Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Sarah Todd on the NBA Playoffs, Jaylen Brown saying refs had an agenda against him (?), NBA Draft Lottery on Sunday + more

Transcript

Sarah Todd on the NBA Playoffs, Jaylen Brown saying refs had an agenda against him (?), NBA Draft Lottery on Sunday + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: It's the Sean O'Connell show. You were home of the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: best inside of your use.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Let's get back to OC from the Murder Chevrolet studio
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: of the ESPN seven hundred yet ninety two one af.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: AM, Welcome back to the Shan O'Connell Show, our two
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: on a Monday.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Welcome in Sarah Todd Utah jazz beat reporter over at
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: day's news at NBA Sarah, which is an absolutely incredible
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Twitter handle, Sarah, welcome back.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: How are you?
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: Thank you? I did great branding when I was in
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: college and I was planning on eventually someday becoming an
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: NBA beat reporter, and I got the email, I got
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: all of the social handles on Twitter, Instagram, everything, and
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: so I'm very proud that I jumped on that early
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: before I even had the clout to even have the
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: name NBA Sarah.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: It's the digital equivalent of dressing for the job you want.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, I love it.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: We've got an NBA Draft Lottery coming up this next Sunday.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: It is also Mother's Day. Does do you think Ryan
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Smith has to.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Have like a Mother's Day gift a better one for
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: if the jazz don't do well in the lottery odds,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: and one that's maybe not quite so crazy and pricey
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: if Ashley can celebrate them getting I don't know, like
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: the number one pick. Are there two gifts in waiting
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: for the mother of the Smith family.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: I mean, I just have to imagine that if you
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: have Ryan Smith's money, the Mother's Day gift better be
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: really good, no matter what the situation.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I got you a plane. Happy Mother's Day.
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, Sean, isn't every day Mother's.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Day though, certainly in my house?
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I listen. I think that I think that Ryan
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: might have learned his own lesson about how to react
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: to the lottery last year, because you know, he was seen.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: I wrote about it that he kind of angrily stormed
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: out of the broadcast ballroom where the broadcast is held
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: last year, and then you know, he had the Twitter
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: post where he talked about, you know, being on a
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: run the next day and like screaming in the as
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: he was running. And as soon as I saw that post,
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: I thought, well, that doesn't really say too many good
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: things to the guy that you're actually going to pick
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: number five. Overall, that's kind of a little bit of
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: a slap in the face, and you know that turned
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: out to be you know, a month later that was
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: Ace Bailey. And so I think that this year, you know,
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: no matter no matter where the balls fall, that he
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: probably is going to have a good reaction and a
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: good gift for everyone all around.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: I can I have a funny anecdotal story about Ryan
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Smith's reaction to the draft lottery. So I I ran
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: into him at a brunch right after the Draft lottery,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: and I don't like to bother people when they're in public,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: but I was just like, man, I love what's going
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: on with the with the hockey club. I thought, I
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: think it's so great that you brought NHL hockey, and
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: he was started. He just mumbled some response about the
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Jazz pick instead, like he didn't even hear.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: The words that came out of my mouth. It's like
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: number five. I was like, what, That's not what we
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: were talking about. Man. I was like, Uh, he's got
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: he's got things on his mind.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: So anyway, this this coming draft lottery, the Utah Jazz
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: do have a ten and a half percent chance to
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: take the number one pick. It's interesting because there were
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: so many eggs in that basket. It felt like for
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the fan base last year. And I don't get that
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: sense at all, even though it's Aj Debonsa sitting up
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: there at number one. Why the different expectations, Why the
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: different reactions from this fan base from year to year.
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: You think, Yeah, I think that this one is. I
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: wrote about this, I think last week in my newsletter,
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: where it's just like, this is a this is a
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: draft lottery. Finally, after these four years of tanking, that
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: finally Jazz fans can kind of feel good going into
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: lottery night. And I think that it has to do
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: with the kind of handcuffing that that pick owed to
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: Oklahoma City had on the Jazz over the last few years,
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: where it was like, well if we don't if it falls,
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: then we don't keep the pick, And there was all
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: this this worry about keeping it and the fact that
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: ahead or following the lottery each year, there was this
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: way of knowing that the Jazz still weren't going to
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: be good, that they still we're going to be tanking,
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: that all of this was still happening, that the rebuild
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: was still kind of on the ground floor. And this
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: year it's like, you know that the team, what the
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: team is going to have next year. You know that
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: going in next year, let's we're just assuming blanket stavement here.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: The assumption is that they're able to resign Walker Kessler,
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: but we you know, we'll cross that bridge later on.
