Latest / Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk / Inside the Hoosier Mind NBA Playoffs and WNBA
Transcript
- 0:00Very broadcast radio, the station that's giving veterans a
- 0:03voice find us on the. Web at MB Radio.
- 0:06Dot think. Of all that time, every wait in
- 0:12the winter, all those hours no one else.
- 0:16Think of all that time. Think of every sacrifice in the
- 0:20summer. Every wait in the morning is on
- 0:22the levee, late nights in the film, bus rides to playoff
- 0:27games, Every bump in the road, every moment of ecstasy, every
- 0:35moment of doubt, years wondering is it all worth it?
- 0:46It's all led to this. It's a 60 minute drive for a 60
- 0:54minute game. After all the miles we've
- 0:58travelled, we're almost there. After all the hours we've
- 1:03worked, one more can make us legends.
- 1:08After all that time, this is our time.
- 1:56One day. Opinions expressed in this
- 2:14program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily
- 2:18reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
- 3:28All right, what's up everyone? Welcome in to Inside the Hoosier
- 3:31Mind, brought to you in part by Military Broadcast Radio,
- 3:33helping give veterans a voice. Back here with the shy kid, Mike
- 3:38Hughes, as always, to talk some basketball, both NBA and WNBA,
- 3:43since the WNBA season officially kicked off this past week.
- 3:47Ton of drama, ton of heat, ton of stories that all has come
- 3:51from this. We're talking about the Indiana
- 3:54Pacers making it into the Eastern Conference finals for
- 3:57the second year in the row. And then of course, Caitlin
- 4:00Clark and Angel Reese's college rivalry continues on into their
- 4:03professional careers and whatnot.
- 4:06And we will dive into that because there there's a whole
- 4:08lot of whole lot of mess mess involved with that, Mike.
- 4:11But buddy, how are you? Good Sir?
- 4:12Appreciate you joining in with me.
- 4:14I'm OK man. My pregnancy is over my belly,
- 4:17my belly air has has disappeared.
- 4:20I had two hernia surgeries by the way, for anybody that didn't
- 4:23know, I've been gone for like 2 weeks.
- 4:25I feel like really making content just trying to do like
- 4:27little things here and there. I was, I was, you should see me
- 4:31rolling out of the rolling off the couch.
- 4:33Couldn't stand up. It was, it was nuts.
- 4:35But I think we're pretty good. I say there's a there's kind of
- 4:39a old school. I think it's a meme or maybe
- 4:42it's from Reddit or actually it might have even been from
- 4:45YouTube. It's like real old.
- 4:46There's a joke of like different ways of asking, like can you get
- 4:49pregnant and different ways of reading it.
- 4:51And Mike's is can you get pregante or not?
- 4:55And Mike is evident that you can just with her for sure couldn't
- 4:59fart, couldn't fart for. Three days.
- 5:01It was crazy. But let's dive into the first
- 5:05topic, buddy. So Pacers make it to Eastern
- 5:08Conference Finals for the second year in the row.
- 5:11Now, last year they got absolutely swept by Boston.
- 5:14But funny enough, the team that they had to beat to get there
- 5:17was the New York Knicks. Now the New York Knicks do the
- 5:20reverse. They take care of Boston.
- 5:22They make it into this first round.
- 5:24Now, what's written really interesting with the East, all
- 5:27of these playoff matchups have been pretty handed.
- 5:31I mean, the longest series involved, you know, the Knicks
- 5:35in both ones. They went four and two against
- 5:37the Pistons. They went four and two against
- 5:39the Celtics. The Pacers went four and one in
- 5:42both their series. Boston, you know, four and one
- 5:44against the Magic. And then obviously the Cavs
- 5:46swept the heat. So the East has been it's pretty
- 5:50evident as to who some of the top teams are in the east down
- 5:53the West little bit more interesting because the Nuggets
- 5:56and the Thunder both took their series to four and three.
- 5:59Obviously, the Timberwolves had a little bit of an easier,
- 6:02easier pathway because they took the Lakers down 4 to 1, did the
- 6:05same thing the Warriors 4 to 1. And they're actually in the face
- 6:08of the Timberwolves tonight at 8:30 on ESPN.
- 6:11OK, CS favored in this first game by 6 1/2.
- 6:16But back to Indy, though, Mike, for you.
- 6:18I know you're a fan of the Bulls, but you're, you know,
- 6:21you're a little bit of a neighbor right here to the to
- 6:23the Hoosier State and whatnot. You're not too far by what?
- 6:27What's your thoughts with this Pacers team at least kind of
- 6:31coming out 'cause I mean, they, they have been a little bit
- 6:33battle tested. You know, they, they beat
- 6:35Giannis and the Bucks, although it's not the same Giannis and
- 6:39Bucks that we've probably been used to over the last little
- 6:41bit. They also did have the benefit
- 6:43of Dame Lillard and his Aquilas going bye bye.
