Special Edition DP Show: 05/28/18

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. What up to it?
Good Monday Memorial Day morning. I'm Doug Gottlieb Alongstmoman Jason
McEntyre founded the website known as the Big Lead. You
Can team on Fox Sports One. This is the Dan
Patrick Show, and for the eighth consecutive year, Lebron James
will be playing basketball in the NBA Finals, and I

(00:25):
think we're gonna talk about it just a little bit,
little bit, a little bit, a little bit, a little bit.
And of course tonight the varsity play, although we still
don't know if Chris Paul will play, We don't know
if Andrea Goodala will play, and we don't know if
Kevon Looney will play, but we do know the Rockets

(00:45):
and the Warriors will play. Will get into that as well.
Jason happened Oral Day. Great to be here, Doug. First
time I've ever posted the Dan Patrick Show, and I'm
honored to do it with you. To find scholar and gentlemen.
I think we're gonna have fun with Lebron today, are
we not? Uh? We will, we will. Look, I'll just
I'll give you you know, my my my quick basketball take.

(01:08):
Lebron was amazing last night, and I think, um, he
has reached this, this this point in his career where
he um his basketball intelligence is off the charts, and
he still has the athletic ability to compete at incredible,
incredibly high level and and sometimes like if there's a
continuum with athletes in sports, right, the intelligence and the

(01:32):
wherewithal that comes with experience doing it time and again
and athleticism, like you know, you get to Peyton Manning's
last year, he was bad, he won a super Bowl.
He's not good. John Elway limped his way to his
last two Super Bowl titles, Jordan's. When Jordan went out,
he was still on top, even though the last year
in Chicago's still on top. I don't really even consider

(01:53):
the Wizard's years, but those years were when his body
wasn't as able as his mind was. Lebron what's amazing
about it is that he is at this kind of
peak moment, seemingly mentally and confidence wise, for a guy
whose confidence has varied, and yet still an incredible athlete
with incredible endurance. And let's not forget this is a

(02:14):
guy who played eighty two games. As if to prove
a point, doug Hey, I can do it, Michael Jordan
did it. I can play a D two lad the
league in minutes per game. Certainly. Uh, you know Lebron
has had a tremendous postseason, but you were so positive.
I will just push back a little if you will. Okay, Okay.
We talk about and our friend Colin Cowherd talks about

(02:35):
how lucky the Warriors have gotten due to injuries the
last few years. How lucky did Lebron get this postseason?
The three best players he went through in the East
Victor Rola Depot, Damar de Rosen, and Jason Tatum, I mean, Doug.
They avoided the Calves did the four best players in
the Eastern Conference. Kyrie Irving was hurt, Joel Embiat and

(02:56):
Ben Simmons got knocked out, and Janice of course got
knocked out by Boston. So I know people are bending
over backwards to praise Lebron and say, listen, he was tremendous,
he had a great series. But I thought yesterday, I
thought the difference, and I know people are gonna hate this.
I thought Jeff Green was the difference yesterday. He had
a career playoff high in this postseason with nineteen points.
He hit the big shots. Remember in Boston, No Calves

(03:20):
had been showing up. J R. Smith was over eleven
on threes in the three games in Boston. He hits
three yesterday. No, the cash showed up, for sure, I'm
not I'm not going to dispute any of that. In
terms of the actual game, Boston lost this yes, as
much or even more than the Calves one. In the
first half. I mean they had multiple opportunities to break

(03:42):
the game open. They were up twelve. Yeah, in the
second quarter. Specifically their shots selection. It was some quick shots,
some bad shots, some some deep twos and giving up layups.
And I thought they got I thought Terror Rogier showed
himself to listen for people to understand. Terror Rogier is
the fourth guard on this team, the fourth guard. He's

(04:02):
a backup. And I thought that that played out over
seven games. You know, you you freak out over some
early season some early playoff performances. But again, look at
who they were against. He did lat up Eric Bledsoe
when they were at home. He was great against Blood
Cell and he played well at home against the Sixers.
But part of it is the Sixers don't really have

(04:23):
a point guard to match up with them until they
play tajt J McConnell. So so, but again t J
McConnell's a backup as well when you play again. What
what what I think people outside of guys that really
know the NBA have to explain to you is there's
a difference when you're a bench player. When you're a starter,
you're playing against the best in the world four players

(04:46):
in the NBA, and when you're playing against the starters,
you're playing against the top sixty in the world. And
that's just a different level of competition. But here's the
Do I agree with you? On the road was a
lot easier than we than it normally. Yes, but I
think you're getting caught up in the players. Did they
get favorable matchups? Yes? Part of that is that's Lebron.

(05:08):
Lebron knows put Toronto my bracket. I don't care. Nobody
cares about Toronto and best regular season record. Nobody cared
last year in Boston and the best record that isn't
that's not indicative of a great team. He knew exactly
what he's doing, exactly who they're playing, and he knew
two games games won. In Game five when they had
no shot of winning. He effectively shut it down. He
saved his energy so he still had it. And they're

(05:32):
playing the Boston Celtics without their two best players. So
of course it's an easy road. And excuse our view
of of Van Gundy said though this is the this
is the worst team, essentially said, this is the toughest
test he's had to get to get to the Eastern Conference.
But no, it's not. Okay, Well, let me defend Van
Gundi for a second. I don't know him from at all,

(05:53):
but I will say this what this team has been
through this year, Doug. The Cleveland Cavaliers had Derreck Rose
go a all in November. Yes, okay, uh. Kevin Love
went to the Medians that I'm having panic attacks. Okay.
Kevin Love also missed Game seven. Half the team was
traded in February. The coach had to take a leave
of absence. I would say mentally, emotionally, Lebron went through

(06:16):
more than he ever has. I mean this what what
this this season was in j R. Smith, through Super Tyrondo,
the soup, the Souper incident, they were totally dreamed. Okay,
but in two thousand and seven that team sucked. They
were awful, and they beat a really good Pistons team
that had been to seven straight Eastern Conference finals and

(06:38):
went again the next year. And I'm like, that was
that's a that's a tougher road than this is. It
just is with an inferior team, like we we can
talk all about Derrick Rose. You know, Derrick Rose wasn't
expected to be a factor in the in the playoffs anyway.
Right at the end of the day, they traded for
George Hill, who has played in and he hit just

(06:59):
enough shot to and play just well enough in a
couple of games. You know, Look, Jeff Green, of course
he had the open heart surgery. But there's a guy
who has been a viable weapon and as a six
or seventh man. Other than that, it's Tristan Thompson's Kyle
Korvins Jr. Smith. It's the differences Lebron surround me with veterans,
because veterans are gonna make shots, and they're gonna they're

(07:22):
gonna do what they're supposed to do, and they're gonna
shut up about the rest. You just said the keyword,
dug veterans. And this is why when people start talking
about where Lebron is gonna end up. I keep coming
back to the Lakers. We'll hit that later in the show.
But I do want to say one thing to you
about the road that and again, these are just facts.
I'm not going after Lebron. This is not me hating Lebron.
People go after don't don't say don't go after Lebron,

(07:45):
then not go after Lebron. In the first round, Lebron
lit up Boyond Bugdanovich. Okay, be people joke to me
on social media that he was a plumber in Serbia
five years ago. Okay. In the second round, he beat
up O g n n O b very good young player,
he's a rookie. Lebron torched him badly. And in the
third round Marcus Morris, who is one of the better

(08:07):
the Lebron defenders. But I've lost track of many All
Star teams he made, so again to push back on
the narrative that this is Lebron's worst team, this is
this road that he went through was laughable. And that's
that's a fact. Well, you actually you kind of did
the You kind of did a little bit of the
contradicting of yourself because you kind of actually paint a
really good Jason McIntire, Doug gott Leevin for Dan Patrick

(08:29):
Dan Patrick Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Because you
did actually kind of paint the story of how difficult
this season was. Why can't both be true? And that's
one thing that a lot of people don't really this
season was difficult, but the team wasn't. This wasn't the
worst team because of the way in which he went
through the teams he had to go through in the air.
That's fair. No, look that that's a that was not

(08:51):
a great basketball game. Last Now, a lot of games
seven's are not great basketball games. The last Lakers Celtics
Game seven NBA Finals unwatchable. I don't know if it
was unwatched. The Warriors didn't score for the last five
minutes of the game, but they couldn't make a shot
because of because you're playing through such fatigue, which which
I actually wanted. That actually is a very nice segue, Jason. Oh,

(09:13):
we want to get to tonight. We will put more
of a kind of a cap a grandiose statement on
Lebron yet another. I mean, like, look, you can you
cannot be Here's the other thing. Two things will be true.
You can not be a Lebron is better than Jordan
guy and not go dude, Lebron is so much better
than everybody else in this court. It's kind of can
we also do the Lebron Dan Gilbert incident? Because I

(09:34):
absolutely love No, we're not going to talk about Lebron Dan,
We're not going to talk about the Warriors and the Calves.
We're not. Yes, Jason, we got we had time, Dude.
How many hours we need? Five lobby for five hours, Doug,
there's a call here, Jason. You won't be with us
next second? Energy, What is in the Coffee Cup so far?
With Jason McIntyre, who of course founded the Big League,

(09:57):
We gotta we do have a metric ton to get
to um. It's it's interesting what Lebron was able to
show is this level of conditioning that we we just
don't see in any other athlete. But it's the It's
the big factor in Game six and could well be
the big factor in Game seven in the West. We'll

(10:17):
get to it up coming next on the Dan Patrick Show,
Fox Sports Radio. Dan Patrick rolls on here on a
Mooral day. Thanks so much for spending some time with us,
and a special Thank you to anyone who's served. We
had somebody close to them, sir, for our country. Doug
Gottlieban for Dan Long with Jason McIntyre, founder of The

(10:39):
Big Lead. Check him out on Fox Sports ones Yakker's show.
We're gonna do some yaking for the next two and
a half hours or so. Um, all right, well we'll
get back to Lebron. Try to contextualize it tonight. It
feels like, um, a heavyweight fight, but we don't know,

(10:59):
we don't know if Chris Paul be there. And speaking
of things, we gotta get to Kyrie Irving not being
in the building last night. Oh I didn't know that,
not even in the arena. Not in the building last night.
What's that about. We're gonna talk about it. It's called
a tease, well done, not in the building? Interesting, Yeah,
that was to say the least. All right, let's sun.

(11:22):
But tonight you have a the two best teams at
full when they're at full s ranked two best teams
in the sport. And I don't think anybody would they
both they would both be prohibitive favorites over the calves.
I mean, that's one one thing that's that's missing. In
the Calves discussion is they were the favorites going into
the playoffs. They were the favorites in the series against
the Celtics before, even after they lost Game one. The

(11:43):
only thing that changed, and I thought that was easy
money yesterday was Kevin Love was out. Um, And look,
I think Kevin Love, you views out for seven games.
It's a bigger deal than out for one game. Jeff
Green can fill in for a game. Jeff Green can
fill in for two seven. It does in fact change.
But uh, tonight you might have Chris Paul, you might not.

(12:04):
He's a game time decision. How do you feel about
a willis Read type moment for Chris Paul tonight He'll
show up, maybe work out in the layup line, start
the game for a minute, just to get everybody energized.
They kind of feed off Chris Paul's mouth. Um, And
I gotta say, they really need Chris Paul to win
this game, though, I mean that there's nobody to create offense.
As we saw in game six. If Chris Paul doesn't

(12:26):
show up, it's James Harden Gordon. They created a lot
of offense in the first course quarter. Yeah, they didn't.
And part of it was Harden couldn't get a call right,
just he couldn't he drives in there. And the way
in which if you don't like James Harden dribbling the
basketball and coming downhill when Chris Paul is playing, oh
my god, don't watch tonight. With Chris Paul is not playing,

(12:47):
it's ten times worse. It's completely off of either transition
or him trying to get into the mouth of the defense.
I think it was twenty one drives he had in
Game six, didn't go to the long ones. And I
will say this. I know people are gonna go crazy
about Clay Thompson obviously, but the defense the Warriors played
in in the paint in Game six, they had ten blocks,
the most they've had in the series by far. They

(13:08):
had seven in Game three when they won. But the
big route if they are gonna block shots, Draymond had
five blocks. You know, Curry had three rejections in that game,
more than the entire Rockets team. So I think they
can do the same formula again, the interior defense, and
eventually they'll get offense from Kevin Durant, who's gonna come
off a milk carton tonight Doug. I promise, I don't
think he was necessarily on the milk. He was. He

(13:32):
has not been good last two games, last two games,
especially in the fourth quarter of Game five, he wasn't
He played the fewest minutes of the Big four. And
you there were some they also didn't need him. They
were playing better without him. Okay, And there you go,
like there were some comments that actually happened. That actually
happens in sports sometimes is that sometimes sometimes the team

(13:54):
is playing well, you don't screw up. It's you don't
screw up a winning hand they were playing. Play has
come on, this guy? Has your team plays better without you?
Like if your Russell Westbrooke a ballhog who's turning it
over and chucking bad shots. I understand. Kevin Durant is
not in that class. He is one of the elite
players potentially, potentially he's a top ten player all time.

