SGA or Ant-Man: Who’s More Like MJ? | Pacers Respect | OKC 90's Bulls Comparison

The NBA is entering a new era—and it feels legendary. 🔥 In this episode of Pick'em Pros, we break down the future of the league and draw bold comparisons between today’s stars and the GOAT himself, Michael Jordan.

🏀 Main Topics Covered:

More Like MJ? – Is it Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Anthony Edwards? We debate who channels Jordan’s game more: SGA’s surgical precision or Ant’s raw explosiveness.

Respect the Pacers! – Indiana’s playoff run is no fluke. We explain why they’ve earned their flowers and why the Knicks weren’t ready.

OKC = 90s Bulls? – Too soon? Maybe not. The Thunder’s depth, defense, and draft assets have us seeing déjà vu from Jordan’s dynasty days.

AAU Causing NBA Injury Crisis – Are year-round youth leagues breaking young bodies before they hit their prime? We explore how early sports specialization may be shortening NBA careers.

NBA Finals Predictions – Who’s making it to the big dance? We make our picks and break down each Conference Final matchup.

Whether you're a hoop historian or just love the game, this episode is packed with bold takes, laughs, and deep insights from a father-son duo that lives for sports talk.

Pick'em Pros is a father son duo who enjoy talking sports, debating and having fun while doing it!

Please subscribe to the podcast today and share this content with your friends!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I feel SGA is underrated right now, especially
with all the hate and slanderthat he's getting from the free
throws and whatnot.
Man, people are notappreciating what he's doing.
It's very similar to how peopledidn't appreciate what Joker
was doing before Joker.
Joker had to get the title.
There's a whole bunch ofrevisionist history going on.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
A lot of people, myself included- didn't

(00:41):
appreciate Joker until he gotthat chip.
All right, don't care if youready.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back.
You know who it is, I am DerekThompson.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
I'm Diego.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Thompson, I'm Mike Sims, I'm Christopher C Payne
Davis, and who are we?

Speaker 1 (01:03):
We are Pick'em Pros.
We are the Pick'em Pros comingback at you in the house with a
special episode of who you Got.
Oh man, episode 136 coming toyou from the studio here.
Thank you to everybody thatmakes Pick'em Pros go.
We got a fire show as we talkabout the NBA conference finals.
So, man, we've got again.
Like we said, we got ourspecial guest here in the house.
We got the man who was thefirst ever guest on Pick'em Pros

(01:24):
, mr Michael Sims.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
That's right how you doing my man.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
I'm doing good.
I'm doing good, excited to beback.
I can't believe y'all waited solong to get the Detroit feel
back in the house.
It's all about the D baby.
It's all about the D, that'sright.
All about the D man.
Detroit baby, yeah, represent,shout out to all the Detroit fam
and our guy Michael Sims,author Michael Sims, amongst
many other things, and we'll betelling you about the book that

(01:49):
he has here, leadership, alittle later in the show.
And then we got our otherguests, c Payne, christopher, c
Payne, davis, here.
How you doing, my man Doinggood, it's been a wonderful
Friday.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
You feel me.
I'm really excited for thisgame tonight and I wonder why
you're still sleeping on thePacers.
You feel me?
Yeah, and just remember whomade the Pacers pick?
And everybody looked at himlike he was crazy.
One game dude, all right, allright.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
We gonna get into that.
And then Diego, my man.
So you know clearly, cpain teedthat up.
We're going to talk about thePacers.
Are they for real?
They had that.
What some people are sayingmiraculous comeback in MSG, the
other night no pressure win,that's what I like to call it.

(02:34):
Yeah, I like that, I like that.
So that's going to be a lot offun.
Great show, a lot of fireworkshere.
So to give you the rundownfirst we're going to talk about
who is more like MJ.
All right, is it SGA or is itAnt-Man?
So we see that's a fun debate.
Some people are trying to say,oh, nobody, you can't compare
anybody to Michael Jordan.
Oh, except Kobe, or nobody, allthat kind of stuff.

(02:56):
Look, I grew up in the Jordanera.
I grew up seeing Michael Jordanplay in the old Chicago Bulls
stadium, so I'm more thanqualified to talk about this.
So we're going to talk aboutthat.
All right.
We've got the Pacers againmaking their magical carpet run
here.
Are they going to make it tothe finals?
We're going to talk about that.
C Payne thinks so, and we'regoing to see where Mike falls on

(03:19):
that.
We've got OKC.
All right, are they the next90s Bulls?
All right.
Again, some people think that'sblasphemous, so we're going to
talk about that, all right.
Then we've got AAU basketball.
Is that the reason why we haveall these freaking injuries in
the NBA right now?
Let's talk about that.
And then, last but not least,who's going to be in the finals.

(03:42):
We've got the final four.
Who's going to be in the NBAFinals?
We'll talk about that.
All right, y'all ready for afire show?
That's right?
All right, all right.
Well, let's get on into it.
Let's start with our first one.
We're going to talk about whois more like Jordan.
Okay, is it Ant-Man or SGADiego?
Why don't you go on and kick usoff on this one man?

(04:04):
Well, it's definitely SGA.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
SGA is more like Jordan.
First of all, it's theconsistency.
Last three years he's averaged31 points, 30 points and 33
points about five or sixrebounds a game in these seasons
On over 50% shooting.
All these seasons.
Those are Jordan-type numbersand all of Jordan's MVP seasons

(04:27):
with the Bulls and they were inchampionships he was averaging
at least 50% at like 49%, 48%,stuff like that.
So I like that and the killerinstinct.
I see the poise between them,both when they play and just the
winning teams, how they're ableto lead their teams to wins

(04:48):
while still being like they'reon good teams but they're
clearly the leaders and themid-range game just getting open
for mid-ranges.
I see a lot of the similaritiesin those two.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
I see it, I see it.

Speaker 5 (05:01):
Well, Mr Sims, let's go to you again.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
You grew up, bad boy Pistons.
That's right you used to beatup the old Michael Jordan.
That's right.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
We didn't beat him up , you raised him.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
We made him who he is today.
We made him who that wholedocumentary.
It wasn't even about Jordan, itwas about the Pistons.
He still got it in his blood.
I noticed Diego gave thestatistics or whatever.
Right, but you got to take twothings.
It's the statistics, thenumbers, but you also got to
take the eye test.
All right, and it's a littlebit of actually both of them if

(05:32):
you really look at it,especially how when ant go to
the hole, when ant want to go tothe hole and ant want to just
flush this on somebody, youdon't see that as much.
You know you stay by to stilldo their dunks.
When you still flush it onsomebody, that's a whole
different ballgame and that'sone of the things that makes
Ant-Man a little bit more likeJordan.

(05:53):
The statistical numbers, whereAlexander is there, but I look
at Ant with the eye test andjust how he carries himself his
swag going around the floor.
You know he don't get thetongue stuck out, but it's just
a certain little you knowmovement in his body that he get
, just like Jordan used to getwhen he used to start rocking
back and forth and he startedgetting that and he come up on
that back leg and stuff, or yousee him cock back to go back

(06:15):
with that step back.
Yeah yeah, yeah, I think it's alittle bit of both of them.
A of them, a little bit of bothof them.
You know, the inside joke, ofcourse, is that he look a little
bit like Jordan.
That's right, he does.

Speaker 5 (06:27):
Let's get it out on the table.
He definitely looks like hecould be.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Jordan's son.
Let's call it out.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
No doubt about that and I will say, before we throw
it to you, c Payne, I hadn'tbeen as excited about the NBA as
I was in the first round lastyear when Ant-Man was losing his
mind against Phoenix.
I hadn't been that excitedsince the Jordan days, the way
he was taking over.
So I will just throw that inthere, all right, cpay.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
So I will say that they're reminiscent of two
different eras in MJ.
I would say that Ant is morethe rookie MJ before the dynasty
, before the team is fullyformed.
For me especially, it's theokay, I'm going to do the best I
can, but again, he's alwaysrunning into teams that he might
not necessarily be able toovercome.

