June 18, 2025 • 26 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses the pros and cons of Tyrese Haliburton trying to play through his calf injury in an upcoming Game 6 of the NBA Finals, why the Indiana Pacers need to consider their long-term outlook for next season as well before making a decision on Haliburton's availability, the narrative that the Oklahoma City Thunder have had a fortuitous path to the NBA championship, whether or not LeBron James' anti-Rings Culture sentiment really holds water, and which ringless superstars are undisputedly better than their ring-having counterparts.
Follow Jason on Twitter and Instagram. Click here to subscribe, rate and review all of the latest Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre podcasts!
#FSR
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up? Straight I am, It's me Jason MacIntire,
Straight Fire for Wednesday, June the eighteenth. Ooh boy, we
got some bad news on the NBA Finals, folks. If
you didn't think it was over already, we just got
word a couple hours ago. As we record this on Tuesday,
(00:31):
late afternoon, Tyrese Haliburton's calf it ain't good and he's
getting an MRI to determine the severity of it. They
will probably know the results sometime today or Thursday, and
the fact that Tyrese Haliburton has to get an MRI
tells me it ain't good and he's not gonna play.
That would be my guest. Why force it. The last
(00:54):
time we had a high profile player who had a
calf issue in the NBA Finals, his name was Kevin Durant.
He sat out I believe game one, and then I
think it was game two. Yeah, Warriors lost Game one.
He kemes in Game two and he's like lighting it up.
I believe he was five for five and it was like, oh,
(01:14):
Warriors got this series, and pop it was over. I
believe it was twelve minutes in one minute in the
second quarter or something like that, because I remember watching it.
I was just like devastated, like, oh my gosh. And
the ramifications for that Kevin Durant injury in the finals
were massive. The Warriors lose the Finals, Kevin Durant leaves,
(01:37):
Kawhi Leonard leaves the Raptors. I mean, does he stay
if the Raptors lose? I have no idea, but the
Warriors were not the same. Then Klay Thompson gets hurt.
I mean, Kevin Durant has not been the same since
that Achilles. He's been very, very good. The numbers are great,
he's still a bucket, but he's not been an MVP
caliber player. He's not done anything in the playoffs. I
(01:57):
know they lost a close end to the Bucks, but
he just never covered. And then this postseason we see
Jason Tatum go down with the Achilles, and now it's like, well,
Tyrese Haliburton is a calf. It's the middle of June.
If he plays and something happens, he's out all next year.
My guess as of now is it Tyrese Haliburton sits
(02:18):
out Game six and the thunder win. I would guess
the line bumps up from like five and a half
six to probably eight or nine, and it kind of
sort of feels over rob G with Tyreese Halliburton's calf
being the end of the line for India.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yeah, it really sucks. And unfortunately that's been the story
now for five, six, seven years. When it comes to
NBA playoff runs, somebody somewhere is gonna deal with some
team and some player, usually a star player who gets hurt.
And a few of the Twitter doctors I follow on
social media, one of them, doctor Evan Jefferies, has been
on several of the shows that I've produced. He actually
(02:57):
called this amazingly after Game two when they saw him
limping I believe into the post game and they were
calling it reportedly at the time, calf tightness. And he
does a little postgame podcast of his own I think
he does, like a live YouTube show, and then he
publishes later and he said at the time, I would
(03:18):
not be surprised. In fact, I would almost predict that
this calf tightness quote unquote tightness is gonna lead to
a strain at some point. Oh and lo and behold,
after Game five, we get the report that he has
a strain. Doctor Evan Jeffries again tweets out his video
follows it up with some more tweets. Typically, if it's
(03:39):
a Grade one, it's about one to two weeks. And
the problem with these is it's not like you can rehabit.
It's not like you can strengthen it. It's really stem
you know, electro therapy and rest you can't. Just the
point is, don't do anything. That's what it comes down to.
One to two weeks for grade one, Grade two three
to six weeks. And here's what follows another tweet. Here's
(03:59):
the the biggest risk of him playing. You went from
tightness to strain. Strain makes your calf weak, weak calf.
You mentioned it leads to achilles issue. Now, I don't
think he's gonna go all the way out and say that, yes,
if he plays, he's gonna ad your his achilles. But
that is the progression that you're running yourself into in
(04:21):
these situations. It's why as recently as last year, football
fans will know there was a big nationwide conversation about
whether or not Joe Burrow should play on that calf
muscle because he could not move in the pocket, and
everybody who knows anything about sports and sports medicine says.
If he keeps playing and it's as bad as they're saying,
(04:42):
it is one wrong step, one wrong push off to
avoid a sack, he's popping his achilles. Now, thankfully for
Joe Burrow, that never came to be. We'll see what
happens with the Tyres Halliburn. Unfortunately for him or for
sports fans, I disagree with you. I think he's gonna play.
I think he's gonna he's gonna tour it all or
(05:03):
whatever it is they're using nowadays. Shoot him up. He
shouldn't have been playing in game five, and I think
he's gonna do the same thing here in game six.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Well, listen, you know it's interesting that that doctor had
it after game two because game three, with an extra
day of rest in between two and three, Haliburton had
twenty two, eleven and nine. He was electric. Perhaps telling
is that he has seven free throw attempts through five games.
(05:31):
He was averaging three a game in the last round
against the Knicks. Is the calf making him afraid to drive?
I mean, I think that's a decent conclusion one could draw.
He doesn't want to. I mean, you need to push off,
to drive to the hoop and get and rise up
for the layup and at stuff at the rim. I
don't know, Rob, I don't love I don't love anything
about this. It just stinks. And you know, I mean, Now,
(05:54):
you got guys saying, oh, Haliburton's got if he said
if he could walk, he could play, he's walking, He's
gotta play. Then you got guys blasting Miles Turner. I'll
defend Myles Turner for a moment. Everybody's saying he's having
an awful series. He's a little down for the regular season,
shooting forty one percent not great, twenty two percent from
three definitely not great. And he's at thirteen and four. Well,
(06:17):
you know, there's a guy in Oklahoma City who people
believe is the number potential, number two on a title winner.
He's shooting thirty seven percent for the field, worse than
Miles Turner, fourteen percent from three, way worse than Miles Turner.
