February 14, 2025 • 28 mins
Rob and Kelvin discuss the narrative that Steph Curry has actually had a negative impact on the NBA and tell us how the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs Nikola Jokic race for the NBA MVP is similar to Lamar Jackson vs Josh Allen in the NFL. Plus, SportsEthos Fantasy Basketball podcast host Rick Kamla swings by to discuss his biggest problem with the NBA All-Star Game, his pick for the NBA MVP award, Steph Curry’s impact on the sport of basketball and much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
You're listening to the Best of the Odd Couple.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Kelvin, Let's get the show started talking about the NBA
All Star Game and Rob G's gonna set up.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
There was an interesting tweet.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
And it had Steph Curry and Lebron James in it,
and it was talking about the difference between the two
players when it comes to the NBA All Star Game.
Speaker 5 (00:42):
That's right, this tweet. We'll give him credit. TJ Ross
whoever he is, shout out.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
To you forgiving it. Oh yeah, I buy clothes from
his place. Friend of the shows he gets.
Speaker 6 (00:50):
That's a combo for you, TJ.
Speaker 7 (00:52):
Max Aeron in the middle, but he put out put
out this tweet that got some traction today discussing All
Star weekend, and you mentioned as a photo of Lebron
and staff going head to head, and what he's basically
saying is the dunk Contest is dead while the three
point contest is thriving.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
It's the only thing people care about with All Star
Weekend these days, and the reason being is that Lebron
James killed the dunk contest by not participating, while Steph
Curry made the three point contest the hottest things in
sliced bread because he's done it several times and he's
made it appointment television.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Rob Parker, your thoughts, Yeah, you know what, I get
that tweet.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I do, okay, because it is true and Steph with
the threes and being involved and whatnot, and Lebron never
doing it. All the great players had done it, you know,
at least one time, and so I do get where
that tweet's coming from. But I'm gonna disagree when you
talk about like impact on the game, because Kelvin, I'm
(02:01):
dead serious when I say this. I think Steph Curry
has done more harm to the NBA than anyone. And
I say it not that he did it on purpose
or set out to do it, do you know what
I mean? But I think intentionally it's unintentional. But I
(02:23):
could look at two things we could talk about. A
the All Star Game and we could talk about NBA
basketball in general, and in both cases, Steph Curry is
the reason.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Why we aren't happy.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
We aren't happy that the NBA All Star Game is
two hundred to two hundred because nobody does anything but
take threes, right, all threes, two hundred to two hundred.
I saw a stat somewhere the other day, rob G.
You never saw that founder right? Last year, Kelvin, I
don't know if you show it to me, only three
(03:03):
fouls were called the All Star Game last year.
Speaker 6 (03:06):
I show you. Did you show that to me? Yeah?
I showed you that.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
It was like eighty something in seventy files and like
nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
And it I mean, why are officials even there? You know,
save money on officials. And then in the NBA we
know this game turned into a three point fest, and
that's the reason we were all watching the same way.
I don't care what anybody says, because Steph was able
to make those threes, those logo threes, all that got
(03:36):
a lot of people excited. Uh, And then all the
analytics geeks thought, well, everybody should shoot threes. Threes are
better than twos, and we make more threes and you're
making twos, we're gonna beat you. Right, everybody can't make threes.
And here's the worst effect by the Steph Curry being
such a tremendous three point shooter is that look how
(03:59):
many bad games thereon now, Kelvin.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
With the blowouts.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
If you're off on the threes, it's a forty point blowout, right.
We saw this year the Warriors lose by forty points
in San Francisco every night. There are a handful of
games that are so lopsided. And all you gotta do
is go look at the stat box right box score,
and look at the threes made and the threes missed,
(04:25):
and usually ninety nine percent of the time it's somebody
having a bad night from three.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
So that's why I say Steph has done.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
More harm to the NBA with the three ball than
Lebron has done by not participating.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So here's the I've never wanted to give somebody a
compliment followed by a telling the the reason for the
demise of something. And that's exactly what you were trying
to say there, what you were saying and the reason
why a lot of people have to say this about Steph.
It is the ultimate compliment to him that people I
become copycats of him. But I will say I think
(05:03):
he was the cherry on top rob of something that
was already brewing, and I'm gonna go analytics.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
So I think he was that final straw.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
His greatness, his ability to do something we'd never seen,
his innovative way of shooting threes and shooting in from
places that you would be on the bench if you
shot before. But I think this was a slow tickup
to getting to him to finally be the straw that
broke the camel's back. Let me walk you to why
go I think this If you look at Dan Toni,
(05:32):
Mike D'Antoni, he started to run this, Hey, get a
shot out before twenty seconds in the shot clock. Go go,
go go with the with the Phoenix suns. In the
two thousand and four, five, six, seven, eight, nine ish
era of Steve Nash, Go go, go, go, go take
a three, take a shot, fast break, and he started
the European way of doing things faster. You get more possessions,
(05:52):
you start to have an ability to score more more
cracks at this thing. At the end of the day,
it's a TEENA has more points in the scoreboard that
wins and it worked for the Suns, and that they
won a bunch of games. Steve Nash won a bunch
of MVPs. They didn't ultimately win the ring, but it
was worked. He was successful coach of the Year, and
it was it was a thing for a while, even
work when he was with the Rockets and James Harden,
go go go, shoot threes, go fast pace, fast piece.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
So I think we started to see this.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Thing start to grow, grow and get faster and faster,
as far as the idea of taking threes, the idea
of taking shots that normally you wouldn't want to do
so much so that it started to change the way
the San Antonio Spurs. They were the most grinded out
beach at eighty two to seventy eighteen. Then they started
moving the ball, they started shooting threes. They started to
use a more European, more faster style of offense. Then
(06:40):
comes this baby face assassin who did it better. He
did it slicker, he did it fresher, He did it
with style.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Big shots when it mattered.
Speaker 6 (06:52):
But he was chewing on his the mouthpiece.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
He starts shooting threes and looking back, walking back before
they went in and by the way, his team started winning,
and they started winning, and then he won MVPs and
then they won finals, you know, NBA finals. So I
think it was a slow build. I think we all
everybody says Steph Curry, Steph Curry, but I think we
ignore the slow build that led to him because now
(07:14):
you had the perfect marriage for this, because you had
the numbers the analytics. Analytics say a three is better
than two, analytics say why take a two a mid
range two when you get And then you had the
actual personified version of it in Steph Curry, and then
he started to be successful, and everyone else became copycats
because what do we know in sports, their copycat leagues.
