Nick Wright discusses what a slimmed-down Luka Doncic means for LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers' title aspirations. Should Luka be the favorite to win the NBA MVP? Next, Nick breaks down why Lamar Jackson deserves criticism for his playoff performances and must prove his doubters wrong following another Baltimore Ravens playoff loss to Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills last NFL season. Is Lamar ready to get Baltimore past Buffalo, Patrick Mahomes' Kansas City Chiefs, and Joe Burrow's Cincinnati Bengals en route to a Super Bowl? Later, Nick breaks down why Shedeur Sanders must start at some point during the NFL season for the Cleveland Browns over Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, and Dillon Gabriel. Lastly, Nick reacts to Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey's commenting that most people do not view LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers' 2020 NBA bubble championship as legitimate. Nick explains why anyone holding this opinion is... well... insane. #Volume
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Luca was on the cover of Men's Health magazine, looking
very slender. He came out with a quote saying, just visually,
I would say that my whole body looks better. How
are you feeling about Luca's transitions?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
So a couple things. One is, first, sorry to I
pointed this out on TV, and I'm not trying to
pick on anybody, but this, to me is one of
the main takeaways from the article. Remember I told you
guys Ai doesn't know sports and that Ai hallucinates sports.
This article got marred a bit by the fact that
(00:44):
the author included in it an anecdote about how Luca,
when he came into the league had a forty two
inch vertical that was measured at the NBA Combine. The
problem with that is twofold. One is anyone that's watched
(01:04):
ten minutes of Lukadanic at any moment of his career
knows he never had a forty two inch vertical. The
other problem is Lukdancic did not go to the combine,
so there is no place to measure his vertical, So
what happened there? The most obvious answer, is figured out
(01:27):
by some Internet sleuths, was if you googled Lukdanciic vertical,
the top AI result was that Luk Adancic had a
forty two inch vertical measured at the NBA Combine, which
then links you to an article about Dante Divincenzo's forty
(01:48):
two inch vertical at the NBA Combine. But AI hallucinated it.
I guess they saw the chu in both names, white guys,
the same draft class, and they just made it up.
So again, I'm not saying AI can't be used for things.
I'm not saying it's not you know, the next, the future,
(02:08):
all of that. I am saying, for some reason, AI
does not know sports and can't figure it out. That's
first thing. Second thing is this my other takeaway from
that article demands. I'm going to read you a line
in it which I found fascinating. The facility which is
(02:29):
located in the town where Doncic is vacationed every summer
since he was a teen. That's important. The facility which
is located in the town where Doncic has vacationed every
summer since he was a teen, didn't have weights until
earlier this month, when he had dumbbells, barbells, weight plates
(02:50):
and medballs trucked in. So here's why that's noteworthy to me.
Luke every summer goes back to this town in Slovenia
UH and trains. But his training has always just included
hoop it, you know what I mean. He plays ball
and does drills, all of it. Weight draining was never
a big part of it for him. And so now
(03:14):
you guys know, I feel like the go ahead.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Oh, it's so cool just being able to get a
bus of.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Uh weights, Oh just yet to wherever you're Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Of course. But the the I felt that the whiplash
effect of you know, Luca's fat, out of shape drinking
problem was far too strong, considering that without ever being
(03:47):
in peak physical condition, he had one of the greatest
opening six year stretches of a career.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Ever.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
This is where I am contractually obligated to remind the
audience that Luka Doncic all ready has made more first
team All nbas than either Steph Curry or Chris Paul
and only has one less than Kevin freaking Durant. He's
twenty six years old. That's how great he's been. Now,
(04:16):
he did have a down year, and part of it
was he was a little out of shape. He was
also sad. He also got hurt, He also got traded,
and all, you know, all of those things. So I
think that is I think that is important. It's not
(04:36):
giving him an excuse. But I just thought twelve months
ago today, before Luca got hurt, before Luca got traded,
when Luca was coming off a finals appearance, nobody thought
and he had beaten in round two Shay and in
round three Anthony Edwards, and had averaged thirty four to
nine and ten in the regular season. Nobody thought Shay
(04:58):
or Anthony Edwards was better than him. Now I think
it's like conventional wisdom that those guys are better than him,
and Shade certainly has earned it. I guess Anthony. I
don't think Quhite has. But whatever, the point I'm making
is this, Luca, in non tip top physical condition, was
already well on his way to being one of the
(05:19):
greatest players ever. Luca like this should be the early
favorite for League MVP.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Well you don't, and.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
You don't think with his play style that him being
a little bit thinner might affect it.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So I don't know he's going yeah, but I think
I think that if he is, I don't think he's
going to be skinny. I think he's going to be lean,
you know what I mean. I think if you just
replace some of what was fat the Lakers, Yeah, you
know what I mean, Like, I would bet he weighs
about the same, but look at me, if not.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
More, Yeah, I mean, muscle weighs more than fat, right,
I mean, so he looks a lot thinner than he was.
He looks a lot thinner, you know what I mean.
So I just, yeah, I don't think you want actually
skinny Luca, but thinner Luca. I think what is.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Helpful. And I think that he has taken this, you
know what happened last year to heart. And this was
the thing that I warned the MAVs about after the
trade that even if they were going to be right,
they're going to be wrong. Even if they were right,
that if they didn't trade him and they signed him
(06:35):
to an extension, he was just gonna get fat and
out of shape and all these things. He by trading
him and motivating him and insulting him. They then put
this extra chip on his shoulder. Now people can say,
why didn't he do it during the year. I don't
(06:56):
think you can do this type of thing during a season,
you know what I mean? I think you have to this.
You n need an offseason. And he's about to be
playing a ton of ball at euro Basket at for
Slovenia and I right now he would be my early
season pick to win League MVP next year.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
And if he just torched Dallas every single time they
play and it just doesn't even matter.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
God, I just can't wait if that were to happen. Also,
by the way, shout out to Marco in the chat
watching from Slovenia.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yes, shout out Marco. Very cool.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Let's do Matt Stafford here and then we get to
the listeners.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, so Matt st Everett has been dealing with some
backsword on this and is set to miss another week
of camp. You've been high on the RAMS. Does this
affect it at all?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I think the guy just doesn't want to go to
training camp. He's old. Oh old.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I hope that's it. That would be great. That would
be an awesome result here. If it's just old guy
doesn't want to practice. So here is before training camp,
there was one story of potential contender that hit my radar,
(08:18):
and that was the CJ. Stroud's shoulder soreness. I was like, ooh,
that's something to watch CJ Stroud, you know, like that
he wasn't able to do full throwing practice or whatever,
like that's something watch. That seems to have subsided. Okay,
but it was. It hit my radar in training camp.
(08:38):
We've been lucky so far, fingers crossed. There hasn't been
the like devastating superstar injury, and there hasn't been the
contender that has just been hit with a bunch of
you know, contributor injuries, at least not yet. So there
have been to me two made stories out of training
(09:01):
camp so far for contenders. One is a positive one.
One is a worrisome one. The positive one and people
can say this is you know, Chiefs colored glasses, but
I'm not wrong about this. The Chiefs rookie first round
pick Get who was considered a top ten talent, who
(09:24):
fell because people thought his knee was not right and
he might not be healthy for a good portion of
his rookie year. Not only being healthy the first day
of camp, but being slotted as the starting left tackle,
not competing with Jalen Moore, who they signed to be
the left tackle for that spot, and just being their
(09:47):
left tackle from day one of camp today to right
now is one of the biggest positive stories for any
true contender this training camp, because if they have that
spot locked down, and then you have Jail Moore, the
guy they signed from San Francisco, and Juwan Taylor, the
right tackle who's been a bit of a disappointment with
Kansas City since they signed him from Jacksonville, competing on
(10:08):
the right side, then all of a sudden, the Chiefs
offensive line is totally different. So and there was everyone
agreed that Josh Simmons had the talent to potentially be
the number one tackle in his draft class, but the
injury was so worried some he slid. If the knee
is really right, then the Chiefs dealing at taking care
(10:31):
of one of the most important and one of the
most expensive spots in football by drafting a guy at
thirty two is a game changer that's in the positive
direction for a contender, in a negative direction for a contender.
It's this Stafford story because aside from confidence for your
(10:56):
team's secondary, there is nothing positive that comes out of
Jimmy G practicing and playing in trailing camp. And you
need desperately healthy Matt Stafford in order to contend, and
I think the Rams can contend. I liked now poor
DeVante Adams. He's like, you got to be kidding me.
(11:19):
I got massive, I got Jimmy G throwing me the
wall again. I love Puka, I really like their d line.
