The Mismatch - Thursday Night's Thrillers, Hungover Knicks, and the Giannis-Target Comp

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

Verno and Jacoby return to break down the wild Thursday-night slate in the NBA that saw multiple one-score games and overtime finishes. After, the guys dive into their loves and loathes from the past week in the league. (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch! (01:48) Nikola Jokic breaks record in win vs. Magic (05:09) Pelicans storm back in OT win vs. Rockets (09:18) Mavs survive Pistons in OT (14:29) The Suns escape with win against the Warriors (18:18) Lamelo Ball, Hornets spoil Trae Young’s return with win vs. Hawks (21:07) Luka’s triple-double lifts Lakers past Jazz (25:14) Blazers outlast Kings in OT (30:31) Knicks steal a win vs. Pacers(33:02) Verno and Jacoby’s no. 1 loves of the week (36:16) Verno and Jacoby’s no. 1 loathes of the week (43:26) No. 2 loves of the week (51:13) No. 2 loathes of the week (55:42) No. 3 loves of the week (59:33) No. 3 loathes of the week The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. 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 Vernon and Jordan Biss he does every week from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. Verno. Last night was another one of those nights. Another one of those nights where there's just so much going on all at once that I can't even keep up with all of it with my league pass. I was upset that there was such a great NFL game that was going on last night because I was like, man, if people happen to be watching basketball, they would have been in for a real treat. But instead, you've got this epic Ram Seahawks game going on. So I'd imagine a lot of NBA fans missed a lot of what went on. We will do our best to get everybody caught up. So we've got things that stood out to us from this unbelievable Thursday night slate. The mismatch is presented by Bandul.

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call 1-88-78-78-9-7-77-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. The first of which is I was watching Denver versus Orlando, which I thought was, this was going to be a great game, I thought, and it was. And the magic were killing it. They're defending. their, the nuggets seem totally out of sorts. And then what I witnessed, Jacoby, was one of the most unbelievable barrages

that I have seen the entire year, maybe ever. I text you last night during the course of this game. And I said, I've got, you were watching, you had another game on. And I said, I actually have Denver and the Magic on right now. And as I had Denver and the Magic. on with 630 left in the first half. It was 47 to 33.

And I was like, yo, the magic are cracking. And next thing you know, by halftime, the Nuggets had 68 points. They scored 35 points in the last six minutes. 35 points in the last six minutes. They had started off one of ten from three, and then they just could not miss. And it was just an absolute onslaught. And as I was watching it unfold,

I was like, all the attention, you know, the Spurs had center stage, the Thunder had center stage this week. And we've talked a lot about them as Western Conference Finals, and the ones that kind of fell on the back burner because they weren't involved in the NBA Cup were the Nuggets and the Rockets. and I'd say that there is a clear separation between those four and then the rest, right?

There's kind of that group then that's got Minnesota and the Lakers and the Grizzlies and the Warriors and like, and then there's the bad teams at the bottom. Well, anyways, as I was watching that, and again, they still don't have their full complement of players. I was like, yo, like, don't, I know that the other teams have had center stage, but don't forget about the Nuggets because that was an absolute tsunami. And in the middle of it, Yokic became the all-time assist leader for centers passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played 45 years. Yeah, unbelievable. Yonkis probably did it in half the time. But it's a, it's a Jamal Murray thing. I texted you, I was like, oh, the Nuggets are one for 10 from three. Then I get a

text back from you. You're like, well, that ended. They can't miss. They couldn't miss last night. And so Denver taking control of that game before halftime and then taking care of business, the rest of the way, was the first thing that stood out to me for sure. And they are to be trifled with. And let us not forget just because we got used to thunder spurs being on center stage.

Of course. And you just breeze past the fact that this is all without Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon, two of their most important players, two of their top four most important players. So like right there, they're so impressive, so impressive. One of my biggest takeaways, there's so much we have to get through. I know. I don't know where to go here.

You mentioned the Rockets, right? So we'll go there next. They played against the Pelicans. And I did not expect this to be a competitive game. And it was awesome at the end. it was absolutely awesome at the end. And one of the things that stood out to me about this, a few things, let's focus on the Pelicans for a second.

Zion Williams was healthy, did not play in the fourth quarter in overtime. At all. And I was just, I mean, I kind of didn't notice because the game was so good and Herb Jones is getting buckets. They're kind of like running the offense through Derek Queen. It was like, it was really interesting. Then I was like, huh? I just sued.

I was like, Zion's not. part of this. It's Sadiq Bay. It's Sadiq Bay. He was making plays on both ends. It was awesome. And I'm looking at the Pels. They have like, you know, all you hear about the Pelicans is, oh,

Herb Jones is going to get traded and they're asking for Trey Murphy. I'm looking at it like, do they really need to do this? Like, I know it was just one night, but like they have, and we've talked about this in the past, they've got like a solid nucleus of players if they can just sort of like get it together. But now like Jose Alvarado, they're going to trade him to the. the Knicks. Herb Jones is going to be on the Lakers. Trey Murphy. Who knows where he's going to go?

Like, they looked pretty good last night. And I just, I just I just, I just, I think that's three in a row. Isn't it? If you're trading anybody trades Zion, you know what I mean? Like, let me, let me, yeah, it is three in a row. They beat Portland, Chicago, and Houston. They're one three in a row. Yeah. So Hope Springs

Eternal for the Pelicans. I can do like, this is now two games in the last week that the Rockets have gotten down to a last shot and Shen Goon's taking it. Like, wasn't that the whole point of Durant? That, well, that's what we, remember I put Durant on the Rockets before he was on the Rockets because I'm watching the Rockets being like, they need a go-to-scorer in these crunch time moments. Right. But like, Durant gets it with about 10 seconds left and pass it ahead to Shengoon who ends up

taking the shot. And then in overtime, there's a couple times. And I texted you this. I was like, Durant body language. There was a couple times where it felt like he wanted the ball back or he wanted to take the shot or he wanted the ball and he kind of slumps his shoulders when Shangoon ends up up sort of like executing those plays.

This is where the point guard thing comes into play because Fredman Vleet passes the ball to Kevin Durant. Yeah. He doesn't have the ball coming up. And one of the key plays, Durant passed it to Sanguon. So he had it in his hands and he out of bounds. But there's also, it might have to be worth it. It has to be mentioned.

Reed Shepard, who's been playing. playing better lately. Oh, wow. And two just really good looks at the end of the game and missed them both. And that was in the overtime. Yeah. Yeah. And me, just wide open.

