June 18, 2022 • 33 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon react to the Warriors winning the 2022 NBA Championship. Steph Curry is great, but Jason Smith feels compared to other all-time greats, he still has a way to go. The 2nd round of the US Open concluded today and the guys believe the PGA Tour should not lose momentum to the LIV Tour. Plus, another riveting edition of Magic Johnson Tweets!
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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 week
night ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to
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(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Well, NBA Finals, the
Warriors going for the clincher, and if you're hoping for
a close game, you've got to really really hope because
right now the Warriors lead the Celtics fifty one to
thirty three, two and a half minutes left to go
(00:45):
before halftime. The Warriors on a run which I think
it's been on the bottom of the crawl on the screen,
the entire time longest run in NBA Finals history, a
run that's spanned at the end of the first quarter
into the second quarter of the Warriors with an eighteen
point lead over the Celtics, and the Celtics just look lost.
(01:07):
They look lost offensively, look like they don't have confidence
and and where they're going with the ball, and they
just this is a two and a half game problem
right now. And here are the Warriors showing up to
win this championship, right, Draymond Green was right. Instead, we're
showing up to win, Steve Curson, We're going to Boston
to win, right, reports earlier today the Warriors already had
a big casino, all bought out, ready to party, and
(01:29):
after they win the championship. Eighteen point lead, two and
a half go before halftime. Yeah, Warriors eighteen over the Celtics.
This does not look good for the Celtics. Twenty three
fifteen rebounding advantage for Golden State. They've already made nine
three pointers nine of twenty and Boston already with eleven turnovers,
several of which were lazy bounce passes or entry attempts
(01:52):
to Robert Williams where he got baited a couple of
times by Draymond Uh and then you had other defenders
closing out the their sequences. Just lethargic after a big
run to start the game right fourteen to two, as
you heard from Steve de Sega earlier, and just getting
back into the bad habits, the close outs, the alright,
(02:12):
I'm gonna leave my feet and Steph Curry laughs atch
as you jump past him and then calmly drains another three.
Uh Draymond Green filling up the box score. I mean
you actually just got called for a double dribble in
the post. So there you go, Marcus smart At a
turnover over to your column as well. Uh so Udoka
(02:32):
right now, absolutely no answers for the barrage that they've got.
The Warriors playing with much more energy and obviously the
composure of guys who've been there, done that before. It's
very strange normally as an NBA Finals goes on unless
one team is is by far and away above the other,
which when you get sweeps or five game series, teams
(02:55):
don't usually get worse over the course of the Finals.
The Celtics have got and worse. They peaked in Game
one and have steadily gotten worse since Game one. Right,
we have all the answers, We had all the threes,
everything we need to do. We locked down defensively, and
as the series went on, Golden State chips away, chips away,
and the Celtics have no answers. Right. We talked about
(03:16):
it last night. The only way I saw the Celtics
being able to get back into this series enforcing Game
seven is if they were the beneficiaries of very fortuitously
called plays. And it started out that way right. Clay
had started stick. I think Clay Thompson started the game
with two fouls and I said, oh, here we come,
here comes the here comes the referee, the officiating situation
(03:38):
gonna help the Celtics here. Nope. Now it's Tatum with three,
it's Marcus Smart with three, and the Warriors are in
complete control of this game. And it's not like it's
one player who's going nuts. Yes, Steph and Clay both
have twelve to lead the way, but Jordan Pool's got eleven.
He had three pointer after three point after three pointer,
Wiggins has ten. This has been an utter demolition of
(03:59):
the Celtics since that start, and it's a microcosm of
this year at Celtics started out great in this game, right,
and then what's happened? The Warriors have showed, Yeah, we're
the better team and you don't have an answer for us.
And that's kind of what this series has been. Game one,
the Celtics peaked, right, they still were able to get
another game, but as as a series went on, this
was the Warriors saying we're gonna make our adjustments. We're
(04:20):
gonna make our adjustments. And this is why Steve Kerr
doesn't get to do he should as the best head
coach in the NBA easy in the past decade. It's
not even close. But look at the adjustments the Warriors
were able to make defensively, they were able to move
some players around. They're able to shut down Jayson Tatum
continue to keep him less than confident on his side,
and since then, the Warriors have just taken control of
(04:42):
this series, and the Celtics look worse every game. Just
go back to the failures of Game four, right, the
opportunity that was sitting there Steph Curry on the sideline
to start, and then fresh legs Draymond, who had been
look for the just the naked eye, right, not the Hey,
I'm gonna tell you how much I know about basketball? Guy? Uh?
(05:03):
Draymond did not have a good game in that game,
right Uh, Yet he made some key defensive plays down
the stretch, the offense ran better, and they eke out
a win. Game five, we saw the Celtics once again
the party of the Red Sea down the lane and
easy layups, and then another fourth quarter collapse and where
Jayson Tatum was invisible. Right. We talked extensively about the
(05:25):
air balls, the lack of energy, uh, the lazy passes.
And that's the thing that we're seeing again with the
Celtics tonight, that sense of urgency. You know, Chris passes,
you know, bounce passes that were actually seeing employed by
the Warriors that meet their intended source. Right, Draymond running
his point forward thing about as efficiently as we've seen
(05:46):
all series. Oh, he wants to m v about me
winning m v P. How about me? You know, we
we talked about all these guys. No one ever mentions
me for m v the folks that wanted him for
his triple double in Game five, Look is at five
six and five sitting there with at a plus seventeen.
But it was funny when you were doing the he's
got three and he's got three. If someone missed that
(06:09):
you were talking about the fouls against the Celtics, you
would have gone, oh, yeah, I'm looking at that turnover
column too, four two two three. I mean the only
guy that hasn't turned it over out of the starting
lineup is Al Horford. He's gotta at least get too,
so everybody can say they contributed. I'm sorry that's a
negative column, but yeah, just a miserable, uneven effort once again,
(06:32):
and they started to make a run to right after
that run, they did have it at nine ten points
and and just like that, the Warriors were able to
surge back out. So twenty three seconds left here in
the second quarter. Be one hell of a halftime speech.
I I don't know what else can you? Dooka said,
He's been saying the same thing all series? Right, How
(06:53):
playing like blanks? How upset did he get after Game
five when he seemed exasperated We've talked sucked about this.
How many times do you say that we've talked about
they look like this was something new and shocking. But yes,
now I'm I'm worn out because my message is clearly
not getting through. No, because the Celtics are doing the
same thing. They're they're they're have they're struggling the same ways,
(07:15):
and they have not found a way to solve the
Warriors defense. They've just not done it. And it's it's
it's it's almost as if I I I've said, well,
their strategy might be too We're just gonna keep doing
what we've done all season long, and hope it breaks through. Right,
We's gonna keep doing what we're doing, and I hope
we get it. Which is the definition of insanity, trying
the same thing over and over again and and it's
(07:36):
not working. But that's that's kind of what the Celtics
are doing. It. You you see nothing where all right,
They're trying to do this a little bit differently. They're trying.
They don't look self assured in plays they're making on
the floor. They don't look like they they're convinced where
they're passing is the right place. They don't look like
where the shot they're taking is is the right one.
(07:57):
It's it's just been a two plus games slide of them.
And when you don't have confidence, you're not gonna win, right.
