The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Tom Haberstroh on Victor Wembanyama becoming the Villain + Knicks biggest issue | 06.10

Episode Date: June 10, 2026

On this episode of The Right Time, Bomani Jones is joined by Tom Haberstroh to break down why Victor Wembanyama has completely changed this series and why the New York Knicks suddenly look like they��re running out of answers. They dig into Wemby’s dominance on both ends, how San Antonio keeps getting him downhill and at the rim, and why Tom thinks the Spurs should actually feel like they could be up 3-0 right now. Bomani and Tom also get into what’s going wrong for the Knicks late in games, including Jalen Brunson’s extreme ball dominance, the lack of flow in New York’s offense, and Karl-Anthony Towns disappearing in crunch time after such a strong start to the series. From there, they discuss whether the Knicks can make the adjustments needed in Game 4, whether Wemby has already become the biggest force in the series, and why his physical edge and swagger are turning him into one of the most polarizing stars in the league. They also hit the controversial officiating around Wemby’s contact with Brunson, the NBA’s response to that play, what this matchup says about who’s built for the moment, and even where Jalen Brunson belongs in the all-time Knicks conversation. Apple: Stay closer to the game. Download the Apple Sports app for free in the app store. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/apple-sports/id6446788829 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Tom the Finder. Tom Habistro, what's going on? Oh, man, everything's great, Bo. Great to be on the show again. Hey, man, I tell you, I wish you were here in this city for like kind of the madness. I got to be honest, man. I got to like tap back in with people, man. I saw that our buddy, uh, Wenthorse and his collection.

but people had a live show. Ain't nobody tell me about it. Vinny was on stage for it. Ain't nobody tell me about it. Like, I didn't really, I forget this, that the NBA finals becomes like a convergence of the basketball world on the cities they come to. And this time, it actually came to this one. Yeah. I actually think the Winhurst collective pod was like a last minute, like at the Gotham venue where they were just like, hey, next week, we're going to do it at this show. And I guess, you know, because of the timing of it all, uh, everything. does have to be last minute, but the NBA finals is not just the pinnacle of competition on the floor, but off the floor. This is when the media saves their best takes,

saves their best stories, their best reporting for the biggest stage. And that's always been true. I feel a lot of pressure. This is where it happened at ESPN was you would work, Beaumani, all season long. And I was working at a time when LeBron was going to be in the NBA finals. like clockwork, where we had stories in the can that we had been reporting for months that our editors at ESPN and on TV would be like, hey, save that for June, you know, when all the eyeballs are on us. And so that is a lot of the, the climate in which media and personalities and reporters, they all are meeting at this big moment and trying to bring their best up. And this is, this is, I was trying to think.

of the last time, it felt like the finals, not just at the finals at a point, but the whole finals had this many eyeballs upon it. I don't have a great answer for that. Like, I feel like we might be going back into the 90s, honestly, because it's a perfect combination. Like, this isn't quite, LeBron making the finals in 2007 was against the spurs that nobody cared about. Victor, with these spurs that we do seem to care about against the Knicks and what I think

is a big part of it also the first year the NBC came back, meaning that those finals ran on over-the-air television the whole way. But also, LeBron had no chance in 07, and we all knew it. These guys have a chance. Yeah, and I also think that Wembe is such a lightning rod, quite literally the tallest guy in the NBA, and I think has over the last few weeks generated so much scrutiny by his physical play and the fact that he is not,

we expected a Charles Oakley, Eudonis has him, James Johnson on the Spurs because of that Bismack-Biombo hit job that, that Wembe called for. But have we seen the enforcer and best player be the same player in the way that we're seeing with Wembe? The last time that I could think of was Akim Elyahuaswant. Right? Like keeping in mind, when Ralph Sampson hit that shot, it was because Pat Riley brought,

of all people, Mitch Cupcheck, into the game to go to Lajuan. into a fight and Elijah Juan was like, bet, let's do that. Like that's the guy that was swing-go. My brother got a friend who played basketball at a very high level. He didn't play in the NBA. He played at a very high level. And he would be in Houston a lot around the 80s.

And he would talk about Akeem before the H. And he said, you'd be sitting there and the ref would do something crazy. And Akeem would scream out, suck my dick. Like everybody has Elijah Wigig now as the eBomb, right? Yeah. And super, no, no, no, no, no. That other Elijah Wad was doing his own dirty work.

I like the like English is my second language or in his case, probably his fifth language where he's like has the accent to where it's suck my deek. And it's just like it comes out a different way when he says it. And before the H comes into his name. So earlier in his career, like you said, I do think for Wembe, he's daring the officials to hit him with these flagrants and hit him with the foul calls

especially that Jalen Brunson won and I did see Madi McCutche who runs the refereeing for the NBA go on ESPN, league partner on the biggest show program yesterday and essentially say yeah we're reviewing that play as well as all the other plays

and when asked what exactly they're going to be reviewing and when they're going to get a verdict on that, he kind of sidestepped the entire question because I think he knew, Beaumani, I think Moni McCutcheon knew that by the letter of the law, a flagrant one is when you have unnecessary contact committed by a player versus an opponent. And I don't think you can argue that that play, Jalen Brunson, getting his head smushed from behind and the follow-through from Wemby and.

And the giggle afterwards, none of that you could say was necessary contact and I think would cross the line of unnecessary contact. But I think Monty McCutcheon not touching the language of that law is an omission that I think he knew there was no way that under the letter of the law, they could get away with saying that that was not a flagrant foul. But as we learned later, the NBA determined that was not a flagrant. They're not going to retroactively hand him a flagrant, which also adds a point to his flagrant points.

