May 28, 2025 • 27 mins
This week on the Daly Dose, the NBA Finals are on the horizon!
We'll break down the thrilling Indiana Pacers vs. New York Knicks series and the Oklahoma City Thunder's dominance over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Plus, we'll celebrate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's MVP win and discuss the Denver Nuggets' new head coach.
In the wider world of sports, we'll dive into a significant College Football Playoff tweak, one program's bizarre claim to fame, a puzzling move by a top NFL Draft pick, and the enduring "tush push."
Finally, our Daly Dose Top 5 explores the potential for a lower seed to reach the NBA Finals. We'll reveal the lowest seeds to make the Finals and how they fared!
We'll break down the thrilling Indiana Pacers vs. New York Knicks series and the Oklahoma City Thunder's dominance over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Plus, we'll celebrate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's MVP win and discuss the Denver Nuggets' new head coach.
In the wider world of sports, we'll dive into a significant College Football Playoff tweak, one program's bizarre claim to fame, a puzzling move by a top NFL Draft pick, and the enduring "tush push."
Finally, our Daly Dose Top 5 explores the potential for a lower seed to reach the NBA Finals. We'll reveal the lowest seeds to make the Finals and how they fared!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Wednesday, May twenty eight, twenty twenty five, you are listening
to the Daily Dose Sports podcast and I am your host,
Clinton Daily, coming to you from my high city here
in Denver, Colorado, and we are back for another week
of talking sports with a dose of common sense. Hey,
Happy Wednesday to you. I hope you had a good weekend.
I hope you had a long weekend. And I hope
that your week is going well and that you, your family,
(00:28):
your friends, everyone in your world is staying strong and
healthy right now. And I hope that you were able
to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend. If you are here
in the United States, you know there was so much
going on in the world of sports. We saw Alex
Pelow win at Indy Little Messi at the beginning, kind
of smooth out at the end. We saw Ross Chastain
(00:50):
come from behind and win at Charlotte. The Edmonton Oilers
and Florida Panthers just might be on a collision course
in this Onley Cup playoffs. We'll see if they can
keep winning. And then we have those NBA playoffs that
have been completely insane. Last night we had Game four
(01:12):
between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Patians in
the Eastern Conference, and this series has just been nuts.
I mean, can anyone figure this out? It almost seems
like the worst place to be in this series is
up twenty, because if you're up twenty, you just might
end up losing. Last night, the Indiana Pacers become the
(01:32):
first team to actually win a home game in this series,
and now they have the Knicks in some serious trouble. Hey,
can either of these teams hang with the West if
they do make the NBA Finals? Honestly, I wouldn't think so.
Having said that, I didn't expect either but these teams
(01:54):
to even get this far, so I shouldn't say that.
But the Eastern side of the NBA has been crazy
in the postseason. Over in the West, the Oklahoma City
Thunder put the Minnesota Timberwls on the brink of elimination
on Monday night. After dominating Minnesota in games one and
two at home, the Thunder went on the road and
(02:16):
got crushed in Game three by forty And honestly, if
they lose Game four, even though they were up two
to one, heye, that series is absolutely up for grabs.
But the Thunder found a way to survive, they get
the road win in Game four. You know, they knock
down shots when they have to have them, they get
(02:36):
stops when they have to get them. And yes, I
hate to bring this up, but the Oklahoma City Thunder
do get the benefit of the ref's whistles. But honestly,
here's what I think they're doing. They grab on every
defensive possession, They push you, they hand check you, and
they know the refs aren't going to call everything, and
(02:57):
so as a result, they get away with a lot. Yes,
Oklahoma City fans will say, hey, we get called for
a lot of founs. Yeah, you get called for about
half as many as you should be getting called for.
And then you start seeing the other team get frustrated
and they're going, hey, what's going on here? When we
hand check, when we grab, you call us. But Okase
(03:17):
does that so much that the refs kind of let
some of it slide. Well, if you are an opponent,
if you're facing the Thunder, you better adjust. You had
either better adjust and say well, then we're gonna start
doing the same thing at the defensive end, and you
better adjust at the other end and say, hey, we
better expect contact because you're gonna get it every single possession,
(03:41):
all possession long. Also, I am hearing about how the
thunder are just loading up on timber will start Anthony Edwards.
How they are You can see it. They go out
and they look to take away Anthony Edwards and then
see if anyone else that team can beat them, and
(04:04):
right now no one can. Ant scored sixteen points in
game four. And after the game, what did he say?
He said, Hey, I made the right decisions. I didn't
force shots, I didn't force things that weren't there. I
just took what they gave me. Isn't it interesting to
hear that? Isn't it interesting that they've been able to
(04:27):
just take him away? Because please know this, and some
of you are too young to remember this, but know this,
teams in the eighties and nineties loaded up to take
Michael Jordan away back in the day. In fact, the
Detroit Pistons said, all we're gonna do is knock him
to the floor. On every single possession. Everyone key on him.
(04:49):
At times there were four people stopping Michael and it
didn't matter. I know. We want to compare the modern generation, Oh,
there so much more talented than the previous generation. All
the old heads still propping up Michael. Nobody took Michael
away never, It just didn't happen. Hey, Remember you should
(05:11):
be stopping by dailydosports dot com every week and seeing
what new things we have going on over there. We
have links to the podcast, we have links to new
articles each week, and we have links to Daily Dose gear.
