Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's our two this Tuesday, Dan and the dan Uts
Dan Patrick Show. Glad to have you on board. We
recapped all the NBA action last night. If you were
a betting man, would you bet on the Nuggets coming
back to beat Minnesota? Probably pretty good odds that you
would get long odds if you're a betting man. But
what we saw last night with Minnesota that was impressive
(00:26):
and the drama was taken out early as they dominate
that game one oh six to eighty without Rudy Gobert.
The Knicks take game one forty three for Jalen Brunson. Tonight,
Calves at the Celtics, that'll be game one. Mavericks at
the Thunder that will be game one as well. All right, Seeton,
what's the poll question for hour two? Let's clean up
(00:47):
our one and then turn her attention to hour two.
Let's see we have being compared to Michael Jordan. Is
awesome or a burden? Right now? Fifty six percent of
the audience say it's a burden, okay, which is so
odd because it is probably both of those things, but
it feels way more burdensome than it does awesome. Yeah,
but our expectation level is raised now because if you
(01:10):
attach Jordan to anybody, then all of a sudden we
expect greatness. And Anthony Edwards is just learning how to
play in the postseason. I mean, it looks like he's
done a pretty good job and understanding it, not mastered
it yet. But you know, it took Jordan a while
to understand what he needed to do and the pieces
(01:31):
around him. And as I mentioned, I think today is
the anniversary where the Bulls beat the Cavaliers when poor
craig Elo he went up, Mike went up, and craig
Elo came down and Mike was still going up and
then hit the jumper as the Bulls beat a very
talented Cleveland team.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yes, yes, Marvin, that's such a great contest. Also, that
just shows you the greatness of mine. Michael stayed there
double punk Yeah, ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Craig Elo played good defense, he did. He just he was,
you know against him that day where Mike just kept
going and then double double pumped and then hit that
foul line jumper. Yes, Marv, was he known as the
Jordan stopper. He might have been might have been. I mean,
Elo was a guy who was going to guard you
(02:17):
that he was known as a defensive player. But like
Gerald Wilkins, you didn't want that Jordan Stopper name. You
know what could go wrong everything? Oh, you're the Jordan
stop Like you imagine now knowing Michael's makeup, if he's
going into a game and all of a sudden, Gerald
Wilkins is there and he's known as the Jordan Stopper,
(02:38):
like Mike's gonna go, how many do you want me
to put up on you? How about I put up
fifty on you? YEAHO zero points? That hurts. Stat of
the Day brought to you by Panini America, the official
trading cards of the program. Coming up, we'll talk to
Brian Winnhorst. We'll get his thoughts on what the Lakers
(02:58):
are doing. Also, Bill Hanslick is set to join us.
Bill's a former NBA player. He's a Nuggets analyst pre
and postgame and spent ten years as a player. He's
also a coach with the Nuggets as well. He'll join
us coming up here in a moment and get his
thoughts on Hol's morale in Denver after what happened last
night as the series now shifts to Minneapolis. Alrighty, Paul,
(03:22):
you got odds on the Nuggets coming back?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Yeah, if you wanted to bet on the Nuggets to
win the series this morning, according to DraftKings plus four hundred.
You bet one hundred, you win four hundred. Okay, that's
a saucy bet, because if you believe in the Nuggets,
you shouldn't stop believing they could win two on the road. Okay,
I would That's a likable bet.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Okay, I wouldn't bet them straight up. Okay, saucy bets Okay.
Calves and the Celtics once again. The Celtics are favored
by double digits. They are favored by twelve tonight against
the Cabs. The MAVs are getting three and a half
against the Thunder. The aforementioned Bill Hanslick joining us on
short notice, Billy, thank you for joining us. Altitude Sports
(04:03):
TV anchor and reporter. How's morale in Denver today?
Speaker 5 (04:09):
Morale of Probably it's a good thing.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
There's a there's a lot of time between game two
and and three. They don't play it on Friday night,
so the nuggacy that mentally more than well they needed
physically too, but uh yeah, there they took a whoop
up last night.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I'm wondering though, and and maybe it's not fair to
the Nuggets. It felt like Minnesota cracked the coat a
little bit on what to do with Joker. You know,
nas Red guarding him. You don't have Rudy Gobert last night,
or or maybe we reading too much into one game here.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
Uh no, I mean they've done a good job on them.
They really you have to start way back in.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
The in the backcorn. I think that their whole system
against the Nuggets is to shorten the shot clock, so
they pick up full court. They do.
Speaker 6 (05:03):
Murray's the primary coming up, although Joker will dribble, dribble
it up once in a while and they'll mix. They'll
put McDaniels on them, they'll put Alexander Walker. They've even
had Anthony Edwards a full court pressure turn them three
or four times, make the first past difficult. So the
shot clock is down when it gets the Joker. They're
(05:23):
doubling him most of the time, fairly clickly first dribble.
A lot of time, you say, on the pass on
the paint, you know what's going to happen there, but
their length has made it really really difficult for Nuggets
to get any.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Kind of easy looks.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Is it fixable?
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Yes, I think a get you got to get the
ball up quicker. I think b.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
The Nuggets are getting out of their system a little
bit and that they're trying to do too much one
on one. You've got to drive and kick, drive and
kicked till you get a good look.
Speaker 5 (06:02):
So yes, I think they can be better.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
I think if you look on the bright side, what's
good for the Nuggets, Well, they've played two really good
single halves of defensive basketball, so they can do that.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
But you need a full game of that.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
And yeah, Minnesota's got one hundred and six both games.
