The Mismatch - No Problems Without Giannis for the Bucks, Wemby’s Vengeance Tour, and Despising ‘MJ: Insights to Excellence’

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

Verno and Jacoby return as they recap the Thursday night slate of games, which included a Bucks win without Giannis, the Spurs and Thunder remaining undefeated, and the Magic finally ending their losing streak. Next, the guys go through their loves and loathes from this week in the NBA. (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch (02:43) Thursday night recap (24:25) Verno's and Jacoby’s loves (53:06) Verno's and Jacoby’s loathes Leave us a message on our Mismatch voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producers: Jessie Lopez and Brian Waters Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Martin and joining me as he does every week from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. Happy Halloween, everybody. Happy Halloween. What are your kids going as? Oh my God, we're going to start the pod with this absolute disaster in my house. Disaster. Disaster. I've got one pirate fine. I've got one Starbucks employee. It's great. People love it, right? It plays. And my son wanted to be an imperial admiral from Star Wars. And he expressed this in like September. My wife ordered the costume on October 4th. Has not arrived.

Oh, no. She saw this coming, ordered a second one like two weeks ago. Has not arrived. In absolute panic, I go to the Halloween store yesterday, wait in line forever, and I buy like three masks. She's like, put this mask on with a hoodie. And he's like, F that, no chance. Halloween is ruined. I'm not going trick-or-treating.

I can't believe this. You guys don't care about me. I'm leaving this family. Can I secede from this family? How does this work? Do I get new parents? Can I check into a group home? Do I check into a foster home?

How do I get matched with the new family? He's exploring all options. So maybe I'll have three kids come our next episode on Tuesday. So I have a 12-year-old that wanted everything, right? She's changed her mind 50 times. And I think she's ending up going as like a convict or something. I can't even remember what it is. And then because I'll be a convict by the end of this.

And then my son, who's a teenager, I'm like, you got to get something, right? We go to like Spirit Halloween. I'm like, you got to get something. It's he's like, fine, I'll get a Freddie mask, like a five nights at Freddy, like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So he literally bought the plastic. Like, it's like I was forcing him to get something.

I'm like, you can't just walk around as an annoying teenager, right? There's no way. But you got to get something that you put on. And he's like, fine. I'll get the Freddie mask. So that's the extent of what we got going. But I'm going to an NBA Cup game tonight. Yeah, you are.

Yeah, I'm going to Memphis versus the Lakers with the new court, the whole nine. Who knows, maybe Luca Donjic, which was a surprise to see the Navy revenge game? I mean, the La Ravia revenge game. You've got Austin Reeves always has like a million people at the game because he's from Arkansas, right? So it's like their opportunity. I guess those are bordering states, I suppose. So we will, I'll be, I'll be at an NBA cup game while everybody is doing their Halloween festivities. Anyway, interesting night last night.

Not a lot of great games. There's like four. Yeah. And it is kind of odd, right? Like I'm having to do some recalibration. I think as are you, which is we have always functioned like, okay, there'll be like some other, like maybe some ESPN games. during the week on national television, but Thursday night's kind of like the set-aside night.

And now it's just for sure not the set-aside night, right? Like every night there's something going on on NBC, Peacock, Amazon, whatever. And there is like a little bit of an adjustment period going on where it feels like, okay, now a bunch of games are bigger games because they've got national television stage. Yeah, I know. it feels like those used to be the NBA TV nights. Right. And we don't really have NBA TV nights anymore.

No. And the games do feel, quote, unquote, bigger when they're on NBC, Amazon, or ESPN. They just do. And they feel better. And we were texting last night. You were like, I don't know. Like, no Janus kind of ruined this game. I was like, I don't know.

I'm going to give it a shot. I had a great time watching that game. Exactly what I texted you. I said, you were like, hey, the bucks are kind of sticking with the Warriors. And I was like, man, once Yonis was out, I was like, ah. But then what a win for the Milwaukee Bucks against the Warriors last night, minus Yonis. I mean, there's a lot.

I think that Ryan Rollins was the sort of headline, and we're going to discuss more on him later. But for me, there's a few things happening here. We will celebrate the bucks, but I also want to say this was the Warriors. they've had like a tough schedule sort of not necessarily who they played but like how they have played the teams they've played and that's not going to stop any time soon but they did not,

they saw Janus was out of the lineup and they started mailing it in and they did not put forth especially defensively in effort that you're used to from the Warriors and when they were like down five, down six with about two or three minutes left they ratcheted up the defense

like the bus could literally had trouble getting it over half court in the last few possessions of the game. And like they got called for a back court. There was like a just a terrible like Kuzma fade away 30 foot three with the shot clock winding down. They were just having trouble completing passes. And I'm looking at this game going, where was this for the past 45 minutes of the game clock? Because now that you need these possessions, you need these stops, you get them. I felt like the warriors disappointed me a little bit with their overall effort, which is understandable, given the fact that Yannis was out and they've been

playing so much on the road. This is very common amongst good teams, vet teams, and also teams that are playing against teams without stars. They look across and they go, we are going to put the minimal amount of effort in order to win this game. That's why at the beginning of the season, we see so many of these teams that aren't supposed to be good, pull off these surprising wins is because most of these teams are, they understand, especially vet teams, understand it's an 82 game season. And so they're kind of pacing themselves. But it's like, okay, this is one of those that we can play hard for 10 of the 40 minutes or 48 minutes to get away with it. And more often than not, they're getting caught at the beginning of the season,

right? Because it's like, okay, now it's time to crank up and go ahead and get this win. And the other team just makes a couple shots. And next thing, next thing you know, that's not, that's not able to happen. As the year goes on, it is much more relevant that teams can crank it up at the end, like for the last 10 minutes. You will see this. And you'll see this a lot with teams that don't have an interest in winning, especially given the caliber of the draft next year.

We're already seeing like these Darren Peterson, AJ DeBants to Carlos Boozer, kids highlight. They're crazy. They're crazy. I'm like, oh, buddy, these last 30 games are going to be. rough for some of these teams and some of these fans. But anyway, I think you're right, right? You look across, you don't see Yonis, and you say, all right, we'll be able to crank this up for 10 or 12 minutes and win this game. And it just wasn't so. They tried. And there was some bad

offensive warriors possessions. And, like, you just can't decide to play defense when you're down five and four minutes left against a professional team. And one of the players I want to discuss, and we're going to get to Ryan Rollins. And he is, I think that people, don't pay real close attention to the league. This wasn't like a one-off great game from Rollins. Like he has been like ramping up to this all season. And one of the players I wanted to ask you about given the fact that you're close ties to the Grizzlies, Cole Anthony was really impressive, not just last night, the last few games. Just sort of like, no, I mean, listen, the guy's not going to make the All-Star team. He's not going to make like a leap or whatever.

But like for someone that was sort of like a forgotten piece in the Bain trade and then wasn't he waived by the Grizzlies? Was that like a transaction? He was just waived, right? Just wave. Yes. Yeah, so he's waved by the Grizzlies. And now he's like a key contributor in these bucks wins and in this sort of like reformed idea of what the bucks are, which has been really impressive. I mean, we're all going to celebrate this Janus-less win. But I love the style of basketball they're playing around Janus.

They're like, you know what? Let's make this sort of a heliocentric Janus offense where we just surround him by shooters and treat him like he's a seven-foot Luca. And it's working somehow. Anthony was in the Desmond Bain trade and I've always kind of like Cole Anthony and liked the idea of Cole Anthony but once Memphis was going to, they were trying to free up the maximum amount of money

so they could go ahead and get the Jaron Jackson Jr. deal done. Cole Anthony had like a very real contract. And the other thing was once you were going to make your free agency bid and you were going to get tied Jerome on an unbelievable contract, it didn't make sense. It doesn't make sense to carry a guy

with that kind of contract. It didn't make sense to carry a guy with that kind of a contract for a roster spot if you were bringing in Jerome and you were trying to free up the money so that you could sign the extension with Jackson Jr.

