The Daily Zeitgeist - All-Star Game Reactions and Playoff Races with Sarah Todd

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

Jack and Producer Jabari were pleased to be joined by Jazz beat writer and podcaster Sarah Todd for this week's episode! The trio discussed all of the madness and fun from All-Star Weekend before getting into the playoff races from each conference.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We'll get into what to expect in the second half of the State of the Utah Jazz with Deseret News beat writer and podcaster Sarah Todd on today's episode. I'm Jack O'Brien. And I'm Jabari Davis. And this is... Miles and Jack on my boosties. And Jack. See you too as well, man. Oh, Sarah Todd, welcome

back to the show. What a joy it was to have you the first time and what a pleasure to have you returning. Isn't it? Yes, it is. Also the co-host of the Unsalvageables podcast, formerly covered the Sixers and Warriors. So you're in Utah. You were there for All-Star Weekend. I was there for 12 hours of All-Star Weekend because it was my four, now five-year-old's birthday on Sunday. So I just came for a brief 10 hours to do a little panel. Shout out to Steve and the NBA folks, but it was a blast. What a joy the NBA All-Star game is. But what's it like when the NBA All-Star game comes to you, takes over your town? Yeah, it was a lot, honestly. There's a lot about All-Star that I love,

and especially when it's not in the city of which I cover the team that's hosting. But it's just, I mean, it's nonstop coverage basically all year and then weeks of pretty intense coverage leading up to the All-Star break. And when they're setting up for the All-Star break, like in Utah, that means that the team has to be on the road that week before. And so like I finished out a game in Memphis on the tail end of a four-game road trip, got maybe an hour and a half of sleep, got on a flight back to Utah, landed, got some stuff together,

and then immediately went over to a TNT crew availability and did interviews. It just immediately started as soon as I got into town on Thursday. Yeah. And so Thursday through Sunday night, it was just nonstop. And so I honestly could not wait for it to just be Monday and to sleep in. All that being said, though, like once it gets to all-star Saturday night,

it does like you just remember like why this is such a fun event, you know, because the skills competition and seeing jordan clarkson who was just absolutely imbibing for most of the weekend and watching watching just like trying to trying to slog through the skills competition and walker kessler and colin sexton are. And so just funny to watch that whole thing. Three point contest. Damian Lillard wins it. He's a former Weber State star. And so he has roots in Utah.

And so that was very exciting for Utah. Had no clue prior to this weekend. Had no clue that Weber State was in Utah. Yeah, I'm honestly most don't. When I moved to Utah and took this job, it took like four months before I learned that Weber State was in Utah. So absolutely excused that you didn't know. And then the dunk contest, I mean, that just got me so excited because I'd had conversations with people within the league office

leading up to All-Star. And I was like, Mac Mccclung is your guys like that's who you're announcing is gonna be we're going with and then he absolutely blew everyone's pants off and so that was just very fun and then all-star night i know i i see a lot of people that are like what are we gonna do to make this game more competitive like nothing we're probably going to be doing nothing to make the game more competitive please more of this I want I think it's a good a good time for people to be trying out new new wrinkles such as

Damian Lillard pulling up from half court like behind half court pulling up casually we're now seeing like Zapruder film analysis of like how his shot works because he like has the ball in his palm. Yeah.

The entire, for the entirety of his shot, which is very strange and like, it doesn't make any sense, but it does also like his shot and his range doesn't make any sense. So I guess we should, we should accept that, but it's,

he needs to start doing that in games. And thank you to the All-Star Game for making it possible. If you want to watch a competitive game, there are, what, 82 times 30 many games that you could go and watch to watch something more competitive? Yeah. Go watch those. This is what the All-Star Game is about.

It's about watching Damian Lillard pull up from beyond half court. Right. Team Yannis carried a seven seven point lead at the half they're up 14 right now make it up 17 Damian Lillard he did not even cross out court his facial expression did not change like this is an expectation and we have to be honest about this. I saw a lot of people complaining about it on Twitter over the weekend

when the reality is, if you're a 40-something-year-old dude like myself, the game's not necessarily targeted at me. I'm not the target audience. While I may not be first in line for a Post Malone concert or whomever the halftime folks were, it was good. It was it was it was something that was very clear the NBA

is trying to make it a more inclusive experience and you know I to me most of the complaints just rang you know kind of sounded like the old guy yelling at the clubs absolutely and I mean you're not in a regular game like you're not going to get the chance to like, not only watch, you know, weird lobs and weird dunks that wouldn't happen in the other game, but then there's a few minute section where kind of everyone just sort of cleared out and it just became a Jason Tatum versus Jalen Brown contest. One-on-one. Yeah.

