Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / Knicks Up 2-0 + RIP Stacey King

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Knicks Up 2-0 + RIP Stacey King · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beechum.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, can you believe it?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: We are in the NBA Finals.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Can you believe it?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Not only are we in the NBA Finals, the Knicks are up 2 2-0.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, you could have convinced me that the Knicks walked out of there with a split.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: You could have convinced me of that before the series started.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been a tough time convincing me that the Knicks are going to win the first two on the roll.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not really, not really saying much about them, but more saying about the pressure it it is in that in that environment.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: One of the best things that happened before game two was Josh Hart telling Chris Hayes.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't come to San Antonio to split.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: We came to take them both.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And they did.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, man.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's only been two other times where the role team and the NBA finals have taken a 2-0 series lead, and both of those times that road team ended up winning the series.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows what will happen, right?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I know the Knicks fans have to be feeling great.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Mikhail Bridges said after game number two, every single game they go into it with a 0-0 mindset.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of feel that.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: The intensity level that he had in the interview, let me know that this is 0-0.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if they're feeling good, but like the fans in themselves have to be feeling amazing.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Tonight is game three.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: First NBA Finals game with the Garden and 20 plus seasons.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, man.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hyped for it.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you are too.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Really, really excited.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: But let's let's talk about all the ins and outs of this series so far.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Where if you did not know, I was at game one.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: That was one of the reasons why the content in itself, whether it be from here or whether it be on numbers on the board, has been pretty sporadic, right?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: We tried our very best to make the most out of the opportunity by filming episodes and so on, but everything don't go the way you plan, right?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: You plan to do one thing, you plan to do two shows right here, but you only have time to do a half of a show.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So damn it, game one recap was only 25 minutes, even though we wanted it to be a full 50 or 50, whatever.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out to everybody that put that together.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was a blast, and we'll talk about that later in the episode.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: But red game won in the NBA finals, and I guess I made a tweet about this.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't recognize how much of watching a game on the broadcast made it for me when it comes to breaking down the game.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Where if something that's interesting happened, what I would do at home in a normal game is to rewind the game 10 seconds to just see, like, oh, what did I miss?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: What was that interesting?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're there in the arena, everything is happening live.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of have no choice but to be a fan in the game itself when you're at a game live.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it's rare that I'm at a game live that's not of my favorite team.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it was hard to kind of mentally do all that.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I say all that to say, both the games we got so far have been absolute bad.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think game one ended up being like a 10-point win for the New York Knicks, but it really was down to the last couple minutes.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then the game number two, which is the game we'll focus on the most today, was a literal one-point game.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this is funny because I had to watch game number two at a different place, which again talk about that later in the episode.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I got asked before the game started was like, What do you want to see today, Kenny?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I want to see the first true buzzer beat buzzer-beaten game winner in the finals since MJ.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Game one of the finals last year, Halliburton hit a game winner, but it wasn't a buzzer beat.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think they had like 0.3 seconds left, which should count, but it doesn't count at the end of the day.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we were this close to potentially making that a reality.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Victor Wombiyama took a shot over Mitchell Robinson that that would have been a buzzer beater.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the Knicks don't.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: The Knicks walk out with a 105-104 victory.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: A game that saw the pendulum swing one way to another, where at one point the Spurs were up by double digits, and with just what, a quarter left in this game, the Knicks were up by double digits, and then the Spurs rallied all the way back.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: The big conversation about this game is going to start and end with Victor Wimbayama.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: After game number one, um, he talked about how he has to be better, and then he started off game number two not looking better.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So much so that on the broadcast, I'm sorry, the halftime show, the inside the NBA guys were talking about how he looked shook.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: That there's never been a time in Wimbayama's basketball playing career where he's looked at somebody across from him and been losing a matchup like he was in this one.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Luckily for him, the second half was a lot better, right?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Third quarter, he ended up scoring with 12 or so points.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth quarter, he has a couple big plays as well.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: But it will end, start and end with those last couple possessions.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Where a two for one opportunity late in game is always weird to me, um, especially in a situation like that where he takes, in my mind, it felt like a rush shot over Mitchell Robinson that that misses.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: They do get a stop against New York Nixon.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Wimby gets the rebound, and instead of dribbling the ball up the court like he's done a thousand times in this game alone, he tries to throw a hit-ahead pass to Stephon Castle, who in a split second, Steph Steph Castle went from looking at Wimby to running down the court.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: It hits off his back, Jalen Brunson gets a steal.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Jalen Brunson goes to the line where he splits and that basically ends the game there.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: There have been a lot of conversations about who's was that who's at fault there?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Was Wimbanyama at fault for throwing that pass?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Was Steph Castle at fault from taking his eyes off of Wimbenyama?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I don't think that really matters.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, the Spurs had an opportunity and an obligation to their fans to walk out of their home part of the series with at least one.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they squandered it away.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of different things that Mitch Johnson did in game number two that he didn't do in game number one.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: One of them being, you know, the big conversation after game number one was Dylan Harper, who was, in my mind, the best player for the Spurs in game number one.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't really play at all in that second half.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, in that fourth quarter.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then in this one, down the stretch, they did run with the triple guards when Steph Castle came back from his hyper extension, which I thought was pretty interesting.