Latest / The Right Time with Bomani Jones / Tom Haberstroh on Victor Wembanyama becoming the Villain + Knicks biggest issue | 06.10

Transcript

Tom Haberstroh on Victor Wembanyama becoming the Villain + Knicks biggest issue | 06.10 · The Right Time with Bomani Jones

0:01
Speaker 1: Wave.
0:09
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A wave original.
0:14
Speaker 2: My name is Bomani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you
0:16
Speaker 2: get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like,
0:20
Speaker 2: rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only
0:22
Speaker 2: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
0:25
Speaker 2: a hater. It is that time of week where we
0:27
Speaker 2: have a guest join us. Check him out at Yahoo Sports.
0:30
Speaker 2: Also check out his newsletter, Tom the Finder. Tom Haberstroh,
0:33
Speaker 2: what's going on?
0:35
Speaker 1: Oh man, everything's great, Bo. Great to be on the
0:37
Speaker 1: show again.
0:37
Speaker 2: Hey man, I tell you, I'm I wish you were
0:40
Speaker 2: here in this city for, like, kind of the madness.
0:43
Speaker 3: I got to be honest, man. I got to, like,
0:45
Speaker 3: tap back in with people, man.
0:46
Speaker 2: I saw that our buddy Windhorse and his collective of
0:50
Speaker 2: people had a live show.
0:51
Speaker 3: Ain't nobody tell me about it. Vinny was on stage
0:54
Speaker 3: for it. Ain't nobody tell me about it.
0:55
Speaker 2: Like, I forget this, that the NBA Finals becomes, like,
0:59
Speaker 2: a convergence of the basketball world on.
1:02
Speaker 3: The cities they come to. And this time it actually
1:04
Speaker 3: came to this one.
1:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually think the Winhurst Collective Pod was like
1:09
Speaker 1: a last minute at the Gotham venue where they were
1:13
Speaker 1: just like, hey, next week we're going to do it
1:15
Speaker 1: at this show. And I guess because of the timing
1:18
Speaker 1: of it all, everything does have to be last minute.
1:21
Speaker 1: But the NBA Finals is not just the pinnacle of
1:25
Speaker 1: competition on the floor, but off the floor. This is
1:28
Speaker 1: when the media... saves their best takes, saves their best stories,
1:33
Speaker 1: their best reporting for the biggest stage. And that's always
1:37
Speaker 1: been true. I feel a lot of pressure. This is
1:40
Speaker 1: where it happened at ESPN was you would work, Bomani,
1:44
Speaker 1: all season long. And I was working at a time
1:48
Speaker 1: when LeBron was going to be in the NBA finals,
1:50
Speaker 1: like clockwork, where we had stories in the can that
1:54
Speaker 1: we had been reporting for months that our editors at
1:57
Speaker 1: ESPN and on TV would be like, hey, save that
2:01
Speaker 1: for June, you know, when all the eyeballs are on us.
2:04
Speaker 1: And so that is a lot of the, the, the
2:08
Speaker 1: climate in which media and personalities and reporters, they all
2:13
Speaker 1: are meeting at this big moment and trying to bring
2:15
Speaker 1: their best up.
2:16
Speaker 2: And this is, this is, I was trying to think
2:20
Speaker 2: of the last time it felt like the finals, not
2:24
Speaker 2: just at the finals at a point, but the whole
2:27
Speaker 2: finals had this many eyeballs upon it.
2:30
Speaker 3: Um, I don't have a great answer for that.
2:34
Speaker 2: Like, I feel like we might be going back into
2:37
Speaker 2: the 90s, honestly, because it's a perfect combination. Like, this
2:39
Speaker 2: isn't quite LeBron making the finals in 2007 was against
2:43
Speaker 2: the Spurs that nobody cared about. Victor with these Spurs
2:46
Speaker 2: that we do seem to care about against the Knicks
2:49
Speaker 2: and what I think is a big part of it also,
2:51
Speaker 2: the first year that NBC came back, meaning that those
2:53
Speaker 2: finals ran on over-the-air television the whole way. But also,
2:57
Speaker 2: LeBron had no chance in 07 and we all knew it.
3:00
Speaker 3: These guys have a chance.
3:02
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I also think that Wemby is such a
3:05
Speaker 1: lightning rod, quite literally the tallest guy in the NBA.
3:09
Speaker 1: And I think has over the last few weeks generated
3:13
Speaker 1: so much scrutiny by his physical play and the fact
3:16
Speaker 1: that he is not. We expected a Charles Oakley, Udonis Haslam,
3:20
Speaker 1: James Johnson on the Spurs because of that that Bismack
3:24
Speaker 1: Biambo hit job. that Wemby called for. But have we
3:29
Speaker 1: seen the enforcer and best player be the same player
3:33
Speaker 1: in the way that we're seeing with Wemby?
3:35
Speaker 2: The last time that I could think of was Akeem Olajuwon.
3:40
Speaker 1: Right?
3:40
Speaker 3: Like, keeping in mind, when Ralph Sampson.
3:42
Speaker 2: Hit that shot, it was because Pat Riley brought, of
3:46
Speaker 2: all people, Mitch Kupchak into the game to goad Olajuwon
3:50
Speaker 2: into a fight.
3:51
Speaker 3: And Olajuwon was like, bet. Let's do that.
3:56
Speaker 2: That's the guy that would swing on you. My brother
3:59
Speaker 2: got a friend who played basketball at a very high level.
4:02
Speaker 2: He didn't play in the NBA. He played at a
4:03
Speaker 2: very high level. And he would be in Houston a
4:05
Speaker 2: lot around the 80s. And he would talk about Akeem
4:08
Speaker 2: before the H.
4:10
Speaker 3: And he said, you be sitting there and the ref
4:11
Speaker 3: would do something crazy.
4:13
Speaker 2: And Akeem would scream out, suck my dick! Everybody has
4:21
Speaker 2: Elijah Wilde pegged now as the E-bomb, right?
4:23
Speaker 3: Yeah.
4:24
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no.
4:25
Speaker 3: That other Elijah Wilde was doing his own dirty work.
4:28
Speaker 1: I like, I like the, like English is my second
4:31
Speaker 1: language or in his case, probably his fifth language where
4:33
Speaker 1: he's like, has the accent too, where it sucked my dick.
4:36
Speaker 1: And it's just like, it comes out a different way. Uh, it,
4:40
Speaker 1: when he says it and before the H comes into
4:43
Speaker 1: his name. So earlier in his career, like you said,
4:45
Speaker 1: I do think for Wemby, uh, he's daring the officials
4:50
Speaker 1: to hit him with these flagrants and hit him with
4:52
Speaker 1: the foul calls. Uh, especially that Jalen Brunson one. And, uh,
4:57
Speaker 1: I did see Monty McCutcheon, who runs the refereeing for
5:00
Speaker 1: the NBA, go on ESPN, league partner on the biggest
5:04
Speaker 1: show program yesterday, and essentially say, Yeah, we're reviewing that
5:09
Speaker 1: play as well as all the other plays. And when
5:13
Speaker 1: asked what exactly they're going to be reviewing and when
5:16
Speaker 1: they're going to get a verdict on that, he kind
5:19
Speaker 1: of sidestepped the entire question because I think he knew Bomani.
5:24
Speaker 1: I think Monty McCutcheon knew that by the letter of
5:27
Speaker 1: the law, a flagrant one is when you have unnecessary
5:32
Speaker 1: contact committed by a player versus an opponent. And I
5:37
Speaker 1: don't think you can argue that that play, Jalen Brunson
5:41
Speaker 1: getting his head smushed from behind and the follow through
5:45
Speaker 1: from Wemby and the giggle afterwards, none of that you
5:49
Speaker 1: could say was necessary contact.
5:52
Speaker 3: And I think would.
5:55
Speaker 1: Cross the line of unnecessary contact. But I think Monty
5:59
Speaker 1: McCutcheon not touching the language of that law is an
6:04
Speaker 1: omission of that I think he knew there was no
6:07
Speaker 1: way that under the letter of the law, they could
6:10
Speaker 1: get away with saying that that was not a flagrant foul.
6:13
Speaker 1: But as we learned later, the NBA determined that was
6:16
Speaker 1: not a flagrant. They're not going to retroactively hand him
6:20
Speaker 1: a flagrant, which also adds a point to his flagrant points.
6:23
Speaker 1: And at four points, he is at two right now,
6:26
Speaker 1: four points, he would be suspended. And so to me,
6:29
Speaker 1: as soon as Monty McCutcheon got off that that stage,
6:33
Speaker 1: that NBA Today program, and essentially danced around the question
6:37
Speaker 1: whether that was deemed flagrant worthy, I think it was
6:41
Speaker 1: clear that the NBA wasn't going to hit him with
6:43
Speaker 1: the flagrant.
6:44
Speaker 3: All right. So two things.
6:46
Speaker 2: One, before I forget about it, I once saw a
6:48
Speaker 2: very bad standup comedian do an excellent bit about how
6:53
Speaker 2: Nigerians and have come to speak English better than English
6:56
Speaker 2: speak English.
6:57
Speaker 3: And it's 100% correct.
6:59
Speaker 2: Like, they get to the essence of the English itself. Like,
7:04
Speaker 2: there's an accent, but you understand every single word. Another
7:08
Speaker 2: discussion for another day. Here's my thing on the flagrant, right?
7:11
Speaker 2: And I said this on Twitter the other day, and
7:14
Speaker 2: somebody told me this was stupid, but I think I
7:16
Speaker 2: have the right idea, and I think the NBA has
7:18
Speaker 2: made mistakes. I know what flagrant means. If you got
7:23
Speaker 2: to go look at a videotape of it, it wasn't flagrant.
7:27
Speaker 2: That's not what flagrant means, right? Like flagrant does not,
7:31
Speaker 2: if something is flagrant, you.
