May 6, 2025 • 32 mins
Rob and Kelvin tell us if the fact that Nikola Jokic dominates a Big Man-less era could wind up negatively impacting his legacy and debate whether this Caitlin Clark-led surge in the WNBA’s popularity is sustainable. Plus, NBC Sports Boston host and author Michael Holley swings by to discuss his biggest problem with Boston’s 3-point-heavy approach to Game 1, the latest on Kristaps Porzingis’ health, the biggest threat to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference and much more! Finally, the Odd Couple Callers bring the heat in this week’s edition of Trash Talk.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
You're listening to the best of the Odd Couple.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
In Denver's win, obviously the Joker didn't have the big shot.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
It was Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
He did hit that big three though, right, But I'm
just saying, you know, like people are jumping around whatever
it was.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
The Joker wasn't involved in that. But but yeah, forty
two points, he dom twenty have twenty.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Two boards for absolutely like its that line is ridiculous.
I don't know what else to say. And once again
we talked about it, You're.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Not gonna win. The MVP had a better year than
any of the MVP years.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, and we keep seeing this guy do stuff that
nobody's doing.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
It's been incredible.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
He's been spectacular, and he's gonna become, to me, really
difficult to assess when we start talking about his legacy,
Like where do you put him where do you rank him?
Where do you know he's got a little Tim Duncan
and him that esthetically now he passes better than Tim Duncans,
so at least you get those dimes that he drops.
But just Warrelo sometimes his game, you know, a little
boring little you know, three inches and below, so you
(01:32):
won't have that flash as some of the other big
some of the historical greats, the Jordan's the bird hidden
threes magic in the dimes, so he won't have that
per se. But I was thinking about this, Rob and
I want to pose this question to you. Will it
matter that in his era he dominated, in an era
(01:52):
where night and night out he was by far the
biggest person outside from Joel Embiid And maybe if you
want to say, a some.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Bonus for the most part.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And the reason I bring that up is sometimes there
have been a few players or a few things that
have happened in sports in general where you kind of go,
you put a little cave out, if you will. So
some people will go at baseball, they'll say those players
were great in nineteen forty six in below, but they
weren't playing any black players, they weren't playing any Latino players.
They weren't play, you know, so they were great. I
(02:25):
don't know, but no doubt, but the best of the
best didn't have a chance to actually play. And so
some folks might say that in reference to that. If
you go back to some people down Wilt, what's the
first thing they say, Man Will was playing five foot
ten guys, six foot ten guys. Will was great, but
he only played against small guys. Only you know, real
(02:47):
defender he had was Bill Russell to worry about.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
People will say that about him, so they kind of
use that against Will.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And I say that because I was really talking to
Rob Tino was breaking down, like I would have loved
to have seen Yokis, who you know, you sit next
to me every day, who I thoroughly appreciate and respect.
He is incredibly he's the best player in the league
period flows So make sure I get that clear. Historically great,
but I was like man, I would have loved to
have seen what he would have been like the like
(03:15):
twenty years stretch where he would have had to go
up against a shack. David Rummins, David Robinson and Tim
Duncan were on the same team the Kem Bae Matumbo Kenya,
Martin Gasaw and Bid them were on the same team
starting four and five, Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Garnett, the
same four and five z Bo and Mark Gasol. That
was the four and five starters. You had the bit
(03:36):
you saw this up close, Rashid and Ben Wallace. You
saw that every night for all those years, both of them,
night and night out.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Hakeem Olajuwan Shacked. I mean that Alonzo morning like that.
I do wonder and I still think it would have
been all stared. I still think we'd been heading on
his way to Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
But I'm saying what would have been like if he
had to go up against night in, night out, four fives,
the traditional fours and fives of the you know, late eighties,
nineties through the mid late twenty tennish era.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, I disagree with you. I think his talent is
one that you could look at and say it doesn't
matter like who was playing. Here's what I'll say. And
you brought up the baseball which people talk about all
the time, even Babe Ruth and not all of players,
but even Babe Ruth still stands out even during that
era of not playing of segregation. He was so much
(04:33):
better than everybody. Nobody diminishes Babe Ruth's ability.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
No, no, you know what I was saying. No, I know,
but I'm but this is kind of what you're talking about.
Like you might.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
You could question a lot of people during that era
and whether or not they were really major leaguers or
but Babe Ruth, you can't Will Chamberlain.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
The reason it wasn't just that he played smaller people.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
He didn't win as much as despite all the numbers
for people.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And what the joker to me has is, yes, he's dominating.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Which is what you should do if there's nobody there,
if you, if you weren't putting up these kind of
numbers and taking advantage of your situation against other people,
then you can look at him and say he didn't
get enough. You bring up Shack, people say man Shack
really didn't do everything that he I don't think you
could look at the jokers say he left any meat
(05:29):
on the bone, like like he's putting he's doing stuff
that no one has ever done. If he was just
doing kind of standard you know what standard big Man's staff, right,
and then you could go, oh, you know, he's okay,
but you know, like there was nobody really there, and
the joker is exact opposite. He's like, my god, every
(05:50):
time you turn around and talk about something that no
one has ever done.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
And I think that's what works for him. And not
only that, when multiple.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
MVPs and he won a championship without another All Star Murray.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Okay, we can put that people at Jamal Murray.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
I get, you're right, but but that's really that's right,
fact fact, you know what I mean, Like, that's a fact,
and I think that's why he's different to me. Here
is where my counterpoint, Rob, everything you said I get. However,
if he had to guard Shaq Kuem, Kevin Garnet, Dirk Nwiz,
I even mentioned Dirk and Tyson Chandler, if he had
to got guard Park of Paul Gassau.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Literally night in the night out.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I love when I used to hear that Kenny Smith
tells a great story. When he would say Kenny Kim
would talk to him, say, Kenny, uh, I'm resting. He's like,
what are you wrestling for? He was like, because I
gotta play all these guys every night. He was like,
you know, you gotta go guard all these other people.
And I feel like if every night Yoki j also
not only get some buckets and get some passes. I
gotta guard all these guys I name, I got a
(06:53):
gar Rashid. I gotta guard Chris Webber. I gotta guard
Paul Gassos. I gotta guard uh To ken Bay and
David Robinson and or Tim Duncan and in Shaq and
or dry that's a lot. I gotta guard marcasol or
z Bo. And I'm also saying that would have been
amazing to see, not that I get. I don't think
you'd have been all of a sudden terrible, no, for sure,
but it would have been interesting because you get a
(07:13):
guy like Chris Webber. Wow, Donovan Mitchell just punched on
the entire city of Indiana, the an entire Indianapolis team
right there. So anyway, I just thought that would to me.
I was thinking about what you going over the game,
going over.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
The last night.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
It was a big man out there right for Okay,
see you say Hartenstein, what I might jump? I might
jump on the table. I'm just saying, how tall is
chet Holmgrin? You even losing weight way more than okay?
All right, matter of fact, the wait is more than him.
Here's my point, though, here's my point.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Last night, the Joker finished forty two points, twenty rebounds,
six assists, and in the process he joined only Yannis
Shaq and Wilt as the only players in NBA history
to post a four twenty five game. Okay, and in
this postseason, the Jokers currently second amongst all players all
(08:07):
players in points right, first and rebounds, assists and steal.
So he does so many things, and that's just my point.
It's his body of work. His body of work is
so gigantic that you can't like, you just can't go, well,
I'm gonna put an asterisk or I'm not gonna I'm
(08:28):
not going to register it because so and so is missing.