You might need a new T shirt, a new hoodie,
a new sweatshirt. Make sure you stop by Daily doosports
dot com each week and check out what we have
going on over there. Plus, if you ever do feel
(05:31):
they need to email the podcast, you can reach us
at Daily do Sports at gmail dot com. Hey, today
on the Dose, we have a number of sports news
stores to get to, I mean, from the NBA to
college football to the NFL. We have a number of
things we've got to get to today, So we are
going to be very very news heavy for you and
(05:52):
we will have the return of the Daily Dose Top
five free today. It is going to be a little
bit NBA flavored, but let's go ahead and jump in
right now. After winning his first scoring title and leading
those Oklahoma City Thunder to a league high sixty eight wins,
Shay Gilgess Alexander did earn his first NBA MVP award.
The league announced that last Wednesday. Now that, of course,
(06:17):
was just a few nights after Gildes Alexander's thunder beat
Nikally Jokic's Denver Nuggets in Game seven, and you might
remember that Gilgess Alexander actually finished as the runner up
in last year's MVP voting, which Jokic won. It was
his third in four seasons. But this year, Sga received
seventy one of the one hundred first place votes in balloting,
(06:41):
with Jokic getting the other twenty nine and finishing as
the runner up. Milwaukee Buckstar Yarnis and Compo was third. Hey.
Sga led the league with nearly thirty three points a gaming.
He shot nearly fifty two percent from the field, and
he averaged six and a half assists, five rebounds, and
all as two steals per game. The only other player
(07:03):
in NBA history to average at least thirty on fifty
percent shooting, five rebounds, five assists, and a steal and
a half is Michael Jordan, who did it in eighty
seven and eighty eight and in ninety and ninety one.
Those were seasons that he did win two of his
five MVPs. Having said that, Nikola Jokic may have had
(07:24):
the best season of his career. He averaged twenty nine
point six twelve point seven rebounds, hand point two assists,
and nearly two steals. But SGA has an advantage here.
I mean he has a better team. The Thunder finished
with eighteen more wins than the Nuggets. Jokic became the
third player in NBA history to be in the top
(07:45):
two in MVP voting in five straight seasons. DEVII wants
to do that Larry Bird and Bill Russell. But let's
be real clear about what happened here. Like I said,
SGA has a better team. And in the NBA right now,
the award for Most Valuable Player is not who is
the most valuable That is, without a question, Nikola Jokic.
(08:07):
Do you realize Jokic has now played eight hundred and
thirty nine career games without a teammate that was either
an All Star, All NBA or All Defense that year.
That is the most by any NBA player in the
history of ever. Ever, Hey, the NBA MVP award goes
(08:29):
to the best player on the best team. That's what
the writers do. That's fine, but it isn't the most
valuable player. Let's be real clear about that, because there
is no one more valuable to their team than Nikola
Jokicic is to the Denver Nuggets. We can prove that statistically,
But there were two things that play here. One Sga
(08:50):
is the best player on the best team, and two
writers are lazy and don't want to write the Yoki
story again, so they vote for someone new. We've seen
it a million times, and they did it again this year.
Speaking of those Denver Nuggets, owner Josh Cronky didn't waste
any time finding the next head coach of those Nuggets.
All he had to do was walk down the hall
(09:11):
of his office and then take the interim tag off
of David Adaman. He did that last week, rewarding the
forty four year old for somewhat righting the Nugget ship.
I mean, you figure he got the job in just chaos.
There was only like four games left in the regular season.
(09:33):
The Nuggets are frustrated, they don't know what to do.
They fire a head coach that gave them their first title,
their only title, their only thing even close to the title,
and then they went straight into the playoffs, where they
were a higher seed against the Los Angeles Clippers. But
everyone expected them to lose that series. In fact, most
(09:54):
people were predicting a sweep. Instead, Adamman did get them
to slip pas the Clippers in seven games, and then
they took Oklahoma City to game seven as well, which
looking back now might be better than we expected. So
(10:14):
Kronky gave the job to Adaman. We'll see if he's
up to the task. Kronky said he needs a little
more time to decide on a new general manager, but
he wanted to name Adaman the head coach so that
the organization can gear up towards finding some people to
surround Nikola Jokic with. Look, I really hope hiring David
(10:35):
Adelman is the right move, and the players seem to
be in favor of this move, but hey, that can't
always be the determining factor because keep in mind, players
want who they're comfortable with, not always who would be
best for them. Some of these Denver Nuggets players, they
need to be a little more uncomfortable. They look way
too comfortable at times. I mean, I think back to
(10:57):
that series against the thunder Nice they didn't put out
any effort. They need to be a little more uncomfortable.
They don't always play hard, they definitely don't always play smart.
And I wasn't really that impressed with the adjustments that
Adaman made against Oklahoma City. But then again, it looks
like the Nuggets are going to play them better than
anyone else has so far. So I guess we're gonna
(11:20):
see what David Adaman has and we're going to put
to the side that he looks a whole lot like
Alfred Y Newman from Mad Magazine. We move over to
the world of college football, where the College Football Playoff
has now announced they will see teams by ranking alone.
(11:40):
They are going to get away from last year's format
after just one year. Conference champions no longer automatically get
a buy, meaning teams like Boise State and Arizona State
last year would have been in much tougher spots. Now.
I hate to keep going back to this, but the
College Football Playoff Committee keeps trying to make everyone happy.
(12:04):
So guess what happens. No one's happy. They don't want
to be accused of making the SEC in the Big
Ten happy, so they tried to make everyone happy, and
then the SEC's mad, the Big ten's bad, Notre Dame's mad,
Big twelve's mad, the ACC's mad, everybody's mad. Nobody likes it.
