The Kevin Sheehan Show - Arrest Warrant For Aiyuk

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

Kevin opened with the breaking news that an arrest warrant for Brandon Aiyuk had been issued in Santa Clara, California. Kevin previewed and picked the NBA Finals before former Wizards Head Coach Randy Wittman jumped on with his Knicks-Spurs preview, pick, and a lot more including what he thinks the Wizards should do with the first pick in the NBA Draft.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match   Refresh your wardrobe with Quince. Go to www.Quince.com/SHEEHAN for free shipping and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too.   Chime is not just smarter banking, it is the most rewarding way to bank. Head to www.Chime.com/SHEEHAN. It only takes a few minutes to sign up. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. One guest with me on the show today. Randy Whitman will join me next segment to preview the NBA finals. And we'll do a lot more than that with Randy.

I love when he's on the show. He's been on the show once a year for the last four or five years. Usually this time of year, he's had an incredible basketball life. You know, he played at Indiana for Bobby Knight. They won a national championship in 81. Randy Whitman was a part of that team with Isaiah Thomas. He played for those really good Hawks teams in the 80s with Dominique Wilkins. And then, of course, you know, he was a coach for a long period of time,

including, of course, right here in Washington. Randy Whitman coming up next segment. This shows presenting sponsor, as always, Windo Nation, 86690 Nation, windownation.com if you need new windows. We start today's show with the latest news on Brandon Ayyuk. And when I say latest news, it is news that is fresh. It just broke moments ago here at 240 p.m. Eastern. I'll read from the ESPN story titled,

Warrant issued for 49ers Brandon Ayuk after viral speeding video. Quote, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office issued a warrant for the arrest of San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Ayyuk on a misdemeanor charge of exhibition of speeding. The warrant is in reference to a video IUC posted to YouTube in December in which he appears to tape himself, record himself, from the driver's seat going well over the posted 40, per hour speed limit on a road that runs past Levi's Stadium, the 49ers home. A few days after posting the video, IUC did apologize for sharing the video of himself driving a Cadillac CT5V black wing on Tasman Drive, right outside the Niners Home Stadium. Following the incident, the Santa Clara Police Department indicated it would investigate whether any criminal charges would be filed.

The case was forwarded to the DA's office all the way back on January 15th. But the warrant was issued today. So, look, a misdemeanor charge of exhibition of speeding is hardly, you know, an actual crime that would prohibit. a team from signing a player in the NFL. That's not what we're going to talk about here. We're going to talk about this man's judgment, which is clearly limited. This is not, from afar, based on the decisions he's made,

this is not somebody whose judgment can be trusted at this point in his life. He makes very bad decisions. with respect to all of the voided contract money, he's essentially thrown away between $30 and $40 million because he refused to show up to a facility to have his knee checked by team doctors once a month. That's terrible judgment. And then posting a YouTube video of yourself driving a vehicle

over the posted speed limit outside of the 14th. 49ers stadium is really poor judgment. People make worse decisions than Brandon Ayuk's made. There's no doubt about it. But this is, I know going to be a disqualifier for some of you, for sure. First of all, will they be able to find Brandon Ayuk to issue that warrant? It sounds like they did. But he's essentially been MIA as far as the 49ers are concerned. But look, my immediate reaction was, God, this guy, I mean, this guy's just a dope. I mean, from afar, I don't know him. None of you do either, I'm guessing.

But this guy really seems like an imbecile. You know, he'll at some point, maybe, but maybe not. Realize what he did to throw away between $30 and $40 million. Again, like I've said before in conversation about, this contract avoiding that the 49ers did. I mean, it's unprecedented. And it's really unprecedented when you consider that the player has not fought back. No attorney representing him has pushed to stop the 49ers from doing it.

And the NFL PA, the NFL Players Association, has not gone to bat for him on this. So clearly this is, you know, something that he just effed up on. It was pretty simple, according to all of the reports, in terms of what he needed to do to protect that guaranteed money. And that was the bare minimum. Hey, you want to get your knee taking care of outside the facility? Okay, but you've got to let our doctors check you out once or twice a month to see how it's progressing.

And he wouldn't show, wouldn't post. bad judgment and we've talked about this little incident we talked about it when it happened him recording himself speeding outside of the stadium a little bit creepy to begin with that he's out there already in this controversy with the organization

but then pretty stupid to record himself committing a crime I guess even though it's a misdemeanor this is not about you know, this speeding warrant. This isn't about, you know, the physical injury that he's had, although that's got to be checked out. This is about whether or not you want a player who is clearly lacking in the ability

to make good decisions. You know, we had that incident with Jaden Daniels where Jaden was clearly looking to get some help from a friend. during, you know, his first off-season leading into his first NFL season. And I, you know, put the practice video that Jaden had sent him, you know, asking him to look at it and comment on it and help him with anything. And he put it on social media. Stupid.

He's a talent. If he's physically capable and ready, you got to at least consider it. but at this point, you know, the way the relationship went with the 49ers and then the judgment around it and, you know, the judgment around like this, this speeding incident, this guy appears to be pretty limited. Do you want that in your locker room? Do you want that, you know, in your huddle? Do you want a guy that may be brilliant as a receiver if he's physically ready and motivated, but might be a dumb dumb? look, there are a lot of dumb-dums on teams in sports. So I'm not eliminating from my mind the possibility that he ends up on this team,

nor am I eliminating from my personal view, not entertaining having him on the team because of this piece of news. But I would certainly want to have a lot more information. Like if he's truly a moron, will it ultimately just hurt him more than it'll help him, which means it'll hurt the team more than it'll help the team? I don't know. But he's clearly not the brightest bulb on the bush based on some of the decisions he's made.

Look, you can be innately bright and intelligent and just be someone who makes bad decisions. And, you know, immature decisions. And that happens a lot, you're in your 20s for sure. But there you go, the latest on Brandon Ayuk. All right. I got this from Sandy that I read right before recording today's show,

and I wanted to read it because Sandy, I felt the same way. Sandy writes, good job, Kevin. You finally start talking about the Nationals, and they promptly lose two in a row to the Marlins. keep up the good work you're doing for the locals, L.O.L. Sandy, I swear to you last night, I was not watching the game. But when the final score popped up on my phone, which by the way was the exact same score from the night before. So for a moment, I'm like, well, that's not tonight's game. That was last night's game.

They actually lost two straight games to the Marlins by the exact seven to three final score. But I was like, you got to be kidding me. I get back from vacation. They're two games above 500. They've beaten the Braves, the Cleveland and San Diego and three straight series. They've won six of eight. They're playing the Marlins, who have lost five in a row. Maybe they'll end up being five games above 500 after this series if they can get the sweep. Tommy and I talked a lot about the Nationals on the show yesterday.

And yeah, they've lost two in a row to the Marlins. They're actually playing right now in a getaway game at Nats Park. It's one to one in the seventh inning as we sit here and record today's show. It'd be nice for them to get that one. Go a game above 500 before they head out west. Warren Sharp, we've had Warren on the show many times. Warren Sharp has a really good football mind and does a lot of, you know, analytics stuff, a lot of data, a lot of studies on the NFL in particular.

