The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Colin Cowherd Podcast - Celtics Win Game 2 In “Lopsided” Series, Dan Hurley Shouldn’t Take Lakers Job, Caitlin Clark Should Be On Olympic Team " For The Eyeballs"

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

Colin is joined by Jason Timpf, host of “Hoops Tonight” to break down the Celtics win over the Mavericks in Game 2! They start with the series being terribly lopsided in the favor of the Boston Celtics (3:30) and why two straight Boston wins have shown that Jayson Tatum isn’t the alpha “get a bucket” guy that’s necessary for the Celtics to win the series (8:30)  They both predict the series will be over in five games (10:30) and Colin predicts that despite their dominant performance so far, Boston won’t be a dynasty (15:00). Finally, they debate whether Dan Hurley will take the Lakers job (22:30) and whether it was a mistake to leave Caitlin Clark off the roster for the Olympic team (27:00). (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates!  #Volume #Herd #HoopsTonight See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Happy Sunday, everybody. This NBA finals game two instant reaction is brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? All right, so the Celtics win game two, 105 to 98. Shoot poorly, but do enough, have an excellent defensive performance. performance as the role players and co-star for the Dallas Mavericks continue to struggle. We've got Colin Coward here. We're going to break it all down. Colin, how much of this, to this point, do you view as the Celtics presenting just problems that Dallas can't solve

versus Dallas kind of having the finals yips and struggling a bit on the road? Well, Kyrie hasn't played. It'd be nice if he showed up for the finals. You know, Tatum will get more heat because he's in his athletic prime and we're kind of waiting for the moment from him. Kyrie's had the shot and the title in the moment. But Kyrie hasn't delivered. But, I mean, when Porzingis and Tatum are really off their offensive games, their shooting games, and you kind of controlled the second half. Dallas, again, last game had a really nice run, had a 9-0 run in this game.

They are a streaky, hot offensive, Luca gets rolling. But, I mean, mostly outside of two, three or four-minute, right, I could take six minutes out of this series. it's lopsided. Like it's not particularly close. I like the Celtics and 6, and I felt at the time is they, listen, they can just man you up. Their biggest can be honest. And they're just too, we all talk offense.

They're too good defensively. They're just, they got too many guys that can man you up. I mean, they got guys that didn't make all NBA that if they weren't on the Celtics, they didn't want three guys on the Celtics all NBA defense. So I think some of it is just Boston. got better dudes. And I think we all realize that Denver, Boston were the best teams. But it happens. Minnesota constructed to beat Denver. Denver led by 20 in that game and game seven. Or I think we'd have a really compelling six, seven game series. What I see is a, I mean, Tatum on ISO threes has been horrible and it has no effect on the outcome. That is, that's different. I mean,

Kyrie a no show, this is mostly a lopsided series. So there's just this caution Boston has that Dallas doesn't. That's what I see. Yeah, I look at it mostly as problems that Boston presents. There's going to be a lot of talk about the shooting, and there's no doubt that Dallas is not

playing well outside of Luca on the offensive end of the floor. And for the record, I don't think this is a sweep. I think Dallas will go home and get one. I think that they're due for a bunch of role players to break out. I think Kyrie is struggled a little bit with the Boston crowd, just with all of the energies, the negative energy surrounding that situation. I think going home will be good for him. But the reality is,

is like Boston hasn't really gotten going offensively to the level that they're capable of, outside of a brief run in the first half of game one. Like even after that point, they cooled off substantially. It's like, you know, it's funny. I really look at it to a very, a very basic problem for Dallas, which is they cannot contain the basketball. There's this. So as you know, I coaching the high school level. And when I'm doing the skill development with the kids, we play King of the Court so they can practice on their games. And I use this like simple kind of idea to try to convince them to pass the ball more. I'll let them play King of the Court with the defender right on them. And they'll barely ever score. It'll be like one out of every 10 times. And then I'll