- 6:48So they, they got a little bit of a, a break in that.
- 6:52Now with the Cavs, they kind of had the real test.
- 6:55You know, they get the they could win both games in
- 6:58Cleveland kind of by Shockers, which is really surprised.
- 7:01There's kind of talks that Cleveland maybe is a little bit
- 7:03soft. And then again, they also get
- 7:05the the benefit of Donovan Mitchell getting hurt in that
- 7:08series. And then it was just a
- 7:10completely different Cavs team as a whole.
- 7:12So do you think they're ready to face A-Team like the Knicks who
- 7:16is just seems like the Knicks are in?
- 7:17The Knicks and Pacers are both so doubted.
- 7:20Nobody really had them favored to really make this type of a
- 7:24run. And one of them is going to go
- 7:26to the Finals. And yet here both teams are kind
- 7:29of proving beyond a shadow of the doubt.
- 7:31One beat the beat the one seed to the East and the Cavs.
- 7:34The other beat the defending NBA champion, you know, Boston
- 7:37Celtics and whatnot. So what's your thoughts so far
- 7:40on on the East, the Pacers and the Knicks?
- 7:43Yeah, well, I mean shout out to I think it was AW or WWE,
- 7:46whichever one had Halliburton and Brunson face off a.
- 7:50Year ago, they they. Did predict that, which I
- 7:53thought was really cool and it's at first I thought it was AI
- 7:56when I saw it because I actually didn't see that original
- 7:59whatever that was a year ago. So to see that now I was like,
- 8:03oh, this is cool little AI thing they just did.
- 8:05And they were like, no, it's real.
- 8:06And I was like, oh, that's incredible.
- 8:08Like that is that is super cool that that that's happening right
- 8:10now. And especially I bet they're
- 8:11probably not talking at the moment, but they will talk about
- 8:14that at some point between Brunton and Halliburton on how
- 8:17cool that experience was. Also wanted to give my flowers
- 8:20to Halliburton. I don't know if you saw what
- 8:21happened to that Indiana Pacers fan in New York the other night
- 8:25getting bags thrown on him. I mean, you could just imagine
- 8:29what's inside of those bags and getting not what I mean, I don't
- 8:33believe he was assaulted physically by anybody, but they
- 8:36it was a mob of Knicks fans going crazy.
- 8:38Halliburton actually is flying him out for Game 4IN Indy.
- 8:42He's a local fireman, a local first responder.
- 8:44So that's really cool to see him be able to get that opportunity.
- 8:48I don't know if you know, MM would be wearing a Bulls jersey
- 8:52in New York to get Game 4 tickets in Chicago.
- 8:56Maybe I got to know what's in those bags, Tone.
- 8:59I got to know what's in those. I'm not getting pissed or
- 9:01anything thrown on me. I can't.
- 9:03Are you? Are you risking it?
- 9:06I say, 'cause that that's dedication that that would
- 9:09honestly like, even though I'm not a Cowboys fan anymore, that
- 9:11that would be like me still taking some of the Cowboys
- 9:13jerseys I got going to Philly, like to a home game and not
- 9:17expecting to get like a beer thrown at me or getting, you
- 9:20know, flipped off or cussed out or whatnot, like.
- 9:23So I'll, I'll, I'll flip it to make it make more sense for you
- 9:26because obviously basketball, it's, it's a, you have a love
- 9:29for basketball, but football is where your heart is.
- 9:32Would you wear a Dallas Cowboys jersey to Philly in a playoff
- 9:36atmosphere if it meant you got to go to a Cowboys Super Bowl
- 9:40game for free? OK, Yeah, I might consider that
- 9:45then. I mean, if it if it's to the
- 9:47Super Bowl, yeah, I might. I might and for people that
- 9:50don't know tone's about what? What are you tone like 6465
- 9:53something? Like that 63. 63 all right, the
- 9:55tone tone can hold his own. They got to throw those bags
- 9:58pretty high to get the Tony, you know what I mean?
- 9:59Like I'm 5/8, you just really got to just tip it over and I
- 10:03like I'm I'm hitting the ground, but you would do it.
- 10:05I would, I would go into Green Bay with the with the Caleb
- 10:09Williams jersey if it meant the. Barry made it to the.
- 10:11Super Bowl. There we go.
- 10:12Oh yeah, For the bears. Yeah, I'd do it.
- 10:14Probably got some boxing gloves on too and I'm going crazy like.
- 10:17Like, did you ever do you ever watch That 70s Show?
- 10:20Yeah, of course. Oh, when?
- 10:21When Eric beat that guy's ass in the Walter Payton jersey.
- 10:24Yes. And Reg, just like that's my
- 10:26son, That's that's my son. Only time I ever saw him proud
- 10:30of him, bro. But it was wild.