That's why the only way out was if if the
if foul trouble was gonna plague the Warriors so much
that they couldn't play defense like they normally would in
the Celtics would be able to get to the hoop
and you'd see a big game from the big three
of Tatum and Brown and Smart and that could get
you to Game seven. But that's not happening because the
(08:19):
Celtics haven't had the answers, and nothing they've said in
the last few days has had me thinking that, well,
they can they can do this. They they can come
back and do this night. So the officials are the
only ones that can that can bail them out. And
that's not happening. An hour at halftime and it's a
fifty nine lead for Golden State at LISTA. Celtics get
it down to fifteen when it was a twenty a
(08:39):
few minutes ago. But this is the Warriors. I mean,
are they really gonna blow a fifteen point halftime lead?
And and Celtics are going to game set and Celtics
are gonna get it. They're gonna start hitting threes like crazy.
It's the NBA Playoffs two version. Anything's possible. I'll tell you,
I'm running around like when when you had Tom Selling
take over the Montecito in Laws Vegas. Anything's possible. That
(09:01):
was the mustache odd fantastic leader of men. No uh like.
He's also got some some thoughts in the world at
large that we're we're not gonna get into. But you
know he as an actor, we all celebrated Magnan p
i Uh and Mr Baseball, no question about it. But
don't forget, don't forget, you gotta have Mr Baseball. One
(09:23):
of the greatest sp cards that Upper Deck ever produced
was a shot of him hanging out with Frank Thomas.
So you got that going for you, You know that
that lacking of urgency. I mean looking look no further
than your offensive glass nine to two offensive rebound advantage
for Golden State. You got Robert Williams down there. You've
got some big, lanky bodies that should not be I mean,
(09:46):
that's hustle, that's energy, that's that's getting the extra bounce.
And at this point there's only been a total of
eight free throws, shot six of them by the Celtics,
So to their credit, they're at least perfect from the line.
Everything else gone to hell, though, the the sloppiness in
the past attempts that we chronicled quite a bit the
last couple of days, Jason Uh just rearing their head
(10:08):
again and Jayson Tatum five of ten from the field.
Look the some of the box score numbers are gonna
look good, except for the fact that he's got four turnovers,
three files and he's a minus nine right he may
get to his twenty five points and all those and
people that have the over under I think he was
twenty seven and a half for his points. Maybe you
get there because that's the way the game ends up flowing.
(10:29):
But right now, you know, this is truly the indictment
of the Superstar Star discussion that we've been having throughout
the playoffs. He's come up big in the past. Now
the stage is the biggest that it's been, and everybody
waiting you want to crown him, crown him because he
has not been that guy in this series, no matter
what betting odds may say for m v p uh.
(10:52):
That's the we have to pick somebody if they win. Yeah,
the Celtics are The Celtics are kind of like, Hey,
when we're just out there playing, we were great. But
once we had to start thinking about stuff and strategizing
and and and and going back and forth with being
able to understand and react to the Warriors putting their
(11:16):
will on the game, and now we don't know what
to do at that point. You know, now I gotta
think too much. Now I gotta do too much. Now
I gotta just too much. And I can't do any
of those things when they went out in Game one
and today we're locked down, we're hitting three is great.
But then they had to think about it and things
got a little bit more difficult and they just don't
have an answer for it. Just where's the sense of rgency.
That's the thing that well, they watched this said the
(11:37):
whole time. We're gonna be fine. We're good, Jason Tatum,
even after Game five, We're good. We're gonna bounce back.
We're good, dude. Sightings in the past right going into
all those other series, that's fine. This is a different,
different squad and just throwing up the platitudes because you
feel like you have to answer the question, isn't gonna
get it done? Uh? This again, this is why the
(11:59):
only way out for the for the Celtics tonight was
getting really good, fortuitous calls from the officiating crew. And
it's just not happened. I tried to put it on
playing well, you just looked at the stripes. Uh when
he got golden headphones. Scott Foster is now coming onto
the court walking like he's Vince McMahon. Are there you
(12:19):
gonna saymodka say hey, Scott Foster at walking through that door.
We gotta get going here the second half. The best
player is now back for the second half. Somebody's gonna
do a speech, and then all of a sudden, you
hear the glass shattering like it's stone colds. Yeah, and
he got He gets on the floor of the Celtics.
Fans start channing MVP, MVP, and he's something to excite him.
(12:44):
Maybe that dog is spinning plates on his nose or something.
In half time, I don't know, Twitter at out about
a fresca, Mike, it's swollen down. The Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
So it looks like we could just be, you know,
ninety minutes away from anointing and coordinating the Warriors. Where
does Steph Curry rank all time has NBA? Be sure
(13:08):
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 I Heart Radio app.
Dodger fans are going, wait a minute, I'm going back
to four years ago the games on Apple TV. I
can't get the Dodgers tonight. Wait a minute, I've gone
through this my entire life. Why can't I get the
(13:28):
dot yet? App Apple TV on Friday? I know, I
know this is this is where every week every major
I guarantee you this is my car. But every baseball
fan says, we're not on Apple TV tonight? Are we
were not the Apple TV game? Are we? Let's like, okay,
oh good? If we're not on Apple TV? Okay good,
I can watch the game. Uh feeling good about that.
(13:49):
It's like, is it Friday night? My team is good?
They may take me for Apple TV. I don't know.
I don't want to be on Apple TV tonight. I
want Oh good, I get to watch the game. Well,
I'm watched it a little bit of my squad that
was tied three three. Suddenly it's sen three. Unfortunately, I
can't choose the other game because well we're in Los Angeles,
so it's gonna beat it. Uh So yeah, I'm stuck
(14:12):
watching h this disaster. For those that is the White Sox.
Every game is ten three. Mets were ten three, Yankees
were ten three, you're ten three? Everything was done three. No.
I was watching a bit of it earlier, and it's like,
you know, I've made the joke and I'm going back
and forth my brother go to, who are these people
that are broadcasting like they've expanded? I go, that's why
(14:33):
every week I make the same joke on Friday night.
Go four hours of extemporaneous speaking with some research and
thought and humor that you can do working off script
and and talking about the game and maybe knowing who
the hell the players are. There was a lot of concern. Look,
Mankata eventually left the game, but he's been walking with
(14:54):
a limp and running with a limp for about a
month because they're they're hurt and missing a lot of players,
and like, oh, he must have gotten Nick Duffs Like no, no,
he walked out during warmups if you paid attention like that.
So it's it's just little things that start to add up.
So anybody that's seeking an alternative voice, Hey, we're here
for you. Now. I've been I've been working on this
(15:16):
all day. You're ready. I mean, I'm working on this.
I've been waiting to to to run this on you
and Frostburg all day. Are you ready? You're ready? I've
been waiting for this. Okay, this is Berman announcing tonight's
games Major League Baseball. Wait, no, no, no, you guys
are gonna love this. You guys gonna love this level No, No,
trust me, trust me, Like I said all that, I've
(15:37):
been waiting like Jones, like I got, like my my
body is, I'm I got, I got, I got spasms
and ticks. Okay, here we go, t J. This weekend
the Guardians in town to play the Dodgers. Wouldn't it
make more sense with coming to Los Angeles the Guardians
(15:58):
play the Galaxy? TJ. No, it's pretty good. I like
that's a good one, right, Yeah? Who got chocka? Who got?
Who got? Who got chacka? Who got? I mean waiting
on that one all day. I'm waiting on that all day.