You know, this is one of those things where years ago there was a Sports Illustrated article and Jeff Van Gundy said in the article, he was like, you can run the play. It can work to perfection. The guy can be wide open with the game on the line. shot goes in the air, good coach, bad coach, good coach, bad coach, good coach, good coach, bad coach, right? And that's kind of how that Reed Shepherd shot, both of them felt where it's like, I mean, this is the job, right? To generate, you want these players generating these wide open looks. You just got to make them.

And Shepard obviously came up short. And shout out to the Pelicans. And, you know what I mean, giving their fans of it, three wins in a row. They've gotten some guys back. They've got some fun stuff at least. Like they are, they are one of those teams that's been horrendous. They only got six wins on the season. Yeah.

But they're not an unfun watch. No. And if you think about teams like the Wizards that sort of like had the same amount of it wins, I'm not checking for them on League Pass. I'm checking for the Pelicans on League Pass. I'm going to see the Wizards in person tomorrow night. I know you're jealous. Oh, yeah.

I'm flying down. I'm flying down. I'll fly down. Get your flight. The Mavs and the Pistons were in an unbelievable game last night. Awesome game. I mean, awesome. The Mavs are getting a little sneaky.

I couldn't help but laugh as they, I'm watching this game, but they've got all kinds of, they do a good job on the, I was watching the Mavs version of the broadcast, and I love their announcer, and they do this great job. Like, they always have good graphics, and they always have good stats that are going on. One of them was the, you know, players under 20 and the points that they've scored. and it was like LeBron, Kobe, Cooper flag, Tracy McGrady. I was like, damn.

Oh, yeah, I saw that too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the other one that I couldn't help but Chuck Lowe. I think it was under 18, but continue. Okay, under 19. Yeah, yeah, some like that. The other one that I was laughing at was, I was thinking of myself, oh, Nico has got to be just doing this because they're like,

there's the 15th block for the Mavs tonight. I was like, 15 blocks. Yeah, I think they had 14, but defense wins championships. Unbelievable. They had four guys with three blocks. I was watching that broadcast, too. They did do a good. I learned a lot.

He's like, he's like, I talk to Jenkins' mom. His name isn't, it's, it's Danis, not Danis. I was like, oh, we've been called him the wrong name the entire time. He had the guys talking to the mom. And they're also naming all the pistons that are from the Dallas area. There's like four of them that are from like that Dallas area. It's good. Yeah, shout out Mark Fowlowell.

He is awesome. He's great. And they've got a really good broadcast. And the Cooper flag thing is super fun. And the interesting thing about this game, the reason I'm mentioning it is because the maps went to the line like a million times in the first three quarters of the game. The fourth quarter turns into an absolute playoff gutter war. Like everything was just, everybody was mauling each other.

And they just decided, all right, we're going to let the players decide this thing. but to the point where Cooper Flagg drove down the middle of the lane and kids assaulted and nothing takes place. And then on the other end, there's like this fight for a rebound. Yeah, Jalen Turin got fouled seven times on the play. But, I mean, look, turnabouts fair play, I guess. And they just, I loved it. I loved it. I actually loved like once you decide to put away the whistles, then actually put the whistles.

then actually put the whistles away. And for the fourth quarter of that game, they put away the whistles. And Clay Thompson had one go in and out at the buzzer that would have won the game. Cade Cunningham had one go in and out from the top of the key that would have taken the lead. And that was just like a super high level, fun playoff style basketball game. And I did walk away super impressed with flagging the Mavs. Mm-hmm.

And so Cade, Kate and Brunson are sort of like the two, in my opinion, sort of like end of the game, just like killers. And Cade had two threes right at the end of the game that he missed. And Cooper Flagg made some huge plays. He had like a little floater over beef stew.

He had another jump shot over beef stew. They were trying to, they were really trying to run the offense through him. In overtime, he had a couple little, just little dishes to AD for easy buckets. And it wasn't the most efficient game, but he also had two really good dunks.

One was sort of in the breaks. He was quote unquote on K'd but not really. But he went down the middle of the lane one time. I just jumped off two feet with two hands and just like, I was like, damn, this kid is tall. And it's one thing to watch a guy and go, this guy can be a star. It's quite another to watch a guy and go,

this guy can be like a superstar, like build out around. And we're not even 30 games into the season. And you can tell, like, it's there. This guy, you know, he's at his age. Oh, yeah. And what he looked like, you're like, okay, this is what they said it was. This guy is going to be one of the best players in the entire NBA. Yeah, number one pick, playing like a number one pick.

And Cade's doing the same thing on the other side. In the last eight games, Flagg has 25.4 points, 52% shooting, six and a half rebounds and three and a half assists last eight games. And the point of me saying that is because, The juxtaposition between that and Cunningham, it is taken to this time for people to think like, hey, Kate Cunningham could be the best player on a title team, right? Like, you now look at him and go, if Cate Cunningham's one of the five or ten best players in the league in a couple of years, it wouldn't be the most shocking thing in the world. Within the first 30 games of his career, you're going, yep, that guy could end up being the best player on a title team. He's not 19 yet.

He's got, you know, I don't want to make fun of him. or whatever. I don't like making fun of people for things they can't control, but he's got acne all over his face. Like, he's a teenager. A teenager. He's a teenager. And he looked good. Those,

those buckets he had over beef stew and the dishes that he had to AD. He looked really good in that one. All right, let me go to another one here. Okay. Another crazy ending. There is, it's coming back to back to back.

Meanwhile, there's an awesome NFL game going out at the same time that I've got my eyes on. So the sons are beating the Warriors. They're up five, right? I want to say 91, 96. And you've probably seen this. If you're listening to this, you probably get a lot of algorithm basketball highlights to you.

And Steph takes a shot from the corner. Dylan Brooks is closing out. He closes out with his left hand up and jumps to the side of Steph. Steph releases the ball. For reasons unbeknown to anybody, Dylan Brooks then takes his right hand, and I don't want to say punch,

but he kind of like close lines. Steph's chest just for no reason. The ball is way gone. The ball's gone. And Dylan Brooks just decides to do this. And then Steph hits two free throws. Jimmy, Steph didn't play well, by the way.

Jimmy Butler played well. Jimmy Butler hits a three. And now it's a tie game. There's 38 seconds left, and they're up by five. And Steph is missing a three. So that's pretty much game over. And Dylan Brooks just does this inexplicable, flagrant one foul that all.

almost lost in the game. And as you were mentioning about the Mavs Pistons games, after watching that finish and then watching this foul call on a rebound with like 0.4 seconds left, the Goodwin got, it was just kind of like, I preferred it when they didn't call the fouls. You know, it was probably a foul if you watch the replay. But like, I prefer letting that go to overtime.

