The Mismatch - Exhilarating Christmas Day Games and Three Gifts From the Season. Plus: Does Anyone Really Want Jimmy?

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

Verno and Jacoby go through the Christmas Day slate of NBA games and react to each one, starting with the epic thriller between the Lakers and Warriors (01:48). They then move on to discuss the Sixers' performance in their win over the Celtics, as well as Victor Wembanyama’s huge game in a loss to the Knicks (24:33). Also, can the Mavs be competitive without Luka (41:31)?  Lastly, the guys share three gifts from the season so far (53:17). 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

Look, it's not that confusing. I'm Rob Harvilla, host of the podcast 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, except we did 120 songs. And now we're back with the 2000s. I refuse to say aughts. 2000 to 2009. The Strokes, Rihanna, Jalo, Kanye, sure. And now the show is called 60 Songs That Explain the 90s,

colon the 2000s. Wow. That's too long a title for me to say anything else right now. Just trust me. That's 60 songs that explain the 90s, Cole in the 2000s, preferably on Spotify. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon, and joining me see us every week from the ringer.com. It's Dave Jacoby, Jacoby.

What's happening, Verno? What a Christmas we had. What a Christmas. I'm on the court and off just across the board an amazing day yesterday. It was honestly everything we could have bargained for, more than we could have bargained for. You had the NBA truly putting its best foot forward. You had amazing basketball. You had a totally unnecessary trade report. Oh, I thought you were talking about the Disney stream.

I was like, yes, that was very unnecessary. It made any sense whatsoever. You also had an unnecessary Disney stream. You had injuries. You had some foolishness. Cholin Bean falling over in three games. We had it all. We had it all.

So it all got started yesterday with the Spurs and the Knicks. then just wall to wall until bedtime last night. But let's start from one of the late games, which was the Lakers and the Warriors. And there has been this frequent lament that, hey, part of the NBA's problem is that they keep on pushing Steph and LeBron at us. And those guys are older now. And, you know, they're not pushing the young stars as much. And I felt like yesterday was such an unbelievable example of how a young star was pushed early in the day.

And he delivered 10-fold in Wembe, which we will get to. And then you have this primetime game, which is Steph and LeBron. And both of them, if you were just a non-basketball fan and tuned that in and watch that game, You would never in a million years believe that they are the years into their careers that they are. But I think if you're Adam Silver, this is the best of days. Forget whatever your ratings report is going to say this morning. You, especially in the midst of all the conversations that have been going on for the past couple of weeks. And the noise has gotten so loud about ratings and style of play and everything else.

else. Yesterday was the absolute best of the best, the best example of the NBA at its finest. And I think if you're him, you've got to be thrilled. Well, we'll start with this. But let's hear from LeBron James after the game. I love the NFL. I love the NFL. But Christmas is our day. A couple things. Number one, yeah, I was watching the football games too. I was pretty good, you know.

But number two is, I'm glad you brought. up the sort of narratives because I'm always going to love the games. They shoot too many threes, whatever. Ratings are down. I don't care. It doesn't change my experience whatsoever. But one of the narratives I want to talk to you about, which was on full display in

this game, was this whole like, the end is nigh for LeBron and Steph. Like the idea that this is their retirement tour. Like, these are two of the best players in the NBA. This is not Vince Carter in the corner on the Hawks that can't dunk anymore. Like,

These are two of the most impactful, effective players in the National Basketball Association. They're not retiring. Like, Steph Curry can do what he did at the end of the game and go absolutely nuclear and bring that team back from the break. LeBron James can be the conductor in front of the orchestra that is the Lakers offense with whatever players he has and will them to a win in a big spot in a game. The idea that this is the last time, this might be the last time, this might be the last time we see these two.

We don't know how many more faceoffs these two have. They're still two of the best players in the league. I'm not going to sign their retirement papers yet. I'm not at all. You had Steph Curry have eight points in the last 26 seconds. And I don't think there were any of us that were watching that. Did not think back to the Olympics. Oh, yeah.

That's how it felt, especially down the stretch, where it's like they've got this guy. he's going to take shots from all over the place. The degree of difficulty on the two, three is just crazy. Well, the first one in the corner was nuts. Because LeBron's in his face, all 20,000 people in there know he's shooting that shot. He's not going to up fake and repositioned. Like, he's letting that thing fly.

He's a little bit behind the backboard. Yes. Arcing it over LeBron. And when it's in the air, we all know what's going in. The second one, it's, I was trying to think of like Draymond Green. He's really like, he's like a fold. for a really good running back. You know what I mean?

Like he gets none of the accolades, but a lot of Steph's success is sort of that partnership with Draymond in that one to tie the game. Draymond is basically like, puts out his arms and fully extends to set a pick and then let's go and acts like he's getting run over.

And Steph was just naked on that. Like there's no reason for him to be that open. Okay. And with that game and also and all the drama that happened down the stretch. And also the games as whole. You know this is one of my pet projects that I've been talking about throughout

the year. I've been remiss if I did not mention that one of the reasons that we had such high quality basketball yesterday is and this is not conspiracy theory because last year it was passed off almost as conspiracy theory

with what happened to the games post all-star break to make them more watchable. One of the things that I have talked about throughout this year that showed up yesterday, and I will absolutely believe that there was a discussion prior to these games that were played. The amount of flow and the amount of basketball that was going on yesterday all day long, I refuse to believe that that was a mistake. Because what happens is you and I are hardcore fans.

Yes. I went to a basketball game on Monday night that had 52 free throws in it. 52. I went back and looked just on Monday night. The Grizzlies and the Clippers had 52 free throws. The Blazers and the Mabs had 53 free throws. The Jazz and the Cavs had 49 free throws. The Celtics and the Magic had,

48 free throws. You go back and look at yesterday's games that took place. You had 35, 32, 33, 24. And then the only one that crossed over 40 was by far the worst of the games, which was the Sons and the Nuggets. Yeah. The one with the least amount of flow that took place yesterday. And so you had all day yesterday, because then what happens? Now you're adding to the flow. You're not calling all this touch foul. stuff. You're letting guys run up and down and have five, six, seven consecutive possessions without a stoppage in play, much more like what we talked about throughout the summer. Like, why do we love this FBA stuff so much? And what we talked about at the end of last year as well. You had this flow to the games that was taking place all day long. And then what happened? You didn't have pissed off players. You didn't have pissed off players. You didn't have pissed off refs and you didn't have pissed off coaches that then are so frustrated.

What are they doing, Jacoby? Review. Review. And now we're sitting around and we're stopping. Did you notice yesterday when you were watching all these games? One of the things that did, we didn't have games ruined and mired in stoppages and reviews and ruining the endings of game. Like that didn't take place.

That's not coincidence. This was a, hey, let's put our best foot forward. Let's let people watch the greatest athletes in the world be the greatest athletes in the world. I will never in a million years believe that it is coincidence. Because again, I went to a game on Monday night. I just listed different games that took place on Monday night. Unless you want to tell me this just randomly happened where we got to watch all of this great basketball take place on Christmas Day, when fans like you and I are sitting there watching, you know,

Hornets and Wizards endings with 20-minute reviews on a Tuesday night. Like, look, and I'm all for it. I'm all for it. What? Yeah. Okay, listen. I love the games. And I love the results.

