The Bill Simmons Podcast - The Jalen Williams Game, Haliburton’s Injury, OKC Vs. MJ’s Bulls, and Giannis’s Future With Doc Rivers

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Doc Rivers to react to OKC taking a commanding 3-2 lead against the Pacers in the NBA Finals (2:18). Then, they discuss Tyrese Haliburton’s injury and the Knicks firing Tom Thibodeau (22:08). Finally, they talk about SGA’s development, Giannis trade rumors, and much more (42:50). Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Doc Rivers Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo This episode is presented by State Farm®. Dishing the assists you need off the court. State Farm® with the Assist. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit⁠ www.rg-help.com⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Verbo Private Vacation Rentals. With Verbo, you can save over $240 on select homes when you stay for a week or more. Say you wanted to go catch a few baseball games in Boston, take some time off work, fly into Beantown, watch the Sox play. After that, book a Verbo and Cape Cod for a week. The world. The world is your oyster. Lobster world, clam chatter. The money, lobster roll, clam chowder. The money you

saved, it's your edible metaphor of choice. Next vacation, stay longer and save. Make it a Verbo. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where I have a new rewatch that was coming for you. Not Monday night, Tuesday night. It's New York City month. We're doing Marathon Man, Dustin Hoffman, Sir Lawrence Olivier, the William Goldman book that turned into a movie directed by John Schlesinger. It's part of New York City month. It's a really good one. Me and Chris Ryan, we recorded it today, had a great time and that will be running on Tuesday night this week because we are

running a very special Monday night podcast coming off game five Pacers, OKC. You saw what happened. OKC won the game and it took a 3-2 lead in the series. And our old friend, Doc Rivers, is gonna be joining us to break down everything that he saw and we'll ask him some other NBA questions too. We haven't talked to him since he just coached

another year with the Bucks. Uh, that is all coming up next. We're going to take a break and then we're going to get to Pearl Jam. I'm not going to talk about the Red Sox today, maybe midweek or Thursday. Uh, the, the, uh, the Devers trade controversial, uh, dumped money that they probably should have dumped. And yet, because it's the Red Sox, cause of what's happened in the last seven years, the Red Sox fans are pissed anyway.

Uh, lots to cover. I'll probably have to bring in a guest for that one, but anyway, coming up Doc Rivers, first to break them pro gym. This episode is presented by State Farm. It's no secret that great teams need great teammates. I've been saying this for years. And when it comes to insurance, State Farm is there to help you find the right coverage for your home, car, and more.

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It's been a while for us. We just watched game five of the 2025 finals. You're in Florida. I'm in California. I guess that's the Jalen Williams game. There might be many more games for him to come. Yeah, that's the Jalen Williams game. Yeah. And the Shea game. And I really think it was more the Oklahoma bench game.

You know, it's amazing. You know, I don't know how often this happens, but the road players play better at home. And, you know, obviously, you know, so did the Pacers road players on the road. They all play well as well. And I think that's the thing about the game. It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time.

It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time.

It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time. It's a game that's been around for a long time. And this happens, but the road players play better at home. And, uh, you know, obviously, you know, so did the patients road players on the road. They all play well as well. And, and obviously Halliburton, uh, I think he's injured, uh, didn't have a lot tonight, uh, but at the end of the day, uh, Jaylen, Shay and the road players were the difference in the game. So Jaylen Williams over the course of the playoffs, where you think he's got to be at least the Pippen, right? Not to, not to compare anyone to Michael Jordan, but he's got to be the Robin.

The Pippen night that side. It's like, is this a year too early for him? Is this Scottie Pippen in 1990? Or is he actually ready for this? And the way he's played the last three nights, especially tonight, this felt like Pippen in 91 when they just blew the doors out of anybody and he's guarded magic and he just went up and it was like, Oh shit, this guy's like one of the best 12, 13 guys in the league now. Um, the stuff he was doing off the dribble, how comfortable he was going left hand going right hand. I, I don't

know what the ceiling is anymore for him, Doc. You know what's interesting is a couple things. Number one, last year he really struggled. Everyone forced him right. That was the scouting port that every team had. If you can force him right, he struggles. He went back to the lab, worked on it all summer. There's nothing better from a coach standpoint when

you see a player come back the next NBA season and has worked on all the things that he needed to work on. And he went back. I mean, I can't imagine the hours that he put in. But then I thought he was struggling a tad bit at the beginning of this series. And Bill, this is where the difference meets. Some guys kind of will under that pressure, back to back years, and it's almost like he has willed himself like, no, I'm that guy, I've arrived, and I'm gonna prove it, and I'm not going to be denied.

That's how he's playing. This is as physical and as tough as I've ever seen him play. And he's playing. This is as physical and as tough as I've ever seen him play. And he's playing backdificently. I went to the two Indiana games and I thought, especially in the second half of game four, he really took it to Siakam and he took it to him physically and just athletically everything, but really physically that's the big difference I've noticed just in seeing him in person over the course of the last couple of years is

he's starting to use his body in a different way combined with the speed and now guys are playing off him because they know they're going to lose the bounce off stuff. But I remember, you know, not to bring Yanis into this so early, but I remember when Yanis started to figure that out the first couple of years of his career where he had the athleticism, but as he got stronger, he figured out how to use his body and bounce off dudes. And it feels like that's happening for, uh, for Williams. You've gone against him.

You went against him in the cup, by the way, congrats on the commissioner's cup. Uh, we, I, yeah, we haven't had you on the pod since you won the commissioners talk since then. My gosh. Well, thank you. That forever ago. Did you bring the trophy to Florida or where'd you keep it in your house? I kept it in Milwaukee, right where it should belong.

Well, thank you. And I will say our thoughts going into that game and we got away with it. Our size kind of ate them up. Like we were the more physical team. you can see that. We knew we had to make it a physical contest. We knew going into that game, if we made it about athleticism and speed, then we had no chance. But if we made it about size and power, that they had no chance. And that's why we won that game. What I'm impressed with with Williams and Shea, I don't think we talk enough about Shade,

is not only do they play through the physical contact now, but they get their balance back. See, a lot of people can take a hit. Most people can't get back on balance and take a shot. That little turnaround, the little shimmy turnaround that he shot towards, I think it was the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth. He didn't have that game. He didn't have that mid season. And now we still adding as the playoffs is going on. So it is pretty impressive. So do you think they learned anything from that commissioner's cup game?

As weird as that question is, because I remember we were talking about that during the holidays and you were like, yeah, we, we were able to overpower them. I'm not sure anyone's overpowering this version of the Thunder, right? No, and I do think, you know, it's funny when Mark said after that game, something, this is a lesson that we'll put into our bag and that we've learned that there's another brand of physicality that we're gonna have to come up with.

