I AIN'T NO JOKE

[00:00:06] Yes, you are now listening to the sounds of Sports Reports As Ordered. You're coming to you tonight in the middle of Western Conference semifinal game one, Golden State in Minnesota. And I didn't come alone because I got with me the world-renowned, the world-famous, born in Texas, raised in VA, representing New Jersey.

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[00:01:22] So, Mr. Logical, there's been a lot going on, right? I got a big old egg on my face because I was talking all last week about how, you know, OKC was partying it up in Disney World. And they were going to come back and put 25 on Denver's head. And then Yoko said, not so much, bro. Not so much. Thank you, ma'am.

[00:01:49] So, what I'm learning is that if you are a gambling person and you're making a parlay, just take my predictions and just bet the opposite. You're probably going to hit. I've, we've analyzed and we talked about it. We were using facts and data. I'm bouncing my ideas off of you. We're going back and forth. And, you know, we're prognosticating, but come with an educated guess.

[00:02:20] Yes, I still have OKC in Boston in the finals. That is not off the table. OK, OK. But I've been, as I've gotten older, I do, like, kind of pick on the youth a lot. Like, the young guys in my office, I talk to my kids all the time about, like, oh, I'm like, I'll say something. I'm like, oh, you don't know what I'm talking about.

[00:02:46] Like, I made a movie reference a few weeks ago when I went to a Yankee game on the train. I mean, while we were walking, I made, like, a movie reference. And I realized that the people I was walking with were 26, 28, and 28. I'm like, you don't know what I'm talking about. Because I was referencing something from, like, 25 years ago. So, but I still picked the young team because I figured, like, OK, just you've gotten this far winning games.

[00:03:16] You have the athletic advantage. I think basketball does, just being more athletic does get you a little bit more. I think in the Lakers series, Minnesota was just more athletic than the most dynamic players on the Lakers. So, I've been picking a lot of the young teams. I think they'll turn it around.

[00:03:43] But I am worried that the way SGA was at the podium, it was like, it looked like they were down 3-1 or 3-2 going back to Boston. It just felt too somber. And I don't want that to, like, resonate and, like, kind of matriculate to the locker room where it's like, yo, this guy looks a little bit too nervous. He was on his phone for, like, the press conference.

[00:04:12] It's just not really, like, end of the moment. Like, OK, yeah, we dropped game one. But people have been swept in the series. So, winning four games in a row isn't impossible. You know, it just felt like I think young guys might take on that thought of, you know, maybe we're not ready for this. Maybe the moment is too big. So, that was along the lines of what I was thinking is that I'm not afraid for OKC. I still think OKC is going to win this series in six or so. But I think they should be scared.

[00:04:42] Just from the standpoint of when you go back and look at last year, last night we saw some of the same things we saw when they lost to Dallas last year. You know, who's going to be the next person to come with SGA? You know, SGA, you know, put up 33 points. J-Dub, who was supposed to be that guy. Five for 20. You know, you look at Ted Holmgren, you know, who I felt was one of the keys to this series with his versatility.

[00:05:11] He missed the two free throws. You know what I mean? And I'm always nervous about free throws because I'm old, right? I go back to Anderson missing those free throws against the Rockets. And he was never the same, as Chris Jericho would say, never the same again. Well, Carl Malone has said a male man doesn't deliver on Sunday. Male man doesn't deliver on Sunday, yep. And, you know, but when it comes to Mark Dagonal, you know, he was the reigning coach of the year until Kenny Atkinson won the award yesterday.

[00:05:39] So there's this old saying that applies to him that I would like to share with everybody. They say a soldier dies but once. A coward dies a thousand deaths. You had Jokic on the bench with 10 seconds left. Denver had no timeouts. You had just scored.

[00:06:07] You followed Aaron Gordon 90 feet away from the basket. And now guess what? Jokic can come in the game because of you. So then they go down there, you know, he hits the free throws. They followed Denver again. And I know, you know, a lot of people believe the whole, hey, we're up three. We're going to follow you and put you on the line. Okay, whatever. Not in that situation.

[00:06:35] And if you're going to do it, how about you let them dribble up the court, get the clock down to about five seconds or so. With some pressure, then you follow them. I think that's you. I think sometimes like Bill Belichick told Julian Edelman something in the Super Bowl about the punt. He was like, he said this. If it goes here, catch it run out of bounds. If it's deeper than that, just wait for like a fair catch.

[00:07:04] But it was like, do this or do that. I think in that situation, if you say foul after X amount of dribbles, X amount of time goes off the clock. Then you leave yourself in a position where maybe that guy gets across half court with the ball. And the veteran sees the foul coming and he just shoots. Yeah, Jokic tried that. You know, and a lot of players do it.

[00:07:33] So I'm always wary of that move. I just say play the defense you've been playing all the time. It's like, don't play prevent defense. You're winning. I saw a clip today. It was like a high school basketball clip. The team was up one. They were inbound. Like the team was down one inbound in the ball. They were inbounding from their other goal. There was nobody on the dude passing the ball in.

[00:08:02] The guy comes running across the court, catches it on the run, two dribble, pulls up from three. I'm like, where's the defense? Like someone should be on that half of the court making the pass difficult. But it's like sometimes you just, as a coach, you say, you know what? Don't give up the two pointer. Give them the long three. But that doesn't mean you can't still apply pressure defensively and stick to that philosophy.

[00:08:28] So sometimes with a young team, I think you just give them A or B. You don't give them both. And I think A was just foul immediately. And it was just dumb because like I said, there were 10 seconds left. So at the very least, you can trap him. You know, run a couple seconds off the clock as he tries to find Jamal Murray or somebody like that. And if you're going for the steal, the ref probably won't call a foul. Like if you're active hands. Maybe you get an eight second violation out of it. I don't know.

[00:08:56] But, you know, but the point is there was no Jokic on the floor. Don't give them an opportunity to put Jokic on the floor. That simple. You know, so then, you know, last year when we were talking and last year I didn't pick OKC to go to the finals, even though I liked them. And I said, hey, you know what? This team got a rebounding problem. So what they do, they let Jokic come out and get 22 rebounds.

[00:09:24] You know, 42 points and 22 rebounds. Six assists. You know, so you want Jokic to score, I guess. But you don't want him to grab the 22 rebounds. Yeah, he can't get – he can't be ridiculously double digits in the category outside of points. I'll give you 48, 6, and 4 every day. If I'm playing Denver, I'll let Jokic go 48 points. Keep him out of the paint. Just like playing LeBron. Wall him off. Let him shoot.

[00:09:54] Same thing they would do with Giannis. But when Giannis goes 37 and 20, theoretically you should win. But he plays Milwaukee and they don't really have like a second fiddle for now. But yeah. Jamal Murray can even play. You let Jokic go 40 plus and 20 plus. Yeah. That means his impact on the game is – that's either creating second chance points. That's eliminating your opportunity for second chance points. And he can lead the break. So many things happen when he's able to get the ball off the rim.

[00:10:23] It's like you got to give – you got to give him something but give up the other stuff. You can't give him everything. Right. So like I said, I'm on the no excuses train. So I'm not going to make any excuses for OKC. They had a nine-point lead with about four and a half minutes left. I thought it was kind of over at that point. But you could see that Denver was just persistent. So I thought that Denver was just going to run out of time. They'll make a run. They're just going to run out of time.

[00:10:51] And they would have if he didn't – if the coach didn't call him. Didn't give him time. Yeah. You know, and so, you know, so I think that OKC, in my mind, OKC will bounce back because they're obviously the better team. I mean, last night – I mean, coming in here tonight, we were supposed to be talking about – like, yo, Alex Caruso went off. That's what we were supposed to be talking about. You know what I mean? Until Jokic came through. You know, you've been soft ever since they crushed the buildings. Crushed the buildings, yeah.

