The Mismatch - A Crisis in Dallas? Plus: Magic’s Defensive Prowess, Cling Kong, and Mikal’s Big Apple Struggles.

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

Verno and Jacoby discuss the big games this week from Victor Wembanyama and Giannis Antetokounmpo and briefly debate whose game was bigger (02:05). They then go into the teams (09:03), players (37:02), and things (58:06) they loved and loathed for the week.The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers here and we are back for another season of OffGuard. Me and my guy, Pasha Giggy, are hitting your podcast feeds every Monday and Thursday talking everything hoops. Austin is bringing that 11-year NBA veteran perspective and of course keeping you guys entertained throughout the season. Make sure you tap into OffGard with Austin Rivers on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to follow everything we've got going on social media. The OffGar podcast, Ringer NBA, and of course check us out on Ringer NBA's YouTube channel. Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me

he does every week from the ringer.com. It's Dave Jacoby. Jacobi. What's happening, Verno? Fun week. Big week. The quest for the cup.

The Emirates Cup began. We got the cool uniforms. We got the cool courts. And we actually did get a bunch of teams, I thought, playing with a little more oomph than they did in the other games. It certainly seemed like there was a selection of teams that certainly cared about winning this thing.

And so we talked about it, what it was going to be like earlier in the week. And, you know, I still want a couple of things tweaked. I still want to give fans a reason to care. But I will say the number one goal is to get the players to care. And it seems like the players care. So it is. No, the players, the players care. And so, I mean, this is what we always talk about with like the All-Star game and really anything else going on.

If they don't care, why do I care? But if they do care and it matters to them, then you can actually see it when you're watching it. And it certainly seemed that way earlier the week. And not only did we get, you know, heightened competition with those Emirates Cup games, we also had some guys going like really big. We had some huge performances this week. Yeah, we did. Not the least of which was.

Janice is 59, which overshadowed Wembe's 50. Did it? I'm going to say it didn't. I'm going to say Wemby's 50 overshadowed Janus is 59. Had a lot of people reaching out to me this week, Jacoby. Really? Yeah. I mean, if I were you, I would be like, hey, I told you Anthony Edwards is going to fall back

a little bit. And I would just focus on the Portland losses to because I got a lot of, hey, Wemby, clearly a big mismatch listener. How does Jacoby feel about calling him lose Benyama now?

Wemby is, yeah, it took him like a week and a half, but now he's dropping 50 on people. So obviously, I'm going to allow you to say your piece on this. a man that you have slandered for the first couple of weeks of the season and called Luz Binyama

has been otherworldly recently. I don't know Binyama, got by Kisper, turn, shoots, and switches for 50. He's not human. He's an alien. I just wanted to say you're welcome to all the Spurs fans

because clearly when he listens to the mismatch and he heard my criticisms and he's responded because some people need a patent the back and encouragement and some people need a kick in the ass and maybe that's what wimbi needed and i will also say this that my criticism of wimbunyama is the shot quality and the distance from which he shoots the basketball and in that game he shot really well from three and they were good threes a lot of catch and shoot threes but what also he did is he got he got around the

basket. And he really made Valanchunis look silly on a few possessions. And Sarr was just, he just went right around him like it wasn't a problem. I thought he was aggressive. I thought that he used his length and he really showed that when the three is hitting and when he's around the basket, he can be a real difference maker on both ends of the floor. It was a really, really good performance. And I just want to say to all Spurs fan and to the Wimbunyama family, you're welcome i'm so disappointed in you i'm so disappointed in you i thought i thought you were cut from a different cloth i thought i was for sure going to get it was against the wizards that does it it's like playing the it's like playing the generals like this isn't real this isn't real stats

50 against the wizards counts 20 against somebody with any legitimacy no but you didn't go that round No, I don't know. I guess I should be proud of you. Because I saw the performance. I was like, all right, let me, let me watch this tape. Like, let me, let me just see this game. Let me go. And I did like it.

I did like it. I did like it. I can't lie. Listen, I'll, listen, I'll stick to my takes and I'll stick to my guns and I'll be stubborn about the way I feel about things. I think he shoots from too far. I think that he needs to take less threes. He shoots eight threes a game.

But that was a great performance. And it wasn't just sorry. It was doing it to Valanchunist. Like, he looked good. You look it. Yeah. And one of the other ones that I'm sure we're not going to be touching on is in our loved and loathe is the Milwaukee Bucks and Janus with the 59. And there was clearly a crazy amount of attention paid to it because it's an extreme number.

He had an amazing game. I kind of thought like, the game went to overtime. Thank you. Are we celebrating this? It's a concern. 59 from Janus and you can barely beat the pistons? And honestly, poor Ron Holland. I know.

I mean, there has never been anyone more nervous at a free throw line. Oh, my God. I mean, you could just see it. My heart broke for him. He's standing at the line. He's got a chance for his team to win. And you know, at that moment, and the other thing is, after he missed a free throw, he just stands there. He doesn't even, like, leave the line.

He doesn't like back up. No, high fives. Nothing. And it's like, oh boy. Oh, boy. That was tough. He won a game for them early in the year. I don't know if you remember.

He had like a steal and a finish and it was like a big thing. And I was like, oh, look at that. Look at that. And then I think that it's one of those things where you're stepping to the line. I think he's a good free throw shooter. I don't have in front of me, but I think he shoots like 80-something percent. You get to the line and you're thinking, I just need to make one of these. Easy, right?

But when you miss the first one, all of that changes. Brutal. It's just down to that one shot. And usually with pros, they miss the first one and make the second one because they just make the physical adjustment because of the muscle memory. But you could tell that that was not a regular free throw for him. You could tell that the moment and the anticipation and just the crowd and the pressure really got to him. And I felt so bad for him. You called out Detroit as like a not a night off last week when we were talking about this.

Or I guess earlier this week when we were talking about this, I swear, every week you turn on a Detroit game and it's got the craziest finish. Down to the wire. No matter who it's against. It could be against the Wizards. It could be against the Celtics. They're going down to the wire. We had two of them this week.

Yeah. Because we had the Holland game with the Yonis having 59. And then, I mean, I can't imagine being a Pistons fan and watching all of these games every night because you had the Yonis night, the 59. And then the win was maybe the craziest overtime when you can get in the Miami game. They are an electric factory. time you're about a Pistons game. It's like, I, I swear, we have texted each other about a Pistons game more than any other this season than the last 10 years combined.

It was also, I also my guy Jalen got a little me, got memes. I love to love to see that. Spoh of all coaches, Spoke calls a timeout. I think it was just so pissed. He was just so mad. He's like, I want to scream at somebody. Because of the six men on the court. Yeah, six men on the court.