Groups approved, Yes, Well, it depends on the inflection in
(16:19):
tone of when you say groot you know what I mean? Like,
if you're just saying the being, then it's okay, but
it's but if it's group talking, I mean, you're you
could be cursing. We might have to dump you. I
am grouts, I am groots. I am great. Now. It's
too bad there's not an off day one of those
weird series where hey, the Guardians are in town, like
they come into town on an off day on a
(16:39):
Thursday and they all go to a Galaxy game. So
you can say, here's the Guardians at They would show
them before the game, going, hey, look at the Guardians
at the Galaxy. That would be pretty cool. That would
be so I mean, I just want that to happen.
I think you're excited about this. Should really put it
to Major League Baseball or a change, and and one
(17:01):
more t J. If they're gonna play the Dodgers, then
they go down the road and we would see the
Guardians Angels series, which should take place in Manhattan. Had
Guardians come on at Guardian Angels and Guardians of the Galaxy,
that's the as. That's when I came up with, well,
(17:22):
I mean, you do get to wear a cred fedora,
you know, a red beret. I should say it's a
red and uh and a colorless leather jacket like a
pert and and and and just to let you know
that is that. I'm I'm out of Guardians jokes. After that,
I'm about I have no more Guardians jokes. I think
(17:43):
there's only those two. I don't know that there's another
Guardian joke. I'm sure you will think of at least
just because you normally don't stop it too. It's like
eating a chip. Yeah, that's true. Or in your case
of big Mac, you're not stopping it to Oh I
had another Big Mac today, buddy, one of the big
Max today. Oh yeah, with extras awesome sauce. It was great.
It was great because my wife kept saying, all right,
(18:04):
I gotta get when you've been talking about this, I'm
gonna run out and get food. You like, yes, get me,
get me one. She came back, she Oh, it's pretty good.
She goes, it's a lot of lettuce. I go, it
is a lot of lettuce. I will say that off,
shut the calorie and take off. Now, you know, I
gotta pause this. I gotta ask Sam a question. Sam,
this is the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman. Why
(18:25):
did we have so readily equip and quote from Ben.
I just have that on my main wall. It's a
great Ben Mallard dropping him saying good sauce. It was apropo.
We played the drop of him calling you a hobo
all the time when he concerned about that. You know
that's Ben Mallor's voice saying hobo, right, No, I didn't
recognize it as hobo. You didn't know that. That's Ben's
(18:46):
voice saying, Hobo, you know, I just haven't had the
good sauce in the right place at the right time. Yeah,
they see that. That's what it is you want because
the US, you have the bad sauce in the bad
place at the bad time, and doesn't heny man, I'm
just trying to make sure I don't lose my my footing.
Mike Harmon has been replaced by drops off a computer. Now,
(19:09):
let me say this the day after the NBA Finals. Today,
everybody with champagne in their eyes. The Warriors win their
fourth title in the last eight years, and it's Steph
and Clay and Draymond. I've kept proceipts on our critics.
Let me just say this alright, because I this has
been where I've been getting hit with all day. I
don't hate Steph Curry, even if you think I do.
(19:31):
What I do is I put his excellence in the
proper perspective. And I get that that's not popular because
it seems to be the only take you can have
on Steph Curry. Is this guards the greatest? He is
a great player. Is he an all time great shooter?
Yes he is. But that's all he kind of has
to be with this Warrior's team. All right. Again, people
(19:53):
forget Steph was in the league for six years, he
had made two All Star teams, and the Warriors were
lucky if they made the playoffs. Eve Kerr shows up
and suddenly it's a dynasty. Why Because he understood what
he needed to do and what he could do to
take advantage of what Steph Curry did. Well. This is
why I say Steph Curry is a system quarterback. He's
not a system quarterback that comes in and plays okay
(20:14):
with the team. He's a system quarterback that comes in
and boy, he's really terrific because of what's surrounding him.
The Warriors system is phenomenal, right, but he doesn't have
to worry about playing defense or to set plays up
or rebound. So when you talk about all time greats
and it's Steph, He's caught Lebron No Lebron, James and
Janice and and all these guys, they're all better players.
(20:38):
These are all guys who are better players than Steph
Curry is. Steph does one thing, the most important thing
in the NBA really really well. He puts the ball
in the basket but he went from a nice twenty
three point of game player to a thirty point of
game player when Steve Kerr showed up. That's what he is.
He's not close to these other guys. He's not close
to k D and his prime. He's not His numbers
(20:58):
flow from within that off If you took Steph Curry
out of the Warriors and you put him on another team,
and this is where Steph understands, Hey, maybe I need
to stay here because this offense is built around what
I do well. If you put Steph Curry on another team,
is he this guy? If you put him on the Knicks,
is he's suddenly getting freed up for all these threes?
And as they go up and down the floor in
the floor of the offense, of course not it's there's
(21:20):
four guys on Steph oh, and he turns it over again.
The Warriors have created this offense around what he does well,
and he does it great right, and now he's he's
moving up that list in the conversation of great players
all time. But he's not close to what the best
players in the NBA do now because they're asked to
do so much more. Lebron in his prime. K d
(21:42):
Janice especially are asked to do so much more, and hey, defensively,
you need to worry about X, Y and Z as well.
This is what these guys do, what Steph does. Steph
does great, but too suddenly because he scores a lot,
he's great. This is like saying, hey, Dominique Wilkins, is
he one of the is he is he one of
the top three or four mount Rushmore players in the NBA?
(22:04):
No Demominique Wilkins in the eighties was the human highlight machine,
right because he scored, He put points on the board.
But Atlanta didn't win, didn't have the right system. We
weren't able to get past the Celtics. But this is
kind of what Steph Curry does, and he does it great.
And I'm not saying he's not a great player, but
you have to put what he does in perspective. You
put excellence in the proper perspective. Right, If I'm taking
(22:25):
for the next few years, am I taking Steph Curry
or John Morant? I'm taking John Morant who does more
things for his team, John Morand and Steph Curry. John
Morant does more, right because he holds the ball more.
He dishes, he scores, he plays defense, he does everything.
There are just players that simply do more and and
the things that Steph Curry doesn't do as well as
the We just brought Rushman away because he's so great
(22:46):
and he has a great image and everybody enjoys him.
And that's a big part of stuff too, is that
because he has such a great image that it's it's
impossible to criticize the guy. But yeah, he's great, he
is awesome, he is outstanding. He is a great, great player.
He deserved the m v P. He's got four championships.
He's moving up the list in conversations for great players
of all time. But let's just understand that when you
(23:07):
talk about him compared to the other great great players
who are playing now, he's still a level below because
he's not asked to do as much. He can't get
big shots at the end of games. Right where where
where's the list of all Steph Curry great buzzer beaters?
Where's stuff Jayson Tatum. As much as I lead you
astray on Jayson Tatum, Jayson Tatum's got more game winning
shots because Steph can't get his shots in the final
couple of minutes of games. This is why when games
(23:29):
are closed down the stretch the Warriors, it's a toss
up because he can't get his shots off because he's
too small, and the teams are able to get in
on him more and shut him down and and close
down the passing lanes, so we can't even get in
and make a pass to somebody who's wide open. So
it's just it's not that I think the guy's great.
I've said it all the time, but people want to
(23:49):
blow off when I say that. When I say he's great,
go oh, you know, like, No, his greatness is in
the proper perspective. That's how we should talk about Steph Curry,
and that's how we go with his publishments, with winning
last night and moving on from here with four championships
and getting a chance to go for another one next year. Yeah.
I mean the hard part is it's all compartmentalized, and
depending on how old you are, you hold certain players systems.
