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Terminello's Take on BiG KNICKS-NETS Trade and the Life of Willie Mays 6-26-24 · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:02
Here's your host, Alex Garrett. All right, he's back. Terminello's take
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the Avid met Fan, the Avid you know, Nets executive and whatnot.
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And last night in a sports world colliding with the Subway series. Amidst all
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of that, the Nixon Nets make a trade and Lou correct me if I'm
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wrong. It's very rare they even make a trade. But the quality of
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this trade is such a Leon Rosen moved for the next I'm in favor of
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it. I know you don't like it because you're a nuts guy, but
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break it down, Alex. Alex, So, first of all, thank
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you as always for having me on. The Knicks and Nets don't make trades.
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The last trade they made was my third year with the Nets, back
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in nineteen eighty three, a minor trade, trading our backup center lenn Elmore
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to the Knicks for a number two draft pick. Bobby Marx, the assistant
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general manager who was my coworker he was with the Nets for over twenty years,
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said today, In all the years that he was the assistant general manager
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worked in the front office, he did not make one phone call or receive
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one phone call. He didn't make a phone call to the Knicks about a
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player about a possible transit transaction or didn't receive one from the Knicks. They
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just don't make trades. Obviously, it's their competition on the court and it's
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their competition in business. And that's the hit scratcher to me. Now we'll
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start. We'll take this from the beginning. Last year. The Knicks added
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In the last couple of years, they added Jason Hart from Villanova, Dante
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did Devenceanzo from Villanova, and a couple of years ago they signed Brons Nasal
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free agent. All all those guys played on a championship team Heart, the
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first team. Devincenzo was injured the first time, but Brunson and Bridges play
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on both. Okay, you could. It's in today's post and it's Heart
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has been recruiting Bridges since last July first. And then there's another message on
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is on his X account. Call me Bro, Call me Bro, Alex.
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Isn't this tampering? You know they talk about general managers tampering. Remember
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the Knicks were tampering charge when he signed Brunson. They were fine, big
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deal and they lost the second round draft pick. Big deal, not heavy
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consequences. So no villain over three on the Knicks. No trade last night.
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Yeah, I know that the Nets did a good job getting all those
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picks, and then they follow that up getting those unprotected Houston picks and the
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hard and trade back to them. Oh that sounds great, but you know
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what, Alex picks don't win. Picks are like use toilet paper. You
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shove it down a toilet and that's it. I think this is madness for
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the Nets. I could be wrong two three years from now. I think
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it's madness. I thought the Nets were going to build around Bridges. And
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again, Bridges is not Jason Tatum. He is not Jalen Brown, he
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is not Luca Dantage. But he's an excellent player. He was a nets
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best player. He plays every game he's on. He played eighty two games
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last year. He played eighty three the year before. Because after the trade
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with Phoenix, the schedule overlap from a business and basketball move. It makes
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no sense. I can tell you right now here on June twenty fifth or
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twenty six, excuse me, the Nets are I'm gonna be playing to ninety
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nine percent capacit Barkley sent the next year. No way, they're tanking.
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They're going into the classic tank, and you can't do that in New York.
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And why would you help out your main competitor, Why would you help
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out your direct competition on the court and in the and in the business end
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of it. It makes no sense. But for the Knicks, For the
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Knicks, it's a great trade the Nixon. It's like, now everybody thinks
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they're gonna be in the ECP next year already. I don't know. These
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bold predictions don't work early on in the year. When it comes to that,
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Alex, You're right, and they are a better team today than they
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were twenty four hours ago. Remember, Michel Bridges has two years left on
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his dealt at very manageable numbers. I can't believe I'm saying this. You
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know, he's getting just under twenty four million this year and just under twenty
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five million next year. I mean manageable numbers. But quote unquote yeah,
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I mean, the guy's already been first team in all NBA defense. The
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guy plays the guys well, Louis, I gotta say it doesn't. There
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were a couple of things I think leading into this. Obviously, Obi declining
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his player option probably led them to make a move and then they think he's
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going to be healthy. I guess so they want to make a move to
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maybe get an older Bogan off the team. I don't know. It just
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shows it in what the Knicks are doing. I love it, but also
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at the end of the day, we don't know how healthy they're going to
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all be together. I mean, that's right. You never know when it
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comes to health in sports. That's one thing we don't know. We don't
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I mean so, I mean, like, this doesn't put the Knicks in
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the Eastern Conference Finals in the finals, but they are a better team today
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than they were yesterday. And Alex all these complimentary players that have messed with
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the Knicks, the Ales McBride, Donte, DiVincenzo, Josh Hart. Remember
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we talked about it. Heart's already been on four teams, even Shanzo has
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already been on four teams in this first five years in the league. But
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they seem to mesh with this next situation. I don't know if it's if
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it's if it's the Nova connection. I don't know, if it's if it's
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Tom Thibodeau's coaching. I don't know. But the one thing with mckel bridges
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and the guys on his team, they're all coachable. They were all coachable
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that that's so easy. There's no hard asses on his team like Durant,
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like Lebron James, all superstars like Luca tough to coach. This is a
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very coachable Nick team. There's no ultra superstars on his next team. But
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as as a group, they they met mesh as an excellent team. This
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trade for the Knicks is an a plus plus plus plus. Who cares about
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the picks? Who who cares about what's gonna happen? You can get other
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picks, you can sign a free agent. So from the Knicks point of
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view, a spectacular move. I can't believe Sean Marks is that dumb to
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trade with his main competition. I just can't believe it. It's maddening,
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it's idiotic, it's dumb. Lewis Kats wouldn't have let his guy trade with
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the Knicks, right, I mean that would not have happened. Well,
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I guess did during year third year there, but in general we never saw
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it after that, really right? No, And remember when that minor trade
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was made in eighty three, it was the original ownership of Joe Talb and
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Henry Talb and David Gerstein, the so called members of the so called Seacaucus
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seven who and that was a minor trade. They probably didn't even have to
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run that trade by by ownership. It was so minor. But now you
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look at it, you try to you try to ain't it from the NETS
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point of view as as a positive? Well I'm not. But this is
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what they're gonna tell you, and it's legitimate what they're gonna tell you.