At Sharp football, we've had Warren on the show. Warren does the net rest advantage that we talk about and usually have them on the show, which we did, I think a few weeks ago after the schedule comes out. He put something out yesterday that I found pretty interesting. A few of you sent it to me on Twitter on X. It was a study of teams and their incompleted passes. and the study was specific to the percentage of incompletions caused by receiver error. What does receiver error mean?

He says it's essentially a receiver who drops a football, a receiver who has the ball in his hands but loses control of it going to the ground, which is an incomplete pass, a receiver who should have gotten both feet and bound, after the catch but didn't, and therefore it was called incomplete. And then he says there are other instances as well that are measured as a part of it, but those are the biggies. Dropped passes, receiver losing control going to the ground, receiver not getting both feet in bounds.

And he ranked the teams 1 through 32 in terms of the percentage of receiver error that caused incomplete passes. And it starts with the team. with the highest percentage in the league last year. That was Jacksonville. So don't blame Trevor Lawrence. Blame his receivers. Denver was second. Cleveland was third. The Giants were fourth, and Washington was fifth. Washington had the fifth highest percentage of receiver error that caused incompletions. The reason it was interesting to me is we talked a lot about this last year, that, you know, Terry only played in 10 games.

The receivers they had out there at times were guys off the street. Tay Martin and Chris Moore and Robbie Chosen. And, you know, they ended up signing Traylon Burks. And he came in and actually played pretty well. But that first game that he played in, the Seattle Sunday night game after he'd been, you know, with the team for about two or three days was not very good. And I didn't think that the receivers had a very good year because they didn't. And they were fifth in the league of percentage of receiver error that caused

incompletions. Now, what's interesting about this study is that the two teams that led the league in the fewest receiver errors that caused incompletions were the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. The two teams had ended up in the Super Bowl. How about that? Now, Denver had the second biggest percentage of receiver error that caused incompletions, and they were pretty close to advancing to the Super Bowl. But, yeah, New England and Seattle.

Look, New England's Josh McDaniels does a great job of scheming receivers open. He's always done a great job of scheming receivers open. And New England's receivers were open all year long. I alluded at one point during the season to the DVOA stat on wide open percentages in New England was consistently all year in the top three in the league and their receivers getting open, medium open, and then wide open. That scheme, now I'm not taking anything away from Drake May for those of you who think that I am. And you may love Drake May more than Jayden Daniels, whatever.

I think Trayton May really looked the part. I think he did. I think he had an outstanding season, and he sold me. Now, he played horribly in the postseason, but I thought he looked apart, and I think he's going to get nothing but better, you know, especially now with A.J. Brown, and they've got some good players, man. New England's pretty loaded on both sides of the ball, and the way they play defense throughout the playoffs. If that, you know, defense comes back, you know, similar to the end of the last year. They're going to be a good football team again, even though they've got this brutal schedule that everybody keeps talking about. But man, their receivers were open. They were open until the postseason when they played really good defensive teams. Chargers, Texans, Broncos, Seahawks. Interesting study, though. I thought it was interesting, and wanted to mention it. All right, I want to get to my NBA finals preview and a pick. And I will do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey, guys, it's great to have Quince back as a sponsor of the podcast this week.

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That's Q-U-I-N-C-E-D-com slash Sheean for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash Sheen. Hey guys, it's great to have Chime back on the show as an advertiser this week. They've been periodically advertising for a few years, giving me an opportunity to tell you that Chime is changing the way people bank. And my younger self would have definitely benefited from using Chime. Chime is changing the way people bank by offering the most rewarding fee-free banking. Why pay fees on withdrawing your own money from an ATM? Well, with Chime, they have thousands of fee-free ATMs.

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today. Head to chime.com slash sheen. That is chime.com slash sheen. It only takes a few minutes to sign up. Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Bank. Banking services for MyPay and Chime card provided by Chim's bank partners. Optional products and services may have fees or charges. Stateed annual percentage yield and cashback for Chime Prime only. No minimum balance required. Checking account ranking based on a JD Power Survey published October 20, 2025. For more information on APY rates, MyPag, spot me, and travel perks. Go to chime.com slash disclosures. That was the CBS theme for its NBA coverage from all the way back in the 1980s. That's actually my favorite. I know a lot of you prefer the NBC open because it reminds you of the Jordan years and, of course, NBC back on the NBA this year, but not on the NBA finals.

The NBA finals tonight will be broadcast throughout by ABC ESPN, which means we get Mike Breen, Tim Legler, and Richard Jefferson. There is nobody better than Legler as a pure X's and O's analyst on these NBA games. He is great. So I'm actually thrilled that it's on ABC ESPN. I know that the NBC coverage was outstanding with Toriko and company, Reggie Miller, Crawford, et cetera. But I'm glad that we get Tim Legler doing his very first NBA finals as the number one analyst.

If you get a chance and you don't mind doing it and you haven't done it, rate and review this podcast. It's a big help for us. Easy to do on both Apple and Spotify. Five stars is the best for us if you think this show deserves it. also followed this podcast, just hit the plus button or the follow button. That's a big help for us as well. So I got to be honest with you, I am so fired up for these NBA finals. I think these playoffs have been great.

Yes, they have been marked with some short series, some blowouts. But going back to the first round, that Nuggets Timberwolf series was outstanding. the Celtic 76er series was great. We had Pistons, calves in round two, and then obviously, you know, Timberwolves spurs, and then Thunder Spurs. I think those two series really have been the best of the playoffs so far. The playoffs have been physical, they've been rough.

I've enjoyed it. I really have, and I think this matchup is a highly anticipated one, one of the highest anticipated finals in a long time because of the Knicks being in it, and it's a premier market clearly. But Wembe has become the face of the league. He's really one of the faces of sports right now, not just in the U.S., but even more so globally. San Antonio is a sizable favorite. I understand that, and I thought as recently as a week ago that the winner of San Antonio,

Oklahoma City would have their way with the Knicks in the finals. But I've come around a little bit. I kind of think the Knicks have a legitimate shot. They've won 11 straight games. They have not lost a game in 41 days. April 23rd was the last time they lost a game. That was game three to the Hawks. They've only lost two games in this postseason.

and they've been impressive. I mean, 12 and 2 with 2 1 point losses, and their winning streak of 11 in a row by nearly 24 points per game, they have been absolutely killing people. Now, the Cavs are a joke. The 76ers had gone 7 with the Celtics. I still think the Celtics are the best team in the East. I don't know how they lost to the 76ers, but they did.

They shot too many threes. they didn't have a plan B, and they're out in the first round. I think if they had survived that series, I think a Celtics-Nicks series would have been great. And I guess after watching the Knicks here recently, the Knicks certainly could have beaten the Celtics, but the Knicks haven't been tested like they'll get tested by the Spurs, of course. I mean, they did not play a very good defensive team at all in Cleveland.

They are going to be defended in these NBA finals. but any team that's won that many games by that many points in a row, you can't dismiss them. Meantime, I still believe that the Thunder should be here if they had been a healthy team with Jalen Williams, but I'm not so sure of that. I mean, injuries are certainly reasons, but, you know, they were supposedly a deep team that wasn't very deep when they got to game seven.

You know, one thing that I did not point out that I meant to mention about game seven, you know, Alex Caruso was such a big part of the Thunder and their success in the playoffs this year. And he shot the ball very well until game seven. He was three of 14 from the floor. And I think that if he had shot the ball like he had been shooting it throughout the postseason, that would have been a big, big difference in game seven as well. I mean, he took 14 shots. Chad Holmgren only took two.