(24:13):
Teams dear right go back to whatever Kobe shack the
Jordan's bulls right because Jordan had years key with Doug Collins.
They're getting into the playoffs, they're getting deep into the playoffs,
but they don't get over. Phil Jackson comes in, they
lose in the Eastern Conference finals, and then they win
six of the next eight. Alright, we we don't discount
(24:38):
Jordan's for the early years. Rather likewise, Steph, I, you
know something changed. The Triangle came in and and look
Scottie Pippens there, and you unleash hell upon the Eastern Conference.
And folks go back and say, well, he was playing
against a bunch of plumbers, which takes me to the
other point. Go back to right, if we're gonna go
back in time, look at the teams that the Celtics
(24:58):
and Lakers were running around. We don't denigrate Magic or
Kareem or Worthy or Bird or any of those guys.
I mean, here's your Uh, we got Worthy fighting with
Cedric Maxwell over all sorts of stuff. So you know,
you got all that fun that that goes through. Go
back to the Bill Russell era. Uh, and you know
where how teams were constructed and the way things flowed,
(25:21):
and and there's problems and caveats that we can make
with all of them. With Steph, it comes down to, yes,
he's likable, except once he starts chewing his mouthpiece. Certain
percentage of folks are gonna be mad. Well, yeah, time
things and getting a little chesty, which I liked because
you know, he was petty and they were all really petty.
I think that was the one thing. And I've been
(25:41):
saying it all along in these playoffs. If if you
ever had a doubt and you and you really did
believe guys when they said I don't hear stuff. Uh,
they They've told you loud and clear, one after another.
Blank you. I heard everything you said, even if it
was the three in the morning on a Tuesday, Uh,
in a in a in a bar that was closed down,
but because they wanted you to sober up before you left,
(26:02):
they poured you a cup of coffee and you were
waxing poetic about the NBA game that was on replay.
They hear it, Okay, they hear it all. Richard Jefferson
confirming that in his post finals talks and Steph and
Clay and everybody. You've got receipts for everything. That's fine,
but we we look at and analyze the game. Right
(26:22):
For for Steff, it's it's just becomes the fun discussion
because all of it is just you decide where your
your starting line is. And generally any of those discussions
aren't discussions. It's just I'm going to stand for my guy,
and if you go against it, you're an idiot. That's
where we're at everything in this society. And when it
comes to Michael versus Lebron, now Lebron, Steph add Kobe
(26:44):
and Duncan and whoever else you want to the conversation,
you pick and choose which parts of the guys, games, personalities,
whatever else you like. There's no denying one thing. Lebron
has changed the game, right with some of the way
offenses run, and he's a singular talent, so trying to
replicate that you're gonna have varying degrees of success, right,
(27:04):
But when we look at Steph, I mean, you can't
doubt that what the Warriors did change how teams work,
and Steph unselfish, all of those things. Those are all
nice attributes, and it becomes the if you want to
stand for Steph Curry, that's gonna be part of your
larger argument. But at the same time, if you're pick
your other guy, right, we we talk about it in
(27:25):
the moment, right because for a while, as you do
the show. The show is that night. Who's the guy
you're looking as like, Oh, the best guys Kevin Durant
and now he's just an afterthought fighting with people on
Twitter again. It's how it comes, man. I want to
get back on social media where I want to fight.
I want to fight right now. But that's just that.
It's the ebb and flow. You pick your guy that
(27:47):
you want to stand for, grab the statue you like,
throw out those you don't write. The Lebron and Michael
thing right. Lebron defense comes up against Steph, but never
against Michael. Be sure to catch live, ad issue and
some The Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays at
ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey, I'm Doug Gottlieb.
(28:09):
The podcast is called All Ball. We usually talk all
basketball all the time, but it's more about the stories
about what made these people love their sport and all
the interesting interactions along the way. We talked to coaches,
we talked to players, We tell you stories. You download it,
you listen to it. I think you like it. Listen
to All Ball with Doug Gotlieb on the I Heart
(28:31):
Radio app, Apple Podcast orherever you get your podcast, what's
next for everybody else? By playing? And now it's the
Magic Johnson twitter day. Oh boy, oh here it is.
It took a while for Magic Johnson, but he did
(28:54):
eventually start tweeting about the NBA Finals. So here we
go the most obvious and vanilla tweeter in the world,
Magic Johnson. I give you a tweet. Your job is
to figure out if it is a Magic Johnson tweet
or made up entirely by myself? Playing? Is me, Mike Harmon,
Steve de Sager, Justin Frostburg? Are you guys ready to go?
Let's get it on. In the end, Steph Curry, Clay
(29:19):
Thompson and Andrew Wiggins were too much for Jayson Tatum,
Jalen Brown and Marcus Smart, with Steph winning his first
NBA Finals m v P. For the playoffs, the average
an incredible twenty seven points, six assists and five rebounds.
Is that a lot of stuff going on, Magic Johnson.
I'm gonna satan. No, no, no chance, no no chance.
(29:45):
I think you saw too many clips of Paul McCartney
singing with Springsteen, and you wanted to sing and in
the end, and then you rattled off a bunch of stats.
That is not we're tweetion. You guys are good. I
assume the current magic tweet is you can see my
Dodgers on Apple You have Apple TV right now. His
(30:10):
last tweet is, Hey, does anybody know where I can
get the Dodgers game? You just put that out there.
Steph became the seventh player in NBA history to win
four NBA Championships and multiple league MVP Awards. He joins
Lebron James, Michael Jordan's, Tim Duncan, Kareamed abdul Jabbar, Bill Russell,
and some guy that wore number thirty two for the
(30:31):
Showtime Lakers? He is that a magic Johnson tweets I'll
go with the peacocky, I'll say no, I'm gonna say
absolutely with the peacocking. It's got to me that is
a magic Johnson. There we go, let's go. He's reminding everybody, Okay,
(30:56):
Laker fans, time to get down to business to put
another bad here in the rafters next season? Is that
a magic Johnson tweet? Okay, why not time to get
down to business to put another banner in the rafters
next season. Does he have the same tweet about a
Lonzo Ball. Time to put that in the rafters. Hey,
(31:17):
you're gonna hear about Lonzo ball before this show's over,
my friend, Yes you will. I'm gonna say, no, that
is not magic. Johnson tweets, Not Steph Steph Curry can
do it all? Is that a magic Johnson tweets Surry
(31:40):
can do it all? Does all include defense every game? No?
Do it all? He actually has a pretty high overall
defensive rating. But you know lies damn lies statistics. Um,
I'm gonna say no. Yeah, I'm way too short a tweet.
No way, that is not a magic Johnson tweet. Thank
(32:03):
you Steph Curry for entertaining us and putting on one
of the best performances in NBA Finals history. Congratulations on
your fourth NBA Championship and first NBA Finals MVP. Better
than his performance in finals history. No, yeah, no, no,
he would talk about other than that guy that Moore
number thirty plus. He would show Clay some love he
(32:28):
loves and he to have a picture of winning time. Okay,
you're all saying no, and that is a magic tweets.
Didn't think he was going back to the well. He
should have just said this is just as good a
Finals as Cedric Maxwell had that one year. I think
(32:49):
I think Magic's leaving Cedric Maxwell to James Worthy right
easily leaded a Worthy right now. So there it is. Hey,
we'll continue to play the Magic Johnson Twitter game coming
up next hour, but straight ahead, how about out some
conference finals predictions in the NBA next year. This is
Fox Sports Radio
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every week
night ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to
eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local
station for The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at
Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
night on the I Heart Radio app by searching fs R.