This past season, the top four seeds of the tournament
(12:27):
were eliminated by the second round. We ended up with
a five, six, seven, and eight in the final four,
and the eight seed beat the number seven seed in
the final. Now, look, I'm all for upsets. I love
Cinder all the stories, but this is clearly a seating
format issue, and now they're trying to fix it. But
(12:48):
I want you to be forewarned because that College Football
Committee also learned that that playoff is a cash cow.
And keep in mind, these institutions are going to have
to start paying these players officially starting this next year.
You know, I just bet that College Football Playoff Committee
(13:09):
is going to be talking about expanding that College Football
Playoff as soon as possible. Right now, we have twelve teams.
Then it's going to be sixteen teams, Then it's going
to be twenty four teams, then it's going to be
thirty two teams. Don't say you didn't know, because I'm
telling you right now it is absolutely coming. Saying in
the world of college football. There's a growing trend on
(13:30):
social media of college programs highlighting the GPA of their
different athletic teams. Well, this past season, you might remember
that the SMU Mustangs actually made that college football Playoff.
They qualified as the number eleven seed. Well, and then
they got taken to the woodshed by the number six
seed Penn State. Well, hey, the Mustangs are still feeling
(13:54):
it these days because that acc program jumped on X
or Twitter or whatever you want to call it last
week and they proclaimed that they had set an academic record,
not an athletic record. Now, look, I'm all for student
athletes getting it done in the classroom. I love that,
So I like this trend quite a bit. So what
(14:14):
stellar academic accomplishment had the SMU Mustangs achieved, Well, it
seems that they were pretty proud of their football team's
academic average. Southern Methodist University's social media team hosted this
little gem, getting it done in the classroom, hands clapping.
(14:35):
This semester marks the highest full semester GPA in program history. Wow,
that's pretty impressive. Not only did SMU get it done
on the field, going to the college football player, they're
getting done in the classroom. They had the highest GPA
(14:56):
in program history. What was that gpa? Two point ninety five? Man,
you are one pathetic loser. Okay, look we know that
season sometimes even ds get degrees, but are ye bragging
about it? Two point ninety five? That's flow up a
(15:16):
national average of just regular college students. Now you want
credit for something that isn't even good? What are you
smu the WNBA. Of course, we all know that the
Jacksonville Jaguars moved up to select University of Colorado wide
receiver slash defensive back Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter in
(15:41):
this past NFL draft. Hey, what does Travis Gunna Hunter
do at this next level? There are many that believe
he could be special. I mean, he looked like one
of the best receivers in the country. He looked up
one of the best defensive backs in the country. There's
no question Jacksonville is going to try to build around
this kid. Well, I'm gonna go ahead and voice a
(16:02):
concern and I'm not going to voice it about his
physical ability. I think he's got a lot of tools there,
but I just might have to question his intelligence a
little bit. Over this past weekend, young mister Hunter married
his high school sweetheart, Leanna Linney in a ceremony held
down in Georgia. Do you remember Leanna Lae? She's the
(16:27):
one that choose him out when he stops to take
pictures with his fans or you know, sign autographs. And
then after hearing the critics on social media, she took
to social media to scold all of the naysayers. Yeah,
she seems like a real sweetheart. Well, Hunter married her. Okay, Hey,
he's young, that's his problem, right, Why in the world
(16:50):
would that make me question his intelligence? Well, it seems
he did it without a prenuptial agreement. Are you kidding me? Hey,
I'm sorry, but the road to hell is paved with
the best intentions. Dude just might be on his way
straight there. Good luck, Travis. Someone tells me you're gonna
(17:11):
need it. Staying in that NFL where the NFL Owners'
meetings took place last week, and even the most powerful
figures in the NFL were unable to stop the tush push.
Despite some light momentum, a proposed ban of that tush
push play that the Philadelphia Eagles have popularized did not
get enough votes at the spring meetings. To actually get
(17:34):
rid of it. It's not disappointing for me, for our committee,
for the committees that did the work, said NFL Competition
Chairman Rich McKay. It takes twenty four votes to pass anything.
We don't set a low bar. I've been in that
room numerous times where we've had these types of discussions
and one team ends up being in their mind more
impacted than others. But it still takes twenty four votes. Look,
(18:00):
have a problem with the toush push. I really don't.
If you don't like it, then stop the Eagles from
getting to the goal line or getting in like fourth
and one. However, having said that, here's what I do
have a problem with. You should not be able to
push or pull a ball carrier. That has always been banned,
(18:22):
and now you can just grab the ball carrier and
drag him down the field. If that's the case, and
I'm not even making a joke here, why not just
get to the goal line and hire some of those
guys from the strongman competitions, you know, but throw the
big logs or whatever and just chuck your ball carrier
over the line. That aspect of the NFL is absolutely idiotic.
(18:45):
I don't care if you ban the Toush push. I
don't care if you ban him being able to kind
of just push his way up in there. But pushing
a ball carrier pulling a ball carrier down the field,
I'm sorry. That just isn't football. I don't know what
it is, but it sure isn't now. As we do
so many weeks here at the daily dose, we need
to get over to our daily dose top five. Hey,
(19:13):
we are nearing another NBA Finals, which are actually set
to begin next Thursday. And while we still aren't fully
sure who's going to make it, we do know that
we'll get at least one team that's going to be
a little bit of a lower seed. Because right now,
the number one Oklahoma City Thunder are facing the number
six Minnesota Timberwolves. In the West, I would think we're
(19:36):
going to get the number one seed out of that,
but we'll see. But in the East it's a little
more messy, as the number three New York Knicks are
trying to keep pace with a number four Indiana Pacers.
So we are going to get a team that at
least isn't in the top two. But could either one
of these series produce one of the lower seeds to
(19:56):
ever make it to the NBA Finals. Today is counting
down the lowest seeds that have ever made it to
the NBA Finals. And I will warn you ahead of time.
