The Ringer NBA Show - All-Star Recaps, a Dunk Contest Controversy, and Dame D.O.L.L.A. | Heat Check

Episode Date: February 17, 2020

Instant Replay: John Beilein is reportedly not long for the Cavaliers, and we recap the All-Star events from Friday and find out who is the league's best one-on-one player (03:50). The Main Event: The skills competition results, the 3-point contest shockers, and Team LeBron taking the All-Star Game by a single free throw (17:58). Good Call/Bad Call: Honoring Vince Carter, controversial billboards for the Kings, and Bam Adebayo's strange training drill (38:44). Host: John Gonzalez Guests: Haley O'Shaughnessy, Dan Devine, Micah Peters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey guys, it's Liz Kelly. We have a new podcast launching this week exclusively on Spotify with Chris Ryan and Chuck Loosterman called Music Exists. Here's the trailer. Hello, this is Chris Ryan. I'm an editor at The Ringer.com. Hello, this is Chuck Losterman. I'm a friend of Chris Ryan and The Ringer. And this is Music Exists, a podcast where we talk about how we think about music.

Yeah, this is not a podcast where we tell you what music to listen to or we necessarily comment on what's happening in the culture. now or what you should be listening to tomorrow before your friends do. This is a podcast about thinking about music, even when it's not playing. Yeah, how does music shape the world you see around you, the world you feel around you? How does it make you feel about yourself? Yeah, particularly if the music that makes you feel things about yourself is Steely Dan or Black Sabbath. Or Radiohead. Yeah, that happens. That comes up a lot.

Music exists, a podcast about Radiohead. Available exclusively on Spotify. I'm your host John Gonzalez joined as I am every week by my producer Steve Alman who I will wish a belated happy Valentine's Day and a happy current president's day. My Valentine's Day is now complete. Thank you, Gans. This is why I feel like you're maybe an FDR guy. Oh yeah.

Calvin Coolidge. I don't know. I get some weird harding vibes from you. Wonderful to see you. Thanks to everybody for listening. A reminder to please rate and review us and read all of our great NBA content on the ringer.com. We have a staff post up there from our top 25 players so far this season.

Powell wrote a piece about the winners and losers from the All-Star Game, which I have takes. Haley's already here. You have thoughts on the All-Star game. You were very excited about it. I have corrections to your takes. Yeah, we're going to get into that. Don't go anywhere. You sit right there.

We're going to bring Haley back in just a second. Zach Cram wrote about the All-Star game being fun as hell. Again, was it? Was it fun as hell? I have some thoughts on this. We're going to discuss it. Haley's already rolling her eyes at me. Way ahead of schedule on that.

Coming up later in the show, Micah Peters will join us to discuss All-Star Weekend, the dunk contest, and Dame Dala, which, as everybody knows from last week's show, I am very excited about. But first, let's review the latest news from around the league and bring in, normally I would say bring in our regular contributors, Haley and Dan.

Haley's already here, so we'll just bring in Dan. Boom, Shackalaka. He's heating up. He's on fire. All right, as we established, one of them is already in studio. Haley is sitting right next to me. normally one would be way across the country in our NYCHQ. Instead, I don't know where you are right now, Dan Devine.

He's sitting on the floor in a spare bedroom and a wonderful photo of his in-laws behind him. Dan, where are you? You're your in-laws, I presume. Yeah, yeah. It would be really weird if I was just like in a holiday inn, but there was a photo of my in-laws behind me. Yeah, it would be random. No, I am in, yeah, I'm in the back bedroom at my in-laws place sitting on a floor between two twin beds. Really just like unbelievable stuff.

But this is the extent that I'll go to to make sure that we get the content going on. So I'm here for you. I'm here for Haley. He's a really nice face. He's a gamer. He's a good face behind me. There's a lot of cool stuff here. Ask them about how attached they are to that.

You know what, Haley, I can just not ask anything and just like grab that. Just take it with you. Put it under the coat. We're off to a hell of a start. Let's review some headlines from around the league with NBA instant replay. All right, so we're going to talk all things All-Star weekend in just a second. But first, we'll start with John Beeline, Shams Sharneya from the athletic reporting that he is not expected. The Cavaliers head coach is not expected to remain with the Cavaliers beyond this season.

He might even possibly resign, which WTF on that one, he signed a five-year contract. Why would he do that? You may recall from earlier in the season, there was a controversy where he was accused of calling his players thugs. He claimed that he called them slugs. Either way, not good. things are not going great in Cleveland. They only won 19 games a year ago. This year they have won 14 games.

Haley O'Shaughnessy, thoughts on John Beeline's tenure seems limited with the Cavaliers. It's been so difficult for me to not make a joke all this time about his possible quick exit. And his last name is Beeline. I can't go to that level of dad joke yet, but it's been really difficult for that. You've been thinking about it, though. Dan Devine, our resident dad, joke enthusiast. What say you about John Beeline possibly leaving and possibly resigning despite the fact that he's got a five year, four more years after this? I did the math. Yeah, it checks out, Gons. You're our

statistician. If you are going to be bad at a thing, get fired and get the whole amount of money for being bad at the thing, right? Like, in fairness, it's not like John Beeline can't be a basketball coach. He's been a very good one for many years. But this just, everything about this circumstance just screamed like it's going to get worse before it gets better. You had established veterans like Kevin love Tristan Thompson, you know, guys that have been around for a while, all of a sudden, they're supposed to be listening to a first time NBA head coach that is like coming out with college stuff. They immediately bucked back at that.

