The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Pacers Beat Thunder in Game 1 of NBA Finals, Aaron Rodgers to Steelers | 6.6

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

On today's episode of The Right Time, Bomani Jones reacts to Game 1 of the NBA Finals and Aaron Rodgers signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bo starts off the show by saying why he's happy he never gave an official prediction for the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder (0:33). Bo gives props to Rick Carlisle (4:51) and says why Tyrese Haliburton must take the last shot regardless if he's a 'superstar' or not (9:20). Bo transitions from the Pacers clutch win to Aaron Rodgers officially signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers despite everyone already knowing he was going there eventually (17:04). Bo wraps up the show by telling us why he was the best option for the Steelers at QB this season (23:06) and if he somehow gets Mike Tomlin fired, it'll be the end of Rodgers career. (26:04) . . . Subscribe to Supercast for Ad-Free Episodes: https://righttime.supercast.com/ Subscribe to The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts and follow the show on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok for all the best moments from the show. Download Full Podcast Here: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6N7fDvgNz2EPDIOm49aj7M?si=FCb5EzTyTYuIy9-fWs4rQA&nd=1&utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-right-time-with-bomani-jones/id982639043?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social Follow The Right Time with Bomani Jones on Social Media: http://lnk.to/therighttime Support the Show: Discover faster, more reliable search with Perplexity today. Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at perplexity.com! https://pplx.ai/bomani-jones Download the DraftKings Pick Six app NOW and use code BOMANI. Better payouts. Bigger wins. Only with Pick6 from DraftKings. The Crown is yours. Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/icdnkphp #CashAppPod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A Wave Original presented by perplexity. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater.

We are going to talk about Aaron Rogers heading to Pittsburgh in a moment. But first, we had game one of the NBA finals. And boy, boy, boy, I have never felt better about not getting peer impression and the given a prediction ever before in my life. Good graces. Because of the timing of the games, you normally record the Thursday up the Friday episode on Thursday, but with game one being Thursday, we felt like that would be silly. So we decided to wait until after the game, but that also meant I hadn't told anybody what I thought was going to happen in the series. And I was telling all kinds of people, including repair men, what I thought of it, but I didn't have to say it in

front of America and the world. Don't want you to think I forgot about you guys. But I realized, man, that was a giant win for me after watching game one, because now I don't know what the hell going to happen. Like, let's think about this for a second. The Pacers turned the ball over in the first half 19 times. And I would also like to note, while they were turning it over, I don't even know if it was like, you know, in football when they talk about it, they talk about it is takeaways and giveaways. But it's said as though a turnover is both a takeaway and a giveaway, right? You give the defense credit for the takeaway. You give the offense a demerit for the giveaway. However, I did not feel like the majority of those first half turnovers

were giveaways. They just felt like they was getting a shit took. Like at every turn, hey, let me get that. Let me get that. Off that. Off that. They got. a whole lot of Canadians out there to be out here just. But my thing, it's like two of them. But whatever. Minnesota, Chet from Minnesota, that's close to there. They was just taking it from them. But they weren't taking it and doing anything with it. I have to admit, I would feel like, you ever had somebody break into your car,

but not take anything? They just broke in, right? So now you got to take it to the repair shop. Now you got to call insurance. Now you got to get a police report and go down there. to the city hall east over there by the murder Kroger. Okay, only some of you understand the very particularities of that which I discuss. But if I'm not mistaken in the game, Oklahoma City forced 26 turnovers.

They only scored 11 points off of them, right? Which is wild because you would think what would happen is you would get out there and you would get into transition. But you're in the first half. There's stretches of that where they're talking about, wow, the patient just have four. turnovers or something like that, but it was a four-point game. Now, Oklahoma City was stretching it out at points, obviously, but that first half wound up being way closer than it should have been because Oklahoma City in the end wasn't getting, making good shots. They weren't really getting good shots. And it didn't seem like they weren't getting good

shots because the defense was so, like, stupendous. It looked like what happened to them was what was reasonable to happen to them was just a little bit of that lemon booty, but a different kind of limit booty because the limit booty was not stopping them for being 48 minutes of hell as they had done before but they were taking a lot of shots that it felt like if you could have waited a little bit longer you might have been able to make something else happen you wound up seeing the weakness in Oklahoma City that I mean I guess it hadn't mattered up until this point but they still got one guy that can get his own shot they got other guys that can make shots but guys that can go get shots not really.

