June 18, 2024 • 38 mins
Jason and Mike are first to react to the Celtics hanging banner number 18. The guys tell you if they agree with Jaylen Brown winning NBA Finals MVP.And Kyrie Irving finally fulfills promise of bringing championship to Boston!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Please give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello and welcome inside our two of The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. We are live
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(00:50):
confetti is falling at the TD Garden. Hugs, yelling, screaming,
and I'm watching Christaps Porzing, NBA champion, hug everybody who
walks into his path. The Boston Celtics are your NBA champions.
They finish off a five game series with a one
(01:11):
oh six eighty eight win over the Mavericks, a game
that was never close and Jason Tatum celebrates and puts
a signature stamp on his career with his first NBA title.
The party is on in Boston as soon as.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
They went on that big run at the end of
the first quarter, right, first thing, you and I said
to each other, boy, Dallas can't finish a quarter for anything.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Right, battle back?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Right, Celtics get out to a lead early time out
from Jason Kidd. They battled back, and then in the
final two minutes of the first quarter, all the work
they did completely unraveled some wide open three point shots.
And then in the second quarter it gets worth same thing.
Down the stretch. You had that Pritchard three pointer at
the buzzer where Tatum then nearly takes him out going
(01:57):
to chess bumping, and then that was it. It was
just a matter of what was going to be the
margin of victory, did you hit any of your individual
prop bets, and who was going to fight to stay
on the court long enough to be the MVP. Lots
of video running around of Jaylen Brown if Lucas stays on,
I'm on you know that kind of thing, and Tatum
taking over offensively crying at the end when he finally
(02:19):
comes out of the game, just a ton of emotion
as the confetti falls. And I love that you immediately
had to point out what Porzingis was doing because psychological, psychologically,
you're still just scaring.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
No.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I'm fine with Porzingis win. I'm fine, No, Nick, I
knew he was going to win. I picked the Celtics
who win because I knew they were going to win
the title. I knew what was happening. It's okay. And
Jason Tatum is screaming right now on espn IDO maybe
one of those Kevin Gartnett anything is possible. He's screaming
doing his interview right now, and I gotta say, you know,
Jason Tatum gets a lot of flack, but when you're
(02:55):
up twenty five and you are still going into the
stands for loose balls because you want to win a
finals MVP.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
About that, jos.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
He was holdess. He didn't care about the MV. Everybody
else is at three quarter speed. It's a twenty five
point game. He's still running around the floor like he's
a rookie trying to make a team out of camp.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Hey look at me.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I could be the MVP and we're still waiting on
word as to who the MVP is. But here in
the clinching game, Tatum does have the biggest game thirty one,
eight and eleven man Tatum Brown, Drew Holliday. Boy, I
stumped for Drew Holiday. He was my pick before the
series began he would be at worthy MVP. But hey,
now we get to see how much do people really
(03:37):
like or dislike Jason Tatum.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Can we really not vote him the MVP?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Perfect from the fall line, a lot of twenty four
from the field. The only thing you can criticize for
he was only one of seven for three point range.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Hey, speaking of criticisan for three point range, We'll get
to Luca, We'll get.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
To We'll get to the Jalen rounds seven to twenty
three to night Holiday was seven to fourteen with what
he finished with fifteen eleven in four plus twenty one
on the night.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I do believe though, that the only people that actually
wagered on Jalen Brown or really I'm sorry I Drew
Holliday were people in the media. Because I'm seeing a
lot of folks going, man, I really want to catch.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Because I heard I said Drew Holliday.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And people take up on the analysis was was good. Right,
the two guys will punch each other out, and then
maybe Holiday steps up and here we go all three
worthy candidates. But I mean Tatum, I will the acceptance
will be done.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
By his son, I think so, yes, hugging his kid,
you know, as the confetti falls. It's a fun scene
right now in Boston. They're all hugging their first title.
You're going back to for the Celtics back in thousand
and eight. No, hey, I think the eight team would
beat this team. I'm just saying. I mean I had
all of famers. I mean, you know, I was that
was my best job coach guy, you know. But here's
(04:51):
the thing. I mean that was where look, my team
would win, but we didn't have as good players as
they did.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
So it was really a lot of me. It was
really me.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I mean it's not enough that I threw Damian Lillard
under the bus this weekend about how he hasn't didn't.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Show up and everything else. I want to talk.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I don't watch you to blame me, But yeah, I
think the twenty eighteen better coached, better coach team in
two thousand and now.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
There's a story that we did a little bit Ryan
Hollins and.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I over the weekend trying to wonder if Doc was
playing a little dirty pool there or what he was
trying to do. You can find it wherever you get
your podcast as well as this show Fox Sports Radio,
and then take us with you wherever you go evangelize.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
But yeah, for DOCA, that two thousand and eight goes away.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
They finally win another title, only in the second since
nineteen eighty six, great balance definition and for the Mavericks
after that colossal Game four, an absolute no show in
this one?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
What do you got, Frostburg?
Speaker 6 (05:46):
How does it make you feel that Porzingis basically made
Willis Reid irrelevant? Porzingis had one Willis Reid make he is.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
I'm fine. It was three team Tames ago. It was
three teams ago.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Sixteen minutes today, points, a rebound, two falls, and a
plus eight.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Boy, if the voters really wanted to stick it to Tatum,
they would vote for Zengis.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Well, I mean the series is over after that game.
It was over after that game, right there.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
We're voting for running the highlight of Tatum passing in
the ball that plush junk.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Now, look when you when you try to sum up
the NBA season here twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four.
There's a school of thought everybody likes close games. If
the games are blow outs, I don't watch. I like
blowouts because I like when teams can assert dominance. I
like storylines that don't have a lot of interpretation to
(06:40):
and I kind of like that one, So I don't
need every game to be oh, if this had happened
or this. No, sometimes I like the storyline, like the dominance.
This is one of the easiest NBA seasons and finals
to explain. Is one of the I mean, if I
could have gone back in the beginning of October said this,
and it would have saved everybody the entire season, right,
because what did we see this season? The best team
(07:02):
front to back, top to bottom, beginning of the season
to the end of the season wins the title because
they were deeper than everybody else they played, and that
was on display in the finals. That's it. It's that simple.
They were the best team all season long. They were
deeper than everybody else. Look at the teams they played
in the playoffs with that had injuries or were coming
(07:23):
off a series where they beat somebody that had big injuries,
and they were much deeper than the Dallas Mavericks. And
the Mavericks had one player who was able to really
dent the scoreboard in Luka Doncic. Really didn't have anybody
else the Celtics, whether you had Tatum, whether you had Brown,
whether you had Drew Holliday, all over the box score.
You had White with fourteen points a game. You had
(07:44):
Porzingis in game one. You had the big Peyton Pritchard
three as only points of the series tonight a season
to only points a game five tonight and hits it
right before halftime. You had Horford with some Knights where
he was big. I mean, this was a great supporting cast,
and this is why they went Sometimes it's that they
were the best team all season long. Everybody. You heard
a lot of people in the media try to dismiss them.
(08:05):
They don't do this right, they don't do this right,
they don't do this right. They were the best team
and they put it on display in the playoffs and
they won the title. They're deeper than everybody else and
you have to respect that.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, I think with a lot of the Celtics discussion,
it was you're trying to sell the alternate right, the
alternate universe, and say, well if then, but right, the
one game loss here, the one game loss there, the
series against Indiana where you had three games where they
came and took victory away from the Pacers, which ninety
(08:40):
percent winning probability rates in three games, and the Celtics
went and took them.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
All right, they play with their food.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Those are all narratives built up into a degree bought
in just saying all right, let's see what happens, you know,
fully formed and when we get to the finals. And
instead they just said, all right, uh, you guys ready,
and Missoula Van Gundy, Sam Cassel, all the assistants rallied them,
and this is what you saw, absolute dominance from pillar
(09:09):
to post.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
I'm really happy for Al Horford.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
He's a guy I've long admired the game, and any
guy that stays in the game as long as he does,
he's got to be a pretty he's got to be
a hell of a teammate and a guy that you
know can still give you some positive contributions on the floor.
But yeah, it was a lot of all right, they're
the favorite, so we have to find other discussion points.