(07:18):
Then we get to SGA with a fullyformed OKC team with a bunch of
star players around him who canalso assist him with a Caruso,
with a Ch formed okc team with abunch of like star players
around him who can also assisthim with a caruso, with a chet
holmgren, with a jalen williams,and having that full team
together.
I think that that is morereminiscent of you feel me the
of the 90s which we're going totalk about later but I think

(07:39):
that shay is more indicative ofbeing a leader of that type of
team because he has gone throughthe laps With the Clippers and
him learning who he was going tothe Thunder, having CB3 really
train him and help elevate hisgame, then just seeing SGA
really grow and fully blossominto his own with a great team.
I think he's more reminiscentof the Dynasty Jordan where it's

(08:01):
like, okay, you're going totrust that he's going to kill,
but there's a bunch of otherpeople around him that can
definitely help him out.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, that's a great, great point.
Y'all make fantastic points, soyou definitely did your
homework.
I love where you're all comingfrom and I agree with many parts
of what you all have said.
I feel that Ant definitelyresembles the 80s Jordan.
Yes, I think he's the 80sJordan.
Sga is more the 90s Jordan.
You know, that's how I see it.

(08:30):
Ant, the way he, you know, getsto the whole charisma, all of
that.
Ant definitely resembles earlyJordan.
But SGA, man, I feel it's funny.
You know we've got the wholeoverrated, underrated
conversation.
I feel SGA is underrated rightnow, especially with all the
hate and slander that he'sgetting from the free throws and

(08:51):
whatnot.
Man, people are notappreciating what he's doing.
It's very similar to how peopledidn't appreciate what Joker
was doing before Joker.
Joker had to get the title.
There's a whole bunch ofrevisionist history going on.
A lot of people, myselfincluded, didn't appreciate
Joker until he got that ship.
Oh, absolutely.
And I feel that's what'shappening with SGA.

(09:11):
We want to discredit all thathe's doing and say, oh, he's on
a great team, oh, he's got this.
Now for one.
We're not giving the coachnearly enough credit of okay,
see that coach is doing histhing.
For sure, coach is doing histhing for sure.
But to stay to stay on topichere, man SGA's poise, the way

(09:32):
he, just when he gets fouled,just gets up, goes to the line,
uh, the, the killer instinct,everything I'm seeing.
I love what I'm seeing with hisgame right now.
He's reminding me a lot.
You're just seeing it in aslightly different package.
You're seeing it in the sameheight, 6'6".
You know like him, but he'smore slender.
So I think if he was a littlethicker you'd see more of that.
And if he was a little moredemonstrative, like Ant, you'd

(09:54):
see that with the leaping.
But Jordan had more of themid-range game, the fadeaway,
all of what you're seeing in thechampionship years is what
you're seeing with him.
Yeah, to your point, if youthink about it in the 90s, as
you're saying it, I'm thinkingabout it a little bit more.
He didn't.
When he got in the 90s it hadmore to do with the longevity of
his career, because he took alot of pounders, pistons, yes,

(10:18):
but he got to the basket more ontwos, not as much of those
thunderous dunks, a lot of thosedunks where you see him on the
nicks and all those.
Those, like you said, were donein the 80s or whatever, when he
got to the 90s and Jordan nevergot, you know.
I mean, he gets credit foreverything else, but just his
ability to get to the basketAlexander SGA can get to the
basket.
I think it's just phenomenalStat.

(10:42):
It's just crazy how he's ableto get to the basket.

Speaker 4 (10:45):
Yes, yes, yeah, he can get to the basket.
It's just not like the dunksand like all that stuff and
that's what people you know arekind of slandering a little bit,
but he just gets there sosmooth he does like that, yeah
it does.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
It's not all that flash and excitement, so at the
end of the day, because that'swhat we're used to seeing.
But to your point, which Ithink is good, you know, once he
gets that that award, you know,and that that that chip cause I
, I I do think you know I ain'tgoing to get on that right now,
but they're going to get it atthe end and stuff, right, that's
going to put them.
Put them up there For sure.
I feel his at the numbers.

(11:18):
His career is going to ageamazing, just like Joker's
career.
His career has already agedamazingly just over the last
couple of years.
He's like a legend already.
And again, this is not a shot.
When you leave something, thisis not a shot.

(11:39):
Sometimes it's a shot.
I don't feel like LeBron'scareer is going to age very well
when we look at it.
I agree with you.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
I actually agree with you and it's not a shot.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Right, because you're speaking from please correct me
if I'm wrong you're speakingfrom the expectations on a lot
of that which he put out himselfor whatever.
So when you don't reach that,you know at the end of the day,
that's what history kind oflooks at, on what you didn't
necessarily achieve and a lot ofthose expectations he put on.
Because, let's be honest, we'resupposed to be looking at all
these chips with the lakers.

(12:13):
It ain't happening, yeah, andalso my muscle point that's a
great point.
With lebron, you're gonna lookat, okay, what did he do?
Well, what was he amazing at?
Know, it was not a greatshooter, it's not a great.
You know he passing was hismain thing.
You know again, great leader.
What I think he should get themost credit for is the

(12:34):
expectations that he came intothe league with.
The expectations that he hadwas totally unreal and he
surpassed the expectations sothat you cannot give him enough
credit for that.
He surpassed the expectations,so that you cannot give him
enough credit for that.
But I just feel, when you lookat it down the line, especially
when the next generation comes,and then when we compare, we
have to nitpick, and I feel thatwhen we nitpick.

(12:54):
There's going to be a lot topick at, so that that's why I
say I don't think it's going toage as well as some of the
others.

Speaker 4 (13:01):
That's the only reason why I never want to be
truly not a shot, never, neverwant a defensive player that you
have either.
Just things like that.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, that's all I'm saying yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree
.
That's all I'm saying.
Yeah.
So, yeah, great, greatconversation.
But yeah, definitely want tohear your comments on this.
If you have any questions, letup, if we have anything, and we
will, uh, definitely, uh try toattack those, but yeah, it's,

(13:28):
it's going to be great.
This is something that we'llcome back and revisit.
So I feel we're early on this,just like our conversation that
we're going to have in the thirdblock.
When we talk about okc and thenreminding us of the bulls,
again, people gonna think that'scrazy, but I really, really
feel we'll be able to rewindthis show and play this years
from now.
People are going to say, wow,they were really ahead of it on

(13:48):
this.
We will see.
All right, well, let's get toanother fun one.
Let's get to the Pacers theteam that's shocking the world.
All right, let's get to Chris'sPacers here.
So now, diego, you've got we'regoing to start with you.
You've got some videos that areout on social media.

(14:08):
You made a very bold take.
It's gotten a lot of hits whereyou said that you were still
sleeping on the Pacers.
You said you hadn't woken upyet.
A lot of folks have a lot tosay there.
And then, on cue, the Knickslooked like they had it and then
just collapsed at the end andthe pacers give them credit.
They played well in the lastfew minutes of that game,

(14:31):
decided to play and were able to, uh, get lucky and win that
game, yeah.
So then you, on cue, the verynext day, said you woke up from
your nap?
yeah, went and you went andlooked like on social media.
You went and bought a Hellcatcar with all the money that
you're about to make, becauseyou're saying Nixon 5.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, the lines have swung
so much.
You know, I just figured thatwas a very well way to spend my
money.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Okay, yeah, alright.
So what's your take on thePacers man?
Are you still sleeping on thePacers?

