What We're Missing About the Celtics, Kyrie Irving's Rebirth, Lakers Coaching Search

Episode 175: Why are the Boston Celtics so dominant? Arky Shea and Joel C. Cordes break down the "relentless inevitability" of this team that has flown under the radar. They discuss Kyrie Irving's renaissance with the Dallas Mavericks, why the Los Angeles Lakers seem poised to make a big coaching mistake, and they also share their favorite memories of the iconic Bill Walton and Jerry West.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Way, come back, welcome back, welcome back, Welcome back, Chelsey
Cordace. This is Basketball by Association. My name is an Arky. I've
already told you who that is,Joel. Just like we predicted Celtics up
three nothing up these Dallas Mavericks boots. Hey, let me just get your

(00:24):
initial thoughts on this series. Wedidn't get a chance to record last week.
I was on a work trip toNacaribula, to Savannah, Georgia.
Okay, where the where the theaccents flow like molasses. Not a bad
not a bad place to be ona work trip. Uh, it was
not too bad. It was nottoo bad. I took the family as

(00:45):
well, because you know, whileI worked, they got the beach,
so sort of fair trade. Letme let me just get your thoughts on
what has happened so far, becausewe clearly have the Mavericks down three nil.
Game one was a complete disaster forDallas, although it was you know,

(01:07):
I guess, I guess you couldsay the Willis Reid game, the
Paul Pierce game for christas Porzingians toshow up in that game. But since
then they have been competitive games,good games, stretches where you're like oh,
okay, well, maybe this couldgo either way type games, But

(01:29):
each time Boston has been able tofind themselves better at the end of the
situation, even being down by abunch of points in the third quarter yesterday
or last time. As we're talking, they'll play these finals games in the
middle of the afternoon apparently, which, by the way, I would prefer
every now and then, right likea like a Wednesday two thirty first.

(01:49):
Oh no, not during the middleof the week. I'm sitting here thinking
like a Saturday afternoon or a Sundayafternoon. Yeah, go for it.
I remember the days when that wasWell what else am I doing? I'll
quit my job for a finals gameor two if the Knicks are playing,
I would do that. That's probablytrue. So we've seen a little bit
of a lot of bit in thein the series. But yeah, Boston

(02:13):
is firmly in control and they're onegame away from potentially taking this in Dallas
and bringing back that banner, whichI still don't want them to have.
I mean, the Mavericks have proventhat they can hang with the Celtics,
they can play with them, butcan they beat them? I mean,

(02:35):
I I don't know. This isThis is a a Celtics team that has
only lost twice in the playoffs,right. They lost once to Miami in
Game two. They lost Game twoto Cleveland, yep, and they haven't
lost since. And they were clearlythe better team, the best team in

(02:55):
the conference all season long in theEast. They had the best record in
the league. It was up forinterpretation if they were the best team in
the league, but a lot ofthe metrics said they were. And I
guess what's impressed me about Boston themost. We can talk about Dallas in
a bit here, but what's impressedme about Boston the most is the kind
of relentless inevitability to the business likeapproach to what they're doing. They just

(03:22):
keep coming at you, right,relentless inevitability. That is Chef Kiss,
You just came off the top ofthe head. I like that one.
Yeah, you know, they theyjust keep coming at you on both sides.
And they're incredibly talented. We've talkedabout before. How you know Dallas

(03:42):
has two All Stars, they're twoHall of Famers nonetheless, and a lot
of really good role players. Bostonhas six different guys who have been or
have played at an All Star levelmultiple multiple times in their career, including
a couple of Hall of Famers hangingout in the wings of that group.
Like they're just more talented on paperand overall. And that's not to take

(04:08):
anything away from Dallas, but it'swe've seen talented teams struggle before. It's
the way that they're all on thesame page. It's the way that the
demeanor is palpable across the entire roster. It's not a team that has,
like, you know, a coupleof lower motor guys and then a wild

(04:29):
card and then the tough guy enforcer. You know. That was kind of
like the Warriors. Right, There'sa bunch of different personalities going on in
Golden State, and you mix themall together and you just go with it.
Boston, you get the sense that, like all of those guys are
just pretty even, keel, prettychill, very competitive for sure, but

(04:50):
they're basketball players. They are professionalNBA players, and it starts and stops
with that. And I feel likethat's been the identity of this team is
they show up, they show upin that work suit and they go to
work and and that's just been toomuch for Dallas. That's been too much
for everybody else's year. Yeah,So that's kind of the like the big

(05:13):
reason to one of the two bigreasons I thought that this is gonna be
Boston and I thought five games wouldprobably be the MAXI it would kind of
go is that there's a talent disparity. There's also sort of a a health
disparity as far as the mainline guysthat you want. Uh. And then
for me, it's like this thisgroup had quite literally been through all of

(05:38):
this, Like there's really outside ofDrew coming in, like there's and Drew's
been through this through this ring.Yeah, but together they have all seen
sort of the bottom fall out ofa series when it when it didn't have
to, or seen their shortcomings goup. And it feels like even though

(06:00):
the Mavericks had that great third quarterlast night, I wasn't gonna quite buy
it until like it was under twominutes. It was still like a swami.
He's like, hold on, giveme the rest of this fourth quarter.
And then I kind of because Bostonhas done this. Boston's been on
the rost before against the Indiana.Boston has been on the roast before in
a game or two against and theycome back and they win the game almost

(06:24):
the entire time they win the game. The two games they lost, they
just got blowed out because other teamshad incredible shooting performances and Dallas hasn't had
that yet. Kyrie played a nicegame last night. Kyrie was high from
three, but he wasn't shooting fifty, Like, he wasn't scoring fifty,
Like there was no particular like overwhelmingmoment or I guess, overwhelming series of

(06:48):
shots at a team b white hotthat sort of. It's been the only
thing that's beat Boston so far inthis postseason, and unless Dallas can get
one of those, it feels like, boy, this sucks to say again.
The grittiest team, the team thatis the most even killed that they're
ready to kill, is the teamthat's got the head coach that's trying to

(07:11):
block players shots from in front ofhis bench going into timeouts. You know,
like that's earlier this year, Likeit's the kind of mindset of like,
you know, we've been in thebright lights before. They don't make
their lives brighter unless they change thelightings. You know, I'll try to
block shots, or someone during atime out tries to shoot in front of
our bench because we don't want themfeeling good about themselves going into a timeout.

(07:32):
Just the kind of mental stuff that, like sometimes I don't think works
at this level. Has kind ofworked with his Boston team and they're about
to get over the hump and winthat eight teams Byner. It's a credit
to Brad Stevens, both as aGM and as a former coach. It's
a big credit to Imadoka in theshort time that he was there in Boston.

