Latest / Brodie Pod / Ep. 35 NBA Finals Preview, Myles Garrett & AJ Brown Blockbuster Trades, and OBJ Back to Giants

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Ep. 35 NBA Finals Preview, Myles Garrett & AJ Brown Blockbuster Trades, and OBJ Back to Giants · Brodie Pod

• Brodie Pod: Welcome back to episode thirty-five of the Brody Pod. Be sure to like, subscribe to the podcast over on YouTube, turn on those notifications, follow us on Spotify, rate the podcast. Five stars helps out a lot. If you want to stay up to date on the show, follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, I guess X and Facebook, and YouTube Reels at Brody Pod, at Brody Pod on everything. And Matt, we're here, man. We have finally made it to episode thirty-five. Kevin Durant episode. Kevin Durant episode. The Keshinakoya episode. Keshinakoya episode. Yeah. We're starting to get in the numbers now where it's tough to find superstars. We I don't know what thirty-six would be, but it's gonna be it's gonna be tough. We'll find one. But hope everyone's having a great week so far. I believe this episode's gonna drop on Wednesday. So hopefully everyone here in Texas, you're surviving the Texas heat. Summer is officially here. We've made it to June. I say Texas heat. It's only been like in the nineties, but it's it's felt like in the hot the humidity has been absurd. Yeah. I played golf this last weekend and it was absolutely blistering at at like noon or something. So Yeah. Got a nice little tan, got a nice little golfers tan going on. So we're looking we're looking great right now. Gotta even that out. How'd you play? I actually for not playing for a month, I went out there and shot eighty five. So we'd consider that a success. I s I think that was my my goal number Now the driver was not hitting well, but I did have a chip in and back to back birdies. But ⁓ the golf game does need a little bit of a tune up because we started off really hot and then we had a couple double double bogeys, a triple bogey, another double bogey, and then we got it back on track. So that's all mental though. Yeah, I mean every time I say every time you play golf, it's it's like a puzzle and you're playing the course and it's even if it's a course you've played, it's gonna be new conditions or new environment or The shots are never gonna be exactly the same. ⁓ I think the best the best tip I ever got for playing better at golf is play the course. Like don't go for the grain every shot. You're gonna need a layup sometimes. Sometimes a layup is gonna be better than I don't know, getting farther hitting a farther shot, right? Yeah, well, I subscribe to Cardell Jones's take of I didn't come here to play school. I've kind of retaking that and I say I didn't come out here to lay up. I'm hitting all the hero shots. If we're a not a skilled golfer as you. I did not look like a skilled golfer. It was not a pretty 85. Somebody who shoots nineties, a hundreds, it's okay to lay up. Yeah. They also they also had aerated the greens. So I feel like that also was a little tough with the putting. I did help me out. I did have a chip in and it hit like one of the aerated holes and went right towards the hole. ⁓ absolutely Unbelievable. I felt like Tiger two thousand, but I haven't had a chip in in a while, but I needed that. Speaking of stuff that we needed, Matt, it feels like Thanos at the ⁓ Avengers Endgame, whenever he ⁓ he rests and there's a grateful universe. OK C is out of the out of the playoffs. Game seven went down. Hopefully everyone was able to watch that on Saturday night. ⁓ we're just gonna do a quick little recap here of kind of what went down. When Bidama had the Infinity Gauntlet on. Victor Weminyama is officially announced himself. He is here in the NBA and probably now the face of the NBA. ⁓ we I don't know. It's we're gonna talk about a little bit in our finals preview, but ⁓ speaking of which, we've got the finals preview coming up. We're gonna be talking about some NFL blockbuster trades going on. ⁓ and then yeah. No Brodies of the Week this week, by the way. So we're because we're gonna do just so much news to get through. We gotta get through it all. Hopefully we keep this episode nice and short. But yeah, Matt, game seven, I think Going into it, I had given the edge to OKC. I was like, game's at home. They're gonna easily have the, you know, the momentum going. I was honestly just hoping that it wasn't gonna be a blowout, and we got probably one of the best games of the year. Game one was absolutely a banger banger game in this series, and so was game seven. Everything else in between was kind of blowouts back and forth. ⁓ two heavyweights throwing haymakers, but ultimately the Spurs come out on top. And ⁓ I'm happy the NBA is gonna have a new champion for I think it's like the eighth year in a row. Yeah, it was it hasn't been a back to back since Since the Warriors. Yeah. In like twenty eighteen or something. And you see how hard it is to get back to the finals after winning or being there. Even so I d so when people talk about LeBron and his you know what, four for nine in a row? Four for ten in the finals or whatever. He w he he was there eight straight years. I thought it was nine in a row. Was it eight? It was eight. Eight straight years she was in the finals. You see how hard it is. I mean the OKC was the big favorite. And now they're in Cancun. So Yeah. They did have some like major injuries. ⁓ J Dub was out for the game, and that seems like that's kind of what they were missing. It seemed like they're missing one more shooter. I think the score was like one eleven, one ⁓ three. ⁓ Chet Holmgren. There's a lot of memes going around about him right now. ⁓ he did have what was it, four point or it was four points on two shots or something that he took. He got dunked on by Victor Women Yama in like the first quarter and then after that he kinda went silent. Did two for four? I think I believe two for I thought he only had two things. I think he I it fits. One for two and had two free throws. Third team all NBA player, by the way. Taking two shots in a game seven. Yeah. He's gonna have some questions raised. Thunder players Thunder fans on Twitter are the they're calling for his head, they're calling for a trade. To be made, don't blame them. Yeah, I think I heard it earlier that that for the next three weeks we're gonna hear about Giannis to the Thunder trade going on, possibly. I don't know if they have the cap space for that, but ⁓ it would probably be a package that includes Chet and some picks for Giannis. But SGA, ⁓ let's give a little credit here for how much we talked trash about his flopping. In game seven he actually showed up, but he's once again, he didn't have anyone else really making plays around him. And ⁓ it seemed like for the most part he had to bear most of the weights. But I mean, as the MVP you kind of expect that, but just wasn't able to he finally finally played like an ⁓ VP in game seven. I know he was had eleven free throws, made nine of ⁓ But he wasn't obviously big stigma around him, flopping whatnot. He didn't do that in game seven. He just played ball. Yeah. True ethical basketball. And he was fantastic, which he is. He doesn't need to flop, you know. ⁓ just shoot natural shots. You don't have to try to make create extra contact. Cause he's he's so good. He can get to the spot on the floor that he likes to shoot from and he can make most of those shots. It also seemed like the the refs for the most of part were letting them play on in that game seven. I mean, it was the game seven lived up to the billing. I had high expectations going in of like, ⁓ come on, this is gonna be a legacy game for someone and We ended up learning it was for Victor Womenyama. So he ends up getting Western Conference ⁓ finals MVP. Add another piece of hardware to the to the shelf for Victor Womenyama. He is only twenty two years old and we'll get into a little bit more of that in the finals preview of kind of what this means for the Spurs team. But I think Matt, I called it in this series. I took the Spurs. You did. And I said that I said that they're ahead of time. ⁓ they're ahead of schedule right now, but I I think that, you know Just to get to this point, we're now learning, like you have to stay healthy throughout the playoffs. You have to stay healthy through the season. And man, I mean, they're a young team and they are looking dangerous going into the finals. ⁓ yeah, the game seven, it's can't ask for anything better. Yeah, I know could have been different with with Jada playing for OKC, but I mean, with the way the Spursville players stepping up and a big moment, biggest moment of all of sh obviously all of their careers. Julian Champagne, six of ten from three. I mean, they were all a knocking down three. He shot forty thirty percent from three as a team. about ⁓ what about Luke Cornett? The changedown block. What about Luke Cornette? Absolutely probably a play of the game. Luke Cornette's LeBron James moment. Yeah. Chases down ⁓ Hardenstein, blocks him at the backboard. Yeah. Get get off, young fella. I know that was a sick block, but also that If they make the shot there, yeah, it's like it would have been like ninety-three ninety seven or something. It would have been it would've been there might have been a game to be had at that point. And Victor Wim Yam was in foul trouble. So I mean the Spurs, they do have the players around Victor to get this done. And ⁓ we just saw in game seven. I mean, they they all did show up in this. I mean, like you said, Champagne with twenty points, ⁓ Dearon Fox with fifteen, ⁓ Vassell with eleven, Stefan Castle, who I've said was one of my X factors going into game seven. ⁓ I'm probably one of my favorite players, but I mean they're just they're absolutely rolling right now. It's