond because
(46:14):
they hoped the series would go longer than five. But
the idea that in real time, anyone outside of the
Calves locker room, me and Zach Lowe, we're all on
(46:34):
the record during this, everyone's doing media, nobody else when
that suspension came down said, oh, well, now I think
the Calves are going to win. That Warriors team was
considered the greatest team of all time and had dominated
(46:55):
the Calves through the first four games of that series.
So the first the first point is the idea that
it is widely thought in NBA circles that the Draymond
suspension was going to lead to the Calves winning the championship.
(47:19):
We were all there in real time that was not
a thing.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
And then and then to the opinion piece of it,
nothing is more.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Maddening for me as a Bron fan. Then the fact
that when that happened, and then the Calves win Game
five by fifteen and Lebron scores forty one points, the
(48:04):
entire media asserts that would have never happened if Draymond
was there. The Calves winning by double digits and Lebron
scoring forty plus never happened if Draymond's there. And then
(48:27):
in Game six, when Draymond is there, Lebron scores forty
one and the Calves win by fifteen points. Game five
of those finals, no Draymond Bron scores. Bron goes. I'll
give you his exact stat line, just so we all
(48:48):
are on the same page. Forty one, sixteen and seven
on fifty five percent from the field, sixty three percent
from three and the Calves win by fifteen. So again,
forty one sixteen seven fifty five sixty three splits, fifteen
point win. Game six of the Finals forty one eight
(49:14):
eleven on sixty five seventy five splits and the Cavs
win by fourteen Like, what are we talking about? What
are we talking about? Oh? Hold on, I gotta do that,
because I'm sure I have to fix that. I have
(49:37):
to fix that. I apologize. I gave you the wrong
field goal percentages. Let me let me do that again,
because I want this to be accurate. I gave you.
So Game five of the Finals, No Draymond forty one,
sixteen and seven on fifty three fifty splits in a
(49:59):
fifteen pl point When Game six of the Finals with
Draymond forty one to eight to eleven on fifty nine
fifty splits in a fourteen point win, it's just revisionist history.
(50:20):
And it's the the only other reason that's relevant to
me right now is that game happened ten seasons ago
(50:41):
and this guy's still playing. It's just a a career
that will never be even remotely approached. And it's if
you're if you're listening to this right now and a
(51:03):
sports fan of this era. The fact that we got
to experience Tom Brady going more than twenty years of
elite in the mix every single year, ten super Bowl
(51:28):
appearances across multiple teams, while experiencing Lebron doing the exact
same thing in the NBA, it's just unreal, just unreal,
Welcome to the best of the week for What's Right
with Nick Right the best takes and moments from this
week on the show. Enjoy Tim McMahon, who is as
plugged into the MAVs as anyone with respect to Mark Stein.
Telegraph this a bit yesterday on The Great Hoop Collective podcast,
with he and Wendy and my pal timbon Temps talking
(00:23):
that Nico Harrison could be fired and Nico Harrison, Now,
I don't want to incorrectly report this as we record
live or we broadcast live at ten thirty four am Eastern,
Nico Harrison has not yet been fired. In a truly
(00:44):
mortifying end to a truly indefensible nine month reign of terror.
Nico Harrison has a meeting with MAVs ownership in twenty
five minutes where he will be fired. I gotta tell you,
(01:06):
I'm not sure I'd show up to that. Meaning if
Shams has it and the whole world knows that, you
know what guys with, this can be assumed. So the
impacts and implications of this are far reaching. Most notable
is the following. And this might sound shocking, this might
(01:31):
sound drastic, but I believe this to be true. Teams
around the league should immediately call Dallas and ask about
Anthony Davis's availability. Certainly teams around the league that would
(01:57):
be interested. And this probably is going to have to
be something far later once you see him if he
returns pre trade deadline, should ask about Kyrie Irving. And
that is because the Dallas Mavericks are now in total
build around Cooper Flag try to rebuild our draft capital.
