The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Big Suey: Who is No. 7? (feat. Elie Mystal)

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

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Cuervo Cuervo The tequila that invented tequila. Proximo, Cuervo.com, please drink responsibly. queervo. Welcome to the big suey presented by DraftKings. Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan LeBattard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that.

In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys? I've done it. And now, here's the marching man to nowhere, fat face, and the habitual liar. This episode of the Dan LaBattal Show with Stu Gatze

is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Unfortunately, our crack team of editors isn't able to edit things in a way that doesn't cause music to play that affects our money. But they can find sound of me being wrong and Billy being right very quickly. Whether or not we've ever mentioned Jeff Ulbrich on this show before this prank, I said we had not, Billy said we had, it appears he's right. Let's play that sound. I just don't think that you do

this unless you know what you're doing next. Like you don't just fire him without knowing what the next news is. According to Zach Rosenblatt from The Athletic, Jeff Ulbrich will be the interim coach. So he's the defensive coordinator and now the coach apparently according to zach he's beloved by the entire jets roster and staff well that always works should have edited samson out of there too well that's probably a good idea just a lot of that he'll do it the last little tail of it

he's the justice correspondent for the nation he's in new york times best selling authors latest book bad law ten popular laws that are ruining america's available now but we're here to talk to him about football not politics l a miss elie mistol is with us and uh... i want to ask you among other things whether you want to answer this is a giant span or or as a black man yes uh... i have even asked the question yet. Shador Sanders falling in the draft.

Go ahead and answer that however you want. Giants fan or black man? Yeah, no, I gotta start as a Giants fan first, right? Like, this is what my team does, right? And if the Giants wanna know how good a quarterback can be when they have a loud father who is manipulating the draft. They need to look no further than Eli Manning because there's ain't a thing that Deon Sanders

is doing that he didn't learn from watching Archie Manning. People forget that Archie Manning literally would not let Eli play for the San Diego Chargers. The Giants say like, oh no, that's a locker room cancer waiting to happen. No, they were like, come, come, come, come on over. We're gonna put you on our team. Tom Brady wishes the Giants had reacted to Eli Manning the way that they reacted to Shader Sanders, right?

Because he'd have two extra rings right now. It is pathetic. And the thing that I really, again, as a fan first, this, Brian Dayball is out here talking about how, oh, Shader Sanders, he didn't like, I didn't like how he reacted to our installation package. Brother, you three and 14, maybe your installation package sucks. Like, has that occurred to you yet? Like, look, if Chuck Schumer, in my world, if Chuck Schumer is going to like draft me to run run for Congress and he gives me the Democratic playbook right now I'm gonna be like nah Chuck that ain't it cuz all y'all all y'all do

was lose maybe I got my own plays that I want to run Chuck like that and that's just in my world there's the idea that you can't draft a quarterback because you didn't like how he reacted to your three and 14 installation package is just it's it's beyond me. So yes, as a giant fan first, what a disaster as an African American male. Look, ain't nobody do blatant racism quite like the NFL, right? Like we know right now we got a lot of people talking about I can't believe these Latinos voted for Trump. Don't they know they're gonna deport? And I'm like, brother, we watch the NFL, we can't talk.

We can't talk to no Latino who voted for Trump because we watch the NFL. The league does this. The league plays in our faces like this all the time. And Sanders is just the most recent, most blatant example. And I know some of your listeners are gonna be like, how can you tell it's racist? Because look, there are two kinds of racism, right?

There's the racism that only happens because you're black. And people who don't like to think that racism exists, they love to talk about that kind of racism because as soon as they find one black man that it doesn't happen to, they'd be like, see, racism is solved, Barack Obama. What you got now? Like, you know, scoreboard Barack Obama.