Speaker 4 (15:09):
I'm still asleep.
Actually, I just woke up to dothis show.
I had to do that for the fans,but you know, yeah, other than
that, I was still asleep.
So, yeah, they got lucky.
You know, when they're downlike 50 points towards the end
of the fourth quarter, they'rebetter than the Bulls, you know.

(15:29):
So that's just, that's justwhat they do.
A knee smith with his jump manthrees uh, I call him max.
You know he kicks his legs outsuper wide.
Look at jump man logo.
Yeah, uh, hallen burton uh,they will not win another game.
Nixon five nicks got clutchplayer of the year.
Jalen brunson he's gonna showout again.
He's gonna get some help fromthe rest of his supporting cast.
They're locked in because theyknow that when they're up a lot,
they've got to hold on to it.

(15:49):
The Pacers will play with nopressure, amazingly.
They've just got to hold on tothe lead.
Now they know it's learning.
That's why Nick's in five.
Give them a game.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Now all they have to do Knicks in five, you know,
yeah, yeah, give them a game.
Okay, all right, game and game.
And now, you know, and all theyhave to do is just protect the
ball at the end of the game.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
Yeah, and it's easy money at this point.
Yeah, easy money.
Okay, all right, okay, defensetoo.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
All right, mr Mr Sims , what you, we didn't even know.
We're going to be here, butwe're going to give it all.
We got right on to the end andthat's what happened.

(16:36):
Now, what has happened evenmore and I hate to say this as
much as I hate to say this, Isee Indiana coming out of this,
because now it just gets tighter, tighter, tighter.
What is that?
What is that?
Is that my hands going uparound my throat?
Oh, oh, oh.
Is that a?
What is that?
Is that my hands going uparound my throat?

(16:56):
Oh, is that?
Is that a?
Reggie Miller?
And I just think that, and I'mgonna tell you what Jalen
Brunson done to my Pistons gaveme a lot of respect for him, but
it's so.
Can you imagine, can you imagine, being Madison Square Garden
right now, in New York period?
It's bonkers right now.
In New York period, it'sbonkers right now.
They got so much pressure onthem.

(17:17):
Did you see all those Hollywoodand old sports elites in there?
Everybody, everybody was inthere.
And that pressure starts going.
Eh, eh, eh.
Because there's no way in theworld what was it?

Speaker 2 (17:29):
70-point lead that they had right there, I believe,
17-point lead.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
There's no way they should have lost that.
There's no way.
And now guess what?
Indiana said even more hey, wegood to go, we all loosey-goosey
, we can just go on and play,and I just think that's what's
going to help them out even more.
And I just see Indiana as muchas I hate to say this, not an
Indiana fan Nothing for them,nothing against them, but I

(17:55):
think they're going to come outof this.
Yeah, you make a great point.
I mean, it was definitely thewho's who in Madison Square
Garden the other night.
There were people that I didn'teven know were still alive.
They were there after the game,so it was pretty impressive.
So when they come out of thegrade, they had some legends in

(18:17):
the building expected to win now, so they're gonna fold.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
That's what they did, okay, yep well, listen, I'm
very excited with what thespacers team did and again we
can say that the next collapsethey like felt the pressure.
But again, when you're playingwith house money, your entire
playoff run and nobody thinksyou're there, it does give you
an unbridled, recklessconfidence, like you know.
Obviously, having a layup andthen running back out to try to

(18:44):
hit a three, you think you hitthe three and then you hit the
Reggie Miller choke while ReggieMiller points at you, which
again, all-time basketballmoment.
And again, if we're on certainplayers that I'm a fan of not
being willing to take that shot,I think that we should give a
certain player more credit forbeing willing to take that shot
in Tyrese, halliburton and he'sreally been performing and

(19:04):
elevating this team.
And really there's games wherehe's not the best scorer, but
again what he does as afacilitator, as the engine of
that team Not the best score,but again what he does as a
facilitator, as the engine ofthat team, is something that we
have to commend.
But we also have to think abouthow well Pascal Siakam plays
Aaron Neesmith, literallygetting them to that moment with
five straight threes, whichagain that's an all-time heater.
I don't think we've ever seenin basketball ever.

(19:26):
So I do think that they're sowell-rounded and because they
can bring you to the ground and,of course, because Tibbs
doesn't go to the bench.
You know that those players getdog tired if they're getting
run over and over and over againbecause he's not stopping
anybody out.
So the only way that the Knickscan really win the series is if

(19:46):
the bench scoring does happen,does help out, does improve,
because I feel like, again, withpacers they had, they could go
so deep that you don't reallyhave to like you can rest your a
bunch of your starters versusthem.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
They're relying on their five, six guys and that's
not not a successful way forthem to win well, you know, what
was interesting about that runin the fourth quarter was that
the knicks made that crazy runwhen Brunson went to the bench.
Yeah, he got in foul trouble,he got in foul trouble.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
That's true he had, I don't know if it was four or
five, five fouls, five fouls.
It was five.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Went to the bench which I thought they should have
kept him in, and then I thinkthey were up two, three points
right around there.
So it's like, okay, let's justkeep it, try to keep it even,
and that's when they extended itto the huge league.
But then it got too good tothem, because then you got Cat.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
God bless him.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
God bless him Talk about Cat being Cat looking at
his hand, looking at his veins,looking at the crowd standing up
against all the antics.
That did not help.
They got a little help from therefs there.
Shout out to coach RickCarlisle, one of the best in the
business.
He did a masterful job with hischallenges.

(21:07):
He is a great coach.
A lot of respect for him.
What I will give them?
I feel that I feel the Knicksstill win this.
I think they win it in seven.
I feel that the Knicks takecare of business tonight and
then they split in Indy and thenI think it's just home, home,
home.
I think the home team wins willplay out.

(21:29):
So it's going to be game seven,madison Square Garden to go to
the finals, and the Knicks pullit out and that's going to be
their championship.
They might as well just have aparade and just lose their mind.
And you know what?
I wouldn't even be mad at themIf they're so long and again
that Knicks crowd.
you can see that they're goingto celebrate that just by going

(21:52):
to the finals they already named.
They named uh streets aftersome of the players after
winning.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
That's crazy, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Yeah, so, yeah.
So just ride, ride that out, goahead and have parade, because
we already know what's gonnahappen when they?
Face okc.
So, yeah, just have your parade.
I would not.
You're probably getting swept.
Yeah, yeah, I do.
I do think that everybody knowswhat Indiana who's who's as far

(22:19):
as high as shooting percentageright.
Is Indiana right now for theplayoffs?

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Okay 50%.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Okay, I'm saying that to say they're never out of any
, any game.
If you look through this, thisplayoff series, with all the
games, and I think they've onlylost two, but they've never
really been out.
So I'm saying that your seventhgame could probably be a real
scenario here.
It's just going to be a matterof again you're going to see

(22:47):
another launch up and hit theback of the rim and it drops in.
Then they win in Madison SquareGarden.
Now, thank goodness.
My only thing with that game isthank goodness that his toe was
on the line, because if thatshot actually won the game and
it was in that fashion, then Iwould have been devastated

(23:09):
Because for a second, if I'mreal, I was devastated for a
minute Because I was sittingthere.
Like I know, this didn't justhappen.

Speaker 4 (23:18):
My whole body like went numb.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
It went down to Madison Square Garden, Lord, and
then his toes.
I was like thank you, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank
you.
Then, of course they stilldidn't pull it out, but at least
it wasn't on the show.

