The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Lakers Radio Voice John Ireland Talks Playoff Matchup Ahead of Game 1

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

Lakers Radio Voice John Ireland Talks Playoff Matchup Ahead of Game 1

Time is 1031. It is Sports Talk 790. We're with you till 2 o'clock this afternoon. Again, EMA Adooka will join this radio program at 1220 today. Right now, joining us, and we're in a small fraternity. One of the two of us get to do a radio show for our respective audiences back in our towns, plus get to call the games of the NBA team, and he's one of my favorite among the 30 NBA broadcasters in the NBA. It is the voice of the Los Angeles Lakers, John Ireland with us on the Matt Thomas Show. Ross.

John, I cannot believe this is your first appearance ever on my show. Good morning to you. Good morning. Yeah, that is an outrage. How is it possible that I have never been on this program before? I blame you completely. I know. We're going to wear you off the time difference.

We'll blame it on the time difference. That's right. They blame the time difference. Hey, Matt, you're already in L.A.? Yeah, we got here yesterday. So is this 70-degree weather with no clouds okay for you? Yeah, just no, I don't even mean months, lions, or earthquakes. Other than that, we're going to be just great.

I think you might be okay. I think I'm knocking on wood as I say it, but I think you might be. Okay. I got you. Hey, John, I want to, before we get to the series itself, and I get this asked this question all the time, and I want to throw it at you. I have had the great fortune of calling 10 years of basketball with James Hardin on my team, Russell Westbrook.

I obviously have Kevin Durant now. I've had so many. You've had the great fortune of having two of, let's bluntly say it, two of the 15 greatest players in the history of the NBA, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. And not that you're breaking bread with either one of them. Maybe you are. Maybe you did. but what is it like just being with them on the road in the arena and any differences between the two as you covered both of them during your broadcasting career?

Kobe was an assassin, Matt. He was somebody that when the playoffs started, he sometimes didn't smile for a month. I mean, he just wanted the difference between Kobe and LeBron is Kobe wanted to kill you. LeBron wanted to beat you and then after he beat you, he would just shake your hand and smile. Kobe would just kill you and then move on to the next victim. So, and, you know, that's been well documented that Kobe, if you watch that Netflix documentary when all those guys, Kobe, LeBron, all of them were on the same Olympic team. And within the first 60 seconds of the first Spain game, he plowed over Powell Gasol, who was probably his best friend on our team and, like, really tried to hurt him and like absolutely unloaded on him. And that's Kobe.

I mean, he's just an absolute killer. He will not. And by the way, Matt, that's in every sport. Like, we play ping pong with this guy. And if he lost, he'd be in a bad mood for two hours until he came back and beat you. You know, so that's the difference. Kobe was somebody who wanted you dead. LeBron just wants to beat you.

And both are okay, but that's the difference. All right. Before we get to the games itself, one more question about, and I like to ask this of other people that do radio shows along, as you and I do. Yeah. I always ask you this. fair but I want you to tell the audience on air we are in a community of houston has unparalleled success for the astros for the last 10 plus years the rockets have made routinely the playoffs

and the texans get to what they normally do go to the playoffs and they lose a division around but it always feels like if the texans were ever to do something uh in terms of going to the super bowl and or winning it the football would just totally take over because texas is a huge football state it feels like to me all the years coming to california this is severely a huge Dodger, Laker Town, everybody else is fighting for third. Is that fair? 100%. Matter of fact, one of the newspapers

just in a poll, and they said, you know, it was just a poll of Los Angeles sports fans. Pretty sizable one. They pulled like 5,000 people. And they said, you know, what rank your Los Angeles sports teams in order? And it was Dodgers 43%,

Lakers 30%, and then everybody else fighting for scraps. And as Lon Rosen, who is our new president of business operations came up through the Lakers. He was Magic Johnson's agent. And then when Magic was a part owner of the Dodgers, Lon moved over to the Dodgers. So he's worked for both teams. And he said it best the other day, he said, whichever team has more recently won a championship will be at the top of that list.