I obviously love McVeigh. I think DeVante is good as
a number two with the Rams, but it all comes
undone without Stafford, and Stafford is thirty seven. He got
the shit kicked out of him for a decade in Detroit.
(11:41):
He has been banged up at times with the Rams.
I am it's not the biggest story, but I Am
not going to ignore it as a potential big story.
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Speaker 1 (13:21):
All Right, speaking of indefensible, I guess this is semi defensible,
but I hate it. The Madden rating go.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Ahead, So I don't know about indefensible, but the ninety
nine club came out for Baden twenty six. Your guy
Mahomes was snubbed. Josh Allen Lamar Jackson are the two
eight both f ninety nine ratings? Yeah, how do you
feel about this? Is this legit? I think it's pretty fair.
I think that Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen are much
(13:47):
more Madden type quarterbacks than Patrick Mahomes is. Like Patrick
Mahomes is more of an improviser. Lamar Jackson's obviously like
super fast, and Josh Allen's like a freak athlete.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
He's huge running through dudes.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
So it's like as far as games, like, if you
want to play Madden, like you're thinking, like you want
to play, you would rather play with Lamar Jackson or
Josh how Okay.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So that's a really interesting way to look at it.
And if that's the argument, that so be it. Listen,
Mahomes coming into this year, in the six Maddens post,
his rookie post, his first year as a starter, he
was a ninety nine to four times, he was the
(14:28):
highest rated quarterback five times. The one time he wasn't
he was the third highest rated quarterback behind Brady and Rogers,
and that was after the AFC Championship Game loss to Cincinnati.
And he responded by having more yards than any player
in the history of the league, winning the Super Bowl MVP,
(14:49):
winning the regular season MVP, and having arguably the greatest
quarterback season anyone's ever had. So I'm I'm not even
mad at Madden. Maybe they motivated him. I act actually,
I I want to use this as an opportunity and listen,
Josh just won Super Bowl or I'm sorry, regular season
(15:10):
MVP had, you know, for a team that a lot
of people thought was not going to be good. Some
people who had always been called a Bill's hater for
just being right about the Bills then last year thought
the Bills could be really good and that person was me,
but that it was because of Josh Allen, So it's fine.
(15:31):
And Lamar has had basically back to back perfect regular season,
so you want to give him a ninety nine rating,
it's fine. I actually want to use this time here
to talk a little bit about Lamar and the Ravens,
because I was on Mina's podcast and she was a
(15:53):
gog that I was skeptical of the rape Vins and Mena,
you know, said Lamar didn't play poorly in the playoff game,
which I find unbelievable, and said that basically she thought
(16:21):
I was being unfair to Lamar or the Ravens by
not I guess chalking up the same exact thing happening
every single year to just dumb luck and said, oh,
(16:42):
I didn't know you were a Ravens hater. And this
is where as I said with her, I will break
k fabe for a moment. I adore Mina times. I know,
I call her my rival that I want to vanquish.
I think she's outstanding. It's the only reason I went
on a podcast with her at seven o'clock New York
City time on the night before I was going to
(17:04):
the Bahamas for a few days, and I think she
does great work.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
But I.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
There are two major points I want to make here.
The first one is this, at what point does someone
stop being a hater if they are constantly one of
the only people provencorrect at what I'm just curious for
the for the media and internet at large, at what
(17:39):
point does hating transition to accurate skepticism or is the answer?
Never is the answer? Nope? If the whole world acknowledges
this guy is just you know, dan close to a
(18:02):
perfect player, who's had a couple perfect regular seasons, who's
just bad timing for these awful moments and now twenty
twenty three for Lamar, it was an awful game. Twenty
twenty four, it was not an awful game. It was
a couple really awful moments that ruined an otherwise really
(18:24):
good game by him. But I am and so because
I didn't think Lamar was terrible in the Divisional round
game against Buffalo. What I did think was a guy
who was historically good all year about protecting the football
having two turnovers in the first twenty minutes of that
(18:45):
game made it to where the best grade he could
get for the games, like a C plus and especially
because they end up losing. And so the the question
I truly have, and the question I truly have for
(19:10):
the audiences is that hating is. And I'll use the
Bills thing as an example. Every single year people called
me a Bill's hater. Now I was a Bill's troll
to a degree, and I said drop the banner, and
(19:31):
I poked fun and I did all that stuff. But
I was also right every single time. And then this
past year when I thought the pendulum had swung too
far in the other direction, and I said, I actually
think the Bills are going to be excellent. I think
they're once again the biggest threat to the Chiefs, And
(19:52):
that's the opposite of hating, and it was just correct. Right.
So then the and yes, guys, when I say Mahomes
at the most yards in the single season ever, that's
that is exactly the It's exactly what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
It is.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's total yards for the full season, everything all put together.
The most yards any players I ever accounted for was
twenty twenty two Patrick Mahomes. So the Lamar stuff to
me is interesting because I it's not only that I
(20:28):
don't think I'm a hater, but I think a lot
of other really smart people who cover this league are
in willful denial because they like him and because they
(20:48):
want it to be different than it is, and because
and this part I really empathize with, because they detectest
so much, so many of his original actual haters, the
people who said he should change positions coming in the league,
(21:11):
or he'd never be any good or any of that stuff,
and so all of that has created this very odd
world where folks patronize him a bit in a way.
(21:31):
They discuss what is the only hole on his resume,
but it's the hole that matters the most, which is
in that league, for that position, how you play in
the postseason. And so this is the question that I
would just have to everyone, Folks on Ravens Twitter who
(21:53):
are mad at me because they think the team is
absolutely stacked, and I have questions about its received position,
and folks in the media that think I'm unfair in
my skepticism. Because one of the other things that happened
when I was talking again I think Mina is outstanding
(22:15):
with Mina was Stafford came up and I talked about
how if I were like I kind of impromptu was
talking about how he might be my third pick of
any quarterback in the league to have in the postseason.
(22:35):
That would go Mahomes Alan Stafford, And she seemed legitimately
a ghast that I was not including Lamar in the
math for that, and I was legitimately aghast that she
possibly could include Lamar in the math for that specific question.
You could have any quarterback for a playoff run, like, well,
(22:57):
I'm not going to pick the guy who's literally never
like shown us that he can do that. It would
seem that would seem silly to me. You might be like, well,
Josh hasn't shown it. Josh has had plenty of playoff
runs where he's played excellent throughout. He just the team
wasn't good enough or did see that from Lamar? But
that's fine. This is kind of an old hat. We've
(23:17):
talked about this each of the last few years, because each
of the last few years it has gone exactly like this
unbelievable regular season that I look at with a quizzical
eye because I want to see how it works in
the postseason. Then Lamar has one of, if not his
downright worst game in the postseason, and then everybody has
this moment of clarity for about three days, where after
(23:39):
the year people are like, damn, Nick was right without
saying Nick was right, and then come this time of year,
it's like, no, this will year will be different. So
this is my question because Raven's Twitter, Raven's Twitter thinks
the team is absolutely loaded, so obviously like there shouldn't
be any excuses there. But my question in the media
(23:59):
is this, if it were to happen again, same be
to the last couple of years, is Lamar gonna win MVP?
He is the MVP's top two MVP, all of it,
and then once again the Ravens don't play to their
seed or don't play to their talent or you know,
(24:20):
and it's because of massive quarterback mistakes early in a
playoff game that puts him in a hole that they
can't quite dig themselves out of. Will this year then
be enough? Is it, like before, the sample is too
small or will it still just be a randomness, dumb
luck of the playoffs? I find it really fascinating because
(24:45):
it is absolutely true that the only thing standing between
Lamar and being in the discussion demanse as one of
the Mixer seven greatest quarterbacks of all time, is one
(25:06):
great playoff run. That's all that's standing between It's just
one because the regular season stuff is so unbelievable. But
the only thing standing between him and being in a
very unique class of all time athletes in a in
(25:31):
a not great sense, is deja vu all over again
one more time. And it makes this year one of
the most fascinating. It makes it makes the Ravens and
Lamar one of the most fascinating stories of the season. Uh.
And it also I am I'm really excited to watch it,
(25:54):
and I am really excited to see how people react
myself included to how this full season plays out. And
so like it was, it's back to back years. It's
(26:15):
all been right there, all been. And that's one other
thing I want to say, because one of the things
Mena pointed out was Dvoa has over the last quarter
century de Monday, the two best teams, the two best
five year stretches by any team to not make a
Super Bowl are the last five years of the Buffalo
(26:38):
Bills and the last five years of the Baltimore Ravens.