Part of the reason that you know, when we make
(09:33):
picks a lot of times it's all right, no chalk. Well,
that's when you got a larger field when it comes
to brass tacks. Here was wishing, wanting, hoping that you'd find,
you know, lightning in the bottle for the Mavericks to
make it a series, to be able to perhaps rally
it to a deeper series and really test him. But
the Celtics had an answer for everything, and they certainly
(09:54):
had an answer for Kyrie and Luka Doncics at every
turn you look at the depth, and for Joe Missoula,
a guy that a lot of people wanted fired, for
Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum after last year, what was
the lot of the narrative? And they've gone as far
as they're gonna go. Instead, you get Holiday. The Blazers
received Malcolm Brogn and Robert Williams always Robert Williams twenty
(10:15):
twenty four first round pick of the Warriors and a
twenty twenty nine unprotected first round pick when they got
rid of Marcus Smart.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
The sky was falling, everything was wrong.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
And instead you see what Brad Stevens and that squad
put together time and again, and yeah they caught a
break now and again. But guess what, it's also a
testimony and had a testament to the training staff and
everybody if these guys were ready to play right that
you didn't lose twenty games to an injury. Yes, Porzingis
got hurt down the stretch, but you had the luxury
(10:47):
where he was the fourth guy you need. Do we
have to force it back, do we need him?
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Nope?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
The schedule also gives us an extra two weeks off,
so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Give him time.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
He helped you win one game. Look and say this phrase
a lot, and when you hear at other places, you
know it originated here. Is the Celtics one because they're
the deepest team in the NBA. There is not a
lot of drop off in the production you get sometimes
from Tatum to White what Drew Holliday gives you. They're
(11:17):
incredibly deep. They play eight nine guys and you don't
miss a lot. This is why they win. When you
have that talented a roster, sometimes you have to do
what the Celtics did, and that is they out talent
the other teams. Right, I say that all the time.
The Celtics are out talenting other teams, and that gets
(11:39):
dismissed because it's not some system. It's not Steve Kirk
coming in saying, hey, we're gonna do a lot of motion,
we're gonna hit a lot of three, we're gonna set
the NBA out. It's ear is Joe Mizzoula even coaching.
I don't even know if the Celtics practice. But when
you have that kind of talent, you're not gonna be
able to say, Okay, all you guys are gonna buy
into a system.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
You can't do that.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
You can't give because everybody has their own different set
of what they do. Well, it's not well, I'm building
this team and Jason Tatum's our guy that does this,
So now we have to go get somebody who does
this and someone who does this and team to try
to build like that. It's very difficult because you're trying
to do a lot of pieces. It's what the Lakers
are doing. The Celtics says, Okay, we have Tatum, he
does this great, and Jalen Brown does this great and
sometimes a little bit similar. Okay, what do we need
(12:18):
other guys that do great things. Let's bring him in
true Holiday, great defender, great point guard, Great Chris tops
Porzingis was a number one guy, was a number two guy,
now at number four guy. Do they all fit together perfectly? No,
they all hit threes, they play defense pretty well. Sometimes
when you have that gaggle of talent, the best thing
you can do is just hey, let's get you guys
to play together, and you're all going to be the
(12:41):
best version of yourselves you can be. And we're gonna
out talent the other teams and other teams that come
in with systems and different tries that things. That's so
what we do here, what we like to do. Yeah,
that works a lot, But when you have an overall
level of talent, you're not gonna get teams to say, Okay, hey,
Jason Tatum, we want you to not do this and
do this instead. This will make you fit into what
we do, not as good a player, and that doesn't
make sense. People don't buy in, and you lose team.
(13:04):
You lose players a lot easier and a lot quicker
that way. Whereas Joe Mizula has taken over when the
team was in a pretty good shape under em Udoka,
he's come in and said Okay, we're gonna do a
little bit of tweaking with a roster, and the guys
go out and they play, and that's kind of what
they do. They have a lot of individual stars. They
hit threes, they play good defense, and look at what
they do to teams.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
They did this all season, even when teams were healthy.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
They get to the playoffs. Yes, they had a great draw.
They had a great draw with players who were hurt
and not making it out this year. We told you
the Celtics had to win. But the Celtics did everything
they needed to do this season. It was pretty it
was pretty simple. And that's a strategy that, again you
have to give Celtics a lot of credit for, is
that instead of trying to shoehorn these people in to
(13:48):
play this one way, it's we're gonna do this and
as long as we put our guys out there, our
top eight are going to be better than your top
eight and we're gonna win a lot of games. And
that's a way to go whatever.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
You get guys to commit to defense. Right. As a
Knicks fan, know this me. Once upon a time in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
One of the the greatest and often most unstated things
about those Bulls squads were that they played defense. You
had guys, even if they were KG veterans, that knew
their space on that side of the ball. Never mind
the second three pat when you had Dennis Rodman corraling
every rebound.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
That was out there.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
But for the Celtics, that was the dirty little secret
to all of it is that guys would man up.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
And in this series, that's what Missoula called for.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
He's one of the most fascinating guys in our sporting
universe right now from some of the interviews that players
have given with a little bit of insight in some
of his interview responses. Can't wait to see what he's
got for us after the uh know, the final piece
of confetti falls exit?
Speaker 4 (14:48):
How about a fresca exit.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Swalling down the Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Carmon just the beginning of our breakdown of the
NBA Finals again one of the simplest seasons you can
break down at his time to give the Celtics credit
to hear them all their flowers for what they were
able to accomplish and thankfully did because if they didn't win,
I would never pick them to win anything again.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
In my life.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Coming up next, we get into Luca and the series
that he had and the biggest thing he needs to
do in the offseason, plus the NBA Finals MVP was
just announced. Was Jason Tatum's near triple double enough for
him to win?
Speaker 4 (15:26):
We'll tie you inn next Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
All the sacrifice handling the enormous weight of massive expectations
ends tonight. Here x over time to save it again, Boston,
Anything's possible. Batter number eighteen has been secured the Celtics
or NBA champions.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
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 4 (16:03):
Hey it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 7 (16:06):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker, for
twenty two minutes of pipe in hot baseball talk, featuring
the biggest names of newsmakers in the sport. Whether you
believe in analytics or the I test, We've got all
the bases covered. New episodes dropped every Thursday, So do
your sofa favor and listen to Inside the Parker with
(16:28):
Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get
your podcast.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon, and let the record show that the
Boston Celtics have won the first professional sports championship of
the Grimace era.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
First championship. Was he on the Larry O'Brien trophy. It's
gonna he gave them, didn't you see?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
He gave the Celtics the trophy they should have helicoptered
I'm in grimas came out.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
He was so shakes and everybody and the hands Larry
O'Brien trophy to Joe Matt.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
He's too busy getting rid of mister and missus Mett.
Yeah he I mean, he can't be everywhere. You don't
want to ruin the illusion.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
No, no, I'll tell you, mister and missus met. People aren't
going to see him for a while. We like how long,
like for the rest of their lives. It's mean though
I'm Grimace, it's me mets Grimace.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
That's how it goes the for all New York media members,
because there have been a number of them chiming in
and about how wrong this is whatever.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
It's like.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Fight, don't talk about the brand, just talk Grimace all
you want, You can ignore it, but it's if the
Mets are winning, even if it's got zero relationship to it,
how do you not lean into it? For as bad
as they were for a while.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Oh, I'll tell you the New York that's gonna be
their New City Connect uniform.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Get rid of that other stuff that it's just gonna
be Grimace, Grimace grim I like that Dodger hat. That
was pretty sweet.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
But hey, the Mets New City Connect does have a
purple tinge to it, so it's like it's gonna be
the Grimace uniform. They could wear them all the time.
It was foreshadowing. So these Celtics are your NBA champions.
We're gonna get to Luka Doncic coming up in a second.
But your NBA Finals MVP is none other than Jalen Brown.
Jalen Brown takes the award. It was Jason Tatum, could
(18:14):
have been Jalen Brown, could have been Drew Holiday, but instead,
here's a moment where Jalen Brown became an NBA legend.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Bill Russell would be so proud.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
The twenty twenty four Bill Russell Finals MVP goes to
Jalen Brown.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Here that Tatum. Everybody hates Jason Tatum.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Did Jason Tatum have the Ralph Wigham Chew choose me moment?
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Look, you can.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
See right here is where his heart breaks, because as
much as he does protest that the finals MVP did
beating the way he played down the stretch the.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Last five minutes of a twenty five point game, He's
playing like he's a like he's a walk on getting
his first action during an NCAA tournament. The team is
getting blown out by fifty and he's diving for loose ball.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
I could smell the MVP. I want it now. I mean,
come on, man, But here's the thing we're gonna find out.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
I don't know if it's gonna be in the next
few minutes or hopefully before we get off the air.
Here is that you know you're gonna end up getting
the votes and who voted for whom in these finals, MVP,
so you're gonna be able to have your cast, your
aspersions and derision towards individuals here shortly.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Look, let's break this down why Jalen Brown Jason Tatum
had a terrific Game five Drew Holiday. Look, I told
you before the series drew Holiday is my MVP pick,
and you could have easily given it to him. He
had a fantastic series. He had a great closer tonight,
and he was the head of the snake that held
Kyrie Irving down in four out of five games. Okay,
(19:52):
we'll have we'll have more on Kyrie coming up in
a bit. But I told you going in, why did
I like the Celtics. Why do I like Drew Holiday?