sixteen, six, and six as a year two somehow casual. Yeah. Sixteen points, six rebounds, six assists as a second year player. It's like I only took OKC because they've been there, they've done that. They have obviously experience. OK C does or the Spurs don't. Like none of them have been there. Besides Harrison Barnes. Yeah. But he didn't really play. As we we didn't mention this, Harrison Barnes remains undefeated on his birthday in game seventh. I think he had one previously and he was ⁓ he won that one. And now he's got another one added to the shelf. ⁓ I will say we will probably see this for a couple more years in the Western Conference Finals. I'm already looking forward to the twenty twenty seven Western Conference Finals. It's probably gonna see be the exact same matchups here. My plus or minus Giannis for OK C. Maverick Spurs, I think. talking about. Yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know both those teams are are super young. Obviously OKC is more developed year wise, so they have to pay their players now. And so they're gonna have to kind of battle through that, figure that out, the cap situation. But Spurs are still rookie stu rookie scale deals for most of their players. Most of their best players. Yeah, I saw Harrison Barnes was like their second most expensive player, making like eighteen mil. Yeah, that's That's pretty good, man. They're set up for to be dominant for a while. ⁓ but with that, I think that is our game seven recap there. Spurs absolutely roll it. Now they're gonna be meeting the Knicks. And I did promise you guys last week I said we're gonna bring on a Knicks super fan. ⁓ we're gonna talk some we're gonna talk some NBA finals previews. We're gonna come back and do that. And ⁓ yeah, we'll give our predictions as well for the series. And we're back to do a little NBA finals preview. We brought on our Nick's super fan, Daniel. Goes by Dan. Dan, how you doing, buddy? Doing pretty well. Nick's made the the finals for the first time in like thirty not thirty years, but like since ninety nine. Last time they made it was against the Spurs. So it's kinda like a match made in heaven to get our get back on that. So I mean, I'm really looking forward to this week. It's gonna be so fun. Don't let ⁓ fool you everyone. Yes, we have the New York Knicks taking on the San Antonio Spurs, as Daniel alluded, and history is repeating itself ⁓ since nineteen ninety-nine, and the Spurs won that series. They also had a young superstar in Tim Duncan, who kind of had a similar finals run to get to the finals and then get over the hump. Maybe some old wounds are are there. I mean, you've you would have barely just remembered pro possibly that that finals run. Yeah, I wouldn't have remembered like pretty much anything, but watching the highlights, I mean the Knicks were the eighth seed going into that series. The fact that we were even there kinda says something itself. Spurs one like super handily. But I mean, it's a lot different, I think, this time around. Obviously it's been like twenty five years or so, twenty six. But like I mean completely different teams and different styles. I mean, Knicks are coming in as the third seed into this. Spurs, yeah, second seed and everything's kind of the same there. But from an eighth seed to a third seed, just huge improvements just on like that statistic alone. I like that you bring up the runs that the the the playoff run that the Knicks are on right now. And I see that you're also wearing a Yankees hat. So I gotta ask the question of where does this Knicks playoff run rank in the in terms of like versus the Yankees or the Giants. I guess you're a Bills fan. You're not really a Giants fan. But where does this kind of rank in like your lifetime of playoff runs? It seems like the city might burn down whether they win or lose this series. I got city's gonna burn down win or lose. Honestly, best case situation is we win at home. I don't want to get to like, you know, where we're gonna be winning at yet or anything like that. I do know what's coming. City's gonna burn down. It's gonna be better than any of the Yankees wins. Like, we had Derek Jeter for multiple years, multiple championships and everything. But New York basketball is just different. Like being there in person, I bet through a few like playoff games and everything like that. Seen it myself. Atmosphere is immaculate. Everybody's rooting hard. People are wearing jerseys throughout the day, just randomly, off days doesn't even matter. Huge fans are like. Huge thing for the city regardless. It's always cool to see like a big city make it to these championships. Kind of feels like, you know, we've kind of been robbed of that. Like last year, I don't want to throw stones or anything, but we did have the Oklahoma City Thunder taking on the Indiana Pacers. ⁓ seems like now it's gonna be a little bit more of a big ticket item. You know, the Knicks, we were looking at like tickets to get into the Knicks, MSG ⁓ or Dan, what was the what was the ticket prices? Yeah, so for the Spurs games, it's pretty tame actually. Get in prices are kind of around like two thousand dollars. I think they'll still kinda go down before the game kinda lines up. But to get into a Knicks game, even if you're getting top of the nosebleeds, it's like four to five thousand dollars. Course maybe like a quarter million dollars. A little insane, but I mean that just shows we love our teams, we love our sports. Like that's what ABSC is like a coveted place to play. For like just NBA players in general. Like I I've seen several players who say that's like the cream of the crop. It is the They love playing under the the SMG lights. I mean, even the Knicks haven't been there for a while, so that might be why they're so high. You know, it's been since nineteen ninety nine. Before that, it was like the seventies. So it's almost like a you you're splitting that amongst 20 years of people that have been saving money for this. Yeah. There's also another connection in this game. Ron Harper, father of Dylan Harper on the Spurs. And Rick Brunson, father of Jalen Brunson, they played each other as well. They're both NBA players. They played each other at Ron on the Bulls, ⁓ Rick on the on the Knicks. So I mean that's another fun little matchup. You have their sons now facing each other in the finals. Yeah, I think it would be good to kind of see some of those kind of narratives and everything feed into this series. Because kind of like leading up to this, you know, the Spurs and the Knicks this season, the the biggest pivotal point for them was the NBA Cup. Huge little game. Yes, the leak he's kinda trying to make a spectacle out of nothing just to keep the regular season alive, very entertaining and everything. But honestly, these teams don't really have that bad of blood between each other. So I mean if we can find any like kind of loose strings like that, listen, I'm gonna take them every single day. I don't know. I Victor Miyama's gonna have some beef. He's gonna create on his own narrative. He looks like he just is ready to win it all. He was pretty mad about the Cup loss, to be honest. I I remember that. Okay, moving back to the Knicks. Dan, where does this Knicks team rank it amongst of your fandom of what you've watched growing up? I know there's been some heartbreak and some success, but it seems like you finally have gotten over the hump. Where would you where is this is this team one one in in your lifetime? Absolutely. Without a shadow of a doubt. I mean, the only one that can come close is last year's Knicks team where everybody kinda got injured and we didn't get our finals opportunity. That was extremely heartbreaking to to have that come through. But I mean, I grew up a Knicks fan. I've been watching them every single chance that I've gotten since I was probably like eight or nine years old. Carmelo Anthony was one of my favorite players, some of the most entertaining basketball I've ever seen. But you can't really get by in the East going against LeBron James. It's just not possible. but it could be next that could be next season too. LeBron could be going back to Cleveland. So you could be back in hell. No, I mean, I think another sweep would probably happen there, even if LeBron go in there to be honest. ⁓ a little little cocky on that side, but I mean, we absolutely dismantle the Cavs. LeBron's not taking that team. ⁓ at least pushing forty two. I just I don't see that even happening. But best team I've ever seen in my life. One of the most energetic teams. Everyone loves them. It's just pure basketball. Yeah, it's the the original Wildcats. Yeah, it's so likable though. Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart. I love those guys. Their podcast that they have together. Yeah. It's so fun to watch. The only thing you can kind of maybe hate about Jalen Brunson, because I remember this a couple years like ago when he signed with the Knicks. I mean, he kind of left the Mavericks. So if there's any little bit of bad blood between there, that's the only thing I can kind of see for someone not liking the Knicks. But I mean, other than that, I mean, everyone's pouring their all in every single game. Dan, hopefully didn't listen to last episode 'cause we did glaze Brunson a little bit. We gave him his flowers of kind of been able to You gave him his flowers. I did I knew he was good from the start. I knew he was good. You didn't think so. Yeah, I was like, ⁓ he can't be a one A and then turns out he can be a one A and then some. I mean that Utah series, you never forget it. Like out Absolutely not. I said that last last episode. Like I'm a I'm a big J. Brunson fan. ⁓ especially with you being my friend and Dick's fan, now I got two reasons to root for him. Yeah. And I mean, I think it's kind of like, you know, everywhere across the country is really divided on it. Cause I mean, everybody wants to see the coming of the next go. You got Victor Rambinata, you know, seven four, absolute freak of nature, literally a two K build. Guy can pull up from three, cross you over, dunk a new blocky, doesn't even matter. Anything he can do. So there's everybody kind of rooting for him, but It's also the Knicks. Everybody loves Knicks basketball. Everyone has been saying it. LeBron James has said that when the Knicks are doing good, the league is doing good, super entertaining. It's gonna be a hell of a series, like kind of regardless. Like, I don't think anyone has any bad blood. Kinda how saw in the last series with the Spurs and OKC. A little bit of bad blood. Everyone didn't really care to see OKC. It's just my take. But, you know, these two these are two great teams gonna be going against each other out here. That's what I was telling Matt in our intro. I was saying this is like the first it's been eight years now, we're gonna have a different champion. And I really was like I just did not wanna see I was kinda like anyone except OK C just 'cause they kinda seem like the villains of the league. And now that it's kind of Spurs Knicks, I'm like, okay, if either of these teams win, it's kind of good for the league. It's gonna be the next generation of players that come through, someone else that gets a ring. I always love it whenever there's just a new winner. If it's not my team going back to back. Yeah, parody's the best. Yeah. So talking a little bit about the Spurs, Dan, we've kind of alluded to a little bit about Victor Wiminyama, but what would scare you the most about this Spurs team? You just saw them dismantle the previous champions in OKC in a game seven. Would you possibly a game seven heartbreak be that? Or, you know, he does the choking sign in Madison Square Garden. No, I mean, honestly, coming as a Knicks fan, you know, the only thing you gotta kinda be worried about might be Jalen Brunson's defense. I mean, he's an offensive juggernaut. He's he could score, he could pass, he can do everything he might need to do, but like statistically his defense is is kind of a lackluster. So if you have D like De'Aaron Fox coming, you know, playing the one, going against Jalen Brunson, and he's in his like mojo, he's doing everything that you know was hyped up about De'Aaron Fox coming in. He's doing great right now on the Spurs. If he has a pop off game, that's gonna be my scary factor for anything in this like series. I think Victor, I mean, anything can kind of happen, but just a wild card, you gotta give it the Fox. Yeah, I like ⁓ I mean Dear Fox, obviously great player. ⁓ I like to go with Stefan Castle. I I said in the intro as well. I love the swagger that he plays with. And he'll absolutely just go headhunting at the rim for someone. ⁓ he he might go after Kat. We'll see. He's so explosive as a player. Yeah, I think I think he will, but you know, kinda kind of leading up to the rim and everything, it's gonna be a Pretty big battle for for Victor over here. I mean, don't get me wrong, Kat might not be, you know, the best defensive player out there, but I think everybody's kind of sleeping on the fact that we still have Mitchell Robinson coming off the bench. He might have just broke his finger the other day and he already got surgery. He's hardly. Yeah, it's fake. Crazy situation. Not even basketball related. I don't know. Is he gonna play in this series? I know he they he's listed as like questionable. No, he's he's cleared to go. I mean, granted, all he is is really like a Defensive guy, so he doesn't really need his hand too much to shoot. It's more just to block a shot or to maybe forethos. But yeah, yeah, we could see Hacker Robinson go down. Big opportunity for that. But I think once he gets in there, I think he'll be getting a lot of extra minutes that he hasn't been seeing so far in the playoffs, but that he's also used to seeing a lot in this season, specifically for Victor. Somebody that is that big of a freak of nature, you're gonna need somebody just as big and ready to go on a moment's notice. Kat's going to doing a lot on the offensive side. I'm sure he's going to be getting a ton of minutes. He's going to be exhausting himself a lot. So I wouldn't be surprised if you just kind of see Mitchell Robinson sub himself in, get a bit more time playing the four or the five, and really trying to make it hard just for whenever Victor is in. And then when he's out, I think that's when Kat's probably going to be going to work the most. Yeah. And so ⁓ go ahead, Matt. I was going to say Kat, we might need to see the three ball from Kat a lot more than we have in this. the the playoff run for the Knicks. I mean, he's very lethal or can be, you know, from three, one of the best big shooters of all time. ⁓ it's gonna be vital to draw Wimby out from the paint. Maybe the perimeter opens up more stuff for the the Knicks offense. So who can you see out of those guys, Cat or OG or Mitchell Robinson guarding Victor Wedyama? Or three of them. Maybe they put all three in the game at once to try and stop him. He is seven four freaking freaking alien. I mean, I think that would be our best like three man defensive lineup that we could get on him. But I honestly think that we're gonna probably stick big with Victor the whole entire time. We don't really have guards that can be yeah, I would say they can't be scrappy, but we've seen Josh Hart and what he can't do on the defensive side. You throw Josh Hart in the mix also. I think it's gonna be a very fun ball game just to kind of see how that goes. But respectfully, I think OG's probably gonna have one of the better opportunities to to kind of do a lot more work. I've noticed with Victor's game a lot, specifically over the OKC series, he got a lot of turnovers when he was outside of the paint, you know, just trying to do like general ball handling things. And I think that's a point where we're really gonna like, you know, take advantage of him there. Like specifically OG kind of leads our team with steals, one of the best defensive players that we've seen in the last like five to seven years out there. I think he's gonna be a bit of a nightmare for him, just kind of lurking around there. I think I like what we're at. Like everyone's always thinking about, ⁓ Victor O'Neill, but you gotta try and stop him before you when he goes to shoot the ball. You just stop him before he goes to shoot. I also like the idea I was thinking Jalen Brunson could get on Josh Hart's shoulders and maybe do that in the middle of the game. Maybe just cause a little havoc of Lil Nova Wildcats. I think that would be a a great strategy we might see in like a game two, if game one goes the way, we think it's gonna go. Yeah, also for the next I think Mikhail Bridges is gonna have to keep up his his offensive offensive threat that he's been been showing that he can Iron Man produce. Yeah, he's especially in the last series against the Cass. He was a dog. Dude, he was scored more than he did in the regular season. Like he's taken a step up. So he needs I think he needs to continue this at the end of the I mean he has one of the most impressive statistics out there. I I don't know if you've guys seen it or not, but he hasn't missed a game in like nearly I I don't know How long? It's a ridiculous streak that he has. That's my Iron Man, dude. Yeah, we ⁓ we did cover that a little bit. I all of the streak has extended since then. I think it will keep on going. And he shoots extremely well. Like his percentages and his stats. ⁓ I I know he doesn't like do too much. He averages like I think around like fifteen points a game, like like three or four rebounds, couple assists. But like his shooting percentages out there, when he has one of those like hot streaks, it's lethal. It kind of reminds me a lot of like Stephen Castle on the Spurs, but I think Castle's probably came into his element a lot more during this playoff run. He's he out of the young team that the Spurs are, he seems to be like the veteran leadership. Yeah. Absolutely. So my question to you, Dan, out of all the Spurs players, would you rather stop their best player or force everyone else to beat you as a Knic? I mean, honestly, probably have them try to beat us like I think people are really underestimating the Knicks going into this series, which I don't necessarily understand too much. Like the Spurs are extremely young. They don't have super great playoff experience or anything yet. ⁓ I think the the music and the noise of New York is gonna be way too loud. People are gonna be going to their games like chanting let's go Knicks. I don't know how that's actually gonna affect them because It's something that we've seen throughout so far, the whole entire Eastern Conference. Fans going to the other arenas and literally silencing them. It's a huge mental block. If you're a veteran, you might be able to deal with it. But Victor's 22, 23 years old. I don't know how he's going to react to it. I don't know. I know he's from France. They have really loud arenas and everything with him growing up. But I think this is going to be something different that no one on that team is going to be ready for. Do you think the Knicks are going to travel well to San Antonio? I know you guys have been traveling well this whole playoffs with, you know, going to Philly, going to ⁓ Boston. Wait, no no the Knicks no going to Cleveland. ⁓ and those have all been closer to New York, but I mean Texas, San Antonio, that's halfway across the country. Yeah, I mean, dude, Knicks fans are everywhere. I mean, I'm here in Dallas and I'm like debating on going to one of these games. I like and just cheering for the Knicks the whole entire time. Gonna be traveling well. Gonna try to. Man, he'll