We've talked about that. performance. But I thought Caruso was one of the guys that wasn't afraid that came up big time and time again for the thunder throughout the postseason. And he was three of 14 and one of six from behind the arc. You know, prior to that, earlier in the series in game one, he was eight of 14 from behind the arc. He was three for five and another game from behind the arc. Three for four, four for eight. I mean, he was on fire. in this series and he went cold in game seven. And some of them were the same looks that he was getting all series long.

But they're not in the finals. San Antonio is. San Antonio deserved it. They had better support for Wemby than SGA had. And here they are. I think most people like San Antonio to win. And I'll give you my pick in a moment. I think we're going to see a very long series.

I think the games in the garden, I mean, if New York gets a split in these first two, there's no games Saturday and Sunday. It's the NBA giving the teams an extra break for travel, an extra day of rest for travel. They play games one and two in San Antonio tonight and Friday night, then no hoops over the weekend and then back to the Garden for game three Monday night. That is going to be a scene, man. First finals game in the garden since 1999. That will be a difficult place to play. So was Oklahoma City different reasons.

I mean, not decibel-wise, but different types of crowds. But still, a great home court advantages for the Thunder and certainly for the Nix. I give the Nix a shot, but I think there are a couple of keys for the Nix. Number one is they've got to play fast. You know, not that Oklahoma City didn't try to play fast, because I think they did on occasion, but they like, you know, getting into their half-court set and eventually getting the ball to SGA

and letting him create and trying to get to the rim, which they, you know, teams have tried to do, but then they veer off and move away from Wembe. I think the number one key to the Knicks beating the Spurs in a best of seven is they have to play fast, and then they've got to shoot it well. Playing fast will give them the opportunity to not face a set defense.

When you face San Antonio and they're set defensively, Wembe's obviously an eraser at the rim and in the paint. But their perimeter defenders are so good. This is not going to be James Hardin seeking time for Jalen Brunson. There's no James Harden equivalent on the, spurs. I mean, Castle is a monster defender. I think they've got to play fast. And even if they give up points, they've got to take it out of the net, and they've got to push it, and they've got to get quick shots against a defense that isn't set, and then they've got to shoot it at a high

percentage, which is what they've done. They lead the NBA in postseason three-point shooting percentage and an overall field goal shooting percentage. You can't beat San Antonio without shooting the ball well. You're going to have to knock down a lot of threes and the Knicks have done a great job of shooting the three. They were an ISO team last year. They're not so much this year. And I think that's been a huge help. And I think key number two after playing fast and then I guess, you know, shooting it well while playing fast is they've got to pull Wembe away in those, in the, you know, instances in which they are playing half court basketball, which happens a lot in the postseason. And I I think Carl Anthony Towns can do it, but he's got to be aggressive doing it.

He has to not look to just be a facilitator. He's got to shoot and he's got to score and he's got to make Wembe come out and guard him and take him away from the rim so that Ananobe and Josh Hart and, of course, Brunson can get the ball close to the rim. It's not necessarily the way the Knicks play. It's more the way the Thunder played, but Carl Anthony Towns is going to be big in this series. He's got to be able to be an aggressive offensive option, you know, and he can't do the thing where he says, I like when they play through me. I don't need to score. You need to score.

You need to shoot. You need to pull him out. And he's capable of doing it. Holmgren's capable of doing it too. He didn't. Carl Anthony Towns cannot shrink from this occasion. And then lastly, I do think Mitchell Robinson's availability will be huge because he's kind of like, the Hartenstein to Holmgren in that, you know, you can really bang Wembe with Mitchell Robinson more so than you can with Carl Anthony Towns. I do think Annobe is going to be a key in this series. He is a very, very good two-way player in the league. Robinson broke, I guess, a pinky finger, but he's seven feet and he's physical. He can't shoot free throws. So there is a hacka, you know, Mitchell Robinson's strategy when he's in the game. But,

You got to lean on Wembe. You got to make Wembe run the court. You've got to play fast and make them run up and down the court. You've got to be physical with them. And Robinson's physicality on Wembe would be much greater than, say, Carl Anthony Towns. I think the Knicks can play fast. I think they can shoot it well. But if they're in a half-court series against San Antonio's set defense,

then I think you're going to end up watching games where San Antonio's San Antonio scores much easier than New York does, and San Antonio will come out on top, and maybe in short fashion. But I think the Knicks will play fast. I think they will shoot it well, playing in transition a lot. Of course, to play fast, usually you have to get stops and rebounds. But in the NBA, even on a made shot, somebody's got to jump out, throw the ball in, and everybody's got to run the floor, and they've got to make the big guy, 7'5, Victor Wembeyanama,

up and down that floor. He has looked tired in these games. You can physically wear him out. You know, he's not where he's going to be three, four years from now, physical maturity-wise. I like the Spurs to win the series, but I see this series going seven games. So the pick is San Antonio in seven. It's not going to shock me, though, if the Knicks win this series. They are the fresh team. Now, that could cause a problem tonight early because they can be rusty, We'll see it didn't game one against Cleveland. Of course, they came back from 20 plus down to win that game. But San Antonio looked exhausted the other night.

Exhausted the other night. By the way, Kevin Garnett said on his podcast what I said, and a couple of you took exception to it, when I observed that Victor Wembeyanama was incredibly emotional, almost too much so because it almost appeared from a phone. that it was over that he had won the title after they beat the Thunder to win the Western Conference Championship. And I said, you know, there are four more here, man.

You got to get it together. He's a very emotional player and it was an emotional series physically and mentally draining, certainly for him. And I understood that. But, I mean, the weeping, the uncontrollable, you know, emotion and tears, it felt more like you were watching the celebration of a championship rather than a kind of. Conference Championship. And Kevin Garnett on his podcast said, all of that crying, you haven't won anything yet yet. And basically said, you've got to get it together. You can't be that emotional

until the championship is completed. All right. The Spurs in Seven, that's the pick. I really wanted to pick the Knicks. You get a pretty good price coming back to on them for the series. But I'll pick the Spurs in seven. Looking forward to game one. I don't have a feel for game one at all. All right, let's get to Randy Whitman. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show is brought you by Window Nation. If you need new windows, my recommendation is to call Window Nation.

86690 Nation or go to WindowNation.com. Right now, buy four, get for free with no money down, no payments, and no interest for two full years. Get it done before the end of the month and before the run. real summer heat arrives. It'll save you money on your air conditioning bills and your home will look nicer. 86690 Nation, windonation.com. I got this from Victor. Victor writes, Kevin, I'm a lifelong Bullets Wizards fan like you are. Are you going to have Randy Whitman on the show like you've done the last few years? His insight's always great and he's got really good stories from his playing days and his coaching days for the Wizards, hoping you can pull it off again before the playoffs are over.