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: But you know, we know that the Jazz are going
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: to have Walker Lowry Market and Jaren Jackson, Junior keyante
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: George Ace Bailey as like their starting unit, cores the
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: young core that they're going to move forward with. And
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: so it's not like the weight of the potential future
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: of the team. It's not like they were taking for
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: Cooper because they were only had just a bunch of
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: draft assets. They made a big swing last year at
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: the trade deadline this year at the trade deadline, and
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: so there's there's kind of this feeling of like, yeah,
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: we're going to start trying to win game next year.
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: We're going to have kind of a good team. We
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: feel like things are on the up and up, and
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: so there's just a lot of feelings that like the
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: tanking days are over. We're already going to have like
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: a pretty good team. Anything that happens in the lottery,
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: any pick that the Jazz are going to get number one,
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: if it's lower than like number five. Then you're just
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: adding depth to the team and to the core that
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: you already know you're going to have, and if you
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: get like one of those top picks, it's kind of
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: just a bonus, right. It's like, whoa, we already think
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: we have something pretty good and we can potentially get
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: like a top four guy who has All Star potential.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: But I think it just it has a lot better
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: feelings than any of the last four years, when it's like, well,
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: if we fall out of the top fives, then maybe
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: we don't get someone that's even rotational and we're tanking
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: again next year. So there's just a different feelings on
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: the horizon.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: I imagine they've got a contingency plan for if things go
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: as well as they possibly can. Sitting up there at
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: number one, If you're at five, six, seven and you
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: can still grab a quality player because this is such
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: a deep draft, who do you think that is? Is
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: it best player available? Is it positional need? Because at
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: that level of the draft you usually go with best
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: player available. But we've already talked about some of the
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: core you have, and there's some specifics there with the
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: you know who, where the holes are and where you
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: feel like you're pretty set.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you know, there are some holes that
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: the Jazz have, right, Like, I think that if you
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: look at kind of point guard or at least ball
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: handling guards, the Jazz don't have a ton of depth
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: there at least that you think like, oh, that guy
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: can definitely play in the playoffs, right, And so I
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: think that that is kind of a need that the
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: Jazz have, But also they have to have to have
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: to be better defensively, and so I think that you know,
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: if you have someone like, for example, Darius Akaff, who
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: is you know, still on the board and is considered
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: like the top talent available when the Jazz are picking,
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: that looks pretty good from an offensive perspective, but I
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: mean he was a traffic cone on defense in college,
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: and so I feel like that would kind of be
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: a big miss for the Jazz if they were to
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: take someone to put on the perimeter that doesn't play defense,
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: because they already struggle there. And so I think that
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: you'd kind of it's kind of a mix of both, right,
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: Like you want to take the best talent available on
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: the board, but also something that makes sense and isn't
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: gonna you know, drag you down at all, or make
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: your life harder.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Sarah Todda is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Show talk at all Things Utah, Jazz and the NBA.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Right now, fifteen total instances of teams coming back from
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: a three to one deficit in the NBA playoffs, and
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: we've got.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Two in the first round of this year's playoffs. Why how.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: I mean this couple of answers. One is I always
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: tell people like, yeah, whenever you hear this up brought
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: up every year like oh, it's never happened, that it's
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: never happened, or you know it hasn't I always say,
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: it hasn't happened yet.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: That's the same thing as like, you know, no one
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: ever had scored thirty seven points in a single quarter
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: until Klay Thompson did it at a really random game
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: in the middle of the regular season, right like it
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: can happen. It can happen again. The same thing, you know,
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: Bam out of bio scoring over eighty points in a game,
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: guys coming back down three to one in the playoffs.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: It just hasn't happened yet. I thought I was, you know,