Because they're gonna make the Mavericks a one man team.
They're gonna take one of them away between Kyrie and Luca,
because they know the two of them. He they've been
able to run roughshot over the Western Conference. But I
know they're gonna take one of them away. And who
are you gonna take away? You'll take away Kyrie?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Why? Because Kyrie is a little bit older.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
He's a guy that you already know you can get
in his head in Boston, and he's a guy that's
a little bit easier to hold off than Luca. So
they allowed Luca to score thirty to be that guy,
knowing full well, we're gonna win the NBA Finals pretty
easy if we can turn them into a one man team.
And Tadah look what happened. I told you how the
finals are gonna go before they even tipped off, and
that's how it went. It could have been Drew Holliday,
(20:37):
but look, I can't argue with Jayleen. I can't give
you a hot taking go other than maybe voters, hey,
Jason Tatum. But Jalen Brown was the more complete player
through the first three games, and his thirty eight and
eight in game three when basically that did that decided
the series. That probably decided the MVP as well, because
I can't get man say, oh, well Tatum did this
(20:59):
and did Jaylen Brown of this? No, they were up
three zip and overall the first three games, Jalen Brown
had the biggest numbers. He played, he played extremely well.
He played better overall than Jason Tatum. Now you want
to go the two games after that, well, Game four
was this, Game five was this. But for those three games,
it really satisfied it and decided that Jalen Brown was
(21:20):
the more complete player of the two. You're always gonna
give it to a star when you can so. Jalen
Brown Jason Tatum, they were the two co favorites coming in.
You're not gonna give it to Luke. You can't give
it to a losing player who went out in five games,
seven game series and blood on the floor and hair
on the walls. Yes, you give it to Luka Doncic,
but five games when the Celtics dominated, you knew it
was gonna be one of the two. And Jalen Brown
(21:40):
clearly was able to win that award pretty much in
the first three games, because if you show saw a
lot of people, they would have voted much more emotionally tonight.
Look at Tatum with the big game. But this tells you, hey,
we pretty much had the had the MVP already with
Jalen Brown.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Yeah, I think you go back to it.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
And obviously one of those games was the Porzingis game, right,
I mean, that's how it's going to be known, right,
It's not a Tatum game, It wasn't a Brown game,
but Brown doing more across the board. Tatum's huge in
the final, and I saw a couple of stats going
around and then you know, you go back and you're
trying to verify it in between yelling at you. In
(22:20):
terms of historically finals MVP, if someone was the leader
in points, assists and rebounds for a squad they won it. Well,
you set precedent the other way tonight with Jalen Brown
as your conference MVP, then into the finals MVP here.
But he didn't have a bad game bet shooting night tonight. Right,
(22:41):
everybody sucked in game four, so throw that out. But
overall for the series ends up shooting forty again, shooting
twenty five percent, will weigh that down a little bit.
Was pretty efficient overall, five boards, five assists per game,
about two steals per game, and set limiting of turnovers
(23:01):
and handling the ball as much as he did active
on the defensive end that he ends up getting the
nod as the MVP really hard to argue. I mean,
all three guys put up a pretty good case, right,
and and Tatum was good at distributing the ball to
the point where people were criticizing them even though he
was up three to zero, right, I mean, that was
(23:22):
that was the biggest laugh of it all. So you've
been kind of passive at times like That's when he
started kind of stumping for the MVP. Yeah, without stumping
for the MVP.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Look, and Tatum's getting his revenge right now because right
now players are on the court taking pictures and Jalen
Brown and Drew Holliday are taking pictures and Jason Tatum
has not let go of the Larry O'Brian trophy and
he has it in the locker holding onto it. He's
got it back there. Find now they're cutting back and
forth between the guys on the floor that are celebrating
(23:53):
and Jason Tatum, how you give me the MVP.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
I'm not giving you the Larry O'Brian trophy. I'm holding it. Yeah,
he's back in the locker room with his kid.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
People are being handed goggles for the inevitable Champagne.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
He's just holding on.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
I am not giving this up many I'm not getting.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Just ask him to pick him up. He said, beat it. No,
I got the Larry. I got than you are. No hands, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
You know you know he's holding it like you know
the if you go to a party and with your
significant other and you know that the other one wants
to leave when they show up with the coats in
their arms and it's like, okay, time, I don't care
what kind of good time you're having, we're leaving. You're
not letting go of that coat because it's like my
coat is here, your coat is here. You're taking this
coat and I'm not letting it go and we're leaving
(24:34):
Like that's how Jason Tatum's holding onto the trophy like
he's got both arms around him, like, mom've got my coat,
I'm ready to go.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
I'm not. You're not getting out of here. He's got
having it, like Dad, Dad, come on dad.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Really, he might be like a couple of minutes away
from just splitting in a with it. Like all of
a sudden, the big town car pulls up. He jumps
right in with the trophy, saying it jerks, He straps
it in and away they go. He did arrive in
a Mayboch today. Just in terms of you know, flexes.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Whenever we talk about outfits and and media members trying
to do their thing, uh and get their screen time
with the suit they're wearing.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
He rolled in in a Mayboch.
Speaker 6 (25:13):
Is really a flex Though he wasn't driving, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
It doesn't mean you no, no no, if it's if
it's my Maybox, uh, and I let someone else drive.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
I was paying. You think he's just leasing. I think
the may Box was an uber? What what level is that?
That's uber? Black X x x X.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Okay, well Bill Tyshert notes because he drove drove for Lyft.
That's why Tycher drove for Lyft. That like under us
or something or what.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
No, when we talk about Uber, you used to work
for them.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, I know, but you made it sound like it
was like the lower part of it. No, I'm saying
you can confirm what Frostburg is saying. Oh at first
didn't sound like that. Were you even paying attention? Yeah,
but you just made it sound like I played for
minor leagues, not the major leagues there. Well, so late
Lift is the minor league. No, I think they're better
than Uber. Okay, I said, well, no, I just said
Lyft because you did. You didn't work for Uber. I
don't want people to think but.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
To throw bunky wrench into this. Has it Uber become
like Kleenex where it's kind of like the term even
though it's a brand.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
I can Uber in a Lyft Yep, Okay, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Like I'm calling for a car. Well, it's never it's
I'm getting an Uber. Are you really getting an Uber?
You might get a Lyft, you might get a COMPETITORI thing.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
Yeah, but if I'm in London. I'll get in a lift.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
No, get a lyft, I get yourself a booba again?
Speaker 4 (26:30):
A lift? No, no, no, uber, I don't know what
that is. But I'll get a lift me. Nobody is
lifting you. I'll get a lift. We're gett a lift.
Shut up, I gotta lift. I don't A lift is elevator.
You don't.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
You didn't know that, did you? You know a lift
is elevator.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I think I might actually find a random McDonald's in
London and pay for a meal in advance to see
if you could pick it up. This guy's gonna show
up at some point. He may show up multiple times
in a day. I was like coming in a few days.
We can't hold a big mac for that. But but
this in the fridge. Wait for the guy to come.
I don't know he's gonna it'll be dressed like Grimace.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
I guess. Now.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Look the thing I will say about Lucas because we're
going to get to Kyrie Irving coming up in a
few minutes. The thing I will see about Luca, uh, well,
yeah we did. It's a big, big deal Frostburg. Yeah,
because especially if you're gonna get Kyrie Knux. You could
have had Kyrie and the Lakers could have had him.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Look where you a big look? Could quicker? Could ahead? Kerry? Uh?
Speaker 1 (27:23):
The one thing I will say for Luca is that
the Finals will slowly become in retrospect about him, about
his growth as a player, and we talked about what
he was able to do in game four, the lesson
he learned coming off of Game three. Don't complain, don't
wind to the referees, play your game, don't look for contact.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
What are you doing?
Speaker 1 (27:46):
You really screwed us, right, Luca in game three completely
screwed the Mavericks with his style of play and allowed
the Celtics to get away with a win that won
the series for them.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
They lost the finals.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Because Luca couldn't not be emotional and fouling out of
games in the game that day, had four minutes to
potentially steal. It was awful. It seemed like he learned
his lesson. He was a different guy for Game four,
at least some of the things he said. So it
makes you think that maybe he's on the right track. Okay,
I'm maturing as a player. I learned a big lesson
(28:18):
in theory. You would see that so we have to
see how that plays out over the course of the
rest of his career. Was this a big teaching moment
from an expensive teaching moment when the time I'm losing
the NBA Finals.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
But that's the thing for these all right?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Was because that's been the thing ascribed to Kyrie Irving. Yeah,
a lot for this year. Look out, much more mature
and more of a teammate he was. So in the end,
you make the NBA Finals and what was a teachable
moment all screwed up because Michael Finley took it care.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
But that's that's gonna be the thing now. The one
I can say for Luca that goes across the board. Dude,
you gotta get in better shape. You can't You're you're
too much James Harden. And that's not great because James
hardened in the playoffs with someone who boy, his teams
would ride him for a while. Then what would happen
the deeper you got in the playoffs At the end
(29:07):
of games, James Harden would get tired, he couldn't hit shots,
and his teams would lose. And that's kind of what
you see with Luca because he we got through the playoffs,
teams are more physical with him and he winds up.
