April 22, 2025 • 38 mins
Jason Fitz and Buck Reising, in for Jason Smith and Mike Harmon, react live as the Pistons pulls off a Game 2 upset over the Knicks at The Garden! The guys celebrate the win for the Pistons and look at how they can move past New York in this series. Plus, Buck explains why Nikola Jokic may be the GOAT!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
If you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
We are looking at absolute chaos and panic in the
mecca of the NBA is The Knicks are struggling to
figure out how to get by the Pistons, and as
we sit right now, the Pistons.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
With a late fourth quarter lead.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Let's just remind the world, were it not for a
twenty one nothing run in the fourth quarter of Game one,
Detroit could be looking at a two nothing lead in
this series. And right now absolute panic is setting in
in New York.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
He's buck rising up, Jason fitzpucking fits. Gonna be confusing
for y'all.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I'm just gonna acknowledge out of the gates, You're about
to be very confused for the next few hours because
Jason Smith and Jason Fitz sound just similar enough that
people get confused on our social media sometimes.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
So I beg you early on, don't do eat Jason Smith.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
But you don't like what I say. All right, come
at us. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz coming at
to live tonight. We're gonna be with you for the
next several hours. And Buck, I'm just sitting here watching
this and I'm saying, hey, you know me, I'm an.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Agent of chaos. I just want people to be unhappy
all the time. I don't know why, like I.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Want people to I always root for the underdog, but
mostly I just root for any opportunity to make the
majority of the people run around like Kermit the Frog
and a house fire, trying to figure out how to.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Get out of the place. Like that's what I'm rooting for.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And that's what we're getting right now, because the Pistons
again get out to a nice comfortable lead again. The
Knicks are trying to claw their way back into this thing.
But Detroit man sitting right on the edge. It looks
like they could take this game. And if they take
this game, you can't tell me Knicks fans aren't uncomfortable.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
Now, Oh, I mean, it's it's a disaster. For New York,
and I appreciate you as the agent of chaos because
it's rare that I I mean, I guess at this
point in my life, I'm pretty good at playing the
straight man. So somebody has to be there to reel
you in and put out the fires that you start. Also,
it's hilarious that poor Jason Smith is getting tweets that
(02:17):
are probably associated with you for all the outrageous things
that you said. And I still haven't yelled at you
on air publicly about the last time we did one
of these shows where you called the Master's overrated. But
you know what is overrated, FITZI Madison Square Garden like
the atmosphere.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
He's just coming in with that heat.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
But because it's true, Okay, nobody's scared to play in the garden.
Nobody's scared of the environment that New York Knicks fans
are so proud of cling to, so desperately hope and
pray and wish that it's going to give them some
level of advantage, and instead it has allowed the Detroit
Pistons to get or almost get their first playoff win
(02:56):
since two thousand and eight. Provided that there's not a
significant collect apps up ninety.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
Two eighty eight. As we sit here broadcasting live.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
It is something that I've thought about a great many
times because it's still the mecca and it's still an
incredible place to see a game. But when it comes
down to it, teams aren't scared to play in the
garden anymore.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
So little context here, I'm gonna give everybody a little
bit of context. My right arm is a tattoo of
everywhere I've ever lived, and the placist are the things
that I've done in my life that I'm proud of,
stuff throughout the course of my entire life.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
That's my whole right arm sleep.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I say that because while I didn't live full time
in New York, I did spend many years in New
York in music. And one of the tattoos on my
right arm is the logo to Madison Square Garden because
the worst show I ever played in my life as
a professional musician, Buck Rising, was at Madison Square Garden,
because I couldn't control my adrenaline. Like I'd seen so
many shows when I was a little kid there, I
(03:50):
was there. But here's what I always tell people about
Madison Square Garden. So at the time when we were
touring that was with the band Perry Right. We had
at the time the fourth biggest song of all time
in country music. Where we're doing it, We're playing the
Garden sold out two straight nights. We go into the
I'm so excited I'm in the Garden. I get all
the guys together. I'm like, I'm gonna make you walk
through the concourse and look at all the history. I
wasn't touring with a lot of sports nuts, admittedly, but
(04:12):
we walked through that thing and the number of times
guys rolled their eyes and they like, this place is
a dump. Like the backstage area, They're like, this place
is a dump. The next night we played a show
at Barclays and like literally it was at Two Knights
of the Garden and we go over to Barclays. The
first thing one of our guitar players says is we
walk into Barclays.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Is now this is an arena. It's just like it
just shows there is this moment. If you aren't if
you aren't a.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Buff for the historic sports events that have happened at
the Garden, I think you might be. Like I went
to see Yukon play this year at the Garden in
some Big East basketball. I loved it. It was a
great environment. It was wild, it was crazy.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
But I think you're right.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I think there's probably a lot of people, especially if
you're under the age of thirty, that looks at it
and it's like, I don't know, it's just a dimly
lit arena. Like I just I know we're offending half
of the New York audience out of the game.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
But I do think you're right.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I don't think there's some big, great intimidation factor for
a twenty five year old kid that's never really seen
good basketball consistently come out of New York.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
Well, the New York audience is currently preoccupied because they
are the Pistons, clinging to a very slim ninety four
to ninety two lead.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
As we sit here with.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
Just about a minute fifty left to go in the
fourth quarter, they finally started getting to the free throw line.
Speaker 6 (05:24):
I don't know what the hell took so long.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
It was a disaster basically until the last I don't know,
six minutes of regulation And for a lot of I
mean for the Knicks in particular, FITSI this is such
an important game to see if they can find a
way to battle through, because that's the thing that I'm
most curious.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
To find out about this next team.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
As we're getting ready to talk about NBA playoffs throughout
the course of the night, I know we're going to
get to some Lakers stuff as well, with the MAVs
general manager coming out and having his end of season
press conference tie game now ninety four ninety four, I
am so fascinated to see whether Tom Thibodeau and Jalen
Brunson and the rest of the New York Knicks at
this point in time can find a way to become
(06:10):
battle tested. Because there's a lot of questions about this
series in particular, but the I mean, the Pistons are
an inferior opponent. They you are on home court. If
you can't handle business tonight in Game two with a
one to zero lead, I don't know when you're gonna
be able to do this.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I mean, but let me take the opposite side of it.
Catastrophic is the Pistons turned the pall over. Catastrophic that
the Pistons could be facing now headed back to Detroit
down to nothing with two games they easily could have
should have Woon have won like this is this is
we always talk about. Oh man, you gotta talk. You
gotta learn how to finish games, and the Pistons are
(06:47):
not doing that. By the way, you mentioned the draft.
We're gonna talk a lot of draft Fox Sports Radios
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(07:08):
tune into Fox Sports Radios Draft Night Live, which is
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Insider Jay Glazer, Jets, former Jets, GM Joe Douglass, College
Football Hall of Famer LeVar Arrington, and Fox Sports Lead
college football reporter Jennie Taff got you covered for all
thirty two picks.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
With predictions and reactions.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
That's Thursday at APM Eastern throughout the first round of
the draft live right here on Fox Sports Radio and
with the live video simulcast on the Fox Sports Radio
YouTube page, brought to you by Dollars Shaved Club, we
have a ninety seven to ninety four lead for the
Pistons with about thirty five seconds left. I have to
stand up, like I got to reposition.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
My TV in my office. That's what I just learned.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
But because like the scoreboard, like the score pug in
the bottom left or right head corner of the screens
covered up, I can't see the score bug from where
I am, so I got to stand up to see it.
But everybody's just standing up right now as this game
is coming to a close and it's it's been everything
we could want more.
Speaker 5 (07:59):
Well, just imagine the atmosphere afterwards, and you're slightly delayed
because where I'm at, there's about eight point one seconds
left to go in this game, with the Pistons clinging.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
To that three point lead.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
The scene in the streets of New York around Madison
Square Garden if they can't close this game out. They're
currently alive and trying to make it as close as
humanly possible and trying to get this done. But you've
got officiating that's been in the middle of this as well.
I know Pistons fans are going to be outraged on
social media afterwards if they end up surviving this one.
Speaker 6 (08:35):
As far as the Knicks go, Fitsie.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
And we can get into this because I know we've
got four hours tonight, four hours you and me late
four Come.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
On, now, this is dangerous, so we.
Speaker 6 (08:48):
Yeah, right, you've been on a four hour date in
your life.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
You've never been on a four hour date? Book?
Speaker 5 (08:55):
Come on, I mean maybe something that you know, you
started a Sunday Funday type of situation and then the
to go sideways and it ends up being four hours,
but not intentionally a four hour date. I don't I
don't think I want to spend any time with anybody.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Wait, wait, wait for your girlfriend might be listening right now,
so you better just get couched the conversation a little bit.
Make sure that you know what you love four hour dates.