Like, but there's a different kind of racism, right? And that's racism that never happens to white folks. And you never see, you never see a white athletic talent drop like a stone in the draft because they didn't interview well, right? Nick Bosa out here interviewing like he's a January 6th terrorist, doesn't affect him, right? Johnny Manziel out here interviewing like he's Nick Cage

from leaving Las Vegas, doesn't affect him, right? The Jets, my cross town rival team, their last quarterback interviewed like he was RFK Jr., ain't had a bath in three years, probably got rabies, ain't gonna affect him, right? But, oh, but Shader Sanders interviewed poorly, so we can't draft him. It's, they're playing in our faces, man,

but the NFL does this all the time But Jackson dart has a great name a nice from Ole Miss from Ole Miss right from one of the most ridiculously like wrong turn like literally named their team after the Confederates Ole Miss Jackson darts the guy. And look, again, I'm a giant fan. Hopefully Jackson does well.

I don't wanna shade Jackson just because of where he come from, right? I'm not like that, right? I hope Jackson does well. But the idea that you can't draft Shader Sanders because he interviewed poorly, or because you didn't like how he reacted to your installation package.

That is just beyond ridiculous. And there are gonna be people who believe it. There are gonna be people who buy that. Who buy that reddit. I mean, I'm gonna show my age a bit, but you remember, I know I'm very old, so I'm gonna embarrass myself. But do you remember like the Wonderlic test?

Yeah, yeah. And you remember the year that like Steve McNair dropped in the draft because apparently he did poorly on the wonder lick test. Like when they want to come at you and you're black, they're going to pull some things out of thin air to kind of Steve McNair. She just, Dion Sanders, right?

Like, let's be clear here. This is not a LeVar Ball situation. This is not a Levar Ball situation. This is not a situation where you have an American businessman who's carpet bagging the league. Deion Sanders is in the hall of goddamn fame. He is in the hall of fame for their click. He is a coach. He is a really good coach.

And you're telling me that his kid can't read a playbook, can't learn how to prepare for a game, are you kidding me? I went to Harvard, my kid knows how to do homework. All right? Yeah. He, he knows how to read a book. All right, like this is kind of basic. There is zero chance that Shader Sanders does not know

how to prepare for an NFL game with that kind of upbringing. There's just zero chance. So again, so these ideas that he is somehow, again, just on the strength of his interviewing is not worthy of being drafted. On the first two days of the draft, that is incredible on its face, and yet that's the game they're playing.

And that's where I'm saying it's racist. That's where I'm saying like, this doesn't happen to white folks, right? Baker Mayfield can go on the sidelines, with his hand in his crotch for the entire fourth quarter. Ain't nobody gonna say anything, but when it happens to the black guy now, we have all the... Dan, you would know better than... Does Shader Sanders have a parking ticket? Does, like, this kid has, as far as I know, absolutely no off-field issues, right?

And we're talking about a league where some brothers got some off-field issues, right? And we're talking about a league where some brothers got some off-field issues Right. We this guy doesn't have as far as I know a substance abuse problem There's no video of him hitting women He wasn't at a diddy party as far as I can tell this guy does not have off-field issues so this is all about who he is and who his dad is and somehow when he's black having a famous that

and and and outspoken that doesn't hurt him at all but when you're a manning i swear if this man was named shameless manning instead of shader seniors he did on number three to the diets end of story let me ask you this because i'm honestly not sure what the answer is if the giants had drafted sanders with the third overall pick what would your reaction of it i'm gonna hold my breath and like okay let's go this this should work it should

work he should be good i don't know i can't evaluate quarterbacks i'm not mel keiper right but it based on the information that's been given to me he should be good. I don't know. I can't evaluate quarterbacks. I'm not Mel Kiper, right? But based on the information that's been given to me, he should be good. The only good football based answer that I've heard about why he might've fallen is the Travis Hunter collaterary, right? It's the, was he very good or was Hunter just an all world talent that covered up

some of the things that he didn't do well, right? And I don't know that as a friend of mine made the argument, I was talking about Manziel earlier, that it might be a Manziel Mike Evans situation where, you know, when you look back on it, Mike Evans is the person that is making Johnny football look so good at A&M. Maybe that's one of the things. And so maybe that, so again, I don't know if he's going to be good, but the idea that he's again, cannot be drafted in the first two days based on what they're telling me, right? Because what you don't have is a bunch of football people telling you about football reasons for why they're falling in the draft. When Mel Kuyper lost his ever loving mind during the draft, which was, I mean, that was just popcorn, like,