Victor, you ask, you receive, and let me just tell you, I've had the same idea, and every year for the last four or five years, we've had Randy on the show this time of year because his insight is great and his memory of his playing days, which by the way, not only include playing on those Dominique Wilkins-led Atlanta teams in the 80s, but he was, but he was, was a national champion for Bobby Knights, Indiana teams in the late 70s, that 1981 team that beat North Carolina in the final. But it's good to have you back. I know you're busy because I know you have a similar passion, and that is golf. You play a lot of golf, don't you? I play a ton of golf. I'm not going to lie. And who was your listener

that wrote that in? Victor wrote that. Victor, and I just, Kevin, tried to give me on here the last couple weeks, and it hasn't worked out, so don't be mad at him, be mad at me. I am persistent, but I've understood because I think every single time I knew, yeah, he's heading out to the golf course today. So I'm glad we're able to catch up. You know, in just mentioning, I know that we've talked about that championship game that you were a part of in 81 in Philadelphia.

By the way, the day Ronald Reagan was shot outside. of the Hilton on Connecticut Avenue in D.C. You were the second leading score for Indiana. Isaiah led the way on that day. You know what I've, the reason I'm bringing it up is because of this. I have actually compared Ralph Samson to Victor Wembeñama stylistically. And you played Carolina in that final, but Carolina beat Ralph Samson's Virginia team in the semi-final.

And I think Virginia was favored to win that game and face Indiana in the finals. But what would that matchup have been like had you faced Virginia in the finals instead of North Carolina? Actually, we, you know, kind of funny you brought that up. I was talking with some old teammates. We were actually hoping that Virginia was going to win. Really? I just thought we matched up better. We had the bigs that we could put different. We had three bigs that we could throw at Samson at that time.

We were a little bit more worried about Carolina's versatility with the way Worthy and Perkins could both play outside and inside. But, hey, it worked out. North Carolina beat them, and we were able to beat North Carolina in the final. Yeah, you had 16 in that game on 7 of 13 from the floor and hit the shot at the end of the first half that gave you guys the lead that you never relinquished. Do you remember the end of that first half? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yep, that was a, it was a, we got down six, eight points early in that game and fought our way back. It was a tie game. We had the last possession. You know, back then we didn't have shot clock. Right. So we could hold the ball. I think we held it for the last 45 seconds of the first half, and it was able to hit a shot in the right corner at the buzzard to put us up, too,

and we never looked back. We came out at halftime. They tried to, being the old Dean Smith press, they tried to press this in the half-core trap, and we just stuck Isaiah in the middle of the trap and hit him, and he just took it to the basket, neither scored or dumped it off for easy baskets, and we went quickly up 8 to 10,

and then we're able to hold on for a 13-point win. I mean, you really, you've had quite the basketball life. You played in that famous game 7 in the late 80s, the Dominic Wilkins, Larry Bird shootout, and you were great in that game, too. You played in that very memorable final, because of what had happened earlier in the day. And you and I have talked about that in the past,

the possibility that the game was going to get postponed when Reagan had been shot earlier in the day. You know, in looking back at that tournament, and I've got the five games that you won, you know, I remember very much your first game because I'm a Maryland guy. And the thing, and I don't know that I have talked to you about this, but this was the Albert King, Buck Williams,

Ernie Graham Terps, who the year before had gotten to the Sweet 16 lost to Georgetown. And I think in 81, Maryland was like preseason number three or four in the country. And they played Indiana. And the thing that I remember about the game, and I'm wondering if you remember it, Maryland jumped out to an 8 to nothing lead. And Bobby Knight didn't call a timeout because he knew it didn't matter. You guys won that game by 35.

It was an absolute beat down. Actually, that was a scary team to play. Now, you got to remember back in 81, it was only 48 teams in the tournament. Yeah. You basically had to, you know, there was very few, you know, at-large bid. You basically, you better count on winning your conference to get in at that time. So, you know, we win the Big Ten, and our first opponent's Maryland. And I'm thinking, holy smoke.

You know, everybody, obviously, the names you just brought up. And the ironic thing about that, that was in Dayton, Ohio. And the game before our game with Maryland was DePaul. They were undefeated that year. They were upset. They got upset. Yeah. And they put right before our game, that happened.

and I don't know if you've ever been to University of Dayton's arena. It's kind of a pit that's underneath the kind of ground, and there's a ramp that goes up to the locker rooms and stuff. Yeah. We're waiting on the ramp and they get upset in the Gwire and these guys are running by us just, you know, can't believe it. Then we go out, we're down eight nothing, and I'm like going, holy smoker, we're going to get beat too. and you're right. Coach didn't call a time out. And we went on, I think,

33 or 36 point win in that game. It was one of the early NCAA tournament buzzer-beater days that, you know, became, you know, basically commonplace after that. But that particular Saturday, second round, 1981 of the NCAA tournament, St. Joe's beats DePaul, the undefeated number one team in the country.

U.S. Reed hits a half-court shot to beat Louisville, and then Rolando Blackman hits a big shot to upset Oregon State, who was a number one seat. And they all happened within like a 10 to 15-minute period on NBC. And I think from that moment on, people were, like, addicted to the NCAA tournament. Yeah. Yeah, that was Unfortunately for me, Maryland was not a part of upset Saturday.

That particular... And I'm glad they were. Yeah, you guys, of course. I think Kentucky got beat. I don't know if it was that weekend. They got beat early, too. Yeah. In that 81 tournament, too.

So, yeah, it was a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, you know, I've probably mentioned this to you before, but, you know, Lefty and Bobby Knight had kind of a running feud because Lefty had criticized Hank Iba when the U.S. team lost the gold medal game to Russia in 72, that very controversial, you know, Olympic final where they put time back on the clock multiple times. It was an absolute joke. But Lefty criticized Iba for not playing faster. He said they should have played faster.

It would have never been the game it turned out. And of course, Iba was Bobby Knight's guy. And Bobby Knight apparently never forgave Lefty for his public criticism of Hank Iba. I don't know if you knew that or if we talked about it before. I did. I mean, you don't. You did. That was one person.

I mean, coach, truly, I mean, respected, looked up to Mr. Iba. He was a, you know, Knight brought him in to speak to our teams every year. He would come and hang out with us, whether it's preseason or just. Coach loved him. And I didn't really know that's where the feud kind of made it came, but if Lefty did that, then absolutely I can see Coach Knight not taken too far. Finally to that. Well, you know, Lefty's a bit of a legend around these parts.

Oh, no question. Yeah, and Lefty, before he got into the Hall of Fame, there was a stretch of, I don't know, four or five years where there were about four or five of us in sports media that he would pick up the phone and call every once in a while. And I remember him calling me once and saying, I figured it out, Kevin. And I go, what? He goes, Bobby Knights keeping me out of the Hall of Fame. And I said, well, why would he do that?

And he went on this long explanation, and that's how I learned about it. And, of course, no one was really keeping him out of the Hall of Fame, and he eventually made the Hall of Fame, which was pleasing to everybody around here. All right, let's get to the reason that I called you. And I'll just start by just saying Victor Wembeñama. What do you say? What are your discussions about him with your basketball friends? He's an alien.