And so I understood why they did it, but there's no question he is a valuable NBA player. And I just like his vibes. I liked his vibes in Orlando. Of course. And they might miss him. And we talk about all these teams that need point cards.

And we've, we've beat into the death. And it's been sort of like an overcovered story at this point. It's so obvious. But like all of those teams, the Mavs, the Rockets, like wouldn't you love Col Anthony in your uniform right now? Wouldn't you absolutely love that?

Just like as a, instead of DeAngelo Russell, you've got Col Anthony, instead of Reed Shepard, you've got Col Anthony. I think both those teams get better. There's a good acquisition for them, for sure.

I thought so too. Wemby and the Spurs. oh my goodness, are they making me regret my... Now, in fairness, a lot of my questions about the Spurs and whether or not this was the year that they take the leap to the next level where how many games do they get

when Binyama on the court, right? Is he a guy that is going to be able to play 65, 60 plus games throughout the year? Because he has not been the most durable thus far. But my God, if he does, I am just... This is, I'm almost through five games.

I'm already willing to concede. Like, when they have him, this is the best start they've had. They beat a tough Miami team last night who had been giving people problems thus far this year. And it put up two different games where they scored over 140, one of which I was at in Memphis. And then they turned around and smoked Charlotte in that game the other night. unbelievable start. He is just, I mean, a total freak of nature.

That goes without saying we've already covered it before. But the other guys, Castle with another good game. I mean, Dylan Harper looks like an absolute nailed pick already. And I have been super impressed with what we've seen from them thus far. Also, I think, look, Wembe is plenty covered. If you want to hear people talk about how great Wimbunyama's been this year, there's plenty of options for that. But what I've been most impressed by is the team effort.

I've been impressed by Ms. Johnson. And I've really been impressed of what this team has been able to. Preseason, if you said, gave me a pen in the paper. It said write down the Spurs most important players in a power ranking format, right? You're going to put Fox at like two, right? And then you're going to put Sohan at like six or five. Yes. And they don't have those guys.

Right. And they're five and oh. And so they're missing two. We can argue about where Sohan is in the Power Rings who gives a shit, but two of their top seven players are not playing and have not played. And they look like one of the best teams in the best conference. The other thing that is super interesting about this is, and it probably happens if Fox is there anyway.

But Fox is like a veteran guy, an outstanding NBA player, an All-Star, a guy that led a team to a high seed in the Western conference just a few years ago. as the coach player of the year and all that. Wembenyama is like, there's no question. It's Wembeiyama's team. And it's one thing for it to be your team. It's another thing to be like the leader.

And you can tell. Oh, body language wise. Oh, yeah. He's the guy. He's the guy. And he's a second year player. Oh,

what I found so telling of that. And I'm glad you brought this up because I wasn't planning on saying this. But at the end of the game, it's a tight game. I think we're celebrating the Spurses of their 5 and O is a great win. I thought the heat played really well.

We'll talk about that in a second. but it's a close game. They call time out, and the team has a huddle, and Johnson breaks them down, what they're going to do or whatever. And then you see the five that are on the floor, take four steps onto the floor, and then Wimby brings them into a huddle.

Yes. And Wimby has a secondary, after the coach has been like, here's what we're going to do. Wimby has a secondary huddle. He's like, here's actually what we're going to do now that we're on the floor,

and it's just us five talking. And it was, it was everyone looking up at Wimby and him clearly dictating what their approach was going to be, And he was clearly the voice in that huddle. And they were going to execute his instructions. And that is leadership that you always get from your star player,

but not usually from a third year player that missed a bunch of games last year. No. And this is a, it's something that is not talked about a lot because we talk about this alien s. Of course. Performance is, but he's got that too. I mean,

it's actually quite annoying. They're going to have to ban him. Like there's only, that's it. I mean, listen, you know, you know I like to be negative.

You can't be an awesome leader, seven foot seven. Great interview and like doing things for the community. Like what is handsome? Like screw this guy. You know what I mean? We're done with this guy. I'm over with these two. Perfect.

I hope he gets wrapped up in some sort of poker scandal or something. I can feel like he's a human, you know. But I just thought it was really impressive from from both teams. I thought it was a good game. And I think the heat were in it. I thought BAM made a bio. What we thought BAM was going to do last year, he's kind of quietly doing this year.

Remember? It was like, oh, international. He's shooting threes. He's going to shoot threes. He's like, he hit some big threes in this game. And the heat were in it. There was out Norm Power, Tyler Hero, Yacuchunis, and Yovic.

Again, you want some power ranking? Who's important to the heat? Tyler Hero's going to be up there and so is Norm Powell. Well, and I'm interested in the BAM thing because, you know, they brought in Noah La Roach, who was part of the grizzly staff, last year that ran this, you know, this oddball offense. The no picks, no, no screens offense.

It was amazing for Jackson Jr. Mm. Because it was unconventional. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he was, him and Shengoon were like a voter two away from all NBA. I mean, literally $100 million. And if it weren't for the collapse down the stretch, of the season last year, Jackson Jr. would have made an all NBA team if it weren't for the last

three weeks of the season. And Otabio immediately is flourishing under this type of thing too. And so it's worth monitoring because I saw it happen with the guy last year. And I do think that this could reap tremendous benefits for out of bio because what happens is you get the ball in a lot more one-on-one situations. You are not getting nearly as much extra attention because everybody else is moving. And so what happened last year was in Jaron's case, he was one of the best ISO scorers in the entire NBA. But if you do bring extra attention to him, he can get in trouble.

And so same thing goes with Ata Bio. Out of bio is a bitch to deal with because he can score at all three levels now because the guy shoots threes as well. And so you do have some similar type figures that are both flourishing two years in a row. It's something to monitor because I very well think that that could be a case instead of playing your conventional NBA pick and roll offense where so much time, the two players involved in that are getting the extra attention. and teams of playing. The other three players are generally standing in their spots for spacing purposes. Well, and also because so many, so much of the NBA plays boxes and elbows, tries to protect the rim and says shoot us out of it.

And it's very difficult to do that with that kind of offense. There was, I think part of it is both of those are good isolation scores, right? But with the way that the heater playing now, you get, your defender is sort of chasing you when you catch the ball. Like they had a possession. It started in the right corner. Swing to the wing. Swing to the left wing.

Swing to the left corner. Left corner's defender is now chasing. So he drives. Kick to the right corner. Kick to the right wing. Kick back to the top. So now we're like eight passes into the possession. And off night, my guy Davion Mitchell,

who for some reason I absolutely love, he hits a three from the top of the key. And like the defense just always felt two steps behind because they're moving the ball so fast. and they're not just dribbling, waiting for someone to set a screen, running off that screen, didn't work. Now someone else come and set me a screen. Maybe I'll get a switch and then maybe I'll ISO.

The pace with which they're playing with just keeps the defenses on their heels. And players like Jackson and Etabio, catching with their defenders scrambling is going to make it a lot more effective on their offensive possessions. The other thing that was super impressive about the spurs was super messy with the ball down the stretch. Oh, yeah. And yet their defense, you had Castle contesting stuff on a two-on-one. You had Wemby just erasing the Davion Mitchell, your guy, one of the layups. And the announcer called, he's like, the Grim Reaper.

Yeah. I feel like too close to the Slim Reaper. Yeah. I didn't say, I don't know. Slim Reaper is already taking. We can't call him the Grim Reaper. He called him a Wembeyanama, the Grim Reaper. I think there's just so many other ways we can go besides Grim Reaper.