You have a bunch of young guys that are figuring out how to play together, Darius Garland and Colin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr. All these young guys trying to figure out how to get in where they fit in. And they're not trying to hear a college coach anymore either because they're out of that. Like nothing about what was there this year felt like it was going to knit together well. And then it just exploded. And now, I mean, you're talking about a team that is, I think they've been outscore. by almost nine points per hundred possessions this season,

second worst in the league behind Golden State. They're awful on both sides of the court. It's time to figure out a next move. But yeah, the next move if I was John B-line would be to say, like, well, if you guys want to let me go, let's make sure that the part of my contract that allows me to get the remaining four years of my deal is honored as I head out the door.

I'll pack up my belongings, but I'm going to need a gold box to do it. Yeah, I want that money, please. But here's how much I care about the Cavaliers coaching situation. That's enough of that. and we're going to move on to the Friday All-Star weekend. Did you guys watch any of the Friday All-Star weekend? I did not because it was Valentine's Day and I enjoy being married because my wife is very talented and it also keeps the lights on. So I had to put in some time.

It's not me. She pays for all of that stuff. I don't even have a car. I borrow her car. So I didn't watch Celebrity Friday or The Rising Star Game. I did, however, read the news about it. So I saw that Wilbon and Steve and A were the coaches for the celebrity game. I saw, you know, common popped up because as Steve mentioned, it was in Chicago.

Steve, you're our resident Chicagoan. Did you watch the celebrity game on from your home city? I did. It's usually a poor display on all accounts. But it was fun? Was it? I mean, sure. This was my question for all of it.

My question's going to be, was it? Apparently they determined who was going to tip off in the celebrity game by pulling tissues out of a tissue box? Did you see this? I'm not making this up. It was like a fever dream where I was like, did I think I'm making this up? So they determined who was going to get first possession by, they had two people, and I'm not even sure who it was, just pulling tissues out of a tissue box as fast as they could. And the first one who finished that, that team got the ball. Budget cuts. But I mean, we tell you all the race. Budget is big cuts. She knew exactly. So for the rising stars game, RIP Memorial Jackson Hayes and Matisse Thibel, who did not participate.

It was USA versus the world. Zion and a bunch of other players met President Obama, which was fun. Joth threw down, Joth threw an al-Upe to Zion, a half-court alley-up. Zion dunked so hard, he bent the rim. There was a gift that went around of Trey Young and Luca loving on each other when Luca hit a half-court shot. And then, sadly, the Knicks did not give Luca a bunch of scratch-lotto tickets for that. Booh. The thing, speaking of booze, Dan Devine, excellent transition by you. Your guy, R.J. Barrett, got booed for fouling Zion and not surrendering a dunk, the fans did not like that. Dan Devine, since you booed, thoughts on RJ making what would be otherwise the correct basketball play in a not basketball game

environment. Well, first thing, I just really have to take to task everybody in Chicago. This is why NBA ratings are down. You want to see real competition. You want to see people going after it, playing hard defense, playing smart, analytically inclined basketball. You're not going to give Zion the high percentage shot like that. Respect RJ Barrett and his basketball acumen. Chicago. No, of course. Of course. Eddie, the life that flashes in front of your eyes when somebody tries to wrap up Zion dunking in an exhibition game. It's like, no, no, no, everybody get out of the way, forever. Everybody all the way out of the way. I respect what you were going for. And that's your buddy, your pal from Duke. But like, no, no, no, wrap him in bubble wrap.

Everybody give him a wide berth and let him go explode for fun dunks. Like, stop it, R. DeBarrett. I feel like Dan might be a little too close to this situation. So I ask you, Haley. We know that Jaws good. We know that Zion is good. What do we know about RJ? I have a history of takes of not great projections from me for RJ. You're not on board with RJ. This is why I knew the Knicks were going to take him. Wild ass shooter.

Wild ass shooter. I think it was on group chat last year, but I was like, have you guys ever heard of Earl Clark who was a Louisville player? Like a decade ago? I made a comparison. But, I mean, yeah, when he's hot, he's hot. But the thing is that he's not going to be hot all the time, like probably rarely. Not going to be hot all the time.

I'm not sold on RJ. He's not very efficient, but we'll see what happens with him moving forward. Other things from All Star Weekend, Aaron Gordon, who will get to when we bring in Michael Peters to discuss a wild-ass.

You want to talk about wild-ass? Wild-ass dunk contest from the weekend. He was asked during media availability who the best one-on-one player was. Thought that was interesting. I wanted to throw it up to you guys. He mentioned KD., Kauai, Janice Harden.

No votes for LeBron. Didn't mention Kyrie or Dame or Steph. Dan Devine, who's the best one-on-one player in the league right now? I think I would take a healthy KD over anybody else just because there's nothing you can do to bother his shot at a certain point. And his ability to get wherever he wants to go and let the shot go would probably overtake anything else. Plus, he could send your shit back because he's like 7 foot 9 with 35 foot limbs.