(07:55):
It's a big credit to Joe Missoula, and that all of those different
coaches have I think brought a professionalismon the court and a focus on the
court. They've all had their differentsystems and identities and whatnot, But I
don't think that the identity of theCeltics, especially with Tatum and Brown,
has really changed all that much overthe years. They've just gotten better and

(08:20):
better and better at what they weretrying to do initially, and they've brought
in the right pieces, you know. Kyrie's Irving's a perfect example of a
guy that they brought in it didn'twork out, he didn't fit. Gordon
Hayward was a guy they brought in. Injuries got in the way of that,
and so they've continued to look andfind other pieces. I think both

(08:41):
attitude wise and then skill set wisethat make this such a quiet juggernaut.
I mean, because the Stamps allsay this is one of the better regular
season teams of all time, andto get through even though it was only
sixty four wins. I think that'sthe part that a lot of people downplay,

(09:03):
because sixty four wins has been donemany, many, many many times
in NBA history. But then thefact that you only lose twice in the
playoffs, and yes, some ofyour opponents had major injury issues going on,
especially Miami and Cleveland, but them'sthe breaks. And I'll only lose
twice in the entire postseason. That'salso pretty historic. That's done rarely.

(09:24):
But I don't think that despite allthat, the Celtics don't come across as
like as dominant as the Warriors wereor you know, some of these other
great teams in the past. Andcertainly they're gonna have to win multiple rings
before we talked about them in thatsame sentence, but they've been there and

(09:46):
they've got all the pieces, andthe thing that really stands out to me
is that when We looked at theCeltics at the beginning of the season.
We said, yeah, on paper, that Core is great. The fact
that they can add Porzingis, andthey had Derek White already and he played
awesome. That's great. But man, I look down that bench and after
guy number six, maybe seven,I got major major question marks. Like

(10:07):
we looked at you know, andI'm just gonna use Sam Hauser and Luke
Cornett as examples, because those arekind of their their dopey looking white guys,
you know, like deeper down thebench. Both of those guys had
proven that they could be in theNBA, but it was a question of
are these really like every day NBAplayers or are these end of the bench
depth type of guys. And througheither by plan or by necessity, each

(10:33):
of them have had moments where theyhave had to step up and play a
lot more to the point that nowthey have been both very reliable options in
the playoffs. It's a testament tothem, it's a testament to coaching.
I'll use Sam Hauser as the example. We knew he could shoot, but
could he defend anyone at all?Could he do anything else at an NBA
level? He's answered yes. Butthe big testament is to the rest of

(10:56):
the roster. You can throw aSam Hauser out there and let him do
his thing when you have Jalen Brown, Drew Holliday, Derek White, and
Jason Tatum, not to mention,then an Al Horford or a Kris steps
porzingis in the middle. All ofthose guys are so solid defensively and so
solid collectively that if you're a SamHowser, all you have to do is

(11:20):
show up, do your job,and then compete within the game plan defensively
on the other end, and you'regonna look like you fit phenomenally on this
team, whereas you might not elsewhere. And the same thing with Cornett and
Xavier Tillman, even guys like ohSha Brissette who have come in played some
good minutes. You know, PeytonPritchard has been there long enough that I
think he's proven he fits with thatgroup in one way or the other.

(11:43):
But those question marks that were lowerdown the bench have proven themselves to be
answers throughout the playoffs. And youdon't get that without the genius of you
know, the core four defensive wingthat are on this team. Let me
ask you this about the fact thatwe don't look at this Boston Celtics team

(12:07):
as being as dominant as sort ofsome of these previous teams that we've seen.
Uh, do you because to me, statistically speaking, this doesn't make
sense right for them not to beas lauded throughout the year as they were
going throughout the playoffs. They've alwayssort of been like a sub story.

(12:28):
It feels like, Yeah, Now, part of that, I think is
because we've seen them do this andget to this level, they got to
win. But let me ask youthis, do you think a lot of
the discussion that could have been aboutthis team the air has been taken out
of it because the teams that doget all of the discussion are the Lakers

(12:52):
with Lebron, are Stephan, theWarriors, No matter how bad they're gonna
be there, you're always gonna suckup so much of that superstar type players.
Do you think it's because Boston doesnot have a Lebron or step when
it comes to superstar like face ofthe league guy, Because Jason Tatum and

(13:13):
Jay Lebrenn are amazing basketball players,and they are superstar basketball players, what
are they superstar faces of the league. They're not so like the and they're
they're they're never going to be likethat. That is just the way it
is. Their their personalities and theirgames aren't aren't that way. I think
you're right. I think you're right. I think part of me thought like,
well, maybe it's the East CoastWest Coast, East Coast and not

(13:37):
supposed to feel nearly as good asthe West Coast teams. Maybe, but
Joanna's got a ton of discussion whenMilwaukee was going through through their title the
title run, so it's not asif the East has to be so bad
per se and there's just one dominantteam. I just feel like that the
discussion outside of here we talked about, you know, and they're long stretches

(14:01):
where Boston was just boring because theywere so good and beating everybody that we
didn't talk about them. Right,Also I hate them, but also true,
but part of me feels, likeI said, they don't have one
of those guys that moves the numberswhen people are looking for ratings, to
like in those talking segments, thatyou always sort of stee on the team,
so you don't get as much driventalk as you could just show up

(14:22):
and throw up the Dallas Cowboys,or you can just show up and throw
up Lebron James and Steph Like there'sthere's like a group of like seven or
eight teams players that will constantly getrecycled, and Boston doesn't have one of
those, despite being like the mostwinningest franchise as far as gam just despite
being in a very big market onthe East Coast. Yes that it's used

(14:45):
to this, I think it's justa little different with this team. I
think there's a lot of different factorsand you're kind of touched on most of
them. You know. Yes,Boston normally, let's say that last year,
if they had won forty games andmissed the playoffs and this year they
roar out to six four games,they would have been all over it.
But you're right, this has beenyears in the making. It's been a

(15:05):
lot of failed attempts deep in theplayoffs and a lot of learning experiences.
So that part of the narrative isold hat. We've all been, you
know, on the same bandwagon oflike, yep, Jason Tatum and Jalen
Brown are good, but you guyshave gone as far as you've gone.