That's all I'm saying, Buck, That's all I'm saying. You
love for four I'm here to help you, man, I'm
trying to help you.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Oh, this is a bad time to tell you that
I'm recently single.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
But ninety eight, ninety four.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
And Biscuit really the last oh, my god, in the
last week this.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
I should probably have called your Wednesday.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Oh man, Well, we're going to get through this together.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
The shame has shave there.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
It is there. It is Detroit basketball.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Since two thousand and eight, they have not won a
playoff game. I had to double check that that was
indeed the case getting ready for tonight's broadcast. But for
the Pistons, it's a huge opportunity to close this out.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
For the next man.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
It just throws this entire, the entire dialogue around this
this franchise into a bit of a bit of a
chaos cycle, which we enjoy about New York sports. Nothing
screams chaos like New York sports. And I'm looking forward
to seeing what the conversation in New York is after
(10:19):
this game.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
You know, it just reminds me of a greater conversation
that's plenty of sports fanatics need to have, like and
I just the easiest way I could say, and maybe
maybe this is how we'll teach. We're gonna continue this conversation. Okay,
We're gonna continue this conversation because I think over the
course of tonight, we need to remind some certain fan
bases out there that as much as I love you,
(10:42):
and look, I'm a lifelong diehard Raiders fan, so I
know what it's like to be a maniacal fan of
a bad franchise.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I get it right. As much as I love every
single sports fan. That's why we have a job.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I just think sometimes we got to remind fans the
particular teams that, hey, you're not as special as you
think you are.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
That's a heck of a tease. You're not especially is
that you tell you why?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
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 (11:13):
They almost did the Game one, They got it done.
Game two.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
The Detroit Pistons take down the New York Knicks, tying
that series at one and proing this show into complete
and other chaos. It's the Jason Smith Show, but it's
not Jason Smith. No, it is, in fact, Buck Rising
and Jason Fitz. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz again.
Very confusing, Jason Fitz, not Jason Smith. We trust that
you'll be able to figure that out.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
Act you're confusing more people by drawing attention to how
confusing it actually is.
Speaker 6 (11:40):
There's really not that hard. I don't think that Smith.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Look, that's why when people introduce me, every almost everybody
that knows me at any level just refers to me
by my last name.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
But when I get introduced to new people, they'll be.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Everybody says, well, this is Fits, And I always say,
you know, I'm Jason Fitz. Not that I care about
my first name. It's just it like, it's hard. Sometimes
it's hard to hear Fits. People hear Chris, they hear Vince,
they hear all sorts of weird things.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
So you know what.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
You're talking too fast? Just slow down.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
I know you've had like seventy five energy drinks for
us to do overnight radio.
Speaker 6 (12:09):
God help us.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
But I just I think this is a self inflicted
new wound.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I've had coming from you, coming from like the young
kid in the room that's accusing me of playing the victim.
Here he's buck rising, I'm tasting Fits. Look, we've got
a winner here, and this is a substancial moment for
this show because frankly, we've got somebody on the show.
It is a lifelong diehard Pistons fan. So Chris working
(12:35):
on the show Chris, How We Feeling Chris is a
Pistons fan. Just watched this team, even this series up
one one, get their first playoff win since two thousand
and what buck was it?
Speaker 7 (12:44):
Did you say two every year since? It's utter relief
after a twenty Like I think watching my fan base
and my friends lose all like, there was a lot
of hope to just win a series this year and
then a twenty one to oh run at the end
of Game one was probably the most deflating thing you
could ever see. And everyone's like, all right, well, this
(13:06):
team's young, just gonna have to bear this and to
grab on win one here in the garden. Now, going
back to Detroit where I mean, if it's anything like
the two thousands, with that atmosphere there and this team
played playing as hard as it is, it just you
feel like you got hope again. You saw that it's
erase the twenty one ozer run, and you just you
(13:27):
just have hope again that this team, even with what's
going on with Isaiah Stewart, you just can maybe maybe
get something because it's it's a city that loves its
basketball team. When it fights hard like this.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Well and FITZI, that's that one.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Chris, very happy for you, and I hope that that
momentum continues. But that's a dangerous thing to allow a
fan base and a team who you are better than
if you're the New York Knicks, to have that kind
of hope, because, you know, the unquantifiable thing in sports,
whether you're talking about momentum, whether you're talking about intangibles
from players, guys you know, just willing themselves to the wind,
(14:04):
all the to a win. Just all the cliches and
all the different things that we use to describe the
stuff that we can't actually quantify in sports. That's such
a real thing, especially for a sports city like Detroit.
I'm an NFL reporter by trade. I got to do
my first game, Chris, you'll appreciate this at Ford Field,
(14:24):
covering the Titans at the Lions. It was an absolute
ass kicking in favor of Detroit, as was the case
for many of Detroit's results this year. But just to
see the kind of passion that sports in that town
can reawaken and the kind of energy that they bring
to each and every moment, each and every snap, each
and every possession. I'm so excited to see how Detroit
(14:46):
handles the moment with New York going to Detroit now
having lost this game in the Garden, especially with Karl
Anthony Towns not having a single second half point. I
mean I checked in about a half hour ago. He
had played twelve minutes in the second half and taken
three shots, hadn't hit one yet. Knicks, We're down twelve
at the time, with about six and a half minutes
(15:08):
to play, and I was just curious to say, Okay,
are they gonna try and get the ball two towns
down the stretch? He was completely ineffective. He's one of
the biggest stars on that basketball team, couldn't.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
Get it done.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Now that's in his head heading to Detroit, and I'm
fascinated to see how it plays out.
Speaker 7 (15:23):
It's been very funny watching you mentioned the Lions. I'll
just get this real quick, but like every team's kind
of followed that lead in Detroit now, where you've had
first the Lions with this like really gritty attitude, and
then the Tigers who kept battling back and kept winning,
and now it seems like it's the Pistons turn. It's
kind of you mentioned it with the fan base, it's
kind of this like emotion with the with all of
(15:44):
Detroit's sports fans. They get to, like, you know, rally
around this idea of these teams that are never going
to quit and never going to just kind of give up.
So I think that's kind of their attitude going back
to Detroit. It's gonna be loud. It's gonna be really loud.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
That's one of the reasons.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
In general, I think that the most success for chapters
and in most sports teams history are when they sort
of encapsulate the identity of the community they're part of. Right, Like,
So there's this moment of Dan Campbell that I don't
think Dan Campbell the coach necessarily works in every city,
but Dan Campbell the coach certainly works in Detroit, and
it's I think that's part of what you you have
(16:18):
to find is like ways to make your team really
resemble the identity of the community that they're part of.
And you know this, this Pistons team can obviously do that.
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Speaker 4 (16:35):
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Speaker 3 (16:36):
Visit expresspros dot com today, that's expresspros dot com. He's
Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz. The Pistons have taken down
the Knicks one hundred and ninety four. I'll also add
one confidence meter to this book, like if you're Kid Cunningham,
you have done what you want, when you want, how
you want for two games, Like there's got to be
you talk about confidence. Caid coming off tonight with what
I think it was thirty three points, Yeah, thirty three
(16:58):
points on eleven or twenty one shooting also with twelve boards.
I just man, they don't have an answer for k
cunning him. So now you have a Detroit team, it's
gonna go back to a absolute environment. Now you know
you would think that MSG was that for the Knicks
and it didn't make a difference in this You've got
a Detroit team that's gonna look at it and for
the next couple of days tell themselves the same thing.
(17:18):
We'll all be saying, were it not for a twenty
one nothing run, they'd be up to nothing in this series.
Like I's when this series started. I picked Detroit to
win in seven and that was sort of me just
trolling the entire world and saying, wow, I'll go the
opposite way on it more likely, I mean edibles more
likely than the drunk. But either way, either way, there
(17:40):
is there is certainly a belief happening. But also it
comes back to something that you know, you said at
the beginning that I think people freak out sometimes the here,
Like I just Madison Square Garden is a great it's
a great environment.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I love it. Again. I've had the opportunity to stand
on stage at MSG and like it.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I'll never forget it. But I don't think when you
walk into the garden, like I just got to tell
Knicks fans, I'm sorry to pile on, but like these
are just the moments that you remember that you're.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Not that special.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
And I think about this all the time when Cowboys
fans come in and tell me, oh my god, the
Cowboys haven't won a super Bowl since the nineties. Okay,
like congratulations. You know how many teams haven't won a
Super Bowl since the nineties. There's a lot of them.
You know how many teams have never been to the
Super Bowl. Like I get frustrated when legacy teams pretend
that they should be constantly living in a different world,
(18:32):
Like getting to these moments is really difficult. And you know,
for me, as a Raiders fan, my favorite team hasn't
been to the super Bowl since what two thousand and two? Right,
like you you cover the Titans, look at the Titans history.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Like if the.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Browns fans have the right to stand up and say,
oh my god, we haven't been to a super Bowl
like that, that to me makes sense. But it just
feels like the Knicks, the Lakers, the Cowboys, these huge
monetizable brands, feel like because they're super poppy, did that
means that they should automatically be going to championships?