Speaker 6 (23:30):
It wasn't like that.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Oh man, with him doing a choke sign too.
Yeah, that would have been yeahyeah, yeah, that was good, that
was good, that was good.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
Very Duke-ish.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah, very much, very much.
All right, all right, cool.
Well, let's move on to the nextone.
Y'all let's go to again, again,back to OKC here.
All right, are they the next90s Chicago Bulls?
Diego, we've been talking a lotabout this at home, off camera,
in the car.
You know I've just throughoutyour childhood, you've seen

(24:03):
countless videos of the JordanBulls Scottie Pippen, horace
Grant, phil Jackson, all of them.
So even though you're young, Imean you've been doing this for
four years, been doing thissince you're 11.
You're very well-versed withthe Bulls.
Hold on, let me look at thecomment here, professor.
Let's read this here.
So Professor says OKC is thetotal package.

(24:24):
The championship is signed,sealed and delivered by Motown.
Ok, all right.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
Yes, yes, sir, yes shout Child to professor on that
.
All right.
So, diego, go ahead and tell usman, yeah, okay, see, they're
definitely the next ChicagoBulls.
I mean it's like SGA.
Sga more resembles Jordan JalenWilliams.
Now he's really the perfectsmall forward.
You know he's tall, long,wingspan, strong, you know, can
really do everything shoot, pass, get points in the paint.

(24:50):
Do everything, shoot, pass, getpoints in the paint.
You add a 7'1 center with aquick step and a shot, which is
just a total boost to their team.
I see, definitely.
I wouldn't predict 6, becausethat's pretty crazy.
I'll say definitely.

(25:10):
3.
3 championships for sure.
Definitely the next dynasty ofthe NBA and SGA will be an
all-time great by the end of hiscareer, for sure.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah, with the West being so loaded, because when
you look at those old dynastyteams, when you look at the
Lakers, the West was weak backthen.
They had a cakewalk every yearto the finals.
It was a shock that Houstonbeat them that one year and
played the Celtics that year.
That was Elijah Wong wasn't ityes, yes yes, I think when they

(25:45):
had the Twin Towers.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
That's right, right, right, ralph Sampson.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
But a lot of people say they just didn't want to
play that Celtics team that year, right, right.
People say they just didn'twant to play that Celtics team,
right.
And then now with the east,with the Celtics now the Pistons
came of age a little later andthen you know, you have the
Sixers, wouldn't I say?
I'd say, if anything, theCeltics had a rougher run during
their reign and that's why theygot three.
So I think that more, I thinkthe Celtics reign resembles more

(26:10):
of what the um, uh, okc Thunderwill be and that's why they got
through, because the East was alot tougher.
But yes to your point.

Speaker 4 (26:17):
Yeah, that's a big part, because you know the West
is loaded.
Some of these other guysprobably like Cooper flag, maybe
when B you know some of theguys coming up and get one.
Yeah.
So, but yeah, clear dynasty ofthe frontrunners.
And if they get three in thisera I think that would be big.
Just the roster construction,the defense, the coaching, the
general managing.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
It's all about the eye test.
It's all about the eye test andI'm quite sure you young bucks
have got to look at the video.
I think two of us up herequalified to see it live.
Yes, they do look a lot likethe 90s, and we're just going to
talk about the teamconstruction Bulls more from a

(27:00):
defensive standpoint.
If you watch them and if you'reseeing what's happening with
Minnesota right now, minnesotahasn't been able to score.
Where did most of their pointscome from?
Inside the paint.
They haven't been able to scorethe.
Did most of their points comefrom Inside the paint?
They haven't been able to scoreRight, right, the reason, if you
watch them, if you watch themand it's so much, you're on

(27:21):
point, like the Bulls, theyactually are playing the man to
man, but it's a cheat man to man.
What do I mean by that is, ifyou watch them, watch the next
game, they don't get right up ontheir man, right?
They're waiting for somebody tocome in to the paint and the
minute they come into the paintthey collapse.
Now different ones, outstandingcoaching, they they know who

(27:43):
collapses when, whatever, sonobody, all right.
That's why, when ant does thatlittle move and he goes to turn,
somebody's already there on theother side.
They already know who'ssupposed to.
They have done it enough inpractice.
If you go back to the 90s Bullsor whatever, it was the same
thing.
That's why you would see andeven with the Pistons, pistons

(28:05):
did.
That's why you would see theyou remember this the scoring
would go way down during theplayoffs Right now.
I know, I think Indiana Pacersare.
I think they're the onesleading there like average of
119 points a game right now.
In the playoffs.
You didn't have that.
You had 80, 80-something,90-something averages back there

(28:27):
, but that was because of thedefense and Oklahoma is showing.
I got to give it to them thatthey're playing defense.
They are playing defense.
They are Great point.

Speaker 3 (28:38):
Great point and with everything you guys said, I
really think that, with the waythe West is and the fact that
they have so many picks where,even if something goes wrong on
their quest to a dynasty, theycould still try to swing a big
star, because I mean, shootwhere you gotta wait for a
middle schooler for real.
so if there's like a team with asuperstar and they're like

(29:00):
desperate enough, they'll justbe like hey, like we'll just
give you this pick and like youknow, maybe 2030, so that we can
, you know, keep this thingrolling.
So that's the scary thing aboutthis team is, even though
they're already constructedreally well, if they were like,
hey, even if we win thechampionship, let's take a big
swing.
And they're a bunch of big fishout in offseason this year,

(29:20):
which does scare me, and thereare certain people who I don't
want to go to the west, namely,honest, on tata cupo.
I think that there's so manyplayers, they have so many good
assets who've like alreadyproven themselves and again,
because they're such a youngteam, there's so much young
talent.
If there were a trade packagefor like a bigger star, let's
say they like somehow messaround and lose the conference

(29:40):
finals.
What if they're like, hey,maybe what we had isn't good
enough, let's just try to take aswing, which again is more
scary.
So, with what they already got,I mean shoot.
Apparently last night they liketied the katie warriors for the
most double digit wins, likeplayoffs and regular season come
back.
I don't know if anybodyunderstands how scary that is,
because outside of the 90s pools, everybody considers that 17

(30:03):
warriors team the greatest teamof all time.
So if they're having that typeof history, one of the greatest
teams of all time.
I saw your face.
I saw your face.
Listen, I'm just saying.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Just saying, we all know that it was 88, 89.
Pistons was the greatest.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
But yeah, I think that when it comes to the fact
that that's still a potentialthing, even in the midst of
their dynasty, that does makethem more interesting and scary
for the long run in the future,especially in the West.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Okay, great in the West, Great points.
Before we switch to the nexttopic and I'm going to talk on
this, let's talk about the freakfor a minute and where he's
going to go.
Let's talk about that.
Before we go to AAU, let's talkabout that.
Did you have something you weregoing to?

Speaker 4 (30:46):
say I was going to say I don't think OKC needs a
new star.
I think they want to keep theroster, construction and defense
and that whole thing.
The cap isn't going to getmessed up.
You got Chet, you got JalenWilliams.
They're going to get paid too,just like SGA.
I think they're just going tokeep it rolling in this crew.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah for sure.
Okay Now, Summer King, can youput Dwayne's comment back up?
This is Dwayne.
Now, this is the ultimate.
There's no bigger Bulls fanthan this man right here, dwayne
Thompson.
Dwayne Thompson, my brother.
All right, so again he says OKCneeds to win six titles in

(31:24):
eight years to be the Bulls.
Because, again, you don't wantanybody to come and be compared
to them.
So I get that.
But no, no, no, no, see, dwayne, you again.
You weren't old enough to go tothe games right, so you
couldn't go all right.
I got to go All right, so I wasthere, shout out to you I'm also
a fan coming off a.

