June 21, 2021 • 38 mins
Ben Maller talks about the 76ers losing Game 7 against the Hawks and the likelihood of Doc Rivers & Ben Simmons being on the hot seat, MLB Pick'em, and much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome. It's our number one, our number one
of the Ben Maller radio program with limited commercial interruption,
repackaged in the podcast format, and our number one. We
focus in on the NBA, but not the West. We're
(00:20):
gonna start out in the East. Game seven. Nothing better
than a Game seven, man to man, eye to eye,
toe to toe, face to face, the whole thing. And
the Atlanta Hawks win Game seven? Or did the Sixers
lose Game seven? Doc Rivers and Ben Simmons on the
hot seat in Philadelphia, A blow by blow tail of
(00:43):
the tape breakdown of a surprising outcome in the NBA
as the Hawks have advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.
We'll give you our ten cents right now here. It
is our number one. A brotherly meltdown. Well come, in
the beginning of another week of the Ben Mallers Show.
(01:05):
We are in the air everywhere as the balloon goes
up coast, the coast, border to order and beyond. On
the vast and powerful microphones of fs are ammanating live
from the flight deck as we soar on the Red
Eye all night long, hanging out here at the Fox
(01:27):
Sports Radio Studios hopeball as well with you. We are
back at it again. Had a productive weekend, a lot
of traveling around over the weekend. But our lead this
hour coming from the NBA. And I'm not gonna start
where you think I'm gonna start. I'm gonna zig when
(01:49):
you think I'm gonna zag. And we go to Game
seven of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the upstart Atlanta Hawks
against the heavily favored seventy Sixers. To your Game seven.
The home team wins most of the time. In Game seven,
certainly Philadelphia. If you break the roster player for player,
(02:11):
you'd say, well, the Sixers, come on, they're gonna win.
They were the top team in the East this year.
They're not gonna blow it. And they blew it. Did
you watch I don't know if you watch this and not,
I don't know what you had going on. But let
me give you the condensed recap. So, in a game
that was nip and talk for much of the evening,
(02:32):
both teams feeling the pressure. Some guy named Kevin Herder,
I don't know who that is, but he scored twenty
seven points. Kevin Herder and Trey Young, who didn't play
particularly well most of the game, ended up with twenty one,
made some big baskets late, and the Atlanta Hawks, by
the hair on their chinny chin chin, squeeze their way
(02:54):
past the Sixers one oh three to ninety six, and
they take Game seven. They get it done on the road,
and they have advanced the Atlanta Hawks. If you had
them in your bracket, they are going to the Eastern
Conference Final. But we have plenty of time to talk
about the Hawks. The better story here is in the
losing locker room and Philadelphia. We have a problemo Philadelphia.
(03:20):
So let us discuss now the question did the Hawks
win this game? Or did the Sixers lose the game? Yeah,
this is obvious. This is all on Philly. This is
all on Philly. Now my thoughts on this. You've got
the denominator, barrel and red tag, and we will tie
(03:43):
all of these things together into an adequate Mallard monologue. Now, hey,
you get what you pay for, You get what you
anticipate in life. When you make certain decisions, there are
a trickle down level of effect when you make certain moves.
The seventy six ers, for example, had decided last offseason
(04:06):
that they needed to change in the coaching room and
he could have hired anyone. It was a very attractive job,
big market, superstar players, city that was thirsty for a
winning NBA team to get over the hump, and the
seventy six Ers, with a thorough job search, decided on
(04:28):
Doc Rivers as the coach they wanted with open arms.
They wanted to hire Doc Rivers. They were braggadocious about
to hire, overlooking the many failures on Doc's resume, and
there are lots from his time with the Clippers, and
they're like, hey, listen, this guy's gonna be in Philadelphia
and he's gonna be great, and it's you know, it's
(04:49):
more of the Clipper problem than a Doc Rivers problem.
Oh yeah, I hope you enjoyed the full Doc Rivers
playoff experience. That was a classical sympodica type performance in
the postseason for a Doc Rivers coach postseason team. We
know the margins your thin in the postseason, but very
(05:10):
few coaches have done less with more then Doc Rivers
has done. In the NBA. We saw it for years
with the Clippers, those great Lob City teams with Chris
Paul and Blake Griffith and DeAndre Jordan and others, and
they continually went belly up in big games, collapsing against
teams they had more talent than. And hmm, it happened
(05:34):
yet again, but not with the clippering uniform, the Doc
Rivers coaching teams wearing the seventy six ers laundry. But
what is the common denominator, right, ding Ning, ding ning ning,
the good doctor Doc Rivers coach teams gag on hairballs
in the postseason. It's what happens. It's what happens. You
(05:55):
come to embrace it, you come to accept it. In
this case, they choke the chief steak. Doc Rivers has
twenty nine losses with a chance to clinch a playoff series,
the most losses by a head coach in NBA history.
We've already documented over the time we've been here that
Doc Rivers is the greatest gag artist when it comes
(06:17):
to blowing a three to one lead as a coach
in the playoff series. But his three forty one winning
percentage in clinching playoff games of playoff series is the
worst all time among coaches with twenty or more opportunities.
And it's not even close. Doc is in a class
all by himself. And a class that you don't want
(06:40):
to be in because you're the one wearing the dunce cap.
Now part B of this, Doc Rivers deserves the full
brunt of the criticism. He's a likable guy. He doesn't
usually get it because the media likes him. The NBA
media cowtown at Doc Rivers. It's a popularity contest, and
I get it. He's a good quote. Doc's the kind
of guy you would want as the master of ceremonies. Now,
(07:02):
you want Doc Rivers out there and you want him
to MC your event, but you don't want him coaching
your team in a close out game, certainly not a
Game seven. But he was brought in under the false
pretext of the missing link. Brent Brown was blamed for
past failures, and Brown was coach. Brown was exiled and
(07:27):
excommunicated trust the process, which we don't have a problem
with that. But if you're gonna go out and hand
pick you're new coach and you're Darryl Morey, the smartest
man in the NBA, Daryl Morey, just to ask him,
he'll tell you how smart he is. It's in this
case hiring Doc Rivers. Well, what are you thinking? You
(07:48):
think that that was just the Clippers stank. No, it
wasn't the Clippers stank. It was the Doc Rivers stank.
And if the Clippers had gotten rid of this bum
several years ago, they would have already advanced to a
conference finals, which they now. Thank god, Doc has gone
coaching that team his teams. We mentioned the common denominator
Doc Rivers coach teams. The players do not perform in
(08:11):
pressure situations. Players that have reputations of being good players,
they do not rise up with Doc Rivers as coach.
And I'm not a big believer that coaching matters all
that much in the NBA, but when you got a
bad one, it does matter, it does become a problem.
And Doc Rivers is not on that list. It makes
it all the more amazing. As we've said in previous
(08:33):
episodes that the Boston Celtics were able to win a
championship with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and
those guys, that they were able to win with Doc Rivers.
That makes it all the more impressive that they overcame
this guy as their coach and were able to win
a championship. But as far as looking around the Sixers
(08:53):
locker room, and well Doc gets most of the blame.
It's really like shooting fish in the barrel. It's like
it's like shooting fishing de barrel. Ben Simmons. Has there
ever been a more phony star player than Ben Simmons.
And we were on this, We were on this ahead
of most people. We said this a couple of years ago.
Liability lad in games. Ben Simmons is a liability. He
(09:16):
cannot play in crunch time. He plays like he's a
gutless puke in those crucial moments at the end of games.
And the Sixers tried. They played him most of the
fourth quarter in Game seven, and how did that work out?
The typical Ben Simmons package, which is equal parts anxiety, fear, panic, confusion,
(09:44):
all those things set in and Simmons attempted no field
goals in the fourth quarter. Now I understand that you
don't have to be a ball hog. And there's like
a fine balance between being the hero guy playing hero ball.
