June 13, 2024 • 53 mins
Jason and Mike pay their respects to the Logo Jerry West. Jason explains why critics don't like Jayson Tatum because he's a different kind of superstar. And Luka Doncic fouls out with 4 minutes to go in Game 3. Plus, a visit from NBA Insider Ric Bucher!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from ten pm to two am Eastern
seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Okay, Alex Tyshirt, maybe not the day to run that open,
maybe not?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Maybe not? Maybe not the day to run that open
about the logo? Maybe not?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Why I'm just saying, maybe not the data run that open.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
What happened? Well, so stop stop? What stop? Not the
data run that open? I want the Jeta and Goku
to get their tails back.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
You've been okay, you've been working all day.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
You know that Jerry West, who the NBA logo is
based on, and died today, So maybe.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Really you just did the odd couple for three hours?
Speaker 5 (01:05):
Did I?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Okay? I got him with the flashy thing from Men
in Black.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, okay, right, Well, because I understand he probably is
continually so absorbed in this chestnut Kobe Yashi now that
Joey Chestnuts his favorite athlete because he's endorsing impossible foods.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
But just maybe not the best day for that open.
I mean you're the one making fun of him in
the open. No, but maybe no, maybe not.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I wasn't making fun of him. I was just moving
Jalen Brunston to be in the luds. Okay, maybe not.
Maybe not the day for that A good time?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, maybe not.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
I mean you could have said, hey, you know, name
the championship trophy after him, the MVP trophy after him.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
No, you went straight for the logo, so it is
kind of your fault. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Uh, we'll have more on the life of mister Clutch
coming up.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
What a life man. Uh, eighty six years old.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Incredible run, incredible run for Jerry West and and look
you look, we'll get to that. Well, let's talk Jerry
West here then, since I got to make up for that,
you know open that was erroneously aired and now ty
Shirt's going to be in people's offices tomorrow saying why
did you run that open?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
That doesn't make any wow, why did that happen?
Speaker 6 (02:12):
It's to get to talk about the logo, right, get
just to the discussion that you're that important to a league,
that seminal of figure, you're that respected that when they
said we're putting a player on the logo, not just
a ball, We're gonna put a player on the logo.
That your silhouette is what's been there for years, never
(02:34):
truly acknowledged, but all of.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Us have high we'd have to cut some kind of
because that logo is everywhere.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Well, you sign off and let us we're gonna use
you as the logo. I mean he does.
Speaker 6 (02:45):
Leaf Trading cards actually had a deal where he inscribed,
which he didn't do a lot the logo under his signature,
so I mean even he acknowledged it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
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So again, we'll get to the NBA Finals in a second.
Boston's now jumped out. They have an eight point lead
over Dallas midway through the third quarter. But the thing
(03:17):
about Jerry West, and you've heard a lot about him today,
and I want to take it in a different direction.
Something you probably haven't heard about. All that's been today
has been the life of Jerry West. The life as
an NBA superstar and Hall of Famer, the life as
a Hall of Famer executive. Right, the guy built the
Lakers a couple of times, he built the Clippers. He
was able to do so many things. But Jerry. But
(03:41):
judging by how listen to how people talk about Jerry
West today, what have you heard, hey? Jerry West also
a only player to an MVP of the NBA Finals,
in which he played for a losing team. Right, that
was a really big deal today. Jerry West legacy and
you hear people how they're talking about him today should
tell you that we go way too on NBA players
(04:02):
because you're talking about mister clutch the logo.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
You know what his record was in the NBA Finals run, yeah, path,
let's go red this record.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
He beat the Knicks ones. His record in the NBA
Finals was one and eight one in eight. He got
to the finals nine times, lost to the Celtics six times,
and was one and two against the Knicks. He won
a title in seventy two okay, one and eight in
the NBA finals. Now extrapolate this to today, if any
(04:36):
star player, whether it's I mean Lebron, look at Lebron's, right,
I mean, look Lebron's Look Lebron's won more than one
and still it's oh, he doesn't get enough.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Getting the finals is enough.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
And it's ridiculous because you're talking about a guy that
again one in eight in the finals, got to nine finals,
won once, lost to the arch rival six times, six times.
Can you imagine, let's just throw Lebron in there. Can
you imagine Lebron losing to the Celtics in the NBA
finals six times and losing to the Knicks twice.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Warriors right like.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
St just say he's in Cleveland and he loses to
the Warriors six times or no matter what, he lose
that what are we saying about him? Oh he's overrated,
he's not a great player. He's not what everybody thinks
he is. Because if you're a good player, you win.
If you're a good player, you wind up winning. You win,
you win more than a couple, maybe you win half
of the finals, which is what Lebron basically has done
since he's come into the league.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Oh you know, we win half of the final half
the time.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Whoever this player is, no matter what else they accomplished,
would be getting absolutely eviscerated every year, same same thing.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Can't get it done.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Even though Jerry West in the playoffs was always phenomenal
average what thirty seven points a game?
Speaker 6 (05:46):
He was phenomenal, statistics, absurd breakdowns. Yeah, and you hear
the love for Jerry West and his NBA career. Look
was I was too young to see him. You see
him play big time, but you look at I know
exactly what will be going on talking about his record.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
He'd be getting no credit and he would he would
he would be the scourge of sports talk radio. He'd
we talk about, oh Jerry Witts could get there again,
gonna lose, But think about all the wonderful things they
were saying about him, which is correct. It's hard to
win the NBA title, even when you're playing back, when
there's fewer teams, it's hard to win. It's hard to
be a star. This is a guy who is one
of the one of the five biggest players that the
(06:20):
that the league has ever seen, one of the top
three personalities. Because you think about what he's done in
executive that the league has ever seen, and it's unadulterated
love for him. And that's the way it should be.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And it's.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Not gonna be this way for Lebron. It's not gonna
be this way for anybody else doesn't win. Not gonna
be if Jason Tatum they blow the finals, they don't win,
for Luka Donziic, It's never gonna be that way. But
the fact that no one's talking about Jerry West record
in the finals or all the times he wasn't able
to win, they're saying all the right things because that's
your legs. You get to the finals nine times, that's
pretty good, right, I get that. Michael Jordan kind of changed,
(06:55):
like Tiger Woods changed how we viewed success in golf
because all of a sudden he showed up and he
was winning all the time. Wait, we've never seen if
a guy won twice on the PGA Tour before Tiger
showed that was a great year. Right, Wow, the guy
won the Memorial and he won the deposit guarantee or
he won the PGA.
Speaker 6 (07:10):
H Yeah, they were outliars And then you had all
those years of guys kind of battling it out.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
But the fact Tiger won so often that changed what
we thought success was Jordan winning, going three for three
off two years, three for three, Like that's a pretty
big deal coming about. Wow, he's undefeated the finals, he
got there six times. He want to go. Okay, that's great,
and that's awesome, but that shouldn't mean that whatever else
a player does gets minimized, Like Lebron's going to more
(07:39):
has gone to more finals than Michael Jordan. But it's
like they don't count because while he hasn't won, no
they count.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Call me when Lebron has six? Right, why does everybody
say that's the only art? Uh?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So just think about that for a second.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
That it's it's you know, a player like Lebron gets
criticized because he gets to a final and doesn't win. Meanwhile, hey,
there's lots of finals. Michael Jordan didn't even get to
so wait, so suddenly those years and Lebron's years were
the same. The years Lebron gets to the finals and
doesn't win is the same as Jordan not even getting
to the finals.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Right, But that's the way.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
But that's the way we look at it, and and
it's the wrong way to do it and the way.
I'm so glad today what we saw with everybody celebrating
Jerry West the right way, because this is the way
we should celebrate guys like Lebron or guys who get
to the finals and they go two for seven. You
get the seven believe in finals, man, I got the
five finals, get the four finals.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
They won. This is the way it should be.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
But it wouldn't be Jerry West if this was today,
that's people would be saying about him. And I'm so
glad that people have moved away to that and talked
about him that way, because that tells you we go
too hard on the players now that get as far
as they can and they win one at all, they've
only won once. They should have won six times, should
have won five times, but now should have won four
times by now, and and we really we really evaluate them.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Unfairly when it comes down to it.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
Did you get that clutch chip put behind your left ear?
You kind of got those those headphones making you look
like like someone's giving you a bunch of income.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Not just an old potato chip stuff behind of you.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
But the big thing in the processing of Jerry West,
as you did with with his record in the finals.
There's that result, that reverence and salute always to what
that Celtics squad was, right because it was the battle
year after year between those squads and we celebrate it
(09:30):
all these years later. Wow, what a time. And yes,
fewer teams, fewer players, all of that, the ABA for
a chunk of it go on down the line, but
it's it's just a celebration of you know what that
rivalry means to the NBA, right, Jerry West through through
the years and all the interviews, the respect level that
(09:52):
he's gotten as a player, as an executive, it's seen
as I mean, it's a unicorn kind of situation. We
were joking about using that term with Porzingis for the
first two games when he gets back out here. But
you look at Jerry West of you know, just as
a player, have you ever heard a negative like even
as you're saying with the record today doesn't exist sports
(10:14):
talk radio, hot take nonsense and everything else. It'd be
because we we make everybody combatants across the sands of time, right,
we we don't respect the eras for what they are
except in quiet conversations off mic anymore. Now it's the well, look,
you know, we have to you know, hold everybody up
(10:36):
to this huge you know, put them on the pedestal,
just only to knock it down. Lebron James has certainly
seen that more and more times than anybody in his career.
Make a good run. I mean, look the last title
he won. People don't want it to count.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, no, no, that doesn't count. You jumped here, he
jumped down. Really right, it's it's too much. Getting to
the finals needs to be like, hey, that's a pretty
big deal, right, That's that's a pretty big That's why
winning the Pennant Major League Baseball is a pretty big deal.
Like getting to the finals. Not everybody gets there. Look
at the number of teams. Look in the NFL the
last five years, the number of teams that have gotten
(11:11):
the conference championship.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
It's less than ten. But you think it's like every
other year if people get a turn, and they don't.
Speaker 6 (11:15):
But look at that grid and go back to the AFC.
For all those years, except for one or two outliers,
it was Roethlisberger, it was Brady, and it was Manning.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
That's it.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
There's your participants in the Super Bowl let's go throw
out at Joe Flacco every once in a while. But
for Jerry West, I mean the outpouring of love, but
the respect as a player like my dad, you know,
growing up like that was the guy he would cite
all the time. It was him and Oscar Robertson were
the two players that as a kid you heard about
and whenever there was a video component that you could
(11:46):
go back and watch, it was watch the clip like
pure basketball and what they were all about going into
a time that you know, by the time I was
watching now we're drifting into magic and bird and being
in Chicago, it was all Jordan all the time. So certainly,
you know, you'd get glimpses and you'd get a little
(12:06):
bit of the history lessons now and again. And the
NBA has gotten much better at it right. Baseball always
did that. Baseball always took care of you where you
got to see a lot of video clips. You got
to see a lot of Hey, here's the montage of
the great power hitters of all time.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
The NBA didn't.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
Do that very well for a long long time until
they did the fiftieth anniversary. After that, I think coverage
got better and they cleaned up whatever video footage they
have so we can get more glimpses of these guys
in their heyday as opposed to the last year or
two when maybe they were just pushing to whatever they
could physically because they didn't want to hang up their jerseys.
(12:43):
So for that, you know, we look back at the
career of Jerry West and celebrate it. And to your point, yeah,
even if you lost in the finals, you met the
juggernaut that was the Celtics, and it means you were
pretty damn good yourself.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Exit.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
How about a Fresca exit swollen Dome. It is the
Jason Smith Show with my best friend. His name is
Mike Carmon. We are live from the tyreck dot Com
studios all throughout the night tonight. Well remember the basketball life,
in personal life of mister Clutch, Jerry West, the logo
who passed away earlier today at the age of eighty six.