be he'll win experience. But ⁓ regardless, Knicks fans show up. Does not matter their distance, we'll be there. So we haven't seen the Knicks in it's been about a week since they've played, and we just got to see the Spurs in a game seven against OKC. We're gonna see a little bit of the rest versus Rust early in the in the series, but say this series does go seven games, right? Who would you trust more in the coaching staff? And a game seven. Honestly, coaching wise for that's a tough question. I'd probably go with ⁓ the Knicks head coach, Mike Brown. biggest reason kind of for that is, you know, Mike Brown's gonna lead our team very well, very efficiently, which is kind of, you know, making sure the right people are in at the right moment. I think the Spurs, you know, they have a great head coach, don't get me wrong, but everything that the Knicks kind of have on top of that with their you know, veteranship, Jalen Brunson probably stepping up into a huge role in that type of position in a game seven. I think just the Knicks would be more mentally prepared for it as we've been to game sevens also in the past. Last year, yeah, we lost against the the Pacers, but half the team was injured and we still took them to seven. We were ready, just couldn't be there learning experience. Big learning experience. And I think the Knicks have a lot of history on And the Knicks have already shown that the the rest versus the Rust doesn't matter for them. It will matter in the first half. They just they just beat the Cav they just swept the Cavs. Yeah, but the first half coming off of game seven. Same thing with the seventy sixers. They came off of game seven and we swept the And what are the Spurs what are the Spurs coming off of? A game seven. A game seven. Don't get into the picks early yet, boys. I'm just saying ⁓ still got more questions you got. The Spurs are a lot better than those two teams, but we'll see. Mm moving on to some other Knicks questions here, Dan. What is You know, you just talked about losing a game seven to Indian Indiana last year. ⁓ kind of on that same train, what is like the most painful moment you've gone through or experienced as a Knicks fan? ⁓ God. Honestly for for me, it was ⁓ seeing Chris Dabbs Porzingas go down. Chris Daps was our was our unicorn that we had for for New York, man. I loved him to death. He loved the city at the time. literally was the chosen one. We were ready for a just super strong player. And then he goes down. I think it was like twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, and we had no one at that point. It was just him. I think maybe Frank Milakina came in. But ma'am, that was rough. That that was a painful scarring memory on my head of when KP went down. It literally solidified the Knicks for four or five years of just being so mediocre. Not even good. So honestly, that was probably my worst experience as a Knicks fan. Dude, Chris Shap's peak was like Wimby now. Like he was the Wimby before Wimby. Like he was so good. And that's why I was so excited for the Mavs to get him. And obviously he was never the same after the the ACL tear, but then he went to Box and did exceptional. And it fossiled a lot of animals. We've all been united through the pain of Christoph Borzingis. Helps we'd have Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown on your team as well, but yeah. I mean also, I mean Derek White. I that team was so stacked. Also on the Knicks, Dan, how many times have you sworn off the Knicks and come back? Never. Right or die. Every single day of my life. I hear that? You hear that, Braden? But You never swore your team off. All right. Well all right, Dan, imagine your team trades Jalen Brunson in the middle of night for Anthony Davis in a box of chips. I mean, would you would you t would you Swear him off then. Honestly, probably not. I I love my team no matter what happens. Even if they traded RJ Bear. We traded my favorite player. I'm wearing his jersey right now. We traded him for OG Ananobi. That hurt me so bad. And guess what? It was so worth it. And yet, because we are here right now. Like you have to sometimes go through the pain. Cooper Flag, you never know. Could be better than Luca. Well Cooper Flag, which is we got lucky. You know, ⁓ He's bringing me back slowly, but I I still the Luka trade just blows my mind. We've all been through the, you know, whether it's injury or trade, we've been through it. Yeah. So my next question here is would a title then make up for all those years of misery where you haven't sworn off the team, but you've gone through a lot of pain. Dude, I was watching Ron Baker highlights in like twenty eighteen. I mean, man, in it literally this thing means so much to me. I I don't know what I would do if they win, go to New York, burn it down with everybody else. You know, if they lose, go to New York, burn it down with everybody else. The fact that we're here is the best thing ever. Last year it should have happened. This year it's gonna happen. I was saying to my friend the other day, like the Spurs have already had a dynasty this century, right? Timmy D, Tony Parker, Mano Geno Ginobili, they've already experienced multiple championships. They're good. They can wait at least another year. Yeah. Let the Knicks win. Let the Knicks win. Then they get the Knicks win. I did see outside the Spurs. They're not gonna have a watch party anymore because the police are shutting it down. They said it was getting too out of hand. They said there was it was too much of like a public destruction going on every game. I really would like to see them do that, you know, if it goes to seven or something like that. They'd be in San Antonio, that Knicks watch party would still be there. I guarantee you. Yeah, I think they're just gonna have like an unorganized one now. It's it's not gonna should be they're gonna be like, hey, don't show up, wink wink, don't do it. Be like Philly burning down whenever they win a Super Bowl. Yeah. If the Knicks do win, Dan, and I say if, where would that championship rank in all of like the New York sports titles? Well, specifically New York sports titles, honestly, it's it's gonna be up there. I mean, we've had some great championships with Jeter over in the year recently. ⁓ Knicks won two championships in the seventies, but th those were kind of like, you know, dynasty we weren't around then. Yeah, it's it's not like those ones really mattered too much. I mean you gotta factor in the the Giants or the Patriots though. ⁓ my god, yeah. Okay, even though you're not a Giants fan, but still New York. I know. Insane Nick. We got trades coming up. ⁓ ⁓ yeah. Yeah. But like I would say ranks number one just in overall vibe and culture for the city. We love the Yankees. They're great. We love the Rangers. They're not that great, but we love them anyways. The Brooklyn Nets, forget about ⁓ But again, it's not ⁓ the pride and joy of New York. Like, probably number one to be honest. It's been a while since any Knicks team has won a championship, right? Yeah, it's been fifty years. Baseball, football. ⁓ Whatever it was. You mean New York or Knicks, Matt? ⁓ did I say Nix? Yeah, you said Nix. New York that would have been fifty years. ⁓ yeah, New York. Yeah. I mean New York Liberty. Don't discount discount them all. ⁓ pretty good. That's we forgot. Shout out, we love women on this channel. In the same breath of that question, Dan. If the Knicks were to lose this finals, would you still consider this season a success of making a finals appearance, winning an in season tournament cup? You know, you could hang a banner for that. I don't want to get you too like depressed on it. Yeah, I mean, let's say the Knicks somehow lose this. I think the season has been nothing more than a miracle. We have made the finals and we made it here healthy. The biggest problem that we had last year was sadly where I had to coach, which I believe everybody can kind of say he was playing them forty-eight minutes a night consistently into the playoffs. You know, we were supposed to be there last year. We're here now. We're proving that we should still be here, but it's a success no matter what happens, because we're still the third seed up here. Pistons, yeah, they they lost heartbreakingly to the Cavs. But, you know, the East was still pretty good overall. And the fact that we're here just means we've had a great run. We're supposed to be here. We're ready for whatever comes. Success pretty much no matter how we're gonna look at this. I mean, a good run is an understatement. You guys have won, what is it, eleven in a row going into this? Yeah, actually, our only two losses that we've had so far in the playoffs were in round one against the Hawks by basically like one to two points each. Tragic losses. We honestly should be undefeated. It's the Hawks. Like, respectfully Trey Young, he always like you'll never think more. so congrats to them for taking two games off us, but we haven't looked back since those losses. Yeah, it seems like it sparked something in the Knicks. I was gonna ask you, if the Spurs do win, is Wimby the new Trey Young? I mean, probably not, because he doesn't play the same game. Yeah. I mean what Trey Young was doing. And was rolling dice on the logos, was doing literally everything, taking a bow. Like, there's he's now on the wizards. I still hate his guts. Well, honestly, the worst person to ever have touched a basketball in terms of personality, he's talented as hell. But Trey Young, I'll never forget that. Not the not the Haliban that came through and struck last year. Yeah, he was Honestly, ⁓ Tyrese was pretty bad as well. I've I f hated him. But okay, so he's lucky he got hurt, man. No, no, no, no. I never wish injury on these guys. I I wish Tyrese was here so we could sweep ⁓ this year because our team's