have them do it with the close out where like the kid has to start underneath the basket and throw the ball and then sprint out at the defender or at the offensive player. And they score like four or five times out of 10. They're like many, many orders of magnitude better offensively. Now, at the pro level, that's a smaller gap, but it's still a gap. And that's really the problem here is Boston can just easily get that first little bit of dribble penetration. And then what they're doing is they're throwing the ball to $30 million players who are standing at the perimeter just waiting for a guy who's sprinting with his hair on fire to get out to close out. It's just unsustainable. And it's not just Luca. And by the way, Lucas getting hounded all over the place when he's on defense.

Every possession. But it's not just Luca. There's a bunch of Dallas players that are struggling to contain the ball. They're going at Gafford and just going right around him every single time. They're taking smaller players into the post. It's a problem. They just, they can't contain the basketball.

And then Boston has so much off ball talent. And then even there's nobody they can ignore to just park somebody in the paint or to every time they double, every time Luca just randomly decides to kind of double team the ball. They're just in rotation again. that to me is the fundamental issue. I do think Dallas will have better offensive nights as they move back to as they move back home.

But I just don't know how they solve the problem that they can't guard Boston. Well, and something else is let's focus on Tatum. So I've always said I feel like Tatum's in the top 10, somewhere about eight. But there is sort of that finishing element that it just doesn't feel like the all-time greats. Prime example in this game, Jalen Brown, when they inch back closer, late, Jalen Brown bursts past his guy, highly athletic move. He seals it. A couple possessions earlier, Tatum just couldn't get it going. And, you know, my take on Tatum was he actually

assisted well, he defended well, there's a lot of things he did well. But our lifetime, Kareem, Bird, LeBron, Steph, Duncan, Michael, we need a basket. He's not consistently that guy. Now, again, defensively, I mean, rebound. I mean, he fills the stat sheet. But again, Boston won a title. It's Paul Pierce. It's KG. Like, we want our guys to get their points.

And with Tatum, I just feel like we just, and I've said this, I pick Brown to be the MVP of this series. I know what I get with Jalen. Tatum, it depends on the matchup. It depends on his headspace. Where is he at? Is he playing with confidence? it's not a knock on him. But Boston is built to overcome his really bad three-point shooting series.

They're built for it. They just got so many dudes. It's kind of becoming the series I thought it would look like. I just thought Kyrie would be more available. But man, when you watch Boston, I'm watching Porzingis is limping. Tatum at one point was, I have this written down here. He was 8 for 44, 18% on ISO3s. So, I mean, he was just, you know, is this, yeah, he for, is it 44?

It was 18%. And it has no impact. Outside today, I mean, forget the first game. It was a blowout. If you take out a 9-0 Dallas run, this is a blowout. I mean, there wasn't a moment in the second half. I thought, oh, Dallas is going to come back. So also lively, he's a rookie.

He's not playing great. So this happens. I think this, not every finals, I mean, we say, We saw San Antonio early LeBron team in Cleveland. You're like, like a game and a half in, you're like, yeah, this isn't going to work. They got way more good players. I kind of feel like, I mean, Luca now is not at 100%. I kind of feel like Dallas will steal game three, but I think it may be a five-gamer.

That's what it feels like to me. Yeah, this screams five-gamer to me too. I gave them six because I figured they, Boston has a tendency to in game twos after they win game one convincingly to kind of let their foot off the gas. And they're weird at home. Boston's weird at home. Yeah, I don't actually think they've lost a road playoff game this year yet, which is going to be an interesting thing when they get going there.

But like, yeah, I mean, on the Dallas front, to me, the offensive issues go deeper than just guys struggling on the road too. Like Boston, having put Jason Tatum on their center, has completely janked up their office because now there's just so much, there's so many bodies in the paint. Derek Jones Jr. P.J. Washington don't know how to operate in those ball screens. Another big thing, too, you talked about all the guys that can guard. Like, Al Horford switched on to Luca is a great matchup for Boston. They just live with that. They feel like he can guard there.

