May 30, 2023 • 36 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon recap the Celtics epic collapse in Game 7 and debate whether or not their head coach Joe Mazzulla should be fired after tonight’s no show. The guys tell you why the Denver Nuggets are the overwhelming favorites in the NBA Finals. And you’ll hear from Erik Spoelstra!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Gives you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Hello and welcome inside our three of The Jason Smith
Show with my bes friend Mike Harmon, live from the
Tirack dot Com studios tirec dot com. I'll help you
get there an unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road
hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers tirack dot
com the way tire buying should be. So we gave
(00:52):
you that Big Bowl prediction from the mime Heat. Look,
the Heat have changed the NBA for the next five
years regular season as if it means anything, will mean
even less next year. Let's just get in. As long
as we're winning, we don't need to worry about home field.
Let's keep our guys healthy, and let's be peaking at
the right time. This is what the Heat have done
the Heat have also affected a lot of other teams. Look,
(01:14):
they got Mike, Buttenholz Aer fired, The Knicks are in
trouble now, Julius Randall's gonna be gone. And now the
Celtics they're gonna lose Jalen Brown, They're gonna fire Joe Mizula.
All of these things are happening because they lost to
the Heat. The Heater cleaning up the NBA and one
fell swoop well. But the Heat. We talked about it
with Mark Madeena, and it's something you and I have
talked about quite a while on this show, and it
(01:36):
goes back a couple of years, going back to the
Heat's run last year before it fell short to the Celtics.
Was the idea of continuity and building a program, something
that doesn't happen in college football or basketball in a
lot of cases anymore. And in our professional sports. You
can count in most sports on one hand the number
(01:57):
of teams you would say subscribe to that philosophy. In
the NFL, it's New England, it's Pittsburgh, generally, Baltimore. San
Francisco has that style with their front office, and then
Green Bay has long been lauded that way. Now you
look at the Chiefs. Okay, so we got the six
great uh in the NBA? What do you got how many?
(02:18):
How many teams can you say really subscribe to that?
It's the Miami Heat, It's the ownership that's been there
thirty years. It's pat Riley menacing people and staring you
down while behind the bench, and everything else. And then
you've got Spolster who's been there for fifteen years. Everything
else is the sick leicality because Greg Popovich is a
(02:39):
shell of his former self unless Victor Wemby. No, no, no,
I think he's gonna be very spry when if all
of a sudden he's a wizard. Yes, all of a sudden,
Popovich will be bad. No, no, he's gonna be like
the old guy from the uh. Yeah that they'd be
dancing around like that continuity there. Yeah that, But go
(03:01):
out the rest. I mean, we watched coaches of the
Year get fired, we got NBA title winners. Nurse gets
a new job today. Budenholz are still out there.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
It's it's guys that are just kind of floating in
no man's land. And part of it is all right,
you failed and we turned things over. We gotta have
a new voice in here. The superstar doesn't like that guy.
Remember when Lebron James tried to get Spolster ousted? Hey Pat,
why don't you come coach this team? Yeah, didn't work,
didn't work, didn't work. They got four title title runs,
(03:31):
two wins out of that before Lebron left. So here
it is, all these years later, Spolster's still getting the
job done. So there's your heat part of it. Now,
let's get into the Celtics angle. Be curt it down.
According to everybody. By that, I mean everybody on social media, experts, pundits,
Joe Mizzoula, it's all his fault. Now, you're gonna hear
(03:53):
some of Joe Mizzula following Game seven, and I'm gonna
tell you exactly what's gonna happen with he and the
Celtics in the offseason. First, this interview is starting to
make the rounds. He did an end of game interview
with NBC Sports Boston and it's a very short interview.
It's a twenty eight second interview Abby Chin of NBC
Sports Boston, and you can tell Missoula really didn't have
(04:15):
a desire to do this interview, but probably had to
do it contractually. He was probably obligated to do it.
This is after the Celtics lost Game seven. Here's Missoula
doing the interview. Joe, I don't know how eloquently to
ask it, so I'm just gonna say what happened.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
They played better than we did.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Why, I don't know better.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Guys give you everything they had. And that's the most
important thing is that people understand what the best locker
rooms have been a part of. And those guys give
you everything.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
That How much pain is Jason in with that ankle?
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Sertain?
Speaker 5 (04:46):
What was your message to them?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
No think that's it? Twenty eight seconds? All right? I
got how long do we have you? For? Thirty seconds?
And that's it? All right? Just ask as many questions
you can in the thirty seconds. Just ask us. But
he gave him, Like Jesus, he's given me nothing like
no answer. He looks like he'd been punched in the face. Well,
you know, when you get the video to it, this
is a guy that looks like everything he'd worked to,
everything the team had built too, like someone came and
(05:13):
bludgeted him. Yeah, and now it's pushed you out in
front of a micro Well, but you know, hey, you
get paid big money. The coach Celtics right trying to
describe his demeanor in in that and I mean he
was being very judicious with his words. What do you
want me to say? Well, you're this is part of
the deal. It's not just a head coach for the
good times. The bad times come and you got to
(05:34):
talk to the media, the lights go on. This has
to be who you are. This is where I can
understand people saying I might be in over his head
a little bit. But that was That was a twenty
eight second interview with NBC Sports Boston. Here's a little
bit of Joe Mizzula from a few moments ago, maybe
the media following the Celtics defeat, and then tell you
exactly how it's gonna go for him in the Celtics
this summer, I.
Speaker 6 (05:54):
Mean the whole season, kind of trying to like playoff
of getting stops, just kind of create open threes. How
did this kind of represent a lot of the struggles
you guys had all season?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Yeah, we I thought the first quarter and a half
or so we continued to fight defensively, even though our
shots weren't falling, and then you know, we just couldn't
couldn't score.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
What did you do to try to create some kind
of easier looks, more rhythm looks that fit some of
the personnel. You have to try to, like at least
get them something to fall just.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Our switch attack, try to move against his.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Own Sure, what was the difference between tonight in the
last three games where you seem to be playing with confidence?
The defense was good, there was energy there tonight it
just seemed like after the first six minutes something changed.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
We shot twenty one percent from three, defense was still there.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Is this team to relying on the three point shot?
Does that have to change?
Speaker 5 (06:58):
No, Joe, I did the game plan after just navigate
perhaps any limitations.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Jason had nothing. I mean I thought we just he
just tried to play through as best as he could.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
And how do you, obviously, just with it ending right now,
look back on this season, how do you assess the
season this team had.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
It's one of the best locker rooms I've been a
part of. The guys cared and they gave it everything
they had. It's the most important thing to take from this.
Obviously we didn't achieve our role. We didn't win, which
was our role. So we failed in that regard. But
it's not because the guys didn't have a sense of
together in this character you know, and just who they
(07:39):
are as people.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
All Right, So there's Joe Missoula, some of him talking
to the media. The first thing I'll say is this,
as you've seen, Missoula is not great with the media. No,
he's not great. He doesn't come off well when you
give short answers like that, I can see where you
could say, well, I'm answering the question. Okay, you realize
the optic is you you're not really you're not really
(08:02):
doing what you should be doing, which is they ask
a question, you answered. But that's the big that's the
big thing, the the optics and the expectation versus the reality.
Did he do the job? I mean, if you're gonna ask,
and then we're trained to do this from day one,
don't ask a question that someone can do yes, no, two,
because if they're in the right mood, you mean, the
(08:24):
wrong mood, they're gonna give you the one word answer. Well,
if you give a yes no kind of situation, and
which is what most of those questions were. No, yeah,
I don't know, did you need to change your three point?
I get your point to the optics of it, but
it's certainly also something from a journalistic And I use
(08:46):
that word very cautiously here at sports talk radio because
I think it's a glowing lowercase j from in most situations.
But you don't if you can you want to get
someone talking, or at least they've got to make the
conscious choice to not give you a yes, no, no.
But but I say, and that's a great that that's
(09:07):
a good point. But but you know that you're the
guy that no matter how you answer, well, I'm answering
yes or no. And where the optic is you you tad?
And for a guy that needs to convince people that
I'm up to the task, that doesn't do it. He
tried to sell that last answer, take me out of
this locker road, take care you know. Look, and and
(09:29):
this goes into what what the what the end result
is gonna wind up being for Joe Mizula is that
you would think a guy jumping in and stepping in
a year when he wasn't expected to even be the
head pitch and winning fifty seven games and getting to
within one game of the NBA Finals is gonna be enough.