(15:26):
There's no disrespect in that, butfor us to take another step in thinking
about you, you guys got totake that next step and win a title
too. They were right on thecusp of that, and so yeah,
I think they kind of fell asideto other newer, sexier narratives because you're
right, it's the big market Lakers, and then it's the Warriors because of
what they've done. They're always goingto get a New York's going to get

(15:50):
a lot of coverage because of themarket. But this year New York was
good, and New York was thesecond seed in the East, and so
there was a lot of reason forthem to get more spots. Like the
Pacers got some spotlight eventually in theEastern Conference, but then out West it
was you know, Denver is therepeat champs. Can they get back into
it? Oklahoma City and Minnesota areupstarts? Is this Kyrie Luca thing actually

(16:14):
gonna work? What the heck isgoing on with the Suns? And why
aren't they better? There were allthese narratives and if you you notice,
and almost all of those cases,it's something that's new, right, it's
something that's different, unless it's thebuilt in superstars A Golden State were right,

(16:34):
right, But because those guys driveclicks on your article and they drive
clicks on your Instagram feed and whateverit is, they will always be there
and there's just no other way aroundthat. So I don't think the disrespect
to Boston some of that's unavoidable narrativewise. And then you also I think
touched on it too. Jason Tatumand Jalen Brown are They're not loud,

(16:59):
They're not you know, flashy,flamboyant players. They are incredibly talented.
They're they both will put together highlightslike no doubt about it. When they
get going, they are all overthe highlight reel. They are bonafide superstars
and Hall of famers, but they'renot the personality of an Anthony Edwards or

(17:21):
right like like there was there wasthat guy on that team that took them
all the airspace and he got alots of discussion. That Boston team got
tons of discussion in tons, butnot in actually because how good that team
was. It was because how goodthe team was, and Kyrie Irving was
saying a lot of stuff. Solike any they're they're also conventional superstar wings

(17:45):
in a way, and this maybegoes back to what's new and what we
haven't seen before. We haven't seena shooting guard like Anthony Edwards, probably
since Kobe or Lebron as far aslike the complete explosive package of talent that
he's working with. We haven't seena guy like Jannis, you know,
built that way with that skill set, probably since David Robinson, and Yannis

(18:07):
is probably the better player than Deerob was. As much as it pains
me to say that Luka and NikolaJokic are stars and they're different, we
haven't seen players like that come outof Europe and dominate the way that they
have. Plus they've both got veryunorthodox games and the way they go about
it, and you can you cantalk about other stars in that way.

(18:30):
But I see Jason Tatum and Isee a better defensive Tracy McGrady, right,
I just look at Jalen Brown andI see a lot of Scottie Pippen
in his game, Like in farthe two way players. That is,
not to take anything away, andyou know, listeners out there, you
could maybe find even better comparables thanthe ones I gave, But the point

(18:52):
is, like you can find prettyready comparables historically to Jason Tatum's game,
in Jalen Brown's game, and soit's the novelty, isn't there, And
maybe we take it for granted whenwe shouldn't. I think that's a really
good point, because we've never seena Lebron right. No, Steph Curry

(19:15):
completely changed the sport and he's justbroken the game. Broke the game.
He's changing literally how people come intothe league, big guys, small guys,
everything, and the way they play. You're right, Giannis is a
physical specimen that we're not able tosort of really wrap our heads around,
especially when he saw how he cameinto the league. We weren't really talking

(19:37):
about Giannis and then he sort ofmorphed into this just hulk of a man.
He literally should be on the Avengerssomewhere. This is what it looks
like Jokic. Nothing specially about Jokicexcept for he so good and he doesn't
look like he should be so good. Like he's not high flying, he's
not dunking all over the place,like he's just incredibly good at playing basketball,

(20:00):
manipulating the entire game, right,manipulating all ten people who are out
there in some way. It's likehow a shack was completely different. Right,
of course that guy was going tochange the conversation because he was completely
different than what was in the leagueat the time. So yeah, I
think that's a really good point thatlike Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they're

(20:22):
guys who were just phenomenal basketball players. They're not unique in the fact that,
like they do something so special orso different that we've never seen some
of it. They're just better atit than a lot, lot, lot
a lot of people have ever beenthere, So maybe there's just something that
doesn't quite stand out as much.Plus the fact that they're not big,
boisterous guys about this blah blah blah. So like it's one of those things

(20:45):
where like, you know, they'vegrown into being this really good basketball team,
but they've not grown into being thislotus superstar type team where like everyone's
just wanting to talk discuss They've allbeen very low key. They're in the
final too, so like and lowkey throughout their careers, right, Drew
Holliday and and Al Horford have alwaysbeen connectors. They are guys who have

(21:07):
bridged the gaps. And I thinkI talked about this last time Porzingis is
a guy who briefly, you know, had that unicorn status in New York
and has been an afterthought because ofinjuries. Derek White is a guy He's
been on Team USA, right,he was a starter for the Spurs,
but also a guy where it's like, is he really a star that the
Spurs can build around? And theyeventually answered no and let him go.

(21:32):
But you put him into a veteranensemble cast like this, and suddenly it
brings back to the days of like, you know, sure the Celtics had
Bird and Parrish and McHale, butthey also had a guy like you know,
Vinning the microwave Johnson, you knowsome of the are you know,
Dennis Johnson going through too, Likethey had these great other players who were

(21:55):
stars in their own right with thatgroup and fitting with that group, And
I see so many similarities with DerekWhite's ability to contribute, and then even
like Peyton Pritchard somebody, you know, like they are just so much better
within this system and with those otherstars around them that it elevates them onto

(22:15):
a level. I don't know ifthey would I don't know if they would
achieve that somewhere else they might,but Manda, they fit really well together.
Okay, let me ask you acouple of things because I feel like
unless you want to drop some knowledgeon me, and you think that Dallas

(22:36):
is going to come back and winthis series? Yeah, I mean the
question now is can they win morethan one game? I do think they're
still capable of getting one, butlike you said, they probably got to
have an avalanche of shooting at thispoint, and you know, Boston,
maybe let's go the rope ever soslightly. I bet they can do that
once. They gotta do it once, you know, if they're going to

(22:56):
move on at all. But canthey do it more than once? Yeah?
So I think we at this pointthink this this thing's over. Let
me ask you a couple of thingsabout our surrounding the series, and then
one final thing because I do wantto get your thoughts on Jerry West before
we get out of here. So, Kyrie has been really, really humble

(23:22):
in all of his sort of leadup to the finals and such, talking
about sort of his time in Boston, his time with Lebron and how it
sort of feels like that there hasbeen a real like maturation, like a
significant one with with Kyrie Irving andone that just to me, it blows

(23:48):
me over really well with the factthat this guy would turn if not a
one eighty, it's like at leasta one forty like he is. He
is the way he has sort ofapproached day to day sort of living and
maybe he's found some peace somewhere.But I've been really pleasantly surprised by his
comments about Boston, talking about howhe didn't handle it very well and the