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Something that had worked the different parts of their previous series, but you know, they didn't really go to in game number one.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: We did see a lineup that had like Harrison Barnes and a bunch of whoa, whoa, whoa, which I thought was completely different.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I made this this this um observation after game number two when I did my recap video from the hotel, that I think being down 2-0 right now, you cannot aff you cannot afford to be running HP.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot afford to be running our friend Carter Bryan.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: In my mind, you kind of have to run a eight-man rotation.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I know that puts a lot more pressure on Victor Wimbinyamu, who a couple different times throughout this this season in the postseason where you would get to up, get up and say, hey, he's up to 38 minutes, and you can tell that he's extremely gassed.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the first break in the first quarter of game number one, you saw Wimpyama's extremely gassed.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it does put a lot of pressure on Wimby to be able to play these 40 to 44 to 45 minutes, but that's what you have to do.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because right now you are close to being eliminated in the NBA Finals.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there is a lot of great looks generated from the Spurs, from the Knicks tagging Women Yama as a role man in game number one.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Some of those shots, a lot of those shots were not there in game number two.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think the Knicks deserve a ton of credit in that.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: You finally did get a moment in time where De'Aaron Fox looked like the player that you paid.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: He got he had his own little stretch, like the the double team down low where he pivoted to get the shot up on the rim and off the glass, and it goes, yeah, come on, man.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a really great shot from from from De'Aaron Fox.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, you fell short.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And very rarely throughout the course of them making this run to the finals, did I look at them and say, Man, they look really young.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Recognize that they are young.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Harper, year one, Castle, year two, Wemby what year three.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the three of their top four players in this series are super young.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: But they had done everything to defy the odds to get to this point that their youth and experience wasn't something I thought about much going into the series.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they just defended the defender champions, even with the champions having, you know, as many injuries as they did.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: They just they just went into a game seven versus the team and won.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the youth aspect wasn't really important to me.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: But here we are, two games in, and it truly does look like the New York Knicks are the more experienced team.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: They look like the team that had been in these situations before.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you look at the New York Knicks lineup where like Jalen Bronte's never been in the finals, Mikhail Bridges has, Carnegie Towns, no, O'Jananobi, no, because he was, you know, dealing with the appendicitis, if I'm not mistaken, during that 2019 run to the finals that the the Raptors went on.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Josh Hart, no, McBride, no.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, uh none of these guys have like other than Mikhail Bridges' true finals experience, but OG's been in a ton of series.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Carnival Towns been to come from conference finals multiple times.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Jalen Brown, like they have overall experience, and you felt that.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Where at least early in this game, it did feel like the the pace is always gonna be the thing that teams are fighting for, right?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: We want you to play at our speed.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like the Knicks haven't winning that through the first two games.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: They've been playing the type of ball that the Knicks want to play.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna get to the Knicks in a minute, but there's times where you watch this Knicks team, you say, God damn, that's that's a that looked like the beautiful game Spurs.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I made that that comparison with like round two of the postseason, and some people hit me up saying, Kenny, you crazy.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And here we are in the finals where the drive kick against Wimbenyama has been so superb that I'm bringing it back up.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm bringing it back up.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: We got game three of the finals tonight.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And again, like I mentioned, there's there's no history that says the Spurs have a chance here, but who knows?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: It might be bad voodoo in the arena because of an appearance of a special person.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I mean special based on title, not special based on anything else, so maybe that turn turns the tie of the series.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of conversation about Wimedyama's reaction to winning that conference finals.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And Kevin Garnett had some very particular words from him that felt maybe a bit harsh in real time, but now we get to two games and say the series is like, oh, let the OG talk.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because KG is not one of them OGs that is a hater of the modern game.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: KG be showing a lot of love.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: So anytime KG like speaks a little bit like this, I think we gotta sit down and listen.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: We got a lot of games left.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I want this to be a 6-7 game series, but maybe not.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And when we come back, we'll flip it and talk about the Knicks and how great they have been throughout this run.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Here they are.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Your New York Knicks.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: My goodness, my goodness, my goodness.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned before that I'm I am a neutral fan in here.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care who ends up winning the series or whatever, but I do want to say this Knicks team is an easy team to root for.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: They just got a lot of guys to just like, oh my God, I want them to get over the hump.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want Jalen Bronson to put down the small guy, yada, yada, yada, even if he struggled from the field again in this game.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see Carnthon Towns get rid of the monkey about him being, you know, the starting center of a potential championship team with his defense.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I want Mikhail Bridges to get through the, I don't know, the hits and his jump shot.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, it's it's still falling, so I guess it doesn't matter.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: The hits and his jump shot in the five first-round picks.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: I want Josh Hart.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, all of these guys make it easy to root for them.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: But now they've won, if I'm not mistaken, 13 straight playoff games.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And 11 of those 13 have been by, I'm sorry, 10 of those 13 have been by double digits.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's nuts.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's nuts.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's just straight up nuts.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: This team is just very poised.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that goes underappreciated in certain situations where like the Spurs went in that really, really great run where the crowd is now rocking, um, they're hitting shots, they're playing great defense, and never did I feel like they wavered.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I still feel like they generated some pretty good shots.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like Jalen Brunson had a few open three-pointers that didn't fall.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think that he didn't really have his legs down the stretch, but like they still generated some really, really good looks, and they made the timely stops when it mattered.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think this bench has just been phenomenal for the entirety of the run.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Landry Shamut being able to play 30 minutes in a playoff game because you know Josh Hart is in foul trouble and he can't he went from a hero in game number one to like, my goodness, I don't want to see Josh Hart play right now.