And I thought, I don't know if that game mattered, it did matter, but I don't know if that game taught him anything, but I do know that they put that in and said, we cannot let a team just play bully ball against us. And that's what we virtually did. So what did you see from tonight? You know, India didn't dominate. So KC, well, they didn't dominate, but the first three quarters of game four,

they're in control of the game. It feels like they have it. They're up 10 for like three minutes near the end of the third quarter and they can't kind of put the game way. Okay. See, can't hit a three, you know, and then okay. See, brings the game back with the defense. What was different about tonight?

Well, first the game the other night, I thought that was the first time in the end that looked up and started thinking results for a second, you know, and it happens in the finals, man. You look at that scoreboard and you're thinking, man, we win this game, we won away. I thought in the end of play differently in the fourth quarter. I thought they blew it to end the third. I think I text you and say, wow, this game should be a 10 to 12 point game. And it's now six or four or whatever it was. And that allowed Oklahoma back in

it. And you know, as good as Indiana is down the stretch, Oklahoma is pretty good because they have Shay. And that's, that was Shay's game to me the other night. Tonight's was Jaylen's game. Today was a different pace. What they do, Bill, they don't stop. You know, they just keep coming, they keep coming, they keep playing, they keep playing. And then eventually you wear down. I thought there were points in the game tonight

that Oklahoma was close to going to the other way. Indiana would turn the ball over. Someone would take a bad shot, which Indiana did more tonight than I've seen all year. Um, and then Jaylen we've just took the game over. So that's the difference. Yeah. I had written down. So it was, they got it to two.

The first part of the fourth quarter with that incredible, the TJ McConnell brings them back in the third quarter is 15. He's doing every, he's playing that. It's like TJ McConnell greatest hits. Basically they got it to two. Okay. See misses big offensive rebound swings out to Jalen Williams. He hits a three, then turnover.

They get a fast break. Wallace layup all of a sudden at seven again. So there was a split second where it felt like, Oh my God, Indiana is going to do the thing they did for the first three rounds. And then it just flipped almost immediately. I mean, the offensive rebounds in this game, at one point there was 32 combined. I'm just seeing what they, what we ended with. We ended with 37 offensive rebounds Doc for 37 in the game for both sides.

But none of them were at their rim. It felt like because there were a lot of long threes, there were a lot of long rebounds. And there was a stretch where Indiana was getting off of. I thought Matthew did a great job on the glass, just collecting them. They're just scrappy. But then I thought Hardenstein got a huge one. Both teams are really working the glass, uh, because what's going on in this series, it seems like there's a stretch in every game where

one team goes small and the other team is bigger and the bigger team dominates the glass and that happened again tonight. So we watched game one of Celtics Knicks together and you were calling out all the hunting that was going on on both sides. Right. And you know, that was pretty early in a series for two teams to try to figure out what they wanted to do offensively.

As this series went along, we had game four where they try to do the, with SGA setting screens for Jalen Williams, them trying to do that two man game. That was the only way to unlock how bad their three point shooting was. What did they figure out tonight? Because it seemed like a lot of it was J. Lou Williams just going downhill and Shea. They scored most of the points. And then Wallace and Wiggins, I think they had like six threes between them.

That's it. But did you see anything else they figured out? Yeah, I thought dribble penetration. I thought Oklahoma made a concerted effort, especially early in the game to get to the bank and they got to the paint and made plays. Not necessarily shooting the ball. You know, she had a very assist night that didn't take but one. But yeah, he had more assistance tonight.

I thought they set the tone early with their dribble penetration and those guys made shots, right? And then down the stretch, because the other guys were making shots, it felt felt like Indiana they didn't lead guys as easy as they've been leaving guys they were worried about Oklahoma making threes tonight yeah and that allowed Jalen Williams and Shay to get to the elbows and make shots you know and that was the difference I thought the dribble penetration they clearly came into this game thinking let's get to the bank So they had a 40-32 lead with eight minutes left in the second quarter. 40 points for OKC, they had 12 assists and they had 10 on game four.

So you're right. It was like they made a concerted effort. The ball's got to move. When they move the ball and that just opens up. Yeah, that's what falls apart on the road. I thought we keep going back to game four I kept thinking in game four We a very important step for coaches is shot quality Like your shot quality like, you know You can what you can win a game and have poor shot quality because you've had shot makers in Oklahoma wins a lot of games

Because she and Jayden Williams are able to make tough shots. But when you watch that game four, every shot Indiana took was wide open. And they got it from ball moving to making the next shot. And every shot Oklahoma took was contested and tough. And that's how Indiana got that big lead. And then in the fourth quarter, it flipped. And then it carried back over to tonight.

Oklahoma was making plays for each other. They were making the extra pass. Indiana always plays that way. So they still got theirs. The difference is Oklahoma shot quality tonight was really good. And it's because they made extra passes. Yeah. So game, uh, the second half of game four was just about as good defensively as I've ever seen anyone play in person. It was crazy.

And it got to the point where it just felt like over and over again with seven seconds left on the shot clock, Indiana was 30 feet from the basket trying to figure out, okay, now I guess I got to get a shot up. They carried that over into the first half, I felt like. Okay, see. They really did. And Bill, the biggest difference is that Oklahoma has a guy. Right. They can play low shot clock games because they have two guys really with Jalen Williams

and Shay. In the end, that's the one thing that they really don't have. They have a lot of guys that make plays, but they don't have the one guy, maybe Siakam, because if you get the ball to Siakam on the elbow in the right place, he's pretty dynamic, right? But other than that, that's not how they play. They don't play the ISO end of the clock game, and Oklahoma can do that. And so that's been the difference since mid- know, mid second half of game four so far.

And it, and it showed itself today again. Well, so when you hear, okay, say, I don't know if they're the best defense I've ever seen, but they'd be one of the first ones I think of. Well, I faced the Bulls. Well, that's the thing. So I saw the 90s Bulls, the, uh, you're talking about oh four pistons. There's there's been some great ones over the years were physical You know, so they had a brand our 2008 Celtics were tough But I still listen I I played against all of them and that one year with the Bulls You know Ron Harper, Scotty Pippen, Dennis Rodman,

Michael Jordan. I mean, those are four elite, elite, elite defenders. I don't think there was a better defensive team than that with their size and quickness. But this team is similar. They rival it a little bit. And they're, they're, they come in droves like the Bulls when you can stop at four or five. They're seven, eight deep defensively. You don't hear that very often when you talk about teams. Usually the great defensive teams, they have a one or two guys that are great defensively than everybody

else or more team defenders. What separates Oklahoma and you can put Indiana, who's very underrated defensively, they have a ton of solid individual defensive players. And that's what makes this series so intriguing. Yeah. I'm glad you brought up the nineties bowls because it's the only other time I've ever seen that in person of people, multiple guys picking up ball handlers at mid court and it almost seemed like defensive backs, like jamming the line of scrimmage on receivers and the receivers being unable to get off the line of scrimmage. Like what they were doing to Halliburton and today he was hurt, which we'll talk

about in a second, but, um, he wasn't, not only was he not getting the spots he wanted to go to, they were disrupting them 45 feet from the basket, which is what those Bulls teams used to do. They used to be like two pit bulls waiting for people at mid-court. One of the things the Bulls did that I don't think any other team has ever done in the history of the game is the way they trap. You know, usually what you do is you send a guy to the sideline and then you bring them back to the middle and you trap. The Bulls actually would send a guy to the sideline

and as a guard, and I remember this, you thought, okay, now I can beat them down the sideline. But the guy guard, you would actually beat you to the sideline and then you would turn back and there's another defender and you're basically in the web. It's over. Uh, no one's ever been able to do that type of trapping in the front court. Uh, they did it in the back court. They did it all the time.

