April 29, 2024 • 37 mins
Chris and Rob discuss the unceremonious end to an incredibly underwhelming season for the Phoenix Suns, tell us that the Philadelphia 76ers fans sold their tickets to Game 4 because they don’t really believe in this team and Joel Embiid and explain why it’s premature for anyone to suggest that Anthony Edwards is already the Face of the NBA.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Odd Couple podcast.
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to the Best of the Odd Couple with
Chris Brushaw and Rob Harker.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Well, you know who doesn't have a bright future?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
'al?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Who's that? The Phoenix Sun.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I don't know why I was thinking saying the Phoenix Suns,
Rob and Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal Championship coach
Frank Vocal swapped like so many dust balls into the
(00:57):
dust bin, swapped like so many balls of.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Lentz into the trash.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Four games, four ls against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Rob.
The first three of them were routes, yep, double digit victories.
Last night they you know, they played a little bit
better but still went down by six points and Rob.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
First question, there's a lot to get to here.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
First thing, I want to ask you, who do you
blame for this debacle that is the Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Well, I'm gonna blame the front office, Chris, for putting
this together, because they did not put together a good
enough froster. The bill trade whoever pulled that trade off
in Washington, Chris should get a double raised today when
they realized that they were able to get rid of
Bradley Beal and that montrocity of a contract, right that
(01:55):
you're saddled with, because, Chris, we talk about all the time,
all in the contract, you can't get rid of it.
Somebody's always willing to take a bad contract. Apparently this
one might be. I don't know about this one now,
you know. But they got rid of it. Nobody thought
that they did. Nobody thought that they could get him right, uh,
that they could trade him in Washington, and they were
(02:17):
able to do it. But but Chris, when you think
about where they are and what happened, we talked about
it before.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I told you.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Kevin Durant is NBA dead, and and now Chris.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
We went before.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
It was just that he wasn't a conversation anymore, right,
That's what I was saying.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
He wasn't even a conversation. He still was putting up
his number.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
He was doing his number, he's gonna probably make second
team All NBA.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Right, But but but there was no buzz about Kevin
Durant despite the numbers, and now he can't even win
a playoff game, forget about a series. He was swept
two years ago with Brooklyn when they got swept and
and he was dismantled by uh but they didn't make it.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
What they make the play in last year? Or did
they even make it? They made the playoffs, but he didn't.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
You know?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
They they did win around I think, and got beat
in the second round.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Okay, yeah, but but but when you look at where
Durand and the Clippers, right, they beat the Clippers without
Paul George and Kawhi So and then they got beat
by Denver in the second round. That was it, right,
I almost forget about that series because of the Clippers
injuries depleted. But but my point is he's NBA dead now.
(03:31):
I mean I don't even know. And that doesn't mean
that he's not. I'm not taking away his accomplishments and
his place in the NBA. But to go to Phoenix,
Chris where they had gone to the to the championship
without them, Okay, they were up too. Oh, and everybody
was random Raven and when they got Kevin Durant, you
included me.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
We thought they're going to be viable in the West.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
They will be viable, okay, and they just haven't been viable.
And to have this blow up in their face when
they have these three guys and really nothing else and
not be able to forget about winning the series because
Minnesota is a really good team and have been all year, Chris,
but to not be able to even win a game,
(04:16):
to not win ay.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Meat Minnesota three to zero in the regular season. I mean,
I know you know again, it shows you right right,
But now I agree.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I'm looking at the front office and I'm even going
above this the owner.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Huh yeah, Matt Ishbia because too many times these owners robed,
they come in and they think they're about to play
fantasy basketball in the real NBA.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Oh, let me go get KD with these there, oh Beal?
Who was you know what? These are human beings. Chemistry matters,
fit matters. They would have been better off in every way,
Rob keeping, Chris Paul.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Instead of trading from Bradley Beal, I got Bradley Bill.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
In fact, I've got a better Bradley Bill in Devin Booker.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I didn't need another one. You know what, I need
a point guard.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
You put Booker at point Yeah, he's good enough to
run the point, get seven assists the game, but he's
not a point guard.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
He's a two. You needed a point guard.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
And Chris Paul's money next year wasn't even guaranteed. Rob
so now, instead of or instead of having three years
one hundred and sixty million dollars due to Bradley Bill
on a on a contract that has a no trade
clause to add you know, insult to injury, you could
have had Chris Paul and either let him walk this
(05:43):
summer or kept him for thirty million dollars one year.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
You'd have been better. And I know they would have
been a better team.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I don't know that they would have beat Minnesota, but
they would have been a better basketball team even with
Chris Paul and this diministration. I also think Rob and
this is all be hindsight, but hey, it is what
it is. They shouldn't have traded DeAndre Ayton that yo
Usef Nurkic and I get Ayton was tired of Phoenix
eighton wanted out. You were tired of him. But Manty Williams,
(06:14):
the coach was gone. That was a big part of
the problem, right him and Ayton he was gone. Couldn't
you have made good on Ayton and made up with him.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Right because the coach wasn't there. The problem that was
the rub was gone because Ayton is was seventeen and ten.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I'm not saying he's Joe l Embat, but he was
seventeen points, ten rebounds with no plays run for it.
He's a He was a factor on the defensive end
and the offensive end, much more than Useef Nurkic.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
So they made some bad moves, rob So and that's that.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
All is on the owner, Matt Ishbia, because he's not
an absentee owner. He wants to be involved. He wants
his fingerprints. This is his plate and now he your fingerprints, right,
this is his play there.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
This is Jerry Jones and a small way, smaller scale.
But instead of making sure you go out and get
the people you can own the team. Chris, sit in
the front road, have your drinks, entertain your people, and
leave the basketball stuff to the basketball people. Like that
is the best way to do it. And it's just
when you think about where the Suns are. They're doomed,
(07:25):
They're they're really in a bad spot for a long
time to go.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Here's what I think they have to do.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
As great as he is, still, I think they have
to trade Kevin Durant because, like you said that, there's
nowhere else in it.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You can't trade Bradley Beal.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I mean, Rob, we talked about it untradeable contracts. No
one is one hundred percent untradeable. But Rob, who is
taking him for three years, one hundred and sixty million
dollars when he hasn't played more than sixty games since
twenty nineteen and he didn't play that well this year
in these playoffs Terror yesterday?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Who's taking that?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
And Kevin Booker's young enough where I want to build
around Booker. He's still young enough where I can build
around him.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
And so I think, Rob, I'm.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Looking to see what I can get for Kevin Durant,
Golden State, Jonathan kaminga uh, then I can get Chris
Paul's contract. I mean, I got to get more than Kamen.
I got to get a bunch of picks.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I mean Oklahoma City with they you know, they got
a ton of picks, but they probably don't have the
contracts to make it work. There's been talking about the Lakers,
Rob the Knicks. I mean, there are a lot of
teams out there that could use Kevin Durant. It's gotta
be a team Rob that's close to a championship.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, and Bill has no trade right, Yeah, that's why
I don't think you can trade.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
You can trade him. So now with Duran, I hear you.