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: But that's the give and take of what Josh Hart is.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Landry Shamut making all these shots and great defensive rotations.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: There was a stretch in this game where Cardinan Towns picked up his fourth foul.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the officiating was a bit weird in this one.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I watched it in a scenario where I got to see all the bumps and bruises of this game, and I was so surprised to see that the whistle was not blown more, whatever.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the game ended up being great regardless.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: But Cardinal Towns does pick up his fourth foul on the play that I didn't agree with being a foul whatsoever.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: So he has to go to the bench.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it also happened to be the time where Jalen Bronson had to go to the bench as well.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: So the Knicks are running the lineup with basically Mikhail Bridges and four bench players.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's McHale, it's Mitch, it's Landry, it's Miles, and it's Jose.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: A small, a very small guard-centric lineup.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the start of this period when that that lineup checked in after the the foul from Caranthony Towns, Luke Courtnette was still on the court, and then eventually Wimbaniama got back on the court.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And even with all of that, when no Jalen Brunson, no OG Annobi, no Carnthony Towns, that unit that I just read to you, that Knicks unit with Mikhail Bridges and a bunch of role players and bench players, that that unit won their minutes.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought in my mind, again, not recognizing that the Spurs were about to go on a run in this fourth quarter, in my mind, in real time, I said, oh, they just won this game.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because that is the moment of time where the Spurs should have been able to put their foot on the gas a little bit, get into this lead, and even it all up, but they weren't able to.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of that goes to Mikhail Bridges, who, you know, like we mentioned, there are times in this postseason where he had literally zero points.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: There were times in this postseason where he couldn't close the game.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: That first round versus the Atlanta Hawks was a really rough one from our boy Mikhail Bridges.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: But he kept his head down, he continued to work, he continued to work, and it got to the point where now in this game two of the playoffs, he was what, the second most important player for this?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's amazing.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: I still can't believe that he's shooting that ball with that hitch and his jumper and still getting it off fast enough to get over a Wimbenyama closeout with Julian Champini closeout, but damn it, he's been able to do it.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And not to mention his defense, it may not be Mikhail JO like it was three to four years ago, but it has been still pretty amazing.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: The star of this game, though, is Carnthony Towns.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: The first half that Carnegie Towns played in game number two was one of the best halves I've seen him play in the history of his life.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that goes to both ends of the floor, the steadiness that you got from Mr.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Towns on both sides of the court, where you know, game one, I think he opened up the game beating Wimbayama off the dribble and getting to the basket a few different times.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: That was huge.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I do think that Wimbayama in this game was playing him a little bit more off until we got to the second half.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if that was a Mitch Johnson decision, and Carthen Towns wasn't as effective as a score in the second half, and I think Mark most of that is because of his foul trouble.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um where in the first half I did feel like Wimbenyama was playing off of him a little bit more, and I not because he didn't trust him as a shooter, but more recognized that like I am seven-foot gazillion with this wingspan.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: If I I should be able to play the drive a little bit and still be able to close out, but then the second half came around and it did feel like he was face guarding Kat a lot more than I anticipated.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think even RJ mentioned it on the broadcast that like I don't even know if Wiminiama should be playing that high.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, current town's just straight up phenomenal, and it's just not just like the first two games of the series, this has been the entirety of the postseason where I made the point at the end of the season, and though I didn't ultimately put him on my all-NBA team, I made the point that like would it be because of all the injuries that is going on in the NBA that Carnthony Towns does have a legitimate chance to make all NBA or have a legitimate case, if you will, to make all NBA.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it was even with the start of the season looking a bit, a bit weird.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it has to be praised that Carnthony Towns has gone from a guy that can average 26 points per game in a season to playing the role that he is now in not falling off his impact, even without the scoring being what it was.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the passes Carnthony Towns made in this game made you say, My goodness, is that Carl Anthony Jokic?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the defense that Carl Anthony Towns played in this game said, Oh my goodness, is that Carl Anthony Elijah Waugh?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, you're not getting blacks like Elijah Wan.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: But you get what I'm saying, damn it.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think Wimbanyama's having a really rough time figuring out the Carl Anthony Towns' defense.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think part of that is Carl's playing with his level of physicality that is maybe greater than what Wimbenyama saw in the bulks of his previous series.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think Carl Anthony Towns with the big ass size 24 still finds a way to be maybe a little bit more lateral than we give him credit for on the defensive side.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of the bad defensive Carnatic Towns seasons and series that we've seen starts up top.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Whether him not being locked in or you know, them relying on him maybe more than they should because of the exterior parts weren't great defensively.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: But now I just feel like Carlton Towns is really here.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when you hear him talk after game one about, you know, the presence of his his late mother being there, I feel like that is the I don't know, the mental aspect of the game.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're finding peace, if you will, on that court.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and he's giving a lot of credit to his to his mom, which is like such a such a beautiful story, grand scheme.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now the Knicks get to go home.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the the crowd is gonna be my goodness.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Again, being at game number one, I got to see how many Knicks fans were at that game.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as we hop out of our Uber to go to our seats, there's three full buses, like full tour buses full of Knicks fans that are being chartered in.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that didn't even give the cred like didn't show how many Knicks fans there really were.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And getting into Madison Square Garden specifically in game three is gonna be ridiculously hard.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: They already made the post about the Secret Service being there, obviously, because the president is going to attend game three.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then the price.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, I just don't know how many Spurs fans were actually gonna get in this game.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: It might be, if I had to guess, 97, 97-3 Knicks to Spurs fans.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And while I was in game number one, you know, at Frostbank Center or Frostbank Arena, whatever the hell they call it nowadays, it was probably closer to 85-15, 85 Spurs fans, 15% Knicks fans.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Knicks fans are not just normal fans, they're like the loudest of the fan bases, right?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Where like maybe it was a 50%, but damn it, it felt like 50%.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, it felt like 50%, especially when these games got really good.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'm happy that like, even though this is a 2-0 series, and you can make a really not so bold prediction about the Knicks being able to close it out.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: I am happy that the two games that we got have been absolute bangers.