The Daily Zeitgeist - MJGMB #60: Conference Finals and Wembanyama Sweepstakes with Esfandiar Baraheni

Episode Date: May 18, 2023

Miles and Jack were pleased to be joined by SDPN NBA Reporter Esfandiar Baraheni for this week's episode. The trio discussed the Conference Finals matchups, Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, and plenty more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Kaitlyn Clark versus 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. 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, Viosa and Mala.

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about the history and cultural richness of lucha libre and i'm your host santos escobar emperor of lucha libre and a wwe superstar listen to lucha libre behind the mask on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you stream podcasts the conference finals are upon us and we've got a rematch of the four teams that were actually in the bubble conference finals in 2020 so we'll get into nuggets lakers man Lakers. Man, Nuggets, absolutely uncle. Like I said, Jokic is playing uncle ball. They pitched a perfect game. I could not believe it. Then we'll get into Celtics Heat, which we have not seen yet,

but will be happening. Yeah, y'all have seen game one. We have not. We have not. We are here just with bated breath waiting to see what happens there. And we'll talk about the Spurs. They hit the Wembley Lottery, folks. Wow.

All of that and more with NBA reporter S. Barahany We'll talk about the Spurs. They hit the Wembley Lottery, folks. All of that and more with NBA reporter S. Barahaney on today's episode. I'm Miles Gray. And I'm Jack O'Brien. And this is... Miles and Jack O'Brien. Mad Booskies. Three on one. Davis.

Love. LeBron. There you go. The driving, spinning, fading, hitting. Curry, a three-pointer. Bang. davis driving spinning fading curry a three-pointer bang steph curry from downtown again welcome aspar haney man thank you so much for joining us you host the objective basketball pod the no good pod. You grew up a Kobe Lakers fan

and then fell in love with your Raptors out there in Toronto. But yeah, I guess, you know, where should we start? Should we just talk about the Sad Sixers and then we can get into the other things first? Sure. Yeah. Listen, by the way, I will say, what a fun intro. That was a fire intro. I don't know if y'all like add music to it. Wow! That was fun.

You all make me laugh already. Thank you. A don't know if y'all like wow that was fun making me laugh already a little poetic thing for y'all if we can appreciate that appreciate that s see we need more canadian no i mean that that leads us into because you switched allegiances i'm planning to switch after this after this uh yeah i'm just i'm on the open market nba teams you let me know uh you can you can recruit me to your fandom but I'm honestly I'm going to root for whoever LeBron's on so it's basically a Lakers yeah you might as well

it's a Lakers pod at this point I mean yeah with bits of objectivity here and there I will say I told y'all um yeah the Sixers were going to lose Jack Rodamis has come through. You saw the Matrix, Neo, and you told us they're out of the second round. I told y'all at the end of last season, when they went out to the Heat,

I said, well, if it's the core of Doc, Embiid, and Harden, they're not getting out of the second round. Yeah, they were betting on too many bad horses. It's like betting on four different people that just know how to lose. Yeah. Yeah. It's just the level of coaching, the level of play in the second round is just at a consistently high enough level. the second round is just at a consistently high enough level that that is going to be their gravitational equilibrium barring them making a like really great hire to replace doc rivers or

some change in the chemistry of the top two top three but it did yeah it just they are who we thought they were when they lost jab Jabari and I held out hope. We were like, Jack, come on now. You could do something here. You might be able to close it. And you're like, we're not doing that. My heart rate never got above 45. I was just like, uh-huh.

Are you an Olympian with such a low base heart rate? That was crazy. But I'm already seeing some Sixers fans being like, I just think we run it back. We get a 3 and D guy. We get a new coach and we're good. And, uh,

you know, arrested development boys. They were not good. In fact, they did not do well. I mean, yeah. I mean,

and also credit to, you know, the Celtics it's, they look, they were ready. They were ready. And y'all like on defense, you tried to shut Jason Tatum down

in a lot of different ways, but at times, you're like, I don't know how committed the Sixers were to even playing defense. I don't know how committed the Sixers were to doing anything at that point, honestly. They had some weird lapses. Towards the end of Game 6 and towards the end of Game 7, it just looked like