There are just so many things to get to and
what I love is that, you know, there's people now
(13:18):
who are going to hear stories about Jerry West that
are going to say, Okay, he's someone that that appeals
to a generation that watched him play and understands that
and the generation that that knows the modern NBA now
and that because he helped shape the modest spire as well.
It really is just a fantastic thing. And boy, there's
(13:39):
one thing he's not getting nearly enough credit for, because
there was a there was a time during his career
where he stood up and he he was responsible for
something that changed the way the NBA was And we're
going to get to that coming up as well. But man,
I'll tell you, getting all the love today doesn't matter
what his record was in the finals. You look at
the life he had. It was unbelievable and I grab
(13:59):
real real quick. He's an important figure. For another reason
today is that you're hearing the names of a lot
of Hall of famers that he played against and that
he played with, and it parallels a lot of the
conversations we've been trying to have, you know, in terms
of intelligent discourse related to Caitlin Clark and the WNBA
run in for the last twenty five years. People have
(14:19):
to remember the league existed, and there were a lot
of guys that beat the hell out of each other
to get this league going. Before Magic and Larry and
Michael showed up, same kind of thing. So today I
think a lot of those guys are getting their flowers,
much like we do with some of these other conversations
of sports that maybe you're turning to a little more
than you did.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
In the past. Exit ot about a Fresco exit.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Swallen down The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Carmon live from the Tirac dot Com studios. White
just hits a three off the backboard.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
It is a.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Thirteen point lead for the Celtics final minute of the
third quarter. We'll have more on the biggest story coming
out of this game coming up next. Jason and Mike
keep it right here, Game three of the Finals. It
could end tonight.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
This is Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
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 7 (15:18):
Hey, we're Cavino and Rich Fox Sports Radio every day
five to seven pm Eastern. But here's the thing, we
never have enough time to get to everything we want
to get to.
Speaker 8 (15:26):
And that's why we have a brand new podcast called
over Promised. You see, we're having so much fun in
our two hour show. We never get to everything, honestly,
because this guy will be over promising things we never
have time for.
Speaker 7 (15:39):
Yeah, you blubber lit Leam and me. Well, you know
what it's called over promise. You should be good at
it because you've been over promising women for years.
Speaker 8 (15:45):
Well, it's a Cavino and Rich after show, and we
want you to be a part of it. We're gonna
be talking sports, of course, but we're also going to
talk life and relationships. And if Rich and I are
arguing about something or we didn't have enough time, it
will continue on our after show called over Promised.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Well, if you don't get enough.
Speaker 7 (16:00):
Covino and Rich, make sure you check out over Promise
and also Uncensored by the way, so maybe we'll go
at it even a little harder. It's gonna be the
best after show podcast.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Of all time.
Speaker 8 (16:09):
There you go, over promising. Remember you could see it
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with Cavino and Rich on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
And time out.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Jason kidd Hey and the Mavericks want to talk it
over Welcome inside the Jason Smith Show.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
With Mike Harmon, live from the ti iraq dot com studios.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Eleven minutes to go in the game Game three, which
would this would end the NBA Finals basically if the
Celtics won. And right now they have a ninety one
to seventy lead. Yeah they want trailed by thirteen points.
They have an incredible third quarter, they close with a three.
They open the fourth quarter on a little mini run
(16:56):
and this is prompted a time out by the Mavericks
as the lead has a balloon to twenty one. Now
we'll get to Jason Tatum in a second. We want
to go back to something that was said on this show,
not by one of us, a few days ago. If
you remember, we talked to Mark Stein, right he's covered
the Mavericks all year long, and I said to Mark,
(17:16):
I said, Mark, okay, going into game one, here, what's
the biggest concern the Mavericks had? What keeps the Mavericks
up at night when it comes to the Celtics. And
he said, the fact that everybody on this team can
shoot threes and hit them. That's a big No matter
who it is, everybody on this team can shoot threes
(17:36):
and hit them. And tonight, Tatum's got four, White's got three,
all right, Howser's got three off the bench, okay, Jalen
Brown's got a couple, Horford's got a couple. Drew Holliday
has won for two. They have hit sixteen threes tonight
in this game, and the Mavericks have hit six.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Like this, This is Mark Stein saying this was the Mavericks'
worst This is their worst scenario come to light. Because
everybody on the Celtics can shoot. Is what's happening tonight.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
Right, because that's the thing we're watching, and you and
I coming into the series, we also talked a lot
about Porzingis and.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
What he would be.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Clearly not available today and the Woes report that he
probably won't be available again.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Well, it doesn't look like he's gonna they're gonna need him.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
They got the big game and performance out of him
that they needed. He will not have to die on
the court, as he was talking about the other day.
But just now you're watching the collapse into the lane.
Jalen Brown standing by himself, Houser to your point, standing
by himself, and Tatum, He's got his points, but the
(18:45):
distribution also there to wide open looks as the double collapses.
Something you've not seen the Celtics defense do. Related to
Kyrie and Luca. It's like, you're gonna get yours, but
the rest of these guys are gonna struggle everybody not
named Luca and Kyrie Tonight eight of twenty one. It
is what we thought coming in, which was the Celtics
(19:07):
were too deep, they were too good. The Mavericks were
gonna need Kyrie and Luke at a fire on all
cylinders and get something else because look out, talenting a
team is a thing, right, I mean, you can out
talent people and win. And this is exactly what the
Celtics are doing right now. They're out talenting the Dallas Mavericks.
This is a way to win. As much as you
don't like it that it's not a system, it's not
(19:28):
that it need to be.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
This is a way.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
This is how it works, man. This is you get
out talented. This is how you can win.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
This is when you know, Ricky, Bobby and Cal really
would be at their best rights.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Sometimes you have to win. But but how can how
can I win?
Speaker 7 (19:46):
You?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
How can iland you?
Speaker 6 (19:47):
And you know what Jalen Brown and Jason Daneum clearly
decided you know what you can.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
You can be Ricky Bobby tonight if you need to be.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Look and to tell you how deep the Celtics are,
remember all of this being done when without porzingis all
of this a porzingis not playing tonight. He was the
big key and they were missing him, and they were gonna.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Well.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
And only two guys have scored off the bench for
the Celtics in this game. Tillman and Houser combined twelve points,
four of five shooting, Pritchard's nine point or nine minutes
oh for three.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
So look and look and and when you when you
when you want to examine the ebb and flow of
a series. Right, the first two games were not incredibly
great games by the Celtics, right, They they just played
a little bit better than the Mavericks did. Right, first game,
porzingis off the bench gave them an incredible lift. The
second game was Drew Holliday right and still.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Both plus seven and a half. You got Intu Tatum.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Had a great game distributing the ball, but shooting he
wasn't great. But this was not where the Celtics played
and you know, as much as you say, hey, the Celtics,
you're gonna give you a game every round, you know
they're gonna have a couple of games where they just
fire on all cylinders. They were up two games to
none and they haven't even had that yet.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
You had opportunities the speak back in and get him right,
and you didn't. And certainly game two is one that
stands out. Luca getting the shot and whatever he does
seems like every attempt, the foul call he's he's looking
in the fact that he hasn't been teed up or
tossed at this point. It's kind of incredible with the
(21:27):
amount of demonstrative showing up with.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
The reflect that's because he yells and then he hides
when when the guys turn around, who is that?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
We know who it is? Who said that?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I heard that?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
But who was it was?
Speaker 6 (21:39):
It wasn't me, but yeah, it's it's one of those
for the Celtics. Now you're getting a bunch of wide
open looks. Sixteen point lead here, nine to twenty four
tall order.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
PJ.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
Washington actually just hit a shot though, I mean, so
that was encouraging. Now whom I don't know now look now,
now it's great. It's a great for the Celtics.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Gets to the second part of the conversation, right part
one is Boston's deeper that you knew they were gonna
have a game like this, putting it together. This is
just what we get from the Celtics. They're out talenting everyone.
But to get into Jason Tatum. Here for a second,
who has twenty seven tonight? It's ten for twenty one
from the floor. He's having a terrific night. Right three point,
(22:20):
He's only four, but he's still got four threes. Not
shooting great a percentage from threes, but he's taken a
lot of heat check shots to make me go wow,
here's a heat check from Tatum. There's a heat check
from Tatum. Everybody criticizes Jason Tatum and the critics that
he has. They don't want to give him any credit
(22:41):
for being the superstar that he is. And I'm telling
you there's times when I see him with it with
the ball in an offensive set where I think he's
the most unstoppable player I've ever seen, because he's big
enough to get whatever shot he wants off, He's strong
enough he can get to the rim he can take
a fade away. There's times when I go, this guy
is absolutely unstoppable. And you've seen over the course of
his career, which is still in the first few years,
how great of a star he is. But he's not
(23:04):
the star that everybody has grown accustomed to the last
few years in the NBA. He's not Michael Jordan, where
I want to slit your throat and step on it
and I want to drink your blood on the way
to the rim. Right, that's the same thing why it's
why everybody love Kobe Bryant. Right, Hey, I want to,
I want to. I want to choke you out and
make sure that you are not winning this game. That
(23:26):
I'm going to do it. I'm gonna hit free throws
with a torn achilles and then come out of the game.
And it's the same thing to a degree with the Warriors.
We're gonna blow the doors off of you. We're gonna
come out and hit threes and you're not gonna know
what the hell is going on, and Stuff's gonna do
the good night thing, and Draymond's gonna yell and scream,
and Clay's gonna say I'm one of the fifty best
players in the game, right, this is what we're used to.
But Tatum's not that guy. Tatum's a gen Z superstar.
(23:49):
He doesn't lead in the way that we expect or
have grown accustomed to our stars leading, so we don't
like him as much.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Oh, Jason Tatum needs to do this, you just say this.
That's just not who he is.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Jason Tatum is a final player on the court, and
you know what, you got to give the Celtics credit
for achieving. They've been to the finals now twice with
him as their best player. He's really bleeping good. But
just because he's not Jordan and he's not and he's
not even peek Lebron that oh you know, Tatum doesn't Tatum.
He's overrated. He's this even if they win this year,
they're not gonna win next year and all this stuff.
(24:19):
It's find a way to move the goalpost on Jason
Tatum when seriously, it's okay, it's time to give the
guy credit. You don't need to be that kind of guy.
And let's face it, there's not a lot of guys
like that.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
It's at different times, a different NBA. It's different in
twenty twenty four. The players that have come up now
have come up differently than the players coming up. There's
more than one way to lead and more than one
way to be a great player. And we've seen Tatum. Hey,
I know when to take over. I don't make all
the shots, but I know when I when I can facilitate,
which is what he did in game two. I know
(24:49):
when you need me to take the big shots. It's
what we need now in game three, like it's time
to give him some credit and give him some flowers,
because you know, because everybody keeps moving the goalposts on him.
He just doesn't get that and he needs to. I mean,
are we gonna really sit here with him holding up
the Larry O'Brian trophy and go, hey, he still stinks.
I mean, people are gonna still try to do it
when that's wrong because he's just a different kind of guy.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Well, and that's it.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
Normally he responds to the critics with a little bit
at the podium, and then he goes out and has
some big games and is you know, Ryan Hollins has
been sitting with me on Sunday mornings, Fox Sports Sunday
six to nine Pacific. Tune in wherever you're at on
the iHeart radio app Shamble's plug, you know, talking about him.
(25:31):
Sometimes he then gets into a I'm going to do
it all and it gets them into quote a little
bit of trouble because it's hard to criticize what they've
done this year, right in terms of what he does
have a game, because you don't have a lot of
losses regular season or playoffs. You've kind of run rough
shot through everybody. So now you get into that nick
picking kind of thing. Now, I'm a Jalen Brown guy myself.