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They were somehow able to get those two or three picks they traded to Houston
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for Harden that that they lost that were unprotected. They got them back.
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Hell they got them back. I don't know, but they got them back.
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They made that that trade was announced before the Bridge's trade, which I
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don't think hasn't been officially announced yet. That's I don't know how Sean Marks
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did that. That's that's genius. Uh as far as getting those picks back
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by Sean Marx. But and the net now the Nets now have thirteen picks
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over the next five years. Next year's drift is supposed to be top notch.
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The next year is supposed to be top notch. Okay, but young
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guys don't win in the NBA. You gotta go through a long, grueling
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process and you don't do that tonight. What are you expecting from both teams
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now after this major shake up? Well, remember, remember the Nets got
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all these picks. They still have no picks for tonight. They have none.
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They have no no, no first round, no second round. The
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Knicks have twenty four and twenty five in the first round. They might trade
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one of them. I don't know for because now they have to build up
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their bench and they don't have a lot of cap room if they sign on
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Aobi, which I think they will unless his price tag goes so high.
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But you know so well, you know, you gotta wait and see what
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happens. I think the Knicks might trade one the picks tonight because I don't
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know if they want two rookie contra. They might trade the twenty fourth and
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twenty fifth for a number two this year and the number two two years from
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now, just because of the the money that's allotted to that cat, to
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that draft slot. But you know, then you'll go back to next point
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of view. Next year, at this time the Nets will have will be
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over one hundred million dollars available in cap space because the albatross of the Ben
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Simmons contract will be gone. Other guys will be a free agent. I
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have no idea if they're gonna keep Cam Johnson. Are they gonna sign one
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of the best room protectors in the league, Nick Claxton. Does Nick Claxon
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want to be on a team that's gonna be in the tank for the next
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two years? And Alex Unless I'm missing something, this is classic tank city,
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which you don't see in a New York team. This is classic tank
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city. Well, I mean, did you start to feel that when they
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got rid of Durant or was that just a different issue altogether? I did
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not, because they with Durant and with Irving, they got players back who
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could play. They got you know, they got Dorian Smith's back, they
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got Royce O'Neill. They and then from Phoenix they got Cam Johnson, they
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got the picks, and they got they got Michel Bridges and in his last
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thirty games with the Nets that first year, twenty eight thirty games, Yeah,
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twenty seven, just under twenty seven points a game. The guy can
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play, a guy I can defend. I mean, this is this is
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this might be bad than the Knicks. You know, all the all the
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dumb media, Well, the Knicks gotta get the Greek freak, or they
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gotta get Donovan Mitchell. This might fit in better with with the Knicks as
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far as chemistry goes, as far as effectiveness goes. The Knicks were probably
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the second best team in the league last year and an Eastern Conference that wasn't
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great. Let's face it, they what they will go in next year again
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as as probably the second best team in the Eastern Conference. We have no
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idea what Philly's gonna do, Orlando's the arrows pointing up. Cleveland's always well,
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yeah, I guess, but they're just funny. They're a funny team.
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But uh, you know, Kenny Atkinson as they now, We'll see
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what happens. But the bottom line is the Knicks are a much better team
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today than they were yesterday. And we haven't even talked about the other player.
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How's he going to fit in? Is he going to be on the
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Knicks next year? Nick's going to be able to trade him. Let's face
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it, the Knicks don't need Julius Randall, and now he's a good scorer,
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they don't need him. Well, do you think that was the mindset
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of Leon Rose and this Knick team that they might be able to move on
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from him. Now, Well, if they could find somebody to take his
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contract, yeah they might, they might move him. Now. The guy,
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the guy can score, the guy can The guy is a good rebounder.