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: there in the bubble when the Jazz were down when
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: they were leading the Denver Nuggets and it looked like, oh,
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: there's no way because it never happened that they're going
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: to lose the Nuggets, and then the Nuggets beat them
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: in that series. And so I just I think number one,
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: it hasn't had and yet. But also I think that
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: the teams that it's happening too are kind of also
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: teams that nobody really believes can go all the way, right,
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: Like you're getting it in series where it's between teams
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: that I don't really think are destined for the finals
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: that could come back to bite me really hard right now,
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: right And I'm totally willing to take that l if
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: I'm wrong, and like you know, the Sixers end up
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: in the finals, that's fine. I'm willing to take the
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: L because I am also the one that just said,
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: oh it, you know, hasn't happened yet. But I mean,
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: I think the Celtics are the team that everyone assumed
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: would come out of the East. But also the Eastern
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: Conference is fraudulent, and so I just I don't believe
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: in anything that happens.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Over there, So you don't put a lot of credence
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: into Jalen Brown's claims that the referees had an agenda
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: to push Philadelphia through and that's why the Celtics have
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: been eliminated.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: I mean, how many years has the Celtics beef to
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: the Sixers? What would the what would the referee's agenda
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: be to just like make Joel Embiid feel happy one
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: time because he's been so sad at Boston so many years.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: Like I just now and you know what the referees agenda.
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: If you're a basketball player, especially one at Jaylen Brown's level,
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: I think that your agenda should be, maybe we should
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: just win so many games at such a level that
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: we don't put the game in the rest hands.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Well that that's that's the correct stance, but it's not
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: something It assumes radical responsibility for the player and you
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: can't blame anyone else if you're if you're that good,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: and you have to be able to blame the other
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: when you lose a series or a game or whatever.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: That's it's a it's a died in the world trait
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: of many athletes.
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: You know this, Yeah, I know, And I just don't
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: have a lot of patience for it. I just think, man,
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: you're at You're one of the best players in the world.
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: You've gotten to this level, Like, maybe take a little
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: bit of ownership. I mean, he was feeling a lot
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: of ownership all year when he was in the you know,
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: kind of second tier MVP race. But while people were
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: also saying, like, are we really going to get to
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: a point where the sixty five game role makes us
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: forces us to vote for Jalen Brown for MVP, And
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: so maybe the right thing to do would have been
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: to actually play like an MVP player and win that series.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: How do you feel about the seventy six Ers putting
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: some some guarbrails in place so that non Philadelphia residents
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: are going to have they're gonna have to go to
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: the secondary market to get playoff tickets. They're they're building
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: a virtual wall around the tickets so that they can
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: have seventy six Ers fans in the building instead of
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Knicks fans.
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: I mean that feels safe. I just think that this,
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: I mean, this happens in other sports, you know, where
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: you know there's only a certain number of tickets or
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: they're they're you know, you kind of have to jump
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: through hoops to get them. I think that kind of
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: makes sense. Also, Philly is incredibly stubborn, but in one
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: of the most lovable ways. I mean, listen, I spent
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: many years living in Philly and covering the Sixers, and
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: so there's like an affection that I have for that city.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: And I think that, man, if New York fans want
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: to go into Philadelphia and they want to do the
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: work to get the tickets and be in that building,
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: more power to them. I cannot wait to see that
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: whole thing unfold.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards might be able to get back to this
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: second round series. How crucial is that going to be
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: for the Minnesota Timberwolves or will it matter ultimately against
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: a team like the Spurs.
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: Acial For me? Oh see, I I tried so hard
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: to watch the last couple games of that series, and
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: I mean like I would turn it on, watch for
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: five minutes, turn it off, and I'm yelling in my
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: living room at the time, like I don't want to
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: watch this game. I hate this because I did not.