Then Rozier has no idea on the switch. Yeah, the back door. To get a dunk for the game, it's just like, oh, he was just pissed. He's like, I'm going to yell at somebody. I don't care if we don't have a timeout. That's when you just scream at somebody, anybody. All right, let's get to everything that we loved and loads from this past NBA week. Let's start with team.

You want to go first or you want me to? You go first, Verno. All right. I told you this a couple of weeks ago. when we started this, when I have the opportunity to call out a team that I feel like I'm not going to have many opportunities

the rest of the year, I'm doing it. So a couple weeks ago, I did Charlotte, right? They had had those fun wins, and LaBello was cracking. May not get this opportunity again, but I have got to call out the Portland Trailblazers. Oh, I love it.

Okay, so let me just say, they got mashed by 25, like last weekend against Minnesota. And then on Sunday night, I watch a Memphis Portland game where I don't know if I have been as appalled by a basketball team as I was the Portland Trailblazers. I thought we're celebrating them. The final score, hold on, was this is all, it's all going to make sense. Okay. You got to weave it. You got to weave it.

Storytelling. You got to weave the story. Okay. 134 to 89 and the crowd is all on its feet cheering Yuki Kawamura at the end of the game. On the road. And I'm like, watching this game, I said to my buddy, I said, Deontre Aitin might as well have had AirPods in. He's just jogging up and down the floor. Like, I don't understand.

What is the point of this? This is ridiculous. And they got beat 134 to 89. So they can beat by 25. And this is like the coach chewed you out. Go to the game film. Let's get back. Come on.

Let's get right. And then they go and lose by 50. It's like, hold on. So now you turn around. They're going to play against Minnesota. It's the quest for the cup. The Emirates. The Emirates.

Yeah. A team that had just beaten them by 25, after they had lost 25 and 50 back to back, they look like they just, like, I'm like, why don't they just forfeit the rest of the season? They come out, mash the Minnesota Timberwolves, and have 14 steals, seven blocks. They get Obdia going off. They got Tumani Kamara going off. They got all these guys that it looks. Like, nothing like the team I had just watched.

I just watched them. And I'd do a complete 180. Time Lord comes off the bench. Time Lord goes crazy. He looked great. Nineteen nine, three assists, three blocks, three steals. Just this crazy stat line. Wasn't he like seven for eight or eight for nine or something from the field?

Yeah, for Time Lord. Then fast forward. Now it's okay, go back, watch the film. You know, you're playing the same team. This is a lot like we get into playoff matchups because we get a lot of these back-to-backs against the same team. Same gym, same team. They do it again.

Except this time, it's clinging. Who gets his opportunity? And now let's go back in time when I told you on Sunday, DeAndre Aitn might as well have had his AirPods in. So what is the common team here? Now, this two-headed monster of Time Lord and Klingin looks like the greatest center rotation in the NBA. Clean car! Clean car!

And by the way, it's not like they're playing against nobody. They're playing against Gober and Nasreid. And so, look, they got to get Aitin out of there on the first thing smoking. I don't know if they have any. He may have no trade. value whatsoever. But to get Time Lord back, cracking like he was, and then your top 10 pick, get his opportunity. He had eight blocks in the game. You watch the clinging highlights and you're like, whoa, watch out now. Now, this is a direct hit because, look, that is not a one game

thing. I would encourage anybody go back and watch it. That clinging thing is real. Oh, yeah. And he is a force in the paint. And so all the while, you've got Shaden Sharp dropping 30 plus in their game. Like, it's just everything. I cannot imagine how miserable you must have been for the first couple of weeks of the season. If you are a Portland fan, it's like, she's a wheeze, you know. Because one of the things is if you know you're not going to have a really good team, you want real hope for the future.

It's like, all right, which of these? and it's like Scoot struggling. Klingin's not playing. Shaden Sharp is like kind of out there by himself, but then he's out there with like some of these other vets and whatever. And then you get these moments and I think you walk away and go, hey, Scoot kind of came along.

Klingin looks like a hit. Rob's playing really well. So if nothing else, he'll end up having trade value. And Shaden Sharp looks like a guy that can go get me buckets on a regular basis. Now I'm starting. to see what I could identify as a core and build out around rather than just, you know, being in the wilderness somewhere. And so I got to give them credit, man. That's two really

good wins, especially after they had played, you know, such inspired basketball. You know, I give them credit. They got back on it and certainly became infinitely more hopeful than they had at any point in the season thus far. Yeah, I think if you look at that team, you're like, Anthony Simons, Jeremy Grant, that's not the story. The story is the young core. It's sharp, scoot, clinging. You know what I mean?

Like, you can see, be like, oh, look, we've got pieces here. We've got pieces that we can build around and get complementary players to this future core two years down the road will be a playoff team or a tough out. And if you were to watch that game and say, the defensive player of the years in this game, you would not identify Rudy Gober. You would be like, oh, it's clean. It's the white guy.

You'd be like that tall white guy in the middle. He's the best defender in the league, obviously. He had himself an absolute game against Rudy Gobert on both sides. It wasn't just defense. He was great. He looked really, really good, and we'll have more on him later.

We're going to the team that I love this week, and we were both high on this team in our preseason projections. And of all the players, that looked like they were going to make a real leap this season, they had the one, Paolo Bancaro. And then Bencaro gets injured. And they just looked absolutely lost without Bencaro.

Like they looked lost. However, your Orlando Magic have kind of put it together lately. Four-game win streak, okay? Albeit against the Pels, Wizards, Hornets, and Pacers, fine. But good teams beat bad teams. We've seen it all year long. Upsets happen all the time. And when you're missing your star player

and you've got a four-game win streak and you're handling business the way you're supposed to, it's really impressive. And Franz Wagner had 29 against the Pacers, 32 against the Hornets. I'm not going to say he's an efficient score, but with no palo, someone has to stir the drink. Someone's got to get by their man.

Someone's got to create. Someone's got to playmate. and he's taken on that role and he's done well. And one thing I did not see coming, I did not see this coming. They're second in defensive rating right. Yeah. In the entire lead.

That's how they're doing it. I mean, holding that Pacers team to 90 is a big feat. Yeah. That is a big feat. And you think about it, to your point, that's supposed to be one of your peers, the Pacers, that they just got that last win again, 94 to 90. Look, you're going to be able to win.

win a lot of games. If you can hold somebody to 90, their starting lineup was Franz Wagner, Gogo Batazzi, KCP, Suggs, and Tristan De Silva. Yeah. And their starting backcourt of Sugs and De Silva

went a combined three for 21. Their star that's playing for them now, Wagner was nine for 24. I mean, so you're talking about that's 12 shots, 12 field goals made. Verna. 12 of 48. I mean, that is, if there has ever been a, like, defense will keep us in games, this is the team. Keep you in game.