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But wasn't the Knicks playing more efficient offense after he got hurt? He
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sure did, so we'll see. I mean that that's interesting. But this
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that the Knicks went from two years ago being lost in a wilderness to now
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being a now team that could make postseason interesting, no question about it,
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no doubt about it. They've done a fantastic job. I hate to say
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it, they've done a fantastic job. Kudos to the Knicks. Well,
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I really said the postseason was if they had lost, you know, in
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the in the in the semi final, so be it to the Pacers.
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At least they went this far. But now with this move, now there's
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a lot more expectation on this team, isn't there. There's more expectations.
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There'll be more pressure on them next year in the playoffs. I mean,
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if they get a bad matchup in the first round and they lose the first
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round, yeah, it will be a disaster. But we'll see. I
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mean, this is this is, this is June twenty sixth. We're a
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long way away from next April when the playoffs are forming. But the one
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thing is the Knicks are interesting, and the Knicks are very relevant. The
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Nets who are who have been irrelevant since they traded Durant are beyond irrelevant in
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the NBA now. And I know Sean marks Hays a method to his madness.
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This is not the way, This is not the root I would take.
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That's not the route I would have taken. Well, what did they
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see him, Boget? I mean I talk about the next that's no,
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you know what they see. And that's just for contract. He may not
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even be on the roster next year. That's just to balance that salary cap
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and all that nonsense. He has one of you left on his deal.
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They have to have some players next year if they whether they win fifteen games
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or nineteen games, they have to have some players. And I have Dennis
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Schroeder, a decent guard. I don't know if he's going to be on
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the team next year. Who who's in the last year of his deal?
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Boganovitch is in the last year of his deal. Are they going to resign
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Nick Claxton. I don't know, I really don't. I mean some if
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he if he goes to a contender, he could be a difference maker for
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a contender. He really could. That's why they surprised me so much because
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there were pieces there with Bridges, with Claxton, with Cam Johnson. Now
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going into total, total tanking mode is shocking to me. Well, we'll
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have to see. I know McCall Bridges was really lighting up the arena,
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I mean I know he was. He was a force to be reckoned with.
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And the fans loved him, didn't they. Yeah, Well, especially
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that's you know, his first two and a half months with with the Nets
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after the Phoenix trade, he's going forty six points, forty two points.
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You could see that. You can see how dialed then he is in to
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be successful. He works hard. He's a very good defensive player. Now,
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you know, again, the NBA is a weird league. I mean,
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we'll see that tonight, to see what happens to Bronni. Bronnie James
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a kid who can't play right now as far as I can, his skills
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are not NBA level, but his father is arguably one of the two or
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three greatest players of all time. And we'll see if if the Lakers picked
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Bronni at number seventeen, that would be a travesty, a travesty because yeah,
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he ain't worked a number seventeen pick, and it would show how much
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Lebron has. But you know, I also don't think he also is recovering
16:41
from injury. I don't know. There's you've probably seen him a lot more
16:45
than I did, now, Alex, I haven't. I haven't maybe a
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couple of clips. I haven't. I don't know how good he is.
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I mean, obviously his bloodlines as far as name recognition is great. I
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have no idea if this guy can play. I'm not gonna sit here and
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say that I've scattered him. I've seen him, I watch him a thousand
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times. I haven't. Well what about Well, let's see, because now
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we didn't even really cover the Celtics winn him and that was eighteenth championship and
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everything like that. When you win a championship, though, you don't have
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much pressure to a draft. Are they gonna be drafting just as good even
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though they won their eighteenth championship? What do you expect that that well.
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Obviously, they are drafting at the end of the first round, and I'm
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sure anything that they do to their roster this year is just to tweak the
17:37
bench, which was pretty deep to begin with, just to tweet that the
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bench does. Is Al Horford coming back? I mean, the guy's played
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twenty years in the NBA and was still effective even in the playoffs. That's
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all. That's what they're gonna do. I mean, they're gonna go win
17:56
as the favorite. I mean, Denver will also be a favored team in
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the West. They gotta they gotta rebuild their bench a little bit. I
18:04
mean, Dallas got there because of Kyrie and Luca, but they do not
18:08
have a championship level front line. And you saw the Celtics made sure that
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Luca and Kyrie didn't beat them. Yeah, even though they both had some
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games where they scored a lot of points and they weren't going to get beat
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Let those guys score. The other guys weren't going to be there. So
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Dallas has some work to do. It's gonna be interesting to see what Philly
18:30
does with him. Embiid and Maxie. They gotta get they gotta get another
18:37
guy but Alex, I think, and we talked about this during the season.
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I think in the NBA we were moving away from the super you have
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to have those three superstars, uh, you know, Lebron and Wade and
18:51
and Bosh, Irving, Hardened and durand you know, so we can go
18:56
right down the line with a couple of other teams. I think we'll get
19:00
one away from that, and I think it's going to be more the Oklahoma
19:03
City, the Orlando the Knicks model, because you do not want you do
19:08
not want to be in a position at the Phoenix Suns rin right now where
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Durant is making fifty one million dollars next year and a year after that's his
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old next contract, that his second NETS contract booker makes over fifty million dollars.
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Bradley Beale, who was shot when Phoenix got him physically, is making
19:27
fifty million dollars next year and fifty million and a half the year after.