(02:22):
To keep in mind, they do not either have they
either don't have well, they either don't have a pick
or don't have their own pick. In the next four drafts,
they had gone all in around historically great superstar Lukadancic,
(02:43):
and then, because of ego and hubris, Lukadanciic was traded
in the middle of the night in the type of
move that if there were ever cause for a fan
base to file a class action lawsuit against management, this
(03:10):
would be it. You had one of the greatest players
ever at the very beginning of the prime of his career,
and I said it at the time and I will
say it again, And because of nothing more than power
(03:33):
and ego, you lit the franchise on fire. Power and ego.
Everyone was searching for why Nico would have done this,
and the only logical and it's not logical, but the
(03:53):
only reasonable explanation was he did. I didn't like the
fact that someone within the organization had more power than him,
and that someone was Luca, So we got him out
of there. And it will go down in the annals
(04:20):
of sports history as one of the single greatest gaffs
in a front office has ever made. That is not
an overreaction, that is not an overstatement. That is simply
(04:44):
what it was the moment it happened, and now is
being exacerbated night in, night out as Luca instead of
coming off an injury as he was last year, reminds everyone. Yes,
I am the guy who dragged a Dallas Mavericks team
(05:05):
to the conference finals when I was twenty two and
to the NBA Finals when I was twenty four, And
now I'm twenty six, and I have more first team
All nbas under my belt than Steph Curry does, and
you got rid of me and I don't. I also
(05:28):
don't think this is an overstatement. Nico Harrison will never
work in an NBA front office again. He's gonna have
to work for Nike or an agency or something. But
this is you cannot recover from something like this and
the arrogance that less than you know. We are a
(05:55):
dozen games into this season and Nico after they spun
a one point eight percent lottery ball chance into Cooper Flag,
the fact that he said do you see the vision
now was one of the most tone deaf, ludicrous statements.
(06:20):
And I'm not a MAVs fan. Hell, I'm an adopted
I guess Laker fan because that's who Bron plays for.
So the Lakers getting Luca, who's my second favorite player,
was and he and Bron playing together was a true dream.
(06:41):
And I'm still mad about this trade on behalf of
mav fans. I can't imagine what this is. This was
a sports felony inflicted upon a fan. And yes, now
(07:02):
the villain has been captured and is facing justice, but
it doesn't change the havoc he reeked and the long
term impact on your fandom. So I I want to
(07:26):
just revisit before we get to last night's game, before
we get to football, what I set off the top,
and credit to Tim Bond, TIMPs. He's been talking about
this for a while, but now it is to me
a more because it was never gonna happen with Nico
in charge, but the Dallas Mavericks have to consider a
(07:52):
fire sale the so let me, let me. I want
to give everyone the actual draft pick situation for Dallas.
In twenty twenty six, they have their pick, so my apologies,
I said that wrong. Twenty twenty six, they have their pick.
(08:16):
This year, they have their pick, and maybe that's good
because right now they're terrible. In twenty twenty seven, their
pick basically totally unprotected, protected only for spots one or two,
so unprotected goes to Charlotte. In twenty twenty eight, Jesus,
(08:41):
the rich get richer. The Thunder can swap with them.
In twenty twenty nine, their pick goes somewhere in a
swap and they do have the Lakers pick. And in
(09:02):
twenty thirty, my god, the Spurs can swap with them.
So first of all, in twenty twenty eight and twenty thirty,
the Mavericks first round pick is gonna go to the
Thunder and then the Spurs. Holy shit. In twenty twenty nine,
(09:29):
their pick goes somewhere. I can't figure it out. It
says two most favorable of Dallas, Houston, Phoenix to Houston
and then other to Brooklyn via Dallas and Phoenix to
Brooklyn via Dallas, or Phoenix to Houston via Houston. Swap
for Dallas or Phoenix. I don't get it, but whatever,
the MAVs will not after this coming year's draft. They
(09:53):
do not have control of their their first until twenty
thirty one until Cooper flag is in the midst of
his second contract, so they need to recoop picks they
(10:14):
need to figure out like Klay Thompson's contract is fully underwater.