Um, and I thought they did one other thing that no one ever talks about. We actually discussed it once. They would trap the passer that was going to throw it to the post. If you remember that against Orlando, they figured out, okay, they're going to always throw it to the wing, they throw it to Shaq. So what they did, they trapped the passer. And the passer now is throwing it out away. He forgets about Shaq.

By the time they got it to Shaq, it's three seconds on the clock. I thought that was genius. Um, I mean, that was Phil, but that was really, they had four pit bulls that could get away with it. And I've never seen a team do that. I will say Oklahoma, they don't do that, but they have enough to defenders that they may be able to get away with something like that. Yeah.

I would say the difference between them and the Bulls defensively the Bulls probably had the higher ceiling with those four But there's a relentlessness because they just bring more guys in it's like Yeah, this guy's in really and and it just kind of never stopped. Can you imagine? You're already struggling trying to score and then they bring Caruso in? You know that is unbelievable when you think about it. So as a coach, because you're coaching the Milwaukee Bucks right now and you're in this league that has Oklahoma City in it, that I don't even feel like is the team, they're going to be two, three years from now, right? This is, they're at like the start of whatever journey it is. I don't know if it's going to be two years, five years, seven years, but

it's the beginning of it. When you see that they're already at this point now, how many teams can you remember since you've been playing or coaching where you're going, oh shit. Not only are they the best team right now, but we're not even where we're going to go yet. Well, listen, we both been around this league a long time and you're right today. But you know, this league, I still remember Jeff and Gandhi, Mark Jackson, in my brain, talking about the Oklahoma City Thunder, and when they were losing to Miami, well, this is a tough loss, but they'll be back here over and over again. This is the first time they've been back.

So you can never take it for granted. And they also have some things coming up called max contracts and paying guys. And, you know, what Sam has done is amazing when you think about it, he's done this without, you know, Shay really. But next year, after this season, or in a year, they're going to have to start paying guys and then all of a sudden they probably won't be as deep as they are now because they're

going to have to make some tough decisions. They've done this once and they decided on, who did they decide on over hard? And I can't remember that the center. It was hard in and they kept a Baca and Perkins basically. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they kept a Baca at the time over hardened, uh, which turned out to be, you know, not the best decision in the world. Um, and I think you're honestly, I thought they felt like Harden wanted to go somewhere and have his own team.

So, you know, they were making the decisions more about team building than just about individual talent. So it looks a lot worse than what it actually is, but that's the only thing that's gonna slow this team down. And like, you know, I'm a coach at NBA, I wanna win a title, right? You know, the earliest, if Oklahoma City wins this one, then they've been made. You know, I always use that word, you've been made.

And now you're going to have to deal with them. Nothing. Once you win, nothing can shake your confidence. The only way you knock them out now is you're going to have to kill them. So this series isn't over, but we do know, and that's going to happen with either team that wins it, but especially Oklahoma because they're so young. We're going to take a quick break, come back, talk about Halbert. This episode is brought to you by Virbo Private Vacation Rentals.

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Hope you're not allergic. Next vacation, stay longer and save. Make it a Verbo. Halliburton was clearly hurt. I don't know when it happened. And we live in this culture, especially when there's time between games, when whoever didn't play well in the previous finals game, that that's a person that just takes all the shit for the next 36 hours. He didn't look right.

It's interesting watching this in a 2025 context because we've seen some awesome players now have calf strains, try to play through them. And then something more horrible happens, right? Durant was the most famous example. Tatum in the Knicks series, I don't think his legs were a hundred percent before that happened. So in the back of your head, you're watching this. And on the one hand, especially your generation, it's like, you're hurt. Get out there, keep playing.

You got to help the team. But that has become the scariest injury. I feel like in sports now now when somebody has calf strain and they're stretching it out and I'm just like, yo, be careful. Uh, he didn't look the same. I don't know when the injury was, but can Indiana beat them with a compromised Halliburton? I would say no way.

They can't beat them without Halliburton being solid. The one thing I will say, um, is Halliburton is never going to be that guy that gives you 30. It's just not in his DNA. He can at times. But what Halliburton does is so underrated to me, Bill, because he plays the right way. There was in game three, I think it was game three, whatever game, game four, the game they won, so game three. Caliber had made back-to-back threes, I think, and the ball swung to him. And 90% of the league would have taken the shot. Heat check, heat check.

And he pumped, faked, drove to the basket, and he got Salcima wide open shot. And that's who he is. You know, he wants to make plays. That's why Indiana plays right, because their best player always plays right. The problem with that is now you're in the finals and there's a microscope on you to score. That's not what he is. You know, he can score and there's going to be games that he has big games. You know, he can score and there's going to be games that he has big games. Um, but what he can do is run a basketball team. And that's why Indiana is where they're at is because the way Halliburton plays.

Yeah. I've been saying that on my podcast for the whole finals that when people are like, he's got to step up, they need him to score more. I'm just like, that's just a fundamental misunderstanding of who he is. We, Steve Nash, you coach Chris Paul, Chris Paul didn't want to score 35 points in a finals game. He wanted to have 20 and 12 or 18 and 14. That's who he is. If Chris Paul was taking 20 to 25 shots in a game, odds are it was going badly for you.

Right? Yeah. Even Magic, you know, Magic Johnson. I mean, Magic could score and when, when, you know, magic Johnson. I mean, magic could score. And when, you know, the difference was when he wanted to score, he could just score, you know, he's just bigger than everybody. But at the end of the day, yeah, at the end of the day, you know, the games, games six, Philadelphia, uh, his rookie year, he proved, yeah,

I can score when I need to. But what he wanted to do is, is, is make everybody on his team better. And he did that and that's why they won. Yeah. So I don't know when people criticize them for the scoring, I'm like, all right, but, but he, uh, I don't think he had the same explosiveness and you know, this is one of the things I wanted to think he's headed for two games. I think it's, I don't think this injury happened tonight. Right. Um, I think this has been going on for at least two games now.