(25:54):
So you've got two guys running in parallel.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
And look, even.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
Jason Kidd before the series was doing everything he could
to try to get them to go at each other.
How do I how do I get a little bit
fight on the car?
Speaker 3 (26:05):
I got nothing. I know we're over overmatched and manned.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
But Adam Silver, if I get two guys on the
same team to fight, do they still get technicals and
thrown out of the yellow cards and done.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
And we free throws?
Speaker 1 (26:17):
That happens, Right, we don't have to have a guy
on our team fight, Okay, want to We've seen that soccer, right.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
He just got a yellow card? No, it's just his
own player.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
So it's it's that kind of thing to try to
get them against each other, and then it's just a
which side you go and and typically me being a
you know, a five to seven uh ish uh little
uh fire plug of a guy, I'll usually go to
the guard as my chosen guy. And for Jalen Brown, uh,
you've seen him do some of that taking over and
(26:47):
he gave us one of the great quotes. Also, you
know between the Western or I'm sorry, the Eastern Conference
finals into the.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Finals, ask what he did with his time off.
Speaker 6 (26:56):
He goes, well, a lot of other guys, you know, families,
they've got to get the kids around, and you know,
you got your time because you know, I don't have
the fan I don't do that.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
So I just watched all the Harry Potter movies, so
I just got it.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
So you know, that kind of endeared him to me,
just kind of like, well, I didn't have a lot
of responsibility, so what did I do?
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I watched watch the movies and kind of hung out.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
You know, I gotta say five is the best movie
and four is probably the best book.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Guy.
Speaker 6 (27:22):
I mean, that's the obvious follow up takes you an
ask a band guy or I mean, what are we
talking here? But you know, for Jalen Brown, for Jason Tatum,
I mean they're gonna be linked at the hip and
and if you get the title, perhaps for a moment,
everybody shuts up, if only.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
For a moment. I don't know, man, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I think there's such an anti Tatum miss out there
that the Celtics win. The people, well it's the fluke.
Look at the easy run they had. Everybody no, no,
but you know how to do this.
Speaker 6 (27:47):
But you know, people are gonna do that regards that
was set up no matter how well he played.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
But that's been the last couple of years.
Speaker 6 (27:55):
It's like we we look at the path and then
it becomes it, Well, they didn't have to play that guy.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Didn't have to play that guy, So okay.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
Like you're not gonna you don't have to play every
team in your you know, conference playoff bracket, and somewhere
some team's gonna get beaten that Unfortunately, they were not
at full strength right go back through you know your
knicks and the early run they had, like people are
appreciated the moxie did they play everybody get everybody's best shot.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
No, there were injuries.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
If the Knicks had somehow won one more game and
played the Celtics and the conference finals, they would have
got they would have got blown up because they look
they had.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
But I'm just saying even the Knicks run to that point, Yeah,
there were injury laden squads on the other side of
who they beat, and but you celebrated for what it
is right and and yes can we are If you
were gonna do the the BS rankings up, where do
they stack up? Is the greatest Eastern Conference representative in
(28:58):
the finals of all time? Then yes, let's talk about
injuries and pats. But in the end, if you're holding
up a trophy, I don't give a damn for all
the strut But they're also the knuckleheads, and God bless them.
You know, you show up in a suit and tie
on a TV show, people pay attention to the nonsense
you spew.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
That's the way it works.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Carman. Time out on the floor, Boston. With
the three point lead over the Mavericks ninety three to ninety.
It has been a twenty to two run for the
Mavericks who are seen the end of the season staring
them in the face, and they have responded. Kyrine now
with thirty one, easily his best game of the finals.
(29:40):
Luca's got twenty seven, even PJ. Washington, Now start eat
up a little bit. He's got a couple of threes.
We are in the final six minutes of Game three
of the NBA Finals. When we next speak, are the
Celtics about to go up three zip or the Mavericks
be getting back in this series?
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yes, it is crunch time.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Keep it right here, so must listen Radio Jason and
Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
And oh my goodness, do we have the biggest review
of the NBA season so far happening right now? Luka
Doncic was just called for a blocking foul. Jalen Brown
had the ball. Luca gets called for a blocking foul
and it's a legitimate call. He's moving and this is
(30:35):
a legitimate call. If this is not overturned, that is
six on Luca, and he is out of the game.
They are reviewing it now.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
He's yell.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
He just yelled change the call. Right, he got well,
he yells change the call. So now you know, hey,
maybe someone's in a phone in a conversation. You know,
that's six on Luca.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
You know, if this was five, you could say it
was okay. But this is six on Luca. Man, we
need the NBA Finals to go more than four nights.
You take that foul away.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
I need to see another replay. I need it. I
need it one more time.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
But look, no matter what said planted, no matter what
I'm extended, that's a stupid play by Luca. When you
have five fouls, you can't. You can't get that close.
I know it's a it's a three point game, and
you're upset that you just missed your last two shots
because Jason Tatum died you up and you missed twice
from down, from from in close. I know you're upset,
but that was still a stupid play. You can't get
(31:32):
that close and have that happen. You cannot.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Superstars don't get six files called with four minutes in
a game. It's it's just an insane You know better
than that. It's an insane thing.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
To see that Luca with five files is going to
put himself in that in that position to foul out
of the game. And the call has been upheld on
the floor and Luca has fouled out of the game.
He is out of game three, twenty seven, six and six.
So the Mavericks six, yes, twenty seven, six, six and six.
(32:03):
So the Mavericks are gonna have to navigate this comeback
without their best player. That was just dumb, really, you know,
I know, and listen, this is Luca who can be
an emotional player, and I get it, But to take
this back the last couple of times, you're talking about
the Mavericks who have come back from down twenty one,
right that big twenty to two run, and they cut
the lead to three twice in two consecutive possessions down
(32:27):
the floor, Luca had the ball one on one with
Jason Tatum, a chance to either tie the game or
cut it to one point, and both times Jason Tatum
did not allow him to get a good shot off
and he missed down low, and then he missed on
a fade away from about ten feet away. So I
get that he's probably upset that twice he went one
on one with Tatum and Tatum found a way to
(32:49):
push him back, so maybe he's not thinking sure, And
now you want to stop a breakaway layup by Jalen
Brown to make it you know, so you're not down five,
But dude, there's still four minutes left the game. This
is not the final ten seconds where hey, if he
gets it and gets the layup, the game is over.
I mean, you got to make a smarter play than that.
You can't decide I'm gonna get in his way and
draw a foul because that's what we're here. No, you
(33:10):
can't do that, man, that's all he'll play by.
Speaker 6 (33:12):
Look, well, but it's a preponderance of evidence that Lucas
trying really hard defensively, and that's how I have.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
To put it.
Speaker 6 (33:23):
He's trying really hard because look, his defense has been
mocked and shided for a long period of time. Now
you get a moving screen call against PJ. Washington, which
is suspected best, but I don't think you have any
challenges left, so it doesn't really quite matter. You had
(33:43):
Brown on a putback and they bring the ball back
up and have the file. But for Luca, yeah, he
made a lot of gambles right defensively in terms of
reach ins. We've talked about this throughout the playoffs, so
you know there's a lot of contact on both ends
of the court that he's looking for a call that
he doesn't get offensively and he comes right back down.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
You've been coaching, you know, your your daughter's sports, both
soccer and softball. How often do.
Speaker 6 (34:10):
You see the the the women, the young ladies go
and try to get their retaliation and they're they're put
back immediately. Luca does that all the time, Right, I
didn't get a call on this end, So I'm gonna
go initiate contact and hope that I just happened to
be positioned now and that that one he didn't get
the benefit of the doubt for that sixth file. That
was too icy of a play, like some margin, too
(34:33):
thin with four minutes left in a three point game
to put yourself in that position.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
I mean, and look, I understand wanting to make a play,
and I understand the the aggressiveness of it, but that's
a play where you got to say, you know what,
we missed the balls in the open court they're gonna
go up five. All right, there's four minutes left and
there's a ton of Toni defensively, it actually slows Brown down,
and really the referees had no choice. It was called
(35:01):
a foul on the floor had a choice. Well, they
could have not called the fan. They should have not called.
Speaker 6 (35:06):
Well they had two guys that five minutes, but you
also had and Tatum run into each other. No, it
was it was done and Brown like three minutes earlier
when they went spinning around and no foul was called
on either guy.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Whatever.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
That way before Justin Frost wanted to come in and say, hey, wait,
of course you don't have to call that foul.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
Justin.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Who's your favorite team again, Well it's not the Celtics.
The Laker fan says, you can't let the Celtics get
away with that.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
Well, this has nothing to do with that m with
five minutes to go, you got to let that go.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
That filed out, you know what, because that's a great
play by Jalen Brown, drawing so much physicality that they
had to do it.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
That would become a Celtics home Listen.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
I'm not saying, look, I'm just going by what I've
been seeing here, not just.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Because because he's Celtics.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
You saw Jalen Brown, who made a great decision with
the ball, saying, you know what, if I force this contact,
we may get that sixth on him because he he
makes it. So the referees had to blow the way.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
If I don't.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
It's only the fourth eye.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Whistle, right, They had to blow that, and this is
a great chance that I can take here to say, hey,
let's let let let's see if we can foul. Luga
Dottas out of the game because he made the referees
have to blow the whistle. You can't just let that go.
Can't just dribble and dribble into somebody lose the ball.
Say yeah, we didn't see anything. He made them have
to do it. And there's nothing on the call that
tells you, oh yeah, yeah, you go back and look
(36:31):
at it. You have to take you have to rescind
that foul. There was nothing on there. The referee said, listen,
we have no choice to make. Your guy shouldn't have
gotten the way. You shouldn't have put himself in a
bad spot, which is exactly what he did. It was
your fault. He's out of the game. He's out of
the game. Was legit, Yeah, we're in a tight spot.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Only it wasn't.
Speaker 6 (36:48):
Again, But again, I appreciate Justin's response to this, and
it's not a full Laker thing. It's just superstar calls
in terms of falling a guy out.
Speaker 5 (36:58):
It's not even that. It's just fine. Minutes to go
in the finals game. You gotta let that go. Uh No,
you whistle? No, dude, you had no choice but to
call it.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
What do you mean, No, you have no choice because
Jacob Brown the layup and he dribbles right into Luca
and they fall on the ball.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
You no, you got the refereesman. They may will not
even have referece. But like I said, there was a
there was a play earlier.
Speaker 6 (37:19):
Where they might as well have been on on the
wires like they're Tom Cruise in Mission impossible, flopping to
the floor, ball goes rolling. Everybody's looking around waiting for
a whistle. Wait, no whistle? All right, play on.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Hey, this is a new NBA Finals where you call
your shot. Oh really, yeah, call your foul, call your
own foul. If you get it, you get it. If not,
it's okay. That's how we move on.
Speaker 6 (37:39):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Where do we sit right now? After all the drama.
The Celtics have the basketball forty seconds left in the
game and they own a one oh two ninety eight
lead over the Mavericks. The Mavericks have stayed in it
and stayed close despite Luka Donci's fouling out of the game.
But now it's a four point lead for the Celtics
with forty two seconds left to go. Boy, when you
(38:02):
hear our voices next, is it the Celtics up three? Z?
Speaker 7 (38:05):
It?
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (38:05):
The Mavericks back in it? We got a lot of
trauma to go. Stay here with us Fox Hotline, Nobody
Better and Fox Sports One Insider Extraordinaire. Check out us
On the Ball podcast. He's on Twitter at Rick Buker.
It is Rick Buker.
Speaker 6 (38:21):
What's happening, Bud Max oh Man, you know what I'm gonna.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Share with you, guys, Go ahead, what do you go?