You could do that during this NBA era when it's
easier to score, like like we hear players from from
Europe talk about it all the time, like it's easy
to score in the NBA now with deep right and
all that stuff. So should we say, and as people
were talking about James Harden or can we make the case,
(08:52):
well it's easy to score in this NBA now, are
we going to discount what he was able to do?
You know what I mean and what Steph and so
many other people because of the lack of defense that
we saw, at least when I was covering the league
in the eighties and the ninety late eighties, in the
nineties and early two thousands.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
I think another point that I used is where we
kind of have these moments where you kind of gotta
I enjoy having smart conversations about sports with people, because
you brought up we were talking about earlier with Isaiah Thomas,
people as Nann Thomas went through Jordan, Larry Bird and
then Magic Johnson. So I use this example too. Everybody's like, like,
Steph is the best shooter I've ever seen, greatest shooter
of all time. But there are a lot of people
(09:31):
right now in the NBA, in my opinion, who are
only in the NBA because of the current way the
game is played. So they're allowed to, Hey, we're gonna
have you on because you get to shoot. Duncan Robinson
and he went to Michigan, So I hate.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
To be like that.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Duncan Robinson is not in the NBA fifteen years ago,
my Lion rob g but he's allowed. He's literally a
liability on defense. Everybody attacks him, but he's allowed to
shoot twelve. Three's a gang. And I use that to
say when people forget if I'm at Mark Price, Joe Dumars,
Dale Ellis, let's go Steph Curry, Daddy Dale Curry, Hey
you can shoot twelve threes tonight. Hey, Reggie Miller, if
(10:06):
you shot eighteen threes tonight, we wouldn't bat an eye.
So I use that as a sometimes where we have
to remember and people tell me, oh, this person is
a better shooter. He's he's a better shooter than so,
and so I said, man, Larry Bird only shot like
two point eight threes a game back in his day.
If I told Larry Bird he gets to shoot fifteen,
and we wouldn't even think twice, what the heck would
he have been?
Speaker 4 (10:24):
And so you just said.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
A name that brought back to me one of the
best nicknames given to a player.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Just talked about Dale Ellis.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Peter Vessi from the New York Post with the NBA
guy for a long time and the Trail Blazers had
all kinds of legal problems, guys getting arrested, all kinds
of stuff.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Yeah, so he called him Jail Ellis. That was the
nickname I'm sorry. Was he with the jail Blazers too? Yes,
they were called the jail Blazer You got it? Uh yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I just I think the Joker has something really really special.
And I don't care what eeries playing in or what
the circumstances situation is. I think he is, to me an,
all time great. And I'm not saying he is sitting
here he's crowding. I'm saying he's the greatest playoff. I
(11:12):
just would have loved to have seen him night and
night out. Have to go up against fours and fives
that were legitimate fours and fives every probably sixty five
to seventy five percent of the nights, and I got
to go up against Ben Wallace, Rashid Wallace, I gotta
go up against Kevin Garnet, Kendrick Perkins, I got to
go up against Andrew Biden and Power GASONA.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I still think he would have done well. I just
really well.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
I just think he is I think he is a
score a rebound. I mean, he's a great passer. I'm
not saying that that like he's gonna I just don't
see him dropping off because he would have other press.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Could not just what I love to, you know, love
just seeing that because it's a different it's a different
game when I got to prepare for not only to
be defended, but also he can do Oh no, no, no, no,
he can't. It's just this is just me throwing it
out just to you, just kind of getting your thoughts.
I was watching the game thinking about that, like he's
incredibly but he I would love to have seen him back.
And also just actually, by the way, it doesn't have
(12:09):
to be a negative, like just to see his battles
going up against other bigs, you know, like when we
have historical battles quem Olajuwan versus David Robinson. Those were amazing,
right seeing some of these guys go Alonzo and Shaq
go at in and seeing Powell and Andrew Biden go
up against Perkins and Kevin Garnett, you know, far the
battle of the bigs in those series like that is
also what I'm saying to just to have seen him
(12:30):
have these battles, because the one we get geared up
for is what him and Ad and then him and Embiid.
Those are like the ones we get geared up for.
The matchups not only not aesthetically to see him play.
Is it pleasing? I meaning he only gets two matchups
that really matter individually. You follow what I'm saying, Yes,
Like we love to see Oh Jordan going up against
Clyde Jordan, Reggie Miller Jordan.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I just think he's such.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
As he's such a generational talent. Like I just I've
never seen anybody dominate and just then and and all,
even the analytics, like the numbers all match up. They're
not like their empty stats or you know what I mean,
or he's stat padding or whatever, like they all match it.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
He is and he's clutch, and he's great.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I just would have loved to see him have some
nights where he goes up against his rival who is
Pile Gasol or his rival Zebo or his you know
these bigs or Mark Gasol. He just he doesn't he
doesn't have that and I would have loved to have
seen that.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Rob Parker and kelvin Washington weekdays at seven pm
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
NBC Sports Boston.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
He's also an author and by the way, Rob, I've
been annoying you.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
For the last two months.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
With Celtic City, he was all up and down Celtic
City as well. Up in there, Michael, what's up man?
Speaker 4 (13:50):
What's some Mike?
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Oh? What what's up? Fellas? Why did I put the
connection together? Is trash talking? Tuesday? And Rob Parker wants
to talk to me? I know what I mean? Why
didn't I think of it? Rob didn't tell me you're great? Producer?
Rob didn't tell me.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
That's why? Are you so?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
You will?
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Because you right? Because otherwise you would have canceled. You
wouldn't have done it.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
There's still time, There's still time.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
That.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
What's up, Mike? Everything good?
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yes, everything is good. Yeah, Celtic City was fun. Thanks
for watching that. I'm good. And I have to say,
just off the top before I run out of time,
shout out Rob Parker from putting together the Black Sports
Writers Hall of Fame UH in North Carolina. That is
so overdue, is so worthy And if I had to guess,
(14:41):
I'm serious. I'll talk trustee later Parker. But I will
say if I if somebody said who would put that together?
Who would who would have discipline and ambition and follow
through to do it, I would say, Rob Parker, so
shout out to you.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
You know that means the world coming from you, Mike,
that we're all newspaper dogs and all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
And we did all that and it was overdue.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
And Mike, probably the greatest thing of all is the
three people who got in. They couldn't we couldn't pick
three better people, am I right?
Speaker 5 (15:15):
That's what I told you? Yeah, I told you that
that picture is that's that's an iconic picture right there,
that trio. That's the way you did that. That sets
the foundation for what is going to become.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
And for people don't know. It was Claire Smith who
was the first female be writer. It was a baseball
Hall of Fame in the writer's wing. Bill Roadan was
a columnist longtime New York Times and Mike Wilbonno was
a longtime columnist at the Washington Post. So those three
went in as the first and excellent trio. Excellent job,
bro A, thank you, Thank you, Mike, no doubt. So
(15:46):
now let me rip the Celtics.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
And that terrible what was that?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
What Harper Lucy with all the threes nineteen out of
twenty and the third quarter, that's terrible.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
That's how you let a team get back in.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Yeah, I'm just watching it, and this is gonna sound crazy,
just being in the building last night watching it. I
was smiling as I watched it because I said, you know,
you can't you can't make this up. I can't believe
I'm watching this. So that that's the formula for a
blowing a twenty point lead, and it was even worse
than that. So they missed forty five threes to say that,
(16:21):
just sit with that for a second. They missed forty
five threes, which meant which means they took more than that.
They took sixty sixty three point shots and they were bricking.
But it was even worse because they had Karl Anthony
Towns and foul trouble. They had Josh Hart and foul trouble.