Because as you know, Matt, L.A. is a frontrunner town. We're a star-driven town. We're a front-runner town. I mean, our fans get to the game 20 minutes late. they leave 20 minutes early. It's just people out here get bored pretty easily. So right now the Dodgers are on top, but if the Lakers were to go on a magic carpet ride

and win another title, it would flip back. But the way you've assessed it is 100% accurate. It's Dodgers, Lakers, and then everybody else get in line. Ross, with you here in Houston as well, John. And on LeBron James, as you kind of mentioned, a little bit of the off the court, or some off the court. but what about as far as playing basketball for him? You've seen, of course, the last several years.

What have you seen from him in terms of an evolution of his game, especially as Lucas come over? He's been more off ball. And then really even since Luca has gone down, how have you seen things change for him? And how do you think as far as his role? And is he just going to have to be the do-everything guy at this age in his career in this series?

In a word, yes. we don't have any chance to beat you guys unless LeBron goes nuclear. And I think he knows that. And I think the rest of the team knows that. Now, I called a game in Houston last month. And it might have been LeBron's best game of the season. He went 13 for 14 against the Rockets. He scored 30 points.

And Matt, I'm sure you had the same reaction that I did. You know, LeBron agreed to eat third. you know, behind Luca and Austin for that entire month of March. And when he agreed to eat third to be third in usage rate, which JJ has been trying to convince him to do, and they finally figured it out in March when they went 15 and 2, that night when he made 13 to 14 against the Rockets, it was almost all layups and dunks because your defense,

the Rocket's defense, focused on Luca and Austin. And they kind of locked up Austin. Luca got his. but LeBron was so good because his shot selection went way, way up. The thing that will be different in this series is that now LeBron's back to number one in usage rate, and it's going to be by a mile. LeBron's going to have the ball the whole time. And I think that's our only path to really making this a competitive series.

The rockets are heavily favored. They should be. And if we're going to compete, LeBron has to basically average a series. triple double every game. And it's going to be really fun to see if he can do it. He's 41. He's the oldest player in the league. And yet, I don't know if you saw this, Matt, he led the NBA in fast break points at age 41. And so he's a unique guy. I mean, you can put him in a very short list of greatest players in NBA history. I mean, any reasonable person would have him no lower than fourth.

And my radio partner, Steve Mason, has them at the top, has number one. It's going to be, and if he's able to pull this off, guys, if he's able to lead the Lakers to a playoff series victory over seven Durant and the Rockets without Luca and without Austin, it would be a crowning achievement at the end of an unbelievable career. But that's a huge yes. I'm like everybody else. I'm not sure he can do it. And tomorrow we start to find out.

John Ireland, Lakers' voice with us here on Sports Talk 790. What is the latest or what do we know, if anything, about a possible return of Luca Donchage at the end of the series? And same thing with Austin Reeves. This is what I would tell people who are Rockets fans, Lakers, and anybody that's going to get into this series. Unless you hear it from the Lakers, don't believe any of it. I don't buy this magical stem cell European potion that's going to miraculously cure Lucas hamstring. Austin can basically shoot free throws and that's it.

I would be stunned, guys, stunned if Luca or Austin played in this series. The one way, JJ Redick's been using a word. He says, our goal is to extend. They want to drag this thing out as long as they can to, to, to, preserve that glimmer of hope. Now, they got a break with the schedule. You know, the first round's always kind of dragged out, but there's two days off between game one and game two, three days off between, you know, if they can drag it out, if they can figure out a way to maybe get one of these two games in L.A. and then get one of the two games in Houston, that would open the door

for a Hail Mary. But again, let me stress, until you hear it from the Lakers, don't believe anything, because I've seen all these doctors putting on TikTok videos. explaining how this might work. Every doctor I've talked to and everybody at the Lakers that I've talked to is planning to be without both guys for the whole series. For a let you run, John, let's go to a wild card player for the Lakers that would make things interesting. Could it be DeAndre Aitin if he's vested? Is it Ruiatramur with the outside shot?

Is it Luravia, right place, right time? Is it Vanderbilt's defense? Is it Marcus Smart? give me the X factor that makes things more interesting for the rockets than they want it to be. So we're missing 57 points with Austin and Luca down. I mean, that's a ridiculous amount of points. The one name you didn't mention is I think the answer to your question. Luke Kennard has to score.