That's not, you know, world beating. So if your defense
is a little better and you can straighten out some
things in offense, he got a chance in these games
that they've really Minnesota's man handled them.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Anthony Edwards game reminds you of who.
Speaker 6 (06:42):
Wow, kind of unique Kobe Bryant maybe, and that he
plays both ends of the court.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
He can get his.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
Shot when he wants to get his shot, willing passer,
but his physicality along with that athleticism is just tough
to defend.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I like that you didn't go all the way to
the end of the line and say reminds me of
Michael Jordan. Now you didn't go too far towards I mean,
you're almost at the end of the line when you
say Kobe, and he reminds me a little bit more.
Reggie Miller and I discussed this of Dwayne Wade with
a better jump shot.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Yeah, that's that'd be a pretty good analogy.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
I mean, yeah, Lee, he you think about him, Dan,
you go twenty two years old.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
I'm a big believer usually the first three four five years.
Speaker 6 (07:38):
Depending on your age and the league, you will get
better and then you kind of plateau and you keep it,
you know, for another five years, and then you can
begin to decline. Well, this guy still got upside and
he is. Yeah, he'll be in the MVP consideration next
year for sure.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Who does Joker remind you of nobody?
Speaker 6 (07:59):
He's at a unique He's his combination of skill and
I can't think anybody and I guarded big guy, guarded
Kareem Elijahuan, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
A lot of guys like that.
Speaker 6 (08:16):
But but his ability to see the court or see
plays before you know. I'll take that back one slight
little bit, discuss size a little different.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
Three point Larry Bird. Larry could see plays before they happened.
And that's what I called Dan Nikole Jogic.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Okay, you you played there for ten years in the eighties.
The best player that you played against or guarded or
tried to guard was who Michael Jordan?
Speaker 5 (08:45):
Without a doubt the debate to me, the debate that.
Speaker 6 (08:50):
This guy or Lebron or somebody else, it is Michael Jordan.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
Uh, just just incredible.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Do you have any good memories? Are they mostly bad memories?
When you're guarding Jordan? I'd just switch hell somebody else.
But you were guarding centers and what are you six
seven six eight?
Speaker 5 (09:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, okay, what are you doing guarding Ewing and Kareem
and Elijah on.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
Well, that's a little bit of the crazy coach I had,
Doug Ball. You know, Doug.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
Doesn't get enough credit for being the original I called
the original small Ball. I mean, Doug had a philosophy,
if you can't match up with your centers on their centers,
if you just do something different, make them so we
ran like beat the bandits, So you know, you all
(09:48):
go through the zoom, get down the other end and
try to score real quick and get a good shot
and then just hope they missed on the other end.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Bird would always get upset if a white guy guarded him.
He would even say to a teammate of the guy
guarding him, I can't believe you guys have a white
guy guarding me. Did he talk trash to you?
Speaker 6 (10:08):
Well, there's a famous podcast by Oh Gosh, I'm bray
Locking Byron Scott. I think, and he may mentioned to
me in that, but he got my name wrong. First off,
take it off. I don't remember that ever happening against
Larry Bird. But then again, Larry was one of the
guys I liked the guard because, you know, I averaged
(10:31):
maybe eight points a game.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
I was the defensive, but when I guarded Berg, I could.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
Run the other way and I get twelve, fifteen, eighteen points.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
I felt like I had a good.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Game because he wasn't guarding you the way you were
trying to guard him.
Speaker 6 (10:45):
Well yeah, yeah, well yeah, a yes, and be Larry
wasn't the fastest guy in the world, so we just
ran the heck out of it.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Give me the guy that might surprise us. That was great,
greater than what we may remember.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Oh over the years.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Wow that you played against?
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Oh boy Dan, that's a great question, God Lee. I
mean most of the guys that garnered were just great
in a sense. I mean Barney injury. David Robinson was such.
Speaker 6 (11:18):
A unique player because his skill level, his speed, his quickness,
ability to shoot block shots, he played the whole game.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Yeah, David Robinson.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
You know they won with Duncan, they won titles.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
But yeah, I'm marveled at his ability.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Great to talk to you, I know, tough to get
up after a game like that, literally and figuratively to
talk about what happened there is the series shifts to Minneapolis.
But good to catch up with you, Billy, thank you
for joining.
Speaker 5 (11:53):
Great day. Happy to be on with you, Eddietown. Great show.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
That's Beeny Altitude Sports and he's been an analyst there
for quite some time and former player and coach with
the Nuggets. Yeah, Doug Mo had small ball. Now Don
Nelson had small ball, and that's when you had run TMC.
But Doug Mo Hanslick sixty seven and he was guarding
the best centers in the history of the game. It's
(12:21):
just wild though, when you have these coaches who think
out of the box, and Doug Mo certainly did, Paul
West had did when he was in college, and Don
Nelson certainly did as well. This, Hey, we're going to
try something different. I always love that that you're going
to try something unique, because now I'm going to force
(12:43):
you to try to, you know, stop us with what
we do so well. And uh, Doug Mo was he
had some wild outfits too. He loved plaid for some reason.