they were like, you know what? We're mailing it in. We've come as far as we can we did what we could you know we we gave people hope his heart rate went to like 45 at least right you know i mean that that felt like i i guess what happened in game seven was what i kept expecting to happen throughout the series my my main takeaway is that boston can be the best team in the league by a good margin um but they just consider like aren't consistently for whatever reason right um and it's the same takeaway i had from the hawks series there are some quarters where they don't show up and like play the way that their fans seem to know they can that yeah you know basketball fans and like i still haven't heard like the the closest i've heard to somebody just uh explaining it is like

that marcus smart he's the alpha and so like everything starts running through him and he takes some of the biggest shots and then like the flow of the offense gets messed up and then that affects their defensive effort or something but we'll see maybe maybe they write it i know a lot of people seem to think like all right well now that tatum has figured it out hung 51 on the sixers they're good but my overall feeling these playoffs is that we keep being like well now they've figured it out the nuggets have figured it out and the nuggets have figured out the lakers or uh jason tatum has figured it out. The Nuggets have figured it out, and the Nuggets have figured out the Lakers, or Jason Tatum has figured it out,

and now he's going to do that every game going forward. And that just hasn't been the case. It's like you have a good game, and then the other team takes it up a notch, and they're also trying to beat you. So I don't know. I think at their best, they are by far the best team in the NBA.

Um, I just don't know what stops them from being that every night. Um, which is not an insult to them. It's hard to be the best team in the NBA. Uh, it's just, it's unclear like what changes from game to game,

just like it is with the Sixers with Harden. Like I, yeah, it looks like he's not trying but there's something else like that's that's happening there that like there are defensive adjustments that don't allow him to like see the game the way he wants to see it and yeah and I think adding Time Lord to the starting lineup was huge like seeing the effect he had over like Derek White I was like it's he had like he had a presence that felt like was affecting Embiid's

confidence at times and I was like wow I don't know if they could do that in this Heat series though that's the one thing I'm worried about like I don't think they can go big like that they probably have to start one of him or Horford but yeah this is a tough one because this is a series that the listener already

has like a full game on us right because this is coming out tomorrow, so they've seen a game. But I really have a strong feeling that the Heat are being vastly underrated. The level of underdog that the Heat are in Vegas is wild. But yeah, a lot of the NBA experts seem to just be doing the,

well, the Celtics have figured it out, and now they're going to be the team we know they can be doing the well the Celtics have figured it out and now they're going to be the team we know they can be yeah and they very well could but then also like I think there's something to the revenge plot line and like even Jimmy Butler's words last year when he was just basically like no we're gonna come right back and we are going to do it this time and he they've been true to their word. Um, but yeah, it'll be, it'll definitely be, I hopefully we're not being like,

and they were blown out by 50. Uh, but I think, I think there is something there. What, like, as how are you looking at, uh,

this Eastern conference final matchup? Yeah, I agree with y'all. I think like it's, as someone said, there was a 4% chance, uh, the heat would win this series,

something along the lines of that. Uh, and I just think that's ridiculous. Like, the Heat have all the like, all the playoff type guys that you could want on a roster. Like, I know

Warriors fans would have loved a Kevin Love on their team, or a Kyle Lowry on their team, or whoever. Those are just guys that are gonna do well in a playoff series, you know? And I think that's gonna push them over the edge in certain categories. I don't know if they're going to win this series, but it's definitely not going to be a five game series or a six game series. I feel like this goes seven, to be honest with you, just like it did last year. And that's just because of Jimmy and Bam and the other guys that I just mentioned that are just

playoff dogs. Like they really, really know how to win in a playoff setting, how to carve out an advantage. I think that stuff is so important is like when things aren't going right for you in the playoffs, how are you going to figure out a way to just will out a win? And they do that very, very consistently with Boston. You sort of mentioned earlier with like why they go through these flows and sometimes they're completely off and sometimes they're you know the best team in the nba a lot of that has to do with shooting like they rely on the three-point shot so much and they don't have a legitimate way of getting their offense going other ways so if they're hitting their shots yeah they look like the best team in the nba if they don't you know the going gets tough and right yeah i think that probably applies in this series too yeah we'll see i mean the the coaching uh like they're going against one of the best coaches they're going against somebody who

has been able to bend other series so far this season to his will and jimmy butler um so i don't know the celtics as always could just be that team that we know they can be for the whole thing but it for some reason this series seems like i'm leaning heat on this series even having seen what they did in game seven against the sixers i just think the sixers were, were not the team to, to do it. So you just think over seven games that they will, the edge will come out with, you know, the coaching and the, the will of some of these players.