I love the less. I love the flow. How many times you hear the announcers say, especially during that Lakers Warriors game, this one's got a good pace to it. Yeah. There's not a lot of stoppages. Like, they didn't even know what was happening because they're so used to the herky jerkiness. But I'm not going to let you sit here and act like there was a group chat between Adam Silver and the referees saying, like, hey, guys, do your best today.

A hundred percent there was. That's not what happens in the real world. I'll tell you what happened is. It's why it happened last year. Are you going to let me respond? It happened. You're going to let me respond. What happened here is, it's just the lights are brighter, the stage is bigger, there are more eyeballs and everyone's just, everyone's just.

a little more dialed in to their job. And the refs job is not just to call the fouls, but to also be cognizant of the overall product and the manage the flow of the game. I don't think this was engineered. I don't think that Adam Silver met with somebody in a coffee shop corner and said, listen, make sure you get the word out. I don't believe that. We need a better game on Christmas Day. That's not what happened. There was no communication. This is not a, not a coincidence, but it's not as engineered as I'm going to let you get to. And frankly, I don't even want to talk about it. I love the foul stuff, but I love the basketball stuff so much more.

Like, I thought it was fantastic. And I think you're kind of cuckoo for thinking that it was like engineered from some Illuminati circle meeting at a conference room in the sky. Oh, it happened last year, Jacoby. That happened. That happened. But I don't think it was some sort of like. So you think it didn't happen for Christmas Day, especially when you're against the NFL?

This isn't a conspiracy? This is real life. bro, I watch the NBA every single night. This was so obviously called different yesterday. Obviously. I just think we can agree to disagree. I think it's not because some sort of clandestine meeting and messaging from on high of the basketball gods.

I think it was more just like everyone being a little bit more cognizant of the product that's being put out there because the lights are so bright. And it's not, it's an unspoken thing that happened. They needed to have their best day. And the NFL tried to take it. And they did, especially in this LeBron's Steph game. And LeBron, after winning the game, I'm sorry, after Austin Reeves wins the game, and he says right into the camera, NFL, like, this is our day.

And after a performance like that, you can say something like that. But I was watching the football too. I was watching the football too. No lie. I want to talk about the game game. Yeah, you watch the football. Yeah. I flipped over to the football, neither game.

In fact, both games were. pathetic. Beyonce, though. Beyonce. That was worth the price of admission. I think we should just replace Santa Claus with Beyonce and she should every Christmas come into our homes and perform. That was unbelievable. Honestly, the only thing I watched from that game.

Like, it was so non-competitive. And then I saw somebody tweet, everybody be quiet. Beyonce's coming on. And I turned it on. And so I watched the Beyonce halftime show. It was better than any Super Bowl performance I've seen since Beyonce. I know the L.A. one was good. I like the L.A. Super Bowl performance.

It was the second best Super Bowl performance I've seen since the previous Beyonce Super Bowl performance. To your point about them putting their first best foot forward and how good those games were. I ran and grabbed my son last night as I was watching that Warriors, Lakers game as it was coming down to the end. Because he was playing with the stuff that he had gotten. Of course. I ran in there and I said, hey, man, come in here. And we watched the end of that game. And then it's funny.

You mentioned Reeves. You watched the end of the game. The Curry shots, obviously, we're going crazy over those. And then the last thing, I have not seen him since then, he walked out of the room where we're watching the game. And he was like, nice defense Wiggins and like close the door and walked out of the room. That was his takeaway? Two Titans, the two of the most famous people on the planet.

to abs from Titans slugging it out and the middle of the ring going down to the wire of the biggest stages in the biggest game of the biggest day. And he walks away and take away is like stay in front, wigs. Well, look, he's got a thing for Austin Reeves too because it was Austin Reeves and Rudy Hachamura. No, no, no. They did the Grizzlies in a couple of years ago in the playoffs in game one. And Austin Reeves was like barking at everything. so he for sure did not want to see Austin Reeves get a game winner. So he was like

nice defense, wiggins. I mean, it was a straight line drive. No, see, I'll say I want to say this about that particular play is I think that, because I saw you say straight line drive in the group chat, and I think that the jab step to the right as a right-handed player and the ball fake, simultaneous

jab step and ball fake to the right. Because when you're playing defense, no matter if you're playing in the NBA on Christmas or if you're just playing pickup, you're just assuming everyone's going right all the time. And then going left is quickly as you did. I thought it was a good move. I thought it was a good move. I really did. I thought it was great. And then, so I might be active on fan door, Chris Fern. Uh-oh. And I might have said to myself, you know what, Christmas, I think, I think LeBron's going to get a

triple double. And they had a bet. There was like, anybody gets a triple double. It was great odds. And I put 40 harder on American dollars on that with great odds. And I was like, well, LeBron's got three assists, so this is over, right? I just scratched it up as a loss. Going into break, Mike Brean is like, Austin, really? Reeves, 18 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists, and 10 rebounds and nine assists. And I was like, what? And he ended up getting a triple double.

He ended up scoring the game winning shot. And not only that is, I don't think this is getting enough sort of like attention based on the very sort of little reaction I've seen from the game. But Austin Reeves, a little emotional after the game. Oh, yeah. I'm not really an emotional person, but there was a quick second where, I thought I might tear up. And no, that doesn't happen a lot.

But it's Christmas, like I said out there, I know my parents are back home watching. I know my brother's probably up in Germany right now. It's sitting around with family watching the game. And, you know, that means a lot to me. You know, I say it all the time. I'm not necessarily supposed to be in this position. You know, I got lucky, got my foot in the door and took advantage of an opportunity. And, you know, now I'm sitting here, like you said, on Christmas.

with a game winner and a triple double. I mean, like the white guy from Alabama with the sweet to the right, Arkansas, I mean, you are such an East Coast. Oh, my God. Are those even two different states? Are you serious? Are you serious right now?

One's Bill Clinton and one's Nick Saban, right? That's how old. Unbelievable. Anyway, with the sweepy haircut, and he loves golf and the all-shucks attitude. just getting emotional thing about his family on Christmas Day and making the most of an opportunity. You know what they talk about the NFL being scripted?

The whole Christmas NBA was, like maybe I'm with you. Maybe I'm a conspiracy guy. Maybe this is all just out of a Hollywood writer's room. That's what it felt like. Well, look, and we got the totally weird Anthony Davis injury and he's going to the locker room. Everyone was, and B. fell over,

and Wimby was great, and LeBron was amazing, a step hit threes. Everyone was just playing their role to a T. I mean, to an absolute T. If you said this was directed by someone, he's like, okay,

and now we're going to have Anthony Davis turn his ankle just running down the court. Just running down the court. I watched the replay. I was like, what? There's no way. How many times have you just been like running around or walking

and your ankle just completely tweaks? I've had it tweaked, but to the point where you like can't come back in the game? nuts, nuts. And then Kendrick Perkins at halftime, he's like tape that thing up

and get back out. Take that thing up and get back out there. It's Christmas. I love it. I love it so much. So good. Such a treasure. Yeah.

God, this game, man, I got a question for you now from, I'm just like a basketball standpoint before we move on in next game. Golden State started 12 and 3. Do you remember that? Oh, their defense. Oh, the contender.

Strengthen numbers. Yeah, strength and numbers. We're playing 12 guys. Dave now, I forgot who I was talking to. I see, you know all of this. And they've now lost 11 of 14. Hmm. I forgot who I was talking to.