And at four points, he is at two right now, four points he would be suspended. And so to me, as soon as Monty McCutcheon got off that stage, that NBA Today program and essentially danced around the question whether that was deemed flagrant worthy, I think it was clear that the NBA wasn't going to hit him with the flagrant. All right, so two things. One, before I forget about it, I once saw a very bad stand-up comedian

do an excellent bit about how Nigerians have come to speak English better than English speak English. And it's 100% correct. Like, they get to the essence of the English itself. Like, there's an accent, but you understand every single word. Another discussion for another day.

here's my thing on the flagrant right and i said this on twitter the other day and somebody told me this was stupid but i think i have the right idea and i think the NBA has made mistakes i know what flagrant means if you got to go look at a videotape of it it wasn't flagrant that's not what flagrant means right like flagrant does not if something is flagrant you do not have to go to technicalities of it to me the NBA made a mistake by trying to codify very specifically what a flagrant foul, well, is or is not or whatever it is, right? So is that unnecessary contact? Absolutely. As you say, letter of the law, that's correct. Also unnecessary contact, whatever Kelton Johnson was doing on the same play against Carl Anthony Towns. Also unnecessary contact,

all the clutching and grabbing every time the victor has the ball. Like unnecessary contact is far too vague of a phrase. In the end, to me, with a flagrant foul, it gets into the space of the Supreme Court decision on pornography, where you know it when you see it, right? So much of officiating is that too, by the way. Yeah, right. So you're telling me it's a flat, not you, but you know, somebody going to try to tell me that it's a flag or file that he threw Jalen Brunson down, except Jalen Brunson didn't leave his feet, right? Jalen Brunton was still in a position after that to go fuss at him about it while the play was still live.

That to me is not a foul that we need to add points and go towards suspension and da-da-da and everything else. Because as much as this series has had physicality, it hasn't had physicality in the way that I think of it, which is to say, we don't have hard files. Even that one, it was disrespectful. It was wild. But it wasn't, if there's no risk of injury,

we're not talking about a flagrant file. Like, I think, for example, the landing area on the jump shots, they put that in the space of the flagrant foul because they wanted to get rid of that. So they need to put in like the super strong penalty in order to do that. Okay, I get you. We don't need less of what Victor did with him.

The best part about this for me is finding out that he's like, fine. I'll be my own enforcer. We can talk about how skinny he is, he from France, and everything else. And he's like, no, I'm going to throw this dude down. And I'm a laugh at him when he comes and tries to fuss at me about it. But, Monty, that was the craziest part was that he laughed. He's like, what are you going to do? I control this league.

Like that's what I think Wemby was thinking was not only did they not call a foul. They're not going to team me up. And I'm giggling at the fact that you're trying to come at me after that. And you're not going to actually fight me. And Wembe, I think, has arrived at a point whether this is said or unsaid by the league office, is I have reached a level of status in the NBA that I can do that. And you're not going to do anything. And the NBA is not going to do anything.

And certainly they followed suit. When Monty McCutcheon was on the air, they said they were. were going to review it, and he said they did a poor job that three officials on the floor, one of whom John Goebel was rated by the players as a tier three official, meaning the bottom third of officials, the players rated him, an NBA finals referee year in and year out. The only NBA finals referee that they rated in the worst category that they had was John Goble. He was watching the play and Monty McCutcheon said we had three officials and two of them in that

play were watching the ball rather than watching the off ball screen and he said that was a mistake and they did a poor job of officiating that play and it should have been a foul and that is I think the ground that they're standing on is if it was a flagrant and we didn't even call a foul then in your definition Beaumani then that is true that if we didn't even call a foul on the play, then it could not have been flagrant, and they decided to upgrade that to a personal foul rather than a flagrant foul.

The thing about the landing zone that I think is important to note, did anybody on the Knicks or Mike Brown talk about those landing foul, the landing foul with Josh Hart on the Wembe, when he landed on Wembe's foot in the corner, or did anyone talk about the Jalen Brunson after the game? No.

in neither case, it's only people on Twitter who are complaining about this. On social media, people are complaining about it. Noticably, none of the players, including Jalen Brunson or Mike Brown, specifically raised that in the press conference. What Mike Brown was raising is the free throw disparity, which to me is a tell that Mike Brown,

he didn't individually have a problem with the Jalen Brunson play or not enough that after the game he's going to bring it up. but he was using, I think, coaching gamesmanship, where he's trying to lobby to get more calls in game four than really about the flagrants and the landing zone things. So if they did have an issue with it, they would have raised it post game. Don't you think about that?

Like, don't you think that would have been in the case? Oh, absolutely. I also make the point that I would say this. I don't think that Victor did that because he's like, hey, you're not going to do anything about it. I mean, I think he knew damn well. that they were going to do something about it with the elbow, Nas read in the mouth, right?

Like, I think he does these things because he believes these things need to be done in the moment in which we stand. I would also say that I think the NBA's leg to stand on in their decision is very simple. It is the NBA looking at us like, was another wire line? Hey, we didn't get to be, we didn't get to be colonels or deputies, whatever it is, by being total fucking assholes, right?