[00:11:21] And, you know, so I think that Denver needs too many nights like that from Jokic to win this series. You know, Westbrook, you know, played out of his mind again. Like, I think that Denver is in a position that OKC is so deep that they need these kind of nights where everything just kind of bounces in their favor. So, like I said, I can't give excuses because OKC only turned the ball over nine times. Yeah.

[00:11:46] You know, they turned Denver over 18 times and got 23 points off of those turnovers. So, I can't sit up here and say, oh, they were jet-lagged or they were tired or, you know, they were just – I mean, they had intensity early in the game. I think, without making an excuse, I think that they just kind of got on cruise control at some point and thought they had it. You know, they just thought they had it because Jokic had five fouls, which is another problem.

[00:12:13] You know, if the dude got five fouls, you got to go into his chest every time you touch the ball. Yeah, and I think sometimes we talked about coaches and their strategies. Like, I – like I said, I've never been a coach, but I just kind of look at, like, simple things on the basketball court, across field, football field, whatever the case may be.

[00:12:38] If you are aware of the disadvantage that a player is in, for whatever reason, you have to take advantage of it. Like, people are knocking Houston for hitting Steph in the thumb. Well, that was his disadvantage. And Dylan Brooks said he's like – They only care to do with Steph. Yeah, he's like, if my ankle hurt, I would attack that ankle. Like, if my guy can't – if he can't go left or right, I'm going to attack and have them on his direction. If he can't be out here, get him out of here. So, if I got a guy that has two fouls in the first half, so that's like the first quarter,

[00:13:08] I know he can't defend me at the rim. And I also know that refs will call any kind of body contact. They'll give him a couple because he's a superstar. Right. But eventually, he's going to get sick of you driving into his chest trying to create layups, and he's going to do this. He's not going to go with the one hand to give it away, but he's going to do this. He's going to make the body contact. He's going to get his third foul. He's yelling with the refs. He's walking on the floor.

[00:13:36] Hartenstein and Holmgren only played 29 and 28 minutes. How about this? Draymond. You got a guy getting two rebounds. Draymond's six of seven with 16 points. Yeah, he'll go in the locker room and cool off, and then there'll be a stuff show in the second half. But, yeah, so you got to take advantage of those opportunities, especially when the guy's on the floor, or to get a guy off the floor. Listen, I say it all the time. If this guy can't guard the pick and roll, then just keep calling pick and roll. Right.

[00:14:05] Or if this guy can't guard SGA without following him, just, like, I understand your offense is to get the ball to Lou Door, get it to Williams, move it around, get a good shot. But if the guy defending either has two fouls early in the first half, or he can't seem to make his mind up on what to do defensively, you keep attacking it. There's nothing wrong with you, because if you could get fast break layups all game long, you wouldn't dribble it out to shoot the three.

[00:14:35] Right. You would take the fat. Like, if you're just literally getting behind a defense every possession or, like, just an astronomical amount, you would take every layup you can get. So if you have a guy that's going to give up, he has to give up ground because of foul trouble, or he has to just give up ground because he can't defend the guy, you take that every single time. Was somebody falling ahead again? Because every time. I was in the locker room with a hamstring. You know what I'm saying? I was in the locker room with a hamstring.

[00:15:06] But, you know, so to Musiano out there, I think that's how you say it, Musiano out there, just in case you didn't get my message this morning, I ain't worried about the Celtics. I'm not worried about the Celtics. You know, so, like, let me break it down for you. You know, like, Tatum and Brown, 14 of 43. 45 missed threes as a team. But that's not even the part that got me crazy.

[00:15:35] The part that has me crazy is Boston took 60 threes in this game, but 97 total shots. In the third quarter, they took 20 shots. 19 of them were threes. In the third quarter. Sure. They must not have watched that Houston series where they missed 27 straight threes and end up losing that series. Pump fake and take it to the cup. Yeah. And then if you add Derek White in there, Derek White had some big moments last night, some big shots,

[00:16:03] but he was still only 5 of 16 from 3 or something like that. So when you put it all together, you get 15 of 60 from 3. And the New York Knickerbockers, I said Nick Kerr, you know, they won that game by three points in overtime with all that stuff that I just said. This ain't no reason to beat your chest. I mean, look, be happy because you beat Boston for the first time all year. You know what I'm saying? Get the monkey off your back. So maybe with that monkey off your back now,

[00:16:32] maybe you feel a little loose going into game two. You know what I mean? You know, we got them off our back. We got one. And I hate that whole thing anyway, that whole, hey, let's go get one. Cool. You won game one. Guess what? You won game one. You can win game two. Well, I like to add, as I say, the series has to start to the home team loses. Well, this series on and popping. This series is on and popping. And this, like I said, this is something you started saying from the time we started doing our show,

[00:17:02] peep the new logo since 2023. You're going to come back to the mean. I don't think OG and a nobody is going to get you 29 points a game, too. Jalen Brunson might get you 40. But if he's getting you 40, that means you're probably not going to get 11 from McBride. Like those points are going to come from somebody else. Because I don't think the Knicks are going to manufacture more points.

[00:17:29] I don't think they're going to come out and score 121 points next game, which is probably tomorrow night. Boston will top 105. They are going to go probably 29 for 54 or something like that. They're still going to shoot a lot of them. But they're probably going to hit over 20, 25 probably. Because they were getting good looks. They just weren't knocking them down. And we could attribute that to Russ because, you know, they've been sitting for a while.

[00:17:57] We get attributed to the fact that even in their closeout game against Orlando, that game was over. Two, three minutes left in the third. It was like, okay, this is a wrap. And it probably was not really close. And that was without them hitting a three in the first quarter. Yeah. It was like halftime was close. And then they just pulled away. And it was like, okay, we have that gear. We have, like I said, 10 guys have green lights in Boston.

[00:18:24] They're not going to go cold at home back-to-back games. You know what I was waiting for last night, right? What's that? I was like, I was sitting here and I said, it's time, Tatum. It's time. Let me see it. Let me see it. You know, pause. Because, you know, as I was looking at it, you know what I mean? The game, it was a tight game going down the stretch.

[00:18:52] You know, and these are the moments, right? These are the Jordan moments, the Kobe moments, the moments where we get mad because LeBron passed the ball to Kyle Corver or whatever. These are these moments where, like, you're the face of the league. You want to be the face of the league. And I'm not – look, first of all, let me back up. I'm not trying to shit on Jason Tatum. I'm just trying to make a point. You know what I mean? Because these are the moments that lead to you for coming the face of the league. Yeah, these are the throws and the tight coverage. This is the knockdown three.

[00:19:21] This is the eight points and four possessions. This is like – this is when you put your stamp on a series, even in game one. You can still do that. And I get it. They have, like, a very balanced attack in Boston. And a lot of guys can do it.

[00:19:44] But what I want to see from Tatum and Jalen Brown is, like, listen, these other guys can still shoot the three as much as they want. In between that, Missoula's got to be like, listen, you two are a matchup nightmare for any team in the NBA because let's keep it realistic.

[00:20:06] Can we really run down multiple teams with six, eight wing defenders that can stay with Brown and Tatum at night, like game in the game, out the entirety of the game? I don't think that many teams have it. I know there's guys that play great defense. Paul George is probably 6'9", but I don't think he has the youth to stay with them. The Thompson twins are great defenders, but they're young.

