The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Alley Oop 9 (Part 1): Pistons, Harden, and Who Will Be MVP? w/ Kofie

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Juju Gotti and the sports video game content creator Kofie Yeboah discuss the end of the Pistons playoff run, James Harden, Jokic and Shai in that mvp race, and who will win the Celtics-Knicks series. Alley Oop talks all things basketball and hoopers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Proximo. Cuervo.com. Please drink responsibly. Cuervo. Da da da da. Welcome back to the NBA. I said NBA. Let me start that over. Keep all that in. Welcome back to the alley-oop. You got to know we got my dawg back after a very, very upsetting

first loss for his Pistons. Kofi, how you feeling today, man? I'm feeling good. I actually can't complain, man. I can't believe that we were part of the wildest playoff series in the Eastern Conference. It was the most exciting series in the Eastern Conference, I feel like. And we didn't play awful, right? We had some bad games, we didn't have a truly embarrassing showing, didn't get blown out the entire time, I really cannot complain. The Knicks are a great team. Bro, put me right next to you when Tim Hardaway Jr. does not get the call at the end of that game. I wasn't even thinking about that because the thing is is that at the end of the third quarter,

Dennis Schroeder got a steal and handed it off to Tim Hardaway Jr. for the dunk and it didn't count because they ran out of time. And that whole time I was thinking, oh, that's going to come back. I know that that's going to come back, especially in a game where every bucket counts. I was like, oh no, that was a free two points and that's definitely going to come back to bite us. And it did. I was upset, bro, because I feel like JB for the great coach he is, I would have realized

a little earlier that bro, Dennis Schroeder should not be on Jalen one on one, like not for the majority of the game, especially at the end of the game that he had him in. I was wondering cause like Asar, Asar was doing such a great job the entire series on Jalen. And so to switch him out at the end, I don't know if it was for offense or what, but that's when Jalen started to cook, you feel me? But I ain't gonna relive those old wounds. I don't wanna do that to you, dawg.

The NBA playoffs are still trudging along, you dig? And look, it's not a bird, it's not a plane plane it's playoff James Harden rearing his ugly head once again dog my goodness gracious i think that boy had like eight shot attempts in the game seven what do you feel about my dog James Harden excuse me playoff James Harden live in effect once again that's my favorite player. Damn, for real? Yes, I love a luck handed basketball player. So every time this happens, it really gets harder to, because just at the end of the day,

it's too big of a sample size to ignore and be like, no, it's just in a bad circumstance, a bad situation. It's just unlucky. And I think that this really gets magnified because the Western Conference is Just comprised of so many good teams so that yeah a first round exit in the first round exit in the Western Conference Especially when it goes seven To a team that you think can definitely make the Western Conference finals or even the NBA finals if they catch lightning

So whenever James Harden plays bad I've I feel some sort of sadness as well, because I know that this is going to really be the cover letter to the legacy resume, whereas I'm going to talk about all the other positive things about James Harden throughout his career, whether it's like, yeah, he averaged 36 points a game for a season or yeah, that time. And the thing is that James Harden has had these playoff performances that are really good in the past. And he's also like fought really hard saying that, I mean, I remember the game where he played 53 minutes on a hamstring injury, but that's not gonna get brought up

in the grand scheme of things. It's just gonna be remembered, we're gonna be remembered as James Harden, the guy that had eight shots total and scored seven points when his team needed more of that. And it's really frustrating and sad to watch as a fan. Hell yeah, bro. Especially considering they remain healthy. There was the healthiest I've ever seen that team.

I was waiting for Kawhi to come up a little lame at a certain point. He didn't. Norman Powell stayed fit. Bogie, Zubats, everybody was playing their part. Even Derek Jones Jr. came out firing the last game. But James, I don't know. It's your favorite player. I'm gonna ease up on him. I'm pretty upset about it because I just want him to show a little bit more aggression. Like, bro, damn, I mean, salute to your teammates, but this game's seven, bro. Do the little dwee-dwee-dwee-dwee, get the foul, swipe through the- do whatever you do, bro. I don't like how it happened, bro.

Play it out for them. He's my favorite player, but that criticism is not unfair though. That criticism is not unfair because I wouldn't feel this bad if I knew that he could play at a better level. Because we saw it earlier on in this series. I just don't... It's something that I can't really explain why this keeps happening in game sixes and game sevens. You know, and when it was the fill it up, when it was the 76ers, I was like, okay, well, some of this is James Harden, but some of this, I could look at Doc and be

like, Doc is also involved in this and whatnot. But here it's, here's one of the ones where you were for years, we've been asking for a healthy Clippers and you're right. We got it this year It's just it's just sad that it ends up like this because this I feel like this is the healthiest kawai has been in years And overall in terms of an overall standpoint But yeah, it's just unfortunate and I don't know where we go from here because James Harden is like 35 36 There's how many I don't know how many, we are in a generation where players can play for way longer, but I still don't know what the limit to that is for people in Atlanta, LeBron, Steph, or KD, right?

Rob Markman Salute to the Brody too. That was the most like well received technical file in the history of the technical file, but I tried to break the goal I'll take the free throw. We're up. We're still up double digits. Well, I know what yeah Right, that's we can take the tech. That's a good tech Good tech and a bad tech you get that's a good that's a good tech, right? But you had the most a viral tweet on West Russell Westbrook too in the history of Russell Westbrook tweets. What'd you say? You was like, he was the mystery box, the Mario?

