June 8, 2023 • 35 mins
Jason and Mike talk with NBA Analyst Ric Bucher as to make sense of the Chris Paul story and the Heat vs Nuggets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Give you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Greetings, Welcome inside.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Now it's our three of The Jason Smith Show with
my best friend Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well dressed Hobo live from the.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Tirack dot com studios. Tirec dot cod will help you
get there, an unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free road
has a protection and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tirack
dot com the way tire buying should be. We got
Rick Bucker coming up in about fifteen minutes. We break
down Game three of the NBA Finals. Nicole Jokic a
(00:58):
triple double first thirty twenty ten at triple double in
NBA Finals history. He's out them history for Nikola Jokic,
You'll make history history. We also got a triple double
from Jamal Murray, who was thirty four ten and ten.
But let's let's get into something that I threw out
(01:22):
there a couple minutes ago, because it's going to wind
up being debated and we're gonna say it, and that's
what's going to wind up happening. But so far, here
we are through three games of the NBA Finals, right,
and Nikola Jokicic's Game one twenty seven fourteen assists, ten rebounds,
Game two forty one eleven rebounds, four assists, Game three
(01:47):
thirty two points, twenty one rebounds, ten assists. Will Nikola
Jokic because right now, look at where he's at getting
ready for the rest of the NBA Finals. We have
seen dominant NBA finals from Lebron James before. But what
Jokic is doing here with every game being a triple
(02:09):
I mean, the guy could have a triple double in
or near triple double in almost every single game. Can
Jokic go down as the best NBA Finals of the
last thirty years, since the turn of the century, even
further back, right, because you had Jordan had some amazing
NBA finals obviously, I mean, I mean he did have
(02:30):
some Scottie Pippen tells you nobody knows who he is,
but uh, he did have some great NBA finals, But
all in all, like has has someone been able to
dominate in every facet of the game like this? This
is absolutely stunning. As good as he is that he's
coming in here to the finals and twenty seven to
fourteen and ten, forty one, eleven and four, thirty two
(02:51):
to twenty one and ten, he may go down as
having the best NBA Finals that we've seen. I can't
go back to before I watched the NBA and go
back into the early seventies and before that in the
sixties and Wilt Chamberlain.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
But so I go, I'll go back to what.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Nineteen eighty nineteen nine, I mean, dominant performance is in
NBA Finals history. But if this is what we're gonna
get from Yokis, we're gonna get thirty, twenty and ten
the next couple of games all the way through, You're
gonna go down being being the most dominant NBA Finals
player ever had.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Is a good question. Uh, And you know me, I
love lists. So let's go. Uh Shaquill O'Neal with the
Lakers back in two thousand, twenty nine, seven thirteen to
six nearly four assists a game and three blocks per game.
That's that's that's pretty ridiculous, right. Uh, so you've got that.
(03:39):
You I'm looking at all the NBA Finals MVPs as
you flow through, I mean Lebron obviously some monster numbers
along the way, but that's that's probably it. I'd put
that Shaquille O'Neill year up. I think is probably since
two thousand the best and in nineteen ninety you ain't
(04:01):
touching it because it's a shot that everybody walks off
and it goes into history.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
You know, the rest of the five doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Russell falling away as if the force had sent him off,
you don't need to be defending me now, uh is
about as good as it gets. But yeah, I'll take
that shack here and I'll post that for now.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
All right, so you have that for now. But remember we.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Said it also I had style and power.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, well it had the star paler and and I
like the Goaliejokic and star power is certainly there as
a player.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
But you know, I got to bring everybody to the yard.
I got to bring everybody out to line the courts
to watch. Mike, do you want me to pass no.
Do you want me to slam? Yeah, that's what you got.
Do you want me to shoot?
Speaker 5 (04:52):
No?
Speaker 3 (04:52):
No, no, no, I don't want you to say. I don't.
I don't want you to sing kell Us either.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I don't want I know that's where you were going.
I don't want that either. No, I know it works, though,
tam Ray, it's better than Okay, I am an ass
man saw. I mean, it was in the drops, but
you're talking about now that series by Shack, this series
by Jokic still with at least two more games to go,
and it's a twenty three year game with at least
(05:19):
two more games to go. I mean, I mean that
modern era NBA Finals history. It's gonna be tough.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I don't know. They told me that triple doubles don't
matter when Russell Westbrook had a bunch of them.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Well, Russell Westbrook hasn't won a championship. This would be
him leading that. Yeah, I know, but you.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Get my point. Guy did it average for a season
and we were supposed to go eh whatever he did
it before, the fact that he's doing it again doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
But this is if it was a bigger spotlight, I
would say it would be easy, but because it's the
Nuggets and not the Lakers, it's gonna be tougher. Look,
Giannis's you know, game clinching, Game seven, clinching seven, you know,
fifty point game that may go down as the best
Game seven performance, But you're talking about an entire series,
and especially when you're not gonna get a lot of games,
(06:09):
not a game, not a game.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
You're not gonna get a.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Lot of games out of the Nuggets if they they
play like this next couple of nights, it's two more
games and that's it, and it's and it's and it's
Jokic with you know, thirty twenty and ten the next
couple of nights, because clearly he's just getting stronger as
a series is going on.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Well, I mean, you're trying to pick your poison as
to how to defend and administer whatever pressure you can
do him. The assists are gonna pile up just organically
because of the way guys move off the basketball in Denver,
and it's a thing of beauty. And to think that
Michael Porter Junior, who coming into this series a lot
(06:45):
of excitement over the fact that he'd finally accepted the
role as the number three guide. Gotten past the injuries,
the attitude, all of those things that had plagued the
early part of his career. He's been invisible and it
doesn't matter right someone else's step into the fray. You're
getting great work game in and game out by a
guy who was once a top five pick and Aaron
(07:07):
Gordon who finds his home there in Denver eleven and
ten tonight, Brawn off the bench. We talked about him earlier,
how huge is it? But it's he's a guy that's
gonna get rewarded by a guy like Nicole Jokic for
the effort, which means more attempts if you're gonna keep
flying towards the basket for opportunities at the reck. So yeah,
(07:31):
I mean the balls in his hands as much as
it doesn't have to flow through anybody else. That's the
That's the thing that stands out right, like if we're
gonna go do the side by side, Shaquille needed to
dump in, dump back, whatever, all of those things and
then bulldoza whereas Jokic got some finesse, you got the
jump shot steps out for the three and the distribution
(07:51):
and the eyes in the back of his head. Some
of the stuff he's been able to do with the basketball.