He's not someone that can can steamroll his way to
the hoop when he needs to. He needs to work
on his stamina. He needs to get in better shape.
He needs to be able to dominate games at the end.
(29:28):
He's got to be able to get physical and get
in the lane and not worry about getting in and
drawing contact and falling down and yelling and screaming for
a call. He has to get to that point. James
Harden got to a point in his career where he knew,
am I just going to be a shooter or am
I going to be a full time? Am I going
to be a better point guard? And he was and
matzuland now he still got tired at the end, but
it was still a mid a mid career adjustment that
(29:48):
Harden made and he became a bigger superstar. The mid
career adjustment that Luca's got to make is like Harden, Hey,
I saw this guy get tired at the end of games.
He can't get tired at the end. He can't get
bullied physically. Needs to get a little bit stronger, whether
it's thinner, whether it's more ropeie, his muscles, whatever it
is he needs to be a guy at the end
of games that is not getting pushed around, that is
(30:09):
not hey, I'm exhausted going up and down the floor.
That's what's going to make him a better closing player.
That's what's going to turn him into a legend and
give the Mavericks a championship.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Point.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Well, but part of it goes to Harden and look's
still got whatever life left in his career. But for Luca,
a lot of it still comes down to you're so
whistled dependent as to how a game is going to
go right. For years with James Harden, if he wasn't
getting to the line fifteen times, guess what, he did
not have an effective game. And eventually it became a
(30:39):
whole referendum on officiating overall, not just for him but
for the league of how are we calling things? And
we know in the playoffs whistles are going to be
harder to come by. How many times over the course
of these five games, did you have sequences? And this
runs in parallel to all of the discussions, as grossly
uninformed as they are at times the WNBA and what's
(31:00):
a file what's a hard fall, what's a flagrant fall?
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Et cetera.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Same thing with the NBA is you had sequences like wow,
that's an awful lot of contact. We saw that tonight
pretty early on in the first quarter, like wow, that
guy really got shoved towards the stanchion that's rerounding rebound,
goes back the other way. Keep playing, and that's the
thing Luca can't get baited into that. That was also
(31:24):
part two of the wind Horst chronicles that we saw
circulating in social media today as he continues his next
career as a hot taker, fueled by whatever information is
flowing out of the Maverick's locker room.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
So there, it is a better story in the losing
locker room. We got more on Kyrie coming up, but
Luca little too much, James Harden, That's what he's got
to do if he wants to win the title. The
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Carmon Love
from the Tirac dot Com Studios.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Hey, guys, what you got Frostburg.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
Now that the game's over, has JJ Redick been hired
by the Lakers?
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Waiting for that announcement. We are waiting for.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
He loves to set yet I'm on refresh duty. Bud
coming up next.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Yes, the best thing I could tell you and the
most accurate thing we can tell you about one of
the big players in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
We'll tell you next right here, Jason to Mike. Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Welcome back in Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with
me and Mike Carmon.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
We're crowning a new champion.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
We're watching a lot of baseball, the Grimace era and
all that fun stuff. A lot of debate about the
MVP award to come though. Rick Buker's going to join
us in about ten minutes for the wrap up of
what was a long and arduous journey what he does.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
In the postseason.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
And we're twiddling our thumbs wondering how quickly JJ Reddick
is named Lakers head coach.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
I mean, you couldn't do that. In the fourth quarter.
The game was a blow up.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
It seemed like once Pritchard hit that shot going into halftime,
that was all right.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
We need some other news. What a shot by Pritchard, JJ.
Do you have any news? Do you have anything to
tell us? Is there something you could say? Can you
help us?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Even if you're hearing the bangard the facts machine, Even when.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I'm watching him at the end when they're all breaking
to the three of them are on screen, he's just
sitting to the side, like not saying anything.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Can't say anything, not saying anything. Uh, call me, pick
up the phone. It just call me.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Kyrie Irving has been a really big story all season long,
and I admit, hey, I didn't think he was going
to be able to do what he did and help
lead the Mavericks all the way to the NBA Finals
because he got too much. He got too wrapped up
and knuckleheaded stuff the last four or five years. Why
would you want Kyrie? You think you're a Kyrie away?
Speaker 6 (33:48):
Now?
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Hey, Kyrie had a phenomenal year this year. I can't
believe he made it all about basketball for the entire way,
but he did the best thing I can say now
going forward, right, I'm saying this, but this is just
the most accurate thing I should say that most everything
I could say about Kyrie Irving enjoy this run that
he just had this year. Enjoy what you saw. Hope
that he could still be this guy, but enjoy what
(34:13):
you saw. That's all I'm gonna say, because who knows
what if next year is going to be like this?
Who knows for Kyrie is has he suddenly found a home?
Is Dallas great? Or was Dallas great? Because they got
to the finals? What's going to happen now that he's
gonna be questioned? He's going to be the guy that
people are gonna say and fans are gonna say, oh,
Kyrie was terrible, if he was better?
Speaker 4 (34:33):
I don't. I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
I can always believe that someone changes who they are
for has a life change for for a long time,
because Kyrie was kind of a knuckleheaded guy for a while,
and this year again he stood up and he and
he was the best version of himself he's been since
You're going back to when Cleveland won the championship and
he was terrific. So I would just I don't, I
don't know what kind of guy Kyrie is gonna be,
(34:56):
but I would say I enjoy this run and what
you saw from him, and hope that it continues. But
understand that just with Kyrie, you have no idea. You
never know what it's going.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
But you know what I'm gonna go back to, you know,
your your example of Luca and what seemingly transpired post
game three, right he sat down for the interview, he
owned it, talked about growing as a person, as a player,
and all of those things, and the hope that that continues, right,
that that's not an outlier. He takes off scenes in
(35:27):
training and everything seriously gets in better physical condition and
mentally he's ready for the ebb and flow of a
season and when whistles do.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
It and do not flow.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
A shot of Kyrie Irving that's just now starting to
circulate is as he left the court that he waited
for every Mavericks player dap him up, give him a hug,
you know, the pat on the head, the thank you
and everything else. Being the team leader to the end
that we've seen throughout the year. And again he's got
(36:00):
a long history. There's folks that will not give it
the benefit of the doubt that you know, he is
a changed, mature guy. I hope this continues.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
Right.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Clarence Hill, you know, didn't get a chance to ask
him a question in the presser the other day. So
he caught up with him leaving to go to his
car and asked him about Father's Day whatever, some pretty good,
you know, deep thoughts about maturing as a man and
taking on responsibilities and whatever else. Again, you have to
decide how much you want it to be. Wow, that's
(36:32):
a good SoundBite versus a guy who's grown up and
he's been in the league a long time. He's seen
a lot of good. He's certainly seen and heard a
lot of people's opinions about him and his decision making
through and at some point everybody's got to make their
choices in their life. At least for now, he looks
(36:54):
like a guy as a teammate. You watch the love
fest between him and Luca down the stretch as well,
Jason Kidd talking about what a leader he's been all
year long. That you hope that, yeah, he has turned
the corner, that he's found a place where he's at
peace personally and professionally and it moves forward.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
I get. All I can do is hope that that's
the YEA. Is it sustainable? Like the life James is?
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Something like the sustainable? Did he have a great year?
Is next year? Going to be difficult. What's going? How's
that gonna go? As long as this goes, just enjoy
the ride.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
But just like that, but just like the Luca thing,
I mean, he could revert to the guy who continues
to call and cry for for whistles and and everything
and takes himself out of games the same way.
Speaker 5 (37:39):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
And right now it's a lot. It's wishing and hoping
the new season begins. Guys, don't forget.
Speaker 6 (37:43):
We got to give him his props for finally finally
fulfilling his promise and bringing in the championship to Boston.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
He did, he did, he did. They'll put it.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
He stayed there as long as they would have him.
He's actually in the team photo at the end with
all of the Celtics. They photo shopped him in with
his arms and TAM's holding him on the trophy.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
But I mean one in fourteen now against the Celtics
since leaving more Sage brushes man.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
Coming up next.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
NBA insider Rick Buker, what is he stunned about with
his NBA Finals?