I just at this point, Yeah, it's got to be
a team.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
If Boston loses, if Boston for some some reason doesn't
get to the Eastern Conference finals, would you take a
maybe a Jalen Brown and Drew Holliday for Kevin Durant.
I don't even know. I'm gonna be honest at this point, Chris.
(09:22):
I know this sounds crazy. No, I know, but I'm
saying I don't know where Kevin Durant is. I gotta
be honest. And I'm not.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Saying you saying you might not even want him.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
If I might not want Kevin Durant at this point.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I want him if I'm right there. Yeah, and it
would have to do I agree with that.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
You're not You're not getting him on a team that's
that's trying to get there or or a year or
two away.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
He's not that player.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
But I just wonder, like, like recently, it's just he
just doesn't seem the same to me, even in the postseason,
Like the numbers are there, but it doesn't seem like
they register into wins. And that's scary as you get older.
And then Chris, let's be honest, that health issue there
is always there.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
With him as oh you now, it.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Just is this year, God blessing he was healthy, but
there's no doubt that that's always going to be a factor.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Chris Brussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm
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Speaker 5 (10:29):
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Speaker 3 (10:36):
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Speaker 5 (10:38):
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Speaker 4 (10:43):
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Speaker 5 (10:50):
I can't wait for this, Joe. We're going to dive
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Speaker 3 (10:56):
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Speaker 5 (10:58):
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Speaker 1 (11:06):
There's another team on the brink, and we talked about
him briefly in the last hour.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
That's the Philadelphia seventy six.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Ers down three games to one, going back to New
York for Game five. And I don't know, Rob, I
picked the Knicks in seven. I'd be surprised at this
point if it reaches seven games.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, I don't. I don't think it's gonna go seven.
I mean, it just it doesn't feel that way.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
I mean, early on we talked about it like they
could have won the first two games at Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Philly, especially the second one right and they got that
one stolen from him by the rep.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Two fouls that weren't called, not one but two.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And they failed to call the time out by the coach.
I mean, all of This was acknowledged by the league,
so it's not like we're.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Just belly aching over Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
But Joe rob I was not at Game four in Philly,
but by all accounts, it was at least half Knicks
fans there, or that's what it felt like, at least
with the cheers and the booze and who thes fans
were rooting for.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
It felt like a Nick game. I gotta admit it
felt like a Nick game. And Chris, you know, we
talked about it. We both covered the Knicks. I remember
in my heyday of being a beat writer going to
Atlanta with all the Nick fans. You remember that Atlanta
used to be like Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
South right right right, absolutely, and their New Yorkers all
over the place. We know that New Yorkers are like roaches,
They're everywhere, Okay, but I thought that was a bad
look for Philly fans. It spoke volumes to me, Chris,
that they don't believe in this team. They don't believe
(12:49):
like they weren't out of this series, like they were
down three hammer.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
It just dropped fifty.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Thank you, And to sell your tickets, Chris, and give
up your seats to your team tells me, you're not
buying embid and what's going on with this team and
this roster. You don't feel good about it? Philly sold out.
They sold out on them. If I'm embiid, I'm bummed.
(13:18):
I get that they played terrible. Chris at the end,
oh four last eleven shots or whatever it was down
the stretch that could happen. You can go call you
can't make shots, But they didn't know that going into
that game, right that they didn't know that that you
gave up your tickets before that.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
They looked at making money. That's all that was.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
And hey, they made some cash. But Rob here, embiid,
you said you'd be bummed he was here.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
He is.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
Oh fans. I think he's unfortunate, and I'm not calling
them out, but it is disappointed. Obviously. You got a
lot of Knicks fans and that down the road that
never seen it. And I'm being here for ten years. Yeah,
kind of fisces me off, especially because Sureley is considers
four style, so you know they've always shown up and
(14:11):
I don't think that should happen.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Yeah, it's okay, Chris here, Philly the Eagles, you better
not wear another jersey in that building.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Chris, you know that fighting.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
You'll be fighting if you go down there and wear
Dallas Cowboys jersey at a game in Philly. You know
how they are about the Phillies. You know how they
are about the Flyers, And it is shocking. We know
New York is a quick hour and ten minute train ride, Chris,
so it's an easy commute for New Yorkers, right, But
I was shocked, and I think he was being nice.
(14:43):
He should have been irate and disappointed in the Philly fans.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Well, I agree.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I agree that it was unseemly that they had as
many Nick fans there, or that the Nick fans took
over the guard and like you said, Chris took over,
took over the Sixers arena. But and Philly, it makes
(15:10):
it even worse, Rob, that Philadelphia is such a sports town, right,
that makes it even worse.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
I mean, if they Rob, if they had done that in.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Miami or even as you mentioned earlier, Atlanta, it's not
I mean, it's those are bad sports now.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Miami to me is the worst. It's terrible. It's Atlanta
might be the worst. They're both bad. They're both bad.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
And Chris I've been to Miami for the opening season
of a Dolphins game, not a sellout like the first
game of the year in Miami.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I've been to that. We know that, we know the
Marlins can't draw.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
They had all the fans for the World Baseball Classic
down there, Chris in South Beach, so they're baseball fans
down there.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
They don't go to the games.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Rob I wrote when Lebron was in Cleveland for his
first stint the November before he became a free agent,
so it was his last year in Cleveland that first
go round. I wrote a story they were going to
play the Heat, and I wrote a story saying, and
I had no idea that this was gonna happen, but
(16:14):
I wrote a story on ESPN dot Com saying Lebron
James might need to consider going to Miami if he
wants to beat Boston and get a championship, because I
was like, they got a Big three, he doesn't have
the supporting cast, you know, d Wade, I didn't know.
I don't even know if I mentioned Bosh, but I
was like him and d Wade and Rob, you know
(16:38):
that if a story like that had been written about
somebody maybe going to the Knicks. That crowd would have
had signs, they would have been cheering that guy. They
would have made him feel that home. They would have
rolled out the red carpet. Miami fans didn't get there
as usual until like the second round. Their lower Bowl
was not full until the second quarter. I mean, that's
(17:00):
just how they are. And even when they were winning,
ride with the Heatles, I mean, yeah, it was sold
out in packed, but they weren't close to as good
as fans as most of these cities.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
You know, when they got with you, I'm with you.
Miami's bad, Atlanta's bad. I once wrote a column for
ESPN dot Com Chris called Atlanta the worst, the worst
sports town in America. You know what, the only reason
I know the year is because of the comments. It
was twenty twelve, so that was how many years twelve
(17:31):
years ago, twenty twelve for ESPN New York dot Com.
Seven thousand comments Chris underneath the story seven thousand disagreeable,
you know, like on both sides, but just the idea.
Seven thousand comments on a story. Incredible.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
It's a terrible sports town.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I was there when they won their World Series in
ninety five, when they beat the Cleveland Indians.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
I was covering the Indians and.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Rob is about seventy five people out outside after they
won it, like in downtown. I was like, man, Cleveland,
they to place rows right right? It was like nothing.