Speaker 4 (38:29):
I'm gonna share with you. So I just I just
finished writing a quick quick piece for foxsports dot Com
on on the Game, and I was sitting here waiting
for you guys to call after I got done, and
it suddenly struck me, what the lead of my story
should have been and so I'm gonna share it with
(38:49):
you here. Okay, let's go Luca doctor bought the law
and the law.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
One Let's go.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (39:00):
Well, for years they did have the logo which was
the you know the ten star, right, so I beat Rick.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Look it breaks down for me, It breaks down like this.
Luca was very emotional in the fourth quarter. He committed
fouls during the game that were redicled one ninety feet
from the basket. In the third quarter where he just
seemed to lose his mind for a second. I look
at how this game comes down to it. He misses
two times in a row with Jason Tatum on him
under four minutes left to go, when he could have
(39:28):
either tied the game or made it a ninety three
to ninety two game, and he decided to make a
hero play and he met gave the referees no choice
but to blow that whistle for a foul. Jalen Brown
makes a great decision to go into Luca and draw
the contact, not try to get by him or sidestep him. No, no,
I'm gonna try to get this call and foul you
out of the game. And the officials had no choice
(39:49):
to me this is all on Luca.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
Yeah, I can't just agree with with with any of that.
The only distinction I would make is that I don't
think it was just the fourth quarter that he played emotionally.
I thought he played emotionally the better part of the game.
There was a couple of instances actually in the first
quarter when they built a lead, and then he came
down and took two consecutive long threes, which is something
(40:16):
that they'd kind of gotten away from, and it led
to the Celtics coming back the other way, and by
the end of the first quarter it was a one
point It was a point one point game, and I
just felt like there was the Celtics had done such
a great job of frustrating Luca that it's It's one
(40:38):
of the first times where I've seen him taken out
of his game to this extent where he never he
never got back into it to settle it. I've seen
times where he's gotten riled up and he's gotten into
it with the referees, but he's always found a way
to settle himself down and get the job done. And tonight,
instead of getting the job done, he got himself filed
(41:00):
out four fouls in the fourth quarter for the last
two within twenty six seconds apart, and then leaving it
to Kyrie Irving and and look, the Celtics were ready
to get tipped over. I mean, they brought back all
(41:20):
of the Goblins from twenty twenty two, and it was
a matter of Dallas just didn't have enough and Boston
with Drew Holliday and Derek White like they the Boston
just had enough from enough different places. I mean, honestly,
if Drew Holliday's there, I don't know that Jalen Brown
(41:42):
and Jason Tatum closed this closing this deal. I thought
Holiday defensively helped them. Derek White made a couple of
key plays. It was it really was a collective enture
collective effort. Not like to me that the biggest question
only maybe the biggest question remaining is who's the finals
(42:03):
MVP for Boston. I think they've answered every other question,
but that last one that might be difficult to answer.
Whet when we get to the end of this thing,
because if Boston ends up closing it out because they've
gotten such solid performances from so many different guys.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
You know, that's funny because when we talked about finals MVP.
I picked Drew Holliday because I thought the way the
series would go was he would lock up Kyrie Irving.
That would be a big through storyline. He had the
big game in Game two, and I'm thinking, boy, if
I bet my daughter's college fund on this, I'm gonna
be a millionaire. But now I kind of look after
Game three, Okay, this week, you know, Kyrie still had
(42:40):
a big game. The guy who's been the most consistent
throughout the first three games really has been Jalen Brown.
I know he doesn't have real signature moments. He had
the big twenty footer with a minute left to go.
But when it all comes down to it, Okay, Tatum
didn't really shoot well in a couple of games, but
he had a big game tonight. Brown's been the most
consistent guy, So I can see right now him being
the front runner.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
I'm not going to argue with whoever you picked. I
think it really is. It really is a toss up.
I know how the voting goes, and it generally goes
they'll look at the they'll look at the stats, they'll
look at the overall staffs, and I think the overall
stats will probably lean in Tatum's directions. But but Brown, Look,
(43:25):
he had a couple of huge baskets tonight down the stretch,
the pull up jumper, a putback he's had. He's had
his moments as well. So and look, Kyrie did score well,
but final two minutes he got one shot off and
(43:46):
that was a desperation three pointer. He was basically scoreless
in the final two minutes, and that was through Holiday's handiwork.
So I wouldn't I wouldn't count him out of the
running at this point. I think all three of those guys, again,
depending on how and when this closes out, I think
all of them still have they still have a shot
(44:07):
at it.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Yeah, PJ.
Speaker 6 (44:08):
Washington can hit a wide open three pointer after a
Kyrie dish, we'd at least be able to say he
got a third assist in the game. Rick, But back
to Luca for a second. You know, this one was
kind of oddly officiated. I mean, we talk about physicality,
and as it ramps up, it seems after a while
he was just theory testing of what it was going
to take to get a file call. He wasn't playing
(44:31):
basketball anymore looking to facilitate it.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
Wasn't he all right, How can I sell a call here?
Speaker 4 (44:38):
Well, I missed a couple of shots because he was
more focused on creating contact than he was actually fitting play.
And then there was a couple, I mean a number
of times throughout the game where he was falling out
of bounds looking for a call, not getting it and
(44:58):
staying on the ground. I'm throwing his arms up and
Boston's going back the other way on a five and
four And I'm sorry, but these are the NBA Finals, Like,
you may not be happy with the officiating, but there's
a game to be played and you're down two. Oh.
It's simply you know, sometimes forget how young Luca is
(45:20):
because there's so much maturity in his game. I thought
he looked very young into Night's game.
Speaker 6 (45:27):
It was.
Speaker 4 (45:28):
It was While he's played in plenty of big games
and he's done plenty of big things. This is his
first time in the NBA Finals looking to win a championship,
and there have been plenty of times where he has
looked like it is his first time trying to win
an NBA championship.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
You know, Rick, I think that's I think you hit
the nail on the head with Luca, And I'm not
to go in the.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Other direction on it.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
But even if Luca is playing at a little bit
higher level, they're completely out manned by the Celtics, who
just keep hitting shots, and they hit shots from deep
and everybody hits threes and when they need a basket,
White will get it or Holiday will clamp down on Kyrie.
It's just the Celtics are out talenting the Mavericks and
(46:15):
for everybody thinks that's not a strategy, the Celtics get
ripped all the time. They don't even practice, and what
kind of sister are they running?
Speaker 3 (46:21):
They're just guy.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
No, But having enough talent and out talenting another team
is a thing, and that's what I think the Celtics
are doing right now.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
Well, I agree, but it also requires utilizing all of
that talent, and I think that that's what has made
this Boston team particularly unique. And if they end up
winning it, I would say it's the first time that
I can think of a championship team where you couldn't
(46:49):
pinpoint definitively who their leader. And they're all I mean
probably say by default, Jason Tatum is their best all
around player, but he's not necessarily the go to guy,
and what has made them special and has really put
them above and beyond Dallas is the fact that, look,
(47:10):
this is what Boston has done defensively. They have said,
we're not going to double team Kyrie, We're not going
to double team Luca. Will let them try to go
get and that's been like, that's just been red meat
in front of those guys. Oh, I can go one
on one. I'm going to go get mine, And as
a result, it has not involved the other guys as much.
(47:32):
And that's when Dallas is at their best. And conversely,
while Dallas is not double teamed Boston, Boston has continued
to move players and the ball so that they continue
to keep everybody involved. And and there's there's a way
(47:52):
to do that, Like you don't have to draw a
double team in order to get somebody open if everybody's
moving and you're looking to find the who has a crease,
who can get buckets for multiple players, And that's what
Boston is doing, and that's what Dallas has not done.
Tyree and Luca are like, I got one on one
and they're not going to come double team. I'm going
(48:13):
to go try to get mine. And it's just not
the most effective way for Dallas to play, particularly against
the Boston team that is involving everybody.
Speaker 6 (48:24):
Finally, Rick, as we look at the day, we celebrate everything,
Game three of the Finals, but in the background, the
passing of Jerry West today, the moment of silence and
the myriad storylines and history of this league really brought
to bear. You know, as people remembered his life and career.
What stands out, you know, for you most as you
(48:46):
think about the trails he blazed here in the NBA, probably.
Speaker 4 (48:52):
Just how iconic he was in so many ways as
a player and as an executive and as just an
ambassador of the game. And yet how none of that
affected who he was. He was still a guy from
West Virginia. I mean, you know, he worked in Hollywood
for the better part of his career, and dashing, good
(49:16):
looking guy, you know, always wearing a suit and looking sharp,
and yet he clung to those West Virginia roots and
the work ethic that allowed him to to get out
of West Virginia and become the basketball icon, the logo
(49:39):
that he became, and I just you know, he was
just he was still personable. I mean, you know, Jerry
West had had the aura of one of those of
an icon. He was one of those guys you walked
in the room and he was like, oh, there's Jerry West.
But if you talk to him, if you knew him,
as soon as you started talking, it was just like,
(50:00):
it's Jerry. He was just he was a guy. And
no matter who you were. I mean, at times he's
you know the stories that that I've heard from you know,
various people like scouts and lower level people in the league,
and he would come up to them and he'd ask them,
(50:21):
you know, who do you like? What do you see?
Like he was, it didn't matter who you were. He
was going to pick your brain to find out, you know,
what what you were thinking and what you were seeing.
And for a guy that accomplished as much as he
did and knew as much as he did and had
done as much as he did, that he remained, you know,
so open and teachable and not carrying and not having
(50:44):
airs whatsoever. That's that's that's a big part of it.
And then the other part. And you know, this is
a story that the scout told me. He was sitting
with Mitch cuff check uh and uh, and he knew
Jerry and Mitchell told him, Hey, don't leave without saying
hello to Jerry. He'll be really mad. And so the
(51:06):
game starts and the scout says the Mitch he goes,
he goes, Where's where's Jerry? And in the in the arena,
in the Lakers Arena, they probably have about one hundred
and eighty sweets. They've really milked that aspect, and one
hundred and seventy nine of them were lit up, and
(51:29):
one of them was completely dark. And Mitch said, look
up at the sweet and the scout found the one
that was dark, and he goes, that's where Jerry is
his n and he goes, yeah, he's sitting in the
darky through the game because watching games just tortured him.
(51:51):
And Mitch goes, I'm not even gonna go up there
with him because I can't stand it, Like I can't
stand around him during a game. And sometimes he wouldn't
even be in the arena. He'd get in his car
and drive around because just he just he lived and
breathed the game even if he wasn't playing. And so
that that competitor in him, you know, that that that
(52:12):
dichotomy of a guy that just was so steeped in
the game and cared so much about every second of
it that it be played the right way, and at
the same time could be so personable to everybody. It's
what made what made him unique and so truly unforgettable
for me. And I just I mean Bill Walton and
(52:35):
Jerry West. Those are two guys that were ambassadors for
the game, not because of what they did, but because
of but because of who they were and how they
treated the people around him. They that I mean being
ambassador as you think of this kind of regal standing
and they were the just meet you at your level,
(53:00):
how you doing. They made you love the end, They
made you love the game because of how they loved
the game.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
Speak it. He's Rick Buker.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
He's on Twitter at Rick Buker, Fox Sports one NBA insider.
Rick has always appreciated, appreciate the stories, all the insight.
Speaker 3 (53:16):
Have a great one. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks Rick.
All right, there goes Rick Buker.
Speaker 1 (53:21):
That's great, I mean awesome, awesome stuff from him remembering
Jerry West, and look hitting the nail on the head
with Luka Doncic as well, because yeah, clearly look emotional.
We told you he was emotional in the fourth quarter,
emotional fouls, made an emotional decision, and boom. Now the
Mavericks are one game away from get eliminated.