You know what I mean? How close are we to the Jimmy frustration? I don't know. They're 13 and 15, right? they don't look good. They look old. And what else did we expect? I didn't have them being like a championship contender before the season.

You know what I mean? They got Al Horford and Quinn Post as their bigs. But they were like, what were they like something like 30 and 10 or something in their town when they had? And then of course they lost stuff when it came to the playoffs series against Minnesota. But they were great post Jimmy trade last year. And so I thought certainly in the. mix, but I mean, they're more in the mix playing wise right now, which is wild to think about. And obviously, look, you got to have the full count of guys, right?

If you're going to spend that kind of money on Draymond Curry and Butler, you got to have those guys available. It just seems like there's a lot of frustration with everything that's going on with the Warriors. Well, the coming of things working out great. So, you know, they've got that. You can see the floor anymore. Like, don't you, I don't, I just, I've never understood. this. I mean, we've talked about it before. You say it's like he misses defensive assignments or something, but like,

I don't know, they look old and unathletic and Kaminga is the opposite of that. Dude, I don't know. Steve Kerr hates this guy. He hates him. What does Kaminga do? Did Kamega take a shit on his desk in his office or something? But what happened behind the scenes

here? He didn't play him one minute in the, like, the, what was it, the Rocket series or what? No, yeah. He didn't play the guy. Crazy. Crazy. Hey, didn't play the guy any in the playoffs in a contract year. That is the ultimate middle finger to a guy. And then only played him when Steph went out.

Because he's like, damn it, I got to have somebody that can score. And then we talk about it all summer. He looks good when Steph's out. Then we talk about it all summer. And they're like, oh, we've got to figure out this comming a thing. Because we've got Al Horford and Milton coming. And that's going to save the day. And I'm saying that really like, like, I'm like, I'm like,

Al Horford, Seth Curry, are going to like take this team into contention? I don't know. What's your next one? Trey Young's return was spoiled. So this doesn't help the whole or the hooks butter without Trey Young because he comes back and obviously he's out of minute's restriction.

Doesn't play a lot of bits. But this was like if you, if you care about the Hornet, this was the dream. The dream is, you play a game where Lamello, Concanipple, and Brandon Miller are all simultaneously awesome. Just playing. Just playing is the dream. But also, is that possible?

They all three had over 25 in the game. The Hawks can't stop anybody. The Porzingus thing kills them. We talked about this early in the season when we were going through our prospectus for the Hawks. that Jalen Johnson's line is absolutely crazy, or Jalen Johnson's line is absolutely crazy. And he has been fantastic for them this year. But we talked about how they made these additions.

People loved their offseason. But they're not a deep team, right? They're not a team that can go deep. So you're going to need to have the full complement of players. And you see in the absence of Porzingis kind of what it looks like because you might get run out by Charlotte, who, I mean, and they're putting up those kind of point totals against you. You got an issue on your hands.

But, you know, you don't have all those guys on the court simultaneously much, and then you had them all on the court and all great at the same time. It certainly stood out. And so in what has not been the most fun season for Hornets fans, I think you look at, you got those guys. and I know you're dealing with Lamello trade stuff and his name and stuff all the time. The Cinnipple thing has been great.

Like, I mean, that is, that looks like an absolute home run pick. And then you got Brandon Miller who, you know, when he plays. When he plays. I mean, this guy looks like he's got star potential too. And so it kind of all came together in one game last night for him against Atlanta.

And I think certainly worth noted. So I do a podcast with a guy. and he's a Chrysley's fan, and he's always talking about, like, when these guys all play together, when these guys all play together, we're missing such and such, we're missing Cam Spencer or whatever. Like, if you're a Hornet fan, you can say that too.

You can be like, listen, like, this is what is supposed to look like. You know what I mean? This is, as you say, the dream right here. Totally, totally overshadowed in all of the action last night. A game I didn't pay too much attention to, right, because it wasn't that close. Luca Donchich had 45 points in a triple double. Dude, 45 in a triple double.

LeBron had 28. It also is it mirro to the Lakers play the jazz like every other game? I looked at it. They've played the jazz three times in the last month, but Luca had 45 points and he was, didn't they shoot great from three? I think it was a four for 12. if I want to say, which is fine.

But like a lot of twos, and he made it look really easy, no matter who was guarding him, little mid-range turnarounds, getting to the basket with a finger roll, dishes, Marcus Smart's knocking down a ton of threes. Like, Luca is just,

I don't know, man. It's, the Lakers don't look like championship contenders, but you always have a puncher's chance when you have the best player in the series and one of the best players of all time. He is having, like this weirdly, like he's gone to the Lakers, he's on the brand name, he's in the huge

market, and it feels like his monster season's got more attention in Dallas. Yeah, it's interesting. Right. I mean, I think it'll get louder later in the season, as NBA normally does. Well, I also think you've had the, you know, the Reeves thing was kind of the story out of there. And then LeBron coming back was a big story. So there has been some overshadowing, but like, you look at his numbers this year and you're like,

it's crazy. His guy is having a ridiculous season. It's crazy. And he just made it, he made it look so easy. And when LeBron has 28, there was no Reeves last night. So they needed a little bit more from each of them. But I'm telling you, they put up a bunch of points. And one thing I thought was interesting is JJ apparently like sort of pulled Luca and LeBron aside and was like,

we need more from you defensively. I don't know how intense that conversation was or anything, but, like, Luca has acknowledged that he needs to play more defense. And, man, he, you score 45. You don't have to play too much defense. Yeah, well, they, um, J.J. Reddick pulled aside Luca Donchich and LeBron James and said, I need more defense out of you guys.

And then they proceeded to give up 135 points to the Utah Jazz. It reminds me of Mike Dick and talking to the 85 bears. It's like me talking to my nine-month-old and being like, I need more from you around the house. She's just like pukes. Yeah. This is their mode of operation, right? They're just going to have to, right?

Like I remember who was it? It was years ago, maybe it was Monty Williams or it's one of these like coaches. and Tashon Prince was telling me about how, like, they had Mike Deutti and they had these other guys, like the offensive and defensive coordinator with Team USA, and the guy comes in and the guy's like doing like this defensive thing. And he's like, so guys, look, when we play the next round, it's not going to be like it was versus Croatia.

You know, France is going to be doing this, doing this, whatever. And Mike Deatone's like, if we score 140, who cares, right? I do think that's. that's kind of what the philosophy is. Why are we doing all these defensive breakdowns? We're going to just be able to score a million points. And so I do think that that's like,

we know the Lakers are just going to have to outscore people, right? We can give up 135 if we can score 136. And more often than not, we're going to be able to score one more point than whatever we give up. There's a Dan Tony story when he was with the sons. They're prepping for a playoff series. And he's at the board, he's got all this offensive stuff, offensive stuff.