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That's madness. That's one hundred and fifty million dollars tied up in three players.
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Yes, and we'll talk about this when it becomes official. The new
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NBA MEDEA rights steal is going to shoot the cap up to ridiculous levels because
19:47
the media rights steal is going to be off the charts for each team.
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But you don't want to tie your you don't want to tie your team up
19:57
with contracts like that. I think it's going to go more to the OKC,
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the Minnesota, the nixt uh way of building a team could be wrong.
20:07
You might always have to have that one guy with that huge contract.
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But I think you might see a little bit different in the NBA. And
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remember when a new when a new media right steel kicks in, and you
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we're gonna see guys making eighty five million dollars a year. I know that
20:21
sounds ridiculous, but it's the percentage, the same percentage as before when when
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the media wright steal was twenty four billion, Now it's gonna be seventy in
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the neighborhood, seventy six million. It's the same percentage. But the it's
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it's the percentage of the revenue coming into the league. It's not that that
20:37
that the players are getting more percentage. They're getting the same percentage. But
20:41
the league is making more revenue and the players are the product. So you
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know, we'll see. But well, one last thing about this trade and
20:52
from the next side of things, because I'm following what they're what they're thinking
20:56
about with heart and scene, whether heart and Sign comes back, I mean,
21:00
we're I'm want to get the workload for a minute. This obviously helps
21:04
workload, right, I mean obviously helps the workload of Brunson and whatnot.
21:11
But but do players like hart and Steins have a factor and a role on
21:15
this team? Well, that's basic. Hartenstein was very effective last year.
21:21
He's he was you know, he's he plays hard. He was healthy for
21:23
the most part, unlike Mitchell Robinson's always hurt. I don't know if they're
21:30
gonna be able to somebody might give Hartenstein more money than Knicks can afford.
21:34
I guess Mitchell Robinson has another year left on his deal, which I think
21:37
is around fifteen. I might be wrong on that on on the term,
21:42
but you know, you can't keep everybody. And again, we might see
21:48
the NIXT make a trade tonight. We might see the next make a trade
21:49
tonight. Who knows. And then you hear that Houston really wants to rant.
21:57
I mean, I just can't see Phoenix giving up Durant after one full
22:02
year. I tell you, Alex, the NBA is madness. It is
22:07
absolutely madness. And I don't know if it's really a fun league if you're
22:12
just a regular basketball fan. Yeah, we're all selfish when it comes to
22:17
the teams we root for, but as a league overall, how entertaining is
22:22
it? I mean, that's for each fan to make their own decision on.
22:30
Well, I don't really the interest in it. It is kind of
22:33
lost on me when I turn on and I see them making three after three
22:37
and not trying to go in the pain and do the bounds pass. I
22:40
mean, actually, Bronson is really going to the bounds pass this year,
22:44
and he got a lot of assists too, But a lot of other teams
22:48
just throwing up the three hoping for a prayer. I don't. I don't
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know. And that's the analytics of the modern NBA. And I am the
22:55
one hundred plus point games, now, that's a lot. That's just I
23:00
know there was about after three periods. Yeah, I don't know where how
23:04
that happened, where that came from, but you know, it's it's ridiculous,
23:08
all right, another maddening thing. And if you are going to give
23:12
someone an award that didn't win the Stanley Cup aka and the con smyth.
23:18
I estelfishly would have wanted to see Igor win it, because that guy kept
23:22
the Rangers in every game, every series. Yeah, they didn't get to
23:26
the final, but you know what he knew did a lot more productivity than
23:30
at times Connor McDavid did. I maybe I'm playing, Maybe I'm wrong on
23:36
that, but I don't know McDavid getting the con smyth overall, what is
23:40
your thoughts on all this? Well, again, Connor McDavid is the best
23:45
player in the world by far. You know, sometimes during the season,
23:51
is he is, Nathan McKinnon, Austin Matthews, is Nikkia kucher Off,
23:57
you know his class, he might be. They might be better than David.
24:00
No, they're not. I mean, David's the best player in the
24:03
NHL, in the world by far. Uh. He was fourth in playoffs
24:10
scoring in the history of the NHL with forty two points in an era that
24:15
when Lemieux, when Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky set those records, the ice
24:21
was more open, the goalies weren't as good as they were today. So
24:26
as I watched, as I watched the playoffs, and I and remember the
24:30
cont Smith is not for the finals, it's for the entire playoffs. I
24:37
didn't think that he was going to win the cons smythe If I had a
24:41
vote, I would not have voted for him. I would have voted for
24:44
sirge A. Bobrowski. Yeah, I know the Florida. Florida Panther defense
24:48
was crappy in the last three games before they before they won Game seven.
24:53
It's funny a guy that we had talked about on the last podcast, who
24:56
Steph Forsling as the most underrated star in the in the NHL. Right after
25:03
that, in games four, five, and six, him and his defensive
25:07
partner Ecklund were terrible, awful. They got caught on odd man rushes,
25:15
which something never happens to Florida because Edmonton changed the way they got the puck
25:21
at his own. They headman the punk to the neutral zone to the blue
25:27
line and did a great job. But so he really can't blame Prabowski.