Kyrie's an interesting one, and I it's just and by
the way, they're three and eight and I think, let
me check. I think they have literally the worst offense
(10:36):
in the NBA. I know, so let's just check in
real quick defense wins championships, because that's all we heard
from this this guy. All we heard from him. Their
offense is, oh, is it no longer dead last? The
(11:03):
hold on? Let me, I had it. I thought they
were dead last. Maybe I'm wrong because that says they're
fourteenth right now, so oh that's last year. I'm looking
at last year. It's like, hold on a second, this
can't be correct. They can't be the Mavericks having the
fifteenth offense. No chance, All right, here we go? Oh no,
(11:27):
if fair's fair, they don't have the worst offense in
the basketball. They have the second worst offensive basketball to
the Pacers. Who's best player Torre's Achilles in Game seven
of the finals and second best or third best player
left the team. Now, I mean this is just perfect,
(11:47):
just chef's kiss. Perfect defense wins championships. The Dallas Mavericks
are three and eight. They fired Nico Harrison. They currently
have the third best defense in basketball. Maybe that was
a miscalculation because you have the second worst offense in basketball.
(12:10):
Good luck, MAVs fans. I feel sick for you. Today's
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Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, so, as you know, we don't usually get too
deep into basketball until Christmas, but we got to talk
about some things going on in the NBA. Wimby yesterday
apparently was crazy. I didn't catch this one, but I
saw the highlights. Is it possible that this guy is
already the best player in the league.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I mean, here's the thing. Demon's eight. No, no shame
in not catching it live Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I was watching vij edge Combe welcome himself to the NBA.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Oh you were watching? You were watching a different game.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I was watching.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Okay, Oh that's I thought. I assumed you meant you were.
Oh good for you, buddy. Yeah, yeah, that's a VJ.
Edgecombe all time record for points. Take you and the
Sixers won that game despite him being.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Show and the almost got bad for VJ with him
missing those two free throws at the end of the
Celticspense pulled through. That would have been a damn That
would have been a.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Great win for them. Yeah. Yeah. And and Maxie, our
guy Maxie had forty cooked, but someone else had forty
and he's a seven foot five problem. So I I
was a gog at what I saw last night from
(15:54):
Victor WindMan Yama. So he is the best defensive player
in basketball. We knew that was going to be the case.
And he had three blocks, but that doesn't really explain
it because he just dissuaded so much action because of
(16:15):
his length that I don't know what the advanced stat
is for, like shots not taken because you're scared this
guy's gonna swat it into the first row. But he
crushes in that so we had. So here's a good
comp we had on the show yesterday, A kim Olajuan
(16:41):
all right, and A Keem was never the best offensive
player in the league. But there was a two year
period when Jordan was a year and a half when
Jordan was retired, and the those two years when A
Keem was the best player in the league because he
(17:02):
was far and away the best defensive player. And those
couple of years probably like the fifth or sixth best
offensive player, and those two things can combine to make
you the best player. He usually goes in the other direction,
the best player in the league. Joker is far and
(17:25):
away the best offensive player, and then just for average defensive. Right,
And to deal with it with you know, it's very
rare you get prime. I shouldn't say it's very rare.
It's just special prime Giannis prime, Bron prime, Jordan, prime,
(17:45):
Kobe Kawhido. Also, I think was never the best offensive offense. Yeah,
I'm talking about a guy who can win the scoring
title while being the best defender in the league. Right,
it's only a handful of guys. If Wimby's gonna give
(18:07):
you forty let me put it like this. Here's why
it's so scary Tomanse and I loved that he only
took two threes, that he is stronger, his handles better.
I think Wimby. If Wimby averages twenty five points a game,
(18:35):
he might be the best player in the league like
that because of what he is defensively and if he's
gonna put up thirty. I I'm sorry to Joker and
I'm sorry to Shay, but I just I am. I'm
(18:58):
ready to have the conversation that this guy might just
be the best, like the best player in the league
right now.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
In the beginning, well, here's what I was probably more
on the injury side.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
It was two things. It was two things. One was
the injury stuff, which still anybody that size it worries me.
But that's about it. Was my skepticism on Wimby. I
guess was here were the three different levels of it.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I think it was him shooting too.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Yes, so I didn't like the style he was playing.