7:32
Speaker 3: Do not have to go to technicalities of it.
7:34
Speaker 2: To me, the NBA made a mistake by trying to
7:37
Speaker 2: codify very specifically what a flagrant foul is or is
7:41
Speaker 2: not or whatever it is, right?
7:42
Speaker 3: So is that unnecessary contact? Absolutely. As you say, letter
7:46
Speaker 3: of the law, that's correct.
7:47
Speaker 2: Also unnecessary contact, whatever Kelton Johnson was doing on the
7:50
Speaker 2: same play against Carl Anthony Towns. Also unnecessary contact, all
7:54
Speaker 2: the clutching and grabbing every time the victor has the ball,
7:56
Speaker 2: like unnecessary contact is far too vague of a phrase.
8:00
Speaker 2: In the end, to me, with a flagrant foul, it
8:03
Speaker 2: gets into the space of the Supreme Court decision on pornography,
8:06
Speaker 2: where you know it when you see it.
8:08
Speaker 1: Right? So much of officiating is that too, by the way.
8:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, right.
8:11
Speaker 2: Like, so you're telling me it's a flat, not you,
8:13
Speaker 2: but you know, somebody gonna try to tell me that
8:15
Speaker 2: it's a flagrant foul that he threw Jalen Brunson down,
8:18
Speaker 2: except Jalen Brunson didn't leave his feet, right? Jalen Brunson
8:21
Speaker 2: was still in a position after that to go fuss
8:24
Speaker 2: at him about it while the play was still live.
8:27
Speaker 2: That to me is not a foul that we need
8:30
Speaker 2: to add points and go towards suspension and dah, dah, dah,
8:33
Speaker 2: and everything else. Cause as much as this, series has
8:37
Speaker 2: had physicality it hasn't had physicality in the way that
8:41
Speaker 2: I think of it which is to say we don't
8:43
Speaker 2: have hard fouls even that one it was disrespectful it
8:47
Speaker 2: was wild but it wasn't if there's no risk of
8:50
Speaker 2: injury we're not talking about a flagrant foul like I
8:54
Speaker 2: think for example the the landing area on the jump
8:57
Speaker 2: shots they put that in the space of the flagrant
8:59
Speaker 2: foul because they wanted to get rid of that so
9:02
Speaker 2: they need to put in like the super strong penalty
9:04
Speaker 2: in order to do that Okay, I get you. We
9:07
Speaker 2: don't need less of what Victor did with him. The
9:10
Speaker 2: best part about this for me is finding out that
9:13
Speaker 2: he's like, fine, I'll be my own enforcer. We can
9:16
Speaker 2: talk about how skinny he is, how he's from France,
9:19
Speaker 2: and everything else. And he's like, nah, I'm going to
9:21
Speaker 2: throw this dude down, and I'm going to laugh at
9:23
Speaker 2: him when he comes and tries to fuss at.
9:25
Speaker 3: Me about it.
9:26
Speaker 1: But, Monty, that was the craziest part was that he laughed.
9:29
Speaker 1: He's like, what are you going to do? I could—
9:32
Speaker 1: I control this league. That's what I think Wemby was
9:34
Speaker 1: thinking was not only did they not call a foul,
9:37
Speaker 1: they're not going to tee me up, and I'm giggling
9:39
Speaker 1: at the fact that you're trying to come at me
9:40
Speaker 1: after that, and you're not going to actually fight me.
9:43
Speaker 1: And Wemby, I think, has arrived at a point, whether
9:46
Speaker 1: this is said or unsaid by the league office, is
9:50
Speaker 1: I have reached a level of status in the NBA
9:53
Speaker 1: that I can do that, and you're not going to
9:55
Speaker 1: do anything, and the NBA is not going to do anything.
9:58
Speaker 1: And certainly, they've suit. When Monty McCutcheon was on the air,
10:02
Speaker 1: they said they were going to review it, and he
10:04
Speaker 1: said they did a poor job that three officials on
10:07
Speaker 1: the floor, one of whom, John Goble, was rated by
10:11
Speaker 1: the players as as a tier three official, meaning the
10:15
Speaker 1: bottom third of officials, the players rated him an NBA
10:20
Speaker 1: Finals referee year in and year out. The only NBA
10:23
Speaker 1: Finals referee that they rated in the worst category that
10:28
Speaker 1: they had was John Goble. He was watching the play
10:32
Speaker 1: and Monty McCutcheon said, we had three officials and two
10:37
Speaker 1: of them in that play were watching the ball rather
10:40
Speaker 1: than watching the off-ball screen, and he said that was
10:42
Speaker 1: a mistake, and they did a poor job of officiating
10:45
Speaker 1: that play, and it should have been a foul. And
10:48
Speaker 1: that is, I think, the ground that they're standing on is,
10:52
Speaker 1: if it was a flagrant, and we didn't even call
10:55
Speaker 1: a foul, then in your definition, Bomani, then that is true,
10:59
Speaker 1: that if we didn't even call a foul on the play,
11:02
Speaker 1: then it could not have been flagrant, And they decided
11:04
Speaker 1: to upgrade that to a personal foul rather than a
11:07
Speaker 1: flagrant foul. The thing about the landing zone that I
11:12
Speaker 1: think is important to note, did anybody on the Knicks
11:17
Speaker 1: or Mike Brown talk about the landing foul with Josh
11:22
Speaker 1: Hart when he landed on Wemby's foot in the corner?
11:25
Speaker 1: Or did anyone talk about the Jalen Brunson after the game?
11:28
Speaker 3: No.
11:29
Speaker 1: No. In neither case, it's only people on Twitter who
11:33
Speaker 1: are complaining about this. On social media, people are complaining
11:36
Speaker 1: about it. Noticeably, none of the players, including Jalen Brunson
11:40
Speaker 1: or Mike Brown, specifically raised that in the press conference.
11:44
Speaker 1: What Mike Brown was raising is the free throw disparity,
11:48
Speaker 1: which to me is a tell that Mike Brown, he
11:52
Speaker 1: didn't individually have a problem with the Jalen Brunson play
11:55
Speaker 1: or not enough that after the game, he's going to
11:57
Speaker 1: bring it up. But he was using, I think, coaching
12:02
Speaker 1: gamesmanship where he's trying to lobby to get more calls
12:08
Speaker 1: in game four than really about the flagrance and the
12:11
Speaker 1: landing zone things. So if they did have an issue
12:13
Speaker 1: with it, they would have raised it postgame. Don't you
12:15
Speaker 1: think about that? Like, don't you think that would have
12:17
Speaker 1: been in the case?
12:18
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely.
12:18
Speaker 2: I also make the point that I would say this.
12:21
Speaker 2: I don't think that Victor did that because he's like, hey,
12:24
Speaker 2: you're not going to do anything about it. I mean,
12:26
Speaker 2: I think he knew damn well that they were going
12:28
Speaker 2: to do something about it when he elbowed.
12:30
Speaker 3: Nas Reed in the mouth, right? Like, I think he does.
12:33
Speaker 2: These things because he believes these things need to be
12:35
Speaker 2: done in the moment in which we stand. I would
12:39
Speaker 2: also say that I think the NBA's leg to stand
12:42
Speaker 2: on in their decision is very simple. It is the
12:45
Speaker 2: NBA looking at us like, But that was another wire line. Hey,
12:49
Speaker 2: we didn't get to be we didn't get to be
12:52
Speaker 2: colonels or deputies, whatever it is, by being.
12:55
Speaker 3: Total fucking assholes.
12:56
Speaker 2: Right.
12:57
Speaker 3: Like, we're not stupid.
12:59
Speaker 1: Why?
12:59
Speaker 2: Why? Why are we not going to give Victor this flagrant?
13:02
Speaker 3: Because nobody wants to watch that game. except Knicks fans,
13:06
Speaker 3: but like, no, no, no, that, that wasn't going to
13:08
Speaker 3: be it.
13:09
Speaker 2: But what it is adding to, and I am curious
13:11
Speaker 2: what you think about this is the backlash has already begun, right? The, the,
13:16
Speaker 2: the various people with their, I don't like Victor.
13:18
Speaker 3: Because backlash has begun.
13:20
Speaker 2: And I'd like to say in some of those cases,
13:23
Speaker 2: it is to me, basically it's very similar to when
13:27
Speaker 2: you start talking about how good you think Jalen Brunson
13:30
Speaker 2: is or whatever. You should be required to tell me
13:32
Speaker 2: how tall you are so I can put this in
13:34
Speaker 2: proper context. Now, my guy, Dave Jacoby, who was quite tall,
13:37
Speaker 2: he jumped in with his. I hate the way we walk,
13:39
Speaker 2: hate the way we talk, hate the way we dress. Like,
13:42
Speaker 2: I feel like Victor has emerged as this interesting combination
13:45
Speaker 2: of the guy that does all the things that we
13:47
Speaker 2: asked for in ways good and bad.
13:50
Speaker 3: And we got to. But somebody got to not like
13:52
Speaker 3: that's the rules. Somebody has to.
13:55
Speaker 1: That is the fuel by which the NBA has always,
13:58
Speaker 1: always been running. Now, you're talking to a guy who
14:01
Speaker 1: was hired to be part of a four-person reporting team
14:05
Speaker 1: on the Miami Heat and the most hated team, the
14:08
Speaker 1: Heat Index, back in 2010. I was hired. This was
14:12
Speaker 1: unprecedented in media circles. The ESPN hired four reporters to
14:18
Speaker 1: cover one team for a national outlet. We're not talking
14:21
Speaker 1: about the New York Post hiring four Knicks beat writers.
14:25
Speaker 3: Or the.
14:28
Speaker 1: San Francisco Chronicle or Chicago Tribune hiring multiple Bulls reporters.
