Nightcap - Nightcap - Unc & Gil react to Lakers getting booed vs. Suns, Melo calls out Nuggets, Shaq vs. Dwight

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

Shannon Sharpe and Gilbert Arenas react to the Thursday slate of NBA games, including LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers dropping below .500 in a loss to Kevin Durant's Phoenix Suns and Giannis Antetokounmpo leading the Milwaukee Bucks over Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics. Unc and GIl also break down news around the league like Carmelo Anthony saying on his podcast that he felt disrespected by the Denver Nuggets giving the number 15 to 2-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, the Orlando Magic retiring Shaquille O'Neal's number 32, the NBA Draft reportedly moving to two nights to become more like the NFL Draft, and more! 04:50 - Suns destroy the Lakers  15:00 - Bucks beat the Celtics  21:00 - Why isn’t LeBron isn’t getting the same treatment MJ did with Wizards? 26:50 - Melo not happy Jokic wears #15  34:10 - Dwight Howard a greater Magic player than Shaq? 41:30 - Shaq didn’t train hard 51:30 - Is LeBron “clutch”? 56:30 - NBA Draft becoming a two day event 01:08:15 -  Gil a top 75 player if he stayed healthy? 01:12:30 - Embiid over Jokic? 01:15:30 - What made Derrick Rose so special?   #Volume #Club  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another episode of Nightcap Basketball Edition. I'm your favorite sports unk, Shannon Sharp. He's your favorite number zero, Hibachi, Arizona Wildcats, best player all time, Gil Arena. Gil, how you doing tonight, bro? I'm good. How you doing? Man, I'm doing great. No, actually, I'm not doing great.

I'm a little under the weather tonight, Gil. I've been grinding my ass off over the last month, and it's finally catching up with me, bud. So I'm going to push through, give the people a great show tonight. We probably should have took off like a lot of these NBA teams because they bulljabbed tonight, Gil. They bulljabbed tonight. 139-77, 135-102.

I mean, 127-109. There's only what? The Mavericks and the Knicks turned out to be a great game it was 128-124 and I think the Cavaliers played the Nets in Paris and that turned out to be a great game but other than that the games were over a half yeah we could have started this about an hour ago

we could have just started please make sure you hit that like button make sure you hit that subscribe button make sure you hit that subscribe button because this is the way that we grow and this is the way you show appreciation to us and by in turn we grow and show appreciation appreciation to you by saying thank you so appreciate that also i would like for you to subscribe to gill's arena channel the show airs monday through Thursday, live 1130 a.m. Pacific, 230. Excuse me. 230 Eastern Pacific. No, 230 Eastern time. The show airs Monday through Thursday, live 1130 a.m. Pacific, 230 Eastern time. So make sure you go out there, hit that hit that subscribe button for Gil.

We've also pinned Shea by La Laporte at the top of the chat. We are back in stock. So appreciate that. Go out and get yourself a bottle for you or someone that you love. Valentine's Day is around the corner. We got President's Day. We got the Super Bowl. Ah, man, you know y'all don't get to it during the Super Bowl,

especially your team getting hammered. And we got St. Patrick's Day. So go out and get yourself a bottle. And your uncle will greatly appreciate that. The Suns beat the Lakers. Gil said he cannot shoot the Lakers on a previous night camp. Gil, we have a video of you proving it. Let's take a look at that.

That's one man doing jumping jacks gotta get my cardio on up so that is an official height rim and that's the official distance of an nba three-pointer correct now this is a college this is college uh three-pointer. Okay, okay, okay. They're just going out there teasing, messing with them all. So is that your spot, that corner key or the side pocket? As soon as I step on the court, it's my spot. Oh, that's your spot. The court is your spot.

Yeah, as soon as I get past half court, it's my spot. Oh, that's your spot. The court is your spot. Yeah, as soon as I get past half court. It's just all on fire. Gil's shootout will be featured live stream on YouTube at 1 p.m. Pacific on Saturday, January the 20th. It's a shooting competition for $100,000 featuring Gil's arena cast, influencers, and fans who qualified back in December. Gil, that's going to look real bad if you don't win that thing. That's why I practice three times a day. After this show, I'm going to shoot 500.

You going to shoot in the dark? No, I got keys to the gym too. Oh, okay. I can't lose, so I got keys to the gym. Where we going? Yeah, you can't lose, Gil. It's not can't. Listen, I can't lose. So I got keys to the gym. Where are we going? Yeah. Yeah.

You can't lose Gil. It's not the fact the hundred bands is nothing. It's the fact that somebody is going to have a bragging rights to say, I'll be the former NBA all-star player in a three-point competition. I'm not losing to no YouTube. I'm not losing to no YouTubers, man. I'm sorry. I worked my ass off to lose to no YouTubers, man.

That was a, hold on just a second. I'm sorry. I didn't work my ass off the Lucid on YouTubers, man. That was a... Hold on just a second, Bill. I'm pulling up the Lakers. I don't know why. But they lose 127-109. Bradley Bill had 20 points, 8 of 11 field goals. 3 of 4 from the three-point line. The Lakers starting five had just 14 points in the third quarter.

Gil, what's going on with the Lakers starting five had just 14 points in the third quarter Gil what's going on with the Lakers I think I was I put it I put it on my Instagram when when you have you know we've said it but when you have Vando when you have Cam in right as an offensive player I know they can't shoot a gun so why am I even going to pay attention to them? I'm just going to look at LeBron. I'm just going to look at AD, right? That's just period. Right. So when they're in the game, I'm not playing defense. I'm just going to clog up the lane.

And when I'm on offense, I get to give 100% against them. Right. It's a lot. It's a lopsided thing. I mean, you have Booker who don't, we don't know if he plays defense. You got Bill out there. They got an all-offensive squad. And you can't take advantage of it because you don't

have anybody that can score in a game. Bill ended up having 37 with 20 points in the third. 8 of 11, 3 of 4 from 3. Bradley Bill had 31. KD had a quiet night, but it was a very efficient 7 of 12, 15 points. That was a bad performance.

I mean, AD had 13. I mean, AD played 32 minutes. AD had 13. Torian Prince had 11. Bron had 10. Cam Reddish ended up going out of the ballgame. He had zero points in eight minutes. Austin Reeves had 13 points.

D-Lo had 19. And Mays had 12. Oh, Christie also had chipped in with 14. Man, I mean, he came in at the end of the game. You know what I mean? Yeah. But the meat of it is you have guys out there who specialize on defense. But the guy your guard is going to, he's going to score.

He's going to get his his numbers but you're not gonna score right if you're on the gill if you're a defensive guy you can't say you're a defensive guy and bill gets 37 you can't be a defensive guy and booker gets 31 and then you don't offset that on the other end i can see if booker got 37 but you you gave us 28. Excuse me. If Bill got 37, you gave us 28. Okay, Devin Booker got 31, you gave us 25. That can somewhat offset it. But when you're not giving us that kind of production, you're giving us, what did Vandal,

Torian Prince had 11, Reddish had zero, Vanderbilt had six. That's not enough. And six was at the end of the game. Look, it's quite simple, right? Right before the game, you just tell them, hey, son, you don't even need to put your jersey on. You ain't getting in today.

Wow. You ain't getting in the game. Unless we get a blowout, I'm going to put you in. But there's no reason for me to put you in the game against this high-level offensive juggernaut and you are given nothing because he is gonna by the fourth quarter he's fresh yes because he doesn't have to play defense against anybody he just sits there so you're saying there should be some healthy scratches and some healthy dmps for the lakers oh they should be playing seven players

eight if you ate if somebody gets in foul trouble in january this is not a playoff deal From healthy DMPs for the Lakers. Oh, they should be playing seven players. Eight if somebody gets in foul trouble. In January, this is not a playoff deal. It don't matter. You're trying to win games. Right. You're trying to win games. You're supposed to be shorting up this thing anyway.