Like, we're not stupid. Why are we not going to give Victor this flagrant? Because nobody wants to watch that game, except mixed fans. But like, no, no, no, that wasn't going to be yet. But what it is adding to, and I am curious what you think about this is the backlash has already begun, right? The various people with their, I don't like Victor because backlash has begun. And I'd like to say, in some of those cases, it is to me, basically it's very, similar to when you start talking about how good you think Jalen Brunson is or whatever,

you should be required to tell me how tall you are so I can put this in proper context. Now, my guy, Dave Jacoby, who was quite tall, he jumped in with his, I hate the way to we walk, hate the way, talk, hate the way to we dress. Like, I feel like Victor has emerged as this interesting combination of the guy that does all the things that we asked for in ways good and bad. And we got to, but somebody got to not like it. That's the rules. Somebody has to.

that is the fuel by which the NBA has always, always been running. Now, you're talking to a guy who was hired to be part of a four-person reporting team on the Miami Heat and the most needed team. The Heat Index. Back in 2010, I was hired. This was unprecedented in media circles. The ESPN hired four reporters to cover one team for a national outlet. We're not talking about the New York Post hiring four Knicks beat writers. or the San Francisco Chronicle or Chicago Tribune hiring multiple Bulls reporters. I'm talking a national outlet realizing this is the most hated team in sports, maybe in sports history.

I can tell you from experience that whenever the Miami Heat lost, the ESPN ratings or the traffic that we would get on ESPN.com was at least four times more than when they won. People love to hate on the Miami Heat, and people love to hate on LeBron. People love to hate on Steph Curry. It's a league that is fueled by the hate. And so for Victor Wembeyanama, who goes to Gramercy Park to sketch with his sister, that becomes not a, oh, that's cool. That's sweet. That the guy is trying to like, you know, just relax and calm down in the midst of one of the biggest games of his career. He's going to the park and he's hanging out. intellectual. He's getting

not that. He's getting a lot of like A, that's a weird move. If you're cared about the NBA and this is the biggest moat. Should you really be just at Gramercy Park sketching? This is, I think, a good sign for the NBA that Jacoby, Spike Eskin is another one who has come out hating this dude. And I think it's healthy for the league in the sense that

as long as it doesn't get crazy. I think it's good that we have Victor Wenban Yamma, becoming such a lightning rod. And I do think that a lot of this stuff, certainly with LeBron and the signs that were held up in Cleveland on the return game, things can cross a line in ways that this vitriol can become dangerous and toxic in ways we do not want it to happen. And certainly I guess there's been some fights in New York City where Spurs fans had gotten beat up because of their supporting the Spurs.

I will say, as someone who is literally hired to cover teams, the most hated teams in sports, this is part of the game. The Victor haughtiness, the French haughtiness, which honestly, I don't think has come up nearly as much since he's been in the NBA. People who listen to this show have heard me talk about this line before, but I'll just never forget it is when they had the hoops summit. It was against Scoot Henderson when we thought the Scoot Henderson was going to be the number two pick. And Victor said, yes, he's a great player.

He would be the number one pick if I had never been born. which is a wild thing to say, but also in the moment, seemed 100% correct. Yes, 100%. And he wants this. Like we've heard Anthony Edwards, like,

I don't want to be the face of the NBA. Victor Wenbenyama wants to be the face of the NBA. And he is literally shoving the next face of the NBA down with his entire hand, figuratively and physically, pushing down the face of anybody else who wants to claim that throne. Now, on the basketball side, Victor Wenbanyama has taken the lead as the best player in this series

and man, you hit it on the head in your post-game three reaction is Carl Anthony Towns has to be better and they didn't get any touches for me. He hasn't scored in the fourth quarter in these first three games of the series. And I wrote about it after game two is that Carl Anthony Towns winning that matchup is the reason why the Knicks are up to a 2 in the series. and in game three that's switched in a big way. And Victor Wembeyanama, we haven't seen a guy put up this,

this, these kind of numbers since Prime Shack. And as you've pointed out, this is a guy who is 22 years old putting up Prime LeBron, prime Shack, these types of stat lines that we've only seen when guys hit their peak and he is just 22 years old. And Carl Anthony Town shrunk in Game 3 did not get any of the looks

that they got in the first two games. And that's why we're seeing. sitting here, both you and I, I think that the Spurs could very well win this series even going down 02 on their home for. You know, it's interesting. Six quarters in, we're like, hey, man, not quite ready for it, right? 07, LeBron in the finals comes up as the example, which, by the way, we cut LeBron slack for because it was like, done, it's so crazy that you even got here, right?

The last six quarters been a completely different situation, even with the meltdown that the team had, because I think that was equal parts, him, Castle, Mitch Johnson, everybody at the end of that game. They melted down, but the truth was they weren't ready for that moment. They were absolutely ready for the moment in game three as that stacked up. Now, I think that also the Knicks were under probably more pressure than they had been under Ever, because as I said, that was the first game that they were expected to win out of all of these. Not that they were expected to lose the others, but game three. Like I'm walking around that afternoon. The guys are like, hey, Knicks and four. Buddy, you're fucking Knicks, man. Why are you doing this

to yourself? Right. Like, just enjoy the ride. It might work out that way for you. But Now, even if San Antonio loses game four, that doesn't leave me in a position of feeling like, well, there's no way that they could come back and win the rest of these games. I'm not so sold on that. Now, the question for me, and I'm curious what you think about this, will San Antonio keep doing the things to get Victor close to the rim? Because that's the part that's necessary, whether or not he scores. It can't be so much picking and popping like game two.

The fact that the game plan was for Fox to get the screen and then Victor to shoot a jumper. No, no, no, you're at your best when you dive hard and go go there. Add that to the fact that across the board, I think they've decided we think, we don't think the Knicks can handle us knocking them around, but for so long. Yeah, they can win this. Yeah, I still think the Spurs should be about 50-50 to win this series despite being two down to one on the Knicks floor in game four because I think they figured out that Carl Anthony Towns, while he was able to withstand the Wembe experience in the first two games, the physicality that's required to guard him once he realized,

oh, I can get to the paint and you guys aren't going to stop me. He has acknowledged that he needs to do more of that in order to be the best player in this series. And the first couple of games, he was not able to be more physical. But there was a play late in the game where they got a lob to Wembe, where he faked a high pick at the top of the key and while Cat was like holding him in the screen, Wembe pointed up because he knew what he was about to do.