He can, I mean, He's changing the game in manners that, you know, we probably thought we would never see in terms of, I mean, his abilities that he's put on full force, force. And you've got to think about throughout this year, you know, they end up, what they ended up winning just two games less than OKC, I think was. Yeah. 62 and 60. Is that correct? Is that correct? That sounds right. I think that's right. Yeah, 64 and 62, yeah. Yeah, and I mean, if you look at his stats,

I don't even think he averaged 30 minutes a game. Right. You know, they were, you know, he had those problems at the end of last year, you know, with the blood clot and those things. And, I mean, this is a guy that didn't even, you know, probably play a game of 40 minutes yet. What he has done to change that team, you know, we always worry about, I think

people always like, all right, you know, there was, you know, there was Larry Bird, there was, you know, Jerry West, there's Magic Johnson, there's Michael Jordan, there's LeBron. I mean, who's going to be the next, as people like to say, face of the

NBA, and my gosh, this kids got it written all over him. And I've never met the kid by all accounts. He's not only a hell of a player, but it looks like a heck of a kid, too. He handles himself really well.

And, you know, I've been talking with people about how would you defend him? Right. And my thing going into that, if I was coaching on the other side or coaching it, I'm not too worried about defending him. He's going to be hard to defend. What you can't allow is those other guys. to really come out and have big games. You know, Castle has an opportunity that he can get hot Fox.

You've got the Six-Man Johnson. You got Harper who turned out to be, you know, I didn't see that coming, to be honest with you. I mean, I watched him a lot, obviously, at Rutgers being in the Big Ten, and I didn't know if that was a good fit. I mean, they didn't even, they weren't even above 500 at Rutgers. Right. Well, two players, he and Ace Bailey both went in the top five. Yeah.

And, boy, he proved me wrong, and he's going to be good. And so I think you really got a, you know, Keenland Champany come in and do what he did against O.K.C., you know, where your thought is so much on Wembe that you're, you know, if you allow this guy to come in and make 7, 8, 8, 3s, and score 20 plus points. And that would be my thought process. You know, Wembe has the ability to go for 41, but he also has the ability to go for 24 and then make everybody else around him better if he try to take the ball out of his hand.

And I think that would be the way I would look to divide my game playing going against him. because we didn't talk earlier in the playoffs, did you think that they would get here, or did you think Oklahoma City would be back defending their title in the finals? No, I have to be honest, especially with the home court. I just thought heading into it, I just didn't know if San Antonio had enough experience yet, you know, to get into the hostile situation,

the farther along you go in Oklahoma City, one of the, you know, if you've ever been there, but it's one of the loudest arenas in the league. But once they, the series got into the series, I was not at all surprised that they won game seven or that they won the series because they can throw so many different players at, you know, Gil, say, you know, and it wore him down. You know, everybody's like, well, Shea's off his game. Well, Shea was off his game a little bit because of the different bodies that were thrown at him that could defend him. And, I mean, you couldn't ask him to do any more in the game seven than he did, you know, that he just didn't have any other help. But that's the thing.

I wasn't surprised after watching them play how many guys, different guys that they could put on him. And it's going to be the same thing in this series. you know, obviously Brunson's the head of the snake for New York, and they've got guys that can throw a lot of three, four different bodies at a guy like him and wear him down a little bit. You know, I used to talk about the teams you coached here, and you know that I was a big fan of you as a coach here. I think you were an excellent NBA coach,

and I think a lot of coaches felt that way about you when you were here. But one of the things I remember we used to talk about is, you know, with John, playing fast was crucial. You know, getting stops, turning people over, rebounding, even taking the ball out of the bucket, and getting down with him before you had to face a set defense was just a major advantage for you guys. And I kind of see it, and I'm wondering if you agree that that's the way you have to play Wembe, you can't let them set up defensively. By the way, their perimeter defenders are unbelievably good, too.

the only chance you really have is to play fast. I know that's oversimplifying it, but do you agree with that? Or maybe there's another way you would look at facing them. You have to play them fast. You've got to run Wemby. He's the guy that you cannot allow him to play stationary at the defensive end. What I mean by that is he's just sitting back at the rim. you know, waiting for a breakdown.

Because just as you miss, I mean, Castle, I think, is an outstanding defender. The vessel is an outstanding defender. Harper's a big body, you know. Those are the guys that if you do get by them and you're in a walk-it-up mode, you've got to get by the alien at the rim. And that's hard. Now, if you get out in the open floor and he's not back quite yet, and he's on the wing running back and you get, you know, beat your defender,

you can get to the rim. But, you know, it's going to be interesting because, you know, New York, I don't think is the fastest playing team, but I think that they're going to have to play fast against this team. And I think you're going to see them put the ball more in town's hand. I thought they did that as the playoffs wore on. Towns was more the playmaker. They ran Brunson off the ball, so you can't really focus in on him, which I thought,

you know, New York did a great job with that. Right. So I think it's going to, I think it's going to be a good series. I really do. New York, I mean, who would thought New York would run off the games that they've run off and then the closed-out games winning almost every one of them by 30 plus points? They haven't lost in a game in 41 days. When that game tips off tonight, they haven't lost in 41 days.

I mean, that tells you a little bit about the NBA playoffs and the length of the playoffs. But yeah, they've run off 11 straight and they've won by an average of basically 24 a game. It's impressive. Yeah, it's impressive. We just worry about, you know, they've had a lot of time off now. Right. And I've always been the thing I love, you know, I think San Francisco. and Jonio kind of got to love it.

They got a couple days off here since beating OKC. But when you're advancing and advancing and advancing, and now you're advancing to the files, you want to keep playing. You don't want to sit and wait 10, 11 days as New York has. But it's going to help them because they're going to be really, really fresh. That was always the knock, you know, with them in the playoffs, that, you know, they were always spent through the minutes.

amount of minutes that they played during the regular season. I thought Mike Brown really did a nice job of changing that this year during the regular season where he played his bench and Hart and Brunson and Bridges and those guys just weren't gassed when they got to the Eastern Conference finals. So I think I'm looking forward to it. I think it's got a chance to be a good competitive series. You know, also you kind of alluded to it and I've talked about it during these is that the Knicks have kind of gotten away from what I hate watching personally, and I think it's really hard to win four out of seven four straight series playing as much ISO ball as they played last year. And they've gotten away from that, right?

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They basically, I would be shocked if they don't open up tonight the way that they've been playing. You're going to see towns up at the top of the key where Brunson or Harder, or whoever's bringing it up. and hitting him, and now the wings are running down off screens, coming back off, and Towns is really your facilitator. I thought he did a hell of a job when Mike changed their offense, because it was a lot of dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, and that wears a player out, and that wears players down when especially a guy of Brunson is trying to do it all.

So I'd be shocked if they changed how they play going into this. And you've got to think if, you know, Wimby's going to be matched up on towns, you want Wimby out there at the three-point line rather than underneath the rim, waiting for somebody to come to the rim where he can be effective. So it's going to, I think you're going to see that happen a lot in this series. I would imagine you hate watching, you know, the James Hardens, the Luca Donchichich's, just pound the basketball for 22 seconds and then throw up the three, right? Hate it.

Hate it. Absolutely hate it. I just, it's just not, I mean, Hardens, you know, you look at a guy like him, and has he had a hell of a career? Yeah, I mean, the guy's talented, he can score. but he's never gotten over the hump. And there's reasons for that. And you just, you know what, when you play against teams that are team oriented and moving the ball,

defensively, you can just, you can stop that. And, you know, you can get away with that in a regular season some. But, you know, if you're looking to the ultimate prize, you're just never going to get there. Very, very few people have that dribble, dribble, dribble, and I think, you know, New York was a little bit like that the last couple of years with them. And they've gotten away, and now look, I think that's a key why they're in the finals this year. I mean, there's really no reason why they should have lost to Indiana last year.