To me, he was trying to be Durant, and it's like, bro,
you're a half foot taller than Durant and Durant is
one of the greatest pure shooters ever. You're like the
So I didn't love that. The injuries potential concerned me
(19:48):
because literally every player in the history of the league
seven four or taller has dealt with injuries, and I
don't consider the blood clot an injury. I do, though,
I I'm gonna say it's.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Really I feel like that they're more prone to though,
just because they're larger guys.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I was about to say that exact same thing. I
was like, maybe this is dumb. Maybe a doctor's listening
is like, that's not how that works. But in my head,
that's how it works. It's like, I don't know, there's
more there's more error, you know, mileage for there to
be clots, like I don't know. But so that part,
and then the other part was I just thought we
(20:28):
were setting him up to be a disappointment by saying
if he's not better than a Chema LaJuan, he's underachieved.
I'm like, jeez, Louise Man, like he walks into the
league and it's if you're not one of the ten
greatest players of all time, you've you have failed. Yeah.
(20:51):
With that said, I mean I kind of get it.
I mean, this is fascial. This is really really special
and I don't know what you're gonna do with him,
and it does. He has become after one game Demanse
(21:20):
must watch every night and it makes me at least
with Len leaving, well, yeah, there's that, but yeah, but
also and so a couple things. It makes me take
(21:43):
the Spurs seriously. I mean, they obviously didn't even have
Fox and they beat the third and well, so that's
the other piece of it. If you were to ask
(22:04):
me going into yesterday, okay, if you are if you
can have any player in the league to try to
slow down Wimby on the defensive end, who is your
(22:25):
number one draft pick? It would have been a d.
Like that's the other problem, Like the is there anyone
in the league demands a better in theory equipped to deal.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
With Wimby on the Celtics. I think it's the last
name is Vet someth Vet.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Okay, all right, you're I don't I don't know who
you're talking about, and you're being ridiculous. There is the
the I mean, maybe you're not the I don't know.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Nobody's guarding the van. Nobody can go the He's a
freak of nature.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Hold on, who are you talking about you're talking about Queta. Okay,
all right, yeah, okay, you were being silly. Uh No,
I'm just saying like a d is seven feet can
play on the perimeter, can play down low. It has
been one of the of his era. Yes, and Wmby
(23:23):
made him look silly. I don't so so, like who
is the Spurs? What's the Spurs next game? So the
Spurs next game is? Their next three games are New Orleans, Brooklyn, Toronto.
The hell is anybody gonna do? Like? Who on New
(23:45):
Orleans is gonna be? Like it's Trey Murphy It I
don't think New Orleans. I guess MESI I don't know, man,
this is so I do think. I do think Demonde.
It's on the board that he's the best player in
(24:07):
the league this year, and that would.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Be mind is right too, Like I just don't see
it's like he's going to do everything possible to stay afloat.
I see him taking care of his body, taking care
of himself and the.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Off Yeah, oh yeah, we haven't had a guy be
in the argument for there's only been I just want
to make sure I get this right. The only no
(24:45):
one since Broun has had a real argument that they
were the best player in the league. In year three,
like Broun in your was second in MVP voting. He
had a real argument. Tim Duncan in year three might
(25:06):
have been the best player in the league, but he
was a four year college player. Shack in year three
was I think, let me, I want to see if
I have this, had an argument he was second in
MVP voting and Jordan was retired, and they made the
(25:28):
finals but lost to a team those are best player
in the league argument? By year three, it's just the
holy grail of NBA guys, really, and this is this
(25:48):
is something else. This is really really something else. I'm
amazed by it, and I I I'm lost of words.
I didn't understand what I was watching last night. And
(26:13):
we'll see how it continues. Oh wow, what's the MVP Hodds.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, so he climbed the top two in MVP odds
at plus two seventy five, and he was around plus
twelve hundred in the preseason. So do you see you
see after these three games him potentially being the favorite?