And he's averaging twelve but nine boards. And that's Chet Holmgrend.
So Chet Holmgren's having a weaker series than Miles Turner
(06:39):
yet because Indy's down three two, And it's not because
of Turner. They're down because they lost Game four. They choked,
they blew it away. They were up by four with
three minutes left and SGA took over. I'm not gonna
fully blame the refs. SGA obviously made some plays. He's
been tremendous, but like this killing Miles Turner, My instant
thought rob was, oh, maybe the Lakers can get him
at a bargain basement discount if the Pacers are ticked now.
(07:01):
The interesting note is, again, just before we started recording,
Indiana Pacers made an interesting trade and it's not gonna
really come up as like a big deal, but they
are trading the number twenty three pick in this draft
to the Pelicans to reacquire a pick next year. It
(07:23):
also frees up three point two million in cap space
for the Pacers and they now have their own first
round pick starting in twenty six going forward, so they're
gonna have be about twenty million below the luxury tax
according to Bobby mark C at ESPN, and well below
(07:43):
both Aprons, which means I don't think the Lakers can
count Miles Turner at a bargain basement deal, and the
Pacers are probably going to overpay to keep him, and
assuming Haliburton doesn't get suffer a serious injury, I think
the Pacers will probably enter next season as the favorites
in the East. Rob Is that fair unless there's a
big trade involving Giannis.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
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 3 (08:16):
Definitely. I mean, because you know Boston to be determined,
we're probably we're gonna call this a gap year for them. Cleveland,
I would say for the regular season at least Cleveland,
assuming you know they don't trade Darius Garland or Jared Allen.
I think regular season they would be the best team
in the Eastern Conference. I think that, you know, going
out the way they did it has some kind of
chip on your shoulder where you're gonna go for that
(08:38):
sixty win type season. But when you get to the postseason,
and we saw with Indiana when they're healthy and they're
rolling like their style of play causes a problem for
a lot of people, and so they would have to
be the favorites to come out. Just quickly. I was
reading some tweets as you were going that last round there.
I really hope that this Halliburn injury does not lead
(09:00):
to the spawning of these internet trolls that are now
calling out this OKAC run as you know, a fraudulent
championship run because of the guys they went through that
are hurt. Because they're like, oh, you know, John Morant
got hurt in the first Ohio Moran got hurt, and
you know MPJ and Aaron Gordon and yo oh issue
and and you know, I don't even know what minnisova.
Now they're saying Halliburn's calf and it's.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Like, ooh, you just gave me a take run.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
You're not entertaining, because like, if we went through history,
you could say that about every single chest. And so
I just hope that doesn't become a narrative now moving forward.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
You might have just made it one I forgot. So
remember they were down in game three, like twenty five
to Memphis, and then John Moran got hurt and they
came back. Michael Porter Junior was on one shoulder. I
believe Aaron Gordon had the ankle it was immobile hamstring.
In game seven. Yeah, Game seven, yeah, interesting Rob and.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Then Yokic had an albu issue all series he was extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
But that that is an interesting take. Huh, this is
kind of Oh, that's good ammunition for that. I don't like. Okay,
se Krap, thank you very much. By the way, Selfishly,
you know, Danny Green is on that Mecca League team
we have, and if this series goes seven, he's got
to be you know, they need him on the scene
(10:18):
for what you know, he's doing stuff with the networks,
and it's like, yeah, go go thunder go win it
at six so we can get our guy back selflessly
for the league, Rob, I don't know if you saw this.
Obviously we're big Lebron fans out here, and Lebron was
talking about the rings culture and how he thinks it's
(10:38):
stupid and I a thousand percent agree with them, and
I think everybody does. You know Charles Barkley didn't win
a ring? Does that mean he's not one of like
the twenty five best players ever? Like, I love James Worthy,
Big Game James Finals MVP had a triple double in
Game seven, So like, because James Worthy has multiple rings,
is he better than Charles Barkley? I mean, if you
(10:59):
swap Barkley and Worthy. Is Worthy doing anything kind of
solo with the Sixers, and what does Barkley do with
I don't know. Steve Nash has two MVPs. Carmelo Anthony's
well the great scorers the league has ever seen. James Harden,
I know you guys hate him. He's one of the
best scorers the league has ever seen. How many scoring
titles is you have? And Lebron kind of bashes this
(11:19):
whole rings culture. Carl Malone went to the finals twice,
didn't win. Is he a bum? No, He's still a
top twenty five player in the history of basketball. And
Lebron is right now. I do think he's doing it
selfishly because he knows. Man, it's gonna be tough for
me to get another ring with the Lakers. I do
already have one with the Heat, two with the Heat,
(11:41):
one with the cav one with the Lakers. I got four.
But just because I don't have six, it doesn't mean
I'm the goat. And Mike, that's my guess. Subtly, he's
defending guys without rings while at the same time pumping
up his case to be the goat. Now that's some
chest checker stuff that I'm sure you'll be like, come on,
is not that calculating? And I just counter with have
(12:02):
you looked at his old career, which he's been a
genius at calculating moves, whether it's player, coach, everything, And
I don't think you guys can disagree. Like Barry Bonds
is considered maybe the best baseball player. Ever, how many
rings does he have? You know? Dan Marino certainly on
the short list of all time great quarterbacks. He doesn't
(12:24):
have a ring. Just because Aaron Rodgers has one, does
that make Rogers better than Marino? The rings culture argument
obviously different among sports, right Baseball hitters can't really pitch
or don't pitch, and in football, quarterbacks don't play defense.
Ask Dan Marino how shitty the Dolphins defense was every
year for him? And basketball is the only one where
(12:44):
you're really at both ends all the time, so it
is unique in that way. But yeah, I don't ultimately
when you're stacking resumes, like Clyde Drexler does not have
a ring? Right he almost got one in Houston? Or no,
did he get one in Houston?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Rop? I think he did, didn't he?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
With the big he might have got one in ninety
six after he left Portland. Clade. Jack's a dumb example.
I apologize, let me check it every but like Tracy McGrady,
no got one in ninety five. Yeah, okay, there is.