Speaker 4 (19:03):
And it just doesn't work that way.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Like you're like Taylor Swift, you're really popular and that's
something that we should credit. But that doesn't mean that
you're the best in the world at anything. It just
means you're really popular.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Well, and I love that those fan bases will always
remind you, well, the leagues are better when the New
York teams are good, or when the LA teams or
when the Lakers are good, and the Clippers will see
what happens as an actually exciting basketball team currently down
one to ohero in their series as the Nuggets take
a three point lead early in the first quarter of
the late NBA playoff action. But you know who gets
(19:36):
to be special tonight, FITZI, Pistons fans. Pistons fans get
to be special tonight. I'm going to read you a
tweet from Tim Reynolds that was put out a couple
of days ago ahead of this playoff series. The Last
Time by at by Tim Reynolds is where you can
find this the last time the Pistons won a playoff game.
Lebron was two hundred and forty ninth on the all
(19:57):
time scoring list. Greg Popovich was nineteenth on the all
time wins list.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
Kevin Durant was the Rookie of the year.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
Wemby was four years old Westbrook, Kevin Love and Derreck
Rose were about to get drafted. And the kicker in
this tweet, which is just perfectly constructed by somebody who
I assume as a writer, eggs were a dollar eighty
three a dozen. This is one hundred years ago, basically
that the Pistons fans have gotten to celebrate a postseason win,
(20:28):
and I love that. That's what gives me the joy
in sports is seeing the downtroden rise up and knock
these you know, perpetually talked about, perpetually discussed, perpetually overrated
franchises off of the mountaintop a little bit. And for
the next I mean, I know that they're not on
much of a mountaintop at this point in time, and
that at any semblance of playoff relevancy is something that
(20:50):
they cling too desperately. And I will admit that the
NBA is a lot more fun when New York Knicks
fans are engaged. I will completely acknowledge that that is factual, accurate.
That doesn't mean that I don't like to see him, Yeah,
I mean I wouldn't say I like to see him
take a heart breaking loss every time every once in
a while, but it does add a little bit more juice,
a little bit more drama, a little bit more intrigue
(21:13):
to the kind of things that we talk about. And
that's what you're speaking to is simply entitlement. Right, the
franchises that have been around the longest and that have
a story, championship history, as some of the franchises that
you just mentioned do, they come with a certain entitlement
and it's okay to see somebody with a little bit
of entitledment get humbled every once in a while.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah, I mean, you're right in the way you're saying
titlement because it is. I feel like the adult sports
equivalent of a whiny little baby is the person that's like, yeah,
but we're really popular and everybody likes this, so we
should win championships. Really, I'm sorry, Like, great, the Knicks
were a really good basketball, Like, look, man, I'm old.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
We joke about the fact all the time that I'm old.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Like the Knicks haven't played meaningful championship caliber basket in
most of the lifetimes of the guys that are actually
playing in the league right now, Like if you are
playing in today's NBA, when's.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
The last great Knicks team you saw?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Like, when's the last Oh my god, stop everything, I
have to watch this next team that you saw. And
the fact is not exactly And you mentioned, I mean,
my god, two thousand and eight, where were you in
two thousand How old were you in two thousand and.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
Eight when you ten, I would have been what eighth grade.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
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 (22:37):
He's Buck Rising.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
I'm Jason Fitzbucking fits in on the Jason Smith Show
on Fox Sports Radio on the heels of the Pistons
evening their series at one game each with a one
hundred and ninety four win.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
So I just looked it up.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
The last time that the Pistons were let's say, championship caliber,
which means at least getting themselves to the finals, was
ninety eight, ninety nine, ninety nine, two thousand. Those two
seas seas they were in and around that area, right,
So in ninety eight ninety nine they lost the NBA
Finals to the Spurs.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
That's a long time ago.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Obviously, in the following year they lost in the conference finals,
so I'll still put them in that conversation ninety eight
ninety nine.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
So Buck, this is how I like to do the math.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I think most of us have formative memories of our
favorite team from when we were about ten years old.
So that means that in order for you to have
formative Knicks memories of the Knicks being great, you would
have had to have been born in at least nineteen
eighty eight, which quick math to me means you have
to be at least thirty seven years old. So unless
you are at least let's say forty, you don't remember
(23:38):
any meaningful Knicks basketball. This is the thing that I,
and again is a guy with the Madison Square Garden
tattoo on my arm, I understand how much the Knicks
means to New York. The problem is people in New York,
and I'm living, you know, an hour and a half
outside of there in Connecticut. Right now, people in New
York have convinced themselves that this is truly the center
of the entire NBA universe, and it's like, eh, kind
(24:01):
of but like kind of not like at this point,
the modern generation would rather chase players that win championships
that they.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Find are entertaining here and there. So the modern generation.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Is there are more people out there in young basketball
lore that will follow James Harden from team to team
to team to team than there are young fans out
there that are looking to chase the Knicks through their
era of whatever.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
This is not greatness but not suck. It's just kind
of just kind of there.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
Well, it's it's funny to this.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
God got to help people if they're listening to us
in New York the way we're talking about the Knicks
and the Mecca and all these different things and just
taking a hatchet to basketball lore essentially because it's a
great selling point. Fancy, it's a great talking point to
say that New York is the center of the basketball
(24:49):
universe until you realize, no, it's probably maybe maybe it's Denver,
or maybe it's the Clippers, or maybe it's Oklahoma City
or Cleveland this year.
Speaker 6 (24:58):
Those aren't as appealing.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
Those aren't as sellable, Those aren't as marketable, even though
the quality of basketball is so superior in each of
those four markets right now in comparison to New York
that it has to drive Knicks fans insane, which is
a part of what makes Knicks fans great.
Speaker 6 (25:17):
You kind of want them on that fringe.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Of insanity that that just kind of, you know, that
that borderline mentally unstable part of Knicks fans that just
is always ready to pop off at any given moment,
as I'm sure it is tonight, because I like, let's
just put them Let's let's take a second, let's step back,
and let's put ourselves in their shoes. What is the
(25:41):
dialogue around Karl Anthony Towns tonight if you're a Knicks fan.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Sucks? I mean, just what a waste? Well, but what
do you expect?
Speaker 3 (25:50):
What I mean, Kat is one of those players that
has had every opportunity to become somebody Scottie Pippen, like
somebody's other guy, you know, as my dated difference. But
he's had the opportunity to become the robin to a
batman over and over and over again, and all we've
seen our teams be like you know what, or like
Minnesota sat there and looked around and said, well, we've
(26:10):
got him, but we don't really want him, you know.
I just the narrative tonight on Knicks fans, I would
argue regarding Karl Anthony Towns is probably the proper narrative
they should have had all throughout the entire process. Like
that's maybe the problem here is that there was too
many delusions of grandeur for a long time for somebody
that put up ten points tonight all in the first half,
(26:33):
Like how do you just how do you have a
goose egg in the second half when you're in a
close game like this? This thing came down to the
It was one possession with thirty seconds left. That's the
inexcusable part.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Man.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
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Speaker 6 (27:49):
A winner, go to DraftKings as opposed to watch the.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Next Let me ask you this, what make could New
York fans take hope in the fact that Kat was
invisible in the second half. They didn't even get to
the free throw line until there was seventeen seconds to
go in the first half.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Felt like the refs were letting them play football for
the first half.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
And yeah, like you were down most of that game,
but again you've scratched and claude your way back. I mean,
can Knicks fans find hope in even though this thing's
won to one, like we could have easily been up
to nothing and we didn't play our cleanis basketball?
Speaker 6 (28:21):
No, that's a loser argument. Win the game?
Speaker 5 (28:23):
No, I mean straight up, like, finish off an inferior opponent.
Respectfully to our resident Pistons fan, you are supposed to
be the better basketball team. You are at home. I
did take some solace and a moral victory. No, go
out there, bust your ass, give everything that you've got.
I don't care that it's the game two of a
(28:46):
first round NBA playoff series. Go out there and show
me that you're a winner, not me specifically, but show
New York fans that you're a winner, that you belong there,
that you deserve the kind of respect that New York
basketball fans so desperately crave.
Speaker 6 (29:03):
Go earn the right.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
To be talked about as one of these storied franchises,
as one of these high highest of highest of caliber competitors.
Go out there and get the job the dam hell
out of here with this out. Can it take some
consolation today? I had a little close I'm doing your
thing now, I'm getting a little.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
High pitch there there. That's what happens.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Calm point, you know at this point, and it starts calm,
and then all of a sudden your voice goes up
and up and up.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
All right, that we've got one outcome done? All right.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
We know at this point that the Knicks are now
in a one to one series. They have lost home
court advantage. We've also got an NBA game going on
as we speak right now between Denver and the Clippers.