It's winning them games. Bruno. Unbelievable. Fernando, do you know how many teams shoot worse than them from three? None. Yeah. They're worst in the. league. They're the worst shooting team in the league. KCP was supposed to help fix that.

That has not happened thus far. It's early in the season. You know what I mean? I think people always sort of regressed to the mean over time, so I expect that to change. But when you look at this team and say, we lost our star, not just our star, like the hub of our offense, the sun that the other planets revolve around offensively, they lose him. And they are the worst three-point shooting team in the league and they're third in the Eastern Conference right now. That's the team I love this week. It's the defense that they're playing. Because it's not even like Wagner's playing that well.

He's really not. He's scoring points, but it's not efficient. Well, and there's a couple of these teams that have this weird, like they'll bring two guys off of the bench and it has this impact where like, so if you're watching Houston, they'll go to the bench and they'll bring off. Eastern. Yeah, they'll bring off Easton. off Thompson and you're like, whoa now,

this thing just got active. Do you know who the guy is for the magic? It's black and also Isaac. Yes. Who are both defensive guys. They're both enormous. If you look at the box score, they're not like impacting the game and the counting stats.

It's just they'll just you'll just fucking your day up. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like they'll just ruin your plans. They're bad weather. They ruin your plans. Right. One of them's point of attack. And then the other one, if you happen to get to the basket, now you got another one that cleans it up.

Yeah, no, it's, it's mega impressive. And for them to be able to do it, you've got to find ways. And for them to alter, you know, they were obviously a very good defensive team last year. But they've just got a bunch of guys that can guard you. I mean, between Suggs, KCP, and Black, it is hard to get past them. There's two of those guys in the game at all times. And you know what's weird? I mean, I, I don't.

I don't know what happened to Cole Anthony, but he's just out of the mix. He's not only is he out of the mix. He's just, I mean, the shooting numbers. It's just like, you know, it's like they have just evolved into this. He was kind of like that, you know, a little heater off the bench and certainly had some real good moments for them last year. It could be a change of pace guy.

But their change of pace now is them coming in and strangling you out more defensively. It's crazy. So there's some rumors swirling on the interwebs. about a potential Zach Levine trade for the magic. Some picks, some players. They wouldn't lose much bringing Zach Levine. Certainly helps without Bencaro. Do you think that's a good idea,

or do you think that is sort of like, like it could be a chemistry killer? You know, I guess it just depends on where Levine is in his career and kind of if he's, I think there's a lot of guys that grow and then they're like, you know what, I'm ready to go be a part of winning. Yeah.

We saw it with Wiggins. He was able to assimilate. You know, he's a guy that was putting up big numbers on bad teams, and then he was able to assimilate. And look, you still want the ball in Bencaro and Franz's hands a lot. A lot of those guys can play make too, but I don't hate it. I don't hate it. It would, uh, I'm looking at just a mock trade from the internet.

It says Anthony Isaac De Silva, first round pick for Levine. I would do that. I would do that. You're going to miss Isaac, though. You're going to miss Isaac. Right. They need scoring. They need shooting.

I mean, you're not going to, you're not going to really contend if you shoot if you have the worst three points shooting in the league. The numbers are going to go in your favor, right? I agree with you. Sometimes in basketball, 30 points could be worth more than 30 points. Let me explain. And now you can get 30% profit boost on 30 plus points scores with FanDul's 30 on 30. That's right.

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Team we loathed this week, I'll start. It's got to be the Mabs. The only team that played last night outside of Utah, there's only one game that was going on on Thursday night. Give up 38 points in the third quarter. Utah got up 16 at one point. And this was kind of what you thought was going to be the get right game. Because they had played a really tough group of games.

And they had just lost them all at the end. So it's really more about last night because I can certainly talk away, a one point loss to Phoenix, a two point loss to Denver, a three point loss to Golden State in the Clay Return. Like that's not. Steph Curry nuclear explosion at the end. end of the game. Like,

not the end of the world. It's the collective, which is, it's four in a row, and now you're playing Utah, and that's the one where you've got to go get right. That's where you've got to like stomp on somebody because like, hey,

we've been playing poorly. We got this three in a row that we've lost, but instead it turns into four in a row in maybe the most uninspiring, horrible fashion that it could have, which is your star player just standing flat-footed. not hoarding anybody and John he's crazy

the man or the ball and John Kyle and John Collins just getting an open dunk to win the game it's like okay this is like this is like

the sense of urgency and then that's why I have to hate that's why I have to load them this week that's the sense of urgency game

and it is capped with literally the least sense of urgency you can have which is coming out of halftime and getting drilled to the point where you've got to try to claw back, and then you do claw back and show the greatest lack of urgency possible, which is we've got one possession, we've got to hunker down, we've got to get a stop,

and instead a wide open dunk, and your star player saying basically, sorry, that's on me. I think Clarkson, if you watch the play, Clarkson, like, hesitates before he throws the pass because he thinks it's a trap. Clarkson's just like, you're not going to cover him? And Lucas, like, staring at the crowd. Like, I don't even know what he was doing. And I didn't even understand. He did, like, take accountability in the post game, which is, you know, what you want your star player to do. But I didn't understand the explanation.

He's like, it's a miscommunication. What was the miscommunity? Who were you communicating with? What was the miscommunication? What am I missing there? They're like, I think they're one in six in Clutch games this year, which you can say, listen, it's just small sample size. They've been in every game. But you could also say, like, those are the games they won last year.

That's what made them good. And if you're, look, if you're quitting Grimes, you've got to be like, leave me out of this. Because he brought up, you know, miscommunication with being, like, well, bro, no. But was the community snow? No. I had my guy. Yeah. What's the miscommunication?

Like, I can't. Is there like a hot girl in the crowd? Like, what is going on? You're just standing there, staring into the crowd. Like, this is crazy. And so I saw a stat, which is wild, that the Mavs are the first team in 15 years and the fourth team in the three-point era to lose four straight by one possession.

They've lost four games by eight points. that's i mean so is truly historic what they've pulled off recently and one of the things i'll say is with a lot of those games that are coming down to the end we know they have the offense um i have wondered watching them if one of the things i brought up and this is the same with denver with kCP you remember at the last at the end of last year there's always these stats about what who are the players that spend the most of the most of the last year you remember the last year what who are the players that spend the most time on the best opposing perimeter player. And so that list was commonly, it would be KCP, it would be Dylan Brooks, it would be

Lou Dort, it's all the, it's all the names that we know the names of that course. But right at the very, very top of that list is Derek Jones Jr. Who again, right, was not the guy that provided the Clay thing, which was I can whip it to him. He's the guy open in the corner, and I know I can trust him to knock down those shots. But every night having that point of attack guy, having somebody that you can put on that other player to try to wreck their sets and wreck their offense, I do think that there's something to that because part of being able to win those close games is being able to get the requisite stops. Now, that doesn't necessarily apply last night because whether they had Derek Jones Jr. or not. I mean, Luca just fell asleep.