Drexler got that one as a as a ring chaser,
but like in his prime in Portland, could not get
through Jordan. Obviously, the West was stacked. Sean Kemp, well,
(13:28):
he wasn't an all time great, but I listed some
earlier Nash Mailman, Barkley, Carmelo. These are all historically great players.
I don't know Rout. I don't think they're any less
creat because they don't have a ring. I just don't.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Jason Leviticus, Bartholomew McIntyre Junior. I cannot believe that you
would have this take on a Tuesday afternoon. Now, what's
funny about what Lebron said is the guys that he mentioned, specifically,
Alan Iverson, Charles Barkley, Dan Marino, Peyton, named Jerry West
now Barry Bonds. You mentioned as an outlier because baseball
(14:04):
is one of those sports where it really doesn't matter
if you're the greatest picture the greatest hitter ever, because
you can't do both unless you're show Heyl Tani, Right,
So that's a different conversation. But those other five guys,
if you were to ask each of one of them
to a man, do you belong in a conversation with
ex player? They would say no because I don't have
(14:24):
the hard ware to back it up. If you asked
Alan Iverson, hey, do you belong in the same conversation
with Kobe?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
No?
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Do you belong the same conversation with Dwayne Wade? No?
If you asked James Harden, you mentioned James Harden. James,
do you belong in the conversation with Dane What you
got the MVPs? You got the most arguab most efficient
seasons ever in NBA history. Do you belong in the conversation? No? No,
because I do't howny championships he's got He's got three
of them.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well wait, hold on, hold on, So yes, I would
agree Dwayne Wade better than James Harden. Dwayne Wade better
than Alan Iverson.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Right, Right, Charles Barkley, if you asked him, if you
asked him honestly, do you believe you believe? Do you
belong in the conversation with Tim Duggantill say no. If
you no, no, come on, if you said if you
said Kevin Garnett, he might fight you a little bit.
But I bet you he would say.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
No, no, No. I think they're right. I think that's
that's fair. Barkley was an MVP KG was an MVP
KG better defense. I think that's a reasonable one.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
And so what I what I'm trying to get at
is to your original point, the idea that you have
to have championships to be a great player is is asinine.
I agree with that one thousand. There's a lot of
great players across a lot of sports that because they
were born in the wrong era, because they had untimely injuries,
because of whatever, didn't ultimately win a championship. But when
(15:35):
you are comparing all time great players and you're really
breaking it down, whether it's Dan Marino versus John Elway,
I bet you even Dan Marino would say, I think
I'm better than him. You know, as a way I
throw the football, But I could never say I was
a greater player because he's got two Super Bowls and
I don't.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Okay, but hold on, timeout, timeout. So Elway went to
a bunch of Super Bowls, right and got blasted in
you remember he was, I mean you were probably like
five years old, but he was getting destroyed. I think
they lost by like twenty or more twice in the
Super Bowl and he was gonna be like, oh, it
couldn't win the big game.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Then he gets Terrell Davis, who it puts in like
a monster historically great season and they win a Super
Bowl and then they do it again. Sure, so it's like,
did John l Wait somehow get better or was that
Terrell Davis helping him put over the top.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
It was Terrell Davis helping him over the top. But
that doesn't change the way that these guys are judging
the way they judge each other when it comes to
NBA players and NFL quarterbacks, not receivers, not running backs,
not like they're not judged on that when it's people
who could impact the game at that high of a level.
Basketball players both sides as they're going offense and defense,
and quarterbacks because quarterbacks. But they are always gonna judge
(16:43):
each other based on winning. That's why they play. And
it's funny that Lebron James would have this kind of
comment because I believe I agree with you that it
was self serving conversation for him. But I like Lebron
James generally. I think he's a good guy. I think
that he's a good role model. I think a lot
of things he says are very insightful. But I can
also point out the hypocrisy with a lot of the
(17:04):
things that he does and says, just like I would hope,
and this might be a bad example if you are
a supporter of a certain politician that you can say,
even though I support, you know what he's doing and
a lot of his causes, there are something we're just like, Yeah,
you know what, man, that's a bad example. That's right,
Maybe that is, But you know, I would hope that
people open mind enough. Right. So Lebron James, on one hand,
(17:27):
will say publicly on his own podcast, Yeah, when I
came back from seventy three and nine a three to
one against the seventy three and nine Warriors, that made
me the greatest player of all time. That's verbatim, That
made me the greatest player of all time, Lebron James
in the latest episode of Mine the Game. We just
have to appreciate more what guys have been able to accomplish,
(17:49):
what guys have been able to do because the ring
is a team accomplishment. Well, Lebron, you just said that
when you came back, that made you the greatest player,
not that that made the Cleveland Cavaliers the greatest team
or that that team helped me to bolster my case.
It's no, I won, so I'm the best. But now
when you use that argument against you, because you know
(18:09):
that you can't compare to Michael Jordan and his six
rings or even some people say Kareem Abdul Jabbar and
his six well, you know it's a team game, really
if you really think about it, and then that's where
it comes down. It's like you can't have it both ways.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Bro Well, hold on, hold on, so Lebron, First of all,
nobody had ever come back in the finals down three
to one, right, that was historic stuff. And to compare
it to Jordan, I'm fairly certain the Bulls were favored
in all of those finals. Maybe not the Lakers one.
I don't exactly remember. I'd have to look it up,
but I'm fairly certain they were favored in most of
them and never trailed. There was never adversity, right really,
(18:41):
for Jordan, did they ever trail to one in the finals,
so it's like, we don't totally know Lebron came back
from down three to one against a seventy three win team.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
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.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
You mentioned Barkley, and I'm gonna give you a guy.