That game has come to the end of the first
with Denver up thirty one twenty five. Denver already up
won nothing in this series. They have a six point
lead after the first. We'll get you updated on that
(29:52):
game and what it means for the rest of the
conversation of the playoffs when we come.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Back, He's buck rising.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
I'm Jason Fitz's bucking fits hang out on the Jason
Jason Smith Show.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
See I just did it right there, damn.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
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 4 (30:17):
Oh, it's a chaotic night in New York. It's a
chaotic night in the NBA.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
We got NBA playoff action heading everywhere, and I'm gonna
be honest, I've been tough on the NBA throughout the
course of this year. I think it's been a joy
to watch these playoff games. But we are in the
middle of watching a game right now between the Clippers
and the Nuggets that raises a real conversation about what
we should and shouldn't talk about anymore for the rest
of the playoffs. He's buck rising on Jason Fitz. We're
(30:44):
hanging out on Fox Sports Radio in on the Jason
Smith Show. If you're ready to lose weight at the
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Speaker 3 (31:00):
That's my phdweight loss dot com.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Buck Rising.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I'm sitting there and I'm watching the Nuggets, and I'm
thinking about something. I got the Nuggets on my mind
right because all the Nuggets are doing is winning their
matchup as we speak right now, thirty one to twenty nine.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
They're up with U.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
I said, it's tied thirty one, thirty one now with
the nine forty five, but they're up one nothing in
this series. Game one was absolutely electric between these two
teams that went back and forth. It was incredible. But
the Nuggets found a way to get to win. I mean, yeah,
but especially that overtime period was just incredible.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
It was so much fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
But I keep thinking about the fact that, Look, I
was on radio at the time, five days a week
at ESPN when the Nuggets were going on the first
championship run, and I remember telling my co host we
went to the bosses and we're like, hey, should we
start getting Nuggets guests? Like the Nuggets look like They're
about to go on a championship run, and everybody laughed
at us. They're like, no, nobody cares about the Nuggets.
Yet every year I see here and I'm reminded, like
(31:54):
this year, the number of people leading into the playoffs
are like, no, the Clippers are gonna go on a run.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
I don't know. I'm just I'm watching this and I'm
saying sitting here thinking, we.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Beg for reasons to figure out why the Clippers are
about to do something, and we beg for reasons not
to care about the Nuggets, who become one of the
most dependable, consistent teams in the NBA.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
I don't get it. Well.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
I think the Clippers would have won that game easily, Fitzy,
had they not given up what twenty nine points off
twenty turnovers in Saturday's game. It was completely a mess.
They have to be tighter with the basketball, and obviously
that will be a point of emphasis heading into this
game too, But for the purposes of the Nuggets, it's
(32:36):
It's tough to be energized about a team and a
franchise whose best player is arguably as good a basketball
player as any of us have ever seen in any lifetimes,
including the greats in Nikola jokicch but he doesn't care,
you know what I'm saying, Like, it's really tough for
(32:57):
you to kind of drum up that enthusiasm other than
the basketball is excellent and they are a perpetual there
are a perpetual playoff contender. To that effect, when the
biggest star and the best player on the team is
looking around at a press conference in a language that's
his second language, saying, you know, I'd rather just go chill,
chill with my horses after the playoffs are done. Like,
(33:22):
that's a really tough thing to sell, even if you know,
even fighting the normal things that we talk about, small
market team that's not had that level of relevance in
quite some time, but has since been resurgent and dominant. Arguably,
I kind of get the Nuggets malaise a little bit
(33:42):
because I look.
Speaker 6 (33:43):
At jokicch and if he's not excited, why should I be.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
It's wild to me to have a team with a
constant MVP candidate, that is a team that's constantly in
and a round championship conversations, that fires their coach with
like eight seconds left in the regular season and all
we do is shrug about them, like it's just like
we're gonna get to the NFL Draft. And I think
one of the biggest stories of the NFL Draft is
(34:09):
the irrelevance with which cam Ward is being handled right now.
And that's in large part, as you know, as somebody
that covers the Tennessee Titans as part of your living.
That's in large part because nobody gives a damn about
the Tennessee Titans. I'm just looking at this saying, my god,
like we are going to sit on, you know, our
front porches in forty years and knock all these other players.
(34:31):
I don't know, man, I watched Jokich play. You should
have seen that guy play, Like that's what the conversation
is going to be. But right now, in the moment
while we're watching it, it's.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Like, Eh, you know, Kitchen, it's fine. It's weird to me.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
That's what we do with greatness in real time. Like
it's such a hard thing for people. And I don't
know why it's such a hard thing for people to
wrap their heads around, like just just sit back and
appreciate it. I've had this conversation speaking of the Tennessee
Titans and the number one overall draft pick like Derrick Henry.
Derrick Henry rushing for two hundred and something yards a
game was routine to the point where you almost start
(35:04):
to take it for granted. And then it leaves you
and you're the worst team in football and you are
an absolute god forsaken hole in the ground as far
as the NFL landscape goes. And Derrick Henry's running crazy
in Baltimore, and you look at a Ravens game and
you say, oh, I wish I would have appreciated that
in real time.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
You didn't.
Speaker 5 (35:22):
You had no idea what you had in your own
backyard other than he's a fun player. And they've got
a bunch of fun running backs here in Tennessee across
their history, from the Houston Oilers to now the Tennessee Titans,
and you just you long for the thing that you
had in your life, even though you had it in
your life for eight years.
Speaker 6 (35:39):
You watched it run crazy, run all over.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
The Houston Texans, the Indianapolis Colts, the Kansas City Chiefs,
Tom Brady's New England Patriots to end the New England
dynasty there, and then he goes to Baltimore, and all
of a sudden, everybody's longing for Derrick Henry again. So
I can completely understand that from first hand experience.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
It fitsy.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
It's almost and this is a bit more, but it's
almost like when somebody passes away and you have some
lovely things to say about them after they've gone on,
after they can't hear you here. I mean, well, you know,
maybe they can hear you in certain places, depending on
what's philosophical. Yeah, I sure I didn't mean to get
into the matter, but you know what I'm saying, Like,
you say all these lovely things about the person who
(36:19):
passes on when you probably never said anything even remotely
that nice to them while they were still around. Like
that's how I view the way that sports fans take
in greatness in real time.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Now, you're not wrong, because frankly, all the people right
now that waste their time with the Lebron arguments like
Lebron arguments to me, Lebron versus MJ is the ultimate,
Like my dad can beat up your dad. Nobody's ever
really gonna know the answer. They're never gonna fight, and
everybody thinks they're right, and everybody thinks the other person's
wrong and like all the people that are wasting their
time talking about it, Like I can already imagine Fatter
(36:54):
stephen A when he's like thirty years from now, is
sitting at the same first tick table.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
Yeah, just yammering all.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Day, and he's gonna be like, you had the unmitigated
call to question Lebron James. I covered Lebron James, Like
that's what he's gonna do in thirty years, I fight
Lebron James by oh man, the way that story is
gonna go by the time, like you're gonna have Oh,
it's gonna be total blows.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
He's gonna be like, oh, we we fought in the
alley afterwards, Like this is what everybody.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
The very people that right now are trashing the Denver
Nuggets or or disinterested in the Denver Nuggets are gonna
use the Denver Nuggets as a test of every other
franchise and the same it's happening with Lebron.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
It's it's weird, especially in the NBA.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Like I don't think any sport does it as tragically
as the NBA does with their super superstars and their
best teams. They they they simply downplay everything that's happening
in the moment.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
And it's really gonna bother people when I start calling
yok my goat over Jordan or Lebron or any of
these other guys running around out there.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Man, you know you know what that's gonna do. You
know what you're doing when you do that, right, Like, you.
Speaker 5 (37:56):
Can't honest spectacular loaf of bread by basketball player I've
ever seen in my life.
Speaker 6 (38:01):
It's just honesty, That's all it is.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
That's all it is.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Like is it wonderbread or is it like artisanal bread?
You're an artisanal bread guy.
Speaker 6 (38:10):
It's well, I do.
Speaker 5 (38:11):
I do love a nice pumper nickel loaf every once
in a while.
Speaker 6 (38:15):
But I don't know that he's he's quite that.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
Whatever it is that causes somebody to bleed from their
arms every time they receive any kind of contact is
whatever kind of loaf of bread nickel yokicis.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
I never thought i'd hear Buck Rising say pumper nickel.