Well, this is one of the things I wanted to ask you because you played in the 80s and 90s. And obviously there's more, there's definitely more running. The defense is a little fiercer now. You've got more ground to cover. And some of these games, like I was just in disbelief in game three and four, just being there. How hard everyone plays for two and a half hours and how fast everyone's going. And is, is basketball becoming unsustainable at the speed we're playing it? Are we, are we actually putting too much on these dudes?

Cause when you watch it, it's like, I don't understand how they're, how these guys are upright after two hours. Um, when you're watching it just as a coach. Well, you do remember. No, but you do remember in the 70s, every team shot 100 shots. Both teams always got 100 field goals a night. Now there was no three-point line and people took shots quicker.

So the game was at a faster pace. And then when the three- point line came in, shooting percentages plummeted, scoring plummeted, and now it's kind of caught back up. It's the 70s with a three point line. That's basically what has happened now. But do you feel like it's as physical as the 70s though? No, but I do think one thing I love what the league did mid season last year, physicality is back. It's not what it was, because I do think, and that's just hard for me to say,

there was a line that was crossed at some point where the game got so physical, it became ugly. But I love how they are officiating the games. I get so upset when there's a tacky file that they don't call, that they call, like the two flagrants in the game, game four or game three were ridiculous. You know, I didn't like either one of them. But other than that, so the game is more physical. That like the seventies, the pace is faster, the athletes are bigger and faster.

And yeah, Bill, you can make a case. Can every team sustain the speed and the pace that the Pacers in Oklahoma are playing at? I guess the other argument to that is yes, because Oklahoma's done it and they're healthy. Indiana has done it. Now, Indiana had a ton of injuries all year, but they're healthy. They're one of the healthier teams in the VA right now, these two teams that are playing. And probably because to me,

they did play at this pace all year. You know, they didn't decondition when the season starts. And I think that happens a lot in our league because we start wrestling. I think a lot of guys decondition when the season starts and they're not ramped up right. And one of the things a lot of teams are going to now, we're starting to ramp up for the playoffs.

That's what we should have been doing for the last six or seven years and we got away from that. And I think it's important. You know, when you came back to coaching last year, you broke my heart and you left the podcast. One of the things you were telling me was, one of the things you were telling me was, uh, this Indiana is no joke. Like the way they pressure the ball, the pace that they play with, I'm kind of shocked, like how effective it is. Um, I like, especially like how they go 94 feet against the other team's guards.

And you were like, I don't think people realize how hard it is to play them. And then of course they made the Eastern finals last year, but it seemed like you were, they were on your radar basically the whole time you're the bucks go. And then of course you played them in the playoffs. You don't have Dame. Yeah. Uh, but honestly, Bill, we played them the one time and I came away from that game. It's funny, I called, said, Casillo, who I talked to still, probably way too much.

And I said, Sammy, you guys don't want to see Indiana. They are, they will wear you out. And even if you win the series, you may not have anything left to beat the next team. That's just how they play. And you know, one thing we could do to eliminate it a little bit this year playoffs is we have Giannis and nobody is going to pressure Giannis or pick him up. So we had kind of a free pass against them this year. Last year we didn't have Giannis and now, you know, Dame and the guards, they were worn

out. Now they've been played by two games, but they wore our guards down. And you saw them do it against New York. You saw them do it again this year. And Jalen Bronson looked exhausted at the end of that series this year. And that's, you look at Shaya times now, you know, there's points in the game. They've already had to change their substitution pattern. Oklahoma has. So they can have a shave fresh in the games. That's all from that constant pressure and they're relentless with it.

They don't let up ever. And it's rough. Yeah. I noticed that game four, there was a moment in that game where SGA looked like, kind of like spent and he was able to get the second win and come back in the fourth quarter. But that was the only time I really thought Indiana had a chance to actually win the title was during that third quarter. It was mostly because of how Shay just looked like a boxer who was like, oh shit, I got three rounds left. He

just had that vibe to him, but he figured it out. It was funny you said that I'm watching a game with Austin and Seth. Yeah. And Austin looked at Seth and said, oh my God, Indiana's about to win the World Championship. And that's how you felt in the middle of that third quarter. Yeah. And then Oklahoma took that away. You've got to give Mark a lot of credit though, because Mark does not change his rotations

very often. And he did in that game, uh, and he rested Shea, if you remember the beginning of the fourth and then took them out one more time. Uh, and I thought that was, that was huge for Shea and Oklahoma to win that game. Was that little bit of rest. Did you think Indiana was this good or did they go up a level as this route, as these four rounds went along? Did they, did they kind of push their ceiling up a couple of floors?

I've always said this bill and the only people that can understand this is people who have gone all the way to the finals. If you look, if you ask every coach that has ever been in the finals about their team at the finals and when they started the playoffs, they will tell you we were a different team by the time we got to the finals. You grow so much. You grow each round. You find things about your team as a coach.

The players find things about themselves. Each round, teams get closer and closer. I always say in the first round every player is still trying to show everybody they can play. They're still worried about half the teams that aren't, you know, the main teams, they're worried about contract and all the BS they shouldn't be worried about. Then they win that round and all of a sudden teams get a little closer. Then they get through that round and they get to the East and the Western Finals, you are a completely different team. And then when you win that round,

you go to a level where there's no more eye. You never hear about selfish, how often do you hear about selfish play in the finals? You just don't see it very often. And I really believe each team grows. Indiana was good. They were playing great coming into the playoffs. They beat us.

They beat Cleveland. And they jumped on Cleveland. They beat the Knicks. And if you ask Rick Carlisle right now, he would tell you, I believed in this team, but we're way better now than we were in the first round. And that's what happens. You keep growing. That's why when you have a team, even like us, you know, Dame, I just kept looking at

our team. And I think a lot of coaches believe, and I know that because I've been there twice to the finals. I'm looking at our team and I'm looking at like Gary Trent, AJ Green, and all those guys. I'm like, man, each round if we can get these guys, they're just gonna keep getting better and better and better. And then what happens, they bring that back next year.

You bring all the ATOs back next year. You don't have to waste half your training camp putting in new stuff. You've already done it throughout the playoffs. And you jump and it gives you a head start, right? And that's where Indiana's at and that's where Oklahoma's at now. And that's where some of the teams that didn't make it, there was some hump that they didn't get over.

