The Daily Zeitgeist - NBA Dunk Week with SBNation's Harrison Faigen

Episode Date: August 4, 2022

Miles and Jack were pleased to be joined by SBNation's NBA Editor and co-host of the Silver Screen and Roll and Rewind and Reconsider podcasts, Harrison Faigen for the latest episode. They discussed the latest Westbrook rumors as well as taking a look back at some of the best dunks of the season. The episode also features a 1-on-1 between Jack and Coach Jim O'Brien about the lasting legacy of the late, great Bill Russell.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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And the NBA party train keeps moving. Exactly. You thought we wouldn't be back, but guess what? We are. We'd never make it to episode 19. But yes, let's not digress. We are going to check in on the latest rumors with Russell Westbrook, maybe a career change for Dwight Howard. We'll also talk about what's going on with LeBron, Draymond, Colin Sexton,

and probably get through our Mad Boosties winner of the dunk of the season because it is dunk week for the NBA. And who better to do it with than today's guest? We have SB Nation's NBA editor, Harrison Fagan. I'm Miles Gray. And I'm Jack O'Brien. And this is Miles and Jack's Got Mad Boost. Okay, so that was pretty succinct.

Yeah, like perfectly on sync. It was wild. Like we had a mind meld at that moment. Okay, welcome, welcome, welcome we got harrison fagan in the building harrison welcome to miles and jack got mad boosties how you doing i'm doing well thank you guys for having me i gotta say that was weirdly specific trash talk at the beginning for someone to say that you wouldn't make it to episode 19 like yeah i feel like if somebody would have said like you guys won't make it 20 episodes yeah that would have been you know like

more boilerplate they really got specific on you they're like no no no there's no way you guys can put up with each other for more than 18 episodes you know what can i say it's just a mother's intuition um that's what she constantly says yeah i'm like if that's what you're feeling mom maybe she's like you're lucky you get to 19 it's like why are you talking like that like you're an old gumshoe film. But yeah, you played her the first episode and she said, I give it 18 episodes. You showed her, though. Yeah, I did.

Look at me, Ma. I'm here. But Harrison, first, identify yourself. You're a longtime NBA fan. Is there a specific team that you've kept your eye on over the years? Yeah. So, I mean, I think anybody who's even a little bit aware of my work,

like you probably know that, you know, it's definitely, it's been Lakers for me for the majority of my life. Yeah. I grew up, you know, in Orange County,

about an hour South of Los Angeles, fell in love with the Shaq and Kobe Lakers. You know, never thought that I would do this as a career. I was actually in community college studying psychology, wanted to be a teacher, ended up just like getting to the point where I was doing research methods and stats. And I was just like, this is too much math for me. It's time to become an NBA sports writer who has to look up like nba.com stuff all the time that's about the level of math that i can do uh and i found a niche i just kept blogging and then eventually yeah now i'm here and i covered the lakers since uh like 2013 i want to say and then until uh this spring i was promoted to sb nation nba editorial manager so now i see all of our 30 team sites and i have to pretend that i

like all of the teams equally that's not true but i have to pretend it legally yeah you're a professional you can you know how to keep a job i think that's what's important for yeah exactly what team's the hardest to pretend that they're equal to the lakers for you is it it's it's who we think it is yeah it's definitely the minnesota timberwolves wow it's uh yeah it's the celtics all right all right yeah i mean that's kind of true for me too i'm not i'm not a big celtics fan that's probably the team i have the hardest time rooting for i'm not gonna say i root against them i'm gonna say i have the hardest time rooting for them because i love the game that's how i should phrase it i root for all of them you know equally except the celtics it's really hard but right exactly yeah you're you're sort of like lucille

bluth where you're like i love all my children equally and you're like i don't care for job yeah exactly like when you cut away to me in the confessional right i don't care for job sure yeah otherwise you know publicly i love them of, but I'll be honest with you guys. This isn't going out anywhere. No, no, no. If my mom's predictions are accurate,

absolutely. No. So, you know, considering your proximity to the Lakers and just checking on things over there, Westbrook, Russell Westbrook.

Wait, I do. I do just want to say up top, we're going to talk about Bill Russell's passing and his career and his amazing... I'm actually going to bring my dad in. I actually interviewed my dad for eight minutes. He used to coach the Celtics.

So we are... Because I think this first segment is going to be very Lakers-centric. We're going to be working inside the mind palace of a Lakers fan as we talk through these trades. I think that you need to orient yourself. So don't worry, Celtics fans or just NBA fans who aren't exclusively Lakers fans,

you should know it'll be over soon and we'll be able to move on. But we do have to talk about these supposed Westbrook trades that have suddenly become possibilities over the past couple weeks. So I'm curious, Harrison, what's your take? According to SI, the Jazz, Knicks, and Pacers have expressed interest in potentially working out a deal that involves taking Westbrook and his contract. Now, do you think at this stage teams are looking to add Russ, you know, just as an expiring deal to buy out?

Or you think either of those teams actually might be considering having him play out the contract? Yeah, no, I think pretty much at this point, he's probably seen as like a guy that you would buy out because you have to pay him anyway you get a little bit of savings on the back end because he works out his you know as we see with all these buyouts around the league guys like they have their agent figure out what they can get from other teams they work out a buyout for like around that much less saves the current team some money you know lets them recoup their amount of money while picking their next destination. That is my guess of what will happen with the Westbrook saga.