actually healthy unlike last year. That was a fluke last year that the Pacers made the finals. Don't get that twisted. You almost won the final. You took it to a game seven. That was a good that was a good Pacers team. The Knicks were there last year we would have won. I guarantee it. We absolutely mislapped OK C. Okay, so we're guaranteeing so Dan, what is your confidence level one out of ten going into this series? Like, probably an eight. I I really feel strong about this team. I don't see the inexperienced Spurs, in my opinion. I know they've had, you know, some really good runs and everything like that. They're really developing, and I think they're pretty much there. You know, Chris Paul, Greg Popovich mentored this team. Like Victor's already gonna be going to this superhuman level. I just think the Knicks right now with our starting five, we're gonna beat them no matter what's gonna happen. Our starting five is way better than their starting five overall. But what about the bench? I think we're deep. Did you Landry Shamut? That man did not miss a three in his last game. I swear to God, he'd was unstoppable. ⁓ our bench, I mean, Landry Shamut's great. Mitchell Robinson's great. Jordan Clarkson got the veteran leadership on his team. Miles McBride, Deuce, when Deuce is on fire. This team is unstoppable. You have fans cheering in the arena, deuce the whole entire time he touches the ball. Our bench is great. They have a young LeBron James with Luke Cornette on their team. Don't get me wrong. But we just talked about him. You mean Mr. Mr. Chase down? Mr. Chase. Mr. Chase down. That was an insane block. Do you think y'all would beat OKC? Absolutely. I think we would have had an easier time against OKC. I was rooting for it, not rooting for them. I would never read for OKC. ⁓ but I was like kind of hoping in the back of my head that okay, C beat the Spurs because they were the easier opponent. Yeah, they were a lot more injury played going into that series. Just missing J Dub. But back to the Spurs, Dan. If the Spurs do win, who are the Knicks fans gonna be mad at on the Spurs team? Like which player is the reason why they win? I think it was Stefan Castle that did that dunk at the end of game seven and right? Yep. Yeah, maybe the dagger. Maybe the dagger dunk. Definitely so they would try to find him. That's ⁓ that's what the Knicks would do. Definitely so. All right, and the same question if the Knicks were to lose game one, who's the player getting blamed? If the Knicks lose game one, ⁓ on the Knicks who would get blamed, probably Kat. I I would assume that Kat would be the reason that we lost. ⁓ I think he's one of the best players that we've had on this team in a very long time. But Kat's really gonna need to step up ⁓ a lot in this position against Victor. He's gonna need to do potentially better than him. He's gonna need to, you know, as Matt was even saying before, his three ball needs to come out for this. If it's not coming out in game one and they lose because of that, he's gonna be the person that's gonna be taking the short end of the stick here. Yeah. They were talking about that Kat just gets like dumb fouls and like putting him against Victor Munyama is a good way that he could possibly end up fouling out. So I think that we could see that matchup game one. And then if they do end up losing that game one, we see some readjustments of maybe moving OG or Mitchell Robinson on on a Victor or maybe Josh Hart. I I think that's a really good possibility of Josh Hart on Jalen Brudson's shoulders and running that type of defense, possibly getting it done. Final question, then we can get into a little bit of the other just stuff going on in the finals. If I offered you a Knicks championship But guaranteed that the team would miss the playoffs for the next fifteen years, would you take it? No, I would not. I I think this team has great repeat potentiality. And here's my reason why. Jalen Brunson. This man took a massive pay cut. Everybody on this team has taken massive pay cuts just so they can stay unified together and to compete. If we don't win this year, expect us next year. Expect us the year after that. Give us, you know. Task four or five years, we're getting into a gray zone. We don't know what's gonna happen, but hey, Steph Curry did it after everyone thought he wasn't gonna do it either. You never know. But to give away fifteen years, can't do that. What about five years? Yeah, I'd give it away five years. Yeah, okay. I just wonder where the limit was, where the where it would go. Yeah. Okay, so Moving on to some other stuff here, and then we get into some predictions. ⁓ the NBA did announce the return of the NBA finals logos. It's gonna have the Larry O'Brien trophy painted on the half court, and the script logo for the finals will be on either side of the court. A lot of fans were wanting this to come back. It's the first time that these will make their appearances since the 2009 finals between the Lakers and Magic, ⁓ since the trophy was at mid court, and there's gonna be a new twist on this. And the center court logo will be inter integrated with like the home teams logo. So I think they did pull it out last didn't they pull it out last year and then like players were slipping and complaining about it, so they went back to the original courts. They were something with the floor adjustments last year. I can't remember if it was directly that, but a lot of players were getting injured last year and getting slipperies everywhere. Really bad situation. But I mean, overall, this is gonna be great. I think the the NBA really needs to kind of You know, I don't want to say overhype this, but kind of redo what's been going on. I mean, with so much parody going in for the past couple of years, I mean Pacers and OKC, respectfully, that's just not some teams you really want to see going against each other in the final. No, exactly. ⁓ so I think with the Knicks actually making it there, the market's coming. Time to redo it and make it better, just so it kind of re brings back some of those old fans out there. It's gonna be pageantry. ⁓ absolutely. Yeah. Okay, so we can get into our NBA finals. Speaking of which, this podcast is dropping Wednesday, which is today. ⁓ game one is tonight, seven thirty in San Antonio. We learned that San Antonio's who is gonna be the they're gonna have the home court advantage because Dan told us that they had the better regular season record. ⁓ I thought it was decided on like the all star game or something. I think that's how the NFL does it or something, but ⁓ Yeah, we will get to see that going on. ⁓ so we can get into our final question here, which is what is your finals prediction? ⁓ Dan, Matt, how do we want to do We want Dan to go first. We I think we know who he's picking, but we can get how many games. Yeah, you want to go by ⁓ who wins game one or just who wins the series? Let's just go series. We could do game one. Let's do game one first. Yeah. Okay. All right. Game one with your score prediction. Score prediction. Score prediction. That's gonna throw a wretch in it. ⁓ we don't have to go score prediction. We can just go game one. I just thought that would be fun conversation. Nah, let's let's just go who we think is is gonna win game one. Okay personally for me, I think the Knicks repeat magic. I mean, you know, two teams that we went against both came off of game seven. 76ers and the Cavs. Both those times we went in there and we won. It's gonna happen again. Spurs, honestly, probably really tired. OKC was pretty physical, to be honest. I mean, I don't know if you saw some of those players like throwing each other down like Alice Caruso was doing. I think they're gonna be slightly, maybe not beat up, but they're gonna be slightly fatigued. I think Knicks pretty handily take game one, actually. Okay. Going Knicks as well? Yeah. At least for game one. I'm gonna take Knicks as well on one caveat. If they're doing the the blue, pink, and whatever other color yellow fiesta colors that the fans do when they stripe out. I don't think they've won one yet at home with that going on. Actually they might have they might have last series done it. But I just don't like I I like the striping. I just think it's too distracting for the players. And so I'm gonna go Knicks. ⁓ and then game two, whichever one they do the all black for, I'll go Spurs on that one. So we can get into now the the series prediction. Dan we'll start with you. How many games do the Knicks take and get this done? Yeah, so you know, honestly, I think the Knicks do this in five. And here's my reason for why this is probably gonna happen in five, and that's gonna be it. Game one, Spurs gonna be fatigued. Game two, Spurs get their one get back. Game three and four in the garden, Spurs cannot handle that heat. Knicks are up 3 1 at this point. Go to San Antonio, close them out there, won't even be close. Give me Nixon five. Nixon five. Okay. Matt. Give me Nixon six. Nixon six. I think the Spurs can seal too. I just think that, dude, like we've been saying all episode, just Nick's experience wise, able to guard, maybe better than OKC. Good. I think it's gonna be and I'm wearing gray for a reason, man. I'm taking Spurs and seven. I think they're gonna get it done at home and it's gonna be a beautiful another game seven that we're gonna get. Another another classic matchup. And ⁓ Victor Winyama is gonna establish himself as the top player in the league to face the league. Talk about a legacy. I just think Jan Bronson is too much of a player for Iser. I do think each of these teams are gonna steal one from the other other teams home. Like I think the Knicks come in and win game one, and then I think the Spurs go in and win game three in New York. And then we go to a game seven. So what is your other reasoning