The Ringer NBA Show - Ep. 82: NBA Legends Podcast With Micah Peters

Episode Date: March 8, 2017

The Ringer's Micah Peters sits down with Gary Payton, Horace Grant, and Theo Ratliff to discuss the generation gap in basketball today, the Westbrook vs. Harden MVP debate, and who is the best Batman villain of all time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Ringers Gaming podcast, achievement-oriented, and our wrestling podcast, The Mass Man Show, are breaking off of Channel 33. You can now subscribe to each of them on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, or wherever it is, you get your podcast. What's going down? My name is Mikeer Peters, and I'm a staff writer at The Ringer. I was down in New Orleans for All-Star Weekends,

and I had a chance to talk to three NBA legends about a few things, really. Some generational differences. Who should win the MVP award, this year and specifically with Gary Payton what the best Batman movie was. So first up we have The Glove himself. Gary Payton, thanks for joining me, man. How you doing? I'm good, and how are you?

I'm doing all right. A conversation that we've been having a lot over the last couple days amongst the record staff is just the fact that there is no apt way to compare across generations. So eventually when you start talking about whether Russell Westbrook could have, I mean, whether Oscar Robinson could have averaged a triple double in today's league or not, it's difficult to divine that, basically.

It's very difficult to do that. I don't do generations to generations because you can't. But if I really think about it, if we say we take Oscar Robinson and put him in his place, hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, you could have probably came in here and did this, and I think he would have averaged 60. You know what I'm saying? I think Jordan would have an average.

every 60 out here too because they don't play defense. They don't play that way to where it was. But we can't compare that because we couldn't put Westbrook into the days what Oscar Robinson was playing. It was less teams and it was a little bit more physical and a little bit more thing. We can't put him in that because we can't take him back and say let him be born during that time. So it's not going to happen.

It's not going to happen. That's the way we always say who is the best player to ever play in the NBA. Get out of here. You had Will Chamber. You had Kareem. You had Magic. You had a lot of players, Bird. A lot of players that's great.

Neither. I don't think one of them could be better than the other. Just because you see them win championships and you see them do it. If we look at their numbers all together, a lot of them don't score 30,000 points, a lot of them didn't have a lot of rebounds, a lot of them didn't have a lot of all-start games, a lot of them done made a lot of all leagues.

So what divines, him being better than the other one? because you say he is, no, that doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. You know what I'm saying? Because he's done a lot of the same thing, too, because he won a lot of championships. Okay? He was on a fortunate team that won a lot of championships.

Let's put these other players on that team and see what you would have said. If they would have won six championships with the Chicago Bulls, let's see what you would have said. You know, I could have put magic like that. Magic won five. Why he wasn't good. When Showtime was doing that thing,

y'all saw my magic was the all time you know what I'm saying so I don't compare that I don't I really don't compare that because we had a lot of different basketball players They got a lot of different basketball players in this era But we can always say if he was back there would you do that you don't know that you really don't know that Right after you said that what you would have been back then or what you would have done right now You couldn't possibly know that I'm going to ask you a question exactly like that Mm-hmm so we were talking about okay so earlier and Colin reminded me that, you know, you were no slob on offense, but when I was growing up, the things that I would always hear

and the highlights I would see on ESPN would be Gary Payton's a badass. Gary Payton is, you know, a dog on defense. So you have Russell Westbrook who basically plays all the time like he's fired out of a cannon. Right. How would you lock Russell Westbrook down, do you think? And that's a good question,

because people really fail to realize that I average almost 21. points a game for like five, six years in a row. That's why they called me a two-way guard. Because what I did was on the defenses, I took pride of if I scored 35 points, I'm not going to let the other guy score 30. I'm going to let him score about 14, 15 to 16, and I won that battle. So then it was more rougher.

I could put my hands on people. Then if he's scoring at me, he's going at me, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go at him on the other end. He's going to have to guard me too. You know what I'm saying? And so it's a big difference when that happened. Because I would go at you just like you would go at me. Because Weswell-R-West book, I just had an interview about him.

I love to play him because he does play like a dog. He played just like me. I came out every day like that too. But I talked to gang of trash. You want to say shit if you want to. I can't gang a shit. And that's what I was talking about. Because if he would have been going at me like that,

he would have a problem on the other end of the front. because I ought to go in at him the same way. The way you've seen him go at Kevin Durant the other day when he was talking about, yeah, I'm here and I'm going to keep coming. I would have been like, yeah, I'm coming too. I'm coming right back at your ass. Simple as that. And we'd have been on the floor and I would have been gabbing at him all night.