I don't think that like like the Jazz, you know, are clearly kind of getting set to go in the tank for this upcoming draft after trading Rudy Gobert. They're going to trade Donovan Mitchell. Like, I don't think that they want Russell Westbrook like helping them sneak in a few extra wins while they try to develop these young guys whatever like trying to recoup his own value like I just don't see that as something that's happening just as an example of one of those teams so I do think that it's more of like these teams are going to trade for him if they do it's going to be to get off of long-term money and a lot give the Lakers some players that maybe aren't on their timeline but can help the Lakers win now that maybe aren't on their timeline, but can help the Lakers win now maybe a little bit more than Westbrook can.

Right. So who are the Lakers looking at in such a scenario? Are they just getting out of the deal? Or do the Jazz have something to offer the Lakers? I am admittedly allergic to the trade machine, so I actually don't know how any of this works. In such a scenario, are the Lakers getting something back? Yeah, so my guess would be that if the Jazz were involved, it would probably be as a third team to take Westbrook

and send something to the team that the Lakers want guys from or something like that. The Pacers also might be a third team or just a straight up team. You know, if they're getting like Miles Turner and Buddy, Buddy healed back, you know, something like that.

Maybe the jazz can facilitate as a third team there, or, you know, maybe they could work with the Pacers straight up or work with Brooklyn straight up or work the jazz in as a third team. Then, you know, the Knicks probably wouldn't be a third team for the nets,

but they might be some sort of like facilitation team with this cap space that they have if they can't work out a Donovan Mitchell trade like there's a variety of ways that that could go but yeah I think that you know with the Jazz specifically they would probably be looped in as a third team and the Lakers you know they as far as what they want like I think they do want to get off of Russ and you know not have to pay that gigantic salary and not just have him around. That's pretty clearly from everything that we've seen this summer and everything that we saw at his exit interview and the entirety of last season. That is not a feasible option for the Lakers to have him on their roster. And I think that right now, the reason that you haven't seen a trade yet is all of these other teams know that and know that the Lakers need to get off of his deal.

And so we're saying, give us everything you have because you can't possibly take this guy into camp. And the Lakers are like, well, maybe we can. You should stop us. And like sort of projecting this, oh, no, we're just going to run it back. It's fine. Darvin Hamm. Darvin Hamm is going to make Russell Westbrook into like the three and D point guard that

we need to play around LeBron James and Anthony Davis. And so I think the Lakers are holding out, hoping that they can get Kyrie after all this KD stuff kind of shakes out because that's clearly the option that LeBron wants. But, you know, also looking at options like, you know, you see the Hornets as a team with like maybe Gordon Hayward, if they're ready to get off him and his kind of long term money. has a team with like maybe Gordon Hayward, if they're ready to get off him and his kind of long-term money, you look at Miles Turner and buddy healed, who are both like, you know, probably not in the Pacers plans beyond this year.

And buddy healed like a little bit, probably overpaid for what he met for what he provides. And not like the greatest contract longer term than Westbrook. So you were saving the pace or some money there. These are kind of the motivations that, you know, you're looking for when you're trying to find a Westbrook landing spot is like these veterans that are making a decent amount of money for teams that

are probably trying to rebuild and might just would, maybe they'd rather have a Lakers first or two Lakers first or whatever it may be. So as Lakers fans who, what are the sugar plums dancing in you guys' head? Is it, is it Kyrie? Is it Donovan?

What are you, what are you hoping to... I mean, obviously, I think Donovan Mitchell would be someone that Lakers fans would love, but I don't see that happening. They don't have the assets to outbid the Knicks for him. So I think it would be... It's definitely Kyrie, I think, is at the top of the majority wish list

just because for his problems, like not really being available via health or via personal choice, you know, and not wanting to, you know, suit up and not necessarily always wanting to play basketball. You know, he is a much, much better on court fit with LeBron and Anthony Davis than Russell Westbrook is. And so as kind of mercurial as he might be, he is someone that I think is high up on Lakers fans wishlist just because he provides the type of skillset that you can, you can squint and look at that team and talk yourself into,

okay, they are a contender. They're probably not the favorite, but they're a contender now just because they have these three guys that are so good and fit so well together. And hopefully they're all healthy at the right time in the playoffs and they can kind of make it through a run. It's the squinting. That's the problem with us though we squint a lot

get back to contention as if you squint a little bit like none of these trades get them back into like oh man they're the baby yeah immediately or something like that like it's like okay yeah i could you know i could kind of see that working out they got some pieces that kind of maybe fit and if everybody stays healthy yeah right for sure um well let's move on uh to some just some more serious news bill russell passed away over the weekend the 11 time champion hall of famer uh passed away at the age of 88 i hadn't realized so there's so many great articles written kind of eulogizing him and talking about his career i hadn't realized the celtics didn't even make it to the finals until he was on the celdic and then they you know 11 time winners but

like right that's i for some reason i had in my mind that like the celdics dominance was in some way not like brought by him and oh right that it was not existing yeah no he they hadn't even made the final no right that you thought it was pre-existing greatness prior to his arrival yeah it's so that that was just one of the details that i feel like i i had wrong um but yeah wait so i'm on vacation right now you might hear a little bit more laid back uh distracted jack uh coming to to you with my family. And when Bill Russell passed, my dad, who used to coach the Celtics, was like the day that I resigned as Celtics coach, Bill Russell called me and I talked to him for like two hours, which is I don't think I've ever talked to anyone for two hours on the phone. I was like, how are you just telling me this right now? So I wanted to talk to my dad about this.