Like, I think the idea of him on both sides of the court works for me. Haley, you're nodding enthusiastically. Are you KD too? Yeah, because KD has everything else that the others have shooting ability-wise, but is a lot longer. It's hard to say that because one-on-one is literally where Hardin has made his money. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, are we just going to skip over one of the greatest players, if not the greatest player of NBA history? LeBron James gets no, but we're not even going to mention him here.

We've seen Kevin Durant go on one with LeBron James, and it's worked out pretty well for Katie in a couple of finals. The shade thrown at the king. I'm not sure I like it here. No, you know how much I love LeBron James. How much do you, not enough to mention him in the one-on-one conversation, apparently. One-on-one means the entire half court. Katie has better shooting range. All right.

He does. I feel like we've glossed our stats. Stats for the hypothetical conversation. Every time I want to win an argument, I'm just going to say stats. Fantastic. I like it. I would really love a drop of Haley yelling stats. I feel like if we can get a clean drop of that, that would be dynamism.

It's done. It's done. Let's get on that. Stats. Speaking of stats, we mentioned Zach Kramm at the top of the show. Another Zach Levine was in All-Star mode this weekend. He was also asked some very interesting questions. He was on first take.

And while he was on first take, the crowd behind them started chanting fire Gar-Pax. They are not on board with Gar-Forman and John Pax. And apparently during All-Star Weekend, there was a billboard that went up that said Fire Gar-Pax. And a fan right before All-Star break wore 86 Gar-Pack jersey to the last home game, which I thought was very creative. Those two have been running the front office in tandem since 2009.

They are on pace to miss the playoffs for the third straight season in the fourth time in five years. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the front office, is unlikely to continue beyond this season and that, quote, ownership is gathering information on replacements. Haley, do you like this? Is it time for them to break these two up? Is it time?

I know you said in tandem since what? 2009. 2009, but this has been happening before. I mean, in 06, John traded Lamarcus Aldridge for Tyrus Thomas. This has been going on a long time. But I genuinely, like, I hear the reports, but I don't think anything's going to happen. Last year, Jerry Reisner's son, Michael, who's the team president, had this really bizarre interview, I think with the Tribune where he basically said that he didn't expect any changes

anytime soon. And he said, we need to have patience with the rebuild. It's only our second rebuild. People act like it's our millionth rebuild. I don't know how you can differentiate between which rebuild it is when it's just like a longstanding rebuild that's been going on for years. Yes, it's definitely time. It's been time. But I mean, you know, we saw Ernie Grunfield. If you have the owner's support. Rebuilding in perpetuity. You can survive for years. It's interesting that you mentioned that, Dan. I was going to ask you. would you rather have NICS ownership and front office or the Bulls? And as an addendum to that, Forbes is reporting that the Nix have, quote, strong interest

in Villanova head coach Jay Wright. Thoughts on that? Sure. The fuck. Why not? Yeah, I have strong interest in a lot of things that are great, too. Jay Wright has won a lot of games at Villanova and he's built a powerful system there. Sure.

Let's find out how exactly is the ownership making that higher or is a general manager making that higher? Is the general manager that the Knicks have right now going to remain the general manager next season? If you're asking me which ownership group I'd rather have between James Dolan and Jerry Reinsdorf? Tough call. It's tough call.

Like, you know, James Dolan has a hockey team that's won some things and Jerry Ryansdiff has a baseball team that's won some things. I feel like it's asking me, like, which would you rather have get hit in the head by a cement truck or get hitting the balls by a ball peat hammer? And I'm like, neither one of them is very fun. So I think I'll say no on both of them. That was very specific.

That sounds like it happened. Yeah, that sounded like. Like allegedly. I mean, like hypothetically, I'm not going to talk about what happened during my Valentine's Day weekend, but like whatever, you know, whatever it works for you guys. Shit got crazy. Colleen and I did a puzzle, but you're getting hit by some Ed trucks. Last one for his very romantic Valentine's Day puzzle. Last one for you from All-Star Weekend, Russell Westbrook, fascinating. He's doing his media interview and he says, no, he's no longer letting the media control narratives about him. This is a quote, just over the years for me, I've allowed sometimes the media to let them create. narratives of myself and I protected myself by communicating and I'm no longer allowing that. So that's it. So he did not issue this statement on Twitter. He did not issue the statement on Instagram. He issued this statement about not letting the media control his narrative to the media during media availability at All Star Weekend. The irony is so delicious. Russell Westbrook, I have nothing else to say about him except for he's incredible. I think he was, I mean,

if someone's saying something to me, I just want them to look me in the eye and say, you're not doing this anymore. You know, like, that's the best way to do it. If you do it on Twitter, it's, you're avoiding the problem. He was literally, this is so Russell Westbrook, and here I am creating a narrative again, to look at them in the eye and be like, you guys aren't going to do this to me anymore. He's had a really, I mean, that's probably really tough to be in the spotlight and have a personality. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Are you taking Russell Westbrook's side versus the media when you're in the media? This is very unusual. Always. I will always take Russell Westbrook's side. Always. I have, even when people were like triple

doubles, his aren't real because of the rebounds. I will always take aside. Also, I'm not in the media. Wait, what? No. Wait a minute. I got a couple of things here. One, he plays for the Rockets. You play for Team Ringer, which is in the media. No, it's in my contract. That's it. You're out. She's a freelancer. She's independent.