Reaper there. And before we move on for this game, I think it's important to note, because I'm watching this because there wasn't much on, the heat went on a 17 to one run. I know. To start the fourth. And I'm thinking to myself,

like, oh, well, here it is. Pete basketball. For me, I thought the game was over. I thought it was a really good sign that the young team, because Fox isn't out there.

You know what I mean? The Barnes is kind of like the only vet that's out there, that they came back and held it and went, winning this fashion. A couple others that, at least Bear mentioned. are I was going to, if it weren't for last night, I'd have been really tough on the magic today.

I know Zach Lowe already went through it yesterday with Mo Dockle, but I mean, God, I watched that Pistons game with them the other night, and I was texting you during it. I was like, I can't believe how bad they are. It's the defense. The defense is bad. This is all you have. You are the defensive team.

So we will see, again, it's the Hornets, so we're not going to draw much. They put Anthony Black and, the started light up last night. It was interesting. No, but they did get back on track, and they did actually get stopped, and they did actually look more like the magic.

So again, everything's early. We'll wait and see. We'll see if that sticks, obviously. But my God, they had been rough stuff thus far. They saved themselves from incredible slander today. That's all I will say. And then the thunder beating the wizards, which is...

Before we move on from the whole, Lawrence, I just want to make Cockbrenner the official player of the mismatch podcast because I just, I love him. You know, I, I looked at stats. He's 27 for 30 from the field. He's shooting 90% from the field. I guess, guess how many jump shots he's taken in his entire every career. I'd say one. One. He's taking one jump shot. He's taking three of his, three of his 30 shots have not been dunks or layups. I don't even know what those three were. One jump shot. I don't even know. The other two must be like floaters or hook shots or something. Like he's just like I dunk and I lay up and I protect the rim and that's all I do. Very common phrase within the NBA is KYP, know your personnel. Yeah. He knows himself. He knows his role.

That's it. What do you do? Yeah. Protect the rim on one side. I catch and I finish on the other side. I told you that when I saw him in the preseason, I was like, you know, this guy. is going to be like a legitimate like he's going to have a career like he's big he's long he he he was big east defensive player of the year four years in a row and he's a like he's a drop

coverage big he's a guy that stops you from driving to the basket unimpeded and knows what to do like just finish just finish right just be there he has three assists in his entire career and i I don't remember any of them. So we'll see. Not his game, Jacoby. He might finish with three assists in his career. No, there's always going to be people that will be like, well, if he adds this and he adds, just be that.

Yeah. Tall, tall, don't get it and block some shot. Yeah. So he does. I love them. I love them. The more you try you, you try to develop your game, the farther we're going to get away

from what makes you good, right? Just be tall. And you've been, look how far you've gotten being tall. Yeah, you don't need to spend. this off season developing a three-point shot. You don't need to be a stretch big. Just be a big. It's fine. You know, it's actually refreshing to see a tall guy that just does tall guy stuff.

Yeah. Like, freaking wimby breaking the press. You're not trying to go between the legs for stepbacks. He's like, you know, dude? Like, I'm a tall guy. I stand by the basket. Yeah, though the worst thing I can see is next summer, there's like a Calk Brenner edit where he's like dribbling around cones and stuff.

Like, nah. Don't dribble. You go your whole career without bouncing the ball on the floor once. Yeah. And then I would petition, like the Thunder beat the Wizards last night. I mean, I, I would be okay if they just didn't play games like this. Like if they just weren't something I had to even monitor like just, like unless we're getting career highs and stuff. Like I mean, yeah. I mean, yeah, Wizards games or whatever. But it's just it's frustrating that the Thunder, they don't know, Chet's not playing. J. Dub's not playing. It's just like A.J. Mitchell and Isaiah Joe are just like superstars all of a sudden. It seems like they've got 10 guys that would start on every team in the league. And there was an article. I think it was on CBS Sport the other day. And it was like trades that teams regret or something.

And I was reading through it. And they were like, this one will last a long time and blah, blah, blah. This team's going to regret this for a long time. Like all these different ones. And you can't believe some of the terrible trades that have been made. But one of them that was in there and I was like, oh my God. it was the thunder trading up for Usman Jang instead of taking Alper and Shengoon. And I was like, oh, wow.

If they would have hit that. Oh, no. They don't need anymore. They're fine. Like, it's actually not even Farfadge. Like, that was the pill. Like, he could have had him. If,

I don't think anyone has said this, but we were talking about, remember like the rumor of the Janus to the Knicks thing. It's like, well, they can't get the best package. And the only way he would end up on the Knicks is if the, the, the bucks decide that they want to send him to his preferred destination, blah, blah, blah. I think of myself, it's like, the best package you could get for Janus is probably the Thunder. They've got all the young players and all the picks.

If you're just trying to get the best package for Janus, he's going to end up on the thunder. I don't want to talk about it. All right. I'm sure you don't. All right. Let's get to our loves and lows. I'm going to start with my love and the guy that we has already been mentioned on the podcast thus far. Also

relevant in terms of regrettable trades, even though it's one of those regrettable trades that no one would have thought of at the time. Years ago, there was one with Chris Middleton that took place, right, where Chris Middleton was

throwing, where he went from the Pistons. The Pistons, yeah. And they moved on from Chris Middleton, and then obviously he had the career that he had. A year ago, I joked and it has come to fruition. What if it becomes the Tumani-Kamara trade with the Phoenix Suns as this throw-in guy, whatever? And now here we are with Ryan Rollins, who Ryan Rollins was the 44th pick of the O2 draft.

He has only played last night with his 80-2 draft. Oh, 22. I'm sorry. I was like, bro, I was like, Wow, that would be really incredible. Yeah, he was the 44th pick of the 22 draft. And it is so crazy to go back and look. So he's had a lot of injuries and also has not played minutes throughout his NBA career. He had a career high 14 minutes a game last year.

He also got in trouble. And once you become famous, everybody's going to be like, who is this guy? And a cursory level of research when you type in his name is going to find out that he got in trouble a year and a half ago for like a six month spree of just walking into Target and taking things. Target guy, different type of Target guy. He is like he was Target guy before Target Guy. He's the first. Ryan Rollins. He is Target guy.

I didn't even know. He was caught shoplifting household items from a local target store and multiple occasions while still with the team. This is kind of wild, right? Did you know this? No. It's like candles, body wash. Police said in court documents that Rollins stole small household items such as groceries, body washing candles from a target store on seven different occasions. Yeah, no, he would just walk in.

September 9th to November 9th. So that's a two-month stretch, 60 days. So once every. nine days he's going to a target and stealing. What if he just, my defense would be that I'm just, look, the amount of times

you have to scan those stupid barcodes on the self-checkout is not something that I should have to deal with. And so, sorry if a couple things didn't get scanned. Like it's body wash and candles. I make $1.6 million. I wasn't stealing. Your stupid barcode machine sucks.

That's what I would say. I also feel like in the self-scan world, it's all on tape, and it's hard to argue with me if I tried to scan it. It's like, I'm sorry. I gave it a shot. Yeah, maybe he just like jumps the scanner and he just puts it in. Like, I want that. It is wild seven times in 60 days. Yeah.

I think just going to Target once a week is a little weird, but stealing from Target once a week. I mean, that's what it has. That's what it has to be, though. It's during this season. He has road trips too. So he's only there half the time. Correct. It has to be that, though, because, like, there's no way.

It's not like you're in a ski mask. Like putting a candle under your jacket and running out. You know what I mean? It's so checkout stuff. It's got to be. This sucks. The guy has a career high. I know.

Casual fans are just learning his name. And here you are on the mismatch podcast, the most popular podcast. It is funny, though. And you're saying he used to steal shit from Target. It is funny. What happens when you, when you frigging, Google it. It pops up.