That's exciting. That's good. Just let them work it out. It's like when like somebody holds people back and it's just like no they need no they don't hold anyone back um yeah so like the other moment that really stands out to me is the lebron lob off the backboard where it like hits the corner and is flying in in the wrong direction he still catches it and dunks it. It was one of the cooler things. One of my favorite dunks in All-Star Game history. In the books.

People are just, I don't know, bored by it. I feel like the All-Star Game is underrated at this point because all the hoops heads are like, there's no defense. And I'm just like, I don't care. Like, it's a whole different thing. Yeah. My co-host for my podcast, Greg,

who Jabari knows and loves. Great guy. Greg made a great analogy because he was able to go to the All-Star game. He got tickets from a friend who got tickets and didn't have to pay for them. So excellent stuff because it's incredibly expensive and stupid that regular people can't go. But that's a different conversation. Anyways, Greg made a great analogy.

He was like, I don't go watch a dumb action movie because I think there's going to be great acting and it's going to win. It's going to win Academy Awards. I go because like I want to sit back and like watch stuff blow up and like have some fun. And that's the all-star game. You're not going because you think you're going to see one of the greatest performances ever. You go because it's fun. Like that's why you watch it. Right. It's fun.

Also the picks like the team picks on the court pre-game that's that's fun that was a blast it was hilarious to see yannis forget that john morant was a starter and try to take him yeah just like open mic literally getting like primary process of like yannis and lebron's brains working in like life and, you know, getting the dad jokes from LeBron, uh, getting to see who the real MVP is,

uh, of, of the NBA with, uh, who went first out of the starters. Was that, was it Jokic who went first? I forget.

Jokic went second to last. Oh, second to last. That's right. He was, who was it then first? Who, who,

who was it? Who was it? Who was it? Who was it? Who was it? Who was it? Who was it? Who was it? Who was it? It was MB. Joel. That's right who was it then first Embiid it was Embiid

Joel Embiid that's right that's right it was Joel Embiid and so that's who LeBron thinks is the best player but you probably know more about basketball than LeBron NBA writer anyways so that was cool to see

I don't it's not like i enjoyed that for selfish reasons or anything it's a blast though it's like a long party i wish that they would have been like a little bit more um like feisty about the the pics you know like as soon as janice let out that john morant was going to be like his starter pick. Yeah. So then when they got to the starters, yeah, it got starters and that was not who Giannis picked. And so it was like, Oh, LeBron,

you got to take Ja. That's who he wants. Right. He didn't, he should have done it. Yeah. But yeah, it is.

It's like being in a fantasy draft with people who like are playing fantasy for the first time. Yeah. No strategy. We're just fantasy for the first time. He just like had no strategy. We're just like picking the wrong people. It was, it was a mess, but it was, it was fun to see.

And like, I don't know, real heartbreak as Jokic gets picked second to last and then has to like select him, set like walk up to make sure LeBron doesn't pick Markkinen. Well, he, what happened was, I mean, if you were to believe this, and I actually do because Jokic was apologizing to Markkinen after the game.

Wow. Jokic was kind of like catty corner, like diagonal, sitting in front of Markkinen and didn't know Markkinen hadn't been picked. He thought he was the last one on stage. Oh, that makes sense. That's why he just walked to LeBron

and he was like, oh. Because he thought he was last. And then so we will never know probably if LeBron was actually going to pick Lowry. I mean, that would have been a statement. That would have been a statement that would have been a huge statement if he was like yeah we don't think you should be the mvp for a third year in a row and therefore um but anyways we'll never know yeah we'll never know

sarah i know i know it was in your backyard i know you know there were all types of asks but where did anything go on behind the scenes that the cameras might not have been privy to? Any interesting stories or funny stories? There was a lot of stuff that was very funny. Just seeing sort of the jazz people that I know that were working behind the scenes and how strapped for time and how crazy everything was.

So like Walker Kessler, the jazz is rookie. He was on the rising stars team. He was kind of giving shout outs after the rising stars game to everybody who had helped make the whole thing go and work. And Adam Klauke, who is the equipment manager for the jazz he was like the equipment manager for all-star and so that entails like moving people's stuff from one locker to the other when the all-star teams were picked because no one knew which locker room they were going to be in and so like just and then at one point, because Klauke was down on the floor most of the time and he's running around taking care of stuff.