I mean, it's it's amazing to watch. It's clinic.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
So just when you see the topic tomorrow the debate
shows whatever it is or on the red, just know that, hey,
hey we threw it out there tonight and people are
gonna take.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Well, let's start making our list at swollen Dorrows takes.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
The night before.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
But yeah, he's gonna he's gonna wind up going down look,
being that dominant being, and nobody's gonna remember it. Jason, Uh,
you listen. You don't remember because you got swept by
by Jokic, So that happened. Well, you also have the
Nuggets sweep in the heat, so we both got swept.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Dude, if you got if the Uggets had just didn't
need game two to be getting the.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
To get there, the Lakers didn't get swept, they'd still
be playing the Nuggets. It should be it should be
a sweep of the Nuggets because they've won so many
games by so many points. Hey, do we really have
to go crazy and bust our, bust our meds and
blow for one Jason, they would have won both games. No,
that that Mets are, you'd be close to a winning
The Mets are not nearly what the Nuggets are. No,
(08:52):
the Nugget look the Nuggets. You get bored when you
win the way the Nuggets have done through the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
They are also the Nuggets. They're playing Denver, nobody cares about.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
But the thing is is that when you win big,
you get by with not playing your best, winning and
thinking that's good enough. You did your best, and you
think your best was good enough, And once in a
while a game happens and it gets your attention. They
Game one, they weren't great all the way through, but
they got by. So they figure, do we really have
to have that eye of the tiger for Game two? No,
(09:22):
they're up by fifteen and what happens? They give it
up and Michael Malone talks about the effort that the
Nuggets did not have in Game two, and you saw
it because you saw the Heat rotating to wide open
threes all the time, coming back in it, getting big
shots and him going where are we defensively? That game
got the Nuggets attention.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Yeah, to be fair, in game one, the Heat missed
most of those shots that fell. In Game two, they
did miss it, and then today there were a lot
of open looks. Yeah, and then you get into the
fourth quarter, and this is where we get into the
heat in effectiveness. Bam and Jimmy combined to go one
for nine, one for nine in the fourth quarter at
(09:59):
a b one for seven. He was awful.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
You know, I'm glad you brought that up because this
is something we got to get into with Rick Bucker
in a few minutes, because the oh, how do I
say this? The image of playoff Jimmy is starting to
take a big hit. And whether it's he's tired, he's
him many minutes him, or he just is getting a
little bit more credit because we were looking for a storyline.
(10:26):
This is not a guy who's great every single game.
He has moments where he is amazing and I can
do it, yeah, right, and he'll have individual games where
he is amazing and then all lot of games where yeah,
he's seven out of twenty one for sixteen points. Dude,
if playoff Jimmy doesn't play like playoff Jimmy, every game
that he'd aren't gonna win.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Well in like playoff Jimmy today, And you know, I'm
as big as Jimmy Butler's stand going back to his
time with the Bulls man as there is, it was
Yimmy in my family. If you couldn't pronounce the j
as a little kay, people called everybody yeah man. But
with button we talked about it at halftime. He had
eighteen shots, didn't see the ball, didn't make me take
(11:08):
a lot of shots down the stretch, and even in
time where there were was still seemingly with a couple
of makes and stops an opportunity to get back in
the game, did a lot of dribbling around, trying to
ferret out and wasting time on the clock in the
final minute. So really, uh, quizzical is that a word?
(11:30):
I mean, we were saying that playoff Jimmy. How much of
a thing is it?
Speaker 1 (11:33):
When when he's he's not playing like Jokic every game,
you know, I mean, he's he can dominate in spurts,
he can dominate big games. But then you get two
three games in a row where it's well, yeah he
had and he had nineteen Okay, well all right, then
you look and go, he's twenty two point a game scorer.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Is he really that great?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Or can once in a while he elevated his play right.
The whole playoff Jimmy thing. It gets overblown because we
need something we need some of the time.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Oh it's Jimmy. Look how good Jimmy is talking Jimmy
Old Jimmy.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Once in a while, the twenty hour news cycle. What
is it? The legend is dead? Bertie Ay, No, the
legend could still blank you up, beautiful girls.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
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 3 (12:23):
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon
Hobo live from the Tirack dot Com studios, where we
just watched the Nuggets dominate the Heat one oh nine
ninety four. Nikola jokicic the first ever thirty, twenty and
ten triple double in the NBA Finals. Jamal Murray also
a triple double? Is there a way out for the Heat?
(12:46):
Joining us now on the Hotline Fox Sports One, NBA
insider host of the On the Ball Podcast with Rick Buker.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
It is Rick Buker. What's happening to my man? How
are you?
Speaker 5 (12:56):
Uh? Very very good. I was concerned that if the
Miami Heat won Game three and I have to do
the show with with Joey Taylor on Speak, who is
a very let's say, very strong Heat proponent, that it
could be a long day tomorrow. So I'm relieved that
that will not be the case.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Oh, she's not even showing up. Are you kidding? She's
calling in second after this, will be.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
There, will be there. It's part of the Miami Heat culture.
He's uh, he's gonna show up. She's gonna make you,
you know, win the argument. He's gonna say, hey, like,
we're right where we were supposed to be. They Denver
didn't win there too, in in Miami. They are in Denver.
They regained home court advantage, but nothing, nothing has been
(13:45):
lost that that. I'm pretty sure that's the argument that
she will have and uh, and we'll try to wait
our way through that.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
All right.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
So let me bring into a couple of things we've
discussed the last few minutes on the show. I'm going
to give you a statement and you tell me the
eye are we're saying this at the end of the
NBA Finals right now, My my nugget sweet prediction is
out the window, but certainly looks like Nuggets in five.
Will we be saying after this NBA Finals Nicola Jokic
put up the best performance in modern NBA Finals history.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Wow, he's on his way.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
He is certainly, he is certainly on his way. And
I don't know that, I mean the numbers will say
that that it is. I think it's already he's doing
historic things. So yeah, Look, this is the struggle that
I have, and I had it when we asked the
question the other day on TV. Has he proved that
(14:42):
he's the best player on the planet? And people mistook
me downgrading Jokic and saying no, he hasn't because it's
not because I don't think he's potentially the best player
on the planet. I'm just looking at the word proved.
Is he proving it right now? And it's really easy
(15:05):
in this in this vacuum where the Denver Nuggets are well,
I believe the decidedly better team, and Jokic is matched
up with aam Adebayo who is good and uh. His
his defense is known because of its versatility. He can
guard one through five. But they don't really have they
(15:28):
don't have an answer for Jokic in terms of a
challenger defensively, and they're not the better player. If this
is if this was Giannison the Milwaukee Bucks, it was
Joel Embiid in the in the Philadelphia seventy six Ers,
it was it was almost any other team that had
a comparable superstar, particularly one that's been the best player
(15:49):
on the planet conversations. I would feel better about saying
that he's proving it right now? Is he in the conversations?
He's been for a while, But as of right now,
he's doing what he should do against this Miami Heat
team with the size advantage and the overall talent advantage
(16:12):
that then that the Denver Nuggets have. So I'm sure
people will come away from this series saying, you know,
the greatest performance or whatever, and I'm not gonna I'm
not gonna argue with it, but I think we do
have to take in context who they're playing, and the
Miami Heat deserve to be here. There's no question they
(16:34):
exploited every opponent that they played. But are the Miami
Heat truly one of the best, most dominant teams in
the league. I can't say that the advantages overall that
the Nuggets have in this series. It's why you would
say that that you expected Denver to sweep. Is that
the platform on which we're gonna anoint people something, you
(16:57):
know historic. I'm just a little slow to do that
because we get the next season and he goes face
up with Giannis or Joe El Embiid and they dominate.
Then do we have to pull it back and say, well,
now he's not He's not the best player in the planet,
on the planet anymore. Maybe maybe we maybe we move
that quickly and easily. I'm just if I'm going to
(17:17):
say somebody is the absolute best, then it's the absolute best.