Back then coaches had plaid plaid slacks. You know. Then Ryles,
when Ryles came in and Ryle started dressing like you know,
he was slick. I mean that was Wall Street and
(13:05):
you know that was the inspiration for Gordon Gecko. But
that's when it changed, you know, because Red Arbach would
be on the sideline and have a cigar, and you know,
he dressed like, you know, he was this maybe a
school teacher. But then all of a sudden, Ryle's started it,
and then everybody was looking good. And then all of
a sudden, I think it was it was Don Nelson
(13:26):
who wore like a mock turtle neck shirt or a
sweater felt like he kind of casualed it down a
little bit. And remember with the NFL coaches, they wore
suit and times, Hank Stram wearing his suit and tie.
Tom Landry had his hat on, like they were all
Vince Lombardi and then all of a sudden, did somebody
(13:49):
And then you look at Bill Belichick. You like that guy,
you know, just went to the good will bin and
grabbed a sweatshirt there where's Lombardi would be out there,
that white shirt, tie, sport coat, have a hat on.
It was different. Then all of a sudden, it was like,
what happened to these guys how they dress or don't care?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Pauly, I'm glad he mentioned David Robinson's greatness. I think
history is not going to be great to David Robinson's
career because of the back injury. But before you know,
his first eight years in the league, he had seasons
where averaged thirty points a game. He had stevens where
he averaged thirteen rebounds. He led the league of blocks,
I mean, not to me, he led the league in
points one season. He was top three for MVP six
(14:34):
out of eight years.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Well, Tim Duncan took away his shine right, But like
I think that's why. Yeah, but David Robinson's at he
didn't win until Tim came in, and Tim got most
of the credit, right.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I think David Robinson as best was a better player
than Tim Duncan at his peak when he was averaging
like thirty thirteen and four wall.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
He was a more acrobatic, dynamic, athletic player. Tim was
just methodical. You knew exact actly where you're gonna get
with him. Now, numbers may vary, but you know there'd
be a couple of turnaround bank shots. He was gonna
block a few more shots than you think. He would
get rebound and he would be clutch. I mean that
was just how he played.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yes, Mark, and David Robinson might be the most cut
NBA player who has ever lived. Those arms were ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Yeah, to be that tall, to be seven to one.
And I remember going to the Naval Academy and when
he was there and I did a story on him,
and when he walked across campus, it was out of
a movie because he's got his dress blues on. I
mean he looked spectacular. All of a sudden, you see
(15:40):
all these like six foot cadets and then you got
a seven footer walking over and and what a gentleman,
true gentleman, never had negative words to say. There are
there's times when I wish he was a little more
aggressive like that he was taking it to people. He
(16:02):
was just a nice person who happened to be a
great basketball player. All right, we'll get some phone calls.
Brian Windhors, Wendy Jonas coming up here, Cavs Celtic's game
one tonight, Mavericks at the Thunder. We take a break.
More hoops Brian Windhors. Next, Dan Patrick Show.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 7 (16:33):
Hey, I'm Doug Gottlieb. The podcast is called All Ball.
Speaker 8 (16:37):
We usually talk all basketball all the time, but it's
more about the stories about what made these people love
their sport and all the interesting interactions along the way.
We talked to coaches, we talked to players, We tell
you stories. You download it, you listen to it.
Speaker 7 (16:52):
I think you like it.
Speaker 8 (16:54):
Listen to All Ball with Doug Gottlieb on the iHeartRadio
app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
He's a busy man today taking time out for us.
Brian Winhorse of the Mothership, senior NBA writer, He was
in the Garden last night. How would you compare that atmosphere.
People talk about the Garden the yester year of the atmosphere.
How would you rank what you heard last night with
other venues here in the last few years that you've covered.
Speaker 9 (17:24):
The Garden fans are very well educated. They have a
appreciation for the nuance of the game. You know, it's like,
I'll get criticized for this, but it's like saying, who's
got the best burger or who's got the best steak.
You can get a great steak all across the world.
(17:46):
You know a bad steak when you see it. You
know a good steak when you see it. There's a
lot of venues that you go to where it's a
tremendous atmosphere. In those venues where the Garden crowd is different.
Is there a more educated crowd. They applaud things that
are a little that are higher level. The basketball fans
there sort of all have graduate degrees, if you will,
(18:08):
and you know, but they love Jalen Brunson so much.
They've been waiting for a player like this for so long,
and I think it's really cool that they bring back it.
So at every time out Dan in the playoffs, they
do two things. At the Garden. They show a celebrity
and there's you know, dozens to choose from. So first
(18:28):
they'll show a celebrity, you know, Ben Stiller, Tracy Morgan,
I don't remember who was all there last night. And
then they'll show in the playoffs a Nick Great, you know,
Wolf Frasier, John Starks, Larry Johnson, And that's an awesome thing.
It's like, you know, the met Galla was going on
(18:52):
here in New York last night, but the place to
be was the Garden, and so the celebrity, the Nick's greats.
It was a great atmosphere. But I don't want to
fall into the trap of saying, oh my god, you
can't get you can't get a great burger outside me,
you can't get good pizza outside Manhattan or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Yeah, because I remember being in there the first time
when Bernard King was playing against the Celtics, and that
environment was wonderful because there was you know, truly hated
rival there, but I'm just curious because everything was better
back when we were younger, and so I always want
to be fair and go Okay, you know, the garden
(19:31):
is alive. I just remember it felt different back then.
Speaker 9 (19:36):
It's a lot nicer now since they renovated at about
ten years ago. When I first went there my first
NBA season twenty one years ago, you know, hear about
the world's most famous arena, it was kind of a dump.