What is the opposite? Like Ben Simmons has created a
whole new genre in the NBA. Most of the time
(10:06):
it's the ball hog. Like we goof on Russell Westbrook
because he shoots the ball every single time. He he
doesn't share the ball much. Latent game strives to think
over and be the hero. But what do you call
Ben Simmons in the seven games heat shot in the
fourth quarter? Three shots in the seven games in the
(10:27):
fourth quarter, and there were several of those games. He
in the last three he didn't even take a shot.
And congratulations to Ben Simmons. You think of inept foul
shooting and a seventy sixers guard Ben Simmons. He just
shot thirty four percent from the charity stripe, thirty four
percent in this playoff series, which is the lowest foul
(10:49):
shooting in a single playoff in NBA history minimum seventy attempts.
Ben Simmons has done the impossible. He just had a
worst worst season shooting from the charity stripe than Shaquille O'Neill.
Shaquille O'Neill's record has been broken. Shack the hacker, Shack
the man. They created a term for hacker. Shack. He
(11:12):
shot thirty seven point four percent and Ben Simmons three
percentage points and then some below where Shack was it
is low water mark and he's he's below Shack. Ben
Simmons below Shack, He's below Will Chamberlain. He's the worst,
the worst. And while Joel Embiad we like Joel Embiad,
(11:33):
he continues to be exactly what Clint Cappella of the
Hawks said he was. He gave the scouting report out
and it showed up in several of the games Philadelphia
lost at home. Joel Embead has fatigue issues late in games,
and so Philadelphia losing three times to Atlanta in their
(11:54):
own gymnasium. Holy Doc Rivers Batman, I mean you're talking
about pie in the face. My goodness. That's not a
tasty cake. That's a stinky cake. Is where there is
right now? Last word here. So the Hawks will play
the Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals, and this guarantees
to be a ratings debacle. But I'm not a television
(12:15):
executive and I don't work for the NBA, so I
don't really care. If I did work for television, and
if I was an advertiser, I would be worried. But
the Hawks doing it because they took advantage of the
extreme tight, took a syndrome that Philadelphia suffer for those
guys on the sixers they needed by the end of
(12:36):
the game. There game seven, they needed a defibrillator. I
mean someone named, as we said, Kevin Herder, a totally
unknown had a totally tubular performance, and Atlanta wins with
Trey Young having a John Starks like performance in a
big game, drowning for seventy five percent of the night.
(12:59):
He took sixteen shots. He was two of sixteen, one
of eight from three point range. Over the first three quarters.
He had eleven points. That was over the first seventy
five percent of the game, two of sixteen. He made
one shot in the first half, and then in the
fourth quarter. Trey Young he wasn't great, he was three
out of seven, but he made some big shots and
(13:20):
ten points down the stretch, and so Atlanta moves on.
So he got one star versus one star. Milwaukee's got
one star. Janis addent to Coombo. The Hawks have one
star in Trey Young. More time to break that down.
But let's circle back to the Sixers, the winds of change,
(13:41):
who will be blowing in Philadelphia, just like the Sixers
blew and sucked in this series. Philadelphia is going to
demand heads roll that there's accountability, and I would expect
a several big names to be placed into a blender
and hit the on button and Bland, Bland, Bland. Ben
(14:06):
Simmons is at the very top of the list. Ben
Simmons will be tossed on the auctioning block. Darol Teeth.
Think of this as a red tag sail and Ben
Simmons can't be yours. You can buy him for a song.
He can be bought for a song and a dance,
and you'll hear his name tossed all around the rumor
mill over the NBA offices in Philadelphia. We'll see what
(14:26):
they can get for Simmons. If that's a viable option.
Are they going to try again to reinvent the wheel?
And then Doc Rivers is not guaranteed to return either.
Doc's the guy that talks the talk, but his teams rarely,
rarely walk the walk. And that's the reality of the situation.
(14:47):
And so that is where we are right now. All right,
let's hear now in the locker room some of the
postgame festivities here and a SoundBite for the ages. Doc
Rivers asked point blank whether or not Ben Simmons, whether
or not Ben Simmons can be a point guard for
a championship team. And let's just say, Doc, you'll hear
(15:08):
the question and the answer. He stuttered a bit, Doc,
do you think Ben Simmons can still be a point
guard for for a championship team like the one you
guys want to become? Yeah, David, I don't know that
question or the answer to that right now. Yeah. So
I don't know the answer to that. What do you
when you say, get in the gym with him? What
what needs to be done? We obviously? Yeah, I mean
(15:31):
I that's that's between Ben and I. Yeah, all right,
so so Doc, he didn't say no. He just tap
danced around it. He tapped answered around. Here's more from
Doc Rivers, who has become the master. He's like a
Jedi knight in recent years of exiting stage left in
(15:52):
the second round of the playoffs. And you can't blame
the Clippers anymore. You can't blame oh, the curse or
the Clippers all that bull app the media comes up with.
You can't come up. You can't blame that because they're
in Philadelphia. They don't curse on the Sixers. They've had
good teams over the years. Here's Doc Rivers, and here
the question of the answer on his situation. Second year
(16:13):
in a row where you know your your teams have
been in good spots in the second round and it's
it's not on your way. Is there an element, you
know of self reflection that has to be done in
that end? You know? Is there one? Are the lessons
to be learned for you? That we lost and we
want to win? You know? Uh, it was the same team, Auston,
I would actually justify that question, but since it's two
(16:34):
different teams, you know, um, listen, this team last year
got swept in the first round. We had a chance
to go to the Championship, to the Eastern Finals. I'm
not gonna make this into a negative year. Now, what
about you? Doc? The question was more about you. I
think to me that was more about Doc Rivers than
it was the Sixers as a whole. We'll leave it there.
(16:57):
We'll hear more. We got Ben Simmons in the on
deck circle. We'll hear from Ben Simmons. We'll take your
phone calls. We're added a new week. Out of the
floodgates we go eight seven, seven nine, nine six sixty
three six nine eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox,
The Agony and the ecstasy of the postseason, and will
we see more changes of scenery. That's a nice politically
(17:20):
correct term that people throw out when players fail and
get repackaged from one organization to another eight seven, seven
nine nine six sixty three six nine if you would
like to be part. But there's definitely going to be
some collateral damage that will take place because of this
gag fest by the Sixers, the heavily favored Philadelphia team
(17:42):
member they lost game one, people are like, well, you know,
it's just a fluke, and philadelphiaill come back and win
the next four. It'll be a gentleman's sweep. They spotted
the Hawks a game, they'll come back and win the rest. Well,
that did not happen eight seven, seven ninety nine on
Fox eight seven, seven, nine, nine, six three six nine
(18:03):
and one foot out the door or two feet out
the door. We'll get to that and we will do
it next. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Listen
up Maller Militia. The Ben Maller Show is the show
(18:25):
of the People, Buy the People for the people. Join
the movement and follow your host on Twitter. He's at
Ben Maller and you can tweet at and follow me.
Eddie Garcia, your humble sidekick, the voice of reason. I'm
at Eddie on Fox and Ali from the Fox Sports
Radio studios. It's Ben Maller. I don't care. I'm leaving. Goodbye,
(18:46):
alf the Alien opiner from Springfield, mass just down the
street from the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame rights and
says Ben, do you think that Joel and beads still
trust the process? How long before he hunts out? Well?
Does he trust the process? No? But that's his nickname,
so he's got to ride with it. And does he
(19:08):
want out? I want to say no, like embiid is
embraced the stick of Philadelphia, at least from Afar. From
an outsider looking in into the belly of the beast
there in the Delaware Valley, it would appear that Joel
embiid is accepted the situation. That doesn't mean he would
not approve and green light Ben Simmons being traded. Eugene
(19:33):
in Chicago writes in and says, Ben, what do you
think about Ben Simmons for Terrence Man? Yeah, No, you're
not allowed to have Terrence Man, my favorite clipper, Terrence Man,
who stuck the dagger in the whole. Hearts of the
Utah Jazz over the weekend were one of the great
big game performances. You're not allowed to touch Terrence Man. No.