[00:20:34] Not that, but they're not bigger. You know what I mean? So it's like you have that advantage, the way you handle the ball, your ability to shoot, your jump shot. Just you two, I want you guys attacking the rim. Make the defense collapse more often. That way, Hauser, Pritchard, Corford, Porzingis, they just get wide open looks. Well, wait, Porzingis, right? Didn't play in the second half last night.

[00:21:03] They said he got some kind of illness. And I'm here to say... Yeah, zero points in 13 minutes. So it was like... And I'm here to say it don't matter. You know what I'm saying? Because I can't trust Cat enough to take over the game the way you would think that he should take over the game without a Porzingis, right? And even taking it a step further than that. Josh Hart might be the best center on the Knicks. And he's like 6'4". Yeah. And that's why I was like, just attack.

[00:21:33] You can attack the rim without even compromising your offensive strategy. That's the part that I emphasize when I watch the games. It's like, okay, I get it. The three looks good. But a pump fake, dribble drive, kick out, swing, swing, pump fake, dribble drive, lay up. That can happen off that action.

[00:21:58] The Knicks keep a lot of guys who can run a lot on the court because that's what Tibbs like. So normally those guys aren't very big. I don't think Tibbs could run a squad with a guy like Shingun and Steven Adams in the lineup. Because it's like, I need you to play a different style of energy with a different level of energy that those guys can't do. So if you're Tatum and Brown, it's like, listen, I'm going to keep going to this rack.

[00:22:26] And I'm going to make Cat have to help on the defensive side. And he's going to pick up a dumb foul probably early. Put him in a pick and roll early. Make him defend. He'll get a dumb touch foul early. Sing you to the line, get you two free throws. And then he'll get another silly one going for a steal after a rebound. Just because, you know, I think he hears the chatter that people feel like, you know, they call him kitty cat and shit like that. Look at the stuff you say. I'm pretty sure he hears it all the time.

[00:22:55] So every once in a while, you can see him make that unnecessary extra effort. I love that video of him trying to get out of the way of the dunk, you know. Stuff like that he can never let down. Those still pictures, you know, like I said, I think. I think because he's a wildcat, you kind of give him a little bit more heat because you just have like, you know, higher expectations for him. Yeah. I think he was a great addition to the Knicks. And I'm not going to tell where you can tell where it's going to be limited.

[00:23:24] You can tell, like, OK, there's a ceiling on your impact. And I said I wasn't going to say nothing negative about Julius Randle. You know, but all I'm going to say is. He looked like Julius Randle. That's all I'm going to say. So. But but, you know, but but yeah. Yeah. So Mikael Bridges, you know, with the big steal last night, you know, to end the game. I think the Knicks are. Getting buried tomorrow.

[00:23:51] I'm not saying they're going to lose by 30 or anything like that, but it's not going to be close. I think like whatever I thought OKC was going to do to Denver, I think we're going to see that happen to the Knicks tomorrow. Yeah, I think I think Boston can flip the switch because I believe their coach. Will deliberately look for it and flip it for them, like he won't say anything. I don't think he's saying anything like normal in their practices.

[00:24:19] Well, even well, even going back to what you said earlier, when you were talking about SGA at the podium, you know, when Missoula was at the podium, he was like, nah, I like that. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, like we went 15. I like that. I like that. We got 60 of them. You know what I'm saying? So like Boston's ready to go. I'll put it like that. And Jalen Brown said the same thing. He was like, we got a lot of good looks. I just I just love the level of maturity that has. I just I mean, like Jalen Brown should definitely run for president.

[00:24:49] I mean, I think he's better than any option we've had. I don't know, man. Like Smith coming coming up in 2028, man. Yeah, I seen him try to hit a I seen him box. You can't be you can't go. You can't have a meeting with Putin when you throw punches like you imagine watching a presidential debate. And he's talking to like J.D. Vance or something. He's like, I can't believe you have the unmitigated goal. But, you know, but hey, it's big time.

[00:25:18] Yeah, you know, and I need Jasmine Crockett on my team because she can bowl, you know, Sam. But of course for president before that happens, we got the Warriors on right now with a 13 point lead at halftime. 44 to 31 held Minnesota to 31 points at the half. Steph Curry out for the rest of the game. But, you know, before we get to that, you know, look. Charles Barkley said something that I wanted to say the other day. He beat me to it.

[00:25:48] I got to give him the credit for it. You know, so. So I'm in Thompson. Shin Goon. Jalen Green. Y'all just lock yourselves in the gym and do nothing but shoot this summer. Like, that's all you do. Don't play no defense. Don't dribble. Just shoot the ball. Like, like, look, I was watching this. Right. And I don't want to be hyperbolic. I don't want to be biased for Kentucky.

[00:26:18] But I was like, yo, they sure use Reed Shepard right now. Like just just a dude that can shoot. You know, I don't know if he's going to hit the shots because he ain't been in the moment, but they just need somebody that can shoot. So Jalen Green. All right. He is. Yeah, he is. He's like six. They say six one, but. It looks a little five eleven. So point five. Well, Jalen Green had the 38 point game. And then he had one other, you know, like decent game. And the rest of the series, he was nowhere to be found.

[00:26:48] So hopefully he hasn't shot his way out of Houston. You know, all series long, I've been talking about where's Jabari Smith. He played 12 minutes in game seven. Twelve minutes. But ironically, we talked about this before last year and even to this year. And I thought they had it figured out because we were saying the same thing. Like, listen, you have young talent. Then you have some old heads. But you have the old heads playing.

[00:27:16] And kind of taking. I want to say taking some of the minutes from your young players. But you drafted these young players and you're playing them enough to where you're getting a sample size of what they can do. But because you have these old heads that got to get in the game, you can't let them. You can't let them get 27. Well, he's on the roster next year. Let's just say he's on the roster next year. When we get to the playoffs, he's still not really going to have playoff experience. Because he's behind the guys that he's behind.

[00:27:45] And we talked about it before. Houston, and I think a lot of teams, Minnesota did it. I think L.A. did it after they won the championship. Milwaukee did it. Denver did the same thing. It's like the playoffs, it seems like the regular season ends. And then personnel decisions are based off the playoff result.

[00:28:09] Now looking at the 82 games you played before and the training camp and the leadership and the locker room and the community and everything else that comes along with having a player on your team, a lot of decisions get made based off the playoff result. Houston was going to have this problem no matter what because they had so many young guys that were kind of filling the same position. They kind of did the same thing. And I was watching one of the games. I think I put it in the hot box group chat.

[00:28:38] It's like the Houston offense, one possession, it'll just be Jalen Green drilling the ball a lot. Another time it was like Thompson and Shagoon in the pick and roll. And then they were sagging off of him. Him and that spin, man. If I see that spin one more time. Yeah. So it's like, it's just there. When I think about Boston's offense, I know where the points are coming from. I know how they're going to try to get them.

[00:29:07] OKC, I know how they're going to try to get their points. The Knicks, Jalen Brunson is your dribble, create a shy guy. Cat is your big, your stretch big. Everybody else gets hustle points. Be in the right spot to knock down this. That's what they do. So with Houston, they got to figure out these roles. And honestly, you like Reed Shepard? If your philosophy is highly neat.

[00:29:38] Appreciate the new logo. Shout out to Andre Sluso of Excuses for the logo. Right now he's out, you know, out celebrating his life like everybody else. But yeah, shout out to Andre Sluso of Excuses. That's Morgano. So when you're Houston, if you want, if your coach wants six foot five and up,

[00:30:06] then just get him six foot five and up. Reed Shepard is a luxury. But if you if he feels like he doesn't fit in the scheme defensively, then you're going to have to move him like you're going to have to. I was going to say, I'm convinced that they got Reed Shepard to get a KD or to get a Giannis or to get a big fish, basically. And that's why they should have just traded. They should have just traded a number. They should have just traded that pick last season.