mm, I love the old school Mel, right? When he's losing his mind to Lewis Riddick during the draft, what is Riddick coming back from him with, right? Riddick's not coming back with him with like, well, you know, he doesn't have the arm strength to make the doubt. He's not saying that at all. Riddick is saying that what he's hearing is that it's all these personnel issues, these personality

issues, these interview issues, right? So even the NFL is not giving you football reasons for why this man fell. There are some football reasons. He took a lot of sacks. His arm strength is down. Co down coaches aren't surprised by that i should let you know when this is happened to me because uh... sometimes i read before pronouncing things publicly i have said the word panache to describe someone like the on sanders instead of panache so i i will let you know it should do or not shader i will just let them say i was saying shader they just a little it's okay it just because people will nitpick about that

uh... how do you counter the idea as many people will say well people drop in the draft this isn't racist this doesn't have anything to do with racism and you can't say that if his name was manning he would have been the third pick in the draft absolutely instead of a fifth round pick that that you're being too much of an absolutist there about that. Well, of course, I can't prove it, right? Because one of the things that racists are pretty good at doing is not admitting what they're doing while they're doing it, right?

So you don't have Brian Dayball saying, like, oh, I would have drafted him, but like, oh, too black for me. Like, he doesn't say that, right? And so without that kind of, let's say, a self-incrimination, I can't prove it. What I can say is that you don't have a lot of situations where people who are thought to be

second or third best quarterback in the draft go through to the third day and have most of the concerns about them to be personality concerned. That just doesn't happen, right? No, no, there's never been a situation like this at all. This has never existed, but as with many things that happen, I find myself very often seeing racism in some places,

but on this one, i think there are greater factors than that one i think that can be one of the factors but i think a lot of people are seizing on the any factor as opposed to the fact that this one had a lot of factors there were there were a lot of things that were confusing about this including being able to untangle him from his offensive line and his wide receiver at colorado where they took a program that was the worst in the nation and made it matter and all of us had into the draft we're all hearing he's the second best quarterback. That never falls to the fifth round ever.

Nope. It really doesn't. And here's another thing, Dan, and I take your point. Again, you can't prove, you can't isolate. It's never, it's, we don't have the control, the perfect control group set up to prove the point to the level of the scientific method. But let's also think about this. Let's look at the fact that, you know,

we're arguing about whether or not Dion, whether or not his dad, whether or not his famous lineage hurt him. I think what we can say pretty or not his famous lineage hurt him. I think what we can say pretty clearly is that didn't help him. And it always helps white folks. Again, look at the Manning example. Like if you have concerns about his personality, his preparation, and offensive line, and all this kind of stuff.

But you know he's coming from a famous quarterback family. He's coming from a famous football family. He's coming from a famous football family. If you're white, that usually helps. That usually helps arrest the slide, if you will, right? Anybody think, if Arch Manning ends up being pretty decent, and all early indications are that he is, although since I mispronounce Shidora, I should do the same.

If Ark Manning ends up being pretty good, right? Do we think that he's gonna slide to the fifth round because people are worried about that Manning family? They got too much power in the NFL, you don't want the Mannings, you don't want Eli and Peyton sitting in the ESPN You don't want the Mannings, you know, you don't want Eli and Peyton sitting in the sitting in the ESPN room, reanalyzing and second guessing your playbook do you so we don't want the Manning family around us. So we're not going to draft our arch. Like it's crazy. It's crazy. What he's saying is crazy. And it's also not totally

