The Ringer NBA Show - Houston's Problem, Spurs-Warriors, and John Wall's Cussing With Shea Serrano (Ep. 110)

Episode Date: May 12, 2017

The Ringer's Chris Vernon and Shea Serrano discuss James Harden's no-show against the Spurs (5:00), the Spurs winning without Kawhi (15:30), the top moments in Spurs history (23:00), John Wall's cussing on the court (27:00), potential Wall vs. LeBron scenarios (34:00), and Harden's major shortcoming (38:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. The Ringer is very excited about our new podcast that went through a lot of name iterations. What did you decide on Larry Wilmore? Larry Wilmore, Black on the Air. What was the runner up? Well, the Bill Simmons idea was, was it Larlar Land? Larlarland. Larlar land. Larlar.

You think people are going to subscribe to Larlarland. That joke was that it would be the worst idea for a podcast. No, it's horrible. You don't want people thinking worse when they're signing up to a podcast. No, I wanted you to have a good one. This is a very good name. So what's going to be on this podcast? It's going to be me kind of weighing in on some of the issues of the day with my audience. And then I'll be interviewing some really cool people during the podcast.

Each week, it'll be somebody different. Sometimes I like culture, sometimes politics, sometimes sports, sometimes maybe an interest of mine, sometimes television. I've worked a lot in television. Yeah. We got Norman Lear coming up, Bernie Sanders, Neil DeGrasse Tyson. So lots of great guests. Awesome. Welcome to the podcast in World, Larry Wilmore.

Subscribe to Larry Wilmore's podcast wherever. you get your podcast. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon. Joining me today from Theringer.com is Esteban, aka Shea Serrano. What up, my dude? Well, I really thought... You sound super sad right now.

Well, let me be honest. I really thought when I was putting this podcast together, originally we were going to do Thursday, but then Bill was going to do the deal with House. So we moved it to Friday. day. And my response to everybody at the ringer was perfect. Then I'll get to have Shay on after the Rockets beat the Spurs. We'll be able to talk about him being so upset about what took place last night. Kauai's banged up. Tony Parker's died. He's going to be totally depressed. And then

we'll get to set up a game seven. It's all going to be perfect. And then last night, literally everything about my diabolical plan got sabotaged by Greg Popovich and your beloved San Antonio. It fell apart, and I'm so happy. They're trying to plot against me. That's what the universe does to evil people. So that's fun. All right. Last night, as you are trying to process what all just happened,

the first things that came to mind were what? I was legit, just giggling. We didn't about it when I was watching the game, and that's all I was doing. I was just sitting at giggling and like five of the first played the heat, and the spurs got out to that big league. You could just tell more than four points. It wouldn't go in a way.

And then they just were hitting. Okay, when you first heard that Kauai Leonard's not going to play in the game, did you just write off the game? Did you think the Spurs are losing at that point? Because the Vegas line went up, and I think everybody just thought, all right, he's sitting him. They're probably not going to be able to beat him without Kauai, especially considering, you know, it's in Houston,

even though they had won a game earlier in the series in Houston. But presumptively, you know, I think by the time it tipped off, I think Houston was like an eight and a half point favorite. So had you already, had you already like mentally prepared yourself that there was going to be a game seven? Yeah, I was a game. I got a text from my cousin, this guy named Gary, who that's like my main basketball talking.

He did the spurs have a chance and I think that there's fucking no way. We're about to get blown out. And he was saying, oh, my friend said the spurs are going to. and do this because of the bench and blah blah blah. I said, your friends are idiots, get smarter friends. And then everything that the guy said was going to happen, happened. Yeah, when they announced Kauai was, I knew something happened. I was driving phone just started.

I knew something bad, got hit by car, and I looked at it and there you go. How do you win a game without Hawaii Leonard and without Tony Parker and elimination? Like, it was all, every... I would submit that the whole Kauai being out or your kid getting hit by a car or not of equal seriousness. They are not. No, let me make sure. Because somebody's going to hear that and be like, you're a horrible father. I'm going to get 45 of those messages on Twitter from Idiot.