All right, I've got a conspiracy theory on what's gonna
happen with Aaron Rodgers. We'll talk about it next. He's
Buck Rising, I'm Jason fitz We're hanging Out with You
on Fox Sports Radio,
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
If you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
We are looking at absolute chaos and panic in the
mecca of the NBA is The Knicks are struggling to
figure out how to get by the Pistons, and as
we sit right now, the Pistons.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
With a late fourth quarter lead.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Let's just remind the world, were it not for a
twenty one nothing run in the fourth quarter of Game one,
Detroit could be looking at a two nothing lead in
this series. And right now absolute panic is setting in
in New York.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
He's buck rising up, Jason fitzpucking fits. Gonna be confusing
for y'all.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I'm just gonna acknowledge out of the gates, You're about
to be very confused for the next few hours because
Jason Smith and Jason Fitz sound just similar enough that
people get confused on our social media sometimes.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
So I beg you early on, don't do eat Jason Smith.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
But you don't like what I say. All right, come
at us. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz coming at
to live tonight. We're gonna be with you for the
next several hours. And Buck, I'm just sitting here watching
this and I'm saying, hey, you know me, I'm an.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Agent of chaos. I just want people to be unhappy
all the time. I don't know why, like I.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Want people to I always root for the underdog, but
mostly I just root for any opportunity to make the
majority of the people run around like Kermit the Frog
and a house fire, trying to figure out how to.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Get out of the place. Like that's what I'm rooting for.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And that's what we're getting right now, because the Pistons
again get out to a nice comfortable lead again. The
Knicks are trying to claw their way back into this thing.
But Detroit man sitting right on the edge. It looks
like they could take this game. And if they take
this game, you can't tell me Knicks fans aren't uncomfortable.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
Now, Oh, I mean, it's it's a disaster. For New York,
and I appreciate you as the agent of chaos because
it's rare that I I mean, I guess at this
point in my life, I'm pretty good at playing the
straight man. So somebody has to be there to reel
you in and put out the fires that you start. Also,
it's hilarious that poor Jason Smith is getting tweets that
(02:17):
are probably associated with you for all the outrageous things
that you said. And I still haven't yelled at you
on air publicly about the last time we did one
of these shows where you called the Master's overrated. But
you know what is overrated, FITZI Madison Square Garden like
the atmosphere.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
He's just coming in with that heat.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
But because it's true, Okay, nobody's scared to play in the garden.
Nobody's scared of the environment that New York Knicks fans
are so proud of cling to, so desperately hope and
pray and wish that it's going to give them some
level of advantage, and instead it has allowed the Detroit
Pistons to get or almost get their first playoff win
(02:56):
since two thousand and eight. Provided that there's not a
significant collect apps up ninety.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
Two eighty eight. As we sit here broadcasting live.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
It is something that I've thought about a great many
times because it's still the mecca and it's still an
incredible place to see a game. But when it comes
down to it, teams aren't scared to play in the
garden anymore.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
So little context here, I'm gonna give everybody a little
bit of context. My right arm is a tattoo of
everywhere I've ever lived, and the placist are the things
that I've done in my life that I'm proud of,
stuff throughout the course of my entire life.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
That's my whole right arm sleep.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I say that because while I didn't live full time
in New York, I did spend many years in New
York in music. And one of the tattoos on my
right arm is the logo to Madison Square Garden because
the worst show I ever played in my life as
a professional musician, Buck Rising, was at Madison Square Garden,
because I couldn't control my adrenaline. Like I'd seen so
many shows when I was a little kid there, I
(03:50):
was there. But here's what I always tell people about
Madison Square Garden. So at the time when we were
touring that was with the band Perry Right. We had
at the time the fourth biggest song of all time
in country music. Where we're doing it, We're playing the
Garden sold out two straight nights. We go into the
I'm so excited I'm in the Garden. I get all
the guys together. I'm like, I'm gonna make you walk
through the concourse and look at all the history. I
wasn't touring with a lot of sports nuts, admittedly, but
(04:12):
we walked through that thing and the number of times
guys rolled their eyes and they like, this place is
a dump. Like the backstage area, They're like, this place
is a dump. The next night we played a show
at Barclays and like literally it was at Two Knights
of the Garden and we go over to Barclays. The
first thing one of our guitar players says is we
walk into Barclays.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Is now this is an arena. It's just like it
just shows there is this moment. If you aren't if
you aren't a.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Buff for the historic sports events that have happened at
the Garden, I think you might be. Like I went
to see Yukon play this year at the Garden in
some Big East basketball. I loved it. It was a
great environment. It was wild, it was crazy.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
But I think you're right.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I think there's probably a lot of people, especially if
you're under the age of thirty, that looks at it
and it's like, I don't know, it's just a dimly
lit arena. Like I just I know we're offending half
of the New York audience out of the game.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
But I do think you're right.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I don't think there's some big, great intimidation factor for
a twenty five year old kid that's never really seen
good basketball consistently come out of New York.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
Well, the New York audience is currently preoccupied because they
are the Pistons, clinging to a very slim ninety four
to ninety two lead.
Speaker 6 (05:18):
As we sit here with.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
Just about a minute fifty left to go in the
fourth quarter, they finally started getting to the free throw line.
Speaker 6 (05:24):
I don't know what the hell took so long.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
It was a disaster basically until the last I don't know,
six minutes of regulation And for a lot of I
mean for the Knicks in particular, FITSI this is such
an important game to see if they can find a
way to battle through, because that's the thing that I'm
most curious.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
To find out about this next team.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
As we're getting ready to talk about NBA playoffs throughout
the course of the night, I know we're going to
get to some Lakers stuff as well, with the MAVs
general manager coming out and having his end of season
press conference tie game now ninety four ninety four, I
am so fascinated to see whether Tom Thibodeau and Jalen
Brunson and the rest of the New York Knicks at
this point in time can find a way to become
(06:10):
battle tested. Because there's a lot of questions about this
series in particular, but the I mean, the Pistons are
an inferior opponent. They you are on home court. If
you can't handle business tonight in Game two with a
one to zero lead, I don't know when you're gonna
be able to do this.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I mean, but let me take the opposite side of it.
Catastrophic is the Pistons turned the pall over. Catastrophic that
the Pistons could be facing now headed back to Detroit
down to nothing with two games they easily could have
should have Woon have won like this is this is
we always talk about. Oh man, you gotta talk. You
gotta learn how to finish games, and the Pistons are
(06:47):
not doing that. By the way, you mentioned the draft.
We're gonna talk a lot of draft Fox Sports Radios
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on Thursday, and that brought to you by Dollars Shave Club,
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(07:08):
tune into Fox Sports Radios Draft Night Live, which is
Thursday night, APM Eastern throughout the first round of the draft.
Insider Jay Glazer, Jets, former Jets, GM Joe Douglass, College
Football Hall of Famer LeVar Arrington, and Fox Sports Lead
college football reporter Jennie Taff got you covered for all
thirty two picks.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
With predictions and reactions.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
That's Thursday at APM Eastern throughout the first round of
the draft live right here on Fox Sports Radio and
with the live video simulcast on the Fox Sports Radio
YouTube page, brought to you by Dollars Shaved Club, we
have a ninety seven to ninety four lead for the
Pistons with about thirty five seconds left. I have to
stand up, like I got to reposition.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
My TV in my office. That's what I just learned.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
But because like the scoreboard, like the score pug in
the bottom left or right head corner of the screens
covered up, I can't see the score bug from where
I am, so I got to stand up to see it.
But everybody's just standing up right now as this game
is coming to a close and it's it's been everything
we could want more.
Speaker 5 (07:59):
Well, just imagine the atmosphere afterwards, and you're slightly delayed
because where I'm at, there's about eight point one seconds
left to go in this game, with the Pistons clinging.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
To that three point lead.
Speaker 5 (08:12):
The scene in the streets of New York around Madison
Square Garden if they can't close this game out. They're
currently alive and trying to make it as close as
humanly possible and trying to get this done. But you've
got officiating that's been in the middle of this as well.
I know Pistons fans are going to be outraged on
social media afterwards if they end up surviving this one.
Speaker 6 (08:35):
As far as the Knicks go, Fitsie.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
And we can get into this because I know we've
got four hours tonight, four hours you and me late
four Come.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
On, now, this is dangerous, so we.
Speaker 6 (08:48):
Yeah, right, you've been on a four hour date in
your life.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
You've never been on a four hour date? Book?
Speaker 5 (08:55):
Come on, I mean maybe something that you know, you
started a Sunday Funday type of situation and then the
to go sideways and it ends up being four hours,
but not intentionally a four hour date. I don't I
don't think I want to spend any time with anybody.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Wait, wait, wait for your girlfriend might be listening right now,
so you better just get couched the conversation a little bit.
Make sure that you know what you love four hour dates.
That's all I'm saying, Buck, That's all I'm saying. You
love for four I'm here to help you, man, I'm
trying to help you.