I mean, I don't see.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I mean, maybe here's the thing. The thing is this,
I just, in principle, if yesterday I could have gotten
to bet at twelve to one. I can't bet it
today at less than three to one.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
And here's a lot of those tickets out there. I
feel like one us. Yeah, I feel like there's a
lot of those out there.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Oh yeah. And I would have told you. I would
have told you one day ago those are dumb tickets,
just because I would have said, you know this injury Fling, Well,
he's coming off an injury. He might not play enough games,
and it's so hard to win MVP if you're not
a top three seed and you know how many games
(27:20):
are the Spurs really gonna win. By the way, if
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(28:05):
course do apply Lebron's back and I have a lot
of takes. So no athlete in my lifetime has generated
(28:28):
more idiotic and immediately self refuting opinions than Lebron. And
it's because I think it's because he's been for basically
as long as daily sports television has existed, Lebron has
(28:52):
been one of, if not the main character, and because
he has played, you know, throughout the entirety of this medium,
and because he has been at the eye of the
NBA storm, which while the NBA has never in his
career been the country's most popular sport, but it has
(29:16):
been at various times in his career the country's most
talked about sport. When it comes to sports debate and
sports TV and sports talk radio, Lebron is the Lebron
commentariot has spawned just some truly ridiculous and upon reflection,
(29:43):
hilarious moments. And these are for me, friends and foes alike.
I mean, we are twelve twelve? Is that right? No,
it's not right. Eighteen years ago, my dear pal Dan
(30:04):
Lebtard announced Lebron was on the downside and Miami had
gotten the best of him. That was thirteen years ago.
And I'm gonna talk about guys that I love an adore,
so it doesn't seem like I'm trying to take cheap
shots here. Famously, the owner and founder of this company,
(30:28):
my mentor Colin, eight years ago said Lebron hanging up
whenever you want. We've got the NBA's got it from here.
It was actually nine years ago, and that's an all
time clip. A because Lebron would go on to win
(30:51):
multiple championships after that, but b because he was saying
that Ben Simmons is gonna take over. I listen, Colin,
I was as high on Ben Simmons just about anybody.
I have to hold that l as well. And there,
of course is all the skip stuff with the clutch
and then the latest stephen A stuff with the real
personal I don't like that guy so much of it
(31:14):
just outright silliness. And then we got an unexpected dose
of it in the week's leading in the week or
so leading up to Lebron making his debut, which was
Hey Will Lebron be able to fit in with the Lakers,
(31:37):
even though we saw Luca and Lebron and Austin Reeves
play together last year. Hey, will Lebron actually make the
Lakers worse? Will he screw up what they have going on?
These were real conversations, real discussions about the most malleable,
(31:58):
most uh flexible as far as how he can help
your team player in NBA history, about arguably the only
guy in the history of the league that can legitimately
(32:18):
and has literally made an All NBA team at all
five positions on the court. Check his Basketball reference for
that was an All NBA center one year for the
Lakers and an All NBA point guard the year after
that for the Lakers. Late stage, Lebron was an All
(32:44):
NBA shooting guard as a young player early and then
obviously All NBA small forward and power forward throughout his career.
That that guy that can play all five, and certainly
the younger version of him, and to a degree the
older version of him can guard all five, that that
guy was gonna screw up a team. And then Lebron
(33:10):
comes in keeps his double digit point streak alive, which
is going to be a very fun and funny thing
to watch this year because it's obviously an untouchable record
and we'll get more on the Lebron untouchable record stuff
(33:34):
in a moment, but he wants to keep it going.
But he is, I believe, going to play a very
different style this year. That game Tuesday Night, that's the
fewest shots he's ever taken in a game he didn't
leave with injury. And speaking of the double digit point streak,
(33:58):
one of those games that he left with injury, because
there's only been two games in his career he took
fewer than seven shots, which is what he took Tuesday night.
One he didn't play the second half because he took
an elbow from to Kim Bae Matumbo, and one he
left early when Solomon Hill fell into his ankle and
(34:20):
derailed the Lakers title defense in the twenty twenty one season.