14:33
Speaker 1: I'm talking a national outlet realizing this is the most
14:37
Speaker 1: hated team in sports, maybe in sports history. I can
14:41
Speaker 1: tell you from experience that whenever the Miami Heat lost
14:46
Speaker 1: The ESPN ratings or the traffic that we would get
14:50
Speaker 1: on ESPN.com was at least four times more than when
14:54
Speaker 1: they won. People love to hate on the Miami Heat.
14:58
Speaker 1: And people love to hate on LeBron. People love to
15:01
Speaker 1: hate on Steph Curry. It's a league that is... fueled
15:06
Speaker 1: by the hate and so for victor wimbenyama who goes
15:10
Speaker 1: to grammacy park to to sketch with his sister that
15:13
Speaker 1: becomes not a oh isn't that cool that's sweet that
15:16
Speaker 1: the guy is trying to like you know just relax
15:19
Speaker 1: and calm down in the midst of one of the
15:21
Speaker 1: biggest games of his career he's going to the park
15:23
Speaker 1: and he's hanging out what an intellectual he's getting not
15:26
Speaker 1: that he's getting a lot of like a a That's
15:30
Speaker 1: a weird move. If you're, if you're cared about the
15:32
Speaker 1: NBA and the, and this is the biggest one, should
15:34
Speaker 1: you really be just at Gramercy park sketching? This is,
15:38
Speaker 1: I think a good sign for the NBA that Jacoby
15:42
Speaker 1: spike Eskin is another one who has come out hating
15:47
Speaker 1: this dude. And I think it's, it's healthy for the
15:49
Speaker 1: league in the sense that if, as long as it
15:51
Speaker 1: doesn't get crazy, I think it's good that we have
15:53
Speaker 1: Victor women Yama becoming such a lightning rod. And I
15:57
Speaker 1: do think that a lot of this stuff, certainly with
16:00
Speaker 1: LeBron and the signs that were held up in Cleveland
16:06
Speaker 1: on the return game, things can cross a line in
16:08
Speaker 1: ways that this vitriol can become dangerous and toxic in
16:12
Speaker 1: ways we do not want it to happen. And certainly,
16:14
Speaker 1: I guess there's been some fights in New York City
16:16
Speaker 1: where Spurs fans have gotten beat up because they're supporting
16:20
Speaker 1: the Spurs. I will say... As someone who is literally
16:24
Speaker 1: hired to cover teams, the most hated teams in sports,
16:29
Speaker 1: this is part of the game.
16:32
Speaker 2: The Victor haughtiness, the French haughtiness, which honestly I don't
16:36
Speaker 2: think has come up nearly as much since he's been
16:37
Speaker 2: in the NBA. People who listen to this show have
16:39
Speaker 2: heard me talk about this line before, but I'll just
16:41
Speaker 2: never forget it.
16:42
Speaker 3: It was when he had the Hoops Summit.
16:44
Speaker 2: It was against Scoot Henderson when we thought that Scoot
16:45
Speaker 2: Henderson was going to be the number two pick. And
16:47
Speaker 2: Victor said, yes, he's a great player. He would be
16:49
Speaker 2: the number one pick if I had never been born.
16:53
Speaker 2: Which at once is a wild thing to say, but also.
16:55
Speaker 3: In the moment seemed 100% correct.
16:58
Speaker 1: Yes, 100%. And he wants this. Like we've heard Anthony Edwards,
17:02
Speaker 1: like I don't want to be the face of the NBA.
17:04
Speaker 1: Victor Wendayama wants to be the face of the NBA.
17:07
Speaker 1: And he is literally shoving the next face of the
17:10
Speaker 1: NBA down with his entire hand, figuratively and physically pushing
17:16
Speaker 1: down the face of anybody else who wants to claim
17:18
Speaker 1: that throne. Now on the basketball side, Victor Wembanyama has
17:22
Speaker 1: taken the lead as the best player in this series.
17:25
Speaker 1: And man, you hit it on the head in your
17:28
Speaker 1: post game three reaction is Carl Anthony Towns has to
17:33
Speaker 1: be better. And they didn't get any.
17:34
Speaker 3: Touches for me.
17:35
Speaker 1: He hasn't scored in the fourth quarter in these three
17:37
Speaker 1: first three games of the series. And I wrote about
17:40
Speaker 1: it after game two is that Karl-Anthony Towns winning that
17:44
Speaker 1: matchup is the reason why the Knicks are up 2-0
17:47
Speaker 1: in the series. And in Game 3, that switched in
17:50
Speaker 1: a big way. And Victor Wimbanyama, we haven't seen a
17:54
Speaker 1: guy put up these kind of numbers since Prime Shaq.
17:59
Speaker 1: And as you pointed out, this is a guy who
18:02
Speaker 1: is 22 years old putting up Prime LeBron, Prime Shaq,
18:06
Speaker 1: these types of stat lines that we've only seen when
18:08
Speaker 1: guys hit their peak. And he is just 22 years old.
18:13
Speaker 1: And Carl Anthony Towns shrunk in game three, did not
18:15
Speaker 1: get any of the looks that they got in the
18:16
Speaker 1: first two games. And that's why we're sitting here, both
18:19
Speaker 1: you and I, I think that the Spurs could very
18:22
Speaker 1: well win this series, even going down 0-2 on their
18:25
Speaker 1: home floor.
18:26
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting.
18:27
Speaker 2: Six quarters in, we're like, hey, man, not quite ready
18:29
Speaker 2: for it, right? 07, LeBron in the finals comes up
18:32
Speaker 2: as the example. Which, by the way, we cut LeBron's
18:35
Speaker 2: slack for it because it was like, duh, it's so
18:36
Speaker 2: crazy that you even got here, right? The last six quarters,
18:40
Speaker 2: been a completely different situation, even with the meltdown that
18:44
Speaker 2: the team had. Because I think that was equal parts him, Castle,
18:47
Speaker 2: Mitch Johnson, everybody at.
18:48
Speaker 3: The end of that game.
18:49
Speaker 2: They melted down, but the truth was they weren't ready
18:51
Speaker 2: for that moment. They were absolutely ready for the moment
18:54
Speaker 2: in game three. as that stacked up. Now, I think
18:57
Speaker 2: that also the Knicks were under probably more pressure than
18:59
Speaker 2: they had been under ever. Because as I said, that
19:01
Speaker 2: was the first game that they were expected to win
19:03
Speaker 2: out of all of these. Not that they were expected
19:05
Speaker 2: to lose the others, but game three. Like I say,
19:07
Speaker 2: I'm walking around that afternoon. The guys are like, hey,
19:09
Speaker 2: Knicks in four? Buddy, you're fucking Knicks, man. Why are
19:12
Speaker 2: you doing this to yourself?
19:13
Speaker 3: Right? Like, just enjoy the ride. It might work out
19:17
Speaker 3: that way for you.
19:18
Speaker 2: But now, even if San Antonio loses game four, That
19:23
Speaker 2: doesn't leave me in a position of feeling like, well,
19:25
Speaker 2: there's no way that they could come back and win
19:28
Speaker 2: the rest of these games.
19:29
Speaker 3: I'm not so sold on that.
19:30
Speaker 2: Now, the question for me, and I'm curious what you
19:32
Speaker 2: think about this. Will San Antonio keep doing the things
19:36
Speaker 2: to get Victor close to the rim?
19:38
Speaker 3: Because that's the part that's necessary. Whether or not he scores,
19:41
Speaker 3: it can't be so much picking and popping like game two.
19:44
Speaker 2: The fact that the game plan was for Fox to
19:47
Speaker 2: get the screen and then Victor to shoot a jumper. No.
19:50
Speaker 3: No, no.
19:50
Speaker 2: You're at your best when you dive hard and go there.
19:55
Speaker 2: Add that to the fact that across the board, I
19:56
Speaker 2: think they've decided we don't think the Knicks can handle
19:59
Speaker 2: us knocking them around.
20:01
Speaker 3: But for so long, yeah, they can win this.
20:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, I still think the Spurs should be about 50-50
20:07
Speaker 1: to win this series despite being down 2-1 on the Knicks'
20:11
Speaker 1: floor in Game 4 because I think they figured out
20:14
Speaker 1: that Carl Anthony Towns, while he was able to withstand
20:18
Speaker 1: the Wembley experience in the first two games, The physicality
20:22
Speaker 1: that's required to guard him once he realizes, oh, I
20:25
Speaker 1: can get to the paint and you guys aren't going
20:27
Speaker 1: to stop me. He has acknowledged that he needs to
20:30
Speaker 1: do more of that in order to be the best
20:33
Speaker 1: player in this series. And the first couple of games,
20:35
Speaker 1: he was not able to be more physical. But there
20:38
Speaker 1: was a play late in the game where they got
20:40
Speaker 1: a lob to Wemby where he faked a high pick
20:44
Speaker 1: at the top of the key. And Wildcat was holding
20:49
Speaker 1: him in the screen. Wemby pointed up because he knew
20:53
Speaker 1: what he was about to do. Cut backdoor, rolled to
20:55
Speaker 1: the basket instead of setting the screen, and they threw
20:58
Speaker 1: a lob, and that was one of his four dunks
21:00
Speaker 1: in the game. The first three coming in that first
21:02
Speaker 1: quarter where they got every single time they wanted to
21:05
Speaker 1: get a paint touch to Wemby, they got it. And
21:08
Speaker 1: it reminded me, man, I have this. So in high school,
21:12
Speaker 1: I was playing against a team called Trinity Catholic. Dave McClure,
21:16
Speaker 1: he started for Duke, and Craig Osher, who was a
21:18
Speaker 1: point guard, started at Duke. Mike Krzyzewski was in the
21:21
Speaker 1: audience watching this play. I was at the bottom.
21:24
Speaker 2: Me.