That's a wild, talk about wildest takes. That's a wildest take. That's a wildest media. I'm just an observer on the side. She's an entity unto herself. That's an incredible We've got more coming up. That was NBA instant replay before we go to the main event and bring in Michael Peters. A quick break for a word from our sponsors. Today's episode of The Ringer NBA show is brought to you by Microsoft Teams. Hey, NBA show fans, we all know meetings.

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So, like, you have to go to some kind of early meeting when you wouldn't normally be there that early, and then you've gone to a meeting that probably wasn't even about you, and then you've got to sit around for a long time. I'd give anything to have Microsoft teams, because then I could just pull up my computer, and now I'm part of the meeting, and I don't have to be down at the,

the office for the meeting that wasn't about me anyway. Learn more about how to improve your work efficiency at Microsoft.com slash teams. That's Microsoft.com slash teams. All right, joining us in the studio. He's our resident music and dunk contest expert. It's Michael Peters. What the fuck is going on? What is that, buddy?

Let's go right to it. Let's go right to the main event. Which main event? The game itself. That's like his interest. That's his, that's his, that's his segment. That's the segment you're on, Micah. And there's a music break.

Micah clearly is a big fan of a giant heat check fan. I listen to our reddish, heine, connoisseur. The new transition should be Micah saying, you know what's a main event? You know what? You know, you know, you know why I had to, I had to fuck his shit out real quick is because you're wearing an A.S. Roma hat, and I can't abide that. I got it in Rome, surprisingly enough. I liked it.

And everybody thinks it's a Raiders hat. You got it in Rome. Give my regards to the Rockefellers. I like the hat. Like everybody mistakes it for the Raiders. Whatever. All right. We got to run through the All-Star weekend.

Skills competition is a thing that happened. Jason Tatum was the defending champ. I had no idea about that. He said he was going to win and then retire from the skills competition. Naturally, he got bounced in the first round by Sabonis. Bam, beat Sabonis. and that happened. Three-point contest.

They instituted this new thing, the Mountain Dew Zone, which was a farther three-point shot. But he healed won that one. Congrats to him, because who knows if he'll retain his starting spot. There was Bogdan Bogdanovich starting over him for a while. I want to get to the actual game.

The actual game was, and we're going to get to the Dunn contest and Dame Dahl in a second. Those were the two things that I was most interested in from the weekend. But the actual game, the first three quarters happened Team LeBron was down nine points that came back to win. Kauai won the

now newly named Kobe Bryant MVP award. The game ended on an Anthony Davis free throw and everybody seemed very excited about it. I'm going to let you guys go first on this. What do you mean everyone seemed very excited about it? By the way, Chris Paul threw down an alley-oop. Chris Paul can dunk.

There was so much fun shit going on in the game. There was amazing things going on in the game and I'm sorry this is your podcast. It's our podcast. It's our podcast. He checks a family, Haley Steve, will you cut that so I can listen to it? It ended on a free throw, yes, but if you want it to be a competitive game,

this is what happens. People are fouling. I think this is a good thing. So what, it ended on a free throw? That's how basketball happens. Now it's realistic basketball. Seconds ago, you were, it was a kumbaya feeling.

And now you were like anger yelling at me about how I maybe, I haven't even expressed my opinion on the game yet. I'm going to get to it in a second. This is my love language. I brought you in for this. What did you think of the new format? She was just like, you had me fucked up here, here and here.

I enjoyed the fourth quarter of the game. Like, I mean, like, definitely the... Because, I mean, like, it's the end of, like, any pickup game where, like, maybe you were fucking around for it before. And then, like, at the end, it's just kind of like, all right, is it twos or threes? Are they, like, are we winning by one or two? Like, everybody is suddenly concerned about the rules. Like, I think I was thinking about, like, like, James Hardin and Kyle Lauer going at...

Like, Kyle Lauer was trying to take. charges. Yeah, yeah. And then, like, I mean, it was one play where James Harden, like, slashed inside and had, like, a free layup and then just winged it to the corner to Chris Ball to hit a three. Like, and it's just kind of like, everybody's hunting threes at this point. It was, it was fun. Like, it was a good time. Dan, you go again. And then I'll express how I feel about this. I mean, I think, well, for you, the, the Kyle Lowry point, I'm like, finally, we have justification for Kyle Lowry being in a goddamn All-Star game. Like, I love him, I love him as a performer, but what he does doesn't necessarily translate into this format.

But now it does, which is great. Like the first half, they make the whole plane out of Trey Young. And then in the last six minutes, you need some Kyle Lowry in there taking charge. It's beautiful. But yeah, I mean, I feel like every time that people got overly excited about this one way or the other, I was like, since when do y'all give this much of a shit about the All-Star game? Like, yeah, try different things. Play it in ones and twos.

I don't care. You have to win on a step back. Who gives your shit? It's fine. Are they, is everybody having fun and are we seeing, like, the best players compete to the best of their abilities? And that's what that last six, seven minutes was. That's what everybody wants to see out of this game. Who's on the court in those last five, six, seven minutes,

and who winds up mattering in that most sort of moment when the passions are up. And that's like that sort of sets the template for what, you know, what you pay attention to going forward and like sort of who is relevant in the league at a given moment. I think that's kind of dope. And then it wound up. Yeah, if you, if you clean up the can't end on a free throw thing, that's cool. If he's got to be win by two, if it's a free throw, whatever, I don't care. But like, yeah, try something new.