Cut back door, roll to the basket instead of setting the screen, and they threw a lob, and that was one of his four dunks in the game. The first three coming in that first quarter, where they got every single time they wanted to get a paint touch to Wemby, they got it. And it reminded me, man, I have this. I was in the bottom. So in high school, I was playing against a team called Trinity Catholic.

Dave McClure, he started for Duke, and Craig Osstier was a point guard started at Duke. Mike Shosheshefsky was in the audience watching this play. I was at the bottom, me, I'm six foot, maybe, bottom of a one-three-one. And I thought that Craig Austry was taking a three, but he was actually thrown a lob. And he dumped, Dave McClure dunked all over me, had no business being the bottom of a one-three-one. The reason why I tell this story is the same thing happened with Carl Anthony Towns on that play is he thought the lob was actually a pass to the wing. And Kat looked on the wing to see if he was going to have to close out on the shooter.

And Wembe had already been at the basket because he ran to the rim so fast. Kat did not know what was going on. That to me suggests that this Nix defense was disjointed and how they were going to tag Wembe and prevent those lobs. But he had four dunks in game three, which was as many as they had in the first two games combined going to Wembe. He had 11 paint touches in game three, and it was eight in game two, and just six in game one. A, we both were econ guys.

You don't need to have an econ degree to understand the trend line on that graph. Six in game one, eight in game two, and 11 in game three. That trend line is going in the wrong direction if you're the New York Knicks, and that is where the series is going to be decided in game four, is if they're going to be able to continue get that, those downhill attacks for Wemby, get him the ball. And that's why I think Deerrin Fox, while he has lost so much speed, whether that's due to age or due to his ankle injury, he is so important in having another ball handler out there to get Wemby the ball in the places where he's most effective. And yeah,

by the way, the guy who's 7 foot 18, most effective when he's around the basket. I would just like to make the point. I don't think there's anything like more unfair and deceptive than throwing lobs in regular high school games because like this is not something. This isn't the thing that happens all the time, right? Like, you only coming across with so many people who can even do anything about this. Like, I saw a guy get love. One of the guys I went to high school with. He was a really good player.

And he got hit. Somebody threw the live on him and brought it down. And I remember when it happened. Like, I was there and I was watching. And I was like, I don't think it registered with me that he was throwing a live because this was a high school game. Like 30 years ago, high school, it really wasn't these cats out here doing all this stuff. It's like, what are you doing? Throwing an alley-yoop out there.

I would think it was a shot, too. Yeah, I've told Dave before that he has to thank me for Coach K, giving him that offer after that game. So that was that was crazy, man. I thought it was a three. When he took it, it was not part of my vocabulary going into that is like, oh, go tag him and make him bump him so that he doesn't get an easy look at the lob. I went to go box out. And thank God the photographer at that gym in the playoffs was not working the sideline at that point, that baseline because, man, my friends would never let me hear the end of that.

But that is what, like, I wrote that Carl Anthony Towns going into that game two halftime where he's like, he can't do nothing to me. When he was beating his chest about Wemby, it was the opposite. Like, I thought Kat was punking Wembe in game two. And I think the series flipped, and we'll see if it happens in game four. But I think the series flipped that Wemby face-smushed Jalen Brunson and then did all that, in game three and the league also said yeah we're good we're just going to let them play uh i think wemby in a confident zone here and the question is is mckell bridges ogen an o nobie jalen brunson

carlain the towns are they going to do something in game four to not wemby off that pedestal so he's not so confident and comfortable in game four or is it Mitch robinson i remember jacobie saying huck porty should be brought into the game and i think that's the problem is that when you don't have a guy who's out on the floor in those 40 minutes, 48 minutes, willing to do that, I think that says more about your team than having some guy at the end of the bench to goon out there for you. I think the Knicks have to make a statement in game four that they're not going to be punked by Wemby, the guy who's never been in the playoffs before in the final stage, 22 years old is the one doing the punking. All right. Now coming up next, I have a suggestion for the

Knicks as to maybe what they should do there, but also a thought on Carl Anthony Towns that just hit me that I think is really interesting. New York, the weight is over. The Knicks are back in the finals. And with Fanduil, you can cash in on a championship run that's years in the making. Because for a limited time, new Fandual customers in New York get 50 to one odds on the Knicks to win it all. That's right.

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must wager in designated offer market. Max bet $5. For help with a gambling problem, call 1-8-7-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope N-Y 467-367-369. The biggest tournament in soccer is finally here. To make sure you never miss a single moment of the action on the pitch, you need the Apple Sports app. It's a free app that fits perfectly into your everyday life,

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you can display live scores right on your iPhone lock screen to keep up with your favorite teams at a glance. Stay closer to the game. Download the Apple Sports app for free in the app store. All right, we are back with Tom Havistrow. Check out his newsletter, Tom, the fighter. Check him out at Yahoo Sports. I think what is very interesting to me about Carl Anthony Towns

and just the ways that we have perceived him, I've talked on this show before already about how, let's not get revisionist on this. Oh, y'all feel bad what y'all was saying about Carl before? Hell no, go watch some games. We was right then, and then things changed. But things changed so far. Did you ever imagine that there would be a world where Carl Anthony Towns would make it to the NBA finals

and have three straight games where he did not score in the fourth quarter and that we do not pile onto him because of this. In fact, it's a place where we look at the team and we're like, hey, don't you think you guys should get Carl the ball more in the fourth quarter? And you tell me if I'm wrong, but my observation of it is he hasn't gotten the ball because Brunson dribbling the air out of it. Yeah, yeah, here are the numbers on that. Jalen Brunson through three games has dribbled the ball 1,500 times, 1,590 times in three games. Deeran Fox, who's played the same number of minutes as Jalen Brunson, also All-Star point guard this year, he has dribbled the ball not 1,500 times, not even 1,200 times, not even 1,000 times. He has dribbled the ball 802 times.