21:24
Speaker 1: I'm six foot, maybe. Bottom of a 1-3-1. And I
21:29
Speaker 1: thought that Craig Austry was taking a three, but he
21:31
Speaker 1: was actually throwing a lob. And he dunked. Dave McClure
21:34
Speaker 1: dunked all over me. Had no business being the bottom
21:37
Speaker 1: of a 1-3-1. The reason why I tell this story
21:39
Speaker 1: is because the same thing happened with Carl Anthony Towns
21:42
Speaker 1: on that play is... he thought the lob was actually
21:47
Speaker 1: a pass to the wing, and Cat looked on the
21:50
Speaker 1: wing to see if he was going to have to
21:52
Speaker 1: close out on the shooter, and Wemby had already been
21:55
Speaker 1: at the basket because he ran to the rim so fast,
21:58
Speaker 1: Cat did not know what was going on. That, to me,
22:01
Speaker 1: suggests that this Knicks defense was disjointed in how they
22:04
Speaker 1: were going to tag Wemby and prevent those lobs, but
22:08
Speaker 1: he had four dunks in Game 3, which was as
22:11
Speaker 1: many as they had in the first two games combined.
22:14
Speaker 1: going to Wemby. He had 11 paint touches in game
22:18
Speaker 1: three and it was eight in game two and just
22:21
Speaker 1: six in game one. Hey, we both were econ guys.
22:25
Speaker 1: You don't need to have an econ degree to understand
22:27
Speaker 1: the trend line on that graph. Six in game one,
22:30
Speaker 1: eight in game two, and 11 in game three. That
22:33
Speaker 1: trend line is going in the wrong direction if you're
22:35
Speaker 1: the New York Knicks. And that is where the series
22:39
Speaker 1: is going to be decided in game four, is if
22:40
Speaker 1: they're going to be able to continue to get those
22:43
Speaker 1: downhill attacks for Wemby, get him the ball. And that's
22:46
Speaker 1: why I think De'Aaron Fox, while he has lost so
22:49
Speaker 1: much speed, whether that's due to age or due to
22:51
Speaker 1: his ankle injury, He is so important in having another
22:55
Speaker 1: ball handler out there to get Wemby the ball in
22:57
Speaker 1: the places where he's most effective. And yeah, by the way,
22:59
Speaker 1: the guy who's 7'18, most effective when he's around the basket.
23:04
Speaker 2: I would just like to make the point I don't
23:07
Speaker 2: think there's anything like more unfair and deceptive than throwing
23:10
Speaker 2: lobs in regular high school games, because like, this is
23:14
Speaker 2: not something that this is, this isn't a thing that
23:15
Speaker 2: happens all the time, right? Like you only coming across
23:18
Speaker 2: with so many people who can even do anything about this.
23:20
Speaker 2: Like I saw a guy get, one of the guys
23:22
Speaker 2: I went to high school with, he was a really
23:23
Speaker 2: good player and he got hit. Somebody threw the lob
23:27
Speaker 2: on him and brought it down. And I remember when
23:29
Speaker 2: it happened, like I was there and I was watching
23:31
Speaker 2: and I was like, I don't think it registered with
23:34
Speaker 2: me that he was throwing a lob because this was a.
23:36
Speaker 3: High school game.
23:37
Speaker 2: Like 30 years ago, high school, it really wasn't these
23:39
Speaker 2: cats out here doing all this stuff.
23:41
Speaker 3: It's like, what are you doing throwing an alley-oop out there?
23:43
Speaker 3: I would think it was a shot, too.
23:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've told Dave before that he has to thank
23:47
Speaker 1: me for Coach K giving him that offer after that game.
23:50
Speaker 1: So that was crazy, man. I thought it was a
23:54
Speaker 1: three when he took it. It was not part of
23:58
Speaker 1: my vocabulary going into that. It's like, oh, go tag
24:00
Speaker 1: him and bump him so that he doesn't get an
24:02
Speaker 1: easy look at the lob. I went to go box out.
24:05
Speaker 1: And thank God the photographer at that gym in the
24:08
Speaker 1: playoffs was not working the sideline at that point, that baseline, because, man,
24:13
Speaker 1: my friends would never let me hear the end of that.
24:15
Speaker 1: But that is what... I wrote that Carl Anthony Towns
24:19
Speaker 1: going into that game two halftime where he's like, he
24:22
Speaker 1: can't do nothing to me. When he was... beating his
24:26
Speaker 1: chest about Wemby, it was the opposite. Like I thought
24:29
Speaker 1: Kat was punking Wemby in game two. And I think
24:33
Speaker 1: the series flipped and we'll see if it happens in
24:35
Speaker 1: game four. But I think the series flipped that Wemby
24:38
Speaker 1: face smushed Jalen Brunson and then did all that in
24:41
Speaker 1: game three. And the league also said, yeah, we're good.
24:45
Speaker 1: We're just going to let them play. I think Wemby
24:48
Speaker 1: is in a confident zone here. And the question is,
24:51
Speaker 1: Is Mikkel Bridges, OG Ananobi, Jalen Brunson, Carl Anthony Towns,
24:56
Speaker 1: are they going to do something in game four to
24:59
Speaker 1: knock Wemby off that pedestal so he's not so confident
25:01
Speaker 1: and comfortable in game four? Or is it Mitch Robinson?
25:05
Speaker 1: I remember Jacoby saying, Huck Porty should be brought into
25:08
Speaker 1: the game. And I think that's the problem, is that
25:11
Speaker 1: when you don't have a guy who's out on the
25:13
Speaker 1: floor in those 40 minutes, 48 minutes, willing to do that,
25:17
Speaker 1: I think that says more about your team than having
25:19
Speaker 1: some guy at the end of the bench saying, to
25:21
Speaker 1: goon out there for you. I think the Knicks have
25:23
Speaker 1: to make a statement in game four that they're not
25:26
Speaker 1: going to be punked by Wemby. The guy who's never
25:29
Speaker 1: been in the playoffs before in the final stage, 22
25:32
Speaker 1: years old is the one doing the punking. All right.
25:34
Speaker 2: Now coming up next, I have a suggestion for the
25:36
Speaker 2: Knicks as to maybe what they should do there, but
25:39
Speaker 2: also a thought on Carl Anthony towns that just hit
25:41
Speaker 2: me that I think is really interesting.
25:44
Speaker 3: New York, the wait is over. The Knicks are back
25:48
Speaker 3: in the finals.
25:49
Speaker 2: And with FanDuel, you can cash in on a championship
25:52
Speaker 2: run that's years in the making. Because for a limited time,
25:56
Speaker 2: new FanDuel customers in New York get 50 to 1
25:59
Speaker 2: odds on the Knicks to win it all.
26:01
Speaker 3: That's right.
26:02
Speaker 2: All you have to do is bet $ 5 on the
26:04
Speaker 2: Knicks to win the NBA championship, and you'll get $ 250
26:07
Speaker 2: in cash if they win it all.
26:10
Speaker 3: The Knicks in the finals is a big deal.
26:12
Speaker 2: And that's why FanDuel is celebrating with a big deal
26:15
Speaker 2: of their own. Just visit FanDuel.com slash Bomani to join today.
26:21
Speaker 2: That's FanDuel.com slash Bomani to take advantage of 50 to
26:26
Speaker 2: 1 odds on the Knicks to win the championship. Play
26:29
Speaker 2: your game with FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of
26:32
Speaker 2: the New York Knicks. 21 plus and physically present in
26:36
Speaker 2: New York. First online real money wager only. Must wager
26:40
Speaker 2: in designated offer markets. Max bet $ 5. For help with
26:44
Speaker 2: a gambling problem, call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY 467-369. The
26:46
Speaker 2: biggest tournament in soccer is finally here. To make sure
26:57
Speaker 2: you never miss a single moment of the action on
26:59
Speaker 2: the pitch, you need.
27:00
Speaker 3: The Apple Sports app.
27:02
Speaker 2: It's a free app that fits perfectly into your everyday life,
27:05
Speaker 2: making it easy to follow your favorite teams and get
27:08
Speaker 2: all the information you need as matches unfold. There's a
27:11
Speaker 2: main tournament tab that bundles everything together. Live scores, stats, points,
27:16
Speaker 2: and rankings all.
27:17
Speaker 3: In one spot.
27:18
Speaker 2: You can even view starting lineups and team formations before
27:21
Speaker 2: games start. As the tournament heats up, you can track
27:24
Speaker 2: the bracket to see each team's exact path to the championship.
27:28
Speaker 2: And if you're on the move, you can display live
27:31
Speaker 2: scores right on your iPhone lock screen to keep up
27:34
Speaker 2: with your favorite teams at a glance.
27:37
Speaker 3: Stay closer to the game. Download the Apple Sports app
27:40
Speaker 3: for free in the App Store.
27:43
Speaker 2: All right, we are back with Tom Haverstraw. Check out
27:45
Speaker 2: his newsletter, Tom the Fighter. Check him out at Yahoo Sports.
27:51
Speaker 2: I think what is very interesting to me about Carl
27:53
Speaker 2: Anthony Towns and just the ways that we have perceived him.
27:55
Speaker 2: I've talked on this show before already about how, let's
27:58
Speaker 2: not get revisionist on this. Oh, y'all feel bad what
28:01
Speaker 2: y'all was saying about Carl before? Hell no, go watch
28:03
Speaker 2: some games. We was right then, and then things changed.
28:06
Speaker 2: But things changed so far. Did you ever imagine that
28:08
Speaker 2: there would be a world where Carl Anthony Towns would
28:11
Speaker 2: make it to the NBA Finals and have three straight
28:14
Speaker 2: games where he did not score in the fourth quarter
28:16
Speaker 2: and that we do not pile onto him?
28:19
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
28:19
Speaker 3: Because of this.