And the bad part where I would say it's not
(07:37):
his fault, but the thing started to become ruined is
that Rob it goes down to the younger level.
Speaker 6 (07:41):
So a lot of the guys you're seeing.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Doing these things now is because they were in high
school watching him.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
And I coach my daughter's five and six year old team.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
A couple of years back, and these kids are coming
barely past half court ball big as then Rob chucking
up half quarters, chuck it up threes, not trying to
cross over like the and one area, work on their handles,
not trying to hit the mid range like Kobe or
Jordan or Larry Bird. They're chucking up threes at six
years old, barely can even do it.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
How many How many games have you coached where the
score the game ended scoreless?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Any of course, now what you're talking about because of me,
he's kick coaching old boy. I was about the boy,
I was about the matrix to this, but the zoom
don't play with me. But my point is Steph did
it so good, so well, and they won.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
That's the key part.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
If he was just doing it looking like Jordan Poole
that people are, he's just doing stuff, it doesn't amount
to winning. He actually won. Klay Thompson actually won with
shooting the three, and now any and everybody in their
mama think they can do it. And that's the that's
the bad part, because it trickles down to the NBA,
down to college and down the high school, down to
the young folks, and that's where it's hurting the game.
So it's a compliment to him that he was so
(08:47):
great at something that it made everyone else think they
could when they really shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 5 (09:03):
ESPN does a MVP stropole and it's done by Tim
Bontemp's longtime NBA insider over there. And what he does
is he actually surveys basically all the actual NBA MVP
voters every city international. So in his study this is
like ninety nine percent accurate of what the final vote.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
But you know what, didn't that happen though before with
the mb do you remember he, uh, the Joker won that.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
So he does three different ones. He got early, middle,
and then the end. So this is the middle one.
Based on his current polling, SGA is gonna run away
with this one. He got seventy of the one hundred
first place votes. The only other player to receive any
first place votes was Yogic he got thirty. But based
(09:50):
on the way things are tracking, it would be an
upset of epic proportions if anybody other than Shake Gilgers
Alexander ends up running away with his MVP.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Well, I mean, there's a couple ways of looking at this, Robin,
I think you'll appreciate the way I kind of view this.
We just had this conversation for an entire football season,
more importantly, the last month or so. And I look
at Sga and Jokic as a combination of Lamar and
Josh Allen, and in this case, Jokic is Lamar, he
(10:23):
is Lamar. Where you've already won multiple You've already been
in the mix for even the ones you didn't win.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
You were in the mix candidate to win MVP.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
You even have the better stats, and in fact, you
have historic stats.
Speaker 6 (10:37):
Stats are just stating.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
However, I lean on the narrative that, ah, you've already won,
We've already given it to you, and your team has
the record is worse on your end versus your counterpart.
Sga and Josh Allen are the same. They've been in
the mix, but they haven't won. They've been close, but
they haven't won. They're likable, it's a new story, it's fresh.
(11:00):
Sga is so likable with his teammates. They don't even
do singular interviews. Whoever wins the postgame interview, they all
come up, they all bark, they're all dogs.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
It's cute.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Better team success, they have the better record, were the
best records in the NBA. Josh Allen had a better
record than than Lamar Jackson, and I think there's something
similar to that where it's just your time. And lastly,
when you go back to Jokic, that would be four
and I believe five years for him if he were
to win. That is crazy. And I think voters go,
(11:29):
there's no way, as great as he's been, we can
do that. When we didn't do that for Lebron, Kobe Jordan,
so on and so forth.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
That's ridiculous. That's totally ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
If you think that's ridiculous, why is he not even
close right now in the voting when he's having a
great year.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And I think that the voters unfortunately are fickled because
they did that with MBAD and I think they all
if they could redo that vote and disagree with me.
If they could redo that vote, you saw what the
Joker did. He put up his historic in an historic
postseason run and winning a championship that.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Was and the postseason.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
But no, that's not what I'm saying is they didn't
give it to him right for that reason, because oh
he hadn't won anything yet, and he went on to win.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
And that was a year that they played that game.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And I'm telling you, if you were to redo the
vote just after seeing what that guy did and his
regular season, they wouldn't have voted for mb and And
And that's why that's the danger in it, is trying
to spread it around.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
No, stop, give it to the best player. No, I
don't know that.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
I don't disagree.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I don't, okay, because I saw Bond win seven m vps.
I saw Roger Clemons win seven Cy youngs. No, No,
I don't see.
Speaker 7 (12:55):
No.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I think they make a mistake in the NBA, and
it's a it's a dumb thing to go on.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Maybe NBA specific. I agree that it may be NBA specific.
Maybe baseball doesn't mind.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I just don't remember people going, oh, no, well, Barry
Bonds won it last year. Okay, he had fifty home runs. No,
don't give it. I do wonder if if baseball had
one league. I do wonder how that would change the
two vs. But no, that's my point. So it's not
a singular person winning over and over.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
It's Barry Bond's winning one league, but somebody else winning
in another if there was just one, I do wonder
if Barry would have gotten so many because they may
have said, let's spread that out.
Speaker 6 (13:31):
I'm tired of him. I dificerent.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
It's multiple so you can get it two different guys
at different times.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
NBA it would just be one, NFL would just be one.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
And I'm just wondering if that's why again we see
Michael Jordan. Now he'll get another one at some point.
Let me give it to Karl Malone, let me give
it to uh No.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I think I think when you say that, I think
of disrespectful. It's not that Michael Jordan won the Best Player.
That doesn't mean he was the MVP. And and I
think that's the there's a difference between the two.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
So Josh Allen was then they were disrespectful with in
the NFL this year, right, What are you talking about?
Speaker 6 (14:07):
Meaning Josh Allen wanted that Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Oh, I think it was a terrible people who changed
their votes.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
They should it should have been Whoever, if you wanted
to vote for Josh, you should have voted for Josh
for first Team All Pro.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Should be the same that it doesn't matter if if
Josh was your guy, you know, like they did it
out of guilt because they knew they couldn't shut out
Lamar totally because then if they're they're like, they'd have
to answer to that would do do you disagree? If
Lamar got nothing, then people would be like, this is
a sham. And I think that's why people still went
(14:45):
out and gave Lamar like a a parting gift, you
know what I mean, because they knew but I knew they.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Couldn't do it, Like there's no way Lamar could have
a historic seasoning with you on that. But what I'm
saying is, that's my point is that people have these
ways of going into where they're like, well, ah, this
person is or I like Lamar he actually had a store,
but Josh Allen or jokis, but man, that will be
four out of five and Jordan and career, like nobody
was getting these four out of five.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
But the joker is gonna play for a long time.