(16:43):
The Knicks, we're really Mitchell Robinson was in foul trouble.
The Knicks were really struggling just to hang on in
that game. And the only reason they were able to
hang on because the Celtics refused to go to the
paint and force them to defend and partly get in
even deeper foul trouble. So it really was It really
(17:04):
was a gross performance in any NBA game, but particularly
a playoff game that you had control of.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
This is what I'm disappointed with, Michael.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
I'm disappointed because Jason Tatum, we know, is supposed to
be one of the top wherever you want to rate them, three, four, five, six,
seven players in the league. And if this were Kobe Bryant,
nind you now he's a champion. It's not like he's
a young one twenty two year old. If this is
MJ if this is Kobe, if this is Shack, if
this is Lebron, if you go on down the line,
there's a point when you say, I'll be dang about
(17:32):
the game plan. Give me the rock, and you put
your head down and you go to the hole and
you draw five, or you put somebody on your back
and you fade away and get some buckets. And I
think I was disappointed to see two guys one the
finals MVP and Jaylen Brown who was one for ten,
and then Jason Tatum, who was supposed to be Some
people say, could he be the face of the league.
I say no for other reasons, but he's too good
(17:54):
to relegate himself to simply a three point shooter and
that just doesn't and that's why I think people don't
have him as highly regarded as maybe they should for
moments like that. That was his moment to say they
had a Q little comeback. I'm iicing his game out.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Am I wrong?
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Well, you're not wrong. At last night. The problem Kelvin
is he did say give me the rock. But he
said give me the rock and he took three. That
was the problem is what he did with it. And
you're right in that it's disappointing because he usually doesn't
play like that. Like he's one of my favorite players
to watch. I'm not just say next I live in Boston,
(18:31):
you want my favorite players to watch because in these
situations he usually he approaches it like a quarterback. I mean,
he usually makes the right decisions, he makes the right reads.
His playmaking has gone up, and I get it out.
The last three years, I think he's the top five player,
no question, in the league. But last night it wasn't
working and he was four to fifteen from three point
(18:55):
range and didn't adjust. And I'll tell you part of
the reason he didn't adjust. And I was saying this
to somebody when they were up by sixteen at halftime,
I said the person sitting next to me, I said,
they're not really playing well, but they're up by sixteen.
I said. The Knicks are dangerous for the Celtics. Not
because of how the Knicks are constructed. It's how the
Celtics view the Knicks. It's like somebody, don't name them.
(19:18):
I don't want you to name anybody. I just want
you to imagine this person. No matter what you do
against them, you know it's going to be successful because
they're not on your level. You had too much success
against them in the past, and so you, right, you
start to become complacent. And he said, that's fine, I
could do whatever. And so the Knicks have not really
they played one close game against the Celtics before.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Last night, and even last night, let me say this, Mike,
And you know, for the Knicks, of course, you win
game one, you know, you have a little optimism of
what's going on. While we did what we needed to
do and we're going to go back home and at
least have we got stole home court or whatever it is.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
But for them to barely win and winning over to
right when when.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
The other team missed forty five threes just doesn't sit well,
you know what I mean, Like like, you could never
duplicate that again.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
I don't. I'll give him credit, but Rob, I'll give
them credit for their character in the game because I
was watching Karl Anthony Towns, who was through like midway
third quarter. It was one of the worst games I've
seen him play. He was a mess, he was losing
the fall, he was frustrated, he was in foul trouble.
And I kept watching him. I was thinking, Hey, Towns
(20:29):
is a whisper away from losing it, But he didn't.
They kept their composure, They just kept they stayed in
the game. So I won't give credit to the Knicks
for how they're wired. I don't think they're better that
they're not good enough to beat the Celtics four times.
But last night, I'll give them credit for just hanging
in there.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Hey, what's going on with up Wzegis?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
It's just been an injury riddled last couple of years,
in and out, in and out, in and out.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Where is he now?
Speaker 5 (20:56):
Kelvin who knows? You know? He only played like forty
some games this year?
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (21:03):
What like? And last year he missed twenty games intentionally
because they were trying to preserve him for the playoffs
this year. He just hadn't been able to get it going.
And even though he played New Orlando series, didn't play well.
He's a big guy.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Does he have a viral issue? What is it? What
are they calling?
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Who knows something? You know? Sickness? Left the game with
the sickness. But this has been going on all year.
He missed a mystery nobody's still figured out. He missed
like seven or eight games in a row down the
stretch in the regular season with some illness that nobody
ever really articulated what it was. So I don't know
what happens to him last night, But illness or not,
(21:41):
he has not been playing well for about a month.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
I'm gonna call Fauci and see what it is. I'm
trying to figure it out, you know, I know, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I interviewed him right there on COVID. Yeah it's my guy.
I just had to get that name. I called him
big tone.
Speaker 5 (21:53):
Okay, yeah, hey man, you and everybody else, man, you
can't put that on your resume. But he was. He
was sitting now with everybody.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Don't don't interrupt, let me Okay, he was calling people up.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Yeah you got a podcast.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yeah yeah, you ain't lying. He was every that's why
you got to meet. He was tired. He was like,
oh look, people are sick and stuff going on. Wear masks,
how holler back. That's pretty much the extent of it.
All right, we appreciate you taking some time. One quick question,
real quick. Cleveland they're banged They'll put there up by
twenty ye Is that that is Cleveland? I mean, I
(22:31):
know they're banged up right now.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Could they, if they're healthy or get most of their
guys back, give them Celtics a run for this in
the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
I know we're going jumping ahead.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
So you already think the Celtics. You got the Celtics
over the Nicks.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
All Look, it really comes down to They made that
midseason trade for DeAndre Hunter because they don't have anybody
who matches up with Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum. So
if if Hunter can bring it, Hunter is the Hunter
is the key. If he he is up to it defensively,
if he does the Tatum what Andrew Wiggins did deliver
(23:06):
a few years ago in the finals, he does something
like that. Then I think the Cavaliers have a shot.
But I just really think that's a tough matchup for them.
Too much Tatum, too much Brown. So I think that
will be a seven game series. The Celtics would have
to win it on the road, but I think the
Celtics get by the Cavaliers.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
All right, all right, thanks Mike, appreciate you man. Thanks
for those con words.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Man.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
That means a lot.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Like I said, we we we're newspaper guys man from
the from the old days.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
So I appreciate that for real.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
You know what, Valley, this legit. I'll be back to
ripping you soon.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Yeah, I know that. I know this is a one time, dude,
This is a one off. This is a one off.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
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 4 (23:54):
We're gonna talk some WNBA. I know your thrilled. I
know you can win. Me and Rob g say, you
know what is gonna.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
To get Rob Parker going, Yeah, okay, this is just
like what do you guys?
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Okay, I'm gonna just leave it to you. No, you
know you're excited about this, look at you.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
No.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
The conversation we were having was about Kaitlyn Clark and
can the Kaitlin Clark effect continue into this next coming year.