And it's just, to me, it's not about those other three because you can lose close games to good teams. And it's not like they got mauled in any of them. It's that that's the get right game. And that's the one that required some level of urgency just to make your fans feel a little better. And they show none of that. There's, I think as media, and this isn't just basketball. This is all sports. We spend so much focus on the final possessions, right?

That's what we always, like, boil the game down to. Right. You shouldn't be in that position when you're the Mavericks on the road in Utah. You shouldn't, it shouldn't come down to one Luca defensive brain fart because you should be up by 16. Luca should be on the bench. You really, that's the way that game needs to go. I mean, it's just coming out at a halftime and giving up 38 and being down 13.

They gave up 38 in the third quarter? Yeah. To the Utah Jazz? They got down 16 before they started clawing back in that game last night. It's crazy. So I've always felt that we always focused on the last possession. Like it's the only thing that matters. But it's the end it's that you shouldn't put yourself in a position where the last possession matters against the Utah Jazz.

They're not trying to win games. They're not. And you're the Dallas Mavericks. You won the West last year. Beat the worst team in the league. Handily. Now I'm getting fired up. We've discussed this.

and you know how you said you wanted to celebrate the trailblazers because you don't think you'll get many opportunities to over the course of the season? Yes. I don't think I'm going to get many opportunities to loathe this team. Oh. But right now, they're in the crosshairs. Uh-oh.

Because they lost to your trailblazers back to back. It's the Minnesota Timberwolves. Ooh. And I visited you in Memphis. Mm-hmm. Don't like the ducks in the Peabody. And I had a great time there. And I joined your local show, the Chris Vernon Show.

Check it out. Follow it on social. It's a great show. Shout to Dev. And I may have said that Anthony Edwards was overrated. And your social staff could not have been quicker to put that right on the internet and tag me on. They had that thing up before the show was over. Before it was over.

And I was just feeling myself. I was like, hey, I'm on the local show. You know, nobody's going to hear this. It's like pick up basketball. It doesn't matter. I'm just going to miss some shots. It doesn't really matter. That's our trick.

We say nobody's listening to this. Yeah, you get really comfortable in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just local in Memphis. Let me just try some things out. Let me get a little weird. Mr. Edwards is obviously one of the future phases of the league. It's going to be a future MVP.

He's going to be a champion. I love him so much. One of the greatest personalities in sports, not just in basketball. But, man, he's a little bit of a slump there. And 0 for 9 from 3 against those. trailblazers. After he told everybody to F off about shooting so many. Yeah. And they, they traded Carl Anthony Towns for Julius Randall and Dante DiMincenzo. Oh, can you hear? I want to do this. I've been meaning to do this.

Oh, let's do it. Talk to Minnesota fans about Randall. You've lived it. You've lived it. And they're going to, are they're going to. I mentioned this on the Bill Simmons, the Bill Simmons podcast earlier this week. They're going it for the first time. If you, if you just like, you're like, oh, look, Randall average is points a game. He must be a good basketball player. Watch the games. I said this earlier in the week on the Bill Simmons podcast, but I'll say it again is when Randall dribbles the ball more than three times, it's just it takes your offense like a like a like a crocodile bringing you down into the depths and spinning you around and drowning you. And he takes more contested shots than anybody I've ever seen. And he's going to get his 20, but every shot he takes, every possession that he

suffocates like a, like a wrestler putting someone in a chokehold, Anthony Edwards doesn't have the ball. And everyone else's energy, they're not cutting, they're not moving. And yeah, it might go in. And sometimes it sometimes he'll have 25 or 30, but it is absolutely infuriating being a fan of Julius Randall. Okay. It's infuriating. Can I also mention that on the first episode that you and I did, I said I might be the only one that's out there that I know of. I'm sure there are some others, but like in terms of what I've listened to and read, I hated that trait.

I hated it. And I told you I loved it for the Knicks and I hated it for Minnesota. And all anybody was saying and all the reports were, you know, you talk to a sister, you know, you talk to opposing GMs and they say the real prize of this was Steven Chenzo and whatever. That's exactly my point. And it's like, bro, Dante got the New York bump. He got the New York bump. We've seen it so many times.

I like Dante DiVicenzo. I want Dante DiVicenzo on my team, right? I like him in big moments. But it's not like this is the first. The Knicks weren't the first team he played for. Thank you. We saw him play for the Bucks. We saw him play for Golden State.

He played in New York. He was at his absolute best at Villanova, playing with Brunson and with the Knicks playing with Brunson, but he's a role guy. He's a role guy. And now you've traded for him and it's like, just wait, just wait. And certainly he's not going to shoot like he has so far. But it's like, dude, don't tell me that DiVincenzo is the prize.

And then he's getting to live in this place where nobody cares what he does anymore, right? You go one for 10. You might be on the post. Dante Divencens, no, you know. And it's like, he was one for 10. I know. Oh, for six from three.

What I'm saying is you're not, look, you ain't on the back page of the, of the newspaper. No. For your struggles there, right? And it's like, so it's just kind of happening,

but he's been bad. Bad. Yeah. And look, Randall would be better if he wasn't, with Gobert, in my opinion. I just never,

I didn't understand that pairing in the first place. And so I don't think, think that this is going to be the I'm going to take the stance that this is not going to be. This is not some golden opportunity for you to love that. You think they'll be back. It's, it's, and do you know what one of the major concerns is, is you look at teams around the league that aren't

playing up to expectations like the Knicks or whatever. So yeah, they're missing Mr. Robinson, they're missing pressure to Tua, you know, and, you know, Thunderloos lose a couple games. Oh, they're missing Chet. They're missing Hartenstein. The wolves are healthy. Here's the thing, you go healthy. Okay. bad uh

aunt gang who do you turn it's supposed to be the answer is Randall and that's what I never like yes say whatever you want about towns towns can go get me 35 on the night day a guy scored 46

score 46 the other night you know what I think you're right I think they might be back in the crosshairs this doesn't this doesn't feel like a team that lost in game seven in the Western Conference Finals and came back inspired and is now a title contender. This doesn't feel like that. This feels like a team that lost game seven in the Western Conference Finals made a major, major change to their roster, and it is not working thus far. And it needs work. It needs some time. Player that I loved. So let me just go ahead and get an honorable mention out of the way because in any other week I probably would have

highlighted him, which is Jared McCain, who's got his opportunity on a two-win team. Yeah, I had him listed as the player that I loved and then I took him off. Me too. Wow. Okay, so make sure you mention him later. I will. I'm going with Tyler Hero. So Tyler Hero, it feels like he's been around forever and he's 24 years old. Okay. He's like a year older than Dalton Connect, I think. Okay. Tyler Hero is averaging 25, 5, and 5, shooting 51% from the field,

48% from 3, and is by far the leading shot taker on the Miami Heat. I felt, the reason I'm highlighting him is because I felt bad for this guy. The only thing that mattered from that Detroit game that took place was the

catastrophe that was the end of the game with Jalen Duren getting the dunk and with Spoe calling the timeout and the tech. So that's all anybody really knows about that game. You know, when the game is chronicled, it's like, hey, look what happened in this Heat Pistons game. Can you believe this happened to a Spow team? Anybody can go back and watch this if they want to.