And to me, that's always been the thing that you need to have in the playoffs is guys they can get their own shots. And it's almost like an elevated class of player that can get his own shot. Ryan, I don't know how much you saw Mr. Andrew Nimhart, who I would not say

is in an elevated class of player, but how could I not say he could get his own shot? Yeah, I mean, when he hits all of these big shots and you especially see him, you know, taking one deep over SGA in the fourth quarter, he certainly thinks he can get his own shot. And he's getting them off the bounce. You know what I mean? Like, like, that's the thing. He's getting them off the bounce. So where does this series go from here? This is a fascinating

question for us to ask because I think another thing that's happened so far, and it's not unfair, but I think it is, it's interesting how we do these things. I think that most observers have declared that Rick Carlisle is a vastly superior coach to Mara Dagono, right? Like, I think I saw somebody else Sports Center make that point that they thought that that was a landslide matchup. Now, Ryan, if you could ask perplexity right fast about Rick Carlisle getting past the first round of the playoffs after 2011 or his playoff record since 2011, how about that? Because 2011 is obviously when Carlisle won that championship and most of us give him credit for cooking air expulsion in the heat and out coaching them, right?

but where had all that coaching been for the next decade and change? Right, you got anything? Yeah, we got a quick, you know, quick history. So, yeah, obviously we have the winning the NBA finals in 2011, 2012, first round, swept by the thunder, 2013, missed the playoffs, 2014, 3 and 4 in the first round, lose the spurs, 2015, losing the first round again, 1-4-1, 2016, lose 4-1 again to the Thunder. Missed the playoffs three years in a row. First round exit. First round exit.

Okay, I'm just saying, right? They did it last year. They did it this year. Yeah, then he gets fired, misses the playoffs with the Pacers again, gets to the conference finals, gets to the NBA finals. Yeah, I'm not saying the man can't coach, right?

This is the third team that he's been to the conference finals with. The second team he's been to the NBA finals with. I am, however, saying that he's not Larry Brown. Okay. It is impossible for us to give Dagono but so much credit for how well he coaches because he's the dude with the 60 win team. Right. Like you demonstrate in most people's eyes how good of a coach you are by taking a team that isn't that good and coaching it to great heights. We don't give Dagono credit for coaching this team whose second best player might be Jalen Williams to 60 something wins. right? I did not feel like that game was a crisis of coaching for the thunder. I don't even know if it was like the brilliance of Rick Carlisle.

I think it may have just come down to in the end. Oklahoma City got a team full of young dudes and that moment got them in the second half just a little bit. And in fact, that points in the first half. It just got them. This is going to happen. I don't know how reflective it is for the rest of the series, I guess is what I'm saying. I can see. That makes sense to me. I think the thing that you can give the Rick Carlisleisle the most credit for is, you know, never quit is a mantra, but never quit for this team as a lifestyle.

As you can see with all these late game comebacks, they, they legitimately do not quit until the fat lady says. Well, look, man, ain't nobody trying to hear him yapping in the ear. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, like, like, I imagine they just want to get him off of their back. Like, I got 100% see that. We do have two decades of, you know, of data that Rick Carl is annoying. He's the only coach that I can.

think of to be wildly successful in a place and get fired because people hated him. And that's what happened to him in Detroit. It is the only place. I mean, only time. As somebody who was that good at this. And they were just like, no, it wasn't a Rick's the reason why we can't win a championship thing. You don't have been there like two years. Right?

And no. So, yeah, no, no. That aggressive Boston runs, rugs people the wrong way. Oh yeah, he is one of those. And, and, and, and, and I don't know how much this means to you because you're from a different part of the country. But this phrase normally explains a lot about the person to whom you are referring when you decide you need to use it. He went to UVA. Yep.

Oh, I'm familiar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. That's an interesting vent diagram of from Boston went to UVA. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's not going to work for me. Yeah.

Personally. Okay, I'm just telling you right now. Like that, that's a, that right there. No, we put that in the database and we tossing all of y'all out of here. But of course, the other story in this game is Halliburton, right? And I love it. Richard Jefferson said it on the broadcast, and I forgot about this as the way they're referred to a poor shooting game.