- 10:32But I don't know how we got here, but the Pacers, the
- 10:35Pacers, they're a unique team. I I think they're really cool.
- 10:40Somebody that I wanted the Bulls to draft, they ended up taking
- 10:42Patrick Williams was OB Toppin didn't have success with the New
- 10:46York Knicks was ending ended up going to the Indiana Pacers and
- 10:50is having a lot of success right now alongside Tyrese
- 10:53Halliburton. Miles Turner, big man shoots the
- 10:55three ball. Love what we're seeing from him.
- 10:58But overall, the the overall spacing and the shot creation
- 11:01from this team, it's really exciting and and I think for me,
- 11:04the biggest thing about them is being the overrated team.
- 11:08You know what I mean? We heard all year long that
- 11:10Tyrese Halliburton was the most overrated player in the league
- 11:13and he's out here calling game winners.
- 11:15You can find those videos on inside the Hoosier mine on
- 11:17TikTok and all social media platforms.
- 11:20But to see him really just own that and dominate on the court.
- 11:24We heard everything about his dad and how that's an issue.
- 11:28No more problems with his dad, you know what I mean?
- 11:30It's, they have, they have really locked in and they have
- 11:33really been the best versions of themselves.
- 11:35They, they hear all the doubters, they really just
- 11:37playing ball. And, and that's what I love
- 11:39Tyrese Halliburton is, is both him and his other personality
- 11:43because they had his two voices. They're both great.
- 11:46I, I, I think Tyrese Halliburton is 1 hell of a player, man, one
- 11:49hell of a person. And, and I really love seeing
- 11:52what we're seeing from them right now.
- 11:53Yeah. Here, here's the only thing,
- 11:56listening to a lot of other Pacers fans, especially the ones
- 11:59that I work with and what not. And real quick shout out to MJ,
- 12:02the world of conscious positive thinking for tuning in and Amber
- 12:05and Lauria from in Into the Weeds podcast, both both great
- 12:08hosts here on MBR. So here's the thing that makes a
- 12:13lot of Pacers fans worried here. And it and it I noticed it more
- 12:18during that Cleveland series more than anything, because to
- 12:21me, Cleveland was more of a test than the Bucks were.
- 12:23And I say that again as a very casual NBA fan.
- 12:27I didn't hear a whole lot of people thinking like, ah, the
- 12:29Bucks could potentially make a real deep run.
- 12:31Like it was one of those like, yeah, they're in there.
- 12:32If they do, cool. If not, yeah, we're not really
- 12:35gonna be surprised. Is when they got to Cleveland
- 12:39and they got that first win, it's like, OK, cool.
- 12:42They got the momentum. They came in hot, like they're
- 12:44they were ready to go. Then they get the second win.
- 12:48It's like, all right, you know y'all, y'all got the two big
- 12:51wins. You got the two big things out
- 12:52of the way. The next two are at home.
- 12:53You should be fine. One of the Pacers fans I worked
- 12:56with brought this up. She said that she was worried
- 12:59that the Pacers were going to get cocky and then, you know,
- 13:02Cleveland was going to potentially be able to come
- 13:04back. Sure enough, Cleveland dominates
- 13:06in that first, that first series game in Indy and then Indy was
- 13:11obviously able to turn around. They absolutely dominated that
- 13:14second game and they went up three one.
- 13:16That's my fear with Indy. And I say that because if you
- 13:21look on the other side with the Knicks, the Knicks to me, aren't
- 13:25really that team that may dominate you, but they're going
- 13:29to be scrappy enough that they're just going to keep
- 13:31fighting. And if you take your foot off
- 13:33that gas pedal, the Knicks are going to absolutely, you know,
- 13:36run, run all over you. And they're going to they're
- 13:38going to fight and claw their way back into into that position
- 13:41to be able to at least win the game.
- 13:43So that that to me is really, I think the biggest fear for the
- 13:47Pacers as far as being able to make a deep run is, look, you
- 13:52know, you, like you said, everybody has underestimated you
- 13:55this entire time. Everybody has underestimated
- 13:57Halliburton. Everybody has underestimated
- 13:59Obi. Like this is not a team that
- 14:02everybody said at the beginning of the season like they're going
- 14:05to make the playoffs. They're going to, they're going
- 14:07to do that. But we don't see them making
- 14:09another deep run into the playoffs as a whole.
- 14:12So. I like what you said.
- 14:15Like that, that sorry say that that's something to me that I'm
- 14:18like, if if I'm the Pacers, you you got to focus.
- 14:22You've been here before because you were able to do it last year
- 14:25and then obviously you ran into the buzz saw that was Boston.