And he would have had to do something about that. But he's the same way I am. And I see that dog in him all the time. And I would love to play against him because I would have to prove something. And he would have had to prove something. I would have made him come play me every night. And he would have came with a respect and said, man, he got the same mentality as me, dog.

And I love playing against him. So that would have been a guy I would love to play against. I got to ask you this question because it's, you know, standard fare. But who do you like for MVP this season so far? There's only two that's really, really standing out. You got Harding, who's doing a great job, who converted from a two guard.

becoming a point guard you know everybody always say couldn't guard nobody well he still's not doing that but you know it's like he's converted itself of making everybody around him better he's making his teammates better they're getting confidence in him usually when he went to the basket it would be he just gonna shoot it let's run back now they're sitting there when is he gonna get it to me you know what I'm saying he's getting the he's scoring points when he have to now He's making shots. He's not forcing things like he did before.

He has four shots because they were losing or whatever. They're winning now. So it's a different. And he's got a lot of shooters. You got a lot of scoring player of people around him. A lot of people. Now you think about this kid in Westbrook, you take Batman off his team.

You're a Robin. Now you become Batman. Now you don't have as many good basketball players as Harding has on his team. But he still has that team. in the playoffs and they're like in the six or seven spot right now and they're winning basketball games and you're doing a triple double where a guy like oscar robinson who did it in his day which has only had less games in 82 then you have probably less teams yeah not playing and now you're doing it with 82 games and you're doing with 32 teams and you're traveling everywhere and you're

averaging 3010 and 10 that's remarkable it's remarkable to do i don't care you're doing it's what people say about shot volume, all that, care less, about the turnover of everything. Okay, if you got the ball in your hand 90% of the time, you're gonna turn the ball over. You're gonna turn it over, and then especially

if you gotta make plays to make other people better, and your players are not as good as a lot of the players. You don't have a lot of shooters around you. Don't have a lot of that and you make plays. You're gonna turn the ball over a lot. That's just the way it is. If your volume go down, your team goes down. If his volume goes down from 130 to 65,

They won't be nothing. They'll be trash. So right now I got him as number one, and I got Harding as number two. Another thing. Okay, so we were talking a little bit off of the air about classic movies. I said, Bad Boys 1 and 2, Rush Hour 1 and 2,

Ben and Black, one, not two, two was terrible. But you said Batman and Robin earlier, and now I need to know which is your favorite Batman movie. All of them? All of them? Not even, like, even the one, even one with Arnold Schwarzenegger is Mr. Freeze.

That's the classic for me. Really? Batman and Robin? Yeah, I'm old school. So that was a classic to me. Because what I grew up on is the old school Batman and Robin. Have you ever seen old Batman when they was walking around? And he was like, Batman, they were saying, pow, bam, boom, biff.

See, that's old school to me. So when Arnold came as Mr. Freeze and they was freezing everything, some of them were unrealistic because they were real high up to high, you go fall down. They had the rippily, like, chest plate things. Like, nobody has that many ass, man. But I like that. See, that was me because that was old school. See, I've seen comic books.

I did all of that type of stuff. So that was probably one of the best ones for me, because y'all guys now saying it is in the 20th century. You and y'all might have liked when the football field got blew up and everybody fast. Okay. No, that's kind of crazy. That was, you can't say that that was, like, bad. And it Tom Hardy is just like, here's the only person in the city that can save you, snaps his neck, and then blows the football field up.

But you had, you had, you had him, he had the mask on. It's just like Dark Vader. Do you, like, seriously, the scene where he's standing in the room and he's talking to Ben Mendelsohn's character and he lays his hand on his shoulders, he's just like, nobody go anywhere. I'm in charge here. And he goes, do you feel in charge? See, that's what you see. You make it and you're making the movie right there.

He's better than anything that happened in Batman and Robin, including Mr. Freeze. No, heck no, man, no. I mean, all the epic things that Arnold was saying in there and doing the epic, epic, epic, epic, him, you know, he can't really act any goddamn way. So you know what I'm saying? So you got to understand that. He was Mr. Freeze. Now, you can't go nobody else, Mr. Freeze, but Arnold.