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know the Spurs are kicking themselves because they were one possession away, one bad turnover away from being in this one and maybe forcing an OT.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, even with the bad turnover, there is no reason for the foul.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think that also adds to it.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: From the bad turnover to the foul of Jalen Brunson, um, all of that kind of goes together to get to the point where like, oh my god, we're down by 2-0 in this series.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And now I think people need to start putting that respect on the top of that Eastern Conference, man.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it may not be as deep as the West, where the West be having 13 teams trying to compete while the while the East might be having seven at most.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: But damn it, the top of the East continues to show you every season, like they can compete.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Last year they went again, the the Pacers went against a dominant regular season team and win that series and like lost in seven, but like made it really interesting.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: And here we are, the Knicks represent for the East.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're two games, two wins away from doing it.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Before the series started, I picked Spurs and six.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Spurs and six.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think a lot of my own personal thing was trying to figure out what percentage of what the Knicks were doing was the Knicks being a great team versus them going against subpar competition.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think originally when I was asked that, I went 80-20.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: 80% Knicks being great, 20% being like they playing against bad teams in the East.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And now if you ask me that question, it might be like 75-5.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: This just feels like a team of destiny.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Where just like last year's Pacers, they cannot miss.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody shooting is up on a whole nother level.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: And like the ball hasn't gone to basket and win basketball games.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's just their year.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's just their year, y'all.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: For the first time in a gazillion of those things, it is their year.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think right now, if you were to ask me, I'm saying Nixon 5, right?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Nixon 5 feels feels about right.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Carnegie Towns will be my finals MVP, two games in, which is crazy.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Cat winning finals MVP, what?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: But shout out the Bronson because that fourth quarter first first game was very, very necessary.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when we come back, we got more small ball with Candy Beachum.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Before we go any further, do you want to say thank you to our partners over at DraftKings?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know all about DraftKings Pick Six by now.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pick more or less the different player stats for the upcoming games.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we are all tuned in to the NBA Finals.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'm doing before these finals games is looking at the pick six app, looking for some players, you know, some Bronsons, some cats, and looking at points, rebounds, assists, putting them into my pick set and decide if I want to go more or less on those numbers.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: So let's try to try to cook something up for this game three.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: As always, I'm gonna remind you to play responsibly.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that is the most important thing of them all.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want to start off with Car Anthony Towns, and I'm really struggling to figure out exactly where I want to go with Car Anthony Towns.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: His lines in these games have been close to like 17 and a half points, which I think is pretty interesting.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: He did get the more on that.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing that you can count on, as long as Big Cat is on that court, he's gonna close out possessions, legitimately become he is one of the best rebounders that we have in the game, and I think we don't appreciate that enough.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know what?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm gonna go to.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go Carl Anthony Towns more on rebounds in game three of the finals.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also looking at Josh Hart in a redemption, right?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Josh Hart's three pointers in game number two was at a one and a half.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh, actually, you know what, Josh?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna let you have that.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna let you have that.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: But Mikhail Bridges, on the other hand, I'm gonna look at Mikhail Bridges' three pointers.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go more again, all playoffs long, other than that one closeout game versus the Cavs, if I'm not mistaken.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: He has been red red hot.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: He cannot miss.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: He is getting that shot up and it is going in.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go more on three pointers on Mikhail Bridges.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'm gonna flip it on to the other side.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Wimby, it's time for you to make that impact deeper than the scoring.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see Wimby go to that glass and just kill it.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Last time in game number two, again, I don't know what game number three lines look like as I record this.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was at 11 and a half rebounds and he ended up with nine.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I do think that we will need to see a more forceful Wimbenyama on the glass in this one.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go more on his rebounds.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then last but definitely, definitely not least, I gotta go with the rookie again.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: He has been killing his more or less when it comes to points.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: It stays at like 10 and a half, 11 and a half.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: Last game he had 15.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going more on that again.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: So for game two of the NBA finals, I was in Dallas to watch, and I was doing it.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um I had to watch with my friends at DraftKings slash pick six, and they were doing this whole whole competition where they invited some of their um their most loyal, more loyal fans to watch the game.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's this big competition, and when I get there, they say, hey, oh Kenny, there is there's 25 grand on the line.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like somebody here could win 25 grand if they go perfect from you know their pick set.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh, that's kind of nuts.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like listening and I'm watching the game, and of course I'm watching the game because of the basketball, but I'm also watching the game because I'm interested to see if anybody in the in this arena right now or this this this facility is gonna walk out of there as a winner.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: So every time a big shot goes up in here, I'm hearing people cheer, but I'm wondering if they are they cheering because of their their pick set, are they cheering because of their Knicks fan?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Are they cheering because of their Spurs fan?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then Wimbayama got two rebounds um late in the fourth quarter, and the lady in front of me bounced up.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: I did it! And I said, Oh my goodness, is this lady gonna be the winner of that 25 grand that was that was told to me before the game started?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody's high five and her, you did it, good job, boom, boom, boom, boom.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then on like the second to last possession, another guy in the corner said, Yeah, and I'm like, oh my god, that he just went too.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: So in that event, ended up having actually five people win.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the pool was 25k.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: So all of those people walked out with you know five grand from their pick set.