We obviously know the Final Four run the year before,
and then obviously her rookie campaign, and that's all the conversation, right.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
It was divisive.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
She's great, she's great, but she's not as good as
them WNBA players kind of pushing her down, and so
we were thinking, will this carry over and continue into
the next season. So you look at her preseason game
of the Fever as well, one point three million viewers, which,
by the way, only two of ESPN's fifty seven NBA
(24:46):
preseason games since twenty ten had ever drawn an audience
like that, and both feature Lebron and twenty seventeen is
you know, in twenty eighteen, so him becoming the Laker
and all of that. So she's doing Laker Lebron Laker
numbers when it comes to viewership in a preseason game.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Okay, and can you bury the lead on that, because
it's a fudge job. This is why I got an
issue with what did they play like some other terrible
w NBA team, Oh, okay international, that was an international game,
So you're gonna judge that based off of playing like,
I don't know what w NBA teams. The Detroit Shock,
(25:23):
the Brooklyn Liberty, you're still in Detroit when they lived,
you were still there. The New York Liberty that plays
in Brooklyn or Westchester.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Give me another team, the Sparks where you live.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
The Sparks of the Sparks, the Minnesota what is it
links or whatever it is.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
By the way, you're in a role right now for
somebody who don't watch you doing pretty well.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
But you get my point on this, and my point
is you can't look at that game as an ordinary
w NBA preseason game. The tickets were going for four
hundred and forty dollars because it was Brazil for them
to put out a story and act like her magic
with the numbers for just a preseason game.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Do you feel me?
Speaker 1 (26:07):
No, that's some legit points. However, people still watched, People
still tuned in, mind you, they tuned in the middle
of the playoffs, and we looking at her watching the
Gatoray commercial. They had a bunch of athletes and who
just ended it, Caitlyn Clark. So you look at some
of the growth they had last year, WNBA had twenty
two regular season games that averaged more than a million viewers,
and if you add the All Star game in the draft,
(26:29):
that was twenty four programs that they had that had
over a million, and that obviously, as we know, is rare.
Then today Asia Wilson the best player in the WNBA.
I know Kaitlin Clark's the most popular, but the best
player is Asia Wilson. Dropped her shoe by the way,
amazing Nike commercial for her shoe campaign and she dropped
it sold out in five minutes. The Asia Wilson sue,
(26:52):
which I'm gonna grab a few for my daughter whenever
they pre stock, I think Thursday or something.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
But so the question.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Is is this something that's real? Is this something that
is tangible. It's just something that now they can depend
on it saying we actually have something sustainable. We're not
saying we're gonna be getting TV network deals like these
other sports and billions of dollars as of yet, but
something that they can say the momentum continues, the momentum
continues to grow, and they have something that you know
they can feat so they like Caitlyn Clark. You know
(27:20):
this isn't college where eventually she leaves like she can
be in the WABA ten, fifteen, twenty years. So you
have that star power Angel Reese who is massive on commercials,
social media and obviously in the game playing as well.
Now in the league for another ten to fifteen years,
you're starting to get these starts. Page now in the
league for the two years they got the French the
(27:40):
female within ben Yama and have to get her name.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
She's now in.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
So is this something where they can actually build upon
and finally start to say, look at this growth that
we've had now for a sustained amount of years.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
No, I'm just here's my issue with all that you
talked about the w last year with the number lost
fifty million dollars, Number one, umber two, there's still averaging.
The average attendance was nine thousand. The league hasn't been
around for a week or ten days or one years.
The league's been around for thirty some odd years. Nine
thousand and those TV numbers. That's nice for her. She
(28:14):
is the halem Grope chatters when she shows up, they're
not doing that this day, have arenas where they're getting
six thousand people on a regular Tuesday night game. So yes,
you've seen it, and when she shows up at those games, yes,
but I think, and that's what I'm saying, like, I
can't look at this and go like it's going to be,
(28:34):
oh yeah, it's here to stay and they're they're going to,
uh for now on sell out every game or or
have these unbelievable ratings as long as Caitlin Clark and
even her thing after a while could fade after.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
We've seen it, after we've seen it. We see that
for five six years, I've seen it. That's where I've
seen siding. Now we're wishing her all the best. Juju Watkins,
Juju gets healthy, right still, maybe one more year in
USC after she gets healthy, and then she gets in there.
You got Page now in there, you start to hope
that you get all these players in there again. And
then you got Dominique Malunga. Who Dominique Malunga, dom But
(29:13):
Dominique Malunga, she is the number two pick.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
I would have probably picked her number one over Page.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
But she doing dropstep turnaround dunks on people, which can
make this thing even more interesting, I do think they're
starting to accumulate enough star power and again that they
will be there for decades that you'll start to know someday,
start to know players, start to know some rivalry, start
to know some beasts, and have something and that done.
They You can't equate it to money, because I do
agree they're not gonna make money quite yet where it
(29:39):
will warrant that side of the business. That's not gonna
happen anytime necessarily sue it could for the players themselves,
meaning I got more commercial deals, I got the shoe deal,
I got this gatory commercial. But the league in and
of himself, I don't think it's gone for sudden gonna
be making millions of billions of dollars. But yeah, I
do think with some of the players that are coming in,
I do think there's some stainability for them, uh that
(30:02):
they hadn't had rob for like fifteen twenty years.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
I just think long term, Caitlyn Clark is a once
in a lifetime and I'm not saying that the other
player they've always been.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
And you you you say this.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Because you've watched WNBA and been the game taking daughters.
They've been great players who play in the league. Let's
not make it like they haven't been. For sure, Caitlyn
is different, Okay, because she was playing the game different
from the way women play. Okay, you agree with that.
She's exactly taking the logo three. So guys got wait
a minute, what is this. I've never seen this, not
(30:37):
in a women's game. I couldn't watch it. And the
other thing too. As much as we talk about it,
women still don't go to the games like they should,
and and and until women embrace the league, I just
don't see where it's going to grow. There more women
than men, and they won't go. You talk to women,
you know this, and they're like, I'll go to.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
W NBA right, No, living out here, going to Clippers, Yeah,
going the next gonna Yeah, you're.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Going to the what do they call it, the Sparks, Sparks.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
I'm doing it to the rob g you're married, you
got two daughters.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
How many Sparks games have you been to? That would
be zero? But there you go. That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 6 (31:19):
But it's not like I'm actively avoiding it either. I'm
I haven't been seen Lebron play in person either. No,
but that's different because of the person, because of money.
I'm not going to be a bunch of times I
never saw lebron I mean because you get older and
the tickets are, you know, four hundred dollars seats.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
Robb Hold, hold hold, I don't get that.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Rob g is the king of getting mad at me
for not using TV and radio to get you.
Speaker 6 (31:41):
Like I haven't tried. It is the problem. Okay, that
actually did pull the curtain back. One time Chris we
started agating Rest in Peace. Was like, yeah, man, I'm
gonna make sure I can get you. I'll get you
a game by how many tickets you need to If
I can get to three, be great. If you get
to that'll be good. Yeah, no problem, will take carr
of you. And then at the day of you know,
I shouldn't do it, after all, I'll get you the
next time, then the next time, and then the next time,
and then.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Then it never happened. Is that why I'm sitting here
right now? Yes, because he never he gotta go, He's
got he never got me Laker tickets.
Speaker 6 (32:09):
Like, first off, he's messing up the melonin color of
the show. Secondly that he ain't never give me my
Laker tickets. It's unbelievable. You didn't go to me and
you went to Chris. I mean, I just don't understand you.
Would you give me free tickets? I would have gotten
you tickets. No, you wouldn't you pay for tickets?
Speaker 4 (32:25):
Yeah, but I could have got you. They don't have
to be four hundred dollars. I get you in the top.
You're a real fans. You want to be in You
in the building, right, I could get you. Maybe, No,
I want to see. I want to feel the sweat
when Lebron goes. I'm a little disappointed.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
Boy.
Speaker 6 (32:40):
What Yeah, I'm gonna say, Okay, if you want me to,
I would hit you up. Well, we got the season. Now,
how many Dodger tickets? I don't even like baseball, but
I'm gonna need to see You'll go see you never
seen either.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
Take your wife and the kids, go out for a night. Roger,
I got you.