Speaker 4 (31:43):
Dynasty team, and that's just saying that this era
is over and it's going to beOKC.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
But yeah, man, these guys, again they were groomed,
so again they were groomed.
So again we've got to givecredit to the old bulls for how
this team is being constructed.
Sam Presti actually was groomedunder Jerry Kraus, wow, yes,
yes, so there is some connectionthere, right?
And so it all starts with him,man, the way he's constructed

(32:10):
this.
And so with the picks and allthe assets that they have, again
I don't see them taking a bigswing because they want to stay
relevant and have that longdynasty.
What's going to happen is butwhen some of the role players
get priced out, that's where allthose picks are going to come
into play.
So, they're just going to stayahead, so they're just going to
stay loaded and he's going tocontinue to draft.

(32:31):
well, and continue to draft tokeep that bench deep.
That's how he's going to do itand that's also why I see the
comparison.
That's why so many other peopledon't see it yet, because again
, you've got to see the three,four titles in, but if you just
look at the construction, it'sall there.
It's pieced perfectly.
Like Diego said, you've got SGAthe MVP, a 30.50% field goal

(32:57):
shooter, that's Jordan Ness.
Again, kobe shot 44%.
Kobe was more of a volume guy.
You look at Jalen Williams.
What his makeup, the way heplays defense.
He's long, lanky, can handlethe ball.
He doesn't get ripped intraffic like Tatum and Brown do.
He's able to control and gointo traffic and whatnot.

(33:19):
It's not just one-on-one.
You've got again the amazingpitch.
You've got Chet.
We're sleeping on Chet man,chet dude, he's what.
23 maybe.
Oh, my God Again injury is theonly thing that can derail this
dude man.
He's quick.
His first step is lightningfast.

(33:42):
You watch him.
There's about three or fourmoves.
He makes every game where I godang.
You know what I mean.
At that size it's ridiculous.
So I'm just looking at wherehe's gonna be because he's just
scratching the surface.
Oh my gosh, um the coach tothen the city, only city in town
.
Um, that fan base is rocking.

(34:05):
They've got the loudest stadium, like the bulls did.
Yeah, it's like I say, ifthere's so many similar, if you
just go, boom, the GM, the coach, the construction, the city,
everything.
I'm telling you, I'm tellingyou I've seen it.
I'm telling you it's a lotthere.
So we're going to be comingback to this.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
Curry and LeBron.
Better retire, man.
It's about to get rough.
Man Well, it's got to.
I'm a Warriors fan.
He's got to retire.
It's just over.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
I don't know.
I think he may want to stickaround only because I really
think the Warriors are going toget the freak.
Really, I really think they'regoing to get the freak.
I mean, I think they're goingto get the freak.

Speaker 4 (34:50):
Even if we get the free, it's over what?

Speaker 5 (34:53):
What happened?

Speaker 4 (34:59):
In that game seven, my whole mindset just changed.
I just totally saw the changingof the guard right there on the
TV screen.
It was just like I lost allhope when I saw that.
I actually agree with you.
It's just a new era, man.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
I actually agree with him to some extent.
I kind of saw that I just feltlike that Curry one thing about
Father Time, as everybody knows,he's undefeated and I just
think that Curry, because of hissize and his body, I just don't
think he can take another80-something game season.
The pounding that he takes, Ijust don't think he can take
another 80 you're talking aboutanother 80 something game season

(35:35):
the pounding that he takes, Ijust think that he's going to be
once that injury thing startshappening it starts going boom
boom boom just like Kyrie.
I think Kyrie is just about.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
I worry about Kyrie a little bit.
I do think they would have beatthe Wolves if they had Curry,
but it does say something thathe did get hurt and like that he
did get hurt and like that heprobably just can't do it
anymore.
Like like make these deepplayoff runs.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
Yeah, yeah, kind of reminds me again.
It was a totally differentinjury, but I reminds me when
Isaiah got hurt.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
And that that's a, that's a, that's a and it's
funny, I didn't think about that.
That's an outstanding example,because again you go back and
you know it was that ankle andeverybody was like at first.
They were like oh, yeah, yeah,yeah, they're going to come back
.
And Isaiah, he talks about it.
He couldn't, it's just, it'sjust something because of that
age you start getting thoseinjuries at that.
You know, at that age orwhatever, that's us.

(36:30):
Yeah, yeah, that 80, you knowthey got 80, that 80 something
game season ain't no joke.
82.
It ain't no joke and normallyonce you well, it depends.
I mean, they've got the bestdoctors and whatnot, so he's
really, he's really going tohave to have a great stretching
regimen.
But what I work, pull it again.

Speaker 4 (36:54):
You know if you can get through and not pulling, and
was it a one-time thing or isit going to be a reoccurring?
Yeah, it could, with hamstrings.
That's definitely how it couldbe, but I think, since he's had
one, he it might just likebecause you won't really
understand how it is when youactually get one, like I had one
.
It was like that was tough,yeah, yeah, okay, you can just
look at me as just look at you,just like that, yeah, yeah that
tailbone.
At the end of the regular seasonhe came back, but then he had

(37:16):
another one, so that was allright stuff okay all right, I'm
just surprised diego's giving upon the words he was talking
about spicy we've

Speaker 6 (37:22):
got to win the championship we've had it.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
You know stuff's gonna be the goat.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
All that what?

Speaker 3 (37:27):
happened?
Man wow game seven versusactually I actually might come
ahead.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
I do rank him ahead of LeBron, though.

Speaker 4 (37:35):
Curry yeah, I won't even do that, but I mean, I
definitely like it.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
What do you think?
Cpan Do you think?

Speaker 3 (37:43):
Curry or LeBron.
I'm buying that because thatdude got injured a lot and did
have.
And regardless of how y'allfeel about Kevin Durant being
with the Warriors and Steph'sgravity, I get it.
I get it.
Kevin Durant is still one ofthe greatest scorers of all time
and he joined a 73-9 team.
And they say that this team,which was supposedly needed to

(38:05):
be better than the Chicago Bullsbecause they lost 3-1 to LeBron
, were like hey, let's hire thismercenary.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
And then.
But if you're going to do that,lebron, going over to with deep
weight in the rest of the yearafter we do that.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
Lebron's hopped around all over the league east
west yeah, everywhere.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
That's why I give curry over lebron, because he
wants to play with like he does,he does.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
That's why I give Curry over LeBron, Because he's
saying LeBron handpicks who hewants to play with.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
He does, he does.
That's why I put him overLeBron.
I'm not just counting LeBron,he's running around.
Lebron's running around, curry,right, wrong or indifferent.
Again, he can't help it thatwhat's-his-name came to him or
whatever.
So it ain't like LeBron, lebron, he's running around, so we're
in the way of the Miami Heat tothe Lakers who were in a

(38:57):
rebuilding phase.

Speaker 4 (38:59):
They just got Luka.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
No, before we got Luka Before we got Luka.
We were terrible before we gotLeBron and then we were like, oh
, bring an AD in.

Speaker 4 (39:10):
But again we're comparing that to a 73-19.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
That's just all I'm saying.
We're comparing.
Every time LeBron team hoppedto KD, going to a team that is
supposedly better than thegreatest team anybody's ever
seen.

Speaker 4 (39:23):
So Steph gets hate for bringing in one all-time
great.
He's brought in Luka AD Prime DWade Prime, bosh Prime, kyrie
Prime.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Kevin.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Love he's right.
Steph gets hate for bringingone guy, he's right.
He's getting behavior forbringing one guy.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
I'm not going to hypocrite, I don't care For that
one guy at that specific timewhen he lost 3-1.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
to those guys, yes, he is getting behavior LeBron
couldn't get over the hump inthe East, but like Stephen A
Smith said LeBron did get astimulus package.
So, with them suspendingDraymond, yes, yeah, that's a
good point.
Yeah, oh man, this is great.
This is great.