I actually hadn't even thought to do that. So producer Jabari was like, maybe for your NBA podcast that you do. He's like, what would my dad know? Coach the Celtics? Oh, right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I will say my big takeaway is it's weird to interview your father.

First of all, because I had his Wikipedia page up in front of me while i was interviewing him like i wanted to get the date of the seasons he was coaching the celtics right i also couldn't remember if it was jim o'brien or orion i didn't get that wrong but uh i you know i i just checked a date but then i left it up during the interview, which is just would have been embarrassing if it was anyone else. But I just asked him a couple anecdotes from his time just getting to know Bill Russell. So we can play that clip. But before we do anything that jumped out to you guys from the articles that were written about him. Yeah. The undefeated in elimination games.

That was like astounding. You know, like we talked about clutch guys and stuff like that and like who's the most clutch player in nba history that might be like one of the most incredible clutch stats i have ever heard now again like his team in probably a lot of those situations was like the better one and had went to a game seven but still like to never lose a game seven or like any sort of elimination game in any tournament at any level of basketball, that's insane. Right. Miles, anything you want to... Bill Russell is one of those guys, right, when I was younger, I didn't know about him until the 50th anniversary of the league.

I mean, I didn't really bother to know about him until the 50th anniversary of the league. And I remember that was a huge, significant turning point my like knowledge about basketball, like NBA history in general. And when I looked, I was almost like, like angry that he was so good and was even like a like a player coach and like basically had done everything. I didn't realize he was the first African-American to even coach a professional team. And he like he's done so much on and off the court uh and i just look at the way his influence you know still uh affects like players that we see in the league today and how much the players that we see who are like advocating for you know like a better just society or future like you're essentially modeling bill russell like whether you know it

or not uh and i think you know it's it's we're very lucky to have like these sort of gigantic figures like that who were absolute legends in every single dimension of their being and yeah it's a it's a tremendous loss and i you know like i said you know you gotta give you gotta give respect where it's due and there's no way you could look at bill russell and say anything but this man is excellence personified. Yeah. And he was doing all that stuff at a time when it was much less popular than it is today. Oh, yeah.

Some of those stories about what he and his family went through. I mean, he signed with the Celtics two years after Brown v. Board of Education was decided. Yeah. two years after brown v board of education was decided yeah like that's his proximity to all of the you know societal changes that were were going on at that time so something that our culture is kind of memory hold is the boston busing riots but that was like the 70s that's something everybody should go look up read about uh because it's yeah that that was that was much later than i think our culture assumed these sorts of things were happening but right yeah all of this stuff is more recent than you realize i think that then we think about frequently in terms of like i i was reading uh

one of the remembrances from uh tom ziller who publishes his own newsletter good morning it's basketball yeah you know he had one where he was talking about back during his playing career, a civil rights leader, I'm forgetting the name, asked Bill Russell to come down to the South and basically put on an integrated basketball camp. And he had no obligation to come down and do this and still went down, had to have security because the KKK was assembling across the street from this basketball camp to try and intimidate people out of going to it.

And he still went. And there was like someone every night when he slept in this undersized hotel bed, there was somebody sitting next to him with a rifle as the last line of defense to defend him. And like, this is how much this guy was willing to put it on the line to try and like advocate for his principles and just like an incredible, incredible human being.

Yeah. All right. Let's throw to a break. We'll come back. We'll go right into me talking to my dad and then we'll come out of that few last words about Bill Russell and then we'll move on. We'll be right back. Senora Sex Ed is not your mommy 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 covering everything from body image to representation in film and television. We even interview iconic Latinas like Puerto Rican actress Ana Ortiz. I felt in control of my own physical body and my own self.

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Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of My Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. All right, Dad. So, how's it going? It's going great. Thanks for having me. I've never recorded you on mic before. I've never interviewed my dad. So this is exciting. So you were the head coach of the Boston Celtics from 2001 to 2004. It took them to the Eastern Conference Finals. I think you know this, but just setting the scene for people. You're also head coach of your hometown Sixers.