wrong. I think I can make the argument now and most people would agree with it. All things being equal at the end, Dion being his dad didn't help. Like you can make arguments it didn't hurt but you can't make arguments it helped. Like being Dion's kid helped him at every stage along the way toward professional football and the first incarnation of professional football in college but as soon as he gets to the pros all things being equal we can't make the argument that having a Hall of Famers your dad helped him at all correct? No but but I would make this point if you have the physical skills that make you a high first-run pick and nobody's disputing that, you can survive having a loud-mouthed dad,

if I'm being frank, or an evolved dad who you're gonna end up drafting along with the player, and you can survive everything else. You know, you can survive a bad interview if you have absolute number one pick skills, and he didn't. But we thought he did. No, not really. I mean the lowest anyone had him falling was the second round. Well Diana Rossini was on your air last week saying that she predicted he was not going to get picked in the first round and he was falling. I mean it wasn't. Yeah

but second round and fifth round. Those. Yes that's the shock. That's unprecedented and and I would use this as anecdotal information. Mel Kuiper picked him number nine. This was the first time ever that a Mel Kuiper top ten pick has gone that low. I know that's anecdotal, but we haven't seen what we saw with Shador Sanders dropping. Ellie, people are accusing your name of being fake. They're saying it's too perfect and the mistal it has a has an air of mystery around it So is yours a gnome de plume or is that a real name? My name is real. My hair is real

It's Haitian and I feel like Miami listeners are gonna have met quite a few Ellie's good. It's a fairly common Haitian name, but a lot of people think that I'm named after a girl. So like, whatever, you just, you roll with what you got. Well, the Mistal is though, it's the thing, it's got an air, it feels like there's like smoke and mystery around it. Yeah, it sounds like a drink. Yeah, it's more sac-pas-sé, like it's just Creole, man.

That's all that is. Look, just to the point of like, if he had rock solid first round talent, that's the other thing about the draft, right? Like it is not, everybody knows that it's not an exact science. And so again, I kind of look at these other factors of like, you know, what should have helped him, what should have hurt him. And like Dan just said, like there's, it's clear that that being Dion's kid did not help him. But you know what probably did help him? What probably did arrest the slide? And I hate saying this, like very, very much. Donald Trump's tweet. Donald Trump's tweet talking about how all

these people were idiots for not driving. And you know, of course Trump had to do it in the most like eugenics way possible, right? He's got good genes, right? He's got He's got superior genes. Like that's how he had to do it because that's the way that that fascist man thinks but Bottom line Jimmy Haslam, right? The owner of the Browns. He's a big GOP donor. My friend Joe Patrice on Above the Wall We were talking about this last night. he's a big GOP donor. My friend Joe Patrice on Above the Law, we were talking about this last night. He's a huge GOP donor. If you look at that footage of Barry being forced to draft him, it seemed pretty clear that that wasn't his call, right?

It seems pretty clear that he got a call from the owner saying draft that kid after they had gotten there. Super awesome five, nine quarterback from Oregon. Seems like Jimmy Haslam kind of overtopped his GM and made him do that pick. And I can't help thinking that might have something to do with Mr. He's Got Great Jeans, Trump coming out and saying something about it, right?

Even this morning I saw the White House press briefing, what's her face, not Kayleigh, the new Kayleigh was out there talking about how, well, all she can say is that Trump tweeted about it and then he got drafted. Like that's literally what, that's the White House spin on this. And again, Jimmy Haslam, big GOP donor, so I can't say that that had nothing to do

with arresting the fall and where he actually ended up. Ellie's latest book, Bad Law, 10 Popular Laws That Are Ruining America. We didn't talk about any of that. Next time, thank you. Always good seeing you, Ellie. Always nice talking to you. Thank you, sir.

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He has been great. He's made great hires. I said all. We've said all of it. He said all of it. We've said that. Everyone has said everything. First time I've heard any of this, Greg.

Everything you're saying. It's all been said. It's all been said. Okay, you gotta understand one thing. Stugats. Me maximum. That's right. Until I say it, it hasn't been said.

Boom. Okay, understand that. You're the mayor. Until I say it, it hasn't been said. Me maximum! Me maximum! Me maximum! Me maximum!