Jason Terry, who's an assistant coach for the Jazz now, he walks into the arena, but he comes in from the concourse. So he's walking down the stairs of the stadium during the All-Star game and he gets down to security and security holds him up and is like, you can't be down here. Oh, no. he gets down to security and security holds him up and is like you can't be down here oh no and i'm watching this happen and i'm like this is very funny because this is jason terry and this security card clearly does not know the situation right and jason terry had to yell over to clowkey the equipment manager to get him permission to go down onto the floor. There you go. And so it's just a funny mess what All-Star ends up being. Yeah. All right.

The dunk contest did seize the zeitgeist. You know, everybody on Twitter was talking about Mac McClung. I went to Georgetown, so I was a Mac McClung knower prior to this. I'm also a Sixers fan. So we go way back with him, 72 hours. So it was, it was exciting.

Like this is somebody who is a like YouTube viral dunker already. So I had a feeling something was coming. I loved the immediate attempt of erasure for everyone who didn't know who mac mcclellan like immediately on twitter everyone was like oh and we all knew who he was um he was a famous high school dunker it's like okay yeah like if you're in the niche community of people who like were on the receiving end of that viral YouTube moment whenever that happened. Sure, you knew who he was, but most people did not. Right. You got to subscribe to Ball is Life.

But he came with, I mean, every dunk, no missed dunks, very well selected. The dunk contest is weird because I think Trey the third did a pretty good reenactment if not an exact reenactment of my favorite dunk of all time the one that like vince carter opens his dunk contest win with like the reverse 360 windmill and everyone was just like yeah okay that was like that was cool so you you have to like do something like you're still working with the same ingredients, but you have to like combine them in new ways that people feel like they haven't seen before.

Like, so you have to be like building on top of like not every dunk because not every dunk like etches itself into the cultural consciousness, but like you have to be like, all right, so everybody knows Vinceince's dunks everybody knows like these handful of dunks from these dunk contests and he he seemed to do that he seemed to do a pretty good job with that yeah i mean i think the problem for trey murphy was that you know he did a pretty good dunk to start out but then mac mcclung's first dunk

was the best dunk of the whole dunk contest like he jumped over somebody on top of somebody else's shoulders. Yeah. And like, not only did that, but then kissed the ball off the backboard before dunking it. And Mac McClung is small. And so he's a tiny, tiny man.

And so the fact that he was able to clear those people and it wasn't even like they like really ducked a lot to get him the height or that he pushed off of them a lot yeah cleared them he just jumped over two humans yeah on top of each yeah yeah that that was wild that first dunk would like won it for me after that first I was like, he could just do mid-dunks from here on out. He just won the dunk contest. But he didn't. Every one was really, really good. And noticeable, not

in slow motion. It was noticeably cool. Everything that he did. That first dunk was so cool because the other ones were incredible in real time. The first one was so good because I don't think anybody saw him touch the basketball off the backboard until they slow it down and then everyone lost their minds because he'd done more than he even thought he did it's like a magic trick he was signed this week by the 76ers to a two-way contract on tuesday brother congratulations

i'm worried about the guy holding the other guy at some point he gonna go down that's the 50. uh i gotta see if you hit the tobacco this is what you guys need to know. Look at the NBA ballers, the all-star, all-stars, how they are reacting to it. They know. I'm not saying it's a pretend. Jack, I think that's an excellent point. It's kind of related to both of you guys' point about the all-star game in that I honestly think it's more indicative of us being spoiled as consumers, as basketball fans.

We know the fact that we can look at what what Trey Murphy did and just go like, oh, OK. Yeah. When in reality, it's all incredible. Every single every single one of every single one of the ducks throughout the contest were pretty incredible. Yeah. I mean, I will say, except for the one who's the guy, was it Jericho Sims that put his arm into the net? He lifted himself up with the net. His offhand raised himself up with the net. But I'm absolutely guilty of what you're talking about, Jabari. As it was going, I'm live tweeting, I'm like, Trey Murphy, mid.

And I famously could get net when I was at my peak athletically so I probably could have done that dunk so that was probably that that probably got in the way of my enjoyment of it but you have the course for yourself up with what yeah of course

next question what strike that from the record so fun all-star weekend we're heading into it let's take a quick break we'll come back we'll talk about where we're at where we're headed some exciting new team members and uh just who's hot who's not um sounds like a burn book or something but we'll talk about it all we'll be hot or not.com after the break. All right,

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or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And, I mean, Dame. Let's just, real quick, I mean, because the real reason I want to talk about it is just continuing to be impressed by it. Like, I think, you know, they're in 12th in the Western Conference. Doesn't seem like it's happening for the team.