(14:16):
The fact that the team played better without him scares
me a little bit. Has to scare you. Make you
a little nervous. Yes, there seems to be something weird
going on with Kevin Durant, But I would also tell you, like,
isn't that exactly what happened? M Clay Thompson that Klay
Thompson was bad basically for for the no no, no, no no.
The point is the point is actually the same. First
of all, Lay Thompson's viewed as a top twenty player

(14:37):
in the NBA. Okay, and instead of having a bad
fourth quarter again in game five, which he did, and
and a weird, really weird start to game six because
he wasn't awful, uh he still had like one of
six and start the game, he felt like he was
forcing some stuff. It's it's fair. I mean, like, look,

(14:58):
part of what I wanted to get into was was
something strategic that that Steve Kerr was able to pull off,
which is, play all your dudes in the first quarter,
go ahead, score all your points. Yeah, thirty nine points.
That's cool, but eventually you're gonna have no legs. It
was a little bit like Connor McGregor and uh, Floyd

(15:18):
Mayweather right where where remember this was. This was Connor
McGregor after the fight, trying to figure out what happened.
I thought it was close though, and I thought it
was a little early of a stoppish. I get like
that when I'm tired, I get a little wobbly and flow,
get me into the corner and the cover and I'll
come back. I don't like it they hit the floor.
I don't look in the ref to you know what

(15:39):
I mean. There's a lot on theline here. They shouldn't
let they shouldn't let me keep going. I talk, but
fair play, don't. That's exactly what it is. It's fatigued.
That's why I thought the ref could have just let
it keep going, let me go down, Let the mom
put me down like wobbly and fatigue. That's energy, that's
not damaged. I'm trying aheaded yeah. Okay. So the point
of the point with McGregor was like even he kind

(16:00):
of didn't understand that was the strategy of Floyd Mayweather,
right right, like like Floyd Bayweather, which was that was
a strategy which is just let him punch out all
his energy so that the only shot he had was
a knockout punch, and he he hid it into the
gloves of Floyd Mayweather in the first couple of rounds.
That's basically what Golden State did the other night to

(16:24):
the Houston Rockets. Houston Rockets punched themselves out of any
sort of juice. In the second That's the only possible
explanation you can give me. The Warriors defense was incredible,
it was better. The officiating wasn't great. I don't want
to hear the officiating, but wait, why if they shot
about the same amount of free throws? It felt like
the calls were kind of bad both ways. But again,

(16:45):
nobody on Houston Doug was creating. It was all James Hardennie.
So because Trevor Or Reason can't get his own shot, no,
no one's no one's arguing that. You also, you just
gave me the stat of twenty one times the m
v P of the NBA drives in and he didn't
get one. Flailing he can flail like, Look, Lebron got
some fandom calls to like this is what the league

(17:06):
has been forever, Like I don't know if like this
is people think. I don't think Lebron is Jordan's although
he's doing some Jordan type things now that he didn't
previously do. But one thing that he does that Jordan
did was he gets calls. Michael Jordan got a ton
of calls, and so does and you know what I mean,
James Harden, Come on, dude, he got no zero calls

(17:27):
the other night. Is that the only reason they lost.
They lose because the refs. No, I'm trying to tell
you they lost because they had nothing in the tank,
because they punched themselves out in first course. Let me
ask you this to go back to Kevin Durant for
a moment. Okay, this guy's never really faced major adversity
since he got to the Warriors. It's been two years.
They steamrolled through the playoffs last year, sixteen and one.

(17:48):
And I just watched some of the motions the last
couple of games of Durant. And you know, I'm a
big Kevin Durant fan. I've said for you about eleven months.
He's the best player in the league. And when I
watched Durant, I don't see that dog in him that
I see in a p J. Tucker that I see
in an Eric Gordon, the hunger, the desire to want
to Really, Hey man, I haven't accomplished, squad. I gotta

(18:10):
go out there winness. Chris Paul is showing that p J.
Tucker we we talked about. He's five years overseas in
Israel and Germany playing basketball. When you watch him out there,
he's got that dog in him. I want to see
that tonight. P J. Tucker is a six ft four
power forward the NBA. He has to have. It's not

(18:31):
necessary dog in him. Kevin duran has got plenty of
dog in him. Kevin Durant last year s last year,
Kevin Durant stair down Lebron James and was just flat
out better. And when you're up to oh and the
four he killed him in the murdered Lebron in the
fourth quarter of the final. Okay, So the idea of
pressure dog, you're up to nothing, you're up there nothing.
There's no pressure in playing in the NBA Finals when
you're up to nothing after you wanted there's two games.

(18:52):
There's plus, there's no pressure in playing in the NBA
Finals against Lebron James. Not when you're up to oh
in the series, when you're tied at three going into gates,
have to do it. Literally, That's why you clearly never
played Oh no, he did it, he went there there.
You don't. You don't play in the NBA Finals twenty
seven minutes, ladies and gentleman, because you're saying things that

(19:14):
just you don't play in the NBA Finals against Lebron
James when they have Kyrie Kevin Love, and you got
your guys, and you've been thinking your whole life about
the second shot the NBA finals after you lost the
NBA Finals early in your career in Oklahoma City, you
don't do that. And then all of a sudden, now
you're playing in the Western Conference Finals against the Houston Rockets,

(19:35):
and go, oh my god, this is so much more
pressure than I felt like. It's not the way it
works like that, but you play a certain way. Watch
him on the court. Watch duran he's uncertain. Do you
want me to read the Steve Kirk comments. This is
what Kurse said about Clay Thompson. Hold on, think about
Durant when I read you these quotes from Steve Kerr
about Clay. Clay doesn't worry too much about repercussions, he

(19:59):
doesn't worry about judgment and results. I think he just
loves to play. He's so comfortable in his own skin.
I just think he wants to go out there and
hoop and doesn't worry about much else. Okay, to me,
where that's Kerr taking a mini jab. But listen, Kevin,
I set you more than the other stars. Because you
just didn't have it. I like Durant, I just wonder
what's going through his mind these last couple of games. Well,

(20:21):
I can Darren guarantee he's What he's not going through
his mind is what Steve Kerr saying about about Clay
and and part of what he's saying about Clay Thompson
is the place to which they they've tried to get
Kevin Durant to be. They tried to get Kevin Durant
to be, to be somebody who is above it. It
doesn't bother him. You have a bad game, you put
it aside, you you drag it over to the trash,

(20:42):
and you keep thinking about the process, the process, the process,
instead of the result. And I do think that he's
dealt with some stuff. I think that that that it
has been a lot thrust upon him because he has
been trained throughout his time in the NBA to just
go and get buckets. And then you know Steve Kerry's
breaking out of Michael Jordan didn't trust John Paxson story

(21:04):
like before the you know, before game five and it
didn't work out well. So some of this is the
mental manipulation. And I'm not saying what you're you're you're
talking about your quote that Steve Kerry is trying to
work into Kevin Durant, and it's hard on the fly.
Like this reminds me Kevin Durant being taught on the
fly when to go and when not to go. For
a guy who like he's a scoring machine, that's what

(21:27):
he is, it's it's it's just like you're taking a
golf lesson. If you've ever gone and taken a golf lesson,
your swing is gonna suck for like a month, and
then all of a sudden it'll get It gets worse
before it gets better. It happens with any swing coach.
It happens with any shooting coach. You don't just magically
go and all right, we're gonna move your shot over

(21:47):
to the right and have you shoot wrote more one
handed and get your left hand out of it. When
you're shooting a jump shot and all of a sudden
you're shooting better, it's the same. It's the same thing
when you go to therapy, you know what, all of
a sudden walk out and go I'm good, I'm good,
No dad issues, no mom issues, i am good. That's
not how it works. I was in a dark place
and now I'm good. You've progressively started to get better

(22:09):
and sometimes you but it's tough. It's tough for Kevin
Durant to get to that place when all season they've coasted.
They're blowing people out, no pressure back against what if
they've done since he got there. They've destroyed teams. And
if you lose a game in February to the Mavericks,
who cares, It doesn't matter, it's irrelevant. There's COVID pressure,

(22:30):
no adversity on Kevin Durant until these last two games.
And when I saw zero assists in Game five, like,
I mean, he hasn't done exactly, but this is like
Lebron has zero assists and like the first two quarters
last night, and smartly, I think Jeff Van Gundy points
out because nobody's made why do you think it wasn't

(22:53):
no not in game five? So Steph Kurt, so Steph
Curry not making shots. That that's that's Kevin Durant's fault.
I don't think that's look. Part of it is, and
this is you have to understand how everything works together.
And if you're the Golden State Warriors, they've been playing

(23:14):
four on five since Seguidala has gotten hurt four on
five at both ends of the floor. If you don't
believe me, simply watch who Houston is going after. Because
before Aguadala got hurt, they were going after Steph Curry
every time down the court, putting him in isolation situations.
And since Seguidala got hurts, like man, they keep going
after Jordan Bell. Why is that they keep going after

(23:34):
u Cavon Looney or Quinn Cook or um what's his name? Uh?
Pacer Hornet spur No shoot, Uh David West. You're like, oh,
I almost feel bad like David West. Please get him
off the court. This is David West was a really
good player for a really long time. That great Player's

(23:56):
a really good Chris Paul made him a really good player.
He he can't play in this series, right. So so
this is where there's flashbacks to Oklahoma City, where every
every time you put the ball on the floor, you're
playing against two guys, there's another guy in your way.
Jordan Bell doesn't know where he's supposed to be. He's

(24:17):
in the way, and so has he reacted well like no,
But there's also sometimes guys that are open for a reason,
and they're not looking to shoot, and Clay and Steph
are being manned up to where there's no nobody's helping
off of the guys that can shoot, and so they've
really struggled with and Houston has been allowed to play
super physically defensives got to make a shot, and they're

(24:39):
doubling off Draymond Grant. He's he's like, I think, two
for eleven and he did make the big one in
in game five, made a big one in game five.
But you're playing against basically two guys are in a
zone and three guys are in man de man. That's
how Houston is playing. And it's really hard to get assists.
It's really hard to go one on one. And he
hasn't adjusted well, he just hasn't. But that's in the

(25:02):
in the makeup of this team. You missed that one piece.
It changes dramatically. So but I will, I will forever
disagree with the Oh my god, this is so much
more pressure than playing in the NBA Finals. On the
fly that that Kevin Durant is thinking of that that's
he's Jason McIntyre, I'm Doug Gottlie. But let's welcome in
a guy who I don't think anybody's I don't know

(25:24):
people paying attention. But he was very chatty because they
were talking about Kevin Love. Very chatty with Kevin Love
before the game. David Benman from ESPN NBA reporter joins us, Dave,
you got a lot of camera time last night. Did
you know that I? I did. I got some text
during the game. I was. I was informed that one
of my favorite colleagues, Doris Burke, did not do me

(25:45):
a solid by name dropping everybody else on screen when
that happened. Uh, and not me. But yeah, you know,
I'm just trying to do the reporting thing, talk to
Kevin before the game, find out some information, and uh,
I guess the cameras caught us all right here. I
want to get to the game and the ron and
all that other stuff. But honestly, like, was there anything
wrong with him last night? Doing the team didn't him

(26:08):
to play? No? I I was there anything wrong with
Kevin Love? Like if you asked Kevin Love, hey can
you play tonight? He could have gone last night. Correct. No,
the team didn't allow him to play because he's in
the concussion product. No, I'm not disputing that. I'm like,
when you're having a conversation with him, was he he's
having headaches? Is? Yeah, I'm not saying that he passed
a protocol. I know the team didn't allow him to play,

(26:30):
But could Kevin Love have played basketball last night? If
Kevin Love was asked, can you play basketball last night?
Kevin wanted to play? Okay, that we'll get that's a
it's a different topic. Well, I want to get to
a little bit later on in the show. Um, what
was that like last night? Because it it did feel
like the Celtics had a ton of opportunities and that

(26:52):
looked like a young team that looked like a team that,
especially in the second quarter when they had a lead,
simply couldn't step on the throat of the Calves. Yeah, certainly,
I mean that's it was an important juncture of the game.
You know that they got that twelve point lead and
the Calves chipped away and got back into it. But
you know, it wasn't like they wilted and died right there.
I mean, Jason Tatum had that little spurt to start

(27:16):
the fourth quarter. You know, they go on an eight
to run in the fourth quarter. Tatum hits, the three
Tatum dunks on lebron Um. They don't look scared of
the moment there. I think what you saw was just
that the Calves out executing, outlasting and out toughing um
that that Boston team. But I'm not so sure. I mean,
Terry Rosier, he missed a lot of shots. Was he

(27:38):
missing shots because he's nervous? It was miss shots because
the shot was off, and the Calves have had plenty
of games throughout the playoff run where they couldn't hit
a shot from the outside. I don't think they were
missing shots because they were nervous, and sometimes you just
missed shots came with the worst time. What's up with
Jason mcintara. I have a quick question on lebron Um.
When you when he was walking to the podium, did

(28:01):
you notice, and there was this was on social media,
but you were in the building, did you notice that
Dan Gilbert high five moment with lebron and and did
anybody make anything of that kind of in the arena? Yeah?
I wrote about it, I mentioned it. I suppoke to
Dan about lebron asked the game. I didn't talk about
that interaction he had with him, but yeah, obviously it

(28:21):
was Brief who was barely an acknowledgement. Um. At the
same time, Lebron ran through a string of calf staffers, uh,
went up to the podium and then sat down on
the floor because he just played forty eight minutes. UH,
and he was taking his shoes off. So I don't
know whether that was an intentional snub or not. Obviously,

(28:43):
knowing what we know about Lebron's relationship with Dan Gilbert
or lack thereof, it feeds into that narrative that they
don't get along. But I don't think it was an
intentional snub on le Brons part um. Do should we
should we be given Tyler more credit? Oh? Absolutely, I
think so. I mean, first of all, let's just look

(29:04):
at last night's game. Uh in in a vacuum j R. Smith,
who people were calling for his head all season long,
and ENTI stuck with him, stuck with him. He gives
you nine points in the second half of the game,
seven on the road in Boston. Jeff Green, who is
a Cavalier because of his relationship with Toronto, Loeu who
agreed to a veteran Minimus contract. But you could have

(29:24):
got more money elsewhere. Gives you nineteen and eight in
Game seven on the road in Boston, uh Toronto. Lou
does little things like when Brad Stevens calls a late
time out, he calls a time out immediately afterwards to
give a little bit of extra break for Lebron James
as he's riding him to forty eight minutes um. He
gets the Cats defense to a point where you know,

(29:46):
they held the Celtics to seventy nine points on percent
shooting on their home court with a chance to play
in the NBA Finals. I think the guy has been
the whipping boy for the Calves for far too long.
And guess what he does. He takes all that shrapnel.
He deals with the circus that is, you know, a

(30:06):
team that has an owner like Dan Gilbert in a
lightning rod of a superstar like Lebron James and get
some competing first championship every year. Dave, let me ask
you this one. We saw Lebron in Game five look tired,
Tyler said, as much he's guzzling water, he wasn't getting
back over half court. And then somehow in the next
two games all he did was, you know, play the

(30:27):
first forty six minutes total domination in game six, and
then he played the full forty eight in game seven.
You know, when when you're around Lebron all the time,
how does one turn the switch on from man, I'm tired,
I'm gassed, I'm I'm running on empty. Two I got this,
It's all good. How does Lebron even do that? All right?
It's it's mental toughness. I mean, that's that's the real