Yeah. And I think, I mean, I definitely think Miss Ola, uh, the Celtics coach, you know, got better and is one of the reasons that they won that series against the

Sixers. I think he made some really smart adjustments. It's always tough because Tatum is young and clearly still figuring things out. And so, yeah, maybe he did just figure things out in that game seven and now he's going to be unstoppable. But yeah, there's just something about what's happened so far. And when I'm listening to other people talk about this series, it seems like the mistakes that they're making are the ones we keep talking about on this show where it's like Celtics have figured it out. And like the thing that's been happening so far, like the heat, this thing's over, right? Like they, right, right. They're not going to keep doing what they've been doing up to this point and the celdics will keep doing or will stop doing what

they've been doing up to this point and uh you know suddenly just put it together and win four games in a row like play as well as they can and it just feels like that hasn't been what we've seen so far so yeah we shall see celdics fans get in my menchies i know you, get in my menchies. I know you will. Get in my menchies because we're getting fro-yo. I don't know if that's too regional. No, I got that reference. I was actually talking to someone about how menchies used to be the thing in high school and nobody does that anymore. Nobody even goes to any...

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In Green Bay, Wisconsin, former Packers star Kabir Bajabiamila caught up in a bizarre situation. KGB explaining what he believes led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play. A family man, former NFL player, devout Christian, now cut off from his family and connected to a strange arrest. I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey, but this was only the beginning. In a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron and the consequences for everyone involved you mix homesteading with guns and church and a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked voila you got straight away i felt like i was living in north korea but worse if that's possible listen to spiraled on the iheart radio

app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Jack, you had some additional thoughts? Yeah, one additional thought is just Super Producer Jabari pulled how the Vegas odds for this Eastern Conference Finals compares to past series. So negative 500 means that you need to bet $500 to win $100, which means that you're a huge favorite. So the Celtics are basically as favored to win this series as any team in the Eastern Conference over the past five years.

So the Bucs versus the Hawks were the only other time that somebody was minus 500. And that was when everyone was like, the Hawks, how did they even get here? And the way they got here was they beat the Sixers. Hey, NBA sad boy. Because the Sixers impl Hey, NBA sad boy. They imploded. Let's talk about some good fortunes, huh? Because somebody hit the Wembley lottery and that somebody is the San Antonio Spurs.

Do we think he really was that happy that the Spurs won? Do we think he just knew heading in? I've got to pretend like I'm happy with whatever comes out here or. Nah, they know beforehand, like they do the draw beforehand. So all of them know it. See, this is funny. I was watching it on TV on mute because I was at a baseball game and you could just see the reactions of the dudes when they're introducing them. And in that moment, you can find out who won the lottery. In that one second they showed the person, the Spurs guy was cheesing. Like, he was smiling like crazy.

And I'm like, they won the lottery. They did. Rubbing his mitts. Yeah, he was going crazy. Like, even before they even did the 14th pick, he was smiling like crazy. I'm like, he's the one who won. Wait, that's real? Yeah, they do it way beforehand.

They do it like an hour beforehand. And then they do the presentation, they do it way beforehand. They do it an hour beforehand, and then they do the presentation, I guess, on TV. Where's the intrigue? I thought he was just happy because he was a billionaire's son. Just generally happy for his wealth. Just a generally happy person. He knew something, we didn't.

Yeah, I mean, former guest, shout out Warren Shaw. He called it on the show earlier this year. He said it going to the spurs i mean not that i mean so people have known since then yeah i guess i believe warren knew somehow somehow but yeah i think we were talking about where we'd like to see him i personally would have it would have been cool to see detroit just turn into like uh something really fun to watch again but i don't know be dealing with pop that i'm i like that i mean i don't know i mean i like it for him i like it for seeing him do like the best that he he possibly can do um and i feel like that's the place to like we we've seen them have some of the best like development player development of the past like

two three decades so uh yeah i was happy for like i didn't know how i was gonna feel until they actually revealed it and then that one just felt right to me i'm pretty happy for him it's funny because uh like i i didn't necessarily have a preferred destination not a not a specific spot to go but but I would have been cool if Portland got it, because it would have just made what happened in the summer a lot more difficult for them. It's like, okay, is Wemby good enough for us to contend with Dame, and we can just hope that he's good enough right out the gate so we can go ahead and do this right now, or do we have to just trade off Dame, start over, and build around Wemby? I just think that would have been a cool kind of thing to think about.