Speaker 4 (38:11):
He'll tell you that
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Please give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello and welcome inside our two of The Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. We are live
from the Tirack dot Com studios tirec dot com. I'll
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(00:50):
confetti is falling at the TD Garden. Hugs, yelling, screaming,
and I'm watching Christaps Porzing, NBA champion, hug everybody who
walks into his path. The Boston Celtics are your NBA champions.
They finish off a five game series with a one
(01:11):
oh six eighty eight win over the Mavericks, a game
that was never close and Jason Tatum celebrates and puts
a signature stamp on his career with his first NBA title.
The party is on in Boston as soon as.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
They went on that big run at the end of
the first quarter, right, first thing, you and I said
to each other, boy, Dallas can't finish a quarter for anything.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Right, battle back?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Right, Celtics get out to a lead early time out
from Jason Kidd. They battled back, and then in the
final two minutes of the first quarter, all the work
they did completely unraveled some wide open three point shots.
And then in the second quarter it gets worth same thing.
Down the stretch. You had that Pritchard three pointer at
the buzzer where Tatum then nearly takes him out going
(01:57):
to chess bumping, and then that was it. It was
just a matter of what was going to be the
margin of victory, did you hit any of your individual
prop bets, and who was going to fight to stay
on the court long enough to be the MVP. Lots
of video running around of Jaylen Brown if Lucas stays on,
I'm on you know that kind of thing, and Tatum
taking over offensively crying at the end when he finally
(02:19):
comes out of the game, just a ton of emotion
as the confetti falls. And I love that you immediately
had to point out what Porzingis was doing because psychological, psychologically,
you're still just scaring.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
No.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I'm fine with Porzingis win. I'm fine, No, Nick, I
knew he was going to win. I picked the Celtics
who win because I knew they were going to win
the title. I knew what was happening. It's okay. And
Jason Tatum is screaming right now on espn IDO maybe
one of those Kevin Gartnett anything is possible. He's screaming
doing his interview right now, and I gotta say, you know,
Jason Tatum gets a lot of flack, but when you're
(02:55):
up twenty five and you are still going into the
stands for loose balls because you want to win a
finals MVP.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
About that, jos.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
He was holdess. He didn't care about the MV. Everybody
else is at three quarter speed. It's a twenty five
point game. He's still running around the floor like he's
a rookie trying to make a team out of camp.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Hey look at me.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I could be the MVP and we're still waiting on
word as to who the MVP is. But here in
the clinching game, Tatum does have the biggest game thirty one,
eight and eleven man Tatum Brown, Drew Holliday. Boy, I
stumped for Drew Holiday. He was my pick before the
series began he would be at worthy MVP. But hey,
now we get to see how much do people really
(03:37):
like or dislike Jason Tatum.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Can we really not vote him the MVP?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Perfect from the fall line, a lot of twenty four
from the field. The only thing you can criticize for
he was only one of seven for three point range.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Hey, speaking of criticisan for three point range, We'll get
to Luca, We'll get.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
To We'll get to the Jalen rounds seven to twenty
three to night Holiday was seven to fourteen with what
he finished with fifteen eleven in four plus twenty one
on the night.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I do believe though, that the only people that actually
wagered on Jalen Brown or really I'm sorry I Drew
Holliday were people in the media. Because I'm seeing a
lot of folks going, man, I really want to catch.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Because I heard I said Drew Holliday.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And people take up on the analysis was was good. Right,
the two guys will punch each other out, and then
maybe Holiday steps up and here we go all three
worthy candidates. But I mean Tatum, I will the acceptance
will be done.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
By his son, I think so, yes, hugging his kid,
you know, as the confetti falls. It's a fun scene
right now in Boston. They're all hugging their first title.
You're going back to for the Celtics back in thousand
and eight. No, hey, I think the eight team would
beat this team. I'm just saying. I mean I had
all of famers. I mean, you know, I was that
was my best job coach guy, you know. But here's
(04:51):
the thing. I mean that was where look, my team
would win, but we didn't have as good players as
they did.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
So it was really a lot of me. It was
really me.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
I mean it's not enough that I threw Damian Lillard
under the bus this weekend about how he hasn't didn't.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Show up and everything else. I want to talk.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I don't watch you to blame me, But yeah, I
think the twenty eighteen better coached, better coach team in
two thousand and now.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
There's a story that we did a little bit Ryan
Hollins and.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I over the weekend trying to wonder if Doc was
playing a little dirty pool there or what he was
trying to do. You can find it wherever you get
your podcast as well as this show Fox Sports Radio,
and then take us with you wherever you go evangelize.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
But yeah, for DOCA, that two thousand and eight goes away.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
They finally win another title, only in the second since
nineteen eighty six, great balance definition and for the Mavericks
after that colossal Game four, an absolute no show in
this one?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
What do you got, Frostburg?
Speaker 6 (05:46):
How does it make you feel that Porzingis basically made
Willis Reid irrelevant? Porzingis had one Willis Reid make he is.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
I'm fine. It was three team Tames ago. It was
three teams ago.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Sixteen minutes today, points, a rebound, two falls, and a
plus eight.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Boy, if the voters really wanted to stick it to Tatum,
they would vote for Zengis.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Well, I mean the series is over after that game.
It was over after that game, right there.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
We're voting for running the highlight of Tatum passing in
the ball that plush junk.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Now, look when you when you try to sum up
the NBA season here twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four.
There's a school of thought everybody likes close games. If
the games are blow outs, I don't watch. I like
blowouts because I like when teams can assert dominance. I
like storylines that don't have a lot of interpretation to
(06:40):
and I kind of like that one, So I don't
need every game to be oh, if this had happened
or this. No, sometimes I like the storyline, like the dominance.
This is one of the easiest NBA seasons and finals
to explain. Is one of the I mean, if I
could have gone back in the beginning of October said this,
and it would have saved everybody the entire season, right,
because what did we see this season? The best team
(07:02):
front to back, top to bottom, beginning of the season
to the end of the season wins the title because
they were deeper than everybody else they played, and that
was on display in the finals. That's it. It's that simple.
They were the best team all season long. They were
deeper than everybody else. Look at the teams they played
in the playoffs with that had injuries or were coming
(07:23):
off a series where they beat somebody that had big injuries,
and they were much deeper than the Dallas Mavericks. And
the Mavericks had one player who was able to really
dent the scoreboard in Luka Doncic. Really didn't have anybody
else the Celtics, whether you had Tatum, whether you had Brown,
whether you had Drew Holliday, all over the box score.
You had White with fourteen points a game. You had
(07:44):
Porzingis in game one. You had the big Peyton Pritchard
three as only points of the series tonight a season
to only points a game five tonight and hits it
right before halftime. You had Horford with some Knights where
he was big. I mean, this was a great supporting cast,
and this is why they went Sometimes it's that they
were the best team all season long. Everybody. You heard
a lot of people in the media try to dismiss them.
(08:05):
They don't do this right, they don't do this right,
they don't do this right. They were the best team
and they put it on display in the playoffs and
they won the title. They're deeper than everybody else and
you have to respect that.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, I think with a lot of the Celtics discussion,
it was you're trying to sell the alternate right, the
alternate universe, and say, well if then, but right, the
one game loss here, the one game loss there, the
series against Indiana where you had three games where they
came and took victory away from the Pacers, which ninety
(08:40):
percent winning probability rates in three games, and the Celtics
went and took them.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
All right, they play with their food.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Those are all narratives built up into a degree bought
in just saying all right, let's see what happens, you know,
fully formed and when we get to the finals. And
instead they just said, all right, uh, you guys ready,
and Missoula Van Gundy, Sam Cassel, all the assistants rallied them,
and this is what you saw, absolute dominance from pillar
(09:09):
to post.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
I'm really happy for Al Horford.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
He's a guy I've long admired the game, and any
guy that stays in the game as long as he does,
he's got to be a pretty he's got to be
a hell of a teammate and a guy that you
know can still give you some positive contributions on the floor.
But yeah, it was a lot of all right, they're
the favorite, so we have to find other discussion points.