- 14:28Now, obviously watching the games, there was some
- 14:31questionable sketchy calls from the referees and what not
- 14:34doesn't necessarily change if you got swept four and oh, I
- 14:37mean, maybe it makes it better and you got swept 41 and a
- 14:40gentleman sweep. But still like don't don't
- 14:44underestimate your opponent because again, you haven't got
- 14:47there to the finish line. You haven't got to the finals
- 14:50and you haven't potentially won the finals because whoever comes
- 14:52out of the West obviously is going to be a tall task just by
- 14:56itself because you got the wolves with Carl Anthony Towns
- 14:59and then you have obviously OKC the young, the young gun and
- 15:02team that is absolutely gone off the last couple of seasons
- 15:06realistically. So these next two, these next
- 15:10two series potentially, if they make it, is probably going to be
- 15:14some of the toughest that the Pacers have to face this whole
- 15:16season. Yeah, And I will say Cat.
- 15:18Cat is in New York now. So that's kind of like a right
- 15:21now problem. Anthony Edwards is the one in.
- 15:24Anthony Edwards. Come on, come on, it's home.
- 15:26Michael Jordan, you can't forget.
- 15:27I know, I know. But you know, I, I do agree with
- 15:31everything you're saying. It's something that wasn't
- 15:33really brought up too much. I feel like everybody talked
- 15:36about Damian Lillard tearing his Achilles.
- 15:38And as devastating as that was, like you said, like Giannis and
- 15:41Dame weren't really a tall, you know, Bobby Portis, obviously,
- 15:45you know, missed a lot of time after the suspension, neither
- 15:48here nor there. The big thing for me with
- 15:50Cleveland was Defensive player of the year.
- 15:52Evan Mobley missed a few games, he was injured.
- 15:54Darius Garlands are starting point guard, missed a few games.
- 15:56And obviously Spider goes down as well.
- 15:59You know, it's it's definitely evident that injuries have been
- 16:02a huge part of what has benefited the Indiana Pacers.
- 16:05But I would also argue that we've seen that time and time
- 16:07again. I mean, do the Warriors go to
- 16:09the Finals if Kawhi doesn't go down, if CP3 doesn't go down?
- 16:12You know, we we can have those conversations time and time
- 16:15again, LeBron with D Rose and Paul George and Indy and so many
- 16:19other things. So it's definitely a part of it.
- 16:21The only thing now is I would say, you know, they're fully
- 16:23healthy. You know, they're you're going
- 16:24up against New York and they're fully healthy right now.
- 16:26And you're really just going to have to go tick for tack with
- 16:29them. Now, I am very familiar with the
- 16:32New York play style that is Tom Thibodeau because he was the
- 16:35Chicago Bulls head coach for quite some time.
- 16:36I'll say the majority of these starters in the Eastern
- 16:39Conference finals are going to be playing over 40 minutes a
- 16:42game. That's just what it is.
- 16:44They he he tightens that rotation to AT you basically get
- 16:485 1/2. He might not even give the six
- 16:50man a full a full shot. You know, like that's how Tibbs
- 16:53is. So the thing I do love about
- 16:55Indy is they do have a bench. They do have a guy like Pascal
- 16:59Siakam, who I feel like a lot of people forget where Pascal
- 17:01Siakam even is nowadays. They do have a solid bench.
- 17:04They do have a one, they do have a 2, They have a three miles.
- 17:07Turner can even take over in certain games.
- 17:09OB Topping, you know, it's a it's a revenge moment for OB
- 17:12Topping, you know, So it's exciting to see what he's going
- 17:14to be able to do. I think right now understanding
- 17:17depth and fresh legs is going to be the way and the.
- 17:20Key to beating the new. York Knicks, you definitely
- 17:23understand that Tibbs is going to shorten that rotation to the
- 17:25point to where Josh Hart is running the marathon once every
- 17:29two days. So, you know, it's it's
- 17:30definitely going to be interesting to see what Indy
- 17:33decides to do and how many minutes Hal Burton and others
- 17:37are going to be playing. Yeah, so real, real quick before
- 17:40we go, before we go to commercial break, who do you who
- 17:43do you have in the series? Like how many games?
- 17:46Oh man, I'm on the indie pod so I don't want to do this.
- 17:51If you got to go. Look, I'm going with the Ninja
- 17:54Turtles, man. I, I got to, I got to go with
- 17:57the four. I think what they were able to
- 17:58do playing together since Villanova, shout out Dante D
- 18:02Vicenzo, by the way, still in the playoffs.
- 18:04So the Villanova, they're all still there.
- 18:06They're just not together. I, I got to go with the guys who
- 18:09have been playing together for years and, and I'm really
- 18:11excited to see how they continue to grow, continue to develop.
- 18:14Karl Anthony Towns has been great.
- 18:16And I think it would be 1 hell of a storyline if the two teams
- 18:20that traded with each other in the offseason in the New York
- 18:23Knicks and the Minnesota Timberwolves for Julius Randle,
- 18:25Dante Di Vincenzo and Karl Anthony Towns ended up playing
- 18:29each other in the finals. To see who really won that
- 18:31trade. I, I think it would be really
- 18:33incredible. But in this series, you know, I
- 18:35think you have the most clutch player in the league versus the
- 18:39most overrated player in the league.