He's the absolute best, and there's not a whole lot
that can change that. If that if I don't know
if any of that makes sense, But that's that's kind
of the way I'm looking at it.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
No, you sound like me, pragmatism, rationality. Yet somehow we
still are employed in sports media because it's supposed to
be hot take nonsense.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
At list radio right now, Rick.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Works, Yeah, so I don't know, you know, I might
get pink slips tomorrow as a result.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Well you know that means, uh, just go on air
and just say, hey, playoff, Jimmy is dead.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
Well yeah, well, I don't know. According to Jimmy, playoffs
Jimmy never never existed. Then he trademarked that just to
I don't know, protect protect itself from the next playoffs Jimmy,
maybe a little bit like pat Riley trademarking three team.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
No, that's good. You o't ete bucks?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
No?
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Yeah, oh damn it. Okay, as long as I get
a cup of coffee with it, I'm good. Yeah, a
big face coffee. I'm good.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Rick Buker, our guest the Jason Smith Show with Mike
Carmon Live from the Tirack dot Com studios. All Right,
so the thing is you mentioned heat culture, and this
is a conversation had a couple of times. Is I
say to myself, Okay, what is heat culture? Heat culture
is something that honestly, every team should have. It's a
head coach that gets his players to play hard all
(18:41):
the time and not give up.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
That's heat culture.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
That should be every team's culture.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
But it's the heat culture because as.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
We see in the playoffs, the Nuggets, the Lakers, the Celtics,
the Knicks, they can't always play hard and try to
shoot their way back into games.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
But the heat do it.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
It's not some kind of crazy thing heat culture.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
You disagree with that, No, it's it's not crazy. I
don't think it's as easy to manufacture as as you
would think, because it's too I don't if you play hard,
you're getting paid a lot of money. This is this
is this is your job. Do it, do it well,
(19:21):
and put all your energy into it every time out.
In order to build this culture, though, you have to
have a number of ingredients that that are not always
easy to come by and are and take time to develop.
And one is that you have to have your owner
(19:41):
and your GM and your head coach all in alignment,
supporting each other and saying this is the way we're
going to play. These are the kind of players that
we're going to get. We're not going to reach for
the shiny object. We're going to be about how we
p play the game as opposed to who plays the
(20:03):
game for us and UH. And so it then demands
that you have the same expectations and hold the line
for every single player every single day, and you're not
having exceptions, and you're going to back up your coach
(20:24):
UH when it comes to a battle between him and
the star or the superstar, and there's just a lot
of teams that don't have the appetite for that. For
one reason or other, they look at the star player
and they go, well, man, he sells a lot of
season tickets, and he sells a lot of corporate sponsorship.
And an owner will say, hey, look, we gotta we
gotta do you know, we gotta be careful. We don't
(20:45):
we don't want to lose this star. Don Morant, like
you could leave Memphis and then where are we. You
gotta be willing to You've got to be willing to
say we will lose that guy in order to uh
to maintain our culture because in the long run, it's
going to work for us. And if you don't do that,
then you're going to have slippage. And the Miami Heat
(21:07):
have just been resolute and how they've approached things, and
they've been very specific on the kind of guys that
they that they draft. You you know, it's all the
jokes about South Beach and being in Miami. I'll never forget.
Brian Grant told me that when when pat Riley was
recruiting him and they were standing inside the arena and
(21:28):
they were look at there's windows on the upper concourse
and you can look out and you can see South
Beach from there, and they were looking out as a
beautiful scene and Fat goes, yeah, that's that's South Beach.
You're not gonna be spending a whole lot of time there.
And he's got clies out that if you are, he's
(21:49):
going to know about it. So but but that's the
approach you have to have, and you have to have
guys who are going to come to Miami and say,
you know what, Yeah, South Beach is right there, and
I'm I'm a gazillionaire and my contracts guaranteed, but I'm
I'm going to go through the conditioning. I'm going to have,
you know, I'm going to have my body fat checks
(22:11):
on a daily basis. I'm willing to do that to
be part of this. Not every guy will sign up
for that. Those guys are hard to find, and to
find twelve of them or fifteen of them, So that's
that's that's what it takes, and that's why the Heat
are so unique because they are dedicated to that first
(22:32):
and foremost.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with Me Mike Harmon
here from the Tiraq Dot com Studios on the Hotline
with us FS one analysts. You see him as part
of Speak on FS one. That's the Twitter handle for
the show as well, and find him on Twitter at
Rick Buker, Ri c b U, c h e Er,
Chris Paul meeting with Sons officials new coach Frank Vogel.
(22:57):
Does he remain there as part of the new cleared
or is he going to get jettisoned.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
I'm sure there's conversation, but from what I've heard, at
least initially, is the idea that they're moving in a
different direction. Now there's a lot of this just depends
on what it's going to cost to keep him, and
I think as of at this point, I know that
they had a certain deadline that they had to waive
(23:24):
him or not not guarantee his contract for next year,
and then it would be reduced from like thirty to
fifteen million. My guess is that when a team says
we're not going to pay you what we originally signed
you to, that the player is going to go, you
(23:46):
know what, I'm going to go. I'm going to go
find someplace else to play. And I think there are
a number of teams that certainly could use Chris Paul
when healthy, and he actually might have a better chance
of chasing a ring there. It's it's I don't know
that the fit with Kevin Durant there now is the
(24:07):
ideal and Devin Booker is the ideal fit. I'm what
I'm going to keep my eye on is whether they
can make a deal moving DeAndre Ayton and being able
to pick up another big man and potentially another point
guard that is either less expensive or simply younger than
Chris Paul is in order to build a championship team
(24:28):
around KB and the Booker Eric.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Lastly, the latest on the Jamrant situation is camp float
out there that the gun in the video that has
seen and be suspended was a toy gun, and we go, okay,
all right, so is that really a good idea I'm
going to wave a toy gun around? So we have
this development, We know that Adam Silver is going to
come down with some kind of decision after the NBA
Finals is over. What are you hearing? How big can
(24:54):
this be? Can it be a season? Can it be
forty games? And does this new toy part of the gun,
you know, laying into it anyway?
Speaker 5 (25:02):
I have not heard. I have not heard specifically how
severe the penalty is going to be, and I don't
pretty much everybody is guessing at this point, guessing based
on the fact that Adam Silver didn't want to discuss
it until after the finals, which only makes good business sense,
even if it's ten games. Why bring it up? Why
bring up an issue like that in the midst of
(25:24):
the NBA Finals? And this track from from from the
Main Attraction. All that said, I I am plummoxed and
bamboozled in terms of who might be running John Morant,
I don't know media profile it. It is astonishing to
(25:48):
me that they think that if it was a toy
gun and not a real gun that he was brandishing,
that that somehow changes things. When you sit down with
Adam Silver and he lets you know that this is
not the It wasn't like he was shooting the gun
or he committed a crime with the gun. It's that
(26:11):
you are demonstrating a reckless behavior with what appears to
the general public as a gun. We don't want that
in our league. And if it happens again, there's going
to be a severe penalty. And I actually the idea
that you would then say, like you try to spin
(26:33):
it to it wasn't a real gun, it was a
toy gun. You not only anger Adam Silver, you lose
all your street crews. Dude, what are you pretending with
a toy? Like? What are you? What is this about? It?
Just it is the.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
I hate it.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
I don't like to use this word loosely. It's about
the dumbest thing I've heard in terms of a response
for where John rant is the idea that somehow, if
it's not a real gun, the image that you portrayed
isn't the same. I don't know who suggests even if
(27:15):
it was true. I'm not running that out there to
try to get people to think of this situation in
a different way.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
He's on Twitter at Rick Buker, that is at Rick Buker.