I mean, it's way nicer now, way way nicer now. Look,
(19:57):
I always like going there. It's a great appa fear.
There's a buzz outside of it. And look right now
in the city, the Rangers are playing every other night.
The Knicks are playing every other night. Tonight we got
the Rangers are going to go too. Oh. It's a
great time to be in the city because I used
to live here, and when I lived here, it was
like the bottom of New York sports. Even the Yankees
(20:17):
were not even getting it done. When I was here.
There was a bunch of Yankees in the building. Last night,
No Mets were honored.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
How'd the refs do last night?
Speaker 9 (20:29):
I'm one of these guys who I feel like defends referees.
I think one of the few in the media. My
father was a referee. I tried to be a referee
when I was a kid, and I hated it because
of how hard it was and how you could never win.
And so I'm inclined to defend them. And I'm one
of these people that says ninety nine percent of the
(20:51):
time the game has not decided by officiating. I really
it drives me crazy when these teams blame like long
term officiating. I've honestly never really felt the same way
about Darryl Moury since he released that dossier that he
had when he was in Houston and said thirteen months ago,
(21:13):
in the third quarter, we got screwed and therefore we
should win tonight's game. As an educated man that Darryl is,
it drives me crazy that he leans on that clutch,
that crutch. Having said all of that, this was a
situation where the referees changed the outcome of the game.
And to me, what seems to me is that everybody's
(21:35):
really reacting to the moving screen call. Of course you
shouldn't call it there. However, by the letter of the law,
it was an accurate call, and I don't think when
the two minute report comes out today, I don't think
they're going to say it was an incorrect call. To
me that the much much more impactful call was the
kicked ball. And the reason is because the Pacers had
(21:55):
generated a turnover, and if you watch the replay, it
was going to be it is a tie game with
forty seconds left, Okay, there's gonna be a three on
one break. The Knicks were either going to foul where
it could have been a take foul and they could
have gotten a three point play, or they were gonna
go a layup and they were gonna be down to
they were gonna be calling time out and the guard
was going to be dead. Instead, the steal is called
(22:17):
the kicked ball. It's not reviewable. The Knicks come out
hit a three pointer, puts them up by three with
thirty seconds left. Now we have a five point five
point swing in a tie game and a tie playoff
game in the last forty seconds. That's the call. And
I know they at a bad angle and I know
it's not reviewable. That's the call that Zach Zaraba, who
(22:40):
happens to be one of the top three officials in
the league in my opinion has to come out and
say to the reporters after the game, we got it wrong.
They didn't get the moving screen call wrong, the spirit
of the call was wrong. That call was called theoretically correctly.
The kickball is pill to swallow if you're a pacer fan.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
But I'm trying to I don't want to slow down
games anymore than they've already been slowed down. But I
want to get the call right if we have the
technology to get it right. And I don't know if
there's a push in the offseason, usually it takes something
really dramatic where we go, now, we got to change that.
I don't know if this is that because the Knicks
didn't lose the game, but you got a solution. Nope.
Speaker 9 (23:25):
You know. I'm I'm a bit of an English football fan,
and over there they have this thing called VR, which
is their instant replay. And you want to start a
fight in a pub, you bring up VR. It's an
extraordinarily controversial tactic and they work. It works super fast
(23:46):
over there. Sometimes they'll let the soccer game play on
and then they'll go back two three minutes and say, yeah,
we reviewed that. We're gonna give a guy penalty kick.
It's not common, but that happens. They have have a
much much better system, and it's still coaches pull their
hair out over it, and so it's I don't think
(24:08):
there is a way to fix it. I know that
this year has been as bad as ever because I
have seen more calls overturned or upheld where I don't understand,
and they have taken so much time and I don't
have an answer. What I do know is this, This
is the best we have in basketball. The NBA referees
are the best we have. You can say that, I
(24:29):
don't mean you didn't, but somebody can say that they stink.
Somebody can say that they're awful. Somebody can say that
this or that. Watch international basketball, watch college basketball. Can
they be better? Should they be better? Yes? This is
the best we got, So you're gonna have to live
with it.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Is Brian Windhorst or the Mothership ESPN senior NBA writer
at the Garden last night. Meanwhile in Denver, Denver gets
blown out. But I'm curious. Now we have to wait
until Friday for Game three, plenty of time for the
home office to review what Jamal Murray did. How do
you think they're going to view that with him throwing
something on the floor.
Speaker 9 (25:03):
I'd never say anything like it. First off, he is
one hundred percent inexcusably out of line there, has completely
lost his composure because he's getting exploited by the Timberwolves.
The Timberwolves watched the last series, saw that his calf
injury was bothering him, at which Michael Malone has admitted,
(25:27):
and they are exploiting him. He is getting taken advantage
of on the court. He hates it, and it's leading
him to make some wild decisions. He throws a towel,
and of course a towel, it's not a big deal,
but she can't throw a towel at the official. That's
what he's doing. He throws a towel at the official.
It comes up short. When he realizes that it's hard
(25:48):
to throw a towel twenty feet, he picks up something
heavier and flings it at the official. Now the NBA
is going to interview him and he may give some answer.
He's throwing that at the officials. So before we even
talk about what the consequences are of throwing something wet
and bulky like that out on a court know that
(26:09):
he was throwing an object, a heavy object at an official.
That's number one, then number two. It makes it onto
the court and is a terrible hazard. I know that
people probably don't understand what this heating pad is. I
know this because I've never seen one of these, maybe
outside of my grandmother's you know, bedroom in nineteen eighty four.