We've got three ties today, so we've actually got a
top six. We got a daily dose top six today.
Because we've got three ties. We start off at number
five or six or whatever, and like I said, we
(20:18):
have a tie wow, And we don't have to go
back very far, because it was just last year that
the number five Dallas Mavericks somehow got hot at the
right time and they rolled clear to the NBA Finals.
The MAVs went fifty to thirty two in the regular season,
but then they managed to knock off the number four
seeded Los Angeles Clippers, because I mean, it's the Clippers.
(20:42):
And then Dallas faced the number one seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.
But the thunder were young, and they're weren't quite as
deep or as experienced then as they are now, and
Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving they were just too much.
The MAVs won that series in six games. They advanced
to the Western Conference Finals and they got to see
(21:04):
these same number three Minnesota Timberwolves, and they made quick
work of them. They beat them in just five games.
So off went the number five Dallas Mavericks to the
NBA Finals, where they faced the number one seeded Boston
Celtics and Boston blew them out in five games. But hey,
a number five seed making it to the NBA Finals
(21:26):
comes in tied today at number six or five or
four whatever. Also tied here was just back in twenty
twenty where the Miami Heat were also a number five seed,
But that season honestly probably shouldn't even count because remember
the season had been stopped for the pandemic in March
(21:46):
and the playoff didn't begin until August. There were no crowds.
It was dumb. The Miami Heat were the five seed
and they swept the number four seed Indiana Pacers down
in that goofy playoff bubble in Florida. Jimmy Butler and
I'm Out of Bayo stepped of their game and the
Heat beat the number three Milwaukee Bucks in the second
round because Milwaukee looked like they didn't want to be there.
(22:07):
And then they beat the Boston Celtics in six games
to go to the finals. But once again the low
seed made it to the finals and were beaten in
the finals, as the Los Angeles Blakers won the title
in the Bubble and then told us how it really
mattered and that they were going to be back. But
they haven't really been close since. But whatever, the number
(22:27):
five seed making it to the finals is tied today
at number five or four, six or whatever, I don't know.
Moving on to the next one, we have another tie.
I don't know if this is three or two or whatever,
but we have two more teams that are tied for
the lowest seeds to make the NBA finals, because we
have seen twice the number six seed make it to
(22:47):
the finals. However, there's one key difference. Back in nineteen
ninety five, the Houston Rockets were actually the defending champions,
but they had gone just forty seven and thirty five
and were the sixth seed in the playoff. Hey, but
the Rockets were a dangerous six seed. You had kim
Olajuan Clyde Drexler, and Otis Thorp, and they were living
(23:07):
large because Michael Jordan had retired temporarily, and so the
Rockets scraight past the Utah Jazz. They beat the Phoenix
Suns and San Antonio Spurs. However, when they made it
to the finals, they faced the number one seed, Orlando Magic,
and that Magic team was a little too inexperienced. You
(23:28):
had Shaquille O'Neal, you had Penny Hardaway, but they were
a little bit too young. The Rockets actually beat the
Magic and they are tied for the lowest seed to
make the finals by being a number six seed. The
difference was they actually won the title. So the Rockets
come in tied today at for three or two whatever.
(23:51):
Tied with the Rockets at the number two slot are
another sixth seed that made it to the finals. And
yes it's the same franchise because that Houston Rockets actually
went to the finals as a six seed back in
nineteen eighty one. Now, this team was not all that strong.
They finished the season actually under five hundred. They went
forty to forty two. But Big Moses Malone was carrying
(24:14):
them and he was a handful. And also the Western
Conference kind of slipped up and Houston just kind of
got hot at the right time. The Rockets beat the
Lakers in the first round, then the Spurs, and then
they beat the Kansas City Kings to make the finals,
which kind of tells you how weird this season was. However,
when they got to the finals, Larry Bird and the
(24:36):
Boston Celtics were waiting for them, and they took care
of them in six games. But the sixth seed has
actually produced two finals teams. Both times it was the Rockets,
but one of them actually won the title. And the
sixth seed today comes in tied at number two. So
we reached the lowest seeds that have ever made it
to an NBA finals, and once again we have a tie.
(24:59):
As we have seen the set. The very last seed,
the number eight seed, make it to the NBA Finals
not once, but twice. The most recent time was just
back in twenty twenty three win. Jimmy Butler, bam Adebayo
and Tyler Hero carried the Miami Heat after going just
forty four and thirty eight in the regular season, but
(25:20):
they got hot in the postseason. They beat the Milwaukee Bucks,
the New York Knicks, and the Boston Celtics. They made
it to the finals and then they were eliminated pretty
quickly in five games by My Denver Nuggets also tied
with the Heat, where the nineteen to ninety nine New
York Knicks. Now, remember ninety nine was a strike season,
(25:40):
so teams have only played fifty games. The Knicks finished
the season twenty seven and twenty three. They're pretty good.
Allan Houston, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, and Latrelle Spree well
were dangerous. They barely escaped the Young Miami Heat in
the first round, then swept the Hawks, handled the Pacers
pretty easily and ran into the San Antonio Spurs in
(26:02):
the finals and they got whooped in five games. Hey,
whether it is parody in the league or in a conference,
or just getting hot at the right time, we have
seen a few teams that were lower seeds make it
to the NBA finals. Just remember those ninety five Rockets.