This is the Don LeBathard Show with the Stugats! A story from the Giants this weekend, Greg Greg that I wanted to get your thoughts on I don't know how the group fell felt about Abdul Carter saying that he wanted Lawrence Taylor's number What are you smiling about Tony? I mean, you know We talked about Sadeur Sanders going in with the headphones and being like I'm the man I'm him and then we get to a guy like Abdul Carter and you're like, yeah, I want Lawrence Taylor's numbers. Let me have that.

That's some balls, man. But that's okay. Like we're all good. Is it okay? I can see him asking. He's the number three pick. He's supposed to be a great specimen. So is Dion Jordan.

Do we know? Well, well, well, well, well. I mean, Cam Ward got Warren Moon's number. Warren Moon just gave it to him though. Warren Moon gave it to him though. That's a different story. Gave it to him. You're saying, I mean, do we know if he meant number like, hey, what's Lawrence Taylor's number, Warren Moon just gave it to him though. That's a different story, gave it to him. You're saying I mean?

Do we know if he meant number like, hey what's Lawrence Taylor's number? I'd like to talk to him. Well they did talk afterward, they have spoken. For those of you who do not know, I think this happened, did this happen on Micah Parsons podcast? Abdul Carter said he wanted 56, Lawrence Taylor talked to him and this is the quote from Lawrence Taylor after telling him no. Quote, I'm hoping he's not thinking oh I got shot down by LT. I'm the guy that is right behind you. I'm gonna be two steps behind you and make sure you don't fall and that's simply bullshit. He's not gonna be two steps behind him. No it's just I said no to him and I couldn't just say no to him bleep

you that's my number no one will ever wear it again because it's disrespectful kid for you to think you could wear it. That's not what he said. He said I'm always gonna be behind him two steps behind him and if you're two steps behind him he's gonna fall on his back and when he falls on his back the uniform he's wearing is not gonna be number 56. You're not gonna catch him and you don't want him wearing your number. Exactly, two steps behind means when he falls you can't catch him but you can go like, oh no, you can do the fake hustle of, oh almost, almost. That's the play right there.

But he says I'm hoping he's not thinking, oh I got shot down by LT. He needs to be thinking that, that's exactly what happened. Motivation. That's the only reason you're not getting his number is because you got shot down by LT. He needs to be thinking that. That's exactly what happened. Motivation. That's the only reason you're not getting his number is because you got shot down by LT. Well typically there's a money exchange here. Did Carter offer him money? No, it's only a money exchange. Usually it's only a money exchange if the player in the locker room already has the number. Usually it's not a retired number. I'm honestly... A million bucks for that LT jersey by the way? Is there... The number 12 is associated with quarterbacks. I'm honestly. A million bucks for that LT jersey by the way. Is there, the number 12 is associated with quarterbacks.

I'm not good with uniform numbers, but 56 to me, I can make the argument, it's the most famous number in the sport, is it not? Like I can make that argument based on, I don't know another defender's number that resonates the way that that one does That blue 56 man. That's timeless. That's timeless. You like we have to pick another Jersey, maybe maybe Manning It's TB 12, right? Like he made me tired method out of it But a lot of quarterbacks wore 12 see 56 I just associate with one player ever and I don't do that. Go ahead

Forgive me because I'm telling you I'm bad at uniform numbers But can you guys give me the second most famous number 56 not just in football anywhere in sports 13? Well anywhere in sports 99 no no number 56 as a number I only associate it with one player ever. I've got another famous NFL number I can only think of one guy love all do I won't even tell you the guys I'll just tell you the number seven Elway Wow Wow Wow two Americas Mike Vick I was like clearly Mike Vick. What are you talking about? At LeBata show number seven Elway or Mike Vick the reason I'm saying 56 stands out is there are a lot of 12s.

We can do Tom Brady on 12, but there are a lot of 12s. It's a famous quarterback number. This is an interesting discussion because technically I don't think Lawrence Taylor makes that decision. I think the Giants retired that number. Like, the Giants would have to give permission to- I'd argue that if LT gave permission, then the Giants would be okay with it to. I'd argue that if LT gave permission, then the Giants would be okay with it too.