One of the players is like, coach, what about defense? He's like, all right, meeting adjourned. The whole point is outscor. And that's kind of what the Lakers are this year. My last one is special shout out to Mark Davis for ruining the ending of a game last night. Mark Davis, who's ruined many a game. Russell Westbrook gets called for a foul on Denny Obdia. after the kings who have had the most miserable season

have this epic all-time comeback which then culminates in Demarderose and hitting a would-be game winner and then you see the replay of the foul that was called on Russell Westbrook against Denny Obdia and you're like, really? This is like, what a kick in the nut after you come back from like 30.

down, should have won the game. And it's a call on Russell Westbrook, fouling Denny Obdia. And much like you were talking about in that, in that Sun's game, it's just, it's so non-rewarding to have a game end on a foul. Because you know he's going to hit one.

You know what I mean? Like, and he both. So that game, it was so lopsided. It's the very last game going. at the end of the night, right? My wife was out.

She came home. So I wasn't really paying attention. I was like, ah, this game's over, whatever. I think the football game is coming down to the last second. So I'm watching that. And then I looked up, I was like, wait, what happened now? That's like, the Kings came back from that. De Rosen hit some big shots.

And like, you know, after the, after the Mavs Pistons game and the Suns Warriors game and the Pelicans going to overtime, like, I should have known that this was going to happen. Well, and look, let me just give you a quick little story, because I don't think I've ever told you this. The reason I had to shout out Mark Davis is because years ago, he hated Dave Yeager with the fires of Seven Hell, right? And at the beginning of the games, right, I would always be there at the game. And one time, there was a guy that worked with the team, but it was like, you're going to, what Mark Davis hates Yeager. you're going to see something you've never seen before in your life tonight. And I was like, no way.

And I was like, I was like, dude, stop being such a homer. Like, oh, yeah, the refs are always out to get us. You know, whatever, right? And so the game is about to tip off. Okay. The game's about to tip off. Technical foul, Memphis. And I said, I look over.

Bro, he called delay of game on walking out. What's such? Started the game with it. Set the tone. I was like, oh my God, he does hate him. Hey, look. Jesus. Then called Zbo palming three times.

And I was like, okay. Zbo doesn't dribble. I've always had a thing for Martin Dave ever since that night because I'm like, this dude is raw. This is crazy. It's so last night I had to give him a special shout out because that call on Westbrook was just wild. I'm sure he hates Westbrook too. So there's something relevant from last night.

about this too because Bickerstaff after the game. So we talked about the end of that game, the rest kind of swallowed the whistle, whatever. Bickerstap, he's picking out one particular ref, Goebel, John Goebel. Oh, John Goebel. Yeah, and he's like, he's like the ref is not objective. That's what he says.

He's like, he walks in with the bias against us. I was like, damn, because you know if you call some out by name like that, like you're going to get fined. Okay. Well, interestingly enough, I've got insight to that. That one happened to Memphis too. Really? Yeah, J.B.'s had a problem.

And there's two of them. There's two Goebbels. And J.B. is mega likable. John Goebel has a brother, Jason Goebel. They're both NBA reps. What? Yeah. You don't know this?

Yeah. No. There's two gobles. There's two gobbles. And yeah, like, this is a lot of times have you been an NBA ref for a long? Again, that's, it's not about one night when IMEUDoka starts screaming about Zach Zarba. Right. Yeah.

There's something. There's a history with all of these guys is what I'm saying. There's a history. Like if you've been an NBA coach for any amount of time, typically when they flip out, they feel like this guy is out to get me or there's some kind of track record. because Zagarba, as you, as you mentioned, is generally thought of as one of the best reps of the league. Yeah, they do the poll of like the players' poll of favorite refs.

He's always like one, two or three. And Emey talking about how he's starstruck by Yokic. I mean, that is just, you know, that's not just about that one game. He obviously, you know, had some kind of ax to grind against it because he also said the other two officials shouldn't even be official. Yeah, that was a lot. Email, email Doga, for real, got his money's worth with that thing. Oh, yeah.

I mean. So my final takeaway from last night is, you know what they say there's a championship hangover? I think the Knicks against the Pacers, they looked like actually hungover. That's my theory. Because the NBA has put up this video about them. They're like, we're going to go celebrate tonight. We're going to celebrate with the boys.

They're on the floor, sort of like walking off the floor. And I was like, I think they might have celebrated in Las Vegas on Tuesday night because they started slow against the Pacers. They started real slow against the Pacers. And then at one point, because Kat's not playing, Mitchell's not playing it. And I texted you this. They had Dewara Hock Porti and Colick on the court at the same time.

And I'm thinking to myself, like, I don't even think Tom Tibby, who knew these people were on the team. You know what I mean? Like, I don't think he knew they were on the team. And it was obviously they came back and win, they came back and won and fronts and hit the shot. but I think if you didn't watch that game, you're like, oh, look, Jaylon Brunson hit a shot.

They did not look right for the first half in particular. I think the Knicks were actually hungover playing that game. And they have to play tonight, too. Well, it would stand a reason if they were hungover. Yeah. It's fair. Yeah. Right?

You also, at the end of that game, Jaila Brunson said, I was garbage. Thank God for Tyler Colick. Imagine if I would have told you on December 19th, The best player on the Knicks is going to have a postgame interview where he says, thank God for Tyler Colick. Because I was garbage. You wouldn't think this season's going very well.

He was garbage, too. I'm telling you. Like they just didn't look right. They didn't look right at all. And what's that? Six in a row, nine of ten, something like that? Yeah. They get six in a row for the Knicks.

So they've been cracking, right? And obviously now they got to play another one. Sixers tonight, Christmas Cavs. Jalen Brunson also with Nemhard all over him. I thought this was interesting. They talked about on the broadcast that a lot of times, it was a weird. If you see the game winner,

he steps to the right. A left-handed guy stepping to the right is a weird. It was all very awkward game winner. You can see Nemhard was like really scared to foul him. I think that's what Nemhard, because I think Nemhard, they've played each other enough in the playoffs. The Nemhars knows the tricks.

Jalen Brunson may or may not sort of, you know, he might have fouling. a little bit more than that later. We're going to go through our loves and loaves real quick. Loves and Loves from the week. Try to burn through these. I love the college arena idea for the NBA Cup,

and I loved it even more after Draymond Green hated it. So, look, we talked about overseas. Evidently, that's a non-starter. But my thing is, if you want, it's a TV product, if you want it to be a great environment, I think it is very difficult to find a neutral site environment, unless you're going to do

some of the big non-MBA cities like, you know, when I was a little kid, my father used to take me once a year. Whoever was the champion the year before would come to St. Louis for an exhibition game, a preseason game.