They were the only ones that won it all. We
(26:23):
will see how low of a seed we end up
getting in the NBA finals this year. Hey, next week
in the Dose, we will of course keep you up
on all that is going on in the world of
sports news and especially in those NBA Finals which will
be getting ready to begin. So be sure to check
out the Dose, and be sure you let a friend
know to the same. Hey, I want to say thank
you to each and every one of you for listening
to The Daily US every week. Thank you for the emails,
(26:45):
thank you for the text, thank you for the tweets,
but more than anything, thank you for sharing the show,
for sharing the videos, and for sharing the articles. We
absolutely love it when you do that, I have to say,
thinking to Jess B could not do any of this
without you. I will see you on next Wednesday. Have
a great week, everybody. Mm hmm man, you are one
(27:14):
pathetic loser.
Wednesday, May twenty eight, twenty twenty five, you are listening
to the Daily Dose Sports podcast and I am your host,
Clinton Daily, coming to you from my high city here
in Denver, Colorado, and we are back for another week
of talking sports with a dose of common sense. Hey,
Happy Wednesday to you. I hope you had a good weekend.
I hope you had a long weekend. And I hope
that your week is going well and that you, your family,
(00:28):
your friends, everyone in your world is staying strong and
healthy right now. And I hope that you were able
to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend. If you are here
in the United States, you know there was so much
going on in the world of sports. We saw Alex
Pelow win at Indy Little Messi at the beginning, kind
of smooth out at the end. We saw Ross Chastain
(00:50):
come from behind and win at Charlotte. The Edmonton Oilers
and Florida Panthers just might be on a collision course
in this Onley Cup playoffs. We'll see if they can
keep winning. And then we have those NBA playoffs that
have been completely insane. Last night we had Game four
(01:12):
between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Patians in
the Eastern Conference, and this series has just been nuts.
I mean, can anyone figure this out? It almost seems
like the worst place to be in this series is
up twenty, because if you're up twenty, you just might
end up losing. Last night, the Indiana Pacers become the
(01:32):
first team to actually win a home game in this series,
and now they have the Knicks in some serious trouble. Hey,
can either of these teams hang with the West if
they do make the NBA Finals? Honestly, I wouldn't think so.
Having said that, I didn't expect either but these teams
(01:54):
to even get this far, so I shouldn't say that.
But the Eastern side of the NBA has been crazy
in the postseason. Over in the West, the Oklahoma City
Thunder put the Minnesota Timberwls on the brink of elimination
on Monday night. After dominating Minnesota in games one and
two at home, the Thunder went on the road and
(02:16):
got crushed in Game three by forty And honestly, if
they lose Game four, even though they were up two
to one, heye, that series is absolutely up for grabs.
But the Thunder found a way to survive, they get
the road win in Game four. You know, they knock
down shots when they have to have them, they get
(02:36):
stops when they have to get them. And yes, I
hate to bring this up, but the Oklahoma City Thunder
do get the benefit of the ref's whistles. But honestly,
here's what I think they're doing. They grab on every
defensive possession, They push you, they hand check you, and
they know the refs aren't going to call everything, and
(02:57):
so as a result, they get away with a lot. Yes,
Oklahoma City fans will say, hey, we get called for
a lot of founs. Yeah, you get called for about
half as many as you should be getting called for.
And then you start seeing the other team get frustrated
and they're going, hey, what's going on here? When we
hand check, when we grab, you call us. But Okase
(03:17):
does that so much that the refs kind of let
some of it slide. Well, if you are an opponent,
if you're facing the Thunder, you better adjust. You had
either better adjust and say well, then we're gonna start
doing the same thing at the defensive end, and you
better adjust at the other end and say, hey, we
better expect contact because you're gonna get it every single possession,
(03:41):
all possession long. Also, I am hearing about how the
thunder are just loading up on timber will start Anthony Edwards.
How they are You can see it. They go out
and they look to take away Anthony Edwards and then
see if anyone else that team can beat them, and
(04:04):
right now no one can. Ant scored sixteen points in
game four. And after the game, what did he say?
He said, Hey, I made the right decisions. I didn't
force shots, I didn't force things that weren't there. I
just took what they gave me. Isn't it interesting to
hear that? Isn't it interesting that they've been able to
(04:27):
just take him away? Because please know this, and some
of you are too young to remember this, but know this,
teams in the eighties and nineties loaded up to take
Michael Jordan away back in the day. In fact, the
Detroit Pistons said, all we're gonna do is knock him
to the floor. On every single possession. Everyone key on him.
(04:49):
At times there were four people stopping Michael and it
didn't matter. I know. We want to compare the modern generation, Oh,
there so much more talented than the previous generation. All
the old heads still propping up Michael. Nobody took Michael
away never, It just didn't happen. Hey, Remember you should
(05:11):
be stopping by dailydosports dot com every week and seeing
what new things we have going on over there. We
have links to the podcast, we have links to new
articles each week, and we have links to Daily Dose gear.
You might need a new T shirt, a new hoodie,
a new sweatshirt. Make sure you stop by Daily doosports
dot com each week and check out what we have
going on over there. Plus, if you ever do feel
(05:31):
they need to email the podcast, you can reach us
at Daily do Sports at gmail dot com. Hey, today
on the Dose, we have a number of sports news
stores to get to, I mean, from the NBA to
college football to the NFL. We have a number of
things we've got to get to today, So we are
going to be very very news heavy for you and
(05:52):
we will have the return of the Daily Dose Top
five free today. It is going to be a little
bit NBA flavored, but let's go ahead and jump in
right now. After winning his first scoring title and leading
those Oklahoma City Thunder to a league high sixty eight wins,
Shay Gilgess Alexander did earn his first NBA MVP award.