It's his number to retire. Maybe not, maybe I've got that wrong. I wouldn't have given it if I were LT. I think he's justified to, you know what I would have said? I would have said Abdul Carter, have 50 sacks in your first five seasons and make four Pro Bowls and then we'll talk That's what the phone call would have gone like you earn it, you know, you gotta learn you gotta learn

Mickey Loomis. Yeah Dan I've got some 56s for you, but off the top of your head Can any of you do a nut the second most famous number 56 in the history of sports all sports? I'm going NFL only here. Can I interest you in Keith Brookings? God. No? No.

Can you guys play this game with me though? Just, if I say to you, you have to nominate from your library of remembered numbers, what you believe to be the most famous number in sports. And when you say 99 it's because the 99 is it's not just the greatness of Kretzky it's also the 99 stands out more than the 56 does. You're not it's just a number that's meant to stand out. Number 23 from North Carolina. Boona, boona, boona, boona, boona, boona, boona.

The only number that has a soundtrack with it. Boo. Are there second? Is there a second place number 23 that rivals Keith Brookings there as the gulf between the first 56 and the second 56? Who's the second 23? LeBron James.

LeBron. Yeah, LeBron. Yeah, it's pretty good. six in the second fifty six uh... who's the second twenty three one james that one of them on james uh... which is a good transition to talking about yesterday's basketball because there is a lot of yesterday's basketball that i wanted to talk about a lot of people are making a big deal about jj ready jj ready sitting everybody on his bench and playing his starters the entire second half which is not something that has happened since 2013 and a lot of people are pointing out there's a lot to talk about from yesterday's games.

I don't know if you guys want to talk about the officiating. I don't know if you guys want to talk about the Lakers on the brink or not. But the part I thought was unfair I mean mean, is so many people are talking about JJ Reddick playing only his starters the entire second half, as if the Lakers were an uplight, as if LeBron didn't block a shot with 90 seconds left that would indicate he doesn't seem terribly tired. LeBron didn't do anything in the fourth quarter. And it would make sense that the oldest player in the league would be tired but they had the

lead and they had the lead Deven Chenzo was great at the rim and then LeBron blocked him at the rim so you tell me I mean how fair is the criticism that you're playing your starters in a way that we haven't seen in a playoff game in ten years first of it wasn't the starters because Jackson Hayes started, subbed out at the... Played four minutes. Eight minutes after four minutes, and never came back in like...

Rolled the pine. Like Judy from Family Matters. Went upstairs, never came back downstairs. Right? It's absolutely a fair criticism to ask five guys to play 24 consecutive minutes right without any sort of a breather without any sort of a break and also one of them is 40 years old it's unconscionable it's okay to do to Julius Randall and Anthony Edwards

they're young they're young you can do it with them you can't do it especially with with the lack of depth that the Lakers have and that's and that's part of the test match sure we all love to play with injuries off and fatigue off and just play my best five players and keep going like it's a video game But that's not the job right Steve Kerr finds way to play G. Santos everyone like you've got to find your G Santos is like this guy shouldn't play on paper. Yeah, I'm not gonna trust him in a playoff game, but I've done enough throughout the year to develop him and to give him the confidence that when the time comes where I need to steal,

I'm stealing minutes for Curry, for Jimmy Butler, whoever, right, it's the same thing here. Perhaps even more so because LeBron is 40 years old. You've got to find minutes. And the thing that I didn't like, well, I mean, this is what he said, but JJ was asked about it, he said, said well i asked the guy that the sort of fourth how they felt me also they felt good so i had to trust them of course

they're gonna say that who's gonna raise as it goes i'm tired no one's gonna do that so you have to be the bad guys i gotta steal it for you i gotta find it's a lot of times will guys will do end end of the third, beginning of the fourth, and then we get like that quarter break in there, we extend that rest. But you went full 12 in the third, or full 12 in the fourth, of course it's gonna happen that way.