Part of the reason that you know, when we make
(09:33):
picks a lot of times it's all right, no chalk. Well,
that's when you got a larger field when it comes
to brass tacks. Here was wishing, wanting, hoping that you'd find,
you know, lightning in the bottle for the Mavericks to
make it a series, to be able to perhaps rally
it to a deeper series and really test him. But
the Celtics had an answer for everything, and they certainly
(09:54):
had an answer for Kyrie and Luka Doncics at every
turn you look at the depth, and for Joe Missoula,
a guy that a lot of people wanted fired, for
Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum after last year, what was
the lot of the narrative? And they've gone as far
as they're gonna go. Instead, you get Holiday. The Blazers
received Malcolm Brogn and Robert Williams always Robert Williams twenty
(10:15):
twenty four first round pick of the Warriors and a
twenty twenty nine unprotected first round pick when they got
rid of Marcus Smart.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
The sky was falling, everything was wrong.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
And instead you see what Brad Stevens and that squad
put together time and again, and yeah they caught a
break now and again. But guess what, it's also a
testimony and had a testament to the training staff and
everybody if these guys were ready to play right that
you didn't lose twenty games to an injury. Yes, Porzingis
got hurt down the stretch, but you had the luxury
(10:47):
where he was the fourth guy you need. Do we
have to force it back, do we need him?
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Nope?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
The schedule also gives us an extra two weeks off,
so it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Give him time.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
He helped you win one game. Look and say this phrase
a lot, and when you hear at other places, you
know it originated here. Is the Celtics one because they're
the deepest team in the NBA. There is not a
lot of drop off in the production you get sometimes
from Tatum to White what Drew Holliday gives you. They're
(11:17):
incredibly deep. They play eight nine guys and you don't
miss a lot. This is why they win. When you
have that talented a roster, sometimes you have to do
what the Celtics did, and that is they out talent
the other teams. Right, I say that all the time.
The Celtics are out talenting other teams, and that gets
(11:39):
dismissed because it's not some system. It's not Steve Kirk
coming in saying, hey, we're gonna do a lot of motion,
we're gonna hit a lot of three, we're gonna set
the NBA out. It's ear is Joe Mizzoula even coaching.
I don't even know if the Celtics practice. But when
you have that kind of talent, you're not gonna be
able to say, Okay, all you guys are gonna buy
into a system.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
You can't do that.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
You can't give because everybody has their own different set
of what they do. Well, it's not well, I'm building
this team and Jason Tatum's our guy that does this,
So now we have to go get somebody who does
this and someone who does this and team to try
to build like that. It's very difficult because you're trying
to do a lot of pieces. It's what the Lakers
are doing. The Celtics says, Okay, we have Tatum, he
does this great, and Jalen Brown does this great and
sometimes a little bit similar. Okay, what do we need
(12:18):
other guys that do great things. Let's bring him in
true Holiday, great defender, great point guard, Great Chris tops
Porzingis was a number one guy, was a number two guy,
now at number four guy. Do they all fit together perfectly? No,
they all hit threes, they play defense pretty well. Sometimes
when you have that gaggle of talent, the best thing
you can do is just hey, let's get you guys
to play together, and you're all going to be the
(12:41):
best version of yourselves you can be. And we're gonna
out talent the other teams and other teams that come
in with systems and different tries that things. That's so
what we do here, what we like to do. Yeah,
that works a lot, But when you have an overall
level of talent, you're not gonna get teams to say, Okay, hey,
Jason Tatum, we want you to not do this and
do this instead. This will make you fit into what
we do, not as good a player, and that doesn't
make sense. People don't buy in, and you lose team.
(13:04):
You lose players a lot easier and a lot quicker
that way. Whereas Joe Mizula has taken over when the
team was in a pretty good shape under em Udoka,
he's come in and said Okay, we're gonna do a
little bit of tweaking with a roster, and the guys
go out and they play, and that's kind of what
they do. They have a lot of individual stars. They
hit threes, they play good defense, and look at what
they do to teams.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
They did this all season, even when teams were healthy.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
They get to the playoffs. Yes, they had a great draw.
They had a great draw with players who were hurt
and not making it out this year. We told you
the Celtics had to win. But the Celtics did everything
they needed to do this season. It was pretty it
was pretty simple. And that's a strategy that, again you
have to give Celtics a lot of credit for, is
that instead of trying to shoehorn these people in to
(13:48):
play this one way, it's we're gonna do this and
as long as we put our guys out there, our
top eight are going to be better than your top
eight and we're gonna win a lot of games. And
that's a way to go whatever.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
You get guys to commit to defense. Right. As a
Knicks fan, know this me. Once upon a time in Chicago.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
One of the the greatest and often most unstated things
about those Bulls squads were that they played defense. You
had guys, even if they were KG veterans, that knew
their space on that side of the ball. Never mind
the second three pat when you had Dennis Rodman corraling
every rebound.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
That was out there.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
But for the Celtics, that was the dirty little secret
to all of it is that guys would man up.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
And in this series, that's what Missoula called for.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
He's one of the most fascinating guys in our sporting
universe right now from some of the interviews that players
have given with a little bit of insight in some
of his interview responses. Can't wait to see what he's
got for us after the uh know, the final piece
of confetti falls exit?
Speaker 4 (14:48):
How about a fresca exit.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Swalling down the Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Carmon just the beginning of our breakdown of the
NBA Finals again one of the simplest seasons you can
break down at his time to give the Celtics credit
to hear them all their flowers for what they were
able to accomplish and thankfully did because if they didn't win,
I would never pick them to win anything again.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
In my life.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Coming up next, we get into Luca and the series
that he had and the biggest thing he needs to
do in the offseason, plus the NBA Finals MVP was
just announced. Was Jason Tatum's near triple double enough for
him to win?
Speaker 4 (15:26):
We'll tie you inn next Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
All the sacrifice handling the enormous weight of massive expectations
ends tonight. Here x over time to save it again, Boston,
Anything's possible. Batter number eighteen has been secured the Celtics
or NBA champions.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
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 4 (16:03):
Hey it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 7 (16:06):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker, for
twenty two minutes of pipe in hot baseball talk, featuring
the biggest names of newsmakers in the sport. Whether you
believe in analytics or the I test, We've got all
the bases covered. New episodes dropped every Thursday, So do
your sofa favor and listen to Inside the Parker with
(16:28):
Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get
your podcast.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon, and let the record show that the
Boston Celtics have won the first professional sports championship of
the Grimace era.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
First championship. Was he on the Larry O'Brien trophy. It's
gonna he gave them, didn't you see?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
He gave the Celtics the trophy they should have helicoptered
I'm in grimas came out.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
He was so shakes and everybody and the hands Larry
O'Brien trophy to Joe Matt.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
He's too busy getting rid of mister and missus Mett.
Yeah he I mean, he can't be everywhere. You don't
want to ruin the illusion.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
No, no, I'll tell you, mister and missus met. People aren't
going to see him for a while. We like how long,
like for the rest of their lives. It's mean though
I'm Grimace, it's me mets Grimace.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
That's how it goes the for all New York media members,
because there have been a number of them chiming in
and about how wrong this is whatever.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
It's like.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Fight, don't talk about the brand, just talk Grimace all
you want, You can ignore it, but it's if the
Mets are winning, even if it's got zero relationship to it,
how do you not lean into it? For as bad
as they were for a while.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Oh, I'll tell you the New York that's gonna be
their New City Connect uniform.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Get rid of that other stuff that it's just gonna
be Grimace, Grimace grim I like that Dodger hat. That
was pretty sweet.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
But hey, the Mets New City Connect does have a
purple tinge to it, so it's like it's gonna be
the Grimace uniform. They could wear them all the time.
It was foreshadowing. So these Celtics are your NBA champions.
We're gonna get to Luka Doncic coming up in a second.
But your NBA Finals MVP is none other than Jalen Brown.
Jalen Brown takes the award. It was Jason Tatum, could
(18:14):
have been Jalen Brown, could have been Drew Holiday, but instead,
here's a moment where Jalen Brown became an NBA legend.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Bill Russell would be so proud.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
The twenty twenty four Bill Russell Finals MVP goes to
Jalen Brown.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Here that Tatum. Everybody hates Jason Tatum.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Did Jason Tatum have the Ralph Wigham Chew choose me moment?
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Look, you can.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
See right here is where his heart breaks, because as
much as he does protest that the finals MVP did
beating the way he played down the stretch the.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Last five minutes of a twenty five point game, He's
playing like he's a like he's a walk on getting
his first action during an NCAA tournament. The team is
getting blown out by fifty and he's diving for loose ball.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
I could smell the MVP. I want it now. I mean,
come on, man, But here's the thing we're gonna find out.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
I don't know if it's gonna be in the next
few minutes or hopefully before we get off the air.
Here is that you know you're gonna end up getting
the votes and who voted for whom in these finals, MVP,
so you're gonna be able to have your cast, your
aspersions and derision towards individuals here shortly.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Look, let's break this down why Jalen Brown Jason Tatum
had a terrific Game five Drew Holiday. Look, I told
you before the series drew Holiday is my MVP pick,
and you could have easily given it to him. He
had a fantastic series. He had a great closer tonight,
and he was the head of the snake that held
Kyrie Irving down in four out of five games. Okay,
(19:52):
we'll have we'll have more on Kyrie coming up in
a bit. But I told you going in, why did
I like the Celtics. Why do I like Drew Holiday?