But anyway, that's the thing, Rob. They took over a
sports fanatic type city. And here's what I will say though,
(18:21):
and I'm not excusing it, but I think I'm just
presenting the truth.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Rob.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Just like Joel emb was disappointed and ticked off, so
are the fans. They're disappointed Joel Embiid and ticked off
at you and your sixers because you guys should be
better than you've been. And I get it that you're hurt,
but you're playing forty minutes and Rob, Joel Embiid has
(18:53):
scored one point in the last two fourth quarters. Joel
MB has two rebounds in the fourth quarter in this
entire series.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
And you know how much I praise Joel MB's jump shot.
He is easily the best jump shooting big man ever.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
You just over Patrick Ew. I always believe Patrick.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Was, Yeah, undoubtedly, I mean it's unbelievable how well he shoots.
But Rob, he he might as well be six '
five because he sits out there at the three point
line and the free.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Throw line and he plays like he's a guard.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
And I get that that's a part of your game.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
You're so good at it.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
But when you need a bucket, go inside. That's what
Yoki's yoga is outside a lot too, But when it's
time or when he has a mismatch, he backs you down,
and that's what Joel Mbi needs to do. Rob He
had no rebounds in the fourth quarter. Rob The Knicks
(20:02):
backup center Mitchell Robinson was out all right with with
ankle and ankle injury. Isaiah Hartenstein played two seconds in
the fourth quarter because of foul trouble. They were guarding
the seven foot three hundred pound Joe Lmbid with Precious
a Qa seven six ' eight and og Al Nunobi six.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Seven precious I saw that movie There you Go, but
they were guarding him with those players.
Speaker 8 (20:35):
Come on, man, I mean, you should be destroying, you
should be insulted. But the reason they can guard you
with guys like that is because you've made yourself that
short by just sitting around settling for jump shots. How
about going inside and get some offensive rebounds.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
I mean it's just.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
So, I rob the fans are ticked off too, And
Joe l Emby didn't paying money for the fans to
come see him.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
They're paying money to go see him. So I get
it that.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
He's disappointed and upset, but so are they because year.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
After year, season after.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Season, this is what they see. And so it goes
both ways. It was a bad look for Philly fans, but.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
They're like, man, it's enough this process. When's it gonna
pay off? Chris?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
And and that's why you give up your tickets in
a playoff series where your team is only down two
to one, got jobbed out of game two in in
at Madison Square Garden. It easily could have been to
one Philly, Chris, Can we believe? Can we say that
going into that game? And and there's a series there,
and for them to sell their tickets ahead of time
(21:52):
and say, I'll just take the cash because I'm not
really buying into, uh, you know, what this team is
selling or the idea of how good they can be
and if they're ever going to win a championship.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
It speaks volumes.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
I was stunned at the crowd noise and the reactions
when the Knicks made baskets and Philly and.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Rob I'm saying I'm saying this because I would love
to see Joel and be cap his career with the championship.
The dude is a great player. He's a great score
and shooter, and he is a good good defender. But
part of defense also is rebounded.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
And I get it.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
He got ten, but he had none in the fourth
quarter when when push came.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
And when it mattered. But Moore, thy o four on
the last eleven, like that's what he.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Was go for five in the fourth. This is constructive criticism.
And for whatever reason, it seems like nobody in Philly
will tell him this.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
I'm sure they are, but he's not listening.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
If Joel Limby wants to win a championship, watch take
this summer because you're gonna be starting summer vacation pretty
soon of Da Kola Jokic, and watch when some he decides,
you know what is time, let me go inside.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
If you're not hitting shots in the fourth.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
MBAT, then go draw foul. You're an excellent free throw shooter.
Get to the line. If you were tired, and I'm
sure you were because you came back late in the season.
You played the whole second half. I get it, But Rob,
what goes first when you get tired?
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Your legs? Your legs? Your jump shot? Yep, that's the first, Belie.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Even more reason you need to get your butt down
on the vein. He couldn't find the low post with
a GPS, so they were ticked off to in Philly.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Those both ways, Joel.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 3 (23:58):
But Rob, let's.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Stay on Anthony Edwards and uh, he was the star
of that first round series. Now, Karl Anthony Towns played well,
Rudy Gobert did his thing. Jaden McDaniels, God bless him,
played really well.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Defensive play of the year. Rudy Gobert. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, he hasn't been announcing on Rogers, but he yeah,
he probably will win it. And then Mike Connelly, like,
they've all played well. But the star of that team,
the leader and superstar of that team is Anthony Edwards.
He averaged rob thirty one, eight boards and six assists
(24:43):
on fifty one percent shooting Rob. He took eight threes
a game and made forty four percent of them. So
this dude showed out. He challenged his childhood hero, Kevin Durant,
took it to Durant.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Durant didn't want none. Durant wanted to Mill and you know.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Laughing, Joe, you're nice, You're not your Meanwhile.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Y'all going home, all right? So Chris, Chris, I'm.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Just saying, like you an take mine.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I'm not gonna be laughing and joke. We can laugh
and joke later in the Olympics.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Now when you're trying to compete, I'm not right. We're
not friends. We're not friends on the court. I'm trying
to beat you.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Edwards was looking at it, right, Go look at some
old Isaiah and magic thing and they couldn't have been closer.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Go look at the blood, Chris, right, yep, yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
I mean it kind of ruined the refriendship for a while,
but still it was about winning, all right. But here's
the thing that Rob we got some sound people are saying,
is now the face of the NBA.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
We got some sound on that. That was his teammate.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Yeah, but let's let's hear who is it? Karl Anthony
Towns Gobert Who, Yeah, let's hear it Peter Face. I've
been saying that. He hate when I say it, but
it's true.
Speaker 7 (26:00):
Like I said, future so brag up put the sunglasses
on most of the time when I'm walking around with him.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Well, I liked that he's kind of like nah nah,
because one thing that comes.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I mean, he's obviously very confident.
Speaker 7 (26:14):
Rob.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Course, we thought he got players. Yeah, yeah, there's no doubt.
But he gives his teammates love.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Like when he was interviewed after the game yesterday, he
was like, they asked him, well, what was the biggest,
you know, part of the game, what you remember the
most or what was the key? He said, Karl Anthony Towns,
He said, you know, Cat coming out and doing this
thing that was the key to the game, you know,
(26:42):
and Cat giving him love. That shows you they both
or Kat understands the pecking order.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
He's the guy and he's the dog. He's the leader.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
And what I want to ask you, Rob is do
you think it's time to for him to be the
face of the league or is this premature?
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Chris so premature? I mean, can we stop. This remind
me of when Devin Booker was up two to zero
in the finals and he was the next Kobe. I mean, Chris,
stop it. And this is not We talked about it.
Me and you were the biggest Anthony Edwards guys rookie
year yes or no, we thought he got and we
(27:26):
couldn't understand why people didn't vote for him and all that,
and so we were on that bandwagon.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
And I love his game.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
I love that he wants to play every night, I
love his enthusiasm.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I love everything about this guy.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
But the face of the league, false face of the league.