So, like, there's not a lot of great options for Dallas to get good opportunities for the role players so that they can get going. Now, Kyrie's the one guy where you're like, dude, you just got to do more. You've had, you know, six 30-point games in your NBA finals career. You've got to find a way to do more, right? But like at the other stuff, I really struggle with them finding a way to kind of find those openings. As far as the superstar part goes with Boston, I find this super fascinating because this entire finals is very different from some of the finals we've seen in NBA history where it's like Steph versus LeBron or it's, you know, these guys, we see these big apex kind of stars.

And like, it's like weird seeing a team led by a Jason Tatum who's as kind of funky and as flawed as he is as a superstar. It's weird seeing Luca as the superstar of Dallas just getting hunted relentlessly on the on the defensive end of the floor. I think with Tatum, really it all just starts with where you're beginning the conversation. Like if you're beginning the conversation with is Tatum a Apex superstar with the top guys in the league? It's just no, you're just going to run into all these issues. He doesn't, he's not good enough at kind of like confidently taking command of a basketball game. He has like no go-to move he can go to that is like, I'm going to get a bucket here,

half the time. Like he doesn't have any of that stuff. But once you put him down in the tier below that, you start to look at him more as like he's a multi-tooled player who can do a bunch of different things to help him. His ability to hold up against Gafford on the glass and to switch out in pick and roll has been the major adjustment that has caused problems for Dallas offensively. And then if you put on a team like this with five really good offensive players, if you put a ball hog out there, it might mess everything up. And he's not that guy. And so, In a weird way, you talk about this all the time with the NFL. Like if a GM is prioritizing offensive line players and like skill players,

they're telling you that they're worried about their quarterback's ability to kind of make something from nothing, right? They're telling you what they think. That's what I look at with the Brad Stevens piece here. By going to get Porzingis and Drew Holiday, he told you what he thought about Jalen Brown and Jason. That's right. These guys aren't good enough. I need to give them just an overwhelming amount of support in order for them to accentuate their strength. and it's worked wonderfully in this season.

Yeah, no, GMs, when you can get rid of Tyree Kill for Patrick Mahomes, they're telling you, we can win a lot of games without the fastest player in the world. And I thought, you know, Porzingis was a bit of a steal, to be honest. We talked about this last time. The league, the league would not, doesn't really want what Boston's doing. They don't want like five high-end players on a single team, but they kind of stole him. And then you generate that trade with Drew Holliday, who's like a better version. version of Marcus Smart, especially on offense. He was good. He was really good today. So I think

we're getting this series. We thought, I am happy Jalen Brown won the Eastern Conference finals player MVP. I think he'll win, has a good chance to win the finals MVP. And I think Jaylon Brown, and also did you notice during the timeouts, he's doing a majority of the talking. Like he is, he's the leader. He's more of an alpha. Yeah. Way more of an alpha. And so I think, you know, it's okay. Like I said, my concern about them coming into the series was, are they too collaborative? But they're not. That was a question.

It wasn't a referendum or a definitive statement. I'm like, are they too collaborative? Nah, it kind of works. I think Denver would have been a much tougher match. But that's the way the brakes work. And I said this before the finals. I said, Boston's too good not to win one, but they're too weird to be a dynasty. They lose at home.

They don't have an alpha. I think my take is I would bet money that Denver comes back next year and wins. And I think Minnesota is going to rearrange the deck chairs. Boston will still be really, really good. But I don't think Boston's a three straight championship team. Also, eventually, after next year, they may have to move off some pieces because of the maxes to Tatum and Brown. But I think we're seeing kind of what we thought, you know, the notes I have right here,

Boston, getting much better shots. Boston, Porzingus Tatum. It was a lot, you know, Porzingus Tatum, not great offensively, not an issue. Boston back-to-back three's biggest lead. You know, one of the things I also noticed is that Kyrie's not getting assists. The Mavericks aren't getting a ton of them, which usually tells you stagnant ball movement. You know, Luke was doing some clever stuff, but it's nothing, I don't, there's not a lot of continuity with Dallas's offense.