And the point there that Mina made was, you know,
basically that's an Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes stat, and
it's that these two teams were good enough to be
all time greats. They were just blocked by one of
(26:59):
the great is, if not the greatest duo in NFL history.
And I pushed back on that too, because I think
the Bills being on that list is a Andy Reid
and Patrick Mahomes stat because the Bills have lost to
the Chiefs five times in this stretch all r I'm sorry,
four times. I don't know that. I feel the Ravens
(27:20):
being on that list is a Chief stat because only
one of those years have the Chiefs been the team
to block the Ravens. They haven't gotten to that level yet.
So we'll see, and I listen, you believe in the
Ravens this year year.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
NFL is wide open this year. See what he does.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, no, we'll see. I have a feeling it will
be like every year, unbelievable. In the regular season, they
lose a couple of games they probably shouldn't lose that
are a little odd, but the it is jaw dropping.
And then come the playoffs, we're gonna be like, wow,
(28:03):
this team sure looks different, wonder why? And then but listen,
maybe I'll be wrong. Maybe I'll be wrong.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
So Brown's owner Jimmy Haslam has distanced himself from the
Shador Sanders pick, saying that the GM was the one
who made that call and not him. So why wouldn't
he want stake on such a low risk, high reward situation.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
So listen, I think he is just trying to I
don't think he's trying to distance himself as much as
what he's trying to do is make it clear or
at least clean up a bit. No, the GM's in charge,
not me. Here is what I find so interesting about
the Chador situation right now. I was not a Shadoor guy.
(28:52):
I was one of I think the first people in
the mock draft community that had Shador early in the process,
slipping to the back half of Round one, talking about
that the Steelers might not need to trade up if
they need to get him. I talked a lot about
how I thought there was too much discussion about Shador's
(29:15):
personality and not enough discussion about his lack of arm talent,
and I just didn't look at him as like a
blue chip prospect. So I was not a Shadoor guy.
And now the however, because of where he is and
the quarterbacks that he is competing with. I find myself
feeling like they've got to start him at some point,
(29:37):
because here's the deal. Kenny Pickett is injured and not
an NFL quarterback. There is a zero percent chance Kenny
Pickett is the Steeler's answer at quarterback. Zero percent. The Steelers,
pardon me, there is a zero percent chance he wasn't.
The Steelers answer that Kenny Pickett is the Browns answer quarterback,
(30:00):
so cross him out. Joe Flacco is forty years old.
There is a zero percent chance Joe Flacco is their
long term answer at quarterback, so cross him out. Dylan Gabriel, sorry,
and you're not gonna like this, demase, he's too small.
(30:24):
There is a zero percent chance Dylan Gabriel can be
a nice backup, maybe a spot starter. There is a
zero percent chance Dylan Gabriel is the Browns franchise quarterback
three years from now. Shadoor, there is a five percent
chance Shadoor is the Browns franchise quarterback. Five percent got
(30:49):
more than one, less than ten somewhere in there, when
the other three guys are a combined zero percent, and
you're gonna be a terrible team the moment you know,
you can start Flacco to start the year, but the
moment that the year has gotten away from you, you
gotta play shittor. And that's the other weird thing. Haslam
(31:12):
was like Andrew picks the players, Stefanski sets the rock,
you know, decide too plays, but then also said in
that same SoundBite, obviously both young guys need to play
this year. I mean, Haslm's not the greatest donor just
just flat.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Like both of them just saying that this year is
like a waste.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Well, I mean I don't. I mean, it seems.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Quarterbacks need to play this year. You kind of have
an idea of what your season.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
To correct because they have two first round picks next
year and they yeah, I mean, Haslm is a tough
guy to work for. Danny's quarterback rankings are just an abomination,
and it just begs the question, why is it? Why
(32:02):
do we play the games if they're not going to count?
And again they are. I might be being a little
harsh because the rankings are actually Danny's rankings. Go Mahomes,
Alan Burrow, Lamar, Herbert Stafford, Jaden Goff Baker hurts. So
(32:23):
here's the when I say they're an abomination, here's what
I mean, or here's here's what's unfair about that. If
he's simply flipped Hurts and Herbert, they're totally legitimate ranking.
And that's I'm not saying that's how I would have
it one through ten. But if it went Mahomes, Alan Burrow, Lamar, Hurts, Stafford,
(32:47):
Jaden Goff, Baker, Herbert, that's fine, Like, there's nothing crazy
about that. But having Justin Herbert ahead of Matt Stafford,
Jaden Daniels, Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield, and Jail and Hurts
for nothing other than vibes, it's just it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
And that's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
So now, you demons, do you have an issue with
people who put Burrow ahead of Lamar?
Speaker 3 (33:22):
No, I could.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
I could see those, I can flip those on any
given day. I feel like, so I could pull Lamar
before before Brow. I'm also not mad at Burrow being
before Lamar.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I'm not mad at Burrow being ahead of Lamar. However, again,
my job on this pod is to just be sports.
The sports worlds ras al Ghoul and you know, create
balance in the world where there otherwise isn't let me
defend Lamar for a moment here. It is unfair in
(33:58):
my opinion to penalize Lamar for bad postseason performances and
then lift up Joe Burrow, who the last couple of
years has had nonexistent postseason performances, you know what I mean?
So like that is it's a weird because you can't
(34:21):
argue as great as Burrow has been was in the
regular season last year, a lot of the MVP voters,
all pro voters, a lot of people thought Lamar was better.
And then obviously the year before Lamar was better in
the regular season is Burrow was hurt and wasn't that
effective early and Lamar won League MVP, and so the
(34:43):
knock on Lamar's postseason performances, but Burrow hasn't been in
the postseason. So like that one I do think is
a little.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Much of Lamar is my guy and you're ripping into
him the other day on Tuesday. But as postseason success,
I really can't argue, like that's that's fair. But how
much of that stuff is Burrow's fault? How much of
that stuff is Lamar's fault? As far as the postseason,
what happens, like with with Joe Burrow, You're saying he
was banged up and then you have a terrible defense
last year.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I just think, well, no, That's what I'm saying is, yes,
those are true factors, but I'm also not going to.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Use it as a metric, like when when ranking them.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Well, no, I I what I'm not gonna do is
say after the regular season, Lamar is higher than Burrow,
Burrow misses the playoffs, Lamar plays poorly in the playoffs,
and then Lamar gets dropped beneath Burrow, like the because
(35:42):
you can't, yep, showing up to a test and failing
it is still better than skipping the test, like not
showing up. And so like you got you got more,
you got some questions right, and so oh like the
and so that's the So I listen, I don't think
(36:03):
having Burrow ahead of Lamar is outrageous, but it's not
what I would have And and then it starts getting
you know, then we start figuring out where exactly do
you have hurts, And the hurts ranking is really interesting.
And I tried to make this point on TV yesterday
and I did it kind of ham handedly, which is
(36:26):
Eagles fans right now, and I get it they're feeling themselves.
You won the chance Super Bowl, you should absolutely be thrilled,
But they kind of want the best of both worlds.
They want everyone to acknowledge how utterly stacked their roster is,
(36:50):
how great, Howie Roseman's done, how good they are, you know,
in every way, shape and form. They want all of that,
but they also don't don't want any of us to
incorporate any of that into our evaluation of Jalen Hurts.
Like they want everyone to bend the knee that they
(37:11):
have the best overall roster in football by a mile,
but also pretend like we think Jalen Hurts is carrying
just a regular team. And so now I think Hurts
has been clearly excellent in huge spots, and I think
Hurts I think having Hurts ten like Danny did is
(37:31):
too you know, a bridge too far. But I also
think that it is you view it differently than if
Josh Allen had won the Super Bowl last year with
the team he had, Jalen winning it last year with
the team he had. I just think there is some
nuance there. Eagles fans, on the other hand, want us
(37:53):
all to be like, you have the greatest roster in
the league. It's it's sakwan'sa Hall of Famer. How he
drafts better than every everyone, the best wide receiver, duo
of the best offensive line. And I'll also Jalen Hurts
got no help, Like, which is the you're not gonna
get that.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Yesterday was the five year anniversary of the first game
in the Bubble, and it's still a huge debate on
its legitimess. Darryl morri said in quote, everyone I speak
to around the league privately agrees that it doesn't truly
hold up as a genuine championship. Yes, looking back, how
would you measure the Bubble championship?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Okay, so first let me help out my pal Daryl,
because I was shocked when I read this quote, because
Darryl has publicly many times talked about how legit he
finds that championship to be and how hard it was.