Yeah. I mean, you weren't surprised by the Indiana Cleveland series. I'm part of it was Garland was hurt, but you thought, you just thought that was a scary matchup for Cleveland. But even you couldn't, even you couldn't have thought Indiana was going to do that though. No, I did. I said it out loud that Indiana was going to win that series because I thought their guard pressure, they're one of the few teams that can match up to the

Cleveland guards. Uh, but then, you know, Cleveland had major injuries coming into that. Uh, when they said guys in game one and two, I said, this series is over. You know, the one thing you can't have in the playoffs, your key guys can't be hurt. You have to be healthy to win. You're not, you're not winning anything in the NBA playoffs. You mean like when you didn't have Kevin Garnett in 2009 and when he got hurt with two games left in the season.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to win. Let me put it that way. I vaguely remember that. This whole superstar, you know, like this 24 seven sports discourse, and we talk about superstars and like, I think Hal Burton's a superstar, but he doesn't have the stats

that show he's a superstar. But you made the key point earlier that you can build a team around what he does. Right? Yeah. Isn't that the definition of a superstar? Am I crazy? Well, I don't know what a superstar is anymore. That would be my definition. Anybody that can make their team a championship level team, should be considered a superstar. I use this and I've said this a million times, I'm sure I've said it on the pod before. One of the most meaningful things that have ever been told to me is by Bill Russell, when

I brought him in to talk to the team. And then he went back in the office, he was talking, I think it was to me and Kevin. And he said, if I'm the only one that can be great, our team can never be great. But if I can be great and give everybody on my team room to be great as well, we will be a dominant team. And that's what I did. That's to me, there's a lot of guys, you know, you can make the case. There's a lot of guys, if you just told them to shoot every time, pass when they wanted to, they're going to have all the stats, but they're the only ones that can be good on their team.

And that has never worked in the history of the game. That has never worked. You have to give yourself to the team at some point to win. And, you know, Halliburton has done that. You have to give yourself to the team at some point to win. And, you know, Halliburton has done that. And when your best player does it, Bill, it's easy to coach. Everybody else falls in line, because you can't say he won't do it because he will do it. And it makes it easier for coaches for sure.

Yeah. I heard, I was driving home today. I was listening to Justin and Eddie on Sirius MBA. They had Isaiah Hartenstein on. And they were asking him about, Hey, your was driving home today. I was listening to Justin and Eddie on serious NBA Dead Isaiah Hardenstein on and they were asking him about hey your role was this way the first couple rounds in the finals They haven't been using you as much and like like what is it like to just have your role change like that in the biggest series of the season and He's like hey, we're just trying to win and if I completely trust my coach at this port And if he feels like we have better matchups than me then I're just trying to win. And if I completely trust my coach at this point,

and if he feels like we have better matchups than me, then I want our team to win and that's it. That's the end of the discussion. That's who he is. Yeah, that's who he is anyway. But it definitely, I think, you know, I always look back when Rick said, I can't think of the kid's name when he was in Dallas,

but he did it in the finals. He said someone that in the history, he had not been a very easy guy to coach, but they had made the finals now. And the guy just sat there and he's the happiest guy. Hey, I'm trying to win now. And that's what I'm talking about, about growth. It's funny though, I will say this, and I know we're kind of segueing off when I bring this up It also reminded me when you said they asked Hardenstein that is I've had this thing and I'm gonna bring up Tom Timidl

That I think no team should ever do when you lose like in the first or second or third round To have exit meetings the next day after you lose, because what happens is the Hardenstein conversation comes up with your front office guys. The problem is you just lost in the second round, then that is happy. You know what I mean? And then when they say, tell know, tell me about the coach.

There's gonna be about four or five guys that really love you because you showed them love and you played them more. But there's gonna be four or five guys who were on your side that may no longer be on your side when those meetings happen. I've long said exit meetings need a month before we have them.

Because when you have them the next day, the coach is in trouble. And I will say, Tibbs and I did talk after he was fired. And that absolutely came up. It couldn't have been anything good that came out of those meetings. And so it's interesting, we're talking about Hardenstein now in the finals.

Coach can do anything. You know, you, you know, you remember in two 10, I think we're in the Eastern finals. I think I played Nate and baby to finish the game and I didn't bring Kevin to those guys back in, we won the game and no one care because we're trying to win, you know? Um, but when it happens earlier and you lose. Guys don't handle that as well as they do when you get to the finals. trying to win, you know, uh, but when it happens earlier and you lose, guys don't handle that as well as they do when you get to the finals. So you're saying maybe the Nick shouldn't have fired Tom Thibodeau after he made the final four. Obviously, you know, he only worked for me for a long time.

So that one that, you know, it's funny, it stings you just as much, not as much as it stung Tibs, but you know, firing is hard. I've been fired three times and you know, and when it happens, you know, especially when it happens to one of your guys, you know, my guys are Tibbs, Ty Loo. When it happens to guys like that, it really bothers you because you know what they are. You know, both of them are just unbelievable coaches. And I always use the Utah model. The reason Utah stayed good for so long, they never panicked. They didn't fire Jerry Sloan

because he couldn't get to the finals. They knew he could coach. There's certain franchises, Boston really, for the most part. The Celtics, they don't make changes once they think they have the right coach, a good coach. They're right because they know they can scout better, think they have the right coach, a good coach, they're, they're right. Because they know they can scout better. Uh, they can draft better. Uh, they can make trades better because they know exactly what they're looking for. And, you know, I thought the Knicks were on their way to that and now tips is gone. Well, you, I mean, you're one of the leaders of the coaching contingent.

It's a league now that I think the five longest tenured coaches, three of them got the job in 2020, right? And then you have Spoh and you have Steve Kerr or the other two. And at this point you're probably in the top 10 longest tenured coaches. You just got there a year and a half ago. Somebody told me I was 12. Someone told me I was 12, which when you think about it, that's insane. That's nuts.

Yeah. But here's the question because you know that, uh, you know, it's only going to get worse, the salaries are going to go up, right? We're going to have this, this, whatever happens as the media rights money keeps coming in and we're going to have guys making 60, 65, 70 million a year. If they don't like their coach, who's going to win that one? It's not going to be the coach. It always should be the coach. I tell coaches that when I'm speaking at a coaching clinic in Vegas, I'm the first one to tell them, like, listen, our job is to win, period. Our job is to make players better. But at the end of the day, even if you do that, you're

still going to get fired sometimes. And it's just part of it. I mean, I could look at the Philadelphia situation and say, we lost to the Boston Celtics. No one picked us to win. We took them to seven game. Two years before I got there they got sweat and now we're trying to win these and finals But at the end of the day You're not gonna treat players away If it comes down to that it's always gonna be the coach and yes Just the way it is and I tell them like even tips, you know tips a big boy He got it like, you know, it's not like you're going to hear him gripe about it or anything like that.

It's not fair, but it's part of our job and we have to understand that. That's the tough part of the MBA. Yeah. And it might be a five year job at this point. And if you last longer than four to five years, it's, it's a borderline miracle. We got to take one more break. And then I want to talk about SGA quick. No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders.

Shop now at nofrills.ca. All right. So when you first started coming on this podcast a couple of years ago, I remember we had a long conversation about SGA. What did you see when, you know, when you coached him on the Clippers, when he was a young pup, they trade them. You make the point, Hey, this guy's going to be really good. I wouldn't put them in the trade. They have to do it because it's their chance to get Kawhi and Paul George made them one of the favorites.