I mean, come on, Chris, stop it. He's in the
first round. If they lose to the next round, does
that mean he's not the face of the league.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
I mean healthy, they're supposed to right, amazing.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
We can't have that. This is what we keep doing.
Is it over action to everything? He had a great
first round series, but the face of the league, with
no MVPs and nothing else to show for it.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Stop it. No no face, no league.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
I agree with you, and like you said, we both
love Anthony Edwards, but this is real.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
This is bizarre.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
And now if you want to say he's going to
one day be the face of the league. If you
won't even say if they win the championship, which obviously
is a stretch, or they got a long way to go,
for sure he'll be the face of the league. Okay,
he's trending toward that. He's one of those guys that
(28:43):
could be. Okay, but now, as you said, it's one series.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
It's one Come on, man, he played grade, but it's
one series. That doesn't make you the face of the league.
It just doesn't. I mean, we we're just I get it.
People want to celebrate. Everybody's a gold everybody's a this
the greatest, everybody's the face of the league.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Got like, how many times are gonna keep doing that?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
It's like the younger folks can't understand, like they don't
know definitions or no, you know what it might be
this rob you know, this is the generation where everybody's
got their truth right and do what everybody can do
what they want and you know you can't criticize it.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Is that.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
It is that why everybody can be a goat. I
guess everybody's a goat, everybody's a face of the league.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Is that what we're talking about? I don't know. But look,
here's the other thing, Rob.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
We've talked about how the best handful of the absolute
top tier of the league.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Right now are international guys.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
You got Yo Kich, Yannis MB now SGA. They're all
international players. And Jason Tatum is in there because you know,
he was a top five you know, I believe he'll
be a top five MVP guy, probably be first team
All NBA.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
He's American.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
And Anthony Everard now job Rob John Morant, if he
gets back and you know, gets his stuff straightened out
off the court, he I think he'll jump back into
that conversation. But right now, as far as Americans, I mean,
Jason Tatum.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Just now. The thing about Edwards, Rob.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Is his game is spectacular, but it's all so fundamentally sounding.
You know how I texted with Michael Jordan. A lot
of people have compared it to Michael Jordan. Jordan says
he sees the similarities, and we talked about the defensive intensity,
wanting to play every night, the spectacular dunks.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
And high flying game. But also Rob, and.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
You know this, Jordan, the thing people overlooked because of
you was so spectacular, was how fundamentally sound he was
and how team oriented.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Even though he was like, I'm gonna be the reason
we win, he.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Still was team oriented playing in that triangle offense and
stuff like that. And that's what you see with Anthony Edwards. Yes,
he can do the great dunks and take over a game,
but he also moves that basketball. He also lets other
guys get theirs. He doesn't dominate the ball like that
(31:32):
is that is all similar to Michael Jordan. But the
other thing Rob Anthony Edwards has charisma. No, he does
off the court right with smile, his person Did you
see the movie Hustle?
Speaker 3 (31:48):
No, I didn't see it. You know, yeah he was great,
rob G. You saw it right, Yes, it was.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
On NETFLI didn't he I mean he was like he
wasn't a bit player. He had a nice solid role,
but you could say he stole the show. You know,
he probably wasn't in it quite enough to steal the show,
rob G.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
No, Yeah, the riff.
Speaker 9 (32:10):
He has the personality on the game to absolutely be
the face of the end. It's just the problem is
it's so early in his career. He's got one playoff
series victor under his belt. Let's say in round two
they get Denver and Denver does what Denver does? They
beat him in five or six times, then he's falls
into the same category as like Jahn Moran. Did you
(32:32):
know even Jason Tatum would probably still be ahead of him,
and Tatum has been.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
The thing that has made Tatum not that kept him
from being kind of the face or a face of
the league is the inability to win.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
You gotta win now. Jordan was unique in that he
was one of.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
The faces of the league rob before he started winning.
I mean, he had the shoes that just went went
wild to come fly with me, videos, Gatoray career, you know,
he had all of that before he started winning.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
But that was a different day and age.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
You were question for you, Chris, when you text with
Michael Jordan's, did you ask him if him and Edwards
were related at all?
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Or No? That's just stuff on the internet people. Yes,
that's on the internet.
Speaker 9 (33:20):
Yeah, there's there's a whole lot of viral memes that
their face cut in half.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
You Jordan's Edwards doesn't know his dad.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
It's very similar to they they think that Michael made
to stop over somewhere and from Georgia is from Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
I know he's from Atlanta. But it's similarly. You know
that too, right, Yeah, I know the meme people really uncanny,
like literally, Chris, you used to see it, I mean, yeah, iven.
Speaker 9 (33:54):
Have you seen the auto porter Wilt Chamberlain once? No, okay, well,
this one's even more believable than that one, Like as
far as just the similar the way they look, they
look exactly.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
The Boston miamis he is from Atlanta. From Atlanta. Yeah,
he's born in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Yeah, I know. He didn't make any mention of that. No,
I didn't think so. I was just curious, you know who.
It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
I do know a story about an nb I'm not
even gonna say who, but NBA legend who a friend
of our family.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
You know, the child doesn't really look like the parents.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
There is the talk that Jama okay good, and there's
the talk that he's the son of an NBA legend.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Why are you gonna put doctor Jay's business out there?
We know doctor j already tennis player was Alexandris. She
was a reporter for the Times.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
Christ That was an in depth story, I guess right, undercover, see.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Be careful, undercover, in depth, be careful. But I ain't
even gonna say about that.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
So yeah, look, I think rob Anthony Edwards right now here.
Here's the thing who I'm gonna throw out to you
guys or you Rob before we go to the listeners.
Best bet of the American players because obviously got Wimby
and Jokic, Yoannes, you know these international guys.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Bet of the Americans?
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Best bet or who's the best like candidate for facing
the league?
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Is it? I'm gonna give you three.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Jason Tatum, Anthony Edwards, John Moran.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
I would say Edwards is the number one choice.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
I say Jason Tatum because all it would take for
them to do is to win one. That and they're
closer if they win one, Chris, it will change the
way people look at Jason Tatum that it just takes
one because he's done just about everything you can do.
He's still young, he's he's a good person, personality, he's
(36:13):
a good looking guy. He has all of those things too,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
I think I think the thing.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
I agree his game is not as exciting as Anthony,
and the game is nice.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
I mean it's not boring, don't get me wrong, but
and you.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Know, like he hasn't captivated. I don't think he's captivated
people's imagination like Anthony Edwards. But if they ever run
this yea, yeah, but if they have a run a
little different, it'll change the way people look at it,
don't you think. I don't know, Like I actually feel
this way. I feel like Anthony Edwards. If there's gonna
(36:50):
be like if there's just one guy that's the face
of the league, I think Anthony Edwards could be that guy.
I don't think Jason Tatum could be that guy.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
That's that's what you're saying. But yeah, I think now
it might just be Wimby, or it might news for you.
The face of the n b A is not going
to be an American guy.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
That's just not there's just right now, there's just too many,
too many great forms
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Odd Couple podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday from seven
pm to ten pm Eastern four to seven Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for The Odd
Couple at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to the Best of the Odd Couple with
Chris Brushaw and Rob Harker.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Well, you know who doesn't have a bright future?