But there's too much blood that Celtics and Celtics Nation want,
(09:53):
whether it is in the media, whether it's on the team,
because you're gonna get stuff like Jason Tatum saying I
don't know, Jalen saying, I don't know what about your strategy.
I don't know. There's too much frustration and anger for
this to go without having some kind of responsibility being
(10:13):
taken by someone. Jason Tatum's your star. He had a
hurt ankle. I can tell you how it's gonna go.
Jason Tatum's fine. Jalen Brown. Maybe we got to get
rid of Jalen Brown. Maybe he's not the right guy.
Maybe we have to bring another star because Jalen Brown's
not that good. Bring another star. But Joe Mizzoula is
gonna be the one that's gonna be at the at
the fulkroom of everything, and he's gonna be the one
(10:33):
that's gonna lose his job because of it. Because the
Celtics this is unacceptable again, losing to the Heat, lose
to an eight seed, no matter what you saw. Teams
are going going absolutely crazy with firing head coaches and
wanting players traded because you lost to the Heat. All right,
I think the Heat proved they're a pretty good team.
They got hot at the right time. They're pretty good.
But someone's going to have to be holding the bag
(10:53):
for this Celtics defeat, because this is unacceptable. We were
down because they went down. It wasn't just they lost
the series. They got down three zip and that was embarrassing.
But they came back to tie a three to three.
But then they had an absolute no show in game seven.
You're talking about two really awful things in one series.
This wasn't the Celtics lost in seven games, and you know,
(11:14):
they were down to zip, but they tied it, and
they tied it again and they lost it. This was
the embarrassment of going down three zip is really large.
And then the egg day laid tonight. That's too much
and there's gonna have to be some kind of responsibility
for it. And the fact that Missoula was kind of
thrust in. It's not like the Celtics are married to him.
It's not like they're, well, he's our hand pick guy.
(11:34):
We're no, there's going to be some kind of and
when you see a lot of coaches out there that
are getting hired, that are coming off winning championships, like
Nick Nurse got a new gig today. Missoula's gonna be
the guy that's gonna be You're the one responsible for it,
and the Celtics have to go forward because they need
to get more out of Tatum, they need to get
more out of Brown, they need to be more consistent
all of these things. Now, how much of this is
(11:56):
Missoula's fault, You can debate that, but I'll tell you
who's gonna get the blame for it, and that's what
right or wrong. He's gonna be the guy that gets
the blade. Well, and that's thing over the next twenty
four hours, certainly in the city of Boston and on
national airwaves, he's gonna wear it and we're gonna play
back that audio. You and I'll do it, and all
the other shows will do it. And it's not a
good look. Right, asked answered is part of it. But
(12:19):
looking like the moment is too big for you, which
your team did, and then you did in the postgame
press conference answering for it. You know, I've seen a
couple of clips of Jalen Brown at this point whatever
you think of him on the court, and he had
a rough game shooting wise, committed some egregious turnovers. He's
the guy that owned it. He just put his hand
(12:40):
up because he was also doing a lot of chirping
during the course of the series. Right down three to zero,
don't let us get one. All of that, and they
got back. But after the game he didn't point to
anything else except I played terribly so to some level,
certainly on the East Coast, I mean, you're a New
York guy, and even going towards the Midwest in Chicago,
(13:02):
there's something to be said for a guy standing up
and just saying, hey, that's on me. That suck. Is
it enough to save Joe Mazua. No, Brad Stevens made
descend from on high and take the role again. But
remember towards the end of the season, there were a
lot of questions as the Udoka hiring process started down
(13:23):
for a couple of teams before he finally landed his gig.
That the players in the Celtics locker room. Despite some
success in the regular season, obviously one of the top
teams in the East as we finished the at the
number two slot, but that there was still some dissatisfaction
as to the way that whole thing was handled. So
I don't think they've we talked about the Draymond punch
(13:45):
of Jordan Poole affecting what happened with the Warriors. I
don't think everything was settled with the coaching change and
all coming into the year, and they still get to
the conference finals, so they did well. Likewise, the Warriors
had the Lakers in a pretty good spot and gave
two games away. But you know that all of that festers,
(14:08):
meaning you could have a change because you still have
some top notch coaches of the past out there. And
like I said, Brad Stevens, you got that itch again.
Twitter at how about a fresca Mike, It's swollen down
the Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon
live from the tirec dot Com studios. Celtics are gonna
need somebody who's responsible, who we met at the most,
(14:29):
who's a guy that was thrust in and when when
your job is in question, everything counts towards it, whether
it's how you handle the media, how you handle answers,
how you handle yourself in big situations, how much coaching
you do or don't do, how many timeouts you use
or don't use. Everything is on the table, and that's
(14:50):
why you're just playing that little bit for you with
the media. It's okay, Greg pop pitch can get away
with that because the guy's won four titles and this
is guy who he's been for thirty years. We' you
become a persona when you're a lucky head coach, and
this is how you're active. Dude. You just seem bitter
and upset and you can't find answers and you're pissed
that you got to answer questions. You got to be
a pro, right, That's how it comes across. He comes
across as being salty and bitter, and really is his
(15:14):
lack of maturity of being able to answer questions. I
get they're tough, you don't want to answer them, but
you said yes, you got the gig, right, you got
the gig. You said yes, this is what goes along.
You've had a whole season of these press conferences. You're
well practiced. You've done what at least one hundred of them? Right,
I mean, did you do one after every game, whether
(15:35):
it's national media or just the local stuff. You're accountable
in talking to somebody. Come on, man, Twitter out about
a Fresco. Mike, it's swollen dome. We have more on
this game coming up. We'll hear from Eric Spolstra as
well as he is very happy heading to Denver for
the NBA Finals. Plus we get in a big NFL
conversation about a star running back that says, oh yeah, man,
(15:55):
I used to smoke weed all the time before I played.
The games where I'd go for one hundred and fifty
yards are two touchdowns. Smoke weed every day. That's next
right here, Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with My best
friend Mike Harmon Easy Chew, you have Memorial Day, the
Heat head to the NBA Finals, and if Eric Spolster
is like Michael Malone, He's not gonna like what's being
said about his team. As we get said for the
(16:41):
NBA Finals, the Nuggets are the overwhelming NBA Finals favorites.
Nikola Jokic is minus one twenty five to average a
triple double in the finals. Denver has opened as an
eight point home favorite to win Game one. The Nugget
it's installed as minus three sixty favorites to win the
(17:04):
NBA title. All of this is overwhelming, and I'd love
to be able to sit here and tell you, Oh,
the scrappy Heat and playoffs, playoff Tyler heroes coming back
and I might be back in the middle of the
stay yeah inspiration. The Heat aren't gonna get a game.
They're not gonna win a game. The Nuggets are gonna
in the first two games by twenty five points each game.
(17:26):
It's gonna be an absolute blowout. Nobody bam Adebayo is
a pretty good player, and Nikola Yolki is gonna do
whatever the hell he wants to. And outside of injury,
which I don't want to put it up, but we
got to talk about it, but outside of injury to
one of the key players with the Nuggets, meaning outside
an injury to Yoki j or Murray, Nuggets in four, Nugget,
forget about Nuggets and find out Nuggets in four and
(17:48):
it's gonna be that easy. They went on the first
what is it the first, the fourth, the seventh, and
the ninth. Right, that's the NBA Finals one four to
seven nine, right, So those are the dates. That's it
right there, just like you're picking numbers for a lottery
four seven to nine nuggets in four four four. Put
those fours up, I said, get them fours up. I'm
gonna say fours up, all right? Who you impressed you? Okay?
(18:11):
When he was doing the three, put them fours up,
I said, put them fours up. I'm just impressed. Jason
can count that high. No, it's pretty good. Hey, we
play the Frances you won the entire time. Okay, did
you watch the count growing up? Ah ah ah, one
two three. That's the equivalent of the family guy thing
(18:35):
of Peter Griffin when he falls down and skins his
his knee and he lays there for forty five seconds,
or they bring the chicken back for him to fight again.