(00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Well, NBA Finals, the
Warriors going for the clincher, and if you're hoping for
a close game, you've got to really really hope because
right now the Warriors lead the Celtics fifty one to
thirty three, two and a half minutes left to go
(00:45):
before halftime. The Warriors on a run which I think
it's been on the bottom of the crawl on the screen,
the entire time longest run in NBA Finals history, a
run that's spanned at the end of the first quarter
into the second quarter of the Warriors with an eighteen
point lead over the Celtics, and the Celtics just look lost.
(01:07):
They look lost offensively, look like they don't have confidence
and and where they're going with the ball, and they
just this is a two and a half game problem
right now. And here are the Warriors showing up to
win this championship, right, Draymond Green was right. Instead, we're
showing up to win, Steve Curson, We're going to Boston
to win, right, reports earlier today the Warriors already had
a big casino, all bought out, ready to party, and
(01:29):
after they win the championship. Eighteen point lead, two and
a half go before halftime. Yeah, Warriors eighteen over the Celtics.
This does not look good for the Celtics. Twenty three
fifteen rebounding advantage for Golden State. They've already made nine
three pointers nine of twenty and Boston already with eleven turnovers,
several of which were lazy bounce passes or entry attempts
(01:52):
to Robert Williams where he got baited a couple of
times by Draymond Uh and then you had other defenders
closing out the their sequences. Just lethargic after a big
run to start the game right fourteen to two, as
you heard from Steve de Sega earlier, and just getting
back into the bad habits, the close outs, the alright,
(02:12):
I'm gonna leave my feet and Steph Curry laughs atch
as you jump past him and then calmly drains another three.
Uh Draymond Green filling up the box score. I mean
you actually just got called for a double dribble in
the post. So there you go, Marcus smart At a
turnover over to your column as well. Uh so Udoka
(02:32):
right now, absolutely no answers for the barrage that they've got.
The Warriors playing with much more energy and obviously the
composure of guys who've been there, done that before. It's
very strange normally as an NBA Finals goes on unless
one team is is by far and away above the other,
which when you get sweeps or five game series, teams
(02:55):
don't usually get worse over the course of the Finals.
The Celtics have got and worse. They peaked in Game
one and have steadily gotten worse since Game one. Right,
we have all the answers, We had all the threes,
everything we need to do. We locked down defensively, and
as the series went on, Golden State chips away, chips away,
and the Celtics have no answers. Right. We talked about
(03:16):
it last night. The only way I saw the Celtics
being able to get back into this series enforcing Game
seven is if they were the beneficiaries of very fortuitously
called plays. And it started out that way right. Clay
had started stick. I think Clay Thompson started the game
with two fouls and I said, oh, here we come,
here comes the here comes the referee, the officiating situation
(03:38):
gonna help the Celtics here. Nope. Now it's Tatum with three,
it's Marcus Smart with three, and the Warriors are in
complete control of this game. And it's not like it's
one player who's going nuts. Yes, Steph and Clay both
have twelve to lead the way, but Jordan Pool's got eleven.
He had three pointer after three point after three pointer,
Wiggins has ten. This has been an utter demolition of
(03:59):
the Celtics since that start, and it's a microcosm of
this year at Celtics started out great in this game, right,
and then what's happened? The Warriors have showed, Yeah, we're
the better team and you don't have an answer for us.
And that's kind of what this series has been. Game one,
the Celtics peaked, right, they still were able to get
another game, but as as a series went on, this
was the Warriors saying we're gonna make our adjustments. We're
(04:20):
gonna make our adjustments. And this is why Steve Kerr
doesn't get to do he should as the best head
coach in the NBA easy in the past decade. It's
not even close. But look at the adjustments the Warriors
were able to make defensively, they were able to move
some players around. They're able to shut down Jayson Tatum
continue to keep him less than confident on his side,
and since then, the Warriors have just taken control of
(04:42):
this series, and the Celtics look worse every game. Just
go back to the failures of Game four, right, the
opportunity that was sitting there Steph Curry on the sideline
to start, and then fresh legs Draymond, who had been
look for the just the naked eye, right, not the Hey,
I'm gonna tell you how much I know about basketball? Guy? Uh?
(05:03):
Draymond did not have a good game in that game,
right Uh, Yet he made some key defensive plays down
the stretch, the offense ran better, and they eke out
a win. Game five, we saw the Celtics once again
the party of the Red Sea down the lane and
easy layups, and then another fourth quarter collapse and where
Jayson Tatum was invisible. Right. We talked extensively about the
(05:25):
air balls, the lack of energy, uh, the lazy passes.
And that's the thing that we're seeing again with the
Celtics tonight, that sense of urgency. You know, Chris passes,
you know, bounce passes that were actually seeing employed by
the Warriors that meet their intended source. Right, Draymond running
his point forward thing about as efficiently as we've seen
(05:46):
all series. Oh, he wants to m v about me
winning m v P. How about me? You know, we
we talked about all these guys. No one ever mentions
me for m v the folks that wanted him for
his triple double in Game five, Look is at five
six and five sitting there with at a plus seventeen.
But it was funny when you were doing the he's
got three and he's got three. If someone missed that
(06:09):
you were talking about the fouls against the Celtics, you
would have gone, oh, yeah, I'm looking at that turnover
column too, four two two three. I mean the only
guy that hasn't turned it over out of the starting
lineup is Al Horford. He's gotta at least get too,
so everybody can say they contributed. I'm sorry that's a
negative column, but yeah, just a miserable, uneven effort once again,
(06:32):
and they started to make a run to right after
that run, they did have it at nine ten points
and and just like that, the Warriors were able to
surge back out. So twenty three seconds left here in
the second quarter. Be one hell of a halftime speech.
I I don't know what else can you? Dooka said,
He's been saying the same thing all series? Right, How
(06:53):
playing like blanks? How upset did he get after Game
five when he seemed exasperated We've talked sucked about this.
How many times do you say that we've talked about
they look like this was something new and shocking. But yes,
now I'm I'm worn out because my message is clearly
not getting through. No, because the Celtics are doing the
same thing. They're they're they're have they're struggling the same ways,
(07:15):
and they have not found a way to solve the
Warriors defense. They've just not done it. And it's it's
it's it's almost as if I I I've said, well,
their strategy might be too We're just gonna keep doing
what we've done all season long, and hope it breaks through. Right,
We's gonna keep doing what we're doing, and I hope
we get it. Which is the definition of insanity, trying
the same thing over and over again and and it's
(07:36):
not working. But that's that's kind of what the Celtics
are doing. It. You you see nothing where all right,
They're trying to do this a little bit differently. They're trying.
They don't look self assured in plays they're making on
the floor. They don't look like they they're convinced where
they're passing is the right place. They don't look like
where the shot they're taking is is the right one.
(07:57):
It's it's just been a two plus games slide of them.
And when you don't have confidence, you're not gonna win, right.