And they do it in like, they'll do those in like, they'll do them in a, in like a St. Louis and a Kansas City, a Seattle, you know what I mean, like these kind of markets.

But in the absence of doing it in like big non, NBA markets. If I'm trying to make sure that I have a sellout and a great environment, I like the idea of doing it in like the famed college arenas and seeing the guys that guy set up. Because again, I think they're guaranteed sellouts. And so I want a packed crowd and I want, you know what I mean? Like you're not, I don't think you're going to get fan bases to necessarily travel to these games for the NBA. It doesn't matter where you put it.

And yeah. And so I kind of like the idea. I would like to, I would, I would like to see it in Cameron Endor and Fogg Allen and Hinklefield House and some of these like famed college arenas. Because I think those things would sell out in two seconds. If you said the NBA Cup final four in championship is going to be at these neutral sites.

I think they'd sell out in two seconds. And so, you know, I know that some people have rolled their eyes at the idea. I'm down with it. I don't know what you're solving because I think the idea of Vegas was like the travel is a bit much because it's not in the middle of the country. But I don't know

if you put it in North Carolina and you're the Lakers or the trailblazers, I don't think you're solving the travel problem at all. No, no, no. I'm just, I'm solving the packed arena problem. Yeah, yeah. I want this to be a packed arena for television. And I do think that those places you'd get packed arenas.

I, yeah. I mean, it's there's no great way to neutral sight there is that's the thing is why don't you just make it the team the team that has like the best uh point differential from the semifinals hosted yeah guess what it's on my floor that you know we're gonna win something like that all right what's my first love oh this is just a just a little just a little feel good story you know obviously it's famed that the nicks each player gets, you know, $530,000 or whatever. But some of the highest paid players and coach Mike Brown have distributed some of that to the medical staff, the training staff, the, you know, the equipment guys, like all those support people that don't get a bonus for winning the cup. There's been a story that they've sort of pooled some money together to spread it amongst the staff.

Just a classy thing to do. It is a classy thing to do. All right. My first load, Janice and the agent. story. What is, I mean, what is this? Seriously. Okay. So number one, I'm going to take a couple issues with this. So Janus is basically like, he's never talked to anybody ever and I can't control what my agent does. I'm paraphrasing you. But it's basically, you know, if my agent talks to people, like his agent is talking unilaterally to people. He said, like, I haven't talked to the

box, but my agent has. And I don't control what he does or says. It's like, that's not how the agent player relationship works, my guy. his own person. He can have any conversation he wants. And it's like, okay. All right. But this is where he really went off to me. And because this one, this one cuts to the core for me and you. And I'm a honest guy. But this is getting messy. You can't, don't, don't compare this, this, yonis. Don't do this. This is what he said. He said, I tell my wife all the time. Have you heard this. Stop shopping at Target.

Every day she wakes up. She's like, I'm going to Target. I'm like, babe, stop. He said, babe, stop. You're addicted to Target. Every day. Today she went to Target. I can't control. She's a grown-ass woman. I can't control what she does. So it's the same thing with my agent.

I can't control the conversation. say that. Yes. That's not a real quote. That came from chat, GBT. It's the same thing. It's the same thing with what?

It's the same thing with my agent. I can't control the conversations they're going to have. I can't control the people that approach them. At the same time, I can't control teams that approach the bucks. Bro, you cannot know. I'm not,

I'm not allowing this. You're using the analogy, it's like my wife. She wants to go to, bro, you absolutely can't control your agent. A hundred percent. Like, I got it. Right. We're all kind of, I'm with you on the Target thing, right?

If you say, he's a little hint of sexism, but whatever. She wants to go to Target. She's addicted to Target. But I mean, that's his life. That's fine. We've all been there, right? He's got enough money. It's more just like stuff around the house.

Like, we don't need more stuff. It's fine. And he's like, look, I can't, but I can't, control her. She wants to go to Target. She wants to go to Target. She's a grown-ass woman. She's going to do what she wants to do. That is not the player-agent relationship. I'm sorry. It's not. It's not. You are allowed to tell your agent what to do. Like, that's the deal. He works for you. He works for you. You pay him. Right. So if you say, hey, stop talking to people. Hey, I want to stay in Milwaukee.

Hey, it's just all so bad. Every time he talks about it, I swear, it doesn't get any better. It doesn't get any better. Like, when is there going to be a resolution to all of this? But every time he tries to talk, and I don't know if it's lost in translation or what, but it doesn't get any better. He even went on to explain about the other day I was approached about, hey, man, you deleted all your buck stuff from your socials.

I'm like, bro, the younger generation, they just, pay so much attention to, what does that mean? What does me deleting the buck stuff from my social media platforms? What does that mean? I'm not going to show up to work? I don't understand. I feel like people give too much attention to that. First of all, I'm not, I did not delete the buck stuff. My Jimmy Paskey shirt, championship trophies there, the NBA Cup's there, all the moments that mean something to me are there. But I want to be more private moving forward as much as I can. I want to be a little more private. That's how I protect my family. I mean, he knew exactly what he was doing.

Yeah. He knows what his agent is doing. I don't know the great answer to this. It's like it's a hard, it's a hard situation to navigate. But when you read this stuff, you can't help but like read it and be like, come on.

It's up to this point. He's always sort of felt high road. You know what I mean? He won't ask for a trade. He wants to compete for a champion. being chips and it's at this point it's starting to get a little like messy little messy little cracks in the facade just say you what oh my i don't i'm i'm just focused on rehabbing and getting back to my team like are you really and then it's like you know you got these like slow leaks like yonis at his

representation are going to meet with the bucks or yonis is open to this or you know the the nicks are up you know, and it's, you know, talked about it in the offseason. And then you have the owner said, I talked to Janus and Janus says I didn't. Then you have the team saying, Janus met with the team. And then Kyle Kozvah says, no, we didn't. Now you have, I can't control what my agent does. Like, you for sure can. Like, yes, you can.

Yeah. Actually. That's how it works. Yeah. That's how it works. Yeah. It's exactly how it works actually. Yonest.

Like, I can't control him. Yeah. Somewhere his wife is like, what does my target have it, have anything to do with this? Just a bad analogy. The really bad analogy. What's my first loat?

I'm going to make this very quick. I don't want to go into detail. Josh Hart, what are you doing? What are you doing, Josh Hart? No, no, no.

You are going into detail. You're going into detail. What are you doing? I thought it was fake. Again, like there's so much AI video out there. I was like, that cannot be real.