(24:08):
end of it time very well thereand talking about you know, sort of
not maybe being the best teammate withLebron James, when Lebron was like,
hey, you know, wishing thatthey could have been better or better longer.
He hated that he couldn't be sortof his teammate longer. That yeah,
sure, it was that snapshot intime and they should have probably been
at that point in their lives disconnectedfrom each other. But since then,

(24:33):
it has been a real pleasure tokind of see Kyrie Irving sort of come
around, and it does seem likehe's found some kind of happiness and peace
somewhere that like, I don't knowif I was expecting to see coming into
a this year and be sort ofhear more on a larger scale when asked
more pointed questions about you know,you know, the tougher times like Boston,

(24:55):
like the ending with Lebron James andthings like that in Cleveland. So
I wanted to get your thought that, what have you thought about how Kyrie
has sort of spoken on this largerscale, and it's especially being so reflective.
You and I have been around theleague long enough at you know,
both watching and then covering doing showslike this, and you know, we've

(25:15):
seen helpless hours of soundbites over decadesof players, and you can tell when
somebody's blowing smoke, right, youcan tell when they're being very political in
their answers, and there's always abiting subtext underneath what they say or they
don't say. And that was Kyrieirving for a long time. And then

(25:36):
that biting subtext wasn't even subtext.It was just out there in big bold
letters, and he was he disgruntled. Doesn't even really begin to describe it,
because none of us really had allthat much idea what he was disgruntled
about, other than vaccine mandates andstuff like that. And it's a crazy

(25:56):
time in American history, for sure, it's not surprised that NBA players would
get wrapped up in that and havetheir own opinions about stuff too. I
get that, but you add allthe other things during the six years or
whatever it was of him kind ofbeing in the wilderness a bit. He

(26:17):
just didn't seem happy, and therewas always something to fight about, always
something to be upset or you know, withholding about whatever. And you're right,
he's not talking like that. Andit is easy to be skeptical and
cynical because players sometimes do, inorder to save their careers, suddenly play

(26:38):
the good soldier route. But it'svery rare to see a player who might
be cynically doing that also being willingto take some of the blame, you
know, some mia kulpa and go, yeah, I didn't handle that as
well as I should have. I'velearned this or that. I'm not in
Kyrie's camp. I don't know,you know where exactly his heart is.

(27:02):
But you're right, he speaks likea guy who and I don't say this
lightly, he speaks like a guywho's maybe been to therapy for a little
bit, you know, maybe hashad somebody to talk to, and in
his ear and has been able tosort out some things, and you're right
to be able to find peace.And maybe that's not the answer at all.
Maybe it's just maturing. Maybe it'syou know, people that are in

(27:23):
his corner, in his camp.Maybe it's coming to Dallas and it's the
new place. But the calmness andthe perspective does really strike me as somebody
who maybe realized that they were reallyunhappy and had been really unhappy for a
while and was able to take somesteps and get some help to be able

(27:45):
to go forward with that, andas somebody who's I can speak to the
benefits of therapy myself, like I'ma big proponent of that. If that
is the answer, there's absolutely noshame in that, and good on you,
Kyrie. And if it's not,then I'm happy that you were able
to get those benefits through whatever waysthat you did. And yeah, he

(28:10):
just seems to be in a betterplace. You nailed up. I think
therapy, whether it's therapy or whetherit's support. You know, he has
come out in the last year orso more about mental health, like talking
sort of more about the importance ofmental health, and it's not that far

(28:33):
ago, like I'm talking fourteen monthsago, like he was going to Dallas,
and Dallas was not in a goodspot with him, And I don't
think he was in a good spotby the time he got to Dallas,
and it might have been his laststop. Dallas was looking like it might
be the last stop for him,and you and I talked about like,
hey, I don't know who resignsthis guy, you know, like Dallas

(28:56):
doesn't have to. Are they gonnagive him a bunch of money over a
bunch of years. I don't thinkso. But is he going to be
so insulted when no one wants togive him that money that he just says,
screw it, I've made enough.I want to ring, I'm done
with this league and he goes outbecause that's the track he was on,
Like you're right, he made abunch of money. He wasn't happy.
Maybe the league just all the spotlightbecause he talked about being asked questions constantly

(29:19):
over and over again about it,like it wasn't it wasn't his bag.
So I feel like over the lastyear, someone has gotten to him,
whether it's a team, psychologists,a therapist, someone has been able to
sort of talk to him and say, hey, let's just let's just hash
it out, Like maybe you don'thave the best coping skills right now that

(29:40):
you're lashing out consistently, So Ithink because tonally it's completely different. Like
that's what's so impressive to me,Like it's not just the words he's saying,
but like it feels like someone hashelped him get to a spot where
he was like, yeah, Iwas not in the best spot in my
life right there. Uh, andI should have probably handled some things differently,

(30:02):
but you know, we don't alwayshandle things the way we should.
None of us two right right,not a one of us. And he's
still young. He's young now,think about what it was seven or eight
years ago, right like six,five, four, three years ago.
Even dude's only thirty two. LikeI I didn't tell you or I was
at thirty two, but I knowhow much I've grown since then. You
know, I think you are amaniac until you're about twenty five, and

(30:32):
then I think, unless you're forcedto do so growing up, I think
you are a fricking maniac. ButI think for some reason, and it's
it's for the good, that he'sless of a maniac and now he's still
you know, I think he stillhas like a private chef that like I
think Mark Cuban pays for to goon road trips, like do his vegan

(30:53):
meals, and you know, likehe still has proclivities that he prefers.
I think he still does some stagingand and things like that, but like
it's not as where like he feelslike everything needs his attention constantly and so
he needs to constantly be addressing everythingand if nothing else. That's the piece

(31:14):
I hope everybody finds that not everythingneeds your commentary or your thoughts on.
Sometimes it's okay to sort of justbe in your life, in your world
and then sort of heal or tobecome better in what you are. And
it feels kind of like that's whereKyrie is going. Now. I'm still
not gonna like him. It's gonnatake me some time for him to be
liked, but I feel better thathe's not gonna win a title with Boston.