They throw in a bunch of picks. And then when we talked about this two years ago, this is when he was becoming a 30 point score. He was clearly a special players as the first team on BA. But then this year it goes up a level and now he's having one of the best start to finish guard seasons in the history of the position. You know, it's been steady. It's been consistent.

The team really takes on his personality. It's really interesting to watch in person. It's just their bench. It's all consistent. The team really takes on his personality. It's really interesting to watch in person. It's just their bench. It's all of these quiet assassins. He's a quiet assassin. He barely even talks to the refs. He just kind of does his job. He doesn't talk shit to the other players. He just goes, goes, goes. And technically, his footwork, his shots like that shot you mentioned earlier when he just had McConnell, McConnell, uh, his shots like that shot you mentioned earlier when he, he just had McConnell, McConnell, McConnell, then he has that little fall away and the, on the foul line on him.

Um, he's one of the best scoring guards I've ever seen. Wait, did you, did you see this? Cause I know you saw greatness in him, but not this. I loved him. Yeah, I loved him. I told you that. I told you that three years ago. Um, but I mean, come on.

I mean, no one saw this. I will say, and we talked about Sam Conceal earlier, Sam was really high on them and almost devastated when we were gonna trade him. And I remember us talking that night, because I had to make the call. Bill, I guarantee you, I know I remember it. I know where I was at, because when the trade finally

went down, Lawrence calls me and tells me Shae's in the trade. It's so funny, Bill. I was so happy that we got Kawhi. And it bothered me to make that call to Shay and I've shared that. That was a tough call. And he handled it like such a pro, but you also felt that it was like this, I'm going gonna make you pay for this trade. That's how you felt.

When I called Sam, and Sam had just talked to him as well, and Sam says, I tell you, we just gave away an assassin. And it's, we better win it, because this kid, he's gonna come back and haunt all of us and you know I'm so happy for him bill because he reminds me a lot of maxi It's funny as a coach you have some of these young guys that are just sponges Great, he'd never I I coach Shay hard. I coach maxi hard and both of them could take it Wanted more they wanted to learn.

They just both are very similar. You think they're these nice guys, like Shay, as you said, he comes off as this nice guy. Shay's a stone-blooded killer. He does not care about making you happy when you get on the floor. And he had that when he was a rookie. Now the way he's playing now, I don't think anyone saw that.

The footwork and the consistency and how the ball never hits the rim on half of these shots, it's just, there's something to hear you about it. I've never seen anything like it. It's where his pace, you can't speed them up. You're not going to speed him up. Where he's gotten so much stronger. And to me, his ability, you know, he gets away with that push, but he also gets pushed.

And what I'm surprised by, I think Nimhar has done an amazing job, and Nismil both, yet she's averaging 30. You know what I mean? And they're doing an amazing job defending him. His balance is unbelievable, as good as any player I've ever seen at being able to take a hit, get his feet, and be able to take a shot with rhythm, and he can do it left or right But that was the one thing that stood out is rookie year was his pace It was obvious like man. This guy has an NBA pace and he's never played an NBA game. It's it's innate. It's in him

What he didn't have was a size and physicality and now he has that as well Yeah, I'm trying to think of other guys like that because I've we talked about this I was going to those games that Uh, what he didn't have was a size and physicality and now he has that as well. Yeah. I'm trying to think of other guys like that. Cause I've, we talked about this. I was going to those games that rookie year, I always thought he was going to be almost like more of a Nemhar type, like a defense glue guys, fill in the spot, good playmaker, but I never saw this guy in peace. Yeah.

Footwork guys, Michael had that, you know, Michael just did it so quick and so athletically, uh, no one ever talked about his footwork guys, Michael had that. Michael just did it so quick and so athletically, no one ever talked about his footwork. Michael's footwork was unbelievable. How many times do you see him? He gets to his spot, he gets his balance. He just did it so quick and so fast that no one really, where she does it slower and takes his time. You know, Paul Pierce is similar in a lot of ways with his footwork and his time.

And, oh, you can go way back to like Kiki Vanderwey's great footwork. Shay has all that. But Shay's, the difference is what you said, his footwork, and then the last thing that he's done, two years ago, you could force him to shoot threes. Now he's shooting that at a high clip as well. And so that's made him virtually unguardable.

So what happens in game six, you think? Boy, I don't know. I really don't. I think the series may be over because I don't think Halliburton's health. That's why I've landed as well. Yeah, but if Halliburton can give them a game, I don't know who's going to win

this. You know what I really want? I really want a game seven. You know, I love NBA basketball. I love the coaching part of it. I love the playing part of it, but I love watching big games. I love watching game sevens. And I hope we have one.

I think it'd be great. I think you would see two young teams. And let's say this as well. I guess Shay is a superstar, right? And Halliburton is one. Shay is starting to be a household name now. But this is the first series in a long time that we haven't had a series of just

at least one or two household names. It's been great. It's been great. It's been great to watch. It really has. I think this has been an absolutely fantastic series. I think it's been coached great by both coaches. But I think you hit on it. And it's what I think that why ratings are up and the fans are enjoying it.

There's two teams that are playing hard. The intensity of these games have been off the chart and it's great to watch. I don't care about the ratings because I feel like this is a one for us finals. Yeah. It's like for the, for the people who actually like basketball. It's not for like my mom where my mom's like, I heard LeBron's in the finals. I'll watch like all the casuals are out and this is just the hardcore. And by the way, like this has been the league's biggest problem for the entire decade is trying to create new stars, new teams.

They put the same guys on, you know, you can see it in Christmas. You guys didn't even make Christmas, uh, in December with Yannis, um, which is, which is awful. Great. Yannis is one of the people they should be pushing. Come on ESPN. Yeah. But I think, you know, they're creating new teams and new stars, hopefully. Did you hear what Magic said on first take? I actually thought this was really smart. He was talking about the dumb face of the league conversation, which I hate, but he

was saying like, the true definition of a superstar is can you sell out an opposing building? Are people going to come to see you? And I was like, you know what? I think that, I think that actually is the definition. Can you sell out the other team's building? How many guys have done that in the last 40 years? It's, it's less than 10.

It's not a lot. Yeah. I mean, I'm, uh, if I, let's say I didn't coach in the league and I was just loved the ball basketball the way I loved it. Um, I'm going to watch Steph Curry play every day, every chance I get, uh, he's going to do something extraordinary. He moves without the ball. Uh, one of my favorite stats in NBA history, in the history of the game was Steph. The year Steph won the MVP, the year they won it, his first title, he had the ball in his hands 47% less than the year before.

Wow. And that just to me is, I say this term, our players cringe when I say it. Like, we watch film and I said, all right, guys, the first clip is coaches porn. I always call it coaches porn and it usually is some beautiful play. And you know, it's funny, like Yannis and a couple of guys just love it. They, they'll say it now to the bench. Yeah.