You know, think about it. And they were only able to do that because Indiana was a fun team to watch, you know. you know, everybody can say Halliburton, well, Halliburton didn't dribble, dribble, dribble, you know, they were a team that Carlisle does a great job of, you know, ball movement, player movement passes, and New York has gotten into that now, and I think that's why you're looking at them in the finals.

I think one of the underrated parts, and it doesn't get talked a lot, doesn't get talked about a lot, of course, you understand this, is that when you've got one player dribbling the life out of the basketball, you got four guys that aren't defending and are resting. And that matters on the other end. Like, people always said, man, why is Golden State so good defensively? I always felt like it's because of what they did offensively. And the...

No question. Yeah. So here's the other thing, Kevin, though, with that, right? When you have one guy that does that and you're a player standing, basically, watching it, and now all of a sudden, it becomes a situation where I run to get the ball out of your team's best player. I haven't touched the ball in a couple of quarters. And now all of a sudden, you're throwing it to me, expecting me to do what? Yeah. I mean, I haven't been, and that, I'm just talking as a player and a coach, but especially when I was a player, if you're involved, and I'm not even talking about shot,

but if you're involved in the game offensively, running off screens, hitting, putting a ball on the floor, making the next pass, you're involved, you're into the game. If I'm standing in the corner for two and a half quarters, then all of a sudden, you know, you're throwing me to ball and say, all right, do something. I mean, it's hard.

It's just, it's just hard as a player to do that, to all of a sudden kick it in a gear and, you know, expect me now. to do things. When I haven't been involved for three and a half quarters, and just mentally, it plays a part in that. And when you're a player that is touching the ball

every time down the floor, and I'm not talking side of chance, I'm talking about physically touching the ball, that plays a big part psychologically in players' minds. Trust me. And I am more involved in a game that when it's time, I'm involved in the game and I've got to make a play now at the end, I'm ready to make that play. Listen, anybody that plays pickup basketball at a health club on the weekends knows that if you get chances offensively,

you're going to be more fired up to play on the other end as well. It's just more fun to play offense. But, you know, one of the things, so that's been a, I've hated that, you know, over the last several years. I've called James Harden the most joyless player to watch in all of team sports in terms of star players. But the other thing that's driven me crazy, and I'll use Hardin as the example here, in that comeback game one win in the Eastern Conference finals when the Knicks came back from all those points down, and they just kept targeting Hardin over and over again with Brunson, which, by the way, they did go more sort of ISO or two-man.

And why do you have to switch every single time? That's another pet peeve of mine. I don't get why teams just accept the switch. Now, that plays a little bit part on Kenny Akinson. Yes. Because I'm done with that. You know, if you're going into the game, all right, we want to start that way. That's fine.

but if I continue to see, I don't care if you're my star player or you're my 10th man player. If I see you can't guard somebody, I am going to keep you off of them at all cost. Now, you brought up Golden State, okay? Everybody knows Steph Curry is not a lockdown defender. Right. And when teams try to do that with Steph Curry, he jumps out in a hard show on the pick and roll, jumped out hard and then gets back to his player. And if you happen to want to throw it back to his player, that's great.

I can recover it to him. And now you're making a guy that you don't want to have the ball. It's in his hands now. If you just keep switching, I mean, they made no adjustment. They didn't really make an adjustment all series long. They continued to switch those situations with Hardin. And I actually started feeling bad for the guy. Yeah.

It was a disaster all series long, and they just left him out there on the eye. And I don't know, hey, maybe Kenny Axson was trying to prove a point to the front office that I don't want this guy signed for a long-term deal. Well, yeah, but it was game one of the Eastern Conference finals, and you had a 20-something point lead. I know. You know, the funny thing about that, too, was they weren't even good. screens. Like it wasn't, like they were just say they would run somebody towards Hardin and automatically they would just accept it.

It drove me crazy. That was, you know, doing what I do, sometimes you end up criticizing coaches and you have no idea what you're talking about, but whatever. You live with that. In that particular game, I thought anybody that's even a casual basketball fan could say about Kenny

Atkinson's coaching. That's one of the worst final six minutes of a game in overtime I've ever watched. Remember, he didn't call a timeout, and he had timeouts to use, or he was going to lose him. I mean, what did you think watching that as a former NBA coach? You know, hey,

we get criticized. Sometimes it's valid, and sometimes it's not. And when it's valid, you know what? You've got to look in the mirror. all right, that's how you become a better coach. It's happened to me, but there's times you've got to, especially in a playoffs. When you're playing somebody seven games over and over and over again, it's all about adjustment. What adjustment are we going to do? Are we going to change a lineup?

Are we going to change who we're having guard someone or skiing defensively? Are we going to change? And it's got to change during games. I'm not talking from game one to game two to game three. I'm talking from first quarter into the second quarter, third quarter. Now we've got to change back and do that. There was nothing there that changed from a adjustment standpoint. You know, I don't like to see coaches get ripped, obviously.

But there are times it's well-deserved. By the way, you know, you talked about Kat, Carl Anthony Towns, and, you know, perhaps being able to pull Wembe away from the bucket. I mean, again, this is getting into criticizing a player, but it's because it was so obvious. I mean, what did you think of Chet Holmgren's game seven the other night? I really don't know what happened. I mean, I was shocked. The kid's a good player. I just think, I don't know.

Wimby took his heart out. And it affected this kid. I mean, I think if you remember early on in that game, Wemby had a dunk on the kid early, and I just think he was gone. He was zoned out. You know, he's taken a lot of critics. Well, she took two shots.

He's an all-star, you know, first-time All-Star. there's no reason that you only take two shots. And I just think, you know what, he ran into this guy that a lot of people, he's going to have an effect on a lot of people like that. But you know what, here's the thing you can't do. You've heard it now since OKC's lost. I give Shay a lot of credit. He came to his defense a little bit and said, hey, listen, we probably wouldn't have won the championship.

last year without Chet. We probably wouldn't have gotten this far without Chet. We all go

through struggles in our careers. He's a big part. I don't think the kid you know, you can't sit and

what they have to navigate, you know, they're going to have extensions to start kicking in. And money's going to

become an issue because of the talent they've got and what who's they're going to have to pay moving forward. But, you know, everybody's like, you've got to get rid of this guy.

I mean, the kid's a good player. I mean, I'd have him on my team in a minute, but Wemby took his heart out. I mean, that's probably the easiest way you can say it in that series. You know, I mentioned something that I didn't give you a chance to answer, and I just want your thoughts. I don't think that there's any comparison for Wembe. He is truly, as you said, an alien. He's a unicorn.

He's one of one. But when I thought about sort of trying to come up with an answer, Ralph Sampson stylistically, if the three-point shot had been something that Biggs took during his day, he was at 7-4. He played in a kind of as a forward or a guard. That's really what he wanted to be as much as anything. But is that a comp that's any one?

we're near close? So, yeah, no, it's fair. I mean, he could play face- him. Yes, well, he did, yeah. Back to the basket player. The one thing he didn't have that, that this kid has the ability to truly handle the ball like a six-three guard.