The details are crazy to me. Of course it's crazy. Candles? All right. So anyways, he's done with the wizards. They're done with them. Groceries? How do you still groceries?

It's got to be self-check. That's my, that's my thing. It has to be. It's just going to be self-checkout stuff, right? So anyways, it was 18 months ago that this happened. Okay. And he ends up signing this low, deal three years 12 million bucks what a bargain for the Milwaukee bucks then he has given his

opportunity and I think people are watching watching him thus far and it started it was 13.5 rebounds to assist then it was 14.8 rebounds four assists then since we last spoke Jacoby he's had 24 25 four and two and then last night 32 8 and three against the team that originally traded him, which leads us to the trade. Chris Paul for Jordan Poole, Ryan Rollins, a first round pick in 2030, which what are the Warriors going to look like in 2030? In 2030, yeah. And a first round pick in 2027. 2027.

27, 2027, 2030, Ryan Rollins and Jordan Poole. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Like, this is a terrible, terrible trade. And what if Ryan Rollins turns out awesome? He is 6'3 with a 610 wingspan. The wingspan is crazy. When you see him, it just doesn't look natural.

And the wildest thing is, when you're watching him, it is, you know who he reminds you of with that size and that wingspan is Rondo who's working with him. Yeah, who's like a some sort of consultant coach thing. And Rondo has turned him into this defensive menace. So he's like point of attack, defensive menace. Yonis loves him. And it's like, holy crap. What a story this is.

What a story with Ryan Rollins turns out to be like, absolutely awesome. And at least in these last two games, he has been absolutely awesome with a 32. He is tied for first in the league in steals a game and is third in deflections. He's averaging almost six deflections a game. Jesus.

Unbelievable. It's like Dice of Daniels level. Well, this was supposed, like when you look at the bucks, and I was higher on the books, no, I'm not trying to take a victory lap. It's been four games. or whatever, five games, is one of the problems was the Kevin Porter Jr. spot.

You're looking at it, you're like, we got shooters, we got Kuzma, whatever, second unit, we got Yannis, and we got Turner, and then you're like, wow, there's one more spot and the starting, it's like, I guess Kevin Porter Jr. if he's behaving, but now it's Ryan Rollins, it's perfect. It's a perfect fit. On perfect fit. Last time the announcers were like, well, you put Cal Kuzma in the Yonis spot. I'm not saying that Cal's Kama is Janus,

but he can do a lot of the same things. And I'm like, you don't even believe that. It's like no one does the same things as Yanos. Well, like wear the uniform. Like, I think that's about it.

He can do the six step prep. Yeah, against the Knicks. I've got something for that later too. Okay, good. All right. Anyway,

Ryan Rollins, look, we're sorry for mentioning your past, but it, that's what pops up on Google. I'm not, over this, this target thing. I just want to say this.

Have you ever bought a candle for yourself? Have you ever bought a candle that was not a gift for someone else? Yes. I don't think I've ever bought a candle in my life. I always do, I do the thing where I like walk by and then I smell them and I always end up buying the vanilla one. I like vanilla candles. And so I'm like, you know what?

I'm like, get that. I don't have to be in a relationship where I don't have to purchase candles I mean I've got a candle purchaser in my in my family so it's off so you ask me have I bought a candle I mean I'm not brought around stealing candles from Target it's just wild candles is a very strange thing to steal I'm not proud of my candle buying but you ask you shouldn't be ashamed of it I'm an honest person I love candles I just don't buy them I've got my my wife is a candle person so I don't have to be a candle person

actually actually Jacoby I just steal them they're super easy not they're super easy not to scan because they're like nobody's stealing a candle yeah yeah yeah the uh my first love and we've kind of touched on it and i'll make it brief is you know the heat went on that 17 to one run and you know the spurs are going for this franchise record five and no start which to me is sort of like a you know it's not that big a deal it's kind of like sure you won five and oh i think a lot you know it's just more it's more surprised the spurs haven't done it previously, then I am celebrating the accomplishment

of this San Antonio Spurs team. The Bulls are undefeated too. So what? Yeah. I mean, didn't the Cavs start 16 and 0 last year? Like, it's not that big a deal, but one of the things that I loved was Wembe's emotional response

to the end of this game. Like he had sort of like a daggery and one, and he's on the floor, and he's screaming his defender, and he's screaming at his teammates, and he's pumping up the crows. crowd, like he's Hulk Hogan in the middle of the ring. And even after the final buzzer, he's celebrating this thing, like, it's the championship.

Like, honestly, like, he was screaming at the crowd. He couldn't even handle himself in the postgame interview. And my first love, and there's going to be a lot of celebration of, like, Wimby, the basketball player, the stats, the blocks, the size, the, we've never seen this before. But there's something about his body language and the emotional outburst at the end of this game that really gave me the feeling that, you know, he's not. something was stolen from him last year. Like this blood clot thing was not a freak injury, a turn of an ankle.

It's just sort of something that manifested inside of his body that wasn't his fault. And I feel like he's just like, he's just got like this vengeance. This like Denzel Washington man on fire thing about him this season that it feels emotional and personal, which is one of the reasons I just love watching it so much because you always say, I care if they care. Right? You always say that. I'm going to use it back on you now.

Wemby fucking cares, man. Oh, does he ever. Like, they beat the heat in the fifth game of the season and he lost his mind in the end of the game. And I loved it. I care that he cares. The announcers were saying something to the effect of like, you know, two of the last three NBA champions started off five at all or something. I was like, oh, yeah, I heard that.

Okay. Yeah, sure. Yeah. But, but, but I will, I vividly remember in the Olympics, where he's crying afterwards, and he makes this statement, and we were all in unison, like,

oh God, this is the origin story. Well, do you really think you're going to beat that team? Like, did you really think you were? Are you that disappointed? You didn't beat them?

And it feels like he was. Oh, no. And he's like, they won in my country, wait till I do it in their country kind of thing, right? Like,

almost like, you beat me, but you're going to regret this because now it's, on. And it's like, oh, no. It feels like it's like John Wick or something. It's like John Wick where they killed his dog.

It's like Kaiser Sosey when they killed his family. It's like it's Denzel Washington man on fire. There's this whole like vengeance. Like it's like it's almost like he's such like a nice measured mature person. Right. But he is fueled by the dark side a little bit. You know what I mean? He is fueled.

He is practicing in the dark arts and he's pulling some of his motivation from the negative parts of his soul, I fucking love. I love it so much. Maybe we went and worked with a Pi Mae, the guy from Kill Bill. Maybe he went to work with him. He was doing all that monk stuff.

Couldn't you see him like hitting that board from one inch away hitting the board? Wait a second. Wait a second. Oh, no. We heard so much about his trip to China, right? He also went to Japan. Have you heard any details about his trip to Japan? So he's the new Beatrix kiddo?

wasn't that her name umma thurman uh she was just the bride that's all i had to my high school but yeah she's uh she's got a hot on it's yeah went to my high school umma thurman yeah just did you know her no i did first of all i'm not that old i think she's way older than me yeah yeah i don't think she's that old

oh i'm gonna put her in her 50s let's look it up right now i'm gonna say umma thurman is 52 oh no 55 yes So I did not go to high school with him or thir. Okay. But yeah, I love this, Wembe.

And I think that he's got the Hartari-Honzo sword, and he's the actual black Mamba, and he's the bride, and he's going to kill everybody. He's killing everybody. I love it. I love it. What's your next love?