You're supposed to be trying to win games. You don't have no leverage to be playing nine players. You don't have nine NBA players. Yes. Yeah. But nobody was have nine NBA players. Yes. Yeah. But nobody was good for the Lakers tonight. LeBron was three of 11, 0-4, 4-7 from the free throw line, 10 points. Anthony Davis had 13, but he only took 11 shots.

Torian Prince had, what, four of 10. I mean, nobody played well tonight. And you could tell early on in the game, Gil, the way the game started. I mean, because at one point, they was down 34-19. I'm like, really, guys? I mean, y'all had a day off. It's not like they played a back-to-back. You had a day off. And that was pathetic.

I don't know what's going on, but I don't know how Darvin Hamm keeps his job if they keep looking like this moving forward much longer. I mean, it's like when you say that they had a bad game, 10 shots, 11 shots, right? 28 minutes. Like, they can't get the ball up. If LeBron, if I know you're coming in here, I'm just going to sit in the lane and force you to pass it. Right?

So you're just not going to get the attempts up. And when you do shoot, there's three or four people that's guarding you. Right. So it's an off night because they just can't get the possessions that they need. I love playing against people who didn't play no offense. It's a night off for me.

Right. I love quality shots. And like you said, the thing is they're going to clog the lane, knowing that when LeBron passes, he probably eight times out of ten, they're going to miss the shot. At least seven times out of ten, they're going to miss the shot anyway. Yeah, eight times out of 10, they're going to miss the shot at least seven times out of 10. They're going to miss the shot anyway. Yeah, that seven out of 10,

they're going to miss it. And the other three, they probably not even going to shit. They're not going to shoot the ball seven out of 10 and the other three, they're going to miss it. Yeah, that's bad.

There were some boos from the home crowd tonight. That's to be expected. They're under 519 and 20. You play in L.A. You're the Lakers. There's an expectation, no matter who's out there,

that you give it your all. And I think the fans didn't like the performance that they got from tonight, tonight from anyone. And they let them know that this is what we think of you guys' performance tonight.

We're going to boo you. Yes, we love our Lakers, but tonight was unworthy of cheers. I'm booing as soon as I see the starting lineup. Come on back. As soon as they be like, camp, boo, get you off the court, man. God damn, man.

How many games you gonna go zero? I mean, let's be honest. He's probably the only starter that has the most zeros as a starting player. You talking about Cam? Cam Reddish, yeah. Vando coming in

with these men it's like listen they're not starters and don't start them in the purple and gold like don't start them in the purple and gold

like you can take these players right now and I guarantee you can't find two teams they will start on in this NBA and that's the problem

that the Lakers are having when you say you want to trade trade for what you got to have something of value that I want in order for me to make a trade because even swapping no swindle. Well, if you traded me that for some of my best players, that's swindle.

So, yeah, I don't know how they're going to get off these guys. I mean, you're probably going to have to throw that 29 first round pick because you don't have any picks up until then. And that's the last one they're holding on to. They're going have to throw in some of them cheerleaders huh or a couple of those statues so can't kobe guy don't call me out too they might have to throw in that eight or the 24 you get one of them yeah we'll get you uh we'll get you the 20th fool i don't even know what number to get you. Exactly. This was a very bad performance for the Lakers.

And we thought in this situation that they got a couple of home games in there. We thought this was an opportunity for them to heal up, get some wins, stretch it to be three, four, five games over 500. But the way they're starting, it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I mean, especially if I saw what they did to the Clippers i said okay we know the clippers they've been playing very very well they beat the clippers at home i was like okay they beat toronto scrappy team and then come out here and lay an egg like this that's it's like it's the nba so you're gonna have some nights where you're playing well but you know it's the it's the the the. So you're going to have some nights where you're playing well. But, you know, it's the consistency.

If your consistency of three of your players that play big minutes is an average between the three of them, nine, 11 and a half, you're going to lose more games than you're going to win. So you're going to have to just say, all right, this thing is shown. It's not working. Try something else or it looks like you insane. Right. Well, the thing is, the Lakers are playing so bad. It keeps us from talking about the Warriors who's playing even worse.

Even worse. We thought this was a matchup. It still could happen. We thought the Celtics and the Bucs would be a great matchup. You know, you got Jason Tatum, JB. You got Dane and Giannis and this game was over at the half this game was not

even close this was awful this was pathetic and it was so bad the starters didn't come back out they didn't play the second half yeah they beat they booty off they back tonight this was this was a staple for for the Bucs right because you know one of their players is over there.

And they had to really show that we are a better team. It might not say it on the record, but we are a better team, you know, without you. So we're going to go out there and prove it. Right. Because, you know, the thing is where they slipped is defensively. Last year, they were the fourth-rated defensive team. Now they're like in the 20s. And so tonight, what did they hold

themselves to at the half? 39? Oh my God. What did they hold themselves to at the half, Gil? Like 39? It was like 77, 39? Come on, man. Okay, even the stat that's pushed out there

about the defense, it's fool's gold, right. It's fool's gold. Right? It's fool's gold. They were fourth last year and they're 20th this year. Well, what about the offense? Right? Right. You know, last year they averaged 116, gave up 113.

Right. This year they're averaging 124, giving up 119. So they're plus two with this addition. Right? So all that defense they had last year, where the fuck did it get them? First round exit to an eight. Well, we couldn't tell anything about that defense

because Jimmy Butler lit them up in the playoffs. Remember, Jimmy had that 57 points. I mean, Jimmy Butler looked like Michael Jordan and Kobe in the absolute prime. And that was against Holiday. Yes. But that was the issue here. It's like, can we get more offense than the defense? And right now, it's plus two. So the offense is plus two versus what they had last year. So it's not a negative. They're just looking at the wrong stats. They're looking at, oh, the defense, but the

offense is second compared to where it was last year. So, you know, when you have Giannis out, so the problem was basically in the playoffs. When you had Giannis out, where we was going to get our points, Drew Holliday averaged 1.8 in ISO points. Which is 1.8 for your second, third best player when Dame was number one in ISO points. So I'll take the points over the defense. Yeah. Well, I don't think anybody think it was a bad trade. I mean, you get an opportunity to get a top 75 player all time,

and you give up what you might give up defensively. It's more than worth because you're getting Dame Lillard in return. Yes. So I like the trade. Nobody can convince me this was a bad trade for Milwaukee. I think all the other 29 other teams, if they had a similar situation,

they're taking Dame Lillard for a true holiday type player also. Of course. But for whatever reasons, Gil, it hadn't clicked as well as I thought it would by now because, I mean, when they get

on the same page, we can see they can be explosive. Yon can give you 40, 13, and 8, and Dame can give you 32, and 8 and dame can give you 32 9 and 6 but there's not enough of that malik beasley's playing and shooting the ball he's leading the league in three-point field goal shooting last year again with lebron he couldn't throw it in the ocean from the middle of the ocean you know what sometimes and you know you we can't we can't say that he's a better shooter without LeBron.

What happens is when you get embarrassed and people call it out, you go into the summer saying, I need to improve this. You know, and we have to give him credit for his improvement. It's nothing to do with the offense, right? You have the same shots when you had in Lakers. You just worked on that this summer to improve your chances of staying on the floor and extending your career. Why the hell are you working on it in between practice than the shoot around? Same reason a lot of guys don't work on it.

They think they're better than they really are right you go in there you take 50 25 threes after the after practice and you think that's enough right no man that's not a first of all if you're not a shooter coming into the nba you're behind the eight ball already you're you're eight nine years behind a actual natural shooter so that means you have to try to make that up. That means you have to put yourself on a schedule, three, four, 500 shots a day outside of practice. Wow. For it to turn around. And it might not turn around for three, four years,

but it's going to turn around. So if you're not putting in that type of work, you're not really getting better. It was so bad, TNT even switched off the game. Now, that's what the NFL normally does. The NFL normally switches games. The game's getting out of hand. They'll switch to another game.