Who gives a shit? Who gives a shit is the general right take on this? And I think you just solved my problem. like ending on a free throw sucked. I was like, what? This was so fun. The fourth quarter was fun. I was really enjoying myself.

And then they just were like, oh, he made a free throw. I got a question. I got a question, though. What would you have referred it to end on? Something not, there wasn't a free throw. So you don't have an actual suggestion. Well, I just, I was just wondering. Dan's point about you got to end on a free throw, you got to win by two or something.

That would have been great. Okay. I don't know what the final score was. You can still win by two. Maybe they already didn't win by two. I don't know what the first. final score was because I just so you're saying you want NFL overtime rules for the all-star game like if you score if you if you win the game on a free throw you then have to like

the other chance it can't end on a free time but like from the three point line a shootout like one-on-one from the three-point line the game is tied it could be one-on-one I don't I don't know what it is but yeah maybe it is maybe it is one or one maybe we do something wild like that you still have like shootouts like that in MLS where they just like start from the halfway and it just be one player one-on-one with the keeper. Like, it used to happen. That was a thing. God bless the MLS.

They are trying so hard. This is why we brought Micah in because his wide range of knowledge is important here, which brings us to the dunk contest. You are a dunk contest enthusiast. What a dunk contest. I was having a conversation about this all weekend. Maybe because of the intrigue with the judges

and what Dwayne Wade was doing and, like, Roger Sherman. Absolutely, the thing that, like, I've, the more so than any dunk that happened during the dunk, Dundk Contest, I remember Dwayne Wade and his, you know, raspberry mockneck and like his, and his, and his Michael Cain glasses, realizing the exact moment when he could fuck everything out. When he could just hand it to Serg Joe Jr. He was just like, ooh, like the GIF is there. I can't wait to get, like, it's going to get, I'm going to get so much mileage out of it because he's just like,

ooh, I can do this. So Derek Jones Jr. is your dunk contest champion. shouts to Archbishop Carroll and Radner outside of Philadelphia, but controversial. Like apparently all dunks are 50s now, although those two guys, Aaron Gordon and Derek Jones, Jr., deserved a lot of these.

But Roger Sherman, our colleague and teammate, Roger Sherman, screamed about the conflict of interest that you mentioned with Dwayne Wade, because Dwayne Wade, apparently at the end the judges had decided that they'd gone back and forth for so long that they were just going to declare it a tie. And somebody somewhere screwed it up, according to Ramona,

Shelburne from ESPN. She had just spoken to Common, who told ESPN, we thought it was, that's the correct response. We thought it was going to be tied. We were like, this is a tie, but somebody didn't do it right. I don't know who it is. I think I know who it is.

Common is the media. He's in the media, but you're not. Common is in the media. Okay. What did we think about the, let's go to the verdict first before we talk about the actual dunks. What do we think about the verdict here?

Did we deserve to have a winner declared? Would we have been pissed off if it had been a tie? It was a fun dunk contest. both were incredible. I mean, like, on some fundamental level, we all want to see a little bit of blood. Like, I think somebody had to lose. But, like, and now we can argue about it forever.

That's great. Right. Actually, we are all losers because Aaron Gordon, after the dunk contest, after losing for a second time in Justly, was like, I'm never doing this again. And that is a huge loss for us all. Yeah, this feels like it might be, you know, you can make the argument for being right in the moment,

but you're on the wrong side of history that we're going to end with Aaron Gordon not having whatever the trophy is. I can't conjure the image in my brain, but whatever, you know, that, that pelt on his wall. Like, he should be considered that way. And now it's going to be like he was, he was maybe the best player ever to do this over the whole of his career. Although he had that one weird ass drone dunk that didn't work out a few years ago.

Yeah. I was there for that. That was like, yeah, I was that in New Orleans? Yeah, that was in New Orleans. That was really a disappointing outing out. I believe the kids call that big trash. I believe that's what the phrase for that is. Because he came the next, like, like,

after he, you know, did the scoop thing over, like, the Philly Fanatic or whatever and did all these, like had all these amazing acrobatic dunks one year and then comes the next year and he's just like, props. I'm into props this year and fucked everything up. Well, I mean, but this one, though, like, he was, he was incredible in this dunk contest. He brought out Chance multiple times, which, you know, say what you want about Chance. We were talking about Chance earlier and Haley was just crushing Chance. Do you want to crush Chance now? She said that you would. I think the best tweet that I saw about Chance over the weekend is that Chance the rapper plays

basketball like he raps. You're going to have to go into further detail on that one for Gons. Yeah, well, he is, how to describe it? Basically, everything on his body moves in the wrong direction. Like, it's,

like, I really don't, like, it's just kind of, like, he's just so haptic and, like, yeah, exactly, asynchronous. Everything is just like, just limbs, a thicket of swaying limbs, just moving around, like, and being happy, like, which is great. That's what your music sounds like.