But that game involves one of my favorite Lebron moments
of all time, which is Solomon Hill falls into his ankle,
Lebron recognizes he has suffered the first truly significant injury
(34:47):
of his entire career up to that point and is
going to be out months and his city at seven
points and the streak is dead, and despite suffering an
injury that is going to knock him out for the
(35:09):
next two months, he pretends he's not hurt badly, stays
in the game, gets the ball, takes a corner, three hits,
it keeps the double figure point streak alive, and then
is out for the majority of the rest of the season.
(35:34):
But that's sidebar Lebron being dropped in as a team's
ultimate Swiss Army knife and Lebron taking pride in that ability,
and Lebron then saying after the game with a smile, Yeah,
(35:57):
I heard what was being said. I've been a you know,
you could put me on any team and I would
make it work. Is just obviously true. And people's you know,
people say that about Kevin Durant all the time, like, oh,
you just drop him in anywhere, And yes, that's true
(36:20):
about other players, great players, You drop them in and
they would make any team better. The distinction is can
you drop a player in and can they instantly do
at a high level the exact thing that team needs
(36:42):
them to do. This Lakers team right now might need
Lebron to be more facilitator, cutter, screener than score unlike
some of the other great players in this league, he
has the skill set at forty in year twenty three
(37:08):
to be excellent all at anything. Now, is he the
best player in the league anymore? Of course not. Is
he a top five player in the league anymore? No?
But is he still have a legitimate shot at being
right around top ten? And is he, assuredly when he's healthy,
(37:30):
still a top fifteen guy in the league. Yes? And
that guy with that malleyability helps any team in the
history of basketball. Now, is it all right? Now a
moot point for the whole NBA because of who and
(37:51):
what OKC is. Maybe everybody might be playing for second
this year, but we'll see things happen. And there's an
element of, I don't want to say lack of appreciation,
(38:14):
but numbness to what we are seeing at this moment.
And this is something that you know I've said before,
but I don't know that people like fully take it in,
(38:36):
and especially because you know Steph is playing at such
a high level at an advanced age. Durant is playing
at such a high level at an advanced age. But
see whether you want to focus on the age forty
(38:57):
part or the year twenty three. Part the it being
without precedent is such a wild understatement, Like Kobe Bryant,
the late great Kobe Bryant. How old do you think
(39:20):
Kobe was when he played in his final playoff game
with the Lakers. I'm gonna give it a pause so
you can actually think about it. How old was Kobe
in his final career playoff game? Are you shocked when
(39:40):
I tell you the answer to that is thirty two.
Kobe Bryant did not play in a playoff game with
the Lakers after the age of thirty two. Like a
(40:00):
little context to that, Lebron joined the Lakers when he
was thirty four. So obviously, Jordan Fit, you know, stop
(40:25):
what that was done with the Bulls at thirty five
thirty six. Obviously, we've never seen a player play in
a year twenty three, and the only one to get
to a year twenty two was Vince It's I said
this a couple of years ago and people laughed. I
(40:45):
think we are now seeing it in real time. He'll
simply never be bad and he could easily play at again,
not an MVP level, but a high level throughout his forties.
Barring again, barring, you're always at this age of a
(41:09):
catastrophic injury away, but he's ducked that up to this
point in his career, and people can have the argument
about the greatest player of all time that is going
to age so well on my end and so poorly
for so many other folks, because it is when it
(41:32):
does come to And this isn't the whole discussion, but
it is at least a piece of it. The record books.
With the way things are going right now as far
as injuries, load management, guys not being able to make
it through a full season, Lebron's longevity records are going
(41:58):
to win. People look back on him in forty years.
It's going to be like if you look at complete
games in baseball right now and you're like, wait, a
guy had forty in one year. Like all of these games, minutes, points,
(42:19):
the playoff records are going to be Chamberlain esque, untouchable
and farcical in the numbers to future generations. And I'm very,
very interested to see the full role Bron takes on
(42:43):
with the Lakers, because in Game one of year twenty three,
he was like, Okay, I'll be late stage Magic Johnson,
and that's pretty damn good. There's one other Bron adjacent
(43:04):
thing I wanted to talk about, And this is one
of those things that I imagine will do well on
social media or YouTube or and might cause me a
little grief, but I just I can't leave it unaddressed,
(43:27):
and I don't. I'm not I'm not trying to start anything,
but this is so it was maddening when I heard it.