(31:37):
He's moved up in the rankings aboveJames Harden and Russell Westbrook at this
point, right, because those werethe three guys who are like, what
is going on that? Yes,yes, yeah, yeah, yeah,
and and ye, Kyrie has movedup in the likability scale past those those
you know, he's also done andthen we'll move on. He's done it

(31:59):
quietly, like it's not one ofthese like, hey man, I'm better,
I've been doing this, I've beendoing this kind of towards he's just
going There aren't a bunch of pressreleases about all the the you know,
help and therapy and whatever he's goingthrough. It's not a media to her
to try to do it. It'sjust if you had checked in on him
a year ago and then this weekyou'd be like, that's not the same

(32:21):
guy. Like that just does notread as the same guy, But it's
the same guy. It just soundsat least a little bit happier at the
very least so. And I thinkwhat's what's born out is at a lot
of these other stops, there werepeople that would vouch for Kyrie. For
sure, there were people that saythis is overblown, he's getting a bad
rap, and those were teammates,But there were also other teammates at a

(32:44):
lot of these stops who kind of, you know, in between the lines,
if you would read and translate whatthey were actually saying, We're like,
yeah, he's kind of being adiva. It's kind of a lot.
That's Kyrie being Kyrie. He makesit difficult distraction like that was out
there too, That's not out thereat all this year. And this is

(33:06):
where I think it's more than alip service thing, and it's you know,
it helps me to move past someof my cynicism because I've seen the
goodwill media tours go on before.It's not just Kye what Kyrie is saying,
but you watch his body language atall times. It looks different.
You hear what his teammates are sayingabout him. You see the way that

(33:27):
they interact with him, including guysdeep down on the bench, you know,
guys who are the twelfth Man aresitting there chatting it up with Kyrie,
smiling with Kyrie, having a goodtime. They're enjoying each other's company.
It's not the aloof Kyrie like yousaid, who's you know, burning
sage in a corner all of thelocker room and doesn't seem to want to

(33:49):
interact with anybody like It is very, very different, and that's where that
lends a lot of credibility to thisbeing a real thing. For him,
and yeah, we can be happyfor him regard was of like, he's
just a person. He's a thirtytwo year old guy, and lots of
people have to figure out a lotof different things mental health wise as they

(34:09):
move into their thirties and beyond.And good on him for getting to it
this early, you know, especiallyunder such a big spotlight. All right,
let me ask you this. Thenwe'll get onto the Jerry West thing,
and we're gonna be brief with this. The Lakers don't have a head
coach currently as we speak. Theywere turned down by Dan Hurley, the
head coach of Yukon who's won backto back national championships, and apparently offered

(34:31):
him six years seventy million dollars andHurley said, I'm good with where I'm
at, which is fine because nowthey're going apparently back to interview officially.
They were warming on him before,wanted to feel him out before. Now
they're going to officially sort of interviewJJ Reddick, which, by the way,
Lebron James says he loves JJ Reddick. But Lebron James apparently loved Darvin

(34:54):
Ham and he loves and he loveddate well, he didn't love David Blatt,
No, he hated David. Butthink like there were stories coming out
with David Blatt would like during thefinals be on the sideline, like reading
a book, basically like while Lebronwas running practices, which is like,
all right, that kind of checksout what we were thinking at the time.

(35:15):
Uh but yees. So the sothe Lebron Lakers at this point,
well, I guess is he officiallyresigned for them? I don't think he's
officially resigned, is because he's optionsand yeah, so he'll probably wait until
the draft happens, and yeah,which happened in like seventy minutes. It
feels like Lebron has said the Lakers, or it's been reported Lebron said the

(35:37):
Lakers should choose a coach that theywant for the next five to ten years
and not just for what he mightpotentially be. So he's also publicly said
he likes JJ Reddick and was onhis podcast. So to me, I
was, I was, I'll saythis, I was dead wrong about Jason
Kidd, Right, I was deadwrong. Did not think Jason Kidd had

(35:59):
any kind of to be a headcoach, didn't think he was going to
be respected by his almost peers atthe time, but now they think you
were right at the time. Youwere right at the time with all of
that too. But that's another personthat's grown a little bit, right.
I think he's still a little prickly, but I think he had definitely grown.

(36:20):
JJ Redick makes no sense to me, and I cannot even begin to
think it's close to a good idea. Why would the Lakers be interested in
interviewing JJ Reddick or offering him interviewing. I kind of get it what Charlotte
interviewed him like, he's gotten acouple of interviews, But why would the
Lakers, the Los Angeles we arenot that far removed from a championship Lakers

(36:45):
be interested in JJ Reddick as theirhead coach, the brightest spotlight in the
league, with the most demanding playerof his coaches in the league, who's
kind of earned the right to beas demanding as he has, and his
career has been littered with coaches MikeBrown, David Black, you know,

(37:07):
fortunately not spolstride. In fact,that Heat kind of put their foot down
and said we choose fullstrand did thathave something to do with Lebron leaving Miami.
It very well might have Frank Vogel, you know, Darvin Ham,
all these guys. It's littered withcoaches that as soon as Lebron was like,
yeah, he's maybe not the onefor me, then all of a
sudden they disappeared in the middle ofthe night, like Darvin was in the

(37:28):
conference finals the year before. Likethis is it's a terrible idea, And
it's nothing against JJ Reddick, whovery well could become an excellent coach someday.
But you don't throw JJ Reddick,just like you don't throw Steve Nash
into that Brooklyn Nets job or JasonKidd into that Brooklyn Nets job back when

(37:50):
it was Garnett and Pearson, brookLow, Peasant, Darren Williams and Joe
Johnson, those guys like you don'tthrow them into that with so little experience
and go here's the bright lights ofone of the biggest markets, and we
need to win a championship this yearand go figure it out. You don't
give a guy with zero experience.I know he's been a player, but

(38:12):
you don't give a guy with zeroNBA coaching experience that type of job.
You give JJ Reddick his first jobin Charlotte or Detroit or somewhere where it's
a rebuild and the stakes are lower, and you see how they cut their
teeth there. And even if theydon't become a Hall of Famer in Detroit,

(38:35):
if they do a credible job overa couple of years, because that's
all NBA coaches last anyway, thenyou go, oh, this guy's got
he's got some skills, and we'veseen it both on paper and we've actually
seen it on tape, and nowwe bring him up and we give him
a chance at a bigger chair,like, yeah, this is this is
classic. This is almost as badas hiring a big name college coach,

(39:02):
you know, who just won theNCAA Championship but has no NBA experience and
saying, now, go win atthe NBA level. We have seen time
and again how little that works too. The guys typically who do really well
are the ones who have been assistantsfor a little bit and build up to
it. And it doesn't even haveto be an assistant at the highest level.