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I just thought it was a very interesting experience because I'm watching this game because I'm I'm like a die harp fan of the game and I want to see who's gonna win and you know ultimately end up winning the NBA finals.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: But there's also people here that's watching because yeah, they're NBA fans, but also, you know, they got things at line here.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I just thought that was an interesting dynamic to see as an as an outsider.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was in somebody else's domain, you know what I'm saying?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um so shout out to the team over there, they made it very easy for my trip.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, again, play responsibly, and when we come back, we got more small ball with Candy Beecher.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: For those who haven't checked out DraftKings Pick Six yet, there's an exclusive offer waiting for you.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, new DraftKings customers can play$5 and get$50 and pick six bonus picks.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is download the PickSix app and use promo code Enjoy when you sign up.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Pick six is available in most states, including Florida, Texas, and California.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid to get in on the action right at the upside with Pick Six.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: I want to open this up by showing my love to an absolute legend.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: A few while before I headed over here to do this episode of Smallball, I got a notification from the Chicago Bulls that made my heart fall into my stomach.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: The notification was that former Bulls player and longtime announcer of the Chicago Bulls, Stacy King, had suddenly passed away at the age of 59, 59 being such a young age.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: I had just made lunch, right?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: I've been on the road for the last seven days, and I just was really looking forward to some home cooking because my goodness, how many times can one man eat Chick-fil-A and Chipotle in a day?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I was really excited about this meal that I had prepared for myself.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then immediately after seeing the notification, that food that was in front of me was not appetizing at all.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last month, we've now lost Brandon Clark abruptly, Jason Collins with his battle with brain cancer, and now Stacey King.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the notification from Shams or whoever is going to be the one to break the news never feels better.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you are a die hard fan of the sport and of the league like I am, you find yourself in like a maybe sometimes unhealthy type of parasocial type of relationship with these people where you follow them on Instagram and you're you're you know walking side by side in their journey.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like I remember when Brandon Clark was drafted.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when he got injured a little while ago and how much we were talking about that meant to the Memphis Grizzlies, right?
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he passed away suddenly.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's it's death is one of those things that everybody's gonna, you know, mourn differently, but I still am in a weird spot in my own personal life when it comes to death.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: And these are not even people that I know personally, you know.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we've now lost three people.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and like I said, that notification never, ever, ever gets easier.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Stacy King was an absolute legend here in Chicago.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like I recognize that there's gonna be people that are listening or watching this episode that may have seen a notification but didn't think two times about it, or even maybe, I don't know, don't understand why Stacy King is getting an entire however many minutes of my show because of him.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like I understand that.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: But an absolute legend in the space.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: When people ask me, like, Kenny, what's your favorite broadcast booth?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: They some of the times they will add, not counting the bulls, and I would say, forget about that last part.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Adam Amin and Stacy King are a one-on-one duo.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: And before that, Neil Funk is Stacy King a one-of-one duo.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm always gonna have the Chicago Bulls number one.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then we could talk about number two or number three.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: And with Stacy King's passing, you know, you you stroll through Twitter, and it was it was cool to see like non-Bulls fans also recognize that as well.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Stacy King has so many legendary calls for being a local broadcaster, from Derek Rose ducking on Dragic to Derrick's stepback game winner versus Milwaukee, from from um too big, too fat.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like all of these moments just started piling into my brain after seeing the the unfortunate news of Stacy King's passing.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: And those are just the super public ones, right?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Every once every time, every couple times a season, you'll see Stacy King just be, I don't know, a one-on-one type of comedian.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Remember when the Bulls were on the road, I forget what city it was in, and they were just paying into the crowd and seeing all the different Bulls fans who love to travel to the game, and there's this one Bulls fan with a knockoff Michael Jordan jersey, and my goodness, Stacy King turned into Chris Rock, he turned into Dave Chappelle in that moment.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's another clip that resurfaced, and I don't even remember, but I'm so happy that this, like, again, death is such a weird thing that of course you're mourning, but I love to see that people are showing support and putting their favorite Stacy King commentary moments where Chris Boucher hit a shot in a random Bulls game with like DeMarta Rose is still on the team.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Stacy King said, My goodness, that's the biggest hairband I've ever seen.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Just small stuff like that.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Stacy King was so amazing and so electric in his commentary.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm coming, Elizabeth.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Give me the hot sauce.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh call him um Lou Boozy Vert, the king of giving nicknames to Bulls players.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Jimmy G Buckets and the G stands for gets that's Stacy King.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Bulls and NBA as a whole lost another great one.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so sad to see.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thinking about what Stacey King meant to me as a Bulls fan, it's so rough, but I I feel like 98% of the games that I've watched as a Bulls fan, Stacey King was on the commentary, and the other 2% was in Nash Televised games where I couldn't get the local broadcast.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: The entirety of me being a Bulls fan, Stacey King has been the voice.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: That is crazy.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we won't hear that voice again.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: I just, I don't know, man.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's just again, we lost the real one.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: We lost the real one.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um the abrupt nature of it too hurts, right?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: Jason Collins passing hurt, but like like I mentioned earlier, I I'd been following him on Instagram and his journey and his fight with his brain cancer, and the brain cancer that he was diagnosed with was one of the ones with like a a really high mortality rate, and he recognized that.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's hard not to think about that unfortunate end when you when you hear the statistics, right?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: So though it was a surprise, and though it was so gut-wrenching, it was one of those ones.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's like he gave a good fight to a a type of cancer that many people don't survive.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Brandon Clark won.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hits close to home.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm about to be 30 years old.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think Brandon Clark was 29, like we are the same age, and he suddenly passed.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Stacey King was an amazing commentator, like I mentioned.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: But by all accounts, he was even a better person.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Where he was the type of person that would commentate an entire game, a two and a half, three hour game, and then wait an extra two hours after the game to take pictures with people that hit him up on Twitter during the game.