I agree with that. And it's now, but we literally said in the first segment that we were done with Wembe, and now we're loving him again. So I just love the emotion. I got it. All right. Next one,

I'll keep it quick. Lamello flipping off a wrath. I'm sorry. It's funny. Like, he got 35. $5,000 fine. I know it's immature. I got it. Right. But one of my edicts is, and I said, you know, my origin story was once upon a time when I was a little kid, me and my friend Andy

got in trouble in class. And we sat, we had this like, it was like something out of like a movie or something, right? With the vice principal and this lady who was like super mean. And I remember her standing over us and she was like pointing her finger and she's like you boys are silly just silly and she was furious at us right of course we've just got to sit there like we're like you know like we're upset about this and then we walk out and laugh hysterically right and from that moment on i was like i really believe i was like you know what man it's fun to be silly and it's fun to laugh at things that are ridiculous and when lamella ball drives and Davion Mitchell gets a foul and his immediate reaction is to turn and flip off

the referee. I'm sorry. I will never not find that funny. That is hilarious. To give the ref the finger is absolutely hilarious. Here's the thing that it's it's not what you do, it's how you do it. It's something I always say. He didn't get in his face and put his middle finger aggressively in face that he wanted to fight. It was just like some sort of like casual like whatever dude, sure, call that an offensive foul. I don't care. It was more flip it. It was more just like dismissive.

It was like, F you, ref. I'm not going to look at you while I throw this middle figure in your direction. Like it was it was sort of like casual dismissive middle finger instead of aggressive like I want to fight you middle finger which made it that much better. Also middle finger is objectively funny. It just

is. Somebody giving you the finger like if you like accidentally like, you know, cut somebody off in traffic or something. Like, it's fun. I'm sorry. It's funny. Because when you boil it down, it's ridiculous. It is ridiculous.

Like, it is the way to show your discontent without doing it verbally. But it's just a ridiculous. It looks funny. It looks funny. Shot the middle fingers. My next love. I try to do a real deep dive on this, but I just couldn't get the stats together in time. But I'm, I'm keeping an eye on that Celtics Cavs game, right?

I expected the Cavs to win, like most. And the Celtics outscored the Cavs by 21 points in the third quarter, right? And the third quarter, the importance of the third quarter started really entering my psyche and something I really paid attention to during that 73 win Warriors run. Do you remember the third quarter warriors during that run, like the death lineup Warriors, where it would just be like they'd be down 12 in Utah and then they'd win the third quarter by 25 points usually like the first seven minutes of third quarter.

It just felt like if you win the third quarter, you win the game no matter what happened before that. And Harvard did a study in 2021. The NBA team that wins the third quarter and is leading after that quarter wins the game approximately 81.7% of the time. And I've been looking. I'm going to look at third quarter points

per game. Well, I've got third quarter, margin. So how much you win the third quarter by? Oh, no. You know who number one is in points per game? Denver. Chicago now. It does. Let me just read the 10

in margin. Yeah. Denver, Golden State, Houston, Charlotte, Memphis, Chicago, Cleveland, Thunder, Milwaukee. Like, all winning teams. All winning teams. All so far. All winning teams. Are we curious.

It's Memphis a winning team? We're counting them as winning team. Okay, good, good. Just want to make sure. They're three and two, bro. Okay. And then we have the Spurs at number 10. How dare you?

So this is something I'm tracking, and I'm going to get the data when I have more time. So the leading, to your point, the leading third quarter team is Chicago. And in the last three games, and they started four and oh, they have averaged 37 points a game in the third quarter. Yeah. Okay. I've just got my eye on this. Okay. Because it started during that Warriors run.

You remember that Warriors run. The third quarter warriors, but they would just be down. They were mailing the first quarter. And then just be absolutely lights out in the third quarter. And then they wouldn't play in the fourth. And I think that the third quarter is something I've got my eye on moving forward. And I absolutely love.

All right. Next thing I love, I told you I was watching that dismal Orlando Magic performance against the pistons the other night. And so anyways, I've got two TVs. One of them has one game on it. One of them has the other. So on my side TV,

The Pistons and the Magic were on that. And one of them, I turned the volume up a little higher than the other, so I could kind of monitor both. And so anyways, I'm just sitting there after the game. And typically, I just turn the game off as soon as, like, the game's over, right? For whatever reason, I didn't turn the channel on that. And so, like, they take their break after, you know, the Pistons win, right? Whatever.

They come back, and next thing I know, I'm like, what is going on? there's like a music video going on on the screen with Pistons highlights. And I'm like, what in the world is going on? And they're playing highlights from the game, like Kate Cunningham, hitting a three from the corner, whatever. And there's a song in the background. I don't know how I have not become aware of this before. Maybe it's just because I always turn games off after they're over. after it's over, yeah.

So this is like, I just happened to leave the channel on, and there's a song, and it's like, and the pisses win again. Yeah, the pisses won again. It's like a rap song, and it plays in the back. Oh, yeah, pisses one again. Jesse, Jesse played the song. This is one again. All we do is effing win, and that's the radio edit.

And the thing is, it's a, this guy has a very, like, Detroit sounds or like T. Grizzly or, like, B. John, he's kind of got that like Detroit drawl. Yeah, I mean, obviously working with Jaylin as long as I have, there's a lot of Pistons in my life, and that song is part of the thing. It was playing on the screen, and I was like, what is this? It's no Orlando magic, though. It's not, but it's pretty awesome.

It is awesome. You know what? It's a perfect song for highlights. It's really, the Pissons one again, is a great song for that usage. Yes. And Nick's fans will hate me for this. I'm not a real Nick fan. You can say whatever you want.

I don't care. I hate Go New York, New York, Go. I hate Go New York, New York, New York. It's so corny to me. Go New York, go, New York, go. It's not it. Wow. It's not it.

It's not a good song. It's not a good song. Go New York, go New York. Yeah, I've seen the documentary about the guy that wrote the song and he's a big Nickman. It's a great story. And he invented the big-ass calendar. It's on my Instagram.

It's on my Instagram feed all the time. That guy, Jesse, whatever his name is. Yeah. Yeah. He invented the big ass calendar. And it's just a huge calendar. I'm like, I'm the most unplanned person on earth. Why are you telling me, like, are they trying to get me to buy this?

I don't want a calendar. I can't even keep up with my no tap. Business one again. Where are we at? We're on Love Stone. Here's what I love. I love that Nicola Yokic is going for the record of straight triple doubles to start a season. He's now tied with Westbrook and the Big O.

And no one cares. And he's off to a slow start, apparently. That's something like, oh, yeah, Nikola Yokic off to a slow start. He's got triple doubles at every time he's taking the floor. Like he hasn't hit 30 yet. in points, but they're winning games. He's got triple doubles every time he takes the floor. He's got new teammates around him.

He's getting involved. And they asked him, this is my favorite part. Oh, oh, oh, oh, by the way, here Gordon's averaging like 45 points. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a slow start for Yonkj. He's breaking records left and right casually. And this is my favorite quote. They asked him about it.

He goes, quote, I'm trying to win games. I'm not focused on anything. I believe it. Not being focused on anything is the most Nikola Yokic thing I've ever heard. I'm the best player on the planet. I can do whatever I want. You want me to score 50?

I'll do it. You want me score zero and have 30 assists. I'll do that too. I don't even have to focus. I'm not focused on anything but my stupid horses. My last love, and I have to mention this, I have to do as the kids would say, I got to do some glaze in here.

I'll glaze it. Because there was an expectation that while my kids are going to be going trick, retreating and everyone is enjoying Halloween parties and festivities. Friday night. I was going to be at an 8.30 central start because it's a cup game, an Amazon game, no less. Oh, national game.

Who are they playing? Between Memphis and Los Angeles. But then at the beginning of the week, you got this whole Luca injury. And it's like, oh, man, they're not going to have Luca. They're not going to have LeBron. Little did I know, I was going to go watch the best player in the NBA, Austin Reed. Who knew I was going to get to watch the... Imagine me sitting there going, you know what?