(39:23):
You think of guys like you know, Tom Thibodeau or Phil Jackson or
Nick Nurse, like they were aroundthe block and a lot of different basketball
leagues. Eric Spolster comes up throughthe video room, like, these guys
cut their teeth being around learning thenuances for a long time. And then
you've got former players who turned intoexcellent, excellent coaches too. But what

(39:46):
did they do they cut their teethas assistants. I'm not one to say,
oh, you have to go throughand it's an initiation process and all
that, but kind of the thedata seems to prove this right, and
maybe it's anecdotal. I don't.Okay, So I want to play a

(40:06):
quick game with you and then webecause how many coaches in the NBA,
And granted they're two vacas, butI think Cleveland's still vacant two of them.
I'm mistaken. Yeah, how many? Oh my gosh, you know,
before you answered that question, youknow who the Lakers should sign.
They should hire JB. Bicker Staff. Just go do it. Go hire
JB. Bicker Staff. He dida really nice job in Cleveland. He

(40:30):
got them ready. The powers likedhim. I was so surprised when like
that news came. Cleveland was justlike, you know, I guess we're
just ready to go to the nextlevel, and that there were reports that
Donovan Mitchell wouldn't resign or something likethat. It was like, hire JB.
Bicker staff and bring on Adrian Griffinas one of his top assistants.
And you already have a very verygood, solid NBA coaching staff right there

(40:54):
that's ready to go and knows atleast what they've learned from the stakes because
they had a chance to go makemistakes. You talked about how many coaches
and the NBA coaches that just sortof only last a couple of years anyway,
how many current NBA coaches have beenwith the team longer since Let's just

(41:15):
say we got with the team andwe're hired before twenty twenty, so there's
thirty teams or Mike Malone. MikeMalone has Tim's been there that long?
I think he has now. TomThibodeau has not been there. He was
tired in twenty twenty, okay,twenty nineteen or before. Rick Carlisle hasn't

(41:39):
been there long enough. Eric Spolsterhas for sure. Eric Sposter has been
there since two thousand and eight.Mike Malone twenty fifteen. Pop has about
Eric Sposter two thousand and eight,crazy right, Yeah, Pop has been
there obviously ninety six and then SteveKerr, right, I don't think there's
there's more. There's two more,there's more. Steve Kerr is right,

(42:01):
So Steve Carr twenty fourteen, andthere's one more. He's in the Western
Conference, and technically it was twentynineteen, so it's not we're not talking
like you're missing like a thirty yearveteran here? Is it? Tyler or
Willie Green? I think it's probablyone of those two, right? Is
Taylor Jenkins? Interesting? It was, Yeah, just to give you an

(42:23):
idea that there's that long, thatthere's thirty teams, five of them if
head coaches for more than four yearsbasically, which is kind of nuts,
right, Like it's gets kind ofnuts to turnover in this league. So
all right, last thing I wantedto get to. We we lost Jerry
West earlier this week, eighty sixyears old, mister just about everything the

(42:45):
logo for crying out loud, right, and Bill Walton in between when we've
Bill two, that's right. BillWalton got the game one tribute before the
game, the NBA doing a tributelast night, uh for the loss of
Jerry West. Jerry West, Idon't know, Like I didn't grow up

(43:08):
clearly watching Jerry West, and Ionly know highlights in the stories that I've
read about him in interviews I've seenwith them. But Jerry West seems like
the kind of guy that every teamshould have wanted to have a Jerry West,
not only because of his talent,because of his tenacity. He was
ferocious on the court. The crazything about him, like, I think

(43:30):
he still leads the NBA in finals. It was with points score in the
finals. I think he only wona couple of titles, like, yeah,
but they went a bunch of timeshe uh sadly wanted against my Knicks.
So but to be fair, theKnicks won there two against him,
So take that Jerry West estate,I am. I think the thing that

(43:54):
always impressed me is that I thinkit was the first year the nb A
gave away a finals MVP. Ithink he was like, what's sixty eight
sixty nine? I think it's sixtynine. Yeah, he wanted it was
on the losing team, and youknow how many times that's happened since zero
zero zero times. And it waskind of controversial. I mean, the

(44:17):
stats backed it up. It waskind of controversial and you think of the
like right, but it was reallycontroversial at the time too, because it's
like, oh, you give itto the white guy. It's nineteen sixty
nine in America and you give itto the white guy in the fart.
We love white people in this country. We love it white people. He

(44:37):
did. I get that. Thenumbers back it up. But yeah,
there's a reason that that never happenedagain. And that's not to take anything
away from the greatness of Jerry Westby any Yes, So I just I
want to live you have a coupleof minutes sort of bring up and sort
of discuss your thoughts on him,and then you know, we can end
on a positive note. I thinkfor me, Yeah, Jerry West was

(44:59):
always his legendary status as one ofthe you know, pioneer hallmark greats of
a long gone era. For thoseof us that didn't grow up in it,
he was long out of the memoryof that even by the time that
we started in the late eighties earlymid nineties as NBA fans, but he

(45:21):
was still always around as such ahuge figure with you know, dominant Laker
teams. He was a part ofthe build in Memphis in leaving Vancouver and
coming to Memphis and putting them intoa place that you know, made them
very, very good. He wasinvolved in a handful of other teams as

(45:43):
a consultant or as somewhere in theirfront office. And it felt like every
time that Jerry West was involved,you're like, oh, now they're serious,
Now they're legit, because I thinkthat this was a guy who understood,
despite having played in a different era, despite having been around the league
in a few different eras always seemto understood like the nuance, understand the

(46:07):
nuances of what would make a goodteam in any era, and of what
he could bring to the table.And again, I didn't sit in boardrooms
or whatever, but you won't findanybody out there, and it's not just
lionizing somebody who's passed away, evenwhile he was alive. You never are
out there hearing somebody going, yeah, we wasted money on Jerry West.

(46:30):
I don't know why we had thatguy involved. You know, he brought
nothing to the table. That wasjust a name showing up. It was
always no. We are incredibly appreciativeto have him, and the impact that
he's having can't be really quantified,Like you would hear that before, during,
and after his stints and whatever teamit was, so, Yeah,

(46:52):
there's a reason that he's a threetime Hall of Famer. That's just unbelievable.
I mean, that's that's never gonnahappen again like that. Yeah,
you're never going to see a playerbe like Lebron's not gonna go become a
Hall of Fame GM and coach like, look, you know what, Lebron's

(47:13):
gonna be. Lebron's gonna be oneof the two greatest to ever play.
And then just some guy who makesa bunch of business decisions who's always gonna
make He's gonna make so much money. And then someday, yeah, either
get into politics whatever. Jerry Westjust had a knack for basketball, Like
he just had a knack for puttingtogether teams and sort of you know.