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: I don't I didn't care whether or not the Wolves
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: or the Nuggets won, but I did not want to
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: watch a game where it was just bone Piland and
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: Jaden McDaniels beating the Nuggets, Like I wanted to watch
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: Anthony Edwards and Dante DiVincenzo and that night that I
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: would assumed new had against the Nuggets was incredible, and
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: then he's also out, So like, I don't want to
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: watch these playoff series where it's a makeshift team of
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: the team that I thought was going to be there,
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: and like, yeah, crucial for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Absolutely, they
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: just like there's there's no hope of getting, you know,
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: all the way to a Western Conference finals, uh, without
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: having Anthony Edwards. I don't think that that's an outlandish
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: thing to say, but just for the viewing experience, Like,
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: it's just so frustrating. I don't want to watch a
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: series with the Wolves without Anthony Edwards. That does not
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: sound interesting to me.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Will they win it if he's healthy? Will they win
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: it if he's not?
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that they they could win it if
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: he's healthy. Could right, I mean, anything could happen, It's
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: it's the playoffs. But I think that if ant is
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: not healthy that they they are not winning that series.
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: That I don't know if they do if he is healthy,
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: But I definitely don't think that they win it if
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: he's not on the court.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: The Dallas Mavericks have hired Massai Ujirie as team president
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: and alternate governor, about six months removed from a running
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: the old guy out of town who became unfortunately kind
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: of a laughing stock around the league, whether it was
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: his fault or not given the trade with Luca, What
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: what kind of impact does massi Ugerie have on a
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Western Conference team that the Jazz are gonna have to
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: deal with with their young core for a while.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: You know, It's funny. One of the first things that
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: I thought was, like, what Wouldn'tsi do in a situation
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: where he had a team kind of with the players
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: that the Mavericks have kind of a small window with
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: some aging players. It's like, well, he would take a
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: big swing and go after some player like I don't know,
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: like a Luca for example. And that's the first thing
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: that I thought, is like, you know, he's adopting inheriting
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: a team that did the exact opposite of what he
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: would have done, because he went and got Kawhi knowing
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: that it was on like a one year, one year
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: lease and to bring a championship to Toronto, and it worked,
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: and he's going to a team where the kind of
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: player that you could have make that happen is the
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: one that your predecessor gave away. And so what can
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: they expect is that he's going to take big swings,
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: but also that he truly, truly understands the kind of
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: window that a team has for a championship. And I
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: think that's a good thing for them to have, especially
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: considering kind of the aging, you know, stars that they
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: have in Dallas. I think that he's really going to
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: focus his efforts on actually building something around Cooper.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Who will the Magic hire as their next head coach?
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: Does it matter?
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Well, look, they played well enough through three games, through
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: four games that it feels like, yeah, it kind of does, right.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: I Mean they've got they've got a nice little thing
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: going on in Orlando, don't they.
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: Well, if the if the Orlando Magic, let's just say that,
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: if you land your Magic had the number one seed
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: or the number two seed and they beat the Detroit
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: Pistons or the Celtics, who would just watched the Sixers
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: beed uh in the East? Would you pick them at
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: all to win a title?
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: No, but that's what we can't be doing this in
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: the NBA, right, I mean, we can't just be shrugging
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: and say, well, kind of doesn't matter who you hire,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: because if that's the case, what are the Utah Jazz doing, Like,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: there's no reason to believe in the Jazz more than
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: the Magic at this point.
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: That's a great that's it's a great point that you make, Like,
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: what are the Jazz going to do to compete against
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: the Whimpes and the Shaye Gilders Alexanders of the world.
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: That's the kind of the longer conversation.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the thunder roster is terrifying, and they're all as
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: young or younger than everybody everybody else would the West.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: And then yeah, the second best team, what I think
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: is the second best team in the league right now,
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: has a twenty two year old best player on the
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: planet who's only going to keep getting better. And it's like, well,
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: you're still supposed to roll a basketball out there and
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: compete and do your best.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: So here's what I hope for the Magic. I hope
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: that it's not just like I don't like the regurgitation
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: in the NBA where it's just like the Doc Rivers
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: and Nick Nurses of the world, just continue to roll
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: on and be hired by another team. And I just
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: I think that like new I like what the Bucks
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: did right that they hired Taylor Jenkins because he's still
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: one of like the young and innovative coaches that hasn't
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: been like moved around, and he isn't in his sixties
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: or whatever. I just think that like new blood and
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: that some sort of innovation or like taking a swing
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: on someone that's a little bit unconventional. Those are the
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: things that I like when you know, new coaching hires happen.