you think for for Spurs just, yeah, you know, taking it all the way down the line, we get to game seven. What do you think game seven's gonna? I think Victor Weminyama is gonna come out and have himself a day. ⁓ I it's gonna take a it's gonna take a couple games for these teams to fill each other out, you know. The the Spurs will come out, a lot of Victor Womenama crazy Knicks will, you know, if they end up winning that game one, it's gonna make things very interesting very fast. As we always say it's not a series until the road team wins a game. ⁓ honestly I could see the Spurs honestly winning game one and then the Knicks making adjustments off of that, kind of like what we saw with OKC where they came in, mate, had a big win. early in in OKC. ⁓ I just think this time at home I don't think they're gonna have that same kind of hunger. But Victor Mignama, it looks like the only thing he cares about is winning a championship. Last series was like him versus Chet and he wanted to establish like he wanted to put that demon in the closet and and and f put a bow on it. ⁓ now he's got a you know he's got his eyes set on becoming one of the he wants to be one of the greats in the league and I think to do that he's gonna have to pull through. I've been saying the Spurs seem like they're ahead of schedule. And then maybe they're actually right on time. Maybe they're gonna be a dominant force for a while. It take it's very like you said, last year the Knicks got hurt a lot. They were very injury plagued. Like it's tough to get to the finals. And I think the Spurs, they may not be this healthy next year. They may not have the same guys around the same core. ⁓ so I think the Spurs are going to be able to get it done and ⁓ finally break through and be like one of the youngest teams ever to win the NBA finals. Yeah the main Good points. I mean the wrong points, but they're good points. ⁓ we gotta have a little we gotta have a little controversy. Okay, I don't think there was anything else. ⁓ Jalen Brunson is the early NV finals MVP favorite at plus two seventy. Matt, you had some other ones. Yeah, I think next highest is Wemby. Third highest is Stefan Castle, and then fourth is Kat. I could not see Cat with Finals MVP. Yeah, yeah. I mean it's gotta be Brunson. Brunson is the only one for the next ⁓ I mean People sleep on cat, man. People are sleeping on cat, dude. Yeah, but we got the captain. I know, but he's so cat is just so good, though. Yes. And ⁓ the Spurs and Knicks did play three times this regular season. ⁓ Dan kind of talked about it and kind of the some of the questions we were going through. The Knicks did lead that 2-1. So December 16th, the Knicks won 12413. happy birthday, happy late birthday. It's a grand birthday for. December thirty first, the New Year's Eve game, the Spurs won one thirty four, one thirty two and a very close one. And then March first, the Knicks won one fourteen to the Spurs eighty nine. So that's a that's the outlier there. But other than that, the the other two games were very good, very close. So that's what I really just want to see in the finals. I don't want to see any blowouts. We kinda saw it with OK C. It was like game one was a good game, and then like the rest of the games were blowouts. Then we got to game seven and that one was close. So I just wanna see a close series. I don't wanna see a blowout. I don't wanna see a sweep. I wanna see a little I wanna see a little fight going on. I wanna see I wanna see the guys get scrappy a little bit. So but with that, we will come back, do some NFL news trades going on. Dan, appreciate you coming on. I'm rooting for your Knicks, kind of. ⁓ my prediction is the Spurs. Yeah. My prediction is the Spurs, but Dan is a friend of the show, so we do wanna see the we if the Knicks won it, I wouldn't be completely upset. And Jalen Brunson previous Mavericks. So I'd honestly I'd I might claim that ring for the Mavericks. Well, thank you for having me, Brain. Thank you for having me, Matt. Nixon Five. Alright, and we're back to do some other news and headlines going around the sports world. I should say the NFL because the NFL is king here and there was a blockbuster trade that went down today. Matt. A couple, a couple blockbuster trades. I I really only consider one of these a blockbuster. But Wild. Miles Garrett Wednesday Cleveland Brown is headed to Los Angeles. Play for the Rams. Sean McVay joining with the forces with Matthew Stafford. Rams trade for Miles Garrett, two-time NFL defensive player of the year. The Browns in return get Jared Verse, two-time Pro Bowl pass rusher. And they get some draft picks. They get the first round draft pick of 2027, a second round draft pick in 2028, and a third round draft pick in 2029. Miles Garrett, who just broke the season, the single season sack record last year of twenty three. And the Rams were only one game away. Actually, probably only one play away from the Super Bowl last year when they went against the Seattle Seahawks. ⁓ Rams tend to always go all in, Matt. This kind of reminds me of the Matthew Stafford trade. What do you think? Yeah. I mean, they just got their apparently just got their guy in the In this year's draft at number thirteen, Ty Simpson. So this allows them a little extra wiggle room to splurge on a player to use at future draft picks to get him. ⁓ obviously their biggest hole was defense, and they solidified it with Trent McDuffie trading for him from the Chiefs and now trading for Garrett, one of the best defensive players of all time. From the Browns. It kind of seems like a they're going all in, but not really. I mean, like when I first saw this, I thought it was just one draft pick in Jared Verse. ⁓ but then I saw it was three draft picks, you know, second ⁓ first, second, and third, and then also Jared Verse. So I feel like this was actually a pretty fair trade. It almost reminds me, like like I said, the Matthew Stafford trade when they got Jared Goff, they they sent some picks of well they sent some picks and Jared Goff for Matthew Stafford and ended up winning a Super Bowl in that. Same year 2020, he took down the the Bingles. Speaking of that 2020 team, people are now talking that Aaron Donald could come out of retirement. I think he's 35. I saw that on Twitter. Yeah. So that could be interesting. Also, Miles Garrett is under contract. He just signed an extension with the Browns, I believe, at the start or at the end of last year. ⁓ he signed through 2030 and has a no trade clause that he can. lift at any time, which is what he lifted for this trade, because everyone thought, ⁓ he's he's, you know, can't be traded. I did see, and I was reading some articles that ⁓ the Browns have said like through and through, like Miles Garrett's not tradable. We're not trading him. We're not gonna get rid of him. But then apparently the Rams just kept calling and calling and kept making the pi ⁓ the picks adding some more picks. And then they said Jared Verse. The Browns said if you're gonna trade us for Miles Garrett, Jared Verse has to be part of this trade. So kind of a a big blockbuster trade. I mean, to the likes of we just saw last year, Michael Parsons going to Green Bay. Dallas gets some picks back. ⁓ and they get another, they get who did they get back? Kenny Clark. They Kenny Clark out of that. ⁓ and we're able to make some moves. So we get two back to back blockbuster trades on the defensive side of things. I actually, like I said, I don't hate this trade for the Browns. It seems like Miles Garrett is more in line with the timeline that the Rams are on. Like he's kind of like He's 30 years old now. Matthew Stafford's probably in his last season. It's kind of going all in. It's kind of Super Bowl or bust for the Rams. Whereas the the Browns, let's let's keep it real. They weren't going to be competing really for a Super Bowl this year. ⁓ quarterback wise, they're still trying to get that figured out. So Jerry Verse, a young superstar going to the Browns, that kind of keeps their window pushed back a little bit. And now they get a bunch of draft picks to build around. I saw that the Browns will actually have eleven picks in twenty twenty seven. I think it's like two first rounders again, and then they got like three, three round, three second round and four third rounds, something like that. So they have a lot of picks to work with next year. And that this will the Browns have privately calculated that this trade will also save them about thirty million dollars in cash. So they don't have to shell out. Yeah, I mean Jared Verse is a fantastic young edge. The what do they call him? The orchestrator. So he's really into music? I got no idea. So I saw that on like Sunday night football. He's like really into music and so they they call ⁓ it's like the not the conductor, conductor's on a train. Who's the guy that does also conductors yeah, conductor. Okay, he's th they call him the conductor then. Right. Conductors. Yeah. Yeah. The rhythm, whatever. But I mean yeah, obviously Malescared onto this defense. It's way better than whatever Jared Rears was doing. Although he is he's I mean, he's super young, probably got better years ahead of him. But Miles Garrett right now obviously just broke the sack record. He is still in his prime. ⁓ and the Rams need defense, right? Just traded for Trent McDuffie, solidify that ⁓ cornerback, the D B position. Now they get Miles Garrett. I I don't see why they just don't give the Lombardi to the Rams right now. I don't know what I did see the odds that we're going to What team is what team is beating this? Obviously our team's bad. The Saints and the Cowboys. They gotta get through us. Now I would say go ahead and hand them the NFC West. I'm gonna hand them the Lombardy trophy on a silver platter. Yeah, their odds they were at Not only did