I mean, you're the guy that coaches. to me it just doesn't feel like there's any rhythm to a lot of their offensive possessions. Yeah, and that's by design. So again, in order for there to be, so to give you an example in game one, I haven't looked at the numbers from game two yet, but one of the things that you look at as an indicator of getting the defense and rotation, meaning like to get the defense and rotation, you need to engage a help defender.

Because as soon as you engage a help defender, you've brought a second defender to the ball, which means off the ball you have four on three, right? That's where your advantage is. Now, from there, when you make a kickout pass, it's a spot-up opportunity if they drive the close-out or if they shoot a three. In game one, Boston generated 36 spot-up opportunities and Dallas generated 12. And that is the main issue there, is they're not getting Luca and Kyrie have not been good enough on an island as scores to consistently bring multiple players to the ball, which will get those opportunities. For example, in game one on ISOs, Dallas got just 0.54 points per possession, including passes.

That's why would you send an extra defender? They're getting stops to your point. Their dudes are getting stops. And so like it's kind of like a trickle down effect. If you don't demonstrate the threat of actually bringing in that second defender, you're not going to get the opportunities to get the other guys going. So in game three, what has to happen for Dallas, is Kyrie and Luca have to so deeply compromise the defense that they start to warp Boston in on

them to generate those opportunities. And they just haven't been able to do that to this point. Like Boston's looking at those numbers from Luca, 12 for 21, 4 for 9 from 3, 32 points. They don't care. They've been shooting terribly and they've been winning this entire series. So like at the end at the end of the day, like they're like, Luca, we're making Luca work hard. Luca had eight turnovers tonight. So if you actually like piece it all together, the total number of possessions for him to take 21 shots to go four for eight from the foul line and to turn the ball over eight times and only have 32 points. Like that's a battle that Boston is like kind of winning.

Like they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're trying. It's like a bend, but don't break kind of concept. Like they're just, we're going to take our lumps. Luca's going to hit some step back threes. He's going to hit some tough shots. But if we stay home off the ball, we're doing well enough on a per possession base. that we don't need to overreact and they're not getting enough from from kairi now maybe things will change in game two if kaira can get going but i still think it's going to come down to the stars

because there's nothing that boston has to react to in terms of sending extra defenders that will get p jay washington wide open corner threes or will get derrick jones junior wide open cuts off of the wing like i i i maintain that these are problems that i don't think that they can solve i mean so what do you think so you think dallas will uh come back in game Is that what you're looking at at this point? Dallas wins game three. Boston wins the next two. And I think Porzingis is a little limpy and gimpy.

I think the same thing. Luke is not at 100%. But if Porzengis again gives you 20 minutes, 10 each half, you know, size, length, it feels like it's over. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential.

Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from Bats, basketball to college football or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music.

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Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with a little kill? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s.

To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed cracks. I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now, there's two other topics I want to address. One, Dan Hurley. So I was told by a really good source today. Lakers have offered him the job. Dan and his boys really liked it.

They're kind of, it's cool. You know, his wife's from Jersey where that's a whole different ballgame. LA is very intimidating to people who don't live here. It's not a money issue. The finances being reported are a little, I'm not sure if I believe him. I'll believe it when I see it. So I've heard various reports, one way too low, one feels too high. But I'm going to guess, because I,