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: I don't want to just see like you know, Mike
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: Brown and Mike Budenholz are all the mics of the world.
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: Like I just I get tired of seeing that coaching
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: carousel because that's literally a cliche in sports is coaching carousel,
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: which means that nobody's getting off, it's just spinning. It's
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: the same horses in every market. And that's what I
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: hope is, Like the Magic do have like a fun,
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: young team and interesting squad like you were saying, and
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: just they need some tweaks and they need kind of
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: new energy. And so that's what I hope for the Magic.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: We will keep our fingers crossed for the magic and
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: all of the other also rans, including the Utah Jazz.
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: Hey, don't you have some lottery conspiracies that you want
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: to throw out here?
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Uh?
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Well, I was going to ask you how much the
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: NBA pays each of you to be quiet about their
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: manipulation of the lottery when they invite you into the
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: room to actually watch the draw.
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: Oh man, if I was getting paid to be in
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: that room, I would be so much happier, Like I
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: welcome it. Someone come and try and bribe me, someone
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: I would. That's the kind of money I'm looking for
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: in life. Oh see, I wish that that was happening.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: You're not getting any hush money, really, no.
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: I would hush money. Again, that's the kind of money
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: in life that I'm looking for. I'm I'm on journalist
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: money over here. All right, it's not glamorous. I promised
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: you that. On journalist money. If I was watching something
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: untoward happening in that room, you would absolutely be hearing
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: about it.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: I just I want I want it to make sense.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Why when teams and like I've kind of like set
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: fourteen percent serious about it when something happened like happened
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: last year where just like, hey, this seems like it's
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: a nonsensical move that really helps the league, and then
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: oh there's a big reward. I want that to make
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: sense because otherwise I'm like, you're telling me that a
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: franchise that made what we all thought was the absolute
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: wrong move then just gets a mulligan on that absolute
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: wrong move and our hometown Jazz can't get anything to
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: help them out.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: But that's what I'm looking for with my conspiracies. Make
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: it make sense.
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm man. I mean, I can bring out all
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: of the cliches of life's not fair, osey and nice
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: guys finished last, right, Like the thing that always stands
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: out to me is when that happened, the moment that
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: the Mavericks ball combination was drawn out of the machine,
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: the look on the faces of the people involved, like
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: the Byrons Bruwell, who is the you know, the in
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: the NBA hierarchy. It's he's third, right, He's after David
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: or Adam Silver and after Mark Tatum, and so he's
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: the one that's in the room for the lottery drawing.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: And then there's you know, someone from NBA Legal, and
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: then there's you know from Ernst and Young Legal. There's
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: these people that are standing there that are kind of
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: you know, they're supposed they're checking each other's work basically
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: in the room, like they're looking at the balls that
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: are drawn, you know, they're looking at their packet of
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: numbers that has the combination to make sure that the
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: right name is being announced. All of us reporters have
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: the same packet of numbers. We're checking to make sure,
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: like yes, we agree that they're saying the right numbers
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: and they're saying the right name team name that goes
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: along with it. All of those people when Dallas Mavericks
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: was announced, When that combination come up and we all
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: looked down at our packets and we saw the numbers matched,
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: the looks on their faces were like I wish that
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: I could describe it to you. It was like the
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: looks said, Okay, I guess we're about to say this
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: out loud. This is horrible. Like that was the look
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: on their face. Is that they knew. They knew it
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: was bad, they knew the way that it was gonna look.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: They knew that they really actually had to say it
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: out loud. It was incredible, Like it was an incredible
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: moment absolutely my favorite moment so far of being in
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: that room because of how just everyone in the room
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: was like, oh my god, this is the worst possible
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: outcome for a team that does not deserve what we're
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: about to say out loud.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, do me a favor.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: I want you to take a crisp brand new five
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: dollars bill with you into the room. I want you
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: to walk up till I don't know one of those suits,
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: and I want you to just like slip it into
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: the front pocket of a suit or a suit shirt
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: and just say, hey, get us AJ to the jazz,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: all right, and just pat it after you slip it
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: into the pocket, just an open hand pat and a wink,
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: and then go sit in your journalism seat and be
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: a pro.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Again. We do that for me?