But, like, you know, I don't want you playing for, like, that's like having a negative player on your team. Like, if I pass the ball to you and, like, I don't know what's going to happen. Instead of shit talking, he just says, my wife. I mean, this is, this is, I didn't expect us to devolve into a conversation about Chance rapper, but here we are. But they brought him out. Aaron Goran brought him out multiple times. That was less impressive than some of the other stuff. He also used Markell Foltz. I thought he should have won just for that incorporating Markle Foltz. But at the end, he ended up losing after dunking on Taco

Fall, who's 7 foot 5. I don't know where you guys are on this. I thought it was very impressive. Also Taco Fall wearing vertical stripes, Powerflex. What did you guys think about? Dan Devine, let's go to you. What did you think about the Taco Fall prop? Yeah, one of my favorite things is when people are like, well, you didn't really get all the way over the seven foot five guy. It's like, dude, did you say he got over the seven foot five guy? Like, are you kidding me? He took the ball up the back of his neck and then went up over the top of him. It's like, yeah, but he didn't clear him clean.

I'm like, all right, man. I don't know. If you're not happy with that, I don't know, like, the man flew. I don't know what we're mad about. It didn't look as, as impressive at the end as some of the other ones that he did. Like, the one hand off the backboard from Fultz and swinging it all the way around was one of the both, like, beautiful and clean lined things I've ever seen in the competition.

And so you end on a lesser note than you had earlier on. But I mean, yeah, if what he did over the balance of the competition wasn't enough to win it, then like, I don't know. I'm not exactly sure what we're looking for in that situation. Actually,

that has been Eric Gordon's problem is like sequencing, like his, like his dunks. Like, I feel like he would do better in the dunk contest if he like saved like the, like the rap around more hopeful, like for like later. But the last one was just that they just,

they just told him to do it. He had to make it up on the spot. Wasn't that true? Yeah, Dan's not it. Dan's no, Dan knows all. This is correct. They were running out of dunks because they had to keep going. And Taco was not planned. He said he was scared for his life.

It was so cute. They just brought him out of the side and he was like, stand here. I'm going to dunk on you. And he's like, what? I don't know what you're talking about, but he did it. And Aaron Gordon pulled it off. And they still lost. This is the dunk that Aaron Gordon lost on where Wade, Chadwick Boseman and Pippen all gave him nines.

I'm so disappointed. Collusion. Who are you most disappointed. I was disappointed in Chadwick. I was disappointed in Chadwick Boseman's hair. Really? What did you, where did this dunk contest,

that's our resident dunk contest historian? I think it might have been the great, because of the intrigue, because of the dunks, because of the straight... Are you going to compare it to Dominie Wilkes and Michael Jordan in 1980s? It's one of the great dunk contests of all time.

It's in the conversation. It might be the greatest. It really is way the fuck up there. It's what up there because of the intrigue? Like, not only, Derek Jones Jr. was out of his mind. And Aaron Gordon was also out of his mind. These guys were going 50 for 50 till the end. And then on top of that, you've got this stupid Dwayne Wade controversy that we'll remember forever.

And Shadwick Boseman's hair. Come on. This is great. It is great. Common was there. I mean, like, it has to be up there with, top three of all time. It's up there with Jordan and Neek. And then Zach Levine and Aaron Gordon and now Aaron Gordon and Derek Jones Jr.

And Eric Gordon, we will not see again in the dunk contest probably. Aaron Gordon sucks. You know how to make sure that this mistake doesn't happen in the future? What? You need to have assholes as your judges. Who aren't, who are not scared. Good assholes. Good assholes.

Good assholes. We make an entire panel of Gary Payton's. Who aren't scared to, if a dunk is, you think something greater is coming. Okay, then give it a 47. Don't give it a 50. Save something. This was what Roger was saying. all over Twitter and in Slack

that the 50s are way too liberal and then at the end they were like oh now we're getting all these 50s now what the hell do we do and so they graded him on a curve even though he dunked over Taco Fall like it was I don't know I don't know what you do about the 50s either but I thought it was one of the best dunk contests we've seen in a while

we haven't even talked about your guy Dwight Howard who Haley's man Let's absolutely not call him my guy No he's absolutely Ace Blue. Dwight Howard. Oh my God.

I'm locking out. He brought out, look, the Superman Cape was like, but the fun part was that he brought out Jimmy or Nelson. I'm a Jamir Nelson guy from way back, and I thought it was really cool that he brought him out. But the rest of it, he had a statue of Liberty dunk that 360 got a 49 somehow. I don't know. Pat Connaton, some people thought Pat Conantin got robbed as well.

I just liked that he did the white men can't jump Billy Hoyle thing. Like, that's fine. You did that, and now you can go. because it was fine. In fairness, you were kind of like walking where Chase Budinger walked before, but still, like, there are only so many options when you are like the random inserted white dude into the competition. I feel where you're coming from. Also, if DJ Collid can't say your name, you must be doing something right.

DJ Collid, yeah, he was like, I don't know how to say your last name. And then he said his last name. You can literally sound it out. If you can't pronounce that. If I ever meet DJ Collet, I'm going to be like. I just don't know how to start to pronounce that. sorry that took sorry to that man it was really great yeah um one more all-star weekend thing that i wanted to run past you guys dame dala had as much anticipated at least for me appearance uh where he performed

he did not he did not play in the game because he was out with a groin injury he was replaced replacing the three-point contest and the game by devon booker but he did perform as dame dala which is an acriman that stands for different on levels the lord allows mike i want to ask you about this because different on levels the lord allows he's taking some artistic license using the on in the acronym, but not the the, but he performed in a Mamba Forever jacket, little Wayne came out. What'd you think of the Dame Dala performance?