Highlights available on YouTube. That game is in overtime because of one of the craziest shot-making runs that you can see. This guy had two 30-footers and then another three. They're not even close to overtime if it's not for hero. He hit 10 threes. He had 40 points, eight assist and five rebounds. He shot 17 threes in the game and made 10 of them. And so far this year, their record is not,

it should be five and five if you take away that game, but they're four and six after that insane loss to Detroit. But that three shots in a row, and then you take a step back, and you're like, hold on now. Tyler, Hero's averaging 25, 5, and 5, and then you go, look, he's taking 17 shots a game. Jimmy's taking 11.

Jimmy Butler's taking 11 field goals a game. And so he's like moved into this. He's the guy and he's the guy every night. And he is performing at this crazy high level with this crazy high efficiency. Meanwhile, there needs to be, I still don't know what's happened to Bam out of bio. No. Like he is in one fell swoop attempting to throw feces on Bill Simmons, Olympic experience reaps great dividends theory. because he is the anti.

He is the anti of this. But yeah, Tyler Hero, I felt bad for him because not only did Spoh mess up that game at the end, he also messed up the fact that this was like a huge like, hey, everybody should be paying attention to what's going on here because this is the guy that was kind of besmirched as really? He's going to be the central piece to Damien Lillard, whatever. and it's like, the longer this goes on. Has there ever been a Miami trade rumor that didn't involve Tyler Hero?

I mean, and somehow, he's, if you took away what you knew, okay, whatever your, your former opinion was of Tyler Hero. And you just said, here's the deal. This guy, like, so forget the six man of the year, forget any of the moment. forget everything, right? You've never, I've, I've been living out of the country with no television for the last, you know, first five years of his career. Good for you.

And I just started. And I just started this season. I'm like, I've got a 24-year-old sniper who's averaging 25, 5 and 5 so far this season and just had 10 threes and 40 points in a game. I think I would, I think I would view things much, much differently. And so this is certainly one to keep an eye on because this first 10 games of the season, he has been beyond great. And sometimes we just decide what guys are.

And then we wake up and they're not what we thought they were. And he is ascending into a totally different realm right now. And we will see if it maintains. But so far, unbelievable, unbelievable. I think that's great calling. And you call him a sniper, but he's, He's not Duncan Robinson. You know what I mean?

Like he gets by his man. He operates. He play makes. He drives and kicks. Like he can shoot it. But he can do a lot of things with the basketball. And I think Spos recognized that and he's using him as their, like the hub of their offense. And it's, it's working so far.

The heat is a team that I can see. It's kind of one of those things. It's like, what direction are we going, guys? Right. We climb up to the top of the standings? Are we going to go fall down to the bottom? I'm like this is a sort of a pivotal couple weeks for the Miami Heat. They need to string together some wins.

All right. It's like you. I went, I didn't go with sort of like the obvious with the player that I love this week. Because there are some huge performances. You know, you can say Yannis, he scored 59 points or even Carltonetowns had 46 and Wembe Nyama 50.

I'm going with Alpern Sengun. Shengun. Oh. Of the Rockets. Now you're saying, Jacobi. He didn't have any huge games. But it's just, it's a celebration, it's a player that I love. Okay. So you can't, you can't tell me I'm wrong about the player that I love. I love watching him operate with the basketball. I love watching him playmake for others. I have an irrational love

of fancy passes and Schengun second to Yokic is a big that will satisfy that need that I have. On Monday against the Wizards, he had 27 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks. Wednesday against the Clippers, 13 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, four blocks. Shengun, he'll come across your timeline. The algorithm will serve you up a nice Shangoon dunk or a Shangoon assist, but he's doing it on the defensive end this year. I'm loving what I'm seeing from him. Not even one of my top five favorite rockets.

I'm not kidding. That's fair to say. Thompson? Oh, God. They're also, they've got the third defensive rating in the league. Again, just like the magic. If you were to say, where do the rockets stack up on defense? I don't know.

They're good. Like 10, maybe 11? It's Thunder Magic Rockets early in the season in defensive rating. And Shangoon has a lot to do with that. And, like, he can shoot the three a little bit. he can play make for others he's also really really crafty around the basket like they're not posting him up like it's you know 1992 but when he gets the ball around the basket he'll shoot little turnarounds he'll do upbakes and scoops like he's he's just got a bag down there it's like the opposite of

kairie irving like when kairi irving gets to the basket he can jump off both feet with both hands he gets to the basket he's not jumping in the air but he's pivoting he's up faking he's getting underneath you he's getting fouled i just i just love what i've seen from shabbybyn't Gung this week and this season. We've got so many good players on that team. You know, just off the top of my head, Green, Thompson, Eason, who I told you, those two guys coming off the bench. Obviously, I love Stephen Adams, who's now been back in the mix.

And then, you know, I think one of the things is how that still hasn't been figured out is I'm still bullish on Jabari. And it's just, you know, when you're trying to figure out, like, which ones are we building around, which ones are going to be the core pieces that we're building. got around like how can we and this was what we talked about you know with Cleveland are you ever going to be able to get the best simultaneously out of Allen and Mowgli and that's a team that we have not mentioned this week but they could be on our loved every single week yeah there's no shortage of celebration of the

cavaliers that is the other one which is like hey how can we and maybe and maybe it's just going to be that I'm wrong about Jabari and he's you know the the ball handling or the the way the game's played now it's not but I still I still think he's young and I still have great belief, but it's obviously, you know, with the way they're functioning, it has not been with him being able to reach whatever his potential is. And again, we've talked about this a lot. They're a perfect team to be able to make a big swing at something if they want to,

consolidate because they got so many guys. I mean, hell, they got, Cam Whitmore can go. And Cam Whitmore's playing in the G league right now. You know, Reed Shepard can. go reach ever than get any clock he's getting a little more recently he's got a little more recently which is good to see but they're going to be able to consolidate that thing um player i loath now i actually even heard you mention this guy when you're on with bill

he's been mentioned on a lot of different podcast and there you loaves some people have mentioned this uh Zach Edy It's Grady Dick What? Yeah So

you would think Grady Dick is like ascending It's having this fantastic season I heard you guys Discussing Whether or not It's just hey

It's a guy with the bad team But I thought about this As I was watching Charles Barkley Talk about it The other night And he just kept calling him Grady Because he couldn't do it

Because every time I'm trying to get through this. I know. Without doing it. I can't. Okay. So much like you, I've never grown up.