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Odd Couple podcasts.
Be sure to check us out live every weekday from
four to seven pm Pacific seven to ten pm Eastern
on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for The
Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream
us every day on the iHeartRadio by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
You're listening to the best of the Odd Couple.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
In Denver's win, obviously the Joker didn't have the big shot.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
It was Aaron Gordon.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
He did hit that big three though, right, But I'm
just saying, you know, like people are jumping around whatever
it was.
Speaker 4 (00:36):
The Joker wasn't involved in that. But but yeah, forty
two points, he dom twenty have twenty.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Two boards for absolutely like its that line is ridiculous.
I don't know what else to say. And once again
we talked about it, You're.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Not gonna win. The MVP had a better year than
any of the MVP years.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, and we keep seeing this guy do stuff that
nobody's doing.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
It's been incredible.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
He's been spectacular, and he's gonna become, to me, really
difficult to assess when we start talking about his legacy,
Like where do you put him where do you rank him?
Where do you know he's got a little Tim Duncan
and him that esthetically now he passes better than Tim Duncans,
so at least you get those dimes that he drops.
But just Warrelo sometimes his game, you know, a little
boring little you know, three inches and below, so you
(01:32):
won't have that flash as some of the other big
some of the historical greats, the Jordan's the bird hidden
threes magic in the dimes, so he won't have that
per se. But I was thinking about this, Rob and
I want to pose this question to you. Will it
matter that in his era he dominated, in an era
(01:52):
where night and night out he was by far the
biggest person outside from Joel Embiid And maybe if you
want to say, a some.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Bonus for the most part.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And the reason I bring that up is sometimes there
have been a few players or a few things that
have happened in sports in general where you kind of go,
you put a little cave out, if you will. So
some people will go at baseball, they'll say those players
were great in nineteen forty six in below, but they
weren't playing any black players, they weren't playing any Latino players.
They weren't play, you know, so they were great. I
(02:25):
don't know, but no doubt, but the best of the
best didn't have a chance to actually play. And so
some folks might say that in reference to that. If
you go back to some people down Wilt, what's the
first thing they say, Man Will was playing five foot
ten guys, six foot ten guys. Will was great, but
he only played against small guys. Only you know, real
(02:47):
defender he had was Bill Russell to worry about.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
People will say that about him, so they kind of
use that against Will.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And I say that because I was really talking to
Rob Tino was breaking down, like I would have loved
to have seen Yokis, who you know, you sit next
to me every day, who I thoroughly appreciate and respect.
He is incredibly he's the best player in the league
period flows So make sure I get that clear. Historically great,
but I was like man, I would have loved to
have seen what he would have been like the like
(03:15):
twenty years stretch where he would have had to go
up against a shack. David Rummins, David Robinson and Tim
Duncan were on the same team the Kem Bae Matumbo Kenya,
Martin Gasaw and Bid them were on the same team
starting four and five, Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Garnett, the
same four and five z Bo and Mark Gasol. That
was the four and five starters. You had the bit
(03:36):
you saw this up close, Rashid and Ben Wallace. You
saw that every night for all those years, both of them,
night and night out.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Hakeem Olajuwan Shacked. I mean that Alonzo morning like that.
I do wonder and I still think it would have
been all stared. I still think we'd been heading on
his way to Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
But I'm saying what would have been like if he
had to go up against night in, night out, four fives,
the traditional fours and fives of the you know, late eighties,
nineties through the mid late twenty tennish era.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, I disagree with you. I think his talent is
one that you could look at and say it doesn't
matter like who was playing. Here's what I'll say. And
you brought up the baseball which people talk about all
the time, even Babe Ruth and not all of players,
but even Babe Ruth still stands out even during that
era of not playing of segregation. He was so much
(04:33):
better than everybody. Nobody diminishes Babe Ruth's ability.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
No, no, you know what I was saying. No, I know,
but I'm but this is kind of what you're talking about.
Like you might.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
You could question a lot of people during that era
and whether or not they were really major leaguers or
but Babe Ruth, you can't Will Chamberlain.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
The reason it wasn't just that he played smaller people.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
He didn't win as much as despite all the numbers
for people.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And what the joker to me has is, yes, he's dominating.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Which is what you should do if there's nobody there,
if you, if you weren't putting up these kind of
numbers and taking advantage of your situation against other people,
then you can look at him and say he didn't
get enough. You bring up Shack, people say man Shack
really didn't do everything that he I don't think you
could look at the jokers say he left any meat
(05:29):
on the bone, like like he's putting he's doing stuff
that no one has ever done. If he was just
doing kind of standard you know what standard big Man's staff, right,
and then you could go, oh, you know, he's okay,
but you know, like there was nobody really there, and
the joker is exact opposite. He's like, my god, every
(05:50):
time you turn around and talk about something that no
one has ever done.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
And I think that's what works for him. And not
only that, when multiple.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
MVPs and he won a championship without another All Star Murray.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Okay, we can put that people at Jamal Murray.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
I get, you're right, but but that's really that's right,
fact fact, you know what I mean, Like, that's a fact,
and I think that's why he's different to me. Here
is where my counterpoint, Rob, everything you said I get. However,
if he had to guard Shaq Kuem, Kevin Garnet, Dirk Nwiz,
I even mentioned Dirk and Tyson Chandler, if he had
to got guard Park of Paul Gassau.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Literally night in the night out.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I love when I used to hear that Kenny Smith
tells a great story. When he would say Kenny Kim
would talk to him, say, Kenny, uh, I'm resting. He's like,
what are you wrestling for? He was like, because I
gotta play all these guys every night. He was like,
you know, you gotta go guard all these other people.
And I feel like if every night Yoki j also
not only get some buckets and get some passes. I
gotta guard all these guys I name, I got a
(06:53):
gar Rashid. I gotta guard Chris Webber. I gotta guard
Paul Gassos. I gotta guard uh To ken Bay and
David Robinson and or Tim Duncan and in Shaq and
or dry that's a lot. I gotta guard marcasol or
z Bo. And I'm also saying that would have been
amazing to see, not that I get. I don't think
you'd have been all of a sudden terrible, no, for sure,
but it would have been interesting because you get a
(07:13):
guy like Chris Webber. Wow, Donovan Mitchell just punched on
the entire city of Indiana, the an entire Indianapolis team
right there. So anyway, I just thought that would to me.
I was thinking about what you going over the game,
going over.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
The last night.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
It was a big man out there right for Okay,
see you say Hartenstein, what I might jump? I might
jump on the table. I'm just saying, how tall is
chet Holmgrin? You even losing weight way more than okay?
All right, matter of fact, the wait is more than him.
Here's my point, though, here's my point.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Last night, the Joker finished forty two points, twenty rebounds,
six assists, and in the process he joined only Yannis
Shaq and Wilt as the only players in NBA history
to post a four twenty five game. Okay, and in
this postseason, the Jokers currently second amongst all players all
(08:07):
players in points right, first and rebounds, assists and steal.
So he does so many things, and that's just my point.
It's his body of work. His body of work is
so gigantic that you can't like, you just can't go, well,
I'm gonna put an asterisk or I'm not gonna I'm
(08:28):
not going to register it because so and so is missing.
You could do that during this NBA era when it's
easier to score, like like we hear players from from
Europe talk about it all the time, like it's easy
to score in the NBA now with deep right and
all that stuff. So should we say, and as people
were talking about James Harden or can we make the case,
(08:52):
well it's easy to score in this NBA now, are
we going to discount what he was able to do?