I mean, so he's gonna so he's got three. They're
gonna deny him the rest of his but they want
to have four and five. That was a difference. Seven
he might have he might have seven when it's all over, but.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
That's spread out. It's a history out of five as
a historic thing. If we give you four or seven
out of.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
The eight, care what he did last year that that
shouldn't factor in.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
You're being rational for one of the few times you're
being raal.
Speaker 6 (15:43):
You're being rational right now. I just don't understand.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You're making sense. But did you get what I'm saying
that this happens. I'm not saying it should.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
It does not.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Because are bad voters.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
I'm telling you people have a right to vote whatever
they want, but this is bad if you're really looking
at stuff and basing it off of what somebody did
last year. I tell people all the time, it ain't
about last year. It ain't about the playoffs. You gotta
get off of that. It's a regular season award.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
That's it.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And I totally think multiple things coming in a factor.
Like I said, I think the previous season, even the
next season, who they project, well, he'll win another one.
So I'm gonna give it to the other guy now
because he'll probably be in the mixed next year. And
I think all that goes into play. But to me,
that's why SGA, but his team is so he's very
much deserving.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
His team is hav an incredible year. He could have
won it.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Last year's right there in the mix too. So but
I think that's why Yokis is so far behind.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
Well, Doug, to your point, I listened to the podcast
that they did after this poll came out. All three
of the guys on that show are voters. One of
them said, I came into this saying Yogic is gonna
have to do something unbelievable for we didn't even consider
him to win MVP because four out of five and
the historical conduct behind that would be too much to overcome.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yep, And that's what But that's funny is that Yogic
right now is on base to have the highest peer history,
just like Lamar was one of River rob the number
three best was it QB already the number four quarterback
women vaults and for singles, and the other three had
won m v P no the last.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Eleven of one mv But but in that case, absolutely.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
Yeah, exactly, that's what I'm saying. The last three and
then and he didn't.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
So it happens where people where people do that, And
I think Jokis's greatness is working against him. They're going, oh, well,
we've seen this, I've seen this before. It's that's the problem.
He's Oh I've seen him average twenty six, twelve and nine.
Speaker 6 (17:39):
I've seen him do that every year, and I.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Think it works against him.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
That's ridiculous. It just that you shouldn't penalize somebody for
being great.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Rick Kamil our guest host of Sports Ethos Fantasy Basketball podcast,
Rick Camdeler Sports on Twitter.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
Give him a follow, Rick, what's going on?
Speaker 7 (18:07):
Man?
Speaker 4 (18:07):
How what's happening?
Speaker 8 (18:08):
Rick Bells? What's up?
Speaker 6 (18:13):
A bunch of hoops?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (18:15):
What do you want to start? Calvin with the the MVP?
Want to start there?
Speaker 6 (18:19):
Already?
Speaker 4 (18:20):
All start game?
Speaker 6 (18:21):
We can start, Rick. We were just having a conversation.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I don't know if you've got a chance to listen
when he never misses it, you mean, when you start
talking MVP votes. We've had this conversation started even in
NFL Robin myself, I believe that sometimes voters get fatigue.
I don't want to give it to again. I don't
want to give it to Lamar Jackson again in the NFL.
I don't want to give it to Jordan and little
(18:43):
Verron again.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
Do you buy that narrative? Do you think that happens?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Because I believe they're people and people are human and
these things happen.
Speaker 8 (18:51):
Yeah. I definitely think voter fatigue is a thing. Uh,
But this year, I think, yes, Jays the MVP. I mean,
the guy's been fiking up for fifty He's never done
that before. He's thirty every single game. But guys, I
look at the separation between Okac and Denver and the standings,
and there's a wide gap eight nine, ten games, whatever
(19:13):
it is. So like Kauz Jokis is averaging a triple double.
The guy's having an MVP season. You could argue that
this is the best season of Jokic's career, but the
fact that Sga has taken his game to another level
is going to lead the league in scoring. Okase has
the record that they have, They've got complete dominance on
the West. I think it's his year. I think it's
time to crown this man. SGA was my MVP last year, guys,
(19:36):
and SGA was my most improved player of the year
before when he got absolutely robbed by some by some
misguided voters, the one with Lowry markin and it didn't
even finish the season. So it's time we crowd this man.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Well, let me ask you this, Rick, here's my issue
I have in pushback, and he's having a great year, SGA.
I'm not trying to diminish anything he's done, but are
you into analytics?
Speaker 4 (20:01):
How far? How much do you look at analytics?
Speaker 8 (20:05):
Not that far? I mean I'm a fantasy guy, so
I look at the numbers, But analytics don't pay the
bills in fantasy basketball. Points, rebounds, assists, block steels, field
goal percentage, free throw percentage, and threes may pay the
fantasy basketball.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Here's the stat that the Jokers PR.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
It will what PAC's on now would be the all
time best in NBA history, and he's a two full
points ahead of SGA. Like, I get it, and it
depends on what writers and people.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Who are voting what they look at.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
But how can you look at that and think he's
going to have the all time greatest mark for pr
two points ahead of the guy you think should be
MVP and justify it.
Speaker 8 (20:54):
Well, I can justify it with the separation in the standings.
There is an eight and a half games step operation. Guys.
Okc is forty four and ten, Denver is thirty three
and nineteen. And I believe, and you know, this is
all on voter preference. But as I look at NBA
MVP and NFL MVP and MLB MVP, although the voters
(21:16):
don't look at this. In the MLB, they don't care
about wins and losses. They just care about analytics and
all that nerdy stuff. But I merged win loss record
with statistics, and when you merge win loss record, because
I think with MVP, it's all about winning. It's all
about what you did to get your team to the
highest point possible. And Jokic is kicking at like I said,
arguably having the best year of his career. But Sga
(21:38):
and his team are eight n a half games ahead
of jokicch That to me is the mitigating factor.
Speaker 6 (21:46):
Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be interesting as Ga the
team is.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Could you know at one point they were on a
historic run with their record. Rick caviler Our guest Rick,
I want to go to a conversation about the trades.
And you got Jimmy Butler up there in the Bay.