(30:48):
answer here. Uh, he's not daunted by any situation. He
forces himself two reach his limits. And I thought he
looked tired in Game seven in the second quarter. There's
a lot of investors where he just runs to the
corner um where he was trying to buy thirty seconds
by uh forty five seconds of rest and allowed his

(31:09):
teammates kind of do the heavy lifting. Uh. You know,
it wasn't like all of a sudden he was flying
around everywhere he was. He was putting himself on the
floor for forty eight minutes. But that was part of
game management. It was that the cast played with the
lowest pace that they had all playoffs long in Game seven,
and that was by design, and that you know, allowed

(31:30):
Lebron also to be effective. Uh for that long on
the court, even though obviously he's to some extent he's
gassed at this point. Last night was a hundred game played.
That's the most games he ever played in a single
regular season plus the playoffs, tying, but he didn't twosand
eleven twousand, eleven. His season ended in Game six of
the finals, So starting with Game one the finals this year,

(31:51):
he will have played the most games he's ever played
in a single regular season plus playoffs. And this is
year fifteen, at thirty three years old. You know, it's
it's it's really, I mean, it's crazy, it's crazy incredible. Um,
anyone know where Kyrie was last night? I don't, but
don't know, I don't know. Um, you know they earlier

(32:12):
in the series became a bit of a question mark,
Well why was me going to Cleveland for the games?
That was he trying to avoid that situation. But Gordon
Hayward didn't travel. Also, Daniel um Or to pronounce his
last name, he didn't travel either. UM, it was odd.
You know, I suppose there's some people who cover the
Celtics they're like, you know, Gordon Hayward was just in

(32:35):
Indianapolis doing workouts, working with a place to try to
get his running gate back in order. He flew back
just for Game seven for this um certainly some question marks,
And one Calves source in the locker room told me,
come on, man, Kyrie was me here, Come on man?
That was the direct quote. Um, that's that, but that

(32:56):
is that is that is a Kyrie move, right, That
is a that's yes, but but that's kind of who
Kyrie is a little bit, right, Like no one's saying
he's not super talented, and no one's saying he's not
super smart. But but sometimes there's just something about him
to which whether he thinks he's smarter or he thinks
he's clever or I don't know, there just is something

(33:16):
that NBA guys will tell you that like, yeh, that's
a Kyrie thing, only like only Kyrie would pull that
that that sort of deal. Yeah. I mean, if I'm
one of his subject teammates, I don't know it would
it probably sit oddly with me, But there could be
legitimate reason. We don't we don't know. We don't know
where you were. Hey, Dave, who do you think the
Calves would rather face in the finals? Rockets or Warriors? Rockets?

(33:39):
Hundred times over. Can they beat the Rockets without Chris Paul?
I think they can. Yeah, I truely believe they can. Yea.
You know, the Cavs have a core that have been
the four straight finals. The Rockets. This is a new
dog and pony show for them, should they make it. Uh,
and you know you give Lebrono window, He's gonna do
everything you can to jump through it. So uh, the

(34:01):
Rockets would be the more favorable matchup for the Cavs
just obviously we know how talented that Warrior's roster is.
When they turn it on. They got score the Rockets
by forty points in the second half of a must
win game six. Um, you know the Rockets would be
the team that they want to draw. Dave, great stuff,
awesome article. Appreciate you joining us, all right, David Benman
from ESPN. Still no idea where Kyrie Irving don't um.

(34:28):
I want to get into that the the Kevin Love
Kevin Love could have played, didn't play. Why we're treating
basketball players like football players. That's up coming next with
Jason mcintown. I'm Doug gottlie This is Dan Patrick Show.
Doug Gottlieban Jason McIntyre from the Big lead in for
Dan Patrick. Check out The Doug Gottlieb Show week week

(34:50):
days three to six Eastern twelve three Pacific download. The
All Ball Podcast is all Hoop, all the time. Jason,
you got anything else you want to plug? Um? Well,
I'm gonna be the Uncle Drew movie with Kyraton on not. Um,
I don't. I'm fascinated by the Kyrie Irving situation. Okay,
I want. I wondered a little something on concussions here
real quick, okay, And I tweeted out something on I

(35:11):
think it was Saturday that had people going like you,
you don't understand concussions, man, Man, they can. This is
my Twitter response, Guy, the concussions can cause series bermanent
brain damage and like, look, I have full respect for
concussions and guys waiting until they're not fully they're not healthy,
until they come back and play. But the idea that

(35:33):
all of a sudden, we have to create a protocol
so the guy can't say like, hey, I'm good, feel fine,
I'm good like Kevin Love wanted to play last night
and doctors probably would have cleared him in terms of
just regular concussion, Like are you concustom more? No, but
but what this is not football? Okay, there's no this
isn't football. The reason concussion protocol was created was mostly football,

(35:57):
a little bit for soccer. Dudes are going out there
still suffering post concussions symptoms and now they have CT
Can you please point out just one case study, one
former NBA player who can't find his car keys anymore,
who has any of this terrible brain or brain issues
or memory loss that NFL players, college football players. It

(36:19):
doesn't happen. Doesn't exists. The idea that we had to
be super protective of Kevin Love, who's a grown up
who's like, I'm good, all right, so you can play again.
You know, I never want to jump into this concussion
situation given we we just don't know how bad it is.
But I believe this was Kevin Love's third or fourth concussion. Dug,
it sound like it was his first one ever and

(36:40):
they're being overly cautious. He I don't want to say
he has a history of them, but Kevin Love has
had multiple concussions, and when you get multiple concussions, that
is in fact a history of him. Well, well, again,
I don't know if he has a bigger history a
deeper one or or how bad they have been. I
just I'm fine with them sitting Kevin Love in Game seven.
I mean, now he's gonna have what three or four
days off before Game one of the finals. Like, I

(37:01):
don't think it matters for the NBA Finals moving forward.
My point is more, we're so we we want. It's
like the NBA, like, hey, we got a concussion protocol too.
Huh huh, Like, okay, nobody really asked you didn't. You
don't have former players suffering from brain injury. All right,
let's let's get you want to get to the Kyrie
Irving thing. You're you're so Kyrie Irving, as David Meneman

(37:24):
just told us, had been, had been, had he been
traveling with the team, He's he's I believe it's sat
in Cleveland. Uh, Gordon Tatum had done some work in Boston,
I'm sorry. Gordon Hayward had gone to Indiana, had worked out,
had flown back for Game seven. Gordon Hayward has been
working out and internet, and now Kyrie Irving is a

(37:45):
no show in Game seven. Now we know that Kyrie
Irving is a bit of a weird dude. I'm not
going to get down that flat earth rabbit hole. But
I've I've just got to I know he's a different dude,
But how how can your teammates look at you? Unless
this was a family emergency, maybe he has a girlfriend
or wife or parents who had an illness, something that

(38:06):
we don't know about. If I'm the Celtics, I need answers.
This is not the Celtics should have. If the Celtics knew,
they would have gotten out in front of it. Right.
It's it's a very simple press release. Hey, Kyrie is
not gonna be here. He's got a family emergency. They didn't.
And if if the you got listen, you can tell
me about all these other guys. Kauai wasn't traveling with

(38:28):
the team. By the way, how's the relationship between Kawai
and the Spurs? Toxic? Right? So we we we think toxic.
We assume toxic could be repaired. It's not beyond repair.
So but the point is, you can we can compare
Kauai all we want. We could compare Gordon Hayward or
any other player who's not playing, or Kevin Love. Does
he even need to be there if he's in the
concussion protocol? What Why does he have to stay in

(38:50):
the locker room, Like, send him home, let him watch
on his couch and restroom life, all that stuff. Kyrie
Irving just won a championship two years ago with with
the Calves. They lost last year in the finals of
the Calves. He asked for a trade from the Calves
to the Boston Celtics. Okay, this was his doing. If
you do that, you have to show up. You have

(39:13):
to show up, Kyrie Irving. You have to be there.
There is no other place on earth you can be
none unless your mom or dad or somebody coast you
is really really ill. That's I mean, not that you
want to hope that that's the case, but I hope
Kyrie has. There's just because you know he's gonna be
everywhere the next two months promoting his Uncle Drew movie. Okay,

(39:35):
we know about everywhere. You gotta show up, Doug. If
you win, you have to be there to celebrate with
your guys. If you lose, you have to be there
to shake the hand. How about this, you have to
be there to hit his his backup. Terry Rogier just
went through a miserable game. You don't think maybe once
going to the bench in the second quarter Kyrie Irving,

(39:57):
who hit one of the most clutch shots in NBA
Final history. Okay, the game winner against the words. You
don't think Terry Rosier could have used some advice from Kyrie?
Hey man, relax, Kyrie Irving actually a lot of experience.
Actually I don't. I don't actually think that helps. Guys.
Don't be hearing from somebody who's been in those battles.
Hit that shot. No, I really don't respect. No, it's

(40:19):
not no respect. Okay, you're going over there in Kyrie
going like, hey, dude, relax, like I don't need Actually
it has the opposite sometimes the intended effect. I don't
think it has any effect on the team. I think
it looks really bad for him. I think it looks
really bad. I think it's indefensible unless it's some sort
of family owner. That's it. That's but the idea that

(40:39):
Kyrie Iring was gonna say something like, hey, Terry, relax, like,
oh yeah, but that's not ter You have been in
those battles. Make a shot, make a shot. Oh okay, thanks,
didn't you said it? Now I'll do it. What does
last night's game mean for Lebron James future, we discuss
upcoming next and Dan Patrick Show, Fox Sport Trader. Dan

(41:02):
Patrick's shows brought to you by Mercedes AMG Driving Performance.
I am Doug Gottlieb alongside Jason McIntyre. Jason, if you
don't know, founded uh website called the Big Lead many
of us go to every morning we wake up to
find out stories from the interweb to help us do

(41:23):
our radio shows or just start our sports conversation. I
didn't start anything. I didn't start the fire. I forget
how the rest of the boy Joel song work. We
didn't start got it? I didn't. I didn't. It's good,
all good. I'm touring with Taylor Swift good later this summer.
Got it, got it? Uh, we got a lot to

(41:44):
get to. We have Marcus Thompson's gonna join us from
the Athletic Bay. Are your columnist, and as Jason's been tracking,
line moving in Vegas on tonight's Western Conference Finals, Rockets
were five and a half point dogs yesterday at home
him in game seven. Now it's six and a half.
So Doug, does that mean igudala? Perhaps in Chris Paul

(42:05):
perhaps out I mean we're we're looking at a situation
where we're gonna have two game sevens for the first
time since the nineteen and both road teams are gonna win.
That would be pretty fascinating. Now I'm in the camp
where I want Warriors Calves. I want Round four. I
want Lebron getting his shot again against Durant for redemption.
We know Durant murdered him last year in the finals,

(42:27):
especially in the fourth quarter. I don't know how I
feel about Rockets Lebron. I will say, if Chris Paul's out,
I give Lebron a great chance to beat the Rockets
in the finals. But I just don't know how appealing
it is to me to have Houston perhaps go against Cleveland.
It's just not like Steph Curry, my guy led the
league in jersey sales the last three years. Kevin Durant

(42:49):
one of the best stories in the NBA, going from
Oklahoma City to Golden State. Give me the Warriors tonight,
Doug covering six and a half, like the whole The
whole thing is going to be fascinating. As far as
you're running your own tout service, I'm waiting for you
go like, Okay, now listen, I've given you six straight winners,
six straight winners. Okay, you call me eight, seven, seven,
nine nine Fox, I will give you seven. I will

(43:11):
give you the number Ovan and the number tonight guaranteed
lock Jason mcintiah. Anyway, it's not bad. I understand that's
not bad. This is my Sunday morning driving that I'm
going to get coffee, like, oh, where's Fox Sports Radio?
Can I stop getting the tout services? That's, by the way,
going to be many local radios once, um local a
lot of local radio once we once we get into

(43:32):
the gambling being legal at your you know, your local parlor.
But um uh, my level of interest obviously would be
I guess peak if it was Golden State. Although I
I do think that's a bad matchup. The Warriors were
built to beat the Calves as much as beat up
on everybody else, A really good matchup for them. I

(43:56):
still think Houston would be a favorite, even with a
limping Crystal. I just feel for Chris Paul. Come on,
what do you mean you feel bad for he gets
hurt every postseason? Doug? How can you feel bad for that?
Has he gotten hurt every post I mean basically hurt last?
Was he hurt last postseason. No, he just choked in
Game seven at home against Gordon Hayward and the Jazz. Okay,
we choked after he came through in game six, and

(44:17):
he choked in game seven. Okay, Um, two years ago,
he was hurt with Blake Griffin. I think he's had
a couple and he just always seems to get hurt.
Blake Griffin has been hurt. It's been hurt. Now he's
in Detroit and he's irrelevant that we talked. Okay, So,
so the point was, you're mad because you live in
l A and they have they have both volleyed back
and forth getting hurt. I'm an actual human being who's

(44:40):
like man. I like Chris Paul. I think he's best
true point guard league still has. And yet here he here,
he you know, moved his family, moved mountains, said the
Clippers thing is not gonna work, and became the second
weapon for the Houston Rockets. And here they were a
game away from going to the NBA Finals, taken down

(45:01):
the Golden State Warriors, who many of us thought were
not beatable. Yeah, I'm in that camp. And he wasn't
healthy enough to go in Game six, and you know,
again we'll be based it on numbers, and Vegas has
a tendency to know these things probably not going tonight
or won't be healthy tonight. And there's not anywhere if
you have a bad Hammy, where are you gonna hide

(45:22):
against the Warriors? We can't put you when you're six
ft tall. We can't put you on Kevon Looney. Maybe yes,
and that and so, but I I feel terrible for
Let me, let me here's how you need to look
at Chris Paul. Okay, does anybody whine in the league
for more calls than Chris Paul? And we know everybody
in the NBA winds, but nobody winds more than Chris Paul.

(45:43):
Chris Paul has never fouled anyone. Dug, Oh, what are
you talking about? He argues more than anybody. Let's go
to the history of Chris Paul hitting. He's gone Draymond
more times than Draymond's gone Draymond. I mean, Chris Paul,
dating back to his days at Wake Forest, has been
below the belt guy. He's taken many shots at people.