Well, you thought he had like a fake thumb on? Yeah. No, I don't know. I thought, dude, I've seen all kinds of AI videos, man. Like, I guess like, no one would, there's cameras on you. Then if I'm Jalen Brunson, I'm like, what are you doing? It's just like, it's just weird. It's really weird.

I didn't like it. Did it put a damper on winning the cup? No, winning the cup was awesome. When you think about the cup, you are going to think about Josh. Yes, you are. No, I'm not. Well, now it's been a big banner gate. The whole banner conversation, I'm so tired of.

It's like, just put the thing up there. You won. You won a cup. Put a little banner up there. There's all kinds of stuff up there. We've talked about the Harry style stuff. There's Rangers banners up there. There's division banners up there.

There's a million banners up there. Fish? Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, what are we being so precious about this about? Like, what are we doing? I think they should put a banner up of a thumb. I think so, too.

I think so, too. What are you doing, Josh? And that's how we will remember the NBA Cup. Josh Hart's thumb is on a banner next to the fish batter. My next love, the Joe Lacob email story. All right. I love that a fan just decided, you know what, I'm going to email the owner. I'm so frustrated with this season.

I'm going to email the owner. And then I love that the owner read it and it was like, you know what? I'm going to respond to this guy. And then responds to it. And then the fan goes straight to the internet and post the damn thing. It's all weird. It's all weird. It's all weird.

It's being asked about it in press conferences and people are deciphering what Joe Lacup meant in responding to the fan. I mean, A, Joe Lekup will probably never respond. Like, that's probably the last email we'll ever get to see from Joe Lakeup to a fan. Because I think you probably did break some trust by going and immediately posting that for the world to see. But I love the idea that the fan was so frustrated with it. And who knows when Joe Lacob got that email, but he got the email and was like, you know what, I got time today. I'm going to answer to this guy. Is it just Joe.com at warriors.com? Is it Joe.com at Gmail.

Like, how do you even get the email? No, that's it's Jay Lakeup at Warriors. Seriously? I do this all the time like Michael.jordan at gmail.com. Just give a shot. Jennifer Lopez at gmail.com. What are you doing tonight? Yeah. I thought it was interesting because that's not one that we see all that often. And he also, if you see the text, it's like he responded from his iPhone. So he was just, he was out and about.

And he's like, you know what, man. I'm just going to respond to this guy. sure I love it I love weird I love the fact that it's just it feels like you know this frustrated fan reaches out writes a right to a right to terse email and the owner actually responds with his reasoning and then everybody has to answer for what the owner is saying about the team yeah doesn't do an interview doesn't go to the press just one individual response it voices his frustration now in fairness I I could have put this on Lothed because that guy probably ruined it for everybody that's ever going to get an email from an owner. Now no owners are ever going to email you back. No, except for Mark Cuban. He'll email you back.

But I guess he's technically not a governor anymore. Yeah. Here we go. A quick Mark Cuban will email you back story. I was working on sports nature, something with Kevin Wilds. Kevin Wilds is known for having great ideas. He was like, you know how there's a bullpen for pitchers and like an on-deck circle for, hitters, like why not in the arena have like a warm up shooting area for before you go in the game?

And I was like, that's an awesome idea. Like, I bet your team would be better if you had something like that. And then he emailed Mark Cuban and Mark Cuban like wrote him back with an answer. Yeah, it's a, I told him why it was not possible. Yeah, I think it was some sort of space thing or something. But it was a good thought. It's like, listen, if I get a couple swings before I get in the batters box, why not put up a couple shots before I get in the game? Um, this is my next love.

I, years ago, God rest his soul, the billionaire that used to own the Grizzlies, Michael Heisley. He loved me. And I used to, I would pitch you business ideas all the time.

And every time he told me I was stupid. Yeah. He was like, he was like, he would always say, he, this one he would always say to me, he go,

kid, you don't think anybody else's thought of that. And I was like, yeah, of Mr. Heise. I was like, it could, like, it could work. And he's like, you, do you understand what it would, and I'm like, okay, all right. It peak, I used to work in a pizza shop in high school.

Peak, like, blockbuster rentals and pizza delivery days. We're talking like mid-90s. I was like, why don't we just combine this into one business called Pizza and Video, where I deliver you the movie and I deliver you the pizza and you pay me for it? I'm like, this is the brilliant idea. And I go to NYU, getting out of the car with all my stuff, to go to my college dorm, the very first thing, someone hands me a flyer of exactly that idea.

I was like, well, okay. I guess someone else thought of that, too. Here's my next love, throwing you a bone. It happened Tuesday night, I believe. No, Wednesday night. There's only two games on the slate, which is why we got so many games last night. But no one knows.

Without Cam Spencer. No Cam Spencer. I mean, you're going to lose to the Timberwolves if you don't have Cam Spencer. But guess who you do have if you're the Grizzlies on the road in Minnesota? No Ann Edwards is probably worth mentioning to. Jock Laundale, eight for 15 from the field, four threes, ten rebounds, three assists, a block and two steals in 30 minutes. The Jock Laundale game has happened. I think Cam Spencer and Joccalondeel

you should probably just build around as the core of the Grizzlies moving forward. I mean, look, I think if you're the Grizzlies, you kind of looked and you said, all right, Morant's out, Eadie's out, no Ty Jerome, no Scotty Pippen,

now you're getting a look at all these different guys. I'm having a hard time disagreeing with you. You know, if you thought your core, what is your core now? You've got to think about it differently. What is your core? going forward. And Jock Landau

standing out. This is where, I will say two things from that game in all seriousness. The Landau thing presents the problem that some teams do pose against the Timberwolves,

which is if Gobert's just going to stand in front of the basket and you're trying to pull him away, if you've got a five that can shoot it from way out there, because the game deciding shot by Landau, Rudy Gobert is standing under the basket, right? And then way late closing out.

So it's one of those where if you've got a five that could shoot it, the Rudy Gobert thing becomes a problem. The other thing is it's showing up. Like, they really miss Alexander Walker in Minnesota. Yeah. Just having another ball handling guard, good two-way player. And these are the casualties, right, of spending a boatload of money. but they really miss him because, you know, when you see Conley out,

and you're trying to do it with DeVincenzo and Dillingham and Bones Highland and these guys, like none of them are natural, get them in the flow. And I know they were without Anthony Edwards in that game. But watching that game, I thought, boy, they really miss Alexander Walker off that bench. But, yeah, back to Landau, I mean, he's an assassin. You got a building at your, he's, like, the two, he's like four. 40-something percent from three. I'll give him credit because he spent the whole off-season

deciding he wanted to be a three-point shooter and a guy that can do that. And those guys do have value, right? Guys that can come off your bench, stretch out the floor, you can kick out to him because nobody's really going to be guarding them 26 feet away from the basket. They knocked down shots. So, yeah, I think you probably need to,

I think you probably need to worry if you are the rest of the league because Landau's coming. He's coming, yeah. My next one. The Clipper's not showing up to Chris Paul's parties. I mean, look, I guess we're not done with the sad Chris Paul thing. Legendary Clipper sent home. It's all so sad.