You tell me who had the better career, Charles Barkley
or Dirk Davitski.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Dirk.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Wow, Really, Dirk got an MVP two he did.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
He was perennially fifty plus win seasons in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
A lot of hollow uh fifty I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I mean honestly, the year he won the MVP that
got bounced out by the eight seeds first round war Riors. Yeah,
so that was tough scene for him.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So you so you go Dirk over see.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I just.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I think for sure, maybe my memory of Barkley's fuzzy,
but I always remember him being like a top five
guy in the league.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Oh yeah, every year. Oh he was awesome, for sure.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I don't know that Dirk was always top five because
he was in a tough era.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Yeah, he played in the I would consider the greatest
power Forward era ever.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah, he was never better than Tim Duncan.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Let's just be clear, never better than Kevin Garnett.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Never better than Kevin Garnett. And he played, you know
a little bit in the Lebron era, you know, Lebron
not saying yeah he was now I don't even know
if he was ever. I know he's won the MVP,
but he was not considered top five in his era,
whereas Charles bark I think I'm pretty sure it was
like Bird Magic, Jordan, Isaiah and Barkley. I think that
(20:19):
was considered the big five. I'd have to look. So
maybe some years Patrick Ewing was in there.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
But like I mean, it's just the guys who played
on the Dream Team, you know. In the doc, I
believe one of them says that at the time when
ninety two, because by then Birder kind of phased out,
Magick was retired, it was Jordan and Barkley. Barkley was
the second best player at that point.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
At that point, right, So let's let's go, uh, Paul
Pierce or Carmelo Anthony. Carmelo Anthony Now interesting because Pierce
has a ring if you and again I work with Pierce.
He see, he's mostly a nice guy to me. He
(20:57):
does talk a lot of trash and I barely know him.
But if you guys remember, before they got Ray Allen
and KG, Pierce wasn't getting to no conference finals, him
and Antoine Walker. They couldn't. They couldn't get through in
the East. And then they get KG and Ray Allen. Again,
I'm not bashing Carmelo Anthony, but if Carmelo Anthony ever
(21:19):
had I mean one year he had Iverson in Denver,
but it was like an oldish Iverson right.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Right, and then with Bills Johnny.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
And like you no disrespect, but Johnson, Billups is no
Ray Allen. Okay. Ray Allen was like an amazing All
NBA player. He was an MVP candidate, you guys get
You might have forgotten it. The year before he got
to the Celtics he was averaging like twenty five a game,
and I think two years before he led the league
in threes by a mile. Like, Ray Allen was an
incredible player, just buried in Seattle. And so that's why
(21:52):
these discussions are tough. Like I would ask you Carmelo
or dirt, but I'm sure you'd say Dirt because he
won the ring and Carmelo didn't.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I mean that would be I don't think again, ring
culture is just because you have a ring does automatically
make you a better player. But when you're comparing guys
who I think are close and and you know, I
think Dirk and Chuck is what minus the ring, I
would say Chuck. But when it's that close, I think
you have to consider number one that he has a ring,
of number two the path that he took to get there.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
And I'm trying to think of one for SGA, like
who's a good cop? Like okay, okay, okay, Damian Lillard,
Now he's older, but you can't tell me right now
SGA is better than Damian Lillard. No way, at least
not now. And I know Damian Lillard doesn't have an MVP,
right but like he was the alpha on the Blazers
(22:44):
got to the conference finals, and I know SGA. SGA
has a way better team than Dame ever had. And
I'm sure SGA by the time he's like thirty two
will probably be better. But as of now, I don't
think it's a lot that SGA is better. I mean,
people are saying SGA automatically is like Hall of Fame back.
He's gonna have to do a lot of work to overtake,
(23:04):
for instance, Chris Paul who does never rein it.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
But jam you know about the Basketball Hall of Fame,
They'll let you in if you had a good enough
record game, if I had a good mental league, Like
you know what I mean, Like, it's no disrespect everybody.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Let's go Yannis or Patrick Ewing Jannis interesting.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
I mean, just look at Jannis as Defensive Player of
the Year. I think he's like six time All NBA
First Team Like, Jannis's resume is kind of wild, and
even SGA, it might seem like this year is like
his breakout season because of the MVP and they're on
the cuss of the championship. He's been All NBA First
Team now three straight years. He was a runner up
MVP last year. He's been averaging thirty plus points on
(23:42):
fifty plus percent shooting for three trades.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Like sounds like James Harden.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
He has been really really good, but his team is
winning on top of that.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah, that that kind of puts it over the interesting.
So you think, I guess it's like a case by
case basis. I mean, we could sit here and do
this all day, Vince Carter or I don't know, Vince
Carter or Clydedrexler, Oh my well, I.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Mean Clyde Jack Drexler. And it's only because Vince Carter. Sure,
Vince Carter gets propped up because of the dunking. There
are people that he was on.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
He was on some bad Raptors teams that he took far.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
I think the furthest he went was when they went
against Diverson in two thousand and one Clyde Drexler.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Vince Carter scored way more points in it, but he
did play a lot longer.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
And so I don't want to I don't want to
dis Vince Carter. But there are people that I know
who are around the league who have said that, you know,
Vince Carter in terms of raw athleticism and ability was
one of the greatest of his era and one of
the greatest period. And what did he ever do with it?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Okay, here we go, Here we go. He was the
Rookie of the Year, and then the next in year
two he was third team All NBA. Then he was
second team All NBA, and then just a bunch of
All Star Games. So I don't know. Maybe, actually, maybe
I'm maybe Vince Carter's overrated. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Yeah, I mean it's because he is arguably the greatest
dunkle of all time and the way he makes you
feel makes you feel good. I'll tell you what, if
we were out of content for the summer, we should
just do episodes of this. Well, we're like, hey, here's
ten guys, this guy or this guy, and when we
go all the way down the list and we end
up with definitively who's the greatest player ever?
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Oh so Dwight Howard has a ring with the Lakers
Dwight Howard or Patrick.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Ewing that does not count. Oh god, wait, well, what do.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
You mean he doesn't count?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
He was a hugle player on the end of the year,
end of the Role Championship. He was a veteran minimum
player at that point.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
All right, I thought he was really good.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
He his peak in Orlando is up there with some
of the greatest peaks of all time.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Isn't he the one who kind of bodied Yokic in
the bubble? Yes, he had a great defense against Yoki,
who was like I was still prime Jokich but you
would say Patrick Ewing for sure, right, probably yeah, okay, yeah, now,
but you're right, Howard's Orlando resume is impressive.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Yeah, his falloff was just so precipitous.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Well, he's got a lot of nonsense going and off
the court. All right, Wow, that was easy, Rob and
I do like discussing NBA. So there's a new Caitlin
Clark book out. We're gonna have the author of that on.
We're trying to get my guy, fran Frachella on to
do NBA draft stuff, picks being moved, his guy Desmond Bane.