Okay. 1,590 for Jalen Brunson and 802 in the same number. of minutes. Two totally different approaches. And I think that Jalen Brunson had a rough film session after game three because they talked about it. We're watching film. We got to get back to our spacing, our ball movement. And they're not going to call them out by name. But I think we can all read between the lines. They were talking about Brunson dribbling the air out of the ball, quite literally more than anybody else and more than 700 more dribbles than Deer and Foggles. in this series, and they both have played the same number of minutes.

That to me is a big reason why Carl Anthony Towns was their best player for the majority of this 13-game win streak because of the way he defended and because he was the fulcrum of that offense where he was playing water polo at the high post in the motion offense, the flex offense. That was a total game-changing move by Mike Brown, utilizing Carl Anthony Towns as a pressure release and a lot of the drive for a lot of this run. Carl Anthony Towns was the leader

on the finals team in assists. I don't think we're, it's stressing this enough and emphasizing this enough that Carl Anthony Towns was the leader on a finals team in assist for the long stretch of those postseason games. So I think that is a huge thing

that they're going to have to get back to if they want to flip this series back in control of the Knicks. It's a weird dynamic when your best player is not the king of the city. Right? Like, Golden State was so good during the Durant run that he didn't feel it. But as it got there later and later in that run, they don't talk about it a lot.

But there was, there was times of attention to Steph Curry being like, yo, what do you think I am over here, huh? Like, like, let's not forget that I kind of run this, right? Would never say it out loud, but it's the subtle undercurrent, the baseball example I gave before. Obviously, it's Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. You also have it, like Johnny Bench of Pete Rose was the same thing. But it's a, it's a, when that, when those two titles are. held by the same person. They get interesting, especially when Jalen Brunson is such a good clutch player, right?

That he's that guy and he's one of these guys that kind of at every step of the way of his career. He's been that guy. He's national player of the year at Villanova at that size with all those NBA players, you know, who happen to be on the team. Like they've got to figure out, I think it's that part. Everybody being like, look, man, let's just play, right? Everybody's going to get props if we win it.

Jalen Brunson's going to be Jailen Brunson in New York. York City forever, whether or not he doesn't score any buckets, just as long as they win this, they're going to be okay. Now, I got the solution for the Knicks. The Knicks had the obvious answer on what do you do to shut down Victor. There's never been anybody in the league better at disrupting Victor Wenban Yama and stopping him from getting looks and stopping him from getting the ball than the dude that the Knicks have that nobody's even thinking about. You know who I'm talking about? Who's that, Monty? Cisco. Cisco over there at the end of the bench.

Jeremy was Sohan. Yeah. Yeah. He down there at the end of the bench. Nobody's ever been better to stop him from getting the ball than him. That's all he did when he was in San Antonio would stop Victor from getting the ball. And he clearly don't seem to like him very much. You see him out there. I mean, the atrocity that was point Jeremy Sohan, I don't think was talked about enough in NBA circles. That was when it was like, hey, we got to get pop up out of here, man. Like, he had lost his fastball. I mean, they were playing with their food so much in the early part of Victor Wemann. They thought that Cooper Flagg was Jeremy Sohan. They were like, hey, we think he's going to be a point guard, a big point guard defender in the NBA.

And that was, I think that's stunted so much of what the Spurs could have been. And look, man, like, the Spurs, they know they've got, they've got, they've got Defon Castle and Dylan Harper, which, man, I can't say I've ever seen a rookie Dylan Harper bully a guy like O'GNanobie, all defensive guy, as strong as he is. I've never seen a rookie be able to be that strong around the basket as Dylan Harper. You have to remember, Jalen Brunson, Dylan Harper are both second-gen guys, that they are literally the bloodline of NBA players and they've lived this life, their entire lives, they've been in the NBA world and know what it takes.

And Rick Brunson, I don't know what you thought about that was when he went out on the sidelines to Deerrin Fox because that's a moment we'll never see in the end. Like even if LeBron and Bronny are on the same team, that the opposing coach came out here as a father and got in the face of Deerrin Fox. And see, and that's the thing. Your daddy is not allowed on the court.

You understand what I'm saying? Like either you're going to be the coach or you're going to be dad. But it can't be. And look, the whole, we don't talk enough about just how weird. The whole Rick Brunson thing is. And let me tell you, if things ever go sour with the Knicks and how this is gone, we'll always have to look back when Dante D. Ventino got in that screaming match with them. And it was obvious who he was screaming at was Rick Brunson.