Speaker 1 (00:33):
'al?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Who's that? The Phoenix Sun.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I don't know why I was thinking saying the Phoenix Suns,
Rob and Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal Championship coach
Frank Vocal swapped like so many dust balls into the
(00:57):
dust bin, swapped like so many balls of.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Lentz into the trash.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Four games, four ls against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Rob.
The first three of them were routes, yep, double digit victories.
Last night they you know, they played a little bit
better but still went down by six points and Rob.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
First question, there's a lot to get to here.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
First thing, I want to ask you, who do you
blame for this debacle that is the Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Well, I'm gonna blame the front office, Chris, for putting
this together, because they did not put together a good
enough froster. The bill trade whoever pulled that trade off
in Washington, Chris should get a double raised today when
they realized that they were able to get rid of
Bradley Beal and that montrocity of a contract, right that
(01:55):
you're saddled with, because, Chris, we talk about all the time,
all in the contract, you can't get rid of it.
Somebody's always willing to take a bad contract. Apparently this
one might be. I don't know about this one now,
you know. But they got rid of it. Nobody thought
that they did. Nobody thought that they could get him right, uh,
that they could trade him in Washington, and they were
(02:17):
able to do it. But but Chris, when you think
about where they are and what happened, we talked about
it before.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I told you.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Kevin Durant is NBA dead, and and now Chris.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
We went before.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
It was just that he wasn't a conversation anymore, right,
That's what I was saying.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
He wasn't even a conversation. He still was putting up
his number.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
He was doing his number, he's gonna probably make second
team All NBA.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Right, But but but there was no buzz about Kevin
Durant despite the numbers, and now he can't even win
a playoff game, forget about a series. He was swept
two years ago with Brooklyn when they got swept and
and he was dismantled by uh but they didn't make it.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
What they make the play in last year? Or did
they even make it? They made the playoffs, but he didn't.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
You know?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
They they did win around I think, and got beat
in the second round.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Okay, yeah, but but but when you look at where
Durand and the Clippers, right, they beat the Clippers without
Paul George and Kawhi So and then they got beat
by Denver in the second round. That was it, right,
I almost forget about that series because of the Clippers
injuries depleted. But but my point is he's NBA dead now.
(03:31):
I mean I don't even know. And that doesn't mean
that he's not. I'm not taking away his accomplishments and
his place in the NBA. But to go to Phoenix,
Chris where they had gone to the to the championship
without them, Okay, they were up too. Oh, and everybody
was random Raven and when they got Kevin Durant, you
included me.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
We thought they're going to be viable in the West.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
They will be viable, okay, and they just haven't been viable.
And to have this blow up in their face when
they have these three guys and really nothing else and
not be able to forget about winning the series because
Minnesota is a really good team and have been all year, Chris,
but to not be able to even win a game,
(04:16):
to not win ay.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Meat Minnesota three to zero in the regular season. I mean,
I know you know again, it shows you right right,
But now I agree.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I'm looking at the front office and I'm even going
above this the owner.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Huh yeah, Matt Ishbia because too many times these owners robed,
they come in and they think they're about to play
fantasy basketball in the real NBA.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Right.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Oh, let me go get KD with these there, oh Beal?
Who was you know what? These are human beings. Chemistry matters,
fit matters. They would have been better off in every way,
Rob keeping, Chris Paul.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Instead of trading from Bradley Beal, I got Bradley Bill.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
In fact, I've got a better Bradley Bill in Devin Booker.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
I didn't need another one. You know what, I need
a point guard.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
You put Booker at point Yeah, he's good enough to
run the point, get seven assists the game, but he's
not a point guard.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
He's a two. You needed a point guard.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
And Chris Paul's money next year wasn't even guaranteed. Rob
so now, instead of or instead of having three years
one hundred and sixty million dollars due to Bradley Bill
on a on a contract that has a no trade
clause to add you know, insult to injury, you could
have had Chris Paul and either let him walk this
(05:43):
summer or kept him for thirty million dollars one year.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
You'd have been better. And I know they would have
been a better team.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I don't know that they would have beat Minnesota, but
they would have been a better basketball team even with
Chris Paul and this diministration. I also think Rob and
this is all be hindsight, but hey, it is what
it is. They shouldn't have traded DeAndre Ayton that yo
Usef Nurkic and I get Ayton was tired of Phoenix
eighton wanted out. You were tired of him. But Manty Williams,
(06:14):
the coach was gone. That was a big part of
the problem, right him and Ayton he was gone. Couldn't
you have made good on Ayton and made up with him.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Right because the coach wasn't there. The problem that was
the rub was gone because Ayton is was seventeen and ten.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I'm not saying he's Joe l Embat, but he was
seventeen points, ten rebounds with no plays run for it.
He's a He was a factor on the defensive end
and the offensive end, much more than Useef Nurkic.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
So they made some bad moves, rob So and that's that.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
All is on the owner, Matt Ishbia, because he's not
an absentee owner. He wants to be involved. He wants
his fingerprints. This is his plate and now he your fingerprints, right,
this is his play there.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
This is Jerry Jones and a small way, smaller scale.
But instead of making sure you go out and get
the people you can own the team. Chris, sit in
the front road, have your drinks, entertain your people, and
leave the basketball stuff to the basketball people. Like that
is the best way to do it. And it's just
when you think about where the Suns are. They're doomed,
(07:25):
They're they're really in a bad spot for a long
time to go.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Here's what I think they have to do.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
As great as he is, still, I think they have
to trade Kevin Durant because, like you said that, there's
nowhere else in it.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
You can't trade Bradley Beal.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I mean, Rob, we talked about it untradeable contracts. No
one is one hundred percent untradeable. But Rob, who is
taking him for three years, one hundred and sixty million
dollars when he hasn't played more than sixty games since
twenty nineteen and he didn't play that well this year
in these playoffs Terror yesterday?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Who's taking that?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
And Kevin Booker's young enough where I want to build
around Booker. He's still young enough where I can build
around him.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
And so I think, Rob, I'm.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Looking to see what I can get for Kevin Durant,
Golden State, Jonathan kaminga uh, then I can get Chris
Paul's contract. I mean, I got to get more than Kamen.
I got to get a bunch of picks.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
But I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
I mean Oklahoma City with they you know, they got
a ton of picks, but they probably don't have the
contracts to make it work. There's been talking about the Lakers,
Rob the Knicks. I mean, there are a lot of
teams out there that could use Kevin Durant. It's gotta
be a team Rob that's close to a championship.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, and Bill has no trade right, Yeah, that's why
I don't think you can trade.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
You can trade him. So now with Duran, I hear you.
I just at this point, Yeah, it's got to be
a team.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
If Boston loses, if Boston for some some reason doesn't
get to the Eastern Conference finals, would you take a
maybe a Jalen Brown and Drew Holliday for Kevin Durant.
I don't even know. I'm gonna be honest at this point, Chris.