(40:04):
This is a fun one, oh man, allright, so let's move on to the
next one.
Y'all Great, great stuff here.
So let's talk about AAUbasketball.
We got about 15 minutes lefthere and we've got our man,
brandon, joining us at the end.
Okay, so AAU All right, there'sbeen a lot of injuries in
basketball, as we know, but yetwe're in the load management era

(40:27):
.
So, being in the loadmanagement era, why are there so
many injuries?
And I think in our last episode, we were like you know what?
It must be due to AAUbasketball.
So, diego man, what's yourthoughts?
And again, you're currentlyplaying AAU right now.
Do you think there's anycorrelation between AAU and all

(40:47):
the injuries that we've seenover the last several years?
It's not like it's justhappened this year.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
Yeah, definitely, I definitely see that Guys like
LaMelo Ball.
He had his reality show backwhen he was in high school.
He played so much AAU, so muchhigh school basketball, went
overseas when he was just a highschooler, just played all those
reps and I think that's theinjuries he's gotten in his

(41:11):
career.
Tayden played a lot of A like a.
You saw him just tears achillesat only like 27, 26 years old.
Um, you know just all these.
Yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
So I definitely definitely see it with the guys
in the league now and so, andmike, you know you again had a
son that played basketball and Iknow you he did not play a you,
but you've been around coaches.
I know a lot of people wantedhim to play AAU.
So what are your thoughts onthe correlation?
Yeah, I got some strongopinions about AAU, what it has

(41:40):
become, and it's really funny tome because I look at it as you
know, everybody knows Venus andSerena Williams.
Venus and Serena Williams andif you know the story real quick
about their dad and tennis hasfor you to come up in the ranks
in tennis.
They not only have AAU, theyhave these circuits, but they

(42:02):
play these phenomenal amount ofmatches.
I never knew that and againfound it through the story from
their father.
He didn't let them play.
That was his big thing andeverybody said to him when he
started getting them in you know, playing in what's called a pro
circuit a lot of people saidwell, they haven't had enough

(42:23):
time, they didn't play.
You know enough matches, blah,blah, blah, blah, blah.
And the realities of it is theywere good and he concentrated
on their fundamentals and lookhow long they lasted in tennis.
I mean a long time.
Yes, they did.
Aau is does not anymore practiceor they don't do anything.

(42:45):
As far as fundamentals, thenumber one thing they are
they're looking for is everybodytrying to look for that one top
person to be on their aau team,whatever so they get that coach
can make them a star.
They don't teach these guys theyou know you, your kid, could
be on the aau team and literallybarely get any touches because

(43:07):
that one or two stars that theyhave on there, they you know,
the coach and all of them istrying to focus on them.
And uh, the money you shell outas a parent is insane.
I hear these numbers and theseare like like real numbers
between like eight, nine, tenthousand dollars or whatever,
and you think a lot of wherethese kids are coming from and a

(43:27):
lot of them don't have that youknow money to shell out and
they doing you know they sellingchicken plates and and they're
doing little fundraisers andfish plates and stuff like that
to play AAU basketball.
So yeah, I was a proponent andwanted my son to.
I got to give credit to my wife, she really didn't want him to

(43:48):
get into all that and mostlyconcentrate on school, because
it takes a lot of that.
When you're doing high school,you're doing AAU and all that.
It.
Concentrate on school becauseit takes a lot of.
You know, when you're doinghigh school and you're doing AAU
and all that, it can reallytake a lot out of it.
But I just think that AAU nowhas missed its mark and it's
just more of a marketing toolfor certain players.
Gotcha, yeah, yeah, one thing,and give it to you c pain.

(44:10):
So with diego, you're playingau right now.
I think it was two weeks ago.
I paid 25 to see you play onegame and I was like okay,
something, 25, am I gettingbucks?
This is covered with a parkingpass.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Right, am I getting you know some food, some popcorn
coming, whatever Right T-shirt.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
And they escorted you to the bleachers right.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
You didn't get in no seat, they said here you go
right here.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
This is a really hard seat.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
And it was so funny.
And then, you know, I pushedback, I was like'm not even, I'm
not even fussing, I just thinkit's more funny.
Right, you know?
Right, so right, but yeah, yeah, it's really gotten out of hand

(45:04):
.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
But see, pains, oh, my other thing and you were
talking about the cost is theamount of barrier of entry for
really talented kids who justdon't have the money.
That's another issue, becausehow many talented kids who could
be superstars, because they'rein adverse situations, aren't
able to make it as well?
And again, with the whole wearand tear it does on your body
because again you got AAU andthen you got them trying to go

(45:25):
to a D1 college or be nice at amid-major and they still have to
like go through that journeyover and over and over again.
And it's just like then you getto the nba and you're like,
okay, 82 game season with allthis practice, all these reps,
and if you get, let's say,you're a high draft pick, you're
gonna be drafted to a bad team.
In order to sell seats you'regonna have to be playing all 82.

(45:47):
So it just builds upon itselfover and over and over again
where it's like, okay, are wegoing to really taking the
players concerns at this point,you know, when it comes to
adjusting to the back to back?
So, like, what's going on withyou know, cause sometimes, like
with the finals, like with thisplayoffs, I thought it was crazy
that, like you know that.
Okay, see, and what was that?

(46:07):
What was that OKC and Nuggetsgame where they play like 36
hours after and everybody's like, oh, why did OKC come out and
the Nuggets come out flat?
And everybody's like, well, itwas 36 hours ago, they just
played it overtime.
Why are we just like throwingthem out here right now, like
nobody's probably got any goodsleep?
It's just like, oh, we got tolock in again.
So I think that we just I feellike there has to be a time

(46:33):
where we can just like let theplayers like settle in and let
them grow over the years,instead of just immediately
rushing them and be like okay,we need you to be our next
franchise guy so that theirinjuries don't start piling up
when they're young.
Because, again, you want theseplayers to be at their best and
you, I know you want to infuseyour team with youth, but you
still have to make sure thatthey're able to adjust to all of
this.

(46:53):
Because of the because again,it's the tires and treads thing
you can't keep running thesekids over and over and over
again and expect them not to endup hurt.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
We had some conversation earlier.
Could you talk, derek?
Could you mention a little bitabout I hate to say this word or
whatever, but back in our daywhere you had the guys that were
paid three sports, four sports.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
You know, could you talk about something about that?

Speaker 1 (47:19):
Yeah, I think that's a lot of it as well.
So the players are not having achance to recover in the
offseason because they're beingforced to pick their main sport
and because you're seeinginjuries in all the sports.
It's the NFL, it's all of them.
You're seeing more ACLs andeverything now Achilles and it's
because they're playing onesport year round and they're not
having a chance to rest.
And back in the day, right,they would play.

(47:41):
Your top athletes would playthree, four sports and you're
working different muscle groupswhile you're playing those
different sports.
So if you're playing basketball, you're working a certain set
of muscles and then, when youswitch to another sport, your
basketball muscles are restingwhile you then work in other
muscles.
So that also is another reasonwhy there were less injuries

(48:02):
back then and more now, becauseyou're specializing in tennis
and then just playing that 24-7.
Or if you're football, eventhough you've got a short season
in the fall, now you've got tofreaking play 7-on-7 year-round.
It's like spring Every singletime we drive by Clayton High

(48:22):
School okay, we're coming at you, north Carolina, we're in
Clayton, north Carolina, allright.
Every time we drive by the highschool, there's a group playing
7-on-7.

Speaker 4 (48:31):
Right Like right when basketball season ends.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
Exactly, I'm like man .
It's you know, may, why are youplaying 7-0-7 right now at
midnight?
It's the craziest thing.
So, yeah, it's just everyone's,you know, trying to make it to
the league and just focusing onone sport and playing that sport
year-round.
That's why you have that.
Then with AAU, you've got thepolitics and the corruption

(48:57):
there that's leading to themtraveling all over the country
and playing a whole bunch oftournaments and trying to be
seen.
There's laziness from theschool standpoint because they
just want to go to a tournamentand see all the All-Stars play
and pick their players from that.
When, again back in the day,you had to travel and go to all
the different high schools, itwas a big deal.