Because they're gonna make the Mavericks a one man team.
They're gonna take one of them away between Kyrie and Luca,
because they know the two of them. He they've been
able to run roughshot over the Western Conference. But I
know they're gonna take one of them away. And who
are you gonna take away? You'll take away Kyrie?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Why? Because Kyrie is a little bit older.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
He's a guy that you already know you can get
in his head in Boston, and he's a guy that's
a little bit easier to hold off than Luca. So
they allowed Luca to score thirty to be that guy,
knowing full well, we're gonna win the NBA Finals pretty
easy if we can turn them into a one man team.
And Tadah look what happened. I told you how the
finals are gonna go before they even tipped off, and
that's how it went. It could have been Drew Holliday,
(20:37):
but look, I can't argue with Jayleen. I can't give
you a hot taking go other than maybe voters, hey,
Jason Tatum. But Jalen Brown was the more complete player
through the first three games, and his thirty eight and
eight in game three when basically that did that decided
the series. That probably decided the MVP as well, because
I can't get man say, oh, well Tatum did this
(20:59):
and did Jaylen Brown of this? No, they were up
three zip and overall the first three games, Jalen Brown
had the biggest numbers. He played, he played extremely well.
He played better overall than Jason Tatum. Now you want
to go the two games after that, well, Game four
was this, Game five was this. But for those three games,
it really satisfied it and decided that Jalen Brown was
(21:20):
the more complete player of the two. You're always gonna
give it to a star when you can so. Jalen
Brown Jason Tatum, they were the two co favorites coming in.
You're not gonna give it to Luke. You can't give
it to a losing player who went out in five games,
seven game series and blood on the floor and hair
on the walls. Yes, you give it to Luka Doncic,
but five games when the Celtics dominated, you knew it
was gonna be one of the two. And Jalen Brown
(21:40):
clearly was able to win that award pretty much in
the first three games, because if you show saw a
lot of people, they would have voted much more emotionally tonight.
Look at Tatum with the big game. But this tells you, hey,
we pretty much had the had the MVP already with
Jalen Brown.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Yeah, I think you go back to it.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
And obviously one of those games was the Porzingis game, right,
I mean, that's how it's going to be known, right,
It's not a Tatum game, It wasn't a Brown game,
but Brown doing more across the board. Tatum's huge in
the final, and I saw a couple of stats going
around and then you know, you go back and you're
trying to verify it in between yelling at you. In
(22:20):
terms of historically finals MVP, if someone was the leader
in points, assists and rebounds for a squad they won it. Well,
you set precedent the other way tonight with Jalen Brown
as your conference MVP, then into the finals MVP here.
But he didn't have a bad game bet shooting night tonight. Right,
(22:41):
everybody sucked in game four, so throw that out. But
overall for the series ends up shooting forty again, shooting
twenty five percent, will weigh that down a little bit.
Was pretty efficient overall, five boards, five assists per game,
about two steals per game, and set limiting of turnovers
(23:01):
and handling the ball as much as he did active
on the defensive end that he ends up getting the
nod as the MVP really hard to argue. I mean,
all three guys put up a pretty good case, right,
and and Tatum was good at distributing the ball to
the point where people were criticizing them even though he
was up three to zero, right, I mean, that was
(23:22):
that was the biggest laugh of it all. So you've
been kind of passive at times like That's when he
started kind of stumping for the MVP. Yeah, without stumping
for the MVP.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Look, and Tatum's getting his revenge right now because right
now players are on the court taking pictures and Jalen
Brown and Drew Holliday are taking pictures and Jason Tatum
has not let go of the Larry O'Brian trophy and
he has it in the locker holding onto it. He's
got it back there. Find now they're cutting back and
forth between the guys on the floor that are celebrating
(23:53):
and Jason Tatum, how you give me the MVP.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
I'm not giving you the Larry O'Brian trophy. I'm holding it. Yeah,
he's back in the locker room with his kid.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
People are being handed goggles for the inevitable Champagne.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
He's just holding on.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
I am not giving this up many I'm not getting.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Just ask him to pick him up. He said, beat it. No,
I got the Larry. I got than you are. No hands, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
You know you know he's holding it like you know
the if you go to a party and with your
significant other and you know that the other one wants
to leave when they show up with the coats in
their arms and it's like, okay, time, I don't care
what kind of good time you're having, we're leaving. You're
not letting go of that coat because it's like my
coat is here, your coat is here. You're taking this
coat and I'm not letting it go and we're leaving
(24:34):
Like that's how Jason Tatum's holding onto the trophy like
he's got both arms around him, like, mom've got my coat,
I'm ready to go.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
I'm not. You're not getting out of here. He's got
having it, like Dad, Dad, come on dad.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Really, he might be like a couple of minutes away
from just splitting in a with it. Like all of
a sudden, the big town car pulls up. He jumps
right in with the trophy, saying it jerks, He straps
it in and away they go. He did arrive in
a Mayboch today. Just in terms of you know, flexes.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Whenever we talk about outfits and and media members trying
to do their thing, uh and get their screen time
with the suit they're wearing.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
He rolled in in a Mayboch.
Speaker 6 (25:13):
Is really a flex Though he wasn't driving, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
It doesn't mean you no, no no, if it's if
it's my Maybox, uh, and I let someone else drive.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
I was paying. You think he's just leasing. I think
the may Box was an uber? What what level is that?
That's uber? Black X x x X.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Okay, well Bill Tyshert notes because he drove drove for Lyft.
That's why Tycher drove for Lyft. That like under us
or something or what.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
No, when we talk about Uber, you used to work
for them.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, I know, but you made it sound like it
was like the lower part of it. No, I'm saying
you can confirm what Frostburg is saying. Oh at first
didn't sound like that. Were you even paying attention? Yeah,
but you just made it sound like I played for
minor leagues, not the major leagues there. Well, so late
Lift is the minor league. No, I think they're better
than Uber. Okay, I said, well, no, I just said
Lyft because you did. You didn't work for Uber. I
don't want people to think but.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
To throw bunky wrench into this. Has it Uber become
like Kleenex where it's kind of like the term even
though it's a brand.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
I can Uber in a Lyft Yep, Okay, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Like I'm calling for a car. Well, it's never it's
I'm getting an Uber. Are you really getting an Uber?
You might get a Lyft, you might get a COMPETITORI thing.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
Yeah, but if I'm in London. I'll get in a lift.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
No, get a lyft, I get yourself a booba again?
Speaker 4 (26:30):
A lift? No, no, no, uber, I don't know what
that is. But I'll get a lift me. Nobody is
lifting you. I'll get a lift. We're gett a lift.
Shut up, I gotta lift. I don't A lift is elevator.
You don't.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
You didn't know that, did you? You know a lift
is elevator.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I think I might actually find a random McDonald's in
London and pay for a meal in advance to see
if you could pick it up. This guy's gonna show
up at some point. He may show up multiple times
in a day. I was like coming in a few days.
We can't hold a big mac for that. But but
this in the fridge. Wait for the guy to come.
I don't know he's gonna it'll be dressed like Grimace.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
I guess. Now.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Look the thing I will say about Lucas because we're
going to get to Kyrie Irving coming up in a
few minutes. The thing I will see about Luca, uh, well,
yeah we did. It's a big, big deal Frostburg. Yeah,
because especially if you're gonna get Kyrie Knux. You could
have had Kyrie and the Lakers could have had him.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Look where you a big look? Could quicker? Could ahead? Kerry? Uh?
Speaker 1 (27:23):
The one thing I will say for Luca is that
the Finals will slowly become in retrospect about him, about
his growth as a player, and we talked about what
he was able to do in game four, the lesson
he learned coming off of Game three. Don't complain, don't
wind to the referees, play your game, don't look for contact.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
What are you doing?
Speaker 1 (27:46):
You really screwed us, right, Luca in game three completely
screwed the Mavericks with his style of play and allowed
the Celtics to get away with a win that won
the series for them.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
They lost the finals.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Because Luca couldn't not be emotional and fouling out of
games in the game that day, had four minutes to
potentially steal. It was awful. It seemed like he learned
his lesson. He was a different guy for Game four,
at least some of the things he said. So it
makes you think that maybe he's on the right track. Okay,
I'm maturing as a player. I learned a big lesson
(28:18):
in theory. You would see that so we have to
see how that plays out over the course of the
rest of his career. Was this a big teaching moment
from an expensive teaching moment when the time I'm losing
the NBA Finals.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
But that's the thing for these all right?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Was because that's been the thing ascribed to Kyrie Irving. Yeah,
a lot for this year. Look out, much more mature
and more of a teammate he was. So in the end,
you make the NBA Finals and what was a teachable
moment all screwed up because Michael Finley took it care.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
But that's that's gonna be the thing now. The one
I can say for Luca that goes across the board. Dude,
you gotta get in better shape. You can't You're you're
too much James Harden. And that's not great because James
hardened in the playoffs with someone who boy, his teams
would ride him for a while. Then what would happen
the deeper you got in the playoffs At the end
(29:07):
of games, James Harden would get tired, he couldn't hit shots,
and his teams would lose. And that's kind of what
you see with Luca because he we got through the playoffs,
teams are more physical with him and he winds up.