Ooh, that's never happened. I've never seen that before. But I know damn well. I know if I was on Boston, ain't no way. I'm sorry, Coach. Ain't no goddamn way. I ain't get my points yet. Ain't no way you taking me out at the half.

Nah. Yeah, that's what's so impressive about lebron street he's almost a damn near 1200 games with double figures and you see situations like this jason tatum now he has to start all over again he has seven yeah i mean i mean i don't know who's close to him but i don't know if somebody's gonna actually break that record do you talk about the points i mean he's what 300 and something points away maybe 400 points away from 40,000. We're talking about nobody's going to break that record. Who the hell is going to have 1,200 straight games with double figures? It's hard.

I mean, and that's the most impressive part. The impressive part is that he's doing it still at this age. Right? Someone tried to call me out on Twitter when I said it. I said, well, when Michael Jordan was playing with the Wizards right someone tried to call me out on twitter when i said it i said well when michael jordan was playing with the wizards and that second year and he bring in all those vests to try to win some games they were supposed to be a playoff seed when they were losing no one talked bad about michael jordan no one said nothing they just let him do his thing exactly so why y'all not doing

it for this 39 year old why is he expected to win when the, when the goat didn't and they, they, they supposed to win 48 games. And then, you know, when he tried to fax check me, it was right. They had high hopes for that second year and they fell short and no one

blamed Michael Jordan for it because his age. And I'm saying what, because everybody said it was just, it was just a ceremony. You'll see the last two. We just ceremony. Yeah. Well,

that's what you said about LeBron. Oh, LeBron. He cares more about being Michael B Jordan than Michael than michael jordan okay he just excuse me he disproved that all-star all nba uh led the league in assists uh won a championship so now now because he didn't come out here for ceremony he didn't come out here to retire he's still playing at elite elite level. You still find something to, well, he ain't this, he ain't that.

The man is playing at an unbelievable level. It's still a team game. And he needs, I mean, look, that's the same thing. That's what Yanni said. Yanni says, hey, I'm looking to move if y'all don't get me some help. Listen, this game, what the problem is for a guy like me who values players, right? When we're trying to convince you someone's not good, we give you all the things they can't do. And then when we talk about the past, we talk about everything they can do, right?

So we tell you all the good things and the accolades of the the past and then the present we tell you everything they can't do oh he can't go one-on-one he never takes the last shot he doesn't do this this is all right what about the other guys how about them let's let's hear what their negatives are oh he couldn't go left oh he couldn't do this he could but we don't we just talk about their greatness and in our flaws and that's what keeps this thing going. Yeah. I mean, they always talk about, oh, he's 6-0, but what about the first two? What about the year that he got bounced in the first round? So, in other

words, you're telling me it's better to lose in the first round than to lose in the NBA final. Yeah. That's what it sounds like you're saying to me. Look, wherever you are on this argument, Gil, I don't think anybody's moving. You are where you are in this argument. Some people believe it's Jordan. Some people believe it's LeBron. Some people believe it's Kobe, I don't think anybody's moving. You are where you are in this argument. Some people believe it's Jordan. Some people believe it's LeBron. Some people believe it's

Kobe. I don't believe anybody can put forth a compelling argument to sway somebody to move off whether it's Kobe, LeBron, or Jordan. No, and that's the thing. At this point in time, these guys submitted themselves as

potential goat-like figures. And the people who were there, who watched Michael Jordan carry an NBA league, not a team. He wasn't carrying the Bulls. He was carrying the league image. He was carrying this game. And the people who witnessed that and saw that, they're not giving that up. They're not giving it up. That's just not

going to happen. So no matter, LeBron could have 12 rings, they're going to find... Right? So it's just one of the things where we got him up there, and then everybody else is going to fall short to it. Because when you say it's about rings, I say, well, Bill Russell has more rings.

John Havlicek, Sam Jones, Casey Jones. If it's about rings, well, it's about the – okay. But what about a guy that played, has been an all-star, about to be 20 consecutive times as a starter? What about the guy that has the most NBA teams? What about the guy that – first, excuse me, not only all NBA teams, the all NBA first team. What about a guy that won championships in three different

franchises and he was the MVP at all different franchises? A guy averaged a triple-double in the NBA finals. And was what, two rebounds or less from doing it again. But, like I said, wherever you are in this argument, Gil, you're not moving. So, ain't no sense in us trying to convince anybody one way or another.

Yeah. They just go on that ledge. I won't let you stay. All they're going to do is you can't use stats. That's it. You can't use stats. Right. No,

it is. It is what it is at this point. Right. And you know, the best thing for me is I got to play with all three of them. Mm. Hmm. You know, there's only a few people that can say they played with all three.

Like, so you say your top five greatest of all time. I get to say I played with all five or four out of five. Right. Right. Depending on who you put in there. I mean, if you start putting in the sixts and the 70s no then yeah but for the for the most part most of your your your top five ever is 80 to now yeah i mean a lot of those guys you played against more than that you played against shat you played against tim duncan yeah i mean tim duncan don't get any credit they just

make it seem like he was a bum. I mean, the guy, I mean, he was a 15-time all-defensive player. All those all-star games, all those all-NBA, five rings, three finals MVP. I think he won two championships. I don't know if he ever won a defensive player

of the year, but he was outstanding. Yeah, I mean, he was amazing, and it goes to show you what type of talent that's been in this league, that's coming in this league, and, you know, like, I came in as a fan,

so, you know, I was fanboying out there. You know, I'm, give me your autograph after they give me your autograph. One of those guys. So, you know, it's... I have all three of them in the top five, so I just like to poke and argue about

all three. Today, it's LeBron. Tomorrow might be Jordan. Kobe might be the... You know what I mean? So, I'm one of those guys that just... I switch every week. You have another top five. Mello said the Nuggets gave Nikola Jokic

the number 15 jersey to try to erase what he did. Mello called giving Nikola Jokic the same number he wore in Denver is a petty maneuver. It wasn't like, oh, we got a number to choose from. It was like, here, you got 15. Mello, let me take this first. Melo, you do realize this guy was a second-round European player that when he got drafted,

they was in the middle of a Taco Bell commercial. So you really thought, who thought Nikola Jokic was going to arguably be one of our top 10 players when it's all said and done? Because they didn't thought that, thought that they took him number one overall. The guy was in the second round. And plus, Melo, you forget, you forced your way

out. I'm sorry you forced your way out of relationship and I don't hold you in high regard. Please forgive me. No, no. Deadass, right? He was the second round pick. Nobody knew he was going to be. No! I remember when announcer said, I don't know if he was the second round pick nobody knew he was gonna be it was i remember when um announcer said uh i don't know if he was playing against houston oh they'll put anybody in the game

when he was posting up yeah right so they didn't know what he was gonna be he no into this unfortunately he had the same number you had and nobody's to remember you wore 15. I'm sorry, Mello, but nobody's going to remember you wore 15. He's known more, and this is so, I don't want to say it, but you're a Knick player. You're a Knick player. Your career is New York Knicks.