No Luca, no LeBron. Man, that ain't going to be what I bargained for. And then finding out that actually there's somebody better than both of them that plays for the Lakers, he just doesn't get the opportunity to be better than both of them. And that's awesome. So here's the full glazing. I am going to go see the most unbelievable performer in the end. And it looks like Luca might come back.

I do wonder if that is a function of the NBA Cup, like that if it were just a regular Friday night non-NBA cup game, if there's zero chance Luca would play. But the fact that it is a NBA Cup game, it was because all the headlines yesterday was shocking report about Luca with the late, because everybody had this notion that he was going to be out for an amount of time. And then yesterday they list him as he very well may play. And I do wonder if that is a function of it being an Amazon Prime cup game. And so it does matter a little bit more to them if you're trying to get the money. And look, the Lakers did play out the cup. They won the cup, right? And so we have seen that two years ago.

Two years ago they won the cup. Last year's the bucks. Right, right, right. two years ago they won it where they destroyed the Pelicans and then beat the Pacers. But who knows? Maybe so.

But anyways, Austin Reeves, like, we talked about it's 51. Then he backed it up with 30-something. Then he backed it up with another huge performance and a game winner. And it's like, this is the, we joked on Tuesday that the price of the bricks gone up.

My God, the guys can end up with a frigging max contract and his own team before this is all said. he's unbelievable it's unbelievable it's unbelievable it's undeniable at this point like it's not fluky at all

but osiris has been good like this isn't like he came out of nowhere not this good though he's been good he's had playoff games with 30 but this is very hardin-esque it really is it's like oh

hold on now like is this guy if you put the ball in his hands is this what you get like if He's not just playing off of people? Is this like, is this a thing? I don't think anyone cares about the NBA Cup game.

I think they care about Lucas Health more than anything. So I think that they prioritize that over everything. I don't think they're like, oh, this is a cup game, Luffy. You got to get out there. You know, but I think that what you're really looking forward to is the Jake La Ravia revenge game. The question. Jake La Ravia revenge game, especially after his origin story might have been him dropping 27 and a

a person in the crowd yelling, who is number 12? And Anthony Edwards standing up off the bench saying, that's what I'm saying. I mean, the fact that Jake Laravia had to endure. And then if you saw it, of course,

look, I follow my Instagram still. Good for you. Because you can keep up with your exes. You know, everybody doesn't. He posted who is number 12 with a photo gallery. God bless him.

God bless him. Who is number 12? And so, yeah, now you have that. that took place in Minnesota, and now you have him coming back to Memphis with his opportunity and revenge game? Oh, buddy. Oh, buddy. This is, look, I was kind of down about this. I was like, oh, man, you know, Friday night, late, no Luca, no LeBron. This is kind of a, Halloween, damper. There's a, but a damper on things. And now I'm excited. I'll finish my loves with a

simple thing by saying is, I love the NBA Cup. Like, is it perfect? No. Does it mean anything? No. But like, it is additive. And it's very core. It's additive. It makes these games a little more interesting and a little bit with a little bit more juice and effort from the players than other games. So like it's not perfect. It is meaningless. It doesn't, it's not that significant.

But it's better than just playing regular season games. So thank you very much. I love the NBA Cup. Let's go and eight. And to go back to what you said earlier about a phrase that I use a lot. They care. I care. They do care.

They do. They do care. They do care. Oddly, they seem to care about the money. It's like they care about the money. Right. It's like, you know, Ryan Rollins, you don't have to steal candles from Target anymore. We got you $150,000.

We won the cup. Let's get to the loads. I'm just going to touch on the historic free throw rate thus far. And they even mentioned this during that Spurs broadcast. And I was like, really? They mentioned during the broadcast how many guys. and I believe it's now at seven. It might be it, I mean, it's if you round up at seven.

Seven guys in the NBA averaging over 10 free throws a game. Number one is Max, or I'm sorry, Reeves. Number two is Maxie. Then Zion, Janice, Paolo, Booker, and then Durant is 9.8. And Wembe is 9.6. All right. Let's just hope, again, it's only five games. Sample size is small.

let's hope this starts to dwindle because part of what we are seeing thus far is that do you know how many guys went to the line 10 times a game last year to one yonis that's it i i thought alexander was a for sure yeah yeah brunson maybe we gave him too much uh maybe too much great 8.8 8.8 you think about how much you think gilge alexander goes to the line 8.8 and then Trey Young was third with seven. You got seven guys already averaging over 10 free throws a game. Jesus. Last year there was one player averaging 10 free throws a game.

So this got to even like, you know what I mean, this got to start going down. It's not the way the game is referee that bothers me about it or the fact that they're going to the line or even like the quote unquote grifting. It's just what it does to the flow of the experience of watching the game. And also in the case of these guys, you got three of those guys, I think, that have been to the line like 20 times in a game. Between Matt, Maxie, Reeves went to the line 22 times against the Kings. It kills the experience for me watching it. I agree. It kills the flow.

It does no up and down. It stops everything. And then the, you know, and they was watching someone dribble and they take so long to shoot every free throw. It sucks. And the thing that I loathe, and this might be on every single Friday, I was right about insight. to excellence. It's awful. What?

God awful. Michael Jordan doesn't like load management. Who would have thought? Who would have thought? And then Mike Tarrico's like, oh, let's talk about load management. And Michael Jordan's like, ha, ha. Oh, I knew you were going to bring up this one. I knew you were going to bring up this one, old Mikey.

I knew this was going to come up this hot topic. And he answers it like someone put in chat, GBT. Like, what would a not? 90s superstars say about load management in today's NBA. And that's how he answers it. I felt there was a guy who bought a ticket that worked really hard in the top deck and the upper bowl. And I always think about that guy and how hard he worked.

And as an entertainer, I had to put on a show. And it's the same outfit. It's the same interview. Are we to be watching the same interview in December, in January? How many times are they going to cut the same interview up? None of this is topical. None of this is about players that are playing. None of this is about games that happened recently.

None of this is news. This is an old interview about boring topics, cliched answer. And the only thing that's come of these interviews is what the fuck is wrong with Michael Jordan's eyes? And is he okay? That's the only thing that's come out of this interview. All right. So as you're doing this, you can see me typing as you're doing your rant. I'm doing this.

I hate this. Look, this is what I just type. Act like a 90s NBA player. What would you say about load management? What's the answer? All right. Let me tell you something, young fella. Back in my day, we didn't even know what load management was.

You played because that's what you were paid to do. Ankle sore, tape it up. Knee barking, ice it after the game. Coach calls your number. You say, let's go. We're talking commercial flights, eating, hotel food playing back to backs in Denver and Utah and still dropping 25 the next night. Nobody talking about rest days. You got fans who saved up their money all year just to see

you hoop. You owe them that. You think MJ Malone and Ewing was asking for load management. Man, Mike was managing loads of defenders every night. The only good part, he goes on to be saying, listen is it? So good. And at one point he goes, he's like, he's like, oh, well, you know, all the conditioning and preparation that we do for the games and all the stuff we do off the court that you don't even see.

He's like, well, maybe not me. It's like, we know what you were doing off the court, Michael Jordan. I hate Insights to Excellence. I hate what NBC has made this release. Being like, Michael Jordan's going to be a special analyst. Me, she's going to let you do a one hour interview once and you're going to cut it up and play it for us

for the rest of the year. I hate insights to excellence so much. God damn it. All right, but next one is, Draymond and Santi Aldama So Draymond does the typical I lose my temper And because I turned it over at midcourt

Chases down Santi Aldama grabs him by the neck And fouls him And then can't believe That this hard foul is being called A Possible Flagrant 1 Then when Aldama missed the free throws He skips around

Like he's frolicing throughout the lane and then fine, it's over, it's annoying, whatever, right? Of course, you pick on, all you pick on is European guys. All you pick on is European guys. You choke, go bear, you stomp, Subonis, you get into it with Nerkidge. Now it's Santi Aldama, and then he goes on his thing on his podcast and calls Santi Aldama a clown and all of these other things. Like, what is going on?