You got Luke in La and then maybe a sneaky
one Kyle Kuzman maybe had a little offensive punch, little
defense in Milwaukee. Was there a trade as the Lakers
is simply day of the winner. Do you feel like
(22:10):
maybe Jimmy Butler helps the Warriors better now?
Speaker 8 (22:14):
I mean they're better because they have life again. They
needed a shot in the arm. That was a rotting
carcass of a team right before the trade. I mean
they suck. They were beyond mediocre. Now they're three and
one with Jimmy Butler. Steph Curry's playing better. The return
of Draymond and the addition of Jimmy Butler really is
super charge. Step and he's back into engagement mode. I
(22:35):
thought he was going through the motions, but ultimately this
team is very, very flawed. Steve Kerr has the worst
rotation in the NBA. He has no clue night tonight,
what the hell he's doing. You're starting Buddy Heel playing
in thirty minutes, then you put him on the bench
and playing thirteen minutes. And Pojenski plays thirty nine minutes.
My head is spinning, okay, and it's not working. Guys.
When you can't define a rotation, you're a mediocre team.
(22:57):
So I'm not with it. I love that you brought
up Who's because I think Kuzma to Milwaukee is huge.
They needed a shot in the arm. Giannis MVP level,
Dame all NBA level, Lopez and Porters. You know, they
are who they are. They're solid players, but they needed more.
They needed more scoring, and I think Kusma's going to
give it to them.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Let's go to the NBA All Star weekend.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Of course that's started already in San Francisco, and just
awful ratings. People have been turned off scores over two
hundred last year. I mean, now they're trying I don't know,
nine different teams playing in a tournament or.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
I don't I don't even know.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
I got a headache every time they explain what the
formula is and the and the and the you know,
for the.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
All Star Game.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
But but Rick, at some point, I mean, can they
think about like the NFL did where they just stopped
doing the Pro Bowl or stop doing this because the players.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Don't want to play.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
I mean, I've never seen, you know, professional athletes not
want to compete. And I don't buy into the they
don't want to get hurt argument. I just can't use
that and buy into that. If they're playing at UCLA
in the summer, they play better than they play at
the All Star Game.
Speaker 8 (24:11):
Rob I made that point last night on my podcast,
the exact same point. It's such a I want to
cuss right now, but I won't. It's such a bunch
of bull craft, right, these guys play all summer. They
get off the ground, they're hustling, they're they're at the drew,
they're at the rucker, and they're at the DMV. They're
at all of these runs, right, and that's great, Okay,
(24:32):
but you don't want to like, I mean, nobody wants
Game seven defense in the All Time No. I just
want them to play kind of hard. But they don't
even do that. And so, yes, I think I think
it's a god awful shame that we had to scrap
the All Star Game. Okay, this is an eighty year
tradition that we flush down the toilet because of the
(24:54):
laziness and empowerment of today players. It's a joke.
Speaker 6 (24:58):
Now, I can we completely agree. Rick.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
We've been saying that for some time. I shouldn't have
to give you a gimmick, and I shouldn't have to
thank you and pay you more money. You're making millions
go hoop for forty minutes, forty eight minutes.
Speaker 6 (25:09):
To show my god.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Like they I think sometimes they lose sight.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
The All Star Game was for the fans, and we
saw some of the greatest players we did. Just see
Michael Jordan at half speed last year. Rick, they had
three fouls in the game.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
Can you imagine that?
Speaker 6 (25:24):
No, they literally did, Rick.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
It's crazy, thousand fouls.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
And nobody's asking it to become the refs game. But
my goodness, play kind of hard, Rick.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
I'll ask you this one.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Let me when we talk about Steph Katie Lebron, kind
of the old guard of the league, who are you
looking at at somebody I don't want to say singularly
the face of the league, but when you're starting to see,
all right, these guys got to move on up and
really not only by their play, but winning, becoming statesman,
becoming doing commercials and really taking that ownership of the league.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
Who are some of the maybe handful you're looking at.
Speaker 8 (25:57):
Well, I love the question, so I was listening. I
started with Luca as my answer, and as you continue
to ask the question and go to you know, spokesman
and commercials. For whatever reason, the European guys just don't
get the advertise, the advertisement shine here. They just don't
you know, they don't speak great English and whatever. I
don't know. So I would say Anthony Edwards. You know,
(26:18):
he was already in a national you know, Christmas ad
for Sprite, you know, with what was it anti clause
or whatever else?
Speaker 6 (26:23):
Yeah, Anta clause. Yeah, that was pretty funny.
Speaker 8 (26:25):
Yeah, and so he hasn't even won MVP or won
a championship yet, so wait until all that stuff happened.
So I would say Anthony Edwards to that.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
I think the uh, the European thing is interesting because
the biggest UH star in baseball is Japanese.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
And if you see.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Any of the Dodgers, no matter where they play, they
sell out. They're like the beatles Man when they go
from stadium to stadium. So it's interesting. But he's such
a unicorn. Maybe that's what makes him different, you know.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 8 (26:58):
Yeah, baseball guy guy guys By the way, the Dodgers
are going one hundred and sixty two and oh yeah,
my god, man, one of the greatest teams I've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
I mean they've put they've just gone all out. Well
we shall see. Rick, I'll ask you this real quick.
The last National League team to win back to back
World Series?
Speaker 4 (27:16):
You got to answer from.
Speaker 8 (27:17):
Me, Oh boy, is it the Giant? No, the Giants
didn't win back to back. I don't have the answer
for you.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
The nineteen seventy five Cincinnati read seventy five, seventy six.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Can you believe that?
Speaker 8 (27:30):
Oh my god?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
And the last team ever was the Yankees twenty five
years ago. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 8 (27:35):
Dude, Rob you're hitting me where I live man, Johnny
Bench and Pete Ro baseball heroes, grown up, the Big
Red Machine do Dave Consimpcio, George Foster. Let's go, baby.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
They had a great team, all time great team, no
doubt about it.
Speaker 6 (27:49):
All right, Rick Man, we appreciate you. Enjoy All Star weekend.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Hopefully all of us can be excited by his revitalization.
Speaker 6 (27:56):
Maybe, just maybe.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
I'm not watching one minute. I'm sorry, I'm sorry he's.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
Not watching because Kaitlin Clark isn't in it, Rick, that's right.
Speaker 8 (28:03):
Seriously, I'm in Thompson plus ten thousand, All Star MVP.