they get Chim McDuffie, they also got Jeton Watson for their Cornerback position. Yeah, and so the Sportsbooks have now calculated the odds for the Rams to win the Super Bowl this year. They were at eight to one. They have now moved to thirteen and two. So they are the only team with Super Bowl odds shorter than 10 to 1 on, I guess, DraftKings. Yeah, like that's their only issue was giving up 30 plus to the Panthers and 30 plus to the Seahawks in the postseason. And what's going to stop that? Miles Garrett and Trent McDuffie. Yep. Matt, I have some fun stats for this. Our research department was deep in it. And it is players that have won Defensive Player of the Year and then was traded the year after, starting off with Miles Garrett. He's one of them. And there's two other times it's happened. Do you know the other two? Give me a timeline. So the other one was nineteen ninety seven. Dana Stubblefield won Defensive Player of the Year for the Forty Niners before signing as a free agent with Washington in nineteen ninety eight. And then the other one is probably one that most people will recognize. Deion Sanders won defensive player of the year and with the forty niners in nineteen ninety four before signing with the Cowboys as a free agent in nineteen ninety five. So I guess they were signing as a free agent, not really traded. Yeah. And that's what we're gonna see. Miles Garrett was was traded. Actually I saw the GM came out and said nothing was actually official yet for the Browns. He's like, Yeah, we're in talks right now, but nothing's happened yet. By the time this podcast comes out, it'll probably be all official. I didn't see Miles Garrett was I saw a rumor on Twitter or whatever before this happened today. There's a couple other teams involved, and one of them was the Cowboys. Ooh. But I guess the Rams, obviously with Jared Burf, the Browns would want would want a solidified young talent in return for one of the best players of all time. So I I don't know. You say it's like an even trade, but is it I don't I think it's even in the frame that it matches up with each team's timeline. Yeah. Like Miles Garrett was gonna waste away. Yes. ⁓ my gosh. I don't ⁓ my gosh. Breaking news, breaking news. Texas Tech has walked it off against Alabama in softball. Mia Williams. Mia Williams superstar. Twenty sixth home run of the season. Yeah. This is game one in the Super Bowl. Super Bowl super this is game one of the softball ⁓ College World Series semi final to go to the World Series. So they have to beat Alabama twice. They just walked it off in game one, so Game two's about to start. Sorry. Sorry to get us off track there. I just looked down at my screen. She's getting interviewed as we speak. Interviewed as we speak. Yep. Yep. Great stuff there. You heard it here ⁓ first. Probably actually. Yeah. Don't want to get too much, yeah. Yeah, timelines are yeah, equal. I mean, obviously, if you're counting the timelines in correct. But Imagine Also also fun fact, Jared Verse was born in Dayton, Ohio. Yeah, he's going back home. He's going back home. Which I I ca I just feel bad for him, man. I don't he's he was such a young, super good, butting superstar. And now he's gonna He still is a good young soup butting superstar. Now he's gonna go be the in the last place team in the AFC North. But also, shout out Miles Garrett. Now he can get the wins he deserves. Yep. Alright, that was the that was the Miles carried. I don't think we had anything else, right? We're good. Yeah. I move on to some other NFL news. Maybe not as blockbuster esque. Well, I guess you want to do the other trade, Matt. I was gonna do I was gonna do the other news, but we there was another trade. I mean this we knew this trade was gonna happen. Why do you not think this I mean, yeah, but still it's still Alright, go ahead. Quote unquote blockbuster. So next trade we got, which was inevitable, but it's ⁓ it's AJ Brown traded from the Eagles to the Patriots. For a twenty twenty-eight first round pick and the better of the twenty twenty-seven fifth round picks from the Patriots. ⁓ obviously this was rumored to happen for, you know, months now. And after the June first. Yeah. Did the ⁓ did the Eagles get any players in return, or they only just got the picks, right? Yeah, just picks. ⁓ which they just got Malachi. No, who did they get? Who is this who is the US C superstar? Lemon? Malachi Lemon. Malachi Lemon. So that was because they knew Yeah, with Devontae Smith. AJ Brown AJ Brown wouldn't be there. Yeah, Devontae Smith could be obviously will be a you know, a starter we talked about some of the drama that was going on with A. J. Brown and the Eagles last year. Now he's gonna be joining up with Stefan is Stefan Diggs still with the Patriots? No. He hasn't moved, right? Yeah, it's still a f it's still a free agent, I believe. ⁓ so they go from one wide receiver diva to another. Yeah, I was talking with one of our buddies earlier, Chase. I I think this elevates AJ Brown's stock fantasy wise and in real life. Because I think I just think Drake May is a better passer of the football than Jenna Hurts is. But yeah, I mean, fantasy wise, AJ Brown's gonna be looked at a lot more now. Like this is he's going to a better pass first team. Like the Eagles, don't get me wrong, Taylor Hurts, very good quarterback, but he does run the ball a lot and they do have Saquon Barkley back there. He was also having to share targets with Devontae Smith. I think I said last season I was like, it seems like Devontae Smith is wide receiver one. So now it seems like AJ Brown is gonna have his is it he's gonna be able to be like a superstar. Yeah, and I mean we saw the turmoil in the locker room for the Eagles with AJ Brown and the the discourse, the I guess the the beef. Maybe that they had with AJ Brown and Jalen Hurts. And they trade him out of conference. Yeah, so it was it was it was just inevitable that he was gonna get traded. ⁓ I mean, do you think this was sufficient compensation for AJ Brown? I mean, I view him as like a a top ten receiver. Ooh, okay. So I'm guessing the Eagles aren't playing the Patriots. They do play ⁓ in the preseason, week two. Yeah. Just making sure I was gonna say, do we get to see a redemption game immediately? No, so they traded him out of conference and don't have to play him this season. Yeah. But compensation wise, do you think this was sufficient for the Eagles? ⁓ a first and a a fifth? I d the first definitely it just I mean it it boils down to how you view AJ Brown. Yeah, I mean I still v view AJ Brown as a very good receiver in the league. ⁓ now whether he had I don't know where his contract was. Like, are the Patriots gonna have to pay him now? Like, could that have been a reason another why the compensation isn't as like great? Obviously, they're not gonna get like a Miles Garrett return, like we just talked about with the Browns. ⁓ but it seems like the when we watched that Super Bowl last season, it seemed like the Patriots were missing some wide receiver. They had Stephon Diggs and that was about it. ⁓ so now they're gonna be able to add some more talent to that room. ⁓ depending on where Stephon Diggs ends up, he might come back to the Patriots, but at least they have a Bona fide superstar and AJ Brown. And as long as like the the locker room discourse doesn't start up, I think it's I think it's a great trade for both. Yeah, I think he's gonna get thrown thrown to a lot more ⁓ in New England. So Yeah, and the weather shouldn't be that much crazy 'cause I mean in Philadelphia the Foxboro is gonna be very similar. Might be a little colder, more a little bit more snow, maybe, possibly. Right. Now AJ and now Drake May gets his his number one guy. He's never really had that. I mean, I know this is he's going into his third year, but now here's the question. Do you think AJ Brown got traded to a better team? Yes. Okay. The Eagles won the Super Bowl the year prior and then KJs won the Super Bowl last year. That's a good question. But ⁓ I think right now, yeah. Yeah, I think he's going in a better situation. I think Mike Vrabel's a a good head coach. He's gonna be and like you said, the quarterback situation's better. ⁓ better coaching than a I don't know. I feel like the Patriots and Eagles both run a very good organization. I think they've yeah just in the dominance that they've had in the last twenty years, but they've they've always been in contention, so but I do think he is going to a I don't know younger it's definitely a younger team on the Patriots, but it seems like they're more in a position to make a run than the Eagles right now. Yeah, I mean AJ Brown for later in the next season. AJ Brown is the best receiver the Patriots have had since Andy Moss. Possibly. Easily, I think. AJ Brown is that good. Yeah. And he's still good. People don't talk about as much now, but how old is AJ Brown? He's in his twenty eight, so he's in his prime. Yeah. Good for the Patriots. I think it was a fleece by the Patriots. I'm not gonna lie. Yep. Moving on to some other wide receiver news going on. This one's close to my heart here. Odell Beckham Jr. signs with the Giants and he's gonna help bolster that wide receiver room. I say close to my heart because Odell Beckham was like when I got into fantasy football, he was like one of the first guys that actually led me to a championship. I didn't win the championship with him, but I had him in his rookie year. And I got really invested in Odell Beckham. I thought he was going to be a great receiver. Kind of then fell off with the Giants a little bit, ⁓ went around the league, kind of got injured. And then he's I think he was with the Dolphins last year. He played he's only played nine games over the last two seasons, but Odell Beckham now 33 years old. He's reuniting with John Harbaugh from his Ravens