And if you look at the series, the wolves have outscored the Lakers in the fourth quarter by a lot, and a lot of that has to do because the Lakers are running out of gas. Which by the way, I said when the Luka Dodgers trade happened, I said this is an awesome trade, LA, congratulations. This year, just use it as a kind of like playing around thing. Next year, you guys are gonna be awesome

when you can fix this team around him and fit his skills and everyone's like, ooh no, the Lakers gonna go out right now. I'm like, what are you talking about? They have no bigs, they have zero depth. You think you can just waltz, I get it, Luka's great, LeB have zero depth. You think you can just waltz, I get it, Luca's great, LeBron's great. You think you can just waltz out there

and in a playoff scenario, and their greatness is just gonna erase every other advantage? But here we are. They played Friday night and then played again that soon afterward and put 19 points up in the fourth quarter and LeBron had zero points. What do you say to my point though, Amin, that with 90 seconds left in that game, not

only were you still leading, you also got a challenge, you got two timeouts, you had a bunch of stoppages in play and the Lakers got overturned on an above camera angle. Like I could say they were gassed and it's the reason they gave up the lead in the fourth quarter but at the end you're still telling me that in winning time the Timberwolves have more energy than the Lakers do as LeBron blocks the shot and if they don't go to the over to overturn there The Lakers are going to have the lead with 12 seconds left then which he just basically told me is I could go do cartwheels In the middle of this game Boulevard and not get hit by a car Ipso facto I'm awesome at doing cartwheels across this game Boulevard. No, it means that time it worked

So had they won that game because they were up, you could be like, oh, see, there was nothing wrong. But the process is faulty. We know the process is faulty. The result is the result. I think the bench is faulty more than the process. That's what we're saying. The process is because of the bench.

And because they don't have the depth, he felt the need to do this. But then even when you're gonna do this, even when they don't have the depth he felt the need to do this but then even when you're going to do this even when you don't have the depth you have to find a way to cheat some minutes for them some rest here or there maybe LeBron's out there and Lucas out maybe Lucas in and LeBron is out maybe they're both like whatever it is you have to find someone on that bench you can look at that maybe like someone like Gabe Vincent just give them a couple minutes in there because otherwise what you're doing is you're putting an immense pressure of perfection on them. Some of

this is obviously playing the result I think if the Lakers win JJ Reddick is a little bit of an avant-garde guy who made a bold decision but Anthony Edwards said the Lakers were gassed in the fourth quarter. I believe that. I mean if he's saying it, I believe it. And I don't see Reddick living this down for the rest of this series if they lose. Anthony Ciccolo, number 56. the last nine games that Giannis has played in and Giannis in those nine games is averaging 30 14 and 5. Damian Lillard goes out early yesterday I don't know how many people are paying attention to that Pacers-Bucks series but it would appear that the Bucks are one loss away from Giannis being out of there

and good God, does Brooke Lopez and the rest of that team look thin when Chris Middleton isn't out there and Drew Holliday isn't out there? And it really does feel like Giannis is out there by himself and has no answers for what it is that the Pacers are doing. But the Pistons-Nicks game I thought was the one from from yesterday the Clippers-Nuggets ending was tremendous but the no foul call and the officiating in general at the end of a couple of these games that are close

makes it so that we can argue about a bunch of different things that don't give the Knicks the proper credit for how they won that game yesterday it's not just Brunson being injured and then dominating the fourth quarter. It's Carl Anthony Towns hitting just ridiculous threes. Like, he was so far from the basket on one of those that I'd argue that's a bad shot. And there were two bad shots I thought

that won enormous games over the weekend. I know Jokic has made that shot a couple of times over anthony davis it's a terrible shot and the fact the fact that they got a backdoor alley-oop at the buzzer because they were defending so ferociously against don't let yokich do that the step back he's gonna fall out of bounds and throw it in from behind his neck

he's gonna it's gonna be Jamal Wilkes jump jump shot It's not even gonna be a normal jump shot He's gonna go well behind his head in a place that makes it the sky hook in terms of being unblockable But it's it's a ridiculous asinine shot. I mean Aaron Gordon dunking that at the rim. How the bleep does that happen? Aaron Gordon dunking that at the rim. How the bleep does that happen? 2010 Western Conference Finals, game five, Los Angeles Lakers versus Phoenix Suns. Suns make a huge comeback capped by Jason Richardson, bank shot three.