04-05 season with Allen Iverson near the height of his powers. Took them to the playoffs. Coached the Pacers from 07 to 2011. But I wanted to talk to you about something that I heard you say the other day that I had not known this. 2011 but i wanted to talk to you about something that i heard you say the other day that i i had not known this but when you resigned from the celtics in the 04 season you said that bill russell called you that day and you guys talked for a couple hours yeah i had a great conversation with uh russ uh the former celtics uh you know bill Russell, Koozie, Heinz, and all these guys were very,

very generous with their time. And I had gotten to know Bill Russell over the years that I was there with the Celtics. And he was always very generous with his time and his advice and funny, funny guy. And we had a great conversation. And some of the things I remember about that conversation were that he would adjust whatever he had to do to give the Celtics what they needed on any given year. So when they had Casey Jones at the point guard spot, he was a great defensive player,

not so much a great offensive player. So Russell decided he just needed to score more points that particular year to give them the best chance to win the championship. And when Kuzi was the point guard, a funny story that Russell had told me was he grabbed Kuzi early on and he said, you know, Bob, you're a great ball handler,

but you just are horrible defensively. He said, so you can't keep your guy in front of you. So what I want you to do is make sure he beats you, which he'll do often, to the offensive player's left hand. And as soon as he beats you, run to half court on the left side and I'll throw you the basketball. So it would give you an idea of how, what his prowess was defensively. Yeah, he was just, you were saying the other day

that he would just look at his roster and decide how many points he had to average that season, which I think it's almost like the least amount of scoring he could do to give his team the best chance at winning. And so, you know, the one constant was how dominant he was defensively. And that's never, nobody on your team or anywhere is ever going to begrudge you for being a great defensive player. But, you know, he was a player coach. So getting everybody involved was important to him, it sounds like. You know, people talk about Russ being probably the greatest champion in the history of basketball. He may have been the best leader. You alluded to a couple of things about him deciding what was needed and be able to give it to him. But some of his teammates, Kuzi and Heinzen,

would tell me little anecdotes about Russ and if they were going through a bad period of time in a game or they had lost one game, he would go into a huddle at a timeout and look at the guys and say, okay, I clearly am screwing this up. You tell me what I need to do better. And it was kind of a way of letting everybody else know that here's a guy that clearly wasn't screwing things up, that they were screwing it up. But he was taking the hit and he would do whatever it took to win basketball games. Like the buck stops with him.

So even if he wasn't the one screwing it up like he's like you know it's on me on my shoulders so you grew up a Sixers fan as they repeatedly got trounced by the Celtics right I not necessarily trounced but they would beat us every year when it mattered right right um what what was it like for you at this pivotal point in your career? Was it just ever surreal for you? Because Russell, I hadn't realized that Celtics never made the finals before Russell got there. So he really was the Celtics dynasty. And now here you are years later, you're coaching the Celtics and, you know, just end your,

your tenure there. And here's the guy who was such a huge part of that dynasty calling you. Was that, that surreal? Was that a kind of a weird moment or are you just kind of in the moment and don't notice that sort of thing? Well, I had gotten to know him pretty well, you know a couple things as far as going from philadelphia uh growing up loving philadelphia and having my heart broken seemingly every year uh when they had the press conference to announce rick patino as the head coach i was going to be as associate coach i happened to sit be sitting next to red

hourback who was you know we're indoors and he's smoking his big stogie as was his habit and uh i said to him i said red you know you broke my heart and you you taught me how to cry about basketball and he turned and he blew a big puff of smoke into my face he goes is that right so uh you know of the things about russ that i i found to be humorous you know there people had always talked about he would never go out and play a basketball game uh without first throwing up and you know one time our back is you know relaying a story to me saying that he's ready to send a team out. He hasn't even talked to the team and everyone's waiting around and Red's not opening his mouth.

And he says to Russ, we're waiting on you, Russ. You haven't puked yet, so you better get there. And then Russ, a couple years later when I you know i was feeling the pressure of of uh coaching the celtics and before the game he said to me you know what you take this way too seriously and i said here's i'm talking to the guy that's telling me that who had to throw up before every game so it's kind of uh ironic that he would say that did you ever try throwing up before the game just get get it out, you know? I was just out on a boat with our brother-in-law. I think he could have used

some of that. That's what the captain was saying. Get it out. Get it over with. Any other Russell stories? Bill Russell stories? You know, Bill Russell, everybody that had the opportunity to observe him on the basketball court knew how good he was defensively. But what few people know is that he would rarely practice. And he would rarely practice because, as Red Auerbach would say, nobody could get a shot off on the other team when he was on the court. He was that dominant. off on the other team when he was on the court. He was that dominant and dominant on the court and just an iconic man off the court. And when he was playing in San Francisco, he told me a story, I think the day that I resigned, that his college coach told him that he never wanted him to leave

his feet to block a shot for whatever reason. It was back in the old days. He wanted him to leave his feet to block a shot for whatever reason. It was back in the old days. He wanted him to stay down and not get pump fake. And I'm sure Russ didn't listen to him that much at that point in time. But we lost a great man. Really? One of the greats. That's funny.

That's like one of the things they tell you in elementary school. Never leave your feet for a pump fake. And he's still bringing it up years later. All right, well, Dad, Jim O'Brien, Coach O'Brien, thanks so much for talking to me. This was good. We'll have to do it again sometime. Look forward to it, son.

All right, so that was me talking to my dad, All right. So that was me talking to my dad, uh, coach Jim O'Brien, uh, about, you know, his conversations with Bill Russell.