25:33
He really didn't give up more than one or two bad goals in the entire
25:38
two and a half months of the playoffs. He would have gotten my vote.
25:41
He was a difference Monday night, And yeah, I know they won
25:45
Game six Edmonton, McDavid was no factor. He had no shots in the
25:49
game, and he had no shots through two periods of Game seven, which
25:53
was defining period of the defining game of his of his NHL career so far.
26:00
Are Florida, in my opinion, went went conservative way too early.
26:08
They played, as they would say in the old days of hockey, katie
26:11
by the door, meaning they were just protecting their net, and you know
26:17
they were taking icing after icing. They took like four icings in the two
26:19
and a half minute period. But David got two shots on going the third
26:23
period. But uh, you know, he wasn't factor. Now, Like
26:29
I said, I know, it's the entire playoffs. I was surprised that
26:32
he got sixteen out of his seventeen first place votes for the con smyth and
26:38
from what I hear, I didn't see the total the election polls, but
26:45
I think I don't even think Prabowski forished second. I think Barkoff finished second.
26:49
So that I had a great postseason too, I'll tell you that much.
26:53
But one guy I wanted to highlight before you know, as we get
26:57
going here on the on the podcast today is Kyla Posto, because I know
27:03
I was wondering if during the Islanders reign on ninety seven, if he was
27:07
playing on that team. I don't, I don't remember, but Posto was
27:10
an Islander. It's kind of a local win when you think of it that
27:12
way. For him winning it isn't it? Well? I mean, apparently
27:17
this is gonna be his He was going to retire and this year. He
27:19
was always a good soldier with the Islanders. You know, he played big
27:22
minutes for the Islanders. He scored some big goals for the Islanders. Yeah,
27:27
it's good to see a guy that he used to play on your team
27:30
and you know, was a good guy. Uh, you know win the
27:33
Cup, be on a Cup winning team. But you know, you gotta
27:40
give it to you really got to give it to the guys who have been
27:42
there all year for Florida. I mean, Matthew Cookshak, what could you
27:47
say about him? He is what the Florida Panther is all about. I
27:52
mean, you know, we forget last year when they went to the finals.
27:56
They had they had major injuries to key guys in the finals and Matthew
28:02
Kudchuck broke his sternum and still played in Game four to Stanley Cup Finals,
28:08
played over sixteen minutes, even basically against stopped his orders could make it for
28:15
the fin the fifth and final game, but when they got Matthew could chuck
28:18
from Calgary that that that changed everything. And you really gotta get you really
28:25
gotta give it to Paul Maurice was b you know, he coached in game
28:30
seven was his nineteen hundredth and eighty fifth game regular season and playoffs and never
28:36
won a Stanley Cup. You got to give it to him. To the
28:38
general manager bil Zito, who totally changed the way they played. In twenty
28:45
twenty one, twenty one, twenty twenty one, and twenty twenty two,
28:48
they win the President's Trophy playing an up tempo game and they they they lose
28:55
in the first round. So they changed everything and it took him a while
28:59
to to change into the for checking, defensive first system that they played.
29:04
They got into the playoffs on the last day of the season. They were
29:08
the eight seed. They were down three games to one two Boston. They
29:11
came back to win. They got to the finals. They put it out
29:15
against Vegas because they really had a lot of injuries and Vegas was a tremendous
29:19
team. And now this year they won the Stanley Cup, so my kudos
29:23
to them, but getting Matthew Kochuck was the key guy for them. You
29:32
know what we're saying about that is I'm a very nostalgic guy when it comes
29:37
to sports history and as you probably know, so for a Kachuck to raise
29:41
the Cup, I mean that's great for hockey because Kachuck has been a legacy
29:45
name. As you you know you've been volved in the league for a long
29:48
time. Well, I mean you saw it at the end of the game.
29:52
You saw his father, Teeth Kachuck, who was an outstanding NHL player
29:56
and a lot of people are wondering why he'sn't in the Hockey Hall of thing.
30:00
You saw the emotion that he had. And the thing is his brother
30:04
Brady sitting to his father's left. His younger brother Brady was crying. Here's
30:11
a guy who's a competitor of his brother ethan captain of the other was senders
30:17
and he was crying. I thought that was that shows you how tight that
30:22
Chuck family is. And I'm telling you, Matthew Knchuck can play on New
30:26
Terminello's team any day of the week, so could Alexander Barkov, So could
30:33
Bobrowski, so could Foreslane. I mean they were they were the deserving winners
30:37
of the Stanley Cup. They played their ass off, that's for sure.
30:42
Now, one last thing before we move on. Nobody's giving Leon drys Sidel
30:49
any crap for scoring no goals in seven games in the finals. If you
30:55
told me before the series that was gonna happen, I would have said,
30:57
no way, that's happened. But but, and the other thing is Chris
31:04
Nablock. I mean who the Rangers passed up twice when he was the head
31:10
coach at for their Hartford Willback affiliate. This guy turned the Edmonton Oilers around.