We know what you did as a rookie coming in, but four-time All-Star, one-time gold medalist, three-time All-NBA. As a Knick, six-time All-Star, two gold medalists, three All-NBA, one scoring champ. Your jersey is in the rafters in the garden. Yes. Take that. And that's just it you know i'm not what it hurts because that's who drafted you

but your numbers ain't there in the the bigger picture but but um the fact that they have number 12 and 55 retired which is fat lever uh-huh and then the cookie and then a cookie monster montumbo and the fact that they got those two up there you got you got to retire my jersey yeah no they don't got i thought they would have dan is what i heard no they got them but they earned theirs yes you know alex english earned his i'm fat lever come on you yeah that was a triple double before before russ yeah you wasn't better than goddamn uh mellow and matumbo stop nuts i mean come on man matumbo been all over the place he was in philly he was in atlanta he was at houston so i mean it's not like he's like known for the nuggets no like so you know the

fact that you have his jersey retired you know i will i will feel some type of way but you know i i as a player didn't i didn't do that much there to to to really have a problem when i know my body of work is in new york yeah i mean it's not like mellow you had like a tom brady career and then all of a sudden they give somebody 12 they gave a guy they gave a backup i mean a second-round pick. The guy got drafted in the middle of a Taco Bell commercial. Nobody could have foretold that he would be this. Nobody. You can't say that. That's even worse.

You can't give my number to the dude in the second round. You can't give my number to the second-round pick, Huck. But here's the thing, Gil. The fact of the matter is, is that the guy turned out and people won't remember him. My thing is, it doesn't matter who they put in 84.

The people in Denver are going to remember I wore number 84. People are going to say that's Shannon Sharpton. Now, they must write it in. Let's just say that was Gronk or Travis Kelsey. People are like,

man, I don't remember who wore that damn 84 before Gronk or Kelsey got it. That's just the way it is. That's just the way it is. But when you take a basketball player, okay, it's more likely a guy in the second round in the NFL makes it or plays well because we've seen a lot of those. It's not likely that a second-round NBA player

is going to have the type of career that Nikola Jokic just had. No, no, they ain't right. It's not. I mean, it wasn't expected. They probably didn't. They didn't foresee this, man. It's just one of those things that happened.

At the end of the day, you don't have the resume. If you had the Knicks resume over there, then we can talk. His legacy is a New York Knick. It is what it is. And the guy's an NBA two-time back-to-back MVP. He's a Finals MVP.

And when it's all said and done, we're going to see where it ranks. Yeah. I mean, right now, he's going to be ranked one in that franchise. Oh, for sure. That's easy. That's done. That's done. He ain't got to play another down. He ain't sure. That's easy. That's done. That's done.

He ain't got to play another down. He ain't got to play another game. That's it for him. Yeah. Two MVPs, a finals MVP, and the numbers that he's putting up, the dude has, what, 112, 113 triple doubles? Yep.

And he's less than, what, 10 years in the league? Maybe 10 years. No, he was drafted in 2015, so years yeah i'm sorry mellow and i know look when a guy wears your number you're like oh man this joker ain't worried than having my number you know he's more than worse and what's gonna happen is that people in denver will have forgotten that you actually wore that number i I mean, the black people will remember. You know, it's just, it's the black people remember. I mean, it's just one of those things. Like my jersey finally got used this year.

You know, lottery pick. Will he do the things I did? I hope not. But if he do, I hope he don't. But, you know, the fact that you know that I thought my jersey was being hidden for you know you know

they're frowned upon right you know so the fact that they let someone wear it it kind of makes me proud like okay finally shit I thought I could just burn zero out of the archives yeah i have my um my number at savannah state retired and even before i got retired my coach bill davis said nobody as long as i'm the head coach ain't nobody wearing that number because nobody had ever had their jersey retired and um i think in 2009 is when

they finally retired retired it but from 80 from when left at 89, nobody had even wore it from 89 to 2009. So 20 seasons, nobody even had that jersey. Now can't no one wear it unless I, unless Savannah State and I, we both have to give consent to let somebody wear it. And I know my thing is, why would you want to? A three-time All-American, a conference player of the year, offensive player of the year three times, Georgia's player of the year. Why would you want number two? You won't.

You don't. Nobody's dumb. Nobody wants that pressure, man. You know what's happening. The Magic will retire Shaq's number 32. There's no question. He's the best player in Magic history. Follow closely behind Dwight.

Oh, you got Dwight? In Magic history? Who you got? He was only there four years. That's it. Right? Like, we're not talking about, you know, Shaq's body of work we're just saying Orlando that's four years I mean yeah you was breaking backwards and stuff but you know three-time all

NBA defensive player of the year you know you got you know rebounding champ all-star six all NBAs and sick like his resume is just bigger than Shaq's in that jersey. I mean, the best, the better player, of course, talent-wise Shaq, but in that jersey it's... Shaq made a statement earlier when he rookie of the year, averaging 23.4 points,

14 rebounds in his first campaign as rookie of the year. He led the Magic to the NBA finals in 1995 and posted four all-star seasons. Okay, let me ask you this. Where do you have Shaq in your all-time rankings? I have him.

I have him. I bounce from four to five. You got him that high? Between him and Magic. Yeah. Because I've seen him up close. You know what I mean? I seen him up close.

That's high kill. I seen how he talked to the defense and what we had to do to try to stop him. I have him four or five. It's between him and Magic at the four or five. But he's my number one draft pick. I'm drafting him number one. He's my fourth or fifth, but if I got the first pick, I'm grabbing Shaq every time.

Wow, that's very interesting. Because you know, the number one overall pick that gets voted all the time is LeBron. Yeah, yeah, no. I know who's going to get voted number one, but I know what happens when you have Shaquille O'Neal in the game, right?

And you're going to have to draft players. You're going to have to like, Hey, Hey, you, Hey, Hey, you don't play basketball.

You don't lift weights. Come on. They got to go to those gym for, for Shaq. Yeah. You ain't been, I got football. Who want to come?

Come on, Shannon. Can you run? You got, you got, you got to go get a Miles Garrett. You got to go get some defensive linemen, some 6'5", 275, to deal with Shaq that's used to that physicality.

Because there's not an NBA player that's ever been physical enough to deal with him one-on-one. That's why they created the hack of Shaq. Because he was just unstoppable. You got one, and he's going to punish you on the block. He's going to clear it out. He's going to drop step, and he's going to dunk it. He ain't laying nothing up.

I don't know if I've ever seen Shaq lay the ball up. No, and he ain't trying to. And what's so funny is I had Baron Davis on today, and he said the same thing that I was always alluding to. Because how physical Shaq was, he didn't block shots he didn't do but because he was so massive and his defense was I'm gonna hit you so hard you're not gonna come in this lane no more which made everybody else look like they were great defensive players because right back there like so when I want to drive it's like oh no I don't want to get hit by that dude. Like, I'll be injured.

Like, I'm, you know what I mean? So that was his presence, too. The defensive presence of LeBron ain't driving. Dwayne, we ain't driving. Like, you know, AI come in there, but, you know, AI going to get hit. We were scared to go in there and get hit by Shaq. We didn't want that first Shaq hit or that second Shaq hit. Once Shaq got his third,

all right, if I can get the fourth on him at the half, other than that, hell no. Yeah, you better not let him have one or two coming out in the half. Yeah, because he's going to say, hey, let him come on here and drive. I got something for him. Right. Yeah.

I mean, but you know, early in his career, Shaq was a shot blocker i think he had average over three point three blocks again his rookies even yeah he was i mean when he was agile but when he got to la and he realized that i would not get dunked on if i if i if i if i give an example and that's right that example was i'm just gonna i'm to go like this, and I'm going to use my hip and hit you out the air. Yeah. It's interesting. I don't have him in my top five.

Before I give you my top five, Giannis, guess what number Giannis is wearing in Milwaukee? 34? Who wore 34 in Milwaukee? Ray Allen? I mean, nobody thought, hello, if they thought Giannis was going to be this, they took him earlier. He was a skinny kid. What did he go, like 13 or 14?

He was a skinny kid out of Greece. Yeah. I mean, you don't know. Okay, what you look for in our draft he was taking 15 i think it was like right outside the lottery what happens what happens in the nba when you have someone who's 18 19 right you're going off of the skill set, the potential. Long arms, right? Yes. Can they run up and down? And then you hope that they have the work ethic to want to get better. Yes.