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from 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 Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is the best of the Jason Smith Show with
Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Okay, Alex Tyshirt, maybe not the day to run that open,
maybe not?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Maybe not? Maybe not the day to run that open
about the logo? Maybe not?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Why I'm just saying, maybe not the data run that open.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
What happened? Well, so stop stop? What stop? Not the
data run that open? I want the Jeta and Goku
to get their tails back.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
You've been okay, you've been working all day.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
You know that Jerry West, who the NBA logo is
based on, and died today, So maybe.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Really you just did the odd couple for three hours?
Speaker 5 (01:05):
Did I?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Okay? I got him with the flashy thing from Men
in Black.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, okay, right, Well, because I understand he probably is
continually so absorbed in this chestnut Kobe Yashi now that
Joey Chestnuts his favorite athlete because he's endorsing impossible foods.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
But just maybe not the best day for that open.
I mean you're the one making fun of him in
the open. No, but maybe no, maybe not.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I wasn't making fun of him. I was just moving
Jalen Brunston to be in the luds. Okay, maybe not.
Maybe not the day for that A good time?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Yeah, maybe not.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
I mean you could have said, hey, you know, name
the championship trophy after him, the MVP trophy after him.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
No, you went straight for the logo, so it is
kind of your fault. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Uh, we'll have more on the life of mister Clutch
coming up.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
What a life man. Uh, eighty six years old.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Incredible run, incredible run for Jerry West and and look
you look, we'll get to that. Well, let's talk Jerry
West here then, since I got to make up for that,
you know open that was erroneously aired and now ty
Shirt's going to be in people's offices tomorrow saying why
did you run that open?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
That doesn't make any wow, why did that happen?
Speaker 6 (02:12):
It's to get to talk about the logo, right, get
just to the discussion that you're that important to a league,
that seminal of figure, you're that respected that when they
said we're putting a player on the logo, not just
a ball, We're gonna put a player on the logo.
That your silhouette is what's been there for years, never
(02:34):
truly acknowledged, but all of.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Us have high we'd have to cut some kind of
because that logo is everywhere.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Well, you sign off and let us we're gonna use
you as the logo. I mean he does.
Speaker 6 (02:45):
Leaf Trading cards actually had a deal where he inscribed,
which he didn't do a lot the logo under his signature,
so I mean even he acknowledged it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
We're live from the tirec dot Com studios. Tirect help
you get there an unmatched election, fast free shipping, free
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tiraq dot com is the way tire buying should be.
So again, we'll get to the NBA Finals in a second.
Boston's now jumped out. They have an eight point lead
over Dallas midway through the third quarter. But the thing
(03:17):
about Jerry West, and you've heard a lot about him today,
and I want to take it in a different direction.
Something you probably haven't heard about. All that's been today
has been the life of Jerry West. The life as
an NBA superstar and Hall of Famer, the life as
a Hall of Famer executive. Right, the guy built the
Lakers a couple of times, he built the Clippers. He
was able to do so many things. But Jerry. But
(03:41):
judging by how listen to how people talk about Jerry
West today, what have you heard, hey? Jerry West also
a only player to an MVP of the NBA Finals,
in which he played for a losing team. Right, that
was a really big deal today. Jerry West legacy and
you hear people how they're talking about him today should
tell you that we go way too on NBA players
(04:02):
because you're talking about mister clutch the logo.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
You know what his record was in the NBA Finals run, yeah, path,
let's go red this record.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
He beat the Knicks ones. His record in the NBA
Finals was one and eight one in eight. He got
to the finals nine times, lost to the Celtics six times,
and was one and two against the Knicks. He won
a title in seventy two okay, one and eight in
the NBA finals. Now extrapolate this to today, if any
(04:36):
star player, whether it's I mean Lebron, look at Lebron's, right,
I mean, look Lebron's Look Lebron's won more than one
and still it's oh, he doesn't get enough.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Getting the finals is enough.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
And it's ridiculous because you're talking about a guy that
again one in eight in the finals, got to nine finals,
won once, lost to the arch rival six times, six times.
Can you imagine, let's just throw Lebron in there. Can
you imagine Lebron losing to the Celtics in the NBA
finals six times and losing to the Knicks twice.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Warriors right like.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
St just say he's in Cleveland and he loses to
the Warriors six times or no matter what, he lose
that what are we saying about him? Oh he's overrated,
he's not a great player. He's not what everybody thinks
he is. Because if you're a good player, you win.
If you're a good player, you wind up winning. You win,
you win more than a couple, maybe you win half
of the finals, which is what Lebron basically has done
since he's come into the league.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Oh you know, we win half of the final half
the time.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Whoever this player is, no matter what else they accomplished,
would be getting absolutely eviscerated every year, same same thing.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Can't get it done.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Even though Jerry West in the playoffs was always phenomenal
average what thirty seven points a game?
Speaker 6 (05:46):
He was phenomenal, statistics, absurd breakdowns. Yeah, and you hear
the love for Jerry West and his NBA career. Look
was I was too young to see him. You see
him play big time, but you look at I know
exactly what will be going on talking about his record.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
He'd be getting no credit and he would he would
he would be the scourge of sports talk radio. He'd
we talk about, oh Jerry Witts could get there again,
gonna lose, But think about all the wonderful things they
were saying about him, which is correct. It's hard to
win the NBA title, even when you're playing back, when
there's fewer teams, it's hard to win. It's hard to
be a star. This is a guy who is one
of the one of the five biggest players that the
(06:20):
that the league has ever seen, one of the top
three personalities. Because you think about what he's done in
executive that the league has ever seen, and it's unadulterated
love for him. And that's the way it should be.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And it's.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Not gonna be this way for Lebron. It's not gonna
be this way for anybody else doesn't win. Not gonna
be if Jason Tatum they blow the finals, they don't win,
for Luka Donziic, It's never gonna be that way. But
the fact that no one's talking about Jerry West record
in the finals or all the times he wasn't able
to win, they're saying all the right things because that's
your legs. You get to the finals nine times, that's
pretty good, right, I get that. Michael Jordan kind of changed,
(06:55):
like Tiger Woods changed how we viewed success in golf
because all of a sudden he showed up and he
was winning all the time. Wait, we've never seen if
a guy won twice on the PGA Tour before Tiger
showed that was a great year. Right, Wow, the guy
won the Memorial and he won the deposit guarantee or
he won the PGA.
Speaker 6 (07:10):
H Yeah, they were outliars And then you had all
those years of guys kind of battling it out.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
But the fact Tiger won so often that changed what
we thought success was Jordan winning, going three for three
off two years, three for three, Like that's a pretty
big deal coming about. Wow, he's undefeated the finals, he
got there six times. He want to go. Okay, that's great,
and that's awesome, but that shouldn't mean that whatever else
a player does gets minimized, Like Lebron's going to more
(07:39):
has gone to more finals than Michael Jordan. But it's
like they don't count because while he hasn't won, no
they count.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Call me when Lebron has six? Right, why does everybody
say that's the only art? Uh?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So just think about that for a second.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
That it's it's you know, a player like Lebron gets
criticized because he gets to a final and doesn't win. Meanwhile, hey,
there's lots of finals. Michael Jordan didn't even get to
so wait, so suddenly those years and Lebron's years were
the same. The years Lebron gets to the finals and
doesn't win is the same as Jordan not even getting
to the finals.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Right, But that's the way.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
But that's the way we look at it, and and
it's the wrong way to do it and the way.
I'm so glad today what we saw with everybody celebrating
Jerry West the right way, because this is the way
we should celebrate guys like Lebron or guys who get
to the finals and they go two for seven. You
get the seven believe in finals, man, I got the
five finals, get the four finals.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
They won. This is the way it should be.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
But it wouldn't be Jerry West if this was today,
that's people would be saying about him. And I'm so
glad that people have moved away to that and talked
about him that way, because that tells you we go
too hard on the players now that get as far
as they can and they win one at all, they've
only won once. They should have won six times, should
have won five times, but now should have won four
times by now, and and we really we really evaluate them.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Unfairly when it comes down to it.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
Did you get that clutch chip put behind your left ear?
You kind of got those those headphones making you look
like like someone's giving you a bunch of income.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Not just an old potato chip stuff behind of you.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
But the big thing in the processing of Jerry West,
as you did with with his record in the finals.
There's that result, that reverence and salute always to what
that Celtics squad was, right because it was the battle
year after year between those squads and we celebrate it
(09:30):
all these years later. Wow, what a time. And yes,
fewer teams, fewer players, all of that, the ABA for
a chunk of it go on down the line, but
it's it's just a celebration of you know what that
rivalry means to the NBA, right, Jerry West through through
the years and all the interviews, the respect level that
(09:52):
he's gotten as a player, as an executive, it's seen
as I mean, it's a unicorn kind of situation. We
were joking about using that term with Porzingis for the
first two games when he gets back out here. But
you look at Jerry West of you know, just as
a player, have you ever heard a negative like even
as you're saying with the record today doesn't exist sports
(10:14):
talk radio, hot take nonsense and everything else. It'd be
because we we make everybody combatants across the sands of time, right,
we we don't respect the eras for what they are
except in quiet conversations off mic anymore. Now it's the well, look,
you know, we have to you know, hold everybody up
(10:36):
to this huge you know, put them on the pedestal,
just only to knock it down. Lebron James has certainly
seen that more and more times than anybody in his career.
Make a good run. I mean, look the last title
he won. People don't want it to count.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, no, no, that doesn't count. You jumped here, he
jumped down. Really right, it's it's too much. Getting to
the finals needs to be like, hey, that's a pretty
big deal, right, That's that's a pretty big That's why
winning the Pennant Major League Baseball is a pretty big deal.
Like getting to the finals. Not everybody gets there. Look
at the number of teams. Look in the NFL the
last five years, the number of teams that have gotten
(11:11):
the conference championship.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
It's less than ten. But you think it's like every
other year if people get a turn, and they don't.
Speaker 6 (11:15):
But look at that grid and go back to the AFC.
For all those years, except for one or two outliers,
it was Roethlisberger, it was Brady, and it was Manning.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
That's it.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
There's your participants in the Super Bowl let's go throw
out at Joe Flacco every once in a while. But
for Jerry West, I mean the outpouring of love, but
the respect as a player like my dad, you know,
growing up like that was the guy he would cite
all the time. It was him and Oscar Robertson were
the two players that as a kid you heard about
and whenever there was a video component that you could
(11:46):
go back and watch, it was watch the clip like
pure basketball and what they were all about going into
a time that you know, by the time I was
watching now we're drifting into magic and bird and being
in Chicago, it was all Jordan all the time. So certainly,
you know, you'd get glimpses and you'd get a little
(12:06):
bit of the history lessons now and again. And the
NBA has gotten much better at it right. Baseball always
did that. Baseball always took care of you where you
got to see a lot of video clips. You got
to see a lot of Hey, here's the montage of
the great power hitters of all time.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
The NBA didn't.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
Do that very well for a long long time until
they did the fiftieth anniversary. After that, I think coverage
got better and they cleaned up whatever video footage they
have so we can get more glimpses of these guys
in their heyday as opposed to the last year or
two when maybe they were just pushing to whatever they
could physically because they didn't want to hang up their jerseys.
(12:43):
So for that, you know, we look back at the
career of Jerry West and celebrate it. And to your point, yeah,
even if you lost in the finals, you met the
juggernaut that was the Celtics, and it means you were
pretty damn good yourself.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Exit.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
How about a Fresca exit swollen Dome. It is the
Jason Smith Show with my best friend. His name is
Mike Carmon. We are live from the tyreck dot Com
studios all throughout the night tonight. Well remember the basketball life,
in personal life of mister Clutch, Jerry West, the logo
who passed away earlier today at the age of eighty six.