Like, what is happening here? Not only does he do this stuff, like the full-on bully, right? Then he, like, says, and you're soft and like your soft coach, you know, wants this to happen. It's like, okay. Like, there are clips of last year, Tari Isson, and Dremont just flopping like crazy because he don't want it with Tari Ysson, right? And it's like, you do all of these things that you complain about other guys doing, and then you call them soft and you call them. And I'm not defending Santiago here, right?

Like, I mean, the foul is the foul. It wasn't that bad. Whatever. But it wasn't, it wasn't that bad. But look, you are that guy. If you constantly are only doing this to a certain type of guy, meaning most of the time, 90% of these guys are always the overseas guys. Come on, bro.

Interesting. Fow somebody else. Bro, if you're. so hard and you're so tough, do it to somebody that's, do it to somebody that might scrap with you. You know what I mean? Otherwise, you're just a bully. Your school yard bully and that's fine.

But don't, don't be the bully and then come on a pod trashing the guy that you bullied. Come on. We know. We know, right? You can't say overseas. You have to say international because he also went after Zach Eadie because Zach Eadie's Canadian.

And Zach Eadie actually stood up to him. Well, listen, I'll just say this is I found his comments about the Nick's potential championship contention to be absolutely absurd. Oh, wow. Absurd. And that is. No, and that's the kind he would do it to, too, too. He would try to hard foul cat because he knows cats not going to fight.

You ain't ever foul. Bro, do all that tough guy stuff against somebody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Because you know what he reminds you up? Wait, wait, wait. Are you calling him soft and a clown? You know what it reminds me? Are you calling him a clown and soft? Sounds like what you're doing. You remember when Tyler Hansborough like would act like psycho T?

you could find this clip on YouTube. Tyler Hansborough goes up and he gets way laid from behind and he gets the bug eyes like he always had. And he turns around like he's ready to go and it's run our test. And he just like, oh, okay, forget that. You know what I'm saying? Like do it to one of those guys. Like take your frustration out. Because I promise you if it's one of those guys that's going to the basket

after you turned it over at midcourt and you run back in like hard foul them, you're not barking at everybody. You're not jumping up in everybody's face. I'm not, look, you could say whatever you want to say. Do it to somebody tough. Do it to somebody that might lose. Do it to Isaiah Stewart. Can I say this, please?

Do you think that your opinions about Draymond Green are colored by the history between Draymond Green and the Memphis Grizzlies. This happens to everything. No, no, I'm asking you a question that you're not answering. Don't you think that the history between Draymond Green and Memphis Grizzlies has changed your opinion about Draymond Green? No question.

I don't mind. I'm fully embracing the players doing something on the court and then going and talking about it on a podcast later that night. I'm totally on board with it. You know who he did it to, though? Against the Grizzlies during all of those hard-fought series? The two guys? that were like the recipients of his

horribleness, Mike Conley and Brandon Clark. Okay, bro. We know who you are. Hey, hey, go find the hard foul he laid on Zibo. I can't. Yeah, it didn't happen. Just everybody, please.

I love that the NBA is back. We're two weeks into this thing. But enough with the like, he could be rookie of the year. this guy's MVP, you know, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, I'm just, is, is, is, is, we're, we're, we're, we're two weeks into this thing. That, uh, that article that I cited earlier, Ryan Rollins, currently leading the way in most improved.

Yeah, it's just like, it's a, game six. you know it's game six it's game six like can we just talk about the MVP later my next loat the rosier updates oh no

like the eight million dollar tax lien and it just like it's like golly this guy signed like a big contract bro it just sounds like he was and he had to put his house up as collateral you know it reminds you of that old you were at ESPN at the time you remember that 30 for 30

about all those players. And I mean, like there were a lot some of them were trusting bad people or bad investment. Of course. Yeah, yeah. Financial managers that screw you over

and things like that. But there was a lot of gambling. A lot of gambling losses, right? And a lot of guys that lost not small fortunes, fortunes. Absolutely. Absolutely.

And it's like, and do you know what dawned on me yesterday? I was like, dude, no way. Do you remember when I told you I went to the National Sports Collectors Convention. This came up.

And I told you, everywhere I went doing appearances was Chaunty Billups, and I thought that was so weird. Oh. And I was like, what the hell? He's a current NBA coach. Like nobody else. It was just bizarre. But everybody that came in contact with him loved him.

And he was like, mecha charming. And like, he was like opening packs. and like, like, he was like, he was doing all these appearances, like paid appearances. He even did like a, he, dude, he showed up to a trade night. Just a bunch of card dealers trading cards. And Chauncey Phillips was there. He's the best. I still have in disbelief that Johnson Phillips is like this deep into the illegal stuff.

Just from being around him a little bit. I'm like, him of all people. I'm not saying this is illegal. I'm saying he might have like, is he doing it for the money? I don't know. I don't know what Chonsie Doves is up to. He's got to be making money. It's your head coach in the NBA.

You make like $8 million. And all I'm saying is, and now Pablo Torre's got the Tbilu. Was it all of these poker games? If I'm Ty Lou, I'm like punch Pablo Tori in the face. Well, I'm like, yeah, I was, I played poker. What am I guilty of playing poker? Hey, what he said, Pablo, that if you ask who their best friends are, Ty Lou will say Damon Jones and Tyloo and Tronzie Billups will say Ty Lou.

That's fine. He's connecting all these guys. I'm like, oh, God. Anyway, here's the deal. I don't know about the other two. Terrozier, like, and it sounded like this with Malik Beasley. It's like, bro, these guys blew fortunes getting involved in whatever they. I can't speak on like their financial situations, but it does seem pretty bad.

If you got an $8 million tax lien and you're getting. Also, he didn't put up. the money he put up his house as collateral. I was irresponsible with my tax paying when I was in my early 20s. And I'll just say this to anyone who owes back taxes or struggling or whatever. If you call the IRS, they are very, very friendly. And they'll set you up on a payment plan. They're like, how much do you want to pay a month?

And I was like 50 bucks a month. They're like, okay, here you go. I'm not sure they're there now. You can't talk to him? They're probably the only one's working. No, I've talked to them. them. Oh, the gunman shut down. They might be there. The bean collectors are still there. The money still coming in. Hey, I said this. I swear to God, I went to my accountant a week and a half ago.

And I, I've got a 1099 that I have to like pay like quarterlies on. And so I said, if I send this in, is it like? And he goes, I promise you they'll cash it. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Hey, the accounts receivable is still open. It was open, brother. I'm sure. I'm sure it's open within a day. Oh, it's a Miru for Lodz. I just did Terry Rozier the sadness of that. So that was my third one. Oh, this is one that really,

I got irresponsibly perturbed about this. Okay. We all saw the Janus Travel against the Knicks, right? Oh, yeah. And then I think Teague might have started it. But then there's this backlash. There's this zag of he didn't travel. Have you seen this?

No. This makes me absolutely crazy. crazy. They're like, he's still dribbling until he touches the ball with two hands. That is when he stops dribbling and then he takes two steps. So therefore, this is a legal move. You need to know the rules. And I swear to God, I'm like, I do not need to know the rules to know that that's a travel. Because by your logic, if he stops dribbling when he gathers it with two hands,

then why can't you just cuff the ball like a running back and run through the lane and then score? It was an egregious travel. It was a travel, but like Teague started and then other people started to jump on. I've seen in my comments like, well, if you know the rules, he's actually technically still dribbling until he gathers. And then I'm just like, guys, he took six steps. Five, if you want to be conservative.