So the greatest sports podcaster of all time, the guy
who in some ways invented the medium, and a guy
(43:50):
I like a lot, Bill Simmons, brought the mail bag back,
which is awesome. It's vented Simmons. It's part of the
reason that he's who he is, and it's awesome, and
because I'm a fan who's listening. And he gets asked
(44:12):
about the biggest sliding doors moments in NBA history, and
he goes to the Draymond Groin shot of Lebron in
Game four of the twenty sixteen Finals, which is a
(44:37):
legitimate sliding doors moment, there's no doubt about it. And
he talks about how if the Warriors win that title,
Durant can't go, you know, to Golden State. So then
who wins the next two does Lebron ever win in Cleveland.
Does Lebron ever go to the Lakers. There's that is
(44:58):
you know, what does it mean for death? Back to
back championships? He and Lebron then at that moment would
have been two to two. He would have had back
to back league MVPs, including a unanimous There are it's
He's Simmons talks about all of it, and he's correct
about that being a sliding doors moment. But there's two
(45:21):
pieces of that commentary that are just one is enraging
and it's not about Bill, and the other one is
I he just must talk to very different NBA people
than me, because what Bill said was the conspiracy theory
(45:48):
that people believe more than any other conspiracy is that
the NBA suspended Draymond because they wanted Cleveland to win
the title. And I've literally never heard that. Now. I
certainly have heard the conspiracy that they suspended Draymond because
(46:14):
they hoped the series would go longer than five. But
the idea that in real time, anyone outside of the
Calves locker room, me and Zach Lowe, we're all on
(46:34):
the record during this, everyone's doing media, nobody else when
that suspension came down said, oh, well, now I think
the Calves are going to win. That Warriors team was
considered the greatest team of all time and had dominated
(46:55):
the Calves through the first four games of that series.
So the first the first point is the idea that
it is widely thought in NBA circles that the Draymond
suspension was going to lead to the Calves winning the championship.
(47:19):
We were all there in real time that was not
a thing.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
And then and then to the opinion piece of it,
nothing is more.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Maddening for me as a Bron fan. Then the fact
that when that happened, and then the Calves win Game
five by fifteen and Lebron scores forty one points, the
(48:04):
entire media asserts that would have never happened if Draymond
was there. The Calves winning by double digits and Lebron
scoring forty plus never happened if Draymond's there. And then
(48:27):
in Game six, when Draymond is there, Lebron scores forty
one and the Calves win by fifteen points. Game five
of those finals, no Draymond Bron scores. Bron goes. I'll
give you his exact stat line, just so we all
(48:48):
are on the same page. Forty one, sixteen and seven
on fifty five percent from the field, sixty three percent
from three and the Calves win by fifteen. So again,
forty one sixteen seven fifty five sixty three splits, fifteen
point win. Game six of the Finals forty one eight
(49:14):
eleven on sixty five seventy five splits and the Cavs
win by fourteen Like, what are we talking about? What
are we talking about? Oh? Hold on, I gotta do that,
because I'm sure I have to fix that. I have
(49:37):
to fix that. I apologize. I gave you the wrong
field goal percentages. Let me let me do that again,
because I want this to be accurate. I gave you.
So Game five of the Finals, No Draymond forty one,
sixteen and seven on fifty three fifty splits in a
(49:59):
fifteen pl point When Game six of the Finals with
Draymond forty one to eight to eleven on fifty nine
fifty splits in a fourteen point win, it's just revisionist history.
(50:20):
And it's the the only other reason that's relevant to
me right now is that game happened ten seasons ago
(50:41):
and this guy's still playing. It's just a a career
that will never be even remotely approached. And it's if
you're if you're listening to this right now and a
(51:03):
sports fan of this era. The fact that we got
to experience Tom Brady going more than twenty years of
elite in the mix every single year, ten super Bowl
(51:28):
appearances across multiple teams, while experiencing Lebron doing the exact
same thing in the NBA, it's just unreal, just unreal,
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