(46:03):
I mean, somehow he's got this. Oh, he's the greatest
point guard ever. Uh. People love him more than Curry
people love it, think, oh, he's better than Isaiah Thomas
and John Start when when Chris Paul? What what guys
the advanced guy talked to advanced that guy. I've had
many of them on my radio show. These guys love

(46:24):
Chris Paul. Oh, guess who, like Chris Paul has the
great has the highest per in playoff history? Yeah? I
think I believe it's Chris Paul. And they fall back
on these stats. Well Chris, Yeah, player efficiency tremendous. Yeah, okay,
so that like that means he's one of the best
point guards ever. Like this love affair with Chris Paul
is whining the shots below the belt. I'm just not

(46:46):
a Chris Paul guy because he's had a great series
when he's been health so so the point, the point being, um,
you're not a Chris Paul guy. I don't know where
these imaginary conversations that you've had with people about John Stockton,
how we got into the how we got into the
pr rating. You don't feel bad for him. I feel

(47:09):
terrible for him now, I guess the next level the
question is, you know we both think the rockets are
a better matchup for the calves that you give the
Calves much more of a fighting chance. If it's the Rockets,
then you do the Golden State Warriors. Correct, Yes, no doubt. Okay,
So does last night have any effect in your mind
over Lebron staying in Cleveland? This is great. I like

(47:32):
this topic. By the way, I believe that Lebron has
surveyed the landscape. Oh man, I got the oldest team
in the playoffs. Look how I had to drag George Hill,
Rodney Hood these guys. I can't believe what I just did.
I left it all on the court. I played all
Lady two games, I led the NBA and minutes Cleveland.
I did everything in my power to get us back

(47:54):
to the finals. And you know what we just We're
gonna run into the Warriors would probably get swept. I've
got to go to a better situation, I think for
the Lakers, and you know, I don't think he goes
to the Sixers, but the Sixers will claim they've got
a shot at Lebron. I think beating the Celtics works
in favor of getting Lebron out of Cleveland. Has it proved? Hey, man,

(48:15):
I can get through these But we got Ben Simmons
and Joel Embiid coming up. The Celtics with Kyrie and
Gordon Hayward are going to be excellent next year. I
think Lebron is gone. I think this was an amazing accomplishment,
and I think he knows, man, this is this is
an awful team. There is nobody else in the NBA
could have done what I just did. Look what I
went through this year in Cleveland. How dysfunctional this franchise is. Well,

(48:37):
I got Dan Gilbert here for Dan Gilbert get out
of here? Do do I do? I think he's likely gone,
but I think the likelihood he's gonna look at it
and say, yeah, probably it's probably time to go. Now
there is the challenge of hey, dude, you're gonna go
to the Western Conference. You're not going to the best team,
and you're probably not going unless you go to Houston.
Then then maybe you have the best team. But they're

(48:57):
not gonna have the same ancillary pieces around around Eric
Gordon has gone, some of the other three point shooting
three point threats are gone, and it becomes just three
star players who are all you know, two of them
will be past their prime in terms of age, and
you're gonna have to get you know, guys on Jeff
Green type of contracts and and hope that that works out,
which has worked and hasn't worked based upon his eight years.

(49:20):
On the other hand, eight years in the East, it
might not work in the West. Um, and what you're saying, like, look,
I do think there's a part of it to which
think of the adulation he's getting for simply getting to
the NBA Finals, which as much as we can say
it's difficult, we also spent the first twenty minutes telling
you it wasn't really that difficult. Nobody thinks those teams

(49:41):
in the East are that good. And he didn't have
to play the Celtics at full strength, right and so
and you can tell me Kevin Durant couldn't have done it.
I don't know. You give four shooters to Kevin. By
the way, Lebron James picked those pieces, he wanted, he wanted,
he absolutely wanted to believe in February no, no, no, okay, okay,
well that just was that was just one a title.

(50:01):
So he got them extended j R. Smith and Tristan Thompson.
He did not know that Kevin Durant was going to
the Warriors to form the greatest super tea. It doesn't
doesn't matter. The point was that he he has the
same agent as these guys and instead of going to
them and first he could have offered up, I'm gonna
take a little less. Jr. Is gonna take a littless.
Tristian's gonna take a little No, no, no. Lebron should
never take anything less, not at his level. When the

(50:24):
owners are pocketing millions and millions of dollars, Lebron had
not has nothing to do with the owners, Jason, zero
to do with the owner. He's putting money in their
pocket by playing in Cleveland. What he's gistical studies have
been done, Doug saying that when Lebron went back to Cleveland,
he infused hundreds of millions of dollars. It's it's amazing
what he's done in the market. You know what else,
he's infused money into his own pocket, like Dude's gonna

(50:47):
have Dude his His shoe deal with Nike is gonna
be worth close to a billion dollars when it's done.
So none of this, This is chump change. This is
couch money, okay, And what creates what? What created a
super legacy? That no one could have taken a shot at.
Would have been Lebron going like, hey, I'm worth every penny.
I'm worth what they can't even pay me. But instead

(51:08):
I'll take twenty because I'm making a bunch on the
back end, and let me get him him and him,
and oh yeah, by the way, even if he doesn't
take less, Lebron James is big enough, powerful enough to
go to Tristan, to go to Jr. To go to
any of these guys that they wanted to sign and say, hey,
it's Kevin Love and go hey, man, I want you
to stay here. Kevin Love would have done it, because
that's not Kevin Love. But Tristan would have done it,

(51:28):
and Jerr would have done it. I want you guys
to play for five million a year, the four million
a year, and I'll take care of you on the
back ye. But but he did not do that, and
so for for us to all complain about that, well
it's there. And Triston Thompson came up big yesterday in
Game seven. Tristan Thompson had ten and nine. And we're
trying to have it both ways. Either these guys are

(51:50):
bums or these guys came up big, I can't both
be true and they had a great Game seven. They're
not bums. J R. Smith is just a shooter who's
act become a decent defender during his time with the
Brandon awful series. They nearly benched him in this series.
That's how bad he was starting. But that's been j R.
Smith's entire career. None of this has changed Jason. Tristan

(52:12):
Thompson is the same guy, so he's totally different. He
changed when he started dating the Kardashian He went from
being I'm gonna grind in the paint and get every
rebound and defend. And he was so soft this year.
He was unplayable for much of AD two games. Now,
give Tyler credit. He was able to say, you know what,
Tristan Thompson can shut down our Horford and the numbers.

(52:33):
When Thompson was on the floor against Horford, Horford's numbers plummeted.
So that was one good move Tristan Thompson delivered in
this series after having an awful season. It's it's it's
because they have to play Kevin Lavitt center so that
Lebron can have the play. I'm telling why he had
such a terrible year. Is because the league has changed,

(52:53):
even in the two years since they won an NBA championship,
to where now everybody's playing pace in space, everyone shooting threes,
and Tristan Thompson can't shoot. And whereas even you Onis
Valanchot is shooting threes, all these guys are shooting, Tristan
can't shoot. That's why his usefulness is not nearly it's
a lack of foresight. But here's here's my my honest

(53:15):
thought on Lebron is I don't think he's thought anything
about it. I don't think he thought how do I
think he's open to discussions about all these teams and
he's still probably likely to leave the people right well, listen,
he's renovating his home in Brentwood, California. Which one he's
got to do? You know who's do you know who
else is renovating their home in Brentwn, California. Everybody? Everybody? Right,

(53:39):
Like every when you go to affluent parts of southern California,
you see those porta potties and and and work trucks
outside every It's literally happening at like every other door.
So that's not a sign that Lebron's leaving. Okay, Lebron
not wanting to shake hands with Dan Gilbert the owner
is not a and he's leaving. They don't love it.

(54:03):
I'm saying, you think he has not given it. So Lebron,
the guy who allegedly hand picks coaches and teammates and
gets everybody paid, and who has you know, basically had
an amazing career that's on par with Michael. You think
he's thought nothing of his future. Do you spend thinking
about your future? Again? But everybody in the studio, we
all think about our It's humans. I understand it's human

(54:26):
nature to sit and be lost in thought in it.
On the other hand, we don't have the business interests
he has. We don't have the family he has. We
don't have this ability to compartmentalize what he's doing. Okay,
what I'm marveling at is now he's winning the mental
game that he didn't win in his first five seven
years in the NBA. That he's able j j B.

(54:47):
It's not just that there's been other times, even against
the Spurs, to which uh, he was thinking too much
about his jump shot, thinking too much about all of
the other things instead of just playing and and understanding
each possess is important. I think you'll get to that.
I think he'll still probably leave. I think you'll look
at and go like, it's not that much fun, and
it'd be w Let's let's try this thing in l A.

(55:09):
Everyone wants to move their family to l A, be
in movies, be in production, be a mega star. But
the idea that he sat down and put in Philadelphia, no, no, no,
I don't think it's that level. But I will say this,
I believe he is already building chess pieces on the Lakers.
They have cleared the cap room. Magic Johnson has done,

(55:30):
and Rob Polinka have said, this is what we're not naive.
You know how things work in the sports media industry.
Things are laid out six to twelve months in advance
before they happen and become known to everybody. I'm certain
that Lebron knows, Okay, Lakers have the cap room. This
guy's available. Everybody knows that the Lakers have. They've had

(55:50):
press conference. Est is moving chess pieces around. Hey, but
I think this is one of your favorite things right
just everybody's playing checkers. He's Magic Johns and lebrono playing chess.
There's there's one player in the NBA right now that
as everybody has completely forgotten about and frankly totally disrespected.
Like I've never seen a level of disrespect for this

(56:12):
human being the way I have read it, seen it,
heard it. We'll get to that. I coming next on
The Dan Patrick Show, having more more. Hopefully you're enjoying
what most people consider the first official day of summer,
first official weekend of summer. Doug Gottlieben, Jason McIntyre in
for Dan and the Dan Netts um a lot of

(56:36):
fun watching hoop over the weekend. It's always interesting to
me on how like, uh, Jason, you and your your
wife and your kids. You guys stay cationed, right, You
stayed at home. Yeah, we didn't go out of time.
There's a big day for me. First time, you know,
you do this regularly for me, first time on the
Dan Patrick Show. Last time, by the way, I just

(56:57):
confidence so far. So Yeah, we just stuck around out
here in l A. It's so it's awesome. I've been
out here almost exactly two years now, you know, do
an FS one Fox Sports Radio and the website, and
it's it's a blast. Man, you've lived out here a
long time. I love it. I mean and watching sports.
It's tremendous because like tonight's game Warriors Rockets, what is it?
Tip time is six o'clock out here. It's awesome, watch

(57:19):
dinner you you know, your kids get to see the game.
My kids they're gonna be rocking their Curry jersey tonight
and uh we'll be rooting for the Warriors. So so
my my wife, she she wanted get out of town,
per se and get to where it's it's hot. And
this look if you're on the East Coast, you finally
had a great weekend. Unbelievable weather Wrigley Yankee Stadium, when
you saw the Angels come in, Trout put on a

(57:41):
show on Saturday night. Um weather in southern California was cool,
and they called me gray. Cool in the morning and
sunny and nice and like seventy degrees, which is perfect
anywhere else, but if you're here, it's like it's like
that every day. I've been kind of cool. So we
went to the desert and my wife was giving me
a little bit of grief last night over uh over hey,

(58:05):
she wanted to go to like a family dinner like,
we had a little family vacation, a couple of days off.
We're gonna go dinner, right, do they have a TV? There? Like?
Why don't need a TV? Like that's we're trying to
get away from devices. And just I was like, Honey,
I love you, I love you. Game seven, this is
what you got into, right, So she was kind of
giving me a little bit of grief. And then Kirk Morrison,

(58:27):
who of course works at the NFL Network and used
to play for the Raiders, he's in the pool and
he's like, were you guys watching? Everywhere we go people,
what are you watching tonight? Our friends invited us over
to a different hotel because they were watching, So we
did eat much of the game, and while watching the
game at a restaurant on text on Twitter, and during

(58:48):
the game, I heard something I feel is like blasphemy, blasphemy,
which is Jason Tatum was way better than we could
have thought this year. I thought he was the most
ready to play of the rookies, and he lived up
to that and exceeded anybody's realistic expectations. But I heard,

(59:11):
I think it was Mark Jackson say that he's their
second best player. Oh, Chris Brussar has been pushing this.
Christmussar has been pushing and and I got I got
buddies who are who are ball guys. They're like, yo,
d G, you gotta come off this Gordon Hayward thing.
WHOA And I just I need people to breathe a

(59:31):
little bit. Okay, Look, let's start with the Celtics team
wasn't particularly good. This idea that Marcus Smart, who went
to my same school play point guard was tremendous, is
going to somehow be a starter in a star elsewhere. Like, dude,
Marcus Smart has all the intangibles in the world. You know,
he doesn't have the tangible, but somebody's gonna pay him somebody.