(09:22):
I know this sounds crazy. No, I know, but I'm
saying I don't know where Kevin Durant is. I gotta
be honest. And I'm not.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Saying you saying you might not even want him.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
If I might not want Kevin Durant at this point.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I want him if I'm right there. Yeah, and it
would have to do I agree with that.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
You're not You're not getting him on a team that's
that's trying to get there or or a year or
two away.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
He's not that player.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
But I just wonder, like, like recently, it's just he
just doesn't seem the same to me, even in the postseason,
Like the numbers are there, but it doesn't seem like
they register into wins. And that's scary as you get older.
And then Chris, let's be honest, that health issue there
is always there.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
With him as oh you now, it.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Just is this year, God blessing he was healthy, but
there's no doubt that that's always going to be a factor.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Chris Brussard and Rob Parker weekdays at seven pm
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
What do you get when you combine a three time
Manager of the Year at a three time National Sports
Writer of the Year.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
It's the Book of Joe Podcast.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
Hey, this is Tom Ferducci from Fox Sports, MLB Network
and Sports Illustrated.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
And I'm Joe Madden, and we're going to be around
to talk a little bit about managerial decisions, playoff games
and what may have occurred to the dugout, maybe in
the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 5 (10:50):
I can't wait for this, Joe. We're going to dive
into what goes on in the dugout and behind the
scenes in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Cars, wind, whatever else we want to talk about.
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Listen to the Book of Joe. Podcasked on the iHeartRadio
app on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
There's another team on the brink, and we talked about
him briefly in the last hour.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
That's the Philadelphia seventy six.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Ers down three games to one, going back to New
York for Game five. And I don't know, Rob, I
picked the Knicks in seven. I'd be surprised at this
point if it reaches seven games.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, I don't. I don't think it's gonna go seven.
I mean, it just it doesn't feel that way.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
I mean, early on we talked about it like they
could have won the first two games at Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Philly, especially the second one right and they got that
one stolen from him by the rep.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Two fouls that weren't called, not one but two.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And they failed to call the time out by the coach.
I mean, all of This was acknowledged by the league,
so it's not like we're.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Just belly aching over Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
But Joe rob I was not at Game four in Philly,
but by all accounts, it was at least half Knicks
fans there, or that's what it felt like, at least
with the cheers and the booze and who thes fans
were rooting for.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
It felt like a Nick game. I gotta admit it
felt like a Nick game. And Chris, you know, we
talked about it. We both covered the Knicks. I remember
in my heyday of being a beat writer going to
Atlanta with all the Nick fans. You remember that Atlanta
used to be like Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
South right right right, absolutely, and their New Yorkers all
over the place. We know that New Yorkers are like roaches,
They're everywhere, Okay, but I thought that was a bad
look for Philly fans. It spoke volumes to me, Chris,
that they don't believe in this team. They don't believe
(12:49):
like they weren't out of this series, like they were
down three hammer.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
It just dropped fifty.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Thank you, And to sell your tickets, Chris, and give
up your seats to your team tells me, you're not
buying embid and what's going on with this team and
this roster. You don't feel good about it? Philly sold out.
They sold out on them. If I'm embiid, I'm bummed.
(13:18):
I get that they played terrible. Chris at the end,
oh four last eleven shots or whatever it was down
the stretch that could happen. You can go call you
can't make shots, But they didn't know that going into
that game, right that they didn't know that that you
gave up your tickets before that.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
They looked at making money. That's all that was.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
And hey, they made some cash. But Rob here, embiid,
you said you'd be bummed he was here.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
He is.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
Oh fans. I think he's unfortunate, and I'm not calling
them out, but it is disappointed. Obviously. You got a
lot of Knicks fans and that down the road that
never seen it. And I'm being here for ten years. Yeah,
kind of fisces me off, especially because Sureley is considers
four style, so you know they've always shown up and
(14:11):
I don't think that should happen.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Yeah, it's okay, Chris here, Philly the Eagles, you better
not wear another jersey in that building.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Chris, you know that fighting.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
You'll be fighting if you go down there and wear
Dallas Cowboys jersey at a game in Philly. You know
how they are about the Phillies. You know how they
are about the Flyers, And it is shocking. We know
New York is a quick hour and ten minute train ride, Chris,
so it's an easy commute for New Yorkers, right, But
I was shocked, and I think he was being nice.
(14:43):
He should have been irate and disappointed in the Philly fans.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Well, I agree.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I agree that it was unseemly that they had as
many Nick fans there, or that the Nick fans took
over the guard and like you said, Chris took over,
took over the Sixers arena. But and Philly, it makes
(15:10):
it even worse, Rob, that Philadelphia is such a sports town, right,
that makes it even worse.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
I mean, if they Rob, if they had done that in.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Miami or even as you mentioned earlier, Atlanta, it's not
I mean, it's those are bad sports now.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Miami to me is the worst. It's terrible. It's Atlanta
might be the worst. They're both bad. They're both bad.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
And Chris I've been to Miami for the opening season
of a Dolphins game, not a sellout like the first
game of the year in Miami.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I've been to that. We know that, we know the
Marlins can't draw.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
They had all the fans for the World Baseball Classic
down there, Chris in South Beach, so they're baseball fans
down there.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
They don't go to the games.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Rob I wrote when Lebron was in Cleveland for his
first stint the November before he became a free agent,
so it was his last year in Cleveland that first
go round. I wrote a story they were going to
play the Heat, and I wrote a story saying, and
I had no idea that this was gonna happen, but
(16:14):
I wrote a story on ESPN dot Com saying Lebron
James might need to consider going to Miami if he
wants to beat Boston and get a championship, because I
was like, they got a Big three, he doesn't have
the supporting cast, you know, d Wade, I didn't know.
I don't even know if I mentioned Bosh, but I
was like him and d Wade and Rob, you know
(16:38):
that if a story like that had been written about
somebody maybe going to the Knicks. That crowd would have
had signs, they would have been cheering that guy. They
would have made him feel that home. They would have
rolled out the red carpet. Miami fans didn't get there
as usual until like the second round. Their lower Bowl
was not full until the second quarter. I mean, that's
(17:00):
just how they are. And even when they were winning,
ride with the Heatles, I mean, yeah, it was sold
out in packed, but they weren't close to as good
as fans as most of these cities.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
You know, when they got with you, I'm with you.
Miami's bad, Atlanta's bad. I once wrote a column for
ESPN dot Com Chris called Atlanta the worst, the worst
sports town in America. You know what, the only reason
I know the year is because of the comments. It
was twenty twelve, so that was how many years twelve
(17:31):
years ago, twenty twelve for ESPN New York dot Com.
Seven thousand comments Chris underneath the story seven thousand disagreeable,
you know, like on both sides, but just the idea.
Seven thousand comments on a story. Incredible.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
It's a terrible sports town.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I was there when they won their World Series in
ninety five, when they beat the Cleveland Indians.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
I was covering the Indians and.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Rob is about seventy five people out outside after they
won it, like in downtown. I was like, man, Cleveland,
they to place rows right right? It was like nothing.