And then also, Portland's been robbed so many times in the draft. And you think about MJ, you think about Greg Oden, you think about all that. So it would have been cool for them to get it. With the Spurs, it's kind of crazy though, right? The Admiral, then Tim Duncan, and now Wemby. So it's crazy how this happens. Then they have the Tony Parker connection too. I know he's

a big... I think he's going to be involved with the team next year, especially with Wemby coming. Just as a straight-up translator. Papa saying what? He's like, oh, I know a guy who speaks French. He's like, look, mon ami, there's going gonna be some

transitional growing pains going from france to san antonio you guys had much at some point right yeah exactly you guys i know when he's gonna be in barbecue for the first time you know see how he does put some meat on it hey that's the biggest question it's like how is that dude gonna transition from living in paris to living in san antonio yeah san Antonio, San Antonio is the Paris of that very specific part of Texas. So he can move to Paris, Texas. Right. Yeah.

Not even Paris, Texas, the Paris of Texas, San Antonio. Yeah. He's like, and anything to be near something called Paris, Paris,

Riverwalk is very nice. It's also like an opportunity for him to, you know, continue to grow up in a smaller community, which is probably nice, right? Yeah. I'm sure his life will be very normal. The funniest part of the whole draft process was his reaction to Houston not getting the first overall pick.

Did you guys see that? No. He did the Kobe when Kobe hit the game winner. He did this. overall pick did you guys see that no so he he like went like he did like the kobe when kobe hit the game winner he did this like he would he fish pumped like crazy when houston didn't get the the number one pick he was really happy about that i can't blame him i honestly can't blame him for that but yeah yeah wow okay well he let it be known he let it be known how do you feel about his transition to the league is it going to be seamless is it going to be fraught with chaos is his is his body will it hold up what any concerns for us the the one question not even concerned because i think wimby will be a good player we

were talking about this yesterday but like the base level of what wimby is as a player just because he's seven foot four he has incredible foot speed, he's still going to be a great defender. Even if none of the offensive stuff projects and actually happens at the professional level, he's still going to be a potentially all-time defender. The health concerns are always going to be there, whether his body can sustain, but apparently his team has been doing a really, really good job of building out his muscles. I saw this video of him, and he's without socks on, he's doing like these leg crawls, uh, to warm up. And it's for some reason it like, it builds the smaller muscles in your feet, uh, so that he doesn't get foot injuries and ankle injuries.

Like ligament problems. Yeah. Ligament problems. So I don't know. I think, I think we're good on the health side of things. My question is about the hype. And I've been thinking about this because of LeBron, because like the Zion hype for a lot of people in Canada,

like it was Wiggins, right? It was crazy to see what would happen with him. Not a lot of guys end up living up to that hype. Bron is maybe the only guy in my lifetime. It's just LeBron and Kareem. Yeah, and Kareem. And kobe as well yeah exactly i mean there are a lot of my kids from high school not this coming in yeah and he was 17 yeah yeah and he was the 13th overall pick like he's not he wasn't gonna be sorry i'm just getting a little laker center but it's yeah yeah i i think we were like the lebron thing is i think what super underrated

that he was able to do it yeah like yeah with you know just growing up in it's like growing up in truman show you know it's like just all all eyes were on. There were billboards in his hometown that were aimed only at recruiting him to Nike and Adidas. Please sign with us, sir. Young 14 year old. Uh, and like that, it is a miracle that he didn't go crazy and that he ended up like delivering on the hype. So I don't know. In that respect, I feel like from one side of that, I'm like,

I think we're probably overrating how sure of a thing this is because LeBron like made it through that and was, was so great. On the other hand, it's just like, sometimes, you know, and like LeBron was the last time that the hype was this great.