Make sure that's on the mural. That's coaches porn. Yeah. But we're, we're, Steph has it all the time. So you can watch him play. LeBron in his heyday, just his passing. You would pay to watch him play. Giannis, you would pay. You just would go and what are they going to do tonight? But it's not a long list. I mean honestly, Caitlin Clark has it right now, I feel like at WNBA. She was out for two You know, but it's not a long list, you know. I mean, honestly, Caitlin Clark has it right now.

I feel like a WNBA, you could say she was out for two weeks and it felt like the league stopped. Listen, Caitlin Clark is physical Pete. Right. She really is. I can watch her. You know, it's funny in college, everyone was mesmerized by a shooting. I'm like, that's the least of her game. It's her passing.

And what it's a great example what we talked about with Halliburton is when you watch Caitlin Clark's team play they run the floor like there's no you know why because they know they're going to get the ball. They make cuts because they know they're going to get the ball. It's amazing and that's what a superstar does for his team right there. And yeah, she is a, she is an absolute superstar. She may be the biggest superstar in basketball right now or top three. At one point today, they ran two straight commercials with her to enter one of the breaks in the, uh, in the finals game tonight. I was like, she's arrived. You have a superstar on your team that you guys have been just trying to trade

for the last month, apparently by reports. Are you just offering Yannis is on eBay now. She's just, does anyone want to make it offer? It's so ridiculous. And I've heard all these, you hear all this stuff and, but you do, don't, you don't like it, you know, when you hear it because you know it's not true, Bill. And, but it's still like your players here and everybody else hears it. You know, I remember telling you this story when I was in Boston, I'm on a treadmill working

out. That's when I could run still, you know, running on a treadmill. And they announced that the, the Boston Celtics are about to trade Rondo. I think it was to the Lakers or someone. And I was like, what? And it was absurd. Like we had never had any conversations, but Rondo heard it, you know?

And so that's the only thing I don't like about all this now. It's, I don't know how many more times Giannis has to say he wants to be a buck and he wants to win a title with a buck in it. And it's so cool to me, you know, um, because it's not the way it's done anymore. Um, but what a sweet certain guys, you know, I don't think Steph Curry would ever leave Golden state ever. Um, and I'm hoping obviously that Yannis is the same way that's the way he's been

so far and it's been great. It's been awesome. Yeah. I've been trying to tell people on the pod for the last month that first of all, he doesn't want to leave. Second of all, you'd be crazy to trade him when the East is wide open. You have the best player in the conference and it just feels like, especially after watching the playoffs this year, it's like, I'm pretty sure I'd want Yannis

in the East next year would be, would be my choice. I said this with, so I said this before the playoffs. I said, there's never been a better time that I can remember in the NBA that for you to win a title, meaning anyone. Right. Because 10, 11 teams, if things broke the right way, maybe. If things break the right, there's no dominant team right now. Oklahoma may become that if they win, but there's nobody you're scared of in the NBA.

Um, you know, so right now, Orlando makes a huge trade yesterday. There's going to be four or five of those. There's next year in the East and the West, because I think, listen, the West gets a lot of love. I'm going to just stop there. But I don't think there's any team, any East team was scared of a West team. If you know what I mean. I felt like if we got out of the East, you know, Oklahoma would have been the best team.

That was the one team you're like, man, they're tough, but I don't think there's a team, you know, we were worried about Denver, but they let a lot of guys go and they're not the same. There's no dominant team right now. Um, but we have one of the dominant players. And so we have a shot. And so does the Knicks and, you know, Boston will see by the end of the year if Tatum can come back. I hated that injury. I hated seeing it.

But, and in the West too, like, you know, Oklahoma, let's say they win it. Clippers, Denver, Lakers, Golden state has a full year now with Jimmy. Shoot. It's wide open and that will be great for the league. The Dame injury, um, among the worst injuries you've you've for, from coaching, from a coaching standpoint, where you know right away and you start doing the math and you're like, Oh my God, not only is it for this year, but it could be like a huge part of next year, maybe all next year. Do we, is there any chance he comes back?

You're not, you're staying out of it. I'm staying out of it, but I do think, yeah, I think he'll come back by the end of next season, you know, because he had it early enough in the playoffs. But I gotta say this about Dame, Dame had two injuries, you know. You know, I jokingly told Dame, I cried twice for you, damn it, in one year. You know, because when he had the blood clot, you know, there was a moment when I got the news, because I'm old, and I know what blood clots usually mean. You know, so when I first heard the news, I literally, my eyes watered because I'm thinking

this guy's about to get robbed the rest of his career. And then within the next day, we find, okay, no, not career threatening. He's going to be, he may even come back. And then when he went down and I walked out on that floor and the first thing he said to me was, man, I think I sprained my ankle. And I was, I didn't say anything, but I was looking at it.

My brain, I was thinking that wasn't an ankle. But let's, I remember saying, let's get you in the back. And that was it. And I think Darwin or someone came and grabbed him, but man, you just, the guy does everything you asked him to do. He does all the work and then bam, that happens. That is part of the game, you know? Um, but that was a rough one for me to see. Well, it sounds like, I mean, the one thing from, from talking here over the

last year and a half and so it really seems like you liked the team, like the group of guys, like you, like you guys had the right vibes and, um, you know, I even thought if you got by Indiana somehow, like who knows, like you were really optimistic. I was surprised. I love the group. You know, Janice is one of those like Kevin Garnett superstars that you can coach him hard but he's fun to coach.

You know what I'm saying about that? That gave me life again. I needed that. And like Bobby, we just got a bunch of grownups. So, you know, I keep saying that we got a bunch of grownups and we got the right mix. I do believe teams, the old and the new, you need a mix of both. I think Oklahoma adding the Hardenstein's and the Caruso's was huge for them. They needed the right. You can't, you know, teams make a mistake, they go out and just get any of that. You can't do that. You

have to get the right vets. And Oklahoma did that. And you can see that. Caruso, game four, you know, we can talk about Shea and all that. Caruso won game four for them. He single-handedly willed them to that game. And that's that veteran leadership. He had won a title before. He knows what it takes. He does all the dirty work. And that's, that's how you feel. That's what I like about our team We have young guys and AJ Grimmie Gary Trent still really young But then we have older guys No, I had lunch with Brooke yesterday and and like you can't get enough of those guys. No, we're in Orlando So Brooks at Disney obviously so you can buy it and you can have lunch

But I think that's what makes it. Yeah. Um, I didn't talk, we didn't talk since you had this last season, was there a player that you went against that you were just shocked by you didn't realize until you were coaching how good somebody was or how good somebody had the potential to be anybody jump out? Uh, Brunson Brunson. How come?

Jaylen Brunson. I liked him, you know, in Dallas. You know, he played okay against me when he, the first year in Philly, but when we played them, when I came, you know, and I'd done a couple of games, but when we played them, I think it was at home last year, and I was, holy gosh, you, this guy is, he's good. Like he is, he's, with his size, to be that unstoppable to me is just absolutely unbelievable. You worry about his health because the way he plays, he plays almost, you know, running back basketball. If you know what I mean, everything's physical, everything's tough, but man, it's way better than I thought it was.