That was a joke. Those are not anywhere near the same. It's a joke. Let me say that. It's a joke. It was a joke. a joke. All right. So now we have Lamarcus Aldridge, who you have slandered

all season like. Slandered. Slander. You have been king of Lamarcus slander. In fact, I believe on an earlier podcast earlier this season. And I quote, I hate Lamarcus Aldridge. I hate him. And even when he does something good, I hate it. but I think that maybe you've come around after last night. You had to have come around, right? There's no way you hated that last night.

I did not hate that last night. Did he win you over? Was that the night that Lamarcus Aldridge won you over? That was the night where everybody said he might be able to do it. You don't play, you've got to do it consistently for a good while. And you can look at it like the same as working out weeks on end. Like that's what we need from the markets. We need from, and it's not even the thing where the spurs have to win.

I don't expect for them to win against the Warriors. Like nobody's touching them. If he goes out there and it's a fight, if he puts up a fight, that's really all we need. That's why everybody loves your grizzly. They never win anything. You know what I'm saying? But they fight, so you love them. And that's all we need for Lamarcus.

And last night, for me, in a good long while, probably when he went nuts. And we just need more of that. So all of my buddies last night when we're talking or going, is James Hardin throwing the game? Like, what is happening? You say you were conversing with your cousin, Gary, and all of his very smart friends. From the spur side of things, what the hell do you think was going on with Hardin? On the spur side of thing, I give you, I give you a, he's the most sensitive. And I usually don't because I know how sensitivity he is and he's always, he's generally trying to do the good thing.

But he messed up and I felt like he messed up on purpose. So I yelled at him. Things to the other kid, that's all he needs. Like, I yelled at him and he came home to me. Like, you know what I'm saying? And that's what I think. I felt like everybody got on his case about the way he played at the end of game five. And he was like, well, guess what, guys, this is what that looks like for a whole game.

And then he just did it. I don't need a meet a watch happen. 100% fun. A lot of people are bringing up the old Kobe game, right, where his team got waxed. And it's like, oh, I'm a ball hog. All right. Well, watch this. Yeah.

That's exactly what it was. How do you like it when I don't have the ball, right? Like, he's trying to prove a point or something. I don't know to who. And obviously. I don't know who either. Yeah, because, but you know that the stories are going to come out. This is not just going to rest.

And I get your philosophy on this, which is that's just, Harden and sometimes, especially in the biggest games, he's come up small, right? Like, so you remember, like, they got beat by 33 last year. The year before, he had 13 turnovers in a, in a big game. You know, they only advanced to the West finals because McHale benched him that year. You even go back to college and people are chronicling this. At Arizona State, right, it's do or die in the NCAA tournament. His last game, he was like two of ten. When he put him in. He was like two of ten. When he in the finals after being sixth man of the year for Oklahoma City. You know, there's a two game stretch in there that really decided that series where he's like

four of 20. Like, it's not, we've got a pretty long track record of him being in big spots and coming up small. That being said, people are going to come up with some kind of reason, right? You've seen the whole, he got hit in the head, maybe he had a concussion, maybe his ankle was messed up, maybe there's off the court stuff, whatever. Like, if we're trying to figure out. what people are going to settle on for why James Harden was such a piece of crap in that elimination game.

What do you think we're going to end up? When the article inevitably comes out, what's it going to say? I think it's going to say more than any. And honestly, I think that's unfair. Like, I don't want to see, I don't want to see any player. Somebody just does one play better than the other. Well, he's just not. The most fun game of the funny to watch when, like, we hate the Rockets or whatever.

But as a basketball person, you're rooting against them when he's really good. So you sort of hope he figures it out. I'm glad he's not on the spurs, you know what I'm saying? Does it ruin everything about their season? And his season? Really? I think that, no, they had a good season. I mean, what were they expected to do?