28:20
Speaker 2: In fact, it's a place where we look at the
28:22
Speaker 2: team and we're like, hey, don't you think you guys
28:24
Speaker 2: should get Carl the ball more in the fourth quarter?
28:26
Speaker 2: And you tell me if I'm wrong, but my observation
28:28
Speaker 2: of it is he hasn't gotten the ball because Brunson
28:31
Speaker 2: dribbling the air out of it.
28:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Here are the numbers on that. Jalen Brunson
28:35
Speaker 1: through three games has dribbled the ball 1,500 times, 1,590
28:41
Speaker 1: times in three games. De'Aaron Fox, who's played the same
28:45
Speaker 1: number of minutes as Jalen Brunson, also all-star point guard
28:48
Speaker 1: this year, He has dribbled the ball not 1,500 times,
28:52
Speaker 1: not even 1,200 times, not even 1,000 times. He has
28:55
Speaker 1: dribbled the ball 802 times. Okay. 1,590 for Jalen Brunson
29:02
Speaker 1: and 802 in the same number of minutes. Two totally
29:06
Speaker 1: different approaches. And I think that Jalen Brunson had a
29:10
Speaker 1: rough film session after game three because they talked about it.
29:14
Speaker 1: We're watching film. We got to get back to our spacing.
29:16
Speaker 1: our ball movement, and they're not going to call them
29:19
Speaker 1: out by name, but I think we can all read
29:23
Speaker 1: between the lines. They were talking about Brunson dribbling the
29:26
Speaker 1: air out of the ball quite literally more than anybody
29:29
Speaker 1: else and more than 700 more dribbles than De'Aaron Fox
29:34
Speaker 1: in this series. And they both have played the same
29:36
Speaker 1: number of minutes. That to me is a big, reason
29:40
Speaker 1: why Carl Anthony Towns was their best player for the
29:44
Speaker 1: majority of this 13-game win streak because of the way
29:47
Speaker 1: he defended and because he was the fulcrum of that
29:50
Speaker 1: offense where he was playing water polo at the high
29:52
Speaker 1: post in the motion offense, the flex offense.
29:55
Speaker 3: That was.
29:56
Speaker 1: A total game-changing move by Mike Brown, utilizing Karl-Anthony Towns
30:01
Speaker 1: as a pressure release and a lot of the drivers
30:04
Speaker 1: for a lot of this run. Karl-Anthony Towns was the
30:07
Speaker 1: leader on the finals team in assists. I don't think
30:11
Speaker 1: we're stressing this enough and emphasizing this enough that Carl
30:15
Speaker 1: Anthony Towns was the leader on a finals team in
30:18
Speaker 1: assists for the long stretch of those postseason games. So
30:21
Speaker 1: I think that is a huge thing that they're going
30:23
Speaker 1: to have to get back to if they want to
30:25
Speaker 1: flip this series back in control of the Knicks.
30:27
Speaker 2: It's a weird dynamic when your best player is not
30:31
Speaker 2: the king of the city.
30:33
Speaker 3: Right. Like it was it.
30:35
Speaker 2: Golden State was so good during the Durant run that
30:37
Speaker 2: he didn't feel it.
30:38
Speaker 3: But as it got there later and later in that run,
30:40
Speaker 3: they don't talk about it a lot. But there was
30:42
Speaker 3: there was times attention to Steph Curry being like, yo,
30:45
Speaker 3: what do you think I am over here? Huh?
30:46
Speaker 2: Like, like, let's not forget that I kind of run
30:49
Speaker 2: this right. Would never say it out loud, but it's
30:51
Speaker 2: the subtle undercurrent. The baseball example I gave before, obviously,
30:54
Speaker 2: is Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. um you also have
30:58
Speaker 2: it like johnny bench and pete rose was the same
31:00
Speaker 2: thing but it's a it's a when that when those
31:02
Speaker 2: two titles aren't held by the same person they get
31:05
Speaker 2: interesting especially when jalen brunson is such a good clutch
31:09
Speaker 2: player right like he's that guy and he's one of
31:12
Speaker 2: these guys that kind of at every step of the
31:14
Speaker 2: way of his career he's been that guy he's national
31:16
Speaker 2: player of the year at villanova at that size with
31:19
Speaker 2: all those nba players you know who happen to be
31:22
Speaker 2: on the team like the They've got to figure out.
31:26
Speaker 2: I think it's that part. Everybody being like, look, man,
31:28
Speaker 2: let's just play.
31:29
Speaker 3: Right. Everybody's going to get props if we win it.
31:32
Speaker 2: Jalen Brunson is going to be Jalen Brunson in New
31:33
Speaker 2: York City forever. Whether or not he doesn't score any buckets,
31:37
Speaker 2: just as long as they win this, they're going to
31:39
Speaker 2: be OK. Now, I got the solution for the Knicks.
31:44
Speaker 2: The Knicks have the obvious answer. Oh, what do you
31:47
Speaker 2: do to shut down Victor? Um, there's never been anybody
31:51
Speaker 2: in the league better at disrupting Victor when Banyama and
31:55
Speaker 2: stopping him from getting looks and stopping him from getting
31:57
Speaker 2: the ball. Then the dude that the Knicks have that
31:59
Speaker 2: nobody's even thinking.
32:00
Speaker 3: About, you know who I'm talking about? Who's that? Cisco, Cisco,
32:06
Speaker 3: Cisco over there at the end of the bench. Um,
32:09
Speaker 3: Jeremy was so high. Yeah.
32:11
Speaker 1: Yeah.
32:11
Speaker 2: Yeah.
32:12
Speaker 3: He died at the end of the bench.
32:13
Speaker 2: Nobody's ever been better at stopping Victor from getting the
32:15
Speaker 2: ball in him. That's all he did when he was
32:17
Speaker 2: in San Antonio was stop Victor from getting the ball.
32:20
Speaker 3: And he clearly don't seem to like him very much.
32:22
Speaker 3: He said, you said Cisco out there.
32:25
Speaker 1: I mean, the, the, the atrocity that was point, Jeremy Sohan,
32:30
Speaker 1: I don't think was talked about enough at NBA circles.
32:33
Speaker 2: Yo, that was when it was like, Hey, we got
32:35
Speaker 2: to get pop up out of here, man. Like he
32:37
Speaker 2: lost his fastball.
32:39
Speaker 1: I mean, they were playing with their food so much
32:41
Speaker 1: in the early part of Victor women. Yeah. They thought
32:44
Speaker 1: that Cooper flag was Jeremy Sohan. They were like, Hey, we,
32:47
Speaker 1: we think he's going to be a point guard, a
32:49
Speaker 1: big point guard defender in the NBA. And that was,
32:53
Speaker 1: I think that stunted so much of what the Spurs
32:55
Speaker 1: could have been. And, and look, man, like, The Spurs,
33:01
Speaker 1: they know. They've got Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, which, man,
33:06
Speaker 1: I can't say I've ever seen a rookie, Dylan Harper,
33:12
Speaker 1: bully a guy like OG Ananobi, all defensive guy, as
33:16
Speaker 1: strong as he is. I've never seen a rookie be
33:20
Speaker 1: able to be that strong around the basket as Dylan Harper.
33:23
Speaker 1: You have to remember, Jalen Brunson, Dylan Harper are both
33:26
Speaker 1: second-gen guys. that they are literally the bloodline of NBA players,
33:32
Speaker 1: and they've lived this life, their entire lives, they've been
33:36
Speaker 1: in the NBA world and know what it takes. And
33:38
Speaker 1: Rick Brunson, I don't know what you thought about that,
33:41
Speaker 1: was when he went out on the sidelines to De'Aaron Fox,
33:45
Speaker 1: because that's a moment we'll never see in the end.
33:47
Speaker 1: Even if LeBron and Bronny are on the same team,
33:50
Speaker 1: that the opposing coach... came out here as a father
33:54
Speaker 1: and got in the face of De'Aaron Fox.
33:56
Speaker 3: And see, and that's the thing.
33:57
Speaker 2: Your daddy is not allowed on the court.
34:00
Speaker 3: You understand what I'm saying?
34:01
Speaker 2: Like, either you're going to be the coach or you're
34:03
Speaker 2: going to be dad. But it can't be. And look,
34:06
Speaker 2: the whole, we don't talk enough about just how weird
34:10
Speaker 2: the whole Rick Brunson thing is. And let me tell you,
34:12
Speaker 2: if things ever go sour with the Knicks and how
34:15
Speaker 2: this is going, we'll always have to look back when
34:17
Speaker 2: Dante DiVincenzo got in that screaming match with them. And
34:21
Speaker 2: it was obvious who he was screaming at was Rick Brunson.
34:24
Speaker 2: Like the Rick Brunson presence with the Knicks is not
34:29
Speaker 2: nearly as smooth a thing as I think that we
34:33
Speaker 2: treat it as being. And that moment right there was
34:36
Speaker 2: another reminder, like, dude, why are you even here?
34:39
Speaker 1: Well, because Jalen Brunson, they needed to get Jalen Brunson,
34:44
Speaker 1: and that helps matters when you can have a guy
34:47
Speaker 1: who literally created that human being on your sidelines, on
34:52
Speaker 1: your payroll. And the NBA, I think they've already investigated
34:55
Speaker 1: whether that has been... a money laundering operation that they're
35:00
Speaker 1: just running all. Hey, do we know that Rick Brunson
35:03
Speaker 1: is making $ 50 million a year to be the assistant
35:05
Speaker 1: coach to Tom Thibodeau? Apparently not. They have done their
35:10
Speaker 1: due diligence on that. But the point is that Jalen
35:14
Speaker 1: Brunson and Dylan Harper, I think I've talked about it
35:18
Speaker 1: on this show, is it's a big reason why I
35:21
Speaker 1: think Cam Boozer should be the number one overall pick
35:24
Speaker 1: is there's just something about being the nepotism on the
35:30
Speaker 1: floor that they get hurt in the draft. Jalen Brunson
35:34
Speaker 1: was a second-round pick, right? They get, I guess, docked
35:40
Speaker 1: points on the big board coming into the league as
35:43
Speaker 1: the son of an NBA player, and I think it's unfair.