(19:55):
And plus, you gotta be realistic. Eugene Ben Simmons about
a thief in the night. Here, a guy that doesn't
want to shoot the ball in the fourth quarter of
playoff games is a player who's making over thirty million
dollars a year, Ben Simmons. So Terrence Man is by
NBA standards, just a nobody. He's a minimum guy, he's
(20:18):
a millionaire. But by you know, the NBA world, he's
a peon. He's the rank and file, and Ben Simmons
is one of the upper crossed. So if you look
at that situation, you're like, no, forget about it. Now,
if you wouldn't want to trade Ben Simmons and you
want to trade him to LA and the more realistic
option will be the Lakers to trade Anthony Davis to
(20:41):
Philadelphia and get Ben Simmons in return. Now that's a
trade that would work out with the salary cap, would
be a terrible trade. Although Ben Simmons is at least
he's healthy, he's a no show when he plays in
big games. Anthony Davis is a no show because he
gets hurt, his body crumbles, he can't handle it. But
that's a trade. And you go on the NBA trade
(21:02):
machine and figure out your own fantasy trade. But that
one would work. And that's Anthony Davis for Ben Simmons,
straight up, Mono a mino. Otherwise the Clippers would have
to trade like five or six players to get Ben Simmons.
And they're in the conference finals. There are four wins
away from the NBA Finals. I'm guessing they're not going
(21:23):
to be interested in that. False fan Jimmy writes in
He's Authentic Tennessee. He says Ben Simmons should be in
prison for running a Ponzi scheme on the seventies Sixers.
The Aussi guy writes and says a plus monologue, big man,
there is no doubt the Sixers choked it away. Doc
is the gold standard for choking and Ben Simmons is
(21:46):
mentally broken. But you gotta respect Trey Young continuing to
launch and make big plays late. Well, you praise him
because the Hawks won the game. AUSI guy, you pray
him because the Hawks won again. This was not the
night of Trey Young. That oldline all the top players
(22:07):
in the NBA have said over the years, Right, the
shooters shoot, you keep shooting, you don't back down, all
that stuff. The Burner account writes and says, I really
don't have much to say about that vomit comment ride
we've seen with the Sixers. So good monologue, Benjamin, And hey,
please don't take any more days off. Thanks in in advance.
(22:31):
I'm sorry I did not get proper approval, but I
could not work. There was some guy at the news desk.
I forget who it was, but I could not be
in here. I could not handle the stress. I needed
a mental day. I needed my safe space. Isn't that
the language of the day. Mister Luciano writes and says,
great monologue, Benjamin speaking the truth on Ben Simmons. By
(22:52):
the way, congratulations in your team making the conference finals. Also,
please let the Cooper Loop know the Higante are coming
to town and will defeat his angels. Signed mister Lucianos
to Ploup, I'm sorry, queer to mister Luciano, the angels
are doomed because the giants will kill them. Deal with that.
(23:16):
James the Machinist from the Twin Cities says, welcome back. Then.
Many of us were initially disappointed that you were away
on Thursday into Friday, but I wound up pleasantly surprised.
While some may say four hours of lame jokes isn't
too much, I found it enjoyable. Also, Doc Rivers stinks
the Sixers better start the process over and Ben Simmons sucks,
(23:41):
So he says, mister nice guy claims he has solved
Ben simmons foul shooting conundrum, and he wants to know
how to be compensated. And he says, hey, he's going
to go full old school nineteen seventies. Rick Barry underhanded. Yeah.
Remember years ago when Shaquille O'Neill was horrifically bad at
(24:04):
the foul line, it had been suggested to put the
Rick Berry underhand foul shooting method on display. And I remember, correctly,
a shack was not interested in that because it's very
emasculating to shoot foul shots underhanded. That it is a blow.
(24:25):
You know, you're a tough guy and you've got to
stosterone to shoot foul shots underhanded. It's it's very unbecoming.
And it's not just Shack. There have been other players
that have been horrific. DeAndre Jordan's another one. We're like,
why does he back in the lob City? There is
why do I need to shoot underhanded? Yeah? Now I
(24:45):
could create the perfect NBA player. I'm gonna say there's
two things. There's two skill sets that the NBA player,
as in my Frankenstein Maller lab to create the most
unstopped apple NBA player. I'm gonna give you those two
things that say Fox Sports Radio Ben Maller Show Exclusive.
(25:05):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Hey,
it's Ben, host of the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller
along with my trustee sidekick David Gascon. Would mean a
lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey.
You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour.
I'll tell you it's a spin off of that Ben
Maller Show. A Colt hit overnights on FSR. Why should
(25:29):
you listen? Picture? If you will? A world? Will we chat?
With captains of industry in media, sports and more. Every
week Explorer, some amazing facts about a human nature and more.
Let'sten to the fifth hour with Ben Maller on the
iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
The Diamondbacks have lost again now they're they're at home now,
so the road losing streak isn't They're so bad that
(25:49):
Albert Pool host looks like he's back with the Cardinals
hitting bombs against Arizone Dodgers with the nine eight win.
That's seventeen straight losses overall. For you a ray? Was it?
The dodgerssay? With the dime in Backs allowing them to
think they were going to come back and win that
game gets close, it's absolutely cruel. It was. It was
great though. I enjoyed it. Yeah. Is that where Roberto is?
Did he go to? Did you go to Arizona? Now?
(26:10):
I think he's celebrating Father's Day extending dance remix there.
It's a I think holiday Eddie Daddy. I guess it is.
I don't know how it is in your neighborhood, Ben,
but the fireworks are going off right and left. Yes,
any excuse to shoot off fireworks. I guess yeah. One
(26:31):
of my fond memories of the COVID shutdown twenty twenty
was on the fourth of July, and really the days
leading up to the fourth in July, fireworks everywhere. It
was like a demilitarized zone in my neighborhood. And these
were like Disneyland style fireworks. These were not just the
kind you know, the safe, insane kind you would get
(26:53):
down the street when you were kids, Eddie. These were
you launched them out of like a grenade launcher. It's
unreal craziness. I hear you. And uh, you know you
always talk about investing. I know you're an investor. I'm
really Coop Coop also likes to invest. I'd like to
think I'm investing. Maybe we should invest in fireworks. With
the number of fireworks that are shot off routine. My
(27:14):
sources tell me that those fireworks based raised in Los Angeles,
that there's a lot of people, Eddie, to make the
run for the borders. Yeah, can you not invest in
foreign companies? I mean, I don't know that there's a well,
I don't think there's a lot of money in that. No, Okay, Well, yeah,
like I had heard that the reason those fireworks were
available readily is because so many local municipalities fireworks shows
(27:36):
were canceled. The people that made the fireworks were left
with all these fireworks and they were selling them on
you know, pennies on the dollars to try to get
their money back, and so that's why they were readily available.
That's what I had heard, you know, because every city's like, well,
we can't have fireworks because of COVID, and you can't
have people get together and watch fireworks from their backyard,
and so they got rid of that anyway, Thank you
(27:57):
for that, Eddie. It is the band Mallard show as
we press on bluviating the overnight hours away. So the
perfect basketball player into Frankenstein slash Mahller's lab. Mister nice
guy brought up the rick Berry. But if I were
to create the perfect NBA player, I would take a
young player that has great ability, and there's two things
(28:20):
I would teach that player. Number one would be the
rick Berry foul shot. If you can make eighty five
to ninety five percent of your foul shots and you
have the ability to get foul allot that is a
lethal weapon. As we have seen in the NBA over
the years. Obviously, there's certain guys that get fouled more
than others, that are very good at getting to the
foul line and have the officials in their back pocket.
(28:43):
But to convert the foul shots at a high rate
is tremendous. So the rick Berry technique underhand foulshon. And
the other thing is the skyhook. The sky hook, if
you are someone of size, it is the most unstoppable shot,
unstoppable play in all of sport. And to think that
(29:07):
no one since Kareem abdul Jabbar has regularly used that
in their arsenal. They've been select random players that from
from time to time have used a mini sky hook.
But the majestic lu al sinder, Kareem abdul Jabbar skyhook unstopped, undefendable, unstoppable.
(29:27):
He made it at such a high rate. And yet
it takes a lot of time to master that, a
lot of practice, a lot of blood, sweat and tears,
and no one's been willing to put the work in.