And people just knew, just had a feeling and it does feel similar here where it's just the only problem is of course the he's seven four and plays like a point guard and i i do worry about the hell stuff yeah yeah for sure yeah but it'll be wild to see him take two steps from half court and then already be finishing yeah yeah like that's the the thing about lebron is that his greatest skill was his indestructibility like that right and that was not something anyone could have seen coming you know right right right yeah i mean like wimby's he's gonna euro step from the other like foul line yeah finishing like yeah the crazy part is like braun the the health is the most underrated part of like it takes it takes a special type of human being

to be able to play 20 years of professional basketball and not miss, I mean, he's missed some time in the last couple years, but you know what I mean. Like, he's been pretty healthy throughout his career. That's rare, you know? Yeah, 100%. I don't know. I guess that's the one concern I have with Wemby,

but otherwise, man, like, I really, I believe, I'm a Wemby. But otherwise, man, I really... I believe... I'm a Wemby believer. I don't know about you guys. Off the clips, I absolutely want him to make good on everything I've seen. Because it's... I just can't... I want to see that in the league.

I just want to see this all happen and just have to see who can figure him out. Or if he's figureoutable. Can they figure him out, Jack? Can he be figured out? So, Wemby had a bad game in Game three of his nba career the league has figured figured him out it's over for him yeah it just assumes that they're not not everybody's trying to be good at basketball right um but yeah it's exciting like i don't know why but like seeing seeing him like now that we know where he's going, I just got more excited.

I'm like, well, I guess I'm a Spurs fan now for us. Maybe that's what I'll switch to. Right, right. Well, speaking of 38 year old LeBron James, I really can't get used to hearing when I hear commentators say that like LeBron James at 38 years old. I'm like, I'm 38, man. Stop making it sound like I mean, but I get it for what he's doing in the NBA. It is like, I'm 38, man. Stop making it sound like, I mean, but I get it for what he's doing in the NBA.

It is novel, but I just don't, it's funny to hear people be like, I mean, at 38, what he's doing just on paper will always sound very funny to me. He should be in an old folks home right now. I know.

How, how can he choose solid food? It's amazing. And he knows all of his children's names. But yeah, let's head over to the Western conference finals. Nuggets Lakers. We saw game one.

Oh boy. Absolute masterclass of a performance from Yoko. It's there's no way. What do you have? Like 12 rebounds in the first court. He has some obscene rebound, like a number of rebounds in the first court. And I was like,

oh man, here we go. It was an unbelievable night. I mean,al murray also playing out of his head i'm not sure what the lakers could have done i honestly you know it got close look it kind of got close there at the end but we just didn't quite have what it took to finish the game off um and like with yokich playing the way he was there was this one shot over ad like such a deep three and i was like is he really oh he contested oh and that just went in so casual that really that when he when he hit that i'm like oh no we're not getting out of here with

anything that's not happening this is not our night yokich just gets it off in time it's up oh it's good of course it goes in jokic from downtown anthony davis just stares at him and then the lakers came back and kept pushing them yeah it was that was a pretty impressive get like a pretty impressive loss because it could have gone a lot of a lot of different ways there was a point where i was like man just get braun and ad out of there like i told y'all in our in our group chat i was like i was so disoriented from like the run they were going on i like accidentally ordered women's sandals online yeah didn't like to make this on the internet i was all confused i didn't know what if you like wearing women's sandals miles you don't have to make up this vast yeah uh excuse elaborate scheme

no i hold on to the words of jizz of the genius and liquid swords you know what i mean and that's a minimum and feminine like sandals what does that mean jizza i don't know who knows but yeah when you're having a conversation with him do you call him Jizza or the Jizza? I call him Jizza. Okay, cool. But yeah, I mean, like, the Nuggets are playing so well, they made AD's performance look absolutely pedestrian. 40-10, three steals, two blocks. He was playing, like, I couldn't really ask much more from him. I could have asked for a little bit more from some other players.

But, I mean, that just shows you, like, the level in this series. But, like but like hey shout out to rui hachimura came in and he did his thing man he was like when we needed a shot to far three or something rui was there for it he had the main assignment on yokich in the fourth quarter too yeah he was he was the guy guarding him and then it allowed ad to be the guy who was kind of roaming the paint yeah i feel i feel like the nuggets can counter that pretty easily though by pulling pulling gordon out and then just playing five out but i mean if i'm a lakers fan i would say that this is i mean it's not a win because you don't have a win no it's not a win but you got pretty close and didn't play the greatest game in the first half yeah but i would sound like i would sound like a true Lakers fan to be like,

yeah, I know we lost, but we won, though, really. No, we lost. They played fantastic. We played well, too. They were just that much better. And I honestly, in the beginning, I felt like we had, I think we had a hangover from beating the Warriors.