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no reason to do that other than just him being a kind soul.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um It sucks, man.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: It sucks.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Any like the bull, I've seen a ton of bad bulls basketball in my life.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: A ton of bad bulls basketball in my life.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: But very rarely did it feel like a chore to tune into a bulls game, even when they were really bad.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm watching, no disrespect to these people.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm watching like Robin Lopez, Jerem, Jerion Grant, um, goddamn Shaq Harrison and Walt Lemmon Jr.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: and Paul Zipser.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm tuning into these games, recognizing they don't mean anything, but I still find some greatness, and I think a lot of that goes to Stacey King.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Even when the games read down by 30, the banter between him and his co-hosts and his, you know, his his play-by-play person was legendary.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't imagine how that is replaced.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: If I had to make an assumption, I think the Bulls will probably wear pats for Stacey King for this entire season, hopefully beyond.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bulls are not one of the places that retire a ton of jerseys, but I would hope that it, you know, his microphone gets retired, maybe not his actual jersey, but some type of thing should hang in the UC for Stacey King.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I think one of the things that hurts a ton is like maybe I'm being too optimistic.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: But it does feel like brighter days are coming for the Bulls.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying this year or next year or the year after that, but like brighter days are coming, and it does suck that Stacy won't be here to potentially see that again.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: He was here doing some terrible, terrible seasons, man.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some terrible, terrible seasons.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I'm I'm giving my love to the people that knew him personally, to Adam Amin, who like I I don't I'm not gonna hit Adam up, but like I can imagine what he's going through as somebody that has commentated with with him, you know, 82 times a year for a couple seasons now, from Neil Funk to the team behind the scenes that dealt with Stacey on a daily basis, to his podcast co-hosts and their producers, to his family.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sending my love and support to them because I'm hurt and I didn't even meet the man.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't imagine how they're feeling.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's one of those seats that like whoever they hire to fill the spot, it won't hit the same.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm sorry for the next person because they're gonna do what they can and try their very best, but it's gonna be one of those seats that's gonna be really, really tough to fill, man.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Stacey King.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um may he rest in peace.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what we can all do in his honor is to just listen to I'm hoping and I'm praying that the Bulls are working on some type of piece for his best calls, because my goodness, that piece can be one hour long.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look it up really quickly.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: You type in Stacy, and it looks like everybody's on top of it.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Stacy King's best calls.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um in Chicago Sports Network has won from just last season, his best calls of the year.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: 15 years ago, there's a video with 900,000 views, the top 10 calls of Derek Rose's career with Stacey King.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, even just thinking about this year, when when Vusevich hit that game winner in the corner against the 76ers, I'm coming, Elizabeth, and you know, us us old heads get the reference of Sanford's son, but some of the young people are like, what is he talking about?
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Rest in peace of Stacey King.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I even this 10 minutes feel like it doesn't do the justice of Stacy, but um love and support to his family and everybody impacted.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um when we come back, we got more small ball with Kenny Beachum.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how I get back into the mindset for the rest of the show, but I'm trying my very best.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I want to get to questions from the audience.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: These questions were originally sent to numbers on the board as collective, um, but we didn't get a chance to get to them, so I screenshotted some of my favorite ones and I want to bring them to the show.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: The first one comes from Erica Play.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to EP, um, one of our um OG fans who we got to meet in Toronto.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: She came to our live show.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: Check out our live shows, man.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody that goes to them tells us that they are great and you want to be involved in those.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: She says, How surreal is it witnessing game one of the finals in person?
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: You guys have had so many pinch me moments.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: This gotta be up there, proud of y'all.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think, and may I I don't know if I'm just living in the moment because game one was just a few days ago.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is the number one pinch me moment that I've had.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: We've had many, many of great guests on the show.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: We've gone to many different places, we've done live tours and so on and so forth.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: But being in the NBA Finals, and I guess technically working at the NBA Finals felt like a goal that we'd never be able to get.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Not not meant not like by our own doing necessarily, but it is such, at least in history, had been such a I don't know, um, closed type of environment where these teams, the teams that have the broadcast rights, they're sending their best of the best people, you know.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: And and damn it, you know that tickets can get real pricey.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we it was gonna be tough for us to go on our own dime and on dollar.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it was the most surreal moment I've had as an NBA fan and as somebody that's done this.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um and not only that, we were at game one, and game one was a banger.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: I know ultimately it ended up being what like a 10-game 10-point win, but it was absolutely crazy.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: First time in San Antonio, the fans, I mean, we get off the plane, I get my rental car, and as I'm as I'm getting out of the enterprise, not an ad uh enterprise with my vehicle, as I as I hook a left, the car right next to me, not from the rental spot, but just a normal civilian of San Antonio, has an entire flag like on the dash.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, that's crazy.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: And as you get deeper and deeper into the city, you see more flags, you see more jerseys, you see wimbanyama.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: We went to the mall and there were 37 Wimbanyama jerseys.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: From I remember a kid that was barely walking had a Wimbanyama jersey on.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: And an older man that was enjoying some coffee in the middle of the mall, he had a Wimbanyama jersey.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: So like the city showed us a lot of love personally, and you can tell that they love their basketball.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but even in our Uber on the way to the game, I don't think it had hit me until I was in the stands and they were doing the starting lineups where the Knicks were getting announced and they had the Looney, it wasn't Looney Tunes, but it was something very uh cartoonish, the soundplay or the sound that they were playing.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking to myself, my goodness, this is insane.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it is it is the one-on-one moment, EP.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: I I just I don't know how it can be replicated, or I don't know how anything can can even match it.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was one of those type of experiences, and um, shout out to the NBA for giving us us that opportunity, and shout out to the team on the back end for making it the most out of it.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um the next question comes from Al Man.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you could choose one player other than MJ, who would you want to go back in time and watch in their prime?