Speaker 5 (09:19):
Oh, this is a bad time to tell you that
I'm recently single.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
But ninety eight, ninety four.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
And Biscuit really the last oh, my god, in the
last week this.
Speaker 6 (09:30):
I should probably have called your Wednesday.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Oh man, Well, we're going to get through this together.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
The shame has shave there.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
It is there. It is Detroit basketball.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
Since two thousand and eight, they have not won a
playoff game. I had to double check that that was
indeed the case getting ready for tonight's broadcast. But for
the Pistons, it's a huge opportunity to close this out.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
For the next man.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
It just throws this entire, the entire dialogue around this
this franchise into a bit of a bit of a
chaos cycle, which we enjoy about New York sports. Nothing
screams chaos like New York sports. And I'm looking forward
to seeing what the conversation in New York is after
(10:19):
this game.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
You know, it just reminds me of a greater conversation
that's plenty of sports fanatics need to have, like and
I just the easiest way I could say, and maybe
maybe this is how we'll teach. We're gonna continue this conversation. Okay,
We're gonna continue this conversation because I think over the
course of tonight, we need to remind some certain fan
bases out there that as much as I love you,
(10:42):
and look, I'm a lifelong diehard Raiders fan, so I
know what it's like to be a maniacal fan of
a bad franchise.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I get it right. As much as I love every
single sports fan. That's why we have a job.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I just think sometimes we got to remind fans the
particular teams that, hey, you're not as special as you
think you are.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
That's a heck of a tease. You're not especially is
that you tell you why?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
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 (11:13):
They almost did the Game one, They got it done.
Game two.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
The Detroit Pistons take down the New York Knicks, tying
that series at one and proing this show into complete
and other chaos. It's the Jason Smith Show, but it's
not Jason Smith. No, it is, in fact, Buck Rising
and Jason Fitz. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz again.
Very confusing, Jason Fitz, not Jason Smith. We trust that
you'll be able to figure that out.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
Act you're confusing more people by drawing attention to how
confusing it actually is.
Speaker 6 (11:40):
There's really not that hard. I don't think that Smith.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Look, that's why when people introduce me, every almost everybody
that knows me at any level just refers to me
by my last name.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
But when I get introduced to new people, they'll be.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Everybody says, well, this is Fits, And I always say,
you know, I'm Jason Fitz. Not that I care about
my first name. It's just it like, it's hard. Sometimes
it's hard to hear Fits. People hear Chris, they hear Vince,
they hear all sorts of weird things.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
So you know what.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
You're talking too fast? Just slow down.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
I know you've had like seventy five energy drinks for
us to do overnight radio.
Speaker 6 (12:09):
God help us.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
But I just I think this is a self inflicted
new wound.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I've had coming from you, coming from like the young
kid in the room that's accusing me of playing the victim.
Here he's buck rising, I'm tasting Fits. Look, we've got
a winner here, and this is a substancial moment for
this show because frankly, we've got somebody on the show.
It is a lifelong diehard Pistons fan. So Chris working
(12:35):
on the show Chris, How We Feeling Chris is a
Pistons fan. Just watched this team, even this series up
one one, get their first playoff win since two thousand
and what buck was it?
Speaker 7 (12:44):
Did you say two every year since? It's utter relief
after a twenty Like I think watching my fan base
and my friends lose all like, there was a lot
of hope to just win a series this year and
then a twenty one to oh run at the end
of Game one was probably the most deflating thing you
could ever see. And everyone's like, all right, well, this
(13:06):
team's young, just gonna have to bear this and to
grab on win one here in the garden. Now, going
back to Detroit where I mean, if it's anything like
the two thousands, with that atmosphere there and this team
played playing as hard as it is, it just you
feel like you got hope again. You saw that it's
erase the twenty one ozer run, and you just you
(13:27):
just have hope again that this team, even with what's
going on with Isaiah Stewart, you just can maybe maybe
get something because it's it's a city that loves its
basketball team. When it fights hard like this.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Well and FITZI, that's that one.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Chris, very happy for you, and I hope that that
momentum continues. But that's a dangerous thing to allow a
fan base and a team who you are better than
if you're the New York Knicks, to have that kind
of hope, because, you know, the unquantifiable thing in sports,
whether you're talking about momentum, whether you're talking about intangibles
from players, guys you know, just willing themselves to the wind,
(14:04):
all the to a win. Just all the cliches and
all the different things that we use to describe the
stuff that we can't actually quantify in sports. That's such
a real thing, especially for a sports city like Detroit.
I'm an NFL reporter by trade. I got to do
my first game, Chris, you'll appreciate this at Ford Field,
(14:24):
covering the Titans at the Lions. It was an absolute
ass kicking in favor of Detroit, as was the case
for many of Detroit's results this year. But just to
see the kind of passion that sports in that town
can reawaken and the kind of energy that they bring
to each and every moment, each and every snap, each
and every possession. I'm so excited to see how Detroit
(14:46):
handles the moment with New York going to Detroit now
having lost this game in the Garden, especially with Karl
Anthony Towns not having a single second half point. I
mean I checked in about a half hour ago. He
had played twelve minutes in the second half and taken
three shots, hadn't hit one yet. Knicks, We're down twelve
at the time, with about six and a half minutes
(15:08):
to play, and I was just curious to say, Okay,
are they gonna try and get the ball two towns
down the stretch? He was completely ineffective. He's one of
the biggest stars on that basketball team, couldn't.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
Get it done.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Now that's in his head heading to Detroit, and I'm
fascinated to see how it plays out.
Speaker 7 (15:23):
It's been very funny watching you mentioned the Lions. I'll
just get this real quick, but like every team's kind
of followed that lead in Detroit now, where you've had
first the Lions with this like really gritty attitude, and
then the Tigers who kept battling back and kept winning,
and now it seems like it's the Pistons turn. It's
kind of you mentioned it with the fan base, it's
kind of this like emotion with the with all of
(15:44):
Detroit's sports fans. They get to, like, you know, rally
around this idea of these teams that are never going
to quit and never going to just kind of give up.
So I think that's kind of their attitude going back
to Detroit. It's gonna be loud. It's gonna be really loud.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
That's one of the reasons.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
In general, I think that the most success for chapters
and in most sports teams history are when they sort
of encapsulate the identity of the community they're part of. Right, Like,
So there's this moment of Dan Campbell that I don't
think Dan Campbell the coach necessarily works in every city,
but Dan Campbell the coach certainly works in Detroit, and
it's I think that's part of what you you have
(16:18):
to find is like ways to make your team really
resemble the identity of the community that they're part of.
And you know this, this Pistons team can obviously do that.
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Speaker 4 (16:35):
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Speaker 3 (16:36):
Visit expresspros dot com today, that's expresspros dot com. He's
Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz. The Pistons have taken down
the Knicks one hundred and ninety four. I'll also add
one confidence meter to this book, like if you're Kid Cunningham,
you have done what you want, when you want, how
you want for two games, Like there's got to be
you talk about confidence. Caid coming off tonight with what
I think it was thirty three points, Yeah, thirty three
(16:58):
points on eleven or twenty one shooting also with twelve boards.
I just man, they don't have an answer for k
cunning him. So now you have a Detroit team, it's
gonna go back to a absolute environment. Now you know
you would think that MSG was that for the Knicks
and it didn't make a difference in this You've got
a Detroit team that's gonna look at it and for
the next couple of days tell themselves the same thing.
(17:18):
We'll all be saying, were it not for a twenty
one nothing run, they'd be up to nothing in this series.
Like I's when this series started. I picked Detroit to
win in seven and that was sort of me just
trolling the entire world and saying, wow, I'll go the
opposite way on it more likely, I mean edibles more
likely than the drunk. But either way, either way, there
(17:40):
is there is certainly a belief happening. But also it
comes back to something that you know, you said at
the beginning that I think people freak out sometimes the here,
Like I just Madison Square Garden is a great it's
a great environment.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I love it. Again. I've had the opportunity to stand
on stage at MSG and like it.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I'll never forget it. But I don't think when you
walk into the garden, like I just got to tell
Knicks fans, I'm sorry to pile on, but like these
are just the moments that you remember that you're.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
Not that special.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
And I think about this all the time when Cowboys
fans come in and tell me, oh my god, the
Cowboys haven't won a super Bowl since the nineties. Okay,
like congratulations. You know how many teams haven't won a
Super Bowl since the nineties. There's a lot of them.
You know how many teams have never been to the
Super Bowl. Like I get frustrated when legacy teams pretend
that they should be constantly living in a different world,
(18:32):
Like getting to these moments is really difficult. And you know,
for me, as a Raiders fan, my favorite team hasn't
been to the super Bowl since what two thousand and two? Right,
like you you cover the Titans, look at the Titans history.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Like if the.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Browns fans have the right to stand up and say,
oh my god, we haven't been to a super Bowl
like that, that to me makes sense. But it just
feels like the Knicks, the Lakers, the Cowboys, these huge
monetizable brands, feel like because they're super poppy, did that
means that they should automatically be going to championships?