Maybe they start letting Dame pull up from backcourt. I'm just saying. It's a thought. So they're 5-5 over the last 10, but his numbers over the last 11 are 60 points, 30 points, 42,

42, 29, 40, 28, 33, 38, 40, 39. It's insane, man. That's not fair. It's just ho-hum. My favorite human to watch when he's locked in. Like, just, yeah. He knows what's about to happen.

One of the things that I said to Jabari when he was on my most recent podcast episode is that the Trailblazers, they tried to up their defense defense they got matisse bible at the trade deadline a couple other teams in the west like the lakers were making moves to try to improve and get some depth and there's all these teams in the west they're like trying to do stuff and then kevin durant goes to the suns and if you're any western conference team you got to be like just stop just stop yeah right why would you do that and so if i'm dame i'm absolutely

pulling up from half court at this point you can do it yeah i mean the nuggets currently have a four-game lead in the loss column one game off the pace for top record overall uh it feels like they're ending up in first right it feels feels like Denver is probably going to be the team that any other team faces in the Western Conference Finals. They're the team to beat at this point. But the West is so weird. And the Suns have Kevin Durant now. So who knows what can happen?

I don't know if Tyree and Luka are going to go crazy and the Mavericks are going to like shoot up the standings. I don't, I don't know what's going to happen in the West. It's very strange. Yeah. I didn't hear you mentioned about the Lakers shooting up, but that's okay.

I know. I did not. I know you were thinking it. It's not. I'm just looking at the doc here. So we have in the, in the section. So like top of the Western conference,

top of the Eastern conference. And like all the other teams that are mentioned have a justification. Milwaukee, 112 straight. Philly, second hottest team. Cleveland, fourth. Nuggets, four game lead in the lost column. Grizzlies, you know, they're struggling a little bit. But Clippers currently occupy the fourth spot.

Lakers, that's it. Jabari is just like, remind me to talk about the Lakers. That's what people need to hear. They are the team that I'm watching because I care about my good friends, Miles and Jabari. I care about the health, the happiness of the town that I live in.

And I'm always rooting for LeBron first after the Sixers, but I don't know that it's happening this year for them. And it feels like people are like, yeah, they're going to make up the ground. They'll be there. They'll be there.

And I just don't know. Sarah already burst my bubble on her show. Why not do it here? Your assessment of your assessment of the new Lakers players there. I'm well documented at this point of not being a believer in either Jared Vanderbilt or Malik Beasley, but, but especially Jared Vanderbilt,

because I think that, you know, when you, when you're selling that bill of goods to a fan base, what you're selling is like high energy. He's a rebounder. He's like Dennis Rodman light out there. He's all over the place.

He knows the angle and he just doesn't. That's not true. I think I'm pretty sure that if you go back and look like defensive rebounding percentage for every team that he's been on has been worse when he's on the floor. He's the kind of offensive rebounder where he kind of crashes in Troy Palamalu style from beyond the three point line for an offensive rebound that he doesn't have a chance at getting and then he ends up on the floor and then the rest of the team is running back and then he's not playing

defense and so then you're just playing five on four at that point like he's very good at doing that one and he dies on every screen he's very good at doing that one and i he dies on every screen he's really bad at making contact when he's setting a screen and so if they're hoping to get this is jerry vader about the one that everybody was like we got some defensive toughness all of us were excited about this is her saying not just a wet blanket you know i want to hurt your childhood memories too she didn't just want us sad, you know, I want to hurt your childhood memories, too. She didn't just want us sad in the future.

She wants us to be retroactively sad. I feel like any time someone is described as selling a bill of goods, it's not usually a good thing for their skills. That's because he's a fraudulent basketball player. Like a confidence man. The evidence that you need is that three teams who were like,

we need to think about getting better for the future have now traded Jared Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley together. Bryce, the Denver nuggets were like, Oh, we're building something good here. We need to get better. Let's get rid of Jared Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley.

The Timberwolves were like, we're going all in. We got to do something. We got to go with Ant and Rudy Gobert. We need good pieces. Yeah, who cares? Jared Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley, send them on their way. The Jazz are like, oh, we've got a really good foundation here. Our rebuild might be a lot shorter.

We need to start making room for better players. Well, let's get rid of Jared Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley. Jabari is currently doing the blinking white guy meme. I'll say Drew Scanlon, I believe, is the person. Drew Scanlon reaction is another name for it on Know Your Meme, but

colloquially known as blinking white guy meme. I have a legitimate answer to this. My honest answer is much like sometimes it's a matter I am always You know, it sounds like you got it locked and's a matter. I am always, you know, it sounds like you got it locked and loaded, man.