You know what I mean and what Steph and so
many other people because of the lack of defense that
we saw, at least when I was covering the league
in the eighties and the ninety late eighties, in the
nineties and early two thousands.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
I think another point that I used is where we
kind of have these moments where you kind of gotta
I enjoy having smart conversations about sports with people, because
you brought up we were talking about earlier with Isaiah Thomas,
people as Nann Thomas went through Jordan, Larry Bird and
then Magic Johnson. So I use this example too. Everybody's like, like,
Steph is the best shooter I've ever seen, greatest shooter
of all time. But there are a lot of people
(09:31):
right now in the NBA, in my opinion, who are
only in the NBA because of the current way the
game is played. So they're allowed to, Hey, we're gonna
have you on because you get to shoot. Duncan Robinson
and he went to Michigan, So I hate.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
To be like that.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Duncan Robinson is not in the NBA fifteen years ago,
my Lion rob g but he's allowed. He's literally a
liability on defense. Everybody attacks him, but he's allowed to
shoot twelve. Three's a gang. And I use that to
say when people forget if I'm at Mark Price, Joe Dumars,
Dale Ellis, let's go Steph Curry, Daddy Dale Curry, Hey
you can shoot twelve threes tonight. Hey, Reggie Miller, if
(10:06):
you shot eighteen threes tonight, we wouldn't bat an eye.
So I use that as a sometimes where we have
to remember and people tell me, oh, this person is
a better shooter. He's he's a better shooter than so,
and so I said, man, Larry Bird only shot like
two point eight threes a game back in his day.
If I told Larry Bird he gets to shoot fifteen,
and we wouldn't even think twice, what the heck would
he have been?
Speaker 4 (10:24):
And so you just said.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
A name that brought back to me one of the
best nicknames given to a player.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Just talked about Dale Ellis.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Peter Vessi from the New York Post with the NBA
guy for a long time and the Trail Blazers had
all kinds of legal problems, guys getting arrested, all kinds
of stuff.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Yeah, so he called him Jail Ellis. That was the
nickname I'm sorry. Was he with the jail Blazers too? Yes,
they were called the jail Blazer You got it? Uh yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I just I think the Joker has something really really special.
And I don't care what eeries playing in or what
the circumstances situation is. I think he is, to me an,
all time great. And I'm not saying he is sitting
here he's crowding. I'm saying he's the greatest playoff. I
(11:12):
just would have loved to have seen him night and
night out. Have to go up against fours and fives
that were legitimate fours and fives every probably sixty five
to seventy five percent of the nights, and I got
to go up against Ben Wallace, Rashid Wallace, I gotta
go up against Kevin Garnet, Kendrick Perkins, I got to
go up against Andrew Biden and Power GASONA.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
I still think he would have done well. I just
really well.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
I just think he is I think he is a
score a rebound. I mean, he's a great passer. I'm
not saying that that like he's gonna I just don't
see him dropping off because he would have other press.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Could not just what I love to, you know, love
just seeing that because it's a different it's a different
game when I got to prepare for not only to
be defended, but also he can do Oh no, no, no, no,
he can't. It's just this is just me throwing it
out just to you, just kind of getting your thoughts.
I was watching the game thinking about that, like he's
incredibly but he I would love to have seen him back.
And also just actually, by the way, it doesn't have
(12:09):
to be a negative, like just to see his battles
going up against other bigs, you know, like when we
have historical battles quem Olajuwan versus David Robinson. Those were amazing,
right seeing some of these guys go Alonzo and Shaq
go at in and seeing Powell and Andrew Biden go
up against Perkins and Kevin Garnett, you know, far the
battle of the bigs in those series like that is
also what I'm saying to just to have seen him
(12:30):
have these battles, because the one we get geared up
for is what him and Ad and then him and Embiid.
Those are like the ones we get geared up for.
The matchups not only not aesthetically to see him play.
Is it pleasing? I meaning he only gets two matchups
that really matter individually. You follow what I'm saying, Yes,
Like we love to see Oh Jordan going up against
Clyde Jordan, Reggie Miller Jordan.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I just think he's such.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
As he's such a generational talent. Like I just I've
never seen anybody dominate and just then and and all,
even the analytics, like the numbers all match up. They're
not like their empty stats or you know what I mean,
or he's stat padding or whatever, like they all match it.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
He is and he's clutch, and he's great.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
I just would have loved to see him have some
nights where he goes up against his rival who is
Pile Gasol or his rival Zebo or his you know
these bigs or Mark Gasol. He just he doesn't he
doesn't have that and I would have loved to have
seen that.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Odd Couple
with Rob Parker and kelvin Washington weekdays at seven pm
Eastern four pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
NBC Sports Boston.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
He's also an author and by the way, Rob, I've
been annoying you.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
For the last two months.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
With Celtic City, he was all up and down Celtic
City as well. Up in there, Michael, what's up man?
Speaker 4 (13:50):
What's some Mike?
Speaker 5 (13:52):
Oh? What what's up? Fellas? Why did I put the
connection together? Is trash talking? Tuesday? And Rob Parker wants
to talk to me? I know what I mean? Why
didn't I think of it? Rob didn't tell me you're great? Producer?
Rob didn't tell me.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
That's why? Are you so?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
You will?
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Because you right? Because otherwise you would have canceled. You
wouldn't have done it.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
There's still time, There's still time.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
That.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
What's up, Mike? Everything good?
Speaker 5 (14:20):
Yes, everything is good. Yeah, Celtic City was fun. Thanks
for watching that. I'm good. And I have to say,
just off the top before I run out of time,
shout out Rob Parker from putting together the Black Sports
Writers Hall of Fame UH in North Carolina. That is
so overdue, is so worthy And if I had to guess,
(14:41):
I'm serious. I'll talk trustee later Parker. But I will
say if I if somebody said who would put that together?
Who would who would have discipline and ambition and follow
through to do it, I would say, Rob Parker, so
shout out to you.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
You know that means the world coming from you, Mike,
that we're all newspaper dogs and all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
And we did all that and it was overdue.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
And Mike, probably the greatest thing of all is the
three people who got in. They couldn't we couldn't pick
three better people, am I right?
Speaker 5 (15:15):
That's what I told you? Yeah, I told you that
that picture is that's that's an iconic picture right there,
that trio. That's the way you did that. That sets
the foundation for what is going to become.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
And for people don't know. It was Claire Smith who
was the first female be writer. It was a baseball
Hall of Fame in the writer's wing. Bill Roadan was
a columnist longtime New York Times and Mike Wilbonno was
a longtime columnist at the Washington Post. So those three
went in as the first and excellent trio. Excellent job,
bro A, thank you, Thank you, Mike, no doubt. So
(15:46):
now let me rip the Celtics.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
And that terrible what was that?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
What Harper Lucy with all the threes nineteen out of
twenty and the third quarter, that's terrible.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
That's how you let a team get back in.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
Yeah, I'm just watching it, and this is gonna sound crazy,
just being in the building last night watching it. I
was smiling as I watched it because I said, you know,
you can't you can't make this up. I can't believe
I'm watching this. So that that's the formula for a
blowing a twenty point lead, and it was even worse
than that. So they missed forty five threes to say that,
(16:21):
just sit with that for a second. They missed forty
five threes, which meant which means they took more than that.
They took sixty sixty three point shots and they were bricking.
But it was even worse because they had Karl Anthony
Towns and foul trouble. They had Josh Hart and foul trouble.
(16:43):
The Knicks, we're really Mitchell Robinson was in foul trouble.