(47:36):
He I love a quote that Isaw come up recently where he was at
some he was speaking somewhere I can'tremember, and he said, players,
when they come out they always sortof talk about you know, uh,
and they come out of you know, like of high school or or college
to go to the draft, they'realways talking about that dog in him.
They had that dog in him.He's like, well, I was a

(47:57):
wolf and we ate dogs all thetime, you know kind of thing,
and that that that just sort ofkind of to me encapsulate his personality and
who he was, Like, Yeah, you may think you got whatever it
figured out. You don't know whatyou don't know yet. But unfortunately for
you, I know what you don'tknow yet. So I'm gonna be able

(48:19):
to hire great coaches. I meaneverywhere with they were good like they were
good like and not they got noticeablybetter quit. That's about saying he didn't
just go into ready made places justto sort of start trying to hang up
banners. Like. He created interest, buzz and sustainability for like he is
legitimately a big reason why you caneven think about, uh, the the

(48:45):
Clippers having this brand new building.That's that's gonna come out. The fact
that he was able to go bothLos Angeles' and not be hated for that,
the fact that he just taken andalso ran sort of outpost thought about
in Vancouver, bring it to Memphis, and then like the fact he just
had a a knack for it,and it's just it's hard to really put

(49:08):
into two words, like what thatis because I don't know what it was.
All I know, just everything hetouched got better. I think about
you think of some of his biggestcontemporaries, you know, from his era
when he played, Bill Russell,Will Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Uh,
you know, guys like that,Pistol Pe and obviously I'm missing just a

(49:31):
whole ton outside of Bill Russell,who had just an enormous impact you know,
off the court, socially, culturally, but then also was a coach
and one champion, you know,one championships as a coach, did a
little bit of GM work, youknow, went to Seattle, did some

(49:52):
stuff there, but then kind offaded and was just one of the elder
statesmen of the league. I don'tknow if there's anybody of that era of
NBA history and maybe in NBA historyin general yet who's had a bigger impact
from start to finish of the timethey came into the league, so the

(50:14):
time that that he exited into thegreat beyond here, Like, I don't
know if you can find anybody whohad a bigger impact in as many different
ways that great as the great point, Like he was instant impact and constant
impact day one to the very end, and it showed the logo, right,

(50:36):
and he's yeah, I mean he'sstill like there were people talking about
possibly changing the logo at some pointto be like you know, Kobe or
something like that. That's fine,it's fine. It's not. I don't
think it's a big deal because hewas a logo for it felt like one
hundred years. It clearly wasn't Howdo you become the logo when you're not

(50:57):
You didn't win the eleven titles,right, Like, you don't lead the
league all time and scoring like youdidn't have you weren't dunking over everybody and
making this impression. You didn't startthe three point burruh, Like, how
do you become that logo? Well? There there, Yeah, that that's
a loaded question because there again,you look back at the era and look,

(51:21):
because he was he was one ofthe few white stars out there and
the league needed to do something.There were lots of honkeys, and it
wasn't like a big moment like himbeing the logo? Is it because he
was crossing somebody over right that that'snot the logo. So you know,
it's just you know, it's phenomenal, your point is well taken. Yeah,
despite being a little bit of aloaded question, Yes, your point

(51:43):
is well taken, and there's nothingto take away from Jerry West. I
would say that given like Jerry Westdidn't create it, like he didn't make
the logo, like he didn't knowthe logo. He was right, he
just happened to be White Well.And if at the time you can question
whether Jerry West should be the logoversus somebody like a Bill Russell or a
Will fair question, But like Isaid, over the incredible length and impact

(52:10):
of career and on the league andhealth of the league, trajectory of the
league, I think in the endit becomes well warranted enough. Like I'm
not saying it should ever be changedor anything like that. I don't have
any problem with Jerry West. Haven'tbeen the logo all this time. He
was a fixture in the league andone of the most impactful fixtures in the

(52:35):
league. And you will not findsomebody who did it for longer than him
either. I just want to saythis, and then I want to ask
about Bill Welton and we can leave. I don't know the zenith the peak
there for Jerry West, like itwas so good for so long in so
many different ways. That the factthat you can have such a consistent career

(53:00):
as far as being at the verytop of your field. And yeah,
it used to say, you knowthose those damn Celtics, right, he
was always six against the Celtics andthe finals and stuff. Right, But
to be still to still be ableto win a title, to be in
what nine finals, you know,like to be able to be an MVP
H in the league, to beable to be the most Bill Russell scored

(53:22):
a bunch of points. It's notnumber one in the final scoring overall,
Like that's Jerry Well, it's justto me, it's crazy, and in
a very good way that like someonecould be so good for so long and
so well thought of too. Atthe same point, speaking well thought of
Bill Walton less impactful on the courtfor as long, but off the court,

(53:44):
just a phenomenal character, a greatambassador for the sport. It's itself.
It's unfortunate that we lose Bill Waltonas well, essentially in the same
weeks or so span. Bill Waltonfor me, was not u c LA.
He was not Boston Like. Heliterally was the TV character that I

(54:04):
sort of grew up watching for themost part, and to see him doing
games consistently. And I know somepeople the way he presented games they found
to be a little abrasive after awhile, like they didn't sort of believe
it. But for me, Iloved it because I knew in my heart

(54:25):
it was wholeheartedly Bill Walton being BillWalton every time you sort of saw him
and hurt him. And so tohave that kind of character, you know,
go into UCLA and sort of beyou know, the brazen, brash,
you know, hippie kid for JohnWood's UCLA team, and to be
able to come into the league andbe really really good in the league,

(54:45):
just be dominated for to be withthe injuries and not be able to have
as sustained of a career, andthen to be such a great broadcaster,
Like how many former players in theleague are actually good at broadcasting, Like
it's really very few. I mean, like broadcasting, like just being a
talking hit, like doing the games, which is harder to do. To
sort of be that great personality,Bill Walt's a phenomenal And I'm gonna miss

(55:08):
see him do college basket, butI'm miss seeing on him do those West
Coast games, very very much so, and so you know, they gets
to tell I get on that.But Bill Walton is, you know,
unfortunately, and maybe there were somebefore him that I'm forgetting. I'm sure
there are, But Bill Walton wasPenny Hardaway and Grant Hill and Derek Rose

(55:34):
and these guys who the star burnedso brightly at the beginning of the career
and then it was robbed because ofinjuries and then a struggle to stay in
the league, to stay relevant whatever. But those who played with them and
played against him, like when they'lltalk about Hill and Hardaway and Rose and

(55:57):
some of the others that this hashappened to, will tell you how legit
he was and the footage back setup and he's got you know, he
got a ring for Portland early early, early in their franchise history too,
which is is incredible, but you'reright, I think beyond and then to
play on the Celtics team, Ithink it's eighty six, especially when he's