(49:17):
it was oh man, dean smith it wasgonna be at gardner high to see
donald williams play you knowthat was a very big deal and you
just don't have that.
You don't see these collegecoaches going to all these high
schools anymore.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
Even these, like prep schools, like, are creating,
like many aau teams during thewinter.
That's true, it's like you got,like you had cooper flags, team
montverde you had five you hadfour guys that are gonna.
They're gonna go first round inthe nba.
Another guy could have gone,but then they went another year
in college.
So yeah, it was it was.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Uh, it was funny because in high school I ran
track and cross country.
That was my thing, track andcross country and every cross
country season, just when wewere just getting started at the
beginning of the season, thebasketball, the cross country
season started a little bitbefore basketball season, but
the basketball coach would makethe basketball players join the

(50:12):
cross-country team and run withus or whatever.
Right, someone was pretty good.
Actually, we got a littlelittle man and just because you
know, someone was taking somespots and stuff, right, right,
but they would always drop offbecause basketball season would
start.
But you know, now, looking backon it and thinking about how
they would get them in in shape,and you're talking about the

(50:33):
different muscles and thingslike that, again, I just think
constantly, I mean, look at howmany games by the time that you
know, uh, and you hear a lot ofthese basketball dads, now nba
dads, who got these sons inthese.
A, it's a big deal now, that'splaying all of these.
You know carmelo anthony's sonand um, it's a bunch more and
that's playing all of these.
You know Carmelo Anthony's sonand a bunch more and all that.

(50:53):
But they got them playing somany games before they even get.
I still think that's whathappened to the Ball sons and
stuff.
No doubt, no question, noquestion, no question, yeah,
yeah, no question.
No coincidence that you knownone of them can finish the
season from day one.

(51:13):
It was from day one, and it'spublicly known how much ball
they played before.

Speaker 4 (51:20):
everybody played astronomical amounts of
basketball and then you know inEurope how physical they are,
like LaMelo ball going overthere.
It's just a 16 year old likethat had to take a toll on him
too.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
That's a great point, all right, all right, all right
.
Well, we got a few minutes lefthere, so let's uh talk about
the finals.
Who's going to be in the finaltwo?
And then we're going to bringbrandon on for his three-minute
recap.
Uh, get big shout out to lexi'sbus and bacon.
You can see your website,lexi's bus and bacon, on the
show right there.
Check them out.
They have amazing cookiestreats.
You definitely want to get allyour goodies there, especially

(51:58):
this weekend, so please checkthem out.
Much love to Lexi's Bussin'Bacon, our sponsor.
All right, so let's talk aboutthe Final Four here.
Nba Finals All right, so Diego.

Speaker 4 (52:12):
No doubt, just two teams OKC New York, both in five
.
Yeah, they'll have a lot ofrest actually for the first game
, so yeah, A lot of rest.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
Ok, yeah, quick work, because game one of the NBA
finals is Thursday, june 5th, nomatter what.
Oh, wow, yeah.
So if both teams finish up,then okay, quick work.
That's what you said.
I'll go.
Kc Indiana, kc Indiana.
I think I'm going to takeOklahoma, yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
I have KC in Indiana as well.
I do think that Indiana isgoing to.
You know, listen, I wassticking with the Knicks, but
I'm ah dang.
You know I didn't switch mypick.
I've been flip-flopping sincethe Lakers have been out Not
gonna lie.
But I'm OKC, you know.
It's just I like switched rightbefore, but yeah.

(53:10):
I do think that when it comes tothe Knicks, I am concerned
because of how Tibbs runs up tothe ground, and again when it
comes to like him having momentsof being outcoached in the big
spots, that gets a little bitconcerning.
So I do have, okay, so thePacers, I do hope okay.

(53:31):
See when's it, though, Becauseagain, I do think it's going to
be a bit more boring finals foreverybody, but at least one team
you know gets to end a drought,championship drought.
So that's what I'm glad for forthe parody for the NBA is that
we're getting.
We're on seven years of beingable to have a new champion, so
a new champion, so that's beenreally fun.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
Yeah, it would be good to have a new champion.
And you know the Thunder.
They remind me a lot of theBengals.
With the standpoint of when theBengals made their run to the
Super Bowl, everyone's like, oh,the Bengals, same old Bengals,
nobody wants to see the Bengals.
And then the very next yeareveryone was excited to see the
Bengals and I was baffled by itbecause I'm looking at it.

(54:11):
I'm like the Bengals arestacked offensively.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
You got.

Speaker 1 (54:14):
Joe Burrow, you've got the receivers, you've got
Chase, you got Higgins, you gotthe tight end.
I'm like why don't y'all wantto see the Bengals this team?

Speaker 2 (54:23):
is stacked.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
And in the very next year, of course, once they made
the Super Bowl, everyone wantsto see the Bengals.
It reminds me of the Rams, thegreatest show on turf Right With
Warner and them.
Everybody thought snooze fest,because they just came out of
nowhere and made it to the SuperBowl.
Nobody wants to see the Rams.
And then the very next year,everybody was hyped about the

(54:43):
Rams Marshall.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
Falk, torrey Holt you know all them.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
It's just funny.
So I think that's the samething with OKC they haven't been
to the finals yet, Even thoughthey're loaded with talent.
They've got all thesehighlights.
It's just that mentality.
When they win the chip, thennext year, watch, it's going to
be a totally different sentiment.
Just like how it's so funnywith Denver.
Everybody felt this way aboutDenver when Denver was big.

(55:08):
Nobody wanted to see Denver.
Now, all of a sudden, Joker'sthe best player in the world and
the most exciting player in theworld to see.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
Nobody was saying that about Joker when they were
making their run and playing theLakers.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
It's like you got to win it before.
People then give you thatrespect and then all of a sudden
think that you're an excitingteam to watch.
Like I said, the only exceptionto that are the old Spurs.
The Spurs just stable.
That's true.
That's true.
I don't know why.
I don't know why, and it'sbecause Duncan, you know again
nickname is fundamental,fundamental, yeah, yeah.

(55:43):
And it's kind of funny too thatI'm not talking about, you know,
above Jordan, or, but it's kindof funny that his name is not
even mentioned.
But statistically andchampionship wise, he in there,
he in there, he got five easy.
Never talk about it why because?

(56:05):
you're right, you know.
Oh gosh, I forgot who it was,but I'm looking right at him too
.
Steven Jackson, yeah, he talkedabout how you know.
If you know how he was, he hada lot of mouth when he was on
the court and he talked like heused to always try to say stuff.
He said Tim Duncan never wouldsay anything back, and then he

(56:28):
said he was trying to and TimDuncan did one of those moves
and stuff and he said good try,good try.
He said good try, fella.
And he said he just never.
But again, because he didn'tbring all that flair talking
trash going at.
So I do think Tim Duncan needto be getting a little sprinkle
in that conversation.
Yeah, absolutely, no doubt I'vegot OKc.

(56:51):
Oh yeah, um, nicks, I thinknicks winning in five.
No, sorry, not five, now you'regetting caught up.
I've got okc nicks and I seeokc uh winning the, winning the
title.
so that's all right, I see thatsee all the way around see that
going down.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,so it's going to be wild.

Speaker 4 (57:10):
They just will not mess up the finals.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
No, please don't, Please don't See it, please
don't.

Speaker 3 (57:15):
I'm an agent of chaos .
Let's see it.
Let's see the mess up.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
We're going to get to Brandon's three minutes and
then, before we go, we've got tomention your book.
Let's bring Brandon on.
I know he's got a lot to sayfor this three-minute recap, so
let's get Brandon's minute here.
Let's bring him on.
What's going on, my man?