But he went from the three point line to the rim without dribbling. I know he takes long strides. But like enough with the zag. He traveled. That is a travel, a travel. Do you feel a little bit hypocritical, given that in our last episode, You went to House of Highlights and commented,

that's not a 360 with Wemby. I don't feel hypocritical at all. If you watch his feet, have you seen the clip since I said that? Yeah. Look at his feet. Look at his feet. And shout to everybody there listens to the mismatch

that commented on my comment. It made me feel loved. It made me feel left. It made me feel left. I love all of you very much. We're all friends. My last loat is getting duped by the Hansen Young Hanson tweet. Okay.

So did you see this? No. So there were even stories written about it. It was like Blazers rookie with a heartwarming response to haters or whatever. And somebody posted like his box scores. And it was like, you know, one, zero one, two zero one. Binary code. Yeah, yeah.

And he responded, quote tweeted, and said, I do the best with the minutes. I'm given. Something like that. Was that real? And it, and it's like a verified way. It's a fake Hansen Young account.

And I was like, the internet. No. I wanted it to be real so bad. I was heart warmed. I was heart warmed. He was doing his best. He was crying at the preseason.

This guy wants to be good. So bad. And I was like, this, this checks out. It was so. realistic and I think it's got like two ends that I didn't catch on the end but and I'm glad I didn't like tweet it or anything but I saw it and then it gets community noted and it says this is not

the official count of and I'm like who is out there imitating Hanson Young get a life seriously get a life man I should be able to think that's authentic that we're like, do you remember Hansen Yang from Summer League 2025 or is it more likely 10 year veteran stalwart center Hansen Young and the NBA 2035? A.

Yeah, I think so too. But also, but also that guy, whoever you are out there that is impersonated, Young Hanson, this is terrible. Yeah, well also be funnier. If you're going to personally at Hansen Young, don't make it so believable.

Also, you paid for the check mark. Oh, I paid for a checkmark too. One of the most regrettable things I've ever done. No, I'm saying whoever. Yeah, he did. Yeah, it's $100. This Hansen Young thing, unbelievable. But also be funny.

If you're going to, like, NBA Centel is funny. You know what I mean? But like, in personating Hansen Young and being believable, like, what is that accomplished. You tricked Chris Vernon? You did. I was duped and I and then when it got community noted this is not the NBA

I was like oh man that would have been cool if he was like I just I just do the best with the minutes I'm given I do my best. I think I screenshotted who was it? Was it Dame or was it CJ that was like I'm trying I'm trying Sarah remember that one? It was oh it was I try

my best with the minutes I have and then it was like the sad like sweating emoji. Oh yeah, he's doing his best. I try my best with the minutes I have. And then underneath there, it says readers added context. The account is not the NBA player, Younghanson. And since there aren't clear signs to indicate that it's an impersonation,

it can mislead users into thinking otherwise. It does have two ends at the end. That's how he got away with it. I would never notice that. Yeah. All right. Last one. My final one is easy. If you have a pimple on your face, if you've ever pushed a gas pedal on a car,

if you've ever babysat, if you've ever kissed a girl or a guy, don't come to my house asking for candy. Candy, going to trick-or-treating is for children. This is a cliched thing, but it happens all the time. If you've got a deep voice, don't ask me for candy. If you're over six feet, don't ask me for candy. Just don't. This is not a night.

This isn't a free candy night. This is a fun night for children, not for teens. This is crazy. I cannot tell you the flashbacks you are giving me. My father hates Halloween. Hates it. We grew up in this neighborhood where the teenagers would vandalize on Halloween. Oh, yeah, he used to that too.

Right, like the hell's night thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I always thought, hey, this is when me and my sister were younger. and I was like this out of big deal. We had a bay window like at our living room. Yeah, yeah. And one year at Halloween, a soccer ball came straight through it. Nice.

From that point on, every year at Halloween, my dad would go, I swear to you, would go hide in the bushes in our front yard on Halloween night trying to catch teenagers vandalizing our house, okay, or something, right? It wasn't like we were targeted in our house. Like it was just, that's what they were doing. They were doing this stuff. And so I have this vivid memory of my dad doing it and hating it. And then, listen, when I, this is why I'm going to regret, it resent you a little bit. As I got older, I was like, hey, I'm going out trick-or-treating with my friends. And my dad would be like, you're too old to trick-or-treat.

Yeah. I was like 10, okay? And all of my friends are at trick or tree and my dad would not let me go, which is fine, except he made me man the door. So now I'm giving candy out to all of my friends that are older. My friends are coming over. They're like, hey, come out. Why aren't you trick or treating with us? I'm like, I can't.

They're like, what? Why? And my dad would be like, why don't we watch the original, you know, Michael Myers or whatever? Yeah, Halloween. You've never seen that. And I'd be like, I want to be out with my friends. No, by the time I was 10, my dad thought I was too old. So that's what I'm saying when you brought that up, it brings back this memory of my dad going, you're too old to trick or treat. But I was still a kid. It wasn't fair. And so I do. I don't know. I don't know what the limit is. what okay let's imagine a scenario in which your dad sees a teenager walk up to your front yard with a soccer ball and he's about and he's about to kick it what does your dad do that i i don't know like what's the plan yeah i don't what's the plan what are you going to do beat the shit out of him no i think he was going to arrest him like no we yell at him i think it would be to i i think it was more

It's not out of them. I think it was more prevent the crime than punish the crime. Yeah. Right. Just scare this not at them or whatever. Know who they are. So that way I can A scare you and B, call your parents. When I was growing up, it was you trick-or-treat until you were about 13.

And then 14 through 17 was you bullied the kids that were trick-or-treating and you stole their bags of candy. That's how the hierarchy worked in the town I grew up in. So I'd be trick-or-treating down the street and there'd be like, bunch of older kids walking towards us and we would just run because they're coming for the candy. Oh, I'm getting into it. Look, my son's a teenager and I mean, he, he went out last year and a mom called us and was like, hey, was William dressed up as Waldo? Because he just, because he just pooped on my doorstep. No. We were like, in fact, he was. Yes, he was. That's Waldo. And they were like, okay, I knew it wasn't him. But they said,

said that some like some Halloween decoration got knocked over at the house that was hosting the Halloween party and they didn't know who did it but the kid was with Waldo. So where's Waldo is the question? I know. And I was like I knew I knew you shouldn't have worn that. And I was like who knocked over the Halloween direct decoration? Also just put the Halloween direction back up. It wasn't stolen.

It wasn't broken. I know. It wasn't even a big deal. Yeah, not a big deal. But I did think it was funny. They asked me if, I was like, you literally got found out because you were Walter. We'll wrap with this, but I was walking down the street in the Lower East Side a few years ago. And I just got hitting the leg with an egg, cracked all over my pants.

And there's just yoke and egg all over me. And I said to myself, I deserve that. I've been throwing eggs at people that undeserving people in Halloween since I was like 14 years. years old. You don't know where it came from? I deserve that. No, this is a bunch of kids ran away laughing. When I'm going to chase after a bunch of teenagers and, you know what, I mean, chase them through alleyways and then what? I'm like, your dad, like, then what am I going to do if I catch them? Beat them up. You know what I mean? Like, call the cops. So, but I just deserved it. It was like, I've hit so many random adults with eggs before that this is just, I deserve

this. I probably deserve this seven times over. But everybody be safe tonight. Everybody be safe. Have a great weekend. Thanks to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week. Thank you.