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: No, absolutely not two things here. Number One, the journalism
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: salary is the only one I have osi and so
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: I do have to keep it, okay. Number Two, I
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: think that I would need a bill that's a lot
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: larger than that in order for that to actually mean
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: anything in that room. And again, the journalism salary is
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: the one that I'm on, and so those are not
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: bills that I carry around I don't.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Think there's bills that any of us carry around that
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: could help out in that effort. But we'll keep our
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: fingers crossed. Thank you so much. Oh, by the way, like,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: do you know what what Mother's Day celebrations are happening
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: in your world? Do you make a big deal out
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: of this holiday when everyone while you're you know, absent
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: and working.
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: No, I honestly, I make no effort at all because
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: my mother lives in California, and so I have been
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: away from my family for major holidays for most of
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: the last fifteen years working in this business, and so
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: they understand that, you know, Christmas, Birthdays, holidays, all of it,
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: it's not going to land on the right day for me,
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: and so I make it up later. And so I
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: don't even think about it. The combine and the lottery
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: are always over this weekend, and so I'll make a
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: phone call. But I am making it up this summer,
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: me and my husband, we're taking both of our mothers
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: on a European trip.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's awesome.
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: We are absolutely making up for miss holidays this year.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: James, you know, was paying for that the hush money.
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: See, see, it's not the hush money. It's the one
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: perk of my job, and it's the flight miles that
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: I get for traveling and covering an NBA team. Otherwise
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: we would not be.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Doing this all right, while I have you, what's the
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: stance on the Mother's Day gift for the non literal mother?
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Like, so, for someone who's not a mom, a step
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: mom is not.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: Me, I'm a step mom?
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Is that? Well you don't count, then you're a step mom.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: So like people who don't have kids, you know, like
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: the newlywed who maybe someday is going to have a
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: kid but doesn't have one. Now, the sister in law
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: who's single and doesn't have any kids and gets like
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: the well here's something as a potential future mother, or
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: here's all women are motherly in their own What is
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: the stance on the non mom getting a Mother's Day
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: gift from the you know, the step mom the female perspective.
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's weird, but if you're a non mom, you
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: don't need a Mother's Day gift. Listen, I spent I
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: became a step mom last year, and so there were
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: thirty eight years of being a non mom and I
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: never once thought, oh, where's my Mother's Day gift that's weird,
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: and so don't do it. That's my stance, all right.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: I appreciate I like that from you.
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: I'm writing also that people that don't have children, I
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: mean ostensibly they have money that they are not spending
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: on children. Children are so expensive. Yes, and so if
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: you have a significant other or somebody in your life
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: that's buying you a gift, hopefully you're getting a gift
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: more often than just one Sunday in May because you
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: don't have kids that you have to spend money on.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: Like go if you feel like you need a gift
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: or that you deserve one on Mother's Day, like go
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: buy it, because you're not spending your money on a kid.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: I love Sarah Todd so much. Your the absolute best.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: I appreciate your perspective on basketball primarily, but just on
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: life in general.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: Hey, can I do it? Can I do a preemptive Friday? Yes?
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Are your grievance right now?
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: And will James get ready to cut this and we'll
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: play it again on Friday?
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Okay? Go.
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: Normal spaces in life where people are moving, you guys
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: have to stop stopping in them. Don't in the middle
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: of a sidewalk in an aisle of a store, on
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: the concourse of an arena, like you, it's so easy
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: to move to the side when people are in the
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: in the middle of a stairwell landing. People stop in
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: the strangest places. Don't do that. Keep it moving. That's
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: my gripe.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: We will echo it and we will reiterate it in
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: Friday's airing of Grievances.
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: Keep it moving, you, keep it moving, play with some urgency.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: Move move along, Sarah, enjoy the weekend and we'll chat
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: again soon.
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: Thank you, all right, thanks a lotos you talk soon.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Sarah Todd.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: If you listen to that conversation, you know exactly why
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: we love having her on and why we always go
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: over time when we do