(38:52):
And so when I saw it's one thing for you know,
Legion Hoops or whatever one of these kind of aggregators
to post a quote to another thing for ESPN their
social team to post, you know, end quotes. Everyone I
speak to around the league privately agrees that it doesn't
(39:14):
truly hold up as a genuine championship, with the source
being the Athletic. So I'm going to read you. So
I reached out to Daryl, and not surprisingly, he explained
to me what I thought was going to be the case,
which is, while he wasn't misquoted, it is being misinterpreted.
(39:36):
So I'll read you the full quote and clarify, and
but then I'll also give you my thoughts on what
everybody seems to think. All Right, Daryl says, quote, had
the Rockets won the title, I absolutely would have celebrated
it as legitimate, knowing the immense effort and resilience required.
Yet everyone I speak to around the league privately agrees
(40:00):
that it doesn't truly hold up as a genuine championship.
Pause for a moment. The privately agrees is what is
tripping people up. He is saying everyone he talks to
agrees amongst themselves, like he is the outlier that says
this was an amazing accomplishment, but everybody else says not
(40:24):
so much. Where people are saying, and I actually understand
why people are confused. They are reading it as everyone
privately agrees with me, he's saying, everyone privately agrees with
each other, and so just to and again, Darrel is
my pal. But I also you know, he deserves to
(40:46):
have his actual opinion out there correctly. He then went
on to say, perhaps lasting legacy the NBA bubble is
that the NBA should be proud of its leadership at
both the beginning and the end of pandemic, even though
the champion will forever be marked an asterisk. And he
again is saying there because that's the way seemingly everyone
else feels. And so here is I said to you
(41:10):
guys a couple months ago that the vast majority of
NBA myths fall into one of two categories. Not all,
but the vast majority. Category one is uplifting Michael Jordan,
and category two is tearing down Lebron James. And there
is no greater example of that than the revisionist history
(41:36):
on the god Doog bubble. So here is the accurate
timeline of the Los Angeles Lakers winning the twenty twenty
NBA Championship. Okay, in twenty eighteen, Lebron James was universally
(42:00):
old as by a wide margin, the best player in
the NBA, dragging a Cleveland Cavalier team to the NBA
Finals with a playoff run that had an all time
record eight forty point games, two true buzzer beaters, two
(42:24):
game seven victories, one of which on the road, and
what some consider the single greatest individual performance any players
ever had fifty one to eight and eight in Game
one of the twenty eighteen NBA Finals, where with no
(42:45):
other because Kevin Love was not was had gotten banged
up at the end of the Celtics series with no
one around him against Steph kd Clay Draymont two Lebron
was in twenty eighteen. In twenty nineteen, he goes to
the Los Angeles Lakers, who were in the midst of
(43:09):
the worst half decade stretch in the history of their franchise,
and is playing a game on Christmas Day when they
are a top four as drug that team to a
top four seed in the West, and suffers the first
major injury of his career. But at that moment, there
was still no argument and no debate over who the
(43:32):
best player in the world was. That offseason, they acquire
Anthony Davis and instantly become the best team in the league.
That Lakers team pre pandemic, pre bubble, pre everything with
ad started the year twenty four and three was running
(43:59):
rough shit got over everyone. Lebron James was the leading
NBA MVP candidate and they were the favorite to win
the championship pre pandemic. So what we had was the
(44:21):
Lakers had the best record in basketball, the Lakers had
the best player in basketball, the Lakers had made the
biggest trade an acquisition of any team that offseason with
respect to what the Clippers had done, and they were
the favorites to win the championship. The season then shuts
(44:44):
down post shutdown, or right before the shutdown, Jannis had,
you know, really gone on an unbelievable run, and the
NBA MVP debate came down to two guys, Giannis or Lebron,
(45:05):
with hardened kind of lurking because Harden had made the
Key and Westbrook thing work and that team seemed dangerous.
And then we get to the bubble and there is
no home court, which penalized two teams more than any
which were the two teams that had earned home court advantage,
(45:30):
Lebron's team and Giannie's team. Lebron's team which won the
West by four games and Janice's team, which won the
East by four games, and then the bubble happens, and
(45:50):
the playoff bracket is set, and every single potential pitfall
matchup that people are convinced is a bad matchup or
the toughest possible path hits the Lakers. We can now
(46:14):
pretend it did not happen. But Dame and Portland were
the scary team that nobody wanted to face in round one,
and the Lakers drew them with no home court advantage,
and after losing Game one, dispatched of them in five.
(46:35):
Then the Rockets with the one year Harden and Westbrook
worked that Rockets team with James Harden being third and
MVP voting that year and Russ the last actually really
good season of his career on a at least that
involved winning It's Round two, the Lakers get the rights
(47:01):
and they lose Game one and then dispatch of them
in five. And then you get the Denver Nuggets with
a healthy Jamal Murray who would not lose another playoff
series with a healthy Jamal Murray four years, and Anthony
(47:23):
Davis plays the best basketball of his life. Lebron James
in a closeout game goes thirty eight, sixteen, and ten,
and they dispatch of the Nuggets in five. And then
in the NBA Finals, Oh, they get a fluke of
(47:44):
a team that definitely wouldn't have made the finals if
not for the Bubble, the Miami Heat, who responded by
the way to that finals trip by two years later
making game seven of the conference finals, and the year
after that making the NBA Finals again. And in those finals,
(48:09):
Lebron James plays close to perfect basketball, reminding people once
again that he's still the best player in the world
when he averaged thirty twelve and nine on fifty nine
to forty two splits to finish off a playoff run
(48:34):
where again the best player in the world, Lebron James
averaged for the postseason twenty eight eleven and nine on
fifty six percent from the field. That team won the championship.
(48:55):
And then how did they defend their title when the
bubble was done? The next season? They started twenty one
and six, well they I mean they started actually eleven
and three, and they had the best record in basketball
(49:17):
or in the Western Conference was maybe the Western Conference
or basketball The day Solomon Hill stumbled into Lebron's ankle
and he got hurt. So before the pandemic, they were
the best team in the league with the best player
in the league. During the pandemic, they had home their
(49:41):
home court advantage they had earned taken from them, and
got what people were calling at the time a nightmare
path Dame in round one, Harden and Russ in round two,
Joker and Jamal Murray in round three, and dust them
all in five in the finals. People think, oh, they
(50:04):
got lucky. They don't have to face yeh honest, they
don't have to face I think Toronto was actually the
two seed that year. That would have been no problem,
and they got this fluke of a team in Miami,
except for the fact that Miami a couple of years
later beat Milwaukee again and came within a jump shot
of going back to the finals. And then the next
(50:26):
year did go back to the finals, and the best
player in the world played peak basketball. And then the
next season they start twenty one and six. The idea
that the wrong champion was crowned, the idea that that
(50:48):
was an easy or fraudulent or lesser path win. The
only basketball ringible basketball thing that was altered was no
one had home court, and so the only tangible damage
(51:10):
that was done to any of the teams were the
teams that would have had home court throughout, and that
was the Los Angeles Lakers. And every single person watching
knows that if the Milwaukee Bucks, who were the one
(51:32):
seed and had the League MVP, it's like the Lakers,
who were the one seed and had the second or
the runner up for League MVP. If the Bucks had
won that title, there's not a person in the world
that would be like fake title if the I don't
even know if the Warriors made the playoffs that year.
(51:54):
I don't think they did. Certainly, though, if the Clippers
with Kawhi and Paul George instead of absolutely mortifyingly folding
against Denver had won the title, no one be calling
it a fake title, because ultimately that discussion is not
(52:16):
about how real or fake a title is. That discussion
is about dis either dislike or jealousy of Lebron James.
And now our chat says seventy nine percent say yes,
(52:37):
the Bubble title is legit. Our chat probably skews a
little Lebron and Laker fan heavy, but you cannot say
that the team with the best record and the best
player in the world with a very difficult path. Who again,
(52:59):
the team they beat in the conference finals validated their
appearance there by winning a championship a couple of years later,
the team they beat in the NBA finals validated their
appearance there by making the finals a couple of years later.
You cannot argue. And then they validated it themselves by
(53:20):
being an awesome team the next year before Bron got hurt.
It's just such horseship and deep down everybody knows it.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
What's up to was like horse crap. It's funny, But yeah,
I saw it in the rundown last night. You went
on the RAMT. But I instantly thought, like, how many
of those people that say that it wasn't legitimate just
don't like Lebron?