But for the most part, you're looking at measurements. And his measurements was like, okay, we can do something with this. Yes. And you know what? If they know this is going to be him and he's going to gain 30-something, 40-something pounds in the next two years and be MVP. Number one pick. Yes.

But they're not looking at those men. They're looking at, okay, we can guide him. And he looks like he can be 15, maybe one time all star. We can deal with that. The mere fact that we have to debate Shaq being in the top five of the

travesty because of his size, his athleticism, had he, as he worked his tail, let's just say he had a third of the work ethic is Kobe or Jordan or LeBron. Shaq's supposed to have 35,000 points. Yeah. If the refs called the game like they were supposed to, he would have had 35,000 points. Right. You know, it's one of those things, Unc, where in the NBA, the stronger players cry the most

because the stronger players are getting hit the most. Yes. Right, and that's just how the game is. If Shaq is coming down there to post up, and he's posted up on me, trust me, they're going to allow me to do whatever I can. Yeah. Yes. To try to get him out of this lane.

So imagine what people were trying to do to get him off that spot. Right. Two hands. We sitting here doing this. Hey, you got six hands in the back. And Shaq is just like, come on, come on down here. Come on down here. And it was one of those things.

So the fact that if they just called the game fair, which you can't. Right. Right, you can't. He will be the 35 free throws a game. Because you have to foul him. Or you get it. Yeah, I think the thing is, is that when you look at Shaq and you see the athleticism, I mean, he's a bigger, more.

Shaq is more athletic. I'm talking about just athletic. I'm saying he don't have the touch, the feel like a Joel Embiid. But as far as just running drop step, Shaq had it all. People don't realize how big Shaq was and how athletic he was to get up and down the court. But he didn't take training series. He didn't take his diet series because had he had he taken that serious, maybe he could have warded off some of those injuries. Because, you know, that's a big man.

That's a big man. That's a lot of weight that you're asking to get up and down the court playing 35, 37 minutes a night at 335, 345 pounds. And you're asking him to play at least 70 games a season. That's asking an awful lot gill and so had he taken care of himself put the time in the condition put the time in to eat right even without the because a lot he missed a lot of games because of injuries so even even even without the fouls just being on the court just think about he just being on the court go get you 25 20 24 25 a night what they know today they didn't know then right you know it's like even today you tell yannis hey you need to work on

your jump shot to extend your career to make the game easier it's the nvp and a champ right right we look stupid telling them that just like people will look stupid telling them that. Just like people will look stupid telling Shaq who got MVP finals, MVP three rings that, hey, man, you need to get in shape. He's going to look at you for what? Yeah. Right now, I'm the best player in the league right now. You give me the guy that's eating salad, I'm going to bless his ass. Yeah. So that's that's that's how Shaq that's how Shaq thought but you're right because

once it is hard to convince somebody when they've had success doing it their way to convince them to change it girl like change what I'm a two-time league MVP I'm a finals MVP Shaq is like bro do you see how dominant I am yeah but just think about how dominant you could have been because see the thing like see this is the thing that you love about Kobe, Mike, and LeBron. No matter what you think about each player, there's no doubt in your mind they emptied the tank. They got everything out of their God-given ability. There's nothing.

When LeBron, LeBron probably just going to be in the middle of a game and just pull aside the road. Hey, I'm done. Just like, you know, you got a car, and then all of a sudden you're not paying attention. That red light come on, you out of gas. And all you can do is just hopefully you're not on the pull five, in the middle of the pull five,

but you can just get on to the side and get on off. That's how LeBron is. I mean, he's taking care of his body, and everybody that's coming in, I'm not saying you're going to have a 20-year career, like a 20-plus career like a 20-plus. Career like LeBron's. Like LeBron, but it greatly increases your chance if you take care of yourself, if you get your risk, if you train, if you get your shots up, try to get better every year.

Because LeBron is not as athletic as he once was because that's what I tell guys when athleticism starts to wane then what are you going to do because when you can't outrun somebody you can't out jump somebody then what this yep my mind yeah it's it's just it's just it's understand it's it's your purpose too okay you know the purpose is jordan's purpose was to be the greatest ever right yes so with that being said that's that's him getting better into like okay this is what i need to bring in is so when he went into the summer he self-checked himself he didn't go off the glory of the accolades himself. It was just, he was a hard worker. Yes. Right?

Yes. That was the motto Kobe followed, him. Yes. Right? I'm chasing that. I'm not chasing, the NBA players here, they're not on my planet. I want that dude. Right?

Yeah. Guess who LeBron is looking at? So because they're looking at the same two men, they have to keep going, right? And I tell a lot of players that do not follow someone that's not on the planet. So when you look up, you can see how far you can keep moving forward. You start looking in real time. You know, this guy's here. No, no, no look at michael jordan look at kareem look at these guys that they look like they're in it's impossible to catch them and when your career's done

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To hear the whole story, listen to Fiasco, Iran Contra, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think the thing is, Gil,

what Michael did, he was the first player to give something to give other players someone to chase. Yeah. He was the rabbit that they were chasing. Because prior to Mike, I mean, Kareem, it wasn't Will, it wasn't Russell. Mike gave somebody like, okay, I need to be like Mike. Those commercials, those shoes, the blueprint, the way. I mean, Mike, you ain't see Mike unless he was impeccably dressed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You ain't see Mike in no sweatsuit. Mike ain't going to have that hoop in his ear. Mike going to be, hey, Mike going to be having that suit, have them big suits on. Now, they ain't going to be fitted. But Mike going to be impeccably dressed. So he gave you the blueprint of how to build a brand.

And so he gave you the blueprint. how to build a brand and so he gave you he gave you the blueprint this is the way you need to conduct yourself this is what you need to do for the first time they had someone to chase us uh they they gave you he he was the the idea of what a star supposed to look look like, walk, talk, score. When people think about the knock on LeBron, he's not clutch. He don't take the game away. That came because of Michael Jordan. Right.

That wasn't in the Wilton, all those guys. Right. It wasn't in their resume. You didn't use that against players but when you when you sit there and said i need one of those it was everything he brung but you but you know what gill lebron has more game winning shots than jordan yeah so this notion that he isn't clutch you know people started that myth it got perpetuated see people feel if i tell a lie enough people are starting to believe it even though it's not the truth.

And so, you know, repeating a lie doesn't make it true. But if you tell a lie long enough, people are starting to believe it as the truth. Go back and look at LeBron in the playoffs. Look at LeBron against Indiana. Look at him against Chicago. Against us, too. Y'all, look at that team he got to the NBA Finals against the Celtics. That was a 104.

You mean to tell me he wasn't clutch? You know what it is? It ain't about the clutch. It's about how that clutch shot looked. When you think about all of Jordan's clutch shots, they just looked like movie scripts right he held a pose you remember the double clutch against craig elo yeah because craig lilo's got to block it he moved it to the he moved it back this way like shot it it's it's it's the whole that's why i said he was meant for

that spot right when you go back in the archives and you start looking up game winners his game winners just look better than everybody else's yeah and that's what it was i mean the tongue hanging out you know he had the baggage shorts he had the uh the knee sleeve pulled down over his calf he had the he had the uh the wristband on his elbow he was slightly pigeon-toed he kind of you know he kind of doubt when he was walking and so and and when they came out i mean i think it was gatorade they came be like mike that was it that was it that might be the greatest look that might be the greatest because now people associated that that's what i want to be like and and the shoes just took it to a whole new level because people actually believe

that i ain't you that's them shoes that got you doing that. Man, let me go get me a pair and I'll have me a 40-inch vertical. Hey, everybody trying, you had light-skinned men out there cutting their heads, trying to look like Mike. Yeah, and it didn't matter what color your team was. You could be green and gold. You could be black and gold. You had a red and white shoe, though. Bro, that don't even match. You didn't get

a black uniform. You got to get an all black uniform, man. I mean, you saw guys with all different kinds of colors and they had the Jordans on. And that's what I'm saying. Nobody, I don't care how good the shoe is. There might be a shoe that comes along, it might add three or four inches

to your berth. It ain't passing the Jordan. You got too big of a lead. It's the ideal of perfection. It's the ideal of perfection. It's the idea of perfection, and if it don't look like it, it's never going to measure up, and there's nothing that's going to come into the league

that has everything Jordan had. Not in our lifetime. No, no. It's not going to happen, and so that's where we are. I mean, he came up. And the thing was, Gil, I remember there are a lot of guys that had shoes. Magic had the weapons. He and Bird.