They were going to lose. Hey, hey, I would say, I would present not lose by a thousand with their season on the line at home. Yeah, that's fair. fair. It's fair to be angry about that game, but I don't think it, I don't think it de-legimizes the triple double two, just like, just like a rush. Well, and I typically reject the whole, if you didn't win the ring, the rings culture thing, right? That I don't think everything else is worth it. But I do think it's important to come up big in a big spot, right? Like, so we can say, okay, Barclay didn't win a ring. But like,

you go back and look, and he was having like 40 and 20 games in the West finals, right? Like, it's not his fault that they didn't win. Yeah. Whereas with a lot of stars, we look and we go, all right, what they do when everything, when all the chips were on the table? And I think this hurt him a lot reputation-wise. I really do. It totally does with me. It certainly hurts him reputation-wise.

Like, that's a hard label to shake when you start being known as the guy who can't get it done in a playoff. and there's i mean i the only way to get rid of that is to get it done in the playoffs which is an incredibly hard thing your second you can't you can't get all the big things those guys that's the guys well the other thing is right one of your other main guys role players is ryan anderson and i was reading stuff up stuff out of huge hey how about this jay three of 29 from three in the games at home Mm-hmm.

And in three- It's a very real thing. And in- murder on the road in San Antonio. I went back and pulled it. My buddy Sean Pendergast, who's a radio host in Houston,

I was talking to him this morning because I was finding out how bad they're going to kill Hardin and everybody. And he's like, go look at Anderson's splits. He's like over the 82 games. It's like, he shoots like, it's like seriously like 47% from three on the road

and like 30% from home at home. I've never seen anything. Yeah, it's loud. I've never seen anything like that. Like the guy just can't hit shots in Houston. Yeah, I don't know what it is. The jerseys, you know, the home team gets to pick the jerseys they play. They should just start playing in their road jerseys, and maybe they'll trick them.

Okay, so we talked about how bad it hurts James Hardin. I know you would literally run into traffic for Kawhi Leonard. But do you think it is at all a demerit on Kawhi that they were able to win a close-out game on the road by 39 without him? No. If you lose a good player, the team after that, they're usually good for like a motivated time we're going to do it. They're super locked in.

It usually happens to do this without, especially a game where we, like the Rockets just gave up. Because there is this sentiment going around of which it's hard to disagree with that we all, we all try to find the new thing, whereas you've got LeBron sitting there, right? So Westbrook flamed out in the first round, Harden just cramped the bed when the whole season was on the line, and the Spurs just won by 39 without Kauai Leonard. And here's LeBron who scores over 35 points a game and hasn't lost a playoff game yet and is just destroying everybody like, hey, remember me, right?

Like you all can talk about all these other guys all you want, but that kind of stuff doesn't go down with LeBron James in this current stuff. No, look MVP trophy until he retires. I get why he doesn't. Is what took place and over the course of the series and especially last night, is that a indictment of Mora Ball, as it's called, and so many articles have been written about this. The way that Houston plays, do you look at that and go, all these people that say you can't play that way and win big

are all validated because of what took place last night? No. Are you crazy? The best team in the league. The best team in the league is a team that plays that version of basketball just way better. The Warriors in the championship last year. They won it a year before that. They'll win it again this year.

Basketball is played now. You just need guys who are good enough at it. No, it is not. In fairness, Golden State will shoot two-point baskets. They will. They will. Yeah. It kind of feels like if Houston would add the whole two-point basket thing to their arsenal that are not layups,

they might have been a little better off, right? Because San Antonio was going to try to contest or run them off the three-point line and then try to guard them at the rim. And it wasn't like they were just going to take what's available to them. They were just going to stick to their guns all the way till by the end. I mean, I still can't believe they scored 75 points last night. I read this morning. They had not scored less. It's the lowest they scored all season.

Dude, the lowest thing. How about this? Take a guess what the lowest point total they had all season was. You've read it. Is that what it was? It was 92, yes. No shit. I swear to God, I haven't read that.