(26:35):
The NBA's technology driven as it is, uses like nineteen
fifties technology for these heating pads. They have these canisters
on the bench that use steam heat to heat these
these sort of padded you know, maybe inch thick little pads,
(26:55):
and then when the players come off the court, they
use towels to wrap it around their backs and their
legs to stay warm. Why they don't use any something
more modern, I don't know, but they're but they're big,
wet and heavy, and that could have gotten under somebody's
foot and cause an ankle injury or knee injury, growing injury.
Absolutely inexcusable and completely out of line for him to
(27:17):
do it. The crazy thing is now, I don't I
don't blame the refs stand for not calling it. They
got their backs turned. It's coming from the end of
the bench. They don't know where that came from. For
all they know, it was a it was an accident.
You know, it's a it's a it's accoutrement from the bench.
You know, stuff happens. But after the game they were
interviewed and Mark Davis, the lead official who's was the
(27:39):
target of that of those objects, said, if we had
seen it, it would have been a technical. And the
reporter follows up, a technical, not an ejection. He says, no,
a technical, And so that makes me wonder, like if
that's the rule. Frankly, I haven't seen anything that ever
thrown on the court by a player. I've seen many
many players throw things off the court, and that's an
(28:01):
automatic ejection. Whether you throw a piece of gum, or
you throw the basketball, or you throw your assistant coach.
Anything in the stands is automatic ejection from the from
the stands onto the court. As a player. I don't
think there's clear precedent, but the league is going to
have a serious thing to deal with here, if more
than anything else, to protect its referees.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I brought this up with Dave mcmahaman where I said,
you know, Lebron does that podcast with JJ Reddick, JJ
maybe interviewing with Charlotte. I don't know if he already has.
And I said, well, could you see where lebron JJ
maybe he's the head coach of the Lakers, And Dave goes, yes,
I think he's one of the candidates. Like, how serious
(28:46):
is this? I I kind of brought it up as
just oh, okay, maybe would would they discuss being the
head coach of the Lakers?
Speaker 9 (28:54):
Well, a couple of things. First off, the Lakers have
very few good candidates for the job. Not that JJ
would be a bad candidate, but they have very few
good candidates. There's not that many coaches available right now
who are experienced and proven and ready to come to
(29:15):
Los Angeles. You can say a name Mike, Mike Buttenholzer.
But before you assume that a guy like Mike Bututenholzer
is going to go to the Lakers, you need to
understand that the Lakers don't pay They paid Phil Jackson
an eight figure salary. They did it kicking and screaming,
and he was engaged to one of the owners at
(29:36):
the time and had won by the time they paid
it to him, had won numerous championships. I'm not sure
what year they gave it to him. They have been
outbid for a couple of years ago. Tylu and Monty
Williams turned him down because they didn't offer it. I mean,
I can't say for exactly why, but they're low ball
(29:59):
contract offer were part of it. And so if you
just assume that there's going to be a coach who
wants to go in there, like a Mike Buttenholzer, the
going right for an E League coach now is eight
figures a year, and the Lakers, I'm not sure they're
willing to pay that. That's number one. Maybe they are,
but that's number one. Number two. This is the toughest
(30:20):
one of the toughest situations to coach the league. You
have aging stars, which is one toughest thing to coach
in sports. You have a roster that should get better.
They have some draft assets, but you really don't know
how much you can get better. Man, look at the
Western Conference. Dan. I was talking the other day to
a coaching candidate who's going to be a candidate for
some of these jobs, and he was saying to me,
(30:41):
is like, I'm kind of waiting for an East coach
Eastern Conference job because these Western Conference jobs I mean,
look at the Lakers. Which which of the teams in
front of them do you think are coming backwards? And which?
Look at behind them? They got the rockets breathing down
their neck. The spurs are going to be coming up.
Like it's going to be a really hard job. What
I would say to JJ is, here's gonna think. I
(31:04):
want to say real quick. Lebron doesn't get involved in
coaching hires for years, for many many coaches, He's always
taken a distance. In fact, and I can't say this
for every candidate, but he generally has a rule generally okay,
that he won't engage with the candidate after the coach
(31:26):
has been hired. Of course he'll have a conversation with
the coach. Generally he wants to stay out of it.
He doesn't want it on his hands. I know there's
this belief that Lebron hires and fires all these coaches,
and maybe he does like hurt coaches because he sort
of kills him with a thousand paper cuts. But Lebron
is very sensitive to that and he does not want
(31:48):
to be involved in that. So it's not going to
be like he's going to go into Rob Lincoln say Hey,
I'm having a great time with JJ. You should hire him.
That's just not reality. But what I would say to
JJ if he asked my opinion, which he won't, is
that Lebron's friendships in the NBA, for the most part,
tend to fall out as quick as they start. There
(32:10):
is a long line of former teammates that he was
buddy buddies with that when it's over, are gone. The
true close people in his life have been close people
in his life for fifteen or twenty years. So just
because anybody, and I'm not just saying JJ, just because
Jim Smith is having a great time hanging out with
(32:32):
Lebron in May doesn't mean it will be a great
time by December. That's what I would say, just in
general about all relationships with him in the NBA.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
I know you're busy. Thanks for joining us as always.