Speaker 3 (53:44):
And it's funny that.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
I mean, that's all it is. Everybody knows. Everybody knows
that if the Clippers, who weres everyone's team of the
Flavor of the month year and Kawhi had won the title,
no one would be saying it doesn't count. And everybody
(54:08):
knows if uh Yannis had won the title, because those
were the next two favorites. It was Lakers Bucks Clippers
were the favorites. Kind of all year had won the title,
no one would be saying it didn't count. It's just
so stupid, just so incredibly.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
There is the calm court advantage, but the obviously that's
both ways.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
But it goes both ways, but it hurts. The team
that's damaged by it is the top seed. Yeah, like
that's the and so it just such utter silliness.
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.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Luca was on the cover of Men's Health magazine, looking
very slender. He came out with a quote saying, just visually,
I would say that my whole body looks better. How
are you feeling about Luca's transitions?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
So a couple things. One is, first, sorry to I
pointed this out on TV, and I'm not trying to
pick on anybody, but this, to me is one of
the main takeaways from the article. Remember I told you
guys Ai doesn't know sports and that Ai hallucinates sports.
This article got marred a bit by the fact that
(00:44):
the author included in it an anecdote about how Luca,
when he came into the league had a forty two
inch vertical that was measured at the NBA Combine. The
problem with that is twofold. One is anyone that's watched
(01:04):
ten minutes of Lukadanic at any moment of his career
knows he never had a forty two inch vertical. The
other problem is Lukdancic did not go to the combine,
so there is no place to measure his vertical, So
what happened there? The most obvious answer, is figured out
(01:27):
by some Internet sleuths, was if you googled Lukdanciic vertical,
the top AI result was that Luk Adancic had a
forty two inch vertical measured at the NBA Combine, which
then links you to an article about Dante Divincenzo's forty
(01:48):
two inch vertical at the NBA Combine. But AI hallucinated it.
I guess they saw the chu in both names, white guys,
the same draft class, and they just made it up.
So again, I'm not saying AI can't be used for things.
I'm not saying it's not you know, the next, the future,
(02:08):
all of that. I am saying, for some reason, AI
does not know sports and can't figure it out. That's
first thing. Second thing is this my other takeaway from
that article demands. I'm going to read you a line
in it which I found fascinating. The facility which is
(02:29):
located in the town where Doncic is vacationed every summer
since he was a teen. That's important. The facility which
is located in the town where Doncic has vacationed every
summer since he was a teen, didn't have weights until
earlier this month, when he had dumbbells, barbells, weight plates
(02:50):
and medballs trucked in. So here's why that's noteworthy to me.
Luke every summer goes back to this town in Slovenia
UH and trains. But his training has always just included
hoop it, you know what I mean. He plays ball
and does drills, all of it. Weight draining was never
a big part of it for him. And so now
(03:14):
you guys know, I feel like the go ahead.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Oh, it's so cool just being able to get a
bus of.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Uh weights, Oh just yet to wherever you're Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Of course. But the the I felt that the whiplash
effect of you know, Luca's fat, out of shape drinking
problem was far too strong, considering that without ever being
(03:47):
in peak physical condition, he had one of the greatest
opening six year stretches of a career.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Ever.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
This is where I am contractually obligated to remind the
audience that Luka Doncic all ready has made more first
team All nbas than either Steph Curry or Chris Paul
and only has one less than Kevin freaking Durant. He's
twenty six years old. That's how great he's been. Now,
(04:16):
he did have a down year, and part of it
was he was a little out of shape. He was
also sad. He also got hurt, He also got traded,
and all, you know, all of those things. So I
think that is I think that is important. It's not
(04:36):
giving him an excuse. But I just thought twelve months
ago today, before Luca got hurt, before Luca got traded,
when Luca was coming off a finals appearance, nobody thought
and he had beaten in round two Shay and in
round three Anthony Edwards, and had averaged thirty four to
nine and ten in the regular season. Nobody thought Shay
(04:58):
or Anthony Edwards was better than him. Now I think
it's like conventional wisdom that those guys are better than him,
and Shade certainly has earned it. I guess Anthony. I
don't think Quhite has. But whatever, the point I'm making
is this, Luca, in non tip top physical condition, was
already well on his way to being one of the
(05:19):
greatest players ever. Luca like this should be the early
favorite for League MVP.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Well you don't, and.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
You don't think with his play style that him being
a little bit thinner might affect it.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So I don't know he's going yeah, but I think
I think that if he is, I don't think he's
going to be skinny. I think he's going to be lean,
you know what I mean. I think if you just
replace some of what was fat the Lakers, Yeah, you
know what I mean, Like, I would bet he weighs
about the same, but look at me, if not.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
More, Yeah, I mean, muscle weighs more than fat, right,
I mean, so he looks a lot thinner than he was.
He looks a lot thinner, you know what I mean.
So I just, yeah, I don't think you want actually
skinny Luca, but thinner Luca. I think what is.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Helpful. And I think that he has taken this, you
know what happened last year to heart. And this was
the thing that I warned the MAVs about after the
trade that even if they were going to be right,
they're going to be wrong. Even if they were right,
that if they didn't trade him and they signed him
(06:35):
to an extension, he was just gonna get fat and
out of shape and all these things. He by trading
him and motivating him and insulting him. They then put
this extra chip on his shoulder. Now people can say,
why didn't he do it during the year. I don't
(06:56):
think you can do this type of thing during a season,
you know what I mean? I think you have to this.
You n need an offseason. And he's about to be
playing a ton of ball at euro Basket at for
Slovenia and I right now he would be my early
season pick to win League MVP next year.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
And if he just torched Dallas every single time they
play and it just doesn't even matter.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
God, I just can't wait if that were to happen. Also,
by the way, shout out to Marco in the chat
watching from Slovenia.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yes, shout out Marco. Very cool.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Let's do Matt Stafford here and then we get to
the listeners.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, so Matt st Everett has been dealing with some
backsword on this and is set to miss another week
of camp. You've been high on the RAMS. Does this
affect it at all?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I think the guy just doesn't want to go to
training camp. He's old. Oh old.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
I hope that's it. That would be great. That would
be an awesome result here. If it's just old guy
doesn't want to practice. So here is before training camp,
there was one story of potential contender that hit my radar,
(08:18):
and that was the CJ. Stroud's shoulder soreness. I was like, ooh,
that's something to watch CJ Stroud, you know, like that
he wasn't able to do full throwing practice or whatever,
like that's something watch. That seems to have subsided. Okay,
but it was. It hit my radar in training camp.
(08:38):
We've been lucky so far, fingers crossed. There hasn't been
the like devastating superstar injury, and there hasn't been the
contender that has just been hit with a bunch of
you know, contributor injuries, at least not yet. So there
have been to me two made stories out of training
(09:01):
camp so far for contenders. One is a positive one.
One is a worrisome one. The positive one and people
can say this is you know, Chiefs colored glasses, but
I'm not wrong about this. The Chiefs rookie first round
pick Get who was considered a top ten talent, who
(09:24):
fell because people thought his knee was not right and
he might not be healthy for a good portion of
his rookie year. Not only being healthy the first day
of camp, but being slotted as the starting left tackle,
not competing with Jalen Moore, who they signed to be
the left tackle for that spot, and just being their
(09:47):
left tackle from day one of camp today to right
now is one of the biggest positive stories for any
true contender this training camp, because if they have that
spot locked down, and then you have Jail Moore, the
guy they signed from San Francisco, and Juwan Taylor, the
right tackle who's been a bit of a disappointment with
Kansas City since they signed him from Jacksonville, competing on
(10:08):
the right side, then all of a sudden, the Chiefs
offensive line is totally different. So and there was everyone
agreed that Josh Simmons had the talent to potentially be
the number one tackle in his draft class, but the
injury was so worried some he slid. If the knee
is really right, then the Chiefs dealing at taking care
(10:31):
of one of the most important and one of the
most expensive spots in football by drafting a guy at
thirty two is a game changer that's in the positive
direction for a contender, in a negative direction for a contender.
It's this Stafford story because aside from confidence for your
(10:56):
team's secondary, there is nothing positive that comes out of
Jimmy G practicing and playing in trailing camp. And you
need desperately healthy Matt Stafford in order to contend, and
I think the Rams can contend. I liked now poor
DeVante Adams. He's like, you got to be kidding me.
(11:19):
I got massive, I got Jimmy G throwing me the
wall again. I love Puka, I really like their d line.
I obviously love McVeigh. I think DeVante is good as
a number two with the Rams, but it all comes
undone without Stafford, and Stafford is thirty seven. He got
the shit kicked out of him for a decade in Detroit.
(11:41):
He has been banged up at times with the Rams.
I am it's not the biggest story, but I Am
not going to ignore it as a potential big story.