No one's been willing to do it. They want to
do their own thing. I mean, there are other moves
in basketball, the dream shake, the achema dream Elijah Wan
(29:48):
the dream shake back, and they but the skyhook and
the underhand faul shooting two simple things. And the underhand
faul shooting thing. If you do that, it's not like
anyone can run out and block the shot, and you
make it. It's such a high percentage. My goodness. All right,
now I want to circle back to the seventies sixers.
We have some more audio. Good audio. When you got
(30:09):
good audio, you got to play good audio. And we
have the good audio. Ben Simmons. All right. Ben Simmons
mentioned his struggles. He's just afraid to shoot the ball.
He's got a case of the not the yips, there's
something else there. He just gets tight, took a syndrome,
doesn't shoot at all late in games. Thirty million dollars
(30:30):
year ball player, which is fine, congratulations, I'm making the money.
But when you make that kind of money, you've got
to be able to shoot the ball, or at least
occasionally take a shot in the fourth quarter when your
team's drowning. Anyway, here's Ben Simmons. A lot of chatter.
You're gonna hear a lot of this noise over the
next couple of days. In the next couple of weeks
and months that Ben Simmons will be out in Philly
(30:53):
and here you'll hear the question and the answer was
this the final game in a Sixers uniform for Ben Simmons.
Toward the end of the game, there were a few
chances that were going out there asked saying trade Ben Simmons,
stuff like that, do you feel like you played your
last few minutes here in Philadelphia? I feel like we
just love Game seven? It was about it, would you
(31:13):
like to remain in Philadelphia? Yeah, I mean I love
being in Philly, you know, I love his organization. The
fans are great, great people for me. Out of bad series,
I expect that it's Philly. Yeah. So that was a
by the book answer, and maybe that's how he feels. Man.
I don't know. I'm not in the mind of Ben Simmons.
I've been certainly possible he'll at some point, I would
(31:35):
imagine to say, well, I'm gonna do some self reflection
and some introspection and try to find some enlightenment. And
we might be hearing a different song here that people
around Ben Simmons will start leaking to Woad and the
other NBA insiders that Ben Simmons really thinks he needs
a fresh start, needs to go somebody else, somewhere else,
and all that. Here's one more from Ben Simmons and
(31:58):
you'll hear the question the answer again on what exactly
he needs to work on. Ben doc said, there's work
to do and he and you need to get into
the gym. What do you think the work is that
needs to be done? And I guess prioritized. Is it
pre throw shooting, is it being more aggressive? Is it
(32:20):
perimeter shooting? What is it in your game that you
think you need to improve? First, I think all of it.
You hit on all of them. I issue, well from
the line this series offensively, I wasn't there. I ain't
doing enough for my teammates. There's a lot, there's a
lot of things I need to work on it. Yeah,
So in other words, reinventing the wheel. He needs to
reinvent the w. This is like a total bullcrap story
(32:42):
that we've heard over the last couple of years. Now.
I have no skin in the game. I'm not a
Philadelphia fan. I'm not a Sixers fan, but I know
from doing this job and chronicling the Sixers who've been
one of the high profile teams that we've heard similar
comments about Ben Simmons, and it seems to me number
one to be a total boondoggle that every year we
(33:03):
hear he's gonna be more aggressive. And remember it was
before the season, it was he's gonna shoot the three
point shot now, and all this to waste of time.
It is literally, infiguratively a waste of time. And the
meat of the matter is Ben Simmons is who he is,
for better or worse. Now, I don't think he's terrible.
He's fine for seventy five percent of the game. The
(33:26):
problem is that most games are won or lost in
the fourth quarter, and so for seventy five ers in
the game, he's like, well, Ben Simmons is not a problem.
We get a lot of rebounds who pass the ball
pretty well. He's really good around the rim at scoring,
so in theory that's not a bad player. But you
gotta shoot from the outside. I gotta coach this guy.
(33:48):
They gotta hire me as an assistant coach in philadelph
Moneyball Maller if I could get a couple of minutes
with Ben Simmons, moneyball Maller, I dominated the parks back
in the day, teach this guy how to shoot the
three point shot and everyone would thank me. That's how
that would go. All right, Straight ahead, we're gonna have
the MLB pick hm, the MLB pickham. Here's the who
(34:10):
am I? Game? Continue the theme of the hour, So,
Doc Rivers has now lost each of the last four
game sevens, including last year with the Clippers against the Nuggets.
That ties me for the longest losing streak in game
sevens by any head coach in NBA history. Again, Doc Rivers,
(34:31):
you're Philadelphia seventy sisters coach has now lost each of
his last four game sevens, including last year with the
Clips against the Nuggets. That ties me for the longest
losing streak in game sevens by any head coach in
NBA history. Who Am I? The answer? And the MLB
pickum next. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
(34:53):
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the iHeart Radio apps.
Search f SR to listen live from the first moment
you tune in. You know, the Ben Maller Show is
not your garden variety of sports talk. We welcome all
the freaks of nature to the Malar relationship. Facebook's an
online amusement park for all of us. You can chat
(35:14):
with other super fans of the show. It's simple and
it's free. Help support our show by liking our page.
Go to Facebook dot com, slash Ben Maller's show and
alive in the Fox Sports radio studios. It's Ben Maller.
Congratulations to Doc Rivers. Always impressive when you make NBA history.
He's done it. Doc Rivers has now lost each of
his last four game sevens. Unfortunately for me, most of
(35:35):
those were the Clippers, but last four game sevens, including
last year against the Nuggets, that ties me for the
longest such losing streak in game sevens by any head
coach in NBA history. Who am I? That is the question?
(35:56):
What is the answer? Mannic Mike got this right? Clue
cheating Emmett the blind Seahawk fan is going with Mark Jackson.
There goes that man, George Carl from Rob in Minnesota,
Jason and Rocky Mount Virginia, a big supporter of the
Fifth Hour with Ben Mallers is the Mouth of the South.
(36:17):
Jimmy Hart is the answer. Chris in Des Moines says
Herb tarlik As anybody in radio over the last forty
fifty years can thank w KRP in Cincinnati, but incorrect out.
Who else you have? Jean Shoe from poly d Billy
Cunningham tossed out by Balls fan Jimmy rod Stewart from
(36:38):
Luke the Vending Guy, Dennis Rodman from Robbie the Mariner
Fans stand Van Gundi guest by Oscar. Who else do
we have? Doctor Rios from Daddy Alon that's his guest.
Jason in Denver going with Scottie Skiles as his answer,
just Josh cheating, He got it right. Cole Beasley from
(37:01):
mister Nice Guy. Mister nice Guy is a big fan
of Cole Beasley. The Ozzie Guys going with Kyle Shanahan
is his answer. Robin Vegas is the big dog, Roman
Roman rains. Who else do we have? Roman Range, Tim
pink Floyd guests by Rich all Right? Do you have
an answer? Eddie? Quickly? Eddie, please don't I don't have
an answer? You do not have an answer? Thanks for playing, Eddie.
(37:24):
Appreciate that the correct answer would be none other than
Rick Addleman. Rick Adleman Sacramento Portland, among others, lost four
straight game sevens from twenty o two to twenty oh
nine in the postseason. So it's Rick Adleman and Doc Rivers,
and that leads us into the m L B. Peck.
(37:48):
And we did golf at the end of the week
and apparently Coop picked John Robs, right I did. And
today I'm gonna pick Jacob deGrom odd first pick. I
didn't see that when coming, Eddie, Let's go with uh
Kyle Gibson of all right, you get sound excited about that.
(38:10):
I will take Julio Urius of the Los Angeles Dodgers,
Chris Yep back to back, Okay, Carlos Pena and Omar Infante.
All right, I'll take good picks U Jesse Winker, Eddie, Uh,
Carlos Korea, Coop back to back. I will go with
Ronald to Kuda Junior and Uh Cedric Mullings of the Orioles. Hey, Chris,
(38:38):
Jeremy Bonderman of the Tigers. Bonderman was so good. I
think he's gonna make a come back.