That's why the only way out was if if the
if foul trouble was gonna plague the Warriors so much
that they couldn't play defense like they normally would in
the Celtics would be able to get to the hoop
and you'd see a big game from the big three
of Tatum and Brown and Smart and that could get
you to Game seven. But that's not happening because the
(08:19):
Celtics haven't had the answers, and nothing they've said in
the last few days has had me thinking that, well,
they can they can do this. They they can come
back and do this night. So the officials are the
only ones that can that can bail them out. And
that's not happening. An hour at halftime and it's a
fifty nine lead for Golden State at LISTA. Celtics get
it down to fifteen when it was a twenty a
(08:39):
few minutes ago. But this is the Warriors. I mean,
are they really gonna blow a fifteen point halftime lead?
And and Celtics are going to game set and Celtics
are gonna get it. They're gonna start hitting threes like crazy.
It's the NBA Playoffs two version. Anything's possible. I'll tell you,
I'm running around like when when you had Tom Selling
take over the Montecito in Laws Vegas. Anything's possible. That
(09:01):
was the mustache odd fantastic leader of men. No uh like.
He's also got some some thoughts in the world at
large that we're we're not gonna get into. But you
know he as an actor, we all celebrated Magnan p
i Uh and Mr Baseball, no question about it. But
don't forget, don't forget, you gotta have Mr Baseball. One
(09:23):
of the greatest sp cards that Upper Deck ever produced
was a shot of him hanging out with Frank Thomas.
So you got that going for you, You know that
that lacking of urgency. I mean looking look no further
than your offensive glass nine to two offensive rebound advantage
for Golden State. You got Robert Williams down there. You've
got some big, lanky bodies that should not be I mean,
(09:46):
that's hustle, that's energy, that's that's getting the extra bounce.
And at this point there's only been a total of
eight free throws, shot six of them by the Celtics,
So to their credit, they're at least perfect from the line.
Everything else gone to hell, though, the the sloppiness in
the past attempts that we chronicled quite a bit the
last couple of days, Jason Uh just rearing their head
(10:08):
again and Jayson Tatum five of ten from the field.
Look the some of the box score numbers are gonna
look good, except for the fact that he's got four turnovers,
three files and he's a minus nine right he may
get to his twenty five points and all those and
people that have the over under I think he was
twenty seven and a half for his points. Maybe you
get there because that's the way the game ends up flowing.
(10:29):
But right now, you know, this is truly the indictment
of the Superstar Star discussion that we've been having throughout
the playoffs. He's come up big in the past. Now
the stage is the biggest that it's been, and everybody
waiting you want to crown him, crown him because he
has not been that guy in this series, no matter
what betting odds may say for m v p uh.
(10:52):
That's the we have to pick somebody if they win. Yeah,
the Celtics are The Celtics are kind of like, Hey,
when we're just out there playing, we were great. But
once we had to start thinking about stuff and strategizing
and and and and going back and forth with being
able to understand and react to the Warriors putting their
(11:16):
will on the game, and now we don't know what
to do at that point. You know, now I gotta
think too much. Now I gotta do too much. Now
I gotta just too much. And I can't do any
of those things when they went out in Game one
and today we're locked down, we're hitting three is great.
But then they had to think about it and things
got a little bit more difficult and they just don't
have an answer for it. Just where's the sense of rgency.
That's the thing that well, they watched this said the
(11:37):
whole time. We're gonna be fine. We're good, Jason Tatum,
even after Game five, We're good. We're gonna bounce back.
We're good, dude. Sightings in the past right going into
all those other series, that's fine. This is a different,
different squad and just throwing up the platitudes because you
feel like you have to answer the question, isn't gonna
get it done? Uh? This again, this is why the
(11:59):
only way out for the for the Celtics tonight was
getting really good, fortuitous calls from the officiating crew. And
it's just not happened. I tried to put it on
playing well, you just looked at the stripes. Uh when
he got golden headphones. Scott Foster is now coming onto
the court walking like he's Vince McMahon. Are there you
(12:19):
gonna saymodka say hey, Scott Foster at walking through that door.
We gotta get going here the second half. The best
player is now back for the second half. Somebody's gonna
do a speech, and then all of a sudden, you
hear the glass shattering like it's stone colds. Yeah, and
he got He gets on the floor of the Celtics.
Fans start channing MVP, MVP, and he's something to excite him.
(12:44):
Maybe that dog is spinning plates on his nose or something.
In half time, I don't know, Twitter at out about
a fresca, Mike, it's swollen down. The Jason Smith Show
with Mike Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
So it looks like we could just be, you know,
ninety minutes away from anointing and coordinating the Warriors. Where
does Steph Curry rank all time has NBA? Be sure
(13:08):
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 I Heart Radio app.
Dodger fans are going, wait a minute, I'm going back
to four years ago the games on Apple TV. I
can't get the Dodgers tonight. Wait a minute, I've gone
through this my entire life. Why can't I get the
(13:28):
dot yet? App Apple TV on Friday? I know, I
know this is this is where every week every major
I guarantee you this is my car. But every baseball
fan says, we're not on Apple TV tonight? Are we
were not the Apple TV game? Are we? Let's like, okay,
oh good? If we're not on Apple TV? Okay good,
I can watch the game. Uh feeling good about that.
(13:49):
It's like, is it Friday night? My team is good?
They may take me for Apple TV. I don't know.
I don't want to be on Apple TV tonight. I
want Oh good, I get to watch the game. Well,
I'm watched it a little bit of my squad that
was tied three three. Suddenly it's sen three. Unfortunately, I
can't choose the other game because well we're in Los Angeles,
so it's gonna beat it. Uh So yeah, I'm stuck
(14:12):
watching h this disaster. For those that is the White Sox.
Every game is ten three. Mets were ten three, Yankees
were ten three, you're ten three? Everything was done three. No.
I was watching a bit of it earlier, and it's like,
you know, I've made the joke and I'm going back
and forth my brother go to, who are these people
that are broadcasting like they've expanded? I go, that's why
(14:33):
every week I make the same joke on Friday night.
Go four hours of extemporaneous speaking with some research and
thought and humor that you can do working off script
and and talking about the game and maybe knowing who
the hell the players are. There was a lot of concern. Look,
Mankata eventually left the game, but he's been walking with
(14:54):
a limp and running with a limp for about a
month because they're they're hurt and missing a lot of players,
and like, oh, he must have gotten Nick Duffs Like no, no,
he walked out during warmups if you paid attention like that.
So it's it's just little things that start to add up.
So anybody that's seeking an alternative voice, Hey, we're here
for you. Now. I've been I've been working on this
(15:16):
all day. You're ready. I mean, I'm working on this.
I've been waiting to to to run this on you
and Frostburg all day. Are you ready? You're ready? I've
been waiting for this. Okay, this is Berman announcing tonight's
games Major League Baseball. Wait, no, no, no, you guys
are gonna love this. You guys gonna love this level No, No,
trust me, trust me, Like I said all that, I've
(15:37):
been waiting like Jones, like I got, like my my
body is, I'm I got, I got, I got spasms
and ticks. Okay, here we go, t J. This weekend
the Guardians in town to play the Dodgers. Wouldn't it
make more sense with coming to Los Angeles the Guardians
(15:58):
play the Galaxy? TJ. No, it's pretty good. I like
that's a good one, right, Yeah? Who got chocka? Who got?
Who got? Who got chacka? Who got? I mean waiting
on that one all day. I'm waiting on that all day.