The league announced that last Wednesday. Now that, of course,
(06:17):
was just a few nights after Gildes Alexander's thunder beat
Nikally Jokic's Denver Nuggets in Game seven, and you might
remember that Gilgess Alexander actually finished as the runner up
in last year's MVP voting, which Jokic won. It was
his third in four seasons. But this year, Sga received
seventy one of the one hundred first place votes in balloting,
(06:41):
with Jokic getting the other twenty nine and finishing as
the runner up. Milwaukee Buckstar Yarnis and Compo was third. Hey.
Sga led the league with nearly thirty three points a gaming.
He shot nearly fifty two percent from the field, and
he averaged six and a half assists, five rebounds, and
all as two steals per game. The only other player
(07:03):
in NBA history to average at least thirty on fifty
percent shooting, five rebounds, five assists, and a steal and
a half is Michael Jordan, who did it in eighty
seven and eighty eight and in ninety and ninety one.
Those were seasons that he did win two of his
five MVPs. Having said that, Nikola Jokic may have had
(07:24):
the best season of his career. He averaged twenty nine
point six twelve point seven rebounds, hand point two assists,
and nearly two steals. But SGA has an advantage here.
I mean he has a better team. The Thunder finished
with eighteen more wins than the Nuggets. Jokic became the
third player in NBA history to be in the top
(07:45):
two in MVP voting in five straight seasons. DEVII wants
to do that Larry Bird and Bill Russell. But let's
be real clear about what happened here. Like I said,
SGA has a better team. And in the NBA right now,
the award for Most Valuable Player is not who is
the most valuable That is, without a question, Nikola Jokic.
(08:07):
Do you realize Jokic has now played eight hundred and
thirty nine career games without a teammate that was either
an All Star, All NBA or All Defense that year.
That is the most by any NBA player in the
history of ever. Ever, Hey, the NBA MVP award goes
(08:29):
to the best player on the best team. That's what
the writers do. That's fine, but it isn't the most
valuable player. Let's be real clear about that, because there
is no one more valuable to their team than Nikola
Jokicic is to the Denver Nuggets. We can prove that statistically,
But there were two things that play here. One Sga
(08:50):
is the best player on the best team, and two
writers are lazy and don't want to write the Yoki
story again, so they vote for someone new. We've seen
it a million times, and they did it again this year.
Speaking of those Denver Nuggets, owner Josh Cronky didn't waste
any time finding the next head coach of those Nuggets.
All he had to do was walk down the hall
(09:11):
of his office and then take the interim tag off
of David Adaman. He did that last week, rewarding the
forty four year old for somewhat righting the Nugget ship.
I mean, you figure he got the job in just chaos.
There was only like four games left in the regular season.
(09:33):
The Nuggets are frustrated, they don't know what to do.
They fire a head coach that gave them their first title,
their only title, their only thing even close to the title,
and then they went straight into the playoffs, where they
were a higher seed against the Los Angeles Clippers. But
everyone expected them to lose that series. In fact, most
(09:54):
people were predicting a sweep. Instead, Adamman did get them
to slip pas the Clippers in seven games, and then
they took Oklahoma City to game seven as well, which
looking back now might be better than we expected. So
(10:14):
Kronky gave the job to Adaman. We'll see if he's
up to the task. Kronky said he needs a little
more time to decide on a new general manager, but
he wanted to name Adaman the head coach so that
the organization can gear up towards finding some people to
surround Nikola Jokic with. Look, I really hope hiring David
(10:35):
Adelman is the right move, and the players seem to
be in favor of this move, but hey, that can't
always be the determining factor because keep in mind, players
want who they're comfortable with, not always who would be
best for them. Some of these Denver Nuggets players, they
need to be a little more uncomfortable. They look way
too comfortable at times. I mean, I think back to
(10:57):
that series against the thunder Nice they didn't put out
any effort. They need to be a little more uncomfortable.
They don't always play hard, they definitely don't always play smart.
And I wasn't really that impressed with the adjustments that
Adaman made against Oklahoma City. But then again, it looks
like the Nuggets are going to play them better than
anyone else has so far. So I guess we're gonna
(11:20):
see what David Adaman has and we're going to put
to the side that he looks a whole lot like
Alfred Y Newman from Mad Magazine. We move over to
the world of college football, where the College Football Playoff
has now announced they will see teams by ranking alone.
(11:40):
They are going to get away from last year's format
after just one year. Conference champions no longer automatically get
a buy, meaning teams like Boise State and Arizona State
last year would have been in much tougher spots. Now.
I hate to keep going back to this, but the
College Football Playoff Committee keeps trying to make everyone happy.
(12:04):
So guess what happens. No one's happy. They don't want
to be accused of making the SEC in the Big
Ten happy, so they tried to make everyone happy, and
then the SEC's mad, the Big ten's bad, Notre Dame's mad,
Big twelve's mad, the ACC's mad, everybody's mad. Nobody likes it.
This past season, the top four seeds of the tournament
(12:27):
were eliminated by the second round. We ended up with
a five, six, seven, and eight in the final four,
and the eight seed beat the number seven seed in
the final. Now, look, I'm all for upsets. I love
Cinder all the stories, but this is clearly a seating
format issue, and now they're trying to fix it. But
(12:48):
I want you to be forewarned because that College Football
Committee also learned that that playoff is a cash cow.
And keep in mind, these institutions are going to have
to start paying these players officially starting this next year.
You know, I just bet that College Football Playoff Committee
(13:09):
is going to be talking about expanding that College Football
Playoff as soon as possible. Right now, we have twelve teams.