Like, I don't think we were really focused enough for what was happening because I felt like we weren't properly respecting the shooting of the Nuggets at first. And we got punished pretty bad. And then we were suddenly like, oh, right, we have to engage or else, you know, this thing's going to fully get away from us. I haven't watched enough Nuggets, to be honest, to know how out of the ordinary that shooting display was it wasn't that out of the ordinary so that that's a problem yeah for the lakers like to be fair you the lakers were giving them pretty wide open shots in the first half like they were helping off a lot and and

like sending a lot of help at yokich which doesn't make sense because that's that's what they want them to do like right you send a double team at Jokic, oh, cool. He makes the right pass every time. Yeah. So I don't know. I think a part of that is this is the nuggets. This is the way they play every single game. They're probably going to be just as good in game two. It's up to the Lakers to hit those shots.

Austin Reeves in the second half was awesome in that fourth quarter. He had some great shots. You need that type of performance from him. You need D'Lo to start hitting his shots too. Like you just need everybody to be on point when it comes to the shooting. If they can't keep up, you know,

math wise, the math battle, they, they probably end up losing the series. Totally. Quick maths. Quick maths. The only thing that's given me faith is LeBron being able to figure it out.

Like, he'll figure him out. Don't worry. Yeah, he'll figure him out. Don't worry, Jack. He'll figure him out. He does. He's the exception. He really does seem to figure things out. And like, so I don't, I watched that first game and I'm like, man, if that's how the Nuggets always shoot, I don't know how the Lakers win that series.

After game two of Golden State, both I and Zach Lowe were like well the Lakers can't win this series now right like they're you know the Golden State figured out what to do how to spread the floor there's no way that they're coming back from this and the Lakers won in six so I don't know it'll be interesting to see

watching this playoffs both all the Lakers series but also watching something about that six or celtic series really because because it was like such a it haunted weird mental battle well even like watching the celtics who like are so good at their best but like just have these weird swoons like like gave me an appreciation for LeBron and just like his ability to always just eventually like figure out what, like the smartest strategy and when to like peak and all, all these weird,

subtle things that I have a little bit of a take here. I don't know if you guys will agree with this. So I think a lot of people bring up parity, which is totally true. The league is, is more even than it has been in a couple of years, but like the by-product of parity is that a lot of these teams aren't as good as we've seen before.

So a lot of these teams are sort of mid, like they're, they're not the greatest they could potentially be. Boston isn't as good as whatever other team, like the warriors in, you know, at the height of their prime. And then't as good as whatever other team, like the Warriors at the height of their prime and then the Cavaliers at their prime. So a guy like Braun

who is so used to playing at that level of competition, facing teams like the Warriors, facing teams that he's had to topple before, it's easier for him to try to figure out and adjust and then also point out a weakness because yeah it's just these teams aren't as good as they were before it's it's better because the product

is more fun you don't know what's going to happen it's more unexpected but parody has sort of created this this weird paradox i guess that it's the the teams aren't as good as they were even five years ago six years ago whatever it is right yeah yeah but if the nuggets keep playing like that just hold on to your butts that's all i can say uh so yeah good luck to those lakers because i'm gonna need it if the nuggets keep playing like that uh and my god i mean like the way yokich is playing i was like is that the mvp oh yeah yeah is he's better than as an mb fan fan. I can't, I can confidently tell you, and I'm sure a lot of Sixers fans won't,

won't love, but he's way better than Embiid. Like Embiid probably should have won last year. And Jokic probably should have won this year. That's the real one. That's what a lot of people said. But man, he's good.

it was like, it was basically the, like the Leonardo DiCaprio equivalent, the, you know, the Revenant Oscar. Yeah. The Miles the most corsese uh one two right same deal yeah that's not his best one though they're like yeah but it's been a while we had to we had to do a make good it's like okay sure sure sure all right let's take a break and we're going to come back with s for the most sought after segment in podcasting the, the rapid-fire round of questions. All right, Mexican than this. Lucha Libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport and much more than just entertainment.

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or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And I know all the advertisers line up because they want to be able to brand this segment. But we say no. We are keeping this sacred. It is the fourth quarter. It's time for the rapid fire round of questions now s this segment is probably no not probably it is the fastest sequence of questions in a sports podcast

on earth at the moment and what we're gonna do we're gonna ask you a question don't think too much just chest pass the answer right back don't and don't give a long answer because this has to move quick as rapid and guess what if jack and I start being like, yeah, what if this or that? Just start adding details about me. Yeah. Me talking about my favorite food at the formerly the Staples Center. You have to cut us off. Man, this is rapid.