It was fine. I mean, like, the thing is that, like, it's, I feel about the Dame Dalla performance, like I feel about Dame Dalla's music. I mean, it's... You gave us a breakdown of chance. What I mean is that, like, it's, like, Dame, like, Dame, like,

Dame Dalla never rises above the level of, oh, cool, you rap. Like, I mean, he's, it's very, like, it's technically proficient. Like, it's, like, it's musically accomplished. You have, like, you know, features from Wayne and, like, probably one from Pusha T down the line. He did that commercial was for a, oh, and push a T, whatever.

Like, and he's talking about, like, maybe we have a collaboration. And I mean, like, God bless, you know, if you want to get outwrapped. Like, it's just, like, it's, I, he's, it's, it's fine. But, but this is my, fine is better than we've seen from 99. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Isn't he probably the best athlete rapper ever? I mean... What's the list, though, right? Yeah, like, what is the list? It's like Shaq and Iverson for like a minute and a half. It's Shack, Iverson for a minute and a half. Are you guys forgetting that Master P made two NBA teams? Master P made the rafters in the Hornets.

He doesn't count because he was a rapper who played some basketball, not a basketball player who wraps. Why? Because we're talking about primary athlete. That's why. You're bringing up something else. This is like, don't bring up MasterPee like I didn't think about that. What are you talking about? You didn't think about.

I thought about that. Okay. Hey, Mike has never stopped thinking about Master P. Get some respect. But, all right. This is sexes. Everyone's taking my ideas. This whole show.

Wow. This is sexism. Well, I'm chasing. Well, we run this show right off the rails. No, no, no, no. All right. I'm going to go back to what the thing that I'm, was saying before.

God damn. All right. So this is the, like, what I'm saying is that, what I mean by like the level of, oh, cool you rap is like, there's somebody that was like,

you know, kicking beats out on, like, on the lunch table with a pen and a pencil, like, and, you know, like doing like,

you know, yo, I'll go to the library and read mad books, like, raps in your, in your home room. But it's just like,

I don't really, if you're performing at the All-Star half time show, like, people should know some of your songs. I don't know. Like, I don't know any damn dollar songs. I don't either. And yet, I have listened to his music before. Like, it's a, like, it's a, like, it is absolutely like. When you said proficient, technically proficient, I was like, that's right. I've listened to him before. And I've gone, oh, he's good. Yeah. And he's good, at rapping. Like, he's good at rapping. Like, he's good at rapid, but he's not like, I, it's not

I mean like it's like okay so what I mean when I'm saying like if you go to the all-star show it's just like you have to come correct and also some people got to know your songs like Nause was performing at the like not to make an unfair comparison obviously but what I mean is that like he was performing at the halftime show and he didn't perform shit off of life is good in 2015 like he was just like oh I have to go all the way back to Illmatic because that's what people know and it's just like I haven't listened to Nazen however long when he comes out on the stage or whatever and he's just kind of kind of like, you know, rap is a monkey flipping with the funky rhythm. I was just like, I was right there. And I was this, but I hadn't listened to Ill-Madigan, however. Like, you know, you have to have like something. And he was just kind of bouncing around on stage. Some sort of attachment. Yeah, and it's just kind of like, be excited because I'm here.

It's just like, yeah, I guess my whole point was that he cleared a bar. He cleared a bar that the very other few people have. Dan, you get less word on this as our basketball rapping enthusiast. Yeah, yeah, obviously, you come to me for the bars. Mike, my number one question is, would dames, would dames pro, uh, would dames pro ovra become elevated if he started lying more? Like, listen, lying in rap music is the best. It's absolutely the best fucking thing.

I don't understand why anybody, like, like, like this whole thing about like, you know, you lie in your raps and all the, whatever. It's just like, yes, have guns as big as spaceships. Like, have like, have, you know, like a car from 20, from 2030 already. Like, you know, like, Manny Fresh's talk about I got the shit with the Kifah from 2010 in 1998.

You don't have that, obviously. Like, it's just like, lying in rap is, I mean, like, why would why would that be an issue for you? Fav check rap sucks. Things that I never expected on this podcast was Dan shitting on Billy Ilish. Never.

It's not shooting on Billy Ilish. Billy Ilish. Billy Ish, Billy Ish totally fine. Like, the issue is the economy around the fact that, journalists feel the need to ask that question so you can get the headline of like teenager doesn't know music from 40 years before they were born. A lot of things have happened on this episode of H-Chek that I did not anticipate.

This has been wildly fun. That was the main event. You're going to stick around. We're going to do good call, bad call. All right. What a bold call here. That's the transition. He's like, what's going to be?

All right. Vince Carter. Vince Carter. There was a big push last year to, Honor Dwayne Wade and Dirk as special roster additions to the All-Star game that did not make Haley O'Shaughnessy the same accommodation for Vince Carter should they have? Should Vince have been honored? Our teammate here at the Ringer, should he have been honored at the All-Star game? Well, since that last sentence, I feel like I have to say yes.

So bad call on not including him. Yes, bad call. Michael Peters. He stuck his elbow in the room. Bad call. Bad call on not including him? Bad call and not including him. Dan Devine.