Then it's going to be sixteen teams, Then it's going
to be twenty four teams, then it's going to be
thirty two teams. Don't say you didn't know, because I'm
telling you right now it is absolutely coming. Saying in
the world of college football. There's a growing trend on
(13:30):
social media of college programs highlighting the GPA of their
different athletic teams. Well, this past season, you might remember
that the SMU Mustangs actually made that college football Playoff.
They qualified as the number eleven seed. Well, and then
they got taken to the woodshed by the number six
seed Penn State. Well, hey, the Mustangs are still feeling
(13:54):
it these days because that acc program jumped on X
or Twitter or whatever you want to call it last
week and they proclaimed that they had set an academic record,
not an athletic record. Now, look, I'm all for student
athletes getting it done in the classroom. I love that,
So I like this trend quite a bit. So what
(14:14):
stellar academic accomplishment had the SMU Mustangs achieved, Well, it
seems that they were pretty proud of their football team's
academic average. Southern Methodist University's social media team hosted this
little gem, getting it done in the classroom, hands clapping.
(14:35):
This semester marks the highest full semester GPA in program history. Wow,
that's pretty impressive. Not only did SMU get it done
on the field, going to the college football player, they're
getting done in the classroom. They had the highest GPA
(14:56):
in program history. What was that gpa? Two point ninety five? Man,
you are one pathetic loser. Okay, look we know that
season sometimes even ds get degrees, but are ye bragging
about it? Two point ninety five? That's flow up a
(15:16):
national average of just regular college students. Now you want
credit for something that isn't even good? What are you
smu the WNBA. Of course, we all know that the
Jacksonville Jaguars moved up to select University of Colorado wide
receiver slash defensive back Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter in
(15:41):
this past NFL draft. Hey, what does Travis Gunna Hunter
do at this next level? There are many that believe
he could be special. I mean, he looked like one
of the best receivers in the country. He looked up
one of the best defensive backs in the country. There's
no question Jacksonville is going to try to build around
this kid. Well, I'm gonna go ahead and voice a
(16:02):
concern and I'm not going to voice it about his
physical ability. I think he's got a lot of tools there,
but I just might have to question his intelligence a
little bit. Over this past weekend, young mister Hunter married
his high school sweetheart, Leanna Linney in a ceremony held
down in Georgia. Do you remember Leanna Lae? She's the
(16:27):
one that choose him out when he stops to take
pictures with his fans or you know, sign autographs. And
then after hearing the critics on social media, she took
to social media to scold all of the naysayers. Yeah,
she seems like a real sweetheart. Well, Hunter married her. Okay, Hey,
he's young, that's his problem, right, Why in the world
(16:50):
would that make me question his intelligence? Well, it seems
he did it without a prenuptial agreement. Are you kidding me? Hey,
I'm sorry, but the road to hell is paved with
the best intentions. Dude just might be on his way
straight there. Good luck, Travis. Someone tells me you're gonna
(17:11):
need it. Staying in that NFL where the NFL Owners'
meetings took place last week, and even the most powerful
figures in the NFL were unable to stop the tush push.
Despite some light momentum, a proposed ban of that tush
push play that the Philadelphia Eagles have popularized did not
get enough votes at the spring meetings. To actually get
(17:34):
rid of it. It's not disappointing for me, for our committee,
for the committees that did the work, said NFL Competition
Chairman Rich McKay. It takes twenty four votes to pass anything.
We don't set a low bar. I've been in that
room numerous times where we've had these types of discussions
and one team ends up being in their mind more
impacted than others. But it still takes twenty four votes. Look,
(18:00):
have a problem with the toush push. I really don't.
If you don't like it, then stop the Eagles from
getting to the goal line or getting in like fourth
and one. However, having said that, here's what I do
have a problem with. You should not be able to
push or pull a ball carrier. That has always been banned,
(18:22):
and now you can just grab the ball carrier and
drag him down the field. If that's the case, and
I'm not even making a joke here, why not just
get to the goal line and hire some of those
guys from the strongman competitions, you know, but throw the
big logs or whatever and just chuck your ball carrier
over the line. That aspect of the NFL is absolutely idiotic.
(18:45):
I don't care if you ban the Toush push. I
don't care if you ban him being able to kind
of just push his way up in there. But pushing
a ball carrier pulling a ball carrier down the field,
I'm sorry. That just isn't football. I don't know what
it is, but it sure isn't now. As we do
so many weeks here at the daily dose, we need
to get over to our daily dose top five. Hey,
(19:13):
we are nearing another NBA Finals, which are actually set
to begin next Thursday. And while we still aren't fully
sure who's going to make it, we do know that
we'll get at least one team that's going to be
a little bit of a lower seed. Because right now,
the number one Oklahoma City Thunder are facing the number
six Minnesota Timberwolves. In the West, I would think we're
(19:36):
going to get the number one seed out of that,
but we'll see. But in the East it's a little
more messy, as the number three New York Knicks are
trying to keep pace with a number four Indiana Pacers.
So we are going to get a team that at
least isn't in the top two. But could either one
of these series produce one of the lower seeds to
(19:56):
ever make it to the NBA Finals. Today is counting
down the lowest seeds that have ever made it to
the NBA Finals. And I will warn you ahead of time.
We've got three ties today, so we've actually got a
top six. We got a daily dose top six today.
Because we've got three ties. We start off at number
five or six or whatever, and like I said, we
(20:18):
have a tie wow, And we don't have to go
back very far, because it was just last year that
the number five Dallas Mavericks somehow got hot at the
right time and they rolled clear to the NBA Finals.
The MAVs went fifty to thirty two in the regular season,
but then they managed to knock off the number four
seeded Los Angeles Clippers, because I mean, it's the Clippers.
(20:42):
And then Dallas faced the number one seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.