Check him out as well the On the Ball podcast
on FS one.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
What do you got coming up? On the On the Ball?
Is it is it? Nick's preview? How they get embiid?
What is it? What do we got?
Speaker 5 (27:37):
I don't know what it is, but I can say
with the utmost disturn that it will not be there.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
No, I mean r J Barrett.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
If we redrafted to twenty nineteen class would be the
number one pick.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
In the draft.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
Yeah, you know what, That's what it's going to be.
Is that is the whole. But that draft class has
left R. J. Barrett including I'm sorry. There it is.
Then here you go.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
There's your next on the ball. There you go, just
like that.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
I'm on it. I'm on it.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
See you, buddy, We'll talk to you, see Rick.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best
friend Mike Harmon live from the tiraq dot com studios.
More in the Nuggets Game three victory over the Heat
one oh nine ninety four. The Nuggets win it. We'll
have more on that coming up in about fifteen minutes.
But today look a shocker. Today we lose an absolute legend,
(28:38):
the death of the Iron Chic who passes away at
the age of eighty one, someone who the very beginnings
of the WWWWF there was nobody more responsible for their
success than his character. He became some of the last
few years his Twitter account was a must read, using
the word Jabroni as an adjective so many ways.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Was just so entertaining.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
But you know, that's why I'm glad that that recently,
you know, millennials and gen z got to see, Oh,
who's his Iron Cheek. He's really fun and go back
and see the role he played in growing the WWE,
because everybody gives Hulk Hogan the credit for Hey, WWE
is what it is because of Hulk Cogan. Not always
(29:24):
Hulk Hogan was a character who was somewhat popular, but
when WWE jumped to the mainstream, went from being a
cult piece of entertainment to mainstream and look at where
it is now.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
After regional rational and pop culture synthesis, WrestleManias started and
Hulk Hogan, Yeah, Hulk Hogan became the biggest star in wrestling.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
He's one of the biggest stars in the world. He
beat the Iron Chic to win the heavyweight championship. And
the reason he was so popular is because the Iron
Cheek was the best villain that anybody could have come
up with at any time.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
You're talking about the mid.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Eighties where the view of Iran and then after that
it was Russia was at an all time low. We
had the the Hostages and Iran, and it was in
the United States. Iran had a huge Cold War and
potential conflict always at the forefront, and the w W
which is WWF back then, decide, Hey, we're gonna make
(30:24):
a character out of this, and it was the best
thing they could have done. Because you don't have great
hero stories unless you have a great villain. It's why
the first Avengers and the Infinity War and Endgame movies
were the best because they had the best villains, Loki
and Thanos. Why did the second one, why did Age
of Ultron not do as well not be well regarded
(30:47):
because Ultron was a pretty bad villain. If you're gonna
give a hero storyline and Hulk Hogan becomes the big hero,
you need a villain. You don't have hero storylines. It's
why Star Wars was really cool because they had Darth Vader,
and why the Recent trilogy was not cool because they
had Kylo Ren, who was not cool. You had the
Iron Cheek, who was the best foil, the best villain
you possibly get. People loved Hulk Hogan as much as
(31:09):
they hated the Iron Cheek and wanted the Iron Cheek
to lose. The ww doesn't jump into the stratosphere. It's
in without the iron cheek and everything is character brought in,
helped to.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
Bring it to spectacle and you know, denouncing the US
and playing that character to the hilt. The shoot, interviews
with me and gene Oakerland, the entrance to the ring,
every bit of it was beautifully choreographed. Flipping off fans
in the front row and spewing at them, maybe spitting
on them a little bit, because it's the guy that
(31:40):
really got into his role bit right, the the bile rising.
But you listen to clips and you go back and
watch old matches and there's there's not a dull moment
from the crowd, like there's no just standing around watching
the action. Yeah, it's venomous. Yeah, coming back at it,
the ring entrances are venomous. It is just this entire thing.
(32:03):
And when you add Hogan, who later would actually play
the character Captain America as part of his many personas,
you know, predecessor to the super Machines, or maybe the
other way around the timeline. Either way, the idea being
that you lean into it and with young Rock you
get a little bit of the camaraderie and everything of
(32:24):
that age. But just go back to the time you're
a kid and we were all loud mouths and you
were beating the hell out of each other. And I
had two brothers on the middle of three, and what
did you do? You were emulated except let me tell
you what you know, you could fake a lot of
the moves. Camel clutch is no joke if you if
you actually put a little bit of pressure, words are
(32:45):
the wise, don't do it. I'll camel clutch and the
figure four leg lock. I remember my friend put me
in the figure four leglock once.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
I'm like, ahhop Luckily you can get out of it
pretty fast.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Oh my god, I don't think you could. They could.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Uh no, No, I mean what I'm saying is you
can release it pretty fast, so and you can get
out like it's so much. I'll put you in it,
but it really hurts, so like it doesn't really hurt. Yeah, like,
oh my god, all right, and then release right away.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Best as you start to roll them a little, like
doing the uh the gator death roll on him and
it really starts to tighten up their legs. Yeah, you
can make you ever get a stunner a head stuntner.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Oh no, that's that's not you know what, there's a
there's a guy one of my friends, a police officer
in Michigan, and he says they call it the headstone.
Then they started calling it the stunner, Like that's a
thing that if if you get into one on one
combat with a with a suspect on something, the head
stunt he's Steve Austin stunner.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
It's a it's a it's a very it's very fat.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
There you go, that's effectable. Well, it depends.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
I mean if you this is if you're you might
have to go defend yourself for the use of s Yeah, yeah,
I mean this is this is in something whereas hey,
it's legitimate and it's your fighting for your life or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Now after you.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Do it, do you do the did the birds go up?
I don't.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I don't know. I don't think that's the case. I don't.
I think that's only in w W E.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
And we'll get you into the swinging neck breaker and
away we go. But yeah, the chic was was everything.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
You know.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
We talked a bit earlier in the show, like to me,
if you're in a persona in sports media at all
around our age. Chik's got a little part of you,
Roddy Piper's got a little part of you. All the
best talkers, Jesse, the Body, Ventura has a part of you.
All the great talking villains. But then the chic also
(34:33):
won Twitter. I don't think we've quoted anybody more for
Magic Johnson, Well, yeah, we have the whole game. Yeah, yeah,
we got But even that, I mean, it's a lot
of makeup stuff then making stuff up. So the chic,
we just quote him, obviously redacting the most important keywords
and letting you use Yeah, you can use your Broni
(34:54):
or you know, humble yourself. Yeah yeah, humble yourself ja Broni.
I like when he starts commenting on big sports events.
That was my favorite part of the Sheets. Persona on Twitter.