(59:53):
That's That's not the point. The point is there's not
an Eastern Conference or Western Conference playoff team that he'd
be a starting point guard for. There isn't a matter
of fact, even with Carrie Irving out, he wasn't the
starting point guard for a reason. Okay, for a reason.
He's a great change of pace. Guy um TERA's years
their fourth guard for a reason. And and when you're
playing with backups who are playing and look they're they're

(01:00:15):
playing inside their starting center. Aaron Bains. I mean that's
really a backup, right, he doesn't start on anywhere else
in the East or anywhere else in the West. And
so when you're starting backups, the guys who were your starters,
they're getting more opportunities. Jason Tatum has a chance to
be better than Gordon Hayward. But I haven't heard anything like, dude,

(01:00:35):
this Gordon Hayward. Oh, he's not that good. He's just okay.
Like Gordon Haward was an All Star in the West
last year. Gordon Hayward average twenty to a game in
the West least year. He's basically over the last four
years been twenty five and four. That's he's also improved
every single year he's been in the league. He's made
leaps and bounds improvement wise. Good and he's perfect for

(01:00:59):
Brad Stevens in this Celtics. He's unselfish, he's not gonna
force shots. He's a team player defensively offense. I love
Gordon Eward well, the Aussie. He would also be the
first player in NBA history to be worse with Brad
Stevens than he was whatever. Right, Like Isaiah Thomas is
barely in the league, bounce around the backup becomes an
m VP candidate with him, Avery Bradley, Jake Crowder, he

(01:01:21):
just go go through it like and I thought that Brad.
There were some moments last night where Brad probably knows
it got away from him. He could have called some
more sets instead of letting those guys play, which has
been effective for him in this series. So Brad is
not perfect. But this idea that like Gordon Hayward, somehow
now has taken a step back as a player. He
was the most sought after free agent in the market

(01:01:43):
last year for a reason. Jason Tatum has a chance
to be better. He's not a better player, and that's
how good the Celtics would have been had they been
at full jug. This also goes to gambling stuff, right,
we only remember what we just last saw. Everybody will say, oh,
I last week, you know, the Chargers were incredible, so
this week there got No That's not how it works,

(01:02:05):
and people are now seeing, well, Jason Tatum slaughtering Ben
Simmons head to head in the last round, and Jason
Tatum is killing the Calves. He must be better than
Gordon Hayward. I will maintain and we don't have to
go through the top. But Cordon Hayward's a top twenty
five player in the league. He was an All Star
in the West last year. And this team next year,

(01:02:26):
assuming Kyrie's back, and this mysterious absence in game sevens
doesn't cost him, uh, because you know he's gonna need
to get paid next summer. And this is a guy
who's a little flighty, and not many guys have left
Lebron Willingly Doug. So when you look at Kyrie, Jalen Brown,
Jason Tatum, Gordon Hayward, Al Horford and and Marcus Morris

(01:02:47):
coming off the bench, Rosier coming up like, this is
gonna be a sixty five win team next year. I
mean they won fifty five this year with Brad Stevens again,
no Gordon Hayward and Kyrie missed probably twenty games. Well,
this is and is one of the things funny. So
at the end, towards the end of the game, we
were done with dinner and my kids went to have

(01:03:08):
ice cream, like across the street, and I'm like, I'm
gonna stay here and watch more. It's like fine, So
I'm standing at the bar and Kyle Korver, remember you
only hit one shot last night. But he comes off
a double pin down, full speed, runs, catches jump, shoots
to three, and this lady at the bar is like, whoa,
who's that? Why is he shooting? And it's two people
who don't watch a ton of basketball, obviously, and they're

(01:03:30):
they're saying all these things about why is that guy in?
Why is he shooting? Who is he? And I was like,
he made a three point shot in like three three games,
one of the best history NBA history, thirty seven years old.
Trust me, you want him shooting that ball. They're like, oh,
so you're a Celtics fan. I was like, or cas
fan was like, no, I just know a thing or two.

(01:03:50):
But we were watching anyway. The point is that there
are so many people who don't actually watch a good
portion of the season, like Jayson Tatum was also this
year to the tune of fourteen a game he shot
from three, which is way above any level you'd think
for a young, you know, hybrid forward stepping out to

(01:04:11):
NBA three point right let It just led me to
a question because Brussard and I had discussed this in
Hayward like right now, Gordon Hayward or Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward.
Right now, everyone who knows basketball, like Tatum was last
night finish top five in m v P voting. Five
years from now, I have no idea. I think he

(01:04:34):
can remember when we saw Kawa, We will Joel Embiid
be healthy. Well, Ben Simmons, I mean that that has
to happen. I mean, there's no way Ben Simmons doesn't
develop a jumps even without a jump shot, you would
I would probably rather have him than Jayson Tatum. It's
a hard one because Tatum is a score and Ben
Simmons everything else better. There's it's a bunch to it.

(01:04:55):
There's things we just don't know. Um. But look, I
think Jason Tatum has a chance to be great. I
think this idea that like Gordon Heyward, somehow is taking
a step back and Jason Tatum is a better player
right now. I don't think people have a healthy respect
for dude. Gordon Ayward was awesome last year and has
continually gotten better. He happened to break his ankle two

(01:05:18):
minutes into the season this year. I think he'll be fine,
and I think you'll find out that he's really awesome
and he would be the first player in NBA history
to not be better with Brad Stevens than he was
without Brad Stevens. Right, he went from the top free
agent two. You know they could trade him and they
find they could go and get Kawai kwa Island. All right,

(01:05:39):
let's get to tonight. Jason McIntyre Doug Gottliban for Dan
and the Dan Nets. Jason has pointed out, because he's
got big money in tonight's game, I do not have
the line that the line has moved from five and
a half upon which time we woke. That's special English
and six and a half right now. So maybe that
means that Chris Paul's not playing. Maybe that means that

(01:06:02):
Andrea Goodala is playing. Maybe maybe it's both. You know
who might know? Marcus Thompson. He covers, among other things,
the Warriors for the Athletic Bay Area. He's a calumnist
for the Athletic Great Website, True Journalism, It's awesome. He
does a great job at Thompson Scribe. Um. Let's let's
start with the line, does Vegas know something that the

(01:06:22):
rest of us are trying to wonder as far as
who's playing and who's not playing, man. I think the
uncertainty is driving it right. It's like, we don't know
what's gonna happen, so let's just lead on experience. Uh ah, man,
it's so tough whether Igodala is gonna play like the
reads are really hard. I think everybody is kind of
scared to say one way or the other. It just

(01:06:45):
doesn't sound good. If that sounds good at all, but
then it's a game seven if he if he can't play,
you better come out in the cast. I think otherwise
he's gonna have a lot of explaining to do. Hey Marcus, Uh,
what's up Jason McIntire here. I I'm trying to get
into the mind of Kevin Durant. He was outstanding in
the first two games. I think he had like se

(01:07:06):
I just wonder the last two games we've seen him.
You know, he's looked a little uncertain. Maybe he's pressing.
I told Doug this was the first true adversity Kevin
Durant his face since getting to the Warriors. I just
got to ask you, what's Durant been like in the
locker room the last few days and practice? He just
seems like he's playing a little tight. Your your thoughts,

(01:07:29):
no question. He's been definitely a little bit more quiet,
a little bit more reflective. He's just got a look
in his eye like you can tell he's thinking a lot, right,
you can. You can just see it on his face.
I do think I think this is true about a
lot of the Warriors. I do think he's a player
who doesn't feel comfortable when you're physical with him. And
Trevor Reasa is being really physical with him, and he's

(01:07:51):
kind of got to figure out how to make it happen.
And I do think, you know, to be honest a
little bit, Steve Curve has been putting them in tough spots.
He's just like, hey, do go post up? Like, just
go post that post that post up. That's really I mean,
he could do it, but it's not his game. And
then you got Pee J. Tucker helping and he's taking
bad shot and he does, he doesn't look the greatest

(01:08:12):
doing it. I think it all kind of has gotten
to his head and like the second half he just
became a pastor. It was a little bit you know,
passive on offense and kind of get played the ball.
So yeah, he he is in like a weird mental
space that we really have not seen since he came
to the way. I almost feel like I feel like
whether it's him listening too much to idiots like us

(01:08:34):
that that I mean, I mean, like look I and
and you know it's obvious Steve Kurtse trying to make
some suggestions and you know, like you don't like the
You don't change the guy's jump shot in season, right,
you never you'd never do that. You never change the
guy's jump shot mid season. You never change the guys

(01:08:55):
uh golf swing mid tournament. You gotta have months before,
like people making and Steve Kerr making kind of mental
adjustments to Kevin Durant in series, I feel like it's
getting the opposite of the intended effect. I agree. I
think I think the matchup hunting like has a little

(01:09:16):
bit taken him out of his game. And you know,
I think Kevin Durant had designs on being a dominant player.
I think, I mean, he's made it very clear he
wants to be considered the best in the league and
be up there with Lebron. And I think struggle is
like he's having a tough time just just the way
the Rockets are playing him. They're like a reason is

(01:09:40):
in his jersey, and he's got to make stuff happen.
And then when it's Chris was Chris Paul like the
help is coming his way. So now he's in this
position where he struggled a little bit, and I think
he just he he only knows dominating with the way.
It's all he knows. So this is this is adversity
and you can see him fight through, but you could
see it on his face like he's just he's just

(01:10:02):
not the most comfortable dude in that locker room. Marcus,
let me ask you about Steve Kerr. You put the
blowouts aside. I kind of wonder if Steve Kerr has
been out coached in two fourth quarters by D'Antoni. I mean,
in those two close games, it looked like the Warriors
lost their identity. They're they're a passing team, screening cuts,
off ball movement. We saw almost none of that in

(01:10:24):
two fourth quarters. You know, this is obviously Game seven
is gonna be tight. Well, you know, what can the
Warriors do differently that they didn't do in the first
two close games? Uh? Games four and five. Look, this
is gonna sound a little bit you know, obvious, considering
I wrote the book on the guy. But it's pretty easy,
like put the ball in STEP's hands, like it's it's

(01:10:44):
really that simple. The funny part is this has been
a conversation with the Warriors for four years and steps
is such a like a team player. He won't just
go take the ball, he'll run to play. But sometimes
they just get to match up. Honey. They look at
the height and they say, oh, this guy this tall
on this guys this shirt, Let go at him, and
you end up taking the ball out of the hands

(01:11:04):
of your best playmaker. So the answer is pretty simple,
like pick and roll, whatever the case, however you want
to do it, just put the ball in the hands
of Steph Curry because it just affects everybody what he
did when he's doing what he does. It comes down
to that, it's easy giving him the ball, let him
make the play. UM Marcus Thompson joining us from the
Athletic Doug Gotli Jason McIntyre in for Dan and the

(01:11:27):
Dan Nets here on the Dan Patrick Show Fox Sports Radio.
It's interesting because I kind of think they've gotten caught
in a little bit of a bridge here, right, Like
the young guys that come off the bench are still
a little bit too green to really really help him.
And then the old guys are a little bit too
old because you you run the risk like an iguadala

(01:11:48):
of an injury. Um, what happens if they lose tonight?
Like could could? Could we see a massive change in
this roster if they lose tonight. I think it's happening
either way, right, no matter what happens. I mean, look
at it. You got the top four, right, who you
keeping out of the rest of them? Like you say

(01:12:09):
I do? Right after that? Are you married to Sean Livington?
At this point, a young is going you got six centers?
Zazabil is going. That's four? Like, I mean, you start
looking at it down in roster. I guess you keep
Jordan Beil. Do you keep McCall? Who's the free agent?
You know Cavan Luney might be gone. Can you keep him?

(01:12:29):
They can only offer on the midimal. I think, no
matter what happens, this roster is gonna look very different.
It will still it probably will still have the same top, right,
it'll be top heavy, but you're looking at least six
new spots. That's if they if they win. If they lose, now,
anybody anybody be looking at uh like a big change.

(01:12:51):
Maybe I don't be surprised. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Let me ask one quick question about game seven. We
just saw Cleveland's role players come up big. J R.
Smith had three threes in the second half. Uh, Jeff
Green had a monster game, nineteen points for Houston. Right,
We I know Jeff Green, right, we know Houston's role
players are gonna have to deliver. Is this the kind

(01:13:13):
of game where if I'm Steve Kerr, the one guy
I'm focused on outside of hard and obviously it's gotta
be Eric Gordon, right, gotta be, It's gotta be. It's
like he's the guy who's burned them. Look you you
want to take away the corner three from p J.
Tucker and Trevor to those kill you. But like Eric
Gorton is a difference maker. Like I mean, that's that's

(01:13:34):
all they got. The rest of the guys you kind
of got to create for him. It's it's a specific
situation where they hurt you. Eric Gordon is a guy
who kind of is like a wild card and he
could really burn you. And he was just walking into
three in the first quarter. So I'm with you. If
you take away Eric Gordon, I think they win. Marcas.
It looks like Kevin Durant has been matched up with

(01:13:56):
Gordon a lot. Has has that been the matchup. It's
it's been a Resa and and Uh and Gord. He's
kind of split between two. But they do so many
pick and rolls and screens that they just trying to
get up. You end up on a lot of people. Yeah,
they just they just wunt. But if they take away
Eric Gordon, I think they win. I think that's what
they're gonna come down. I legitimately feel bad for David

(01:14:18):
West when he's out there, like like, like, was there
West ever an All Star? I feel like he was
an All Star and I think he was like one
year him and Chris Paul when they were in New Orleans. Yeah,
I mean, and I mean, here's the guy who averaged
twenty one a game. You know, guy gave away ten
million dollars in trying to win a championship and now
he like they just trying What was he just trying

(01:14:39):
to buy minutes in the first quarter to wear down Houston? Like,
what was the what is he doing playing his bench
and giving up thirty nine, Like that's that's a risky
proposition to get down that big. Welcome to Steve Kerr.
Steve Kerr was playing and zeal And games even of
the NBA five. So this is what he does. He

(01:14:59):
just leaves that everybody can help and I could trust
you give me two minutes. Like he doesn't like his
players playing forty plus minutes. He thinks they're tired at
the end, and he just tries to buy minutes. I
mean he had Cavan, Ludie, David West and Jordan be
like what he was the worst offensive. They were like
you take it? No, you take it? No, dude, take it.

(01:15:21):
And the Houston guys like, wait, we don't even have
to guard any of these guys really do right? Hey? Hey,
last thing, um, we didn't see m in Boston last
night is Kyrie and Houston. Have you seen Kyrie Irving?
I have not seen Kyrie Irving. I'm not gonna see
him either. I don't think has has anybody down there
reacted to the fact he wasn't at the game last night.

(01:15:43):
It's a little it's a conversation, right, you know. You
hear the guys like, hey, what is that about? What
is up. But I think everybody knows Kyrie is just
a little different. You know, he's a different dude. So
you can't really come to a conclusion of what it
means because he doesn't even think the Earth is around.
So it's it's a it's a it's a good point.

(01:16:05):
It's a it's kind of a a micro trop point.
It's very good with Marcus Thompson. He writes for the
Athletic and Buried columnist at Thompson Scribe. He also wrote
the book on Steph Curry. Pick it up a news
stands or at Amazon wherever you pick up books these days.
Thanks so much, Marcus. Alright, have a good great stuff.
Enjoy Game seven? Uh coming up next? What are Lebron
James and the Patriots have in common with Jason Mckertyre,

(01:16:28):
I'm Doug gotlie will tell you next. What I welcome in?
Happy Memorial Day? Is it Happy Memorial Day? Yeah? It's
a national holiday. If no, no, no, I understand. But
it's a holiday we remember a people who died. You
can remember people and be happy about it, remember the
good times, Doug, No, I understand. But the idea behind

(01:16:50):
a similiar topic, different topic, right, But the idea is
that we're remembering people who gave the ultimate sacrifice for
our country. I don't know if it's like we're gonna
have fun parades everywhere represent remembering veterans, saluting veterans who
didn't give the ultimate sacrifice. We gave plenty of other sacrifices.