No, no, really. Because I'm, because I'm measuring my words because I'm measuring my words here, but I'm always in the, I can save, I can save them.

Yeah. So my, my opinion is while, you know, cinnamon and sugar may not be the best option in a chicken dish. They're going to go well in the cake that we're baking over. They're really good in oatmeal. The ingredients may not have worked well in the previous three spots, but here in Los Angeles, at least so far through, like, what, two games worth of action, it looked okay.

And I'm going to be up. I think that's statistically significant, so I think we can count it as a win. I think it's a great point that, you know, if you have something as bland and sad as oatmeal, then adding cinnamon and sugar probably seems really exciting, Jamari. You saw the first half of the Lakers season, right? Yep. That was bland oatmeal. I mean, Wiggins really gave us all hope that, like, you just bring somebody in who's been, like, a meh for other teams and fan bases.

And then he's an all-star. Yeah, suddenly he's an all-star and you're winning a title. So let's see it. Get ready for it, Sarah. Can't wait to eat my words. With cinnamon and sugar. Yeah.

So Milwaukee won 12 in a row heading into the break. Tied with the Celtics in the lost column. Tiebreaker head-to-head is March 30th in Milwaukee. Philly, second highest team heading into the break.

Oh, and two versus the Celtics this season. I'm still feeling second round ish for them, but I would love for that not to be true. Um, I feel like Cleveland could make noise. I really do. For some reason,

I'm just like, they, they have that like under the radar end up in the Eastern conference. i feel like it's not going to be milwaukee boston because just these past few years it's never like the two teams that everybody's expecting heading into the playoffs and i could really see cleveland matching up with either a boston or a milwaukee we'll see yeah it feels like cleveland is kind of the the Memphis Grizzlies of this season where the last couple of years that everyone was really excited. Like,

Ooh, it's a fun young team. They're all happy. And like, they're playing fun. It's, it's great to watch. Uh,

that feels like Cleveland. Cause now with the Grizzlies, it's like, everyone's kind of over, uh, Dylan Brooks and, and like the, the shine has worn off on John Morant kind of being like the young

upcoming guy I think I think everyone just expects him to be great at this point yeah and so now it's like oh well what's Jared Allen gonna do and like Donovan Mitchell with Darius Garland like that's fun and so there I think that there's a lot more fun expectations for Cleveland they could they could make noise you always and they're just shut down defenders. They're shut down. They have five of the top 11 defensive players in the league, which is wild. So they're going to be dangerous.

They don't have Kevin Love anymore. So how can they do it now? Oh, sorry. Never mind. All right. Brian, can we go back and just cut out the whole Cleveland thing? So Miami's coming out is what she's saying. Yeah. But we did talk and just cut out the whole Cleveland thing? So Miami's coming out is what she's saying. Yeah.

But we did talk at the beginning of the season. I forget Jabari, you probably remember which guest brought it up that we haven't had the same four teams. I haven't had a single team repeat in the conference finals of the past few years. I could see that happening again this year. I could see, you know see Nuggets wouldn't be surprising because it's probably not going to be Golden State and

it's probably not going to be the Mavs out west or it could be, but I think it would be surprising and for different reasons than it was last year. I'm absolutely pulling for the Sacramento Kings to just be really weird. Just be real weird. Light the beam in the playoffs. Get them to

a Western Conference Finals. Just make it fun for them, and then the Nuggets can shut them down from there. Alright, so I got you guys both covered. Nuggets, Kings out West. Philly, Cleveland in the East. I'm not. Done. I'm not claiming Philly. You're not confident?

My weird superstition is that I just i just go in pre-disappointed and then everything's gonna be okay uh has that worked yeah it's been great for getting them to the second round every year um but there there was a hat that i was wearing up until last year that uh seemed to coincide with, uh, them losing in the second round. So I've stopped wearing that hat. Uh,

now the Dodgers hat, uh, and they lost in disappointing fashion, the playoffs. So I think the, the jinx might be off them. We'll see. But this is the sort of in-depth basketball analysis you get on miles and

Jack up, mad boosties boosties my in my preseason prediction i'm just looking back here which it always makes me laugh because inevitably i am just incredibly wrong on so many things so i'm fine with laughing at myself about this but i've got sixers over bucks in seven oh wow So you didn't know about the hat yet at that point? No. Yeah, I'm sorry to say. Unfortunately, that is incorrect. But you broke that curse.