Kareem had the top 10 of Zetas. Dr. J had the cons. But once the player retired, the shoe line went away. They didn't make the weapons anymore. They didn't make the Dr. J's anymore. Jordan was the only one who retired. They kept making a shoe. It is bigger.

Listen, nobody got beat up over no goddamn magic. Johnson's and labor. I had them. I'm over the river. I had, I had the weapons. I had the magic and the birds.

I had the George to my mom. I got the Jordan twos. It'll backtrack it and get the Jordan was, I had the spud webs, the city wing ponies i had the dr j the uh yeah but there was something about that shoe you felt special yeah you did you felt special with that shoe that was a nice i mean i mean just to be honest like it was one of those things where we stood in. When the Jordans dropped, it was a kid's event. Yes. I remember they used to drop it on what?

Tuesdays. Tuesdays, 10 o'clock. We ain't in school. Right. We at the Foot Locker. And as soon as I get them, we running to lunch. Hey. I got them.

We didn't get Rob going back to school. We didn't get robbed going back to school. If we didn't get robbed going back to school, we got dragged because we had them first. But they used to drop them during the weekday and we used to get them at 10. We're going to get the shoes first, then we're going to come to school.

And then they talk about it. And then they put them on the weekend. And then, Gil, you know, know man i ain't paying no hundred off on those shoes don't worry about it there are a lot of people that will you won't well you won't get a pair man a hundred dollars because most of the time the shoes like 25 50 dollars he doubled the price he doubled the price a hundred dollars for a pair of shoes back in the mid 80s was acid was crazy but we had never seen anything like it because the shoes were just basically one

colorway. So now you got a double or triple colorway. Red, black, and white. The black and the red. So that changed the game. Nike knew what they could do. Don't worry about the fine. David Stern said, we're going to fine you $5,000. Nike said, don't worry about it. We got that.

$1,000? They was fining them $5,000. Nike said, don't worry about it. We got that. $1,000? They was fining him $5,000. But the publicity that they were getting for that. Where else are you going to get that kind of attention, that kind of eyeballs? Because that's what advertisers want to see. Well, who's looking at it? How many impressions is he getting? Well, that shoe got millions and millions of impressions even before we knew what impressions were.

But they knew what that Jordan shoe was. And it hadn't looked back. The NBA draft is moving to a two-night event. Do you like the NBA draft trying to be more like the NFL draft? Wait, what? The NBA draft is moving to a

two-night event. Do you like that they're trying to be like the NFL? One, it's dumb because this ain't the NFL, right? You ain't going to find Tom Brady in the seventh round. Right. No one's watching the draft after lottery. So unless it's going to be the first day, the first five picks, and then the second day, everybody after the lottery pick we not watching no

more because after the lottery pick how many superstars are we getting yeah i mean in the last what since 2000 since 2015 the only all-stars is what? Pascal and Jokic. Wow. After the lottery. So what the hell are we watching the second day for? Exactly. And here's the thing, Gil. A lot of it has to do with we never heard of these guys. These guys that come from overseas, unless you're the diehardest of the NBA fans,

you've never heard of these guys. So it's not like the NFL. You've heard all these guys that are coming from Alabama or Ohio State or Michigan. They're coming from teams that you've heard. And the NBA does a great job of leading up to the draft, talking about

said individuals that could be in the first round and the second round. So I don't look. I get it. Everybody's trying to keep up, but the NFL, look, the NFL has cornered the market. They've cornered the market.

There's a reason why they doing 25, 30, 50 million, 50 million viewers in a game. The NBA, the NBA, the NBA would like, how do we do that?

You can't, you can't because no, go ahead, Gil, go ahead. You You can't. You can't. Because, no. Go ahead, Gil. Go ahead. You just can't. You can't. I'm sorry. Unless you're going to go backwards.

Unless you're going to go backwards, right? We're going to start with the last pick. You get the first. Other than that, why am I watching the second round? Right. Who wants to see Mark Tatum come up? Is that part of, is that Tatum's uncle? No one knows him.

He's calling my name in the second, not the commissioner, right? David Stern didn't call my name, right? I don't even know who called my name. I'm pretty sure it's Adam Silver, the one who's doing it now. The second round, Mark Tatum, he coming up there. Get off the stage, man. This is like watching, this second round is like watching Destiny's Child without

Beyonce. Beyonce not coming tonight, y'all. Well, we ain't coming either. Exactly. And so, I mean, I understand. I mean, it's a situation that the NBA is trying to, and plus, you know, you advertise, you stretch it out, but the NBA is a corner of that understand. I mean, it's a situation that the NBA is trying to like. And plus, you know, you advertise, you stretch it out.

But the NBA have cornered that market. They know. Think about what they did. They sold the Saturday night game, put it on Peacock. And guess what game they put on Peacock? The Kansas City. Why? Taylor Swift.

Guess who watches the game? Those young girls. Eyeballs that you normally wouldn't get. But in order for them to get it you got to have peacock peacock pay i'm seeing they paid 100 110 million dollars just to televise one game but we're going to get eyeballs that we don't normally get that's why they show on taylor swift i'm not bad i'm not bad at them i'm not this is a business. And Taylor Swift bring young girls that doesn't normally watch football.

They bring those eyes. And the NFL understands that. That's why they keep showing them. And y'all can take it. Y'all can say, oh, I didn't watch the game. It's not like you're turning. So I'm not mad at the NFL. I'm not mad. I mean, but what you wanted

to do? You don't want to come to the game and support our man no no serious I mean they milking it they know how but that's not the NBA NBA second round is 2B

it's the 2B ain't nobody watching that right someone named Chad Ocho Cinco Johnson just donated $400

I beat I beat Shaq when he was at LSU one-on-one. Bro, everybody saw you running to Ray Lewis and get pancake and kick your damn self. Pop this Ocho, god damn!

Bruh. Bruh, you like a mosquito on a rhino ass. He wouldn't even feel you back there. Actually, we might take you with the Lakers. Man. Throw that out there. Man.

Man. Ocho, man. Shaq would have punished Ocho. I mean, you got to be. First of all, he don't know how to play defense down to the block. All Shaq going to do is just drop step. And when he swing his elbow there, gonna be in the second row so oh it shows the funniest man man that dude i don't know what he got going on charles barkley tonight said his new year's resolution is to give

up diet coke gil what's your advice and what's your new year's resolution i don't have new year's resolutions The reason is One it's just another day Right And When you do resolutions To me it seems like you have a flaw In something I need to give up

You need a new year to do that Just get it up I don't usually have those. I have goals just set. I'm trying to be 50 million views overall. That's just the goal I'm trying. There's no time on it. It's just this is where I want to get to.

Because all these new year goals do is, oh, I need to get in shape. You got 31 days in your ass back to normal because you didn't have the discipline. You didn't create the habits to do what you're trying to do the next day. Right. The thing is, Gil, is that when you look at it,

when you say a goal or you say a diet, they have a start and an end time. So let me ask you a question. Once you reach your resolution, then what? Hopefully you go back. Do you go back and say, okay, I did it, and start eating or whatever you wanted to give up. So once you accomplish that, then what?