Um, I'd say the, you know, I had heard the, the thing that he threw up before every game. That's like one of the first things you hear in basketball. I think, especially if you're like a nervous person,

they're like, no, man, don't worry about Bill Russell used to throw up before every game. Totally normal. Yeah. I'd say the, the anecdote that jumped out to me was that he,

it sounds like he scored as little as he possibly could while his teams would still win, which is just like, I don't know that that is, that makes sense of like his scoring kind fluctuating, going up and down. And also just given what we know about what actually makes a team win is getting people involved offensively and people being willing to sacrifice to get other guys involved. I feel like you almost couldn't have a career like that today

because there's so much pressure from the media to every box score is being scrutinized. And it takes a lot of, I don't know, just selflessness and just single-mindedly only caring about the final result of winning. I think LeBron kind of did that in a lot of ways for a large part of his career. And he got a lot of pushback from people being like, you take the final shot if you're the best player on the team.

And it's like, that doesn't really make sense. And I was going to even further contextualize it. They didn't track blocks until either very late in his career or afterwards. There were even less stats to kind of accumulate like while doing that approach. Like now nowadays, like someone could do that and theoretically be like, OK, well, I blocked like three shots a game. Like my field goal percentage allowed at the rim is really low. Like you can show their value like they didn't have any of that stuff. Right. It was all anecdotal.

value like they didn't have any of that stuff right it was all anecdotal and so he just did it like and you had to almost like look at his dominance by sheer word of mouth and i guess like rebounding statistics and stuff like that like you know there were the crazy stories about like the level of depth he saw the game in and that like he would you know he would try and help his teams build up a lead against wilt's teams and then just kind of let him score just enough so that he didn't start to like pick up on bill's defensive tricks and he could employ them when he really needed to it's just like you know it's the type of stuff that we on the outside never think about it on that level of like the stuff that these guys do and the mental games that they play uh you know just again like incredible like that one of the highest basketball iqs we've probably ever seen i think

just in general to have that kind of intelligence, to think of like, well, if I reveal this too many times to my opponent, then it becomes moot. In a way, I feel like, what is he like? Is Nathan Fielder the new Bill Russell? Nathan Fielder. Displaying like 4D jets. Just letting him run with it.

Yeah, Bill Russell had a flowchart on his laptop. Yeah, exactly. He's like, okay, right. He's like, okay, we win the tip-off. Okay, go to the next. We'll get a couple righty hook shots. Like, I'm going to be able to block it the next time because he's going to be overconfident in it. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right, well, let's pivot

in the paint to NBA Dunk Week. It's Dunk Week. pivot in the paint to nba dunk week it's dunk week did they really pick is it sharp is it also shark week they did they did i know shark week was last week okay so they're like i think it's two weeks now right around now all right i have no idea shark week is year round and in this household. No, I think it was last week. I think it was last week, but who knows?

Look, it's all Shark Week to us. But more importantly, it is NBA Dunk Week. And we thought to celebrate, we should probably go over some of the top dunks of the year and in no particular order. We'll play a quick clip so you can hear the audio. Jack or Harrison, would either of you want to do the play-by so you can hear the audio uh jack or harrison would either of you want to do the color color play by play to describe the i would love to okay i'm not qualified for this so yeah you you go for it so first we will talk about this is i mean like this

is in no i guess is it a particular order well in my i they are in the order that uh i would have put them in except maybe i mean we well here then for the purpose of this let's just say in no particular order okay in no particular order let's look at some of the contenders put into it at all none no thought was put into this at all there was no my flow chart and no pre-planning done whatsoever or anything no bits worked out because that's not what kind of podcast this is. But let's talk about the first dunk. The first one is

Anthony Edwards over Gabe Vincent. This is from I believe November. This is earlier on in the season. This only gets honorable mention because I think they called a foul. At a certain point you might just need to oh no oh yeah this is the one that nate duncan was trending afterwards because he was like yeah

you know it's not that great but don't you push off or something like that like uh-huh yeah i mean i could have done it i see i see what nate's talking about i could have done that um but that that's the thing if you're a ref and you call a foul on that you should be suspended right for denying us just that just that kind of dunk what gabe vincent does here is the equivalent of jumping on a hand grenade because Anthony Edwards is a clear lay into the basket. Vincent rotates all the way from the other side. He has the shooter in the corner

in the opposite corner, gets in front of it, does take a charge, but I think gets there a little late because his feet aren't set before. His feet definitely look like they're moving. His feet are moving as Anthony Edwards is already gliding through the air.

It's powerful. It is a work of beauty. Jumps from way too far away, gets to the rim and dunks it, which I guess can't fully be said about our next one, the Embiid over Jared Allen. Okay. Because I think he just kind of throws

it as hard as he can into the basket. I don't know if his fingers actually ever touched the net, but I remember where I was when this happened. Okay. Set this up for us, Jack. Late Thursday night. I was in a bad place.

Two days before Valentine's Day. Tell us how you were feeling. This might have been when the Sixers fans were waiting for Harden. Harden was still hurt, but had been traded already. Our hopes were the highest they'd be all season. Embiid misses a free throw. We get the offensive board. And then he takes two steps.

And his shoulders are above the rim as he just throws the ball downwards over Jared Allen. Here he goes. It's the rare dunk where sometimes the player who is being

dunked over looks like they stepped on a hand grenade uh this is the where and bead flies backwards when he yeah he dunks it with such force that it's his body can't believe what just happened i mean also like jared allen's a sturdy man you know like yeah all due respect to gabe vincent but he's you know a little stockier a little larger yeah edmund i i like these dunks like this because we so rarely see a guy throw it through the rim like that with that level of kind of violence

and flair and yeah, I mean those are, I have a soft spot for those. I do too. And that has nothing to do with the fact that I am a Sixers fan. No, no, objectively I think it's great. Alright, we can move past this one. This is Jalen Brown thinking over somebody. This is Dallas, I think it's great. All right, we can move past this one. This is Jalen Brown. I'm thinking over somebody.