(26:20):
Do you guys remember when fran Fracchilla came on the
pod years ago and was like, Desmond Bane is the man?
Just wait and then you know he nailed a Frank
Facilla is great. So hopefully we'll do that later in
the week. USA Soccer's coming up, big, big week ahead.
We're back tomorrow. See then,
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up? Straight I am, It's me Jason MacIntire,
Straight Fire for Wednesday, June the eighteenth. Ooh boy, we
got some bad news on the NBA Finals, folks. If
you didn't think it was over already, we just got
word a couple hours ago. As we record this on Tuesday,
(00:31):
late afternoon, Tyrese Haliburton's calf it ain't good and he's
getting an MRI to determine the severity of it. They
will probably know the results sometime today or Thursday, and
the fact that Tyrese Haliburton has to get an MRI
tells me it ain't good and he's not gonna play.
That would be my guest. Why force it. The last
(00:54):
time we had a high profile player who had a
calf issue in the NBA Finals, his name was Kevin Durant.
He sat out I believe game one, and then I
think it was game two. Yeah, Warriors lost Game one.
He kemes in Game two and he's like lighting it up.
I believe he was five for five and it was like, oh,
(01:14):
Warriors got this series, and pop it was over. I
believe it was twelve minutes in one minute in the
second quarter or something like that, because I remember watching it.
I was just like devastated, like, oh my gosh. And
the ramifications for that Kevin Durant injury in the finals
were massive. The Warriors lose the Finals, Kevin Durant leaves,
(01:37):
Kawhi Leonard leaves the Raptors. I mean, does he stay
if the Raptors lose? I have no idea, but the
Warriors were not the same. Then Klay Thompson gets hurt.
I mean, Kevin Durant has not been the same since
that Achilles. He's been very, very good. The numbers are great,
he's still a bucket, but he's not been an MVP
caliber player. He's not done anything in the playoffs. I
(01:57):
know they lost a close end to the Bucks, but
he just never covered. And then this postseason we see
Jason Tatum go down with the Achilles, and now it's like, well,
Tyrese Haliburton is a calf. It's the middle of June.
If he plays and something happens, he's out all next year.
My guess as of now is it Tyrese Haliburton sits
(02:18):
out Game six and the thunder win. I would guess
the line bumps up from like five and a half
six to probably eight or nine, and it kind of
sort of feels over rob G with Tyreese Halliburton's calf
being the end of the line for India.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Yeah, it really sucks. And unfortunately that's been the story
now for five, six, seven years. When it comes to
NBA playoff runs, somebody somewhere is gonna deal with some
team and some player, usually a star player who gets hurt.
And a few of the Twitter doctors I follow on
social media, one of them, doctor Evan Jefferies, has been
on several of the shows that I've produced. He actually
(02:57):
called this amazingly after Game two when they saw him
limping I believe into the post game and they were
calling it reportedly at the time, calf tightness. And he
does a little postgame podcast of his own I think
he does, like a live YouTube show, and then he
publishes later and he said at the time, I would
(03:18):
not be surprised. In fact, I would almost predict that
this calf tightness quote unquote tightness is gonna lead to
a strain at some point. Oh and lo and behold,
after Game five, we get the report that he has
a strain. Doctor Evan Jeffries again tweets out his video
follows it up with some more tweets. Typically, if it's
(03:39):
a Grade one, it's about one to two weeks. And
the problem with these is it's not like you can rehabit.
It's not like you can strengthen it. It's really stem
you know, electro therapy and rest you can't. Just the
point is, don't do anything. That's what it comes down to.
One to two weeks for grade one, Grade two three
to six weeks. And here's what follows another tweet. Here's
(03:59):
the the biggest risk of him playing. You went from
tightness to strain. Strain makes your calf weak, weak calf.
You mentioned it leads to achilles issue. Now, I don't
think he's gonna go all the way out and say that, yes,
if he plays, he's gonna ad your his achilles. But
that is the progression that you're running yourself into in
(04:21):
these situations. It's why as recently as last year, football
fans will know there was a big nationwide conversation about
whether or not Joe Burrow should play on that calf
muscle because he could not move in the pocket, and
everybody who knows anything about sports and sports medicine says.
If he keeps playing and it's as bad as they're saying,
(04:42):
it is one wrong step, one wrong push off to
avoid a sack, he's popping his achilles. Now, thankfully for
Joe Burrow, that never came to be. We'll see what
happens with the Tyres Halliburn. Unfortunately for him or for
sports fans, I disagree with you. I think he's gonna play.
I think he's gonna he's gonna tour it all or
(05:03):
whatever it is they're using nowadays. Shoot him up. He
shouldn't have been playing in game five, and I think
he's gonna do the same thing here in game six.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Well, listen, you know it's interesting that that doctor had
it after game two because game three, with an extra
day of rest in between two and three, Haliburton had
twenty two, eleven and nine. He was electric. Perhaps telling
is that he has seven free throw attempts through five games.
(05:31):
He was averaging three a game in the last round
against the Knicks. Is the calf making him afraid to drive?
I mean, I think that's a decent conclusion one could draw.
He doesn't want to. I mean, you need to push off,
to drive to the hoop and get and rise up
for the layup and at stuff at the rim. I
don't know, Rob, I don't love I don't love anything
about this. It just stinks. And you know, I mean, Now,
(05:54):
you got guys saying, oh, Haliburton's got if he said
if he could walk, he could play, he's walking, He's
gotta play. Then you got guys blasting Miles Turner. I'll
defend Myles Turner for a moment. Everybody's saying he's having
an awful series. He's a little down for the regular season,
shooting forty one percent not great, twenty two percent from
three definitely not great. And he's at thirteen and four. Well,
(06:17):
you know, there's a guy in Oklahoma City who people
believe is the number potential, number two on a title winner.
He's shooting thirty seven percent for the field, worse than
Miles Turner, fourteen percent from three, way worse than Miles Turner.
And he's averaging twelve but nine boards. And that's Chet Holmgrend.
So Chet Holmgren's having a weaker series than Miles Turner
(06:39):
yet because Indy's down three two, And it's not because
of Turner. They're down because they lost Game four. They choked,
they blew it away. They were up by four with
three minutes left and SGA took over. I'm not gonna
fully blame the refs. SGA obviously made some plays. He's
been tremendous, but like this killing Miles Turner, My instant
thought rob was, oh, maybe the Lakers can get him
at a bargain basement discount if the Pacers are ticked now.