Let's just move on in the next game. Because I don't want to give you the opportunity to discuss the fall from grace for the warriors and stuff. But it really felt like this team needs more offensive firepower. I hear there's a guy in Miami. might want to be there. Whenever these things happen, this sort of like report from Shams of what he has reported before

about Jimmy Butler wanting to go somewhere, I spend the whole day being like, all right, well, how do we get him to the suns? How do we get him to the Warriors? How do we get him to the Spurs? How do we, because all these stupid teams are in the Jimmy Butler hunt, and I'm just like, none of this makes any sense.

Okay, let's go ahead and talk about, let's just get this out of the way. I will say, as I was watching them last night, I was like, I think Butler would be fantastic here and make me view them in a much different way. He's on this timeline. They're on this timeline. Like, you've got to get this done now if you've got Stefan Drey Bond

where they are within the context of their careers. As I'm watching that game, there's no doubt that you're watching that. you're going, the major piece in that has to be like a sign and trade and Jonathan Cominga, right? Who wants more like 35 million than the 30 million that they were talking about with him. And I watch that and I'm thinking to myself, there's just, I would be absolutely blown away if Pat Riley wants him. Thank you. Thank you.

No way. Pat Riley likes him. I cannot stand him as a basketball player. We want to build around Tyler, Hero, and Bam, Etabio. And those two players I love. And Bam isn't having the best year, but I believe in him long term as an asset and as a basketball player. But does the trio of Hero, Kaminga, and Etabio's screen championship contender to you?

And are you going to sign Kaminga to another four years, hoping that he turns into Jonathan Kaminga? because he's shown flashes of Jonathan Kamenga. I honestly think, and I know that he said, look, if people remember, he had this quote, I mean, terrible quote, you know, just about his mental well-being and saying, like, there's other people that would quit if they were me. And I was like, all right, we're going to look far on that, right? Just how he gets dicked around and the starting line up out of the starting line up,

all that stuff, whatever. But you watch the guy play, and to me, I'd, uh, uh, but, be on record. Whether it is the Warriors or whether there's any other team, I think it's a mistake to sign him to a huge contract. And here's another problem, Chris Vernon. I feel the same way about

Jimmy Butler. Not just what you're getting in return for Jimmy Butler. If you trade for Jimmy Butler and you're the Warriors, you're just like, I'm not giving you an extension. We got one year. If you want to pick up that player option, maybe two years. But I don't want 38-year-old Jimmy

Butler making $50 million. dollars on my sheets. And I don't know a team that does. So that's when you talk about whatever. I mean, the Nuggets would make some sense, I guess. But like, if, again, does Michael Porter Jr. added to Tyler here on Bamette Abayu make you a championship team? No.

Like, I just don't, I don't see a natural trade partner for Jimmy Butler at all. Did you hear you didn't go to the Christmas party? Jimmy Butler didn't go to the Christmas party. I'm unsurprised. Didn't go to Christmas. Houston still seems like the most likely. Did you go to the ring of Christmas party? I live in Memphis.

I don't even know if there is one. I don't think there is one. I'm just trying to make you feel bad. Sometimes in basketball, 30 points. Could be worth more than 30 points. Huh? Let me explain. Now, you can get a 30% profit boost

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Just looking at Friday's slate, there is a lot to love. I will not be going out. I will be on my couch watching all the NBA action, and I've got an eye on who could score 30 points. On the New York Knicks, Carl Anthony Towns. But he's going up against that, magic defense.

So maybe, maybe not, but it doesn't look like anyone the magic is going to hit 30. Jason Tatum going up against the Pacers, always a threat to hit 30. And you know, I make fun of him calling Victor Luzbenyama, but Victor Wenbanyama has been on a tear

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See terms at sportsbook.fandle.com. Gambling problem, call 100 gambler or visit RG-Helphel.com. Let's talk about another team that did try to load up on stars because we don't know if the Warriors are going to be able to do that. The Sixers. And scriptwriter comes in, Jacoby. All three played. All three.

It's a Christmas miracle. Wait, no, wait. No, no. Paul George didn't play. He was in that game? He was wearing a Caleb Martin uniform. Oh, that's right. Oh, okay.

They had a big three. They had a big three. I mean, you know Daryl Morey when he went and got Caleb Barton, he's like, this guy's a Celtic killer. And that's the team that we're going to have to beat. And I mean, he had to just be like, he had to be a cloud nine. He's like, this is exactly what I envision. them not paying attention to Caleb Martin and Caleb Martin just mowing them down

and Caleb Martin 7 3s 23 points you know he says after the game I know the way this team's going to guard me I know I'm not going to get as much attention as the other guys and it's like I don't know I feel like if a guy mowed me down in the playoffs he would be a little higher on the whiteboard in terms of how we're dealing with him because Caleb Martin is a problem for that after four or three It's like, all right, maybe we can switch up coverages,

especially with the way Paul George is playing. But I thought one of my biggest takeaways from that game I found interesting. And I'm not going to read too much into it. So, like, you know, just take this for what it is. But in the fourth quarter, they went on this great run with PG and Embed on the bench. It was like Maxi and Caleb Martin and like Yaboo. And it was like, and like honestly, like they kind of got out of their normal rotation because it was going so well. The Nick Nurse was just kind of like, just chill over there, guys.

it'll be fine. And then they come in the game. And that is when the Celtics make this kind of like semi-comeback to make it competitive at the end. I've just found that interesting. It was just like, huh, huh. Hey, let me just mention, I've already brought up the, uh, Fibah and the Olympics and how much we loved it with Stefan LeBron, with the flow of play.

Also, Yabo, little bit of a throwback. That felt like Olympic Jaboo. Yabu, he's had some games. Yeah. You know, it was after the game. I think it was Maxie that was talking. And he was like, it was Maxie and Martin, I think did the interview together, right? It's in between games.

I'm like, you know, putting together toys and helping my kids or whatever. I got half an eye on this. And Maxi's like, yeah, well, we brought in seven or eight guys. So it's going to be some adjustments. And I looked at it and I was like, yeah, they did. Yeah. There's a lot of new bodies there. You got Martin, you got Yaboo.

You got obviously Paul George. Like, there are new bodies. he's there. So maybe I did walk away from this being like maybe maybe there is a path where the Sixers are a formidable threat. And we, but we do have to mention Drew Holiday, the absence of him. Poor KP left. Yeah. Yeah. Lost him by halftime. Almost lost him beat at the pregame shoot around. We've all seen the clip by now.

That's outrageous. What was that? Imagine you're the security guard. Your job is to just like make sure no one like runs onto the court and tries to tackle somebody, right? So you've got your arms folded and you've been to pregames before. And if you guys are listening at home, you've never been. It's a very low energy kind of like, it's called like,

it's a very like walk through environment. Like it's not like there's no music on. You're just kind of like sitting there. And the security guard is bored. He's got his arms folded and he's just staring at empty stands. And next thing you know, the 7 foot 3, 300 pound dude falls on you. and knocks it, then twist his ankle, and then one of the, like,

main players in the game is on the ground because he tripped over your foot. I just felt bad for that guy. I hope he got, I hope he just got the rest of the day off. I mean, you couldn't even believe it was real when the reporter started tweeting about it.

Oh, yeah. Oh, I definitely, whenever you saw that, you had to double-chered. I double-checked it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a scripted. This is parody.