(56:19):
there, you know, and he'sjust the ringer off the best that they
can bring in. And they've talkedabout that too, like how Bill Walton
was kind of the secret sauce thatgave them something they hadn't had before.
And I think it was flair,right, it was creativity, it was
you know, birds certainly had flair, but it was different. Walton just
brought that joy, a joyful flairto it and and they were a different

(56:44):
team with them. But you're right. I think Walton's impact is the personality
around the game, the approachability,the accessibility, the joy that he brought
to basketball in general. And hereminded us that it's fun. It's fun
to be able to be out there, to watch these games, to play

(57:05):
these games, like it's not justa job for a broadcaster or things to
do if you're the student athlete,or if you're in the NBA, like
it's just your paycheck, Like there'sthere's a reason that you're doing it,
and you fell in love with itbecause you really enjoyed it. As much
as I appreciate what these guys did, I'm going to use them as an
example. I'm gonna throw them underthe bus a little bit. There's a

(57:29):
reason why Jeff Van Gundy and MarkJackson are not calling games in the NBA
this year. And it's not justthat ESPN has been cost cutting and they
were asking for a lot of money. That's a huge part of it.
But after a while people get sickof hearing broadcasters bitch about the game about
how it was better back in theday, or how you know, this

(57:50):
needs to get clean up worder,like there is a time and place for
it. I'm not saying we needto just all blow you know, everybody
needs to blow smoke and it's allsunshine roses. You need those voices that
are like, hey, this shouldbe improved and be better. But to
put those two together, Jeff VanGunny and Mark Jackson were often negative about
things. There's a reason that,like the Turner broadcasts work inside the NBA

(58:15):
because if Chuck wants to be oldschool and finicky and grouchy, Ernie Johnson
will step in with some positivity andredirect them. Or Kenny Smith does a
great job of that too. Likeyou had balance, Bill Walton was like,
you know what, that was betterthan what your adult are, right,
you know, But like Bill Waltonis one who because of that joy,

(58:37):
that positivity, you could balance himwith more joy on a broadcast team
depending on the personnel, and everyone'slike, great, this is an up
tempo fund or if you wanted toput him with somebody who's a little more
serious in Dower, that's fine.He would balance that out too because of
just that that positive aura he wouldbring in. And we don't I don't

(58:59):
think we have enough of that inthe NBA. We have people who come
across as company men sometimes, orpeople who come across as just like you
know, raw raw homers for theirteams, especially on some of the local
broadcasts, but there's not a lot, not as much as there should be,
of just the game is joyful,just enjoy the game. I think

(59:20):
Doris Burke does a phenomenal job ofthat, and she stays balanced, you
know. I think she's more balanced. Yeah, he's really I think she's
more balanced. But Bill, right, Bill Wallin's the character Bill Wallen is
just like like it's like, listen, I'm here having a great time,
aren't you guys having a great time? Dick By tell right, Dick Vitell
brought that for so many years,and I think Bill Walton more subdued.

(59:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, althoughsometimes I mean Dick By tell if to
call Dick vi Tell subdued means incomparison to Bill Walton, you know,
where what planet Walton was operating on. Yeah, I love Bill w for
that reason, like he's just agreat listen and and I don't say it

(01:00:06):
to be disparaging. There were somepeople that thought there was sort of an
act. It was just too much. But everything you know about Bill Walton,
you go back to how he grewup in high school and going to
ustil A, Like he was justhe was the dude ran shot, dribbled
to the beat of his own drum, and it was just a guy that

(01:00:27):
like if he wasn't gonna enjoy playingbasketball, he just wasn't gonna go play
basketball, Like he would go justto like Grateful Dead concerts, like when
he used to be probably preparing foran in Behave game, like because he
just loved being around and like like, look, I'm alive. What's better
than being alive? Right, what'sbetter than watching this basketball game with you
right now? Dave Pash, Likewhat is like this is a great place

(01:00:51):
to be, Like let's just enjoyit. And then there's some people.
There's some people like the x's andTH's, but like the NBA eighty two
games, like come on, Billwas the wasn't the regular on like a
broadcast for one team for ready twogames. He was just going throughout the
West Coast, checking out the mountainsand the deserts, and you know,
coming in and doing a game.It was it was phenomenal. Like and

(01:01:13):
that's the thing that I hope,I hope we don't start because I feel
like we're starting to lose more andmore of those personality types on broadcast and
instead turned in just to like analyticmachines or or the angry always upset about
something broadcaster who's just trying a lot. I like Jeff Bank Gundhy a lot.

(01:01:35):
But you're right. It felt likeif you teamed him with Mark Jackson,
like they were both like, youknow what misery does love company?
You know what is this? Like, let's be this together? Yeah,
you know, And Mike Breeze islike, bang, come on, what
we're trying to do here, guys, So let's let's have a little fun
with them. What's going on.It's an NBA game, Let's let's have
some fun. It's a final forcrying out. You know what they really

(01:01:57):
need to fix about this, LikeI don't like the fact that you don't
call the three second violation as oftenas you need to be called if you
wanted to call, you can't callit all the time. It's like,
God, this this, this isnot the time for Like, this is
not the time for Every game isnothing and I and I do agree with
you. Those guys were This maybe an exaggeration, but I felt like

(01:02:19):
an eighty percent of the games atleast I listened to. There was a
moment where there's a couple of minutes, a handful of possessions lost to just
complaining about something about the current game, where he was like, ah,
come on, man, this islisten. We don't have to try to
constantly fix everything, right. Thisdoesn't have to be a chill. But
you don't have to be a Debbiedowner either. This isn't my getaway,
right like this is this isn't mygetaway. This is my getaway from my

(01:02:43):
regular life, which is constantly analyzinglife. I'm done analyzing life. Let's
just shoot some moviies. You know, well, maybe I could see it
someone dunk, you know, that'dbe cool. All right, that's gonna
do it for us, Joe.Next week we will we'll almost certainly have
a new NBA champion. Crowned.It will not be the defending Denver Nuggets

(01:03:05):
that will be one of the nexttwo teams. But then we'll also get
ready to start looking forward to theNational Basketball Association Collegiate and Amateur Draft,
which will be coming up. Bythe way, we may not be able
to call an amateur draft much longer. Everyone's everyone's get a little bit of
cash, money, homes. Idon't think anybody calls it the imagery draft
anyway. I just think it's coolto say it that way. All right,
job, that's good deal for us, and you will say goodbye to

(01:03:27):
the good people. Goodbye, goodpeople. You can find us speaker,
Spotify, itude, iTunes, whereveryou get your podcast if you want the
audio only version. If you wantvideo, then we are on YouTube where
you can like, share, subscribeto all that good stuff. This has
been Basketball by Association. We'll seeyou next time.