days. I forget that Odell Beckham was on the Ravens for a little bit. Like I said, he was with the Giants. He was selected by the Giants in the 2014 draft as the twelfth overall pick out of LSU. ⁓ and so I think adding him with I did see the rest of the wide receiver room. They're a little injured. You know, Malik Neighbors still coming off his significant knee injury. ⁓ Wandell Robinson just went to the Titans, I believe. The Giants also signed Braxton Barrios and Juju Smith Schuster to one year deals. So it's kind of a very veteran heavy wide receiver room now for the Giants. And Jackson Dart will have some some I don't know if some great targets to throw up, but it's going to be vet they're veterans. They've been in the league and they can help. Shelter that offense a little bit. Do you have anything for Oda Beckham? The LSU Tiger? I mean, dude, yeah. I was saying he's not your guy. He was my guy just fanning fantasy. He's my guy, dude. It this is where he made his name. The infamous catch. Yeah. He was so good before he got injured, unfortunately. The infamous catch was against my team, the Cowboys. It wasn't a good guy. It had like a Derrick Rose type of injury. We were talking about it earlier, but He's gonna be a a fantastic mentor to some of the neighbors to Malachi Fields, who they just drafted. ⁓ you know, Juju and Braxton Varios are all right, I guess, but yeah, Juju I think was with Kansas City last year. Good solid veterans for for Jackson Dart. So that's not even the biggest giant's news going on right now. It's all their other stuff they got going on. It's got Jameis Winston there too. James Winston, the true leader of the team. Speaking of a guy that was a giant or at one point in his career, Russell Wilson is finalizing a deal to become a CBS sports analyst per Adam Schefter. He was offered a backup role to Geno Smith in the n on the New York Jets, ⁓ but I guess he's just passing that up. Wilson, a 10 time Pro Bowl selection, won a Super Bowl, Walter Payton, man of the year, now 37. I'm guessing this is his way of hanging it up. I don't think he's officially retired, but. We could see him on our T V broadcast next season. He's gonna be joining the the desk. Which I don't did he he didn't officially retire. I don't think he's officially retired. He just he just took a break, quote unquote. Yeah. I mean I bet that I bet these TV companies, media conglomerates, they offer some some good money. So take a season off, you know, Mr. Unlimited gonna be on the on the booth or not not in the booth, but he's gonna be at the desk. It's gonna interesting. I don't know if I've ever seen Russell Wilson's like real personality. I've always seen just like the the memes of him, but like Broncos Country, Let's Ride, Mr. Unlimited. Yeah, I think it'd be good. I think it'll be good. I think it'll be good. Some other news going on. ⁓ Serena Williams, speaking of retirement, comes out of retirement. She's announcing her comeback to professional tennis. Serena Williams now 44 is making her comeback after four years since her last match. She's accepted a wild card invitation to play a doubles match at next week's HSBC Championship, a 500 level event at Queen's Club in London. It's a grass event, and I don't know doubles what that means. I I don't know if she has a partner. ⁓ nothing was confirmed yet in the article I saw. ⁓ but she did announce, you know, it's funny, it's clean. Queen's Club, she said the Queen is returning. So everyone's saying that th this is a grass event. Is she getting ready for Wimbledon? What do you mean by a grass event? It's a grass ⁓ tennis court. It's not like the clay or the the hardcourt. I didn't know there's multiple. Yeah, there's ⁓ courts. What's the third one? It's ⁓ it's ⁓ clay, grass, and then hardcourt. It's like your normal tennis court that you see at like your neighborhood. The grass is just cut down tremendously. Yeah. You've ever seen Wimbledon? No. I think Wimbledon starts at like three weeks. That's wild. You can play tennis off grass? Yes. That's interesting. I mean, the bowl bounce is different and like when they go to clay or hardcore, they they move around different. It's like sometimes they go sliding on the clay, hardcore's got more grip, grass is a little more slippery. Yeah, that's like how tennis was designed to be played, I believe. Grass? Yeah, because it's Wimbledon. It's like the major, the tennis major. I don't know the Wimbledon. I never watched Wimbledon. You never watched the Wimbledon? No, I've never watched the Wimbledon. ⁓ we're watching Wimbledon. I ⁓ it's like whenever the whenever NBA's done and NHL's done, there's like nothing on until football season or the hot dog eating contest, Wimbledon comes and fills that space. Speaking of which, I mean the the World Cup's about to start too, so that will also be played on grass and fill in that space. Yeah, I wonder how the NFL players feel about that. Yeah, and you know what? I wanted to talk about that too a little bit. I I wanted to bring it up last podcast, but what are what's up with these NFL owners putting grass in their stadium and then they're just gonna rip it out and put turf back in? They're getting so much money though. They're I mean they're bending over for FIFA. But they Yeah, it's worldwide. But they can't do that for their own players. Like they've been asking for so limited to do that. I'm on the same side as you, dude. All the players, it was like they took a pole. It was like eighty, ninety percent want just straight grass. Over turf. Which is so is so valid. There'd be substantially less injuries. Like I know the Cowboys stadium, ⁓ they had to lift the playing surface up because there's so much there's like certain parameters. You have to have more room for like the FIFA field. Like you have to have so much room on the outside of the field so players don't run into like the side or anything. So they they like lifted it up like ten feet. So it's above like the normal like field level. ⁓ it's gonna interesting. That's gonna be starting up though. might bring on a soccer expert 'cause I just know USA I did have a fun final question if we if we're done with the podcast, Matt, if if we wanted to talk about it, but we can save it for next episode. All right. That leads us into our one final question, Matt. I got a final question around the f around FIFA, around the World Cup. I saw this commercial when I was at the gym. I was on the treadmill, I looked up and it was showing like USA winning the World Cup. And it's like you gotta believe. And people are saying like we don't have a lot of, you know chance to win the World Cup, our team's not that good. I know our coach is like from Argentina or something, so he's not even like a US guy. But the commercial was like basically like if the US won the World Cup. And so my question is, what would America do if they actually won the World Cup at home this year? Like would the entire country burn down? Or would they just be like, it's just another day. I feel like they'd burn it down. Like every city. Like will we see a Super Bowl championship? I mean there'd be parades Yeah. Well that's what the commercial showed, like parades going on and like people burning or like not burning cities down, but just like partying in the streets. They'd be shutting down schools. I think like USA winning at home when they're probably one of the worst. It'd be a true Cinderella run. Exactly. Like was it next time USA's gonna be hosting? Probably not in our lifetime. Yeah. So if they were to pull this out, like that week leading up to like the World Cup match would just be insane. It would run like if they won. I was gonna say, like we're we had Dan on earlier, it would arrival the Knicks winning. New York can burn down twice. New York would be a f aftermath. But I I think it would be like every like you know when the team wins a Super Bowl, everyone goes partying in the streets of their city. I think every city would be like that. Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, Houston. Like even the people who don't watch soccer, like me, I'd be in the streets. I'd be celebrating. I'd be climbing lampposts, dude. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Climbing streets. It'd be like that in every city. I know. It we'd be out of commission as a country for at least a week, I think. And i our country doesn't even seem to like care about soccer. But if we would if we win a championship, we're gonna care about soccer. If we're in the champ if we're like in the semifinal, we're gonna care about soccer. How many players can you name? On the USA team? I can name one. I can't even name one. Christian Belisic? Is he still Is he still on the USA team? I think so. I hope so. He's not name any. I think the World Cup's starting in a couple I think it's like a couple weeks from now. It might be sooner than that. But we will do I know we're in June. I think it's at the end of June it starts. So we'll do a podcast preview for that. We'll Yeah. Be I think I don't know if they're hosting ⁓ I think it might be a quarter final match in Dallas. Yeah. It's gonna be there. Yeah, we'll be there. $10,000 should be in the parking lot. Yeah. But with that, we'll get into closing out the show. Thank you everyone for listening. Be sure to like, subscribe on YouTube, turn on those notifications. Follow us on Spotify. Rate the show five stars. If you want to stay up to date on the show, follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, where you can always see Matt's great tweets on there and Facebook at Brody Pod. With that. I hope everyone enjoys the NBA finals. If it's still going on, we'll be previewing more next episode. If not, we'll be talking about the new champion. So with that, we'll see everyone next week. Take care. God bless. And Matt, love y'all. Late up.