Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I was thinking on my drive in today about that
scene from Jerry maguire. For those of you who haven't
seen it, please don't tune out. But it's the best
analogy I can think of, because for those of you
who have seen this movie, you'll know exactly what I'm
talking about. After he's unceremoniously fired by Jay Moore's character
Bob Sugar, and he comes back into the office and
(00:21):
he tries to salvage all of his clients and it
doesn't go very well for him, and the whole famous
rod Tidwell scene which show me the money happens. And
as he's easing out of the office he helped build
his words, he tells everybody that's watching him leave, don't worry.
I'm not gonna do what you all think I'm going
to do, which is just flip about. That's how I
(00:42):
felt after I watch what happened last night, minutes after
we walked out of this building, and we learned the
fate of not only your rockets in the draft lottery,
but really the I don't even know what to call it.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
I guess it's fate. I don't know if it's destiny.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
And I'd like to know how you define destiny, because
it sure seems convenient that Luka Doncic got hand delivered
to the Lakers, and then the number one pick in
the draft got hand delivered to the Dallas Mavericks, followed
by the San Antonio Spurs at number two. And not
only that the Rockets didn't even get to pick that
they should have gotten, they got to pick worse, they
got one step lower. Instead of picking ninth, they'll be
(01:22):
picking tenth. And I don't think they'll be picking because
there's no way rafel Stone is gonna bring another young
player into this mix who's not even a top four
in the draft type in my opinion.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
But I just could not.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Actually I could, because if you look back at history
and how the NBA Draft lottery has gone very conveniently
for certain teams. Let me put it this way. If
you don't want people who watch your league or even
casually follow your league to be able to use the dreaded.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
R word all day long and all night last night.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Then stop making it look like it's rigged all the time.
WEX Come on, man, are you serious? Dallas had a
one point nothing percent chance to get the number one
pick in the freaking draft and they have the number
one pick in the draft after they made the worst
trade in NBA history.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Tell me this isn't rigged.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Please explain it to me right now, and don't tell
me it's because they released a video because they finally
saw enough people on social media saying this stinks to high.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Heavens released a video. Yeah, of the whole draft process.
They did that every year.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yeah, I know, I knew you would just take a
wet blanket and stop it all over. What I'm trying
to say right now, No, seriously, you need to be
more angry about this.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, I can't comte. I can't keep doing it for
the both of us.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Run through the most obvious it's rigged for them draft lotteries,
and you're including this one.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Uh, Cleveland after they lost Lebron.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
So they that was so they could get Andrew Wiggins,
which they then used to trade for Kevin loved or Kyrie.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Uh, I'd have to go back and look, Okay, it's
not about the have a point to make.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Okay, So what are the others?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
The peladanis Zion Williamson after they trade, you know, after
Lebron handpicked his running mates that they could win a
title in the bubble the next year.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And again pre ping pong balls.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
And still, if you guys haven't watched the envelopes, the
Patrick Ewing envelopes, it's embarrassing almost that this is literally
what they did to pick who they were going to
give the players to. This is how we're going to
decide our draft. We're going to stick these big envelopes
in a bin and have someone crank it around and
pretend that it's being shifted. And I don't know where
(03:38):
these ended as we handed them in there. And then
obviously it's Youing, so Youing, I think would fit, even
though it's under different lottery parameters.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And I do.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Realize that I'm saying this while seeing in Houston, Texas,
where not one but two years in a row they
want a coin flip to get Ralph and Hakeem at
the top of the draft.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
And that is is as less of a story to
me because it's a coin flip. It's only two teams
were quote unquote in the lottery, right, and it literally
was a point, not figuratively.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
He's done with it if you had the top pick Portland.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
So let's just take the examples you put out there
Anthony Davis, Kyrie, Irving Lebron. When you said Lebron, how
about Lebron goes to Cleveland's that's the one Lebron to
goes to Cleveland, And now Cooper Flagg goes to Dallas.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
And there was one more in twenty twelve, if you
want to call it this the Pelicans, who I think
at the time were the Hornets after losing Chris Paul
in a trade, they won the draft lottery. So the
Pelicans organization has got it done twice for them, right
to draft Anthony Davis. Right, Okay, so that's Anthony Davis, Kyrie, Irving, Lebron,
(04:41):
James Zion Williamson, Cooper Flag.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I'm this is not going to quell your desire to
call this what many people are calling it. But I
definitely think there's a big difference, and we talked about
it yesterday and we talked about it every day. We
have a draft where it is obvious who the number
one pick is. It's Cooper Flag. But I mean, I
(05:05):
know everyone was wowed by what he did against the
Olympic team when he was on the select team, and
I know he had a nice season of college basketball.
And I don't doubt that he's the best prospect in
this year's draft. And I don't even think it's a
bad draft, but I do doubt that man who's ever
gonna beat Dallas Now they have Cooper Flat. I should
(05:26):
They said, you send Luca to LA and we'll give
you the number one pick. You're not going to torpedo
your franchise at all. We're gonna get you a player
in return. Just make don't go negotiating a deal, don't
go trying to get Luca somewhere else, and do not
talk to Rob Low about getting more picks out of
this deal. Just get the deal done so we can
(05:47):
orchestrate everything that we need to and we'll get you
the number one pick, and you guys can have Cooper Flat.