You're not wearing it anymore. Boston, like when the Sixers play the Celtics, it just doesn't appear to be very close. The two teams. Yeah, the two teams. It's just such a bad matchup so if you're assuming they have to go through the celtics at some point i just i don't love it for them now if milwaukee goes ahead and uh kindly knocks them off then i do think we have a better

chance but we shall see they're just so quick and i think they give a lot of teams trouble the celtics i think they're a good young ball club club that has a bright future i don't know if you saw a couple of their players in the all-star game that was wild just one-on-one also game five that's i mean it's cool i guess it's not cool all right i'm gonna say it it's not cool to score 55 in an all-star game run it up i am that person where someone gets to like even if it's against my team like the other like last week before the break when dame had 30 in the first half i'm i'm i'm of the you know it gets six go ahead if you're if you're gonna hurt an all-star game you know they have the option to go out there and stop him, kind of.

I mean, that's a record, right? Nobody's ever put up more than 55 in an all-star game? I mean, that's what the NBA was saying. It feels weird that that's actually the case, considering the scores that are at all-star games, but yeah, he is the single-game all-star

record holder. That's because back when he played, Wilt Chamberlain just played with his feet during the all-star game. it was because back when he played wilt chamberlain just played with his feet during the all-star game like that and they don't count those points exactly he did score 60 with his feet but they don't count those just the 45 you had with it yeah exactly i got the wilt poster behind me there it is uh nate mcmillan was let go by the Atlanta Hawks. Bad news there. I don't know. Also, we have to recognize LeBron. The photograph of LeBron's business decision in the All-Star game,

I think, is it... Who's dunking and LeBron just has his whole body oriented in a different direction? It is... I think LeBron is a boost. He's a listener. First of all, I mean,

I probably don't need to say, I think that he's clearly a boost. He's listener. And he recognized that we've been talking about business decisions, but we didn't have the photograph. That was the perfect illustration of the business decision. And he, he did it for us.

It's his body is oriented like he's saying hey look over there as somebody's dunking on him because he's just like gone completely out of the way yeah it's tatum one of his 55 points um let's take a quick break we'll come back it is time for the fastest segment in podcasting. We'll be right back. All right, here we go. It's Cam Jordan from New Orleans Saints. Here to tell you it's going down. On season two of my podcast, Off the Edge with me, Cam Jordan.

Can't stop it. You know what's going to happen. Can't stop it. That's right. Catch new episodes every Wednesday, all season long. That's what you look for in year 14, to do more. No, that is wrong. And I'll have my friends, who happen to be some of the NFL's biggest stars, join me on the pod.

We'll give you a player's perspective of the biggest storylines, trends, and did that really just happen moments from around the league. And you know we'll have fun doing it. Oh, and I'll have a special guest each month. Join me to mix it up a little bit. Who is it? None other than Syke. You have to tune in to find out. So tap in to Off the Edge with Cam Jordan's podcast, your ultimate playbook for all things football and not football. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Mike Wright from the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast. You heard that right. The Fantasy Footballers have officially entered the Dynasty space.

Every week we bring you the same in-depth analysis and entertainment you've come to expect from the fantasy footballers, only now from a Dynasty perspective. Maybe you've been living in the Dynasty fantasy football space for a while. Well, we're here to take your game to the next level. Maybe you love fantasy football and you've been feeling that itch to jump into the Dynasty format, but it feels a little bit intimidating. No matter where you're coming from, the Fantasy

Footballers Dynasty podcast has something for you, and you're going to have a great time listening, I promise. Join me and the rest of the crew every Wednesday for a new episode. Listen to the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts, or, stats, weird stuff. Sometimes I make up my own stats. Sometimes I do a lot of research and it ends up, I was wrong the whole time. So that's something you can get in on. Use Jimmy's three things podcast to stay up to date on major league baseball and to make you just a smidge smarter than your friend who's a baseball fan. You listen to me and then you go tell him, i know this and you don't so i make you smarter than your friends that's what jimmy's three things is all about listen to jimmy's

three things on iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast you can also find it on the talking baseball youtube channel and new episodes drop every Tuesday. And we're back. And Sarah Todd, it is time for the rapid fire round of questioning. Just the first answer that comes to mind on these, especially if it's wrong, you know, go wrong and strong. We love just speed and we just love to have the pace just you know i love being wrong so this is great jabari you want to go first you want me to go first we'll be asking you questions you'll be responding you go first okay unless sarah thinks okay all right no no i don't care so it's got to be a little bit quicker. That was weird. Like you guys talked about something before.