You know, I'm starting to lean a little bit, more towards conspiracy theory than I was earlier in the pod like maybe this is maybe I'm winning you over this is all the multiverse I mean multi-verse there's there's a pre-game shooter right and I let me just mention in the pre-game shooter up because you're talking about how you know you know Steph's

shooting like half court shots and most of guys are just getting the warm up shooting threes getting you know getting stretched out a little bit right there is one guy though if you ever go early bro Janus goes into full on pouring sweat. That's terrifying. It's like a real workout. And when he is done,

he's like boring. And it's like, what is this guy? There is a game. No, he's different than everybody else. You see him when he gets done with this like pregame warm up. And he's like,

Yokic may go out there. I'm not kidding. And take like one shot and break it and walk back. to the locker. Right? Just walk out with this little penguin walking. It's like the penguin, like Colin Barrel. Let's drudge out there.

Take a couple shots, make a couple jokes, smile at the coach, then go back. That's right. Let's get to Spurs Knicks. 20 years old. I mean, are we just going to, can we just do the full Jacoby Miacopa? We started the season with you doing the Luz Benyama thing.

I mean, you want to talk about a wrong side of history. My God. You just watch. I was absolutely right. I was absolutely right at the time and I'm still right now. And his success is largely because he listens to the podcast and has made some adjustments. So you're welcome. I'm basically like a coach, like a mentorship.

It's like an apprentice, apprentice, sort of like Padawan Jedi relationship that Wimbeni and I have. I'm going to give a quick little shout out. This showed up on my timeline yesterday. This is from a guy named John Gondelman and said, I started describing Wembe to my husband. wife and realized that between his name, physical attributes, and resume, it sounded like I was talking about an imaginary friend.

It is like, it, we just, how? It's, it's not just the height because we've seen like minute bowl or whatever, Yao Ming. We've seen, it's, it's the way he moves. But it is kind of the height. Well, obviously, like, it's the person that jumps out at you, but like, we've seen tall players, but watch Joel Embedead run up and down the court and then watch Wimbunyama run up and down the court. Do you see what Towns was asked afterwards about the two of them? They're like, he's like, oh, so you and Wembenyama, you know, there's some similarities in your game and this. And he's like, no, dude, I'm seven feet.

He's like this guy, it's like nine feet. Nine feet tall. There was the one. The best was, there was like this break. and Brunson gets it. And you remember the play I'm talking about? And it's just those two. Yeah, it's true.

And Wemby got the goal to end. And it truly looked. So the other night when I was watching games, my kids came. We have a mini goal in the upstairs. And my daughter is like, I want to play. And so she starts playing with my son. And I look over at him. And I'm like, bro, let him.

her score like once? And he's like, no. And so she's like trying to make moves. I mean, he's just, he's swatting the ball all over the game room. Like she has no chance. She'll never score. They're playing on a mini hoop. He's almost 15. Okay. And there was that moment yesterday where I was like, that reminds me exactly of what I was watching the other night, where it's like, if Jalen Brunson goes to the basket and when bin yama's there he would never score like never it would never happen it was that level of ridiculousness where it's like okay like okay just swat it away swat it away swat it away he's like two feet taller than him so what frustrates me about wimbenyama is not the shot selection or whatever i was talking about earlier and still think it should change it's uh he gets credit

for blocks. He had four blocks in this game. But his impact is like so much more than four blocks. You know what I mean? Because it's like you he reminds me sort of like a really hard hitting linebacker. Like like Vantes Burfect. You know what I mean? Or like Lawrence Taylor,

like Ronnie Lott. And you're the receiver coming across the middle. You're just so cognizant of where that human is and what can happen to you. Oh, forget it. And that's what it feels like when Mbigham is. It feels like someone gets by their guy and they're going to the cup and they're like, I'm going to do what I do.

It's like, oh, nope, there is Wiminyama. I'm not going to do what I normally do. Let's re-evaluate this whole entire process. Thus, how amazing McEl Bridges is in this game. Because it's not only the threes, but then he starts hitting all these mid-range things. And it's all like, hey, do you have a guy that can make all of these shots from 10 to 15 feet and then the three? because what we're not going to do is get within six feet of the basket, because if we get within six to eight feet of the baskets,

good point. Then there's that guy. That guy is there. And then you have somebody like Bridges who just goes absolutely nuclear. I mean, as a Knicks fan, you had to be on absolute cloud nine watching him and how he has come along throughout the month of December really come into his own as this hybrid of the Suns Bridges and the Nets Bridges. It's interesting watching Bridges.

There was so much discussion about his shot and the hitching his shot, they changed his shot. Remember, Anthony Edwards was saying, talking to him about it and blah, blah, blah. And he was, you know, he was like, oh, for 755 in the preseason or something. It was like all this discussion about his shot. And when it doesn't go in, it looks so broken and so weird. And you're like, how is this man a professional basketball player?

but when it does go in, he's just a shorter Kevin Nouran. I mean, how can you ever stop this man? He can, when it does go in when it's working, because he gets a ball so high above his head before he starts his release,

and he's got such long arms that when it looks wrong, it looks so wrong, but when it looks right, you're like, oh yeah, five first round picks, I would have traded seven first round pick for this guy. This is what they want.

And I think you have to have just incredible promise about how, you're playing on Christmas Day and it wasn't some kind of monster Brunson game. It wasn't a monster town's game. He was not good. But this is the kind of stuff you need, right? You need the, when we get to playoff time, there's only so much that you can load up against.

There's only so much you can load up against. And when you have another guy that can do that, that's when you get to the playoffs and it's like, all right, there's that third guy that's getting, like he's the man tonight. And so I think the more often you can have the big O.GN and OV nights or the big McHill Bridges nights, it gives you confidence that if you can make it into the playoffs healthy.

Meanwhile, by the way, Bridges has played like the most minutes in the NBA. He's got all these crazy December stats. He has just been, he has been great, great, great. Like shooting from the field, shooting from three, the whole thing. And so it felt like that was a culmination of kind of what has been happening in December.

Obviously, it was extreme. But the point is, he's been great throughout this month. It was another thing I was want to give a shout out to is the offensive rebounding because I think that Hartnstein brought a lot of that for the Knicks. And they got 17 offensive rebounds. And Josh Hart, you know, we all saw down the stretch. got two of them. I think that was that was really important for them. And I think that they're making a concerted effort to feature bridges in this way because I think everyone else is

comfortable in their role. I think Towns is obviously, we don't have to celebrate him. We have so many times. But it does feel like the team as a whole, because they are so close and have their history, is kind of saying it to each other without saying to each other, let's get, let's get McCalco. Let's get him going because that's what's really going to help make us make this sort of engine hit top speed. And I thought that was interesting. Another thing I think I think kind of interesting is after the game, when Benyama was like,

he was, you know, he was really reflective. When you listen to him speak, he's very like introspective. He's more depth in his answers than you get from a lot of superstar players. And he was, he was like, we need, he's like, we're not ready. He said that we're not ready. We're not ready to win these type of games.

And I was looking at him. I was like, man, you're not you know like Chris Paul doesn't like you know with like it just it just feels like this team is one of those teams that's just right in the middle not bad enough to be a top pick and not good enough to contend and maybe win a good regular season game here and there but they're just kind of nowhere no this this is the trajectory of a lot of good teams that end up being great which is that first year you're right around 500 and then you explode.