This is the hardest thing I've ever done. I've never grown up. And I can't remember in my lifetime a guy that is absolutely more impossible to talk about. I can't do this. Because there's no way. Like, you just did a whole. bit about Shen Goon and you can just keep saying Shen Goon but there's no way to talk about him you can't talk about it

good you can't talk about him being bad you can't talk like there's just no addicted this dig did that and me I am it I'm an adult Jacoby I got kids man and the idea that this brings out the absolute absolute most immaturity that there could I I can't do it I can't talk about him and I can't hear about him without laughing it would be if there was a guy named Johnny Vagina I just I can't do it this is this is brilliant do it so when you started this I thought you were going to talk about basketball and I think of myself did he play poorly this week

But when you started this segment, I said to myself, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to let Verno. I'm going to lay out. I'm going to let Verno talk about Grady. And I'm not going to make the stupid, childish, immature, sophomoric pun joke. That's what I told myself. And literally, I ran a marathon way easier than getting through this five minutes without making a pun joke.

Way easier. I saw Berkeley struggle with it. And as I'm watching it, I'm like, dude, I can't do it either. It's impossible. Announcers can't do it either. You hear them chuckling to each other. I mean, every time they say, Dick has been so good, the fact that he's good.

Dick is heating up from deep. I'm just like, oh, God, oh, God. Oh, God. Everything is funny about it. Everything. His name is Dick. And he's a goofball. And he's a total goofball.

If Jalen Brown was named Jalen Dick, I don't think it would be as funny. You know what I mean? It's just because he is a goofball. It's still, I mean, in the history of sports, you know, I don't know there been like a, you know, there was the, there was a guy that they used to always giggle about on sports center, Dick Trickle, who was the, you know, NASCAR race or whatever. But, I mean, we've never had this as long as I've been alive. Where did Dick But kiss. Huh? Dick Buckus.

But we weren't sitting there listening to people talk about Dick Butkus, and it wasn't like he was, right? This now, with the fact that it's his last name and we call every player by their last name. Right? Yokit, M. B. Westbrook, Durant, Beal. Like, I call everybody, Morant. I call everybody by their last name and you know. And then I've got to say, Dick.

And you're going to chuckle every time. Every time. And people think my name is, my first name is Jacoby. My last name is Jacoby. Right. My last name is Vernon. So, so I don't think that you loathe Grady Dick. No.

I think you hate yourself. The position he's putting me in. The jokes. It's not, it's not him. It's really you. That's right. The person you load this week is yourself. But it's not, Grady Dick.

But it's not just me. Oh, it's everybody. It's everybody. And if you don't, if you don't think about it, then you're lying. Yes. And then, oh, because there's, you know, look, inevitably, they're going to be, what, it's his last name? You know what I mean?

Like, I mean, there's, you know, there's some nerd out there that's like, that's, you know, I don't know why you have to laugh every time you talk about it. I mean, it's hilarious. Bro, his name is Dick. The name's Dick. And every sentence becomes funny. Like, Dick, Dick to the whole. Again.

You just like, what? You know what I mean? It's like, I'm not supposed to laugh at that? Dick goes strong to the hole. I'm not supposed to laugh at that. You're kidding me? How? Look at, who do you think?

I am. So for the serious guy that says you're not supposed to laugh at that, I would challenge you. Like, if there was a guy named, you know, Todd penis. It's still funny. You're right. There's no way. That was great. I can't even top that.

You know what the person I load this week is you because that was such a great. call. Sorry. But the basketball player that loaded this week. You know what? I'm going to make this quick because it's making me sad.

And I don't like to be sad. You know what I mean? It's Friday. Bro. My team, the New York Knickerbock. They traded five first round picks. And a swap for Mikhail.

Five first round picks. Five. Like, you could trade that to get Janus and Tentacompo. And we got McHale Bridges. He's done anything. He's half of wingstop. No, he's not. He's not what they call him?

Wing start. Him and OG. Their 20th in defensive rating. And Tibbs is the coach. When you have Tibbs, just him alone. It just him, him alone. You're supposed to be top 10 in defense. They're 20th.

And Bridges, this is him in his last five games from three. one for four, O for two, 0 for six, three for 11, two per seven. I mean, it's like Wimb and Yama.

You know what? I got a weird thing here that I was thinking about the other day. And it was when I was watching Portland. Mm-hmm. And it was, and we talked about it

with Zach Levine, which is, there may come a time where he's just able to assimilate into being a team player, part of the team, right?

It's like, all right, I scored all my points. We talked about it with Andrew Wiggins. I scored all my points or whatever. Yeah. But about the guys that were the role players,

and they were the third or fourth options, and then they went off, and then they became a bigger option. Oh, bro. Remember the first month in Brooklyn with McAll Bridges? Right. And the reason I said this, that I thought about it with Portland,

is because it came up with me with Jeremy Grant, which is Jeremy Grant, was a part of at a role player and a very, very, very good one for those Denver teams. And Denver teams. And then he went off to Detroit

and averaged 20 something points a game and nobody gave a crap. And then he went to, now he's in Portland, he's on these losing teams, whatever. And he's always a name that's going to come up in trades. And inevitably,

somebody will probably say, hey, you know what? We need, you know, we want to have some point of attack defense. We want a guy that can knock down corner threes. Is Jeremy Grant just going to be able to fall back into being the, right, third, fourth option, corner threes, defend at an elite level kind of guy. I wonder how hard it is.

Like sometimes when guys have already done that and then they can, you know, they're ready to just say, hey, man, I was a first option and we didn't win that much. And, you know, and now I'm ready to just be a part. I want to be a part of winning. That's what I want to do. And, but the challenge of being a role player. then having more on your plate and doing more and then going back to being a role player.

And it's like, I do think that that's part of the struggle with bridges. You're getting the ball early when you're in Brooklyn, right? You're the guy. You're the guy. You're doing everything. And now it's like, hey, how do I, how am I, how do I star in my role again? How do I do this on eight shots?

How do I do this on nine shots instead of 20 shots? and I think it is a challenge for these guys to try to get back into that mode. Like, because what you want is Phoenix, McEl Bridges. Bro, I'll take any McEl Bridges, not this one. Just not, whatever McElbridge, I'll take him, is in high school. This is his career low, true shooting. His career low. And so, like, let me just, because not everyone's, you know, follow.

follows the Knicks that closely or whatever. But like, you have to, as a Knicks fan, they, they all got hurt in the playoffs last year, right? And they've had this cachet of picks, and they're going to go big game hunting at some point. And I think a lot of people talk about Dame to the Knicks, but you got to remember, they signed Brunson first when Dame sort of became available.