The real question call out.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Does the Twitter accounts still go on or is it
a fin I have to think it still goes on.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
It has in all caps and everything else. I think
it does. Well, Yeah, that'd be interesting. You take on
the persona of the Sheet. Some of your family doesn't
here it comes into you. Someone in his family does
it takes Oh, it's it's I mean, if the next
tweet is blank. The whole Cogan will know that the
spirit leaves up the magic. Skuy do it? That is true,
(35:30):
That's true. Double task Coming up next.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
More on Game three of the NBA Finals and other
big NBA stories that have broken as well.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Fox
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):
Give you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Greetings, Welcome inside.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Now it's our three of The Jason Smith Show with
my best friend Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well dressed Hobo live from the.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Tirack dot com studios. Tirec dot cod will help you
get there, an unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free road
has a protection and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tirack
dot com the way tire buying should be. We got
Rick Bucker coming up in about fifteen minutes. We break
down Game three of the NBA Finals. Nicole Jokic a
(00:58):
triple double first thirty twenty ten at triple double in
NBA Finals history. He's out them history for Nikola Jokic,
You'll make history history. We also got a triple double
from Jamal Murray, who was thirty four ten and ten.
But let's let's get into something that I threw out
(01:22):
there a couple minutes ago, because it's going to wind
up being debated and we're gonna say it, and that's
what's going to wind up happening. But so far, here
we are through three games of the NBA Finals, right,
and Nikola Jokicic's Game one twenty seven fourteen assists, ten rebounds,
Game two forty one eleven rebounds, four assists, Game three
(01:47):
thirty two points, twenty one rebounds, ten assists. Will Nikola
Jokic because right now, look at where he's at getting
ready for the rest of the NBA Finals. We have
seen dominant NBA finals from Lebron James before. But what
Jokic is doing here with every game being a triple
(02:09):
I mean, the guy could have a triple double in
or near triple double in almost every single game. Can
Jokic go down as the best NBA Finals of the
last thirty years, since the turn of the century, even
further back, right, because you had Jordan had some amazing
NBA finals obviously, I mean, I mean he did have
(02:30):
some Scottie Pippen tells you nobody knows who he is,
but uh, he did have some great NBA finals, But
all in all, like has has someone been able to
dominate in every facet of the game like this? This
is absolutely stunning. As good as he is that he's
coming in here to the finals and twenty seven to
fourteen and ten, forty one, eleven and four, thirty two
(02:51):
to twenty one and ten, he may go down as
having the best NBA Finals that we've seen. I can't
go back to before I watched the NBA and go
back into the early seventies and before that in the
sixties and Wilt Chamberlain.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
But so I go, I'll go back to what.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Nineteen eighty nineteen nine, I mean, dominant performance is in
NBA Finals history. But if this is what we're gonna
get from Yokis, we're gonna get thirty, twenty and ten
the next couple of games all the way through, You're
gonna go down being being the most dominant NBA Finals
player ever had.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Is a good question. Uh, And you know me, I
love lists. So let's go. Uh Shaquill O'Neal with the
Lakers back in two thousand, twenty nine, seven thirteen to
six nearly four assists a game and three blocks per game.
That's that's that's pretty ridiculous, right. Uh, so you've got that.
(03:39):
You I'm looking at all the NBA Finals MVPs as
you flow through, I mean Lebron obviously some monster numbers
along the way, but that's that's probably it. I'd put
that Shaquille O'Neill year up. I think is probably since
two thousand the best and in nineteen ninety you ain't
(04:01):
touching it because it's a shot that everybody walks off
and it goes into history.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
You know, the rest of the five doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Russell falling away as if the force had sent him off,
you don't need to be defending me now, uh is
about as good as it gets. But yeah, I'll take
that shack here and I'll post that for now.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
All right, so you have that for now. But remember we.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Said it also I had style and power.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, well it had the star paler and and I
like the Goaliejokic and star power is certainly there as
a player.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
But you know, I got to bring everybody to the yard.
I got to bring everybody out to line the courts
to watch. Mike, do you want me to pass no.
Do you want me to slam? Yeah, that's what you got.
Do you want me to shoot?
Speaker 5 (04:52):
No?
Speaker 3 (04:52):
No, no, no, I don't want you to say. I don't.
I don't want you to sing kell Us either.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I don't want I know that's where you were going.
I don't want that either. No, I know it works, though,
tam Ray, it's better than Okay, I am an ass
man saw. I mean, it was in the drops, but
you're talking about now that series by Shack, this series
by Jokic still with at least two more games to go,
and it's a twenty three year game with at least
(05:19):
two more games to go. I mean, I mean that
modern era NBA Finals history. It's gonna be tough.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I don't know. They told me that triple doubles don't
matter when Russell Westbrook had a bunch of them.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Well, Russell Westbrook hasn't won a championship. This would be
him leading that. Yeah, I know, but you.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Get my point. Guy did it average for a season
and we were supposed to go eh whatever he did
it before, the fact that he's doing it again doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
But this is if it was a bigger spotlight, I
would say it would be easy, but because it's the
Nuggets and not the Lakers, it's gonna be tougher. Look,
Giannis's you know, game clinching, Game seven, clinching seven, you know,
fifty point game that may go down as the best
Game seven performance, But you're talking about an entire series,
and especially when you're not gonna get a lot of games,
(06:09):
not a game, not a game.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
You're not gonna get a.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Lot of games out of the Nuggets if they they
play like this next couple of nights, it's two more
games and that's it, and it's and it's and it's
Jokic with you know, thirty twenty and ten the next
couple of nights, because clearly he's just getting stronger as
a series is going on.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Well, I mean, you're trying to pick your poison as
to how to defend and administer whatever pressure you can
do him. The assists are gonna pile up just organically
because of the way guys move off the basketball in Denver,
and it's a thing of beauty. And to think that
Michael Porter Junior, who coming into this series a lot
(06:45):
of excitement over the fact that he'd finally accepted the
role as the number three guide. Gotten past the injuries,
the attitude, all of those things that had plagued the
early part of his career. He's been invisible and it
doesn't matter right someone else's step into the fray. You're
getting great work game in and game out by a
guy who was once a top five pick and Aaron
(07:07):
Gordon who finds his home there in Denver eleven and
ten tonight, Brawn off the bench. We talked about him earlier,
how huge is it? But it's he's a guy that's
gonna get rewarded by a guy like Nicole Jokic for
the effort, which means more attempts if you're gonna keep
flying towards the basket for opportunities at the reck. So yeah,
(07:31):
I mean the balls in his hands as much as
it doesn't have to flow through anybody else. That's the
That's the thing that stands out right, like if we're
gonna go do the side by side, Shaquille needed to
dump in, dump back, whatever, all of those things and
then bulldoza whereas Jokic got some finesse, you got the
jump shot steps out for the three and the distribution
(07:51):
and the eyes in the back of his head. Some
of the stuff he's been able to do with the basketball.