Please put a little bit of money on that. You'll
thank me later.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
All Right, those Thompson boys are they're no joke. Rick,
you're yeahing. I'm in is a baller
Thanks for listening to the best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
Be sure to check us out live every weekday from
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
You're listening to the Best of the Odd Couple.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Kelvin, Let's get the show started talking about the NBA
All Star Game and Rob G's gonna set up.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
There was an interesting tweet.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
And it had Steph Curry and Lebron James in it,
and it was talking about the difference between the two
players when it comes to the NBA All Star Game.
Speaker 5 (00:42):
That's right, this tweet. We'll give him credit. TJ Ross
whoever he is, shout out.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
To you forgiving it. Oh yeah, I buy clothes from
his place. Friend of the shows he gets.
Speaker 6 (00:50):
That's a combo for you, TJ.
Speaker 7 (00:52):
Max Aeron in the middle, but he put out put
out this tweet that got some traction today discussing All
Star weekend, and you mentioned as a photo of Lebron
and staff going head to head, and what he's basically
saying is the dunk Contest is dead while the three
point contest is thriving.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
It's the only thing people care about with All Star
Weekend these days, and the reason being is that Lebron
James killed the dunk contest by not participating, while Steph
Curry made the three point contest the hottest things in
sliced bread because he's done it several times and he's
made it appointment television.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Rob Parker, your thoughts, Yeah, you know what, I get
that tweet.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I do, okay, because it is true and Steph with
the threes and being involved and whatnot, and Lebron never
doing it. All the great players had done it, you know,
at least one time, and so I do get where
that tweet's coming from. But I'm gonna disagree when you
talk about like impact on the game, because Kelvin, I'm
(02:01):
dead serious when I say this. I think Steph Curry
has done more harm to the NBA than anyone. And
I say it not that he did it on purpose
or set out to do it, do you know what
I mean? But I think intentionally it's unintentional. But I
(02:23):
could look at two things we could talk about. A
the All Star Game and we could talk about NBA
basketball in general, and in both cases, Steph Curry is
the reason.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Why we aren't happy.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
We aren't happy that the NBA All Star Game is
two hundred to two hundred because nobody does anything but
take threes, right, all threes, two hundred to two hundred.
I saw a stat somewhere the other day, rob G.
You never saw that founder right? Last year, Kelvin, I
don't know if you show it to me, only three
(03:03):
fouls were called the All Star Game last year.
Speaker 6 (03:06):
I show you. Did you show that to me? Yeah?
I showed you that.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
It was like eighty something in seventy files and like
nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
And it I mean, why are officials even there? You know,
save money on officials. And then in the NBA we
know this game turned into a three point fest, and
that's the reason we were all watching the same way.
I don't care what anybody says, because Steph was able
to make those threes, those logo threes, all that got
(03:36):
a lot of people excited. Uh, And then all the
analytics geeks thought, well, everybody should shoot threes. Threes are
better than twos, and we make more threes and you're
making twos, we're gonna beat you. Right, everybody can't make threes.
And here's the worst effect by the Steph Curry being
such a tremendous three point shooter is that look how
(03:59):
many bad games thereon now, Kelvin.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
With the blowouts.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
If you're off on the threes, it's a forty point blowout, right.
We saw this year the Warriors lose by forty points
in San Francisco every night. There are a handful of
games that are so lopsided. And all you gotta do
is go look at the stat box right box score,
and look at the threes made and the threes missed,
(04:25):
and usually ninety nine percent of the time it's somebody
having a bad night from three.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
So that's why I say Steph has done.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
More harm to the NBA with the three ball than
Lebron has done by not participating.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So here's the I've never wanted to give somebody a
compliment followed by a telling the the reason for the
demise of something. And that's exactly what you were trying
to say there, what you were saying and the reason
why a lot of people have to say this about Steph.
It is the ultimate compliment to him that people I
become copycats of him. But I will say I think
(05:03):
he was the cherry on top rob of something that
was already brewing, and I'm gonna go analytics.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
So I think he was that final straw.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
His greatness, his ability to do something we'd never seen,
his innovative way of shooting threes and shooting in from
places that you would be on the bench if you
shot before. But I think this was a slow tickup
to getting to him to finally be the straw that
broke the camel's back. Let me walk you to why
go I think this If you look at Dan Toni,
(05:32):
Mike D'Antoni, he started to run this, Hey, get a
shot out before twenty seconds in the shot clock. Go go,
go go with the with the Phoenix suns. In the
two thousand and four, five, six, seven, eight, nine ish
era of Steve Nash, Go go, go, go, go take
a three, take a shot, fast break, and he started
the European way of doing things faster. You get more possessions,
(05:52):
you start to have an ability to score more more
cracks at this thing. At the end of the day,
it's a TEENA has more points in the scoreboard that
wins and it worked for the Suns, and that they
won a bunch of games. Steve Nash won a bunch
of MVPs. They didn't ultimately win the ring, but it
was worked. He was successful coach of the Year, and
it was it was a thing for a while, even
work when he was with the Rockets and James Harden,
go go go, shoot threes, go fast pace, fast piece.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
So I think we started to see this.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Thing start to grow, grow and get faster and faster,
as far as the idea of taking threes, the idea
of taking shots that normally you wouldn't want to do
so much so that it started to change the way
the San Antonio Spurs. They were the most grinded out
beach at eighty two to seventy eighteen. Then they started
moving the ball, they started shooting threes. They started to
use a more European, more faster style of offense. Then
(06:40):
comes this baby face assassin who did it better. He
did it slicker, he did it fresher, He did it
with style.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
Big shots when it mattered.
Speaker 6 (06:52):
But he was chewing on his the mouthpiece.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
He starts shooting threes and looking back, walking back before
they went in and by the way, his team started winning,
and they started winning, and then he won MVPs and
then they won finals, you know, NBA finals. So I
think it was a slow build. I think we all
everybody says Steph Curry, Steph Curry, but I think we
ignore the slow build that led to him because now
(07:14):
you had the perfect marriage for this, because you had
the numbers the analytics. Analytics say a three is better
than two, analytics say why take a two a mid
range two when you get And then you had the
actual personified version of it in Steph Curry, and then
he started to be successful, and everyone else became copycats
because what do we know in sports, their copycat leagues.
And the bad part where I would say it's not
(07:37):
his fault, but the thing started to become ruined is
that Rob it goes down to the younger level.