35:47
Speaker 1: I think it's a huge reason why Jalen Brunson is being.
35:53
Speaker 1: Throughout his career, even with the Dallas Mavericks, is they
35:55
Speaker 1: didn't take him as seriously as he is now, is
35:58
Speaker 1: that these guys, they're underrated, criminally underrated. And Dylan Harper, man,
36:04
Speaker 1: the way that he's played in this postseason run, the
36:07
Speaker 1: way that the entire Spurs, the inexperience and the youth
36:11
Speaker 1: has been their advantage. And I think that's a big
36:13
Speaker 1: reason why right now we're both sitting here being like,
36:16
Speaker 1: I think the Spurs are going to win this thing.
36:18
Speaker 2: The question I would have had about Brunson coming out
36:21
Speaker 2: of college is the question that I think we have
36:23
Speaker 2: a lot about a lot of these guys who are
36:25
Speaker 2: great college players, but kind of forecast into being good
36:30
Speaker 2: NBA players at best, which obviously Brunson has exceeded. But
36:33
Speaker 2: the question becomes, so if you're not the best player
36:37
Speaker 2: on this team, then how much are we getting from
36:40
Speaker 2: our six, one and a half lead guard?
36:42
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
36:44
Speaker 2: Like Frank Mason at Kansas would be an example of
36:47
Speaker 2: a guy like that. You're National Player of the Year
36:49
Speaker 2: in college, but if we're not giving you the ball
36:52
Speaker 2: and making you that guy in the league, what are
36:54
Speaker 2: you going to turn out to be?
36:55
Speaker 3: But I think Brunson's game.
36:57
Speaker 2: Is just so like sophisticated in the little things like
37:00
Speaker 2: that's the thing that I think a lot of people
37:02
Speaker 2: don't get about high level basketball, even if you're not
37:05
Speaker 2: talking about NBA players, just guys who play in college.
37:07
Speaker 2: Like my brother always talks about he used to play
37:09
Speaker 2: pickup against some dude who played college ball. And he
37:12
Speaker 2: said the dude would blow by him every time and
37:14
Speaker 2: he couldn't figure it out. He's like, yeah, I'm just
37:15
Speaker 2: looking in your shoe and looking for when your toe
37:17
Speaker 2: come up.
37:18
Speaker 3: Right? You know, it's like, it's those kinds of things.
37:19
Speaker 3: What they said about.
37:20
Speaker 2: Kobe when Kobe was in high school, that Kobe was
37:22
Speaker 2: playing these pickup games against pros and he's elbowing you
37:25
Speaker 2: in the ribs before he cuts out to go catch
37:28
Speaker 2: the pass. They're like, yo, you don't learn that till
37:29
Speaker 2: you get to the NBA.
37:31
Speaker 1: Son of an NBA player.
37:32
Speaker 2: Learn a lot of these things. Now, sometimes those guys
37:35
Speaker 2: can be a little too refined early, so there's not
37:37
Speaker 2: room for growth, which I think may be part of
37:39
Speaker 2: the penalty that those dudes receive. But Harper's different because
37:42
Speaker 2: Harper has his dad's athleticism, which you guys who only
37:45
Speaker 2: picked up Rod Harper as the older Rod Harper don't understand.
37:48
Speaker 3: That dude was, that dude, something. And his son has it.
37:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, when we talk about Jalen Brunson, I think
37:57
Speaker 1: when you're like, he has this level of footwork and
38:03
Speaker 1: the perseverance and the same thing with, with Dylan Harper.
38:06
Speaker 1: You only get that. I think with a certain confidence
38:08
Speaker 1: that you've been, you know, you've been around NBA locker
38:12
Speaker 1: rooms and you've been not afraid of the moment. Cause
38:14
Speaker 1: you have that level of, I don't know if it's
38:17
Speaker 1: kind of like a intuitive sense or whether it's been
38:19
Speaker 1: taught to you, but Dylan Harper, just the, the, His
38:25
Speaker 1: finishing around the rim this season is something you see
38:28
Speaker 1: for a guy in his prime, much in the same
38:29
Speaker 1: way we talk about Wemenyama arriving way earlier than many expected.
38:34
Speaker 1: Dylan Harper finished around the rim in ways that you
38:36
Speaker 1: thought he was 26, not 20 years old. Now, Jalen
38:40
Speaker 1: Brunson in clutch. So this is final five minutes, game
38:44
Speaker 1: within five. In the first three games, we've had three
38:48
Speaker 1: clutch games already in the NBA Finals, which is crazy.
38:50
Speaker 1: It hasn't happened, I think, in a decade. Jalen Brunson
38:53
Speaker 1: has 12 field goal attempts and Carl Anthony Towns has zero.
38:58
Speaker 3: Okay.
39:00
Speaker 1: It's not just Bomani that Carl Anthony Towns hasn't scored
39:04
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. It's he hasn't even gotten a
39:06
Speaker 1: shot in the nine minutes that we've had clutch scenarios
39:10
Speaker 1: in this series. Jalen Brunson has 12 and Carl Anthony
39:15
Speaker 1: Towns has zero. So that is such an interesting stat
39:19
Speaker 1: when you talk about the post-game comments from the team.
39:23
Speaker 1: is that, A, he has got a usage rate of
39:26
Speaker 1: nearly 80% in clutch situations. And OG Ananobi has five shots.
39:32
Speaker 1: Shaman has one. Mikel Bridges has one. But when you
39:35
Speaker 1: have more shots than the rest of your teammates combined,
39:37
Speaker 1: including the six-time All-Star Carl Anthony Towns, who many believe
39:41
Speaker 1: was the Finals MVP heading into Game 3, not having
39:43
Speaker 1: a single shot in crunch time, that to me needs
39:46
Speaker 1: some correction in Game 4.
39:48
Speaker 2: On one hand, it's like, see, we saying this on Brunson.
39:51
Speaker 2: On the other hand, with Carl, that's what.
39:53
Speaker 3: We used to be talking about.
39:55
Speaker 1: Right?
39:56
Speaker 3: Like, the fact.
39:58
Speaker 2: He's just not the guy who could come in and
40:00
Speaker 2: be like, hey, enough of the bullshit.
40:03
Speaker 3: Give me the ball.
40:04
Speaker 2: Even if you just give it to me one time,
40:06
Speaker 2: give me the ball. There's nobody in the building that
40:08
Speaker 2: can guard him. That's what we learned in games one
40:10
Speaker 2: and two is there's nobody who can guard him. And again,
40:13
Speaker 2: I say this all the time. The only person in
40:15
Speaker 2: the league that can guard him is 32 for the Knicks, right?
40:17
Speaker 2: Like there's never a series where you go into it
40:20
Speaker 2: and Carl's there and you're like, so who's going to
40:21
Speaker 2: guard him? Like maybe Aaron Gordon when they played against
40:27
Speaker 2: Denver when he was in Minnesota, right? Like that was, oh,
40:30
Speaker 2: maybe that guy can guard Carl. There's a reason he's
40:32
Speaker 2: the number one pick. he's physically somebody that nobody should
40:36
Speaker 2: be able to guard.
40:37
Speaker 3: How crazy would it be though?
40:38
Speaker 2: If he comes out and Carl Anthony towns puts up
40:40
Speaker 2: like 40.
40:40
Speaker 3: Yeah.
40:41
Speaker 1: I mean, I wouldn't put it past him because I mean,
40:44
Speaker 1: he's that he's that talented, but the issue is they
40:48
Speaker 1: guarded him differently in game three with Stefan castle out
40:51
Speaker 1: guarding him. And Victor women Yama was, was chilling in
40:55
Speaker 1: the corner or the paint. And he, And you saw
40:58
Speaker 1: in the first couple of games is that Wemby, as
41:01
Speaker 1: long and as mobile he is, Carl Anthony Towns was
41:04
Speaker 1: getting past him, was getting that first step because he
41:08
Speaker 1: had to close out hard on Carl Anthony Towns. And
41:10
Speaker 1: that's the, it's the, it's the pump and go is
41:13
Speaker 1: that when he gets that pump fake, because he's a 48%
41:16
Speaker 1: three point shooter in the playoffs, this post-season run. And
41:19
Speaker 1: as he's self-proclaimed the greatest shooting big man ever, you
41:23
Speaker 1: got to show on that jumper. And so if you're
41:26
Speaker 1: going to pump fake, Carl is going to blow right
41:28
Speaker 1: by you. And that also pulls Victor Wemby on the
41:32
Speaker 1: perimeter where he's not better utilized. And so for Victor
41:37
Speaker 1: Wemby and the Spurs, they realize, all right, if they're
41:40
Speaker 1: not going to get him in that water polo, I'm
41:48
Speaker 1: going to lead the offense over Stephon Castle. If they're
41:52
Speaker 1: not going to do that, we're going to stick a
41:54
Speaker 1: guard on him because Wemby is going to be at
41:56
Speaker 1: that back line. And so Mike Brown and the Knicks
42:00
Speaker 1: have to do a better job of taking advantage and
42:02
Speaker 1: capitalizing on a guard guarding Carl Anthony Towns rather than
42:06
Speaker 1: Victor Wemby. And I think that's where the series switched.
42:09
Speaker 1: where I honestly think this series could be Spurs up 3-0.
42:14
Speaker 1: They're the only team in this series that have had
42:17
Speaker 1: a lead in the final five minutes in all three games.
42:22
Speaker 3: Okay. Yeah.