(07:01):
The interesting note is, again, just before we started recording,
Indiana Pacers made an interesting trade and it's not gonna
really come up as like a big deal, but they
are trading the number twenty three pick in this draft
to the Pelicans to reacquire a pick next year. It
(07:23):
also frees up three point two million in cap space
for the Pacers and they now have their own first
round pick starting in twenty six going forward, so they're
gonna have be about twenty million below the luxury tax
according to Bobby mark C at ESPN, and well below
(07:43):
both Aprons, which means I don't think the Lakers can
count Miles Turner at a bargain basement deal, and the
Pacers are probably going to overpay to keep him, and
assuming Haliburton doesn't get suffer a serious injury, I think
the Pacers will probably enter next season as the favorites
in the East. Rob Is that fair unless there's a
big trade involving Giannis.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
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 3 (08:16):
Definitely. I mean, because you know Boston to be determined,
we're probably we're gonna call this a gap year for them. Cleveland,
I would say for the regular season at least Cleveland,
assuming you know they don't trade Darius Garland or Jared Allen.
I think regular season they would be the best team
in the Eastern Conference. I think that, you know, going
out the way they did it has some kind of
chip on your shoulder where you're gonna go for that
(08:38):
sixty win type season. But when you get to the postseason,
and we saw with Indiana when they're healthy and they're
rolling like their style of play causes a problem for
a lot of people, and so they would have to
be the favorites to come out. Just quickly. I was
reading some tweets as you were going that last round there.
I really hope that this Halliburn injury does not lead
(09:00):
to the spawning of these internet trolls that are now
calling out this OKAC run as you know, a fraudulent
championship run because of the guys they went through that
are hurt. Because they're like, oh, you know, John Morant
got hurt in the first Ohio Moran got hurt, and
you know MPJ and Aaron Gordon and yo oh issue
and and you know, I don't even know what minnisova.
Now they're saying Halliburn's calf and it's.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Like, ooh, you just gave me a take run.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
You're not entertaining, because like, if we went through history,
you could say that about every single chest. And so
I just hope that doesn't become a narrative now moving forward.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
You might have just made it one I forgot. So
remember they were down in game three, like twenty five
to Memphis, and then John Moran got hurt and they
came back. Michael Porter Junior was on one shoulder. I
believe Aaron Gordon had the ankle it was immobile hamstring.
In game seven. Yeah, Game seven, yeah, interesting Rob and.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Then Yokic had an albu issue all series he was extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
But that that is an interesting take. Huh, this is
kind of Oh, that's good ammunition for that. I don't like. Okay,
se Krap, thank you very much. By the way, Selfishly,
you know, Danny Green is on that Mecca League team
we have, and if this series goes seven, he's got
to be you know, they need him on the scene
(10:18):
for what you know, he's doing stuff with the networks,
and it's like, yeah, go go thunder go win it
at six so we can get our guy back selflessly
for the league, Rob, I don't know if you saw this.
Obviously we're big Lebron fans out here, and Lebron was
talking about the rings culture and how he thinks it's
(10:38):
stupid and I a thousand percent agree with them, and
I think everybody does. You know Charles Barkley didn't win
a ring? Does that mean he's not one of like
the twenty five best players ever? Like, I love James Worthy,
Big Game James Finals MVP had a triple double in
Game seven, So like, because James Worthy has multiple rings,
is he better than Charles Barkley? I mean, if you
(10:59):
swap Barkley and Worthy. Is Worthy doing anything kind of
solo with the Sixers, and what does Barkley do with
I don't know. Steve Nash has two MVPs. Carmelo Anthony's
well the great scorers the league has ever seen. James Harden,
I know you guys hate him. He's one of the
best scorers the league has ever seen. How many scoring
titles is you have? And Lebron kind of bashes this
(11:19):
whole rings culture. Carl Malone went to the finals twice,
didn't win. Is he a bum? No, He's still a
top twenty five player in the history of basketball. And
Lebron is right now. I do think he's doing it
selfishly because he knows. Man, it's gonna be tough for
me to get another ring with the Lakers. I do
already have one with the Heat, two with the Heat,
(11:41):
one with the cav one with the Lakers. I got four.
But just because I don't have six, it doesn't mean
I'm the goat. And Mike, that's my guess. Subtly, he's
defending guys without rings while at the same time pumping
up his case to be the goat. Now that's some
chest checker stuff that I'm sure you'll be like, come on,
is not that calculating? And I just counter with have
(12:02):
you looked at his old career, which he's been a
genius at calculating moves, whether it's player, coach, everything, And
I don't think you guys can disagree. Like Barry Bonds
is considered maybe the best baseball player. Ever, how many
rings does he have? You know? Dan Marino certainly on
the short list of all time great quarterbacks. He doesn't
(12:24):
have a ring. Just because Aaron Rodgers has one, does
that make Rogers better than Marino? The rings culture argument
obviously different among sports, right Baseball hitters can't really pitch
or don't pitch, and in football, quarterbacks don't play defense.
Ask Dan Marino how shitty the Dolphins defense was every
year for him? And basketball is the only one where
(12:44):
you're really at both ends all the time, so it
is unique in that way. But yeah, I don't ultimately
when you're stacking resumes, like Clyde Drexler does not have
a ring? Right he almost got one in Houston? Or no,
did he get one in Houston?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Rop? I think he did, didn't he?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
With the big he might have got one in ninety
six after he left Portland. Clade. Jack's a dumb example.
I apologize, let me check it every but like Tracy McGrady,
no got one in ninety five. Yeah, okay, there is.
Drexler got that one as a as a ring chaser,
but like in his prime in Portland, could not get
through Jordan. Obviously, the West was stacked. Sean Kemp, well,
(13:28):
he wasn't an all time great, but I listed some
earlier Nash Mailman, Barkley, Carmelo. These are all historically great players.