Speaker 6 (07:41):
So a lot of the guys you're seeing.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Doing these things now is because they were in high
school watching him.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
And I coach my daughter's five and six year old team.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
A couple of years back, and these kids are coming
barely past half court ball big as then Rob chucking
up half quarters, chuck it up threes, not trying to
cross over like the and one area, work on their handles,
not trying to hit the mid range like Kobe or
Jordan or Larry Bird. They're chucking up threes at six
years old, barely can even do it.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
How many How many games have you coached where the
score the game ended scoreless?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Any of course, now what you're talking about because of me,
he's kick coaching old boy. I was about the boy,
I was about the matrix to this, but the zoom
don't play with me. But my point is Steph did
it so good, so well, and they won.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
That's the key part.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
If he was just doing it looking like Jordan Poole
that people are, he's just doing stuff, it doesn't amount
to winning. He actually won. Klay Thompson actually won with
shooting the three, and now any and everybody in their
mama think they can do it. And that's the that's
the bad part, because it trickles down to the NBA,
down to college and down the high school, down to
the young folks, and that's where it's hurting the game.
So it's a compliment to him that he was so
(08:47):
great at something that it made everyone else think they
could when they really shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
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listen live.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
ESPN does a MVP stropole and it's done by Tim
Bontemp's longtime NBA insider over there. And what he does
is he actually surveys basically all the actual NBA MVP
voters every city international. So in his study this is
like ninety nine percent accurate of what the final vote.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
But you know what, didn't that happen though before with
the mb do you remember he, uh, the Joker won that.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
So he does three different ones. He got early, middle,
and then the end. So this is the middle one.
Based on his current polling, SGA is gonna run away
with this one. He got seventy of the one hundred
first place votes. The only other player to receive any
first place votes was Yogic he got thirty. But based
(09:50):
on the way things are tracking, it would be an
upset of epic proportions if anybody other than Shake Gilgers
Alexander ends up running away with his MVP.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Well, I mean, there's a couple ways of looking at this, Robin,
I think you'll appreciate the way I kind of view this.
We just had this conversation for an entire football season,
more importantly, the last month or so. And I look
at Sga and Jokic as a combination of Lamar and
Josh Allen, and in this case, Jokic is Lamar, he
(10:23):
is Lamar. Where you've already won multiple You've already been
in the mix for even the ones you didn't win.
Speaker 6 (10:29):
You were in the mix candidate to win MVP.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
You even have the better stats, and in fact, you
have historic stats.
Speaker 6 (10:37):
Stats are just stating.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
However, I lean on the narrative that, ah, you've already won,
We've already given it to you, and your team has
the record is worse on your end versus your counterpart.
Sga and Josh Allen are the same. They've been in
the mix, but they haven't won. They've been close, but
they haven't won. They're likable, it's a new story, it's fresh.
(11:00):
Sga is so likable with his teammates. They don't even
do singular interviews. Whoever wins the postgame interview, they all
come up, they all bark, they're all dogs.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
It's cute.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Better team success, they have the better record, were the
best records in the NBA. Josh Allen had a better
record than than Lamar Jackson, and I think there's something
similar to that where it's just your time. And lastly,
when you go back to Jokic, that would be four
and I believe five years for him if he were
to win. That is crazy. And I think voters go,
(11:29):
there's no way, as great as he's been, we can
do that. When we didn't do that for Lebron, Kobe Jordan,
so on and so forth.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
That's ridiculous. That's totally ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
If you think that's ridiculous, why is he not even
close right now in the voting when he's having a
great year.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And I think that the voters unfortunately are fickled because
they did that with MBAD and I think they all
if they could redo that vote and disagree with me.
If they could redo that vote, you saw what the
Joker did. He put up his historic in an historic
postseason run and winning a championship that.
Speaker 6 (12:07):
Was and the postseason.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
But no, that's not what I'm saying is they didn't
give it to him right for that reason, because oh
he hadn't won anything yet, and he went on to win.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
And that was a year that they played that game.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
And I'm telling you, if you were to redo the
vote just after seeing what that guy did and his
regular season, they wouldn't have voted for mb and And
And that's why that's the danger in it, is trying
to spread it around.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
No, stop, give it to the best player. No, I
don't know that.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
I don't disagree.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I don't, okay, because I saw Bond win seven m vps.
I saw Roger Clemons win seven Cy youngs. No, No,
I don't see.
Speaker 7 (12:55):
No.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I think they make a mistake in the NBA, and
it's a it's a dumb thing to go on.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Maybe NBA specific. I agree that it may be NBA specific.
Maybe baseball doesn't mind.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I just don't remember people going, oh, no, well, Barry
Bonds won it last year. Okay, he had fifty home runs. No,
don't give it. I do wonder if if baseball had
one league. I do wonder how that would change the
two vs. But no, that's my point. So it's not
a singular person winning over and over.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
It's Barry Bond's winning one league, but somebody else winning
in another if there was just one, I do wonder
if Barry would have gotten so many because they may
have said, let's spread that out.
Speaker 6 (13:31):
I'm tired of him. I dificerent.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
It's multiple so you can get it two different guys
at different times.
Speaker 6 (13:37):
NBA it would just be one, NFL would just be one.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
And I'm just wondering if that's why again we see
Michael Jordan. Now he'll get another one at some point.
Let me give it to Karl Malone, let me give
it to uh No.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I think I think when you say that, I think
of disrespectful. It's not that Michael Jordan won the Best Player.
That doesn't mean he was the MVP. And and I
think that's the there's a difference between the two.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
So Josh Allen was then they were disrespectful with in
the NFL this year, right, What are you talking about?
Speaker 6 (14:07):
Meaning Josh Allen wanted that Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Oh, I think it was a terrible people who changed
their votes.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
They should it should have been Whoever, if you wanted
to vote for Josh, you should have voted for Josh
for first Team All Pro.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Should be the same that it doesn't matter if if
Josh was your guy, you know, like they did it
out of guilt because they knew they couldn't shut out
Lamar totally because then if they're they're like, they'd have
to answer to that would do do you disagree? If
Lamar got nothing, then people would be like, this is
a sham. And I think that's why people still went
(14:45):
out and gave Lamar like a a parting gift, you
know what I mean, because they knew but I knew they.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Couldn't do it, Like there's no way Lamar could have
a historic seasoning with you on that. But what I'm
saying is, that's my point is that people have these
ways of going into where they're like, well, ah, this
person is or I like Lamar he actually had a store,
but Josh Allen or jokis, but man, that will be
four out of five and Jordan and career, like nobody
was getting these four out of five.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
But the joker is gonna play for a long time.