This is Dallas, I guess. Dallas, Boston. Kind of a nice crossover between the legs. Splits the double team, Jalen Brown. Dunks it over Cleva. Yeah. I'm going to say not that impressive. Not that impressive.

It's, I guess, one of those ones where it's 1v1. Who's going to come out on top? It is only 1v1 because he split the... It is 1v1 because he split a double team with a between-legs dribble.

That's the thing about Jalen Brown. People will talk about him not having a good handle and then he will have a dribble move that is like what did he just black out there what if he's not a good dribbler what what exactly is this that's just him attacking the rim and i think yeah just one of he's he's doing what he needs to do i mean it's not like the fanciest move but, it's efficient in that he just rendered those two defenders completely useless. Takes off from a great distance, throws it down. Okay, what about another

one? I think a lot of people need to keep their eye on this Russell Westbrook guy. Okay, and I know we're talking about some teams that are interested. May I offer you this dunk over Rudy Gobert? Send this to the Pacers repeatedly. Just be like, look at this. He's,bert? Send this to the Pacers repeatedly. Just be like, look at this.

He's, you know. He's at the top of the key and just... All by himself. Violence. So I was going to say earlier that the Embiid over Jared Allen was the best defender that is getting, you know, going up to meet the dunker at the rim. But, I mean, Gobert is an all-time great defender. best defender that is getting uh you know going up to meet the dunker at the rim but i mean gobert is all-time great defender and russ uh this is just violence yeah what is he a foot he's like

a four-time defensive player of the year three times something like that you know yeah i think again nba teams might be undervaluing this guy uh russ just took him one-on-one you're getting a steal of a deal here yeah i mean they should be giving the lakers first round picks for this guy don't look up any other clips from last year don't look up anything else just this clip he does dunk from inside the circle at the free throw line like it is oh it's impressive it's shocking he's still an incredible athlete he's not he's not like what he was you know in his prime he's still you know there were moments like this last season where you could still see like he's still an

amazing athlete it's just not the greatest you know sometimes he was missing these dunks um but yeah it's a little difficult okay let's move on to another one i'd say these are the two these are the two finalists i could i could put these in either order at one or two. This is Andrew Wiggins dunking over Luka. This is game three. We talked about this one.

It's another one where someone decided to go straight up and may have regretted that decision. Here comes Wiggins. Wiggins. Wiggins. Now, they did call a charge in the moment, I think just based on

the fact that it seemed like a I mean, he does kind of punch him in the face as he's going by, but it's kind of like, you don't want this. I don't know that he did it on purpose. It also slowed down. I think it is Luca selling it.

Oh, yeah. I remember the still image of this was Luca actually pulling a face and cowering. It felt very like trying to have a big reaction to get the official's attention sort of thing. But a fantastic moment.

I think that's definitely up there. Considering the stakes, too, of like, you know, it's a playoff game. Yes. Yeah. And it tells the story of the season, which is that Andrew Wiggins comes on and suddenly is playing like the best possible version of Andrew Wiggins. Yeah, Luca is all the people that like doubted Andrew Wiggins. He's like, I am doubting that you can jump from this far and still dunk on me.

And Andrew Wiggins was like, no, I can when I try sometimes. I think other podcasts might have that as the dunk of the year because the story of the year for them is who wins the title. Uh, story of the year for me is, uh, this fellow jaw Morant yeah um and his dunk in game five versus the timberwolves uh round one so not as uh momentous

as the wiggins dunk in terms of you know playoff you know import but they're down 13 at this point after he dunks this he this is the game where he just couldn't be stopped, right? He just decided to score a lot. Yeah. And it is also just one of the coolest things I've ever seen a human being do with a human body. Yeah, this one's clean. Winner takes a 3-2 lead in this open round. From the top of the key. Goes through four people and then... Jawbreaker! This one's clean.

Goes through four people. And if you haven't seen this, it's like an anime dunk or something. I could see... Yeah, exactly. If you did this in an anime, everything would black out. It would just be jaw and Beasley. And then you would see streaks of light coming off his feet he like elevates 10 000 feet into the air and then comes

crashing back down yeah he basically like touches the ground again with the ball he cocks his arm so far back and then uh you know finishes it yeah fantastic i was gonna half jokingly like stand for the westbrook one as the number one. He deserves it. But yeah, after watching the Ja one again, it's got to be. I think you guys are being a little too narrow-minded. I think this Russell Westbrook guy, again, if you are the Jazz, the Knicks, the Pacers, check this video out. The Nets. The Nets.