[00:30:34] Well, it's funny because, you know, I mean, I'm in Thompson was. I mean, I guess Fred Van Vliet played well as well. But I mean, Thompson was really the only guy that brought it all game seven, you know. And then, I mean, wake up, buddy healed, you know, like a dream night for him. Thirty three points, nine for eleven from three. You know, Wayne saying that tonight, you know, Draymond's hitting all the threes tonight. Right. But but but, you know, so when I was looking at the Warriors, it was one of those things where.

[00:31:06] Experience, I guess, just gets you to a certain place, and that's the advantage like Denver would have over OKC, because OKC is the better team, but Denver's been there. They've won title, won a title, you know. So I guess like Golden State's been there, done that in Houston has to meet the moment, whereas Golden State is already kind of settled in the moment. Yeah. And those players are on the floor and they can make adjustments. They can make coach level adjustments on the floor, on the fly.

[00:31:35] But I still think Minnesota wins this series. I mean, especially if we got to see what's going on with Steph. You know, he's got the hamstring issue. But but even with healthy Steph, I thought Minnesota was going to win this series and Ant was going to add another scalp to his board in the room, you know. So we'll see, you know, say hopefully Steph can make it back by the end of the series. You never know what hamstrings. Ask Chris Paul. You know, no, you know, you know, but then I've never been fast enough to pull one.

[00:32:03] So thankfully, but then Mr. Logical, just hear it. I don't want to take no I don't want to take no joy in injuries, but I warned you all about the Pacers. I warned you all the Pacers were coming. They're playing with a little bit of swag and they're playing with a level of confidence that. Is enough to carry you further than you need to then you then people expect you to go.

[00:32:33] You know what they're playing like? They're playing like a team that made the Eastern Conference Finals last year to everybody's acting like didn't make the Eastern Conference Finals last year. It felt a little fluky last year. No, it didn't. Well, all the injuries to the Knicks and then like the some of the end game like into the game calls. And but the Knicks had a very odd playoff run last year as well.

[00:32:57] Like they you know, like they're learning how to win, but injuries like not having you not having you guys. You got it. Not having all your horses. You got to get everything right. Let the record show. Let the record show, though. When I called Pacers over the Cavs. It was healthy. It was around the All-Star game. So let's put that in perspective. First of all, I believe in the Pacers from day one now to tonight. Right.

[00:33:26] You know why Cleveland? Well, part of the reason Cleveland lost that game. And this might be the stupidest thing I've ever said in the history of Sports Reports is ordered. Let's hear it. Donovan Mitchell. You have 48 points. He needed 50. Yeah. No, it's not even that he had 48 points. But with the game on the line, he turned into what I like to call D whistle, where you're going to the basket with the intention of drawing the foul and not making the shot.

[00:33:56] You know what I mean? So the offense just didn't float. Like, Max Struess showed up tonight. You know, I think he had 23 points. Jared Allen chipped in 22 on a lot of open dunks and all that kind of stuff. But when the game got tight, Donovan Mitchell was getting a lot of bailouts. You know, like when I play basketball in the streets, you know, I tell these dudes, just because you fell does not mean you got fouled. Correct. Correct.

[00:34:21] Just because you're clumsy, Luca, does not mean you should get fouled. I don't know why NBA players don't play through contact. Granted, listen, I've only played pickup basketball. But I always just thought to myself, if I'm trying to shoot a layup with my right hand, you hit my left arm. And, you know, it is what it is. If I can get a good shot off my right hand and you hit my left arm, it's good to go. If you whack me across my right arm and I can't get the ball to the backboard, then, yeah, I'll call the foul.

[00:34:52] So these NBA players, the way they're trying to bait fouls, I'm like, if you just went at the defender, he would hit you somewhere. Because you're expecting. First possession of the second half. No Steph Curry. Minnesota gives up a corner three. It's going to happen. Anthony Edwards, 1.0 for 9 right now. But, you know, I think they'll bounce out. Like sometimes, man, it's like it's not excuses.

[00:35:22] And we just I hate when people say, oh, you make excuses. Some things are realistic. Deion Sanders used to be really, really fast. If you got him to run a 40 right now, he probably wouldn't do so well because he has had surgery to his foot that has, you know, altered his foot. That's not an excuse. That's just a fact. So if you don't have if you don't have your horses in the type of sport where you need. The best of the best you have available.

[00:35:52] It's going to impact you. Donovan Mitchell had an all time night tonight. 48 points in the playoff game. It doesn't just happen all the time. I think we kind of get used to these big numbers because, you know, people tend to follow certain players. And Lucas put up big numbers. And Browns put up big numbers. Yoko's put up big numbers yesterday. So it's like you think it happens all the time to everybody. It's like 48 points is hard to come by in the NBA. Right. It's just 15 or 30.

[00:36:22] So it wasn't like he was just. Yeah, he wasn't, you know, just going crazy. You know, 50 percent for a jump shooter. He put a guy on a poster. It's at dunk. Dunk. Yeah, I mean, he's playing within the moment as much as you can. But sometimes, you know, the team gets. It takes a little luck. Like Jay said, you play with skill. Good luck will happen. And Tyree's getting that rebound and being patient. Looking up at the clock. Working his dribble. It looked frantic.

[00:36:52] But he was patient. He was setting up his dribble. Step back. Three. Up one. 1.1 left from the clock. It's just. I don't want to like to use the word team of destiny. But I think they feel like that dude over there with our team uniform on is going to make a play. So I got to make a play over here. I think it's real cohesion with the unit. And I feel like it's a lot like us against the world. Because no one's picking the Pacers. You're probably the only person.

[00:37:21] Outside of Indiana. You ready for this? Let's hear it. So going back to the closeout game against the Lakers, the Timberwolves are 7 for their last 63 from three-point range. They're 0 for 16. That's a slight contrast in game one. They're 0 for 16 right now in this game. And they went 7 for 47 in that game five against the Lakers.

[00:37:49] You know, and they're one of the better three-point shooting teams in the league all year. Wait, hold on. They went 7 for 47? In game five and won that game against the Lakers. And they're 0 for 16 right now. I think these guys, I think they had a meeting in the Lakers building. It's like, listen. Let's go ahead and let this go. I don't want anybody missing next season. And we're going to wrap this up. I don't know. I feel some point shaving going on right now.

[00:38:20] But we're done. Yeah, I'm going to give you your flowers. You called it. It ain't over yet, right? Like, you know what I'm saying? Because Kobe said the job ain't done yet. It ain't over yet. I didn't think Cleveland was going to represent the East in these conference finals because I felt like they were, like, the B version of Boston. Not like an elite. I just think Boston is such an elite team and a grouping.

[00:38:48] You know, I felt like Cleveland mimicked them. But just, you know, everyone's, like, a little bit smaller. And you know what? Guess who ain't scared of Boston? Indiana. Indiana. Just keep that in mind. That's all I'm saying. Just keep that in mind. But you know who is scared? James Harden is a scaredy cat.

[00:39:14] You know, like, I don't know what this guy, what goes through his mind. So, you know, we've talked about the failures, right? Like, you know, the two for ten with no Kawhi on the floor at home. His shortcomings. Yeah, his shortcomings. So last year, or like, hold on, what was this? This might have been three years ago now. I got to get my math right. I think it was three years ago. He had two 40-point games in the same series when they played the Boston. That's the 76ers? Yeah. The 76ers year, right? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:39:44] And Jason Tatum ended up going off of 51 in game seven. And James Harden was nowhere to be found. I don't understand this guy. You know what I mean? Like, look. James Harden, first of all, we can eliminate this Dwayne Wade discussion. That was never really a discussion in the first place. We can just get rid of that. Yeah. You know, look.