Okay. Okay. That's on you. And if not, we're going to be big mad. All right. Furious. Furious. I'm just furious.

We ready? Yeah. Let's do it. Jack, you ready? yeah let's do it Jack you ready? oh yeah then guess what Brian start the clock Brian's weeping

okay sorry I don't mean to yell Brian I don't mean to yell but after that loss to the Nuggets I'm a little

a little off right now a little off right now Jack you wanna go first? you wanna switch off? I'll go first yeah yeah you allowed me to go. So let me allow you.

Is there a single NBA player you would tell? All right, you don't. You're not. You're just a GM. You're just thinking about I want to maximize my wins. Okay. Is there a single NBA player you would take right now? You are the GM of the San Antonio Spurs.

Forget about contracts. It's just somebody's like all right i will give you any nba player current contract for wembing yama for the wembing yama pick who are you uh going with or are you keeping the pick i'm keeping the pick wow man moving over yannis i didn't even do the yannis corollary usually people are like well we could take yannis don't pick yannis nah i'm good i'm give me nine years of wimby yama i'm good yeah okay yeah i'll take that now what is it about wimby yama this is why he's the greatest follow-up question you know agassi didn't have the greatest

serve but he had the greatest return exactly and i say the same thing every time what is it about but that's the consistency that people look for and i'm asking seriously what is it about him is he good he's so he's good oh that's good to know we actually don't watch basketball we just kind of go off of vibes yeah i just have chat gpt write up the words i say i'm like tell me a summation of one of the lakers nuggets game one they got served is what chat gpt came up with which i thought was pretty clever to be miles use that joke like three times in three different chats yesterday okay you know what i like that you brought this up because you lurk in the other one you don't ever contribute to the other chat i will not name name. Well, you guys are Lakers fans,

and I'm just sitting back judging your toxic Lakers energy. Wow. Wow. Wow. S, honestly, we got to speed this up. No, I beat you to it. I beat you to it. No, that's on you.

Damn it. I had to tell you we had to speed it up. You're right. You're right. I'll start contributing to that. I'll start contributing to that. Anyway, but yeah, that's true. I was sorry.

I like the banter. What do you want me to do I'm a I'm a performer Jack so what I workshopped my you got served uh uh like little banter I know I'm the worst I'm sitting here criticizing your work no I love it that I just lurk in I know but I'm like hey beat this thing up okay my bad thank you S thank you I got you why am I on trial now here we go next question your honor uh s you can go back hop in your delorean okay because you can go back in time good morning and look at the valedictorian and you can go to any single playoff game in nba history which game are you choosing courtside seats to?

Oh, wow. That's tough. Give me 2007 Eastern Conference Finals, Pistons, Cavs, the one where Braun scored like 27 in a row. Yes.

Oh, yeah. What a game. Yeah. Good one. That was fire. That game was wild, man. That's one of the few games from like over 10 years ago

that I'll still go back and watch it also puts his age into perspective because the like quality of video is so bad it's like oh what was the definition yeah yeah we have four three aspect ratio all right with air recently being released what are your top three basketball movies? Oh, wow. Above the Rim. Does Juice count? I guess. Yeah, does Juice count?

I mean, yeah, that's an interesting one. Juice? Forgot there was even a basketball subplot in that. Like, does it? Does it? Okay, whatever. I guess we got questions about Juice. It's all right. We'll skip forward.

Okay, I'll go Above the Rim, Coach Carterter and then we'll go i give me another one and then does ricochet count you're just naming tupac movies and poetic justice no i'm not gonna i'm not gonna do white man can't jump because you're waiting to see how good the remake is yeah exactly how am i gonna how am i gonna judge right dude six men yes that's the one thank you i appreciate you actually that is the one i was thinking of so i appreciate you yeah that's right that's a great one that's a great one one of the greats so in above the rim that's the one where the guy pounds the backboard and flies through the backboard and falls off the top of the building right yeah well yes no that's also Six Man, isn't it?

Six Man? Six Man? Well, no. Six Man did like a spoof of that, right? I think, yeah. Yeah. I think they're spoofing that part. Yeah.