It's a nice way to kill time. Yeah. Likewise, when
Sesame Street went to the count, if it got beyond five,
now you know they're just lazy and they were stealing
minutes and to count to more numbers and five. They
(18:57):
can't just say listen, we are gonna have you count
to anything after that that's on you. No, No, eventually
you build to it. But it's five, why not six?
If six? Why not seven? Seven? Why not eight?
Speaker 7 (19:08):
Any?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Why not nine? When not many titles? Nine? Why not ten?
But ten? You get to two numbers? Actually, then it's
not one. I mean you get put in the video
of Lebron two trying to get you three, four, five,
not six? How many do I have? Not two? Not three?
Not four?
Speaker 7 (19:25):
No?
Speaker 1 (19:26):
So four nuggets in four four? Buddy, they're getting at
least a you are knocking not I mean, look, the
Celtics had the ultimate motivation. The heat had already booked
their flights, that standard protocol. But the idea that Jimmy Butler,
what you've gotten from the role players, and I gotta
(19:49):
imagine anything you get from Tyler hero gives you a bonus. Right,
there's a guy that can hit from beyond the arc
and bam Adebayo. Now you've got to pick your poison.
Intern If Jokic's outside shot is hitting, no, he's gonna dish,
and that's fine. He's a favorite to go for the
triple double. As you say, Jamal Murray's been a handful
(20:10):
and I love that starting rotation. Don't get me wrong,
I still pick the Nuggets to win. But to tell
me that Eric Spolster is not gonna be able to
come up with a plan nope, to get a game? No,
how can you plan? Stop jokicch okay, how stop him?
I'm not saying that's yeah. I mean we've talked about
guys saying he's got to be arrested or whatever. Look,
(20:30):
this is gonna look like a youth sports tournament. Pick
your favorite youth sport, whether it's softball or baseball or
soccer or whatever it is, where you go and spend
a weekend playing games. Right you go, Hey, we enter
this tournament and you go spend a weekend. We play
two games on Saturday, two games Sunday. If we win,
we go to the championship this weekend. And I'm really
(20:52):
proud of you. You got to play, No, Joe, I'm
gonna watch my daughter and her team do their thing.
I'm really happy that you didn't. You know, folks all
show on my sunburn. It is very red and you
need to wear a hat. I kind of look like
the dude from Marvel, right, red skull, Oh yeah, yellow
red scull little red skull. Maybe anger from inside out. Yeah,
(21:13):
that's definitely yeah, little Lewis. But if you get really mad,
like well, you're yeah, the fire just start coming out
of the top of it. Right. But you know, you
see this all the time. You go to a youth
tournament and it's a whole weekend, right, it's a weekend
to where we're gonna play. We gotta pay eight am Saturday,
then we play at noon, then we play again Sunday morning,
and then we play Sunday afternoon. If we win, and
you go and you play the first few games and
(21:35):
your team is pretty good, and you win the first game,
you win the second game, pretty excited, you win the
third game. In soccer, so you tie the fourth game,
or baseball, you win all four games. Hey, we're feeling
pretty good and we're gonna play for the championship at
five o'clock, and you're thinking, we got this, we got this.
And then you play that championship game at five o'clock.
It's the team you haven't played yet, and suddenly it's whoa,
(21:56):
we're down ten to nothing in the third inning, or boy,
it's three h thing after the first eight minutes of
the game. In soccer. This is what's gonna happen to
the Heat. They're feeling pretty good right now because they've
played pretty well, but they've played pretty well against competition
that has been Eh. It's not like the Heat have
played unbelievable basketball. They have just played basketball everybody better
(22:20):
than the teams they played against. The Knicks play tell
you if you want to do that. I mean, listen
to all the apologies for the last week talking about
how close the Lakers were, even though it was a
sweet Nuggets. Well, they were in the state. They actually
were the team playing them in the series. That's why
it was close. They won. They've won everything big. The
teams that the Heat are playing, the Bucks. Obviously, the
(22:43):
Bucks got issues. They fired their head coach right after.
Giannis is like, I don't know what we're doing. I
don't know we should be doing. Okay, new head coach,
all right, new head coach. The Knicks played horribly and
the Heat just played a little bit better than they did.
That was probably the worst series the Heat played was
against the Knicks. And that's what so bleep and frustrating
is because the Knicks could have won that series, but no, oh,
they couldn't fish stop Frostburg. We won two games. It
(23:03):
was not close to the Eastern Conference Finals game with
Jimmy Butler out there. Hey, it's it's it doesn't matter
who's out there. You gotta win when who's out there.
Just stop you which you got swept, You got swept.
He was going a couple of days. He's got a
lot to say. He got swept. He got swept. Then,
especially if you're gonna try to tell me that the
Knicks had a chance and you're trying to disparage what
(23:27):
the heat are all about? Just missing because your team suck.
Heater good, but the heater limited. Hey Aaron Rodgers, he
didn't winning the Super Bowl and then he was there, Yeah,
he was. It was fun. He said, the jets are
gonna win the super Bowl. We have that sound absolutely
not guard Come on man, him saying that jetson won
the Super Bowl at the Taylor Swift concert. Uh. But
(23:50):
then you have a Celtics team where you get up
three zip and they absolutely quit in game three. Then
they come back and win the next three and then
they don't show up in game seven and again you
don't play great, but you have enough to win the
Eastern Conference is not nearly to the level of the Nuggets.
I don't mean the level of the Western Conference, but
to the level of the Nuggets. Over the course of
(24:10):
the season, the Nuggets have proven, Hey, there were teams
that were at the top of their conference. We were
clearly the best. And they still are clearly the best.
And I can't see how that changes. I don't want
to confuse the Heat winning some pressure field games and
Jimmy Bucket's having big games. It's been entertaining, but has
it been at a really high level of play. It hasn't.
If they get money it up right, I mean, you're
(24:33):
just assuming they're just gonna get run over. They're a
good defensive team. Are they a great scoring team? Hell no,
they were last in the regular season. We get that
the Heat are not a team that generally runs out
and dominates. They did put up one hundred and three
to night. They shot fifty percent from three point range.
You get Tyler hero back and you can't tell me
that a guy that was scoring twenty a game doesn't
(24:56):
matter in your rotations, and how well you know you
might have you're hoping to get him right, but it
was You've been complaining for weeks about Julius Randall didn't
play in that game, or or this happened, like we did.
I really complain that Julius Randall wasn't playing, well you
did until you realize that I don't think I complained
that Randall was no noose because remember, because Jimmy but
(25:22):
Prospero Smith you had him in the gunner. I'll bring
you back to the tape, right because remember Jimmy Butler
missed the game. Julius Randall miss the game. You're like, well,
we we didn't win, you know when Julius random miss
like and now you want to kick him to the curve.
So you can't have it both ways. But my point is,
Tyler Heroes missed this entire process. That's an extra body,
(25:42):
that's an extra shooter, and maybe it would have been
a little more aesthetically pleasing to you. Is he in
a guardok and shut him down. I'm just saying that
the offense takes a different complexity. And you now you're,
you know, bowing at the altar of Nikola Jokic. You're
gonna put him in your top five. The guy's thirty nine,
fifteen and twelve and every game. What do you want
(26:02):
to do? What are you gonna do? I'm just missing him.
What are you gonna do? Just saying he is human
there if he if he cuts, does he not bleed?
I mean, come on, I mean he wasn't even on
Mark Jackson's top five. Yes, and he knows basketball anyway,
moving on, or he doesn't know how to fill in
a ballot. But that's the other thing. No, but that.
But look, yeah, either way, it all works. I get it.
(26:24):
I get it. But I'm not gonna dis miss him
that They're not gonna give him an effort. They're gonna quit.
I just don't think they can win a game. I
don't think they can put up a great effort and
win a game. They're gonna show up now after this
series and have to get ready for Game one, and
they're gonna go to Denver and you're gonna get the
thin air stuff, and they're gonna run out of gas.
They're already there, man, I mean there. But it's gonna
(26:44):
be the thin air. They're gonna run out of gas.
It's gona be all of these things. And the Nuggets
going to the first two games by twenty five points each, game.
It's gonna be boy, he really have to get Game three.
The Nuggets will get Game three by ten because they're
that good and it's gonna be that simple. Four games
one four seven none right, one four seven. Those are
the dates. One four seventh, one four one two three four.