Hello and welcome. It's our number one, our number one
of the Ben Maller radio program with limited commercial interruption,
repackaged in the podcast format, and our number one. We
focus in on the NBA, but not the West. We're
(00:20):
gonna start out in the East. Game seven. Nothing better
than a Game seven, man to man, eye to eye,
toe to toe, face to face, the whole thing. And
the Atlanta Hawks win Game seven? Or did the Sixers
lose Game seven? Doc Rivers and Ben Simmons on the
hot seat in Philadelphia, A blow by blow tail of
(00:43):
the tape breakdown of a surprising outcome in the NBA
as the Hawks have advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.
We'll give you our ten cents right now here. It
is our number one. A brotherly meltdown. Well come, in
the beginning of another week of the Ben Mallers Show.
(01:05):
We are in the air everywhere as the balloon goes
up coast, the coast, border to order and beyond. On
the vast and powerful microphones of fs are ammanating live
from the flight deck as we soar on the Red
Eye all night long, hanging out here at the Fox
(01:27):
Sports Radio Studios hopeball as well with you. We are
back at it again. Had a productive weekend, a lot
of traveling around over the weekend. But our lead this
hour coming from the NBA. And I'm not gonna start
where you think I'm gonna start. I'm gonna zig when
(01:49):
you think I'm gonna zag. And we go to Game
seven of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the upstart Atlanta Hawks
against the heavily favored seventy Sixers. To your Game seven.
The home team wins most of the time. In Game seven,
certainly Philadelphia. If you break the roster player for player,
(02:11):
you'd say, well, the Sixers, come on, they're gonna win.
They were the top team in the East this year.
They're not gonna blow it. And they blew it. Did
you watch I don't know if you watch this and not,
I don't know what you had going on. But let
me give you the condensed recap. So, in a game
that was nip and talk for much of the evening,
(02:32):
both teams feeling the pressure. Some guy named Kevin Herder,
I don't know who that is, but he scored twenty
seven points. Kevin Herder and Trey Young, who didn't play
particularly well most of the game, ended up with twenty one,
made some big baskets late, and the Atlanta Hawks, by
the hair on their chinny chin chin, squeeze their way
(02:54):
past the Sixers one oh three to ninety six, and
they take Game seven. They get it done on the road,
and they have advanced the Atlanta Hawks. If you had
them in your bracket, they are going to the Eastern
Conference Final. But we have plenty of time to talk
about the Hawks. The better story here is in the
losing locker room and Philadelphia. We have a problemo Philadelphia.
(03:20):
So let us discuss now the question did the Hawks
win this game? Or did the Sixers lose the game? Yeah,
this is obvious. This is all on Philly. This is
all on Philly. Now my thoughts on this. You've got
the denominator, barrel and red tag, and we will tie
(03:43):
all of these things together into an adequate Mallard monologue. Now, hey,
you get what you pay for, You get what you
anticipate in life. When you make certain decisions, there are
a trickle down level of effect when you make certain moves.
The seventy six ers, for example, had decided last offseason
(04:06):
that they needed to change in the coaching room and
he could have hired anyone. It was a very attractive job,
big market, superstar players, city that was thirsty for a
winning NBA team to get over the hump, and the
seventy six Ers, with a thorough job search, decided on
(04:28):
Doc Rivers as the coach they wanted with open arms.
They wanted to hire Doc Rivers. They were braggadocious about
to hire, overlooking the many failures on Doc's resume, and
there are lots from his time with the Clippers, and
they're like, hey, listen, this guy's gonna be in Philadelphia
and he's gonna be great, and it's you know, it's
(04:49):
more of the Clipper problem than a Doc Rivers problem.
Oh yeah, I hope you enjoyed the full Doc Rivers
playoff experience. That was a classical sympodica type performance in
the postseason for a Doc Rivers coach postseason team. We
know the margins your thin in the postseason, but very
(05:10):
few coaches have done less with more then Doc Rivers
has done. In the NBA. We saw it for years
with the Clippers, those great Lob City teams with Chris
Paul and Blake Griffith and DeAndre Jordan and others, and
they continually went belly up in big games, collapsing against
teams they had more talent than. And hmm, it happened
(05:34):
yet again, but not with the clippering uniform, the Doc
Rivers coaching teams wearing the seventy six ers laundry. But
what is the common denominator, right, ding Ning, ding ning ning,
the good doctor Doc Rivers coach teams gag on hairballs
in the postseason. It's what happens. It's what happens. You
(05:55):
come to embrace it, you come to accept it. In
this case, they choke the chief steak. Doc Rivers has
twenty nine losses with a chance to clinch a playoff series,
the most losses by a head coach in NBA history.
We've already documented over the time we've been here that
Doc Rivers is the greatest gag artist when it comes
(06:17):
to blowing a three to one lead as a coach
in the playoff series. But his three forty one winning
percentage in clinching playoff games of playoff series is the
worst all time among coaches with twenty or more opportunities.
And it's not even close. Doc is in a class
all by himself. And a class that you don't want
(06:40):
to be in because you're the one wearing the dunce cap.
Now part B of this, Doc Rivers deserves the full
brunt of the criticism. He's a likable guy. He doesn't
usually get it because the media likes him. The NBA
media cowtown at Doc Rivers. It's a popularity contest, and
I get it. He's a good quote. Doc's the kind
of guy you would want as the master of ceremonies. Now,
(07:02):
you want Doc Rivers out there and you want him
to MC your event, but you don't want him coaching
your team in a close out game, certainly not a
Game seven. But he was brought in under the false
pretext of the missing link. Brent Brown was blamed for
past failures, and Brown was coach. Brown was exiled and
(07:27):
excommunicated trust the process, which we don't have a problem
with that. But if you're gonna go out and hand
pick you're new coach and you're Darryl Morey, the smartest
man in the NBA, Daryl Morey, just to ask him,
he'll tell you how smart he is. It's in this
case hiring Doc Rivers. Well, what are you thinking? You
(07:48):
think that that was just the Clippers stank. No, it
wasn't the Clippers stank. It was the Doc Rivers stank.
And if the Clippers had gotten rid of this bum
several years ago, they would have already advanced to a
conference finals, which they now. Thank god, Doc has gone
coaching that team his teams. We mentioned the common denominator
Doc Rivers coach teams. The players do not perform in
(08:11):
pressure situations. Players that have reputations of being good players,
they do not rise up with Doc Rivers as coach.
And I'm not a big believer that coaching matters all
that much in the NBA, but when you got a
bad one, it does matter, it does become a problem.
And Doc Rivers is not on that list. It makes
it all the more amazing. As we've said in previous
(08:33):
episodes that the Boston Celtics were able to win a
championship with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and
those guys, that they were able to win with Doc Rivers.
That makes it all the more impressive that they overcame
this guy as their coach and were able to win
a championship. But as far as looking around the Sixers
(08:53):
locker room, and well Doc gets most of the blame.
It's really like shooting fish in the barrel. It's like
it's like shooting fishing de barrel. Ben Simmons. Has there
ever been a more phony star player than Ben Simmons.
And we were on this, We were on this ahead
of most people. We said this a couple of years ago.
Liability lad in games. Ben Simmons is a liability. He
(09:16):
cannot play in crunch time. He plays like he's a
gutless puke in those crucial moments at the end of games.
And the Sixers tried. They played him most of the
fourth quarter in Game seven, and how did that work out?
The typical Ben Simmons package, which is equal parts anxiety, fear, panic, confusion,
(09:44):
all those things set in and Simmons attempted no field
goals in the fourth quarter. Now I understand that you
don't have to be a ball hog. And there's like
a fine balance between being the hero guy playing hero ball.
What is the opposite? Like Ben Simmons has created a
whole new genre in the NBA. Most of the time
(10:06):
it's the ball hog. Like we goof on Russell Westbrook
because he shoots the ball every single time. He he
doesn't share the ball much. Latent game strives to think
over and be the hero. But what do you call
Ben Simmons in the seven games heat shot in the
fourth quarter? Three shots in the seven games in the
(10:27):
fourth quarter, and there were several of those games. He
in the last three he didn't even take a shot.