- 18:40That's according to their peers and Jaylen Brunson and Ty
- 18:44Halliburton. So you're going to find out
- 18:46who's really clutch and who's really overrated in this series.
- 18:50It's going to come down to which one of them can really step up,
- 18:53because I know what I know what Cat can do.
- 18:55I know what OG Anobi can do. Pascal Siako.
- 18:58Miles Turner But who are those two guards going to be when the
- 19:01stage is the brightest Madison Square Garden and you're going
- 19:04straight to Indy? There's a lot of different
- 19:06that's a culture shock right there.
- 19:07That's that's that's going to be very interesting.
- 19:10So you got Pat McAfee in your corner too.
- 19:11So I'm rooting for Indy just for inside the Hoosier mind and
- 19:14content creation. I think it would be great.
- 19:17Also, I'm right next door, so you'll see me outside my window
- 19:20like watching, but I'll look over the lake and be like,
- 19:23Tone's doing it, but it's I'm going to go New York.
- 19:27I'm going to go to New York. New York in how many games?
- 19:33That's when people get mad. I'm going to say New York in
- 19:35five new. York in five.
- 19:37OK, I was trying to think of a clever like Shannon Sharp
- 19:41equivalent, like saying like Tyrese Halliburton and my heart
- 19:45hurting. Laundry detergent.
- 19:51Yeah, laundry detergent. Pacers in five.
- 19:54Acers in five fuck. But real quick, before we do got
- 19:58a break, though, there was a, there was kind of a cool
- 20:00statistic brought up that I wanted to point out here.
- 20:02And hopefully, hopefully it's all correct.
- 20:04But I think it's, it's pretty cool.
- 20:06Last four teams in the playoffs, OK, C has never won a
- 20:09championship. Minnesota has never won a
- 20:10championship. India has never won a
- 20:12championship. New York Knicks have won two,
- 20:14but their last one was in 1973. So no matter what happens, no
- 20:18matter who wins, no matter who goes and what not, we're going
- 20:21to witness A-Team winning a championship for the first time
- 20:24or for the first time in 52 years.
- 20:27Regardless of what happens and where everybody goes.
- 20:30So that's great. I feel like that's pretty cool,
- 20:32man. It's great for the game, it's
- 20:33great for the game, especially with I know we got to go to
- 20:35commercial, but like them 2000 tens with Curry and LeBron were.
- 20:40Curry, LeBron As. Special as it was, it was just
- 20:44like man. It's like the same team, like
- 20:46you had the Warriors repeat and you had the Cavs, you had the
- 20:48Lakers, you had the Celtics. It's.
- 20:49Legendary, you know, but like, you know, like it's not my team.
- 20:53So like the fuck, you know what I mean?
- 20:55Right, right. If it was the 90s Bulls, me and
- 20:57you would be like, yeah, let's go, right?
- 20:59But it's not whereas and we just watch other people win.
- 21:03Right. But real quick, we'll go to
- 21:04commercial break and then we'll come back.
- 21:07Tune into Clado's cacophony of sound every Saturday night from
- 21:119:00 PM to 12:00 AM Eastern on military broadcast radio at MB
- 21:17Radio dot US or on Twitch at DJ under score.
- 21:21Clado MBR giving veterans a voice.
- 21:40All right, welcome back into Inside the Hoosier Mind, brought
- 21:43to you in part by military broadcast radio, helping give
- 21:46veterans a voice back with the shy kid Mike Hughes to talk some
- 21:49WNBA. Now with honestly, what I also
- 21:53feel like is a great storyline, like there's a great storyline
- 21:56on the NBA side, like Mike alluded to, with, you know, you
- 21:59have players labeled as overrated or underrated.
- 22:02You know, you've got the trades, you know, like I just pointed
- 22:05out before the commercial break, teams that have a chance to win
- 22:08their first ever championship in franchise history or the first
- 22:11time to do it in almost 50 years on the women's side.
- 22:14For the WNBA, though, we got all these great stories from college
- 22:18basketball that now transferred over to the pros.
- 22:22And obviously what's bigger than Caitlin Clark versus Angel
- 22:26Reese? Obviously, it happened a lot
- 22:28during college with LSU versus Iowa.
- 22:31Angel Reese, of course, gets the the national championship win
- 22:34that Caitlin unfortunately was never able to do because let's
- 22:37be honest, when you look at the WNBA, not the WNBA women's
- 22:42college basketball and the teams that are there and the depth in
- 22:46women's college basketball, it's like night and day different to
- 22:50the men's, like almost every year for the men's, I'm like,
- 22:52man, I don't, I don't know who's going to win it.
- 22:54And you really don't see it until like the season goes on.