The NBA runs through coaches, like the NFL, six a year, seven a year. And I told a friend, I said, I don't know if the Knicks would hire him. I said, but would it be shocking if next year, like this year, the Knicks fall apart in the playoffs, there's some complaining about how hard Tibbs coaches and the minutes he plays,

and everybody goes, get the guy from Yukon if he wins an international championship. That, to me, is a potentially better gig. wife's happy, closer to home, easier conference. You've got a star, but it's not the burden of sort of LeBron at the end of his career or Anthony Davis, who may be the best two in the league in a decade, but doesn't always feel like a one offensively. So that's what I was told is that Hurley will make a decision tomorrow. My gut is, I don't know why I feel this. He won't take the job. And my feeling is there's going to be better opportunities. The Lakers job right now, the best part of it,

is the brand. In college sports, like if George is available and they're down in the dumps, you take the job. Texas is available because I get 25 players a year in football, right? Or basketball, the transfer portal, I can get 12 new guys. NBA is different. There's real limitations. If you don't have a lot of draft picks, unless you have expiring contracts, it's hard. You're not going to get rid of LeBron and AD. You probably don't want to get rid of Austin Reeves. You know, what are you going to get for a lot of these guys, these rotational guys? So I think it's one of those things where, you know, the NBA also makes you match contracts when you make trades.

It's a hard league to make big trades. And so my gut feeling is Dan Hurley tomorrow calls and says, I mean, ask yourself this. When you know it, you know it. He interviewed like 48 hours ago, right? Like it's like you'd kind of make the call. right? So that's my gut feeling. How's it land for you?

Yeah. So I'm a little, like I'm still kind of feeling 50-50. Like it kind of felt to me when this whole saga started that it was a Monday call. Like it just seemed here because Dan Hurley is not in a position of desperation. Like he is, he's incredibly well established where he is. And also he knows the Lakers are going to wait for him. So like even if he said, hey, I need another week. Like they'd wait another week before they'd turn around and hire, you know, or somebody like that, right? So like, I get why they're waiting. I'm with you that I'm still

kind of like, I'm very cautious about getting too stoked about it. Your opinion, though, about potentially waiting for a better job, let's just be straight. I want Dan Hurley to go to the Lakers because I root for the Lakers. But like, that's not the best job. And here's the reason why. Like, this is an ownership group that has demonstrated a considerable amount of incompetence over the last 10 years or so. Like, they don't have a lot of money. They let Alex Crusoe walk simply because of money. And you know how much the Lakers could have used Alex Crusoe over the course the last couple of years? Like letting Julius Randall walk for nothing, letting Brooke Lopez walk for nothing, the whole Magic Johnson fiasco,

like the disrespect of TIE Lue during their negotiation not trading him like a championship coach in the summer of 2018. There's like all of this stuff over the last half dozen years that would lead you to believe that like it's a little bit of a volatile situation. So I want him to go there. But you'd be a fool if you if you weren't actually looking around behind the scenes and making phone calls. I guarantee you Dan Hurley has heard the ugly stuff. And I'm sure that he's had some, I'm sure he's had some reticence there. That said, like you said, he gets stoked with his boys when he goes on the visit because it's the Los Angeles Lakers, man. It's it's just there's something. There's a cool. factor there. I think even just extending it to the scope of NBA history, like when they tell the story of LeBron James's career, what if you were the guy who coached him for the last couple years? What if you made a deep playoff run? Or if you had, God forbid, you won a title or something like that. Like, there's a level of basketball immortality that I think Dan Hurley could be factoring in here as well. So the other story is the Caitlin Clark didn't make the Olympics, And which is funny because people get, you know, the Olympic teams are interesting.