Groups approved, Yes, Well, it depends on the inflection in
(16:19):
tone of when you say groot you know what I mean? Like,
if you're just saying the being, then it's okay, but
it's but if it's group talking, I mean, you're you
could be cursing. We might have to dump you. I
am grouts, I am groots. I am great. Now. It's
too bad there's not an off day one of those
weird series where hey, the Guardians are in town, like
they come into town on an off day on a
(16:39):
Thursday and they all go to a Galaxy game. So
you can say, here's the Guardians at They would show
them before the game, going, hey, look at the Guardians
at the Galaxy. That would be pretty cool. That would
be so I mean, I just want that to happen.
I think you're excited about this. Should really put it
to Major League Baseball or a change, and and one
(17:01):
more t J. If they're gonna play the Dodgers, then
they go down the road and we would see the
Guardians Angels series, which should take place in Manhattan. Had
Guardians come on at Guardian Angels and Guardians of the Galaxy,
that's the as. That's when I came up with, well,
(17:22):
I mean, you do get to wear a cred fedora,
you know, a red beret. I should say it's a
red and uh and a colorless leather jacket like a
pert and and and and just to let you know
that is that. I'm I'm out of Guardians jokes. After that,
I'm about I have no more Guardians jokes. I think
(17:43):
there's only those two. I don't know that there's another
Guardian joke. I'm sure you will think of at least
just because you normally don't stop it too. It's like
eating a chip. Yeah, that's true. Or in your case
of big Mac, you're not stopping it to Oh I
had another Big Mac today, buddy, one of the big
Max today. Oh yeah, with extras awesome sauce. It was great.
It was great because my wife kept saying, all right,
(18:04):
I gotta get when you've been talking about this, I'm
gonna run out and get food. You like, yes, get me,
get me one. She came back, she Oh, it's pretty good.
She goes, it's a lot of lettuce. I go, it
is a lot of lettuce. I will say that off,
shut the calorie and take off. Now, you know, I
gotta pause this. I gotta ask Sam a question. Sam,
this is the Jason Smith Show with Mike Harman. Why
(18:25):
did we have so readily equip and quote from Ben.
I just have that on my main wall. It's a
great Ben Mallard dropping him saying good sauce. It was apropo.
We played the drop of him calling you a hobo
all the time when he concerned about that. You know
that's Ben Mallor's voice saying hobo, right, No, I didn't
recognize it as hobo. You didn't know that. That's Ben's
(18:46):
voice saying, Hobo, you know, I just haven't had the
good sauce in the right place at the right time. Yeah,
they see that. That's what it is you want because
the US, you have the bad sauce in the bad
place at the bad time, and doesn't heny man, I'm
just trying to make sure I don't lose my my footing.
Mike Harmon has been replaced by drops off a computer. Now,
(19:09):
let me say this the day after the NBA Finals. Today,
everybody with champagne in their eyes. The Warriors win their
fourth title in the last eight years, and it's Steph
and Clay and Draymond. I've kept proceipts on our critics.
Let me just say this alright, because I this has
been where I've been getting hit with all day. I
don't hate Steph Curry, even if you think I do.
(19:31):
What I do is I put his excellence in the
proper perspective. And I get that that's not popular because
it seems to be the only take you can have
on Steph Curry. Is this guards the greatest? He is
a great player. Is he an all time great shooter?
Yes he is. But that's all he kind of has
to be with this Warrior's team. All right. Again, people
(19:53):
forget Steph was in the league for six years, he
had made two All Star teams, and the Warriors were
lucky if they made the playoffs. Eve Kerr shows up
and suddenly it's a dynasty. Why Because he understood what
he needed to do and what he could do to
take advantage of what Steph Curry did. Well. This is
why I say Steph Curry is a system quarterback. He's
not a system quarterback that comes in and plays okay
(20:14):
with the team. He's a system quarterback that comes in
and boy, he's really terrific because of what's surrounding him.
The Warriors system is phenomenal, right, but he doesn't have
to worry about playing defense or to set plays up
or rebound. So when you talk about all time greats
and it's Steph, He's caught Lebron No Lebron, James and
Janice and and all these guys, they're all better players.
(20:38):
These are all guys who are better players than Steph
Curry is. Steph does one thing, the most important thing
in the NBA really really well. He puts the ball
in the basket but he went from a nice twenty
three point of game player to a thirty point of
game player when Steve Kerr showed up. That's what he is.
He's not close to these other guys. He's not close
to k D and his prime. He's not His numbers
(20:58):
flow from within that off If you took Steph Curry
out of the Warriors and you put him on another team,
and this is where Steph understands, Hey, maybe I need
to stay here because this offense is built around what
I do well. If you put Steph Curry on another team,
is he this guy? If you put him on the Knicks,
is he's suddenly getting freed up for all these threes?
And as they go up and down the floor in
the floor of the offense, of course not it's there's
(21:20):
four guys on Steph oh, and he turns it over again.
The Warriors have created this offense around what he does well,
and he does it great right, and now he's he's
moving up that list in the conversation of great players
all time. But he's not close to what the best
players in the NBA do now because they're asked to
do so much more. Lebron in his prime. K d
(21:42):
Janice especially are asked to do so much more, and hey, defensively,
you need to worry about X, Y and Z as well.
This is what these guys do, what Steph does. Steph
does great, but too suddenly because he scores a lot,
he's great. This is like saying, hey, Dominique Wilkins, is
he one of the is he is he one of
the top three or four mount Rushmore players in the NBA?
(22:04):
No Demominique Wilkins in the eighties was the human highlight machine,
right because he scored, He put points on the board.
But Atlanta didn't win, didn't have the right system. We
weren't able to get past the Celtics. But this is
kind of what Steph Curry does, and he does it great.
And I'm not saying he's not a great player, but
you have to put what he does in perspective. You
put excellence in the proper perspective. Right, If I'm taking
(22:25):
for the next few years, am I taking Steph Curry
or John Morant? I'm taking John Morant who does more
things for his team, John Morand and Steph Curry. John
Morant does more, right because he holds the ball more.
He dishes, he scores, he plays defense, he does everything.
There are just players that simply do more and and
the things that Steph Curry doesn't do as well as
the We just brought Rushman away because he's so great
(22:46):
and he has a great image and everybody enjoys him.
And that's a big part of stuff too, is that
because he has such a great image that it's it's
impossible to criticize the guy. But yeah, he's great, he
is awesome, he is outstanding. He is a great, great player.
He deserved the m v P. He's got four championships.
He's moving up the list in conversations for great players
of all time. But let's just understand that when you
(23:07):
talk about him compared to the other great great players
who are playing now, he's still a level below because
he's not asked to do as much. He can't get
big shots at the end of games. Right where where
where's the list of all Steph Curry great buzzer beaters?
Where's stuff Jayson Tatum. As much as I lead you
astray on Jayson Tatum, Jayson Tatum's got more game winning
shots because Steph can't get his shots in the final
couple of minutes of games. This is why when games
(23:29):
are closed down the stretch the Warriors, it's a toss
up because he can't get his shots off because he's
too small, and the teams are able to get in
on him more and shut him down and and close
down the passing lanes, so we can't even get in
and make a pass to somebody who's wide open. So
it's just it's not that I think the guy's great.
I've said it all the time, but people want to
(23:49):
blow off when I say that. When I say he's great,
go oh, you know, like, No, his greatness is in
the proper perspective. That's how we should talk about Steph Curry,
and that's how we go with his publishments, with winning
last night and moving on from here with four championships
and getting a chance to go for another one next year. Yeah.
I mean the hard part is it's all compartmentalized, and
depending on how old you are, you hold certain players systems.
(24:13):
Teams dear right go back to whatever Kobe shack the
Jordan's bulls right because Jordan had years key with Doug Collins.