Yeah. I mean, he can put it between his legs, attack you off the dribble, hit you with a crossover, and get to the rim. You know, Ralph really, never had that in his game. That alone, I think, puts this kid over the top because, you know what, if you want to put a smaller guy on him and try to, you know, get into his legs, we saw what happened when Caruso did that. Yeah. Sucking down the box and Doe him in, they threw it up to the

rim. He's 7-4. Then he'd have to jump to touch the rim. The one thing I think gives New York at an advantage that I think you've got OG who's 6-8, 6-9, very physical. I think you're going to see him on Wimby a lot in this series because I think he's

not as small thing, but he's very physical. You want, if he's going to try to post you up, you want somebody I can beat him up a little bit, I think we're going to see O.G on him a little bit more than people realize in this series. I think

it's interesting that you brought up Crusoe, because in the Minnesota series, they used DeSumo, the guard occasionally on Wembe, and I thought it was interesting because, you know, especially when he was out on the perimeter, somebody seven foot five doesn't have any problem putting the ball on the floor against another seven footer, but against a six three guy, it's always hard to put it on the floor. And I thought actually they gave him some trouble with that. So maybe, yeah. No question, but I think what you saw, they knew that that was probably, you know, this is a copycat lead. Yeah. You see something that works.

And they think, you know, getting through Minnesota, I think they knew going into OKC was, okay, we got to be ready to how are we going to attack this when it does happen again? And you saw what happened. They just stuck him down in the dunker spot on the baseline and put four people out and just dove him into the middle of the front. floor and if you wanted to try to three-quarter it, they just threw it up to the rim, and if you stood behind him, he just caught it and turned around like Will Chamberlain used to do in the day and just finger-roll it in. Yeah. And you saw that adjustment, I think, you know, I thought that coach did a hell of a job,

and that's what, you know, we talked about earlier, making an adjustment, you know, during the game or during, you know, a series. So it'll be interesting. But I don't know if he can do that against O'Souche's a very physical player. People only think he's 666. He's almost 6.9. He's a big kid. And so he can get out there if Wemby wants to handle the ball and really pressure him,

unlike Towns would be able to do where Robinson would be able to do if they're matched up on him. I think Wimby's really going to attack those guys. off the dribble, but if there's OG on him, it'll be interesting to see. He's really, Ananobie's really become one of the better two-way players in the league. And that's a really

interesting observation because I think that makes a lot of sense to try him on Wembe. Before I get your prediction, I wanted to ask you about something that I've observed, and people, you know, older NBA fans have pushed back a little bit on this.

In watching these plays, I can't remember more contact being allowed. And I know the playoffs are different. We all understand that. But some of these games, the Minnesota San Antonio series, the Western Conference Finals that we just witnessed, I think they were as physical, you know, in terms of playoff series, I think I've ever seen.

What did you observe? Yeah, the only thing I don't like about that is, you know, you play 82 games, and you play it one way, the game's called one way, and then it's always, don't get me wrong, the playoffs are always more physical than a regular season. But this is over the top compared to what... So you agree. You think it's been over the top. Yeah.

I always thought that was the big difference why, you know, we had such a long drought in the Big Ten of getting a national champion until this year is because the Big Ten, that's how they ref in the season. Big Ten Conference, you are, it's by far more physical than any other conference in terms of being allowed to hit people, push and shove without being called for a foul. And then you get into the NCAA tournament, and it's called a touch foul here and a touch foul there. Right. And you're just not used to playing that way. And now your best player, two best players are sitting on the bench with three files in the first half. And, you know, in the NCAA, you're one and done. Yeah.

I think it's the opposite we're looking at now. Yeah. Now, we've reached this point to the finals. I think everybody has adjusted. Now, if they come out tonight and start calling tic-it-tack fouls, then we've got a problem. You know, if they leave it as they're doing, it is physical. But I think now you've let these teams play physical up to this point. You've got to let them continue to play that way.

No. That's just a fair way to do it. I mean, that San Antonio Oklahoma City Series, I can't remember more people hitting the ground. And I'm not talking about flopping. I'm talking about because of contact. without the whistle blowing. I actually enjoy it. I just thought it was, you know,

extreme compared to previous years. All right. Who do you have? And how many games? I don't know why I'm going to say this. I'm going to look like a fool. I mean, I love San Antonio.

I'm going with my gut. You know, I'm not involved in this day to day anymore. I'm a fan like you. are now watching it. For some reason, I just, I like, I like that.

I'm going with New York in an upset. I think there's no question San Antonio should be favored in this. I just think if the key, I mean, if New York wins

one of these first two, I think for sure, New York's going to win. I just think, you know, Madison Square Garden is a different monster in the playoffs. I mean, it really is. You've got some crazy people there. And I, with their rest and their health, you know, they're as healthy as can be other than Robinson's little pinky, but if he can't play the broken pinky, you can. Yeah. I bet Chad Holmgren wishes he had an excuse like, that. All right, by the way, I thought Oklahoma City was going to repeat before the playoffs started. I

didn't think anybody could beat them four out of seven. I still think if Jalen Williams is in that series, they probably win it, but who knows? But I'm like you. All of a sudden, I feel like, God, the Knicks probably have a chance in this thing. I think they definitely have a chance. Yeah. All right. I'd be remiss not to ask you about who you think the wizard should take at number one overall in the NBA draft later this month. So we'll finish it up with Randy Whitman answering that question after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought you by MyBooky.

My bookies got everything you need for these NBA finals. The series price right now, San Antonio, is a minus 197 favorite to win the title. They are four and a half point favorites tonight in game one. so many prop bet opportunities. How about this one? Remember in game one of the Western Conference finals when Victor Wembeñama scored 41? Well, here is his personal 41 point or more prop bet price plus 550. So a $100 bet would pay $5.50 if you went for $41 or more. $10 bet would pay $55. all player props, all team props for tonight's game one, all of the series props. They're all up at MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.ag or MyBooky.com.

Use my promo code, DC Reload, D-C, R-E-L-A-D, and My Booky will give you a 50% cash bonus on your next deposit, whether you're a new customer or a returning customer. 50% cash bonus for my listeners only when you use my promo code, DC Reload. All right, we continue with the former head coach of the Washington Wizards, Randy Whitman. So the Wizards have the number one pick. I know you're a huge college basketball fan as well. So if you're in that room and you're part of the decision-making group, who are you taking at number one? Yeah, I would know, I would really, you know, really,

think hard and long of seeing number one what you can get for it. There could be some crazies out there that it is a deep draft and you never know what kind of package you might get for that. I mean that's what I'm looking at

number one. I love the kid from BYU BANSA. He brings, yes. The thing I like about him he just loves to play. He loves to play.

Were they a great team? They weren't a great team. They lost, you know, that player that really hurt them and they didn't go as far as they did. But this kid just, you can see it in his face and his emotions. He loves playing basketball. And that you can't teach. And if you have a guy like that,

I had a guy like that in Kevin Garnett. the guy absolutely love playing, which translated to he loved practicing. He loved competing, whether within a actual game or against his teammates in practice. Yeah. And that goes a long way. That goes a long way in developing your team

when you have a big component of your team that rubs off on other players like that. I mean, the kid from Kansas is a good player. He's probably a more, has a more chance to be a really great pro, but I don't know if he likes to play. Right. Yeah. You can say all you want now.