Because nobody else is playing Mr. Freeze. Absolutely. We got him. You gotta get, he's an epic. And will nobody else ever play Mr. Freeze. No one. Because Victor Freeze is a scrub. That's why.

Well, shoot, all the villains really, which villain was better to you in Batman? Tell me what's the best villain? The best villain in Batman is the Joker. Okay, you got that, and then what's the second? The second one is probably, I would go to day. Where? Who, who are you going to say?

Wait, what was the, what were you got to say? I was going to say the Riddler. You were going to say the Riddler? Riddler was, man, he had all. Jim Carrey as the Ridler? Yes. Does anybody else feel like a Friday? That's acting.

He made the Rittler. He made the Rittler who he was. So come on, you got to be realistic. So tell me who will be the second after the Joker. I'm seriously saying Bain. Because he had the thing and all the pipes coming out of him. He get big. Come on, get the hell out of here.

No. No. No. No. Listen, Tom Hardy as Bain. No. No, no, Kerry. He wouldn't be, couldn't do it, couldn't be.

Jim Carrey was the top, Jim Carrey was the top, he was the second best in that. The Joker is always going to be number one because he had all the characters, the Joker had all the characters. So you had to say the Ritler. The Ritler was the number two. We can say the Penguin was sometimes.

The penguin was pretty good, okay? But not bang, come on. That wouldn't, kind of anywhere near that. Jack Nicholson is a Joker or Heath Ledger as a Joker? Jack Nicholson, got to go with Jack. I gotta go with Jack. I gotta go with Jack. I can't, you can't fault anyone for answering that question.

Yeah, that's a tough question. Gotta go with Jay. It's tough, but Jack got to, you gotta be Jack. Exactly right of, the exact right amount of, like, hilarious and terrified. Yeah, you gotta go with Jack. Like, that changes out of moments. Yeah, definitely. But to bring it back to basketball, because I went off on a tangent day, I'm sorry about that.

You're good. What do you think you would have done in today's NBA? Like, a question that, like, I mean, like, we're going back to that. thing that you don't like to talk about really because it's difficult to talk about it across generations but I mean like I have to know do you think you would also average 21 points this is in my mind and thinking of how a basketball player I was yes because it was a lot more easier and it's a lot more easier to me in this in this generation okay if I think about it think about the point guards that I had to go against every night so I don't go against all the point guards like that every night

You got the John Walls, you got the Kyrie's, who else is in there? That's a point. I mean, Steph Curry. Do you think you would hold them 15 points? Like if you can't hold, no, you can't stop anybody. So let's not say that. He shoots the ball very well. See, that's why I don't like to make comparisons to this because it's not realistic.

You know, because do you think he could have held me to 15 points? No. You know what I'm saying? You could contain somebody and hope that they have a bad night. What I think Cleveland did was they controlled him very well. They did it for two years in a row. He didn't have terrible finals two years in a row. He averaged about a what, 17, 16 or something like that.

That's what you want to do with him. You know what I'm saying? He hasn't had the big finals for two years. You see what I'm saying? So with Michael Jordan, I played him in the finals. I'm the only guy that held him to his lowest ever, and that was 20-something points. So if I did that, and it was 20-something points, you're not stopping anybody. You're controlling them.

And we had an opportunity to beat them, but it just didn't go. So to me, you can't stop nobody. You can try to control them. And I think all the time I tell people, if I can deny the basketball from anybody and make them get tired, and get them out of a game for six or seven minutes during the time that I need to, that gives my team an opportunity to beat you with your star player out. And he's under control. And when players get nowadays, when they get frustrated, what do they do?

They pout and complain and get stupid stuff. And if you get them to do that and focus on something else, you've got a chance of beating him. So that's what I say. But Golden State has too many basketball players. They have too many shooters. One, if one is struggling, the other one's going to come out and do something. Then you had an all-around basketball player who's just going to do everything in green. He's going to get you motivated because he's going to do something that's going to motivate the team.