(01:17:12):
I don't know. It's just weird. We're like Happy Day
where we celebrate people who died. Okay, just pointing that up.
Point out Jason McIntyre and Doug gottlieban in for Dan
and the Boys. Um, there's a there's a little similarity
there between the Pats and Lebron James, the Patriots and

(01:17:33):
the bron James. Yeah, I would have I would agree totally.
I like this topic. Is this a youth special or
is this Ryan the producer? Well, it's it's a little
bit of both. Right. Um. Have you ever heard of
Cassius Marsh? I have not. Okay, Cassius Marsh apparently is
a forty Niners defensive end said he hated his time
with the Patriots. Quote, they don't have fun there. There's

(01:17:54):
nothing fun about it. There's nothing happy about it. I
didn't enjoy any of my time there. You know, you
know what I'm saying, mars said to Eric Branch of
the Samrcisco Chronicle. It made me, for the first time
my life, think about not playing football because I hated
it that much. I can front. I can front to
Bill Belichick about all the things that were going on.

(01:18:16):
Cassius marsh can front. I won't go into detail, but
it was bs thing that they were doing. I just
wasn't a fan, and so basically I was asking to
get cut. I kind of asked to get cut. I
have the confidence that if I had the opportunity elsewhere,
I would take advantage of it. Here's where it's like Lebron.
Is it fair to say that Kyrie didn't did not
enjoy his time there? I don't. I don't think that's accurate.

(01:18:39):
He won a title, one of the most memorable NBA
finals and in league history, coming back from down three
when he hit the game winning shot was my question?
That wasn't my question, like look enjoying the spoils of it,
like like the Patriots keep winning, they have won titles.
I don't know, he Cashius marshes and I didn't spend
the time to research a guy. There's not much research
doing with us was the didn't we weren't building the

(01:19:02):
team around him. Regardless of it, there is a certain
point like, look, even Lebron James last night couldn't help himself.
When they first asked him about going to the final,
the finals for an eighth straight year, he makes a
comment about you can't do it by yourself. It's all
about the team and everybody pulling together and guys stepping
up making plays like Jeff Green. But then like two

(01:19:24):
minutes later he contradicts himself and talks about how, hey,
you know, when guys aren't stepping up and playing well,
I gotta I got just carry these guys right. So
on one hand, it's we gotta do this together. On
the other hand, is hey, aren't I this great that
I've carried us? There is something too playing for with
Lebron James, which it's not the great it's not. It's

(01:19:46):
not the most fun in the world. It's all about
Lebron and if you don't succeed, it becomes your fault,
not Lebron's fault. On the other hand, pretty good shot.
You're gonna get to the NBA Finals and get a
shot to play for the ultimate crown, I would I
would counter that there's always going to be drama around
Kim James, and that's why the Philadelphia seventy six don't

(01:20:09):
necessarily make sense and certain teams aren't gonna work with Lebron.
I think the Lakers make the most sense. We can
get into that later. But the one comparison here is,
wait a second. The Calves are getting to the finals
with Lebron. The Heat are getting to the finals with Lebron.
Do you want to win or do you want to
be a star? Do you want to win or do
you want to be part of something you know where
you're not very good? I think of humans would rather

(01:20:33):
rin and not necessarily have fun. Then we just like
have fun and suck or miss the playoffs. Right. Look,
my take is always has always been that winning is
way more fun than than losing is. No matter how
statistically or how emotionally you'll feel, you'll look back on winning.
But there is something too. Hey, you know, if I'm
just miserable at work and I don't feel like look,
I could I can totally understand some of these guys

(01:20:56):
in the Calves and how they how they might feel
today and how they might feel, and that they were were,
especially even leading up to games that like, it's Lebron, Lebron, Lebron,
and we're we're just as guilty of it. Um where
you have to sacrifice even a little bit of your
own kind of self respect because when you win, it

(01:21:16):
ultimately becomes about Lebron. Jordan Clarkson was averaging sixteen a
game or whatever with the Lakers off the bench this summer.
His summer would have started, you know, eight weeks ago
with the Lakers Larry Nance, same deal. Rodney Hood would
have gone out in the first Clarkson. Jordan Clarkson, I
think is a great is a great one because I
bet he's having fun. I don't know what Jordan Clarkson
at all. I would bet he's having more fun now
with Lebron. I think last night he had fun when

(01:21:38):
this final buzzer sounded. I don't think it's been fun.
Up and putty. He barely played. You're winning. Look, I
understand how you're supposed to feel. I'm telling you the
reality of how you do feel is I bet it's
not that much fun. That doesn't mean I wouldn't do it.
I wouldn't sacrifice as I was him, but I don't
think it's that much fun play in June? Is bucket

(01:22:01):
all right? Can we change the Lebron Jordan debate? Now?
Legit conversation next to Dan Patrick show? What up to you?
Doug Gottlieb, Jason McIntyre from the Big lead in for
Dan and the Dan Netts. I hope you enjoyed Saturday
and Sunday. You get a Monday, not just with us,

(01:22:23):
but you had game seven. Rockets hosting the Warriors. Line
has moved from five and a half to six and
a half. The Warriors a prohibitive road favorite. Still no
word on whether Andre Goodala will play or whether Chris
Paul will play. What to wait until game time tonight.
We'll get you ready for that game, but we gotta
react to the last night's game. Is there a word

(01:22:45):
or sentence you would use, Jason to describe what you
saw last night at Boston card? Uh? Well, Doug, the
one word I want to use. I almost feel like
I shouldn't say it because I'm trying my best to
not go on social media during breaks in the show,
and everybody's getting upset at me for speaking the truth
about you know what the Calves did this postseason, and
our buddy Colin Cowherd has said, oh, the Warriors have

(01:23:07):
gotten lucky. You know, over the last few years, every
Kauai has been injured twice. As good as Lebron has
been in this postseason, seven games, over forty points, triple
double machine carrying a really weak team. We gotta we
gotta keep it real, Doug Lebron. The best players he's
beaten in these playoffs have been Victor Oladipot, Damar DeRozan,

(01:23:31):
and Jayson Tatum. He did not have to face the
four best players in the East. No, Kyrie Irving didn't
get to face Joel Embiat or Ben Simmons and dodged Janice. Okay,
as good as Lebron has been, and he's been tremendous,
I just don't think you can say that this has
been an amazing the best run of his career and
this is the best accomplishment of his career. The dude

(01:23:55):
was down three one to the Warriors and came back.
He went to I believe was twenty two, and he
took an awful Calves team to the finals and they
got swept. Okay, that that Calves team by the way
had one teammate dude made an All Star team, Zarounis
ils Kiss. Yeah, and that that team took down the
Detroit Pistons had been the seventh straight Eastern Conference Finals.

(01:24:15):
I tend to agree with you, and we do have
a tendency to focus on the now as a as
opposed to the the entire story or or going back
a year or two. Um. I also don't want to
dwell on Dallas because that may have been a semino moment,
but what he's done ever since has been much better
for the most part. For the most part, when they

(01:24:37):
remember they should have lost to the Spurs the year
they beat the Spurs and did lose the Spurs his
corner jumper. Yeah right, So, I mean that game was
over until the Spurs choked it away and Ray Allen
berries at three. So and then they end up, you know,
winning in Game seven where he was fantastic. He was
the only one with gas left in the town. You

(01:24:58):
know what they say, Doug, sometimes in life need to
go through that struggle before you have success. And maybe
that's a great point you made. Maybe he needed that
Dallas series to get kind of clown suited by j
j Barea in the post and go through that is
Lebron clutch and all that stuff. We know Lebron is
a great play He's an all time great. I don't
want to get into the Michael Jordan's stuff quite yet,

(01:25:18):
um because it feels like it's had been a dead
horse beaten. But well, sometimes you gotta go through tough
moments to get there. Here's here's the problem I've I
have nailed. I had a two hour drive last night
that ended up becoming a three hour drive because of
a flat and so I've had time to ruminate and
think over this. Do you know why the Lebron Jordan

(01:25:39):
debate is so bad? Why it is so bad? You
mean as a topic, or that's why it's such a
dead horse because Lebron still playing and he's gonna you know,
he's gonna go to the Lakers this summer and go
to go to another finals and winner. Maybe he's gonna
go straight finals. I'd say there's there's three different elements

(01:25:59):
to The first is far too often we're making arguments
about stats and oh geez no, and and the problem
with stats are they failed to give us context, especially
in the time in which in which the game was played.
That here's the perfect example, is like, look, the NBA

(01:26:20):
is different. I don't. I offered this opinion up how
effective is Tim Duncan or Shaquille O'Neil in this NBA.
I think Patrick Ewing is not even a factor at
all in this NBA card to pick and roll. And
he's one of my favorite players. I have a Patrick
Ewing jersey at all. Now with the reality his he's
a non factor in the NBA. Okay, Now, look, you

(01:26:40):
could say, hey, if Brook Lopez and and Jonas Valanchunis
and Boogie Cousins can develop as a three point shooter,
why can't they? Right, why couldn't they? They would have evolved,
Jordan would have evolved, They would have been more better
three point shooters. But the spacing on the floor is
so different. When Michael Jordan's was the best driver and

(01:27:02):
mid range guy in the league, he was playing against
teams that had two post players, as opposed to now
Lebron James, who's built like those power forwards. Sometimes there's
no post players in there. So it's completely different the
shots you get and the style by which the games played.
So the only thing you can really go by is
the level of dominance, the level of competence at the

(01:27:25):
at the very very highest level. The league is also
a lot better now at talent wise. I mean, Michael
Jordan never faced a super team. Had to go through
Oh what are you talking about? Super Team second Stockton superteam. No,
they had stocked in the malone that backcourt. They were stop, stop,

(01:27:49):
you stop. You just said something that you said before
that is incorrect. They did go through. He went through
the Detroit Pistons, who went back to back titles. He
went through the Boss two and that team got old quickly. Yes,
Jordan did get through those teams. Okay, wait wait, then
he got to the finals and he played Magic Johnson
with the Lakers final year. He was his final year

(01:28:10):
because he got h and he was gone. So Magic
was out a league. Larry Bird was hurt, and Isaiah
Thomas retired. Michael Jordan went through a week nineties NBA.
Can you you said something that wasn't true. Let me
prove to you it wasn't true. If you just give
me something, okay. The first thing was he would consistently
beat the Cavaliers who were built who were constructed of

(01:28:33):
perennial All Stars like no like Brad Doherty, Larry Nance,
and Mark Price. Okay again, you're talking about something that Jason,
I love you, but I watched plenty of NBA back then.
Could not step on the court with the NBA teams
and talent that we have now. It's not true. It's
not true. In the context of those years, there were

(01:28:53):
fewer teams. The best teams had more good players. When
the Lakers were at their peak, the Lakers didn't have
two or three stars, they had five. Beat them when
they had five superstars. I understand. When Jordans beat the
Portland Trailblazers, Clyde Drexler was seen as the second best
player in the league and he destroyed Clyde Drexler. When

(01:29:13):
Jordans beat the Phoenix Suns, Charles Barkley was the m
v P of the league. They had a tremendous team.
He they end up winning on winning I think three
games on the Sun's home floor. When he beat the
Utah Jazz, they had two superstar Hall of Famers first
ballot Hall of Famers. I don't want to go down

(01:29:34):
a rabbit. Clyde Drexler was never the second best player
in the NBA. He made it one All NBA First
Team and that was an era where the centers were dominant.
Elijah one one year did he make the first team?
On what year did he played in the NBA Final?
He wasn't the second best player in the league. And
night crazy Clyde Drexon was a very good player. Icon

(01:29:57):
again that Lebron's taken down? I love, okay, but the
icons he just took down. Where the Boston Celtics without
Kyrie Irving and without Gordon Hayward say, those are the
icons that he took down, And those are the icons
that he took down. When he's faced the super teams
with a super team, he has lost more than he's one. Like,

(01:30:19):
that's one of the one of the uttered fallacy, complete
falsities of of Lebron is like, well, Kevin Durant had
to go join a super team, Like what do you
think Lebron James built in Miami? But they're talking super teams. Okay,
when you look at nineties n b A, Jordan's played

(01:30:40):
inferior opponents than what Lebron has faced. I think that's
been who was on Jordan's super team the first three
three titles. Who's Michael Jordan's, Scottie Pippen Hall of Famer
and Steve Kurse. Steve Kurt never averaged double figures in
the NBA. He wasn't on the first three? Was John Paxson.