[00:40:12] Mr. Logical and I was talking the other day, and we were saying to ourselves, OKC could have been a dynasty that people still talk about today. Absolutely. You know, Sam Presti didn't want to pay James Harden. Much to my discrin, the Wizards didn't want to pay James Harden either. They had him. You know, he wanted five years, 80 million. Wizards said no. But then he ended up in Houston.

[00:40:40] So now we're at this point where James Harden is sitting on the couch. Kevin Durant didn't get invited to the party. Russ is the last man standing for this season, if you will. So we were trying to figure out, and we want to know your answers, if you could be any of those three Oklahoma City Thunder alumni, which one would it be and why? All right.

[00:41:06] So we've had this conversation a lot about championships and how it seems as if this current media space counts championships, and then they factor in your impact, and they kind of stretch your impact based off the fact that you won a championship. Mm-hmm. I've long disliked this premise.

[00:41:35] So Kevin Durant have a couple championships, a couple finals of VP, great career, shoe deals, impact, the nickname, easy money sniper, slim reaper. James Harden had the beard, the full hawk. He had Houston on smash.

[00:42:01] He had probably one of the greatest short runs. Yeah, Chloe. I think kind of that a lot of guys dated Chloe. Oh, no. Did he date Chloe? Yeah. I know Ben was dating Kendall while we on this. It's not ETV. I mean, you're trying to sponsor us. We'll talk about the Kardashians all day. But, and then you have Russ. I think the easy answer for someone who's counting chips is KD.

[00:42:31] Mm-hmm. My personal answer, and I think yours is aligned with me, I love Russ's career. If I'm sitting in my study in my house, my lakefront house, when I retire in Utah, and I'm Russell Westbrook, I'm sitting in my rocket chair, I'm talking to my grandkids, and they're looking at my trophies

[00:42:56] and my jerseys that I had signed, and the basketballs I had signed, and all this memorabilia in my, you know, in my man cave study, you know. And they're like, you know, Grandpa, tell us about your career. I think Russ has the most compelling story.

[00:43:15] I think even without the championships, I just felt like his play on the court never cheated you. Mm-hmm. Even to this day, he's, you know, he embraced every role. He embraced the villain role on the court. You know, his interaction with fans. Like, listen, like LL said, I'm a good guy. I'm not a nice guy.

[00:43:46] I do good things. A nice guy lets you push him over. I'm a good guy. I do good things for the people I care about. But I'll whoop your ass if I need to. I think Russ embodies that. And it's not fake. It's not fake tough guy stuff. So, I think Russ, I mean, we could talk about the triple doubles. People thought it was like, oh, they tried to poo-poo the triple double. He's won 72% of his games when he had a triple double. Mm-hmm. Jokic's at 74%.

[00:44:17] But of all those games, he was just, you know, stat padding. They won 72% of those games. Minnesota hit a three. You know. Changing. You know, so I was, they're down 17, though. So, I was, I thought long and hard about this. You know, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Russell Westbrook. All MVPs.

[00:44:42] You know, all considered top something at their position. Kevin Durant, when you think about it in an all-time ranking type setting, he's probably considered the highest of the three. Yeah. More so because he's the unicorn. You know, we haven't seen many players like him to embody that whole skill set. I think they're like, he's like 15 to 20 in most people's list. Yeah. Yeah, something like that. Or in that range. Yeah.

[00:45:12] James Harden, you know, Kevin Durant has the most points of the three. James Harden probably had some of the most mind-numbing playoff conclusions in his career. Of any, of any player that has been called great. Yeah. You know, you know, he's, he's good enough to get you to the dance. But the card declines.

[00:45:41] But, you know, Russ. Yeah. It's just strange how it plays out for him. Yeah. Russ ended up being my answer because even though Durant has the championships. And who knows? You know, 20 years from now, Russ might be sitting around in his rocking chair saying like, damn. I should have went somewhere and got me a ring. That's the one thing that I'm missing. That's the thing. That's, that's what I mean. I don't get that from Russ.

[00:46:11] That's because he. I mean, I don't get it from his demeanor. I don't. Like, I've never heard him demand his way out of anywhere. Like, I've never, I've never heard a report that said Russ wants to go play with this person. Like, we heard it even with Dane. Dane wanted to go to Miami. And kind of get some of that Miami heat culture because that was a championship. Him and Bam were friends. Yeah. So I never got that from Russ. And I don't know.

[00:46:41] I don't know if that's really, I don't know if that's the thing that really. Well, I think. I don't know if there's a few. The reason that I picked Russ is because Russ talks to my inner knucklehead. You know, like Mr. Always got to do it the hard way. You know, take the long road instead of, you know, the easy way. You know, like you're going to take your bumps and bruises, take your losses.

[00:47:03] But in the end, you can look yourself in the mirror, you know, because I think that James Harden, you know, if he cares enough, looks at himself in the mirror and just thinks of everything that. Like all the opportunity that he missed out on. You know, he had a chance to take down the great Warriors team with Durant and couldn't do it.

[00:47:24] You know, then he got another chance the next year where Durant got hurt and he still couldn't finish it with just, you know, without Durant. Because they were up 3-2. Yeah. Right. Chris Paul pulled his hammy. Yeah. And KD was up. Right.

[00:47:40] Then you had Durant, you know, won his titles but doesn't get nearly the respect that a champion should, that a guy with two finals MVPs should because people don't like the move that he took to get to the championship. I think people view it as Steph's team. Steph, that team, even though it was Harrison Barnes there. Well, you failed. Had already had a championship. At that point in time, there was probably an argument.

[00:48:08] People could have an argument if he was better than Steph or not. But with that being said. But when he did that, that was over. Steph was an MVP already. Already an MVP. But he was also a unanimous MVP. So he was a two-time MVP. And his team had a championship. And they won 73 games.

[00:48:32] So even in that short window when we look at Kevin Durant's MVP from 2014 and the run that they were on. And then you look at Steph's little mini run. Because it was around the same time Harden was making his three-year 34, 30, 31, 32 points a game, 14 assists. The step back three just kind of changing the way, you know, the way D'Antoni was viewed. I think he was doing his thing to make the way.

[00:49:01] So when KD and OKC blew the 3-1 lead, like I said, shit happens. But then to go to Golden State on the heels of Steph, MVP, championship, United's MVP, and 73 wins. That's why he couldn't overcome that. Right. If he would have gone to Golden State after they had a down year. Like say they would have gone something like 57 and 35.

[00:49:31] And then he went back there and got them back up to 68, 69 wins. And I'm like, oh, look what Kevin Durant did. But we never got to see the Golden State decline. They just got rid of Harrison Barnes and replaced him with Kevin Durant. Right. Any team that could do that, like it could change. You get a guy who plays the same way and you get a better version of that guy. Like if Houston were to be able to get rid of Jalen Green and bring in Ant like this summer. Right.

[00:50:01] It's like you're trading apples for Granny Smith apples. Well, I also think about it like this too. So, you know, they've all played with great teammates. You know, Harden played with Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, you know, Katie got to play with the Warriors. You know, he got to play with Kyrie Irving, Devin Booker.

[00:50:21] And I'm like, I'm like, I look at Russ and organically, organically without any fuckery, you know, saying he got to play with LeBron James. You know, he got to play with Paul George and Carmelo Anthony at the same time. Correct. He's playing with Jokic right now. You know what I mean? Like, so shed no tears. Obviously, he played with James Harden and Katie and then James Harden again. Right. So, so shed no tears for Russ.