(27:06):
You will lose five six seven, not one four seven nights.
I'm like, I'm watching the hamster run around in his head.
I'm just doing what I'm doing games, the dates of
the games doing first tune, fourth June. The squirrel eight
your sleeves has in his skull? Is that where you
keep the extress? Yes, that's where exactly in my sleeves,
(27:30):
he said, in your skull? Yeah? Why why? But but
I could just because I'm wearing a shirt with no sleeves.
I mean, I'm a you know, like how many man?
But now you don't need to pay. You can just
look at me and go boy guy. And I got
and my arms are ten. It's the I was gonna
go home and get some rest. My arms are ten.
They look good, they're toned. I look pretty good. I'm
one of the I could be one of those Yahoo
(27:52):
articles where they go Jason Smith toned arms are straight right.
When you see that so and so's sculpt abs, right,
that's a big thing. Oh see Alexandra de Dario's sculpted
ebbs or so and So's legs are sculpted, are straight fire?
That's I'm sorry, Well, if that's your girl's Alexander Daria
(28:15):
many that's your girl. But like my arts, straight fire.
Look at the tone. God, I'm straight fire man. Yeah,
like a Greek. Jason Smith in a Syracuse cut off
sweatshirt that he cut the sleeves off himself. He is
straight fire with sculpted arms and tone. Try scene looks
(28:36):
like Greek yoga just from a gas. Look, I'm flexing
as I'm grabbing the stage right now because taking pictures
right now. Just there's already a video at Fox Sports
Radio on Instagram right now of us in studio talking
for the immediate aftermath of the game seven. And there
(28:57):
you are right center with Look at the definition of
just shadow. It just goes right in. That's a look
at I got definition. Friendly is trying to take pictures
for his archives. That's a whole other thing. He's taking
pictures to show his mom going, hey mom, here's Jason Smith.
You know, Yeah, you still want to date him, I'll
(29:19):
find out if he's single. Look at the not I mean,
you know, I could be a TRICEP modeler. You kidd
be a tricept model.
Speaker 7 (29:27):
Man.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
It's me sculpted, scup, straight, fire toned. She wasn't home
when you left the house? Was she toned? I meant,
I meant inviting Fely's mom over. No, no, no, no,
no that this is all in theory. Henley's Friendly's mom
is all It's all in theory. It's all in theory.
Oh this isn't real. Well I don't. Let's see Friendly.
(29:49):
Is your mom still single?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
She's not single?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Congratulations? Wow, wow, Okay, whoa hang on a second party
and Brian get it up? Coming out of retirement party
at Fedally. I gotta go buy a new key chain. Listen,
you know both you and I have responsibilities, but when
we're together, we can pretend the rest of the world
doesn't exist. Let ar'm buck and make sure make sure
(30:17):
you tell your mom my sculpted tries if sculpted in tone, no,
if scans or butts about it. You're spending the night.
I bet you I could go to I could go
to Yahoo right now. And find a story about someone's
body parts that are sculpted or toned. Literally, sculpted is
the last word they'll ever use to describe your body.
(30:38):
I can find I'm telling you I will find it.
I will find it. Uh Twitter and ow about a
Fresco Mike or Mike at Swollen Dome. Coming up next
you here from Eric Spolstra, a guy who, probably outside
of Steve Kerr, is the best head coach in the NBA.
Tell you what it feels like going to the NBA Finals.
Are the heat ready? You'll find out next right here
Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Hi, this is Jay Glazer.
Speaker 8 (31:08):
And you may know me for the world of football
or fighting or even shows like HBO's Bawlers.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Well you don't know is for my entire life.
Speaker 8 (31:16):
I have lived in something I refer to as the
gray depression anxiety. So now I'm coming out with a
new podcast, Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with Jay Glazer
where each week, while we talk about mental health, I
hope to describe it, give it words. Listen to Unbreakable
with Jay Glazer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you get your podcasts, Fox Sports Radio, the Jason
(31:42):
Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Hey, we're
going to remember an absolute legend coming up in about
ten minutes. But first, the Heat move on in the
NBA Finals. They will take on the Denver Nuggets, and
even though they're not going to get a game, let's
still have some props for the coaching job that Eric
Spolster did continues to do with the Miami Heat. He
(32:05):
met the media a few moments ago. Let's take a
listen to what the Heat head coach I had to
say after dispatching Boston.
Speaker 7 (32:10):
I mean, first say this about Boston. I mentioned it
out there to Ernie, but you know, we tip our
hat to the Celtics organization. They are first class. You know,
Pat feels a certain way about Boston, so I make
sure that everybody feels a certain way about Boston. You know,
(32:31):
that's part of my job as the caretaker. With that said,
there's great respect for them as competitors, and they are
first class. You look across the way just in terms
of their ownership group and Brad and Joe and his
coaching staff. They're good people and their class organization and
(32:52):
what happened last year, you know, obviously was on our
mind and it drove us this year. And that's what
you always hope for competition, that it can drive you
to a higher level. And I think that's what you
saw in this series this year, to be able to
have to overcome a lot of stuff. And in terms
(33:13):
of answering your question, look, I think probably people can
relate to this team. You know, their life is hard.
Professional sports is just kind of a reflection sometimes of
life that things don't always go your way and then
(33:34):
inevitable setbacks happen, and that's how you.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Deal with that.
Speaker 7 (33:38):
Collectively. There's a lot of different ways that it can go.
It can snap your spirit, it can take you a
team down for whatever reason. With this group, it's it's
stealed us and made us closer, made us tougher, and
you know, these are lessons that you know, hopefully we
can pass along to our children. You know that you
(33:58):
can develop this ford to and sometimes you have to suffer,
you know, for the things that you want and and
you know Game six, uh, the only thing you know
that we could do is sometimes you have to laugh
at the things that make you cry.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
And we did so many things right. So there was
some Eric Spolsive, that's a good line. Look's true. It
is yeah, no, and I like the everybody understands how
we feel about Boston. Everybody is that. It's a good line.
It's like, yeah, I think he was waiting for a
big laugh. Nicely, dude, you're in Boston. You're not gonna
get that laugh. You gotta wait and get back. We
all feel about you, Boston. Where's that? Let no where, nobody, anybody, anybody, anybody.
(34:40):
He could have sold it like a complete w w E. Hello,
I'm here and you're gonna get a lot of now
something that we've told you for a while and we
get to do this once in a while. We talk
about the job that Eric Spolster has done as he
head coach, and look, I know you're gonna get a
lot of that. Eric Spolsve is the best head coach
in the NBA. It's not you look at people overwhelming
(35:02):
fun of things say about him. Look, Spolts is a
great head coach. Steve Kerr's the best head coach in
the NBA. Okay for a guy that came in and say, listen,
we're gonna run my system and turn into a dynasty,
I gotta give you more. I gotta give you credit
for that. I gotta give you more credit than just Hey,
you've won a couple of titles. When Lebron decided to
show up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, Hey, getting
back deep in the finals is great, and he's a
(35:23):
great head coach? Is he the best? I'll still take
Steve Kerr. You know what's hard is that we you
have to do with Eric Spolster. It's like, where do
we decide he's the great coach? Because early in the career,
right as he ascended to the throne, it was about
managing egos and getting the most out of some supremely
talented players, right, making sure egos meshed. Not unlike Kerr
(35:47):
and certainly not unlike Kerr's mentor and former boss Phil Jackson. Right,
you have that continuum. So when you get to what
Spoltra is, if we talk about the post Lebron era
to now and the number of Eastern Conference in NBA
Finals appearances, I might raise an eyebrow and say, well,
a lot of undrafted guys, a lot of secondary guys,
(36:09):
a lot of guys that guy tossed aside, or guys
like Jimmy Butler that people were done with, right because
the Jimmy Butler love is a renaissance thing happened last playoffs,
a little bit certainly happening now. But there are a
lot of people. Ah, he's got attitude. He doesn't get
along with the doesn't want to mentor doesn't want to
be with young players. Look at how well traveled he is,
as in he can't find roots anywhere. He's a bad guy.
(36:33):
So maybe Spolster catching up. If he goes and beach
your nuggets, we might have another conversation Twitter at how
about a fresco Mike, It's swelling down the Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. More on the
NBA Playoffs and the NBA Finals. And remember a legend
who has affected you for the last twenty seven years.