I mean, it's it's amazing to watch. It's clinic.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
So just when you see the topic tomorrow the debate
shows whatever it is or on the red, just know that, hey,
hey we threw it out there tonight and people are
gonna take.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Well, let's start making our list at swollen Dorrows takes.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
The night before.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
But yeah, he's gonna he's gonna wind up going down look,
being that dominant being, and nobody's gonna remember it. Jason, Uh,
you listen. You don't remember because you got swept by
by Jokic, So that happened. Well, you also have the
Nuggets sweep in the heat, so we both got swept.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Dude, if you got if the Uggets had just didn't
need game two to be getting the.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
To get there, the Lakers didn't get swept, they'd still
be playing the Nuggets. It should be it should be
a sweep of the Nuggets because they've won so many
games by so many points. Hey, do we really have
to go crazy and bust our, bust our meds and
blow for one Jason, they would have won both games. No,
that that Mets are, you'd be close to a winning
The Mets are not nearly what the Nuggets are. No,
(08:52):
the Nugget look the Nuggets. You get bored when you
win the way the Nuggets have done through the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
They are also the Nuggets. They're playing Denver, nobody cares about.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
But the thing is is that when you win big,
you get by with not playing your best, winning and
thinking that's good enough. You did your best, and you
think your best was good enough, And once in a
while a game happens and it gets your attention. They
Game one, they weren't great all the way through, but
they got by. So they figure, do we really have
to have that eye of the tiger for Game two? No,
(09:22):
they're up by fifteen and what happens? They give it
up and Michael Malone talks about the effort that the
Nuggets did not have in Game two, and you saw
it because you saw the Heat rotating to wide open
threes all the time, coming back in it, getting big
shots and him going where are we defensively? That game
got the Nuggets attention.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Yeah, to be fair, in game one, the Heat missed
most of those shots that fell. In Game two, they
did miss it, and then today there were a lot
of open looks. Yeah, and then you get into the
fourth quarter, and this is where we get into the
heat in effectiveness. Bam and Jimmy combined to go one
for nine, one for nine in the fourth quarter at
(09:59):
a b one for seven. He was awful.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
You know, I'm glad you brought that up because this
is something we got to get into with Rick Bucker
in a few minutes, because the oh, how do I
say this? The image of playoff Jimmy is starting to
take a big hit. And whether it's he's tired, he's
him many minutes him, or he just is getting a
little bit more credit because we were looking for a storyline.
(10:26):
This is not a guy who's great every single game.
He has moments where he is amazing and I can
do it, yeah, right, and he'll have individual games where
he is amazing and then all lot of games where yeah,
he's seven out of twenty one for sixteen points. Dude,
if playoff Jimmy doesn't play like playoff Jimmy, every game
that he'd aren't gonna win.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Well in like playoff Jimmy today, And you know, I'm
as big as Jimmy Butler's stand going back to his
time with the Bulls man as there is, it was
Yimmy in my family. If you couldn't pronounce the j
as a little kay, people called everybody yeah man. But
with button we talked about it at halftime. He had
eighteen shots, didn't see the ball, didn't make me take
(11:08):
a lot of shots down the stretch, and even in
time where there were was still seemingly with a couple
of makes and stops an opportunity to get back in
the game, did a lot of dribbling around, trying to
ferret out and wasting time on the clock in the
final minute. So really, uh, quizzical is that a word?
(11:30):
I mean, we were saying that playoff Jimmy. How much of
a thing is it?
Speaker 1 (11:33):
When when he's he's not playing like Jokic every game,
you know, I mean, he's he can dominate in spurts,
he can dominate big games. But then you get two
three games in a row where it's well, yeah he
had and he had nineteen Okay, well all right, then
you look and go, he's twenty two point a game scorer.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Is he really that great?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Or can once in a while he elevated his play right.
The whole playoff Jimmy thing. It gets overblown because we
need something we need some of the time.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Oh it's Jimmy. Look how good Jimmy is talking Jimmy
Old Jimmy.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Once in a while, the twenty hour news cycle. What
is it? The legend is dead? Bertie Ay, No, the
legend could still blank you up, beautiful girls.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
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 3 (12:23):
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon
Hobo live from the Tirack dot Com studios, where we
just watched the Nuggets dominate the Heat one oh nine
ninety four. Nikola jokicic the first ever thirty, twenty and
ten triple double in the NBA Finals. Jamal Murray also
a triple double? Is there a way out for the Heat?
(12:46):
Joining us now on the Hotline Fox Sports One, NBA
insider host of the On the Ball Podcast with Rick Buker.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
It is Rick Buker. What's happening to my man? How
are you?
Speaker 5 (12:56):
Uh? Very very good. I was concerned that if the
Miami Heat won Game three and I have to do
the show with with Joey Taylor on Speak, who is
a very let's say, very strong Heat proponent, that it
could be a long day tomorrow. So I'm relieved that
that will not be the case.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Oh, she's not even showing up. Are you kidding? She's
calling in second after this, will be.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
There, will be there. It's part of the Miami Heat culture.
He's uh, he's gonna show up. She's gonna make you,
you know, win the argument. He's gonna say, hey, like,
we're right where we were supposed to be. They Denver
didn't win there too, in in Miami. They are in Denver.
They regained home court advantage, but nothing, nothing has been
(13:45):
lost that that. I'm pretty sure that's the argument that
she will have and uh, and we'll try to wait
our way through that.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
All right.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
So let me bring into a couple of things we've
discussed the last few minutes on the show. I'm going
to give you a statement and you tell me the
eye are we're saying this at the end of the
NBA Finals right now, My my nugget sweet prediction is
out the window, but certainly looks like Nuggets in five.
Will we be saying after this NBA Finals Nicola Jokic
put up the best performance in modern NBA Finals history.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Wow, he's on his way.
Speaker 5 (14:20):
He is certainly, he is certainly on his way. And
I don't know that, I mean the numbers will say
that that it is. I think it's already he's doing
historic things. So yeah, Look, this is the struggle that
I have, and I had it when we asked the
question the other day on TV. Has he proved that
(14:42):
he's the best player on the planet? And people mistook
me downgrading Jokic and saying no, he hasn't because it's
not because I don't think he's potentially the best player
on the planet. I'm just looking at the word proved.
Is he proving it right now? And it's really easy
(15:05):
in this in this vacuum where the Denver Nuggets are well,
I believe the decidedly better team, and Jokic is matched
up with aam Adebayo who is good and uh. His
his defense is known because of its versatility. He can
guard one through five. But they don't really have they
(15:28):
don't have an answer for Jokic in terms of a
challenger defensively, and they're not the better player. If this
is if this was Giannison the Milwaukee Bucks, it was
Joel Embiid in the in the Philadelphia seventy six Ers,
it was it was almost any other team that had
a comparable superstar, particularly one that's been the best player
(15:49):
on the planet conversations. I would feel better about saying
that he's proving it right now? Is he in the conversations?
He's been for a while, But as of right now,
he's doing what he should do against this Miami Heat
team with the size advantage and the overall talent advantage
(16:12):
that then that the Denver Nuggets have. So I'm sure
people will come away from this series saying, you know,
the greatest performance or whatever, and I'm not gonna I'm
not gonna argue with it, but I think we do
have to take in context who they're playing, and the
Miami Heat deserve to be here. There's no question they
(16:34):
exploited every opponent that they played. But are the Miami
Heat truly one of the best, most dominant teams in
the league. I can't say that the advantages overall that
the Nuggets have in this series. It's why you would
say that that you expected Denver to sweep. Is that
the platform on which we're gonna anoint people something, you
(16:57):
know historic. I'm just a little slow to do that
because we get the next season and he goes face
up with Giannis or Joe El Embiid and they dominate.
Then do we have to pull it back and say, well,
now he's not He's not the best player in the planet,
on the planet anymore. Maybe maybe we maybe we move
that quickly and easily. I'm just if I'm going to
(17:17):
say somebody is the absolute best, then it's the absolute best.
He's the absolute best, and there's not a whole lot
that can change that. If that if I don't know
if any of that makes sense, But that's that's kind
of the way I'm looking at it.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
No, you sound like me, pragmatism, rationality. Yet somehow we
still are employed in sports media because it's supposed to
be hot take nonsense.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
At list radio right now, Rick.