But anyway, that's the thing, Rob. They took over a
sports fanatic type city. And here's what I will say though,
(18:21):
and I'm not excusing it, but I think I'm just
presenting the truth.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Rob.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Just like Joel emb was disappointed and ticked off, so
are the fans. They're disappointed Joel Embiid and ticked off
at you and your sixers because you guys should be
better than you've been. And I get it that you're hurt,
but you're playing forty minutes and Rob, Joel Embiid has
(18:53):
scored one point in the last two fourth quarters. Joel
MB has two rebounds in the fourth quarter in this
entire series.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
And you know how much I praise Joel MB's jump shot.
He is easily the best jump shooting big man ever.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
You just over Patrick Ew. I always believe Patrick.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Was, Yeah, undoubtedly, I mean it's unbelievable how well he shoots.
But Rob, he he might as well be six '
five because he sits out there at the three point
line and the free.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
Throw line and he plays like he's a guard.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
And I get that that's a part of your game.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
You're so good at it.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
But when you need a bucket, go inside. That's what
Yoki's yoga is outside a lot too, But when it's
time or when he has a mismatch, he backs you down,
and that's what Joel Mbi needs to do. Rob He
had no rebounds in the fourth quarter. Rob The Knicks
(20:02):
backup center Mitchell Robinson was out all right with with
ankle and ankle injury. Isaiah Hartenstein played two seconds in
the fourth quarter because of foul trouble. They were guarding
the seven foot three hundred pound Joe Lmbid with Precious
a Qa seven six ' eight and og Al Nunobi six.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Seven precious I saw that movie There you Go, but
they were guarding him with those players.
Speaker 8 (20:35):
Come on, man, I mean, you should be destroying, you
should be insulted. But the reason they can guard you
with guys like that is because you've made yourself that
short by just sitting around settling for jump shots. How
about going inside and get some offensive rebounds.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
I mean it's just.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
So, I rob the fans are ticked off too, And
Joe l Emby didn't paying money for the fans to
come see him.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
They're paying money to go see him. So I get
it that.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
He's disappointed and upset, but so are they because year.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
After year, season after.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Season, this is what they see. And so it goes
both ways. It was a bad look for Philly fans, but.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
They're like, man, it's enough this process. When's it gonna
pay off? Chris?
Speaker 4 (21:31):
And and that's why you give up your tickets in
a playoff series where your team is only down two
to one, got jobbed out of game two in in
at Madison Square Garden. It easily could have been to
one Philly, Chris, Can we believe? Can we say that
going into that game? And and there's a series there,
and for them to sell their tickets ahead of time
(21:52):
and say, I'll just take the cash because I'm not
really buying into, uh, you know, what this team is
selling or the idea of how good they can be
and if they're ever going to win a championship.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
It speaks volumes.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
I was stunned at the crowd noise and the reactions
when the Knicks made baskets and Philly and.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Rob I'm saying I'm saying this because I would love
to see Joel and be cap his career with the championship.
The dude is a great player. He's a great score
and shooter, and he is a good good defender. But
part of defense also is rebounded.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
And I get it.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
He got ten, but he had none in the fourth
quarter when when push came.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
And when it mattered. But Moore, thy o four on
the last eleven, like that's what he.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Was go for five in the fourth. This is constructive criticism.
And for whatever reason, it seems like nobody in Philly
will tell him this.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
I'm sure they are, but he's not listening.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
If Joel Limby wants to win a championship, watch take
this summer because you're gonna be starting summer vacation pretty
soon of Da Kola Jokic, and watch when some he decides,
you know what is time, let me go inside.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
If you're not hitting shots in the fourth.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
MBAT, then go draw foul. You're an excellent free throw shooter.
Get to the line. If you were tired, and I'm
sure you were because you came back late in the season.
You played the whole second half. I get it, But Rob,
what goes first when you get tired?
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Your legs? Your legs? Your jump shot? Yep, that's the first, Belie.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Even more reason you need to get your butt down
on the vein. He couldn't find the low post with
a GPS, so they were ticked off to in Philly.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Those both ways, Joel.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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listen live.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
But Rob, let's.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Stay on Anthony Edwards and uh, he was the star
of that first round series. Now, Karl Anthony Towns played well,
Rudy Gobert did his thing. Jaden McDaniels, God bless him,
played really well.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Defensive play of the year. Rudy Gobert. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, he hasn't been announcing on Rogers, but he yeah,
he probably will win it. And then Mike Connelly, like,
they've all played well. But the star of that team,
the leader and superstar of that team is Anthony Edwards.
He averaged rob thirty one, eight boards and six assists
(24:43):
on fifty one percent shooting Rob. He took eight threes
a game and made forty four percent of them. So
this dude showed out. He challenged his childhood hero, Kevin Durant,
took it to Durant.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Durant didn't want none. Durant wanted to Mill and you know.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Laughing, Joe, you're nice, You're not your Meanwhile.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Y'all going home, all right? So Chris, Chris, I'm.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Just saying, like you an take mine.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I'm not gonna be laughing and joke. We can laugh
and joke later in the Olympics.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Now when you're trying to compete, I'm not right. We're
not friends. We're not friends on the court. I'm trying
to beat you.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Edwards was looking at it, right, Go look at some
old Isaiah and magic thing and they couldn't have been closer.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Go look at the blood, Chris, right, yep, yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
I mean it kind of ruined the refriendship for a while,
but still it was about winning, all right. But here's
the thing that Rob we got some sound people are saying,
is now the face of the NBA.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
We got some sound on that. That was his teammate.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Yeah, but let's let's hear who is it? Karl Anthony
Towns Gobert Who, Yeah, let's hear it Peter Face. I've
been saying that. He hate when I say it, but
it's true.
Speaker 7 (26:00):
Like I said, future so brag up put the sunglasses
on most of the time when I'm walking around with him.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Well, I liked that he's kind of like nah nah,
because one thing that comes.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I mean, he's obviously very confident.
Speaker 7 (26:14):
Rob.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Course, we thought he got players. Yeah, yeah, there's no doubt.
But he gives his teammates love.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Like when he was interviewed after the game yesterday, he
was like, they asked him, well, what was the biggest,
you know, part of the game, what you remember the
most or what was the key? He said, Karl Anthony Towns,
He said, you know, Cat coming out and doing this
thing that was the key to the game, you know,
(26:42):
and Cat giving him love. That shows you they both
or Kat understands the pecking order.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
He's the guy and he's the dog. He's the leader.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
And what I want to ask you, Rob is do
you think it's time to for him to be the
face of the league or is this premature?
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Chris so premature? I mean, can we stop. This remind
me of when Devin Booker was up two to zero
in the finals and he was the next Kobe. I mean, Chris,
stop it. And this is not We talked about it.
Me and you were the biggest Anthony Edwards guys rookie
year yes or no, we thought he got and we
(27:26):
couldn't understand why people didn't vote for him and all that,
and so we were on that bandwagon.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
And I love his game.
Speaker 4 (27:32):
I love that he wants to play every night, I
love his enthusiasm.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I love everything about this guy.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
But the face of the league, false face of the league.