So like, Dame and Brunson does not work as a back court on either side of the court. So I don't mind they didn't get Dane. But there's always this idea they're going to get somewhere. And when you look at this season for the Knicks, you're like, they've got Bridges and towns. But it happened in that order. They got Bridges first. So Bridges was supposed to be the guy that takes the Knicks over the hump.

Now you look at it like it's towns, and Bridges is an afterthought. But he's not even doing it on defense. Like it's just, it's been a very frustrating experience. And all the stuff in the preseason from him, the hitching the shot, and it's broken and this and that. And he shot it.

pretty well the first few games. It's sort of slid back into this. Is there something wrong with this jump shot thing? You would do the town straight again, though. If we're doing it. Hell yeah. Do you wouldn't the Timberwolves wouldn't do it again? But you would not do the bridge.

Listen, at the time I liked it. You know what I mean? So I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say I wouldn't because at the time I liked it. Because he is a good defender and he is a scorer and he can create his own shot. And that's what, that's what, That's what the Knicks need. But you love it now. I loat it right now.

I love it right now. You only do one show a week. This is how I feel at the moment. Thing I loved this week, I loved the fact that you and I, early in the week, talked about the Yonnas fake handshake with Jalen Brown. And I said, this is super silly, but I like it. And then I love that Jailen Brown was mad about it. He said he's a child.

I'm trying to win basketball games. Janice is a child. And then Janice kind of laughed it off again because he doesn't care. And then Janus goes out and scores 59 points. And Nike tweets out about Janus's 59. Nothing childish about that. It's like, okay. This is obviously a direct shot.

at Jalen Brown saying, Janice is a child. And then Jalen Brown retweets it and says, y'all got some weird energy. Weird energy. I love, I love this.

I love Jalen Brown versus Nike. Like he's still mad, like, you know, he blamed them for him, not being a part of the Olympic team. Yeah. Of the Olympic team.

And then he snipes at one of their signature athletes. And then they come back, acknowledge said Snipe, then he has to come back. Like, this is the craziest thing ever. Jail and Brian Nike going back and forth in front of the world

to see, I love it. I absolutely love it. It's also, it's a Brown is known for being intelligent, right? That's been well covered and we have to discuss it. But it's hard to fire back to the weird energy accusation.

You know what I mean? It's like, y'all have weird energy. There's nothing, you can't like, I'm sure they had like a little meeting with the four social media people in Nike. They're like, what do we respond with? Like there's not much you can say. Like he kind of, he kind of, that was kind of like a kill shot. It's like, y'all got a weird energy.

It's like, you're kind of right. We do have weird energy. You know? It was, that was a finisher. That was a finishing move. That was that, that, that Jalen Brown tweet was the equivalent of the Steph Curry night night. It's like, this is over.

You lose. Well done. Well done. I wanted to keep going though. the Nike thing? Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's too much at stake. So you always want to beef up.

You know what I mean? And if you're Nike, you don't want to keep going back and forth with Jalen Brown. You know what I mean? Especially when you're losing. There's no upside to them to them continuing this. That's fair. All right. We're at the end of the pod, so I'm going to make this pretty brief.

Coming into the draft, all I heard was what a bad. draft this was. It's all I heard is you'll be lucky to get a rotation player in the lottery. Not who's going to be a future star, who's going to change a franchise. It's, can we just get somebody who's in an eight-man rotation?

Eventually. That's all I heard about. This has been an impactful draft class. This week in particular. And I'm going to throw you a lob. We talk about Eadie all the time. Jalen Wells. Yeah, top of the rookie

lad. on NBA.com I saw. Really? Yeah. Look at it. Climbing the ladder. It was Wells, Eaddy, and Bob Carrington, who is, you know, playing in Washington. I actually saw in person and I was like, you know what, man, I hope they keep running

him out there and don't screw this kid up. Him and Bilal were the two that I was like, you know what, man? Like, they might be able to have something here with these. But I like Carrington. He's got some size to him, too. And McCain. Yeah. McCain. Jalen Wells, Reese's

popped off a couple games. Klingin, we discussed. Klingin. Dunn's a good defender. Like there's up and down the league. They're impactful in a way that I did not expect because everybody told me that this is the worst draft class in the history of drafts. It's getting better.

It's getting better as the weeks go on. They're impacting games. We celebrated Klingin earlier today. That's right. And, you know, Wells, Eadie had a good week. Yep. Ries's Shade chat on my Knicks a couple weeks ago. One thing I love is the rookie class is playing above expectations.

As soon as McCain's got like starter minutes, he is awesome. Like, awesome. That, I don't think anybody saw that come. He's replaced Tyrese Maxie's production. Think about that. He has replaced Tyrese Maxie's production. He has been awesome. He really has.

He really has. That could change his production. I mean, I don't think he's going to stay at this peak, but that could change their season. It could legitimately change their season. Thing I loathed this week, Carmelo Anthony saying that Stevie Wonder told him he loved watching him play. So I grew up listening to Stevie Wonder. My parents, I think my dad's favorite album ever might have been songs in the key of life. Like it was just one of those things that was on and around.

And I mean, like my parents were big Stevie Wonder fans. I think they went to his concert when he was in college. I've always really liked Stevie Wonder. I've always listened to his music. I've got a Stevie Wonder story. I remember my stepbrother, shot to Brad, gave me the cassette tape of hotter than July. And I had like a boom box. And I went to the playground.

This must have been third or fourth grade. And I was playing that thing. And I was just sitting there. just being like, this is music. Everybody come over. I'm the coolest kid you've ever seen because I'm listening to Stevie Wonder on the playground, but continue.

And so now, like, there's this whole, like, we live in a generation of social media. And it's like, for a long time, it just kind of died down the whole, like, Stevie Wonder conspiracy theories. And Carmelo just brought it all the way back to the forefront.

And I know, because I've done it, I know there's now an entire generation that is watching these videos on YouTube of him catching the microphone falling. We've all done it. They're seeing the story about him putting Boy George in a headlock. They're seeing the story, Shaq saying he saw him in an elevator and said, hey, Shaq. And it's like, okay. And I got it.

Like everybody will watch it. It's going to become a debate. And I've just, you know, I. I just feel like there's now going to be this whole generation that sees this and now it's all going to come back to the forefront everybody's going to be watching all the videos

there's going to be a whole bunch of people that are convinced I've always kind of stood on like why would you live your life like what for what you think he sold more records because like why would you he's been acting his whole life Verno, you ever tell, one of the reasons I don't lie is because I'm not smart enough, it's too much hard work to like remember that you lied about something and then back it up

and continue telling the story. Like to keep this up for 50 years, that's just too much work. There's no upside. And I got it. I know the stories. I've seen the videos. I understand the conspiracy theory. On the other side of that, I have to accept like, bro.

why? What is the benefit? Why? Why would you fake being blind for your whole life? So you didn't have to drive, so you didn't have to, like, I don't, I don't understand. So anyways, Carmelo brought that back to the forefront. Now, you would say to me, explain that. And I can't. I can't explain why Stevie.