There are just so many things to get to and
what I love is that, you know, there's people now
(13:18):
who are going to hear stories about Jerry West that
are going to say, Okay, he's someone that that appeals
to a generation that watched him play and understands that
and the generation that that knows the modern NBA now
and that because he helped shape the modest spire as well.
It really is just a fantastic thing. And boy, there's
(13:39):
one thing he's not getting nearly enough credit for, because
there was a there was a time during his career
where he stood up and he he was responsible for
something that changed the way the NBA was And we're
going to get to that coming up as well. But man,
I'll tell you, getting all the love today doesn't matter
what his record was in the finals. You look at
the life he had. It was unbelievable and I grab
(13:59):
real real quick. He's an important figure. For another reason
today is that you're hearing the names of a lot
of Hall of famers that he played against and that
he played with, and it parallels a lot of the
conversations we've been trying to have, you know, in terms
of intelligent discourse related to Caitlin Clark and the WNBA
run in for the last twenty five years. People have
(14:19):
to remember the league existed, and there were a lot
of guys that beat the hell out of each other
to get this league going. Before Magic and Larry and
Michael showed up, same kind of thing. So today I
think a lot of those guys are getting their flowers,
much like we do with some of these other conversations
of sports that maybe you're turning to a little more
than you did.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
In the past. Exit ot about a Fresco exit.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Swallen down The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Carmon live from the Tirac dot Com studios. White
just hits a three off the backboard.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
It is a.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Thirteen point lead for the Celtics final minute of the
third quarter. We'll have more on the biggest story coming
out of this game coming up next. Jason and Mike
keep it right here, Game three of the Finals. It
could end tonight.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
This is Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
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 7 (15:18):
Hey, we're Cavino and Rich Fox Sports Radio every day
five to seven pm Eastern. But here's the thing, we
never have enough time to get to everything we want
to get to.
Speaker 8 (15:26):
And that's why we have a brand new podcast called
over Promised. You see, we're having so much fun in
our two hour show. We never get to everything, honestly,
because this guy will be over promising things we never
have time for.
Speaker 7 (15:39):
Yeah, you blubber lit Leam and me. Well, you know
what it's called over promise. You should be good at
it because you've been over promising women for years.
Speaker 8 (15:45):
Well, it's a Cavino and Rich after show, and we
want you to be a part of it. We're gonna
be talking sports, of course, but we're also going to
talk life and relationships. And if Rich and I are
arguing about something or we didn't have enough time, it
will continue on our after show called over Promised.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Well, if you don't get enough.
Speaker 7 (16:00):
Covino and Rich, make sure you check out over Promise
and also Uncensored by the way, so maybe we'll go
at it even a little harder. It's gonna be the
best after show podcast.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Of all time.
Speaker 8 (16:09):
There you go, over promising. Remember you could see it
on YouTube, but definitely join us. Listen to over Promised
with Cavino and Rich on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
And time out.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Jason kidd Hey and the Mavericks want to talk it
over Welcome inside the Jason Smith Show.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
With Mike Harmon, live from the ti iraq dot com studios.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Eleven minutes to go in the game Game three, which
would this would end the NBA Finals basically if the
Celtics won. And right now they have a ninety one
to seventy lead. Yeah they want trailed by thirteen points.
They have an incredible third quarter, they close with a three.
They open the fourth quarter on a little mini run
(16:56):
and this is prompted a time out by the Mavericks
as the lead has a balloon to twenty one. Now
we'll get to Jason Tatum in a second. We want
to go back to something that was said on this show,
not by one of us, a few days ago. If
you remember, we talked to Mark Stein, right he's covered
the Mavericks all year long, and I said to Mark,
(17:16):
I said, Mark, okay, going into game one, here, what's
the biggest concern the Mavericks had? What keeps the Mavericks
up at night when it comes to the Celtics. And
he said, the fact that everybody on this team can
shoot threes and hit them. That's a big No matter
who it is, everybody on this team can shoot threes
(17:36):
and hit them. And tonight, Tatum's got four, White's got three,
all right, Howser's got three off the bench, okay, Jalen
Brown's got a couple, Horford's got a couple. Drew Holliday
has won for two. They have hit sixteen threes tonight
in this game, and the Mavericks have hit six.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Like this, This is Mark Stein saying this was the Mavericks'
worst This is their worst scenario come to light. Because
everybody on the Celtics can shoot. Is what's happening tonight.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
Right, because that's the thing we're watching, and you and
I coming into the series, we also talked a lot
about Porzingis and.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
What he would be.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
Clearly not available today and the Woes report that he
probably won't be available again.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Well, it doesn't look like he's gonna they're gonna need him.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
They got the big game and performance out of him
that they needed. He will not have to die on
the court, as he was talking about the other day.
But just now you're watching the collapse into the lane.
Jalen Brown standing by himself, Houser to your point, standing
by himself, and Tatum, He's got his points, but the
(18:45):
distribution also there to wide open looks as the double collapses.
Something you've not seen the Celtics defense do. Related to
Kyrie and Luca. It's like, you're gonna get yours, but
the rest of these guys are gonna struggle everybody not
named Luca and Kyrie Tonight eight of twenty one. It
is what we thought coming in, which was the Celtics
(19:07):
were too deep, they were too good. The Mavericks were
gonna need Kyrie and Luke at a fire on all
cylinders and get something else because look out, talenting a
team is a thing, right, I mean, you can out
talent people and win. And this is exactly what the
Celtics are doing right now. They're out talenting the Dallas Mavericks.
This is a way to win. As much as you
don't like it that it's not a system, it's not
(19:28):
that it need to be.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
This is a way.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
This is how it works, man. This is you get
out talented. This is how you can win.
Speaker 6 (19:35):
This is when you know, Ricky, Bobby and Cal really
would be at their best rights.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Sometimes you have to win. But but how can how
can I win?
Speaker 7 (19:46):
You?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
How can iland you?
Speaker 6 (19:47):
And you know what Jalen Brown and Jason Daneum clearly
decided you know what you can.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
You can be Ricky Bobby tonight if you need to be.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Look and to tell you how deep the Celtics are,
remember all of this being done when without porzingis all
of this a porzingis not playing tonight. He was the
big key and they were missing him, and they were gonna.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Well.
Speaker 6 (20:12):
And only two guys have scored off the bench for
the Celtics in this game. Tillman and Houser combined twelve points,
four of five shooting, Pritchard's nine point or nine minutes
oh for three.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
So look and look and and when you when you
when you want to examine the ebb and flow of
a series. Right, the first two games were not incredibly
great games by the Celtics, right, They they just played
a little bit better than the Mavericks did. Right, first game,
porzingis off the bench gave them an incredible lift. The
second game was Drew Holliday right and still.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Both plus seven and a half. You got Intu Tatum.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Had a great game distributing the ball, but shooting he
wasn't great. But this was not where the Celtics played
and you know, as much as you say, hey, the Celtics,
you're gonna give you a game every round, you know
they're gonna have a couple of games where they just
fire on all cylinders. They were up two games to
none and they haven't even had that yet.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
You had opportunities the speak back in and get him right,
and you didn't. And certainly game two is one that
stands out. Luca getting the shot and whatever he does
seems like every attempt, the foul call he's he's looking
in the fact that he hasn't been teed up or
tossed at this point. It's kind of incredible with the
(21:27):
amount of demonstrative showing up with.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
The reflect that's because he yells and then he hides
when when the guys turn around, who is that?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
We know who it is? Who said that?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I heard that?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
But who was it was?
Speaker 6 (21:39):
It wasn't me, but yeah, it's it's one of those
for the Celtics. Now you're getting a bunch of wide
open looks. Sixteen point lead here, nine to twenty four
tall order.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
PJ.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
Washington actually just hit a shot though, I mean, so
that was encouraging. Now whom I don't know now look now,
now it's great. It's a great for the Celtics.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Gets to the second part of the conversation, right part
one is Boston's deeper that you knew they were gonna
have a game like this, putting it together. This is
just what we get from the Celtics. They're out talenting everyone.
But to get into Jason Tatum. Here for a second,
who has twenty seven tonight? It's ten for twenty one
from the floor. He's having a terrific night. Right three point,
(22:20):
He's only four, but he's still got four threes. Not
shooting great a percentage from threes, but he's taken a
lot of heat check shots to make me go wow,
here's a heat check from Tatum. There's a heat check
from Tatum. Everybody criticizes Jason Tatum and the critics that
he has. They don't want to give him any credit
(22:41):
for being the superstar that he is. And I'm telling
you there's times when I see him with it with
the ball in an offensive set where I think he's
the most unstoppable player I've ever seen, because he's big
enough to get whatever shot he wants off, He's strong
enough he can get to the rim he can take
a fade away. There's times when I go, this guy
is absolutely unstoppable. And you've seen over the course of
his career, which is still in the first few years,
how great of a star he is. But he's not
(23:04):
the star that everybody has grown accustomed to the last
few years in the NBA. He's not Michael Jordan, where
I want to slit your throat and step on it
and I want to drink your blood on the way
to the rim. Right, that's the same thing why it's
why everybody love Kobe Bryant. Right, Hey, I want to,
I want to. I want to choke you out and
make sure that you are not winning this game. That
(23:26):
I'm going to do it. I'm gonna hit free throws
with a torn achilles and then come out of the game.
And it's the same thing to a degree with the Warriors.
We're gonna blow the doors off of you. We're gonna
come out and hit threes and you're not gonna know
what the hell is going on, and Stuff's gonna do
the good night thing, and Draymond's gonna yell and scream,
and Clay's gonna say I'm one of the fifty best
players in the game, right, this is what we're used to.
But Tatum's not that guy. Tatum's a gen Z superstar.
(23:49):
He doesn't lead in the way that we expect or
have grown accustomed to our stars leading, so we don't
like him as much.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Oh, Jason Tatum needs to do this, you just say this.
That's just not who he is.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Jason Tatum is a final player on the court, and
you know what, you got to give the Celtics credit
for achieving. They've been to the finals now twice with
him as their best player. He's really bleeping good. But
just because he's not Jordan and he's not and he's
not even peek Lebron that oh you know, Tatum doesn't Tatum.
He's overrated. He's this even if they win this year,
they're not gonna win next year and all this stuff.
(24:19):
It's find a way to move the goalpost on Jason
Tatum when seriously, it's okay, it's time to give the
guy credit. You don't need to be that kind of guy.
And let's face it, there's not a lot of guys
like that.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
It's at different times, a different NBA. It's different in
twenty twenty four. The players that have come up now
have come up differently than the players coming up. There's
more than one way to lead and more than one
way to be a great player. And we've seen Tatum. Hey,
I know when to take over. I don't make all
the shots, but I know when I when I can facilitate,
which is what he did in game two. I know
(24:49):
when you need me to take the big shots. It's
what we need now in game three, like it's time
to give him some credit and give him some flowers,
because you know, because everybody keeps moving the goalposts on him.
He just doesn't get that and he needs to. I mean,
are we gonna really sit here with him holding up
the Larry O'Brian trophy and go, hey, he still stinks.
I mean, people are gonna still try to do it
when that's wrong because he's just a different kind of guy.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Well, and that's it.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
Normally he responds to the critics with a little bit
at the podium, and then he goes out and has
some big games and is you know, Ryan Hollins has
been sitting with me on Sunday mornings, Fox Sports Sunday
six to nine Pacific. Tune in wherever you're at on
the iHeart radio app Shamble's plug, you know, talking about him.
(25:31):
Sometimes he then gets into a I'm going to do
it all and it gets them into quote a little
bit of trouble because it's hard to criticize what they've
done this year, right in terms of what he does
have a game, because you don't have a lot of
losses regular season or playoffs. You've kind of run rough
shot through everybody. So now you get into that nick
picking kind of thing. Now, I'm a Jalen Brown guy myself.