And then it was like, yeah, well, he was like being like overbearing. He's being annoying. But there's nothing. I don't care how annoying you are. throwing up Halloween party and inviting everybody and nobody's showing up is super sad. Like I don't know. It's one thing if it's a Christmas party,

but you're in a costume. You know what I mean? Like you're in a costume just sitting there with a whole spread of food at your house. No one's there. I mean, even if you don't like the guy, if one of your teammates is throwing a party,

I mean, can you imagine like, because you know what that's like. And you know, your wife's probably like, so do you think anybody else is going to show up? And like, are you texting? Like, you're probably like, all right, all right. Kauai's not coming out because he doesn't go anywhere. Maybe James doesn't.

But like, what about the rest of these guys, right? Like Zubot's kids show up, Derek Jones Jr. Like, when they say like two guys showed up, a guy throws a Halloween party and he probably spent a lot of money on it. And it's like, damn, bro. And he also tried to buy a suite at games. and a Rams game. And none of them showed up. Yeah, I think it was Zubosh that showed up,

him and somebody else that showed up. But still, it's sad. It's crazy. He's trying to do all these team building things and no one wanted to build a team. And no one wants to build a team with them. It's got to show up at the party. It's just sad.

We had a Halloween party one time. We had a caterer and she brought out those little, one of those things called, those little burners with those blue flame burners. And she's setting it all up. And the party's supposed to start at seven. And we got this whole. all this food spread set up.

And like, it's supposed to start seven. It's like 745. And it's just us sitting there and the caterers looking at us. Like, are people coming to this party? Now eventually it became a cracking party and everybody ate the food. But like, there is that feeling when you host a party where you're just like, is anyone coming to this? Is anybody coming?

If I invited everybody and nobody showed up, I would be so sad. I really would. Especially if you're wearing like a friend. Freddie Hooger mask. You know what I mean? Like that, don't forget the costume party.

He's dressed up as like Mario. You know what I mean? It's Super Mario brother. And he's got this goofy outfit on and no one's coming to his party. I mean, it's just sad, man. It's sad.

Like if you had, like, you got, you got kids. If you, like, had a birthday party for your kids and like no kids in the class showed up, you'd be like,

damn. Oh, yeah. It'd be crushing. And, and like, and to me, That is one of those emotions that doesn't change in adulthood.

If you throw a party and no one shows up, that's just sad, bro. Dude, it happened to me. Really? No, I mean, it happened for the first hour and a half. Oh, right. It ended up exploding into a full-on party. But like, you get this weird feeling. You're like, what's going on here?

Yeah. Does I get the invite wrong? Oh, I would take that so personally. If everybody just happened to have excuses for why they couldn't come to your part. party that I had planned. Yeah, you got to call your agent to demand a trade. Forget being yonness and contending for championships. You don't come to my party.

I'm out of my, I'm out of here. I might just retire. I might just retire right there on the spot. All right. Go quick. My next loat is, it's just, this is sad and it's been covered. It's from a couple nights ago. The calves lost of the Bulls.

They're playing the Bulls again. The Cavs lost to the Warriors. They barely beat the Wizards. They lost to the Hornets. Lost of the Bulls. And it just feels like in my Donovan Mitchell memory, when I pulled up the Donovan Mitchell file, it just feels like in Utah,

it just felt like he had to do everything himself and stand on his head and score 45 points for them to win a playoff game. And it felt like in the Cavs, them playing the Celtics, them playing the Knicks, the last year, them playing the Pacers. It just feels like Donovan Mitchell has to do everything by himself all the time, always.

And he's part of the problem, obviously, but like it just feels like, again, here's Donovan Mitchell, scoring 40 points in a loss. And it's just the, The vibes are bad. My last love, KG and the Wolves getting back together. I mean, this has been, you know,

when you think about, especially like those mid, mid, mid late 90s, early 2000s, right? Like there are some guys that are just, I know KG won the title with the Celtics, but he is synonymous with the Timberwolves the same way that Tim Duncan is synonymous with the spurs and Derek is synonymous with the Mabs and all across the board.

Kobe was synonymous with the Lakers. Like those guys. And the fact that that relationship had been so terrible and so frosty. And he doesn't like rep the wolves. He's not around the wolves. And like that whole thing with Glenn Taylor went so wrong that now that they changed out ownership, the fact that he's going to be an ambassador and him being involved with the Minnesota Timberwolves, I love this so much.

This is exactly how it should be. So shout out to Arod and that new ownership group for getting kids. KG back into the fold because that has been so depressing for KG to have nothing to do and not have his number retired. Yeah, they're retiring his number. All the things that went along with that, you know, that relationship being so terrible. There's been, it's been such a annoying story to have the guy that is most synonymous with the franchise want nothing to do with the franchise.

And so I love the whole KG Wolves love fest that's going to take part. that's going to take place. I read the job title. I don't have in front of me, but it was a total BS job title. It was just like, oh, we're sorry, here's some money. We're sorry, here's some money.

Let's fix it. You know what I mean? I don't think he'll be in the office every day, put in 60 hour work weeks. But, you know, that is a good one. Where are we? Love. Last love, easy.

I'm clicking around. I've got the phone out last night. I'm watching the finishes of all these games. It was an awesome night of basketball last night. And then I'm like, the finish of the Rams Seahawks game was awesome. It was awesome. I thought the game was over. I thought the game was completely over.

It goes into overtime. And, you know, the Rams are just moving the ball, score a touchdown. The Seahawks come down. Donald had two picks. He comes down. They score. They go for two to win at home in front of the crowd. McBade calls a timeout.

They change the entire play. And they get this open. I think it's a tight end. They get wide open. Donald hits it, the place is going absolutely bonkers. It was awesome. It was awesome. After all that good basketball, it was awesome.

You also left out the fact that we saw something we will never see again in life. The two-point conversion that hit that they had to review that was a backwards pass. And then rolls the end zone and Charbonneau picks the ball up. And then they say, and that was actually a successful two-point conversion. What just happened? He didn't pick the ball up like he was recovering it either. He's kind of picked it up. Like,

let me just grab this and throw it to the referee. I didn't see that one live because I was watching all the basketball, but obviously I saw it on social. Yeah. This is an awesome game. Like I watched the last sort of like drive from Donald. And to make it even better, I bet on the Rams that I cashed out before the last drive.

