The Fanatics 5-31-26: NBA Finals Preview

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You thunder.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
You can you can't get me thunder because it's just
God's fun.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
No chance of thunder here today. Some skies for you
to go out and celebrate. Maybe go into Academy and
wait behind the arc for a long time, you know,
go get your finals gear, get ready, you know, as
we get ready for the NBA Finals. First time since
twenty fourteen that the Spurs are back in it, first

(00:30):
time since nineteen ninety nine that the New York Knicks
are back in it. You know, if you're a Nick fan,
I wonder if you're happy about maybe we shouldn't.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
Have Chanted, we want Wimby.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Maybe we uh, you know, I think after being not
in the finals for so long and then now you've
got to come back and face the same opponent that
that beat you in five yeah, back in ninety nine
and won it on won it in Madison Square guard.
I mean, it's poetic justice that the Spurs win it
in Madison Square Garden, you know, because this is a

(01:04):
new generation of Spurs, right.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
Yes, Popovich was a did you see Pop was at
the airport?

Speaker 3 (01:09):
He was there with him, you know, and that's like
the greatest thing to see is pop you know, being
part of this. And I had a chance Game six
to actually see Pop leaving the game, and it was
cool because everybody kind of you know, it's you know,
you see Pop and it's like you want to thank

(01:30):
l hefe for for what has come together here in
San Antonio, because he is a big part of it.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
I know, he's very silent.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
I know, like even Vic last night was asked, you know,
maybe maybe you'll have to do the interview with Pop
and and Vic said he couldn't wait to talk to him,
you know, and Vic jokingly said, well, maybe I'll record
the conversation off to the side. And it was really
cool just to see the emotion from all these guys.

(01:58):
Nobody picked them, Shane, to go this far, you know.
And that's the crazy part because I remember the beginning
of the season.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
It was like I'm sitting.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
There, going, oh, they're gonna have fifty wins, looking at
the roster.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
I said forty five.

Speaker 5 (02:11):
Yeah, I said forty five conservedly, I said maybe like
a six seed.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yeah, we were wrong. That's fine, and I'm glad I
was wrong, definitely, you know.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
And it's great to see like the young generation now too,
like my daughter texted me last night, like at the
end of the game, we did it, you know. And
ironically enough, twenty seven years ago now and I'm not
aging myself, but twenty seven years ago, the Spurs entered
the nineteen ninety nine finals. That's when I graduated high school.
Well she graduated high school on Friday, and the Spurs

(02:41):
enter into the finals against the Knicks.

Speaker 5 (02:44):
Yeah, there's a weird time frame that kind of like
re emerged it stuff, because I'm in ninety six, the
Spurs had twenty wins and it landed in the number
one pick, which was Tim Duncan. Two years later they
make the finals. Three years ago the Spurs had a
twenty one season and landed them the number one pick.
And then and then two years later they're in the
NBA Finals. And in both those years, who did they play?

Speaker 4 (03:03):
The Knicks?

Speaker 1 (03:04):
The Knicks? And so it's funny how history repeats itself.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
It wouldn't be awesome if game one was at the album,
So what game one was that?

Speaker 6 (03:11):
The should I would I would love the Yeah, I
would love if the Spurs, you know me, Yeah, but
if they could have the warm ups.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
That the Spurs in ninety nine wore to run out
of the tunnel. And that was back in the day
where it said Spurs on the on the top. You
know that would just be cool to kind of And
I want to see the ninety nine team there in
game one. We know Sean's gonna be right, We know
Sean's going to be there.

Speaker 7 (03:39):
I want to see them all Ay Johnson, you know,
we know Duncan's gonna be there, just to reunite this
team and let the let this generation see that, right
and and we've seen that throughout the playoffs. Manu Ginobili,
David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Bruce Bowen. You know, Antonio Daniels

(03:59):
has own up and they the supporting staff behind this
team is scary, you know, you yes, you know you've
got you know, Patrick Ewing who's been at probably every
Knicks game as well. But you know, as we talk
about this, Shane, when we look at the season series,
right m h and you count the Cup final because

(04:22):
that's a game that actually counted. The Knicks won the
season series two games to one.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Oh shoot, I'm sorry to interruption. Our phone lines are
blowing up. Color which color? What's your name? Where are
you from? What you take?

Speaker 8 (04:34):
Hey? How's it going, guys saying? And Dylan, I love
you guys?

Speaker 1 (04:37):
What's love you so much?

Speaker 8 (04:39):
My name is My name is Kevin, of course from
San Antonio. Hey, there you go from Champion City.