Big rebound, a hell of a stop, a key three at Waiwayway sometime, you know what I'm saying? A play where he's going to go, take the ball off the rim and go and give a lot of somebody. They have too many weapons, so I don't compare that. It's just not realistic of what's going to happen. Everybody can say I could have went back to the 30s and played with this guy and that guy. You don't know that. You don't know that because I think them dudes

would have went at us and their era just like we would have went at them in our era. It just is what it is. But we can't never say at their prime. Their prime. Take everybody if they was 21 years old and say what they can do, you don't know that. I do want to go back to the games you held Michael Jordan to 20 points,

and you were talking about how you would have been jawn at Russell Westbrook, and I don't want you to tell on yourself on record if you can't say what you said, but I want to know, like, you know, maybe what you might have said to him, like if you were jarred running back up and down the court. You know what? Everybody asks me that, but in the heat of the moment, I'm going to give you an example. Everybody knows Stefan Curry for making them half-course shots and all that, right? When you put somebody just off, just out of the blue, he's not in his game mode or he's not in nothing, and he tries to make it, and he doesn't, then y'all say, oh, what's the problem?

That's because he's not in his game mode. You feel what I'm saying? So when I'm in my game mode, and when I was doing this stuff, whatever came to my mind during that time, I would say. I don't give a shit what it was. It was about your mama, your daddy, your kids, whatever the hell it was about. I was going to say it. So whatever I would have said, I said something that's shit to Michael Jordan. It's a shame.

So it was just what it was. You know what I'm saying? So I couldn't come here and tell you, I would have told him this and made it a difference. I'd have been like, man, whatever come out of my mouth, that's what's going to happen to. And that's what he was. That's how it goes. Well, I greatly appreciate you taking time to talk to me today. No problem, no problem.

This was fun. Yeah, it was fun. This was fun. This was fun. It was fun. You're wrong about the riddler, though. I got to say. Thanks to Gary Payton for taking the time out to talk to me.

And now up next, we have Horace Grant, who played with both Michael Jordan and Shackett Pinnock. Now I'm joined by NBA legend Horace Grant. Horace, how are you doing, man? Very well, very well. Enjoying the festivities down here and all the southern hospitality. The southern hospitality. You kind of like how everybody says, talks to you with that kind of melodic lilt where they say baby at the end of everything. Absolutely.

Yeah. What I really want to talk about is comparing across generations. We don't really have like an act way to do that. Kind of like if you're talking about a dollar in 1950 was worth more than it is today because you can adjust for inflation and all those other things. Like there's not really an apt way to do that in basketball so far. I mean, like, it's difficult. And eventually you come to like loggerheads when you're talking about was LeBron. Is LeBron better than Jordan?

Is Jordan better than LeBron? Because they don't play at the same time. But really, I've been meaning that I just wanted to ask you because at the same, at the time that things were getting kind of dicey in OKC last year, this magic moment came out. And I was writing about how the Westbrook-Durant thing in OKC is probably. you're going to end up like the the I mean like Shaq and Penny yeah so I mean like what were you thinking at the time well when I left Chicago as a free agent my thought was you know here's a young Shaq young Penny Nick Anderson Dennis Scott my thoughts was winning more championship

But things didn't work out. When Shaq departed as a free agent for the Lakers, man, I was depressed for about a couple weeks. I remember he was trying to call me, and I was doing something. So I, you know, of course, didn't, unfortunately, pick up the phone. And then I looked up and he had signed with the Lakers, man. like Mike Tyson punched me in the gut, and then Floyd Mayweather gave me a three-piece, boom, boom.

It was pretty bad. But, you know, it happened, and I guess it's water in the bridge. Yeah. I guess it is what it is. But you're kind of an interesting position because you've seen the super team thing from both sides. Like, what is your, like, what do you think? about the general term super teams and like and having played on one what are the

difficulties of the optics associated with that yeah super team that's that's something I can't grasp yet you know you have your superstars then you have your role players super teams that's tough for me as far as Westbrook and KD on the same court. I think Russ feels like, you know, they truly had a shot of winning a championship if KD. I stood around. I mean, they were right there. They were right there.

So I feel, I'm not speaking for Rush, but I feel like he's a jilted lover. You know, we had this good thing and, you know, you just, you left me. You left me without even saying goodbye. But I understand KD's side also, you know, he was a free agent. He was there. He gave everything to OKC. Basically, you know, he and Rush put him on the map. But it was his choice to go and pursue another team.