Like the Rick Brunson presence with the Knicks is not nearly as smooth. a thing as I think that we treat it as being. And that moment right there was another reminder. Like, dude, why are you even here? Well, because Jalen Brunson, they needed to get Jalen Brunson. And that helps matters when you can have a guy who literally created that, that human being on your sidelines, on your payroll. And the NBA, I think they've already investigated, like, whether that has been a money laundering

operation that they're just running all. Hey, do we know that Rick Brunson is making $50 million a year to be the assistant coach to Tom Tibito? Apparently not. They have done their due diligence on that. But the point is that Jalen Brunson and Dylan Harper, I think I've talked about it on this show is it's a big reason why I think Camboozer should be the number one overall pick is there's just something about being the nepotism.

on the floor that they get hurt in the draft. Jalen Brunson was a second round pick, right? They get, I guess, docked points on the big board coming into the league as the son of an NBA player. And I think it's unfair. I think that it's a huge reason why Jalen Brunson is being throughout his career, even with the Dallas Mavericks, is they didn't take them as seriously as he is now, is that these guys, they're underrated, criminally underrated.

And Dylan Harper, man, the way that he's played in this postseason run, the way that the entire Spurs, the inexperience and the youth has been their advantage. And I think that's a big reason why right now we're both sitting here being like, I think the Spurs are going to win this thing. The question I would have had about Brunson coming out of college is the question that I think we have about a lot of these guys who are great college players,

but kind of forecast into being good NBA players at best, which obviously Brunson has exceeded. But the question becomes, so if you're not the best player on this team, then how much are we getting from our six, one and a half lead guard? You know what I mean? Like Frank Mason at Kansas would be an example of a guy like that.

You're national player of the year in college. But if we're not giving you the ball and making you that guy in the league, what are you going to turn out to be? but I think Brunson's game is just so, like, sophisticated in the little things. Like, that's the thing that I think a lot of people don't get about high-level basketball, even if you're not talking about NBA players, just guys who play in college. Like, my brother always talks about it used to play pickup against some dude who played college ball. And he said the dude would blow by him every time and he couldn't figure it out.

He's like, yeah, I'm just looking at any shoe and looking for when your toe come up. Right? You know, it's like it's those kinds of things. What they said about Kobe when Kobe was in high school, that Kobe was playing these pickup games against pros and he's elbowing you in the ribs before he cuts out to go catch the pass. They're like, yo, you don't learn that until you get to the NBA. Son of an NBA player. Learn a lot of these things.

Now, sometimes those guys can be a little too refined early so there's not room for growth, which I think may be part of the penalty that those dudes received. But Harper's different because Harper has his dad's athleticism, which you guys who only picked up Rod Harper as the older Rod Harper don't understand. That dude was, that dude, something. it and his son has it. Yeah, man, when we talk, when we talk about Jalen Brunson, I think when you're like, he has this level of footwork and the perseverance and the same thing with Dylan Harper.

You only get that, I think, with a certain confidence that you've been, you know, you've been around NBA locker rooms and you've been not afraid of the moment because you have that level of, I don't know if it's kind of like a intuitive sense or whether it's been taught to you. but Dylan Harper just the his finishing around the rim this season is something you see for a guy in his prime

much in the same way we talk about when Mianama arriving way earlier than many expected Dylan Harper finished around the rim in ways that you thought he was 26, not 20 years old. Now Jalen Brunson in clutch so this is final five minutes game within five in the first three games we've had three clutch games already in the NBA finals

which is crazy. It hasn't happened, I think, in a decade. Jalen Brunson has 12 field goal attempts, and Carl Anthony Towns has zero. Okay. It's not just Bommani that Carl Anthony Towns hasn't scored in the fourth quarter. He hasn't even gotten a shot

in the nine minutes that we've had clutch scenarios in this series. Jalen Brunson has 12, and Carl Anthony Towns has zero. So that is such an interesting stat when you talk about the post-game comments from the team is that, A, he has got a usage rate of nearly 80% in clutch situations. And O.G. Annobe has five shots.

Shaman has won. Mikkel Bridges has won. But when you have more shots than the rest of your teammates combined, including the six-time all-star Carl Anthony Towns, who many believe was the finals MVP heading into game three, not having a single shot in crunch time, that to me needs some correction in game four. on one hand it's like, see, we say this on Brunson.

On the other hand with Carl, that's what we used to be talking about, right? Like the fact he's just not the guy who could come in and be like, hey, enough of the bullshit. Give me the ball. Even if he just give me to me one time, give me the ball. There's nobody in the building that can guard him. That's what we learned in games one and two, is there's nobody who can guard him. And again, I say this all the time. The only person in the league that can guard him is 32 for the Knicks, right?

Like there's never a series where you go into it and Carl's there and you're like, so who's going to guard him? Like maybe Aaron Gordon when they played against Denver when he was in Minnesota, right? Like that was, oh, maybe that guy can guard Carl. There's a reason he's the number one thing. He's physically somebody that nobody should be able to guard. How crazy would it be though if he comes out and Carl Anthony Towns puts up like 40? Yeah.

I mean, I wouldn't put it past him because, I mean, he's that talented. but the issue is they guarded him differently in game three with Stefan Castle out guarding him and Victor Wemagnama was was chilling in the corner or the paint. And you saw in the first couple of games is that Wembe, as long and as mobile he is, Carl Anthony Towns was getting past him, was getting that first step

because he had to close out hard on Carl Anthony Towns. And that's the, it's the pump and go is that when he gets that pump fate because he's a 48% three-point shooter in the playoffs this postseason run, and as he's self-proclaimed, the greatest shooting big man ever, you've got to show on that jumper. And so if you're going to pump fake, Carl's going to blow right by you. And that also pulls Victor Wenbanyama on the perimeter where he's not better utilized.