(01:31:01):
Paxson on the first three? Right, Okay, John Packson is
not a superstar. No, certainly, Bill Cartwright was not a superstar. Definitely.
Where's the super team? Where's the super team he played on? No? No,
I said super teams? He's face Okay. He paid the Pistons,
he beat the South, the Pistons, the Celtics, the Lakers.
In the first super team he placed, he he went
through the best of the best and beat them. Michael

(01:31:22):
Jordan's never beat a real Larry Bird stack team, of course.
Not My bird got with Magic Johnson once when he
didn't have jabbar. Okay, I'm telling you. And then early
nineties Michael Jordan beat up on a week NBA at
the end of the Magic Bird Isaiah run I just
told any superstar he played, he played in the finals

(01:31:44):
every time. He matched up against the superstar every time. Okay,
with his Clyde Drexer, with his Garrett Payton, whether it
was Karl Malone and and John Stockton, what was Charles
Charles Barkley and and he beat all of them. Okay,
so look, you can contextualize it all you want, but
the fact is, what do you want to say, super
team or super player? Jordan never played on a team

(01:32:05):
with three or four of the best others. It was
a different were never a superstar. He was never a superstar.
He was never a star. Was never You won't even
give him start, probably not, probably not. He was a
really skilled player. He's probably way he's way ahead of
his time. Now. He would have been a tremendous face

(01:32:25):
up four who could handle But but he was, he
was ahead of his time. He was Okay, I just
looked it up. You're right. Zero All Star teams for
Tony kukok Okay didn't win three titles. Sixth man of
the only time they added the only time they added
a guy to make a three headed monster was when
they added Rod Run. Okay, and Rodman was at the
end of a run where when he first he was

(01:32:47):
with Detroit when they beat Detroit. Then he went to
San Antonio and he became the best rebounder and a
great defender, in the league. But besides teammates, Michael Jordan
also had a guy by the name of Phil Jackson
as his head coach. We could go through Lebron's coaches,
whether you want to go Mike Brown, Tyron Lou David Blatt,
Eric Spoelstra, who was a video coordinator before Lebron elevated

(01:33:08):
elevated him to greatness. So from my point of view,
what Lebron's accomplished has been more impressive than what Michael
Jordan did. I know Jordan went six and oh, but
Lebron has done more with less than Jordan's in my opinion.
You can disagree with Okay, look, we can come back
around to it and I can dismantle that part of
the interview, that part of the if. But he still
didn't We still didn't get into Here's the biggest thing

(01:33:31):
that's missing in all these debates. No one's ever willing
to move off a position. You're a Jordan guy, You're
a Lebron guy, You're a Jordan guy. Or I offered up,
I thought Durant was the better player this year. I
thought he was the better player last year in the league. Okay,
but no one's ever willing to move off of it. Well,
you know this is happening with the national anthem debate

(01:33:51):
and politics, and that's why I the sports tribalism is
running amuck. It's getting really ugly. I'm I don't I Look,
I'm all for debate, aiding topics. There's nothing wrong with
debating topics, okay, but there is a time to which
you go, hey, like, look, I thought Durant was better
this year because I actually watched the NBA. But sometimes
it's really hard because Lebron, yes, he played eighty two games,

(01:34:14):
but he didn't play hard defensively for good stretches. Mark
Jackson and Van Gundy called him out yesterday for defense.
I thought that was a great moment because Lebron was
conserving energy. She was because you have you have to
to play those kind of minutes, and that's what he
did this year. He also didn't practice this season, which
is one of the reasons his team took so long
to come together because he was pacing himself. So it's

(01:34:35):
really hard to tell who's playing hard and who's not.
And the level of competition that Lebron is playing against
as opposed to Durant is playing against is inferior in
in comparison. Anybody would tell you massively inferior in comparison.
That said, as somebody who I believe that Kevin Durant
was the best player in the league, I'm only to
move off that position based upon what I've seen over

(01:34:56):
the last two weeks. And I think Durant but was
really good early in the series, but he's in a
weird place right now and two games and Lebron is
not in a weird place. Lebron is in his most
self confident place that he has ever been into, where
it's like zen when the best year to be in
that place, Doug, when you're going against bow Yon, Bug,

(01:35:19):
Donnovan o Ganna, nobis without their two best players. And
we do agree on this that again, I've said it
since the finals. Kevin Durant best player in the league. Okay,
he has dominant He's a better shooter, a better score,
a better defender. Lebron does elevate teammates, he's a better passer, rebounder,
and I'm not willing to move off that hold on

(01:35:39):
off two bad games from Durant. But I wasn't gonna
put him there because of two great games right, So
I'm not gonna move off of it because the two
bad ones. However, I'll say this if he soils himself
tonight and they lose with no Chris Paul, I think
I've moved off. I don't mind it. I'll admit when
I'm wrong. I will totally admit when I'm wrong. Well, also,
what's right and it's wrong can change? Can you can evolve?

(01:36:03):
The biggest story from last night's a Celtics game was
somebody who wasn't there quite possible. We'll discuss that upcoming.
Next to Jason McIntyre, I'm Doug Gottlieb. This is the
Dan Patrick Show, Doug Gottliebn, Jason McIntyre in for Dan
and the Dan Nettes. Hope you're having a great weekend,
having more of an idea. And to any of you

(01:36:24):
who have or will serve, thank you. That's some moral
day is for you. Thank you. You see a serviceman
or service woman or somebody who who served our country
at a coffee shop, at a bar by the beer,
buy him a couple of coffees. It's literally the least
you can do because they risked the most that you
can possibly risk. So that we can cook pieces of

(01:36:47):
meat and argue over Lebron and Jordan's and Durant and
Lebron and who, let's not forget where's Lebron going in
what six weeks? It is? It is fun to care
about the NBA again, because I'm old enough now to
have cared and not cared and care again. When did

(01:37:08):
you not care about the NBA? Oh, there's a good
chunk of time there in the post Jordan era where
the Jersey Nets were running the show. The Nets went again.
The East are bad like it is now. Those were
the ratings, were the finals for Nets Spurs, That's that's
rock Nets versus was was bad? How good are they
gonna be Lakers Celtics next year? The Stack Celtics and

(01:37:28):
then Lebron and Paul George the Lakers if it's if
it's like his Celtics. Okay, So biggest stories last night
was Lebron did exactly what kind of we thought he
would do? That's really did Jeff did? Jeff Green surprises? Sure,
But in my lifetime, just like I've seen I've seen
Jordan's end seasons for the Calves, I've seen Jordan's end

(01:37:49):
seasons for the Knicks, like, this is what Jordan would do.
Right about now, this is where it was very Jordan's
like the the Knicks could never beat him, the Pacers
could never beat him, The Calves could never beat him.
Just like for Lebron, the Celtics can't beat him. The
Raptor was his last game with the Calves, the last
time around. The Celtics can't beat him, the Raptors can't

(01:38:11):
beat him, the Paciers can't beat him. This is kind
of what what he does. Are you kind of surprised
that Brad Stevens didn't pull a Dennis Green and say,
Lebron is who we thought he was, and we let
him off the hook, and the and the Celtics seriously
dug They let Lebron and the Calves off the hook.
They led by twelve and the second quarter and then
just they couldn't make a shot. And I don't think

(01:38:31):
it was anything that Calves did defensively. Jalen Brown was
four or fourteen for a long shotch Terry Roger couldn't
make a shot, couldn't make a shot for the ocean.
Yeah it was. He rushed shots, though, he took shots
that you know, look if you're making shots. You can
take transition threes all you want, but they shot in
the second quarter way too many pull up mid range

(01:38:52):
one on one jump shots instead of moving the ball
and exploiting mismatches getting you know, there were times with
Tera Roger come down the court and he's got one
of his two big guys check with a you know,
with a guard on him, instead of throwing the ball
inside where you can get a post up or maybe
a foul, or maybe a double team so somebody gets
an open shot, you get a contested transition three. I

(01:39:14):
thought they played very much like a young team, and
what was a winnable game suddenly, you know, once it
got close at the half, I thought it was over then.
And look, credit the Celtics. They continue to fight back
and this is not a great Calves team, and they
were able to kind of grind their way and it
was still a ball game. I did think Horford got
fouled when they're down three and he goes and post up.

(01:39:34):
But he's got to make it more obvious that he
got fouled, as boost Lebron James, who makes it obvious
that he gets fouled, and he gets to the foul
calls at the other end, Doug, I know you play
basketball still. I love pick up. I'm probably gonna play
this afternoon. But when you face a team, there's one
guy you could always say, Hey, we'll we'll we'll cool
with this guy taking all the shots if we lose
to that guy very good self check or whatever you

(01:39:56):
want to call him. Jeff Green was self check. J R.
Smith in Boston was over eleven on threes before Game seven,
So they lost because Jeff Green made shots. J R.
Smith made shots. And you know what I mean, if
you're gonna go down that way, it's not the it's
not the end of the world. I think what hurts
Boston besides Kyrie Irving not sitting on the bench supporting
the team, was that, you know, the guards just missed

(01:40:17):
a lot of open looks backups for really, And and
Jalen Brown is a guy whose percentages tell you he's
a much better shooter than his reputation was coming in
the NBA. He surprised all of us by the way.
I want to be that guy. I gotta be that
guy with you. You don't even go there, do you do?
Know what's what self check means? Right, Yeah, give him
the ball, take any shot you want. Why because he's

(01:40:40):
not good, he can't score, he's not a little bit
self check is also you're in your own head. You're
guarding yourself. You're mentally thinking, I can't make this shot
before you ever shoot the ball. We also says a
little a little bit, a little bit in self check,
a little bit in self check. So yes, some of
it is you don't guard a guy because the bet
you want him to shoot. That's more open for a

(01:41:02):
Reacon guy. Um it is. It's it's fascinating though, that
that you did. You got something out of Jeff Green.
I mean, think about it. He has open heart surgery
going back two thousand twelve. But that's none of that is.
I know that the story is going to be Lebron
eighth straight, eight straight NBA finals, which is remarkable, remarkable,

(01:41:22):
utter in sheer dominance. And we can say whatever we
want about how putrid the Eastern Conference is. Well, let
me let me say this. The East had a good
regular season. Okay, the Raptors won a bunch of games.
We know they're frauds in the postseason every year. So
the Sixers and hold on the Sea Sixers exceeded expectations.
The Celtics were very good. They had Kyrie for the
bulk of the season, right, So then the postseason comes

(01:41:43):
and Lebron gets this incredible draw. Oh geez. The Pacers
who people thought would win like thirty games, we could,
we could dispatch them. They needed seven. Then they faced
the fraudulent Raptors and then you don't have to face
Kyrie in the playoffs. So they Let's keep it real here,
Calves fans, you can be celebrating all you want, but
it's to say time, please look yourself in the mirror
and say, man, oh boy, we got a good draw.

(01:42:06):
We got little lucky. Because I'm telling you, if the
Warriors face him, Doug, we're looking at four games. Yes,
I would say, I would say it's it's it's a
four game sweep, if it's if it's the Warriors. Part
of the problem with the regular season was there's so
many teams tanking that it was really hard to tell
who was and who was not any good. And yeah,

(01:42:26):
by the way, I'll point this out about Jeff Green, like,
did anybody know Jeff Green actually average eleven points a
game this year that he's a career thirty three three
point shooter. Like he's not a terrible player. Jordan Clarkson
average fourteen a game. Rodney Hood average sixteen a game
in Utah. Okay, no, no, I'm saying with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
With the Cleveland Cavaliers this year, Jeff Green actually averaged.

(01:42:48):
So was it surprising how well he played in spot duty? Yes,
but part of that is because he had, you know,
he had fallen out of favor. He had started for
He started like third team fifteen games in the regular season,
and he had a very productive year. Like, dude, you
average eleven a game in twenty three minutes a game,
like that's that's that's coming in giving you a fourth

(01:43:10):
or fifth score off. Jeff Green was a stud at Georgetown.
He was pretty good when he came into the league game. Okay,
biggest story of yesterday outside of Lebron, and maybe with
Lebron is where the hell is Kyrie Irving? That's a
good question. And and how much damage does this do?

(01:43:34):
This is one of those This is one of those
you didn't get the award, right company awards, you didn't
get the award, and you don't show up to the Awards.
You know this, this just dawned upon me. Doug Brad
Stevens is kind of I don't want to say the
founding father of but he was one of the early
guys who went out and said there are no more
traditional positions in the NBA. There's you know, the guys

(01:43:57):
who can handle the ball, wings and then right that
that's what it is. Terry Rosier, we know his deal
is up after next year, so there's a lot of talk.
Could they trade him? You know Game seven might have
hurt his value. Kyrie also up next year. You don't
want both your point guards up. But if you're the Celtics,
do you start tinkering with trade ideas? You know, we
love Kyrie, great player, but man, this guy's a headache?

(01:44:18):
Could we do I just could lose Kyrie and Rosier
and big game hunt for a guy like I don't know,
Janice Anthony David, I think you're getting way too far ahead, Like, look,
you're looking a year in advance, and I don't think
remember the Celtics this year head, I think twelve new
players on their roster. It was a complete They were
not playing for this year, they were playing for next

(01:44:40):
year and I understand that we've fallen in love with
with Terry Rosier because he was so good early in
the playoffs. You know, let me just read you his
numbers of of the you know they lost four, Remember
they lost four of five four or five. Couldn't score

(01:45:00):
in the final month without Kyrie Irving. He was. He
was good, a very good offensively in game six, he
was awful in game five, awful in games. He's a backup.
That's what backups do. Backups can give you a night
where they have twenty eight. The problem is there's too
many nights when they have four, they have too man
nuts and they have eight and nobody else gets involved.
He's not a starting point guard for a playoff team now,

(01:45:24):
so you're down the road. I mean, Dennis Schroder's a
starting point guard. They're the worst team in the NBA,
but they made the playoffs two years ago when he
was a starting point guard. Uh, they all said Jeff
Tigue that they did. I think Jeff Tigue was the start.
But regardless, could he grow into one. He's twenty four
years old. Maybe I think he's always going to be.
His best role is going to be energy, scoring, athleticism,

(01:45:47):
off the bench. He doesn't make anybody better, and he's
not a good enough score to get away with it
the way that Kyrie is. But the points you bring
up is I think the Celtics got the full Kyrie
Irving experience this year already. It's been ten months, right
like look uh and and there's a full experience with
Lebron James that's not all perfect either, But Kyrie Irving,

(01:46:07):
what are you gonna get? You're going to get some
unbelievable plays, especially finishing at the rim right. You're gonna
get a guy who the ball does stop a little
bit when he when he gets it right back hole,
but not it's not just a he could get buckets
like anybody in the least I understand. But part of
I think Brad's struggles in season was, Hey, give it up,

(01:46:30):
let me get it back to you, and let me
have you attack a guy to which you have a mismatch,
like just trust your teammates type of of conversation. There
are times in which he chose an affinity not to
play defense, which can be problematic. He's always hurt. They
had that this year. Even if this injury is simply
a body and if you know anything about this injury.
It's he had screws and uh metal wire in there

(01:46:53):
holding the screws in there. This is from back when
he busted up his kneecap in the NBA Finals. So
this is this is that injury. But Kyrie's hurt, Kyrie
struggles with defense, Kyrie has spectacular place. Kyrie can carry you,
Kyrie can hurt you, and then when you really really
need him to be supportive, shows on games. Now, how

(01:47:14):
about this? How about the Doug I know you love
forward Game seven in Boston. Dude, you if if the
team doesn't leave you a ticket, you buy a ticket. No,
I'm serious. Who wasn't there was an NBA coach who
took his team up. There wasn't. David Fizdale took two
or three of his play young players to one of

(01:47:34):
the Celtics games. Do you know that that he brought
him to the game. This is what it's like bonding?
All right? How about this is fine? This is what
it's like. Come what This is what real NBA basketball
is like. And Kyrie Irving no shows like are you?
I mean? He has been in real basketball, has been
in the finals. But let let me say this Kyrie
Irving is tight with a gentleman by the name of
Jimmy Butler. Okay, we've heard Karl Anthony Towns in Minnesota

(01:47:58):
to stop stops outside. Karl Anthony Towns has had some
squabbling with the staff in Minnesota. His his number one
assistant coach was canned. There is the chance that Kyrie
ticked off to any ain't so much and Brad Stevens, Hey,
do we look at moving Kyrie, do you have any
sourcing that that's stuff? This is what we do. Dun't.