(36:53):
This is Fox twenty seven
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Gives you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Hello and welcome inside our three of The Jason Smith
Show with my bes friend Mike Harmon, live from the
Tirack dot Com studios tirec dot com. I'll help you
get there an unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free road
hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers tirack dot
com the way tire buying should be. So we gave
(00:52):
you that Big Bowl prediction from the mime Heat. Look,
the Heat have changed the NBA for the next five
years regular season as if it means anything, will mean
even less next year. Let's just get in. As long
as we're winning, we don't need to worry about home field.
Let's keep our guys healthy, and let's be peaking at
the right time. This is what the Heat have done
the Heat have also affected a lot of other teams. Look,
(01:14):
they got Mike, Buttenholz Aer fired, The Knicks are in
trouble now, Julius Randall's gonna be gone. And now the
Celtics they're gonna lose Jalen Brown, They're gonna fire Joe Mizula.
All of these things are happening because they lost to
the Heat. The Heater cleaning up the NBA and one
fell swoop well. But the Heat. We talked about it
with Mark Madeena, and it's something you and I have
talked about quite a while on this show, and it
(01:36):
goes back a couple of years, going back to the
Heat's run last year before it fell short to the Celtics.
Was the idea of continuity and building a program, something
that doesn't happen in college football or basketball in a
lot of cases anymore. And in our professional sports. You
can count in most sports on one hand the number
(01:57):
of teams you would say subscribe to that philosophy. In
the NFL, it's New England, it's Pittsburgh, generally, Baltimore. San
Francisco has that style with their front office, and then
Green Bay has long been lauded that way. Now you
look at the Chiefs. Okay, so we got the six
great uh in the NBA? What do you got how many?
(02:18):
How many teams can you say really subscribe to that?
It's the Miami Heat, It's the ownership that's been there
thirty years. It's pat Riley menacing people and staring you
down while behind the bench, and everything else. And then
you've got Spolster who's been there for fifteen years. Everything
else is the sick leicality because Greg Popovich is a
(02:39):
shell of his former self unless Victor Wemby. No, no, no,
I think he's gonna be very spry when if all
of a sudden he's a wizard. Yes, all of a sudden,
Popovich will be bad. No, no, he's gonna be like
the old guy from the uh. Yeah that they'd be
dancing around like that continuity there. Yeah that, But go
(03:01):
out the rest. I mean, we watched coaches of the
Year get fired, we got NBA title winners. Nurse gets
a new job today. Budenholz are still out there.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
It's it's guys that are just kind of floating in
no man's land. And part of it is all right,
you failed and we turned things over. We gotta have
a new voice in here. The superstar doesn't like that guy.
Remember when Lebron James tried to get Spolster ousted? Hey Pat,
why don't you come coach this team? Yeah, didn't work,
didn't work, didn't work. They got four title title runs,
(03:31):
two wins out of that before Lebron left. So here
it is, all these years later, Spolster's still getting the
job done. So there's your heat part of it. Now,
let's get into the Celtics angle. Be curt it down.
According to everybody. By that, I mean everybody on social media, experts, pundits,
Joe Mizzoula, it's all his fault. Now, you're gonna hear
(03:53):
some of Joe Mizzula following Game seven, and I'm gonna
tell you exactly what's gonna happen with he and the
Celtics in the offseason. First, this interview is starting to
make the rounds. He did an end of game interview
with NBC Sports Boston and it's a very short interview.
It's a twenty eight second interview Abby Chin of NBC
Sports Boston, and you can tell Missoula really didn't have
(04:15):
a desire to do this interview, but probably had to
do it contractually. He was probably obligated to do it.
This is after the Celtics lost Game seven. Here's Missoula
doing the interview. Joe, I don't know how eloquently to
ask it, so I'm just gonna say what happened.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
They played better than we did.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Why, I don't know better.
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Guys give you everything they had. And that's the most
important thing is that people understand what the best locker
rooms have been a part of. And those guys give
you everything.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
That How much pain is Jason in with that ankle?
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Sertain?
Speaker 5 (04:46):
What was your message to them?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
No think that's it? Twenty eight seconds? All right? I
got how long do we have you? For? Thirty seconds?
And that's it? All right? Just ask as many questions
you can in the thirty seconds. Just ask us. But
he gave him, Like Jesus, he's given me nothing like
no answer. He looks like he'd been punched in the face. Well,
you know, when you get the video to it, this
is a guy that looks like everything he'd worked to,
everything the team had built too, like someone came and
(05:13):
bludgeted him. Yeah, and now it's pushed you out in
front of a micro Well, but you know, hey, you
get paid big money. The coach Celtics right trying to
describe his demeanor in in that and I mean he
was being very judicious with his words. What do you
want me to say? Well, you're this is part of
the deal. It's not just a head coach for the
good times. The bad times come and you got to
(05:34):
talk to the media, the lights go on. This has
to be who you are. This is where I can
understand people saying I might be in over his head
a little bit. But that was That was a twenty
eight second interview with NBC Sports Boston. Here's a little
bit of Joe Mizzula from a few moments ago, maybe
the media following the Celtics defeat, and then tell you
exactly how it's gonna go for him in the Celtics
this summer, I.
Speaker 6 (05:54):
Mean the whole season, kind of trying to like playoff
of getting stops, just kind of create open threes. How
did this kind of represent a lot of the struggles
you guys had all season?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Yeah, we I thought the first quarter and a half
or so we continued to fight defensively, even though our
shots weren't falling, and then you know, we just couldn't
couldn't score.
Speaker 6 (06:15):
What did you do to try to create some kind
of easier looks, more rhythm looks that fit some of
the personnel. You have to try to, like at least
get them something to fall just.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Our switch attack, try to move against his.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Own Sure, what was the difference between tonight in the
last three games where you seem to be playing with confidence?
The defense was good, there was energy there tonight it
just seemed like after the first six minutes something changed.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
We shot twenty one percent from three, defense was still there.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Is this team to relying on the three point shot?
Does that have to change?
Speaker 5 (06:58):
No, Joe, I did the game plan after just navigate
perhaps any limitations.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Jason had nothing. I mean I thought we just he
just tried to play through as best as he could.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
And how do you, obviously, just with it ending right now,
look back on this season, how do you assess the
season this team had.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
It's one of the best locker rooms I've been a
part of. The guys cared and they gave it everything
they had. It's the most important thing to take from this.
Obviously we didn't achieve our role. We didn't win, which
was our role. So we failed in that regard. But
it's not because the guys didn't have a sense of
together in this character you know, and just who they
(07:39):
are as people.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
All Right, So there's Joe Missoula, some of him talking
to the media. The first thing I'll say is this,
as you've seen, Missoula is not great with the media. No,
he's not great. He doesn't come off well when you
give short answers like that, I can see where you
could say, well, I'm answering the question. Okay, you realize
the optic is you you're not really you're not really
(08:02):
doing what you should be doing, which is they ask
a question, you answered. But that's the big that's the
big thing, the the optics and the expectation versus the reality.
Did he do the job? I mean, if you're gonna ask,
and then we're trained to do this from day one,
don't ask a question that someone can do yes, no, two,
because if they're in the right mood, you mean, the
(08:24):
wrong mood, they're gonna give you the one word answer. Well,
if you give a yes no kind of situation, and
which is what most of those questions were. No, yeah,
I don't know, did you need to change your three point?
I get your point to the optics of it, but
it's certainly also something from a journalistic And I use
(08:46):
that word very cautiously here at sports talk radio because
I think it's a glowing lowercase j from in most situations.
But you don't if you can you want to get
someone talking, or at least they've got to make the
conscious choice to not give you a yes, no, no.
But but I say, and that's a great that that's
(09:07):
a good point. But but you know that you're the
guy that no matter how you answer, well, I'm answering
yes or no. And where the optic is you you tad?
And for a guy that needs to convince people that
I'm up to the task, that doesn't do it. He
tried to sell that last answer, take me out of
this locker road, take care you know. Look, and and
(09:29):
this goes into what what the what the end result
is gonna wind up being for Joe Mizula is that
you would think a guy jumping in and stepping in
a year when he wasn't expected to even be the
head pitch and winning fifty seven games and getting to
within one game of the NBA Finals is gonna be enough.