But the thunder were young, and they're weren't quite as
deep or as experienced then as they are now, and
Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving they were just too much.
The MAVs won that series in six games. They advanced
to the Western Conference Finals and they got to see
(21:04):
these same number three Minnesota Timberwolves, and they made quick
work of them. They beat them in just five games.
So off went the number five Dallas Mavericks to the
NBA Finals, where they faced the number one seeded Boston
Celtics and Boston blew them out in five games. But hey,
a number five seed making it to the NBA Finals
(21:26):
comes in tied today at number six or five or
four whatever. Also tied here was just back in twenty
twenty where the Miami Heat were also a number five seed,
But that season honestly probably shouldn't even count because remember
the season had been stopped for the pandemic in March
(21:46):
and the playoff didn't begin until August. There were no crowds.
It was dumb. The Miami Heat were the five seed
and they swept the number four seed Indiana Pacers down
in that goofy playoff bubble in Florida. Jimmy Butler and
I'm Out of Bayo stepped of their game and the
Heat beat the number three Milwaukee Bucks in the second
round because Milwaukee looked like they didn't want to be there.
(22:07):
And then they beat the Boston Celtics in six games
to go to the finals. But once again the low
seed made it to the finals and were beaten in
the finals, as the Los Angeles Blakers won the title
in the Bubble and then told us how it really
mattered and that they were going to be back. But
they haven't really been close since. But whatever, the number
(22:27):
five seed making it to the finals is tied today
at number five or four, six or whatever, I don't know.
Moving on to the next one, we have another tie.
I don't know if this is three or two or whatever,
but we have two more teams that are tied for
the lowest seeds to make the NBA finals, because we
have seen twice the number six seed make it to
(22:47):
the finals. However, there's one key difference. Back in nineteen
ninety five, the Houston Rockets were actually the defending champions,
but they had gone just forty seven and thirty five
and were the sixth seed in the playoff. Hey, but
the Rockets were a dangerous six seed. You had kim
Olajuan Clyde Drexler, and Otis Thorp, and they were living
(23:07):
large because Michael Jordan had retired temporarily, and so the
Rockets scraight past the Utah Jazz. They beat the Phoenix
Suns and San Antonio Spurs. However, when they made it
to the finals, they faced the number one seed, Orlando Magic,
and that Magic team was a little too inexperienced. You
(23:28):
had Shaquille O'Neal, you had Penny Hardaway, but they were
a little bit too young. The Rockets actually beat the
Magic and they are tied for the lowest seed to
make the finals by being a number six seed. The
difference was they actually won the title. So the Rockets
come in tied today at for three or two whatever.
(23:51):
Tied with the Rockets at the number two slot are
another sixth seed that made it to the finals. And
yes it's the same franchise because that Houston Rockets actually
went to the finals as a six seed back in
nineteen eighty one. Now, this team was not all that strong.
They finished the season actually under five hundred. They went
forty to forty two. But Big Moses Malone was carrying
(24:14):
them and he was a handful. And also the Western
Conference kind of slipped up and Houston just kind of
got hot at the right time. The Rockets beat the
Lakers in the first round, then the Spurs, and then
they beat the Kansas City Kings to make the finals,
which kind of tells you how weird this season was. However,
when they got to the finals, Larry Bird and the
(24:36):
Boston Celtics were waiting for them, and they took care
of them in six games. But the sixth seed has
actually produced two finals teams. Both times it was the Rockets,
but one of them actually won the title. And the
sixth seed today comes in tied at number two. So
we reached the lowest seeds that have ever made it
to an NBA finals, and once again we have a tie.
(24:59):
As we have seen the set. The very last seed,
the number eight seed, make it to the NBA Finals
not once, but twice. The most recent time was just
back in twenty twenty three win. Jimmy Butler, bam Adebayo
and Tyler Hero carried the Miami Heat after going just
forty four and thirty eight in the regular season, but
(25:20):
they got hot in the postseason. They beat the Milwaukee Bucks,
the New York Knicks, and the Boston Celtics. They made
it to the finals and then they were eliminated pretty
quickly in five games by My Denver Nuggets also tied
with the Heat, where the nineteen to ninety nine New
York Knicks. Now, remember ninety nine was a strike season,
(25:40):
so teams have only played fifty games. The Knicks finished
the season twenty seven and twenty three. They're pretty good.
Allan Houston, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, and Latrelle Spree well
were dangerous. They barely escaped the Young Miami Heat in
the first round, then swept the Hawks, handled the Pacers
pretty easily and ran into the San Antonio Spurs in
(26:02):
the finals and they got whooped in five games. Hey,
whether it is parody in the league or in a conference,
or just getting hot at the right time, we have
seen a few teams that were lower seeds make it
to the NBA finals. Just remember those ninety five Rockets.
They were the only ones that won it all. We
(26:23):
will see how low of a seed we end up
getting in the NBA finals this year. Hey, next week
in the Dose, we will of course keep you up
on all that is going on in the world of
sports news and especially in those NBA Finals which will
be getting ready to begin. So be sure to check
out the Dose, and be sure you let a friend
know to the same. Hey, I want to say thank
you to each and every one of you for listening
to The Daily US every week. Thank you for the emails,
(26:45):
thank you for the text, thank you for the tweets,
but more than anything, thank you for sharing the show,
for sharing the videos, and for sharing the articles. We
absolutely love it when you do that, I have to say,
thinking to Jess B could not do any of this
without you. I will see you on next Wednesday. Have
a great week, everybody. Mm hmm man, you are one
(27:14):
pathetic loser.
Popular Podcasts
Fudd Around And Find Out
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!