And he's like, you can't be out here putting up tour dates. 113, 213, 25, 319. You know what I'm saying? With the slash in the middle, that can't be your field goal percentage. That can't be what you do. And I don't feel like Halliburton was putting up a tour date. But there is something to be said for somebody that. when it's time to get this shot, getting this shot, and ain't afraid of it. And a big part of why

I can see him not being afraid of it is at his height, there's not much anybody can do about it when he decides to take that step back. They showed a replay during the game of the shot that he took against New York, the one with the big bounce. And what was so wild about that replay was the first time I'd seen it from the trail angle is that he put that shot up and the ball was bouncing so high and he's still in the back pedal like bunny. Like it never seemed to dawn on him that that shot was not going in. So when you've got a guy that height who can get that shot and he's a legitimate point guard so you can't, you've got to be careful about him going past you.

And once he goes past you has the ability to get a good shot for somebody else. Like we talked earlier about the last time the NBA had a point guard who was this tall and was really cooking, right? I'm looking at it like the last time you had a point guard this tall that you thought of as being a good shooter, that might be Penny Hardaway. And I don't even know how good of a shooter Penny Hardaway was by percentage. I just remember how cold it seemed like Penny Hardaway was. You understand what I'm saying?

But having a guy that's that high. Oh, yeah, Penny's not in the same class when we start talking about the shooting thing. But when you got a guy that's that height and can get that shot and is that good. and is that unafraid? Was he 13 for 15 on these shots in these clutch situations for this year? This is nuts. This is, I think this is the best thing I can say about Halliburton

in line with what we're talking about it, perhaps the most important one, okay? There is a lot of discussion about whether or not he is a superstar. And maybe just maybe that doesn't matter. Okay? it doesn't matter if he's a superstar. What he is is a dude that you want to take the last shot.

Or even to me, which is a higher level than that, it's the dude you want to have the ball with the game on the line, right? Because those are two different things. For example, Kobe Bryant is a guy that you want to take the last shot, if there's a last shot to be taken because you know he was unafraid of the moment. Now, whether or not he was going to get you the best shot, is a different discussion. Chris Paul is a dude that you wanted to have the ball in your hands in those moments

because he would get it to the right place. And then you have the evolution of LeBron James, which became the perfect combination of you want him with the ball in his hand because he's going to get it right. And if he takes it, there's a really good chance it's going to go in, right? Like once you take 2010 and 2011 out of the sample, boy, you needed to be a little bit worried about what was going down. Michael Jordan again, obviously, as a person that's in that latter category.

That's where Halliburton seems to be. The thing is, I don't recall too many of these moments where I've seen Halliburton, like, pass the ball to nobody. He just going to make the shot, right? And so it's there. Now, what's going to happen with this series? You want my prediction now. And I got to be honest with you guys.

I personally don't think it's fair for me to offer you what I think is going to happen since I have gotten this data point of game one. It feels like cheating. You see what I mean? I'm not a cheater. I'm an honest man. An honest man. Hell now I don't know what's going to happen no more, man.

I mean, I thought going into it, it looked like it was going to be like Oklahoma City and Five. And then, don't you hate it when this happens? I thought it was going to be Oklahoma City and Five because of what I had seen. But all the stuff that worried me about Oklahoma City before that they had just wiped their asses with, That didn't matter at all.

Like, hey, man, I don't know. These guys look pretty young. I don't know. These guys don't have enough people that can get their own shots. I don't know. All that stuff there just didn't matter a single thing. Now it's bad. I see it.

I can't unsee it. I may not have been right, but damn it, I wasn't wrong. You know what I'm saying? So no, no, no, no. I don't know. Pacers in six. There we go. And by the way, if the Pacers do win in six,

y'all better come up here and give me every bit of credit I deserve for my master prognostication for saying that the Pacers was going to win in six and if they don't i mean you know what i'm saying this show is brought to you by perplexity perplexity is an ai powered answer engine that searches the internet in real time to give you fast high quality answers with sources unlike legacy search engines that respond with the list of links perplexity skips straight to the answers you need and easy to understand everyday language with sources and citations. That's right, Bo. We often use perplexity on the show to look up things, confirm things. Just this week, we used perplexity to look up who was on the Steelers coaching staff

to figure out who might, you know, inspire some accountability in Aaron Rogers. Discover fast and reliable search with perplexity today. Download the app or Ask Perplexity Anything at Perplexity.a.i. It's playoff time, and if you're still just watching games, you're missing out. With pick six from Draft Kings, you can turn your hoot's knowledge into real cash. Nobody's dropping better payouts than pick six. Hit six picks and that's 25 times your cash. And if you beat your competition, you could be looking at a 500-time bag in your pocket.