- 22:56But man, you look at the women's side, you you've got Texas,
- 23:00you've got LSU, you've got South Carolina, you've got UConn.
- 23:04At the time when Caitlin was there, you had Iowa, you've got
- 23:07USC, you've got Ohio State, you had Indiana.
- 23:11There was on a hot roll for a little bit like you've got all
- 23:14of these big bad teams in women's college basketball, but
- 23:19of course, none bigger than Angel Reese and and Caitlin
- 23:22Clark. Well, as it's transferred over,
- 23:24obviously Caitlin was kind of the, you know, golden child that
- 23:28everybody loved coming out of college.
- 23:30You know, she broke the NCAA's all time scoring record for, you
- 23:33know, the men's and women's side both comes into the fever with
- 23:37high expectation. Absolutely balls out as the
- 23:39rookie of the year and whatnot. Angel obviously feels a little
- 23:43bit slighted and, you know, she made some comments of she's not
- 23:49the only person that has made, you know, women's basketball
- 23:52great. You know, I'm included in this
- 23:54too. And I and I will say as someone
- 23:56who I'm going to try to play neutral because, you know, much
- 23:59like I told Mike, I don't really follow much professional
- 24:03basketball. I love college basketball.
- 24:04I'm trying to get into more of the fever in the in the Chicago
- 24:07Sky and whatnot. I'll say this, I think Angel's
- 24:12absolutely right in the fact of it's not just Caitlin.
- 24:16Caitlin's just who kind of got more of the spotlight on her
- 24:20than others. And you can definitely attest to
- 24:22this more 'cause I mean, I don't know, as many of the WNBA
- 24:26players, especially a lot of the famous legends, you know, Sue
- 24:28Bird is probably the biggest one that I know off the top of my
- 24:30head, and that's probably who most everybody knows off top of
- 24:33their head is Sue Bird. But you know, Caitlin Angel, you
- 24:37know, Haley Von Lift out of, you know, LSUTCU Louisville, you
- 24:42know, Paige Bucher's, you know, Juju Watkins, like all of these
- 24:45women have truly made college basketball great and, you know,
- 24:49have truly contributed. So Angel's not necessarily wrong
- 24:53in the fact of you can't just give Caitlin the sole credit.
- 24:56Like Angel is also a part of that story too.
- 25:00So I mean, I know a lot of people hate on Angel for it
- 25:03because she's not as flashy. She doesn't put up the same type
- 25:05of numbers that Caitlin does. She's not to me as much as a
- 25:09perimeter shooter as to me Angel is more of a defender.
- 25:12And you can correct me if I'm wrong on that, but you look at
- 25:14her rebound numbers and whatnot. I mean, she's more of a defender
- 25:17than she is an offensive, an offensive player.
- 25:20But that's just me looking from the outside and and trying to be
- 25:24neutral anyway. No, yeah, I mean the the some of
- 25:27the shots. That that will.
- 25:28If you're a Sky fan or just an Angel resupporter, definitely
- 25:31will piss you off at times and do all the missed layups and
- 25:34everything that went into that. It happens, you know, and that
- 25:38was a part of her learning curve was figuring that out.
- 25:40Now we're only one game into this season, but we definitely
- 25:43did see a lot of that as well throughout this game against the
- 25:45Fever. And you know, it's it's
- 25:47frustrating because you saw her work with so many greats
- 25:50throughout the offseason. You saw her work with Lisa
- 25:52Leslie and then and picking her brain.
- 25:54Lisa Leslie. We talk about Sue Bird being the
- 25:56most iconic, but Lisa Leslie might be the best to ever do it.
- 26:00You know, and it's, it's frustrating to see Caitlin drop
- 26:03a triple double if you're Chicago.
- 26:06And then Angel just kind of be what she already was.
- 26:09And, and that's where you're starting to see, you know, Angel
- 26:12did get taken #7 overall, is there a reason for that?
- 26:15And, and, and you know, we did it.
- 26:16What did, what did a lot of people see that others didn't?
- 26:18You know, because to me, Angel was, it was Caitlin Clark Angel
- 26:23Reese Cameron bring that was what I thought was going to
- 26:26happen. And for her to land outside of
- 26:28the top five amazed me. Or not Cameron Brink.
- 26:31It was Camila Cardoso that Cameron.
- 26:32Brink, Whatever. But regardless, you know, it was
- 26:35a very interesting to me, especially because of LSU.
- 26:37She averaged what, 23 and 10, something crazy like that.
- 26:40She was the number one scorer. She was incredible.
- 26:43And then in the women's game, it's it's slightly different.
- 26:45The rebounding is still there, the defense is still there, but
- 26:48she's trying to find her own. You're right though, you're
- 26:51right 100%. And I'm talking to Angel a
- 26:53million times, covering the team and, and really doing what I'm
- 26:56doing. And it's it hurts to kind of see
- 27:01the conversation turn into something that's more than
- 27:03basketball. The WNBA do their investigation
- 27:06right now about what happened was Sunday, Sunday or Saturday
- 27:12over the weekend. Yeah, Saturday.