The Knicks were really struggling just to hang on in
that game. And the only reason they were able to
hang on because the Celtics refused to go to the
paint and force them to defend and partly get in
even deeper foul trouble. So it really was It really
(17:04):
was a gross performance in any NBA game, but particularly
a playoff game that you had control of.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
This is what I'm disappointed with, Michael.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
I'm disappointed because Jason Tatum, we know, is supposed to
be one of the top wherever you want to rate them, three, four, five, six,
seven players in the league. And if this were Kobe Bryant,
nind you now he's a champion. It's not like he's
a young one twenty two year old. If this is
MJ if this is Kobe, if this is Shack, if
this is Lebron, if you go on down the line,
there's a point when you say, I'll be dang about
(17:32):
the game plan. Give me the rock, and you put
your head down and you go to the hole and
you draw five, or you put somebody on your back
and you fade away and get some buckets. And I
think I was disappointed to see two guys one the
finals MVP and Jaylen Brown who was one for ten,
and then Jason Tatum, who was supposed to be Some
people say, could he be the face of the league.
I say no for other reasons, but he's too good
(17:54):
to relegate himself to simply a three point shooter and
that just doesn't and that's why I think people don't
have him as highly regarded as maybe they should for
moments like that. That was his moment to say they
had a Q little comeback. I'm iicing his game out.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Am I wrong?
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Well, you're not wrong. At last night. The problem Kelvin
is he did say give me the rock. But he
said give me the rock and he took three. That
was the problem is what he did with it. And
you're right in that it's disappointing because he usually doesn't
play like that. Like he's one of my favorite players
to watch. I'm not just say next I live in Boston,
(18:31):
you want my favorite players to watch because in these
situations he usually he approaches it like a quarterback. I mean,
he usually makes the right decisions, he makes the right reads.
His playmaking has gone up, and I get it out.
The last three years, I think he's the top five player,
no question, in the league. But last night it wasn't
working and he was four to fifteen from three point
(18:55):
range and didn't adjust. And I'll tell you part of
the reason he didn't adjust. And I was saying this
to somebody when they were up by sixteen at halftime,
I said the person sitting next to me, I said,
they're not really playing well, but they're up by sixteen.
I said. The Knicks are dangerous for the Celtics. Not
because of how the Knicks are constructed. It's how the
Celtics view the Knicks. It's like somebody, don't name them.
(19:18):
I don't want you to name anybody. I just want
you to imagine this person. No matter what you do
against them, you know it's going to be successful because
they're not on your level. You had too much success
against them in the past, and so you, right, you
start to become complacent. And he said, that's fine, I
could do whatever. And so the Knicks have not really
they played one close game against the Celtics before.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Last night, and even last night, let me say this, Mike,
And you know, for the Knicks, of course, you win
game one, you know, you have a little optimism of
what's going on. While we did what we needed to
do and we're going to go back home and at
least have we got stole home court or whatever it is.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
But for them to barely win and winning over to
right when when.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
The other team missed forty five threes just doesn't sit well,
you know what I mean, Like like, you could never
duplicate that again.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
I don't. I'll give him credit, but Rob, I'll give
them credit for their character in the game because I
was watching Karl Anthony Towns, who was through like midway
third quarter. It was one of the worst games I've
seen him play. He was a mess, he was losing
the fall, he was frustrated, he was in foul trouble.
And I kept watching him. I was thinking, Hey, Towns
(20:29):
is a whisper away from losing it, But he didn't.
They kept their composure, They just kept they stayed in
the game. So I won't give credit to the Knicks
for how they're wired. I don't think they're better that
they're not good enough to beat the Celtics four times.
But last night, I'll give them credit for just hanging
in there.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Hey, what's going on with up Wzegis?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
It's just been an injury riddled last couple of years,
in and out, in and out, in and out.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Where is he now?
Speaker 5 (20:56):
Kelvin who knows? You know? He only played like forty
some games this year?
Speaker 4 (21:01):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (21:03):
What like? And last year he missed twenty games intentionally
because they were trying to preserve him for the playoffs
this year. He just hadn't been able to get it going.
And even though he played New Orlando series, didn't play well.
He's a big guy.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Does he have a viral issue? What is it? What
are they calling?
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Who knows something? You know? Sickness? Left the game with
the sickness. But this has been going on all year.
He missed a mystery nobody's still figured out. He missed
like seven or eight games in a row down the
stretch in the regular season with some illness that nobody
ever really articulated what it was. So I don't know
what happens to him last night, But illness or not,
(21:41):
he has not been playing well for about a month.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
I'm gonna call Fauci and see what it is. I'm
trying to figure it out, you know, I know, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I interviewed him right there on COVID. Yeah it's my guy.
I just had to get that name. I called him
big tone.
Speaker 5 (21:53):
Okay, yeah, hey man, you and everybody else, man, you
can't put that on your resume. But he was. He
was sitting now with everybody.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Don't don't interrupt, let me Okay, he was calling people up.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Yeah you got a podcast.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yeah yeah, you ain't lying. He was every that's why
you got to meet. He was tired. He was like,
oh look, people are sick and stuff going on. Wear masks,
how holler back. That's pretty much the extent of it.
All right, we appreciate you taking some time. One quick question,
real quick. Cleveland they're banged They'll put there up by
twenty ye Is that that is Cleveland? I mean, I
(22:31):
know they're banged up right now.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Could they, if they're healthy or get most of their
guys back, give them Celtics a run for this in
the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
I know we're going jumping ahead.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
So you already think the Celtics. You got the Celtics
over the Nicks.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
All Look, it really comes down to They made that
midseason trade for DeAndre Hunter because they don't have anybody
who matches up with Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum. So
if if Hunter can bring it, Hunter is the Hunter
is the key. If he he is up to it defensively,
if he does the Tatum what Andrew Wiggins did deliver
(23:06):
a few years ago in the finals, he does something
like that. Then I think the Cavaliers have a shot.
But I just really think that's a tough matchup for them.
Too much Tatum, too much Brown. So I think that
will be a seven game series. The Celtics would have
to win it on the road, but I think the
Celtics get by the Cavaliers.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
All right, all right, thanks Mike, appreciate you man. Thanks
for those con words.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Man.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
That means a lot.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Like I said, we we we're newspaper guys man from
the from the old days.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
So I appreciate that for real.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
You know what, Valley, this legit. I'll be back to
ripping you soon.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Yeah, I know that. I know this is a one time, dude,
This is a one off. This is a one off.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
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 4 (23:54):
We're gonna talk some WNBA. I know your thrilled. I
know you can win. Me and Rob g say, you
know what is gonna.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
To get Rob Parker going, Yeah, okay, this is just
like what do you guys?
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Okay, I'm gonna just leave it to you. No, you
know you're excited about this, look at you.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
No.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
The conversation we were having was about Kaitlyn Clark and
can the Kaitlin Clark effect continue into this next coming year.
We obviously know the Final Four run the year before,
and then obviously her rookie campaign, and that's all the conversation, right.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
It was divisive.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
She's great, she's great, but she's not as good as
them WNBA players kind of pushing her down, and so
we were thinking, will this carry over and continue into
the next season. So you look at her preseason game
of the Fever as well, one point three million viewers, which,
by the way, only two of ESPN's fifty seven NBA
(24:46):
preseason games since twenty ten had ever drawn an audience
like that, and both feature Lebron and twenty seventeen is
you know, in twenty eighteen, so him becoming the Laker
and all of that. So she's doing Laker Lebron Laker
numbers when it comes to viewership in a preseason game.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Okay, and can you bury the lead on that, because
it's a fudge job. This is why I got an
issue with what did they play like some other terrible
w NBA team, Oh, okay international, that was an international game,
So you're gonna judge that based off of playing like,
I don't know what w NBA teams. The Detroit Shock,
(25:23):
the Brooklyn Liberty, you're still in Detroit when they lived,
you were still there. The New York Liberty that plays
in Brooklyn or Westchester.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Give me another team, the Sparks where you live.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
The Sparks of the Sparks, the Minnesota what is it
links or whatever it is.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
By the way, you're in a role right now for
somebody who don't watch you doing pretty well.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
But you get my point on this, and my point
is you can't look at that game as an ordinary
w NBA preseason game. The tickets were going for four
hundred and forty dollars because it was Brazil for them
to put out a story and act like her magic
with the numbers for just a preseason game.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
Do you feel me?