So I had a soda habit, right? And I was like, I need to break this habit, right? And because I understand... How many sodas you were drinking today, Keel? Seven. Oh, what? Like it was barbecue.

I'll finish this like that. I was drinking seven. Wow. So, but because I broke the soda habit how I trained right i had to create the habit first so the habit was if i'm doing seven a day this first week get it down to six a day then the next week three a day then it would be days like towards before i gave it up, I'm just taking a sip, throwing it out, sip, throwing it out. And then it became two sips a week.

Right. Now I haven't drinking any soda. Right. And that's how I do stuff. Like if I want to, if I want to get in shape, you know, I wanted to lose 50 pounds and I was 270, you know,

last year and I was trying to lose. What? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So what'd you get down to now? The soda's a lot that's a lot of that's a lot of caffeine that's a lot of sugar a lot of sugar i was i'm a sugar i'm a sugar guy so i got down to i got i'm 220 now been to 224 but eight months now but that started seven month journey where it where my goal was wake up every day and leave the house.

I need to do that for a month, right? Wake up every day, leave the house, right? Then once I got that under my belt, wake up every day, go to the gym. Not necessarily work out, just get to the gym, right? If I worked out 12 days too hard, and then eventually I just started adding on to it. But I had to create those everyday habits first. And most people try to just say, I'm going to go in and I'm going to work out and do this. And then you go in there.

And then because that's not your natural habit and you haven't created that habit, you always fail to it. So set little goals first that you know you can do. Wake up every day and make the bed. Once you got that, do. Wake up every day and make the bed. Once you got that, check. Wake up every day, get out of the house, check. But you got to make the bed though, Gil, because you don't shut the covers full dark. So the bed all messy.

You don't shut the covers full dark. But you got to create those habits. People don't want to create the habits first. So if you don't have any habits that you do every day, then you can't be successful anyway. This is just life goals. Yeah. I think the thing is, Gil, the thing is that my grandfather used to tell my brother and I, he said, boys, never mistake habit for hard work.

Sometimes people feel like just because they do something over and over, they work hard. We've seen people go to the gym for five years, 10 years, and their body never changed. But see, that's a habit. That's a routine in which you've established going at 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, but you're not working hard because your body hasn't changed. So what it tells me is that you're not working hard or you haven't changed your eating habits.

Whichever the case may be, it's a habit. Some people are like, man, I wake up at 6 o'clock in the morning. Okay, and do what? Man, I just get up. Okay, so I mean, bees are busy. that don't mean you're doing a damn thing at least bees they have you know they they moving stuff around they building they building you know a hive or a comb or whatever the case may be so this notion just

because you've established a habit that you're working hard you're fooling yourself too many people mistake habit for hard work and so that's why i don't do dark diets because diets have start stop they have end dates i have a lifestyle i eat a certain way and then when i eat too much of that one thing now all of a sudden i get back and said okay i gotta cut this out i gotta get back on my uh i gotta get back on the cardio i gotta get back on the roll machine get back on the soft bike. That's on me, but these people, they be fooling themselves, Ocho. I mean, damn, I want to call you Ocho.

Hey, listen, you do four shows with Ocho, God damn it, I'm Ocho, okay? But people be thinking they working hard, Gil, and they really not. But that's self-checking, man. That was me, too. I was going in the gym a lot and just sitting there. I was booty watching, not going to lie. Everybody. I was booty watching. I'm not going to lie. Everybody knows.

I was booty watching. They had a little tiny shorts on. Oh, uh-uh. Look, I'm in Woodland Hills. That's like the club. You're coming in there. Makeup, everything gone. Yeah. You ain't trying to work out. You trying to catch somebody. I'm up there judging. Oh, wait. You wore that

yesterday, girl. You must have been going home. Right. I'm in there just booty watching. I wasn't in there trying to lose no weight. And then eventually it started packing up. I started looking fat on TV. Then I'm like, let me go ahead and take this serious. Let me get this off. My homeboy Rodney Dinkins.

Rock, what's up? I got my fourth bottle of Fortier on the way. Also, I asked Ray about needing to reach out to your team about trying to come on your show for the Olympics. I was pleased with his response. That's my homeboy. His dad used to coach me when I was on a – I probably was like nine. I probably was nine. So I've been – he's from my hometown.

We call him Rock. And so I appreciate the support, Rock. Yeah, I'm sure if they've reached out back out to you and gave you a response, they own it. Two one three sniper said, hey, I'm going to buy your big fan. This is for Gil. If you could take injuries out, how do you think you would have reached an NBA great top 75, top 50? To be honest, I mean, I would have been top 75 for sure. You know, what I was doing at that time was unheard of, right? You know, I was a three-time All-Star, three-time All-NBA by the age of 25. That's not a big list.

You know, being dominant that fast. You know, averaging 28, 29. So I was gonna win a scoring title with the way my metrics was running, I was gonna win a scoring title. Dwyane Wade ended up winning one with 30. So once everyone started getting their teams better, and I was gonna be one of those guys that led the league in scoring. I had the advantage.

Everyone thought AI was the guy who changed the point guard position. It was me because they moved him to the two. When I came in, bigger guard, a shooting guard, played the point. I didn't have a big man to pass the ball down there to. Right. So I had the advantage over the Baron Davis, the Stephon Marbury, the Steve Nash. So, you know, you're giving, you know, 15 and 14 assists. I'm giving 30 points and six assists.

Right. I'm pushing more points than you. Right. Right. Total points, I'm pushing more than you at this point so i got injured you know and it's one of those things but my impact was so so so huge and fast that i'm still relevant today what um what injury did you have gail and what happened did you come back too soon? Did you come back too soon? Did it not fix it properly to begin with? I was boxing out.

I don't know why the hell I was boxing out. I was boxing out. Gerald Wallace faked the jumper. I thought he was going to take it, but I should have known it was Gerald Wallace. He can't shoot shit. So I should have known there was going to be a pump fake and drive, but he pump fake drove. I'm boxing out, thinking he

shot the ball, and then he ran into me. And then tore MCL, PCL, meniscus. And then because I never knew what an injury was, I didn't really rehab the way

i was supposed to so i came back you know came back as soon as the season started eight games into the season started i'm injured again so i had three i had three knee surgeries in 14 months and all that trauma built up all this scar tissue. And you were never the same after that. Nah. And I think I really messed my hand up on LeBron, that Cavs series. Cause I needed to come back and play. Right.

Because my contract is coming up and because my name was still hot and they still had, I'm still good in the eyes. I had to come in and play two games to show that, I'm back. Right. And what show that, hey, I'm back. Right? And what happened is LeBron ran into my wrist and, you know, I couldn't shoot. So they gave me one of those tortles, shot to my ass.

I had to bend over. Right. And I hyperextended my injured knee. Right. Which, that took forever to rehab. Right. Being ignorant, thinking I'm superman yes yes and plus i think the thing is we know more now you probably came out better missing the whole year probably came out better missing the whole year came back the following year but i get it

understand that your contract was up and like you, you wanted to parlay that into another big contract, not knowing you're probably doing more harm than good. Yeah. Yeah. It was one of those, I risked my career for that next contract. Yeah, you did. You absolutely did. Jordan asked, would you rather have Embiid or Jokic on your team? Shaq recently said on his podcast,

we know Joel Embiid is the best big man when it comes to numbers and all that. But Joker went to the big dance and got the thing done. We know what you can do, but can you do it at the big dance? Can you get the phone number at the big dance and take home and close the deal?