- 27:15Saturday was, you know, we were hearing racial slurs get taunted
- 27:18towards the Chicago Sky bench. I didn't hear anything over the
- 27:21broadcast. Obviously sky players were
- 27:23there. So if they're saying it
- 27:25happened, then it happened, you know what I mean?
- 27:27But you know, it's it's unfortunate because it becomes
- 27:30bigger than basketball. And last year I talked to Angel
- 27:32kind of about that, about the Magic Johnson, Larry Bird
- 27:35comparison of like, you know how, you know, Magic was this
- 27:38arrogant, cocky, however you want to paint him to be.
- 27:42And then Larry was that's that's an American, you know what I
- 27:45mean? And it's just listen, everybody
- 27:48listening to this, this is Mike's opinion.
- 27:51This does not reflect the network or inside the Hoosier
- 27:53mind. Maybe it does.
- 27:55I don't know. If they if they want to own it,
- 27:57they can own it. If not, it's completely OK.
- 27:59But you know, Angel could be the worst human being in the entire
- 28:03world. She could be a horrible person.
- 28:06Not saying she is, but she could be.
- 28:08And let's say she is. That doesn't excuse anybody to
- 28:12be making racial slurs or taunting anybody of any form of
- 28:16any shape of any color. Because the way I see it is like
- 28:19this, right? You, you have a black family or
- 28:23Hispanic family or Asian family sitting at a fever game just
- 28:27trying to enjoy themselves. And you have somebody screaming
- 28:31racial slurs next to them. Like my kids are here.
- 28:33Like I, I brought them to a basketball game to see, like you
- 28:37said, some of these empowering women who have changed the game.
- 28:40And, and this is what's happening on the other side.
- 28:43And that's, that's gone through the history of sports, whether
- 28:46that's Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Jackie Robinson,
- 28:48Magic Johnson, Allen Iverson, you know, like we can, we can
- 28:51talk about this all day long, but for whatever reason, on the
- 28:54women's side, it's a lot heavier in 2025 than on the men's.
- 28:58I see Draymond Green kicks a bonus in the chest, stomp them
- 29:02out. And you didn't hear anybody
- 29:04saying stuff like that to Draymond Green.
- 29:06Patrick Beverly out here being a menace to society.
- 29:09You don't hear people say stuff like that, that the fact that
- 29:11it's happening to Angel, it's it's insanely unfortunate.
- 29:17And I understand, hey, maybe, maybe you want to say that, you
- 29:21know, she's not the best scorer. Maybe she gets a lot of her own
- 29:24rebounds. Whatever.
- 29:26I'm completely I I accept that. Like, I love banter like that.
- 29:31I love when people say Clark can't play defense or Angel
- 29:34can't score or like, like when they go at each other for that.
- 29:38And that rivalry continues to grow because we know it is one.
- 29:41These two women do not rock with each other.
- 29:43I don't care what they say. They can make a commercial
- 29:46holding hands running down the street into a rainbow forest.
- 29:49Like they don't rock with each other.
- 29:51That's clear as day, but what I don't like is when it turns into
- 29:57a race war. Outside of them social media.
- 30:01I've had to turn off comments on a video I did with Diamond to
- 30:04Shields because everybody's talking about Angel and saying
- 30:07the most horrendous of things. You think she's flashy, you
- 30:10think she's arrogant, OK, that's fine.
- 30:12But that gives nobody the right to say those things.
- 30:14Tony, how do you feel being in Indiana?
- 30:18Kind of just see hearing those things kind of happening.
- 30:22Yeah, I mean it, it's disappointing as a whole.
- 30:25And I, and I was going to say even even not just for like an
- 30:28Indiana thing, but even as a whole, like you said, if if
- 30:31you're mad and you don't like someone, that's one thing.
- 30:34And if you and I feel this is what happens a lot of times and
- 30:37I feel like This is why things get brought up is if you don't
- 30:41have a valid argument for something, then you start
- 30:44reaching for whatever you can to basically be that next jab or
- 30:49that next thing to try to hurt somebody.
- 30:51Because you can't, you can't formulate a good enough argument
- 30:55either in your mind or in that person's mind of this is what I
- 30:59need to do to be able to get my point across.
- 31:01So you stoop to something like that in order to, you know, try
- 31:05to try to hurt that person. And again, at the end of the
- 31:07day, like these are two women that they play, they play a
- 31:13game, they play it very well. Like you said, you know, if
- 31:16people want to say Angel can't shoot, she can't do offense,
- 31:18fine. If you want to say Caitlin can't
- 31:20do defense, that's fine. But that's, that's part of the
- 31:23fun of it. And I would say for a lot of
- 31:25these people, you know, if you, if you're willing to go to some
- 31:28of these games, obviously you have some type of vested
- 31:30interest either in the game or even just in sports in general.