I mean, it's got the Mad Boosties dunk of the season okay gotta be worth something uh okay well thank you so much for playing along you tell us if we missed a dunk but i honestly i think that john morant dunk is you think that john morant dunk is the moment when tim connelly was like i gotta give up 97 first round picks for rudy gobert he would have stopped that you know like i just i can't watch this anymore. I need a large human near the rim. Right. Yeah. I mean, that is going to be harder to do on the Timberwolves this year. Unless you watch the Russ clip

like three clips back. Exactly. Right. I am starting to get excited about the Timberwolves this season. Oh, I am too. They're going to be interesting at the very least. I'm curious to see how it works. I don't know that I'm like all the way on board with they're going to be amazing yet, but I want to watch it.

I like that they're a team that's doing something different. The three teams I'm most excited to watch this next season are the Grizzlies, the Timberwolves, and the Pelicans. And that wasn't the case five years ago. So that's kind of, we're in a new league. I'm very excited about this. Who would have thought? All right, let's take a quick break,

and we'll be right back to finish this thing out with the rapid-fire questioning round. When you think of Mexican culture, you think of avocado, mariachi, delicious cuisine, and, of course, lucha libre. It doesn't get more 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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the emperor of Lucha Libre and And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, the emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport from its inception in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture. We'll learn more about some of the most iconic heroes in the ring. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of My Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. In a galaxy far, far away. No, babe, that's taken. We're in our own world, remember?

Right. In our own world, we're two space cadets. And totally normal humans. Sure, totally normal humans. Embark on a journey across the stars, discovering the wonders of the universe one episode at a time. We'll talk about life, love, laughter, and why you should never argue with your co-pilot. Especially when she's always right. Right. And if we hit turbulence, just blame it on Mercury retrograde.

Or Emily's questionable space piloting skills. Hey! Join us on In Our Own World for cosmic conversations, stellar laughs, and super corny dad jokes. Listen to In Our Own World as a part of the My Cultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't worry, we promise to avoid any black holes. Most of the time. It was December 2019 when the story blew up. 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

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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 the rapid fire questioning round the fastest way that we could think of to say that rapid fire question round of questioning

with our guest harrison fagan oh man really great bit if you guys just did that and like the name was longer than the actual segment you're just no we would never do something like questioning should the lakers trade westbrook i'm like no, no. And then you're like, okay, that was all right. That was our rapid fire round of questioning. Whoa. All right, man. Uh, but get ready because again, Harrison, like we say, we'd like to ask our guests just respond reflexively. Now we change things up for this time. It's going to be a either or would you rather type situation. Okay. So just respond as quickly as you can to the questions that are put in front of you. That way we can keep this rapid fire round of questions to a very short, concise and economical content package for the listener. OK, start the clock. Which clock? Oh, right.

That's just a thing you said at the beginning of the rapid fire round of questions. Got it. For the rapid fire round of questions. Do you want to go first or should I go first? I'll go first. I'll go. Let's do rock, paper, scissors. One, two, three, shoot. Is that it?

Oh, wow. One, two, three, shoot. What do you got? One, two, paper, scissors, shoot. Oh, you scissored me timbers again. Okay. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Oh, you scissored me timbers again. Okay.

Rock, paper, scissors, shoot. Got him. You got me. Got it. I didn't have the fortitude. All right. Restart the clock. Restart the clock.

The clock's already going, actually, I think. Harrison, we'll blow right by you. Did you get a note on that? Was the clock already going, or do we need to restart the clock, Brian? Do I need to reclaim my time? I'm going to reclaim my time. I think we're good. I think we're good.

Oh, he said we're good. Okay, fantastic. Jabari. Superdiser Jabari hates this segment. Okay, here we go. Start the clock. Start the clock. Harrison, would you rather have the ability to dunk all over someone in anybody,

like Kemp, you know, over Ja style or... Sorry, I screwed that up. Kemp or... Oh, sorry. I thought it was Kemp or someone, but it was Kemp over Liston. Okay, we can still keep this in. Start the clock. Harrison,

would you rather have the ability to dunk all over someone, camp over a list in style, or have unlimited range? Definitely. I feel like the dunks... Yeah, I don't know if it's just because we just watched a bunch of dunks, but I think the dunk thing... I just feel like the dunk thing is cooler. Yeah. I don't really care about being the the best player ever i just want to have like great

highlights right as someone who uh the nba has endorsed us having mad boosties i can say it's a little overrated man that's that range is pretty cool i've always loved being able to just you know reach up and easily getting the bottom of the net whenever i wanted to but uh that that range would really come in handy unlimited range you'd want to hand out umbrellas at the gym when yeah i was like i mean i was never able to shoot but i could touch rim in high school so you know it just would be nice to be able to dunk on people okay harrison you don't need to brag guys on here to remind you this is our podcast and also this is a rapid fire question round. Thank you.

Sorry, my bad. Speaking of dunks, in honor of it officially being the league's official dunk week, would you rather have Giannis drop the hammer on you in the post or have Yaa Morant put you on a poster as he takes off from just inside the free throw line?

Yaa. This is kind of like an erotic question. I like it. Yeah, I like that too. put you on a poster as he takes off from just inside the free throw line? Jaw. This is kind of like an erotic question. I like it. Yeah, I like that too. Which version? Masochistic. How dirty you want to get? Yeah, I just feel like if Giannis does it at my size, I'm going through distention. And probably injuring myself.