Who you want, Gil? I'm a I'm a i'm gonna take i'm gonna take him beat um the reason i'm gonna take him beat is because if i don't have anyone on my team i know he can dominate right and he can dominate by himself right and it's my job to find pieces that work with him. Well, Jokic, you're going to need guys who can shoot the ball that he can pass the ball to. You got to treat him like Jason Kidd, Magic Johnson. You have to put other guys around that can make plays when he finds them. So if he has a whole bunch of guys who can't shoot the ball,

who can't do anything else, then you're just left with 22 and 12 rebounds. You take away his assist. His assist comes because his vision, if he can't use his vision, right? If he can't use his vision, then in a sense, he's just an average double and double guy. And that's why he went in the second round,

because when he's working out, he's not working out with five other players where he gets to use his passing skills. Right. So, go ahead. I would need to be smarter as a general manager with Jokic. I had to put the right pieces around Jokic. With Embiid, I can fuck up a couple times in a draft,

and he can carry us for a little bit that's you know that's how I look at it yeah I think the thing is I'm going to take Jokic because I think the thing is that the way they built their team in Philly and the way I mean look they built their team so Joel Embiid everybody runs the offense because there

have been times Nikola Jokic can impact the game and only take 10 shots Joel doesn't have the same impact without those without those attempts because he's getting to the foul line so for me to watch him be able to go give me 40 20 and 15 and like they said every big game every big shot that they needed last year in that moment nic, Nikola Jokic made the shot, or he made the perfect pass. I mean, that's what I said. His value comes

because he can pass that ball, right? And that's why I said, like, I would have to be, you know, Calvin Booth, we were teammates, so you have to create, that's what I said, you have to be smarter as a general manager when you have Jokic.'s what I said, you have to be smarter as a general manager

when you have Jokic. Yes. I can be dumb with Embiid. Right. I can be Maury. Right. I can be Maury with Embiid. You know,

when you're having someone like Jokic, you have to put the right pieces to make sure that he's at that high level every single night. Right. When he's not scoring, he can get you 20 assists.

Yes. Oh, for sure. You know what I mean? And it's one of those things that, you know, like I will have to be, I'll have to be very smart when I have a player like Jokic. Aaron Owens asks, I think D Rose would have won two or three rings and been top 25 if he never got injured. What do you think, Gale? What do you think D Rose would have ranked had he three rings and been top 25 if he never got injured. What do you think, Gillian? What do you think D Rose

would have ranked had he not gotten ranked? Yes. Oh, I mean, when you're talking about dynamic guards, wow. I mean, Rose, he was different.

He was Russell before Russell Westbrobrook he was john moran before john moran the explosive guy that played above the rim and so there weren't there look they weren't point guards that was explosive as d rose from end to end and he played above the rim which we had never seen a point guard play above the rim like D. Rose could. Now we see what Russ has done. We see John Morant finishing at the rim and stuff like that. But before those guys, D. Rose was it.

Yeah, even like when you're talking about above the rim, you had like small guards back in the day, but not impactful like D. did right you know his uh his quickness and his speed with his explosion up was just different it was just that he was just a different dude um you know he could have argued if he would have stayed healthy of course he argues for you know best point guard ever you know it's just one of those things. He was just different, seeing something different. The way he played the game hard, knew how to get to the lane. Those type

of guys, you just get... You look back and say, what could have been? What could have been? Right. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to make this a shorter... Penny Hardaway's in a different category because he was 6'7 6'8 yes yeah he was that Magic Johnson he was more of a Magic Johnson type

yeah but could score the basketball and then he did have Shaq it's kind of like what Magic had with Kareem so I mean sometimes people forget that Magic came into the league and Kareem was the MVP now let that sink in just imagine if joelle and bead is the mvp and they get victor women yama yeah that's what that's that's what

happened with the lakers the uh they got magic and kareem was the mvp yep and then they won a championship and got worthy yes in 82 they won the championship and got worthy. Yes. In 82, they won the championship. And guess what? Yep. That's what happened. Yeah. So with that being said, Gil, we're going to cut it short tonight, man. I'm just, I'm under the weather.

Hey, Unc, man, I just want to give you your flowers, man. And just for the audience out there, look, listen. Y'all see Unc out here struggling, right? And the fact that he even hit the live, it just lets you know how dedicated he is. So when you sit thinking about dedication, the fact that he hit the live, been working all week, and he's ticked, you can see it. And the fact that, you know, that's what greatness is. That is Jordan in the flu game. You know what you're doing tonight. You know, we can see you.

We can hear it and the fact that you even hit the live to even come out here it lets you know how dedicated you are and this is for people who's really trying to see what it takes to be great there are no excuses you still give the fans what they deserve even if it's for an hour hour and a half minutes man so hey y'all i looked at you as number one before. This is your championship for me. You know what I mean? I appreciate that. We can see it in the fact that you're still going. That's another level of dedication,

man. So when I get sick and I don't want to do something, this is what I'm going to think about. Man, Uncle's out here struggling, man, doing his thing. So I can't, no, let's let the party go. I had a professor in 1987 named Norman Elmore. Rest your soul, Dr. Elmore. man doing his thing so i can't no let's let the party go i had a professor in um in 1987 named norman elmore rest your soul dr elmore and it was cold i'm talking about really really cold

that day and the heat wasn't working and so it was uh probably only three people that showed up for the class and i remember him walking in he never had a book bag he had all these books and if you went to savannah state and you was taught by Dr. Norman Elmore, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And he came and had all these books and he threw them on the desk. He said, you know, I almost didn't show up today, but I thought somebody might want to learn something. I thought someone wanted to be educated, be informed. And so that's what I said. I almost like, man, I'm struggling today, but I thought someone wanted to be entertained. Someone won't be educated.

Someone want to be informed. And so I showed up and gave you my best. Hopefully the medication that I've received over the last couple of days would take effect. And Saturday I'll be a lot better, but I don't make any excuses. I'm going to show up and give you. I got some nurses that do the things for you. No, no, no, no, no, no.

I don't want to get them sick. What's them y'all? What's them, y'all? What's them? Y'all don't know about that. I told you. Those are better than them jump man's you pulled out last week. Man, go ahead over there, Gil, man. Come on, man. Let that go. Stall him out, Gil. Stall me out.

Hey, hey, this episode is Unk Flu Game, man. Yeah, yeah. That's exactly what it was. Alright, enjoy your night. We'll see what's happening. We will. Thank you for joining us. Make sure you hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. You can join our YouTube cast,

our Nightcast podcast feed. You can also get it through the Club Che Che feed, but Nightcap does have its own feed. Also, like and subscribe to Gil's Arena channel on YouTube. The show airs Monday through Thursday, live at 1130 a.m. Pacific, 2.30 Eastern, 2.30 Eastern Pacific. Remember, again, Monday through Thursday, live at 1130 a.m. Pacific,

2.30 p.m. Eastern time. So go to Gil's channel, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. We've also pinned the Chez by La Portia at the top of the chat. Thank you for selling us out, but we're back in stock. So with the holidays right around the corner, we got the Super Bowl, we got, what else we got? We got St. Patrick's Day,

we got Valentine's Day. Hey, I'm telling you, hey, buy that man, buy your man some of that La Portia. Women, you won't regret it. Hey, ladies, all my ladies that's in the chat, y'all know who y'all are. Y'all know what I want for Valentine's Day. Oh, yeah.

Hey. They be harder than the times of 29 years. I'm telling you that. You won't be disappointed. Thank you. I'm your favorite dog, Shannon Sharp. He's your favorite number zero, Arizona Wildcat legend, Gilbert Arenas, Mr. Habaji himself.

We're out. Peace. The volume. The Made for This Mountain podcast exists to empower listeners to rise above their inner struggles and face the mountain in front of them. So during Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast, focus on your emotional well-being, and then climb that mountain. You will never be able to change or grow through the thing that you refuse to identify. The thing that you refuse to say, hey, this is my mountain. This is the struggle.

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