And right now, new customers get $50 in bonus picks with just a $5 entry. The playoffs are on. So why not take a shot at making a little money while you're watching? Download the Draft King's Pick Six app right now and use code Beaumani. That's code BOMani to play five. $5 and get $50 in bonus picks. Better payouts, bigger wins. Only on picksticks from draft kings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler. Help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-77-7-77 or visit ccpg.org in Connecticut. Must be 18 plus age and eligibility

restrictions vary by jurisdiction. Pick-six not available everywhere, including New York and Ontario. Voidware prohibited, one per new customer. Bonus awarded is non-witrable. pick six bonus picks that expire in 14 days. Women in time offer terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos. Making money moves should be easy and that's why there's cash app. It's fast, safe and honestly just way more personalized than other apps out there. No extra hoops to jump through, no extra stress. All of the tools are right there to help you cash in. Plus, sending money with cash app actually feels safe. They look out for you. If something seems sketchier, they

think you might be sending money to a potential scammer, they'll warn you and make you think twice before you hit sin. It's like having a personal bodyguard for your cash. You can even spice up your payments with custom text, stamps, and backgrounds. Because why should paying your friend for brunch be so boring? And for whatever insane reason you don't already have cash app, just download it from your phone's app store, sign up, enter our code BOMani in your profile, send $5 to a friend, and you'll get $10 just for getting started. For a limited time only, new cash app users can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash. For real, there's no catch. Just download cash app and sign up. Use our exclusive referral code, Beaumani in your profile, send $5 to a friend within 14 days, and you'll get $10

drop right into your account. Terms apply. That's money. That's cash app. Okay, Aaron Rogers is officially a Pittsburgh Steeler. In a way, this is an amazing thing about sports coverage in that we can just decide what is and is not

a big deal. If we're all being honest, we've known that Aaron Rogers was going to sign with the Steelers. Along the way, we, and I include myself in the we, because I probably participated in this, we kind of got a little,

well, is he going to show up or not? Don't you need to show up? And I want to be clear, I do believe that he needed to show up, right? Like, I do believe that that was appropriately what he should have done. You probably should have gotten this soon or whatever it is, dot, dot, dot.

But I think that we all could have reasonably look at the way the Steelers were moving and known that Aaron Rogers was going, wind up playing for them. We probably could have seen that. What it would have required in all likelihood if he wasn't going to be there was a startling level of dishonesty. Right? Like, there's just no way in the world that the Steelers sat there with their thumbs up, they Mason Rudolph. It was like, yo, we're going to be good. Yeah. Like, you know, Mike Tomlin has, you know, a lot of arrogance, but he's not putting his, you know, two-decade winning streak on the line with Mason Rudolph.

If they thought Mason Rudolph could have played, they wouldn't have taken no phone calls from Aaron Rogers. Right? That's all I'm saying. I put it like this. Ryan Clark has said in public many times that under no circumstance where the Steelers is going to take Shreda Sander's, in part because they just didn't want what they felt like Kane was to do a Sanders.

But they took Aaron Rogers. You see what I'm saying? Like, if they thought Mason Rudolph could do it, there's no way in the world they would have, no, no, no, no, not happening. Now, now he's going to go there. I want to raise this question because I'm not, the Steelers got quarterback play last year that looked better on paper than in application.

We're from Justin Fields, but specifically Russell Wilson. Coincidentally, that is exactly what Aaron Rogers did last year. Like, you go look at the stats. Aaron Rogers looked just fine. Statistically, I think it's 27 touchdowns, 11 interceptions. He had a good number, I mean, a good,

number of yards, and if you wanted to put together a highlight tape, hey man, Aaron Rogers looked like that dude when he was at his best. Truly 100% look like that dude. But how good is he going to make them? I don't really have a great answer for that question. The incentives in football are really, really interesting, right? And what I mean by that, I don't think there will be a circumstance under which Mike Tomlin is coached for his job. Like something really crazy would have to happen for him to be coaching for his job. However, Mason Rudolph was not going to help him keep his job. We all agree on that, right?

Like that was that was not going to happen. Mason Rudolph was not going to help him keep his job. What Mason Rudolph would in all likelihood help you do is get your next quarterback. Okay. but your next quarterback was you were presuming that you would get somewhat early in the draft because of what Mason Rudolph helped you do. Your next quarterback is probably not going to help you win truly for at least a couple of years. You know, there are a few prodigies that show up.

Like, you know, there's occasional Jayton Daniels. But it's probably going to take you a couple years before that happens. You're really sure they're going to give you? a couple of years. Like, it ain't that many number one picks that wind up with, like, first overall. I mean, you get farther down the draft, obviously, is different. But it ain't that many, like, number one overall picks, for example, that get to play for the regime that took them. And if they do, I like Caleb Williams, they get them dudes about it there pretty quick.