He can come out and say it's whatever, the vitamins I'm taking or whatever, my butt, right? There's no way I'm taking myself out of the game. It's not the trainer taking you out or a doctor. taking you. I'm taking myself out of the game. Right. Because that, that scares me. That's just me speaking

off. You know, a lot of people compare those two guys, I think. I don't think there's any comparison. Just talent-wise, I think the Kansas kid might have a little bit more talent. But the other dimension of the kid, those

intangibles you can't teach. And that's a talent, too. If you have those kind of tangles and he's a good player. Don't,

don't get me wrong. He's a good player. It's not that much difference talent-wise, but that other

thing just scares me too much. But I would look to see who would give me, hey, you know, you got two

veteran guys there on the team, too. You can package that and, you know, really, really put something

together that, you know, you guys could, could take off next year. Real quickly, because you brought up Kevin Garn

and the kind of competitor that he was and how he loved basketball, you were on that staff right with Flip Saunders, correct? Correct, correct. Because he didn't play college basketball and he came right out of high school, like, did you guys know that about him at 18 years old? Or did you figure it out once he actually got into an NBA game? Like, how did you know that about Garnett? You knew his passion for the game just the way he played it.

Now, you didn't know the other part. You know, his drive, I mean, he isn't even close. He's for a superstar, a Hall of Fame player, he practiced every day. I mean, Flip would have to throw him out of the gym. If he said, you're not practicing, we're coming off four games in five days, you're not practicing. We're going to play a lot of these. He would get pissed off. And you would literally have to throw him out of the gym to keep him off the floor.

Now, you don't know those things. We just got lucky. Right. He got lucky with that. But I kind of see those same intangibles with the kid from BYU. All right. I do have one more, just because everything pops into my head as you're talking. coached great players, you have played

with great players. Who's the greatest player you've been around as a coach or a player as a teammate? Isaiah Thomas. Yeah. He was by far the best

that just everything. Leader, not only a talent, made other people better. He was a tough, I mean, tough physical dude at six foot. I mean, he would fight you in a minute, even if you were seven foot.

He was a winner. I mean, he was a winner through and through. And I always gravitate to the people that make your teammates better. And he did that along with being a great player. and he you know I'm biased I played with him we won a national championship together and he he ended up having a pretty good career in the NBA too yeah you know when it comes to Isaiah I always think about you know and I know we've had these conversations before because it's coming to me right now that

we've probably talked about this but nobody remembers I think Steph Curry for me is the best combination of shooter and ball hands handler in one body that I've ever seen. But I always go back to if Isaiah played in this era where you're able to pull up from 35 feet in transition and shoot 15, 18, 3s a game, that he would have been a great long-range three-point shooter. And I might think of him that way. What do you say to that? Yeah.

I say he wouldn't have been a Steph Curry type shoes. Right. There's only one of those, Kev. Yeah. He's going to go down. Come on. Seriously, think back when he was at Davidson. I think he was the seventh pick.

Was he the seventh pick in the draft? I think that was it. Yep. And we traded the pick. We traded the pick. There's nobody thought that he was going to be. the player that he's turned out to be. He's slight buildy, skinny.

He played at Davidson. Steph is a, he's a tough kid. I mean, you don't get and do what he's done in this league for the number of years he's done it with the build that he is, the slight build that he is, and survive without toughness. Not only mental toughness, but physical tough.

He's a tough kid. And there's nobody that shoots it like that. I don't know if we'll see another one that shoots it like. I might not. I'm sure there'll be another one that comes around. But he, no. And as you said, his ability to handle the ball on top of it. He's just not a catch-and-shoe guy that can really shoot it.

He could create his own shot without great quickness. I mean, this kid isn't like, you know, I mean, John Wall was quick. This kid's not quick. But the release is lightning quick. Lightning quick. Not even, you can't block. Right. Yeah, you know, I'm looking back at that draft,

and I remember specifically, Flip Saunders was hired before that season. And Abe Poland still owned the team. Ernie was the GM. I forget, were you a part of the 2009 staff or not? Yes. Yeah, you were, right? You came.

You came with Flip, right. So I can tell you, I know the player Ernie would have picked had he been on the board, but he wasn't, and that was Hardin. Ernie loved James Hardin coming out of Arizona State. Instead, we traded the pick for Randy Foy and Mike Miller. You're exactly right. Yeah. How's that look now? Steph Curry was on the board.

Well, hey, I think, wait a minute, think about it, what's the kid? Heck, there was another one. Minnesota, I think. Minnesota picked Ricky Rubio with the pick. And there was another, they picked two point guards. God, you're right, you're right about that. They picked, not Tyreek Evans. Hold on, I got to look at it.

Oh, Johnny Flynn, Johnny Flynn from Syracuse. I thought that one. Yeah, Johnny Flynn. He lasted a year and a half in the league. Yeah, and Steph Curry, I remember because the introduction of Flip was down at what was then called MCI Center. And we did our show live and had Flip on the show and then had Ernie on the show. And I remember asking Ernie what he thought of Steph Curry. And he said, I don't know, he's kind of small.

Who's he going to guard? You know, that's always the thing with players who are really good at the college. level that score a lot of it's, well, who's he going to guard? But he loved Hardin. By the way, Hardin couldn't guard anybody either. Exactly. Yeah, but that's the way that one went. Well, just to let the fans out there, I didn't have anything to do. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. Thanks for doing this. I always enjoy it. I hope you're well. It's always a pleasure. And anytime, if I can do it, you know, I'll come on. If I'm on the golf

course, forget it. Great. Appreciate it. I'll talk to you soon. All right. Talk to you later. Randy Whitman, everybody. Love having him on the show this time of year. I mean, what a basketball life he has lived. I mean, playing for those Bobby Knight teams in the 70s and 80s, winning a national championship, playing with Isaiah Thomas. And then in the pros playing for those really good Hawks teams of the 80s led by Dominique Wilkins. He played, and we've talked about this game before, but he played in one of the

of the greatest game sevens in NBA playoff history, the showdown in 88 between Larry Bird Celtics and Dominique Wilkins's Hawks. Wilkins went for 47 in that seventh in deciding game, and the Hawks lost by two. But Randy Whitman was Atlanta's second leading score in that game. And then, of course, his coaching career in so many different spots. And I'm telling you, I've said this before, but if you ask any coach, they will tell you Randy Whitman was an excellent coach.

I always felt that watching his Wizards teams, that he was excellent. John Wall, in one of his visits on this show, I remember asking him about going to Scott Brooks off of Randy. And he said there was a big difference. You know, Randy may not have been the players coach that Scott Brooks was, but Wall admitted that Randy was an excellent, you know. strategy, X's and O's coach, which he was. He was a very, very kind of underrated head basketball coach. And I think he got a lot out of those Wizards teams with Wall, Beal, and the rest of the group.

You know, in thinking about what I haven't talked to him about over the years, I've never talked to him about his high school basketball career. He was part of the great Indiana hotbed of high school basketball. playing for a team in Indianapolis where I think he averaged 23, 24 points a game in high school. But being a part of that state's high school environment must have some great stories to it as well. Always enjoy having him on the show. He's got the Knicks upsetting the Spurs. I was tempted to do it.

I was. but I've got the spurs in seven. All right, that's it for the day back tomorrow with a recap of game one and Tommy will be with me as well.