More generally, in the MVP race so far this year. First of all, who do you like? Man, how can you not like, you know, Russ, Harden, LeBron? I mean, if I had to choose one as we speak, it would have to be Russ. Just a mere fact of Katie leaving and putting everything up on his shoulders. and the way he's been playing and carrying that team, wow. I mean, there's a feat in itself. And not to take anything of course away from LBJ and Hardin,

who they both have some great years. Okay, so when you're watching games now, like a thing that I'm always curious about is how do you, as a former player, rate a current player, like as in do you see them doing things that you think, like that you wouldn't do that or I mean when you're watching like I mean Clay Thompson catch and shoot or Sean Livingston's you know signature turnaround post up shot from like dribbles off the left so rate them yeah I mean like I'm saying that as in like how would you like do you when you're watching do you feel a

compulsion to like critique the game like yeah I I'm screaming at the TV all the time Are you kidding me? For an example, if a guy get double team, he don't know how to pass the ball out of the double team. And that drives me crazy. I mean, because your teammate is wide open, you know, pass the ball. You see the double team coming. Get rid of the ball.

Don't try to, you know, shoot, you know, one on two or one on three. Get rid of the ball. You know, say for an example, guy like LeBron James, there's no critique in that young man. I mean, I mean, that's, I don't think there's a flaw in this game. I mean, you have guys like that. You don't critique. If I had to critique Steph, I mean, some of the shots he put up, I mean, they're good when they go in, but some of them, like, are he serious? When he missed him, like, oh, no, that's a bad shot. But on the subject of LeBron James, because every time LeBron James does a thing, there is a comparison to Jordan.

I personally think that they are two vastly different players. But even so, could you compare and contrast the two? And if so, which one is better? Well, it's, they are two different style of players. I mean, it's so tough to compare Michael, who's a score. I mean, I mean, I mean, just take over game as LeBron can also. I mean, LeBron, you know, in terms of passing the ball, I mean, he might be a little ahead of them, J, of passing the ball, rebounding and things of that nature.

But we should just enjoy LeBron as he is. As he is. And love what that young man has brought to the game of basketball and to the NBA and figure out his legacy when he retires. I agree 1,000%. Well, thank you very much for your time.

You're very welcome. Thanks for having me on. Shouts out to Horace Graham for taking the time out to talk. And up last, but certainly not least, we have Theo Ratliff. Theo, thanks for joining me, man. How you doing today? I'm doing great, man. Pleasure to be here.

Who do you like so far for MVP this season? MVP for me has been James Hart. James Harden. James Hardin. James Hardin over Russ? Yes. I mean, although he's averaging a triple double and leading the league and scoring, I think James Harden has just been a little bit more efficient with his team.

You know, and with them, they're a surprise right now. They're surprised being, I think, what, their second, a third in the league now? They have the third best record in the league. There was not expected. New coach. Very true. Everything. But I mean, when you think about it.

And with him doing triple doubles himself, I mean, he's not far behind. That's very true. I mean, the Dan Tony and James Hardin is actually like a perfect marriage. Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. A guy that want to score the ball and distribute the ball, I think it was a genius for them to put him at that point guard position. Now you forced him to pass. Instead of him getting the ball with 15 seconds on the clock, now you're getting it from the start 24 seconds. And you're putting the oneness on them to facilitate and help the team, you know, help the team be great, you know, and become a leader.

How do you think, do you think that it would have been possible for them to rack up that many triple doubles and that, you know, because there's been like a scoring explosion this year. Right. You think it would have been possible for them to rack up those trickleable doubles in a previous era of the NBA? Oh, absolutely not. No way. I mean, that's without any bet you bring in here,

they'll tell you hands out, that would never happen. Never happened. That would have never happened because, you know, even back when you think about bird magic, then you go into the bad boys, you know, lamb beer and, And Bigmore The Jordan rules with Joe D and all that.

And then you come into the iron with Shaq and Carl Malone. I mean, look, if we had the rules that they have now, and you imagine playing against a Shaq, Shaq and Carl Malone wouldn't even be able to play.

They ran over somebody every single play. They hit somebody every single play. And if you can't come down and bump those guys, what do you think what's going to happen? He's just going to run in the middle of the plane and just catch and dunk the

ball. You know what I mean? So it's, yeah, it's a whole different, different style. I think that you were known for was being a room protector. So a question that I have for you, it's actually going to, and it's going to parlay into the next thing, actually. What do you think of this new era of big men in the NBA? I mean, like, because, It seemed like for a minute there, like it might be going extinct, where everybody, eventually the league would just evolve to full court one-on-one between Kaua Litt and Anthony Davis. You know, basically the Small Ball Revolution in 2013 with the Miami Heat. What do you think about this new Arabic? It seems like we're kind of like in a golden age with, I mean, like you have Anthony Davis, DeMarcus, Andre Drummond.