- 31:34So if you've ever seen any type of a debate, whether it's
- 31:37something like this, whether it's something on professional
- 31:39news or whatnot, you never see them going that far of like, you
- 31:43know, oh, hey, I'm going to take a personal shot now.
- 31:46We've seen it because we saw it with like Skip and Shannon.
- 31:48And then obviously that that ultimately led to the
- 31:51dissolution of that show as a result of that.
- 31:53And it sucks because both of them had great chemistry
- 31:56together and it was fun to watch them kind of, you know, Duke
- 31:58that out. If I'm Angel at that point, I'm
- 32:02not going to say it's enough to cause me to like quit, but it is
- 32:06something it's like, you know, I don't do this, you know, just I
- 32:10mean, probably some of them do it just for the money, but you
- 32:13do it because you love the game and you enjoy doing it and it's
- 32:16cool whenever, like you said, if if that family does get to go
- 32:19and experience that and you do get to show your kids like, hey,
- 32:22look at these women who are at the top of their game and
- 32:24they're just getting started and you want to, you know, share
- 32:28that experience with your kids and make it enjoyable.
- 32:30And something like that gets brought into it.
- 32:32It it's disappointing and it's disheartening more than
- 32:35anything. It ruins, it ruins the fan
- 32:38experience. It ruins, I mean, there's people
- 32:40who, people who will never go back to a game after stuff like
- 32:43that, you know what I mean? Like that's, it's, it's, it's
- 32:46crazy to even like kind of have those conversations.
- 32:49Last year, Camila Cardoso and I were standing next to each other
- 32:52and I could hear people saying stuff about her and it it wasn't
- 32:57even near the and and that was like friendly banter, kind of
- 33:00talking about her being a Gamecock at at South Carolina
- 33:04and, you know, working with Don Staley.
- 33:06Like it was it was fun rivalry stuff that even you being ALSU
- 33:09fan would have appreciated. And then I stand by Angel and
- 33:13you're in two different worlds. You know what I mean?
- 33:15You're in a battlefield. It's 1935.
- 33:18Like you're like, it's it's insane.
- 33:20It reminds me, it sounds crazy and it and people are going to
- 33:23be like, it's not even the same realm.
- 33:26But if you ever saw the movie 42, there's this scene where
- 33:28everybody's screaming at Jackie Robinson and there's a little
- 33:31boy in the crowd kind of confused.
- 33:33I'm like, why everyone's yelling.
- 33:35And then he eventually just goes into it as well and he starts
- 33:38doing exactly what he saw his father doing.
- 33:40And that's the stuff that, you know, the WNBA, they're in my
- 33:44opinion, they're a year or two late on this, you know, like
- 33:47they're talking about, oh, there's no room for hate.
- 33:50But last year it went the entire season before the the
- 33:53commissioner or anybody really even said anything.
- 33:56And and that to me is like, this kind of stuff should have been
- 33:58already, you know, resolved or it not resolved.
- 34:01I don't really know what you can do, especially on social media
- 34:04side of things, but like, it's just super unfortunate.
- 34:07Yeah, and it it it definitely sucks.
- 34:10It part of it kind of reminds me of like and real quick before we
- 34:13get out, it kind of reminds me of like AWWE script because
- 34:16again, for that whole rivalry, Caitlin was kind of portrayed as
- 34:20this underdog good guy that everybody wanted to root for.
- 34:24Then of course she had the big bad villains in Angel Reese LSU
- 34:28And then I I think just because, you know, Angel got to be cocky
- 34:32and you know, like did the did the whole show on the finger in
- 34:35the ring thing. I think that just added to, oh,
- 34:37she's the villain, we got a. Caitlin.
- 34:39Caitlin did it first, by the way.
- 34:41I always want to point that out. Caitlin went like this first.
- 34:44But that's we. That's another show.
- 34:46And I'm just saying they also got that from my from my boy,
- 34:49another LSU Tiger Joe, just, you know, about like 4 years before
- 34:53him. He.
- 34:53Got it from Cena. Like you know what I mean?
- 34:55Like we could exactly we could all.
- 34:57It happens. It happens, but nonetheless,
- 34:59buddy, I appreciate you being honest.
- 35:01Always appreciate everybody tuning in.
- 35:03If you like everything that Mike said, you want to cover more on
- 35:06the Chicago Sky, the Bulls, DA Bears, check out the Shy Kid on
- 35:11almost all the social media to be able to find that out.
- 35:14If you appreciate everything here on military broadcast
- 35:16radio, definitely check them out.
- 35:17Check all the great veteran podcasters and whatnot that we
- 35:20have, but appreciate everybody tuning in and we will be
- 35:23hopefully back next week. Peace.
- 35:26Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to.