Speaker 9 (32:42):
Thanks you, Dan, Thank you Dane.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
That's Brian Windhors, ESPN Senior NBA writer. He always gives
you something that you haven't heard. It's what I'd love
about having him on, and he he's got.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
It's it's you got to have the connect the dots,
and you know, all of a sudden you're thinking, all right,
don't buy into that just because he's friends with JJ Reddick,
and he's right, Hey, Lebron loves you, and then all
of a sudden, Lebron doesn't love you, and then all
of a sudden you're on another team.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yes, Mark, When I was at the Mothership, I heard
from an insider they were like, oh, you know who's
Lebron loyal to? He was like, Acron, Okay, that's all
he said. He's like, if you know, if you knew
him before he was Lebron James, you're good. He's like
other than that, huh, maybe maybe not.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
We were talking a little bit of golf. We had
a listener saying, do I think live golf is real
golf or it's a novelty? Uh, it's a curiosity. It's
interesting to some people, but it's not real. Someone else
referred to it as a highly paid participation trophy. Yeah, yeah,
it's just fair. Yeah. Scotti. Scheffler's been ranked number one
(33:59):
in the world for eighty five total weeks to catch
Tiger's record of being number one in the world. Do
you guys want to guess how long Scottie Scheffler would
need to be number one in the world. This is continuously.
He would have to be number one until this date.
(34:21):
Anybody want to take a guess the year that he
would have to be number one from now until this date?
Speaker 4 (34:30):
Pauline, February twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Wellshi trying to round it up. It's twenty seven. It's
October twenty first of twenty thirty five.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Oh, come on, thirty five.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I'm going to bet against him. I don't think it's
going to happen. Not going to bet against him. Tim Legler,
the mother Ship joining his son the pro Legs. Thanks
for joining us. Let me start with the Knicks unless
you had something that's, you know, front burner for you
that you want to get off your chest.
Speaker 7 (35:10):
No, no, let's go there, because what I was just
I'm angry. I'm angry for a variety of reasons. I'm
angry because I hate having to talk about officiating after games,
and you don't want to detract from what Bronson's doing
right now. I'm sure we'll talk about that. We don't
want to detract from the way David ccenzo played last night,
the shot that he hit. You don't want to detract
(35:31):
from it from one of the most entertaining games I
watched all year. But you don't have a choice. When
you have what took place in the last minute of
that game take place, you have to start there.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Okay, the moving screen, we may not like it, but
letter of the law, the rule, was it the correct call?
Maybe not the correct time to call that.
Speaker 7 (35:51):
Yeah, here you letter of the laws that they're going
to go to, which is ironically why this won't end
up in the two minute report because letter of the
law is they're going to say he didn't have enough
time to the screen like that's what they're using. It's
one of the worst illegal screen calls I think I've
ever seen, and I'm not even I know. The context
matters because it's potentially a game winning opportunity for the
Pacers coming up, so the context matters. But for me,
(36:14):
I'm just talking about the mechanics of the actual screen,
excuse me, and the amount of contact or lack thereof,
That's what I'm talking about. Like that to be called
at any time in any NBA game, I'd be upset about.
That's how little contact there was on the play, and
Donte Vivicenzo took a big risk because there's not a
(36:34):
single person in the building, Dan, not one person including
Tom Thibodeau, or one fan or one member of that
coaching staff that's gonna have a problem with that not
being called. No one is going to reference that play.
If Devincenzo goes to the ground, Indiana runs their set,
they hit Miles Turner for a three or on a
slip and the Pacers win the game. I guarantee you
(36:57):
no one is talking about that screen because there was
that little contact on the play. So I think Dividgenzo
took an incredible risk in trying to sell it to
that extent where he's prone on the ground and you're
now playing five on four. If that's not called, you know,
the good old fashioned stay on your feed fight over
the screen, I guess is out the window.
Speaker 6 (37:16):
Now.
Speaker 7 (37:16):
If guys think they can bait officials into making calls
with theatrics, they're gonna do it. And that's exactly what
Dante Divinchendo Devincenzo did. And I want to quickly say
this one of the reasons I have the big problem
with it is this the previous play, the big play
in the game, and they missed the kick. They called
a kickball and it turned out it wasn't. I actually
have the big problem with that because, Okay, the refs
(37:36):
missed it. It's not reviewable. That's just tough luck for
the pacers. Nie Smith hit the ball with his hand.
Pacers picked that ball up. They were going the other
way with a minute to play in a tie game. Okay,
there's no mechanism to look at that because it's not
in the rule books. So that's just bad. Look, here's
what I have a problem with.
Speaker 6 (37:52):
Dan.
Speaker 7 (37:53):
Look at that right five seconds before that pad, not
even three seconds before that pass gets made by Brunson
that got tipped. Dante Vincenzo take sets a screen for
him at half court with two arms extended by his chin.
It's a full body block on the defender. And then
he also grabs onto his arm for a half account.
(38:14):
All that takes place literally forty seconds before that illegal
screen called on Miles Turner. And I'll tell you what
that screen on Devicenzo that better be in the two
minute report. That that's a missed call because if that's
not in there either, the league has a real problem
on their hands because now they're just it's just like,
whatever you feel like interpreting in the moment is what we're.