Yeah, I said that. I was at a Detroit Lions, Detroit Pistons bar in Los Angeles when I tweeted that, because I was getting ready for the upcoming game. But then I tweeted that and I sat back. Sometimes when a tweet of mine goes viral and I'm just like Sitting not even not even on Twitter not even monitoring it and then you look down 30 minutes later. I'm like, oh I was like, oh, okay. This is okay. This is what this what's going on So what so that he even answered questions after the last game like he understands the Russell Westbrook experience is something like you described. I like the self-awareness.

I can't knock the self-awareness. It's like he understands that he has only a couple of speeds. It's all out and then all out plus more you know and I can't knock that. Definitely one of the greatest you feel me like he's gonna go down in history as the greatest We all get get the age Father time is undefeated and he's doing his best to give him a hell right now And right now his team moving on finna face some thunder you did SGA versus the Joker This is why I wish they would they should announce the MVP award right after the season because now I

Feel like well whoever win this series should announced the MVP award right after the season. Because now, I feel like, well, whoever wins this series should be the MVP. They definitely can't give it to the loser of the series, no matter what. What you think? SGA? First off, who do you think the MVP is? SGA or the Joker? I think it's Shay because I think you have to give it to him because of how great his contributions to his team are but I will say that the the season that jokers had He's been better than some of his MVP winning seasons. So that's really a hard. It's really a hard argument to

To even just like think about at the two of them and debate because it's like this is probably jokers best season statistically analytically or close to his best. And still people are gonna be like, well, it should be Shay because how, it's one of those things where I'm like, we've had co-rookie of the years before co-MVP, I feel like probably is out of the cards, given how we,

that would be awful for how we talk about, it would be like, oh, we've talked about the MVP race for three months and it turns out it's a tie. Oh no, we would raise hell for that, I swear. But it'd be funny though, I would love it. Yeah, it'd be funny as hell. Who you think gonna win the series though? Cause I'm looking at the Nuggets as one of the dark horses of the NBA Championship.

You feel me? Like, I think that you can never count them out. I feel like the worst nightmare was when the bracket linked this way for the Thunder, which that 4-5 was the Nuggets and the damn Clippers. I know that they could pretty much have their way with, definitely, we'll get to the Rockets ass in a bit but the Warriors, the Wolves, I think they can outlast them boys but the Nuggets just got something that once Murray is clicking, once the Joker is clicking, once Christian Brown, I'm going

to call him Brown, I'm going to call him Brown, once he gets to flexing and doing them tight zone like I don't know know, they be scary in there, West, man. What you think about this series? West Jermall-Isaac Jr. I got Oklahoma City in six. I really think there's only a handful of teams that can throw out all of the different lineups and strategies that OKC can, whether it's playing the double big lineup, whether it's

playing small, they have so many people that they can throw at Jamal Murray this series. And honestly, they have so I think they have a couple of different ways that they could throw Jokic, whether it's check guarding him or whether it's check doing like the Rudy go bear thing where he's like the second line of defense. So if Joker gets to the rim, then checks at the rim and not guarding him when he's posting up and stuff like that. So I feel like this Oklahoma City team is one of the deepest teams I've ever seen, especially on the defensive end. And I feel like it's going to be a puzzle for

the Nuggets to crack because again, the Nuggets played so well last series that I forgot they fired their head coach before. But I feel like a lot, I feel like this is a series where a lot of people are going to remember because people are probably going to look at Mike Malone. They're going to look for Mike Malone and then they'll going to, they're going to see on the sideline where it's like, Oh, Oh yeah, that did happen. I feel like this is a series where we're going to be reminded of that a little bit, but I, I'm never going to really count out Joker because he's just that good of a, a carry talent and

especially Jamal Murray with the games that he can have. But I feel like OKC has more than enough and should take care of business. What you think Mike Malone, like in his living room when he watching these games, do you think he rooting for the Nuggets or you think he rooting against their ass? I feel like he's gonna root for his players. I mean, I feel like he's gonna root for, players. I mean, I feel like he's gonna root for, I mean, I really don't know, but I feel like he would root for Jokic at least

because I mean, they came into the league together in terms of he was the head coach while he was a rookie. He hoping that the coach make a mistake and call a timeout they don't got or something, bro. You gonna just fire me for the playoffs, hell nah. And win the championship, I will be damned. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. The hate watch, for sure. The hate watch is probably, there's probably something, even if he's just smiling on the outside, there's probably just some little kernel that's like, yeah, I totally understand that. Right, right. It's playful now,

but they get past these thunders, it's going to be like, all right, bro. Nah, voodoo doll. Ms. Cleo, getting them out of here, bro. Getting a little too serious? Yeah, for sure. Right, right. We finna goddamn wrap this shit up. Any last words you wanna tell these folks, man? What should we check out? What should we be looking for from the coaster?

You dig it. Feel free to check out my YouTube channel, Kofi, K-O-F-I-E, and feel free to join me on Nebula, K-O-F-I-E, and feel free to join me on Nebula, K-O-F-I-E as well. What's Nebula, bruh? Nebula is a content creator's own streaming service. You can watch my content on Nebula, ad free, and that's the best way to support me as a content creator. Come on, man.

Support my dog, Kofi, man. My boy's supporting us, putting up on us is only right, man. Let's support my dog, Kofi, man. I appreciate you, man. Thank y'all, the listeners, for tuning in, man. Without y'all, who the hell are we type shit, you feel me? So lock in, you feel me? We'll be back with another episode next week.

Same bad time, right here on the network. You dig.