I equated back to when you play center like myself, when I play center in high school, I play center in high. school most guys play center high school they handled the ball they shot outside they did everything but then when they got to college they were pretty much designated to be that one guy in that area you was designated to be the guy on the box especially in the pros you always protected the paint you weren't really an outside shooter where you handled the ball but now you have guys that you know you're looking at joe and b i mean sky's the limit for that kid Man, he's massive. They're able to handle the ball and do the things he's able to do similar to a cousin's, you know.

And cousins, you know, just, I mean, his ability is unlimited. They bring the ball up, handling the ball like guards. And I think a lot has to do with just how guys train out. I mean, we didn't have a professional trainers. We're behind the school. The teaching you things. You know, in the school yard, you know, just going hard. But now, guys have so many personal trainers.

Like my kid, trainers at nine years old. Yeah. So they learn how to dribble. They guaranteed to be seven feet tall, so they're going to be dribbling that seven feet. And you have a lot of that going on now with a lot of the guys now. So it's changed the whole dynamics, especially when you start seeing guys like Kevin Durant, who played sort of like a guard, small forward. But he was 6-11, 6-10.

6-10 like a fox. That boy is seven feet, man. And then, you know, it just goes into the era of what a big represents. But I still think, you know, my guy at White's side, I feel like he got snubbed. He should have been an all-star. Okay. Because you still got to be able to protect the rim and you see what they're doing. They've stepped their game all the way up because of him, you know.

And how he's came on as a leader, you know, with that team. And so, what, they went like 12 straight? They won 13 straight before going into a two-game losing streak and then turn it around against, I forget who. But you see the maturity of those guys, a guy, you know, that started at the bottom, but he was seven feet tall. But he got his skill together, you know, through going to play in somewhere else. Yeah, he was a journeyman before he ended up in mind. And now he's a bona fide star. He's not a superstar, but he's a star.

And he's that traditional, the traditional center that we still got to keep around. Yeah. On the subject of rim protecting. Yes. There's this interesting stat where basically, on average, after live ball turnovers, the Oklahoma City Thunder finish a possession in just over eight seconds. And that's because Russell Westbrook is usually barreling through and, you know. dunking like, you know, he hates the rim. Right.

So I have a question for you. What would happen if you, like, say, in the air with the Celtics, met Russell Westbrook at the rim? I mean, like, does time reset? Does there a supernova? What happens? I mean, you know, you had guys like a Westbrook challenging the rim all the time. Like, say the thing is now.

there's no barrier. I mean, you can't touch them. You know, we used to have a forearms so guys would be able to slow guys down a little bit when they start running forward speed. But now without being able to put an elbow or a guy or bump him off his stride, now he's full-esteem.

You know, you're looking at LeBron and all these guys coming straight down the pipe. I mean, it's a nightmare for the big because if you step in front of them, you might get dunked on. And then it's almost guaranteed you're going to get a foul. So that's kind of where the game has turned to where it's doing a lot of limitation for the big guys to be a really big significant part of the game because you have so much free-flowing offense. But it's always about who get the most points and who can stop the other person for getting the most points.

So bigs, I don't think they'll ever die out. because you can always use that big to deter people from getting to that realm. I mean, he might get a few, but he's going to get turned around. Out of five, he's going to get turned around. He might get four. He might lose on four of them. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah.

He might get one out of them folks. But yeah, he's going to have to pass it, or he's going to have to do some real tricky stuff. You have to change the direction, go up and under. Yeah. Because the out of blocking shots is really not how high guys jump because wave goes up, got to come down. And I always block shots when guys were coming down. So that's why I was able to block a lot of dunks.

And I was able to meet guys when they shot the ball because I know when you shoot it, I either go and get it at the apex or if you're trying to dunk on me. I know you got to come to the ramp. So all I got to do is make sure I got my shield up at the rim. You know, it was shocked, that thing. I did that one time. You almost broke my head on that ring. I'm not trying to block his dog no more.

Hell! You know what I mean? You want something to? Right. No. No. No. Thanks to all three legends for coming through.

This has been Micah Peters. Again, I'm a staff writer at The Ringer. Y'all take it easy. Please, peace. All this month, we're asking you to tell a friend about a podcast they'll love. right now think of a friend your mom anyone you care about what podcast would they really love got it now do it tell them about it in real life or on social media and if they don't know about podcasts show them how tell us what you recommended with the hashtag tripod t r y pod thanks for spreading the word