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Speaker 1 (13:21):
All Right, speaking of indefensible, I guess this is semi defensible,
but I hate it. The Madden rating go.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Ahead, So I don't know about indefensible, but the ninety
nine club came out for Baden twenty six. Your guy
Mahomes was snubbed. Josh Allen Lamar Jackson are the two
eight both f ninety nine ratings? Yeah, how do you
feel about this? Is this legit? I think it's pretty fair.
I think that Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen are much
(13:47):
more Madden type quarterbacks than Patrick Mahomes is. Like Patrick
Mahomes is more of an improviser. Lamar Jackson's obviously like
super fast, and Josh Allen's like a freak athlete.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
He's huge running through dudes.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
So it's like as far as games, like, if you
want to play Madden, like you're thinking, like you want
to play, you would rather play with Lamar Jackson or
Josh how Okay.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So that's a really interesting way to look at it.
And if that's the argument, that so be it. Listen,
Mahomes coming into this year, in the six Maddens post,
his rookie post, his first year as a starter, he
was a ninety nine to four times, he was the
(14:28):
highest rated quarterback five times. The one time he wasn't
he was the third highest rated quarterback behind Brady and Rogers,
and that was after the AFC Championship Game loss to Cincinnati.
And he responded by having more yards than any player
in the history of the league, winning the Super Bowl MVP,
(14:49):
winning the regular season MVP, and having arguably the greatest
quarterback season anyone's ever had. So I'm I'm not even
mad at Madden. Maybe they motivated him. I act actually,
I I want to use this as an opportunity and listen,
Josh just won Super Bowl or I'm sorry, regular season
(15:10):
MVP had, you know, for a team that a lot
of people thought was not going to be good. Some
people who had always been called a Bill's hater for
just being right about the Bills then last year thought
the Bills could be really good and that person was me,
but that it was because of Josh Allen, So it's fine.
(15:31):
And Lamar has had basically back to back perfect regular season,
so you want to give him a ninety nine rating,
it's fine. I actually want to use this time here
to talk a little bit about Lamar and the Ravens,
because I was on Mina's podcast and she was a
(15:53):
gog that I was skeptical of the rape Vins and Mena,
you know, said Lamar didn't play poorly in the playoff game,
which I find unbelievable, and said that basically she thought
(16:21):
I was being unfair to Lamar or the Ravens by
not I guess chalking up the same exact thing happening
every single year to just dumb luck and said, oh,
(16:42):
I didn't know you were a Ravens hater. And this
is where as I said with her, I will break
k fabe for a moment. I adore Mina times. I know,
I call her my rival that I want to vanquish.
I think she's outstanding. It's the only reason I went
on a podcast with her at seven o'clock New York
City time on the night before I was going to
(17:04):
the Bahamas for a few days, and I think she
does great work.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
But I.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
There are two major points I want to make here.
The first one is this, at what point does someone
stop being a hater if they are constantly one of
the only people provencorrect at what I'm just curious for
the for the media and internet at large, at what
(17:39):
point does hating transition to accurate skepticism or is the answer?
Never is the answer? Nope? If the whole world acknowledges
this guy is just you know, dan close to a
(18:02):
perfect player, who's had a couple perfect regular seasons, who's
just bad timing for these awful moments and now twenty
twenty three for Lamar, it was an awful game. Twenty
twenty four, it was not an awful game. It was
a couple really awful moments that ruined an otherwise really
(18:24):
good game by him. But I am and so because
I didn't think Lamar was terrible in the Divisional round
game against Buffalo. What I did think was a guy
who was historically good all year about protecting the football
having two turnovers in the first twenty minutes of that
(18:45):
game made it to where the best grade he could
get for the games, like a C plus and especially
because they end up losing. And so the the question
I truly have, and the question I truly have for
(19:10):
the audiences is that hating is. And I'll use the
Bills thing as an example. Every single year people called
me a Bill's hater. Now I was a Bill's troll
to a degree, and I said drop the banner, and
(19:31):
I poked fun and I did all that stuff. But
I was also right every single time. And then this
past year when I thought the pendulum had swung too
far in the other direction, and I said, I actually
think the Bills are going to be excellent. I think
they're once again the biggest threat to the Chiefs, And
(19:52):
that's the opposite of hating, and it was just correct. Right.
So then the and yes, guys, when I say Mahomes
at the most yards in the single season ever, that's
that is exactly the It's exactly what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
It is.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's total yards for the full season, everything all put together.
The most yards any players I ever accounted for was
twenty twenty two Patrick Mahomes. So the Lamar stuff to
me is interesting because I it's not only that I
(20:28):
don't think I'm a hater, but I think a lot
of other really smart people who cover this league are
in willful denial because they like him and because they
(20:48):
want it to be different than it is, and because
and this part I really empathize with, because they detectest
so much, so many of his original actual haters, the
people who said he should change positions coming in the league,
(21:11):
or he'd never be any good or any of that stuff,
and so all of that has created this very odd
world where folks patronize him a bit in a way.
(21:31):
They discuss what is the only hole on his resume,
but it's the hole that matters the most, which is
in that league, for that position, how you play in
the postseason. And so this is the question that I
would just have to everyone, Folks on Ravens Twitter who
(21:53):
are mad at me because they think the team is
absolutely stacked, and I have questions about its received position,
and folks in the media that think I'm unfair in
my skepticism. Because one of the other things that happened
when I was talking again I think Mina is outstanding
(22:15):
with Mina was Stafford came up and I talked about
how if I were like I kind of impromptu was
talking about how he might be my third pick of
any quarterback in the league to have in the postseason.
(22:35):
That would go Mahomes Alan Stafford, And she seemed legitimately
a ghast that I was not including Lamar in the
math for that, and I was legitimately aghast that she
possibly could include Lamar in the math for that specific question.
You could have any quarterback for a playoff run, like, well,
(22:57):
I'm not going to pick the guy who's literally never
like shown us that he can do that. It would
seem that would seem silly to me. You might be like, well,
Josh hasn't shown it. Josh has had plenty of playoff
runs where he's played excellent throughout. He just the team
wasn't good enough or did see that from Lamar? But
that's fine. This is kind of an old hat. We've
(23:17):
talked about this each of the last few years, because each
of the last few years it has gone exactly like this
unbelievable regular season that I look at with a quizzical
eye because I want to see how it works in
the postseason. Then Lamar has one of, if not his
downright worst game in the postseason, and then everybody has
this moment of clarity for about three days, where after
(23:39):
the year people are like, damn, Nick was right without
saying Nick was right, and then come this time of year,
it's like, no, this will year will be different. So
this is my question because Raven's Twitter, Raven's Twitter thinks
the team is absolutely loaded, so obviously like there shouldn't
be any excuses there. But my question in the media
(23:59):
is this, if it were to happen again, same be
to the last couple of years, is Lamar gonna win MVP?
He is the MVP's top two MVP, all of it,
and then once again the Ravens don't play to their
seed or don't play to their talent or you know,
(24:20):
and it's because of massive quarterback mistakes early in a
playoff game that puts him in a hole that they
can't quite dig themselves out of. Will this year then
be enough? Is it, like before, the sample is too
small or will it still just be a randomness, dumb
luck of the playoffs? I find it really fascinating because
(24:45):
it is absolutely true that the only thing standing between
Lamar and being in the discussion demanse as one of
the Mixer seven greatest quarterbacks of all time, is one
(25:06):
great playoff run. That's all that's standing between It's just
one because the regular season stuff is so unbelievable. But
the only thing standing between him and being in a
very unique class of all time athletes in a in
(25:31):
a not great sense, is deja vu all over again
one more time. And it makes this year one of
the most fascinating. It makes it makes the Ravens and
Lamar one of the most fascinating stories of the season. Uh.
And it also I am I'm really excited to watch it,
(25:54):
and I am really excited to see how people react
myself included to how this full season plays out. And
so like it was, it's back to back years. It's
(26:15):
all been right there, all been. And that's one other
thing I want to say, because one of the things
Mena pointed out was Dvoa has over the last quarter
century de Monday, the two best teams, the two best
five year stretches by any team to not make a
Super Bowl are the last five years of the Buffalo
(26:38):
Bills and the last five years of the Baltimore Ravens.
And the point there that Mina made was, you know,
basically that's an Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes stat, and
it's that these two teams were good enough to be
all time greats. They were just blocked by one of
(26:59):
the great is, if not the greatest duo in NFL history.
And I pushed back on that too, because I think
the Bills being on that list is a Andy Reid
and Patrick Mahomes stat because the Bills have lost to
the Chiefs five times in this stretch all r I'm sorry,
four times. I don't know that. I feel the Ravens
(27:20):
being on that list is a Chief stat because only
one of those years have the Chiefs been the team
to block the Ravens. They haven't gotten to that level yet.