(01:48:19):
That's not what you do. Oh my goodness, Why can't
you float stuff? Because it's complete crap because you don't know,
you have no idea. Maculation rules the world sports world,
not if it's not ed. I just told you their
best buddies that wind Horse and Zach Low have. I've
been out the reporting to Karl Anthony Towns has had
some strife in Minnesota. I I know, I look, the

(01:48:39):
Minnesota guys don't get along. Okay, and Kyrie wasn't there.
That is nothing there. That doesn't mean that Boston's gonna trade.
I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but do we get
what do you give a chance that that happens? Zero,
that they're gonna trade Kyrie Irvy, He's played two seasons
with the Celtics. I'm saying they're gonna have to make

(01:49:00):
a decision on him next summer. Doug, He's gonna look
for some massive extension. This idea that Kyrie's locked into
the Celtics future. I think you're a little off there.
Let's welcome in a guy who's one NBA championship, and
I'm sure he sat there and like the rest of us,
nodded our heads and gone, yeah, pretty much what I expected.
Lebron dominating in uh in Boston Garden. Dante Jones, NBA champion,

(01:49:22):
joins us here on the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Ready alongside Jason McIntyre. I'm Doug gottlieb uh Dante.
What stuck out to you about last night? What stuck
out was just the fact that Lebron was able to
get his supporting cast to have some big games. I
think um helping Jr And Jeff Green have have great

(01:49:45):
games as we helped him get to win, and and
him playing forty eight minutes was big. Like I looked
at I'll watched from the game and then at then
the third quarter, I looked and I was like, how
many minutes have you played? Because I really haven't seen
him sit down much, and he had played pretty six minutes,
which is which is like really unheard of it these days,
like not taking any type of break. So it was

(01:50:06):
just amazing to be able to watch that and and
to see um and see him perform at that level
um for a game seven. Hey, what's up, Dante? I
got you know Kyrie Irving a little bit right? Uh,
you followed his career. He's a duke guy. You know.
I gotta ask, how how shocked are you? Did he
no showed at Game seven at home? Wasn't even behind

(01:50:28):
the bench. Gordon Hayward flew specifically from the Indie where
he was working out, back to Boston for the game.
You know, just your thoughts on Kyrie Irving from what
you know on him and the fact that he no
showed in the arena in game seven? All Right, the
man that I know, I would expect him to be there.
Knowing Kyrie and know the type of person that he is,

(01:50:49):
I would I would have expected to see him cheering
his team on and there for his team who needed
him at that point in time. And I don't understand
why he wasn't there, as I was expectator, So I
don't understand all the circumstances around it. But I don't
see a reason why he wasn't there and how he
wasn't It wasn't a priority for him to be there.

(01:51:11):
I thought. I thought the second quarter is where the
game was lost for the Celtics. The Calves are down twelve. Look,
we've seen them pack it in in the past when
they get down big, and the Celtics they got a
little selfish, They looked a little young. They took some
mid range jump shots. They didn't get back in transition.
They gave up a couple of layups, which you know
Cleveland was struggling to find offense, and you can't give

(01:51:32):
a team like that layups to get them going again.
I felt like the second quarter was when the thing
came undone. Did you have the same opinion? No, I
thought I thought it was it was. It was a
great game up until the end to the fourth quarter,
and Marcus Smart and uh and Rochier got making shots.
Is where it was where they had the problem at

(01:51:52):
But I knew it was some one team was gonna
go on to run, and it was it was gonna
be a fight, and it wasn't gonna just be one
team knocking the other out because of the magnat to
the game, and it's just a lot of emotions going on.
So one team going up. It's just hard to keep
a lead in any game. For it it's in a
period of time. And yeah, when you have other games
in the tank, if you go up and teams like,
you know what, we'll get a next game. But with

(01:52:13):
being a game seven, it's just hard to keep a
team down for a long period of time. All right,
How does he do it right? Like that? The thing
about Lebron is and I know, I mean, look, they
pointed out that he was taking some plays off on
defense there or some plays on offense. But how does
how does he what? How does he do this to
where he completely understands like game one, Game five, you

(01:52:34):
and I talked about Dante Jones joined us in the
Dan Patrick Show where when the game was out of hand,
he shut it down to conserve the energy. How does
he know his body so well that he understands almost
almost to the exact point of when he's gonna have
energy and not gonna have energy. He's like a basketball
genius and he knows hisself better than any of us.

(01:52:54):
We're watching him work, but he knows how his body works.
He's playing multiple games within the game out there on
the floor, and he's challenging himself in different ways. He's
trying to figure different equations out throughout throughout the night,
and he should. It's another example of his brilliance out
there on the court. You you know, as I know,

(01:53:15):
playing the full game in any game, whether it be college,
high school, um, especially in the pro, is hard and
doing everything, bringing the ball up, playing the scoring like
he rebounded. He was doing everything out there, and it
was just it was amazing. Dante Tonight, Rockets hosting Game
seven against the Warriors. I don't know. I've been a

(01:53:36):
little concerned with just the state or the mindset of
Kevin durand he's looked unsure of himself. Told you that earlier.
I told you earlier. This year, though, yeah, they they
they're it's starting that they're not looking as hungry as
they were last He's not looking as determined that he
was last year. And I get the one thing though, Dante.
When you looked at his first two games he went off,

(01:53:58):
he had thirty seven and thirty eight on poppable. But
now he's seen some adversity here down three too. He
had a kind of a weak game in Game six.
They didn't really need him, but they're gonna need him tonight. Uh.
What do you think about Durant and how he's handling
this adversity with the Warriors. Um, I don't. I don't

(01:54:18):
think any less of him. He's told you what he
what he wants out of this and when he wants
out of the game of basketball, and he just wants
to be a scorer. And he doesn't want the responsibility
of having his team and taking the bread of all
the negativity or the positivity of winning and losing on himself.
He just wants to be a part of something and win.
And now the media has or people origes in general,

(01:54:43):
putting the pressure of him to carry this team. And
that's that's not what he signed up for. He signed
up the coming and scored his buckets and be a
part of something. And now that now their whole collective
is falling apart because of one of their major costs
is not out in Andrea Goodalad. I think that's the
biggest factor right now. He has to take on more
of a fit the role. He has to think the
game through. He has to be a quarterback and make

(01:55:04):
make decisions and make plays rather than just score. And
it's it's it's showing a couple of his deficiencies. Rockets
couldn't have been better in the first quarter and then
they couldn't score afterwards five in the second half. Going
back to Game six, some of that is a lack
of bench because Gordon starting. Some of it was I
think officiating. There was no whistles on James Harden any

(01:55:26):
time he was driving, and some of it was man.
The Warriors were just shooting out of their minds. What
are your thoughts on Game seven? We don't know about
Chris Paul, We don't know about Andrea Goodala. What do
you think heading in? I think we can't make any
We can't make any guesses until we find out the
state of CP and Andre Goodala, because there's two impactful individuals.

(01:55:46):
And going back to Game six, Clay showed up and
Clay showed why he's a big part of that team,
why he can never forget about him because he can
go off and have shooting displays like that and and
and be unstoppable, so he can defend like he could
de filmed with the best of them. So we we
saw a good offensive display in game six from from
Golden State, and now Houston's home atmosphere is something like

(01:56:10):
and it's in. It's in the top five, and I
expect them to carry their rockets. But you have one
of the most dangerous or if like like top three
dangerous offensive players in the game, if James goes off
and has an offensive display like James is capable of
and he gives you a forty or fifty. You've seen
him have double doubles. You see him have triple doubles.
You see him carry his team for for single games.

(01:56:32):
And if he shows up in this game, they doesn't
have a problem. Right, So what do you think do
you think that Houston wins? I think Houston wins because
I've been I've been in this situation. Okay, when when
when they when they came back on us from three,
one of the Clippers, right, and once you come into
their building, that vibe like building him. I'm big on

(01:56:53):
vibes of buildings and what they what they give to
the home team, and Houston has a home court advantage
unlike in the other They're like, those fans are are awesome.
It's just it's tough to beat them in their building.
Now you have your planning against the champions now, so
you're playing against god who've been through some adversity. But
I don't think they have that same championship edge that

(01:57:13):
they did last year or in the past. So you go,
it's gonna take a lot and I think minus Andre Goadal,
I don't think they have enough. We'll see if Andre
Goodala plays, will SEEFCP three places. We'll see if Dante
Jones prediction is accurate. Dante great stuff man, interesting perspective.
I appreciate you joining us. Thank you guy, Dante Jones
joining us. And the Dan Patricks. So the two thousand

(01:57:33):
eight team Mercedes AMG E sixty three s Sedan Unrivaled
Luxury meets unbridled Power Test Drive one Today Mercedes MG
Driving Performance. If you ever miss any of DP celebrity
interviews from the Mercedes AMG Man Cave, go to Dan
Patrick's app when where you can watch and listen from
the inside of the Mercedes MG man Cave Mercedes MG

(01:57:56):
the best or nothing. You just heard Dante Jones thoughts
on the Rockets, saying the Rockets can win tonight. Alright,
give us our lasting thoughts on what we saw from
Lebron and what we'll see tonight with Jason McIntyre. I'm
I'm Doug Gottlie. That's up coming next on the Dan
Patrick Show. Doug gottlieban Jason McIntyre in for Dan and
the Dan Ats boys will be back from the man Cave,

(01:58:19):
the Mercedes MG man Cave tomorrow. Trying to educate Jason
McIntyre and how good you are so? How good the
Seattle SuperSonics were when they went to the NBA files
and faced the Michael Jordan's bulls. That's that's before Vin
Baker was an alcoholic. Was when Gary Payton was in
his peak. Debt Live shrimp a little bit passes prime,

(01:58:41):
but Detler shrimp shot from three be a great face
up four these days. Hercy Hawkins with a great shooters
in NBA history. Dale ellis another great shooters. Doug let'sen's
time out, time out, Time out here is one thing
that I love what you're doing. We romantic size stuff
that we kind of grew up with in our youth. Okay,
we love movies and music from our youth. And now

(01:59:01):
you're waxing poetic about Hersey Hawkins and and and all
these guys from the nineties. Are you looking at these
super teams? I'm being I'm keeping it real here, and
and the other guys in the studio, I'm curious if
if they're gonna laugh at this or think I'm honest.
This Houston Rockets team right now would sweep that Karl
Malone Jazz team that went to the finals against Jordan's.

(01:59:22):
I mean, they would just run them off the court.
I know it's a different brand of basketball with the threes,
But this Houston Rockets team, according to the Advanced Stats
Doug one of the greatest offensive teams in NBA historys
in the second half against the State Warriors. Uma the Warriors,
by the way, probably the best dynasty in the modern era. Yes,

(01:59:45):
probably better than Jordan's Bulls. But continue. Okay, so again, like, look,
it's you. We're comparing things that are really really hard
to compare. Would you agree with that? A little bit?
Not a little bit, a lot bit, I mean a
completely different era of basketball, and so what what you
would what you would find would be ugly games like
we just saw in game seven, the scored fifty four

(02:00:12):
points in an NBA Finals game, Doug fifty four. Okay,
what part of it is the defense of the bulls.
Part of it is the game was the game was
so physical that they had to change the officiated. They
had to because it got If you don't like the
grabbing and holding now, you would have hated it, absolutely
hated it then. But like, look, you can tell me
all you want about how the Utah Jazz sucked back then.

(02:00:33):
They won sixty two games good back then, but compared
to what we got now, the players are bigger, faster, stronger,
the super t K But like, it's incredible how much
better the basketball is. So Chris Paul and John Stockton,
how would that matchup go? Chris Paul's in a tremendous defender.
He would back Stockton down. And you know we can't
have this discussion. Then let's let's get to uh what

(02:00:55):
what what are you afraid? What? What? You would back
John Stockton down? Like, dude, Stockton is one of the best,
one of the better point guard defenders. Yeah, you think
Chris Paul is a point guard? So well what is
he just a guard? Okay, guard? Fine, but he's not
a This goes to the Steph Curry is he the
second best point guard in NBA history debate? Right right,

(02:01:17):
which is not really a debate. It's just a state,
a bold statement that you've made nobody actually backed up
by its facts out the wazoo. But wait a sec, Doug,
hold on, so what do we draw the line at
like and say, well, there are now no new positions,
so we point guard stopped. Actually, just have to watch
the game and I can tell you what the point
guard is. What a point guard? But the evolutionary basketball

(02:01:37):
has changed, yes, but again, what the what the you're
you're you're making a big bold statement about the game evolving,
Like the Warriors don't play like the Rockets, who don't
play like the Calves, who don't play like the Celtics.
The game has evolved in terms of the density of
three point shots, but it's all it's changed in terms

(02:01:58):
of offense. But they're not run in the same offense
because they don't have the same personnel. So like the
Warriors run basically motion whereas all the all the Rockets
do is said one high ball screen to get a mismatch,
and then they spread you out all around the three
point line. It's completely different. Let's go back to your point.
So if Curry is not a point guard, who is

(02:02:18):
a point is James Harden a point guards? A point guard?
Not really? Russ would be Russ is. Russ is more
of a point guard, more of a dominant ball hiller
than stuff. The beauty to Steph and how the Warriors
are constructed is that they have five guys that can
be point where four guys that can be point guards.
The least point guard like on their team is Clay

(02:02:39):
Thompson eleven dribbles or something like that. Right, I mean,
but Draymond, Andre Goodala, Steph and k d all take
turns as their lead ball handler. He's not a point guard.
He's a great player, he's not a point guard. Okay, Tonight,
what happens, Warriors fall behind a little bit early, they mounted,

(02:03:00):
I'm back, dominate the third quarter as usual, and I
believe the Warriors win by six and advanced to the
NBA point. I think we're gonna have an absolute war tonight,
an absolutely not good news for Golden State. There no.
I I think Golden State does find a way to
win a really close game. I'm not sure of it.
I'd have to think Andre Goadala can play. I don't

(02:03:21):
know about Chris Paul. I do think though they have
enough weaponry. In game seven, it's about Kenya make shots,
and they just under the more shot Durant thirty points
over under ober O

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Doug Gottlieb

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