But there's too much blood that Celtics and Celtics Nation want,
(09:53):
whether it is in the media, whether it's on the team,
because you're gonna get stuff like Jason Tatum saying I
don't know, Jalen saying, I don't know what about your strategy.
I don't know. There's too much frustration and anger for
this to go without having some kind of responsibility being
(10:13):
taken by someone. Jason Tatum's your star. He had a
hurt ankle. I can tell you how it's gonna go.
Jason Tatum's fine. Jalen Brown. Maybe we got to get
rid of Jalen Brown. Maybe he's not the right guy.
Maybe we have to bring another star because Jalen Brown's
not that good. Bring another star. But Joe Mizzoula is
gonna be the one that's gonna be at the at
the fulkroom of everything, and he's gonna be the one
(10:33):
that's gonna lose his job because of it. Because the
Celtics this is unacceptable again, losing to the Heat, lose
to an eight seed, no matter what you saw. Teams
are going going absolutely crazy with firing head coaches and
wanting players traded because you lost to the Heat. All right,
I think the Heat proved they're a pretty good team.
They got hot at the right time. They're pretty good.
But someone's going to have to be holding the bag
(10:53):
for this Celtics defeat, because this is unacceptable. We were
down because they went down. It wasn't just they lost
the series. They got down three zip and that was embarrassing.
But they came back to tie a three to three.
But then they had an absolute no show in game seven.
You're talking about two really awful things in one series.
This wasn't the Celtics lost in seven games, and you know,
(11:14):
they were down to zip, but they tied it, and
they tied it again and they lost it. This was
the embarrassment of going down three zip is really large.
And then the egg day laid tonight. That's too much
and there's gonna have to be some kind of responsibility
for it. And the fact that Missoula was kind of
thrust in. It's not like the Celtics are married to him.
It's not like they're, well, he's our hand pick guy.
(11:34):
We're no, there's going to be some kind of and
when you see a lot of coaches out there that
are getting hired, that are coming off winning championships, like
Nick Nurse got a new gig today. Missoula's gonna be
the guy that's gonna be You're the one responsible for it,
and the Celtics have to go forward because they need
to get more out of Tatum, they need to get
more out of Brown, they need to be more consistent
all of these things. Now, how much of this is
(11:56):
Missoula's fault, You can debate that, but I'll tell you
who's gonna get the blame for it, and that's what
right or wrong. He's gonna be the guy that gets
the blade. Well, and that's thing over the next twenty
four hours, certainly in the city of Boston and on
national airwaves, he's gonna wear it and we're gonna play
back that audio. You and I'll do it, and all
the other shows will do it. And it's not a
good look. Right, asked answered is part of it. But
(12:19):
looking like the moment is too big for you, which
your team did, and then you did in the postgame
press conference answering for it. You know, I've seen a
couple of clips of Jalen Brown at this point whatever
you think of him on the court, and he had
a rough game shooting wise, committed some egregious turnovers. He's
the guy that owned it. He just put his hand
(12:40):
up because he was also doing a lot of chirping
during the course of the series. Right down three to zero,
don't let us get one. All of that, and they
got back. But after the game he didn't point to
anything else except I played terribly so to some level,
certainly on the East Coast, I mean, you're a New
York guy, and even going towards the Midwest in Chicago,
(13:02):
there's something to be said for a guy standing up
and just saying, hey, that's on me. That suck. Is
it enough to save Joe Mazua. No, Brad Stevens made
descend from on high and take the role again. But
remember towards the end of the season, there were a
lot of questions as the Udoka hiring process started down
(13:23):
for a couple of teams before he finally landed his gig.
That the players in the Celtics locker room. Despite some
success in the regular season, obviously one of the top
teams in the East as we finished the at the
number two slot, but that there was still some dissatisfaction
as to the way that whole thing was handled. So
I don't think they've we talked about the Draymond punch
(13:45):
of Jordan Poole affecting what happened with the Warriors. I
don't think everything was settled with the coaching change and
all coming into the year, and they still get to
the conference finals, so they did well. Likewise, the Warriors
had the Lakers in a pretty good spot and gave
two games away. But you know that all of that festers,
(14:08):
meaning you could have a change because you still have
some top notch coaches of the past out there. And
like I said, Brad Stevens, you got that itch again.
Twitter at how about a fresca Mike, It's swollen down
the Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon
live from the tirec dot Com studios. Celtics are gonna
need somebody who's responsible, who we met at the most,
(14:29):
who's a guy that was thrust in and when when
your job is in question, everything counts towards it, whether
it's how you handle the media, how you handle answers,
how you handle yourself in big situations, how much coaching
you do or don't do, how many timeouts you use
or don't use. Everything is on the table, and that's
(14:50):
why you're just playing that little bit for you with
the media. It's okay, Greg pop pitch can get away
with that because the guy's won four titles and this
is guy who he's been for thirty years. We' you
become a persona when you're a lucky head coach, and
this is how you're active. Dude. You just seem bitter
and upset and you can't find answers and you're pissed
that you got to answer questions. You got to be
a pro, right, That's how it comes across. He comes
across as being salty and bitter, and really is his
(15:14):
lack of maturity of being able to answer questions. I
get they're tough, you don't want to answer them, but
you said yes, you got the gig, right, you got
the gig. You said yes, this is what goes along.
You've had a whole season of these press conferences. You're
well practiced. You've done what at least one hundred of them? Right,
I mean, did you do one after every game, whether
(15:35):
it's national media or just the local stuff. You're accountable
in talking to somebody. Come on, man, Twitter out about
a Fresco. Mike, it's swollen dome. We have more on
this game coming up. We'll hear from Eric Spolstra as
well as he is very happy heading to Denver for
the NBA Finals. Plus we get in a big NFL
conversation about a star running back that says, oh yeah, man,
(15:55):
I used to smoke weed all the time before I played.
The games where I'd go for one hundred and fifty
yards are two touchdowns. Smoke weed every day. That's next
right here, Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with My best
friend Mike Harmon Easy Chew, you have Memorial Day, the
Heat head to the NBA Finals, and if Eric Spolster
is like Michael Malone, He's not gonna like what's being
said about his team. As we get said for the
(16:41):
NBA Finals, the Nuggets are the overwhelming NBA Finals favorites.
Nikola Jokic is minus one twenty five to average a
triple double in the finals. Denver has opened as an
eight point home favorite to win Game one. The Nugget
it's installed as minus three sixty favorites to win the
(17:04):
NBA title. All of this is overwhelming, and I'd love
to be able to sit here and tell you, Oh,
the scrappy Heat and playoffs, playoff Tyler heroes coming back
and I might be back in the middle of the
stay yeah inspiration. The Heat aren't gonna get a game.
They're not gonna win a game. The Nuggets are gonna
in the first two games by twenty five points each game.
(17:26):
It's gonna be an absolute blowout. Nobody bam Adebayo is
a pretty good player, and Nikola Yolki is gonna do
whatever the hell he wants to. And outside of injury,
which I don't want to put it up, but we
got to talk about it, but outside of injury to
one of the key players with the Nuggets, meaning outside
an injury to Yoki j or Murray, Nuggets in four, Nugget,
forget about Nuggets and find out Nuggets in four and
(17:48):
it's gonna be that easy. They went on the first
what is it the first, the fourth, the seventh, and
the ninth. Right, that's the NBA Finals one four to
seven nine, right, So those are the dates. That's it
right there, just like you're picking numbers for a lottery
four seven to nine nuggets in four four four. Put
those fours up, I said, get them fours up. I'm
gonna say fours up, all right? Who you impressed you? Okay?
(18:11):
When he was doing the three, put them fours up,
I said, put them fours up. I'm just impressed. Jason
can count that high. No, it's pretty good. Hey, we
play the Frances you won the entire time. Okay, did
you watch the count growing up? Ah ah ah, one
two three. That's the equivalent of the family guy thing
(18:35):
of Peter Griffin when he falls down and skins his
his knee and he lays there for forty five seconds,
or they bring the chicken back for him to fight again.
It's a nice way to kill time. Yeah. Likewise, when
Sesame Street went to the count, if it got beyond five,
now you know they're just lazy and they were stealing
minutes and to count to more numbers and five. They
(18:57):
can't just say listen, we are gonna have you count
to anything after that that's on you. No, No, eventually
you build to it. But it's five, why not six?