Speaker 5 (38:33):
Gonna go with.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Talking to Tim Legler, ESPN NBA analyst, former NBA player,
I'm trying to come up with comps on Jalen Brunson's game,
and I don't know if I could have come up
with the same comps when he played in Dallas with
the way he's playing now, but I kind of liken
him to Chris Paul with a better jump shot, more range,
(38:56):
like getting into the paint, playing angles, bouncing in, bouncing out,
and not necessarily beating you with athleticism as just understanding
how to play the game. I don't know if you
have a comp for Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 7 (39:09):
That's a good one. I think Luka Doncic is a
good one. He's not nearly as big, but Luca likes
to do the same thing. Come off those screens and
sort of get somebody you know on their back and
then and then snit it, dribble it out and probe
and then you know, just time it up when you're
gonna shoot the little lean back jumper. He's got some
of that in him. I think the one thing he's
got different from Chris Paul that some of that looks
(39:30):
to say off ball screen. He's got in a completely
different mindset when it comes to scoring, and Chris Paul
ever did. He's got an Allen Iverson mindset about scoring.
And actually the way their team operates reminds me a
little bit of those Sixers teams that Iverson played on
to an extent to which he is controlling the ball
with the dribble, no one dribbles the ball, and the
more of the course of a season in Jalen Brunson
(39:52):
and their offense can't function without it because they've got
guys that clearly are stepping up, and on a given night,
different guys play well for them. Devincenzo and Josh Hart
last night. Some nights it's Ben Hartenstein and Unobi has helped.
It's different guys on different nights. None of it works
without Jalen Brunson's ability to put the ball in the
(40:12):
basket at the extent to which he is and to
hunt shots to the extent with which he is. Randall's
the other guy that creates offense for them, and he's
not out there, so it's all on Brunson. So, Dan,
I'm telling you, this is one there's one person on
the planet that believes Jalen Brunson was capable of this,
and it's Jalen Brunson. I don't think there's another person alive,
including his own dad, Rick, who I've known forever. Gus
(40:34):
saw this coming. You're talking about a guy that's become
one of the most unstoppable offensive forces in the playoffs
we have seen in our lifetime. That is what we
are watching right now with Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
I know, I know, and you watch his game and
it's pretty simplistic. Yeah, it's nothing where you go like
Anthony Edwards. We're trying to compare him, and it might
be to Kobe Mike. Reggie Miller said to Lane Wade
with a better jump shot, Well, how would you compare?
Is there a comp for you with ant men?
Speaker 7 (41:07):
It's it's you know, in a lot of the stuff
that he's doing right now that I think the best
combination are and that Look, I'm big, I'm not getting
ahead of ourselves, but you start throwing names out there
with guys that accomplish what Michael Jordan and Kobe did.
People think it's blasphemous. So do you not understand, you're
not We're not doing that. What we're saying is you
kind of see similarities in the way they're attacking. The
(41:27):
physical profiles the same, the athleticism is the same, the
killer instinct is the same, the intensity playing both ends
of the floor, all of that stuff is the same
as those guys. And it's special when you have all
of that in one body. And what he has done now,
he's elevated his game dan to where he has combination
dribbles now to get to his jump shot. Combination dribbles.
(41:50):
When the first defender or the first attempt at defense works,
it's successful, it cuts them off. It plays him, well,
what's your counter? He didn't have that when he first
came into the league. I don't think he had it
at Georgia. He's got it now and he's put a
lot of work in on it, and so now there
is no route of escape that's not available to him.
(42:10):
Whether that means getting into a mid range jumper or
a deep step back, he can do that. He's making
it at a higher rate than he ever has, or
it means a counter move that leads to a quick
burst attack drive to the rim. He could do either,
and if he's just one dimensional with his handle or
one directional with his handle, you can't do a lot
of these things and you end up taking shots that
(42:32):
are more advantageous to the defense. That now is something
he's moved beyond, and it's right before our eyes over
the last few months, and it's been really incredible to watch.
I'm a huge fan because I love his demeanor. I
love how intense he is. He did not want to
allow any breath of life to delivered to Denver last night.
That was their intent in one of the most suffocating
(42:55):
defensive halves of basketball I've ever watched.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
And they didn't even have Rudy Gobert. He said, you
could buy the stock Anthony Edwards or buy the stock
Victor i Bayama.
Speaker 7 (43:06):
Yeah, I'd still go Wemby. You know, I think that
when you look at what potentially the upside is for
Victor Wembin Yama a lot of the same characteristics that
Anthony Edwards has. He can escape off the dribble, he
can shoot turn around jumpers, he can shoot step backs,
but he's also a guy that can make plays defensively
(43:26):
with ground he covers and length and a final rim deterrence.
That he's the only player in the league that can
make those plays. And I'm including Yannis, I'm including Embiid.
There's no one in the league that can cover the
ground and be a last line of defense having covered
that much ground the way Victor wembin Yama can every night.
(43:47):
I watched Victor web Yama in the second half of
the year, I felt like I saw a play, at
least one play in that game that I felt like,
that's the only player in the league that can do that.
And so when you combine all of what he can do,
the scoring, the defense, eventually at the passing we'll get
there as well. I just think man with a seven
to five frame and handle like a guard. You know
(44:11):
this is on charted territory here that were getting to
with Victor lemnaham Up.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
I don't know if they do altered shots. It's like
when you do pressures on a quarterback. Pressures on a
quarterback mean more than a sack on a quarterback, and
I alter your shot, I might not block it. Yeah,
but I don't know if they have stats for altering shots,
but Victor wan Bayama had to lead the league in that.