And congratulations to Ben Simmons. You think of inept foul
shooting and a seventy sixers guard Ben Simmons. He just
shot thirty four percent from the charity stripe, thirty four
percent in this playoff series, which is the lowest foul
(10:49):
shooting in a single playoff in NBA history minimum seventy attempts.
Ben Simmons has done the impossible. He just had a
worst worst season shooting from the charity stripe than Shaquille O'Neill.
Shaquille O'Neill's record has been broken. Shack the hacker, Shack
the man. They created a term for hacker. Shack. He
(11:12):
shot thirty seven point four percent and Ben Simmons three
percentage points and then some below where Shack was it
is low water mark and he's he's below Shack. Ben
Simmons below Shack, He's below Will Chamberlain. He's the worst,
the worst. And while Joel Embiad we like Joel Embiad,
(11:33):
he continues to be exactly what Clint Cappella of the
Hawks said he was. He gave the scouting report out
and it showed up in several of the games Philadelphia
lost at home. Joel Embead has fatigue issues late in games,
and so Philadelphia losing three times to Atlanta in their
(11:54):
own gymnasium. Holy Doc Rivers Batman, I mean you're talking
about pie in the face. My goodness. That's not a
tasty cake. That's a stinky cake. Is where there is
right now? Last word here. So the Hawks will play
the Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals, and this guarantees
to be a ratings debacle. But I'm not a television
(12:15):
executive and I don't work for the NBA, so I
don't really care. If I did work for television, and
if I was an advertiser, I would be worried. But
the Hawks doing it because they took advantage of the
extreme tight, took a syndrome that Philadelphia suffer for those
guys on the sixers they needed by the end of
(12:36):
the game. There game seven, they needed a defibrillator. I
mean someone named, as we said, Kevin Herder, a totally
unknown had a totally tubular performance, and Atlanta wins with
Trey Young having a John Starks like performance in a
big game, drowning for seventy five percent of the night.
(12:59):
He took sixteen shots. He was two of sixteen, one
of eight from three point range. Over the first three quarters.
He had eleven points. That was over the first seventy
five percent of the game, two of sixteen. He made
one shot in the first half, and then in the
fourth quarter. Trey Young he wasn't great, he was three
out of seven, but he made some big shots and
(13:20):
ten points down the stretch, and so Atlanta moves on.
So he got one star versus one star. Milwaukee's got
one star. Janis addent to Coombo. The Hawks have one
star in Trey Young. More time to break that down.
But let's circle back to the Sixers, the winds of change,
(13:41):
who will be blowing in Philadelphia, just like the Sixers
blew and sucked in this series. Philadelphia is going to
demand heads roll that there's accountability, and I would expect
a several big names to be placed into a blender
and hit the on button and Bland, Bland, Bland. Ben
(14:06):
Simmons is at the very top of the list. Ben
Simmons will be tossed on the auctioning block. Darol Teeth.
Think of this as a red tag sail and Ben
Simmons can't be yours. You can buy him for a song.
He can be bought for a song and a dance,
and you'll hear his name tossed all around the rumor
mill over the NBA offices in Philadelphia. We'll see what
(14:26):
they can get for Simmons. If that's a viable option.
Are they going to try again to reinvent the wheel?
And then Doc Rivers is not guaranteed to return either.
Doc's the guy that talks the talk, but his teams rarely,
rarely walk the walk. And that's the reality of the situation.
(14:47):
And so that is where we are right now. All right,
let's hear now in the locker room some of the
postgame festivities here and a SoundBite for the ages. Doc
Rivers asked point blank whether or not Ben Simmons, whether
or not Ben Simmons can be a point guard for
a championship team. And let's just say, Doc, you'll hear
(15:08):
the question and the answer. He stuttered a bit, Doc,
do you think Ben Simmons can still be a point
guard for for a championship team like the one you
guys want to become? Yeah, David, I don't know that
question or the answer to that right now. Yeah. So
I don't know the answer to that. What do you
when you say, get in the gym with him? What
what needs to be done? We obviously? Yeah, I mean
(15:31):
I that's that's between Ben and I. Yeah, all right,
so so Doc, he didn't say no. He just tap
danced around it. He tapped answered around. Here's more from
Doc Rivers, who has become the master. He's like a
Jedi knight in recent years of exiting stage left in
(15:52):
the second round of the playoffs. And you can't blame
the Clippers anymore. You can't blame oh, the curse or
the Clippers all that bull app the media comes up with.
You can't come up. You can't blame that because they're
in Philadelphia. They don't curse on the Sixers. They've had
good teams over the years. Here's Doc Rivers, and here
the question of the answer on his situation. Second year
(16:13):
in a row where you know your your teams have
been in good spots in the second round and it's
it's not on your way. Is there an element, you
know of self reflection that has to be done in
that end? You know? Is there one? Are the lessons
to be learned for you? That we lost and we
want to win? You know? Uh, it was the same team, Auston,
I would actually justify that question, but since it's two
(16:34):
different teams, you know, um, listen, this team last year
got swept in the first round. We had a chance
to go to the Championship, to the Eastern Finals. I'm
not gonna make this into a negative year. Now, what
about you? Doc? The question was more about you. I
think to me that was more about Doc Rivers than
it was the Sixers as a whole. We'll leave it there.
(16:57):
We'll hear more. We got Ben Simmons in the on
deck circle. We'll hear from Ben Simmons. We'll take your
phone calls. We're added a new week. Out of the
floodgates we go eight seven, seven nine, nine six sixty
three six nine eight seven seven ninety nine on Fox,
The Agony and the ecstasy of the postseason, and will
we see more changes of scenery. That's a nice politically
(17:20):
correct term that people throw out when players fail and
get repackaged from one organization to another eight seven, seven
nine nine six sixty three six nine if you would
like to be part. But there's definitely going to be
some collateral damage that will take place because of this
gag fest by the Sixers, the heavily favored Philadelphia team
(17:42):
member they lost game one, people are like, well, you know,
it's just a fluke, and philadelphiaill come back and win
the next four. It'll be a gentleman's sweep. They spotted
the Hawks a game, they'll come back and win the rest. Well,
that did not happen eight seven, seven ninety nine on
Fox eight seven, seven, nine, nine, six three six nine
(18:03):
and one foot out the door or two feet out
the door. We'll get to that and we will do
it next. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Listen
up Maller Militia. The Ben Maller Show is the show
(18:25):
of the People, Buy the People for the people. Join
the movement and follow your host on Twitter. He's at
Ben Maller and you can tweet at and follow me.
Eddie Garcia, your humble sidekick, the voice of reason. I'm
at Eddie on Fox and Ali from the Fox Sports
Radio studios. It's Ben Maller. I don't care. I'm leaving. Goodbye,
(18:46):
alf the Alien opiner from Springfield, mass just down the
street from the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame rights and
says Ben, do you think that Joel and beads still
trust the process? How long before he hunts out? Well?
Does he trust the process? No? But that's his nickname,
so he's got to ride with it. And does he
(19:08):
want out? I want to say no, like embiid is
embraced the stick of Philadelphia, at least from Afar. From
an outsider looking in into the belly of the beast
there in the Delaware Valley, it would appear that Joel
embiid is accepted the situation. That doesn't mean he would
not approve and green light Ben Simmons being traded. Eugene
(19:33):
in Chicago writes in and says, Ben, what do you
think about Ben Simmons for Terrence Man? Yeah, No, you're
not allowed to have Terrence Man, my favorite clipper, Terrence Man,
who stuck the dagger in the whole. Hearts of the
Utah Jazz over the weekend were one of the great
big game performances. You're not allowed to touch Terrence Man. No.