Really? 92 is the lowest. Ninety two is the lowest amount of points they scored in a game all year. They scored 75. I mean, I watch. But, yeah. It was so bizarre to watch ahead of time. And he's going to be right here, and we're just going to do that the whole game.

And you watch the clip, and they're both just palms up. You know the move I'm talking about? On every screen they did it. And they had just decided ahead of time, so he can't shoot three and see what happens. The game, they stuck to that. And you would watch the rocket get into the lane, and there's a shot there. And then they would just run back. Last night was, honestly, it's got to be in the top four.

of my whole entire life of 30 years, that game last night was one of the top four best. Because now, I suppose your day is already planned out. You're going to be walking around Houston in like a Dunkin jersey or something, right? I'm dressed head to toe in spurs attire right now. I might walk into the traffic and just stop traffic and wait in my spurs. Top four moment, you say. I mean, there's a lot of titles.

There's a lot of big games and a lot of titles. think you might be present. A lot of thinking. This is just a personal one because you happen to live in Houston. And they've never played before. No. This is a personal one because, yes, for one, we haven't played in the playoffs. In over two decades,

we haven't played the Rockets. And we're always sort of circling each other. And then over the last few years, they've gotten good again. So there was always a chance. There's a triangle here. So anytime you match up with one of those teams in the playoffs, it's like the basketball Super Bowl for Texas. This was our champion.

ship. As soon as we saw that, you know, the rankings, probably the best office is Kauai, who's the best, why this series was going to be so meaningful. And then to watch them, there's no where MVP, Tony Parker, a Kauai Linnert, David Lee, Jonathan Simmons, and beautiful, and they can get swept by the warrior. Next year, to any rocket, no matter, you've got this all 17, you've got also in there, 2000 and Kobe and they're sitting on the bench the game is over the Spurs are blowing them out.

Tim Duncan fucking put in work that game just destroyed. And Dallas was, you might be able to fly in the 2005. Game 7, the third quarter, the game going into the fourth quarter, and then the spurred last night's game. And I can't even believe that you didn't, and it's almost like it's overshadowing game five, which we didn't even bring up, but maybe, how about this? Maybe the utter humiliation of hard and being blocked by a 40-year-old Manu Genobley just ruined him forever. Universe stitched that moment because prototype for James, Manu was like when he would get to his left and he shot like 90-some to percent when he was.

Blocking the new version. You just don't, I wish, and then multiply it by that's what it feels like right now, inside my chest. Because I don't get to live around a bunch of Spurs fans. Right. Yeah. I'm glowing like a fucking. And care bear. That's what my chest looks like right now.

It's just a glowing fur symbol. All right. So how many games can they get off the Warriors? One. One. All of that to say they're about to get just destroyed. In part because Kauai's hurt. He's not going to be fine by Sunday.

And he won't be able to shake that in those games. Also, the Warriors are just, they're just too good. But that maybe we can steal too. I know you have to pay attention to watch because you have to write articles for the ringer. But what would be the most hysterical is if you just stopped watching the playoffs now, right? Yeah, I'm done. Just act like the season's over. I'm going to have in everything.

The basketball season is over for me. Patty Mills, Texas State Championship MVP. So you think that you honestly believe that the spurs are only going to win one game against a Warriors? That's it. That's what it feels like, yeah. The worries were several steps better than them. You sort of hope that they do better because, yeah, you can't. You honestly can't.

And Simmons, even though he came on, he started that game, you could tell he was flowing a little bit better, much more confidence. There's a shot that it could maybe get interesting. The four-year $80 million contract that Jonathan Simmons signs with the Nets is going to be the funniest thing ever. Oh, I can't wait. It's going to be like the same thing happened with Gary Meal. Right.

He played really great for the Spurs in the playoffs. And then he left and, you know, that support system was gone. All right, let's get to the other side, which is the Wizards and the Celtics. I know you love John Wall cussing at people. Love it. Love it. Everybody does, right? And the other thing, it was Ho, right?