Oh, no. Okay. I don't know. He Got Game also is another one. Thank you, Jabari. I appreciate you, bro. Yeah. Yes.

Shout out to Rick Fox in that one. Yeah. Am I up? You up, Miles. Oh, I'm up. Sorry. See, S-Man, what do we say? Keep this thing going.

I know I'm old. I know I'm 38 years old, like LeBron James, but work with me here. You can take any former Raptor and put him on this current group in Toronto. Which former great are you choosing to make a run in today's league? Give me Kawhi, bro.

Why not? I was wondering if you were going to go with the honest, correct answer. Or if you were going to be like, no, you know, Damon Stoudemire. Yeah, no. Give me Jorge Garbojosa from the 2005-2006. Yeah. No, definitely Kawhi. I was thinking between him and Vince. But yeah, Kawhi.

Yeah, man. Kawhi, I was thinking between him and Vince, but yeah. Yeah, man. Kawhi, when he was healthy for two games in these very NBA playoffs, was the best player in the league still. A lot of people have let the fact that he got hurt overshadow that, but that's still the highs. If he had operating knees, man, they still might be in the playoffs. Yeah. Right. All right.

And finally, the question that all the advertisers are lining up to hear the answer to, is it Jack or is it Miles? Oh, like just person. Like, who do I prefer? Is that what is this? What do we think? Jack or is it Miles? Uh, okay.

You know what? I think because you are a Lakers fan, I'm going to go with Miles. Sorry, Jack. I apologize. I said I was a Lakers fan too. All late. All late. All late.

But it's no fair. I said I was too. I did switch to the Spurs. i did switch to the spurs you just switched yeah yeah i'm over i'm doing the thing that all our uh you know nba journalists uh guests do where they're like i'm actually beyond fandom i kind of view the nba like dr manh viewed humanity. I'm just above it. All I see is a matrix of pain that I care not to engage in. Just the game of basketball. Fantastic. Oh, man.

I don't think I'll ever get used to hearing that because it's always fantastic. Thank you so much, S. But yeah, we got to shout out our guest, S. Barhaney. Thank you so much for joining us. Where can people find you, follow you, read you, all that kind of stuff? Bro, first of all, I haven't laughed this much while just being on a podcast in a little bit.

So appreciate you guys. This was fun. It really was. It was fun to do. Nah, this is great. You're a great ghost. Great guest. I almost said great ghost.

This is what Scooby-Doo. Yeah, I know my skin is kind of pale. You don't have to do that. But yeah, no, you guys can find me on Twitter, just S Barahini. Just tap in. That's all you gotta do. Appreciate you guys. This is one of the rare podcasts with a twist ending. S was

dead the whole time. Yeah, exactly. He gave you all the clues with the sixth man. That's why I like sixth man. Right, right, right. Man, well, you can follow us on Twitter at MadBoosties, B-O-O-S-T-I-E-S. And we did have to ask y'all. We said, hey, Boosties listeners, for the conference finals series,

what are your predictions? The results are in. On the East, 60% of y'all believe the Celtics will triumph over the Miami Heat. And in the West, 56% of you, wow, less confidence over there out West,

believe the Lakers will eventually best the Nuggets. I mean, that is a wild take. That is definitely based on our LeBron Lakers fandom. I don't know. I mean, they're pretty big underdogs, too. Check the demographics.

I'm not saying you're wrong, because I do think the Lakers are going to win, but that is the only place where you are seeing the Lakers. Those numbers. Those numbers, yeah. I think barely any of the mainstream analysts, only a few picked the lakers those numbers those numbers yeah i think like yeah barely any of the you know you know mainstream analysts uh only a few picked the lakers so you know we'll see what happened espn it was like 2010 like 20 people picked the nuggets 10 people picked the lakers super producer

jabari makes a good point our listeners are smarter than the experts oh yeah yeah so by quite a bit oh yeah sure oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah uh but thank you all for that one uh we will see you next week uh could be an episode of sad boosties who knows uh where we're at in these in our respective series uh but until then we will be us you be you and we'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. I'm Carrie Champion, and this is season four 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. Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. What happens when a professional football player's career ends and the applause fades and the screaming fans move on? I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. For some former NFL players, a new faith provides answers.

You mix homesteading with guns and church. Voila! You got straight away. They try to save everybody. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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.

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, Viosa 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.