Okay, that was a test. That was a test. Okay, I'm ready. All right. So the Jazz, the Utah Jazz, the Jazz of Utah, have eight first round picks over the next four drafts. So we're going to give you the option between the guarantee of getting Wemby as the top pick this year and then forfeiting all of those picks or

you don't get Wemby and you get to essentially build out an entire roster with all eight. It seems like a pretty straightforward. I'm taking Wemby. Yeah, I just like that's the right answer. But I am wondering like if there is a like mathematical or like statistical thing where people are like, I actually could use all those eight pick but yeah no that's the right that's the right answer right i mean they've got 15 picks over the next seven years so you give away eight you still got seven to work with in deals taking right okay the answer is wimpy for sure yeah the answer is wimpy this was a dumb question that i wrote into the doc so you're welcome uh keeping it going sarah and again you got to keep us in line you know as soon as you answer question, you should be asking for the next one.

I'm not trying to chastise you, but it is your fault. All right. Keeping it going. Jalen Rose recently said that men should be spending a minimum of $100 on a haircut. And look, that's a little bit too steep for my taste. But what is the one single item or routine maintenance that you're willing to pay top dollar for? I spend like $300 on my hair every time it gets done. And so I completely understand.

At the same token, dudes can get their hair cut for $35. I don't care. It's so easy. Go to Sports Clips. No one cares. Next question. Jabari can't get his hair cut for $35. I get mine for $3.99 for a big razor.

Wow. We are good to go. Yeah. And is Jalen Rose's hair too good to be true? Don't care. All right. All right. Jabari, back to you.

You heard that. She said yes. I would also like to say paying for my hair is making me broke constantly. So. Yeah. $300 a shot is a lot I wait a very long time to do it all right

uh you can go back in time and watch any single NBA game from throughout history which game are you choosing oh I've got this one uh when Larry Bird takes the floor the day after Magic Johnson announces that uh he's HIV positive.

That's the one that I'm watching because that's the one that makes me most emotional every single time I think about it. Wow. I actually don't know the story of that game. So the story is that... I mean, I know the story of Magic. But Larry finds out and he talked to Magic and he just you know they'd become friends over the years even though they're like frenemies basically you know and he he said that every morning he used to wake up and like look at the scores and see what the night before like what

did magic have what do i what do i have to go against like he was always comparing himself and trying like that was the competition even if they weren't playing a game against each other and so the next day he goes out onto the court and like every time that he is in a timeout or there's like moment of stoppage like larry basically starts crying because he's realizing that like the person that who has motivated him the most is just no longer a part of basketball and he like doesn't see the point of being out there. Wow. That's beautiful. Look, I can tell you where I was November 7th, 1991. That's how I can too. Yeah,

I can too. Um, wow. That's a great answer. All right. And, and you know what? I'm not even going to complain that it was a little bit slow.

All right. What? I have to play the miles role in honor of. All right. What is your boldest post- or even play-in prediction for this year uh my boldest play-in prediction is that the warriors are in the play-in and they get knocked out oh wow spice are they like putting anything together right now i don't know if i believe that this is supposed to be fast why are we talking right now? Excuse us? She's right.

I'm sorry, ma'am. What is... If you could bet on any fan base to make an arena challenge... If you, Sarah, could bet on any fan base to make the in-arena challenge shots, layup, free throw, three-pointer, half-court, which fan

base would you bet on? Oh my god detroit oh wow i love it i bet you i bet you there's more ballers now detroit or atlanta there's more ballers down there than than there are in some of these other like small markets now i'm gonna come in and add the jazz to the mix i got to travel to the all-star game briefly to do a panel had to get back for uh my son's birthday, as I mentioned. So I missed the main event, but I did get to witness

the shooting booths at the crossover events. And there was a lot of wetness on display. And I don't know if that is the Jazz fans or if that was people traveling there for the All-Star game. It would have been easy for me to say jazz fans because there,

there's this phenomenon, uh, church ball. And a lot of the, um, Mormon churches out here, like almost all of them have basketball courts. And so like kids really do grow up.

Like there are pickup games. If you ever, ever want to find a pickup game, there is one every single day of the week in Utah to find. Yes. And so they, they, they do be putting up shots.

Are those courts carpeted? And the reason why I ask is because I played, I played against, I played in some Mormon establishments and non-Mormon establishments that have carpeted basketball courts. I'm sure that some of them are, I mean, the two that I have seen have not been carpeted, but I'm absolutely certain that some of them are. I mean, the two that I have seen have not been carpeted,

but I'm absolutely certain that some of them are. Yeah. Also, do people in Utah not have cold receptors on their skin? Because I did witness a lot of people just walking around in shorts, and it was in the 20s. Was that... Oh, no, you were just watching dumb people. It's fine.

Oh, okay. Fair enough. All right. was in the 20s was that were those you were you were just watching dumb people it's fine okay fair enough all right coming up to it and shout out to our listener at blunt doctor he actually responded to this rapid fire question from last week and he says he would go with the knicks because he thinks they're all knowledgeable but the problem is they all wear suits and he can't trust someone in suits right i think that's the like that's a point you are making about lakers is that like when you go like if you're picking from court side you're gonna get a lot of people who are like venture capitalists or you know that's like warriors new fans like you can't go and make a half court shot if you're trying to take a picture with an ipad from the stands yeah so i

mean you definitely have to be pulling from the upper part of the arena but that that's still inbounds so i i think that applies to all all teams all fan bases you got you got to just not be pulling from although madison square garden's got good seats everywhere so maybe maybe it is all suit never know all right sarah the last one you're down to the last one this is the biggest question and the biggest topic that we've we will have discussed throughout this hour oh my god jack or jabari oh no is this real this is real yeah yeah i'm sorry uh i've just known jabari longer what is happening we have reclaimed Black History Month with this result. We are back.

Yeah. Time equals blood and blood is thicker than water. Yeah, that's great. Makes sense. Take that back. Sorry, I'm just checking your math on that one. Me and Jabari have mad boosties. Hey!

Sarah and Jabari got mad boosties. Did! Sarah and Jabari got mad boosties. Did you say take that Mac? I said take that Mac. Like Joe Biden would say? If he just owned someone? Just call me Black Mac McClung right now because I just dunked on you. Oh, take that

Black McClung. Alright, now I got you. I thought it was like a Joe Biden style. Take that Mac. No, I get black. All right. Now I got you. I thought, I thought it was like a Joe Biden style. Well, sir, take that back. No, I get it.

Yeah. So reclaiming glad, glad to take the L if, if that's what's required to those. Yeah. All right, Sarah, as always,

what a pleasure having you on the show. Where can people find you? Follow you all that good stuff. They can find me on the show. Where can people find you, follow you, all that good stuff? They can find me on all the socials at NBA Sarah, and you can read all of my stuff at Deseret.com. There it is. And do we think that was a, they didn't like misspell desert and just kind of stick with it?

You want some fun facts? Yeah, no, that's what we actually meant. We meant Deseret. Yeah, if you want some fun facts? Yeah, no, that's what we actually meant. We meant Deseret. Yeah, if you want some fun facts. Deseret, I guess, and I'm probably getting this totally wrong, so apologies to the LDS community, but I think that that word has some roots in LDS scripture. And before the state was named Utah, it was actually named Deseret. Wow.

Sounds like a smaller desert, like a cigar cigarette type thing. But I like it. It's the sorbet of deserts. There it is. And if she got that back wrong, she's canceled, guys. That's right. I've been canceled so many times, it doesn't matter. All right.

Tweets of the week from within the NBA. It doesn't matter. All right. Tweets of the week from within the NBA. Somebody pointed out, you know, Michael Jordan funding the Make-A-Wish Foundation at a record breaking. How much was it? It was the most anyone's ever donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. And the tweet was a picture of him.

And it said, fund them kids. Fund them kids. But no clue what that's in reference to. No idea. And then for our Boosies listeners of the week, we asked them specifically for their favorite All-Star Dunk Contest. And the Twitter poll results were 54% for Levine versus Aaron Gordon. 32% for Vinsanity, and 13% voted for Neek versus MJ in 1988.

Yeah. All right. I'll allow it. I mean, if we're going to say that the dunk contest is progressive and the Vinsanity thing was a moment, but maybe it's one of those moments you kind of had to be there for. But that was the one that blew my mind when it happened but yeah if you if you independently take the levine gordon dunks they're probably a little bit more impressive

built on top i do independently take them you do independently take them as individual dunks that's probably fair then and arabusi's listener of the week was at Big Swinging Dill who quote tweeted and responded with 1986 Spudweb vs MJ which was also a whole vibe when Spud exploded on the scene. A little bit like one Mac McClung but Spud

was still pretty wild. Shout out to Big Swinging Dill for just a heck of a name. That's right. So make sure you give us a follow on twitter at mad boosties uh that is gonna do it for us this week uh we are back next week with more nba action bye do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? Like what's the history behind bacon-wrapped hot dogs?

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