Speaker 1 (26:07):
No, that's some legit points. However, people still watched, People
still tuned in, mind you, they tuned in the middle
of the playoffs, and we looking at her watching the
Gatoray commercial. They had a bunch of athletes and who
just ended it, Caitlyn Clark. So you look at some
of the growth they had last year, WNBA had twenty
two regular season games that averaged more than a million viewers,
and if you add the All Star game in the draft,
(26:29):
that was twenty four programs that they had that had
over a million, and that obviously, as we know, is rare.
Then today Asia Wilson the best player in the WNBA.
I know Kaitlin Clark's the most popular, but the best
player is Asia Wilson. Dropped her shoe by the way,
amazing Nike commercial for her shoe campaign and she dropped
it sold out in five minutes. The Asia Wilson sue,
(26:52):
which I'm gonna grab a few for my daughter whenever
they pre stock, I think Thursday or something.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
But so the question.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Is is this something that's real? Is this something that
is tangible. It's just something that now they can depend
on it saying we actually have something sustainable. We're not
saying we're gonna be getting TV network deals like these
other sports and billions of dollars as of yet, but
something that they can say the momentum continues, the momentum
continues to grow, and they have something that you know
they can feat so they like Caitlyn Clark. You know
(27:20):
this isn't college where eventually she leaves like she can
be in the WABA ten, fifteen, twenty years. So you
have that star power Angel Reese who is massive on commercials,
social media and obviously in the game playing as well.
Now in the league for another ten to fifteen years,
you're starting to get these starts. Page now in the
league for the two years they got the French the
(27:40):
female within ben Yama and have to get her name.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
She's now in.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
So is this something where they can actually build upon
and finally start to say, look at this growth that
we've had now for a sustained amount of years.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
No, I'm just here's my issue with all that you
talked about the w last year with the number lost
fifty million dollars, Number one, umber two, there's still averaging.
The average attendance was nine thousand. The league hasn't been
around for a week or ten days or one years.
The league's been around for thirty some odd years. Nine
thousand and those TV numbers. That's nice for her. She
(28:14):
is the halem Grope chatters when she shows up, they're
not doing that this day, have arenas where they're getting
six thousand people on a regular Tuesday night game. So yes,
you've seen it, and when she shows up at those games, yes,
but I think, and that's what I'm saying, like, I
can't look at this and go like it's going to be,
(28:34):
oh yeah, it's here to stay and they're they're going to,
uh for now on sell out every game or or
have these unbelievable ratings as long as Caitlin Clark and
even her thing after a while could fade after.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
We've seen it, after we've seen it. We see that
for five six years, I've seen it. That's where I've
seen siding. Now we're wishing her all the best. Juju Watkins,
Juju gets healthy, right still, maybe one more year in
USC after she gets healthy, and then she gets in there.
You got Page now in there, you start to hope
that you get all these players in there again. And
then you got Dominique Malunga. Who Dominique Malunga, dom But
(29:13):
Dominique Malunga, she is the number two pick.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
I would have probably picked her number one over Page.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
But she doing dropstep turnaround dunks on people, which can
make this thing even more interesting, I do think they're
starting to accumulate enough star power and again that they
will be there for decades that you'll start to know someday,
start to know players, start to know some rivalry, start
to know some beasts, and have something and that done.
They You can't equate it to money, because I do
agree they're not gonna make money quite yet where it
(29:39):
will warrant that side of the business. That's not gonna
happen anytime necessarily sue it could for the players themselves,
meaning I got more commercial deals, I got the shoe deal,
I got this gatory commercial. But the league in and
of himself, I don't think it's gone for sudden gonna
be making millions of billions of dollars. But yeah, I
do think with some of the players that are coming in,
I do think there's some stainability for them, uh that
(30:02):
they hadn't had rob for like fifteen twenty years.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
I just think long term, Caitlyn Clark is a once
in a lifetime and I'm not saying that the other
player they've always been.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
And you you you say this.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Because you've watched WNBA and been the game taking daughters.
They've been great players who play in the league. Let's
not make it like they haven't been. For sure, Caitlyn
is different, Okay, because she was playing the game different
from the way women play. Okay, you agree with that.
She's exactly taking the logo three. So guys got wait
a minute, what is this. I've never seen this, not
(30:37):
in a women's game. I couldn't watch it. And the
other thing too. As much as we talk about it,
women still don't go to the games like they should,
and and and until women embrace the league, I just
don't see where it's going to grow. There more women
than men, and they won't go. You talk to women,
you know this, and they're like, I'll go to.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
W NBA right, No, living out here, going to Clippers, Yeah,
going the next gonna Yeah, you're.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Going to the what do they call it, the Sparks, Sparks.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
I'm doing it to the rob g you're married, you
got two daughters.
Speaker 4 (31:13):
How many Sparks games have you been to? That would
be zero? But there you go. That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 6 (31:19):
But it's not like I'm actively avoiding it either. I'm
I haven't been seen Lebron play in person either. No,
but that's different because of the person, because of money.
I'm not going to be a bunch of times I
never saw lebron I mean because you get older and
the tickets are, you know, four hundred dollars seats.
Speaker 4 (31:34):
Robb Hold, hold hold, I don't get that.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Rob g is the king of getting mad at me
for not using TV and radio to get you.
Speaker 6 (31:41):
Like I haven't tried. It is the problem. Okay, that
actually did pull the curtain back. One time Chris we
started agating Rest in Peace. Was like, yeah, man, I'm
gonna make sure I can get you. I'll get you
a game by how many tickets you need to If
I can get to three, be great. If you get
to that'll be good. Yeah, no problem, will take carr
of you. And then at the day of you know,
I shouldn't do it, after all, I'll get you the
next time, then the next time, and then the next time,
and then.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Then it never happened. Is that why I'm sitting here
right now? Yes, because he never he gotta go, He's
got he never got me Laker tickets.
Speaker 6 (32:09):
Like, first off, he's messing up the melonin color of
the show. Secondly that he ain't never give me my
Laker tickets. It's unbelievable. You didn't go to me and
you went to Chris. I mean, I just don't understand you.
Would you give me free tickets? I would have gotten
you tickets. No, you wouldn't you pay for tickets?
Speaker 4 (32:25):
Yeah, but I could have got you. They don't have
to be four hundred dollars. I get you in the top.
You're a real fans. You want to be in You
in the building, right, I could get you. Maybe, No,
I want to see. I want to feel the sweat
when Lebron goes. I'm a little disappointed.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
Boy.
Speaker 6 (32:40):
What Yeah, I'm gonna say, Okay, if you want me to,
I would hit you up. Well, we got the season. Now,
how many Dodger tickets? I don't even like baseball, but
I'm gonna need to see You'll go see you never
seen either.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
Take your wife and the kids, go out for a night. Roger,
I got you.
Hosts And Creators
kelvin washington
Rob Parker
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