Well, and also like, I mean, you had the, the Rams might be like the most dangerous six seed in the history of NFL football. Like, who wants to see them? Nobody wants. Like, they're not going to, if they don't win the division, they're like a frigging wild card.

You want to see them? You had this great season. It's like, hey, congrats. You're playing the Rams. And, you know, first week, first weekend of the playoffs. What a booby prize that is. All right.

My last loathe. Okay. I found, you're going to like this because this ended up being a blind spot for me. And my loathe is how unenfor. I was on bench scorers in the NBA. So this comes from,

huh, all right, this comes from the NBA Cup final. And you're going to love this. On the broadcast, they said that Jordan Clarkson was one of the top 10 bench scorers of all time. And I was like, huh, I guess that's not all that surprising. You know, you think of him as a bench heater for a long time, right? Yeah, of course, yeah. Yeah, it's all.

Crawford comes to mind, yeah. So I'll give credit where credits do. Rosa, my producer, passed this along to me. He went and looked it up and then said it to me. He's like, did you just hear him say? He's like, here's a good one for the mismatch. And I was like, that is good. So the number one bench score of all time is Lou Williams.

Oh, sure. Okay? Yeah. Number two is Jamal Crawford. Mm-hmm. So the reason that this is interesting is because from that point on... I'm about to say it's about to get gnarly. I mean, I couldn't believe.

Honestly, I fancy myself that would be somebody that is certainly above average, maybe really good at NBA trivia, right? Because I spend my life looking at this stuff all the time. Number three in bench scoring ever is Del Curry. Number four is Eddie Johnson. Number five is Ricky Pierce. Number six is Thirl Bailey.

And then number seven, number seven is Jordan Clarkson, number eight, Manu Genoblee. And then you have the microwave Vinnie Johnson, and then you have Kevin McHale, right? But the reason this is interesting is because Jordan Clarkson is top 10 all time

and points scored off the bench, right? He passed Genobley to get to number seven. There's only one other active. player in the top 30, all time. And I have to guess who this is. The other active player bench score, probably been in the league for a long time, backup heater. It's crazy.

Pain Pritchard. I have no idea. Bobby Portis. Ah, yep. Is 26th. Malik Monk is 33rd. but I just think like you think about all these guys that we think of as bent cheaters and whatever and you want to talk about an unbelievable blind spot like I would have had no chance at telling you

who that like once you got past Crawford and Williams and obviously we said that Clarkson is seventh now like three through six I wouldn't have gotten to any of those Del Curry Eddie Johnson and no please Thirl Bailey oh yeah I wouldn't have gotten to those. I would have, if I spent a lot of time, I would have ended up with Vinnie Johnson, Genoblee, Lou Williams, Jamal Crawford. I probably wouldn't even put Clarkson in there, to be honest with you. If I'm being honest with myself, I would, I would, would not think that Clarkson had been doing it long enough. Well, I'll just tell you a couple other. 11 is Jason Terry. 12 is Leandro Barbosa. I know. 13. When you say it makes sense. Yeah, when you

say it makes total sense. 13. J.R. Smith. Of course, Vinnie Johnson. I would have thought higher on J.R. Smith, honestly. 14 Kyle Corver, 15, Detloaf Shremf. Unbelievable. Just an unbelievable list of guys, like in terms of the all-time bench scorers, number one, Lou Williams, number two is Jamal Crawford. And then the list is like,

you want to talk about a blind spot. And the only reason this came up is because on that NBA Cup final, they were like, Jordan Clarkson's one of the top 10 scorers in bench history. And I was like, huh. I had a he had a day I mean Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford come to mind but who else is up there

in the top 10 well you're gonna get Vinnie the microwave Johnson if you're our age yeah you're right you're gonna get there yeah but I probably would not have guessed Clarkson if I'm being honest with myself definitely wouldn't guess Thorel Bailey no way no bigs no bigs no bigs no bigs in that list I'm trying to get the uh uh McHale's 10 oh yeah that makes no sense to me either. He scored, yeah, 7,602 points off the bench.

When was he doing that? I know. You don't think of Michael as a benchman. Yeah, he had been like an all-star with the Celtics. Right. No. All right. Well, here's my last one.

The constant foul baiting, and Jalen Brunswick is very, very, very guilty of this, is just kind of bumming me out. You know what I mean? I just don't like it when you have the basketball and your whole. whole intention is to manipulate the referees to get to the line to knock down the shots. And the best players do it. Brunson, Luca, and SGA. They all do it. And it's just kind of like, there's this play. Do you see this play, this Nemhard thing? It was early in the game between the Knicks and the Pacers. Jalen Brunson's got Nemhard on his hip. He plants his right foot,

jumps perpendicular to the hoop. He jumps to the side, away from the basketball, towards Nemhard and throws up a ridiculous shot and gets the call. The Pacers are pissed. Carlisle's like, challenge that, right? Again, this is like four minutes into the game. It's not when you don't use your challenge then. He was just mad because it was ridiculous. They review it and they're like, yes, that was a foul.

I couldn't even imagine how they could possibly come to that conclusion if you watch the review. And it's just like, it bums me out. And I'm starting to think like, do you remember when flopping was a problem? they started to sort of like make it a point of emphasis and find people for flopping or whatever. I feel like they should do the same thing with stuff like this. They should sort of like start to weed it out because people still flop,

but it's like it's just getting, it's kind of like bumming my high sometimes. Like Luca had 45. We went to the line 16 times. This is interesting to me. Sounds like you should be a Wembe guy who is the voice for ethical basketball and sophistication.

I do want to say. You sound like a wimpy guy to me. Well, you know I'm not a wimby guy. I might have said some mean things over text about Wimbunyama, but then I'm all mad at this guy, and I'm so happy that he won, and then he cries in the post game because his grandma died, and I felt really bad for him now. You know what I mean? His grandma died that day.

But he is the voice for ethical hoops, and sounds like that should be your favorite player. Not my favorite player, but I couldn't even appropriately get all of my hate energy together for Wimbabon Yama after the post game press conference. Yeah, because it was sad. Yeah, it was sad. He started breaking down. He's like, my grandma died this morning in France. I was like, oh, God, I can't even, like, make fun of you anymore.

But I'll get back to making fun. And your team is sticking their fingers in each other's butts. Yeah, that part wasn't great either. And the pod. To do it for today's pod. Thanks to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always, Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week. be 21 or over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and over and present in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming.

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