(25:54):
So you've got two guys running in parallel.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
And look, even.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
Jason Kidd before the series was doing everything he could
to try to get them to go at each other.
How do I how do I get a little bit
fight on the car?
Speaker 3 (26:05):
I got nothing. I know we're over overmatched and manned.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
But Adam Silver, if I get two guys on the
same team to fight, do they still get technicals and
thrown out of the yellow cards and done.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
And we free throws?
Speaker 1 (26:17):
That happens, Right, we don't have to have a guy
on our team fight, Okay, want to We've seen that soccer, right.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
He just got a yellow card? No, it's just his
own player.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
So it's it's that kind of thing to try to
get them against each other, and then it's just a
which side you go and and typically me being a
you know, a five to seven uh ish uh little
uh fire plug of a guy, I'll usually go to
the guard as my chosen guy. And for Jalen Brown, uh,
you've seen him do some of that taking over and
(26:47):
he gave us one of the great quotes. Also, you
know between the Western or I'm sorry, the Eastern Conference
finals into the.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Finals, ask what he did with his time off.
Speaker 6 (26:56):
He goes, well, a lot of other guys, you know, families,
they've got to get the kids around, and you know,
you got your time because you know, I don't have
the fan I don't do that.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
So I just watched all the Harry Potter movies, so
I just got it.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
So you know, that kind of endeared him to me,
just kind of like, well, I didn't have a lot
of responsibility, so what did I do?
Speaker 3 (27:15):
I watched watch the movies and kind of hung out.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
You know, I gotta say five is the best movie
and four is probably the best book.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Guy.
Speaker 6 (27:22):
I mean, that's the obvious follow up takes you an
ask a band guy or I mean, what are we
talking here? But you know, for Jalen Brown, for Jason Tatum,
I mean they're gonna be linked at the hip and
and if you get the title, perhaps for a moment,
everybody shuts up, if only.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
For a moment. I don't know, man, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I think there's such an anti Tatum miss out there
that the Celtics win. The people, well it's the fluke.
Look at the easy run they had. Everybody no, no,
but you know how to do this.
Speaker 6 (27:47):
But you know, people are gonna do that regards that
was set up no matter how well he played.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
But that's been the last couple of years.
Speaker 6 (27:55):
It's like we we look at the path and then
it becomes it, Well, they didn't have to play that guy.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Didn't have to play that guy, So okay.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
Like you're not gonna you don't have to play every
team in your you know, conference playoff bracket, and somewhere
some team's gonna get beaten that Unfortunately, they were not
at full strength right go back through you know your
knicks and the early run they had, like people are
appreciated the moxie did they play everybody get everybody's best shot.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
No, there were injuries.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
If the Knicks had somehow won one more game and
played the Celtics and the conference finals, they would have
got they would have got blown up because they look
they had.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
But I'm just saying even the Knicks run to that point, Yeah,
there were injury laden squads on the other side of
who they beat, and but you celebrated for what it
is right and and yes can we are If you
were gonna do the the BS rankings up, where do
they stack up? Is the greatest Eastern Conference representative in
(28:58):
the finals of all time? Then yes, let's talk about
injuries and pats. But in the end, if you're holding
up a trophy, I don't give a damn for all
the strut But they're also the knuckleheads, and God bless them.
You know, you show up in a suit and tie
on a TV show, people pay attention to the nonsense
you spew.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
That's the way it works.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Carman. Time out on the floor, Boston. With
the three point lead over the Mavericks ninety three to ninety.
It has been a twenty to two run for the
Mavericks who are seen the end of the season staring
them in the face, and they have responded. Kyrine now
with thirty one, easily his best game of the finals.
(29:40):
Luca's got twenty seven, even PJ. Washington, Now start eat
up a little bit. He's got a couple of threes.
We are in the final six minutes of Game three
of the NBA Finals. When we next speak, are the
Celtics about to go up three zip or the Mavericks
be getting back in this series?
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yes, it is crunch time.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Keep it right here, so must listen Radio Jason and
Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
And oh my goodness, do we have the biggest review
of the NBA season so far happening right now? Luka
Doncic was just called for a blocking foul. Jalen Brown
had the ball. Luca gets called for a blocking foul
and it's a legitimate call. He's moving and this is
(30:35):
a legitimate call. If this is not overturned, that is
six on Luca, and he is out of the game.
They are reviewing it now.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
He's yell.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
He just yelled change the call. Right, he got well,
he yells change the call. So now you know, hey,
maybe someone's in a phone in a conversation. You know,
that's six on Luca.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
You know, if this was five, you could say it
was okay. But this is six on Luca. Man, we
need the NBA Finals to go more than four nights.
You take that foul away.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
I need to see another replay. I need it. I
need it one more time.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
But look, no matter what said planted, no matter what
I'm extended, that's a stupid play by Luca. When you
have five fouls, you can't. You can't get that close.
I know it's a it's a three point game, and
you're upset that you just missed your last two shots
because Jason Tatum died you up and you missed twice
from down, from from in close. I know you're upset,
but that was still a stupid play. You can't get
(31:32):
that close and have that happen. You cannot.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Superstars don't get six files called with four minutes in
a game. It's it's just an insane You know better
than that. It's an insane thing.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
To see that Luca with five files is going to
put himself in that in that position to foul out
of the game. And the call has been upheld on
the floor and Luca has fouled out of the game.
He is out of game three, twenty seven, six and six.
So the Mavericks six, yes, twenty seven, six, six and six.
(32:03):
So the Mavericks are gonna have to navigate this comeback
without their best player. That was just dumb, really, you know,
I know, and listen, this is Luca who can be
an emotional player, and I get it, But to take
this back the last couple of times, you're talking about
the Mavericks who have come back from down twenty one,
right that big twenty to two run, and they cut
the lead to three twice in two consecutive possessions down
(32:27):
the floor, Luca had the ball one on one with
Jason Tatum, a chance to either tie the game or
cut it to one point, and both times Jason Tatum
did not allow him to get a good shot off
and he missed down low, and then he missed on
a fade away from about ten feet away. So I
get that he's probably upset that twice he went one
on one with Tatum and Tatum found a way to
(32:49):
push him back, so maybe he's not thinking sure, And
now you want to stop a breakaway layup by Jalen
Brown to make it you know, so you're not down five,
But dude, there's still four minutes left the game. This
is not the final ten seconds where hey, if he
gets it and gets the layup, the game is over.
I mean, you got to make a smarter play than that.
You can't decide I'm gonna get in his way and
draw a foul because that's what we're here. No, you
(33:10):
can't do that, man, that's all he'll play by.
Speaker 6 (33:12):
Look, well, but it's a preponderance of evidence that Lucas
trying really hard defensively, and that's how I have.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
To put it.
Speaker 6 (33:23):
He's trying really hard because look, his defense has been
mocked and shided for a long period of time. Now
you get a moving screen call against PJ. Washington, which
is suspected best, but I don't think you have any
challenges left, so it doesn't really quite matter. You had
(33:43):
Brown on a putback and they bring the ball back
up and have the file. But for Luca, yeah, he
made a lot of gambles right defensively in terms of
reach ins. We've talked about this throughout the playoffs, so
you know there's a lot of contact on both ends
of the court that he's looking for a call that
he doesn't get offensively and he comes right back down.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
You've been coaching, you know, your your daughter's sports, both
soccer and softball. How often do.
Speaker 6 (34:10):
You see the the the women, the young ladies go
and try to get their retaliation and they're they're put
back immediately. Luca does that all the time, Right, I
didn't get a call on this end, So I'm gonna
go initiate contact and hope that I just happened to
be positioned now and that that one he didn't get
the benefit of the doubt for that sixth file. That
was too icy of a play, like some margin, too
(34:33):
thin with four minutes left in a three point game
to put yourself in that position.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
I mean, and look, I understand wanting to make a play,
and I understand the the aggressiveness of it, but that's
a play where you got to say, you know what,
we missed the balls in the open court they're gonna
go up five. All right, there's four minutes left and
there's a ton of Toni defensively, it actually slows Brown down,
and really the referees had no choice. It was called
(35:01):
a foul on the floor had a choice. Well, they
could have not called the fan. They should have not called.
Speaker 6 (35:06):
Well they had two guys that five minutes, but you
also had and Tatum run into each other. No, it
was it was done and Brown like three minutes earlier
when they went spinning around and no foul was called
on either guy.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Whatever.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
That way before Justin Frost wanted to come in and say, hey, wait,
of course you don't have to call that foul.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
Justin.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Who's your favorite team again, Well it's not the Celtics.
The Laker fan says, you can't let the Celtics get
away with that.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
Well, this has nothing to do with that m with
five minutes to go, you got to let that go.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
That filed out, you know what, because that's a great
play by Jalen Brown, drawing so much physicality that they
had to do it.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
That would become a Celtics home Listen.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
I'm not saying, look, I'm just going by what I've
been seeing here, not just.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
Because because he's Celtics.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
You saw Jalen Brown, who made a great decision with
the ball, saying, you know what, if I force this contact,
we may get that sixth on him because he he
makes it. So the referees had to blow the way.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
If I don't.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
It's only the fourth eye.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Whistle, right, They had to blow that, and this is
a great chance that I can take here to say, hey,
let's let let let's see if we can foul. Luga
Dottas out of the game because he made the referees
have to blow the whistle. You can't just let that go.
Can't just dribble and dribble into somebody lose the ball.
Say yeah, we didn't see anything. He made them have
to do it. And there's nothing on the call that
tells you, oh yeah, yeah, you go back and look
(36:31):
at it. You have to take you have to rescind
that foul. There was nothing on there. The referee said, listen,
we have no choice to make. Your guy shouldn't have
gotten the way. You shouldn't have put himself in a
bad spot, which is exactly what he did. It was
your fault. He's out of the game. He's out of
the game. Was legit, Yeah, we're in a tight spot.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
Only it wasn't.
Speaker 6 (36:48):
Again, But again, I appreciate Justin's response to this, and
it's not a full Laker thing. It's just superstar calls
in terms of falling a guy out.
Speaker 5 (36:58):
It's not even that. It's just fine. Minutes to go
in the finals game. You gotta let that go. Uh No,
you whistle? No, dude, you had no choice but to
call it.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
What do you mean, No, you have no choice because
Jacob Brown the layup and he dribbles right into Luca
and they fall on the ball.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
You no, you got the refereesman. They may will not
even have referece. But like I said, there was a
there was a play earlier.
Speaker 6 (37:19):
Where they might as well have been on on the
wires like they're Tom Cruise in Mission impossible, flopping to
the floor, ball goes rolling. Everybody's looking around waiting for
a whistle. Wait, no whistle? All right, play on.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Hey, this is a new NBA Finals where you call
your shot. Oh really, yeah, call your foul, call your
own foul. If you get it, you get it. If not,
it's okay. That's how we move on.
Speaker 6 (37:39):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Where do we sit right now? After all the drama.
The Celtics have the basketball forty seconds left in the
game and they own a one oh two ninety eight
lead over the Mavericks. The Mavericks have stayed in it
and stayed close despite Luka Donci's fouling out of the game.
But now it's a four point lead for the Celtics
with forty two seconds left to go. Boy, when you
(38:02):
hear our voices next, is it the Celtics up three? Z?
Speaker 7 (38:05):
It?
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (38:05):
The Mavericks back in it? We got a lot of
trauma to go. Stay here with us Fox Hotline, Nobody
Better and Fox Sports One Insider Extraordinaire. Check out us
On the Ball podcast. He's on Twitter at Rick Buker.
It is Rick Buker.
Speaker 6 (38:21):
What's happening, Bud Max oh Man, you know what I'm gonna.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Share with you, guys, Go ahead, what do you go?