I mean, so he's gonna so he's got three. They're
gonna deny him the rest of his but they want
to have four and five. That was a difference. Seven
he might have he might have seven when it's all over, but.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
That's spread out. It's a history out of five as
a historic thing. If we give you four or seven
out of.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
The eight, care what he did last year that that
shouldn't factor in.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
You're being rational for one of the few times you're
being raal.
Speaker 6 (15:43):
You're being rational right now. I just don't understand.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
You're making sense. But did you get what I'm saying
that this happens. I'm not saying it should.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
It does not.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Because are bad voters.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
I'm telling you people have a right to vote whatever
they want, but this is bad if you're really looking
at stuff and basing it off of what somebody did
last year. I tell people all the time, it ain't
about last year. It ain't about the playoffs. You gotta
get off of that. It's a regular season award.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
That's it.
Speaker 6 (16:10):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And I totally think multiple things coming in a factor.
Like I said, I think the previous season, even the
next season, who they project, well, he'll win another one.
So I'm gonna give it to the other guy now
because he'll probably be in the mixed next year. And
I think all that goes into play. But to me,
that's why SGA, but his team is so he's very
much deserving.
Speaker 6 (16:27):
His team is hav an incredible year. He could have
won it.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Last year's right there in the mix too. So but
I think that's why Yokis is so far behind.
Speaker 5 (16:35):
Well, Doug, to your point, I listened to the podcast
that they did after this poll came out. All three
of the guys on that show are voters. One of
them said, I came into this saying Yogic is gonna
have to do something unbelievable for we didn't even consider
him to win MVP because four out of five and
the historical conduct behind that would be too much to overcome.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yep, And that's what But that's funny is that Yogic
right now is on base to have the highest peer history,
just like Lamar was one of River rob the number
three best was it QB already the number four quarterback
women vaults and for singles, and the other three had
won m v P no the last.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Eleven of one mv But but in that case, absolutely.
Speaker 6 (17:21):
Yeah, exactly, that's what I'm saying. The last three and
then and he didn't.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
So it happens where people where people do that, And
I think Jokis's greatness is working against him. They're going, oh, well,
we've seen this, I've seen this before. It's that's the problem.
He's Oh I've seen him average twenty six, twelve and nine.
Speaker 6 (17:39):
I've seen him do that every year, and I.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Think it works against him.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
That's ridiculous. It just that you shouldn't penalize somebody for
being great.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Rick Kamil our guest host of Sports Ethos Fantasy Basketball podcast,
Rick Camdeler Sports on Twitter.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
Give him a follow, Rick, what's going on?
Speaker 7 (18:07):
Man?
Speaker 4 (18:07):
How what's happening?
Speaker 8 (18:08):
Rick Bells? What's up?
Speaker 6 (18:13):
A bunch of hoops?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (18:15):
What do you want to start? Calvin with the the MVP?
Want to start there?
Speaker 6 (18:19):
Already?
Speaker 4 (18:20):
All start game?
Speaker 6 (18:21):
We can start, Rick. We were just having a conversation.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I don't know if you've got a chance to listen
when he never misses it, you mean, when you start
talking MVP votes. We've had this conversation started even in
NFL Robin myself, I believe that sometimes voters get fatigue.
I don't want to give it to again. I don't
want to give it to Lamar Jackson again in the NFL.
I don't want to give it to Jordan and little
(18:43):
Verron again.
Speaker 6 (18:44):
Do you buy that narrative? Do you think that happens?
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Because I believe they're people and people are human and
these things happen.
Speaker 8 (18:51):
Yeah. I definitely think voter fatigue is a thing. Uh,
But this year, I think, yes, Jays the MVP. I mean,
the guy's been fiking up for fifty He's never done
that before. He's thirty every single game. But guys, I
look at the separation between Okac and Denver and the standings,
and there's a wide gap eight nine, ten games, whatever
(19:13):
it is. So like Kauz Jokis is averaging a triple double.
The guy's having an MVP season. You could argue that
this is the best season of Jokic's career, but the
fact that Sga has taken his game to another level
is going to lead the league in scoring. Okase has
the record that they have, They've got complete dominance on
the West. I think it's his year. I think it's
time to crown this man. SGA was my MVP last year, guys,
(19:36):
and SGA was my most improved player of the year
before when he got absolutely robbed by some by some
misguided voters, the one with Lowry markin and it didn't
even finish the season. So it's time we crowd this man.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Well, let me ask you this, Rick, here's my issue
I have in pushback, and he's having a great year, SGA.
I'm not trying to diminish anything he's done, but are
you into analytics?
Speaker 4 (20:01):
How far? How much do you look at analytics?
Speaker 8 (20:05):
Not that far? I mean I'm a fantasy guy, so
I look at the numbers, But analytics don't pay the
bills in fantasy basketball. Points, rebounds, assists, block steels, field
goal percentage, free throw percentage, and threes may pay the
fantasy basketball.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Here's the stat that the Jokers PR.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
It will what PAC's on now would be the all
time best in NBA history, and he's a two full
points ahead of SGA. Like, I get it, and it
depends on what writers and people.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Who are voting what they look at.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
But how can you look at that and think he's
going to have the all time greatest mark for pr
two points ahead of the guy you think should be
MVP and justify it.
Speaker 8 (20:54):
Well, I can justify it with the separation in the standings.
There is an eight and a half games step operation. Guys.
Okc is forty four and ten, Denver is thirty three
and nineteen. And I believe, and you know, this is
all on voter preference. But as I look at NBA
MVP and NFL MVP and MLB MVP, although the voters
(21:16):
don't look at this. In the MLB, they don't care
about wins and losses. They just care about analytics and
all that nerdy stuff. But I merged win loss record
with statistics, and when you merge win loss record, because
I think with MVP, it's all about winning. It's all
about what you did to get your team to the
highest point possible. And Jokic is kicking at like I said,
arguably having the best year of his career. But Sga
(21:38):
and his team are eight n a half games ahead
of jokicch That to me is the mitigating factor.
Speaker 6 (21:46):
Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be interesting as Ga the
team is.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Could you know at one point they were on a
historic run with their record. Rick caviler Our guest Rick,
I want to go to a conversation about the trades.
And you got Jimmy Butler up there in the Bay.
You got Luke in La and then maybe a sneaky
one Kyle Kuzman maybe had a little offensive punch, little
defense in Milwaukee. Was there a trade as the Lakers
is simply day of the winner. Do you feel like
(22:10):
maybe Jimmy Butler helps the Warriors better now?