So this is the second year. I would buy stock in next year's spurs is what I would tell you. This happened with a lot of great young teams with young superstars. That you have that first year where you're closer to 500, you're around Midland team. Like you're not bad, but you're also not really good. And then you take the huge leap next year.

I would buy stock in next year. Well, I would also agree with Wembe that they're not really good. ready. They're not ready. But that's part of it. Yeah, they're not a serious team right. But they, just very briefly, like, I'm done. I'm done with the Simpsons football game. I'm done with the Disney basketball game. There's, I don't know who this serves. Even my kids, I'm like, hey, kids, check this out. My nine-year-old daughters, they're like, dad, this is stupid. I'm going to go back and play with my toys. I'm like, I know. I don't,

I don't know who this is for. Chris Paul is Mickey and Josh Hart is Daffy Duckling. What are we doing? I did think it was the whole town's as goofy thing was funny to me. Just because he does kind of look like goofy, like the way he stands. They're like, down the lane, goofy. And so I've got a weird take on this. What's that? I don't mind it being existing. And I think some of the clips are funny.

I'm not going to sit there and watch it. I don't think that there's a bunch of kids that are sitting around going, oh, no, I like football. But I will say, I do like the kid versions. I like the Nickelodeon versions of the NFL ones. I got it. That's more of a hybrid of like reality plus a little like accoutrement, which I enjoy more than this. I would have that. I think that's more of the mode to get the kids involved is that kind where it's like actually the real basketball, but like these kid flares to it.

And the original one that they did in the London game, the Toy Story game, I thought was awesome. All right. I liked the toy. And then the ones that have followed. So either make them all Toy Story with Buzz Light Ear and Woody and that old game. Because I just thought that was so unique and so cool. And it was like, you know, it was like you set up toys and you're playing this game. And so I like that.

But yeah, the other ones, they have not held my attention. I'm going to experience it the same way. And maybe that was just a one-time thing that I liked it because that was the original one. It's a story. I'll say this before we move on. I think like many things in 2025, you guys, someone out there will ingest the entire two-hour experience. Just send me the best 10 seconds on my timeline. You know what I mean?

That's how I consume most media. It's like, just send me the best 10 seconds and I'll enjoy that. So maybe it should exist and I'll just experience it like that. I'm not sitting down and watching a whole game like that. And my kids have no interest. The other two games that we have not mentioned were not as good as the three that we have, but we had wolves and Mavs. We only got 16 minutes of Luca and,

boy, by the time that thing was over, there were already reports from Tim McMahon and Shams Sharania about how scared the Mavs are about this situation. And you and I have talked about this a lot, and it's been an ongoing theme of the mismatch for many years, where I've said, these soft tissue things, it's never, it's never sooner than what they say. So calves, groins, hamstrings, I'm always petrified. And this one made it even worse because within an hour's time, they're telling me I should be petrified about what the, what the situation is going to be with Luca Donge.

I don't know if you know this, but I'm a medical expert as well. I understand. Yeah, and I actually have five or six ER doctors on my rec league basketball team. So that makes me not only a medical expert, but a sports medicine expert top of the field. I watched the Luke injury many times because I was concerned. I was like, well, let me see this play again. There's a jiggle. Watch it again.

If you're listening to this podcast, when you see it from behind, focus on the left calf. Oh, you think it tore. There's a jiggle. There's a jiggle. In my expert, medical sports expert opinion, top of his field, there's a jiggle. I don't know, man. I don't like the jiggle. I'll say this.

I mean, you're taking, you're taking obviously a huge portion of the season. Look, there's a lot of things that go with this. Huge portion of the season. All-Star awards. Mm-hmm. like all NBA not exactly a guy on top of his conditioning

not exactly on top of his conditioning so now you can't even be on your feet but I'm saying it's an all-star it's an all-star spot that opens it's an all-NBA spot that opens it's an MVP top five voting that opens

it's a seed that opens oh yeah they can slip into the plan in like a week and a half they have played well without Luca it's a little bit like your Grizzlies. I know that you always want to talk about the grisies all the time, but it's a little bit like that.

Like, yeah, they lose job. That's the engine that, you know, that's the stirs, the straw, the drinks a drink or whatever. But, you know, they are successful without Luca. And you saw it last night. They were down by 28. No, and it's got to be, you're going to have to be more PJ, more lively. It's just, it, do you have the guys? It does put, and look, they

even, they won that Utah series a couple years ago in the absence of Luca. That was the Bruns and breakout for a hundred minutes. I got it. And do you remember who was sitting in the front row? Roll by West. Right there in Utah. Huh.

What are he's doing there? But I mean, now that has to be Kyrie. That has to be lively. That has to be. And we have seen, look, we have seen other teams, not the least of which is the Orlando Magic, which we have talked about over and over again. And it's like, bro, they can't stop losing people. They've lost their best players.

And they've still found a way to be able to get wins. And we just lost Moviner. We should mention. I know. horrible, but they just need to be able, but they've still found a way to other guys to step up. And so that's what Dallas has got. We won't address the, the magic thing.

Let's do a quick two second moment of silence for Steve Seruddin. Okay. Let's continue. Season's not over. You're getting your best players back. You will. They will. But it's been tough.

But they are the beacon of, we can get by in the, absence of our best players. And so now Dallas, they're going to have to play differently, but, you know, you're going to find out how much more can PJ Washington do, how much more can, you know, Kyrie Irving to the table, how much more can lively bring to the table, how much more can all of these guys, but still one of the great players that we have in the world. And it's going to be a long time.

That's the point, right? it's not getting by for two weeks, three weeks. This is getting by for 12 weeks maybe or whatever the case may be. It's also like it's not like a hand injury where it's a bone that has to sort of heal or whatever and just kind of back and better. Like you said, it's a soft tissue thing. It's a guy who's known not to be in the best conditioning at times and he's going to be off his feet for a very long extended period of time. And we'll see what happens. But it does give us more Kyrie Irving, which is always more fun to watch.

And you don't want to take anything away. Look, that's a good win for T. Wolves on national TV. Obviously, you have Edwards as the guy that they are trying to promote in this situation. I watch that game and go, man, when Randall is like moving, passing, throwing the lobs to go bear and everything. I just feel like they get sick. No, no, no, no. It's good, Randall, bad Randall. As you know, I just feel like that there's an awful lot based upon good Randall bad.

Randall that is going to determine their trajectory. Because when it's good, Randall, they're, they're, they're, they're right up there with the others. And when it's, you know, stop ball, Randall, uh, you know, then they're, it was, I, I, I, we'll move on very shortly, but I just have one gripe here. End of the game. The Mavs double Anthony Edwards to get the ball out of his hands. and it works perfectly.

Next possession, it's tied. Anthony Edwards has the ball, PJ Washington and an ISO. He goes past him to his left. Who's coming over to help? Great timing, great positioning. But it's Kyrie Irving. They decide not to double.

They decide not to have a rim protector around the rim. Whoever you're covering, leave them alone. Leave them alone. But the idea that Andy Edwards just get to go by his man and take a pretty much uncontested because Kyrie Irving is only so tall and jump so high, layup at the rim was just so frustrating when you did the right thing in the previous possession, which is double it and get it out of his hands. It was very frustrating from a sort of strategic perspective at the end of that game. Anything you want to mention on Sun's Nuggets, you know, as I mentioned, this was the most,

this was the most disjointed of the games by virtue of having 48 free throws in the game. the call wasn't made to those guys. They weren't in the group chat. No, they weren't in the group chat. No, they had Android phones. Nobody involved. They didn't want them in the group chat. We can't have this group chat turn green.