Speaker 5 (17:40):
Works, Yeah, so I don't know, you know, I might
get pink slips tomorrow as a result.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Well you know that means, uh, just go on air
and just say, hey, playoff, Jimmy is dead.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
Well yeah, well, I don't know. According to Jimmy, playoffs
Jimmy never never existed. Then he trademarked that just to
I don't know, protect protect itself from the next playoffs Jimmy,
maybe a little bit like pat Riley trademarking three team.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
No, that's good. You o't ete bucks?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
No?
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Yeah, oh damn it. Okay, as long as I get
a cup of coffee with it, I'm good. Yeah, a
big face coffee. I'm good.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Rick Buker, our guest the Jason Smith Show with Mike
Carmon Live from the Tirack dot Com studios. All Right,
so the thing is you mentioned heat culture, and this
is a conversation had a couple of times. Is I
say to myself, Okay, what is heat culture? Heat culture
is something that honestly, every team should have. It's a
head coach that gets his players to play hard all
(18:41):
the time and not give up.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
That's heat culture.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
That should be every team's culture.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
But it's the heat culture because as.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
We see in the playoffs, the Nuggets, the Lakers, the Celtics,
the Knicks, they can't always play hard and try to
shoot their way back into games.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
But the heat do it.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
It's not some kind of crazy thing heat culture.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
You disagree with that, No, it's it's not crazy. I
don't think it's as easy to manufacture as as you
would think, because it's too I don't if you play hard,
you're getting paid a lot of money. This is this
is this is your job. Do it, do it well,
(19:21):
and put all your energy into it every time out.
In order to build this culture, though, you have to
have a number of ingredients that that are not always
easy to come by and are and take time to develop.
And one is that you have to have your owner
(19:41):
and your GM and your head coach all in alignment,
supporting each other and saying this is the way we're
going to play. These are the kind of players that
we're going to get. We're not going to reach for
the shiny object. We're going to be about how we
p play the game as opposed to who plays the
(20:03):
game for us and UH. And so it then demands
that you have the same expectations and hold the line
for every single player every single day, and you're not
having exceptions, and you're going to back up your coach
(20:24):
UH when it comes to a battle between him and
the star or the superstar, and there's just a lot
of teams that don't have the appetite for that. For
one reason or other, they look at the star player
and they go, well, man, he sells a lot of
season tickets, and he sells a lot of corporate sponsorship.
And an owner will say, hey, look, we gotta we
gotta do you know, we gotta be careful. We don't
(20:45):
we don't want to lose this star. Don Morant, like
you could leave Memphis and then where are we. You
gotta be willing to You've got to be willing to
say we will lose that guy in order to uh
to maintain our culture because in the long run, it's
going to work for us. And if you don't do that,
then you're going to have slippage. And the Miami Heat
(21:07):
have just been resolute and how they've approached things, and
they've been very specific on the kind of guys that
they that they draft. You you know, it's all the
jokes about South Beach and being in Miami. I'll never forget.
Brian Grant told me that when when pat Riley was
recruiting him and they were standing inside the arena and
(21:28):
they were look at there's windows on the upper concourse
and you can look out and you can see South
Beach from there, and they were looking out as a
beautiful scene and Fat goes, yeah, that's that's South Beach.
You're not gonna be spending a whole lot of time there.
And he's got clies out that if you are, he's
(21:49):
going to know about it. So but but that's the
approach you have to have, and you have to have
guys who are going to come to Miami and say,
you know what, Yeah, South Beach is right there, and
I'm I'm a gazillionaire and my contracts guaranteed, but I'm
I'm going to go through the conditioning. I'm going to have,
you know, I'm going to have my body fat checks
(22:11):
on a daily basis. I'm willing to do that to
be part of this. Not every guy will sign up
for that. Those guys are hard to find, and to
find twelve of them or fifteen of them, So that's
that's that's what it takes, and that's why the Heat
are so unique because they are dedicated to that first
(22:32):
and foremost.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with Me Mike Harmon
here from the Tiraq Dot com Studios on the Hotline
with us FS one analysts. You see him as part
of Speak on FS one. That's the Twitter handle for
the show as well, and find him on Twitter at
Rick Buker, Ri c b U, c h e Er,
Chris Paul meeting with Sons officials new coach Frank Vogel.
(22:57):
Does he remain there as part of the new cleared
or is he going to get jettisoned.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
I'm sure there's conversation, but from what I've heard, at
least initially, is the idea that they're moving in a
different direction. Now there's a lot of this just depends
on what it's going to cost to keep him, and
I think as of at this point, I know that
they had a certain deadline that they had to waive
(23:24):
him or not not guarantee his contract for next year,
and then it would be reduced from like thirty to
fifteen million. My guess is that when a team says
we're not going to pay you what we originally signed
you to, that the player is going to go, you
(23:46):
know what, I'm going to go. I'm going to go
find someplace else to play. And I think there are
a number of teams that certainly could use Chris Paul
when healthy, and he actually might have a better chance
of chasing a ring there. It's it's I don't know
that the fit with Kevin Durant there now is the
(24:07):
ideal and Devin Booker is the ideal fit. I'm what
I'm going to keep my eye on is whether they
can make a deal moving DeAndre Ayton and being able
to pick up another big man and potentially another point
guard that is either less expensive or simply younger than
Chris Paul is in order to build a championship team
(24:28):
around KB and the Booker Eric.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Lastly, the latest on the Jamrant situation is camp float
out there that the gun in the video that has
seen and be suspended was a toy gun, and we go, okay,
all right, so is that really a good idea I'm
going to wave a toy gun around? So we have
this development, We know that Adam Silver is going to
come down with some kind of decision after the NBA
Finals is over. What are you hearing? How big can
(24:54):
this be? Can it be a season? Can it be
forty games? And does this new toy part of the gun,
you know, laying into it anyway?
Speaker 5 (25:02):
I have not heard. I have not heard specifically how
severe the penalty is going to be, and I don't
pretty much everybody is guessing at this point, guessing based
on the fact that Adam Silver didn't want to discuss
it until after the finals, which only makes good business sense,
even if it's ten games. Why bring it up? Why
bring up an issue like that in the midst of
(25:24):
the NBA Finals? And this track from from from the
Main Attraction. All that said, I I am plummoxed and
bamboozled in terms of who might be running John Morant,
I don't know media profile it. It is astonishing to
(25:48):
me that they think that if it was a toy
gun and not a real gun that he was brandishing,
that that somehow changes things. When you sit down with
Adam Silver and he lets you know that this is
not the It wasn't like he was shooting the gun
or he committed a crime with the gun. It's that
(26:11):
you are demonstrating a reckless behavior with what appears to
the general public as a gun. We don't want that
in our league. And if it happens again, there's going
to be a severe penalty. And I actually the idea
that you would then say, like you try to spin
(26:33):
it to it wasn't a real gun, it was a
toy gun. You not only anger Adam Silver, you lose
all your street crews. Dude, what are you pretending with
a toy? Like? What are you? What is this about? It?
Just it is the.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
I hate it.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
I don't like to use this word loosely. It's about
the dumbest thing I've heard in terms of a response
for where John rant is the idea that somehow, if
it's not a real gun, the image that you portrayed
isn't the same. I don't know who suggests even if
(27:15):
it was true. I'm not running that out there to
try to get people to think of this situation in
a different way.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
He's on Twitter at Rick Buker, that is at Rick Buker.