I mean, come on, Chris, stop it. He's in the
first round. If they lose to the next round, does
that mean he's not the face of the league.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
I mean healthy, they're supposed to right, amazing.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
We can't have that. This is what we keep doing.
Is it over action to everything? He had a great
first round series, but the face of the league, with
no MVPs and nothing else to show for it.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Stop it. No no face, no league.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
I agree with you, and like you said, we both
love Anthony Edwards, but this is real.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
This is bizarre.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
And now if you want to say he's going to
one day be the face of the league. If you
won't even say if they win the championship, which obviously
is a stretch, or they got a long way to go,
for sure he'll be the face of the league. Okay,
he's trending toward that. He's one of those guys that
(28:43):
could be. Okay, but now, as you said, it's one series.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
It's one Come on, man, he played grade, but it's
one series. That doesn't make you the face of the league.
It just doesn't. I mean, we we're just I get it.
People want to celebrate. Everybody's a gold everybody's a this
the greatest, everybody's the face of the league.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Got like, how many times are gonna keep doing that?
Speaker 1 (29:09):
It's like the younger folks can't understand, like they don't
know definitions or no, you know what it might be
this rob you know, this is the generation where everybody's
got their truth right and do what everybody can do
what they want and you know you can't criticize it.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Is that.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
It is that why everybody can be a goat. I
guess everybody's a goat, everybody's a face of the league.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
Is that what we're talking about? I don't know. But look,
here's the other thing, Rob.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
We've talked about how the best handful of the absolute
top tier of the league.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Right now are international guys.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
You got Yo Kich, Yannis MB now SGA. They're all
international players. And Jason Tatum is in there because you know,
he was a top five you know, I believe he'll
be a top five MVP guy, probably be first team
All NBA.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
He's American.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
And Anthony Everard now job Rob John Morant, if he
gets back and you know, gets his stuff straightened out
off the court, he I think he'll jump back into
that conversation. But right now, as far as Americans, I mean,
Jason Tatum.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Just now. The thing about Edwards, Rob.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Is his game is spectacular, but it's all so fundamentally sounding.
You know how I texted with Michael Jordan. A lot
of people have compared it to Michael Jordan. Jordan says
he sees the similarities, and we talked about the defensive intensity,
wanting to play every night, the spectacular dunks.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
And high flying game. But also Rob, and.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
You know this, Jordan, the thing people overlooked because of
you was so spectacular, was how fundamentally sound he was
and how team oriented.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Even though he was like, I'm gonna be the reason
we win, he.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Still was team oriented playing in that triangle offense and
stuff like that. And that's what you see with Anthony Edwards. Yes,
he can do the great dunks and take over a game,
but he also moves that basketball. He also lets other
guys get theirs. He doesn't dominate the ball like that
(31:32):
is that is all similar to Michael Jordan. But the
other thing Rob Anthony Edwards has charisma. No, he does
off the court right with smile, his person Did you
see the movie Hustle?
Speaker 3 (31:48):
No, I didn't see it. You know, yeah he was great,
rob G. You saw it right, Yes, it was.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
On NETFLI didn't he I mean he was like he
wasn't a bit player. He had a nice solid role,
but you could say he stole the show. You know,
he probably wasn't in it quite enough to steal the show,
rob G.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
No, Yeah, the riff.
Speaker 9 (32:10):
He has the personality on the game to absolutely be
the face of the end. It's just the problem is
it's so early in his career. He's got one playoff
series victor under his belt. Let's say in round two
they get Denver and Denver does what Denver does? They
beat him in five or six times, then he's falls
into the same category as like Jahn Moran. Did you
(32:32):
know even Jason Tatum would probably still be ahead of him,
and Tatum has been.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
The thing that has made Tatum not that kept him
from being kind of the face or a face of
the league is the inability to win.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
You gotta win now. Jordan was unique in that he
was one of.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
The faces of the league rob before he started winning.
I mean, he had the shoes that just went went
wild to come fly with me, videos, Gatoray career, you know,
he had all of that before he started winning.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
But that was a different day and age.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
You were question for you, Chris, when you text with
Michael Jordan's, did you ask him if him and Edwards
were related at all?
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Or No? That's just stuff on the internet people. Yes,
that's on the internet.
Speaker 9 (33:20):
Yeah, there's there's a whole lot of viral memes that
their face cut in half.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
You Jordan's Edwards doesn't know his dad.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
It's very similar to they they think that Michael made
to stop over somewhere and from Georgia is from Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
I know he's from Atlanta. But it's similarly. You know
that too, right, Yeah, I know the meme people really uncanny,
like literally, Chris, you used to see it, I mean, yeah, iven.
Speaker 9 (33:54):
Have you seen the auto porter Wilt Chamberlain once? No, okay, well,
this one's even more believable than that one, Like as
far as just the similar the way they look, they
look exactly.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
The Boston miamis he is from Atlanta. From Atlanta. Yeah,
he's born in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Yeah, I know. He didn't make any mention of that. No,
I didn't think so. I was just curious, you know who.
It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
I do know a story about an nb I'm not
even gonna say who, but NBA legend who a friend
of our family.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
You know, the child doesn't really look like the parents.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
There is the talk that Jama okay good, and there's
the talk that he's the son of an NBA legend.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Why are you gonna put doctor Jay's business out there?
We know doctor j already tennis player was Alexandris. She
was a reporter for the Times.
Speaker 4 (34:59):
Christ That was an in depth story, I guess right, undercover, see.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Be careful, undercover, in depth, be careful. But I ain't
even gonna say about that.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
So yeah, look, I think rob Anthony Edwards right now here.
Here's the thing who I'm gonna throw out to you
guys or you Rob before we go to the listeners.
Best bet of the American players because obviously got Wimby
and Jokic, Yoannes, you know these international guys.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Bet of the Americans?
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Best bet or who's the best like candidate for facing
the league?
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Is it? I'm gonna give you three.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Jason Tatum, Anthony Edwards, John Moran.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
I would say Edwards is the number one choice.
Speaker 4 (35:50):
I say Jason Tatum because all it would take for
them to do is to win one. That and they're
closer if they win one, Chris, it will change the
way people look at Jason Tatum that it just takes
one because he's done just about everything you can do.
He's still young, he's he's a good person, personality, he's
(36:13):
a good looking guy. He has all of those things too,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
I think I think the thing.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
I agree his game is not as exciting as Anthony,
and the game is nice.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
I mean it's not boring, don't get me wrong, but
and you.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Know, like he hasn't captivated. I don't think he's captivated
people's imagination like Anthony Edwards. But if they ever run
this yea, yeah, but if they have a run a
little different, it'll change the way people look at it,
don't you think. I don't know, Like I actually feel
this way. I feel like Anthony Edwards. If there's gonna
(36:50):
be like if there's just one guy that's the face
of the league, I think Anthony Edwards could be that guy.
I don't think Jason Tatum could be that guy.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
That's that's what you're saying. But yeah, I think now
it might just be Wimby, or it might news for you.
The face of the n b A is not going
to be an American guy.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
That's just not there's just right now, there's just too many,
too many great forms
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