We need this to be blue. No Android phones. You have, you know, Yokic obviously has the numbers once again. But Sons did an amazing job of not letting that assist number for him. That's what I want to talk about. And it's yet two assists. Yeah. And when, so you know what, I'm not going to credit the Sons for that.

And I'm not going to blame Yokch for that. That is on Mike Malone and that is on his teammates. If Yokic plays over 35 minutes in a game, it has two assists. It's not Yokic's fault. The man wants to pass you the ball. He wants you to cut. He wants to do that. When he gets the ball, he's like, please someone make a cut that puts me in a position

to make a cool pass that gets you a layup. That is his top priority when he goes down the list of things he wants to do with the basketball. And it's so frustrated to watch an entire game go by. And no one just decide that they're going to cut when the best passer in the world maybe ever has the basketball. Or they miss the shot when he does pass it to him. But there wasn't even a lot of that. I was frustrated by it. I was frustrated watching it.

I really was. I really was. Got a lot of stay-at-home's. And just if he drops 50 on us, then he drops 50 on us. But I think he had like 19 shots or something. I don't know. It was a weird Nuggets game. And I'm just looking at Jamal Murray being like, dude, are you injured?

Are you hurt? Because you're bad in the Olympics. I've got a theory on this, though. I've got a theory on this. Is it related to his sex date? There's nothing to do with that. Oh, no. So I've got different theory.

Though that is a memorable moment. We don't have to, Jamal Furry. No. Okay. I now, see, now every time I'm going to think of you say, you've ruined it. I've got theory of this. So he became an NBA champion. Playoff Murray is a real thing and has been amazing in the playoffs.

Not last year. He hit the shots. I got you. I got you. And he's bonified, though. Like he's got his ring. Okay. He's never been an awesome regular season player, ever.

We just care about it now. But he's been better than this. Go look, go look, though. There's a reason he's never been an all-star. He's been a much better play. No, it's not injury. And he comes on in the second half of seasons. He comes on the second half of seasons.

No, he's been a much better playoff performer than a regular season performer. That's fair to say. But he's been better than this for basic. his entire career. I got it. I just feel like, you know, once they won

and once he was so amazing in the playoffs, people have expected that he's like in a different echelon than he's been. And it's a regular season player. Go look.

You're not, you don't see a bunch of, there's no 25 point per game seasons in there. He's been what he's been. Well, he needs to be more. He needs to be more. There's no question.

You know, you know what? Before we move on, I want to give a shot. somebody. Because I think that this person is disappoints and gets disrespect and criticized more than celebrated, and for pretty good reason. But Bradley Peel had a game last night.

And he looked good. He had a game. He was moving really well. He was hitting shots. He was like, oh, look at who? I was like, this guy. You know, he looked like someone who you don't deserve maybe two-thirds of the salary that they're being paid. But he had a game last night in the absence of Devin Booker that I think just needs to be mentioned because for the Sun's team to be a contender or a threat

in the playoffs, they need him to do something because Nurkich is just not doing anything. Enough that you would think that that could be a piece to a Butler deal? Did he impress you that much? Here's the thing about all these these Butler deals. I'm only bringing it up

because the Suns came up. But why would the heat be like, do you know what? I'm in the business. We're in the Bradley Beal business. I don't know. Let's bring him on. I don't know. You were just on his nuts.

And you said you didn't want to be a long term. Because he had a good game. Yeah. No. I'm not. No. The heat are not trading Jimmy Butler for Bradley Beal. No.

I just said as a piece of it. And they have no picks. Okay. All right. To get they had to use all the picks to get Bradley Beal. It's Christmas time. And we're going to listen. off three gifts. Three gifts that we are happy about in the NBA.

The NBA has given us. That the NBA has given us. The NBA has gifted us with this year. All right. We can go through these quickly. Yeah. My first one. And you're spoiled being a New York guy. My first one is Mike Breen. Oh, double bang yesterday. That was not only the NBA putting its best foot forward. that was Mike Breen putting his best foot forward. That felt like such a huge game because Mike Breen was at absolute peak of powers. Here's the end of the game and three of the big shots.

Curry gets it back in the corner. Heads up a three. Oh, he put it on. Step Curry. No. 2 remaining. Looking, looking. Curry gets free.

Curry puts up a three. James using the screen. He's covered. Reeves has it. Five seconds to go. Reeves on the drive. Inside Lamb. He backs it in.

With one second remaining, no timeouts. Here comes Curry. Launches at three-quarters card. And the Lakers win a thriller. I mean, I don't know how anybody could listen to that and not smile listening to it. And this guy has been, you know, there's no Jeff Fing, Gundy and Mark Jackson anymore. And then they switched him out and he was doing it with JJ Redick last year. Now this year they've thrown him with Doris and Revis Jefferson.

And it's like the partners can change and it doesn't make any difference. This guy is the best. I love Mike Breen. Love him. I also love Mike Breen. And I am lucky to be able to get more Mike Breen than most. And I'm also, I'm unlike my people. appears in the sense that whoever announces the game doesn't really change my enjoyment of it.

You know what I mean? Like, I just like the sport. And I think all the announcers are good enough that I'm enjoying it. So, like, I'm not one of those. Like, oh, we got Reggie Miller on this one. That sucks. I'm like, I don't care. Reggie Miller is great.

Everyone's great. I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to announcers. But Mike Green has gotten a little bit of that Marv Albert thing where his voice tells me that this is a big game. Like just just hearing his voice heightens the game for me. It's like Pavlovian. It's just like, oh, oh, this is a big game. And Marv Albert always did that to me based on my history with sort of like NBC on Saturday or whatever. And I'm just going to very briefly say something that's going to get me in a lot of trouble.

That's a very unpopular opinion. I can move on to my first gift. Don't love Clyde Clive Frazier doing the games with Mike Green. Don't love it. Don't love it. Don't love it. Let's move on before I get in trouble. before they put this one on Twitter,

this is going to be the breakout. Jacobi Hayes' I don't love it. It's not for me. It's not for me. It's not for me. Not for me. Holy mackle.

Yeah, that's how I feel. I said it out loud. Move on. All right. Move on. We'll move on. Move on. The gift that, frankly,

is one of the most exciting things for me in the National Basketball Association is Joe Missoula just being an absolute psychopath. And we'll go through this quickly, but I've got a top five Joe Mazula quotes. And people change when they win a championship. You've been in this business a long time. People behave differently after they become champions. And I think we're really starting to learn who Joe Missoula is now that he's got a little

more freedom to sort of like job security and a little bit more like emotional confidence. So here's just some quick ones. So he told Sam Houser about getting foul. quote, there's no fouls in a war. You either die or you don't. Asking about having a target on their backs being champions, quote, people are going to say the target is on our back. I hope it's right on our forehead and between our eyes.

I hope I can see the red dot. Okay. And this is what he said about robbing Fenway Park, which is where the Boston Red Sox play in the movie The Town. Quote, if we ever decided to rob Fenway, I was like, we could probably really get away with this. This is my favorite part at the end. How could you not go to Fendway and think you couldn't rob it? I'm just going to say something, Joe Mazzula. I've been to Fenway Park.