[00:50:48] Like he's had the gamut of great teammates too, you know, but I think the reason that Russ resonates with me is because at the end of the day, you can look back and say, you know what? I might not have did everything I wanted to do. It might not have worked out in the form of a championship, but I did my career my way. I did it. Like, I did it based on my principles as a man. Like, like I didn't run and tuck tail because it would have been easy for Russ to demand a trade out of OKC.

[00:51:18] You know, it would have been, you know, especially when Durant left. Like, if he ain't here, I don't want to be here. You know, it would have been easy for Russ. Then he went out there and averaged a triple-double and then the final game of the season had a 50-point triple-double in the game winning three. Yeah. And he also like, let's keep it. Let's keep it. If he went Nipsey Dodd, he got to do the 2020. Yeah, that's for Nip.

[00:51:38] And he did also with that, when he was in OKC and everybody left, he still stayed there, did his thing every year, played hard, won his MVP. People doubted him. He brought in. Oh, he had to play with Kawhi. He brought in the fashion.

[00:52:08] Uh-huh. You know what I mean? So it's like a lot of people started doing the over-the-top walk-ins. I mean, I could be wrong, but I think Russ, maybe a little bit of James kind of, you know, in there.

[00:52:24] But I remember, from my recollection, Russell Westbrook was the first guy that was really coming in and treating that walk from the parking lot to the locker room like an artistic – Like a catwalk. And people thought it was goofy, but now it's to the point where it's clear you're doing this because of Russ. He's a trendsetter. Before LeBron, before Kobe.

[00:52:52] Jordan came in in a suit, and that was his move. He was like, I'm wearing a suit. I think Kobe kind of was in line and same thing. LeBron was a sweatpants, like a Nike sweatpants and jeans jacket guy coming in real comfortable. Russ was the first guy that came in with the – with the goddamn – with the photographer vest and the holy T-shirt and the Balenciaga jeans and this, you know. He was the first one really doing that, and then, you know, James kind of run with that, and then everybody else started doing it.

[00:53:19] But he healed 11 points in the third quarter. Yeah, so I think that, you know, a lot of us, as we get older and we reflect a little bit, you know, we think about mortality, right? We think about things like, what are people going to say about me when I'm not here anymore? And I think that if we're thinking about that in context with Kevin Durant, it's going to be the disappointment that took the easy way out. James Harden is going to be, you know, the best that never was.

[00:53:48] And I think Russ is going to be the one that resonates with the common man. And I think Russ is going to be viewed that way because I think KD and James Harden, for as much as they are in the public eye, I'm not sure we get their full personality on display. Mm-hmm.

[00:54:13] Because James Harden is always in the public eye, but I'm not sure exactly what his personality is. KD does podcasts and interviews, and I think KD is really trying to portray the video. Like, yo, I'm just a regular dude that likes to play ball. Right. But he's so abnormally different. Not in a negative way, but it's like, yeah, you want to be a regular dude that plays ball. But you're seven feet tall, and these are the things you can do in the basketball court. There's nothing regular about you.

[00:54:40] Yeah, nothing regular about you to the point where he tries to tell people, like, yo, I'm 6'9". I'm like, it was like, yo, you're standing next to Embiid. Embiid's listed at 7'2". He was like, yeah, Embiid lies about his height. So, like, to the point where I think he wants to be so regular that it's like it seems forced. Whereas Russ is like, listen, this is me. I'm going to cuss you out in the stands. I'm going to cuss out Pat Beverly. But he didn't really get on the refs too tough. And he's still going to love me. And he's going to love me. And he's going to love me because you're going to hear the audio.

[00:55:09] He's like, listen what this dude is saying to me. Russ is kind of like a – he kind of embodies how we view football players. You know what I'm saying? I remember those conversations where people were talking about who could play in the NFL. A lot of guys say Russ. Russ could play safety. Yeah. I could see that. You know, Anthony Edwards, 4'15". You know what I mean? He's coming along, I guess. You know, he's 4'6 in the second half.

[00:55:33] You know, but then to close it out, you know, old President Cheeto, Mango Head, you know what I'm saying? President Peach, if you will, you know, got his hands in everything. You know what I'm saying? So now he met with Nick Saban down in Tuscaloosa. They had a conversation, and now it sounds like he's on board with some NIL reform.

[00:55:59] So Nick Saban – this was one of the things that Nick Saban told the president. You know, he referred to the NIL model as unsustainable. And this is the golden part right here, Mr. Logical. This is the golden part. I'm listening. It creates, quote, it creates a sharply uneven playing field between schools with more resources and those with less, unquote. So this is the problem with that. You coached at Alabama.

[00:56:29] Alabama. You wasn't winning national titles at Missouri. You weren't winning national titles at Illinois. You weren't winning national titles at South Carolina or Washington State. You were at the creme de la creme, getting all the five stars you wanted and all that. Who had the unfair advantage then? And then you said, I'm leaving because these dudes' attitudes are changing due to the NIL. No, you just can't control them anymore. Preach.

[00:56:58] You just can't control them anymore. You're mad. Preach. That they can get the same money that your buddies are getting. If I had an organ in here, I'd be like, boom. Well, see, that's the thing about it, right? So Nick Saban started out at Kent State, you know, his alma mater. You know what I mean? So I think he knows the difference between the haves and the have-nots. Okay. Correct. So he left Kent State. He goes to Michigan State. Okay. So Michigan State isn't Michigan. They aren't Ohio State. They probably aren't Penn State.

[00:57:28] But they do pretty well. You can probably get a solid handful of recruits from the surrounding states, yes. Right. So then he goes to the NFL, comes back. Oh, I'm sorry. I skipped a step. He goes to LSU, you know, and revitalizes that program into now me and you be having arguments about if LSU was a blue blood. We're not having that conversation if he never went there. You know what I mean? So then you leave LSU, you go to the NFL, quit.

[00:57:56] Talking about these players transferring and quitting. You quit. Lack of leverage. Lack of leverage on the players. After saying that you weren't going to quit. And then you went to the best school in college football history. Lack of leverage. So don't talk to me about unfair versus fair. You know what I mean? When you coached at LSU and Alabama. We'll go ahead and drop my tagline. Don't piss in my pocket and tell me it's raining.

[00:58:23] This NIL money, the NIL deals, Trump wanting to be involved has nothing to do with balance. And we are living in a day and age where we are drawing relationship lines on political boundaries.

[00:58:47] But we're not cultivating our relationships based off critical thinking. I want people to hear this out. Donald Trump is a narcissist. He exhibits narcissist personality disorder traits 100%. We can't deny it. You guys can support him all you want. I'm cool with it, whatever. Just know that this person's behavior, you would not want to work for a person who behaved this way. He wants to be involved in everything.

[00:59:17] He wants his hands in everything so he can say, look what I did. I fixed college football. Now, to the money. Nick Saban was recorded as Alabama coach begging boosters to give him more money because Texas A&M had more money and took recruits that he could have gotten, but Jimbo paid more money. Snitching everything.

[00:59:45] So he's well aware of the fact that the NIL does benefit schools who has access to more money because he literally asked people for the money. So he wasn't not as if he wasn't a fan of NIL. He just didn't want to be behind anybody in regards to the NIL. And he was behind Jimbo. Then they got the money.

[01:00:09] And he probably just got sick of having conversations with guys he knew were going to be third and fourth string corners or third or fourth string running backs or fifth string wide receivers or special teams guys about money. I can understand that. But it was never about an unfair balance because it's never fair. It's not fair. Your access to funding isn't fair. It's not a collectively bargained amount of money that each university has.