42:24
Speaker 1: I just think that Spurs should be feeling like they
42:28
Speaker 1: could be up 3-0 in this series, and the Knicks
42:31
Speaker 1: have to be pretty thrilled that they're up 2-1.
42:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think people got ahead of themselves in this
42:35
Speaker 2: series with the Carl Anthony Towns dirt comparisons, but... Carl
42:40
Speaker 2: is not like 06, 07 Dirk in the sense that
42:43
Speaker 2: you can't guard him with little people, right?
42:45
Speaker 3: Like he is, he is much better equipped.
42:47
Speaker 2: Dirk eventually got to that point, but you can't, you cannot.
42:51
Speaker 3: Guard him with little people, right?
42:53
Speaker 2: Like we're just going to get under here and, you know,
42:54
Speaker 2: just elbow him and make him uncomfortable underneath with like
42:57
Speaker 2: a Steven Jackson or Al Harrington who are not little,
43:00
Speaker 2: but they're little for purposes of this discussion, right?
43:02
Speaker 3: You can't do that with Carl. He'll abuse them. But
43:06
Speaker 3: what I do.
43:07
Speaker 2: Give Mitch Johnson credit for after I think Mitch is
43:10
Speaker 2: getting his ass handed to him for the first couple
43:12
Speaker 2: of games of this series.
43:13
Speaker 3: Like Mike Brown's a good coach.
43:14
Speaker 2: I don't know why people have been so reluctant to
43:16
Speaker 2: acknowledge this at all the stops that he's been in.
43:18
Speaker 3: But he is a good coach.
43:19
Speaker 2: And I think that time in Golden State made him
43:21
Speaker 2: a much better coach because now he has an offensive
43:23
Speaker 2: game to match up with.
43:24
Speaker 3: It always been his strength, which is defense.
43:27
Speaker 2: But I think that the Spurs kind of overthought this
43:30
Speaker 2: and they've gone back to what they should have done
43:32
Speaker 2: with Victor, which is have him wink wink guarding Josh Hart,
43:36
Speaker 2: which is to say him playing zone inside. And if
43:39
Speaker 2: Josh Hart goes four for seven or five for eight
43:41
Speaker 2: from three, it happens. You take that every single time,
43:45
Speaker 2: I think, while not putting Victor in a position where
43:48
Speaker 2: he's having to play straight up defense, which is not
43:51
Speaker 2: going to be the best use of him.
43:53
Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Totally. And that's really what it's going to come
43:56
Speaker 1: down to is that matchup right there is if Carl
43:59
Speaker 1: Anthony Towns can get back to that and take advantage
44:03
Speaker 1: of Wemby not being on him, and that's going to
44:06
Speaker 1: require ball movement, that's going to require cutting. Mike Brown
44:09
Speaker 1: talked about it after Game 3 and at practice is...
44:12
Speaker 1: the first action that we had, we had a pass
44:16
Speaker 1: or ball movement. And then we just stopped and watched.
44:19
Speaker 1: And he didn't say this by name, stopped and watched
44:21
Speaker 1: the ball. And that's, that's what it is is like,
44:24
Speaker 1: if you had Carl Anthony towns with the ball, they'd
44:27
Speaker 1: be running actions off ball cutting. That's the flex offense.
44:30
Speaker 1: That's the motion offense. And, And with Jalen Brunson being
44:34
Speaker 1: iso ball, hero ball, so consistently, that's where the cobwebs
44:40
Speaker 1: come out for the Knicks offense is, ah, this is
44:43
Speaker 1: the stuff that makes me think that their ceiling isn't
44:46
Speaker 1: nearly that high. When Karl-Anthony Towns is getting off ball
44:49
Speaker 1: movement and letting Jalen Brunson get rest, because as we know,
44:52
Speaker 1: James Harden and Steph Curry, And Luka Doncic, it is
44:56
Speaker 1: exhausting having to play as the sole initiator and creator
45:01
Speaker 1: and dribble that much and getting him off the ball.
45:04
Speaker 1: I think you're going to get a lot more efficient
45:06
Speaker 1: because let's face it. Jalen Brunson, part of the heroics
45:10
Speaker 1: was that he was hitting increasingly difficult shots. Like some
45:13
Speaker 1: of those shots in game one, nobody had business hitting.
45:16
Speaker 1: It was like Kobe MJ and Jalen Brunson had business
45:19
Speaker 1: hitting those shots. And we also have to look at
45:21
Speaker 1: the flip side of that is that if they're 20
45:24
Speaker 1: point shots that are going in at a much higher rate, man,
45:28
Speaker 1: when the other shoe drops, we are going to have
45:30
Speaker 1: to hear it about the Knicks offense. And that's what
45:32
Speaker 1: happened after game three.
45:34
Speaker 3: So how do we think this happens in game four, man?
45:37
Speaker 2: Like I'm the first five minutes to me are going
45:39
Speaker 2: to be so interesting, though. San Antonio has won the
45:41
Speaker 2: first five minutes and really like the first halves of
45:44
Speaker 2: all of these games. I said about game three, I
45:46
Speaker 2: thought when the Knicks closed that gap so fast, I
45:48
Speaker 2: was like, oh, that's what the better team does.
45:50
Speaker 3: And then I did not come in the end feeling
45:52
Speaker 3: like they were the better team.
45:54
Speaker 1: I think we're going to see a 40 piece from Wemby, actually.
45:57
Speaker 1: I think it's not Karl-Anthony Towns. I don't even think
45:59
Speaker 1: we've gotten the best of Wemby yet. And I think
46:01
Speaker 1: we're going to see it in game four. And, you know,
46:05
Speaker 1: this is... The home court advantage thing has been... I
46:08
Speaker 1: think it's like five straight or four straight on both
46:11
Speaker 1: sides that the home team has not won. And so
46:16
Speaker 1: I think that continues in game four. I think the...
46:19
Speaker 1: The culture, the partying culture, the drinking culture, the body
46:24
Speaker 1: readiness culture that has transformed the NBA over the last
46:28
Speaker 1: 10 years, where you saw OKC celebrating the NBA finals
46:32
Speaker 1: and they were not drinking. They did not know how
46:33
Speaker 1: to open up a bottle of champagne because it is
46:36
Speaker 1: just not part of their lifestyle anymore. I think home
46:39
Speaker 1: court advantage more than anything, we can talk about referees
46:43
Speaker 1: and the, I think that's certainly as a part of it.
46:45
Speaker 1: But I think the biggest thing is these guys are
46:48
Speaker 1: drawing in Gramercy park on their off days, rather than
46:53
Speaker 1: trying to do the Charles Barkley thing and going to
46:54
Speaker 1: the club until three in the morning to get late.
46:57
Speaker 1: That does not happen in the NBA anymore. And I
47:00
Speaker 1: think the home court advantage for that reason, these guys
47:03
Speaker 1: are just ready to play and not afraid of the moment.
47:06
Speaker 1: Even in Game 3, we didn't see that the Spurs
47:09
Speaker 1: were afraid at all in playing at Madison Square Garden
47:12
Speaker 1: in the most, I think, pressure-packed moment of their lives.
47:15
Speaker 1: They didn't seem phased at all, Bomani, and I think
47:17
Speaker 1: it's going to be Spurs tying it up 2-2 in
47:19
Speaker 1: Game 4.
47:19
Speaker 2: You're saying this isn't going to be 2012 James Harden?
47:24
Speaker 3: Making the most of South Beach?
47:26
Speaker 1: That's right. That's right. Hey, they're jer— I know Pat
47:30
Speaker 1: Riley hung up the jersey in the rafters of Michael
47:33
Speaker 1: Jordan in his building, and that's crazy. But there's some
47:35
Speaker 1: clubs that have James Harden's jersey up there too.
47:38
Speaker 2: James Harden, like if it had come down to a
47:40
Speaker 2: game seven, we would look, or not we, but in Miami,
47:43
Speaker 2: they would look at James Harden. Like in Houston, they
47:46
Speaker 2: talk about John Starks. John Starks will never pay for
47:49
Speaker 2: a meal in Houston as long as he lives for
47:52
Speaker 2: the two for 18, right? And like in a way
47:54
Speaker 2: that people don't look at Nick Anderson that way.
47:57
Speaker 1: Right.
47:58
Speaker 2: I guess maybe because of Nick Anderson, it was just
47:59
Speaker 2: game one where he missed those free throws.
48:02
Speaker 3: John Starks, the Iceman, as.
48:04
Speaker 2: My homeboy calls him, the Iceman.
48:07
Speaker 3: Two for 18 in game seven.
48:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did. I did a piece for Yahoo. Top
48:12
Speaker 1: 10 Knicks of all time. Greatest Knicks of all time.
48:14
Speaker 1: And I left Starks off of the list because as
48:17
Speaker 1: much as he has the iconic dunk on MJ and
48:19
Speaker 1: the Bulls defense there. Uh, and he, he was, you know,
48:23
Speaker 1: had clutch moments, but he also had some of the
48:25
Speaker 1: most unclutch Nick Anderson moments, uh, that prompted Reggie Miller
48:30
Speaker 1: and everybody else to just not a serious player in
48:33
Speaker 1: the crunch time and game seven, certainly. But like, when
48:35
Speaker 1: you look at the greatest Knicks of all time, I
48:38
Speaker 1: had mellow at seven, which I thought I was going
48:40
Speaker 1: to get a lot more flack for, but, uh, John
48:43
Speaker 1: Starks was on the list until I had to move
48:45
Speaker 1: it off because of that, that performance there in Houston. Yeah.
48:49
Speaker 3: My hot Knicks take is that they need to humble themselves.
48:52
Speaker 2: And a team like that, Charles Oakley and John Starks,
48:57
Speaker 2: they have their numbers retired by this team.
48:59
Speaker 3: Those are the most beloved teams of the last 50 years.