Speaker 8 (22:14):
I mean they're better because they have life again. They
needed a shot in the arm. That was a rotting
carcass of a team right before the trade. I mean
they suck. They were beyond mediocre. Now they're three and
one with Jimmy Butler. Steph Curry's playing better. The return
of Draymond and the addition of Jimmy Butler really is
super charge. Step and he's back into engagement mode. I
(22:35):
thought he was going through the motions, but ultimately this
team is very, very flawed. Steve Kerr has the worst
rotation in the NBA. He has no clue night tonight,
what the hell he's doing. You're starting Buddy Heel playing
in thirty minutes, then you put him on the bench
and playing thirteen minutes. And Pojenski plays thirty nine minutes.
My head is spinning, okay, and it's not working. Guys.
When you can't define a rotation, you're a mediocre team.
(22:57):
So I'm not with it. I love that you brought
up Who's because I think Kuzma to Milwaukee is huge.
They needed a shot in the arm. Giannis MVP level,
Dame all NBA level, Lopez and Porters. You know, they
are who they are. They're solid players, but they needed more.
They needed more scoring, and I think Kusma's going to
give it to them.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
Let's go to the NBA All Star weekend.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Of course that's started already in San Francisco, and just
awful ratings. People have been turned off scores over two
hundred last year. I mean, now they're trying I don't know,
nine different teams playing in a tournament or.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
I don't I don't even know.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
I got a headache every time they explain what the
formula is and the and the and the you know,
for the.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
All Star Game.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
But but Rick, at some point, I mean, can they
think about like the NFL did where they just stopped
doing the Pro Bowl or stop doing this because the players.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Don't want to play.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
I mean, I've never seen, you know, professional athletes not
want to compete. And I don't buy into the they
don't want to get hurt argument. I just can't use
that and buy into that. If they're playing at UCLA
in the summer, they play better than they play at
the All Star Game.
Speaker 8 (24:11):
Rob I made that point last night on my podcast,
the exact same point. It's such a I want to
cuss right now, but I won't. It's such a bunch
of bull craft, right, these guys play all summer. They
get off the ground, they're hustling, they're they're at the drew,
they're at the rucker, and they're at the DMV. They're
at all of these runs, right, and that's great, Okay,
(24:32):
but you don't want to like, I mean, nobody wants
Game seven defense in the All Time No. I just
want them to play kind of hard. But they don't
even do that. And so, yes, I think I think
it's a god awful shame that we had to scrap
the All Star Game. Okay, this is an eighty year
tradition that we flush down the toilet because of the
(24:54):
laziness and empowerment of today players. It's a joke.
Speaker 6 (24:58):
Now, I can we completely agree. Rick.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
We've been saying that for some time. I shouldn't have
to give you a gimmick, and I shouldn't have to
thank you and pay you more money. You're making millions
go hoop for forty minutes, forty eight minutes.
Speaker 6 (25:09):
To show my god.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Like they I think sometimes they lose sight.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
The All Star Game was for the fans, and we
saw some of the greatest players we did. Just see
Michael Jordan at half speed last year. Rick, they had
three fouls in the game.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
Can you imagine that?
Speaker 6 (25:24):
No, they literally did, Rick.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
It's crazy, thousand fouls.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
And nobody's asking it to become the refs game. But
my goodness, play kind of hard, Rick.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
I'll ask you this one.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Let me when we talk about Steph Katie Lebron, kind
of the old guard of the league, who are you
looking at at somebody I don't want to say singularly
the face of the league, but when you're starting to see,
all right, these guys got to move on up and
really not only by their play, but winning, becoming statesman,
becoming doing commercials and really taking that ownership of the league.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
Who are some of the maybe handful you're looking at.
Speaker 8 (25:57):
Well, I love the question, so I was listening. I
started with Luca as my answer, and as you continue
to ask the question and go to you know, spokesman
and commercials. For whatever reason, the European guys just don't
get the advertise, the advertisement shine here. They just don't
you know, they don't speak great English and whatever. I
don't know. So I would say Anthony Edwards. You know,
(26:18):
he was already in a national you know, Christmas ad
for Sprite, you know, with what was it anti clause
or whatever else?
Speaker 6 (26:23):
Yeah, Anta clause. Yeah, that was pretty funny.
Speaker 8 (26:25):
Yeah, and so he hasn't even won MVP or won
a championship yet, so wait until all that stuff happened.
So I would say Anthony Edwards to that.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
I think the uh, the European thing is interesting because
the biggest UH star in baseball is Japanese.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
And if you see.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Any of the Dodgers, no matter where they play, they
sell out. They're like the beatles Man when they go
from stadium to stadium. So it's interesting. But he's such
a unicorn. Maybe that's what makes him different, you know.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 8 (26:58):
Yeah, baseball guy guy guys By the way, the Dodgers
are going one hundred and sixty two and oh yeah,
my god, man, one of the greatest teams I've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
I mean they've put they've just gone all out. Well
we shall see. Rick, I'll ask you this real quick.
The last National League team to win back to back
World Series?
Speaker 4 (27:16):
You got to answer from.
Speaker 8 (27:17):
Me, Oh boy, is it the Giant? No, the Giants
didn't win back to back. I don't have the answer
for you.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
The nineteen seventy five Cincinnati read seventy five, seventy six.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
Can you believe that?
Speaker 8 (27:30):
Oh my god?
Speaker 3 (27:30):
And the last team ever was the Yankees twenty five
years ago. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 8 (27:35):
Dude, Rob you're hitting me where I live man, Johnny
Bench and Pete Ro baseball heroes, grown up, the Big
Red Machine do Dave Consimpcio, George Foster. Let's go, baby.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
They had a great team, all time great team, no
doubt about it.
Speaker 6 (27:49):
All right, Rick Man, we appreciate you. Enjoy All Star weekend.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Hopefully all of us can be excited by his revitalization.
Speaker 6 (27:56):
Maybe, just maybe.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
I'm not watching one minute. I'm sorry, I'm sorry he's.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
Not watching because Kaitlin Clark isn't in it, Rick, that's right.
Speaker 8 (28:03):
Seriously, I'm in Thompson plus ten thousand, All Star MVP.
Please put a little bit of money on that. You'll
thank me later.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
All Right, those Thompson boys are they're no joke. Rick,
you're yeahing. I'm in is a baller
Hosts And Creators
kelvin washington
Rob Parker
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