[01:00:39] Harvard told Trump no. And he said, I'm going to deny this $2.2 billion, you know, federal funding that we're going to send to you. They're like, all right, bet. We got $55 billion in our endowment. We can dig into our little savings account and keep ourselves afloat. You don't have the leverage. If you don't give $2 million to a community college, it might cause them some harm. In college football, the NIL is not the problem.

[01:01:08] It's the fact that they don't have complete and total control over the players. And that's all they want. They never set up boundaries and guidelines in the first place. I mean, NIL is only four years old. And, you know, there was never a thought put into it of this is the positives. This is the negatives. This is how we should regulate it. Because the NCAA, you know, you've heard me talk about them ad nauseum. You know, they have no power. You can't regulate how much money I get off my face. Right.

[01:01:37] You can't regulate how much money. Well, no, it's not even about that. How personality brings in. It's not even about that. It's more about. Because that's what it is. When we're talking about that gap. It's name, image, and likeness because that was the problem. You can't cap. You can't cap me on how much I can earn. Kim Kardashian. We bring another Kardashian shot. Kim Kardashian. She probably has a deal with, let's say, Maybelline for whatever reason.

[01:02:03] Some makeup brand to where she posts a picture of her using their product and they give her a million dollars. You and I, we get sponsored and we're drinking Liquid Death. They probably not going to give us a million dollars. Our reach doesn't mean a million dollars. There's no reason for her to be capped on how much Maybelline can give her because of her name, image, and likeness.

[01:02:30] So it should be no reason that Arch Manning should have a cap on what he gets because he has a name. It shouldn't be a cap on that. It should be how do you legally get access to the players and get them on campus. Those should be the only rules they have to follow.

[01:02:49] When it comes to the money, the money is me as an individual negotiating with people who are willing to provide me funds to be associated with my brand and me associated with theirs. So stay there for a second. So couldn't someone argue? Then why are you trying to get money from the school?

[01:03:13] The problem is they know they need to use the money to entice the player. And they need to connect the player with people who are going to bring them money.

[01:03:25] So if I have a booster who is an oil tycoon and I'm, you know, in Texas or whatever the case may be, and he wants Texas Tech football out in Lubbock to be successful, he's going to have, he or she's going to have to fork up a promissory note or some kind of financial commitment that says, hey, I'm going to put these guys on my billboard for my oil company.

[01:03:53] Come see Texas Tech football every Saturday at Lubbock, you know, Red Raiders, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. The money is going to have to be negotiated, but you can't put a cap on what they want to give me for my impact. Mm hmm. So so representative Michael Baumgartner, you know, you know, he's from Washington state. He's proposed H.R.

[01:04:21] 2663, which is called the Restore College Sports Act. And what he wants to do is replace the NCAA altogether with a commissioner appointed by the president of the United States. Why does the president of the United States have anything to do with college athletics? It's just because they need to pander to this dude because he's a fucking narcissist. Excuse my language.

[01:04:48] He has nothing to do with college football, but the government is going to get involved. They are all spineless. They're all terrified of this dude taking his support away to the point where like you're not involved in this. Get your people off of drugs in your state. Get the people off of fentanyl on your state. Get the people books so they can read. 20 percent of America can't read. He worried about the people playing tackle football in Tuscaloosa.

[01:05:17] You got people in outside of Alabama's campus that read on a sixth grade level and they're operating heavy machinery like you need to worry about education in America. You need to worry about health. You need to worry about how much some 19 year old kid is going to get because he's handsome and his personality is dope. And, you know, Monster Energy wants to give him a monster truck and let him drive it around campus and give him a million dollars. You need to worry about what Libby done was getting in LSU to do backflips.

[01:05:46] That is not your business. It's nothing to do with it. Like, stop trying to use your friends and connections and act like you care about the people. The people of America don't care about college football players getting paid. They care about themselves getting paid. Teachers' average salary in the course of America is like $50,000. You can't live off $50,000. Don't worry about this kid who could throw the ball 30, 40, 50, 60 yards, how much he's getting paid.

[01:06:12] How about the teacher has 30 kids in her class and she's getting paid $38,000 in Oklahoma? How much you worry about that? Stop worrying about the fucking NCAA. You're trying to replace it. Stop kissing his ass. Worry about your own constituents and let the NCAA handle their problems. You're just upset that these fucking kids are having some power of you that you can't just yell at them and cuss them out because I'm walking this bitch with – everyone's talking about Nico Amalaba Amalaba Amaleevin'. Yeah, he left with $5 million. People thought he made a mistake.

[01:06:42] I'm leaving my job. If I'm leaving for $5 million, kiss my ass, bitch, I'm out. So it's like I'm just sick of the nonsense. I'm rich, biatch. I don't care. People do not care about the money. People – Trump had dudes in his office that made a billion dollars when he changed it, lifted tariffs and he bragged about it. But yet a dude who can go out there and has Instagram following on and does backflips for Michigan fucking gymnastics, can't make a million?

[01:07:11] Cut it out. They don't care. They don't care. They just want control. And the more and more people walk around thinking that dudes in suits in Washington, D.C. care about your well-being, you're a goddamn fool. They do not care about your well-being. So if your kid's going to be a college athlete, groom them to understand how to manicure their social media, how to keep their personality clean, how to make themselves money because you're going to need it. Do it the Jason Tatum way.

[01:07:39] Long $700 rent apartments with you and a roommate and you got two bedrooms and you can kick it and learn and play video games and live life, that's not happening. People need money now. Everything costs more. Don't tell me I got to limit my money because I run fast and I can catch passes and you don't want to give me that much money. Then don't coach. Go to ESPN and get you $17 million a year to talk about football.

[01:08:05] Let me get my 1.7 from Tennessee if they want to give it to me or Washington wants to give it to me or Texas Tech wants to give it to me or Tulane wants to give it to me. Stay out of my damn business. You'll get your taxes on it because I'm not a billionaire yet. So you'll get your little 28, 30, 40, 35 percent depends on what state you live in. Stay out of my business. Keep your grubby motherfucking paws out of people's pockets. I'm sick. I'm sick of people. I'm sick of billionaires.

[01:08:34] I'm sick of people in this country taking the sides of billionaires. You're more likely to meet and know someone in your family that's going to get an opportunity with this NIL than you're going to meet a billionaire. You tell me how many people hands you went to high school with that are billionaires. I went to school with Michael Vick. He's a millionaire. I was down the street from Allen Allen. He's a millionaire. These dudes live in my city. Millionaires. I met some rappers, some DJs, some other people, some famous people, some chefs. These people are millionaires.

[01:09:01] You're more likely to meet a millionaire in your life and be connected to them than you are a billionaire. But yet every single time it comes to money, you idiot side with the goddamn billionaires. Let these kids get their money. Stay the fuck out of their business. And I'm done. I mean, I got nothing. I got nothing. You know, look, at the end of the day, absolutely right. You know, the NCAA is spineless.

[01:09:31] And like I said, I don't think it's going to be a thing in the next 10 years. Warriors up by 20 at the end of the third. Face the lead. See how quickly things change in America? You know. You get on it. So, you know, I don't know. Like, I think that Nick Saban is not the only one. You know what I'm saying? We saw Jay Wright leave Villanova. You know, who I was hurt by because I was like, hey, you know, you're on your way to being one of the best.

[01:10:00] You know, and just decided like, no, these kids getting money? Nah. They left because other people that they are trying to mold to succeed started succeeding earlier than they wanted them to.