That's how it goes. Okay. So I do wonder how much of what they're doing is competing timelines. And by the way, not just competing timelines for the standpoint of, of what is good for Mike Tolland and keeping his job. I don't know the Steelers themselves. Like, are they the Miami Heat of the NFL? We're like, we ain't tanking.

Like, that's not what we do. You know, we are going to win. That's, that's where we are. We are going to put a winning team out here if there's any chance to put out a winning team. Is that their get down? It is entirely possible. I'm not sure.

But they do seem like they've reached kind of the hamster wheel portion of the program with what they're going to do. And Aaron Rogers, you know, perhaps is the hamster. I'm not sure. Like, you just keep him running on the wheel. I think that may be where they are. But at the same time, you can show me a world where he dials it up maybe one more time. Maybe one more time.

And this is the reason, well, no, I was going to say the reason I say that is that there guys like Drew Breffar, when he went to Minneapolis, to Minnesota. him. He did not have a very good year with the Jets. He had a couple slow years with the Packers, though they made the NFC championship game in 07. But, you know, it wasn't, you can just count on Brett Farb season. We weren't, we weren't quite there. But those guys tend to have a way to dial it back up. The thing that's interesting is that Aaron Rogers had his couple of down years, and then he dialed it up with the MVP run that he had with the Packers. And then went down again. Are we, Is there somewhere where you think that now he can dial this all the way back up after that?

I don't know about that. Was he, however, the best quarterback that the Steelers had a chance of getting? Absolutely. I don't know of a world where you can afford to pass up the best quarterback that you can get. I don't think they're in that place. I don't know who is in that place, but I really, really, really don't think it's tough, right? But I know this.

He is at best, the third best quarterback in that division, at best. That division of the quarterback game is murder. Murder, I tell you, murder. Now, I want to ask you guys this question. Let's say Aaron Rogers can't do it, and he's kind of

boo-boot. Okay. While he was with the Jets and it wasn't going that well, there was so much other chaos that Aaron Rogers almost felt kind of collateral to it, even though you may argue

that he was responsible for some measure of. Right? But they fired coaches. It's just a lot that went on over there. And you could divorce Aaron Rogers from some of it to a degree. It was still the Jets.

That's exactly what I was about to say. That's it right there. They're the Jets. This was normal. This kind of stuff happens with the Jets. I mean, there are all the weird stories about, you know, Woody's grandkids,

you know, like having, like, impact on. This is what I'm saying. This is what I'm saying. Stories that only happened with the Jets were happening to the Jets while Aaron Rogers was also happening to the Jets.

This is what I'm saying. This is what I'm saying. they're just the Jets, right? And since they're just the Jets, okay, the Steelers are not the Jets. So how does this go? If it ain't going great with Aaron Rogers, how does this go with the opposite of the Jets, the non-Jets?

How exactly does this go? Like, this is more, this is more fascinating on that level that I think it is football. ball interesting. Okay. And oh, by the way, all of this happening while you just brought in your real live 1990s type old wide receiver who'd be out there with the faith, the faith, the faith thaw,

Emmy rings, you know what I'm saying? And pink hair and all of that stuff. And he wants to ball. And I mean, presumably Aaron Roders can get him to ball. One would think. I don't think he's throwing a DK McHaff should be that difficult. So presumably he should be able to get him to ball. But if this doesn't go, this.

this could be pretty fun. And there are many who believe that Aaron Rogers got Robert Sala fired, and I don't think he made it that easy for Sala, certainly. But whether you got him fired is somewhat debatable. If Aaron Rogers somehow managed to get Mike Tomlin fired, you know that's going to be the end of his career because can't nobody touch him. Like if you get Mike, he can get Mike Tomlin fired, baby, you can get anybody fired out here.

Ain't nobody going anywhere near you. You kryptonite. You get Robert Salafired. Hey, man, you know, we weren't so sure about that guy. You get Mike Tomlin fired. You're a leper. A leper, I tell you a leper. My nose just fell off, just thinking about it.

Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this year three times a week. Ryan Brumbley had on everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the voice mail line 3-2-3-9-6-7-67-67. Just like I do every time. I forgot to think of the topic. I'll give you an oity but goody. Tell us about that time you quit playing football. 3-2-3-3-5-9-6-77-67. Remember or follow the right time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us,

give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. I'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.