He's not someone that can can steamroll his way to
the hoop when he needs to. He needs to work
on his stamina. He needs to get in better shape.
He needs to be able to dominate games at the end.
(29:28):
He's got to be able to get physical and get
in the lane and not worry about getting in and
drawing contact and falling down and yelling and screaming for
a call. He has to get to that point. James
Harden got to a point in his career where he knew,
am I just going to be a shooter or am
I going to be a full time? Am I going
to be a better point guard? And he was and
matzuland now he still got tired at the end, but
it was still a mid a mid career adjustment that
(29:48):
Harden made and he became a bigger superstar. The mid
career adjustment that Luca's got to make is like Harden, Hey,
I saw this guy get tired at the end of games.
He can't get tired at the end. He can't get
bullied physically. Needs to get a little bit stronger, whether
it's thinner, whether it's more ropeie, his muscles, whatever it
is he needs to be a guy at the end
of games that is not getting pushed around, that is
(30:09):
not hey, I'm exhausted going up and down the floor.
That's what's going to make him a better closing player.
That's what's going to turn him into a legend and
give the Mavericks a championship.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Point.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Well, but part of it goes to Harden and look's
still got whatever life left in his career. But for Luca,
a lot of it still comes down to you're so
whistled dependent as to how a game is going to
go right. For years with James Harden, if he wasn't
getting to the line fifteen times, guess what, he did
not have an effective game. And eventually it became a
(30:39):
whole referendum on officiating overall, not just for him but
for the league of how are we calling things? And
we know in the playoffs whistles are going to be
harder to come by. How many times over the course
of these five games, did you have sequences? And this
runs in parallel to all of the discussions, as grossly
uninformed as they are at times the WNBA and what's
(31:00):
a file what's a hard fall, what's a flagrant fall?
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Et cetera.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Same thing with the NBA is you had sequences like wow,
that's an awful lot of contact. We saw that tonight
pretty early on in the first quarter, like wow, that
guy really got shoved towards the stanchion that's rerounding rebound,
goes back the other way. Keep playing, and that's the
thing Luca can't get baited into that. That was also
(31:24):
part two of the wind Horst chronicles that we saw
circulating in social media today as he continues his next
career as a hot taker, fueled by whatever information is
flowing out of the Maverick's locker room.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
So there, it is a better story in the losing
locker room. We got more on Kyrie coming up, but
Luca little too much, James Harden, That's what he's got
to do if he wants to win the title. The
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Carmon Love
from the Tirac dot Com Studios.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Hey, guys, what you got Frostburg.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
Now that the game's over, has JJ Redick been hired
by the Lakers?
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Waiting for that announcement. We are waiting for.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
He loves to set yet I'm on refresh duty. Bud
coming up next.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Yes, the best thing I could tell you and the
most accurate thing we can tell you about one of
the big players in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
We'll tell you next right here, Jason to Mike. Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Welcome back in Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with
me and Mike Carmon.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
We're crowning a new champion.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
We're watching a lot of baseball, the Grimace era and
all that fun stuff. A lot of debate about the
MVP award to come though. Rick Buker's going to join
us in about ten minutes for the wrap up of
what was a long and arduous journey what he does.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
In the postseason.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
And we're twiddling our thumbs wondering how quickly JJ Reddick
is named Lakers head coach.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
I mean, you couldn't do that. In the fourth quarter.
The game was a blow up.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
It seemed like once Pritchard hit that shot going into halftime,
that was all right.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
We need some other news. What a shot by Pritchard, JJ.
Do you have any news? Do you have anything to
tell us? Is there something you could say? Can you
help us?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Even if you're hearing the bangard the facts machine, Even when.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I'm watching him at the end when they're all breaking
to the three of them are on screen, he's just
sitting to the side, like not saying anything.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
Can't say anything, not saying anything. Uh, call me, pick
up the phone. It just call me.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Kyrie Irving has been a really big story all season long,
and I admit, hey, I didn't think he was going
to be able to do what he did and help
lead the Mavericks all the way to the NBA Finals
because he got too much. He got too wrapped up
and knuckleheaded stuff the last four or five years. Why
would you want Kyrie? You think you're a Kyrie away?
Speaker 6 (33:48):
Now?
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Hey, Kyrie had a phenomenal year this year. I can't
believe he made it all about basketball for the entire way,
but he did the best thing I can say now
going forward, right, I'm saying this, but this is just
the most accurate thing I should say that most everything
I could say about Kyrie Irving enjoy this run that
he just had this year. Enjoy what you saw. Hope
that he could still be this guy, but enjoy what
(34:13):
you saw. That's all I'm gonna say, because who knows
what if next year is going to be like this?
Who knows for Kyrie is has he suddenly found a home?
Is Dallas great? Or was Dallas great? Because they got
to the finals? What's going to happen now that he's
gonna be questioned? He's going to be the guy that
people are gonna say and fans are gonna say, oh,
Kyrie was terrible, if he was better?
Speaker 4 (34:33):
I don't. I don't know that.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
I can always believe that someone changes who they are
for has a life change for for a long time,
because Kyrie was kind of a knuckleheaded guy for a while,
and this year again he stood up and he and
he was the best version of himself he's been since
You're going back to when Cleveland won the championship and
he was terrific. So I would just I don't, I
don't know what kind of guy Kyrie is gonna be,
(34:56):
but I would say I enjoy this run and what
you saw from him, and hope that it continues. But
understand that just with Kyrie, you have no idea. You
never know what it's going.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
But you know what I'm gonna go back to, you know,
your your example of Luca and what seemingly transpired post
game three, right he sat down for the interview, he
owned it, talked about growing as a person, as a player,
and all of those things, and the hope that that continues, right,
that that's not an outlier. He takes off scenes in
(35:27):
training and everything seriously gets in better physical condition and
mentally he's ready for the ebb and flow of a
season and when whistles do.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
It and do not flow.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
A shot of Kyrie Irving that's just now starting to
circulate is as he left the court that he waited
for every Mavericks player dap him up, give him a hug,
you know, the pat on the head, the thank you
and everything else. Being the team leader to the end
that we've seen throughout the year. And again he's got
(36:00):
a long history. There's folks that will not give it
the benefit of the doubt that you know, he is
a changed, mature guy. I hope this continues.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
Right.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Clarence Hill, you know, didn't get a chance to ask
him a question in the presser the other day. So
he caught up with him leaving to go to his
car and asked him about Father's Day whatever, some pretty good,
you know, deep thoughts about maturing as a man and
taking on responsibilities and whatever else. Again, you have to
decide how much you want it to be. Wow, that's
(36:32):
a good SoundBite versus a guy who's grown up and
he's been in the league a long time. He's seen
a lot of good. He's certainly seen and heard a
lot of people's opinions about him and his decision making
through and at some point everybody's got to make their
choices in their life. At least for now, he looks
(36:54):
like a guy as a teammate. You watch the love
fest between him and Luca down the stretch as well,
Jason Kidd talking about what a leader he's been all
year long. That you hope that, yeah, he has turned
the corner, that he's found a place where he's at
peace personally and professionally and it moves forward.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
I get. All I can do is hope that that's
the YEA. Is it sustainable? Like the life James is?
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Something like the sustainable? Did he have a great year?
Is next year? Going to be difficult. What's going? How's
that gonna go? As long as this goes, just enjoy
the ride.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
But just like that, but just like the Luca thing,
I mean, he could revert to the guy who continues
to call and cry for for whistles and and everything
and takes himself out of games the same way.
Speaker 5 (37:39):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
And right now it's a lot. It's wishing and hoping
the new season begins. Guys, don't forget.
Speaker 6 (37:43):
We got to give him his props for finally finally
fulfilling his promise and bringing in the championship to Boston.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
He did, he did, he did. They'll put it.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
He stayed there as long as they would have him.
He's actually in the team photo at the end with
all of the Celtics. They photo shopped him in with
his arms and TAM's holding him on the trophy.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
But I mean one in fourteen now against the Celtics
since leaving more Sage brushes man.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
Coming up next.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
NBA insider Rick Buker, what is he stunned about with
his NBA Finals?
Speaker 4 (38:11):
He'll tell you that
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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