Where jaw, it'll be embarrassing. But I probably won't die. Would you, if you knew in the moment would you make a face because you knew you're going to be on a poster to like also kind of get some shine we like hey you know jaw i've got that dunk but harrison's face it's kind of kind of makes the poster become a meme yeah i think i've probably i mean i am not that expressive of a person in my life but i feel like if that was happening i probably wouldn't i would okay yeah has anyone ever that that might be like new ground to break while they're being dunked over like made eye contact with the camera and like made it like oh brother yeah yeah oh man like

a scorsese film where it's like you're probably wondering how i got here. I've got a note for the purdles of the world. Okay. I heard on the hot mic. They're like, ah, man, like, you know,

boy, again. Gosh, not again. Okay. Sorry, Jack. That was on you that time.

We've got to keep it rapid. Harrison, would you rather be able to attend the next three final series or be able to go back in time to witness any single finals matchup? Probably the next three, just because I've already seen how the other ones go. Oh, wow. Okay. So you're not impressed by time travel, huh? No. I mean, all I get to do is go watch the finals, you know?

Yeah, true. It's not like I can go back and... Well, I guess, can I gamble on them? You could. Hold on. That's a good question. That's why I got to be clever about this question. It's not just about going to the finals. Never mind.

I'm going to go back and gamble on Lakers, Celtics, 2010, Game 7. Yes. And then you win enough money to get tickets and plane tickets to the next three finals. Yeah. All right. Harrison has won the rapid fire, but we'll just do the rest of these to run it out. But yeah, you got the right answer there. Would you rather have your team win three of the next five titles and then have to endure

10 years of futility where you don't even make the playoffs? Or would you rather have your team win one title and have a really competitive team that falls just short for the next decade? Deep runs, no cigar. You know, my specific era of Lakers basketball has definitely prepared me for the first one. So yeah, I'm saying the first one all the way.

Yeah. I'm like, I'm ready for a team that's really good for even just one year and then sucks for 10. Just hypothetically. Oh, yeah. I mean, the Randy Fund years, I was living awful old memories for a while, so it happens. That's how we stay alive.

Moving on. Final question. Harrison, Clippers won the title or the Celtics won the title? Clippers. Thank you. That's great. Is that a prediction or is that just like what you would rather? Oh, yeah. I thought, I mean, I guess both, but yeah. Clippers you'll take.

All right. Yeah. You didn't like how rapid that answer was, huh, Jack? No, no, no. I just, I actually didn't understand the question. So I want a little more clarity. Which would I prefer? Yeah.

Which would you prefer? Yeah. Clippers. Yeah. Without Clippers. Good man. Yeah. Actually. asking which would I prefer. Yeah, which would you prefer? Clippers. Good man. Let him get one. I like that answer because the Lakers fans relationship to the Clippers has never sat right with me.

I think Lakers fans need to be nicer to the Clippers. I agree with that too. No, look, I retweeted them be nicer to the Clippers. I agree with that, too. No, look, I retweeted them winning mascot of the year today. You know, that's... Hey! Sometimes your little brother gets a perfect attendance award or something. You've got to recognize that.

We love that. We love that. Well, Harrison, thanks so much for joining us on Miles and Jack Got Mad Boosties. Where can people check out your work and support you and follow you and all that you know you can check out the silver screen and roll podcast which I'm still doing I guess I don't know how much longer I'm

still doing that because I'm not writing anymore but yeah and then you know just follow me on Twitter at HM Fagan and then just check out all the you know if you have a favorite team we have an SB nation blog for you so go check those out uh and yeah that's that's all i got to plug amazing man it was great having you yeah um i didn't love the brag that you could touch rim in high school i mean i'm six foot four it's not like it's not that impressive you know yeah like all right my

whole thing is that like i have matt boosties on this show but i can only tell i could only touch net so it's like oh well i heard a little bit i'm sorry for yeah no that's okay and that's on us and we should have we should prepare the guests and not yeah that was like a rough left stroke on rudy gobert level poster that i just like inadvertently yeah did on you i apologize yeah no it's all alright. I'm just going to hear it for the next week. But it's all good. Never bring that Harrison guy back again. What did I say about bringing people in who could jump higher than me?

And that goes for TDZ too. You have a specific rider that you have. Miles has like, take out all the green Skittles. Just all this stuff. Jack's just like, no one that can jump higher than me. I'm sorry.

Did he say he could grab rim? Okay. You know what? So you think I'm a joke, huh? Is that what's going on? Wow. Thanks a lot for the,

uh, humiliation to producer Jabari. Real tough guy. We got real tough guys. Real tough guy. I see what's going on here. All right. That's my bad.

I'm sorry. I thought I was being self-effacing, but it turns out, it turns out on this podcast. Uh, yeah, that is a huge brag on this podcast. Yeah, you're the best, man. I can't do it anymore.

It makes you feel better. Oh, no, not at all. Sorry. I tried. All right. Thanks. All right, y'all. We'll see you next time

because there will be next time. Bye. Bye. Bye. I'm Carrie 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, Caitlin 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.

I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Caitlin Clark versus Angel reese people are 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 iheart radio apps or wherever you get your podcasts the black effect podcast network is sponsored by Diet Coke. Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from?

Like what's the history behind bacon-wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejon. Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back. And this season, we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history. Seeing that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba

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