49:02
Speaker 2: They're the most successful teams prior to this one of
49:06
Speaker 2: the last 50 years. And they are central to the
49:08
Speaker 2: identity of New York Knicks basketball. Look, man, if your
49:11
Speaker 2: name mean enough that you could be the face of
49:13
Speaker 2: a car dealership, feel like you should probably get your
49:16
Speaker 2: jersey retired.
49:16
Speaker 3: It's all I'm saying. Is that not the metric? Now
49:20
Speaker 3: we know it ain't retiring Oaks Jersey. No time. No, no.
49:24
Speaker 1: I thought maybe they would, maybe they would break bread
49:27
Speaker 1: and that they would bring out Charles Oakley for a
49:29
Speaker 1: little bit of a boost. Maybe that does happen for
49:31
Speaker 1: game four. I don't think it does, but man, Jeremy
49:35
Speaker 1: Lynn being on the jumbo truck. I think we, we,
49:38
Speaker 1: We didn't touch about the president being on the Jumbotron
49:40
Speaker 1: and then getting roundly booed. But if they had Charles
49:44
Speaker 1: Oakley at the arena for game four, maybe I would
49:48
Speaker 1: change my pick because that would get the place going.
49:51
Speaker 3: I mean, Marbury's back in the fold.
49:55
Speaker 1: And the thing is, like, it just... Is it really
50:01
Speaker 1: that much of a... if you're a Nick with us
50:04
Speaker 1: through the bad times, we will cheer you no matter what.
50:07
Speaker 1: But Marbury, the fact that it's just like, yeah, we're
50:10
Speaker 1: going to forget about everything with Marbury. And the fact,
50:13
Speaker 1: you know, all the feuds that he had and the,
50:16
Speaker 1: and the futility that they had with the Marbury run.
50:18
Speaker 1: And it's just, were you with us? All right, cool.
50:21
Speaker 1: We're going to, we're going to cheer you on like nothing.
50:23
Speaker 1: Like everything was great that you won a championship. And I,
50:26
Speaker 1: when I did that piece, Willis Reed is at two.
50:30
Speaker 1: I got Walt Clive Frazier at one. And Pat Ewing
50:33
Speaker 1: at three. And Jalen Brunson at four. I can't... The
50:38
Speaker 1: way that they cheer some of these guys, you would
50:40
Speaker 1: have thought that they had two finals MVPs under their belt.
50:43
Speaker 1: You know?
50:44
Speaker 3: Yeah. But the thing is, all the guys... I mean,
50:47
Speaker 3: Willis Reed is dead.
50:48
Speaker 2: All the people that would have been there to cheer
50:49
Speaker 2: for Willis Reed, by and large, are dead.
50:51
Speaker 3: Clyde is still there.
50:52
Speaker 2: Clyde, I think, is maybe the most underrated player in
50:54
Speaker 2: NBA history. That's a discussion for a different day.
50:56
Speaker 3: But Clyde... Because of the broadcast, right?
51:00
Speaker 2: Which even to me, I think Clyde wearing them crazy clothes.
51:05
Speaker 2: I mean, Clyde Frazier may be the coolest player in
51:07
Speaker 2: the history of the NBA. Like, you go look at
51:09
Speaker 2: the pictures of Clyde from 1968, 1970. Clyde's like Derek Jeter.
51:13
Speaker 3: I don't know how you came.
51:15
Speaker 2: Clyde's from Atlanta and then went to Southern Illinois, and
51:17
Speaker 2: somehow you set foot in New York City ready. Like,
51:21
Speaker 2: I know exactly what. Just give me a little time
51:23
Speaker 2: to get my gear up, and I'm going to be
51:24
Speaker 2: here ready. That's Clyde Frazier.
51:28
Speaker 1: Even if Jalen wins this title, I don't think you
51:30
Speaker 1: can pass. Well, Clive Frazier, it's just the greatest Knicks
51:33
Speaker 1: of all time. I don't think you pass. Maybe you
51:36
Speaker 1: pass Pat just because Jalen was able to win one
51:39
Speaker 1: and Pat did not. Yeah. Willis Reed, two M two
51:42
Speaker 1: M finals MVPs and Walt Clive Frazier. I mean, I
51:46
Speaker 1: know people got ahead of themselves going into this series
51:49
Speaker 1: and saying like he, if he wins one, man, he's
51:51
Speaker 1: going to be the goat, the goat Nick of all time.
51:54
Speaker 1: I don't see it that way. And I feel like
51:56
Speaker 1: it's a disservice to the legacies and what they did
51:58
Speaker 1: in the seventies for them to believe that they're going
52:00
Speaker 1: to be able to him to surpass what they did
52:03
Speaker 1: for the next.
52:03
Speaker 2: When we talk about great point guards, somehow we ignore
52:08
Speaker 2: one of the rare point guards that you could argue
52:11
Speaker 2: was the best player on championship team. And if you
52:13
Speaker 2: give it to read in 70, he was hurt in
52:15
Speaker 2: 70 during that series. And Clive put up 36 and
52:18
Speaker 2: 17 or whatever it was.
52:21
Speaker 3: In game seven, and.
52:22
Speaker 2: Clyde was probably their best player when they played and
52:24
Speaker 2: they won it in 73. But when the great point
52:27
Speaker 2: guard list comes, because we don't remember anything that happened
52:30
Speaker 2: before 1981, Clyde's the one that's always left off.
52:34
Speaker 1: And you would think that in a Knicks, like with
52:37
Speaker 1: the New York media, that that wouldn't be possible. And
52:39
Speaker 1: the most famous broadcaster in the NBA, I'm talking game broadcast,
52:44
Speaker 1: not talking about Charles, that he would have more in
52:49
Speaker 1: terms of those lists than he does. He's never brought up.
52:52
Speaker 1: He's never brought up as one of the best point guards.
52:54
Speaker 3: Of all time. Also, giant man.
52:57
Speaker 2: Like, the idea that that man was playing point guard
53:00
Speaker 2: back then, which he'll remind you of, big guard.
53:02
Speaker 3: That's the first one.
53:05
Speaker 2: He also told me, because Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports,
53:08
Speaker 2: I was talking to him about this. This is like
53:09
Speaker 2: almost 15 years ago when I met Clyde. And he
53:12
Speaker 2: was like, you know, Clyde used to have tires. They
53:14
Speaker 2: weren't white walls. They was white tires.
53:17
Speaker 3: Right. And I asked Clyde about it.
53:19
Speaker 2: And he was like, yeah, man, the gangster whites, you know,
53:22
Speaker 2: people would be like, man, what's going to happen?
53:23
Speaker 3: You go, you know, mess them up on the curve.
53:25
Speaker 3: He was like, I just double parked. By the way,
53:32
Speaker 3: I didn't ask him this question. He just wanted to
53:35
Speaker 3: make sure that I understood. Clyde Frazier points where he was.
53:38
Speaker 1: Oh, my God. That's so good. I mean, just larger
53:43
Speaker 1: than life figure and everything that you would want in
53:45
Speaker 1: an NBA player. Like he was the mold. When you
53:48
Speaker 1: talk about that these guys become so much larger celebrities
53:52
Speaker 1: in basketball than you can be possibly in football. I
53:56
Speaker 1: know we haven't even talked about this part of it,
53:58
Speaker 1: but Wemby still hasn't hit the commercial success that he's
54:02
Speaker 1: about to follow. I don't know if he wants that,
54:05
Speaker 1: but if he wants to be on every billboard in America,
54:11
Speaker 1: the whole French thing might throw some brand's you know,
54:15
Speaker 1: for a loop, but like he hasn't even, he hasn't
54:18
Speaker 1: even left the station when it comes to how big
54:20
Speaker 1: of a marketing superstar he could be.
54:23
Speaker 2: Just you wait till 2028 when he's carrying the French
54:26
Speaker 2: flag at the Olympic opening ceremonies. And then he comes
54:30
Speaker 2: to exact revenge on us all.
54:34
Speaker 3: It's coming.
54:35
Speaker 2: He cried tears in 24.
54:38
Speaker 3: Let us not forget that.
54:41
Speaker 1: He does not forget. That's one thing we know about
54:43
Speaker 1: Victor Weminyama. It's all up there. And he knows, I
54:45
Speaker 1: think he knows that until Mitch Robinson or somebody else
54:51
Speaker 1: says otherwise, I think he knows that they're not going
54:53
Speaker 1: to touch him. And that's why I think this is
54:57
Speaker 1: going to be game four for the Spurs. If it
55:00
Speaker 1: hasn't happened yet, I would imagine that maybe the Knicks,
55:04
Speaker 1: with their physicality, that they could do it against the Cavs.
55:07
Speaker 1: where they could do it against Philly, where they played
55:09
Speaker 1: 16 games together with all three of those guys. I
55:14
Speaker 1: think this is a different level for the Spurs. Yeah,
55:18
Speaker 1: I think physicality-wise, the Spurs have the big advantage through
55:21
Speaker 1: three games.
55:22
Speaker 3: Beware of Cisco. He could make the difference. Tom Haberstroh,
55:26
Speaker 3: check him out. Yahoo Sports, check out his newsletter, Tom
55:28
Speaker 3: the Finder. My brother, I appreciate you.
55:30
Speaker 1: Thank you, Bo.
55:32
Speaker 2: All right, ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining
55:33
Speaker 2: us here on The Right Time. We do this four
55:35
Speaker 2: days a week. Ryan Brumley and everything behind the scenes.
55:38
Speaker 2: Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line. Three, two, three, five, nine, six, seven, seven, six, seven. Remember,
55:43
Speaker 2: follow the right time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us,
55:46
Speaker 2: give us five stars. You only want to give us
55:48
Speaker 2: four stars. I'm inclined to believe.
55:50
Speaker 3: You are a hater. We'll talk to you guys in
55:51
Speaker 3: a couple of days. Take it easy.