[01:10:16] If I have three sons and one daughter, if they started making the same money I was bringing in this year, just playing video games on YouTube, I'm not going to be like, well, I'm moving since you guys are making your money now. No. I groomed you to be successful. This path is a successful path. I helped you get there. Why am I going to run?

[01:10:44] Because now you're getting, you're benefiting from what I've been teaching. Yeah, they talk about how coaches. I taught you how to tackle. I taught you these plays. I put you on TV. I put you in these interviews. I recruited you to the school. I did all this to bring you here. And now you being here is, you're profiting from it. And I'm like, now I can't handle it. It's crock. It's control. Well, you know, they told us about coaches like John Thompson and John Cheney who, this ain't about basketball.

[01:11:13] You know, this is about life. I'm teaching you how to be men. I'm teaching you how to take on the world. Hey, Nick Saban, if you're so concerned, how about you teach these guys financial literacy or get them connected with people that specialize in that? You know, because you're teaching them life. You don't care about them. You care about your national titles, your reputation. Trophies go to your house. Yeah, the trophies go to your house.

[01:11:41] And, you know, you care about being better than Bear Bryant. That's what you cared about. And now that you're gone from the game, you know, you would probably be a name that dozens of people would sponsor to be the first college football commissioner. If he was the voice of reason and not the voice of control, he would get a lot of people backing him and they would think, you know what, you have a lot of sway.

[01:12:08] But instead, like all of these public Republicans are doing, they're just pandering to the current administration and their relinquency, all self-control, self-doubt, self-respect for that matter. They're just giving it up to this guy because he wears a fucking red tie and he combs his hair sideways. You know what would be ironic?

[01:12:35] As if they did hire a commissioner, brought it full circle and it was Jimbo Fisher. Jimbo Fisher might get a job in college football again. He'll get a job in the next two years. Not if I'm still getting paid by Texas A&M, which once again, they're not complaining about these coaches are still getting paid and they're doing inadequate jobs. Yeah, we were just talking about it ourselves, right?

[01:13:00] Like the reason that Mike Norvell didn't get fired from Florida State this past season is because his buyout is $63 million. We complained about people making $2 million. And you complain about... And how many of these dudes are actually... 16 quarterbacks probably make over a million dollars in America right now. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe 16. Because like you figure maybe Arch, you know, Sam, maybe Kay Klubnick, maybe Drew Aller.

[01:13:29] Drew Aller. That's it. Hypothetically, Drew Aller, DJ Lagway, the young boy that went to Tulane, whoever went to Duke, I think Utah threw a little bag at their guy. Honestly, I haven't heard that many people. Carson Beck is making $4 million. Carson Beck making $4 million. Nico. Nico's making a few, you know, a few shekels on him in California. It ain't many though. Yeah, it's not 90 kids.

[01:13:59] It's not a kid on every... Even if you went with the top 25 teams, you would think there's probably two or three kids per team making a million. That's not the case. Yeah. But if you still want to stay at a car wash and sign autographs and get $50,000 per semester, let him get his 50 Gs. But if the car dealership wants to put him on a commercial, let him get a million. Or remember Fran Brown... Caleb Williams is a Dr. Pepper commercial.

[01:14:26] Remember Fran Brown at Syracuse was talking about like, I ain't paying no $2 million for a receiver. Yeah. And he'll go somewhere else and maybe he'll take $200,000, but maybe you got to work a better deal. I think these guys has got to get better at the deal. So allow them... Look, listen, you make your mistake... And they're probably still getting snaked. And listen, they've cut scholarships. They've gotten rid of players. They made players transfer for not performing well. Being injured.

[01:14:54] Being injured, being late, failing the class, whatever the case may be. It's not like players don't move. So if this guy decides that he wants $2 million from you, you're like, I'm not doing it. You're going to get 700, 800 yards from another guy you bring in. Like you're Syracuse. You're Indiana. You're Purdue. You're a top big five conference school. I mean, look... You'll get another wide receiver.

[01:15:23] I got one down the hallway that will be ready in two years if you want to bring him to your campus. If you don't want to pay a guy $2 million, he'll come there for tuition and $25. What did Drayvon do? No, DiVincenzo was guarded. Jimmy Butler reached for the ball. Jimmy Butler fell. And he just... Dante just stood there and put his hands on his hips. And Drayvon came and grabbed Dante out the way.

[01:15:53] But no, like... But even with that being said, you know what I mean? Like, it's just... It's just like these guys are probably getting snaked anyway because I'm sure some of them... Like, I don't know about Arch, but some of them have agents. They aren't really agents. They're just dealing with guys who they... That took them on a boat, took them to a house, and they don't know that house is rented. The boat is rented. And now they're dealing with a dude who's working out of a closet at his grandma's house. And he's acting like...

[01:16:23] Yeah, why don't you teach them about that, Nick Saban? And how to avoid those people and how to notice them as hard. Or just hire people to teach them at the school. It's that simple, man. Get the economics department to come to the football facility once or twice a week. The basketball facility a couple times a week. Or just have them make mandatory monthly check-in appointments while they're in school. Like, hey, you got to check in with this guy for two hours.

[01:16:53] Or this, you know, the economics professor. She's going to help you out with investments. Whatever the case may be. The financing. There's people that... There's resolution to this that's beyond you just bitching and complaining about somebody else's success. Because you can tell I'm pretty passionate about this argument. Because I've had it multiple times. Because people are like, it should be a cap. I'm like, there's not a cap on how much money Robert Downey Jr. is going to get for Doctor Doom. Unless he's negotiating his contract.

[01:17:21] No one can be like, oh, he can only get a million dollars because we don't want him to get more than that for this movie. If that movie is going to make a billion dollars and you brought me in, I want to cut it at. Or give me two points on the back end. Whatever that negotiation is, that's his negotiation. It's not on you to put a limit on it. It's not like they're sharing money. It's not a collectively bargain group. It's not a revenue sharing. That's what I was just about to say.

[01:17:49] I'm interested to see where this revenue sharing goes. So, you know... The revenue sharing is like the NFL or the NBA or anybody else. Because LeBron James gets whatever cut that the NBA players get from whatever... He gets his money out of that cut. Mm-hmm. The money he gets from Nike has nothing to do with Jackson Hayes. He sells shoes for Nike. Jackson Hayes can't even get a deal with Kyrie Company. Doesn't do that.

[01:18:19] So it's like... You're not even going to... I don't even know if Jackson Hayes could sponsor Starberries. I'm just... Like, he might have something. But like, once again, his off-the-court sponsorship money has nothing to do with Luka, KD, Bronny Jr. If you feel like he doesn't deserve it, that's not on you to determine. It's on the people who are going to pay him to stand at this car wash and cut the ribbon at this elementary school

[01:18:48] or shoot jump shots with kids at St. Jude's Hospital. Whatever it is that they're doing, that's on them. None of your damn business. Stop counting people's pockets. Nope. So on that note, get your hand out of my pocket because it's time for us to bid you a do. You know, as we finish off Warriors and Wolves game one, Warriors up 83-65 early fourth quarter. You know, we'll see if Minnesota can make the comeback again.

[01:19:17] No Steph Curry out with a hamstring for the rest of the game. We'll see what that means for the rest of the series. So we'll move back on Friday, you know, with some more follow-up of these playoffs. Hopefully the Pacers up 3-0 at that point. You know what I'm saying? As the series shifts to Naptown, you know what I'm saying? So be good out there. Enjoy your sports. Do the right thing. Quit bitching about NIL. Love you.

[01:19:45] Like, subscribe, share, rate, do all the free things. Do all the good things. Make sure you have your liquid death. And above all else, do not, do not bring feelings to a fact fight. Don't do it. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace.