The Daily Zeitgeist - MJGMB #104: The State of the 76ers with Blake Wexler

Episode Date: March 14, 2024

The guys were joined by comedian and Sixers diehard Blake Wexler to discuss the state of the team, their chances once Embiid returns and plenty of action from around the league!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry.

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Guess what? We're back again. Episode 104. Why do our listeners hate us so much, Miles? Why are they always saying we can't do it? How we'd never make it to episode 104. It's not even that. The listeners actually do love us.

I don't know who I'm talking to to maybe one of my haters from high school and i use this show to stunt on them but that's beside the point where i walked out of anger management that's more from a different podcast uh we're in the home stretch of the season and teams are trying to get healthy for the postseason push and we're joined by one of our very favorite comedians blake wexler on today's episode i am miles ray and i'm jack o'brien and this is Dacic, D3. Got it. And Luka Dacic hits 10K. There you go. Embiid, Draghi, spinning, fading, hitting.

LeBron's got it with five. He's going to try another three. Mr. LeBron James. Giannis with the take. Uh-oh, look out. No, showtime. What you got, Giannis? Oh, man.

We got Blake Wetzler in the building. He's got a critically acclaimed hour special on YouTube, Daddy Longlegs. You're in Gowanus, Brooklyn, March 15th. We'll then pull up to Strong Row Brewery. You're in Cincinnati, Ohio, April 18th to 21th. Check him out. Look at his website. He's going to be there.

He'll be in Tennessee, Pittsburgh. This guy's all over the place. But right now, he's on this basketball podcast. One of the most popular basketball podcasts on earth. Blake Wexler, thank you so much for joining us, man. Boing, boing, boing, boing, boing. It's very nice to be here.

That's his mad boosties. It is mad boosties. He's just jumping up. Remember when Nike Shox first came out and the commercial was boing, boing, oing yeah or was that the only one who's completely poisoned by that kind of marketing vince carter's signature shoe was it not yeah yeah for a little while yeah oh yeah which can you find a better front man for that technology then the guy who probably could have jumped out of an nba arena i was just watching

carolina highlights i think someone someone like those went viral recently. And like, I've never seen anyone do what he did in college. Like is just absolute NBA highlight. Real like dunk contest dunks in NCAA, like his freshman year, just full grown. Some of the best dunks I've ever seen.

Yeah. Oh man. And he played until he was like 40 for no reason he didn't need to do that he really did it and then well then also yeah because he's everyone's talking about how his career went into four different decades the 90s the odds the 10s and the 20s yeah crazy four different dimensions yeah it just became like a three and giga but i feel like we're i mean look we're here to talk about the current state of the nba and yeah the current state of a team that the two of you both

um have actually kept the same energy for throughout the entire season when times were going when times first started out i said oh how you guys feeling this year yeah we'll see we'll see we'll do it hot nice try. We'll see. Doing hot? Nice try. First of all, I feel ambushed, Miles. I didn't know we were going to be talking about the 76ers. So do I. Nah, you did, because we had a whole debate before we started recording about it. We're like, what?

We gotta do this. I feel ambushed anyways. Nonetheless, anytime this subject matter comes up. I like the idea of a guy who just doesn't listen and then gets offended when people bring up things because he just wasn't paying attention like you you can't treat me like this not on my own god damn how dare you what did i say what did i say you literally signed off on the outline for this episode yeah nah i don't remember that something i don't see my signature anywhere on this doc um it is a real i think this is a win for us blake because when

you came on and the sixers had just won like 11 in a row or were like 11 and one over the last uh i don't i'm not a math genius i don't know how many games that was. But we had the energy of a 500 team that was scraping by and might make the playoffs because we knew what was coming. We recognized

this team has a gravitational equilibrium that is second round at best, second round or bust, and second round at best second round or bust and second round at best and that's where everything is headed eventually so you know the fact that we're now seventh in the eastern conference um just scored 79 points yeah we actually spent the we spent part of our run up to this episode looking up if that was the fewest points any team had scored and it was 2016 scored 79 um yeah also earlier in the season but yeah it's not going great at the moment uh because i think so you know I've got basketball in my blood I've got some crazy ideas

and I've been in the lab and I think the thing that's gone wrong is that it's that MB got hurt okay okay I mean it's a it's a theory like I noticed that so they're 10 and 21 without him this season

much better with him this season and if better with him this season. And if you'll remember, he was the MVP last season, which stands for most valuable player. So stands to reason he is good for the team. So that's just kind of a crackpot theory. But that's where I'm coming from. Does that make him a favorite for MVP this season?

Because how vital he is to the season? Mathematically ineligible. Oh, right. Oh, yeah. Was he having a good year before he got hurt? Was it anywhere close to that? Blake, I don't remember. I can't remember either.

I can't recall. The collective amnesia setting. How was he playing? I think he had just scored 70 is that right that seems like that seems like it's impossible because the the whole team just scored 79 so it seems impossible that he on his own would have scored 70 um just a handful of games before he got injured but um those are devvin Booker numbers, you know,

and there's no way that Joel Embiid, he was averaging 35, 11 and six. It turns out before he got injured a lifetime ago, you know, unbelievable. I'm back in, I'm back in on the Sixers.

I think, I think we're good now. And what it took was the Kyle Lowry signing for me to get back in because the amount of Villanova players in the NBA currently is on the Knicks alone

where it's Brunson, Hart, DiVincenzo, and they were playing Lowry the other night. Sadiq Bey just got injured for the whole year, unfortunately. Miles Bridges. Wait. Is it Miles Bridges? No. Which one Miles Bridges no which one is that Mikhail Bridges yeah but yeah no Villanova I am I am shocked by as a team that generally has not been a they would put out role players into the NBA which I guess is kind of what we have now Brunson who knew that he would become what he is but i guess his father did um but yeah it's very it's very exciting for me so put a little villanova blood into into the

sixers and i'm back in i love the sound of blake's voice saying villanova villanova uncle eugies get some hoagies and and hang out with my boy from Villanova. Yeah. It is truly, and I was saying before, the season the Sixers are having is a true testament to

the fact that Joel Embiid was the MVP last season. And that's all we went into this season looking for, right? Is just to have validation on that argument from last season. And that's all we went into this. Season looking for right. Is just to. Have validation on that argument from last season. And I think we have it now. The fact that they were.

You know up there with. The best teams in the league with him. And since he's been injured. They are 10 and 21. We were trying to figure out. If there's another player in the league that would have like an injury would have torpedoed their team that drastically.

Brunson was thrown out. Luka, I think, is the other answer. Yeah, probably. But his team is not that great to begin with. That's true. They're not working with a big margin. Right. And then i think brunson

is actually the other like i really think without brunson the knicks kind of become pretty uh it gets real tough for them to score well we'll see what happens with the nets and ben simmons because there's not enough data out there yet no there's not enough data there's not enough data out there yet. No, there's not enough data. There's not enough data or any... We don't know. I'm saying we don't know. We neither know how to pronounce that word data or data and we don't know the answer on

who was the better player to go with in that situation. What should it have been MB? Should it have been Ben Simmons? Sixers fans are still trying to figure it out. And again, yeah, the answer also Ben Simmons' nickname. So yeah, it is... It's a very fascinating situation

that we'll have more on later in this episode. I mean, is... I feel like so many fans are angry at Tobias Harris, too. Is that fair? Is that fair? Is that fair?

Is that fair to him? Or is it just that he's become the lightning rod for the collective frustration? Because I see so many takes that are just like, is this guy point-shaven or something? You're like, relax, relax. I know he scored two points in that last game. But it feels like, and this happens, I'm guilty of this too as a Lakers fan fan sometimes it's easier to just rest everything on one person than to kind of take a step back and

see everything who would have known that when we signed tobias harris to a 180 million dollar contract that he would just continue playing like tobias harris has always played like this is not this is not random this is and he's having a rough stretch so he he is having he has been playing worse than he ever has but right it's this is the kind of player that he is and he's a great guy that's the worst part about it the guy's an absolute sweetheart so whenever you get angry at him then you get upset with yourself you know and he owns a cookie he owns a chain of cookie stores warm cookies like that's so sweet yeah yeah yeah and um he's being blamed but it's not to jack's point it's because mb's not there you shouldn't be rest and i think this

is his contract expires after this season right yeah i believe finally god willing that happens and it's again not it's not his fault he was offered the money you take the money but yeah this is he just shouldn't have been given that contract yeah all right the sixers have seven games in april including games against the thunder heat spurs and magic uh, I don't know. They currently sit at 7th. They've got a ways to go. They would need to go 10 games backward to fall out of the playing game, and

Bede should be coming back in April. If they get the C, that's the question. We're in this position right now because he came back too quickly from an injury like and then got injured worse um nobody wants to see that um he also has a tendency to like get hurt in the playoffs um i just i don't know a lot of freak injuries like around the end of the season but i i don't love the idea of him coming back however if he is going to come back if the sixers get a seven seed and are going against the bucks there just feels like there's something i don't know yeah that's that will sixers would be yeah i feel like it would be good for the NBA. That would be a first-round

series, if NBA's playing, that people would tune in for. It would be Doc Rivers essentially playing himself in the first round. So what happens? Can it just not... Do they just not play the games? We're going to skip it.

By the way, I would like you, for the listeners who I would like to speak to directly right now. I would like you to, whenever you hear a Sixers fan speak about the Sixers, try to count if there's ever an instance where they don't trail off at the end of their sentence when they're talking about the Sixers. It does generally end in a trail off and a lack of confidence. Sorry, I found myself going towards being like, I think we might have more of a chance than people would think in that series against the bucks.

And then I re like my brain short circuited because that was like confidence. And I don't feel good about that. Also the bad boosties curse is real. We talked about the Celtics last week and how they're like a historically great team. And they immediately immediately had a collapse against the

Cavs as we were recording, essentially, the game was starting. I don't want to say anything good about any team other than the Celtics at this point. The Celtics are very great and

it's really their title to lose i really think that really seeding it now yeah i do well yeah looking at it it does it does feel like that despite that blip and the resurgence of the new d wade of the devil the cavalier like are they even gonna like the the question i have for the nba do you even have the playoffs at this point you know thank you like what like why not just give it to the Celtics? Let's just, yeah. Just put number 18 up. Yeah, go ahead. People could get hurt.

Playing against a team as good as the Celtics, people could get hurt. So, do you really want to risk that? Just let them have the Eastern Conference. Maybe we let the Western Conference kind of play it out and see who the best is over there.

And then they get to play the Celtics. But maybe only for like a game or two. Because otherwise again, people could get hurt and it's a foregone conclusion. I know you both exercise a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to the 76ers. But does Tyrese Maxey

at least give you something to feel good about can you at least can we can can we feel good there about about him just now looking like the favorite pure joy if you're into like somebody who is just yeah like he is pure joy like you can he experiences pure joy his game is pure joy. Just pure energy. We're so lucky to have Maxie on our team. I was just trying to make sure you guys saw everything.

I want you to look at the totality of it. I'm only fatalistic when I'm talking about the fate of the season. When it comes to the individual players, I'm very happy, proud of my guys, and Max in particular. Seeing him come up from just a young fella to be one of the most exciting players in the league, unbelievable. I see him as something different.

I don't see him as associated with the Sixers at all. I picture him having his own locker room he practices in a different facility you know he wears a different he wears like a rising stars jersey yeah cordy's not even wearing it's a sixers colored yeah exactly exactly right right just just to show he's he's being employed but he's not a part of the team for his sake like if i saw him in public I would just apologize to him. I'd say, I'm so sorry. Thank you, and I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I love Maxie. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. But yeah, it'll be interesting. I would love to see their season go in the direction of seven seed going against the Bucs, just because I think they would.

Well, first of all, because I don't want to see them go against the bucks just because i think they would well first of all because i don't want to see them go against the knicks or the calves or i think they or of course the celtics i think the no no no no no the bucks would at least be interesting they would have like a puncher's chance if mb is playing and playing well right but yeah they might get swept too but at least it would be interesting. I don't think anyone wants to see this Knicks team in the first round though. They're looking, they're doing something. Okay, so that's 79 points that the 76ers scored.

That was the first time the Knicks have held their opponent under 80 points in three consecutive games since the 2000-2001 season. They're doing something, yeah. That's impossible. Like that, the fact that they did that,'t realize that that's unbelievable what's funny because wasn't the even the second game was the you guys won but it was 79 73 which is even interesting too that's a loss and they held it to seven because then would i wonder if that's a little easier to do the lowest if you're just

like i i could hold a team under 80 by just like not scoring at all. So they don't feel like they need to score. Come on, man. What are you going to score another one? Yeah. Sorry. We're just really trying to do this under 80 thing for posterity. Yeah.

Yeah. But yeah, Josh Hart's looking good. And OGN and OB is looking really good. He's like plus 282 or something. It's like the highest for any player for like first 10 games on a new team. Yeah. So, you know, there's, you know,

don't get too down on yourselves, guys. Don't get too down on yourselves. It's one of the great trades in recent history, it feels like, but just perfectly where, like everyone's like, oh, that would be a really nice trade. Like, I don't think the teams get along well enough for it to happen. And then it happened and it was like, all the things that be a really nice trade. I don't think the teams get along well enough for it to happen. Then it happened, and it was

like all the things that people thought would be good about it came true. Should we take a break? Let's take a break. Take a look around the league? I'll take a gander around. Hey, Blake, why don't you throw us to a break? You're listening to Mad Boosties

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on MTV's official challenge podcast. So join us every week as we break down episodes of the Challenge 40 Battle of the Eras. Listen to MTV's official challenge podcast on the iHe radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts and we are back everybody we're gonna go around the league brought to you by hershey's chocolate hershey's chocolate don't warm it up too much it becomes a whole different thing. Miles, what do we got? A mess.

Let's check in with my crosstown rivals, my beloved Los Angeles Clippers. Merely for the fact they blew a 22-point lead versus the Wolves. Quietly due to thoracic spasms. Yeah. That's the one thing. I mean, the jokes

and rivalry aside, I don't want Kawhi to be perpetually injured. spasms. Yeah. That's the one thing, I mean, the jokes and rivalry aside, like, I don't want Kawhi to be perpetually injured. It is more exciting to see him healthy and to be able to not have to deal with back... Not good things for him and his thorax. Yeah.

Exactly. Exactly. His thoracic spine. His cretaceous spasms that he's had. He had some drastic difficulties, you know when you have to when you have to leave like the arena out of discomfort where are you going like is that just straight to like some kind of medical facility right thoracic spasms just the hiccups probably not but those are spasms that are happening in your what What is the thorax? Thoracic spine. That I could have looked up before.

Anyway, the clippers... Yeah, that's what I think of as a bug. But your thoracic spine is the middle part of your spine. The middle part of your back. Yeah, you don't want that. It's like the most consequential part of your spizine. So, yeah, that's a bit of a bit of a bummer but the clippers are

hitting a little bumpy water um this is the thing nobody's said before uh bumpy water water as captain air um yeah five and five over the last 10 now three and three on the season without kawai uh just seven and eight over the last 15 after that two-month hot streak uh and yeah this game happened they they had this collapse against the wolves playing without cat i mean he's hats out for he's gonna be re-evaluated in four weeks yeah the other thing i mean is anthony edwards is just uh i forget that he's 22 years old that's crazy he's 22 and he's doing some wild stuff also that block after yeah well even before that like after our like when that clippers game at the in the post game they're like wow you know amazing third

quarter like what what was going on he said yeah just a couple of mismatches yeah what'd you see out there like oh i just saw a lot of mismatches this dude is ruthless yeah every single player on the floor and then of course i i think top five moments of the year so far was him missing a free throw that would have put them up three, I think, against the Pacers. Pacers raced the ball up the court, and then he has one of the most absurd game-winning blocks of all time, like, hits his head on the backboard as he's just blocking a shot, falls dramatically, but completely saves the game.

One of the coolest things yeah it was like one of those moments where like some like they're like oh you you can actually jump so high that you could hurt yourself from how high you jumped you know now i can also do that but that's because i lack the coordination to land even if i jump like three inches into the air you forget the landing part yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i told you ah you know he likes to point his toes straight down perpendicular to the ground for the landing you're like that's gonna mess up something yeah but here's the play the free throw has just been missed and he's about to save the day edwards can't hit the second. Pacers have a chance. Up ahead, Neeseman.

It truly flies through the air. The ball is advanced up ahead, and he is 12 feet behind the ball. He's nowhere near where he needs to be to contest this, and then just closes on it in a split second and just flies through the air because he could have hit his head on the rim on the backboard on his man who's also

playing defense and then to your point now he has to fall eight feet into the floor because the guy who puts up the free throw or the guy who puts up the layup falls directly under him knocks his legs out from under him. He falls and just is able to do it. Completely horizontal.

Because he's a football player. And on his shoulder, too. Yeah. A lot of the time, he's like, oh boy, that could be a terrible, terrible shoulder injury. Yeah. shoulder injury yeah if you saw someone jump that high in any other situation you would be like what was that that person has superpowers or like if you saw that in a football game if someone went up for a catch in an nfl football game and jumped that high you would be like no that can't that's impossible like that's that yeah so is that dk metcalf the video where the guy like jumps into the air and everyone's

like that has to be like special effects there's no way that's true like that that's how high he's jumping it's one of the wildest things i've ever seen or even like picture at you're at a grocery store and something's up really high like there no one they didn't restock the shelf so you have to go all the way up top

to get the extra stuff someone just leaves it's not even a grocery store it would be like costco yeah you know what i mean correct yeah yeah exactly it would have to be a warehouse grocery store and it's like okay uh let me see if i can get uh greg to bring the forklift around and he's like no i got this no need except no greg can stay where he is alone that landing alone would be like i don't want my child playing basketball if that's if they're gonna jump that high and maybe hurt themselves i mean the landing also suggests like he could do this whenever he wants but he recognizes like the landing would be yeah right like it's just yeah there are leaps that like there are things that these guys can do that we're not aware of because they would be like ill

advised yeah exactly well I messed up the free throw this is my problem now so I'll do it that's right yeah it also has that same energy of like yeah if you've ever done something embarrassing on the basketball quarter missed a free throw and then you

come down and in my case embarrassingly foul the person who's like about to score because you feel bad about it so you're like going way too hard um in his case he just jumps too high for physics yeah well it's like one of those things when like certain players like lay out for a ball for a catch like in football or maybe like an outfielder or something and sometimes like i don't care what happens to me because i just have to focus on getting the ball yeah and yeah that was a thing that singular focus put him into a place where he's like well i could have concussed myself on the backboard and then i could have dislocated

my shoulder on the landing but i'm built like so the literal that happens that makes it make keeps him from smashing his head on the backboard is that his shoulders are also above the backboard so he actually hits his shoulders on the backboard and like yeah it's not that his head is like i've heard people say oh his head was at the rim there and it's like his head's like you know at the shot clock yeah it's like a foot under the rim usually his head is going to hit the rim like he has to duck like he's really it might be the highest i've seen like it's up there with the jaw block that we like spent a whole episode talking about in the early run of this show um where he just jumped up and caught it with both hands and then just like kept ascending like it was yeah crazy uh

there's been yeah there's there were a few moments of what we call high elevation uh i don't know i don't know if we call this bad business this i mean yeah this was a terrible business decision i think in this next clip uh anthony simons of the trailblazers gets not just posterized he was put on a missing poster uh by jalen green with this dunk which is also like another just wild feat of athleticism uh and elevation but this dunk also feels like real life mbaj i don't know there's just like it's the the kinetic energy of it is what i think just listen to the commentators because i think their screams sum it up perfectly they really can't we've seen that a lot we have a lot of tennis shoes here restaurant type slippery shoes you can wear them in any scenario that's one thing i have learned

in the last 24 hours got picked up by kaylan anthony yeah so our silence is just that we've just witnessed a crime against humanity. Um, he, so it, it's like kind of the perfect storm because Anthony Simons has just turned the ball over. It's his fault that there's a turnover.

So he's not going to let Jalen green just like get away with this. Cause he, he already feels embarrassed. Yeah. And, um, it's violent. It's's violent it's a double boo-boo it's a double boo-boo yeah i think it's what the pros call a double boo-boo a db for sure it's just is it because is it because of how far he the ball is cocked back to yeah like i'm trying to remember like trying to figure out what it is

i think it's yeah it's just the it's it's truly a slam as they call uh as onyx once said let the boys be boys both of these players are making me miss jaw by the way yeah this is what jaw would do like once a month it was also a cool timing for it where the the previous one the ant one was at the end of the game you know there was like 0.8 seconds like everybody was already really amped and yes i think there were nine minutes left in the second quarter the third quarter announcers are just like gibbering you know there's like yeah like everyone's calm and then yeah all hell talking about comfortable shoes if you listen to the top they're like that's why you gotta wear comfortable shoes yeah try these oh yeah those hokas they look pretty neat yeah oh you're wearing hokas that's cool um i know people make fun of birkenstocks but i find it to be a perfectly

reasonable oh my god comfortable and that's the thing so i was dropping my kid. He only eats this kind of certain shell pasta. Oh, no! No! Murder on the basketball floor. Oh, my goodness. Sorry, I had that one locked and loaded. I was going to try and sing it like murder on the dance floor, but... I lost control of my bowels. And then Wemby, you know, I think every time somebody puts one on victor when benyama uh we're always like oh boy because we're used to seeing him absolutely just reject people like i was rejected to many universities my senior year of high school um but this one trace jackson davis

just doing doing things that i can't even do in my dreams. When I play sports, I think, I don't know if I'm the only person, are you ever triumphant in your sports dreams? No. The basketball is so slippery in my dreams.

I can't dribble the ball when I'm playing basketball in my dreams. I got Jalen Brown syndrome in my dreams. Yeah, you're forced to go left all the time and both hands are left-handed. Jalen Brown left hand, both handed. Yeah, both my hands are Jalen Brown's left hands. But this one, Trace Jackson, Davis.

One more bucket or one more stop. Trace Jackson, Davis. Now, not as dynamic, but it's merely for the fact that you jumped, like you dunked on the 12 foot scarecrow from the home depot or whatever. I wonder, I wonder what NBA player enters their opponent's dreams. The most like who,

who creates the most nightmares. I feel like it's gotta be like, when B has to have entered the conversation for that yeah he just is always there like when you don't expect him to be there um i'm not going to dignify this dunking on him with a comment whatever it's fine um it doesn't yeah it's more it's more because it's it's against the norm of what we've seen it's usually like because now well i think that's what it is is most people now are like i'm not i'm not i'm not trying to dunk on victor bro yeah no like i'll maybe maybe we'll

see but it was more it was the power of a dream i think is what we saw there i think the most noteworthy thing is that he's still contesting it after the guy is like blown by him by four feet right you know yeah I think it's also the way Wemby went down that has a lot of people like, oh, whoa. Yeah. He crumbles. It takes him a while for his whole body to fall to the ground. And like the momentum, he does like

a high kick in the air. Yeah. You know, I get it. There's some physicality there. He's very flexible. It's the reason that we're that he's able to stay playing. I was going to say, that's the yoga right there. Those are not tight hamstrings. Those are not tight hamstrings. I will say that.

Yeah, I would have fallen. I would have done a high, high kick and been out for three seasons because of what that did to my hamstring. 100%. I'd be, I'd be explaining to my grandchildren why I,

I, I'm still walking with a limp. All right. Re-evaluated in 2046. Yeah. Is what this injury is going to be. That's what that injury is going to be. It's expected to be re-evaluated in 2046.

So don't ask. Some other things that we've noticed, we were noticing the Luka stat that blew my mind. So he's in the midst of, he's the first player with six straight 30-point triple-doubles, only missed the seventh, another triple-double, because the Mavs blew out the Bulls, and he

wound up with like 27-14 and 12. But the stat about his, like, I don't think of him as the best finisher in the league. Yeah. You know? Because he just, you know, I mean, obviously he's big.

He can move people around. But he's, I think of, when I think of Luka, I'm thinking of, like, him hitting impossible shots from, like, all different angles and stuff like that. He's finishing at a higher rate than anyone since Shaq. He's finishing at a higher rate at the rim than prime Shaquille O'Neal 2000, 2001 season. Okay. Is that field goal percentage at the rim is 83%.

Shaq was 79.2. 83 to 79. Like%. 83% to 79%. It's all layups, right? It's all smooth layups. Because he puts himself in great position. He'll shield the defender away. None of it's the backboard shattering dunks or any of the three dunks that we just watched. It's just he does the job.

Ball must go into the basket. He just drops it in at an alarmingly high rate yeah it's i mean like when he's just looking at it like they're like oh my gosh and then yeah almost got to oh getting to the seventh one uh with 30 but i mean he should have done what shea gills is alexander does just like yo foul the dude at the end of the game to make sure you can get to get your 30 points like i don't care bro i'm getting these 30 points these are mine yeah yeah but it makes these belong to me i guess it makes sense because the thing that we see from lucas that like he has shot making ability from everywhere on the court so the thing you have to be able to do at the rim

is like finish from all different angles and in different ways and like float one sometimes or you know like just make weird shots like depending on well you know they're almost always going to be contested right and so it makes sense that he's like a magician at that because he's a magician at all shots but i just i hadn't like really put it together that that's yeah and i get he's not like you know attacking the paint as much now and if you look at the attempts there's there's definitely a disparity there between what you know how many attempts he did how how many attempts he made versus shack right i mean it still shows again like that like where do you want it because i'll because i'll give it to you there

yeah there's also an anecdote about grant williams who's no longer with Mavericks, thought Luca was having a bad practice and started talking trash to him. And Luca just ripped off. Here, I'm going to get the direct quote. Yeah. Did you see this quote? I don't remember it exactly. You have to pull it. But yeah, no, I know what you're talking about. It surprised me. have to pull it but yeah no i know what you're talking about it surprised me this is from michael finley uh he said at mav's practice grant williams decided he wanted to get under luca's skin he felt that luca didn't come that day ready to practice so to make a long story short they had a scrimmage going and he's talking trash to luca up and down the court finally luca says okay and i tell you luca went on a 26 to 6 run by himself you can ask anybody i'm not exaggerating it was a 26 to 6 run by himself he showed everything the

threes the post up the floaters everything by himself um 26 to 6 run by himself is fun grant williams like see yeah i told you that you. That's why I do what I do. I'm a motivator. I'm like a Tony Robbins type guy. I like to bring the best out of people. That's what I like to do. I'm a bear poker. You know what I mean? That's how I do. That's how I do. 26 to 6 run

by myself. Also, real quick, how would you say Nikola Jokic is? Just, like, how does he feel to you? Jokic feels about 37 years old. 52.

52 early retirement. So much coffee and cigarettes. Not even a slight, like, on his ability or whatever. That's, entered like vibrationally he's giving me i've seen it all i'm all right you know i mean i don't need it i don't need to go too hard on anything i'm about 37 38 yeah he's yeah 29 years old amazing just you just turned 29 right yeah he's a child he's entering like this is the point at which players enter their prime

and have the best part of their career. He has two MVPs and a finals MVP as he's entering that part of his career. Do players, like, would you say players in the NBA, like, get, like, their old man strength at a certain point? Like, sometimes these guys, because, you know, like, as an adult, you're like, bro, once you hit there, like, you kind of, you're able to tap into, I'm these go, like, cause you know, like as an adult, you're like, bro, once you hit there, like you kind of, you're able to tap into, I'm not saying like athletically,

but like psychologically you can tap into something a little bit differently that I don't know. Colloquially is called like your old man strength, but yeah, that's, it's even frightening to think that he's like, yeah, I'm going to add this.

I'm going to just, you know, expand a bit now on my power now, because I'm, I'm just a wee lad just turned 29 it's just turned 29 1995 the the scariest old man strength i've ever seen because when you picture it it's when a player is you know in their this is so still young but like mid-30s and they're losing their like muscle definition but i remember when alonzo morning got old man strength on top of having like a

bodybuilder's body house yeah just would never lose like a held ball ever would even get to that point yeah yeah you know it's his ball oh man yeah scary things ahead for them i mean again yeah i mean are we still feeling uh it's probably it's probably the Nuggies coming up? That's who I'm truly at this point because it's all hands on deck, the NBA versus the Celtics. I'm kind of pulling for whoever I think has the best chance against

the Celtics. I still think it's the Nuggies. We'll see. Yeah. I think the Celtics are going to come out of the West. They might as well because there's no chance of them losing the NBA title this year. It will be Celtics are going to come out of the West. They might as well because there's no chance of them losing the NBA title this year. It will be Celtics versus Celtics. And I'm taking the Celtics in four.

At all. Hey, I'm actually going to be going to Boston to raise the banner. Yeah, I know you are. Yeah, I'll be there. I'll be there because I just want to honor the feat. I just want to, you know, as a Laker fan, I just want to say, you know what? Real recognize real. Hey, no curses here though uh

shall we take a quick break i think we shall i think we shall and we'll come back with the fourth quarter round of question right after this wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast nfl daily with greg rosenthal five a week, you'll get all the latest news, previews, recaps, and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here, just smart hot takes. We'll talk every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone, so I'm bringing in the big guns from NFL media. That's Patrick Claiborne, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook, Jordan Rodrigue from The Athletic, and of course, Colleen Wolfe.

This is their window right now. This is their Super Bowl window. Why would they trade him away? Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl. I don't know why, Colleen. Catch the podcast at NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal every day. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. And who doesn't want that? Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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 down on season two of my podcast off the edge with me cam jordan can't stop it you know what's gonna happen can't stop it that's right catching new episodes every wednesday all season long that's what you look for year 14 to do more 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. Ha! Yeah! 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... Psyche! You'll 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. MTV's official challenge podcast is back for another season.

That's right. The challenge is about to embark on its monumental 40th season, y'all, and we are coming along for the ride. Woohoo! That would be me, Devin Simone. And then there's me, Davon Rogers. And we're here to take you behind the scenes of... Drumroll, please.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The Challenge 40, Battle of the Eras. Yes. Each week, cast members will be joining us to spill all of the tea on the relentless challenges, heartbreaking eliminations, and of course, all the juicy drama. And let's not forget about the hookups. Anyway, regardless of what era you're rooting for at home,

everyone is welcome here on MTV's official challenge podcast. So join us every week as we break down episodes of the Challenge 40 Battle of the Eras. Listen to MTV's official challenge podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. It's the fourth quarter. It's the fourth quarter, baby. It's the fourth quarter round of questioning, baby. It's the fourth quarter rapid fire round of questioning. You know what I mean? And we're back.

And we're back. All of those things are true. Blake, you already know. I don't have to explain it to you. Don't you dare. Don't mess this up for us. Just be quick with your answers. I'm talking up to you, man, because you're north of where I am. So I couldn't talk down to you, baby. Now,

we ask the questions. You give us the answers as fast as you can do not humiliate us i never would thank you are you ready yes because we're doing this so quick hold on let's try that again you didn't you didn't respond quick enough you ready ready wow he's not ready i don't think like we kind of have to just like go i said pretend like he said really quick could we uh edit out the giant pause there yeah so with it and pretend like he said it really quick. Can we edit out the giant pause there so that it just sounds like he said it quickly? Really? That's the speed you're looking for?

That was too slow. Okay. Here we go. You want one more shot? Are you ready? Let's do this. Oh, boy. He's dialed in. That whole pause, he was flaring his nostrils.

I was. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, then, Brian, you know what to do. Start the clock. Are we ready, Jack? That's a real question.

Let's do this. All righty. Oh, yeah. Sorry. When I said let's do this, I was actually saying it from an earlier question. And then the oh, yeah was actually from that question. I understand you were getting back to it. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I'm on a major delay.

You said let's do this when I asked if we should go to a break. You're responding to just now in a latent manner. The only time I get excited enough to say let's do this is when we're talking about taking a break. Let's do this. Let's go. We're going to take a break. All right. Who's going first?

You? Why don't you go first? All right. Blake Wexler, I want you to look at these images. Kelly Olenek. Sorry, go ahead. I know. I know. Look, I appreciate the eagerness. chiseler i want you to look at these images sorry go ahead just one i know i know i look i appreciate the eagerness but we're looking at some iconic basketball jerseys from the 90s you pick three

of them to take with you into the next world which are they you're asking the right person so i'm going seattle supersonics first it's probably not the coolest jersey aesthetically but those teams with the glove with sean kemp god forbid i say the name i'll say it that left strength those guys ervin johnson nate mcmillan's um the other ervin johnson of the nba yeah ervin what's the opposite of magic ervin i'm gonna show it to you before it happens then i'm gonna go with vancouver the vancouver grizzly jerseys are just so cool and i'm talking about the trim in particular and also that grizzly bear uh holding the basketball which is not pictured but is and now we're going shorts i believe yeah the shorts have the

grizzly bear on it yeah you're 100 correct you say correct like you knew that correct of course it's all i know and then the final jersey is in between the raptors and the hornets because you have two beasts bouncing about bouncing a ball bouncing a basketball. And then I like the Charlotte Hornets one because pinch stripes, I find to be a criminally underutilized fashion thing in the NBA. But you got to go basketball dribbling dinosaur song and purple and the red, just seeing Tracy McGrady, who I believe was cousins with Vince Carter, who we've mentioned a whole lot on this show. But yeah, I'm going to go Raptors as my third pick.

Very consistent picks we've seen. I think last week Josh Gondelman almost picked the same identical jerseys. I think they're the best. We're colluding. Blake, most underrated NBA social media follow. I am going to give that to demarcus cousins i'm gonna give him the boogie i don't know if he's

currently employed anymore but i will never forget when he just he was the first person to tweet out as far as i know the snake in the grass emoji and he would do it very frequently because he was playing for an incredibly dysfunctional franchise and yeah yeah so i'm gonna go recently i don't know who i would give it to scalabrine what if i gave it to scalabrine um no i'm gonna an even older reference yeah in my mind i'm gonna say uh say old Boogie over there. Yeah. Okay. He's not on a roster, right? No.

I don't think so, no. Boogie's been out of the league for a while, I think. Blake, what about Dana Barrows? Is he still playing? Dana Barrows. Wow. wow uh he so so boogie cousins last season with a team was the 2022 denver nuggets

not too long ago he left and they probably won the nba title he has since been with the mets de guaynabo and the taiwan beer leopards so okay yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you know comedy so blake Gainabo and the Taiwan Beer Leopards. He's still balling.

Blake, you know comedy. So Blake, name an NBA player that is not Blake Griffin that you think could have a career in comedy. I mean, you have I think there is a rise. I think he needs to move to Austin to make this happen.

But I do think Draymond Green could be the next, know edgy uh edge lord stand-up comedian and he he does have chops i think the thing i mean you saw during i don't know if it was all-star weekend or afterwards when he was going back and forth with with charles barkley who would be who actually is funnier than i would say 99.9 percent of actual stand-up comedians or comedic writers or actors and it's honestly not close it's not even like oh he's funny for he's funny for no it's the funniest person in the world yeah um but i do think draymond the issue with draymond is i think that he might uh he's you got to keep your emotions in check when you're on stage so when

you're when you get heckled you need to be calm so you can still seem like you're in control where i think draymond might kick the heckler in the nuts so i that that would be my that would be my one note for him yeah before he begins yeah maybe as like a kison vibe or like a Kennison gear that he could go into maybe. Or even a Yoko could be like a Bill Hicks smoking cigarettes

on stage. Yoko strikes me more as like a Mitch Hedberg kind of delivery. You know what I mean? Just super flat but just cutting.

Or like Stephen Wright kind of thing. No, my friend. I think we'll just let them defeat us in the next game. That was, yeah. That was one of my favorite. Pat Bev too.

Pat Bev is very funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He feels like he could do like morning radio. Like that could be his energy too. Yeah.

Yeah. Charmoline the Bev. Charmoline. Charmoline. Trademarked. All right. Finally finally you're on a life raft you come upon joelle mb or alan iverson in the water but you can only fit one more person in the raft and we're gonna pretend like joelle mb does not equal three alan iversons in this case who are you saving so boy that's a tough one i'm going to go with ai because i know that joelle i know their weights are the same in this but joelle

likes to snack and we are always a long term off with joelle i believe from him to go back he he's gotten so much healthier in the past like two years but i do believe as as a snacker myself if he's gonna come into my boat and eat all my eat all my candy he has a sweet tooth and i think iverson's just iverson is a guy who will just roll with whatever he's never gonna panic he's got a motor yeah he's got a motor too which your boat might need yes yes he will motorboat me and then also you i like don't know i'm not listening what you're saying and no it could be a situation where you know dash incredible uh yeah and incredible with his yeah his quick feet i feel like iverson could use his quick feet like dipping them in the water to motor

to the like power the boat yeah where joel would have to use his arms as a sort as oars which is insane as opposed to what i just said and you hate splashing i know i hate i hate it makes me have to pee yeah of course do not splash me do not splash it's just wild because you could have saved them both and put yourself in the water but you're not that kind of person i guess kind of selfish yeah i mean you're assuming i would get on the lifeboat i would still be playing the recorder on my ship as it sunk to the bottom of the ocean going down with this thing this ship's not going down for days it's very slowly we have boats we have so i. I'm going down the ship. This ship's not going down for days.

It's very slowly. We have boats. We have sun. Oh, no, I'm going down with it. It's like, oh, this guy's in a bad place. Well, Blake, we told you to keep the answers quick, and you didn't. And I did. But they were entertaining, so we can forgive you. And I have to say, all of your answers were correct.

Thank you so much for joining us on Mad Boosties. Where do the people find you and support you and where do they find out how to see you in person? Thank you for asking. So I'm at Blake Wexler on all social media. As you mentioned, as the show started, I have a one-hour stand-up special on YouTube called Daddy

Long Legs. That's for free. You don't have to pay a dime to watch that. Just your time, which is also valuable, so I appreciate it. And then this Friday, I am at Strongro Brewery in Gowanus. Amazing show that I'm hosting there every month. And then in April, I will be in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is where I film my special. So I'll be back there. And then, yeah, blakebuxer.com slash live-dates to see me live. Perfect. All there.

Like a true pro. Thank you. Also, make sure you follow hashtag madboosties, B-O-O-S-T-I-E-S. That's where you get show links. That's where you get updates. That's where you might see my Twitter handle, where you can find me. That's at milesofgray. I'm at jack underscore O'Brien.

That's at miles of gray. I'm at Jack underscore O'Brien. Shout out to our guy, Paul Garaventa, for showing us the Cornette contest. Still alive. He did it very recently. So shout out to him. One of the great moves. One of the great moves. We love it.

We love you. We love you. Well, that's going to do it for us. And hey, guess what? We're going to be back next week. Another one of the books. It's alright. It's an unstoppable force. And guess what? You're tapped in.

You're locked in. Thank you for putting us in your ears. We will be back again. Alright. Talk soon. Bye. From way downtown. Boing, boing, boing, boing. That's what this is. Yeah, that's how my shot went off the rim. Yeah, it didn't go.

Right, we got that. That's not the sound of a bass. That's not string music. That ain't string music. Boing. Is that better? I'm Kerry Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. We'll be right back. Listen to The Making of a Rivalry, Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports.

I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore The Making of a Rivalry, Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the

Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. Señora Sex Ed is not your mommy's sex talk. This show is la plática like you've never heard it before. We're breaking the stigma and silence around sex and sexuality in Latinx communities.

This podcast is an intergenerational conversation between Latinas from Gen X to Gen Z. We're your hosts, Diosa and Mala. You might recognize us from our first show, Locatora Radio. Listen to Señora Sex Ed on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.