31:17
He turned away they play in the middle of the season when he got
31:19
there, when they started out to nine to one, they were ten points
31:22
out of a playoff spot, looked like they were going nowhere. Had goaltending
31:26
problems, had defensive problems. Their defense still isn't great. But he kined
31:33
them up. And he's not getting enough credit for getting the Oilers to the
31:37
seventh game at the Stanley Cup Final. Kudos to coach no Block, Yeah
31:44
you know now, Block, And I would have said another thing about the
31:47
homegown world is I would have said, I would have said, look,
31:49
if the Oilers won the Cup, this would have been a Rangers organization win
31:56
because he was training in Rangers organization as the hart for Wolf Wolfpack coach.
32:02
And by the way, he won a championship with them last year. So
32:06
I mean it's all interconnected. It's kind of interesting how the uh how the
32:10
Oilers are also tied to New York as are as is Florida through that ock
32:15
Poster connection. One last thing about this Stanley Cup though with McDavid, You
32:22
know, it almost feels like this was his chance. Do you feel that
32:24
or does he have a few more changes down the road? I mean he
32:28
would He almost basically tasted it, right, I mean he was almost there
32:31
this Alex you are one hundred on the money. I mean, we always
32:37
go back to the famous Dan Marino situation. They lost. They lost his
32:43
second year in the Super Bowl. The second year in the Super Bowl he
32:45
lost to the forty nine ers. Oh he'll be back. He's young.
32:50
Dolphins, are you know Dolphins a good team. He's a young quarterback.
32:52
He never got back And I was thinking about that when the game came to
32:57
end. When he was slumped over the Edmonton bench the other night. The
33:00
guy gives his heart and soul. He's everything you would want in a hockey
33:05
player, the fastest skater in the league, he has a high on ice
33:08
IQ. He makes everybody else better. But is there any guarantee that he
33:15
will play in a Stanley Cup Final? Again, there isn't. There isn't.
33:20
This is a tough league. It's tough to make the playoffs. We've
33:23
seen that. We've seen good teams miss the playoffs. You have ten bad
33:28
days and you can go from a third seed to the ninth seed and out.
33:34
So yeah, this was his opportunity and if he had one on Saturday
33:38
night. He's revered anyway as the greatest player in the world. But to
33:44
be the leader of a team to come back from three down to win the
33:50
Stanley Cup Final, to win four straight games would have put him on the
33:54
highest of levels. So we'll see what happens in the future. All Right,
34:00
lou as we wrap up here, I gotta ask you about this.
34:02
Well, we'll talk about the Subway Series next week, because that's you know,
34:06
it is what it is. Baseball is here. We just got to
34:07
wrap up the basketball and hockey news for the for the week. But Willie
34:13
Mays, obviously, I found it interesting that they played the Yankees and Mets
34:16
played the first game back at City Field, where Mays's numbers retired, was
34:21
a New York Baseball subway series. Thought it was pretty fitting. Baseball is
34:25
intrinsic and synchronistic like that, I gotta say, But Willie Mays, your
34:31
thoughts on the ninety three year old legend. Well, ironically, Michael May's
34:37
Willie's son. Who is going to throw out the first pitch at City Field
34:40
tonight? And when I started watching baseball in the early sixties, the Dodgers
34:50
and Giants had just moved for about four or five years earlier, So the
34:53
Dodgers and Giants heritage and pedigree was still greatly ingrained in New York City baseball.
35:00
There's no question about that. Alex and Willie Mays played played in New
35:07
York for you know from nineteen fifty one to nineteen to fifty seven. You
35:12
know, he was this he was the same Hey kid. He helped him.
35:15
He won Rookie of the Year in nineteen fifty one. That was their
35:20
first pennant since thirty seven. Yes, since nineteen thirty seven, and you
35:28
know a couple of things. In nineteen fifty one, he was Rookie of
35:31
the Year. He was the on deck hitter when Bobby Thompson at the home
35:36
run that beat the Dodgers in that tie breaking two out of three playoffs.
35:39
He was the he was the on deck kitterer. Nineteen fifty one was also
35:45
Mickey Mantles rookie year, the Great Mick for the Yankees. It was Joe
35:50
Demago's last year. The Madgoe was playing center, Mickey was playing was playing
35:55
right, was playing one in the corner positions, and Mantle stepped in a
36:00
drain pipe wrecked his knee. The guy who hit the fly ball because the
36:07
Maggio called off Mantle. You know, the Magio anything anything hit that was
36:12
close the Magi had to take. Maybe if he had not called off Mickey,
36:15
Mickey would have had that horrendous injury that that I don't know for sure,
36:21
but the person who with that fly ball was Willie Mays. Just you
36:25
know, you talk about all these wacky tie ins. He's probably made the
36:30
great He's probably the architect of the greatest defensive play in baseball history, especially
36:37
since It came in the playoffs. Came in the World Series of nineteen fifty
36:40
four, Game one at the Polar Grounds when he made the catch off the
36:46
bat the galng fly ball four and thirty feet away. And remember in the
36:51
Polar Grounds, you center field was four hundred and eighty three feet away.