If six? Why not seven? Seven? Why not eight?
Speaker 7 (19:08):
Any?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Why not nine? When not many titles? Nine? Why not ten?
But ten? You get to two numbers? Actually, then it's
not one. I mean you get put in the video
of Lebron two trying to get you three, four, five,
not six? How many do I have? Not two? Not three?
Not four?
Speaker 7 (19:25):
No?
Speaker 1 (19:26):
So four nuggets in four four? Buddy, they're getting at
least a you are knocking not I mean, look, the
Celtics had the ultimate motivation. The heat had already booked
their flights, that standard protocol. But the idea that Jimmy Butler,
what you've gotten from the role players, and I gotta
(19:49):
imagine anything you get from Tyler hero gives you a bonus. Right,
there's a guy that can hit from beyond the arc
and bam Adebayo. Now you've got to pick your poison.
Intern If Jokic's outside shot is hitting, no, he's gonna dish,
and that's fine. He's a favorite to go for the
triple double. As you say, Jamal Murray's been a handful
(20:10):
and I love that starting rotation. Don't get me wrong,
I still pick the Nuggets to win. But to tell
me that Eric Spolster is not gonna be able to
come up with a plan nope, to get a game? No,
how can you plan? Stop jokicch okay, how stop him?
I'm not saying that's yeah. I mean we've talked about
guys saying he's got to be arrested or whatever. Look,
(20:30):
this is gonna look like a youth sports tournament. Pick
your favorite youth sport, whether it's softball or baseball or
soccer or whatever it is, where you go and spend
a weekend playing games. Right you go, Hey, we enter
this tournament and you go spend a weekend. We play
two games on Saturday, two games Sunday. If we win,
we go to the championship this weekend. And I'm really
(20:52):
proud of you. You got to play, No, Joe, I'm
gonna watch my daughter and her team do their thing.
I'm really happy that you didn't. You know, folks all
show on my sunburn. It is very red and you
need to wear a hat. I kind of look like
the dude from Marvel, right, red skull, Oh yeah, yellow
red scull little red skull. Maybe anger from inside out. Yeah,
(21:13):
that's definitely yeah, little Lewis. But if you get really mad,
like well, you're yeah, the fire just start coming out
of the top of it. Right. But you know, you
see this all the time. You go to a youth
tournament and it's a whole weekend, right, it's a weekend
to where we're gonna play. We gotta pay eight am Saturday,
then we play at noon, then we play again Sunday morning,
and then we play Sunday afternoon. If we win, and
you go and you play the first few games and
(21:35):
your team is pretty good, and you win the first game,
you win the second game, pretty excited, you win the
third game. In soccer, so you tie the fourth game,
or baseball, you win all four games. Hey, we're feeling
pretty good and we're gonna play for the championship at
five o'clock, and you're thinking, we got this, we got this.
And then you play that championship game at five o'clock.
It's the team you haven't played yet, and suddenly it's whoa,
(21:56):
we're down ten to nothing in the third inning, or boy,
it's three h thing after the first eight minutes of
the game. In soccer. This is what's gonna happen to
the Heat. They're feeling pretty good right now because they've
played pretty well, but they've played pretty well against competition
that has been Eh. It's not like the Heat have
played unbelievable basketball. They have just played basketball everybody better
(22:20):
than the teams they played against. The Knicks play tell
you if you want to do that. I mean, listen
to all the apologies for the last week talking about
how close the Lakers were, even though it was a
sweet Nuggets. Well, they were in the state. They actually
were the team playing them in the series. That's why
it was close. They won. They've won everything big. The
teams that the Heat are playing, the Bucks. Obviously, the
(22:43):
Bucks got issues. They fired their head coach right after.
Giannis is like, I don't know what we're doing. I
don't know we should be doing. Okay, new head coach,
all right, new head coach. The Knicks played horribly and
the Heat just played a little bit better than they did.
That was probably the worst series the Heat played was
against the Knicks. And that's what so bleep and frustrating
is because the Knicks could have won that series, but no, oh,
they couldn't fish stop Frostburg. We won two games. It
(23:03):
was not close to the Eastern Conference Finals game with
Jimmy Butler out there. Hey, it's it's it doesn't matter
who's out there. You gotta win when who's out there.
Just stop you which you got swept, You got swept.
He was going a couple of days. He's got a
lot to say. He got swept. He got swept. Then,
especially if you're gonna try to tell me that the
Knicks had a chance and you're trying to disparage what
(23:27):
the heat are all about? Just missing because your team suck.
Heater good, but the heater limited. Hey Aaron Rodgers, he
didn't winning the Super Bowl and then he was there, Yeah,
he was. It was fun. He said, the jets are
gonna win the super Bowl. We have that sound absolutely
not guard Come on man, him saying that jetson won
the Super Bowl at the Taylor Swift concert. Uh. But
(23:50):
then you have a Celtics team where you get up
three zip and they absolutely quit in game three. Then
they come back and win the next three and then
they don't show up in game seven and again you
don't play great, but you have enough to win the
Eastern Conference is not nearly to the level of the Nuggets.
I don't mean the level of the Western Conference, but
to the level of the Nuggets. Over the course of
(24:10):
the season, the Nuggets have proven, Hey, there were teams
that were at the top of their conference. We were
clearly the best. And they still are clearly the best.
And I can't see how that changes. I don't want
to confuse the Heat winning some pressure field games and
Jimmy Bucket's having big games. It's been entertaining, but has
it been at a really high level of play. It hasn't.
If they get money it up right, I mean, you're
(24:33):
just assuming they're just gonna get run over. They're a
good defensive team. Are they a great scoring team? Hell no,
they were last in the regular season. We get that
the Heat are not a team that generally runs out
and dominates. They did put up one hundred and three
to night. They shot fifty percent from three point range.
You get Tyler hero back and you can't tell me
that a guy that was scoring twenty a game doesn't
(24:56):
matter in your rotations, and how well you know you
might have you're hoping to get him right, but it
was You've been complaining for weeks about Julius Randall didn't
play in that game, or or this happened, like we did.
I really complain that Julius Randall wasn't playing, well you
did until you realize that I don't think I complained
that Randall was no noose because remember, because Jimmy but
(25:22):
Prospero Smith you had him in the gunner. I'll bring
you back to the tape, right because remember Jimmy Butler
missed the game. Julius Randall miss the game. You're like, well,
we we didn't win, you know when Julius random miss
like and now you want to kick him to the curve.
So you can't have it both ways. But my point is,
Tyler Heroes missed this entire process. That's an extra body,
(25:42):
that's an extra shooter, and maybe it would have been
a little more aesthetically pleasing to you. Is he in
a guardok and shut him down. I'm just saying that
the offense takes a different complexity. And you now you're,
you know, bowing at the altar of Nikola Jokic. You're
gonna put him in your top five. The guy's thirty nine,
fifteen and twelve and every game. What do you want
(26:02):
to do? What are you gonna do? I'm just missing him.
What are you gonna do? Just saying he is human
there if he if he cuts, does he not bleed?
I mean, come on, I mean he wasn't even on
Mark Jackson's top five. Yes, and he knows basketball anyway,
moving on, or he doesn't know how to fill in
a ballot. But that's the other thing. No, but that.
But look, yeah, either way, it all works. I get it.
(26:24):
I get it. But I'm not gonna dis miss him
that They're not gonna give him an effort. They're gonna quit.
I just don't think they can win a game. I
don't think they can put up a great effort and
win a game. They're gonna show up now after this
series and have to get ready for Game one, and
they're gonna go to Denver and you're gonna get the
thin air stuff, and they're gonna run out of gas.
They're already there, man, I mean there. But it's gonna
(26:44):
be the thin air. They're gonna run out of gas.
It's gona be all of these things. And the Nuggets
going to the first two games by twenty five points each, game.
It's gonna be boy, he really have to get Game three.
The Nuggets will get Game three by ten because they're
that good and it's gonna be that simple. Four games
one four seven none right, one four seven. Those are
the dates. One four seventh, one four one two three four.
(27:06):
You will lose five six seven, not one four seven nights.
I'm like, I'm watching the hamster run around in his head.