I don't know, a hundred times. Never once that I was like, this is how I would rob this place. Never once did that cross my mind. Number four, on what we can do better as a fan, for the fans as a league. Quote, the biggest thing that we can rob people of from an entertainment standpoint is you can't fight anymore. I wish you could bring back fighting what's more entertaining than a little scuffle. And finally, the number one Joe Missoula quote is from Missouri. What kind of pressure do you have, do you feel to kind of maximize this opportunity that you have with this group? Zero. No pressure. We're all going to be dead soon and it really doesn't matter anymore. So there's zero pressure. We're either going to win or you're not. And when you win,

you try to forget about it a week later. And when you lose, you try to forget it. about it a week later. And so it's not pressure, it's an opportunity. And we have an opportunity here over the next few years, however long we're together and said this in the past. Like, you have an opportunity to carry the organization forward to double down on the tradition and the history of what this organization has. And what else would you expect than someone expecting you to win all the time? I wouldn't want someone expecting me to lose all the time. That would be debilitating. We're all going to die soon. I just realized this going through these quotes, they all are either about dying, fighting, or robbing something.

I don't know what that means, but I just realized that. All right. This is insane because you listed off your five Missoula quote. If you're going to name some that I didn't get to. No, I have three off the top of my head. That's how crazy this is. There's a lot. You have, I'll never wear this ring.

it's too big. Love it. Great point. God, he didn't like the title ring. The court tastes like blood. When he went down and kissed it. Right? He's the best.

You have the court that tasted like blood. And then what was the other one? There was one other. Oh, I don't watch games. I don't watch the NBA. Why would I watch NBA games? I don't watch it. I kind of agree with the fans.

I don't watch NBA. I don't like to watch them. Don't like them. They're not, they're not, I'm going to watch the town again for the 400 times. I don't like to watch NBA games. He's, yeah. I love the, we're, I think that winning a championship is really going to let us get to know him better and I'm thankful for that.

That's a great gift of the NBA, give us this year. What's your second one? Yuki Kawamura. Oh, I love him. Look at the shirt I got for Christmas. Oh my God. What a God. That's my Yuki shirt.

My wife got me this for Christmas. You want to talk about a, a girl that knows you. just knows you. Oh, she knew because she's heard us go, Yuki, Yuki, Yuki, Yuki, Yuki, Yuki, Yuki Kawamura has brought me so much joy this year. He is listed at 5-8, and I would argue that that's not true. He's listed at 159 pounds.

I'd argue that that's not true. And Yuki Kawamora, for those that don't know, has got a two-way deal with the Memphis Grizzlies. At the end of games, home and road. If the Grizzies are up big, you will hear Yuki chants raining down from the crowd. We need guys like this, right? And he's not just a victory cigar. But at the end of games, when teams are winning, and it's almost like, you know, you got used to like the, it was like to walk on at your high school or college or whatever. And it's like, here's this guy who against

all odds is in the NBA, does not look like he should be in the NBA, because he's five-foot nothing, a hundred and nothing, and had this unbelievable game in the Olympics where he leads Japan in an overtime game that they lost. It had 29 or 27, 7 and 6 against France and kind of broke out after he had been playing professionally in Japan. He gets his, he makes this impression, gets this two-way deal with the Grizzlies, has been great when he has played for the Memphis hustle in the G League. And then several times throughout the year as Memphis is running away with the game, you hear the Yuki chance raining down.

And I will say they are the biggest cheers when he makes a shot or he steps back on somebody or he throws a pass or whatever. It is electric city. Yuki Kawamura. I mean, you know, we've had like the Taco Falls. You remember when he was in Boston and people would be like, we want taco. Yeah, there's something different about, you know, like a little guy. A five foot six Japanese dude.

The other thing is, the other thing is it's now there are no little guys anymore. It is so hard to make it as a small player in the NBA. I love that guy at Toronto, Jamal Shed, who actually I'm going to get to see tonight, who played at Houston last year. But even this year, I was looking at Jonathan Gavoni's, you know, top 100 list or whatever. Go look at like the top 30 picks, the top 40 picks. Bro, they're all like 6'6 or taller. Of course.

We're heading. We are hurtling towards the absolute abolition of the small guard. Like the 6-2, you how amazing you're going to have to be to be 6-2 and be in the NBA in five years? I also just want to recognize something I know we're not supposed to talk about it in 2024 or whatever but he's a Japanese guy it's not like the NBA is littered with Japanese people either so it's like that's a whole other sort of like

underdog story which makes it super fun he's tiny he's from a country that doesn't really isn't a feeder system for the National Basketball Association and he's sort of like got this huge smile on his face and when you hear about the interactions between him and Jai you know more about this to me but like the way he's sort of like learning about the culture

He's just so fun-loving and adorable. And when they were curbstomping the Warriors, I was like, great. We get at least 12 minutes of Yuki, and I texted you and you're like, he's at the G-League showcase. And I was so pissed. But then I looked at what he did at the G-League showcase,

that he had like 27 with like five for seven from three. Plus his name is Yuki. Yuki. Yeah, he's perfect. He's absolutely perfect. And if anybody tunes it in, he raises the roof. Somebody taught him to be so when they make a shot, He raises the roof.

Like everything about it is awesome. As far as he knows, raising the roof is the coolest thing he can do. As far as he knows, he has no idea. I love him so much. So let me tell a quick story for people that don't watch the Chris Vernon show every day,

which they should, is the Chris is really just like a media plant for the Grizzlies organization. And he's got this studio, which is part of like the whole, the whole, you know, spread of buildings that the Grizzlies work out of. And one day he's doing his show

and the entire Grizzlies team just storms the live show while Chris Vernon is on the air with his partners. And Jaws there and Braynor Clark is there and Sharon Jackson and Bain and all the stars. One guy cared about it. Chris is just like, where's Yuki? Like you can hear him. John Moran is on the camera. And Chris Vernon is just screaming, where's Yuki?

Where's Yuki? Where's Yuki? All of you other people, you all stars, you future Hall of Famers, get out of the way. bring me yuki you that is how chris vernon views the roster of the memphis grisness what's your next one i'm gonna go quickly through this one it's just something that i so it's hard for me not to complain and when i used to have cable and i had league pass just all of the games you can push guide and all the games are right there next each other it's so easy to flip around between them and oh you know what if you want to check in on the monday night football game or the thursday night football game while you're watching

easily just click the last button. Remember that button? I love that button so much. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you can just go between two games so quickly and seamlessly. And like, even with the NBA app, there's like four clicks and the little basketball wheel goes around. It's hard to sort of surf between games so much, which is one of the gifts that I love that the NBA app has given us is NBA crunch time.

It's basically red zone for basketball when there's a bunch of games going on. I've got a lot of notes about how it can be better. And some of it I understand it because of the regional sports deals and I don't want get into the legalese of all that. But I just want to say thank you for taking, having someone watch all the games and just bring me the best of it. It's very, very helpful. And I appreciate that gift that you've given me, NBA.

Next step is obviously two box, four box. Yes, it's not that hard. They do it, but they don't do it very well. I've got a lot of notes. And I'll get them to you for free, Adam, Silver. Okay. Fair enough. Last one, a gift.