So we'll see, and I listen, you believe in the
Ravens this year year.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
NFL is wide open this year. See what he does.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, no, we'll see. I have a feeling it will
be like every year, unbelievable. In the regular season, they
lose a couple of games they probably shouldn't lose that
are a little odd, but the it is jaw dropping.
And then come the playoffs, we're gonna be like, wow,
(28:03):
this team sure looks different, wonder why? And then but listen,
maybe I'll be wrong. Maybe I'll be wrong.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
So Brown's owner Jimmy Haslam has distanced himself from the
Shador Sanders pick, saying that the GM was the one
who made that call and not him. So why wouldn't
he want stake on such a low risk, high reward situation.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
So listen, I think he is just trying to I
don't think he's trying to distance himself as much as
what he's trying to do is make it clear or
at least clean up a bit. No, the GM's in charge,
not me. Here is what I find so interesting about
the Chador situation right now. I was not a Shadoor guy.
(28:52):
I was one of I think the first people in
the mock draft community that had Shador early in the process,
slipping to the back half of Round one, talking about
that the Steelers might not need to trade up if
they need to get him. I talked a lot about
how I thought there was too much discussion about Shador's
(29:15):
personality and not enough discussion about his lack of arm talent,
and I just didn't look at him as like a
blue chip prospect. So I was not a Shadoor guy.
And now the however, because of where he is and
the quarterbacks that he is competing with. I find myself
feeling like they've got to start him at some point,
(29:37):
because here's the deal. Kenny Pickett is injured and not
an NFL quarterback. There is a zero percent chance Kenny
Pickett is the Steeler's answer at quarterback. Zero percent. The Steelers,
pardon me, there is a zero percent chance he wasn't.
The Steelers answer that Kenny Pickett is the Browns answer quarterback,
(30:00):
so cross him out. Joe Flacco is forty years old.
There is a zero percent chance Joe Flacco is their
long term answer at quarterback, so cross him out. Dylan Gabriel, sorry,
and you're not gonna like this, demase, he's too small.
(30:24):
There is a zero percent chance Dylan Gabriel can be
a nice backup, maybe a spot starter. There is a
zero percent chance Dylan Gabriel is the Browns franchise quarterback
three years from now. Shadoor, there is a five percent
chance Shadoor is the Browns franchise quarterback. Five percent got
(30:49):
more than one, less than ten somewhere in there, when
the other three guys are a combined zero percent, and
you're gonna be a terrible team the moment you know,
you can start Flacco to start the year, but the
moment that the year has gotten away from you, you
gotta play shittor. And that's the other weird thing. Haslam
(31:12):
was like Andrew picks the players, Stefanski sets the rock,
you know, decide too plays, but then also said in
that same SoundBite, obviously both young guys need to play
this year. I mean, Haslm's not the greatest donor just
just flat.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Like both of them just saying that this year is
like a waste.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Well, I mean I don't. I mean, it seems.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Quarterbacks need to play this year. You kind of have
an idea of what your season.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
To correct because they have two first round picks next
year and they yeah, I mean, Haslm is a tough
guy to work for. Danny's quarterback rankings are just an abomination,
and it just begs the question, why is it? Why
(32:02):
do we play the games if they're not going to count?
And again they are. I might be being a little
harsh because the rankings are actually Danny's rankings. Go Mahomes,
Alan Burrow, Lamar, Herbert Stafford, Jaden Goff Baker hurts. So
(32:23):
here's the when I say they're an abomination, here's what
I mean, or here's here's what's unfair about that. If
he's simply flipped Hurts and Herbert, they're totally legitimate ranking.
And that's I'm not saying that's how I would have
it one through ten. But if it went Mahomes, Alan Burrow, Lamar, Hurts, Stafford,
(32:47):
Jaden Goff, Baker, Herbert, that's fine, Like, there's nothing crazy
about that. But having Justin Herbert ahead of Matt Stafford,
Jaden Daniels, Jared Goff, Baker Mayfield, and Jail and Hurts
for nothing other than vibes, it's just it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
And that's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
So now, you demons, do you have an issue with
people who put Burrow ahead of Lamar?
Speaker 3 (33:22):
No, I could.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
I could see those, I can flip those on any
given day. I feel like, so I could pull Lamar
before before Brow. I'm also not mad at Burrow being
before Lamar.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I'm not mad at Burrow being ahead of Lamar. However, again,
my job on this pod is to just be sports.
The sports worlds ras al Ghoul and you know, create
balance in the world where there otherwise isn't let me
defend Lamar for a moment here. It is unfair in
(33:58):
my opinion to penalize Lamar for bad postseason performances and
then lift up Joe Burrow, who the last couple of
years has had nonexistent postseason performances, you know what I mean?
So like that is it's a weird because you can't
(34:21):
argue as great as Burrow has been was in the
regular season last year, a lot of the MVP voters,
all pro voters, a lot of people thought Lamar was better.
And then obviously the year before Lamar was better in
the regular season is Burrow was hurt and wasn't that
effective early and Lamar won League MVP, and so the
(34:43):
knock on Lamar's postseason performances, but Burrow hasn't been in
the postseason. So like that one I do think is
a little.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Much of Lamar is my guy and you're ripping into
him the other day on Tuesday. But as postseason success,
I really can't argue, like that's that's fair. But how
much of that stuff is Burrow's fault? How much of
that stuff is Lamar's fault? As far as the postseason,
what happens, like with with Joe Burrow, You're saying he
was banged up and then you have a terrible defense
last year.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I just think, well, no, That's what I'm saying is, yes,
those are true factors, but I'm also not going to.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Use it as a metric, like when when ranking them.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Well, no, I I what I'm not gonna do is
say after the regular season, Lamar is higher than Burrow,
Burrow misses the playoffs, Lamar plays poorly in the playoffs,
and then Lamar gets dropped beneath Burrow, like the because
(35:42):
you can't, yep, showing up to a test and failing
it is still better than skipping the test, like not
showing up. And so like you got you got more,
you got some questions right, and so oh like the
and so that's the So I listen, I don't think
(36:03):
having Burrow ahead of Lamar is outrageous, but it's not
what I would have And and then it starts getting
you know, then we start figuring out where exactly do
you have hurts, And the hurts ranking is really interesting.
And I tried to make this point on TV yesterday
and I did it kind of ham handedly, which is
(36:26):
Eagles fans right now, and I get it they're feeling themselves.
You won the chance Super Bowl, you should absolutely be thrilled,
But they kind of want the best of both worlds.
They want everyone to acknowledge how utterly stacked their roster is,
(36:50):
how great, Howie Roseman's done, how good they are, you know,
in every way, shape and form. They want all of that,
but they also don't don't want any of us to
incorporate any of that into our evaluation of Jalen Hurts.
Like they want everyone to bend the knee that they
(37:11):
have the best overall roster in football by a mile,
but also pretend like we think Jalen Hurts is carrying
just a regular team. And so now I think Hurts
has been clearly excellent in huge spots, and I think
Hurts I think having Hurts ten like Danny did is
(37:31):
too you know, a bridge too far. But I also
think that it is you view it differently than if
Josh Allen had won the Super Bowl last year with
the team he had, Jalen winning it last year with
the team he had. I just think there is some
nuance there. Eagles fans, on the other hand, want us
(37:53):
all to be like, you have the greatest roster in
the league. It's it's sakwan'sa Hall of Famer. How he
drafts better than every everyone, the best wide receiver, duo
of the best offensive line. And I'll also Jalen Hurts
got no help, Like, which is the you're not gonna
get that.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Yesterday was the five year anniversary of the first game
in the Bubble, and it's still a huge debate on
its legitimess. Darryl morri said in quote, everyone I speak
to around the league privately agrees that it doesn't truly
hold up as a genuine championship. Yes, looking back, how
would you measure the Bubble championship?
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Okay, so first let me help out my pal Daryl,
because I was shocked when I read this quote, because
Darryl has publicly many times talked about how legit he
finds that championship to be and how hard it was.
(38:52):
And so when I saw it's one thing for you know,
Legion Hoops or whatever one of these kind of aggregators
to post a quote to another thing for ESPN their
social team to post, you know, end quotes. Everyone I
speak to around the league privately agrees that it doesn't
(39:14):
truly hold up as a genuine championship, with the source
being the Athletic. So I'm going to read you. So
I reached out to Daryl, and not surprisingly, he explained
to me what I thought was going to be the case,
which is, while he wasn't misquoted, it is being misinterpreted.