I'm just doing what I'm doing games, the dates of
the games doing first tune, fourth June. The squirrel eight
your sleeves has in his skull? Is that where you
keep the extress? Yes, that's where exactly in my sleeves,
(27:30):
he said, in your skull? Yeah? Why why? But but
I could just because I'm wearing a shirt with no sleeves.
I mean, I'm a you know, like how many man?
But now you don't need to pay. You can just
look at me and go boy guy. And I got
and my arms are ten. It's the I was gonna
go home and get some rest. My arms are ten.
They look good, they're toned. I look pretty good. I'm
one of the I could be one of those Yahoo
(27:52):
articles where they go Jason Smith toned arms are straight right.
When you see that so and so's sculpt abs, right,
that's a big thing. Oh see Alexandra de Dario's sculpted
ebbs or so and So's legs are sculpted, are straight fire?
That's I'm sorry, Well, if that's your girl's Alexander Daria
(28:15):
many that's your girl. But like my arts, straight fire.
Look at the tone. God, I'm straight fire man. Yeah,
like a Greek. Jason Smith in a Syracuse cut off
sweatshirt that he cut the sleeves off himself. He is
straight fire with sculpted arms and tone. Try scene looks
(28:36):
like Greek yoga just from a gas. Look, I'm flexing
as I'm grabbing the stage right now because taking pictures
right now. Just there's already a video at Fox Sports
Radio on Instagram right now of us in studio talking
for the immediate aftermath of the game seven. And there
(28:57):
you are right center with Look at the definition of
just shadow. It just goes right in. That's a look
at I got definition. Friendly is trying to take pictures
for his archives. That's a whole other thing. He's taking
pictures to show his mom going, hey mom, here's Jason Smith.
You know, Yeah, you still want to date him, I'll
(29:19):
find out if he's single. Look at the not I mean,
you know, I could be a TRICEP modeler. You kidd
be a tricept model.
Speaker 7 (29:27):
Man.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
It's me sculpted, scup, straight, fire toned. She wasn't home
when you left the house? Was she toned? I meant,
I meant inviting Fely's mom over. No, no, no, no,
no that this is all in theory. Henley's Friendly's mom
is all It's all in theory. It's all in theory.
Oh this isn't real. Well I don't. Let's see Friendly.
(29:49):
Is your mom still single?
Speaker 2 (29:51):
She's not single?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Congratulations? Wow, wow, Okay, whoa hang on a second party
and Brian get it up? Coming out of retirement party
at Fedally. I gotta go buy a new key chain. Listen,
you know both you and I have responsibilities, but when
we're together, we can pretend the rest of the world
doesn't exist. Let ar'm buck and make sure make sure
(30:17):
you tell your mom my sculpted tries if sculpted in tone, no,
if scans or butts about it. You're spending the night.
I bet you I could go to I could go
to Yahoo right now. And find a story about someone's
body parts that are sculpted or toned. Literally, sculpted is
the last word they'll ever use to describe your body.
(30:38):
I can find I'm telling you I will find it.
I will find it. Uh Twitter and ow about a
Fresco Mike or Mike at Swollen Dome. Coming up next
you here from Eric Spolstra, a guy who, probably outside
of Steve Kerr, is the best head coach in the NBA.
Tell you what it feels like going to the NBA Finals.
Are the heat ready? You'll find out next right here
Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Hi, this is Jay Glazer.
Speaker 8 (31:08):
And you may know me for the world of football
or fighting or even shows like HBO's Bawlers.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Well you don't know is for my entire life.
Speaker 8 (31:16):
I have lived in something I refer to as the
gray depression anxiety. So now I'm coming out with a
new podcast, Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with Jay Glazer
where each week, while we talk about mental health, I
hope to describe it, give it words. Listen to Unbreakable
with Jay Glazer on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you get your podcasts, Fox Sports Radio, the Jason
(31:42):
Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Hey, we're
going to remember an absolute legend coming up in about
ten minutes. But first, the Heat move on in the
NBA Finals. They will take on the Denver Nuggets, and
even though they're not going to get a game, let's
still have some props for the coaching job that Eric
Spolster did continues to do with the Miami Heat. He
(32:05):
met the media a few moments ago. Let's take a
listen to what the Heat head coach I had to
say after dispatching Boston.
Speaker 7 (32:10):
I mean, first say this about Boston. I mentioned it
out there to Ernie, but you know, we tip our
hat to the Celtics organization. They are first class. You know,
Pat feels a certain way about Boston, so I make
sure that everybody feels a certain way about Boston. You know,
(32:31):
that's part of my job as the caretaker. With that said,
there's great respect for them as competitors, and they are
first class. You look across the way just in terms
of their ownership group and Brad and Joe and his
coaching staff. They're good people and their class organization and
(32:52):
what happened last year, you know, obviously was on our
mind and it drove us this year. And that's what
you always hope for competition, that it can drive you
to a higher level. And I think that's what you
saw in this series this year, to be able to
have to overcome a lot of stuff. And in terms
(33:13):
of answering your question, look, I think probably people can
relate to this team. You know, their life is hard.
Professional sports is just kind of a reflection sometimes of
life that things don't always go your way and then
(33:34):
inevitable setbacks happen, and that's how you.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Deal with that.
Speaker 7 (33:38):
Collectively. There's a lot of different ways that it can go.
It can snap your spirit, it can take you a
team down for whatever reason. With this group, it's it's
stealed us and made us closer, made us tougher, and
you know, these are lessons that you know, hopefully we
can pass along to our children. You know that you
(33:58):
can develop this ford to and sometimes you have to suffer,
you know, for the things that you want and and
you know Game six, uh, the only thing you know
that we could do is sometimes you have to laugh
at the things that make you cry.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
And we did so many things right. So there was
some Eric Spolsive, that's a good line. Look's true. It
is yeah, no, and I like the everybody understands how
we feel about Boston. Everybody is that. It's a good line.
It's like, yeah, I think he was waiting for a
big laugh. Nicely, dude, you're in Boston. You're not gonna
get that laugh. You gotta wait and get back. We
all feel about you, Boston. Where's that? Let no where, nobody, anybody, anybody, anybody.
(34:40):
He could have sold it like a complete w w E. Hello,
I'm here and you're gonna get a lot of now
something that we've told you for a while and we
get to do this once in a while. We talk
about the job that Eric Spolster has done as he
head coach, and look, I know you're gonna get a
lot of that. Eric Spolsve is the best head coach
in the NBA. It's not you look at people overwhelming
(35:02):
fun of things say about him. Look, Spolts is a
great head coach. Steve Kerr's the best head coach in
the NBA. Okay for a guy that came in and say, listen,
we're gonna run my system and turn into a dynasty,
I gotta give you more. I gotta give you credit
for that. I gotta give you more credit than just Hey,
you've won a couple of titles. When Lebron decided to
show up with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, Hey, getting
back deep in the finals is great, and he's a
(35:23):
great head coach? Is he the best? I'll still take
Steve Kerr. You know what's hard is that we you
have to do with Eric Spolster. It's like, where do
we decide he's the great coach? Because early in the career,
right as he ascended to the throne, it was about
managing egos and getting the most out of some supremely
talented players, right, making sure egos meshed. Not unlike Kerr
(35:47):
and certainly not unlike Kerr's mentor and former boss Phil Jackson. Right,
you have that continuum. So when you get to what
Spoltra is, if we talk about the post Lebron era
to now and the number of Eastern Conference in NBA
Finals appearances, I might raise an eyebrow and say, well,
a lot of undrafted guys, a lot of secondary guys,
(36:09):
a lot of guys that guy tossed aside, or guys
like Jimmy Butler that people were done with, right because
the Jimmy Butler love is a renaissance thing happened last playoffs,
a little bit certainly happening now. But there are a
lot of people. Ah, he's got attitude. He doesn't get
along with the doesn't want to mentor doesn't want to
be with young players. Look at how well traveled he is,
as in he can't find roots anywhere. He's a bad guy.
(36:33):
So maybe Spolster catching up. If he goes and beach
your nuggets, we might have another conversation Twitter at how
about a fresco Mike, It's swelling down the Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. More on the
NBA Playoffs and the NBA Finals. And remember a legend
who has affected you for the last twenty seven years.
(36:53):
This is Fox twenty seven
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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