Speaker 4 (19:03):
And it just doesn't work that way.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Like you're like Taylor Swift, you're really popular and that's
something that we should credit. But that doesn't mean that
you're the best in the world at anything. It just
means you're really popular.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Well, and I love that those fan bases will always
remind you, well, the leagues are better when the New
York teams are good, or when the LA teams or
when the Lakers are good, and the Clippers will see
what happens as an actually exciting basketball team currently down
one to ohero in their series as the Nuggets take
a three point lead early in the first quarter of
the late NBA playoff action. But you know who gets
(19:36):
to be special tonight, FITZI, Pistons fans. Pistons fans get
to be special tonight. I'm going to read you a
tweet from Tim Reynolds that was put out a couple
of days ago ahead of this playoff series. The Last
Time by at by Tim Reynolds is where you can
find this the last time the Pistons won a playoff game.
Lebron was two hundred and forty ninth on the all
(19:57):
time scoring list. Greg Popovich was nineteenth on the all
time wins list.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
Kevin Durant was the Rookie of the year.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
Wemby was four years old Westbrook, Kevin Love and Derreck
Rose were about to get drafted. And the kicker in
this tweet, which is just perfectly constructed by somebody who
I assume as a writer, eggs were a dollar eighty
three a dozen. This is one hundred years ago, basically
that the Pistons fans have gotten to celebrate a postseason win,
(20:28):
and I love that. That's what gives me the joy
in sports is seeing the downtroden rise up and knock
these you know, perpetually talked about, perpetually discussed, perpetually overrated
franchises off of the mountaintop a little bit. And for
the next I mean, I know that they're not on
much of a mountaintop at this point in time, and
that at any semblance of playoff relevancy is something that
(20:50):
they cling too desperately. And I will admit that the
NBA is a lot more fun when New York Knicks
fans are engaged. I will completely acknowledge that that is factual, accurate.
That doesn't mean that I don't like to see him, Yeah,
I mean I wouldn't say I like to see him
take a heart breaking loss every time every once in
a while, but it does add a little bit more juice,
a little bit more drama, a little bit more intrigue
(21:13):
to the kind of things that we talk about. And
that's what you're speaking to is simply entitlement. Right, the
franchises that have been around the longest and that have
a story, championship history, as some of the franchises that
you just mentioned do, they come with a certain entitlement
and it's okay to see somebody with a little bit
of entitledment get humbled every once in a while.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Yeah, I mean, you're right in the way you're saying
titlement because it is. I feel like the adult sports
equivalent of a whiny little baby is the person that's like, yeah,
but we're really popular and everybody likes this, so we
should win championships. Really, I'm sorry, Like, great, the Knicks
were a really good basketball, Like, look, man, I'm old.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
We joke about the fact all the time that I'm old.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Like the Knicks haven't played meaningful championship caliber basket in
most of the lifetimes of the guys that are actually
playing in the league right now, Like if you are
playing in today's NBA, when's.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
The last great Knicks team you saw?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Like, when's the last Oh my god, stop everything, I
have to watch this next team that you saw. And
the fact is not exactly And you mentioned, I mean,
my god, two thousand and eight, where were you in
two thousand How old were you in two thousand and.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
Eight when you ten, I would have been what eighth grade.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
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 (22:37):
He's Buck Rising.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
I'm Jason Fitzbucking fits in on the Jason Smith Show
on Fox Sports Radio on the heels of the Pistons
evening their series at one game each with a one
hundred and ninety four win.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
So I just looked it up.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
The last time that the Pistons were let's say, championship caliber,
which means at least getting themselves to the finals, was
ninety eight, ninety nine, ninety nine, two thousand. Those two
seas seas they were in and around that area, right,
So in ninety eight ninety nine they lost the NBA
Finals to the Spurs.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
That's a long time ago.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Obviously, in the following year they lost in the conference finals,
so I'll still put them in that conversation ninety eight
ninety nine.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
So Buck, this is how I like to do the math.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I think most of us have formative memories of our
favorite team from when we were about ten years old.
So that means that in order for you to have
formative Knicks memories of the Knicks being great, you would
have had to have been born in at least nineteen
eighty eight, which quick math to me means you have
to be at least thirty seven years old. So unless
you are at least let's say forty, you don't remember
(23:38):
any meaningful Knicks basketball. This is the thing that I,
and again is a guy with the Madison Square Garden
tattoo on my arm, I understand how much the Knicks
means to New York. The problem is people in New York,
and I'm living, you know, an hour and a half
outside of there in Connecticut. Right now, people in New
York have convinced themselves that this is truly the center
of the entire NBA universe, and it's like, eh, kind
(24:01):
of but like kind of not like at this point,
the modern generation would rather chase players that win championships
that they.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Find are entertaining here and there. So the modern generation.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Is there are more people out there in young basketball
lore that will follow James Harden from team to team
to team to team than there are young fans out
there that are looking to chase the Knicks through their
era of whatever.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
This is not greatness but not suck. It's just kind
of just kind of there.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
Well, it's it's funny to this.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
God got to help people if they're listening to us
in New York the way we're talking about the Knicks
and the Mecca and all these different things and just
taking a hatchet to basketball lore essentially because it's a
great selling point. Fancy, it's a great talking point to
say that New York is the center of the basketball
(24:49):
universe until you realize, no, it's probably maybe maybe it's Denver,
or maybe it's the Clippers, or maybe it's Oklahoma City
or Cleveland this year.
Speaker 6 (24:58):
Those aren't as appealing.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
Those aren't as sellable, Those aren't as marketable, even though
the quality of basketball is so superior in each of
those four markets right now in comparison to New York
that it has to drive Knicks fans insane, which is
a part of what makes Knicks fans great.
Speaker 6 (25:17):
You kind of want them on that fringe.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Of insanity that that just kind of, you know, that
that borderline mentally unstable part of Knicks fans that just
is always ready to pop off at any given moment,
as I'm sure it is tonight, because I like, let's
just put them Let's let's take a second, let's step back,
and let's put ourselves in their shoes. What is the
(25:41):
dialogue around Karl Anthony Towns tonight if you're a Knicks fan.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Sucks? I mean, just what a waste? Well, but what
do you expect?
Speaker 3 (25:50):
What I mean, Kat is one of those players that
has had every opportunity to become somebody Scottie Pippen, like
somebody's other guy, you know, as my dated difference. But
he's had the opportunity to become the robin to a
batman over and over and over again, and all we've
seen our teams be like you know what, or like
Minnesota sat there and looked around and said, well, we've
(26:10):
got him, but we don't really want him, you know.
I just the narrative tonight on Knicks fans, I would
argue regarding Karl Anthony Towns is probably the proper narrative
they should have had all throughout the entire process. Like
that's maybe the problem here is that there was too
many delusions of grandeur for a long time for somebody
that put up ten points tonight all in the first half,
(26:33):
Like how do you just how do you have a
goose egg in the second half when you're in a
close game like this? This thing came down to the
It was one possession with thirty seconds left. That's the
inexcusable part.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Man.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
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Speaker 3 (27:51):
Next Let me ask you this, what make could New
York fans take hope in the fact that Kat was
invisible in the second half. They didn't even get to
the free throw line until there was seventeen seconds to
go in the first half.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Felt like the refs were letting them play football for
the first half.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
And yeah, like you were down most of that game,
but again you've scratched and claude your way back. I mean,
can Knicks fans find hope in even though this thing's
won to one, like we could have easily been up
to nothing and we didn't play our cleanis basketball?
Speaker 6 (28:21):
No, that's a loser argument. Win the game?
Speaker 5 (28:23):
No, I mean straight up, like, finish off an inferior opponent.
Respectfully to our resident Pistons fan, you are supposed to
be the better basketball team. You are at home. I
did take some solace and a moral victory. No, go
out there, bust your ass, give everything that you've got.
I don't care that it's the game two of a
(28:46):
first round NBA playoff series. Go out there and show
me that you're a winner, not me specifically, but show
New York fans that you're a winner, that you belong there,
that you deserve the kind of respect that New York
basketball fans so desperately crave.
Speaker 6 (29:03):
Go earn the right.
Speaker 5 (29:04):
To be talked about as one of these storied franchises,
as one of these high highest of highest of caliber competitors.
Go out there and get the job the dam hell
out of here with this out. Can it take some
consolation today? I had a little close I'm doing your
thing now, I'm getting a little.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
High pitch there there. That's what happens.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Calm point, you know at this point, and it starts calm,
and then all of a sudden your voice goes up
and up and up.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
All right, that we've got one outcome done? All right.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
We know at this point that the Knicks are now
in a one to one series. They have lost home
court advantage. We've also got an NBA game going on
as we speak right now between Denver and the Clippers.