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this one, I thought about this for quite some time.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Some names that came to Mountain's Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Will Chamberlain, you know, all of those guys that feel like mythical creatures in a way.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the one I landed on was Shaq.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're like, Kenny, you got to see Shaq.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: I did get to see Shaq.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: My first memories of Shaq for real, for real, he's like in Miami.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like again, I started watching in 2000-2003, but that was almost exclusively Bulls games.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I really didn't get to see a ton of prime prime Shaq.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we're at the point in time now where you can watch many and many games from Prime Shaquille O'Neal, right?
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: They went to the finals when he was Orlando, uh you know, three finals when he was with the Lakers.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, we got a lot of postseason games that I can watch for sure.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I have watched a lot of those games, but I think when I'm thinking about this question, it's not just about watching the player, it's about experiencing what it was like with them.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that means, I don't know, turning on the TV and seeing what they're talking about associated with this game, or picking up the newspaper, I guess, is a better thing to talk about from 96 to 2000 or whatever.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, picking up the newspaper and reading how people are feeling about Shaquille O'Neal as the most dominant player that I got to see, you know, as I got to see.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I would love to go back and just experience that because, you know, you read the books, you watch the interviews, you, you know, all of the things about Shaq not being in shape to start seasons and Shaq never hitting his full potential.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, God damn, you're saying Shaq didn't hit his full potential and he's arguably top 10 of all time.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: So imagine, you know, so I just want to see what it was like.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to see it in real time.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to turn on the tell and be like, oh my god, this is Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O'Neal going against, I don't know, Hakeem Elijah Wan, and just see what a young Shaq was really doing on a Thursday afternoon versus a really good team.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I also thought about like Larry Bird, who was a legendary figure in himself.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: Again, a lot of these guys you can watch the hardwood classics of, and I have watched these things, but I'm talking about on the day-to-day basis, Larry Legend.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: What was he doing that made him so, so special?
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: KJ says, what is the most heartbreaking loss of you've experienced from a sports team?
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to KJ.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: The easiest answer of my lifetime was versus the Commanders.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: Jaden Daniels, Hail Mary.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen my favorite Bulls, I've seen LeBron James hit a game winner against us in the playoffs, right?
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen many a player hit game.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was literally at a game where Tyrese Halliburton hit a game winner against the Bulls.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was at a game where my God, what was the other game winner I get to I got to see from the opposing?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: Regardless, I was at many two games off the top of my where the opposing team hit a game winner against my favorite team.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in those moments in time, it sucked, but it was like, oh, okay, whatever, at the end of the day.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: That Hail Mary broke me.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it broke, it broke the Bears too, right?
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't win a game for the rest of the season, if not, if I'm not mistaken, or they may have won like one more.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: That broke me.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, I'm watching it in my office.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I just yelled.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: I like jumped out of my chair in the air.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I was already at my chair, but I just I just yelled, like straight up yelled because I I'd not experienced that type of heartbreak before.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Grant Scheme, right?
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't, you know, that team was young and interesting, but not very great.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh Jaden Daniels and company, they were running things as a as a rookie QB and making a nice little run there.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: So like it wasn't necessarily about losing the game, it was the matter in which you lost it, where so-and-so players talking trash to the crowd and the ball is bouncing in the midair and it comes, it comes down with a catch, and I'm like, bro, no way, no way.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't like growing up, I was like, my family are Bears fans, but I didn't attach myself to the emotional part of it.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: My dad, my goodness, you know how I am about the Bulls, right?
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I got it tattooed on my leg, and like I'm watching every single game, and I know everything about the team.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: I know the shooting coach, I know the nutrition, this, I know all that.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's how my dad is about the Bears.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: And and growing up, there are many a times we'll watch games together and the Bears would lose, and I I would be like, oh man, that sucks, but like I'm I'm 13 years old, I don't really care too much.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let me go to the park.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: My dad's entire mood for like three days post a Sunday night game was very dependent on whether or not the Bears had won a loss.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: But in that moment in time, the Jaden Daniels Hail Mary, I felt like my dad, and how much my life changed from that one play.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's another reason why I want to, you know, want the Bears to be like actually good again.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I just want my dad to be able to experience what it's like to be, you know, the talk of the town again, you know?
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: He was around for the Super Bowl shuffle bears, and he was around from when we went against my old boss Peyton Manning in the Super Bowl and everything.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it's been a little, it's been a little rough since then, man.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a little rough since then.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: So like it's actually fun talking to my dad post the Bears game where like his opinion about many players can shift.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, this is how crazy it is.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is supposed to be a basketball show, but forget it.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're having a lot of fun answering these questions.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out KJ for making me go down this rabbit hole a little bit.