36:57
My good friend, the late Larry Doby was on second base and Al Rosen
37:00
was on first base. And Larry always told me he thought he was going
37:05
to be able to score from second base on the sacrifice fly, but Willie's
37:09
throw was so good. After he made the great catch, Larry did tag
37:13
and go to third and Al Rosen stayed at first. It was an overshoulder
37:17
catch, one of the most famous single plays in baseball history. The Giants
37:22
were heavy underdog against the Indians, who finished one eleven and forty three and
37:27
then one hundred fifty four game season, but the Giants beat them four games
37:34
to none. Yeah, the guy was. The guy was unique, he
37:38
said, leaning leading the Anaden home runs four times, he leven slugging percentage
37:44
four times, he drove in over one hundred RBIs I think ten times.
37:52
He was a twelfth He was a twelve time Golden Glove winner and Golden Glove
37:58
accolades Warren given until nineteen fifty seven. So really were the one, probably
38:04
six more as an outfielder. When he came to the plate, you admired
38:13
him. And if you were not rooting for the Giants, if you're rooting
38:15
for the Mets, and that's where there were expansion years, you feared him
38:20
just like you feared Willie McCovey. That's how dangerous these guys were at the
38:27
plate. But really had that. His batting stance was so descriptive, was
38:32
so unique you knew it was him. Even if you took you took the
38:36
number off, the number twenty four of his back, you knew it was
38:38
him. He had when he hit the baseball, he had that unique style
38:45
he ran. He ran the bass like nobody ever could run it. He
38:49
was a fantastic base runner. He was, you know, as I say,
38:52
the five tool player, and he truly was. But he played stickball
38:58
with the kids on the one hundred and fifty fifth Street than Harlem. He
39:00
was a kid. He loved to play the game and that's why he hung
39:05
around too long on the playing field. When the Mets got him, you
39:07
know, he was friends with missus Joan Pace and a former Mets owner,
39:10
and she had been trying to get him for years because she was a member
39:16
of the New York Giants board of directors and she was the only member of
39:21
the New York Giants boarder directors who voted against the Giants moving to San Francisco.
39:28
And she had been trying to get really, you know, since the
39:31
since like sixty six, sixty seven. Who knows Willy could have been on
39:35
the sixty nine Mets if Horace Stone win Evaqui asked, But anyway, so
39:42
she got him back. When Willie was washed up, when the Mets got
39:45
Alex, he was done. He was done. But the greatness of the
39:50
greats like he was, even those two hundred and fifty at bats and that
39:53
season and a half that he played, you saw. I'll never forget the
40:00
the Mets were playing the regend Cincinnati. He was at first base. He
40:04
scored from first base on the single because he read the outfielders. He could
40:07
still do it even though he was forty two years old. He got key
40:10
hits in Game five of the nineteen seventy three National Championship Series. He put
40:15
the Mets. He put the Mets I head to stay in the seven and
40:19
two win, and then then he got that Yeah it was a twenty hopper,
40:24
but he got that twenty hopper based up the middle low for Rolly Fingers
40:28
to win Game two at the Oakland Coliseum. So he always there was always
40:32
And of course his first game in New York after the Mets got him,
40:36
he had a home run into the left field bullpen off Don Carrethers. Ironically,
40:42
his first game for the Mets was against the Giants. So I mean,
40:45
there was always all those one or two little things that reminded you of
40:47
how great he was. On a consistent basis, he was probably the best
40:52
player I saw. I don't know, I think the best player of all
40:55
time. I don't think, I mean to me. And even though I
40:59
never saw him player, I don't know how anybody could be greater than Babe
41:01
Ruth. But Willy was unique, and he had a unique style. His
41:07
running style, you knew it was him. And he was a great ambassador
41:12
for baseball, fantastic. He was just a fantastic and during a golden era
41:17
of baseball in New York after World War Two, right through the time the
41:25
Dodgers and the Giants left to go to California. It was New York's time,
41:32
not now, not now, I mean. In forty six, the
41:37
Dodgers finished in the ty for first they lost the playoffs. They won the
41:39
National League Pennant in forty seven, lost to the Yankees. In forty nine,
41:47
they won the pennant the Dodgers did. They lost the Yankees. In
41:52
fifty the Dodgers lost on the last eight of season to the Phillies. The
41:55
Yankees won and beat the Phillies. In fifty one, the famous the famous
42:00
comeback by the Giants with thirteen and a half games out with less than eight
42:06
weeks to go, the famous playoff, the famous Thompson home run. So
42:10
the Giants beat the Dodgers and who they face in the World Series. They
42:14
faced the Yankees. In fifty two, the Dodgers and and the Yankees meet
42:22
again, and the Yankees beat the Dodgers again fifty three. Again. In
42:27
fifty forty, Yankees don't win. They win one hundred and three games,
42:29
but they finished out eight games behind the Indians. But the Giants win and
42:35
the Giants win the World Series. In fifty five, the Dodgers win,
42:38
the Yankees win, and the Dodgers finally beat them in the World Series four
42:43
games to three. In fifty six, the Dodgers were up two games to
42:45
none over the Yankees in the World Series and the Yankees come back to win
42:50
four games to three. Fifty seven, the Yankees the Yankees. When the
42:55
Pennant they lose to the Braves in the World Series fifty eight, the Ant
43:00
when the Pendants come back from down three games to one to beat the Braves.