When you get to the bottom or the back end of an Olympic roster, it gets political. I mean, you know, Devin Booker made this year's team, Kyrie Irving, and Jalen Brown didn't. And I think most GMs would take those guys. Kyrie is the most talented. Jalen's the most versatile. Booker could hit shots. And he made it. Steve Kerr's the coach. You know, Phoenix is in the West. I mean, who knows why? I mean,

sometimes the guys, you want to coach a guy. You want to create a relationship with a guy. Like, we all know that. Leitner made it. Michael didn't want Isaiah on the team. It got political. So Christian later made the team. Diana Tarasi right now for the women's team is not as good as Caitlin Clark, statistically. but she's been there before. She's just kind of the glue of the league. And at the end, there's better players in the league than her, including Caitlin Clark, and they put her on. But here's my bigger takeaway. That if you are a player, a woman's player for the Olympic team, wouldn't you want Caitlin Clark on the team because it'll double the TV ratings? The average sports fan, sports fan doesn't know this.

our women's basketball team has won seven straight goals. They don't lose games. Like, they're like the dream team every single Olympics. I think they've won like eight of nine, nine of ten. They're completely our most dominant team. And most people don't know that because they don't watch. They get about six to seven million viewers. They get 14 or more with Caitlin Clark.

And my takeaway is when Connor McGregor came to the UFC, you wanted to be on the undercard because people saw you, including Monster Energy drinks or, you know, Penzoil, whoever. When Tiger got on the tour, you wanted to be in his for some. You know, you'd get a sponsor. If I was on that team, I'd be like, yeah, put her on the team. Eyeballs.

So to me, it's as if it's being established that the players didn't really want her. And my take is, I think the agents of the other players are probably like, what are you doing? My forward, who's going to be a rotational player in the Olympics, could have 14, million people. Those are the kind of players that benefit. The stars always make their endorsements. So that was my first take is that don't make this Caitlin against the women. I think most of the women in the league know. Even Angel Reese knows, you know, rising tide lifts all boats. I am surprised, however, that NBC, who pays all the money for the Olympics, right? That's how Olympics generate their revenues, the TV partner, didn't get on the phone and go, hey, could you do us as solid? You know,

Well, write you check that part. If I was NBC, I would be like, guys, we're TV partners. We're paying all the bills. That was my takeaway that NBC should be pissed. And I actually think she'd be good for the other girls, even if she didn't play. What was your initial thought? I saw your tweet, and I thought that was the perfect takeaway. Like, from a financial perspective, it just made so much sense to have her on board.

Even like from a competitive standpoint, like, if I was the girls on the team, I'd be like, yeah. I want to kick her butt in practice every day. You know what I mean? Like before we go any further, that's been the most frustrating thing for me watching the entire Caitlin Clark saga over the past month and a half. Like what's happening to her is something that has happened

to every talented young player that's entered a professional basketball league ever. Let's pretend you play in the WMBA. And all you do when you turn on your TV or when you look at your phone is hear about how amazing Caitlin Clark is. You don't think you want to test your abilities against her, Like this has happened at the NBA level constantly.

We've all seen when Patrick Beverly like straight up tried to punk Lonzo Ball on national television because Lonzo Ball had all that hype coming in. Like there's nothing exceptional happening to Caitlin Clark. And she doesn't think there's anything exceptional. She knows like the same thing happened to her when she first went into college. People try to step up to her. People try to pick her up full court. People try to be physical. This is so normal.

And it's being made into now the now the political side of things. has grabbed a hold of this and it's gone completely off the rails, which is crazy to watch. Like, Caitlin Clark is a competitor who is going into the most talented. And by the way, this league doesn't have very many teams, which means it is completely stacked with talent. So like, it's just a really difficult spot that she's in and she's the, and her team has some limitations and all that kind of stuff. As far as the Team USA thing goes, like she's, there's the basketball case, it's on the fence, right? Like, you could argue if you were making a list of just the 12 best women's basketball players in the world.

She's on the fence and probably should be left off. But to your point, throughout every single national, like, it's like Anthony Davis being on the on the redeem team or the team in 2012, right? Like sometimes you just bring the super young, talented kid along. Yes. And, like, there's no, there's no reason not to bring her. And I don't buy the excuse, the excuse that's like, oh, when she doesn't get playing time, her fan base will be ravenous.