(19:55):
And plus, you gotta be realistic. Eugene Ben Simmons about
a thief in the night. Here, a guy that doesn't
want to shoot the ball in the fourth quarter of
playoff games is a player who's making over thirty million
dollars a year, Ben Simmons. So Terrence Man is by
NBA standards, just a nobody. He's a minimum guy, he's
(20:18):
a millionaire. But by you know, the NBA world, he's
a peon. He's the rank and file, and Ben Simmons
is one of the upper crossed. So if you look
at that situation, you're like, no, forget about it. Now,
if you wouldn't want to trade Ben Simmons and you
want to trade him to LA and the more realistic
option will be the Lakers to trade Anthony Davis to
(20:41):
Philadelphia and get Ben Simmons in return. Now that's a
trade that would work out with the salary cap, would
be a terrible trade. Although Ben Simmons is at least
he's healthy, he's a no show when he plays in
big games. Anthony Davis is a no show because he
gets hurt, his body crumbles, he can't handle it. But
that's a trade. And you go on the NBA trade
(21:02):
machine and figure out your own fantasy trade. But that
one would work. And that's Anthony Davis for Ben Simmons,
straight up, Mono a mino. Otherwise the Clippers would have
to trade like five or six players to get Ben Simmons.
And they're in the conference finals. There are four wins
away from the NBA Finals. I'm guessing they're not going
(21:23):
to be interested in that. False fan Jimmy writes in
He's Authentic Tennessee. He says Ben Simmons should be in
prison for running a Ponzi scheme on the seventies Sixers.
The Aussi guy writes and says a plus monologue, big man,
there is no doubt the Sixers choked it away. Doc
is the gold standard for choking and Ben Simmons is
(21:46):
mentally broken. But you gotta respect Trey Young continuing to
launch and make big plays late. Well, you praise him
because the Hawks won the game. AUSI guy, you pray
him because the Hawks won again. This was not the
night of Trey Young. That oldline all the top players
(22:07):
in the NBA have said over the years, Right, the
shooters shoot, you keep shooting, you don't back down, all
that stuff. The Burner account writes and says, I really
don't have much to say about that vomit comment ride
we've seen with the Sixers. So good monologue, Benjamin, And hey,
please don't take any more days off. Thanks in in advance.
(22:31):
I'm sorry I did not get proper approval, but I
could not work. There was some guy at the news desk.
I forget who it was, but I could not be
in here. I could not handle the stress. I needed
a mental day. I needed my safe space. Isn't that
the language of the day. Mister Luciano writes and says,
great monologue, Benjamin speaking the truth on Ben Simmons. By
(22:52):
the way, congratulations in your team making the conference finals. Also,
please let the Cooper Loop know the Higante are coming
to town and will defeat his angels. Signed mister Lucianos
to Ploup, I'm sorry, queer to mister Luciano, the angels
are doomed because the giants will kill them. Deal with that.
(23:16):
James the Machinist from the Twin Cities says, welcome back. Then.
Many of us were initially disappointed that you were away
on Thursday into Friday, but I wound up pleasantly surprised.
While some may say four hours of lame jokes isn't
too much, I found it enjoyable. Also, Doc Rivers stinks
the Sixers better start the process over and Ben Simmons sucks,
(23:41):
So he says, mister nice guy claims he has solved
Ben simmons foul shooting conundrum, and he wants to know
how to be compensated. And he says, hey, he's going
to go full old school nineteen seventies. Rick Barry underhanded. Yeah.
Remember years ago when Shaquille O'Neill was horrifically bad at
(24:04):
the foul line, it had been suggested to put the
Rick Berry underhand foul shooting method on display. And I remember, correctly,
a shack was not interested in that because it's very
emasculating to shoot foul shots underhanded. That it is a blow.
(24:25):
You know, you're a tough guy and you've got to
stosterone to shoot foul shots underhanded. It's it's very unbecoming.
And it's not just Shack. There have been other players
that have been horrific. DeAndre Jordan's another one. We're like,
why does he back in the lob City? There is
why do I need to shoot underhanded? Yeah? Now I
(24:45):
could create the perfect NBA player. I'm gonna say there's
two things. There's two skill sets that the NBA player,
as in my Frankenstein Maller lab to create the most
unstopped apple NBA player. I'm gonna give you those two
things that say Fox Sports Radio Ben Maller Show Exclusive.
(25:05):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Hey,
it's Ben, host of the Fifth Hour with Ben Maller
along with my trustee sidekick David Gascon. Would mean a
lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey.
You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour.
I'll tell you it's a spin off of that Ben
Maller Show. A Colt hit overnights on FSR. Why should
(25:29):
you listen? Picture? If you will? A world? Will we chat?
With captains of industry in media, sports and more. Every
week Explorer, some amazing facts about a human nature and more.
Let'sten to the fifth hour with Ben Maller on the
iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
The Diamondbacks have lost again now they're they're at home now,
so the road losing streak isn't They're so bad that
(25:49):
Albert Pool host looks like he's back with the Cardinals
hitting bombs against Arizone Dodgers with the nine eight win.
That's seventeen straight losses overall. For you a ray? Was it?
The dodgerssay? With the dime in Backs allowing them to
think they were going to come back and win that
game gets close, it's absolutely cruel. It was. It was
great though. I enjoyed it. Yeah. Is that where Roberto is?
Did he go to? Did you go to Arizona? Now?
(26:10):
I think he's celebrating Father's Day extending dance remix there.
It's a I think holiday Eddie Daddy. I guess it is.
I don't know how it is in your neighborhood, Ben,
but the fireworks are going off right and left. Yes,
any excuse to shoot off fireworks. I guess yeah. One
(26:31):
of my fond memories of the COVID shutdown twenty twenty
was on the fourth of July, and really the days
leading up to the fourth in July, fireworks everywhere. It
was like a demilitarized zone in my neighborhood. And these
were like Disneyland style fireworks. These were not just the
kind you know, the safe, insane kind you would get
(26:53):
down the street when you were kids, Eddie. These were
you launched them out of like a grenade launcher. It's
unreal craziness. I hear you. And uh, you know you
always talk about investing. I know you're an investor. I'm
really Coop Coop also likes to invest. I'd like to
think I'm investing. Maybe we should invest in fireworks. With
the number of fireworks that are shot off routine. My
(27:14):
sources tell me that those fireworks based raised in Los Angeles,
that there's a lot of people, Eddie, to make the
run for the borders. Yeah, can you not invest in
foreign companies? I mean, I don't know that there's a well,
I don't think there's a lot of money in that. No, Okay, Well, yeah,
like I had heard that the reason those fireworks were
available readily is because so many local municipalities fireworks shows
(27:36):
were canceled. The people that made the fireworks were left
with all these fireworks and they were selling them on
you know, pennies on the dollars to try to get
their money back, and so that's why they were readily available.
That's what I had heard, you know, because every city's like, well,
we can't have fireworks because of COVID, and you can't
have people get together and watch fireworks from their backyard,
and so they got rid of that anyway, Thank you
(27:57):
for that, Eddie. It is the band Mallard show as
we press on bluviating the overnight hours away. So the
perfect basketball player into Frankenstein slash Mahller's lab. Mister nice
guy brought up the rick Berry. But if I were
to create the perfect NBA player, I would take a
young player that has great ability, and there's two things
(28:20):
I would teach that player. Number one would be the
rick Berry foul shot. If you can make eighty five
to ninety five percent of your foul shots and you
have the ability to get foul allot that is a
lethal weapon. As we have seen in the NBA over
the years. Obviously, there's certain guys that get fouled more
than others, that are very good at getting to the
foul line and have the officials in their back pocket.
(28:43):
But to convert the foul shots at a high rate
is tremendous. So the rick Berry technique underhand foulshon. And
the other thing is the skyhook. The sky hook, if
you are someone of size, it is the most unstoppable shot,
unstoppable play in all of sport. And to think that
(29:07):
no one since Kareem abdul Jabbar has regularly used that
in their arsenal. They've been select random players that from
from time to time have used a mini sky hook.
But the majestic lu al sinder, Kareem abdul Jabbar skyhook unstopped, undefendable, unstoppable.
(29:27):
He made it at such a high rate. And yet
it takes a lot of time to master that, a
lot of practice, a lot of blood, sweat and tears,
and no one's been willing to put the work in.