43:06
So that era is off the charts. Phenomenal when you have three teams
43:13
in one town being that successful. After the Dodgers, after the Giants won
43:16
in fifty four, they had a downhill slide on the field and attendance wise,
43:22
Paula Grounds is falling apart, and unfortunately the Great Willie has to leave
43:27
New York, which he probably didn't want to leave, go to San Francisco
43:30
with the team, and he wasn't he wasn't loved in San Francisco those early
43:36
years like he was in New York because he wasn't homegrown. And then the
43:38
Giants quickly had homegrown players like Willie McCovey Orlanders Ropeida, Jim ray Hart,
43:45
Jim Davenport who you know who we are part of the team. But willly
43:50
is I mean in defensively Alex. My god, there's a clip. I
43:54
mean the catch that he made in the World Series. It is famous,
43:57
but there's a clip. It's a Saturday afternoon game of the week. I
44:00
remember because I was watching it. I think they were the Giants are playing
44:04
the Cincinnati Reds and Bobby Bond's playing right field. Will He's playing center field.
44:10
And it was it was in Camilsty Park, which had a cyclone wire
44:15
type fence. Really just makes a fantastic catch. It's on YouTube. Look
44:20
it up and uh and again it was towards the end of his career.
44:24
But that's how Margins reminded me of that when Mark, our colleague, said,
44:29
remember William Mays Hayes of Major League So they've he's been referencing culture for
44:34
a long time too. Louis, you know nobody, no doubt about it.
44:38
There was nobody like him. He loved the game, he didn't cheat
44:42
the game, and uh yeah, he he was remarkable. Well this is
44:47
why I have you catch over the shoulder. Yes I did. We we
44:52
spoke about it. So lou your recall is incredible, and uh, I
44:59
do. I always felt the Mets, Dodgers, and Giants were connected because
45:02
of the polar grounds, because of the Mets colors, and the Yankees always
45:06
had their own entity. But for a decade there they were all, as
45:09
I've said earlier, synchronistic. I mean, they all just were in the
45:13
scene right and now it was the capital of baseball. There's nobody yesterday.
45:19
There's not even buzz for the Subway Series unless you're on Twitter right now,
45:22
so there's not They're really, Alex there really wasn't. I mean even even
45:27
while I was watching the game last night, I watched every pitch it was
45:30
I mean, yeah, the fans were okay, but it's not like it
45:32
used to be. Just not. My father in law was a big Giants
45:38
fan, and then when the Giants moved to California, he dropped them because,
45:45
ah, they abandoned them. Yeah, I mean Mark de Boor on
45:50
the Alex Fair Podcast Network, how about that. Well, well, Mark
45:54
is right, there's a lot of fans who felt that way, But there
46:00
was a lot of fans who stuck with them, and a lot of times
46:06
when the closest place after the Dodgers and Giants left New York and unfortunately left
46:12
together. That's the worst part. We not lose one team, we lose
46:15
two teams out of New York. When they left, that was only five
46:17
years old, so I don't remember. But you know, we're big Dodger
46:23
fans. His parents are big Dodger fans. Yeah. And the thing,
46:27
a lot of people went to Philly when the Dodgers and Giants played in Philly.
46:30
That was the closest obviously to New York, right because they wouldn't play
46:36
down up in New York until well never really they ever played the Yankees.
46:40
But this has been such a great conversation. Again, I love your recall
46:45
every time I have you on the network, the Alex Stair Podcast Network.
46:49
And next time it's almost gonna be about baseball because now we're hitting July,
46:52
the trade deadline is going to be a major thing. I have a bold
46:57
prediction here, Louis want to hear it, sure, Pete Lonzo, because
47:04
it becomes a Yankee because they need a first basement right now. Well,
47:09
if that happens, that would be that would be as bad as what the
47:14
Nets did last night. I'm just saying anything can happen. Right now.
47:19
So you know, Yanks are struggling. They somehow are two games up because
47:23
the Orios are struggling too, but they need some movement at the deadline.
47:29
The Mets actually have their core. Even McNeil's coming around a little bit,
47:32
so that's good to see. I mean, I feel like the thing what
47:37
McNeil everybody's been saying is well, remember he was a triple crown winner not
47:39
too long ago, and he's been struggling. Won the batting title or batting
47:45
title. That's right, yep, and then maybe not like are so long
47:49
ago. That's the thing about it, Like it's just funny. But all
47:52
right, lou well until next time, thanks for your take. As always,
47:57
it is my pleasure. Thank you Alex for always having me. All
48:01
right, let's Loue Terminello Terminello's take on the Alex Caurtt podcast Network