Cooper Flagg is the absolute prize in this draft. And
the odds to me are through the roof and we're
only on the seventh. We got another five six floors
to go. That he's gonna amount to zero NBA titles
I as the best player on his team, maybe even
(06:08):
zero NBA Finals appearance. Maybe he's just a nice player.
Maybe he's as good as Zachary Resa Chet maybe not.
I don't think that should make anybody less upset, but
I do think that is a part of what I
would think about. It was pretty tough to stomach, obviously,
with not only one, but both of the two teams
that called Texas home jumping up, one from behind you
(06:31):
which pushed you back to ten, and one from in
front of you, which pushed them to two.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
So one and two are coming to Texas.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Whoever number two is, whether it's a player from Rutgers
or elsewhere, and Cooper flag. Cooper's going to Dallas and
the other player's going to San Antonio. San Antonio has
now been in the top four for each of the
last three years, Rookie of the Year with Wemby, Rookie
of the Year with Stefan Castle. They could have the
Rookie of the Year again this year as the number
two overall pick. And that is not helping you as
Rockets fan. It's not helping the West. As the other
(07:01):
thing we talked about, and I don't want to move
away from this, but as we discussed, this exciting offseason
for the Rockets, and it is a big move year
for them. Look where they are and look where they
could go, and I said, yeah, we pretty much have
all the information we need except for where are they drafting?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And I kept adding, and if something.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
Major happens, happens for one of the next eight teams
that are still playing, and it did happen last night,
because Jason Tatum probably had a catastrophic injury. And I
do think that impacts what teams are doing and what
teams are thinking as the West continues to get even
better and the East continues to get even worse. And
(07:39):
that's also what happened last night's lottery. The only thing
good that happened. And thankfully the maroon that was calling
it for ESPN was wrong when he said it. I
almost made the same mistake during the day when I
was going to post, you don't want to hear this happen,
because it's going to mean that Philadelphia bumped out of
the top six in Oklahoma's he gets to their pick
(08:00):
at seven or wherever it lands, and that's literally what
he's up. Looks like that means Oklahoma City's gonna be
able to grab Philadelphia's pick. Oh wait, Philadelphia won the lottery,
they get the third pick.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I was wrong.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
I have to make a correction, having Oklahoma City get
even better would be bad. Well, like I said, no
reason to push into any other direction. There are a
lot of things that have fallen into play so many
different times, and some of the people involved. Lebron and Kyrie,
both players who were number one picks, both players we
just mentioned there, Both players who have active social media accounts,
(08:34):
Both players who posted on social media in one of
their cases multiple times, and the other a little bit
ago about what transpired. So I again, I don't doubt
Cooper Flag will be a MAV. I did not see
that coming. Even with all of the underswell of this
couldn't possibly be what the league had in mind when
they ask Nico Harrison politely, could you please be our
(08:57):
fall guy for a couple months, Take the heat show
your face a few times, you know, have some meet
and greets with the local media. Just take all these
shots and we'll hook you up later.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I should say that I don't think that Cooper Flag's
going to be an end all bl NBA player. I
probably should have started my screaming with that, because I
really don't, and I would have said I was saying
that before this happened, and you're my witness, so you
know that that's not just for effect, because this happens
to negatively affect a Houston sports franchise. I was never
(09:29):
a huge like I honestly, if the Rockets got the
number one pick somehow someway, I absolutely would have wanted
them to use that in a package for another player,
which is what the Spurs will do with the number
two pick. This is not just bad because Dallas got
the number one pick and it looks rigged. It's bad
because yet again, here we are and the Spurs happen
(09:51):
to be like, I know what you've said in the past,
and it made sense at the time, doesn't now what
was that?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Why would they ever do that?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
For san Antonio. That's a terrible market. It's a one
trick pony like okay, but it keeps happening. It keeps
happening with san Antonio. Way more of a condensed timeline too.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
San Antonio did the you know, the tanking role with
the other two big number one picks they have, and
then they got.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
David Robinson on the bench, healthy with a perfectly fine
back to get to get Tim Duncan from the Celtics.
And then on the day where Jason Tatum rips up
his leg. They screwed the Celtics again. Okay, they didn't
really because the Celtics weren't in it. But the Celtics
have a catastrophic event that is detrimental to their franchise
(10:35):
on the same day that the Spurs are at the
top of the draft lottery.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Once again, It's yeah, why.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Three years ago would San Antonio be the landing spot
That I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Once he's already there. Now you have a place.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Well, the things that have happened since, Yeah, sure you could.
We can spin it. Anybody can spin it. Social media
has been spinning.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Fans probably are trying to spin it since they keep
losing the right way by sucking and get screwed in
the lottery the right way. Well, legit, Dallas lost because
they took their franchise player and gave it to the
biggest market the league wanted a superstar in.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
They were in the playing tournament. I mean, they didn't
really lose, They weren't tanking Dallas. Dallas mismanaged their franchise
and got rewarded for it. That's what happened last night. Oh,
it happens all the time.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Cleveland's done it multiple times for the same drafts you're
talking about.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
But like the Rockets, I think they legit wanted to
tear it down and build back legit and to their credit,
even though they didn't get the number one pick any
of those years, they've probably done the best with as
many shots at it as they got. But I just
hate to see that. Look, what did Dallas do to
deserve the number one pick? Whoever it would be. It's
not about it being Cooper Flag. It's about you suck
(11:43):
it running your team and you've been rewarded
Speaker 2 (11:47):
The A team On Sports Talk seven ninety