And so for Victor Wenbanyama and the Spurs, they realize, all right, if they're not going to get him in. in that water polo, I'm going to lead the offense over Stefan Castle. If they're not going to do that, we're going to stick a guard on them. Because Wembe is going to be at that back line. And so Mike Brown and the Knicks have to do a better job of taking advantage and capitalizing on a guard guarding Carl Anthony Towns rather than Victor Wembe Nama. And I think that's where the series switched where I honestly think this series could be Spurs

up 3-0. They're the only team in this series that have had a lead in the final five minutes in all three games. And I, okay. Yeah. That, I just think that Spurs should be, should be feeling like they could be up three O in this series. And the Knicks have to be pretty thrilled that they're up to one. Yeah, like I think people got ahead of themselves in this series with the Carl, I think Town's Dirk comparisons. But Carl is not like 0-607 Dirk in the sense that you can't guard him with little people.

right like he is he is much better equipped dirt eventually got to that point but you can't you cannot guard him with little people right like we're just going to get under here and you know just elbow him and make him uncomfortable underneath with like a stephen jackson or al harrington who are not little but they're little for purposes of this discussion right you can't do that but carl he'll abuse them um but what i do give Mitch johnson credit for after i mean i think Mitch was getting his ass handed to him for the first couple games of this series like Mike brown's a good coach I don't know why people have been so reluctant to acknowledge this at all the stops that he's been in. But he is a good coach. And I think that time in Golden State made him a much better coach

because now he has an offensive game to match up what had always been his strength, which is defense. But I think that the spurs kind of overthought this and they've gone back to what they should have done with Victor, which is him wink, wink, guarding Josh Hart, which is to say him playing zone inside. And if Josh Hart goes four for seven or five for eight from three, it happens. You take that every single. time, I think, while not putting Victor in a position where he's having to play straight up defense, which is

not going to be the best use of him. Totally. And that's really what it's going to come down to is that matchup right there is if Carl Anthony Towns can get back to that and take advantage of Wemby not being on him, and that's going to

require ball movement. That's going to require cutting. Mike Brown talked about it after game three. And at practice is the first action that we had, we had a pass or ball movement and then we just stopped and watched and he didn't say this by name stopped and watched the ball and that's that's what it is is like if you had carl anthony towns with the ball they'd be running actions off ball cutting that's the flex offense that's the motion offense and with jalen brunson being iso ball hero ball so consistently that's where the the cobwebs

come out for the nicks offense is ah this is this is the stuff that that makes me think that their ceiling isn't nearly that high. When Carl Anthony Towns is getting off ball movement and letting Jalen Brunson get rest, because as we know James Hardin and Steph Curry and Luca Donchich, it is exhausting having to play as the sole initiator and creator and dribble that much. And getting him off the ball, I think you're going to get a lot more efficient. Because let's face it, Jalen Brunson, part of the heroics was that he was hitting increasingly difficult shots.

Like some of those shots in game one, nobody had business hitting. It was like Kobe, MJ, and Jalen Brunson had business hitting those shots. And we also have to look at the flip side of that, is that if they're 20-point shots that are going in at a much higher rate, man, when the other shoe drops, we are going to have to hear it about the Knicks offense, and that's what happened after game three. So how do we think this happens in game four, man? Like, the first five minutes to me are going to be so interesting,

though San Antonio has won the first five minutes. really like the first halves of all of these games. I'd said about game three, I thought when the Knicks closed that gap so fast, I was like, oh, that's what the better team does. And then I did not come in the end feeling like they were the better team. I think we're going to see a 40 piece from Wembe, actually.

I think it's not Carl Anthony Towns. I don't even think we've gotten the best of Wembe yet, and I think we're going to see it in game four. And you know, this is, the home court advantage thing has been, I think it's like five straight or four straight on both sides, that

the home team is not one. And so I think that continues in game four. I think the culture, the partying culture, the drinking culture, the body readiness culture that has transformed the NBA over the last 10 years, where you saw OKC celebrating the NBA finals and they were not drinking. They did not know how to open up a bottle of champagne because it is just not part of their lifestyle anymore. I think home court advantage more than anything. We can talk about referees.

and I think that certainly is a part of it, but I think the biggest thing is these guys are drawing in Gramercy Park on their off days rather than trying to do the Charles Barkley thing and going to the club until 3 in the morning to get late. That does not happen in the NBA anymore. And I think the home court advantage for that reason, these guys are just ready to play and not afraid of the moment. Even in game three, we didn't see that the Spurs were afraid at all

in playing at Madison Square Garden in the most. I think pressure-packed moment of their lives. They didn't seem phased at all, Bomania, and I think it's going to be Spurs tying it up to two-two in game four. You're saying this isn't going to be 2012 James Harden, making the most to South Beach. That's right. That's right.

Hey, I know Pat Riley hung up the jersey in the rafters of Michael Jordan in his building, and that's crazy. But there's some clubs that have James Hardin's jersey up there too. James Hardin, like, if it had come down to a game seven, we would look, or not we, but in Miami, they would look at James Hardin, like in Houston, they talk about John Starks. John Starks will never pay for a meal in Houston

as long as he lives for the two for 18, right? And like in a way that people don't look at Nick Anderson that way, right? I guess maybe because of Nick Anderson, it was just game one where he missed those free throws. John Starks, the Iceman, as my whole boy calls him, the Iceman, two for 18 in game seven. Yeah, I did a piece. for Yahoo top 10 nicks of all time, greatest nicks of all time. And I left Starks off of the

list because as much as he has the iconic dunk on MJ and the Bulls defense there, and he was, had clutch moments, but he also had some of the most unclutch Nick Anderson moments that prompted Reggie Miller and everybody else to just not a serious player in the crunch time in game seven certainly. But like when you look at the greatest Knicks of all time, I had Mellow at seven, which I thought I was going to get a lot more flack for. But John Starks was on the list until I had to move it off

because of that performance there in Houston. Yeah. My hot Nick's take is that they need to humble themselves and a team like that, Charles Oakley and John Starks that have their numbers retired by this team. Those are the most beloved teams of the last 50 years.