Speaker 7 (44:33):
Well, I'm going to tell you something that it would
be impossible to track, and I'm just going to go
back to my own experience. The best shot blocker I
ever played against was Akima Lajouan. And I can tell
you right now, Hikima LaJuan altered some of my drive
attempts and he never moved, okay, because between the ears,
I know what's back there, and I know how quick
(44:56):
he is off his feet, like he would bait you
into shooting a shot on a drive when it looked
like he was conceding the layup, and then he'd just
jump cat like quick and flick it away, and it
messes with your head. And I think that there's a
there's a whole level there psychologically of deterrence that Victor
(45:17):
Wembenyama brings to the table that you can't even put
in a tangible way on a stat sheet. There's no
way to chart that because you don't know to what
extent he affected a guy psychologically or visually what he
was looking at.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
The Lakers job a coveted jump.
Speaker 7 (45:33):
I would I wouldn't say so, I really wouldn't. And
you know, I was thinking about it, and I thought
my colleague Brian Windhorst had a great point on this
yesterday in breaking down why it's not and I was like, this,
it makes a lot of sense. First of all, the
expectation levels unrealistic right now. If you're talking about the
Lakers job right now, and that's what we're talking about here,
(45:54):
because it's open, the expectation levels is unrealistic. I know
they've got Lebron James and Anthony Davis still playing at
a high level. That roster is not built for the
regular season. Those two players aren't built for the regular season.
So as a result, when you have these young teams
that are deeper, more athletic, also have top tier star
(46:14):
talent Anthony Edwards, Shake Gils, Alexander Luka, Doncics, Nikola Jokic,
go right up and down the line. You're gonna be
coming from a place in the West where you're a
playing team where you're scrambling to get into the eighth spot,
and then you've got to play one of these powerhouses
in the first round, and you're gonna go home and
that's not gonna get easier, it's gonna get harder. And
(46:35):
Lebron James turns forty next year. Anthony Davis played seventy
six games. When's he gonna do that again? So you're
right off the bat, just because of the name power,
people think you can go compete and content you can't.
You can't, not in this Western Conference, not with the
way your roster's built and your stars at the age
they are not caring all that much about the regular season.
(46:57):
So that's one thing. And then secondly, things don't go
and you know when you're blamed, no matter what you
are the one that is to blame, it doesn't matter.
I don't think Darvin Ham is to blame for what
happened there. They went to the conference finals last year
and probably ran into a team they couldn't beat this year.
The regular season's an absolute mess. They get hot late,
they get into the playoffs, they lose to the same
(47:18):
team because they just can't compete with that team. Don't
blame Darvin Ham for that. He's a scapegoat. Both of
those players were passive aggressive in their approach to the
comments about him, or they could have saved his job.
They didn't want to. So now we'll see who the
next person is to fill that role on a team
that is in more in the decline than on the rise.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
You got the Celtics double digit favorite unt against the Cavs.
You got the Mavericks at the thunder. Any surprises in
these two series.
Speaker 7 (47:46):
I don't think so, you know, I like Dallas to
win that series, and I don't know that a lot
of people are picking that. I think Luka Dancis controls
the series, I think, and I think the way he
played in the last two games of the Clipper series
showed me that he felt better physically that I didn't
like the way he played the first four games. He
was missing too many shots in the first four games
of that series. I believe he missed thirty six threes.
(48:07):
He missed sixty two shots, and he gets the shot
he wants and he's not making its flat.
Speaker 5 (48:12):
It was short.
Speaker 7 (48:12):
I'm like, he doesn't have lyft. It really hurt their offense.
They got to two to two. Game five was a
Luca game and he absolutely dominated and controlled that game,
and I think he's gonna have a lot of the
same success and this one. I also think Lively and
Gafford are going to have a lot of success in
this series because Oklahoma City is small. Chet Holgren's the
one big. He likes to go after shots. When Luke
(48:35):
and Kyrie drives, you're gonna see Check going to get those.
That's when he's susceptible to that lob from behind or
the pocket pass to those guys. And they average a
lot of knights. Did every twenty four and fifteen with
five blocks like that was a normal night for the
two centers. It wasn't that way in the early part
of the Clipper series. You're gonna see that return. I
think in this series it'll be a great series. I
think Dallas wins it in six or seven. If it
(48:56):
goes to a seventh game, my money's still gonna be
on Luka Danci in that situation, and I don't think
Boston gets really challenged. At no point we will be
wondering if they're gonna win the series. Maybe Cleveland gets
one or two games, but we're not gonna be in
doubt about how that's gonna go.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
Good to have you all fired up here, Legs. It's
play playoff Legs here. I like it.
Speaker 7 (49:13):
I am I am ready to roll. And here's one
more reason, real quick thing why I'm mad. I'm also
mad for this reason. I think Jamal Murray is likely
to get suspended, and I'm calling Game three. I'm gonna
be with Mark Jones calling that game on Friday night
in Minneapolis, and I was really hoping selfishly to have
a one to one series where that game meant everything
(49:36):
and the Nuggets at full strength at worst case down
two Oh Nuggets at full strength, let's see their best punch.
I think Jamal Murray is likely to be suspended for
throwing that hot pack onto the court when he was
I think trying to hit the official he missed him.
That would be enough to get suspended. He goes on
to the court, somebody could have got hurt. I don't
know how the league ignores this. I don't know how
(49:57):
you just forget knack like that didn't happen, a precedent
you need to set going forward. I don't want it
to happen. I really don't. I love Jamal Murray, but
I don't know how the league gets around it.
Speaker 2 (50:08):
Save travels, legs. Thanks as always, Buddy, Thanks Jann