If you were the czar of the NBA, what, was there a rule change you would do? Is there anything that drove you crazy as a coach? So has the league evolved in a certain way that drives you nuts No, I mean, I like the way the league is evolving right now. I really do. I like that. The game is getting more physical I hate the fact that I have if I use a challenge In the first half only have one laugh. I do think if I win a challenge, I should keep my challenges. I don't think I should lose them. And the only rule that I would change is at the last play of a game should always be reviewed,

whether you have a challenge or not. That's interesting. So if somebody makes a shot at the end, but you have no challenge. They just have to do it anyway. Yeah. Because I kept thinking that Detroit Knick game that was clearly a foul and they missed and didn't call it. Wouldn't you be sick if that was game seven at NBA finals, and you didn't have a challenge,

that would be awful. So I do think coaches should be able to keep their challenges. They get it right, they get it right. You should be able to keep it. And then the last play of the game should just be challenged. If it's close, the ref should be able to say,

I want to take a look. And if they had taken a look in that game, they would have called a foul and Detroit would have won that game. And so, you know, I do think that's the one play that should just be challenged. What after going to the- One more rule. Okay. Yeah, let's hear it. Out of bounds should just be done in Zikakis. We don't need

headphones for that. Just look at it and make the choice. That would save us five minutes a game, which Al Michaels tells me all the time. You gotta speed the end of the games up. So that would actually happen. What's the right number of games for the regular season? Well, I get into this. Just do it. 70. You want really 60. That's what I have. Yeah, but I'd say 70. 70 is the perfect number. It really is. I think you should start the season later. I loved it one lockout year when we started it. I think the should start the season later. You know, I loved it one lockout year.

When we started it, that was I think the first game was Christmas Day. I wouldn't do that. I would start at December 1st just to get a rhythm. So by Christmas, you know, you can kind of have some big games, but 70. And for me, it's been I've always stayed 82, Bill, because everybody else did it. And so you wanna say 82, but I do think the more we keep talking about this, I think at some point we may have to have

a serious discussion, because no one wants to see injured basketball. We wanna see healthy guys play. And the facts are guys are getting injured more now and we have to figure that out. Especially like lower leg injuries just feels like there's more than ever. Jason Tatum was too young to have an Achilles. And so that made no sense to me and so there's something that's going on

because there's more achilles, there's more blood clots. There's something going on and we have to figure it out. All right, last question. Larry David, his Knicks team makes the final four and falls short. What was that roller coaster ride like in Texas? You weren't in the same spot as he actually had a good Knicks team for months.

Yeah, well, it was rough for him, you know, because he went to that game one, Indiana, and they lost. And then he left. And he left. He was supposed to be in the same seats at game two, and he couldn't do it. He just couldn't do it.

He left the next morning, he was it. He left the next morning. He was gone. He left the next morning. And so he calls me and says, I'm coming back because I want to play golf with my guys on Sunday. I said, you're a freaking liar. That is not why you're coming back. You're coming back because you're superstitious and you're sitting in game one and they lost. And so you're trying to change the mojo. And that's Larry 101. He blamed himself for the loss. He said it was his fault. He was miserable over that game.

And he refused to go in game two because he didn't want, he just said, I want no parts of it. He's a real fan. Like he is into it. It's awesome. It was great to have the Knicks fans back. All the versions of them with the biggest fan base. I mean, you, you played there.

You got to see it firsthand, but it's really like the all time craziest fan base when it's going great. Their chests are out there going nuts. As soon as it goes bad, they are the most despondent fan base you're ever going to have. They was the game of a version. Go New York, go. ever going to have. They was the Gambit of Immersions. Go New York, go. You know, I was at Nick and we had that run and that song, Go New York, go.

The city was on fire. It really was. And that's how you felt this year. You know, and I do think, you know, Dolan gets a lot of heat, but I don't know who's doing it, but whoever thought of bringing all the ex Nick's back to games, that was a genius move. Yeah. It was awesome. It was really awesome.

We need one more guy to show up and then it's all done. Oakley and good luck there. Yeah. I don't know if that's happening. It was, it was, that's like, you might have to broker that one doc. All right. So you have, so you're in Orlando, you're set. You're going to celebrate the commissioner's cup and Seth Curry's, uh,

three point percentage title. How about that? Yeah. Yeah. No, no facts. Seth Curry, 46%, 49%, whatever it was led the league. Yeah. We have trophies at the river's house right now.

You know, we, we have some hardware from regular season. So how do we get him to Denver? I actually think the perfect place for him would be Golden State. Oh, is that possible? I don't know if it's possible or not. I don't know if either one of them would want it actually, but I do think, forget that.

It has nothing to do with that. It's the way they play. He fits perfect. Yeah. You know, and I've said that for two or three years and whenever you bring it up and the family, they kind of, uh, but I do think it'd be sensational. It'd be great. I have to ask you actually, do you think more teams are going to emulate this?

Okay. See Indiana fast pace. Nobody has the ball for too long. People keep cutting and moving. Is this going to be like OKC, Indiana, fast paced, nobody has the ball for too long, people keep cutting and moving. Is this going to be like a copycat thing with that? Well, everything in our league is copycat a little bit, as you know. I do think not exactly the way they play, but I do think because of collective bargaining, I think teams are starting to see trying

to have the loaded three star team doesn't work anymore. Uh, so I do think you have two teams now that you can make a case. There's a superstar and then there's really, really, really good player. Uh, and then a lot of good players. I think that's the model you're going to see. I don't know if everyone's going to adopt the same style, but I do think that's what you're going to start seeing is that model of team. Yeah.

Not every team can do it, but it would have to be a team that has a bunch of guards and is unselfish, but I don't know. We'll see what happens. Yeah. All right. Doc Rivers, it was great to see you. I'll see you in LA. I know.

People walk on the street and say, hey, get back to this coaching. Get back to the podcast. I know. People walk on the street and say, hey, give up this coaching, get back to the podcast. I know, people love the pods. So we'll get back at some point for sure. Yeah, I'll see you in LA, but say hi to the Curry family and the Rivers family and all the family members. But it was great to see you. Thanks for doing this with us. Good seeing you.

All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Eduardo and Gahau, as always. Thanks to Eduardo Gahau as always. Thanks to Doc Rivers. Great to have him on. Really miss that guy. Um, and I know I'm going to be Thursday night after game six, live on YouTube. That's definitely happening. Might have another podcast midweek.

Not sure yet. New rewatchable is coming on Tuesday night where you're doing a marathon man for New York city months, so stay tuned for that. Don't forget you can watch all the clips and videos from this podcast on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel and we are a video podcast on Spotify as well. I will see you in a couple days. ["I Don't Have A Few Hits With Him"]

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