Speaker 6 (04:47):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (04:48):
The reason I called her this morning is because I
overheard Dylan saying I was talking about the line how
you can get your shirts and stuff over at Academy.
I just passed by this morning, and man, I couldn't
even park, That's how ridiculous. It was just one location.
I looked at other locations. You can get you can
get them, you can get them online, you can get

(05:10):
them for pickup. Just got word that I'm getting lined
in a few days because I am not waiting in
that line. But but but for those for those who
are dedicated, you know, who are you know willing to
wait in line? I mean, biomis you know it's it's
it's a it's a big victory. Last night. Uh. Not
only was Wemby crying, I was crying. My whole street

(05:32):
was like going insane, fireworks popping. People do it, don'tus?
It was just ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
You gotta love it.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
I love that.

Speaker 5 (05:39):
Yeah, Hey, Kevin, real quick, how many games are the
Spurs gonna win this.

Speaker 8 (05:45):
Oh, hey, I'm gonna get my broom and Kevin you
need to go down to Academy and get your broom
as well.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
I mean, anybody wants to stand in line for us today,
we will tell you.

Speaker 4 (05:58):
Then.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Hey, thank you Kevin for your call. We have another caller.
Let's go all right? Who is this? Where you from?

Speaker 2 (06:02):
What you take Hey, this is Jose from Eagle Path.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
What's up?

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Appreciate you guys putting me on. Yeah, yeah, we're partying
out here, honking just like you guys, at least trying
to keep up. Question for you guys, you know, Bigsperts fan,
What's what's going to be the matchup for for this
for this finals?

Speaker 5 (06:23):
Right?

Speaker 2 (06:23):
We had the others really step up. Champagne Lacelle. Who's
going to be the guy that's going to take advantage
of the others on the Knicks? Also great shouting out Sohan,
I'll send everybody Jeremy's a champion no matter what.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
Yeah, at the end of the day, he is a
champion no matter what. Jose, thanks for the call and
answer your question. When you look at this matchup going
into the New York Knicks, I mean, you've got the
head of the snake in Bronson with the New York Knicks.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
You know, this is a guy that's just like Sga.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Castle again, after a seven game emotional series has got
to go in front of him.

Speaker 4 (06:59):
Who I expect from the Spurs.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
I expect Luke Cornett to have a better series against
the New York Knicks than he did against Okac. And
the thing about Luke Cornett is he admitted that he
did not have a great series. Yeah he did, you know,
but it always takes that one play in every season
for the championships for the Spurs, and I feel like

(07:22):
Luke Cornette has kind of done that. We remember Steve
Kerr did that No. Three with that night against the
Dallas Mavericks. You remember those one certain plays and when
you look at our bench, it's not like they're having
double doubles, Shane, it's just that they're impactful at the
right time.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
Well, we also kind of forget in the in the
seven championship against the Lakers.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
I mean, that's right.

Speaker 5 (07:42):
I guess the Cavs Lebron was related to this that
you know people were talking about in that year, the
up start of Lebron, like they was they were taking.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
They're talking about him the same way.

Speaker 5 (07:50):
Talking about Wimby and Bruce Bowen was the primary defender
on him in that series and he locked him down
for the majority of it. So I think there's a
lot of points too, like you don't always want to
go star on star, you always want to go match up,
and in this one, Dylan, I actually wouldn't be surprised
if they head up Jayleen Bruns with more speed as
opposed to step Castle. I would look at someone like
Dylan Harper because because I think that would be the

(08:12):
matchup I'm looking at.

Speaker 4 (08:12):
Oh yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
And when you look at those, you know, matchups with
the Knicks man, Karl, Anthony Towns, big guy, that's you know.

Speaker 4 (08:22):
So who do we got?

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Who is this? Where you from? What'd you take?

Speaker 4 (08:26):
This is Ac?

Speaker 8 (08:28):
What's going on?

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Guys?

Speaker 3 (08:30):
We got we got a stand in line for Ac
at the Academy for him today.

Speaker 4 (08:36):
Man, I gotta tell you what.

Speaker 8 (08:37):
Like, as a Rockets fan, I'm so barely disappointed that
we didn't get the Newcastle. I mean, that's it's a
hard day for me today.

Speaker 7 (08:46):
Congratulations to the Spurs, but really I want to hear
y'all talk about so the double big that the Knicks
play like, it is nasty.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
You got cats stepping up to thirty feet calmly consistently
knocking thirty foot jump shots. How do you see this
series playing out?