That game has come to the end of the first
with Denver up thirty one twenty five. Denver already up
won nothing in this series. They have a six point
lead after the first. We'll get you updated on that
(29:52):
game and what it means for the rest of the
conversation of the playoffs when we come.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
Back, He's buck rising.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
I'm Jason Fitz's bucking fits hang out on the Jason
Jason Smith Show.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
See I just did it right there, damn.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
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 4 (30:17):
Oh, it's a chaotic night in New York. It's a
chaotic night in the NBA.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
We got NBA playoff action heading everywhere, and I'm gonna
be honest, I've been tough on the NBA throughout the
course of this year. I think it's been a joy
to watch these playoff games. But we are in the
middle of watching a game right now between the Clippers
and the Nuggets that raises a real conversation about what
we should and shouldn't talk about anymore for the rest
of the playoffs. He's buck rising on Jason Fitz. We're
(30:44):
hanging out on Fox Sports Radio in on the Jason
Smith Show. If you're ready to lose weight at the
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Speaker 3 (31:00):
That's my phdweight loss dot com.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Buck Rising.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I'm sitting there and I'm watching the Nuggets, and I'm
thinking about something. I got the Nuggets on my mind
right because all the Nuggets are doing is winning their
matchup as we speak right now, thirty one to twenty nine.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
They're up with U.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
I said, it's tied thirty one, thirty one now with
the nine forty five, but they're up one nothing in
this series. Game one was absolutely electric between these two
teams that went back and forth. It was incredible. But
the Nuggets found a way to get to win. I mean, yeah,
but especially that overtime period was just incredible.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
It was so much fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
But I keep thinking about the fact that, Look, I
was on radio at the time, five days a week
at ESPN when the Nuggets were going on the first
championship run, and I remember telling my co host we
went to the bosses and we're like, hey, should we
start getting Nuggets guests? Like the Nuggets look like They're
about to go on a championship run, and everybody laughed
at us. They're like, no, nobody cares about the Nuggets.
Yet every year I see here and I'm reminded, like
(31:54):
this year, the number of people leading into the playoffs
are like, no, the Clippers are gonna go on a run.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
I don't know. I'm just I'm watching this and I'm
saying sitting here thinking, we.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Beg for reasons to figure out why the Clippers are
about to do something, and we beg for reasons not
to care about the Nuggets, who become one of the
most dependable, consistent teams in the NBA.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
I don't get it. Well.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
I think the Clippers would have won that game easily, Fitzy,
had they not given up what twenty nine points off
twenty turnovers in Saturday's game. It was completely a mess.
They have to be tighter with the basketball, and obviously
that will be a point of emphasis heading into this
game too, But for the purposes of the Nuggets, it's
(32:36):
It's tough to be energized about a team and a
franchise whose best player is arguably as good a basketball
player as any of us have ever seen in any lifetimes,
including the greats in Nikola jokicch but he doesn't care,
you know what I'm saying, Like, it's really tough for
(32:57):
you to kind of drum up that enthusiasm other than
the basketball is excellent and they are a perpetual there
are a perpetual playoff contender. To that effect, when the
biggest star and the best player on the team is
looking around at a press conference in a language that's
his second language, saying, you know, I'd rather just go chill,
chill with my horses after the playoffs are done. Like,
(33:22):
that's a really tough thing to sell, even if you know,
even fighting the normal things that we talk about, small
market team that's not had that level of relevance in
quite some time, but has since been resurgent and dominant. Arguably,
I kind of get the Nuggets malaise a little bit
(33:42):
because I look.
Speaker 6 (33:43):
At jokicch and if he's not excited, why should I be.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
It's wild to me to have a team with a
constant MVP candidate, that is a team that's constantly in
and a round championship conversations, that fires their coach with
like eight seconds left in the regular season and all
we do is shrug about them, like it's just like
we're gonna get to the NFL Draft. And I think
one of the biggest stories of the NFL Draft is
(34:09):
the irrelevance with which cam Ward is being handled right now.
And that's in large part, as you know, as somebody
that covers the Tennessee Titans as part of your living.
That's in large part because nobody gives a damn about
the Tennessee Titans. I'm just looking at this saying, my god,
like we are going to sit on, you know, our
front porches in forty years and knock all these other players.
(34:31):
I don't know, man, I watched Jokich play. You should
have seen that guy play, Like that's what the conversation
is going to be. But right now, in the moment
while we're watching it, it's.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Like, Eh, you know, Kitchen, it's fine. It's weird to me.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
That's what we do with greatness in real time. Like
it's such a hard thing for people. And I don't
know why it's such a hard thing for people to
wrap their heads around, like just just sit back and
appreciate it. I've had this conversation speaking of the Tennessee
Titans and the number one overall draft pick like Derrick Henry.
Derrick Henry rushing for two hundred and something yards a
game was routine to the point where you almost start
(35:04):
to take it for granted. And then it leaves you
and you're the worst team in football and you are
an absolute god forsaken hole in the ground as far
as the NFL landscape goes. And Derrick Henry's running crazy
in Baltimore, and you look at a Ravens game and
you say, oh, I wish I would have appreciated that
in real time.
Speaker 4 (35:21):
You didn't.
Speaker 5 (35:22):
You had no idea what you had in your own
backyard other than he's a fun player. And they've got
a bunch of fun running backs here in Tennessee across
their history, from the Houston Oilers to now the Tennessee Titans,
and you just you long for the thing that you
had in your life, even though you had it in
your life for eight years.
Speaker 6 (35:39):
You watched it run crazy, run all over.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
The Houston Texans, the Indianapolis Colts, the Kansas City Chiefs,
Tom Brady's New England Patriots to end the New England
dynasty there, and then he goes to Baltimore, and all
of a sudden, everybody's longing for Derrick Henry again. So
I can completely understand that from first hand experience.
Speaker 6 (35:58):
It fitsy.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
It's almost and this is a bit more, but it's
almost like when somebody passes away and you have some
lovely things to say about them after they've gone on,
after they can't hear you here. I mean, well, you know,
maybe they can hear you in certain places, depending on
what's philosophical. Yeah, I sure I didn't mean to get
into the matter, but you know what I'm saying, Like,
you say all these lovely things about the person who
(36:19):
passes on when you probably never said anything even remotely
that nice to them while they were still around. Like
that's how I view the way that sports fans take
in greatness in real time.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Now, you're not wrong, because frankly, all the people right
now that waste their time with the Lebron arguments like
Lebron arguments to me, Lebron versus MJ is the ultimate,
Like my dad can beat up your dad. Nobody's ever
really gonna know the answer. They're never gonna fight, and
everybody thinks they're right, and everybody thinks the other person's
wrong and like all the people that are wasting their
time talking about it, Like I can already imagine Fatter
(36:54):
stephen A when he's like thirty years from now, is
sitting at the same first tick table.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
Yeah, just yammering all.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Day, and he's gonna be like, you had the unmitigated
call to question Lebron James. I covered Lebron James, Like
that's what he's gonna do in thirty years, I fight
Lebron James by oh man, the way that story is
gonna go by the time, like you're gonna have Oh,
it's gonna be total blows.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
He's gonna be like, oh, we we fought in the
alley afterwards, Like this is what everybody.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
The very people that right now are trashing the Denver
Nuggets or or disinterested in the Denver Nuggets are gonna
use the Denver Nuggets as a test of every other
franchise and the same it's happening with Lebron.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
It's it's weird, especially in the NBA.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Like I don't think any sport does it as tragically
as the NBA does with their super superstars and their
best teams. They they they simply downplay everything that's happening
in the moment.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
And it's really gonna bother people when I start calling
yok my goat over Jordan or Lebron or any of
these other guys running around out there.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Man, you know you know what that's gonna do. You
know what you're doing when you do that, right, Like, you.
Speaker 5 (37:56):
Can't honest spectacular loaf of bread by basketball player I've
ever seen in my life.
Speaker 6 (38:01):
It's just honesty, That's all it is.
Speaker 4 (38:03):
That's all it is.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Like is it wonderbread or is it like artisanal bread?
You're an artisanal bread guy.
Speaker 6 (38:10):
It's well, I do.
Speaker 5 (38:11):
I do love a nice pumper nickel loaf every once
in a while.
Speaker 6 (38:15):
But I don't know that he's he's quite that.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
Whatever it is that causes somebody to bleed from their
arms every time they receive any kind of contact is
whatever kind of loaf of bread nickel yokicis.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
I never thought i'd hear Buck Rising say pumper nickel.
All right, I've got a conspiracy theory on what's gonna
happen with Aaron Rodgers. We'll talk about it next. He's
Buck Rising, I'm Jason fitz We're hanging Out with You
on Fox Sports Radio,
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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