Okay, by all means that. leave her off the roster, that'll go just as well. Like, like it, it, like, I, I didn't understand that whole, the whole kind of backlash there because, again, she should have been included, but there was a reasonable case for her not to be included. I loved her response today how she's like, something to strive for. Hopefully, it's four years from now. Hopefully they, they, they include me. But yeah, I mean, I just, I just wish people understood the basic competitive dynamics that are taking place because it's really nothing special that's going on there. Yeah, I mean, it's just, I mean, we know the

Olympics, you know, this is something else to remember about sports. I was talking to a friend about this. The NFL decides, we're going to give Netflix Christmas. You know, not everybody loved that, not the other networks loved it, but Christmas is big in everybody's home. We're going to get a streaming giant Christmas. Those are good games. They've never had Wednesday games before. Last year, they went to Peacock. What a shock. They put Patrick Mahomes on Peacock. They wanted another streaming giant to do well because those are ascending businesses. Amazon got its best schedule. So very clearly in the last year, the NFL has said, yeah, we're going to streaming. It's a business. FIFA is a business. I mean, the Olympics held a summer Olympics in Soshi.

Never been there, but, you know, when you think of Sydney and Barcelona, you don't think of Soshi as a summer retreat. So it's like people tend to get very precious, especially people who who cover a sport. You know, like, I know it. I've covered this for years. Yeah, too close to the forest, like baseball writers. And not all certainly, but those that argued against the pitch clock. Well, baseball's infinitely more watchable. Attendance is up again this year. TV ratings are up. The games now, if you get good pitching, they're two and a half hour games. They fly by. It's a much better television product. And the baseball writers push back on it. It's like sometimes I'm seeing a lot of these almost with this religious

veracity, this kind of like, I know this sport. It's business, all this stuff. The NFL schedule, Jason, you don't think they put Aaron Rogers worried about his health. They got him all over September games in October to a point where it's competitively unfair. He's got short weeks, night games. They got Mahomes playing every day, but Tuesday. Like, we understand this stuff. Money greases it, lubricates all of it. So I just thought, guys, this is, what are we doing here? You want more people to watch the Olympics. Caitlin Clark's television gold. And I also, I'll say that, beyond the fact that, you know, she's probably not one of the 12 best players, I do think in this three ball era, you could certainly make an argument. She's not like just a defensive big. You can always throw

a three-point shooter on the back end of any team in the world and be like, yeah, whatever. Like her game kind of fits being the last person to make an Olympic roster. Or frankly, make any roster if you just got a guy that can shoot. So I, her response was really good. I'll say it again. We're freaking out more than she is. Like she's mature. She's kind of, I would say this, she's built for all this stuff.

She's really been good about it. Yeah. To take it further, she's been so far in a way the best college basketball player for at least the last two years. not longer. She's probably as a competitor loving like the challenge every day waking up like, I need to figure out this league. And like to have a big moment like she did in the last, in the last game where she goes for what, 38 and 7 or whatever. By the way, putting over 20,000 people in an arena for two really bad teams at the bottom of the WMBA standings, which to your point, like, like, I don't know why if you were a player on the team USA team, why you wouldn't

want Caitlin on the, on the, on the roster just so that you get more exposure while you're playing overseas, but it is what it is. I'm with you. She's, she's handling it like a champ. I just, I hate it because she's being kind of weaponized, especially on the political side. She's being weaponized and used to make points that don't even make sense. Like, I, I'm just glad that she's been the calm in the storm because she's been put in a really tough situation. All right, guys, that is all we have for tonight. This NBA finals game two instant reaction was brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. Unlimited 1.5% cashback is just the beginning. Cashback, 3% on dining, including

takeout, 3% at drugstores, 5% on Chase Travel, and 1.5% on everything else. How do you cash back? All right, guys, we'll have our film session in the morning, and then Colin and I will be back for Game 3 on Wednesday. We will see you guys then. The volume.

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