Speaker 4 (09:03):
Man, I'll tell you I have a great weekend. Yeah,
it's a.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Great, great question. It is a Battle of the Bigs
coming up. You know you got Mitchell Robinson in there too.
By the way, Mitchell Robinson broke his finger during the
off off week that they've had. He is currently a
game time decision come Wednesday. I keep thinking Monday because
we're like every other day.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
In my head. But the Battle of the Bigs.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
You're right, and that's why I tell you guys that
that Cornett has to come up in this series a.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Lot of French vanilla.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
I think we might see some French vanilla. A lot.

Speaker 1 (09:35):
I see Carter Bryant to we.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
Could see Carter Bryant, because Carter Bryant's just a pest.
You know, he's everybody's favorite nephew, but he's not like.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Has He has those games where he's kind of opposite liability.
He'll be a great defender for you.

Speaker 4 (09:49):
Carl Anthony Towns.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
He's also a guy that is very emotional, right, he complains,
he he talks about getting foul. This is another hard series,
you know when you look at things. This is a
this is a Knicks team that if Carl Anthony town
if you're able to shut him down, it's gonna be
very hard for Brunson. Who's gonna have to deal with
our three headed snake in Castle Harper, Darren Fox, you

(10:13):
know everybody else up front? You know who's gonna be
the silencer, right, you have your silencers. Our silencers are
Devin Vessel, Julian champinnee Kildon Johnson, you know, and stuff
like that. Whose bench is better? I think our bench
is better, to be honest with you when I look
at this, because yeah, we all love so Han, but

(10:33):
so Han hasn't played a minute. You know, he's sitting
on the bench and he's not really favored as one
of the their their players up there.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
Now. Is so Hann gonna be able to provide a lot? Sure?

Speaker 3 (10:46):
Yeah, he's been part of the system. You know, he
knows the system. I mean, Mike Brown knows the system
as well. It's a Spurs you know, finals. You know
when you look at both sides of the tree here
on the east and west. But it's really coming down
to the big guys because Victor, I'm honest with the boy,
tired thirty five forty minutes, you know, and defending champions.

(11:07):
The emotion level has to change today.

Speaker 5 (11:10):
With the Spurs, I was I was gonna say, I
think in this matchup, like because we talked about he
talked about the double bigs at that point, I wonder
if you're really gonna go a lot of French vanilla.
I wonder if we see a little bit more of
someone like Kelly Olynnock to supplement as.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
Well, true, or you see plumb Lee, or you see
you know, or Bismeck Biscayan plays play something as well.
Each team is a different chess move from Mitch Johnson and.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
The coaching staff. Right. The defense on us were dogs.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
We're just dogs.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Okay, We're not the Cleveland Cavaliers, sorry, Ty, but we're
not you know, these teams, the seventy six ers or
anybody else like that. And you got to understand too,
Julian Champagne, that dude's gonna have some fun, you know,
because he gets to go to New York. He gets
to return home, you know. And Julian Champagne has been
playing with revenge. He said it last night, you know,
and I think I forget who else it was. I

(11:58):
think it was Darren Fox. Shout out to him, by
the way, and all you haters with him, by the way.
He was there last night.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
He had a great game.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
He had a great game last night. Don't expect him
to have like thirty five points, guys.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
It's okay. From that fifteen to seventeen points, they could
still win.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
But when you get traded or released from a team
because they want to go to an All Star game
and have a G League player be their guy, Julian
Champinne is playing for passion, and Julian Champinnee has been
that guy.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
We all know he's gonna have a game.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
We all know that that man's gonna hit six three
pointers in one game.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
But when is it gonna happen?

Speaker 3 (12:32):
The thing that I want to see the Spurs do,
and I think we've got to.

Speaker 4 (12:36):
Go to break, don't we Yeah? Something yeah before we
go to break.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
The thing I want to see the Spurs do in
the finals consistent see right Game six, Game seven, you
got a back to back win. No better way to
start and get your sweet revenge. Because the last time
the Spurs face these Nicks, the Knicks slapped him across
the hardwood in New York. And so you know, you

(13:00):
know that the Spurs are going to be ready to
roll come Wednesday in the NBA Finals. It sounds sexy,
it does. By the way, they are favored. The Spurs
are favored in Game one. There's a lot of right
now early numbers. I'll get you those later in the show.

Speaker 5 (13:16):
But up next, we got to some well called it
sound and Saturday Sounds of the Game or something.

Speaker 4 (13:20):
Like that, Sounds of Saturday. But how about sounds of
the Western Conference Finals? Coming up on the Fanatics on
ticket seven sixty