Check him out as well the On the Ball podcast
on FS one.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
What do you got coming up? On the On the Ball?
Is it is it? Nick's preview? How they get embiid?
What is it? What do we got?
Speaker 5 (27:37):
I don't know what it is, but I can say
with the utmost disturn that it will not be there.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
No, I mean r J Barrett.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
If we redrafted to twenty nineteen class would be the
number one pick.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
In the draft.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
Yeah, you know what, That's what it's going to be.
Is that is the whole. But that draft class has
left R. J. Barrett including I'm sorry. There it is.
Then here you go.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
There's your next on the ball. There you go, just
like that.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
I'm on it. I'm on it.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
See you, buddy, We'll talk to you, see Rick.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best
friend Mike Harmon live from the tiraq dot com studios.
More in the Nuggets Game three victory over the Heat
one oh nine ninety four. The Nuggets win it. We'll
have more on that coming up in about fifteen minutes.
But today look a shocker. Today we lose an absolute legend,
(28:38):
the death of the Iron Chic who passes away at
the age of eighty one, someone who the very beginnings
of the WWWWF there was nobody more responsible for their
success than his character. He became some of the last
few years his Twitter account was a must read, using
the word Jabroni as an adjective so many ways.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Was just so entertaining.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
But you know, that's why I'm glad that that recently,
you know, millennials and gen z got to see, Oh,
who's his Iron Cheek. He's really fun and go back
and see the role he played in growing the WWE,
because everybody gives Hulk Hogan the credit for Hey, WWE
is what it is because of Hulk Cogan. Not always
(29:24):
Hulk Hogan was a character who was somewhat popular, but
when WWE jumped to the mainstream, went from being a
cult piece of entertainment to mainstream and look at where
it is now.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
After regional rational and pop culture synthesis, WrestleManias started and
Hulk Hogan, Yeah, Hulk Hogan became the biggest star in wrestling.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
He's one of the biggest stars in the world. He
beat the Iron Chic to win the heavyweight championship. And
the reason he was so popular is because the Iron
Cheek was the best villain that anybody could have come
up with at any time.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
You're talking about the mid.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Eighties where the view of Iran and then after that
it was Russia was at an all time low. We
had the the Hostages and Iran, and it was in
the United States. Iran had a huge Cold War and
potential conflict always at the forefront, and the w W
which is WWF back then, decide, Hey, we're gonna make
(30:24):
a character out of this, and it was the best
thing they could have done. Because you don't have great
hero stories unless you have a great villain. It's why
the first Avengers and the Infinity War and Endgame movies
were the best because they had the best villains, Loki
and Thanos. Why did the second one, why did Age
of Ultron not do as well not be well regarded
(30:47):
because Ultron was a pretty bad villain. If you're gonna
give a hero storyline and Hulk Hogan becomes the big hero,
you need a villain. You don't have hero storylines. It's
why Star Wars was really cool because they had Darth Vader,
and why the Recent trilogy was not cool because they
had Kylo Ren, who was not cool. You had the
Iron Cheek, who was the best foil, the best villain
you possibly get. People loved Hulk Hogan as much as
(31:09):
they hated the Iron Cheek and wanted the Iron Cheek
to lose. The ww doesn't jump into the stratosphere. It's
in without the iron cheek and everything is character brought in,
helped to.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
Bring it to spectacle and you know, denouncing the US
and playing that character to the hilt. The shoot, interviews
with me and gene Oakerland, the entrance to the ring,
every bit of it was beautifully choreographed. Flipping off fans
in the front row and spewing at them, maybe spitting
on them a little bit, because it's the guy that
(31:40):
really got into his role bit right, the the bile rising.
But you listen to clips and you go back and
watch old matches and there's there's not a dull moment
from the crowd, like there's no just standing around watching
the action. Yeah, it's venomous. Yeah, coming back at it,
the ring entrances are venomous. It is just this entire thing.
(32:03):
And when you add Hogan, who later would actually play
the character Captain America as part of his many personas,
you know, predecessor to the super Machines, or maybe the
other way around the timeline. Either way, the idea being
that you lean into it and with young Rock you
get a little bit of the camaraderie and everything of
(32:24):
that age. But just go back to the time you're
a kid and we were all loud mouths and you
were beating the hell out of each other. And I
had two brothers on the middle of three, and what
did you do? You were emulated except let me tell
you what you know, you could fake a lot of
the moves. Camel clutch is no joke if you if
you actually put a little bit of pressure, words are
(32:45):
the wise, don't do it. I'll camel clutch and the
figure four leg lock. I remember my friend put me
in the figure four leglock once.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
I'm like, ahhop Luckily you can get out of it
pretty fast.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Oh my god, I don't think you could. They could.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Uh no, No, I mean what I'm saying is you
can release it pretty fast, so and you can get
out like it's so much. I'll put you in it,
but it really hurts, so like it doesn't really hurt. Yeah, like,
oh my god, all right, and then release right away.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Best as you start to roll them a little, like
doing the uh the gator death roll on him and
it really starts to tighten up their legs. Yeah, you
can make you ever get a stunner a head stuntner.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Oh no, that's that's not you know what, there's a
there's a guy one of my friends, a police officer
in Michigan, and he says they call it the headstone.
Then they started calling it the stunner, Like that's a
thing that if if you get into one on one
combat with a with a suspect on something, the head
stunt he's Steve Austin stunner.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
It's a it's a it's a very it's very fat.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
There you go, that's effectable. Well, it depends.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
I mean if you this is if you're you might
have to go defend yourself for the use of s Yeah, yeah,
I mean this is this is in something whereas hey,
it's legitimate and it's your fighting for your life or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Now after you.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Do it, do you do the did the birds go up?
I don't.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I don't know. I don't think that's the case. I don't.
I think that's only in w W E.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
And we'll get you into the swinging neck breaker and
away we go. But yeah, the chic was was everything.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
You know.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
We talked a bit earlier in the show, like to me,
if you're in a persona in sports media at all
around our age. Chik's got a little part of you,
Roddy Piper's got a little part of you. All the
best talkers, Jesse, the Body, Ventura has a part of you.
All the great talking villains. But then the chic also
(34:33):
won Twitter. I don't think we've quoted anybody more for
Magic Johnson, Well, yeah, we have the whole game. Yeah, yeah,
we got But even that, I mean, it's a lot
of makeup stuff then making stuff up. So the chic,
we just quote him, obviously redacting the most important keywords
and letting you use Yeah, you can use your Broni
(34:54):
or you know, humble yourself. Yeah yeah, humble yourself ja Broni.
I like when he starts commenting on big sports events.
That was my favorite part of the Sheets. Persona on Twitter.
The real question call out.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Does the Twitter accounts still go on or is it
a fin I have to think it still goes on.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
It has in all caps and everything else. I think
it does. Well, Yeah, that'd be interesting. You take on
the persona of the Sheet. Some of your family doesn't
here it comes into you. Someone in his family does
it takes Oh, it's it's I mean, if the next
tweet is blank. The whole Cogan will know that the
spirit leaves up the magic. Skuy do it? That is true,
(35:30):
That's true. Double task Coming up next.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
More on Game three of the NBA Finals and other
big NBA stories that have broken as well.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Fox
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