Speaker 5 (57:40):
What's going on everybody?

Speaker 1 (57:41):
All right, all right.
Good to see you, man.
I know everybody's excited tosee you, as always, so we know
we got our three-minute recap.
Now we do have to.
We're on a tight time, so atthree minutes we do have to
grind, so we're gonna have tocut you.

Speaker 5 (58:00):
Right then, my man.
But let's go, let's hit theclock.
What, what's your take oneverything we talked about?
What you want to hit?
Um, obviously, uh, I do havethunder and nicks in the finals.
Hopefully, okay, nicks, don'tmess it up and make it a thunder
bases finals, because growingup, the last one I've seen that
was kind of boring was the netspurs finals in 2003 so yeah and

(58:24):
I was like nah, never again.
But uh, then the bubble came,so I'm like we need great finals
matches.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
That's a real hit in your heart.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
That's a real hit in your heart.

Speaker 5 (58:37):
This is how you know when it's a snooze fest in the
finals.
When they broadcast the finals,you be like wait a minute, it's
the finals, that's a greatpoint.
That's a great point, man.
It's like they broadcast thefinals.
I was like, oh yeah, so here'sthe finals, oh okay.
That's how smooth-spaced it is.

(58:57):
I think it's just like I respectthe Thunder Don't get me wrong,
I respect them.
It's just I think it's like whenyou play in a small market
environment, it's tough to winover the national media because
they look at like the locationthat you're in and be like, eh,

(59:22):
I mean, you got a great player,but the city don't.
It's not a glamorous city.
So it's like if you're playing,you know, if you're like a
reggie miller, indiana, or chrisweber in sacramento or tim
duncan in san antonio, they hadthe pressure of trying to have

(59:43):
success in a non-glamorous city.
Where it's like they try to winchampionships in nine glamorous
cities.
So it's like I think theenvironment feels that and they
feel like, hey, it's us againstthe world.
So, whatever the paces and thethunder feeling, they kind of

(01:00:04):
feel the exact same way whereit's like, hey, the national
media, no matter what we do,they're never going to give us
respect.
We could win the title and thevery next season we could not be
even on the list of teams towin it.
All Right, because I rememberwhen Milwaukee had won the title
and the next season'schampionship was Phoenix, nor

(01:00:26):
Milwaukee was even on the list.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
That's true, that's right.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
That's right.

Speaker 5 (01:00:33):
So I think, like I think OKC Indiana is looking at
like hey, nobody expected us towin or nobody expects us to be
in this position.
Let's try to shock the worldand, like you know, let's prove
all errors.
I mean, pistons did that threedifferent occasions, whether it

(01:00:55):
was the 80s or the late 2000s,and they all beat the Lakers.
So it's like I think it comesdown to like just understanding
the expectations, and they loveto be the underdog and overtake
that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
Yeah, I agree with that, Alright, brandon.
Well, we're at our time.
My man.
Well, hey, thank you Again.
We're taking next week off.
We got one more thing to hithere, but we'll see you in a
couple of weeks.
My man, we'll see you Friday,june 13th, alright, alright,
alright, my man, thank you,alright, cool, friday, june 13th
.
All right, all right, all right, man, thank you, all right,
cool, cool.

(01:01:35):
Well, we're going to get out ofhere.
We are at our time, but beforewe do that, two things that we
want to mention.
First, we've got man MichaelSims here.
It's great to have you back,you again.
You were the first guest here.
All Things Detroit, big dealhere locally as well, but you
are one of the best leaders Iknow, and so it's fitting that

(01:01:57):
you've written a book onleadership.
It's about to drop soon, butwhy don't you put that in the
camera and tell us a little bitabout the book that you got
dropping?
Yes, so appreciate it,especially to call out for
leadership.
I am huge big on on being youknow, people being good leaders,
so I was last for years towrite a book.
I've been extremely blessed,blessed.

(01:02:20):
I spent 21 years in the UnitedStates Marine Corps.
Nine months of that I spent inIraq.
As far as combat, I work forPepsi as a senior account
executive, um mayor pro tem forthe town of clayton.
Um, I've literally ran awalmart as the store manager.

(01:02:40):
Um, I've been citizen of theyear, so I've been in a lot of
leadership positions, um, a lotof them.
I haven't even mentioned, uh,some other ones, but from that,
um, I approached this book froma lot of them.
I haven't even mentioned, uh,some other ones, but from that,
um, I approached this book froma lot of different leadership
aspects what it takes to be aleader, how you can be a leader.
In a lot of stories that I'vegotten over the years and stuff.

(01:03:02):
And, uh, I really appreciatethe fact that, because some of
my leadership stuff I've evenlearned off of you.
And uh, you got one of thecomments in the forward in the
book there too, so it's onamazoncom.
It's called Leading from theFront.
The reason why I picked thatout is because if you see on the
front, there's birds on thefront.
Every year birds go down south.

(01:03:22):
The birds know they're goingdown south, but there's always a
bird out front.
Out front Leaders have to beout front just like that bird,
even though everybody know wherethey're going.
Somebody got to be out front.
So yeah, it's on the, it's onyour shelf there.
It's a good quick read andsomething that you can actually
use at work.
So, if you're a leader, want tobe a leader.

(01:03:42):
Everybody's a leader.
Somewhere You're leadingsomebody.
Even if it's yourself, you'releading somebody somewhere.
Absolutely, absolutely, yes,yes.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Yes, on Amazon.
Cop that on Amazon.
Yes, yes, support the family,definitely want to get that.
So, yes, much love having youhere.
And then one last item Makesure you go to vpickinproscom.
Go to vpickinproscom, get yourmerch.
Got new fire items dropping allthe time, so you definitely

(01:04:14):
want to check that out and getall of your gear there.
All right, well, y'all man,it's been a great show, great to
have all y'all here.
So good job, good job.
We'll be off next week, the weekoff, and then we'll be at Kings
.
Yes, we'll be at Kings.
Raleigh, north Carolina Fireshow Fire lineup.

(01:04:36):
We'll all be there Saturday,saturday June 7th.
We will be at Kings and thenwe've got our final two
in-studio shows for the seasonFriday June 13th and Friday June
20th, as we wrap up the NBAFinals, and then they will be
going into the summertime.
It will be back for season fourin the fall and it's going to

(01:04:58):
be something got a whole lot instore for season four.
So getting ready for that, allright, well, much love, much
love to y'all.
We're going to get the outrogoing here and we will see y'all
in about two weeks.
All right, until then, pick'emPros, we'll see you later.
We'll see you later.

Speaker 6 (01:05:37):
Pick'em Pros is a show you've been waiting for In
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Lincoln and Tate and Tate Gameflow.
They know not your same old,same old.
Come and see the double D's,derrick and Diego, dropping the
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(01:05:57):
follow the fun.
A dynamic duo, father and son.
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(01:06:19):
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You already know the namePick'em pros is the show you've
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Let it flow NFL, nba and more,making your day for sure,
blinkin' and taking a tour Can'tstart on the right track with a

(01:06:40):
Pick'em pros anthem Stop randomand dance on tandem.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Want a pair of sneakers?
I was so eager.
And a phone call featuring afandom.
When it comes to the right pick, they're all psychic, Even

(01:07:03):
keeping psychic boom.
The activity is seismic OutroMusic Without them, you would
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Every social platform shouldn'tbe that hard to find them, From
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Just remember that the fatheralways knows best.

Speaker 6 (01:07:20):
Pick'em pose is a show you've been waiting for In
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Let it swell NFL, NBA and more,Making your day for sure.
Blink in and take the tour.