I don't know Rout. I don't think they're any less
creat because they don't have a ring. I just don't.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Jason Leviticus, Bartholomew McIntyre Junior. I cannot believe that you
would have this take on a Tuesday afternoon. Now, what's
funny about what Lebron said is the guys that he mentioned, specifically,
Alan Iverson, Charles Barkley, Dan Marino, Peyton, named Jerry West
now Barry Bonds. You mentioned as an outlier because baseball
(14:04):
is one of those sports where it really doesn't matter
if you're the greatest picture the greatest hitter ever, because
you can't do both unless you're show Heyl Tani, Right,
So that's a different conversation. But those other five guys,
if you were to ask each of one of them
to a man, do you belong in a conversation with
ex player? They would say no because I don't have
(14:24):
the hard ware to back it up. If you asked
Alan Iverson, hey, do you belong in the same conversation
with Kobe?
Speaker 2 (14:30):
No?
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Do you belong the same conversation with Dwayne Wade? No?
If you asked James Harden, you mentioned James Harden. James,
do you belong in the conversation with Dane What you
got the MVPs? You got the most arguab most efficient
seasons ever in NBA history. Do you belong in the conversation? No? No,
because I do't howny championships he's got He's got three
of them.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Well wait, hold on, hold on, So yes, I would
agree Dwayne Wade better than James Harden. Dwayne Wade better
than Alan Iverson.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Right, Right, Charles Barkley, if you asked him, if you
asked him honestly, do you believe you believe? Do you
belong in the conversation with Tim Duggantill say no. If
you no, no, come on, if you said if you
said Kevin Garnett, he might fight you a little bit.
But I bet you he would say.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
No, no, No. I think they're right. I think that's
that's fair. Barkley was an MVP KG was an MVP
KG better defense. I think that's a reasonable one.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
And so what I what I'm trying to get at
is to your original point, the idea that you have
to have championships to be a great player is is asinine.
I agree with that one thousand. There's a lot of
great players across a lot of sports that because they
were born in the wrong era, because they had untimely injuries,
because of whatever, didn't ultimately win a championship. But when
(15:35):
you are comparing all time great players and you're really
breaking it down, whether it's Dan Marino versus John Elway,
I bet you even Dan Marino would say, I think
I'm better than him. You know, as a way I
throw the football, But I could never say I was
a greater player because he's got two Super Bowls and
I don't.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Okay, but hold on, timeout, timeout. So Elway went to
a bunch of Super Bowls, right and got blasted in
you remember he was, I mean you were probably like
five years old, but he was getting destroyed. I think
they lost by like twenty or more twice in the
Super Bowl and he was gonna be like, oh, it
couldn't win the big game.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Then he gets Terrell Davis, who it puts in like
a monster historically great season and they win a Super
Bowl and then they do it again. Sure, so it's like,
did John l Wait somehow get better or was that
Terrell Davis helping him put over the top.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
It was Terrell Davis helping him over the top. But
that doesn't change the way that these guys are judging
the way they judge each other when it comes to
NBA players and NFL quarterbacks, not receivers, not running backs,
not like they're not judged on that when it's people
who could impact the game at that high of a level.
Basketball players both sides as they're going offense and defense,
and quarterbacks because quarterbacks. But they are always gonna judge
(16:43):
each other based on winning. That's why they play. And
it's funny that Lebron James would have this kind of
comment because I believe I agree with you that it
was self serving conversation for him. But I like Lebron
James generally. I think he's a good guy. I think
that he's a good role model. I think a lot
of things he says are very insightful. But I can
also point out the hypocrisy with a lot of the
(17:04):
things that he does and says, just like I would hope,
and this might be a bad example if you are
a supporter of a certain politician that you can say,
even though I support, you know what he's doing and
a lot of his causes, there are something we're just like, Yeah,
you know what, man, that's a bad example. That's right,
Maybe that is, But you know, I would hope that
people open mind enough. Right. So Lebron James, on one hand,
(17:27):
will say publicly on his own podcast, Yeah, when I
came back from seventy three and nine a three to
one against the seventy three and nine Warriors, that made
me the greatest player of all time. That's verbatim, That
made me the greatest player of all time, Lebron James
in the latest episode of Mine the Game. We just
have to appreciate more what guys have been able to accomplish,
(17:49):
what guys have been able to do because the ring
is a team accomplishment. Well, Lebron, you just said that
when you came back, that made you the greatest player,
not that that made the Cleveland Cavaliers the greatest team
or that that team helped me to bolster my case.
It's no, I won, so I'm the best. But now
when you use that argument against you, because you know
(18:09):
that you can't compare to Michael Jordan and his six
rings or even some people say Kareem Abdul Jabbar and
his six well, you know it's a team game, really
if you really think about it, and then that's where
it comes down. It's like you can't have it both ways.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Bro Well, hold on, hold on, so Lebron, First of all,
nobody had ever come back in the finals down three
to one, right, that was historic stuff. And to compare
it to Jordan, I'm fairly certain the Bulls were favored
in all of those finals. Maybe not the Lakers one.
I don't exactly remember. I'd have to look it up,
but I'm fairly certain they were favored in most of
them and never trailed. There was never adversity, right really,
(18:41):
for Jordan, did they ever trail to one in the finals,
so it's like, we don't totally know Lebron came back
from down three to one against a seventy three win team.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
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.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
You mentioned Barkley, and I'm gonna give you a guy.
You tell me who had the better career, Charles Barkley
or Dirk Davitski.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Dirk.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Wow, Really, Dirk got an MVP two he did.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
He was perennially fifty plus win seasons in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
A lot of hollow uh fifty I mean.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I mean honestly, the year he won the MVP that
got bounced out by the eight seeds first round war Riors. Yeah,
so that was tough scene for him.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So you so you go Dirk over see.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I just.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I think for sure, maybe my memory of Barkley's fuzzy,
but I always remember him being like a top five
guy in the league.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Oh yeah, every year. Oh he was awesome, for sure.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I don't know that Dirk was always top five because
he was in a tough era.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Yeah, he played in the I would consider the greatest
power Forward era ever.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah, he was never better than Tim Duncan.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Let's just be clear, never better than Kevin Garnett.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Never better than Kevin Garnett. And he played, you know
a little bit in the Lebron era, you know, Lebron
not saying yeah he was now I don't even know
if he was ever. I know he's won the MVP,
but he was not considered top five in his era,
whereas Charles bark I think I'm pretty sure it was
like Bird Magic, Jordan, Isaiah and Barkley. I think that
(20:19):
was considered the big five. I'd have to look. So
maybe some years Patrick Ewing was in there.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
But like I mean, it's just the guys who played
on the Dream Team, you know. In the doc, I
believe one of them says that at the time when
ninety two, because by then Birder kind of phased out,
Magick was retired, it was Jordan and Barkley. Barkley was
the second best player at that point.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
At that point, right, So let's let's go, uh, Paul
Pierce or Carmelo Anthony. Carmelo Anthony Now interesting because Pierce
has a ring if you and again I work with Pierce.