No one's been willing to do it. They want to
do their own thing. I mean, there are other moves
in basketball, the dream shake, the achema dream Elijah Wan
(29:48):
the dream shake back, and they but the skyhook and
the underhand faul shooting two simple things. And the underhand
faul shooting thing. If you do that, it's not like
anyone can run out and block the shot, and you
make it. It's such a high percentage. My goodness. All right,
now I want to circle back to the seventies sixers.
We have some more audio. Good audio. When you got
(30:09):
good audio, you got to play good audio. And we
have the good audio. Ben Simmons. All right. Ben Simmons
mentioned his struggles. He's just afraid to shoot the ball.
He's got a case of the not the yips, there's
something else there. He just gets tight, took a syndrome,
doesn't shoot at all late in games. Thirty million dollars
(30:30):
year ball player, which is fine, congratulations, I'm making the money.
But when you make that kind of money, you've got
to be able to shoot the ball, or at least
occasionally take a shot in the fourth quarter when your
team's drowning. Anyway, here's Ben Simmons. A lot of chatter.
You're gonna hear a lot of this noise over the
next couple of days. In the next couple of weeks
and months that Ben Simmons will be out in Philly
(30:53):
and here you'll hear the question and the answer was
this the final game in a Sixers uniform for Ben Simmons.
Toward the end of the game, there were a few
chances that were going out there asked saying trade Ben Simmons,
stuff like that, do you feel like you played your
last few minutes here in Philadelphia? I feel like we
just love Game seven? It was about it, would you
(31:13):
like to remain in Philadelphia? Yeah, I mean I love
being in Philly, you know, I love his organization. The
fans are great, great people for me. Out of bad series,
I expect that it's Philly. Yeah. So that was a
by the book answer, and maybe that's how he feels. Man.
I don't know. I'm not in the mind of Ben Simmons.
I've been certainly possible he'll at some point, I would
(31:35):
imagine to say, well, I'm gonna do some self reflection
and some introspection and try to find some enlightenment. And
we might be hearing a different song here that people
around Ben Simmons will start leaking to Woad and the
other NBA insiders that Ben Simmons really thinks he needs
a fresh start, needs to go somebody else, somewhere else,
and all that. Here's one more from Ben Simmons and
(31:58):
you'll hear the question the answer again on what exactly
he needs to work on. Ben doc said, there's work
to do and he and you need to get into
the gym. What do you think the work is that
needs to be done? And I guess prioritized. Is it
pre throw shooting, is it being more aggressive? Is it
(32:20):
perimeter shooting? What is it in your game that you
think you need to improve? First, I think all of it.
You hit on all of them. I issue, well from
the line this series offensively, I wasn't there. I ain't
doing enough for my teammates. There's a lot, there's a
lot of things I need to work on it. Yeah,
So in other words, reinventing the wheel. He needs to
reinvent the w. This is like a total bullcrap story
(32:42):
that we've heard over the last couple of years. Now.
I have no skin in the game. I'm not a
Philadelphia fan. I'm not a Sixers fan, but I know
from doing this job and chronicling the Sixers who've been
one of the high profile teams that we've heard similar
comments about Ben Simmons, and it seems to me number
one to be a total boondoggle that every year we
(33:03):
hear he's gonna be more aggressive. And remember it was
before the season, it was he's gonna shoot the three
point shot now, and all this to waste of time.
It is literally, infiguratively a waste of time. And the
meat of the matter is Ben Simmons is who he is,
for better or worse. Now, I don't think he's terrible.
He's fine for seventy five percent of the game. The
(33:26):
problem is that most games are won or lost in
the fourth quarter, and so for seventy five ers in
the game, he's like, well, Ben Simmons is not a problem.
We get a lot of rebounds who pass the ball
pretty well. He's really good around the rim at scoring,
so in theory that's not a bad player. But you
gotta shoot from the outside. I gotta coach this guy.
(33:48):
They gotta hire me as an assistant coach in philadelph
Moneyball Maller if I could get a couple of minutes
with Ben Simmons, moneyball Maller, I dominated the parks back
in the day, teach this guy how to shoot the
three point shot and everyone would thank me. That's how
that would go. All right, Straight ahead, we're gonna have
the MLB pick hm, the MLB pickham. Here's the who
(34:10):
am I? Game? Continue the theme of the hour, So,
Doc Rivers has now lost each of the last four
game sevens, including last year with the Clippers against the Nuggets.
That ties me for the longest losing streak in game
sevens by any head coach in NBA history. Again, Doc Rivers,
(34:31):
you're Philadelphia seventy sisters coach has now lost each of
his last four game sevens, including last year with the
Clips against the Nuggets. That ties me for the longest
losing streak in game sevens by any head coach in
NBA history. Who Am I? The answer? And the MLB
pickum next. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk
(34:53):
lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at
Fox Sports Radio dot com and within the iHeart Radio apps.
Search f SR to listen live from the first moment
you tune in. You know, the Ben Maller Show is
not your garden variety of sports talk. We welcome all
the freaks of nature to the Malar relationship. Facebook's an
online amusement park for all of us. You can chat
(35:14):
with other super fans of the show. It's simple and
it's free. Help support our show by liking our page.
Go to Facebook dot com, slash Ben Maller's show and
alive in the Fox Sports radio studios. It's Ben Maller.
Congratulations to Doc Rivers. Always impressive when you make NBA history.
He's done it. Doc Rivers has now lost each of
his last four game sevens. Unfortunately for me, most of
(35:35):
those were the Clippers, but last four game sevens, including
last year against the Nuggets, that ties me for the
longest such losing streak in game sevens by any head
coach in NBA history. Who am I? That is the question?
(35:56):
What is the answer? Mannic Mike got this right? Clue
cheating Emmett the blind Seahawk fan is going with Mark Jackson.
There goes that man, George Carl from Rob in Minnesota,
Jason and Rocky Mount Virginia, a big supporter of the
Fifth Hour with Ben Mallers is the Mouth of the South.
(36:17):
Jimmy Hart is the answer. Chris in Des Moines says
Herb tarlik As anybody in radio over the last forty
fifty years can thank w KRP in Cincinnati, but incorrect out.
Who else you have? Jean Shoe from poly d Billy
Cunningham tossed out by Balls fan Jimmy rod Stewart from
(36:38):
Luke the Vending Guy, Dennis Rodman from Robbie the Mariner
Fans stand Van Gundi guest by Oscar. Who else do
we have? Doctor Rios from Daddy Alon that's his guest.
Jason in Denver going with Scottie Skiles as his answer,
just Josh cheating, He got it right. Cole Beasley from
(37:01):
mister Nice Guy. Mister nice Guy is a big fan
of Cole Beasley. The Ozzie Guys going with Kyle Shanahan
is his answer. Robin Vegas is the big dog, Roman
Roman rains. Who else do we have? Roman Range, Tim
pink Floyd guests by Rich all Right? Do you have
an answer? Eddie? Quickly? Eddie, please don't I don't have
an answer? You do not have an answer? Thanks for playing, Eddie.
(37:24):
Appreciate that the correct answer would be none other than
Rick Addleman. Rick Adleman Sacramento Portland, among others, lost four
straight game sevens from twenty o two to twenty oh
nine in the postseason. So it's Rick Adleman and Doc Rivers,
and that leads us into the m L B. Peck.
(37:48):
And we did golf at the end of the week
and apparently Coop picked John Robs, right I did. And
today I'm gonna pick Jacob deGrom odd first pick. I
didn't see that when coming, Eddie, Let's go with uh
Kyle Gibson of all right, you get sound excited about that.
(38:10):
I will take Julio Urius of the Los Angeles Dodgers,
Chris Yep back to back, Okay, Carlos Pena and Omar Infante.
All right, I'll take good picks U Jesse Winker, Eddie, Uh,
Carlos Korea, Coop back to back. I will go with
Ronald to Kuda Junior and Uh Cedric Mullings of the Orioles. Hey, Chris,
(38:38):
Jeremy Bonderman of the Tigers. Bonderman was so good. I
think he's gonna make a come back.
Host
Ben Maller
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