I think what it came down to was that we knew Wade was going out we suspected Dirk was although he wasn't saying anything about it Vince has said this is his last year but if he wasn't going to be cool with the idea like some people want the flowers and some people don't so if he was just like

nah I kind of just want to keep playing my bullshit as minutes in Atlanta or whatever like that's fine but like I don't know I feel like ceremonially for sure but maybe he doesn't want the ceremony so I'm going to say good call because unless he was actively going for it. I don't think we needed it. Steve Allman.

I had it on good authority that he wasn't really pushing for that. So I'm going to say Yeah. All right. So yeah. Steve Oman, member of the media. I'm a member of the media. I don't care if he was pushing forward or not. Throw the guy in there. As you mentioned, he put his arm in the goddamn rim. And as my fellow 42 slash 43 year old, we are going to venerate you whether you wanted or not. God damn it. I'm old. I can, I can't, I can't, duck never could. He still can't put him in their bad call. It should have been honored. Speaking of billboards, we were talking earlier about billboards that got put up, it is not just Bulls fans. The Kings, Kings fans are planning to run a

billboard that says enough is enough and ask owner Vivek Rondae to step down. It will run the week of March 8th to the 14th, which is when the Kings, and this is amazing, we'll have a nationally televised game. I don't know who did that. Good call or bad call. Forget about the billboard to the Kings being on national TV. Oh, I thought you were going to talk to the bill. I thought you were going. Wow. Thank you. Wow.

I do this for living. I am a member of the media. Wow. I'm rejecting that. All right. I'm going to answer both. As I said earlier in the show, my love language is hostility. Okay.

Good call to the billboard. That is. Also, I love. Okay. Also, yeah, everyone deserves some shine. Buddy Heel just won the three-point contest. He deserves some attention. So you're excited about the King.

on national TV. That's a lie. You're not going to watch that game. Michael Peters. As far as the billboards go, as you know, a Saints fan, I cannot say one thing or the other about that. No. Like, I think that it's a little embarrassing every time billboards go up. But like, you know, also, are you going to watch the Kings on national TV? No. No, that's a bad call. Dan Devine. I'm going to say good call on them being on national TV because at some point everybody deserves a little bit of a win and people will be like, well, you know what? Rishon Holmes is having a real nice season.

You know, like that kind of thing will happen for five seconds. And then you can be on Twitter being like, actually, he was much better in November. And like, you've been paying attention the whole time and everybody's going to be like, wow, that guy's really must watch a lot of basketball. That's very impressive. And Billboard's bad call. Save your money. Nobody was better.

The owner's not stepping down. You know what my guy? The owner is just, it's not really going to accomplish anything. is not going anywhere. Steve Allman. Good call on the billboards and national TV, but just bad call to your bamboozling of this team gone. I can't stay.

The Kings are terrible. Riley would agree with you. Bad call on national TV, good call on billboards. Billboard's are fun sometimes, even though save your money is probably the right impulse. Last one for you. Zach Lowe wrote a really good piece on Bam out of bio,

who, as we know, won the skills competition, sure. But one of the lines in his story was very interesting. I put it in our slack. I want to throw it out to you guys here. A half doesn't, When Bam was brought in for a workout for the Miami Heat, the Miami Heat put him through a bunch of different paces and workouts.

And one of the workouts included a, quote, half dozen staffers circling out of bio and chucking basketballs at him in random patterns. Good call or bad call on the half hazing, half workout mental warfare of the Miami Heat, Haleo Shana. It sounded like this is when they knew he was the one. They put him through all of this and then they told him to defend the perimeter. Also, I never knew that this was his. personality, but this explains why he gets along with Jimmy Butler so well.

So yeah, good call. Michael Peters. I don't know, like the muscle confusion, agility, like, you know, reaction drill thing is that sounds sort of makeshift, but there's something like that that goalkeepers do, like involving like tennis balls and bouncing it off a trampoline. And it's just kind of like you have to be able to react. Like, you know, like get your hands to tend into or whatever, whatever, whatever. And like, as far as the drill goes, like it sounds really bizarre.

write it out that way, but like, I can see it happening. The Eagles receivers used to do this where they'd have, they'd face a wall, and a trainer would be behind them, and the trainer would toss tennis balls off the wall. So they'd, like, you wouldn't see them coming, and then they'd have to catch it off the wall. So I guess it does sound bizarre, but you're right, there is some analog and other sports for it. Dan Devine. A good call, because I just like the mental image of like six dudes standing around at Bam out of bio and just hucking balls at him and being like, ha ha! Go get it now. We're going to know.

And that's what really evocative writing can do is paint a picture like that in your brain. So good call all the way around. You use words for a living, nicely done by you. Steve Allman. Good call. I like a method to that madness. Yeah, it has super dodge ball. If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball vibes.

It's a good call. I like it. And I've also enjoyed this, Micah. This was very fun. Thank you for doing it. I know that you love heat check and you clearly listen to it all the time. All the time. We're going to have you back to do that again soon.

Steve Alman, Dan, DeVine. with Shaanasi, thank you. Thanks to all of you for listening. Please rate and review us. Read all of our content on the ringer.com. Listen to the ringer NBA show and the ringer podcast Network basketball is back on Thursday, I believe, right? Thursday. Thursday. Basketball's back on Thursday. He checks back on Monday. Thanks for listening, gang. Bye.