We've got all the momentum. They call timeout. We know where it's going. There are no illusions who's going to get the ball and there are no illusions as to what he's going to do when he gets the ball Kobe Bryant catches it on the right sideline we aggressively trapped the shit out of them so aggressively that he air balls the shot if he had hit the rim if he had hit the side of the backboard that ball goes outside over time we probably win the game right instead? Instead, it's an air ball, who's waiting right under the rim, we're on our test, catches it,

lays it up, game over. That's how it happens. Sometimes, and that's, you want to know the word gravity in basketball, that's gravity. The gravity, the respect level is so high that we're going to sell out completely on everything in order to make sure that you don't beat us. But in that process, you then neglect someone who's just lurking around. And so Aaron Gordon, and I was talking to my kid about this, a lot of people are gonna say,

oh, Aaron Gordon, because he's 6'9", and he's got like a 40-inch vertical. Yeah, but that's not what made him, he was right place, place right time because he anticipated he visualizes it if this ball come short i'm gonna be ready and that ladies and gentlemen

that's what veteran players that's what championship winning basketball is is the guys who are thinking the game before it happens not trying to react after happens can you guys remember off the top of your head a playoff game decided on a buzzer beating dunk? Rockets versus Lakers, 1983, I wanna say 82, 83. That's a recall right there, wow. I haven't seen it very often.

Can I ask you guys a question because I'm actually confused about the rules. So when does the ball going in count? Is it when it goes through the hoop or when it leaves his fingers? Go because if he's holding on to it and goes through the hoop is that a shot if the ball has crossed? Into the hoop even if his fingers doesn't matter if his hand is on it It's it's that it has entered the hoop right and any portion of it not it has to go through just any I think most of it has to Be in there because I saw the replay and I was super confused

I'm like well if his fingers still on it, but it's gone through That's why it counts now if he had been above the rim no but because the boy entered the hoop doesn't matter if he said like In an exaggerated fashion imagine if you put his whole arm and elbow in there, and he did like a dunk contest He's hanging a dunk contest. He's hanging from the rim. He's still palming it, which would be super sick. Yeah.

But it went through, that still counts. That still counts, yes. You guys, how do you feel about a game ending in a dramatic fashion and the last punctuation that you get as a customer and sports fan is just some guy in a striped jersey saying the game is over. The game is now over because nobody knew at the end whether the game was over or not.

And a lot of people found out, a lot of people were doing the examination of, hey, wait a minute, is it again? It's so absurd to have a game end with a buzzer beating dunk that a lot of people are asking the same question of does the ball actually have to be out of your hand or just does it have to go through the entirety of the rim? Then you know what my favorite thing is I went to I went to game three the one that the Clippers won and That building is so phenomenal as far as the atmosphere I've been there earlier this year and I was like,

this is terrible. Like it's a beautiful building, but the crowd wasn't anywhere near good. Game three, the crowd was insane. And so I kind of regret that I wasn't there for game four because I want to know what that reaction was from everybody just milling around. It's just milling about.

Your game can't end with people just milling about. That it's the antithesis of sports entertainment to have someone like Aaron. Think about what we're watching. Man, Yokish. I've never seen anything like that. And Aaron Gordon, that's all I've seen him do his entire career is he jumps up there and dunks. Now let's mill about and wait for someone to tell us that the game is over. Hands in your pockets. Joe Poznanski, next. Folks, listen up, they're here and they're hot. Get ready because Jimmy John's is turning up the heat. After years of perfecting the cold sandwich,

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