He see, he's mostly a nice guy to me. He
(20:57):
does talk a lot of trash and I barely know him.
But if you guys remember, before they got Ray Allen
and KG, Pierce wasn't getting to no conference finals, him
and Antoine Walker. They couldn't. They couldn't get through in
the East. And then they get KG and Ray Allen. Again,
I'm not bashing Carmelo Anthony, but if Carmelo Anthony ever
(21:19):
had I mean one year he had Iverson in Denver,
but it was like an oldish Iverson right.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Right, and then with Bills Johnny.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
And like you no disrespect, but Johnson, Billups is no
Ray Allen. Okay. Ray Allen was like an amazing All
NBA player. He was an MVP candidate, you guys get
You might have forgotten it. The year before he got
to the Celtics he was averaging like twenty five a game,
and I think two years before he led the league
in threes by a mile. Like, Ray Allen was an
incredible player, just buried in Seattle. And so that's why
(21:52):
these discussions are tough. Like I would ask you Carmelo
or dirt, but I'm sure you'd say Dirt because he
won the ring and Carmelo didn't.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I mean that would be I don't think again, ring
culture is just because you have a ring does automatically
make you a better player. But when you're comparing guys
who I think are close and and you know, I
think Dirk and Chuck is what minus the ring, I
would say Chuck. But when it's that close, I think
you have to consider number one that he has a ring,
of number two the path that he took to get there.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
And I'm trying to think of one for SGA, like
who's a good cop? Like okay, okay, okay, Damian Lillard,
Now he's older, but you can't tell me right now
SGA is better than Damian Lillard. No way, at least
not now. And I know Damian Lillard doesn't have an MVP,
right but like he was the alpha on the Blazers
(22:44):
got to the conference finals, and I know SGA. SGA
has a way better team than Dame ever had. And
I'm sure SGA by the time he's like thirty two
will probably be better. But as of now, I don't
think it's a lot that SGA is better. I mean,
people are saying SGA automatically is like Hall of Fame back.
He's gonna have to do a lot of work to overtake,
(23:04):
for instance, Chris Paul who does never rein it.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
But jam you know about the Basketball Hall of Fame,
They'll let you in if you had a good enough
record game, if I had a good mental league, Like
you know what I mean, Like, it's no disrespect everybody.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Let's go Yannis or Patrick Ewing Jannis interesting.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
I mean, just look at Jannis as Defensive Player of
the Year. I think he's like six time All NBA
First Team Like, Jannis's resume is kind of wild, and
even SGA, it might seem like this year is like
his breakout season because of the MVP and they're on
the cuss of the championship. He's been All NBA First
Team now three straight years. He was a runner up
MVP last year. He's been averaging thirty plus points on
(23:42):
fifty plus percent shooting for three trades.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Like sounds like James Harden.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
He has been really really good, but his team is
winning on top of that.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah, that that kind of puts it over the interesting.
So you think, I guess it's like a case by
case basis. I mean, we could sit here and do
this all day, Vince Carter or I don't know, Vince
Carter or Clydedrexler, Oh my well, I.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Mean Clyde Jack Drexler. And it's only because Vince Carter. Sure,
Vince Carter gets propped up because of the dunking. There
are people that he was on.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
He was on some bad Raptors teams that he took far.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
I think the furthest he went was when they went
against Diverson in two thousand and one Clyde Drexler.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Vince Carter scored way more points in it, but he
did play a lot longer.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
And so I don't want to I don't want to
dis Vince Carter. But there are people that I know
who are around the league who have said that, you know,
Vince Carter in terms of raw athleticism and ability was
one of the greatest of his era and one of
the greatest period. And what did he ever do with it?
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Okay, here we go, Here we go. He was the
Rookie of the Year, and then the next in year
two he was third team All NBA. Then he was
second team All NBA, and then just a bunch of
All Star Games. So I don't know. Maybe, actually, maybe
I'm maybe Vince Carter's overrated. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Yeah, I mean it's because he is arguably the greatest
dunkle of all time and the way he makes you
feel makes you feel good. I'll tell you what, if
we were out of content for the summer, we should
just do episodes of this. Well, we're like, hey, here's
ten guys, this guy or this guy, and when we
go all the way down the list and we end
up with definitively who's the greatest player ever?
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Oh so Dwight Howard has a ring with the Lakers
Dwight Howard or Patrick.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Ewing that does not count. Oh god, wait, well, what do.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
You mean he doesn't count?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
He was a hugle player on the end of the year,
end of the Role Championship. He was a veteran minimum
player at that point.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
All right, I thought he was really good.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
He his peak in Orlando is up there with some
of the greatest peaks of all time.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Isn't he the one who kind of bodied Yokic in
the bubble? Yes, he had a great defense against Yoki,
who was like I was still prime Jokich but you
would say Patrick Ewing for sure, right, probably yeah, okay, yeah, now,
but you're right, Howard's Orlando resume is impressive.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Yeah, his falloff was just so precipitous.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Well, he's got a lot of nonsense going and off
the court. All right, Wow, that was easy, Rob and
I do like discussing NBA. So there's a new Caitlin
Clark book out. We're gonna have the author of that on.
We're trying to get my guy, fran Frachella on to
do NBA draft stuff, picks being moved, his guy Desmond Bane.
(26:20):
Do you guys remember when fran Fracchilla came on the
pod years ago and was like, Desmond Bane is the man?
Just wait and then you know he nailed a Frank
Facilla is great. So hopefully we'll do that later in
the week. USA Soccer's coming up, big, big week ahead.
We're back tomorrow. See then,
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.