They're getting into the playoffs, they're getting deep into the playoffs,
but they don't get over. Phil Jackson comes in, they
lose in the Eastern Conference finals, and then they win
six of the next eight. Alright, we we don't discount
(24:38):
Jordan's for the early years. Rather likewise, Steph, I, you
know something changed. The Triangle came in and and look
Scottie Pippens there, and you unleash hell upon the Eastern Conference.
And folks go back and say, well, he was playing
against a bunch of plumbers, which takes me to the
other point. Go back to right, if we're gonna go
back in time, look at the teams that the Celtics
(24:58):
and Lakers were running around. We don't denigrate Magic or
Kareem or Worthy or Bird or any of those guys.
I mean, here's your Uh, we got Worthy fighting with
Cedric Maxwell over all sorts of stuff. So you know,
you got all that fun that that goes through. Go
back to the Bill Russell era. Uh, and you know
where how teams were constructed and the way things flowed,
(25:21):
and and there's problems and caveats that we can make
with all of them. With Steph, it comes down to, yes,
he's likable, except once he starts chewing his mouthpiece. Certain
percentage of folks are gonna be mad. Well, yeah, time
things and getting a little chesty, which I liked because
you know, he was petty and they were all really petty.
I think that was the one thing. And I've been
(25:41):
saying it all along in these playoffs. If if you
ever had a doubt and you and you really did
believe guys when they said I don't hear stuff. Uh,
they They've told you loud and clear, one after another.
Blank you. I heard everything you said, even if it
was the three in the morning on a Tuesday, Uh,
in a in a in a bar that was closed down,
but because they wanted you to sober up before you left,
(26:02):
they poured you a cup of coffee and you were
waxing poetic about the NBA game that was on replay.
They hear it, Okay, they hear it all. Richard Jefferson
confirming that in his post finals talks and Steph and
Clay and everybody. You've got receipts for everything. That's fine,
but we we look at and analyze the game. Right
(26:22):
For for Steff, it's it's just becomes the fun discussion
because all of it is just you decide where your
your starting line is. And generally any of those discussions
aren't discussions. It's just I'm going to stand for my guy,
and if you go against it, you're an idiot. That's
where we're at everything in this society. And when it
comes to Michael versus Lebron, now Lebron, Steph add Kobe
(26:44):
and Duncan and whoever else you want to the conversation,
you pick and choose which parts of the guys, games, personalities,
whatever else you like. There's no denying one thing. Lebron
has changed the game, right with some of the way
offenses run, and he's a singular talent, so trying to
replicate that you're gonna have varying degrees of success, right,
(27:04):
But when we look at Steph, I mean, you can't
doubt that what the Warriors did change how teams work,
and Steph unselfish, all of those things. Those are all
nice attributes, and it becomes the if you want to
stand for Steph Curry, that's gonna be part of your
larger argument. But at the same time, if you're pick
your other guy, right, we we talk about it in
(27:25):
the moment, right because for a while, as you do
the show. The show is that night. Who's the guy
you're looking as like, Oh, the best guys Kevin Durant
and now he's just an afterthought fighting with people on
Twitter again. It's how it comes, man. I want to
get back on social media where I want to fight.
I want to fight right now. But that's just that.
It's the ebb and flow. You pick your guy that
(27:47):
you want to stand for, grab the statue you like,
throw out those you don't write. The Lebron and Michael
thing right. Lebron defense comes up against Steph, but never
against Michael. Be sure to catch live, ad issue and
some The Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays at
ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey, I'm Doug Gottlieb.
(28:09):
The podcast is called All Ball. We usually talk all
basketball all the time, but it's more about the stories
about what made these people love their sport and all
the interesting interactions along the way. We talked to coaches,
we talked to players, We tell you stories. You download it,
you listen to it. I think you like it. Listen
to All Ball with Doug Gotlieb on the I Heart
(28:31):
Radio app, Apple Podcast orherever you get your podcast, what's
next for everybody else? By playing? And now it's the
Magic Johnson twitter day. Oh boy, oh here it is.
It took a while for Magic Johnson, but he did
(28:54):
eventually start tweeting about the NBA Finals. So here we
go the most obvious and vanilla tweeter in the world,
Magic Johnson. I give you a tweet. Your job is
to figure out if it is a Magic Johnson tweet
or made up entirely by myself? Playing? Is me, Mike Harmon,
Steve de Sager, Justin Frostburg? Are you guys ready to go?
Let's get it on. In the end, Steph Curry, Clay
(29:19):
Thompson and Andrew Wiggins were too much for Jayson Tatum,
Jalen Brown and Marcus Smart, with Steph winning his first
NBA Finals m v P. For the playoffs, the average
an incredible twenty seven points, six assists and five rebounds.
Is that a lot of stuff going on, Magic Johnson.
I'm gonna satan. No, no, no chance, no no chance.
(29:45):
I think you saw too many clips of Paul McCartney
singing with Springsteen, and you wanted to sing and in
the end, and then you rattled off a bunch of stats.
That is not we're tweetion. You guys are good. I
assume the current magic tweet is you can see my
Dodgers on Apple You have Apple TV right now. His
(30:10):
last tweet is, Hey, does anybody know where I can
get the Dodgers game? You just put that out there.
Steph became the seventh player in NBA history to win
four NBA Championships and multiple league MVP Awards. He joins
Lebron James, Michael Jordan's, Tim Duncan, Kareamed abdul Jabbar, Bill Russell,
and some guy that wore number thirty two for the
(30:31):
Showtime Lakers? He is that a magic Johnson tweets I'll
go with the peacocky, I'll say no, I'm gonna say
absolutely with the peacocking. It's got to me that is
a magic Johnson. There we go, let's go. He's reminding everybody, Okay,
(30:56):
Laker fans, time to get down to business to put
another bad here in the rafters next season? Is that
a magic Johnson tweet? Okay, why not time to get
down to business to put another banner in the rafters
next season. Does he have the same tweet about a
Lonzo Ball. Time to put that in the rafters. Hey,
(31:17):
you're gonna hear about Lonzo ball before this show's over,
my friend, Yes you will. I'm gonna say, no, that
is not magic. Johnson tweets, Not Steph Steph Curry can
do it all? Is that a magic Johnson tweets Surry
(31:40):
can do it all? Does all include defense every game? No?
Do it all? He actually has a pretty high overall
defensive rating. But you know lies damn lies statistics. Um,
I'm gonna say no. Yeah, I'm way too short a tweet.
No way, that is not a magic Johnson tweet. Thank
(32:03):
you Steph Curry for entertaining us and putting on one
of the best performances in NBA Finals history. Congratulations on
your fourth NBA Championship and first NBA Finals MVP. Better
than his performance in finals history. No, yeah, no, no,
he would talk about other than that guy that Moore
number thirty plus. He would show Clay some love he
(32:28):
loves and he to have a picture of winning time. Okay,
you're all saying no, and that is a magic tweets.
Didn't think he was going back to the well. He
should have just said this is just as good a
Finals as Cedric Maxwell had that one year. I think
(32:49):
I think Magic's leaving Cedric Maxwell to James Worthy right
easily leaded a Worthy right now. So there it is. Hey,
we'll continue to play the Magic Johnson Twitter game coming
up next hour, but straight ahead, how about out some
conference finals predictions in the NBA next year. This is
Fox Sports Radio
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Mike Harmon
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