We've got to make up those 57 points somehow. Hachamara can help. Jackson Hayes can help. DeAndre Aten can help. But Canard's been the guy since Luca and Austin went down that has been the best kind of beneficiary of the minutes. He's playing point guard. He's taking a lot. They've been begging him to shoot more.

And now he's finally doing it just because he has to. So that's the guy. That's the guy I would watch. Hey, Matt, I was going to mention you say you have email coming on today, right? I do, yes. Okay, so here's a ask him about this. This is an interesting subplac. Do you even know this that M.A. started his career with the Lakers?

We were the first NBA team he played for. I did not know that. Okay, so he did. He was on the Shaq Kobe Lakers in 0304. They gave him a 10-day. He, you know, I think he played in four games. I don't even think he ever was on the court with Shaq or Kobe because they threw him in at the end of games. But here's the thing I want you to ask him about.

after he played for us, he went to the Knicks, he went overseas. He ends up in Portland, which is his hometown. Correct, yeah. Nate McMillan is the head coach of the Blazers and starts Emey and plays him in 75 games. It's the most successful career of his year of his career. But then the Blazers cut him. And I wonder what Eme and Nate are like now. because on one, and Nate, if you don't know, Nate McMillan runs our defense.

He's our lead assistant. So, M.A. is going to see Nate, and he obviously played for him. And I wonder if he, like, looks back at that and thinks, well, Nate gave me my shot. He made me a starter. Or does he think, I can't believe they cut me after I was playing in my hometown and playing well? So that's like a little subplot that's going, you know, EMA is a no-nonsense guy. I'm very curious if he has positive or negative things to say about Nate McMillan, because that's a little bit of a soap opera there that EMA is finally going to get to knock Nate out

and maybe pay him back for cutting him back in, you know, 20 years ago. So let me ask you this. What if he hates him? He's going to say, I despise the guy. I want him to live a slow death. I mean, well, wait a bit. Wouldn't you agree, though, that EMA is the one coach who won't BS you about that? That's true.

EMA strikes me as ridiculously directly honest. Correct. I mean, I think that's what's made. him a good head coach. Yes. Is that he holds players accountable. So I think if you say, hey, we, we know that Nate McMillan was your coach in Portland when you had your best career year.

And then, then he cut you. So do you look favorably on Nate or not? And I think he'll be, he'll be honest. Don't you think? He'll say, well, yeah, he's my guy. He gave me my start or I've never forgiven him for that. At the time when Nate got, or when EMA got cut, he wasn't happy because it was in his home town.

He thought that he had finally made it in the NBA. He'd been bouncing around for a while. while and then the blazers pull the rug out from under him and he may strikes me you tell me matt he strikes me as a guy who probably holds grudges you think uh yeah that feels about right yeah i mean i i think he and lebron probably will never have dinner together i'll be fair to say yeah i loved it when he got in lebron's face and said what are you going to do about it i loved it i i think you joke i i i know that your your shows like mine matt that half the i didn't taste the coach and the other half likes them Yes, that's right.

I'm in the, I'm in the like camp. I thought he may got a raw deal in Boston, got fired for something that happened off the court. We don't have to get into it. But I knew that he was going to land someplace because he's a great coach. And the fact that he landed with you guys, I think is a good fit because it's young guys looking to establish in the league. He's been there. He's been one of those guys. And I think he's going to hold him accountable.

And I expect the Rockets to play well in this series. I picked the Lakers to win it because I'm a shameless Lakers apologist. I understood. But that pick is with my heart. I mean, I'm hoping that the Lakers pull off a miracle. If I picked with my head, I think the Rockets should be heavily favored. They're favored by five in game one and the games in L.A. That tells you how much the gamblers think the rockets are going to handle the Lakers.

But I'm hoping we get a good series, Matt, and I'm hoping we make it competitive and that you and I aren't calling a 30-point blowout by the fourth quarter. I would agree with you on that, friend. It's always great to have you on for the very first time, and I'm going to bother you probably three to four times the next five years. So just know that your phone is going to be buzzing big time from me. Beautiful. All right. Remember, only one scarlet per night while you're out here, Matt, okay? I am in the 90210. Oh, okay. Good. So thank you, John. Thank you, John. I appreciate it. I'll talk to you.