If I accept that Carmelo Anthony is not lying. which I don't think he is. I think Stevie, I think Stevie here so many people say watch the games that he's just used the phrase, but what he really meant was like listen to the games. I don't think Stevie's like on League Pass listening to NBA basketball either. He's just trying to be nice.

Probably has no idea who Carmelo had. Shout to 7 p.m. in Brooklyn. I don't know why he would say I, I love watching. I love watching. I mean, I can't deny that that that is a crazy thing for a blind. guy to say.

Yes. I can't. You know what I'm saying? You know he's an Uber driver, right? Just kidding. All right, we're wrap this up with this. This is what I loathe this week. I need you to help me work through this emotionally.

This evening, Friday evening, I'm going to watch Jake Paul fight Mike Tyson in the year 2024. I'm going to watch Mike Tyson at 58 years old box with like fake gloves against a YouTuber that I loathe. I'm going to spend my time and energy doing that. Why? Why am I doing that? Because it's interesting, number one, but I will say as someone and we're around the same age. When we were kids, the biggest athletes in the world were for sure Jordan, Bo Jackson, Mike Tyson. I'd say those are. And a lot of that. I'm putting Lawrence Taylor in there. I think a lot of those had to do with video games as well, right? I think Jake Paul is going to,

like, hurt him. Of course. And I don't want to see it. I don't want to see it. We're on the same page on this. Like Jake Paul, like for anybody that, you know, I get it. at New Chronicle them as a YouTuber. I've watched these other fights. Oh, yeah. He's a boxer. Like, I watched him fight Tommy Fury. I watched him fight Anderson Silva.

I watched him knock out Tyrone Woodley. I watched him knock out Ben Ashkron. Like, I mean, some of these guys were MMA guys. Nate Diaz. Like, just because it's on and I like watching people fight each other. Of course. But, you know, I hated watching the Anderson Silva thing. I hate watching any of these old guys go in there as a shell of

themselves. The Roy Jones Tyson one, did you watch that? Roy Jones was like, and you could tell the first round, he's like, what the hell am I doing here? Yeah, I just, I don't, like, I just don't want to see what's going to happen to Tyson. That's what I don't want to see. Right?

It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's just like, if I, I'm falling, I hate it when I am, I'm the sucker. I'm going to be the one who's going to watch this thing. I don't think you have to, though, because I don't think it's an engine. engineered spectacle.

It's an engineered spectacle to get me to watch, and it's going to work, and I hate myself for it. Yeah. I hate myself. And look, I mean, I was at a basketball practice last night with my kids, and there were a couple dads that were like, oh, it takes this one punch from Mike Tyson. No, no, he's 58 years old.

He's 58 years old. There's some of these guys, though, that you're never going to believe they can't do it. But it's, it's pulling. the heartstrings of our youth. Yes. I felt it last year at the Masters with Tiger.

And I was like, man, all it takes, it's like, yeah, yeah. If he's, if he makes the cut, can't count him out. I still believe. I still want to believe. It's still real to me, damn it.

Right? And it's like, bro, this guy's been through hell and back with the surgeries and everything else. And it's like, same thing with, you know,

anybody that wants to see you know like I you know what I went to I went to big three or you know you watch a you ever watch a big three yeah of course you know okay

yeah so it's like you know I have Tony Allen on the show every week we goof with them all the time because he played he got he joined the big three for a couple of weeks and then he went out there and he played against you know the screen it was like him and Michael Beasley in a group of these guys. Yeah.

He goes out there and he does the Memphis one when they do the tour here. You know, this is a guy that brought, he's going to have his jersey retired, 18,000 people. I mean, he's the grind father. He's the guy, right? Grin grind, grizzlies. And he's back in his home arena and whatever. And he gets out there and he's got to play basketball and he's like, you know, trying to get a stop on like Larry Sanders and whatever.

And I'm like watching it. And I'm like, bro, I don't. I don't want to see this. You know what I'm saying? I watch this guy, Rip Clay Thompson and do a push-up at mid-court. It's a first team all deep, right? You know what I'm watching him like trying to get a stop on Larry Sanders. And he's, he's been out of the league like three or four years, you know what I mean,

four, five, six, seven years, whatever. Mike Tyson's 58. I don't want to see that. I don't want to see him. I want to remember what it was. rounds in between rounds he's going to be like bleeding his eyes going to be bubbled he's going to be huffing and puffing right and he's going to have this look at his face like what am i doing here it's going to make me so sad and it you had to think about how far this is removed like you right as a as a knicks guy like nobody wanted to see patrick ewing playing for the nix nobody wanted to watch you know uh calves shack or boston you mean ewing playing for the sonics is what you mean but yeah Yeah, yeah, what did I say? Yeah, Nick.

Oh, yeah. Ewing for the Sonics are like, uh, uh, Elijah Watt for the Raptors. And it's like, yeah. And it's like,

bro, this is 10 times worse than that. So, this is so far removed from being like a great fighter. He wasn't even a great fighter at the end of when he was done fighting. Oh, yeah. And then we're going to have to watch this guy in the post fight interview talking trash.

Like he just climbed Mount Everest because he beat up 58 year old Mike Tyson. I know. Yeah, you know what? This makes me sad, Bernal. I saw, I did see, I did see one this morning. Forgive me because I can't remember the account. And somebody said, explain this fight to me in basketball terms.

And somebody posted, Bronny versus Michael Jordan now. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. It's pretty good. Oh, before we go, we got ended up on a Huff state. What's the Huff date? Uh, up and down. Got to start in L.A., but up and down results.

Hopefully, uh, hopefully, uh, hopefully be able to use size and do the reverse dunks. Hey, while you're, look, if you got two TVs or at least when you're flipping, I don't know what time, the Paul and, uh, what's it called? I think the, the fight starts at eight, the cover starts at eight, but the fight probably won't beat until like 11, but we got the NBA Cup games. We got the, um, emmerits,

Warriors is the national TV. gang. Oh yeah, there you go. In the Emirates Cup so you can watch Jay Huff in person. You know what? I mean, on TV. You know what? I'm going to put $10, $10 American dollars on the Memphis Grizzles money line. Just for you,

Bernal. Ten American. If they lose, I'm going to send a Venmo request. Haven't the Warriors been awesome? It's been awesome. Yes. All right. It's going to do it for this episode. Thank you to our executive producer Jesse Lopez as always. And Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week.

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