(39:36):
So I'll read you the full quote and clarify, and
but then I'll also give you my thoughts on what
everybody seems to think. All Right, Daryl says, quote, had
the Rockets won the title, I absolutely would have celebrated
it as legitimate, knowing the immense effort and resilience required.
Yet everyone I speak to around the league privately agrees
(40:00):
that it doesn't truly hold up as a genuine championship.
Pause for a moment. The privately agrees is what is
tripping people up. He is saying everyone he talks to
agrees amongst themselves, like he is the outlier that says
this was an amazing accomplishment, but everybody else says not
(40:24):
so much. Where people are saying, and I actually understand
why people are confused. They are reading it as everyone
privately agrees with me, he's saying, everyone privately agrees with
each other, and so just to and again, Darrel is
my pal. But I also you know, he deserves to
(40:46):
have his actual opinion out there correctly. He then went
on to say, perhaps lasting legacy the NBA bubble is
that the NBA should be proud of its leadership at
both the beginning and the end of pandemic, even though
the champion will forever be marked an asterisk. And he
again is saying there because that's the way seemingly everyone
else feels. And so here is I said to you
(41:10):
guys a couple months ago that the vast majority of
NBA myths fall into one of two categories. Not all,
but the vast majority. Category one is uplifting Michael Jordan,
and category two is tearing down Lebron James. And there
is no greater example of that than the revisionist history
(41:36):
on the god Doog bubble. So here is the accurate
timeline of the Los Angeles Lakers winning the twenty twenty
NBA Championship. Okay, in twenty eighteen, Lebron James was universally
(42:00):
old as by a wide margin, the best player in
the NBA, dragging a Cleveland Cavalier team to the NBA
Finals with a playoff run that had an all time
record eight forty point games, two true buzzer beaters, two
(42:24):
game seven victories, one of which on the road, and
what some consider the single greatest individual performance any players
ever had fifty one to eight and eight in Game
one of the twenty eighteen NBA Finals, where with no
(42:45):
other because Kevin Love was not was had gotten banged
up at the end of the Celtics series with no
one around him against Steph kd Clay Draymont two Lebron
was in twenty eighteen. In twenty nineteen, he goes to
the Los Angeles Lakers, who were in the midst of
(43:09):
the worst half decade stretch in the history of their franchise,
and is playing a game on Christmas Day when they
are a top four as drug that team to a
top four seed in the West, and suffers the first
major injury of his career. But at that moment, there
was still no argument and no debate over who the
(43:32):
best player in the world was. That offseason, they acquire
Anthony Davis and instantly become the best team in the league.
That Lakers team pre pandemic, pre bubble, pre everything with
ad started the year twenty four and three was running
(43:59):
rough shit got over everyone. Lebron James was the leading
NBA MVP candidate and they were the favorite to win
the championship pre pandemic. So what we had was the
(44:21):
Lakers had the best record in basketball, the Lakers had
the best player in basketball, the Lakers had made the
biggest trade an acquisition of any team that offseason with
respect to what the Clippers had done, and they were
the favorites to win the championship. The season then shuts
(44:44):
down post shutdown, or right before the shutdown, Jannis had,
you know, really gone on an unbelievable run, and the
NBA MVP debate came down to two guys, Giannis or Lebron,
(45:05):
with hardened kind of lurking because Harden had made the
Key and Westbrook thing work and that team seemed dangerous.
And then we get to the bubble and there is
no home court, which penalized two teams more than any
which were the two teams that had earned home court advantage,
(45:30):
Lebron's team and Giannie's team. Lebron's team which won the
West by four games and Janice's team, which won the
East by four games, and then the bubble happens, and
(45:50):
the playoff bracket is set, and every single potential pitfall
matchup that people are convinced is a bad matchup or
the toughest possible path hits the Lakers. We can now
(46:14):
pretend it did not happen. But Dame and Portland were
the scary team that nobody wanted to face in round one,
and the Lakers drew them with no home court advantage,
and after losing Game one, dispatched of them in five.
(46:35):
Then the Rockets with the one year Harden and Westbrook
worked that Rockets team with James Harden being third and
MVP voting that year and Russ the last actually really
good season of his career on a at least that
involved winning It's Round two, the Lakers get the rights
(47:01):
and they lose Game one and then dispatch of them
in five. And then you get the Denver Nuggets with
a healthy Jamal Murray who would not lose another playoff
series with a healthy Jamal Murray four years, and Anthony
(47:23):
Davis plays the best basketball of his life. Lebron James
in a closeout game goes thirty eight, sixteen, and ten,
and they dispatch of the Nuggets in five. And then
in the NBA Finals, Oh, they get a fluke of
(47:44):
a team that definitely wouldn't have made the finals if
not for the Bubble, the Miami Heat, who responded by
the way to that finals trip by two years later
making game seven of the conference finals, and the year
after that making the NBA Finals again. And in those finals,
(48:09):
Lebron James plays close to perfect basketball, reminding people once
again that he's still the best player in the world
when he averaged thirty twelve and nine on fifty nine
to forty two splits to finish off a playoff run
(48:34):
where again the best player in the world, Lebron James
averaged for the postseason twenty eight eleven and nine on
fifty six percent from the field. That team won the championship.
(48:55):
And then how did they defend their title when the
bubble was done? The next season? They started twenty one
and six, well they I mean they started actually eleven
and three, and they had the best record in basketball
(49:17):
or in the Western Conference was maybe the Western Conference
or basketball The day Solomon Hill stumbled into Lebron's ankle
and he got hurt. So before the pandemic, they were
the best team in the league with the best player
in the league. During the pandemic, they had home their
(49:41):
home court advantage they had earned taken from them, and
got what people were calling at the time a nightmare
path Dame in round one, Harden and Russ in round two,
Joker and Jamal Murray in round three, and dust them
all in five in the finals. People think, oh, they
(50:04):
got lucky. They don't have to face yeh honest, they
don't have to face I think Toronto was actually the
two seed that year. That would have been no problem,
and they got this fluke of a team in Miami,
except for the fact that Miami a couple of years
later beat Milwaukee again and came within a jump shot
of going back to the finals. And then the next
(50:26):
year did go back to the finals, and the best
player in the world played peak basketball. And then the
next season they start twenty one and six. The idea
that the wrong champion was crowned, the idea that that
(50:48):
was an easy or fraudulent or lesser path win. The
only basketball ringible basketball thing that was altered was no
one had home court, and so the only tangible damage
(51:10):
that was done to any of the teams were the
teams that would have had home court throughout, and that
was the Los Angeles Lakers. And every single person watching
knows that if the Milwaukee Bucks, who were the one
(51:32):
seed and had the League MVP, it's like the Lakers,
who were the one seed and had the second or
the runner up for League MVP. If the Bucks had
won that title, there's not a person in the world
that would be like fake title if the I don't
even know if the Warriors made the playoffs that year.
(51:54):
I don't think they did. Certainly, though, if the Clippers
with Kawhi and Paul George instead of absolutely mortifyingly folding
against Denver had won the title, no one be calling
it a fake title, because ultimately that discussion is not
(52:16):
about how real or fake a title is. That discussion
is about dis either dislike or jealousy of Lebron James.
And now our chat says seventy nine percent say yes,
(52:37):
the Bubble title is legit. Our chat probably skews a
little Lebron and Laker fan heavy, but you cannot say
that the team with the best record and the best
player in the world with a very difficult path. Who again,
(52:59):
the team they beat in the conference finals validated their
appearance there by winning a championship a couple of years later,
the team they beat in the NBA finals validated their
appearance there by making the finals a couple of years later.
You cannot argue. And then they validated it themselves by
(53:20):
being an awesome team the next year before Bron got hurt.
It's just such horseship and deep down everybody knows it.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
What's up to was like horse crap. It's funny, But yeah,
I saw it in the rundown last night. You went
on the RAMT. But I instantly thought, like, how many
of those people that say that it wasn't legitimate just
don't like Lebron?
Speaker 3 (53:44):
And it's funny that.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
I mean, that's all it is. Everybody knows. Everybody knows
that if the Clippers, who weres everyone's team of the
Flavor of the month year and Kawhi had won the title,
no one would be saying it doesn't count. And everybody
(54:08):
knows if uh Yannis had won the title, because those
were the next two favorites. It was Lakers Bucks Clippers
were the favorites. Kind of all year had won the title,
no one would be saying it didn't count. It's just
so stupid, just so incredibly.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
There is the calm court advantage, but the obviously that's
both ways.
Speaker 1 (54:33):
But it goes both ways, but it hurts. The team
that's damaged by it is the top seed. Yeah, like
that's the and so it just such utter silliness.
Host
Nick Wright
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