• 43:59
  unknown: The real
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: The end of regular season game that we had against the Packers.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is the game where DJ Moore catches that that pass.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful, beautiful game.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: Halfway through this game, third quarter, whatever, I'm literally on the phone with my dad.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: And Pops is like, man, I told you, bruh, they ain't have it, man.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: They just not ready, man.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Green bait always beats us.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yada, yada, yada.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then something happened.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're like they went on it on fourth down and got the first down.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm on the phone with my dad.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: And my broadcast is faster than his.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to him, Oh, ooh.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Hold on, son, I gotta call you back.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: Click.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: DJ Moore catches that pass, and my dad picks, called me back, said, We're going to the Super Bowl, baby.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, that's what fandom is.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I mean.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't go to the Super Bowl, but like, you know how, you know, he was he was out on the team with seven minutes left in the game.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then they came back and he was like Super Bowl shuffling at the restaurant.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so shout out to Pops, man.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Pops.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: I hope I know they say we got the toughest schedule next season.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: My goodness, first place schedule scares me a little bit.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but goddammit, Iceman is on the cover of Madden.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: So from what I heard, every person that's on the cover of Madden has a great season after.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I heard.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh if there's anybody gonna break the curse, it's goddamn C dub.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's all I'm gonna say.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: If anybody, if anybody's gonna break the curse, it's gonna be him.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: Remember Peyton Hillis was on that cover?
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: I voted in that.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't vote for Peyton, but I voted in that year.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: So bad that they had to change the rules.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're not letting the we're not letting the fans determine anything.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go with like, I don't know, a good face, a big face.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: When we come back, uh we'll have more small ball with Kenny Beachum.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: So after game one of the NBA Finals, I would I had an obligation in Dallas.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: So there were two options.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you either take a flight from San Antonio to DFW and you know, go from there, or you can go on a good old-fashioned road trip.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing about me, Kenny Peachum, I love me a good old little road trip.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: Longest road trip I've been through, I've I drove from New York City to Chicago, Illinois.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because I missed my flight.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: Or no, flight got delayed or canceled, whatever.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: And in that, I learned a lot about myself on that 10 hour, 20 and a half hour drive.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I was really excited to do a Texas road trip.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then I got in the car and I was like, why the hell am I not flying?
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: Why the hell am I not flying?
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was gonna be like a 40-minute flight or a four-hour drive, and I was like, give me the drive.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um It was cool though.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was really cool to see Texas in that way.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: I had been to Texas a few different times from doing a live show in Houston to again San Antonio for the first time to being in our like Arlington area a few different times.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's nothing, it's nothing better than like driving through a state and learning about the state that way, and that's exactly what I did.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um got rained on pretty heavily, and I didn't even know Texas really got this is how little I know about geography and weather and different places.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't even know Texas got that much rain.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I had like seven torrential, that's not the right word, downpours on my four and a half hour uh drive.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: But when I got to Dallas, I was scheduled to be doing an event at the Cosm.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: If y'all don't know the Cosm, please look it up.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's C-O-S-M, not an ad, but like where you can go to sporting events or watch movies and like this full immersive 360, and it's it's way crazy.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I ain't gonna lie to you, I was a really skeptical.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was really, really skeptical about the experience beforehand where I was like, I like I game one was so fun and such an experience.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: But the one downside to being a game one is that like I missed the broadcast.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: I miss hearing Mike Breen, I miss seeing replays because you're there, right?
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: You have to catch everything in real time.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I in my mind, this was gonna be something very similar, but my goodness, was it a way better experience I could have ever expected?
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: Where you're sitting courtside technically or sitting behind the stanchion, but there's also screens off the side in case you did want to focus on what the broadcast is seeing.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I got to see some ins and outs about this game that I've never would have been able to see while also glancing up to the big screen to see what the people were seeing on the broadcast.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I'm watching a game from again underneath the stanchion, and I'm getting to see how goddamn physical these games are.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can see that through the broadcast, but I think it's a whole nother element when you see it this close, right?
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: With so-and-so players driving to the basket and they're getting hacked six or seven times, and there's no whistles and stuff.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, my goodness, they really letting them play.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: You get to hear the players as they're calling things out.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing Wimbanyama, you know, guard the New York Knicks from under the stanchion and him pointing out rotations and stuff and them pre-rotating for different actions, and that was really cool.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: You got to hear Mitch Johnson calling plays, he called like a fist or an a pistol type of play, and you get to see that, and you get to see Mike Brown on the other end listening and hearing that and trying to tell his team how to counteract that.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was actually a blast, man.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I got to watch it with like I don't know how many fans were there, like 50 to 100 fans, and like there were uh San Antonio Spurs fans, they were Knicks fans, so we just got it was cool to like it was basically not like being at game one of the finals, but similar enough where it's like I would do that again.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: They also had like they were showing ads for like watching Willy Wonka and watching like the Harry Potter movies there, and I was like, damn, bro, I may want to come back, not for a sporting event, but I may want to come back to go watch a movie.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's how cool and immersive it was.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: I saw that they had like the World Cup they're gonna have up there, and I'm like, man, could there be actually what's the closest Cosm to me?
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: Is that the closest Cosm to me?
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: California's the other one, so yeah, I guess I gotta go back to Dallas.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know, I don't mind the trip to LA no more.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: I used to be very anti-LA in my younger years, but the last trip I had to LA was so so much of a blast that I'm like I can not to live, I would never live there.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you ever catch me living in LA, know that whatever company I'm I'm moving to work with, throw me a crazy bag.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_00: A crazy bag, because I don't think I could live there.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: But as far as like visiting for a week, I could do that.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's the move.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the the World Cup is there for a more uh a good portion of it.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe we go to the cosm to watch World Cup games instead of being in the World Cup arena and everything.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: Last thing I want to say, thank you to everybody that showed all the great hospitality between San Antonio and Dallas.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people said that they watch all the shows, so maybe you're watching this.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to you for being such a great um a great host of these Midwesterners that wanted to see what it was like to be down south.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, another great episode of Smallball Kenny Beachum.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_00: I will see y'all next week.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: Peace.