Speaker 4 (38:29):
I'm gonna share with you. So I just I just
finished writing a quick quick piece for foxsports dot Com
on on the Game, and I was sitting here waiting
for you guys to call after I got done, and
it suddenly struck me, what the lead of my story
should have been and so I'm gonna share it with
(38:49):
you here. Okay, let's go Luca doctor bought the law
and the law.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
One Let's go.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (39:00):
Well, for years they did have the logo which was
the you know the ten star, right, so I beat Rick.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Look it breaks down for me, It breaks down like this.
Luca was very emotional in the fourth quarter. He committed
fouls during the game that were redicled one ninety feet
from the basket. In the third quarter where he just
seemed to lose his mind for a second. I look
at how this game comes down to it. He misses
two times in a row with Jason Tatum on him
under four minutes left to go, when he could have
(39:28):
either tied the game or made it a ninety three
to ninety two game, and he decided to make a
hero play and he met gave the referees no choice
but to blow that whistle for a foul. Jalen Brown
makes a great decision to go into Luca and draw
the contact, not try to get by him or sidestep him. No, no,
I'm gonna try to get this call and foul you
out of the game. And the officials had no choice
(39:49):
to me this is all on Luca.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
Yeah, I can't just agree with with with any of that.
The only distinction I would make is that I don't
think it was just the fourth quarter that he played emotionally.
I thought he played emotionally the better part of the game.
There was a couple of instances actually in the first
quarter when they built a lead, and then he came
down and took two consecutive long threes, which is something
(40:16):
that they'd kind of gotten away from, and it led
to the Celtics coming back the other way, and by
the end of the first quarter it was a one
point It was a point one point game, and I
just felt like there was the Celtics had done such
a great job of frustrating Luca that it's It's one
(40:38):
of the first times where I've seen him taken out
of his game to this extent where he never he
never got back into it to settle it. I've seen
times where he's gotten riled up and he's gotten into
it with the referees, but he's always found a way
to settle himself down and get the job done. And tonight,
instead of getting the job done, he got himself filed
(41:00):
out four fouls in the fourth quarter for the last
two within twenty six seconds apart, and then leaving it
to Kyrie Irving and and look, the Celtics were ready
to get tipped over. I mean, they brought back all
(41:20):
of the Goblins from twenty twenty two, and it was
a matter of Dallas just didn't have enough and Boston
with Drew Holliday and Derek White like they the Boston
just had enough from enough different places. I mean, honestly,
if Drew Holliday's there, I don't know that Jalen Brown
(41:42):
and Jason Tatum closed this closing this deal. I thought
Holiday defensively helped them. Derek White made a couple of
key plays. It was it really was a collective enture
collective effort. Not like to me that the biggest question
only maybe the biggest question remaining is who's the finals
(42:03):
MVP for Boston. I think they've answered every other question,
but that last one that might be difficult to answer.
Whet when we get to the end of this thing,
because if Boston ends up closing it out because they've
gotten such solid performances from so many different guys.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
You know, that's funny because when we talked about finals MVP.
I picked Drew Holliday because I thought the way the
series would go was he would lock up Kyrie Irving.
That would be a big through storyline. He had the
big game in Game two, and I'm thinking, boy, if
I bet my daughter's college fund on this, I'm gonna
be a millionaire. But now I kind of look after
Game three, Okay, this week, you know, Kyrie still had
(42:40):
a big game. The guy who's been the most consistent
throughout the first three games really has been Jalen Brown.
I know he doesn't have real signature moments. He had
the big twenty footer with a minute left to go.
But when it all comes down to it, Okay, Tatum
didn't really shoot well in a couple of games, but
he had a big game tonight. Brown's been the most
consistent guy, So I can see right now him being
the front runner.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
I'm not going to argue with whoever you picked. I
think it really is. It really is a toss up.
I know how the voting goes, and it generally goes
they'll look at the they'll look at the stats, they'll
look at the overall staffs, and I think the overall
stats will probably lean in Tatum's directions. But but Brown, Look,
(43:25):
he had a couple of huge baskets tonight down the stretch,
the pull up jumper, a putback he's had. He's had
his moments as well. So and look, Kyrie did score well,
but final two minutes he got one shot off and
(43:46):
that was a desperation three pointer. He was basically scoreless
in the final two minutes, and that was through Holiday's handiwork.
So I wouldn't I wouldn't count him out of the
running at this point. I think all three of those guys, again,
depending on how and when this closes out, I think
all of them still have they still have a shot
(44:07):
at it.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
Yeah, PJ.
Speaker 6 (44:08):
Washington can hit a wide open three pointer after a
Kyrie dish, we'd at least be able to say he
got a third assist in the game. Rick, But back
to Luca for a second. You know, this one was
kind of oddly officiated. I mean, we talk about physicality,
and as it ramps up, it seems after a while
he was just theory testing of what it was going
to take to get a file call. He wasn't playing
(44:31):
basketball anymore looking to facilitate it.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
Wasn't he all right, How can I sell a call here?
Speaker 4 (44:38):
Well, I missed a couple of shots because he was
more focused on creating contact than he was actually fitting play.
And then there was a couple, I mean a number
of times throughout the game where he was falling out
of bounds looking for a call, not getting it and
(44:58):
staying on the ground. I'm throwing his arms up and
Boston's going back the other way on a five and
four And I'm sorry, but these are the NBA Finals, Like,
you may not be happy with the officiating, but there's
a game to be played and you're down two. Oh.
It's simply you know, sometimes forget how young Luca is
(45:20):
because there's so much maturity in his game. I thought
he looked very young into Night's game.
Speaker 6 (45:27):
It was.
Speaker 4 (45:28):
It was While he's played in plenty of big games
and he's done plenty of big things. This is his
first time in the NBA Finals looking to win a championship,
and there have been plenty of times where he has
looked like it is his first time trying to win
an NBA championship.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
You know, Rick, I think that's I think you hit
the nail on the head with Luca, And I'm not
to go in the.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
Other direction on it.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
But even if Luca is playing at a little bit
higher level, they're completely out manned by the Celtics, who
just keep hitting shots, and they hit shots from deep
and everybody hits threes and when they need a basket,
White will get it or Holiday will clamp down on Kyrie.
It's just the Celtics are out talenting the Mavericks and
(46:15):
for everybody thinks that's not a strategy, the Celtics get
ripped all the time. They don't even practice, and what
kind of sister are they running?
Speaker 3 (46:21):
They're just guy.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
No, But having enough talent and out talenting another team
is a thing, and that's what I think the Celtics
are doing right now.
Speaker 4 (46:29):
Well, I agree, but it also requires utilizing all of
that talent, and I think that that's what has made
this Boston team particularly unique. And if they end up
winning it, I would say it's the first time that
I can think of a championship team where you couldn't
(46:49):
pinpoint definitively who their leader. And they're all I mean
probably say by default, Jason Tatum is their best all
around player, but he's not necessarily the go to guy,
and what has made them special and has really put
them above and beyond Dallas is the fact that, look,
(47:10):
this is what Boston has done defensively. They have said,
we're not going to double team Kyrie, We're not going
to double team Luca. Will let them try to go
get and that's been like, that's just been red meat
in front of those guys. Oh, I can go one
on one. I'm going to go get mine, And as
a result, it has not involved the other guys as much.
(47:32):
And that's when Dallas is at their best. And conversely,
while Dallas is not double teamed Boston, Boston has continued
to move players and the ball so that they continue
to keep everybody involved. And and there's there's a way
(47:52):
to do that, Like you don't have to draw a
double team in order to get somebody open if everybody's
moving and you're looking to find the who has a crease,
who can get buckets for multiple players, And that's what
Boston is doing, and that's what Dallas has not done.
Tyree and Luca are like, I got one on one
and they're not going to come double team. I'm going
(48:13):
to go try to get mine. And it's just not
the most effective way for Dallas to play, particularly against
the Boston team that is involving everybody.
Speaker 6 (48:24):
Finally, Rick, as we look at the day, we celebrate everything,
Game three of the Finals, but in the background, the
passing of Jerry West today, the moment of silence and
the myriad storylines and history of this league really brought
to bear. You know, as people remembered his life and career.
What stands out, you know, for you most as you
(48:46):
think about the trails he blazed here in the NBA, probably.
Speaker 4 (48:52):
Just how iconic he was in so many ways as
a player and as an executive and as just an
ambassador of the game. And yet how none of that
affected who he was. He was still a guy from
West Virginia. I mean, you know, he worked in Hollywood
for the better part of his career, and dashing, good
(49:16):
looking guy, you know, always wearing a suit and looking sharp,
and yet he clung to those West Virginia roots and
the work ethic that allowed him to to get out
of West Virginia and become the basketball icon, the logo
(49:39):
that he became, and I just you know, he was
just he was still personable. I mean, you know, Jerry
West had had the aura of one of those of
an icon. He was one of those guys you walked
in the room and he was like, oh, there's Jerry West.
But if you talk to him, if you knew him,
as soon as you started talking, it was just like,
(50:00):
it's Jerry. He was just he was a guy. And
no matter who you were. I mean, at times he's
you know the stories that that I've heard from you know,
various people like scouts and lower level people in the league,
and he would come up to them and he'd ask them,
(50:21):
you know, who do you like? What do you see?
Like he was, it didn't matter who you were. He
was going to pick your brain to find out, you know,
what what you were thinking and what you were seeing.
And for a guy that accomplished as much as he
did and knew as much as he did and had
done as much as he did, that he remained, you know,
so open and teachable and not carrying and not having
(50:44):
airs whatsoever. That's that's that's a big part of it.
And then the other part. And you know, this is
a story that the scout told me. He was sitting
with Mitch cuff check uh and uh, and he knew
Jerry and Mitchell told him, Hey, don't leave without saying
hello to Jerry. He'll be really mad. And so the
(51:06):
game starts and the scout says the Mitch he goes,
he goes, Where's where's Jerry? And in the in the arena,
in the Lakers Arena, they probably have about one hundred
and eighty sweets. They've really milked that aspect, and one
hundred and seventy nine of them were lit up, and
(51:29):
one of them was completely dark. And Mitch said, look
up at the sweet and the scout found the one
that was dark, and he goes, that's where Jerry is
his n and he goes, yeah, he's sitting in the
darky through the game because watching games just tortured him.
(51:51):
And Mitch goes, I'm not even gonna go up there
with him because I can't stand it, Like I can't
stand around him during a game. And sometimes he wouldn't
even be in the arena. He'd get in his car
and drive around because just he just he lived and
breathed the game even if he wasn't playing. And so
that that competitor in him, you know, that that that
(52:12):
dichotomy of a guy that just was so steeped in
the game and cared so much about every second of
it that it be played the right way, and at
the same time could be so personable to everybody. It's
what made what made him unique and so truly unforgettable
for me. And I just I mean Bill Walton and
(52:35):
Jerry West. Those are two guys that were ambassadors for
the game, not because of what they did, but because
of but because of who they were and how they
treated the people around him. They that I mean being
ambassador as you think of this kind of regal standing
and they were the just meet you at your level,
(53:00):
how you doing. They made you love the end, They
made you love the game because of how they loved
the game.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
Speak it. He's Rick Buker.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
He's on Twitter at Rick Buker, Fox Sports one NBA insider.
Rick has always appreciated, appreciate the stories, all the insight.
Speaker 3 (53:16):
Have a great one. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks Rick.
All right, there goes Rick Buker.
Speaker 1 (53:21):
That's great, I mean awesome, awesome stuff from him remembering
Jerry West, and look hitting the nail on the head
with Luka Doncic as well, because yeah, clearly look emotional.
We told you he was emotional in the fourth quarter,
emotional fouls, made an emotional decision, and boom. Now the
Mavericks are one game away from get eliminated.
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