All right. So this is not. necessarily NBA related, but it is us related. My gift, and we're not going to get too shappy, but is you and Jesse, because I am, you know, anytime that you have time off at the end of the year, which I have these last couple of days, right? And then you have Christmas and then you have your family over and whatever. It's a real time of reflection. And for all the listeners out there. Everybody knows what went on with this show earlier this year. And, you know, there was a part of me, not to get too self-indulner, but I was for sure down in the dumps,

like really worried because you spend eight years or whatever it is building something and then you get a phone call that it's gone. And it's like, I don't know what's going to happen. And for those that don't know out there, you know, this, I was going through all that as a bad, like, week and a half, two weeks, because I don't know what the future is going to be. You know, Bill has assured me, hey, we want you to stay and we want to keep the show going or whatever else. But Jacoby, you know, was going to be one of the guys that was going to fill in with us. And when I got on a text with him, he flew straight down to Memphis, when you hear him mention

Memphis, because he came here and flew straight down to. Memphis, wanted to see me a person, wanted to, and we went out, went and eight, and then the next day came on my show, and then we did the mismatch together. And, you know, I had had this, everything in my life had become, like, routine. And the way I do this and the way I do that, and this, obviously this show twice a week has been part of my life. And then it's all, like, gone. And the minute I met up with you in Memphis. I remember driving home that night. And I think I even text Jesse.

And I was like, this, this is going to be okay. Like everything. Because I know he was scared too. Like we don't know. We don't know what's going to happen. And so, um, and, you know, as you've been around media for a long time, things are going to happen. And sometimes things that you think you never envision are going to be different.

you're going to have some kind of major switch. Do take place. And that's exactly what happened. And I remember texting him being like, this is going to be okay. And I cannot thank you enough because, you know, I don't, I don't,

it's not like we sit on here and talk about our feelings or our private lives all that much. But I was truly down in the dumps. Like I was really, like I hadn't had anything happen in a long, long time where I was like really scared about something. Or it's like, man, I put all this work into this and now it's just all, like, what's going to happen with

the year? And you being available, you wanting to do it, you being willing to do it, and then it all working out the way it has, you know, there was certainly a moment where these last couple of days I was sitting back and I was just, and I texted you last week, where I was just so intensely grateful that this worked out the way it has and that I've got, you. you and I get, you know, Jesse's still with us and that everything, everything worked out. And now it's so much fun. And I love you and I love Jess and I love getting to do this show. And, you know, I guess there's always that time where it's like, hey, man, this could be taken away from you.

And I really thought like, hey, man, this might be over for me. And so I'm so grateful, you know, I'm so grateful and I'm grateful for you and I'm grateful for Jesse and the listeners that. that stuck with us throughout this entire thing. And so just a huge thank you to both of you guys because anytime you get to the end of a year, and this is the last show I'm going to be doing this year, you know, everybody does a lot of reflection. And this was a much different year.

Every year, kind of, you know, the last several have just been a routine and it's just part of it. And it's like, oh, okay, and then I'll get back to work on Monday. but this one, they're a huge curveball thrown in the middle of it. And there's always that fear of what's going to take place. And man, oh, man. I mean, I cannot tell you how much unbelievable feedback,

not to blow you up too much about you and about us and about the new version of the mismatch that I have gotten that has just made me feel so great and so happy. so happy about how it all happened and how it all turned out and how it was truly all okay. Everything's going to be fine. That's great. And there's a couple things I want to piggyback on top of that and say, number one is one thing I hate is if I say, I like your jacket, and then you say back to me,

oh, I like your jacket. It feels a little inauthentic. So I'm not going to do the thing where I celebrate you now. I'll do that down the road. You know what I mean? I'm like, oh, it's a nice shoes. Like, oh, you have nice shoes too. It's like, well, you don't mean that.

You're just saying that because I said, to you. So I'll get you down the road. But a couple of lessons from this is like, you know, anyone who's following my career knows that I've had some, some high highs and low lows. And I had a very, very stable life at ESPN. And that boat got rocks and I got thrown out of it. And I was amongst the waves, trying to keep my head above water. And that's happened a couple other times since then. And I think that sort of that's one of the ways that you felt sort of outside the boat for a little while there. You don't know if you're going to, someone's going to come by and pick you up or you can swim to shore or whatever.

And that's a really bad feeling. And it usually works out. You know what I mean? That's one lesson. The second lesson I wanted to tell listeners in regards to this is get on the plane and go there. You know what I mean? Like there's some saying it's like 90% of life is just showing up. And it's like super cliche, but it's cliche for a reason.

You know, it's like when I told you I was coming to Memphis, you're like, are you serious? Like you thought I was like joking or something. I did. I'll be there, dude. You know what I? In the world of Zoom's in the world of Zooms and all this stuff. man, people are doing so much stuff virtually

and like not nice to e meet you. It's like, no, you don't e meet somebody. You got to meet somebody, you know? Here's a little inside baseball. I'll tell you. You and I knew each other, but had not been around each other. We knew each other as media people.

Yeah, I was a fan. I was a fan of the mismatch. And we, and so I know that you have known Bill and House forever. And you text me that, and I text them, and both of them says, shut the F up. And I'm like, no, I think he's serious. And they're like, bro, he might be.

Jacoby is a maniac. Yeah. And I was like, I was like, all right. And then the next week, I text Bill and I said, he's really coming to Memphis. And his answer was shut up. And I'm like, I'm serious. Yeah.

And after you came here, I called Bill Simmons. And I said, bro, we're not doing tryouts for this spot. I said, you can do all the tryouts you want. you can put me with all the people you want, and I'm going to call you in the end and tell you I want Jacoby. So how about we just cut it? And he's like, if you're good, I'm good.

And I was like, let's go. You know how I feel. I appreciate this so much. And I think it's really important that we end this show appropriately, which is why I just want to share one of my gifts that the NBA has given us, which is like, if there's something about, you know, like a good player makes everyone uncomfortable. You know what I mean?

And it's like it just puts pressure on you and you always know where they are. Like Wimbanyama, we were talking about earlier. And you know that they're going to get the ball and make the shot like Steph, like we were talking about earlier. And there's a player who's emerging in this league

that just makes everyone uncomfortable, especially those of us in the media. Just play the clip, Chess. It'll be Grady Dick. Coming up short. Dick stays out there. Nagy all over him. Danny doubted

Brady Dix's third bucket of the game brings it back to 19 Let's just call it Grady Let's just call it Grady for the rest of the game I mean just watching a dick get bigger and stronger and more aggressive

as it gets older is just one of the greatest developments in just anyone's life really and I'm just so glad that the NBA has given this dick to celebrate Okay and you don't know this

yet. You don't know this yet because we were so caught up with the Christmas games and everything that was going on. But I've got a confession to make. Jacoby, December 26th, the morning of December 26th when he recorded this. I am going to see Dick tonight.

The Christmas plays the raptors at Fed. X-4. And I have to go through a pre-game show. And I have to go through a pre-game show and a post-game show tonight. I hope he scores 50. Knowing that I'm going to see Dick. I hope he gives you 50. So you have to talk about Dick all night. I know. I have been so worried about this evening. I have been so anxious about Dick coming to town. It's tonight.

I swear. Tonight, don't look at the schedule. I believe you're going to see a lot of dick tonight. Unbelievable. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always, and Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week. Must be 21 and over in present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino

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