Their most successful teams, prior to this one, of the last 50 years, and they are central to the identity. of New York Knicks basketball. Look, man, if your name mean enough that you could be the face of a car dealership, feel like you should probably get your jersey

retired. It's all of saying. Is that not the metric? Now, we know they ain't retired in Oaks jersey, no time. No, no. I thought maybe they would break bread and that they would bring out Charles Oakley for a little bit of a boost. Maybe that does happen for game four.

I don't think it does. But, man, Jeremy Lynn being on the jumbo trot, I think we didn't touch about the, president being on the jumbo tron and then uh getting roundly booed but if they had charles oakley at the arena for game four maybe i would change my pick because that that would get the place going i mean marbury's back in the fold and the thing the thing is like it just is it is it really that much of a if you're a nick with us through the bad times we will cheer you no matter what but marbury the fact that it's just like, yeah, we're going to forget about everything with Marbury

and the fact, you know, all the fuse that he had and the and the futility that they had with the Marbury run. And it's just, were you with us? All right, cool. We're going to cheer you on. Like, nothing, like everything was great that you won a championship. And I, when I did that piece, Willis Reed is at two. I got Walt Clive Frazier at one and Pat Ewing at three and Jalen Brunson at four. I can't. The way that they cheer some of these guys, you would have thought that they had two finals MVP's on their belt. You know?

Yeah. But the thing is, all the guys, like, I mean, Wittles Reeds did. Like, all the people that would have been there to cheer for Wittles Reade, by and larger did. Clyde is still there. Clyde, I think, is maybe the most underrated player in the NBA history. That's a discussion for a different day. But Clyde, because of the broadcast, right?

Which even to me, I think, Clyde, I mean, Clyde, I mean, Clyde flasier may be the coolest player in the history of the NBA. Like, you go and look at the pictures of Clyde from 1968, 1970. Clyde's like Derek Jeter. I don't know how you came. Clyde's from Atlanta and then went to Southern Illinois

and somehow you set foot in New York City, ready. Like, I know exactly what, just give me a little time to get my gear up and I'm going to be here ready. That's Clyde Frazier. Even if Jalen wins this title, I don't think you can pass while Clyde Frazier. And it's just the greatest mix of all time. I don't think you pass, maybe you pass Pat,

just because Jalen was able to win one and Pat did not. Willis Reed, two finals MVP's and Walclad Frazier. I mean, I know people got ahead of themselves going into this series and saying if he wins one man, he's going to be the goat, the goat nick of all time. I don't see it that way. And I feel like it's a disservice to the legacies and what they did in the 70s for them to believe

that they're going to be able to, him to surpass what they did for the Knicks. When we talk about great point guards, somehow we ignore one of the rare point guards that you could argue was the best player on championship team. And if you give it to read in 70, he was hurt in 70 during that series. And Clyde put up 36 and 17 or whatever it was in game seven. And Clyde was probably their best player when they played and they won it in 73. But when the great point guard list comes, because we don't remember anything that happened before 1981, Clyde's the one that's always left off.

And you would think that in a NICS, like with the New York media, that that wouldn't be possible. And the most famous broadcaster in the NBA, I'm talking game broadcasts, not talking about Charles, that he would have more credibility in terms of those lists than he does. He's never brought up. He's never brought up as one of the best point guards of all time. Also, giant man. Like the idea that that man was playing point guard back then, which he'll remind you of big God. that's the first one.

He also told me because Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, I was talking to him about this. This is like almost 15 years ago when I made Clyde. And he was like, you know, Clyde used to have a tires. They wouldn't white walls. They was white tires. Right? And I asked Clyde about it.

And he was like, yeah, man, the gangster whites. You know, people would be like, man, what's going to happen? You go, you know, mess them up on the curve. He was like, I just double part. Oh. and by the way, I didn't ask him this question. He just wanted to make sure that I understand. Claude Strait, Claude Frasier, points where he was.

Oh, my God. That's so good. I mean, just larger than life figure and everything that you would want in an NBA player. Like, he was the mold, right? Like, that is, when you talk about that these guys become so much larger celebrities in basketball than you can be possibly in football. And I know we haven't even talked about this part of it, but like Wemby still hasn't hit the commercial success that is about to follow.

I don't know if he wants that, but if he wants to be on every billboard in America, I mean, the whole French thing might throw some brands, you know, for a loop, but like he hasn't even, he hasn't even left the station when it comes to how big of a marketing superstar he could be. Just you wait till 2028 when he's carrying the French flag at the Olympic

open his ceremonies and then he comes to exact revenge on us all here it's coming in america cried tears in 24 let us not forget that he he does not forget that's one thing we know about victor wemnon yama it's all up there and he knows i think he knows that um until mitch robinson or somebody else says otherwise i think he knows that they're not going to touch them and that's and that's why I think this is uh this is going to be game four for the spurs is if it hasn't happened yet uh I'd imagine that maybe maybe the Knicks with their physicality that they could do it against the calves or they could do it against Philly where they played 16 games together with all four those all three of those guys uh I think this is a different

level for the spurs is um yeah I think physicality wise the spurs have the big advantage three games beware of Cisco. He could make the difference. Tom Habistro, check him out. Yahoo Sports. Check out his newsletter. Tom, the finder. My brother, I appreciate you. Thank you, Bo.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the right time. We do this four days a week. Ryan Brumley and everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line 3-2-3-3-9-667-67. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. The only one, give us four stars.

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