Didn't he say ho? Yeah. They tried to say later on he was talking about one of his teammates that he referred to as the letter O. But I don't believe it. Oh, that's right. No, he called somebody a ho. I think if we're ranking like what you can call guys, I love ho.

I love when guys call each other hoes. It happened. Oh, it's definitely. It happened to. Well, there was a big moment amongst grizzly fans earlier this year where Zeebo got the ball down low and went up through traffic and he got hit twice and it went in. And he yells, and won, Sissy Ho. right and so and one sissy ho which they just happened to catch they got it on the microphone

sissy ho is unbelievable right but i am i'm a huge fan of that right i wish i wish all these guys that start calling each other hoes on plays i think that's like definitely top two as far as things you can say to somebody what's number one what what is greater i think it's better like like You just say no bitch to somebody. If you block somebody and you go, no bitch, like, that's incredible. It's better than how. I remember this game. This was maybe like a couple years ago in the playoffs.

And I'm remembering it right now because I wrote about it. There was 2000 in LeBron got the ball. Noah came over to try to block. Not as big and bad as what he did to Jason Terry. He dunked on him. And he stood there and stared straight because that very rarely has been the champion of the day. But Noah, who is an expert in the few steps toward the camera, you're still a bitch, though. And that was just like, he just cut LeBron's legs off.

Like, no matter what you do, if the guy you did it to responds with, you're still a bitch, though. Like, it just invalidates everything you just did. So, yeah, I would go with, bish-ho. Sissy-ho is, that's as good as it gets. I mean, because then you're doing the combo. All right. Yeah, that's a street fighter combo right there. Thought we were going to get two game sevens.

Obviously, that didn't work out with the whole Houston, San Antonio. But Wizard Celtics tonight, you think Wizards win game six? I'm going, yes. This has played the form, right? Like, the home teams have won. I do want to see the Wizards in the conference finals. Neither one of them are going to beat. I want to see when they played at the end of the season.

I think you're going to be let down, though, because it's going to be, it'll be Ubre or Gortot that does the cursing at LeBron. It will not be, well, I don't think he'll curse at him. I don't. You don't think so? No. Why wouldn't he? No, because I don't think he's, I think it takes like one of those guys with like a super

edge if they're going to like, kind of like, the guys that are cut from the Noah cloth, the Draymond cloth, you know, walls. I don't know. He's a pretty big star. You know what I mean? He's more of the super talented more than he is the super grinder type, right? And it's usually, it's usually the Noah and the Dremont types that. So that's why I would imagine. I mean, Ubrae is evidently, right? He's down. He's down. He's down. He's down. He's down. He's down. He's got a fuse on him. We know that. Yeah. Yeah. We know that. Yeah, but even him, right? Like is it, are you pushing Kelly Olenic? Right? Are you? Or would you do that to somebody else? So I don't know about it. I think John Wall is going to do it. I mean, we've seen the Super Bowl in the finals. Actually, that was like one of the best moments in the final.

And then he just shet all over him. We just talked all kinds of shit to him. We've seen Kevin Durant do it. We know he's not afraid. Yeah, maybe so. I think John Wall is going to do it. I think John Wall wants to insert himself into that conversation. Who was he called?

Do we figure out? Do we figure out who he was calling a ho? Who was it? No, I don't know. I don't know. And I honestly don't care. It's just the fact that it happened. But he's been trying to insert himself into that superstar conversation for a long time now.

And through these playoffs, he's proved him in the Eastern Conference. And he knows that. He's smart enough to know that. He's going to see. All right. You already said you think that the Spurs are going to win one game. So that's a question. Who loses more games before the finals?

The Warriors or the Cavs? I think the Cavs lose. They lost two last. No, that feels stupid. That feels wrong. That definitely feels wrong. I'm going to change it. I'm changing it.

I'm changing it. I think the Warriors will lose more games than the Cavaliers. Just because the spurs are tougher than the Wizards or the Celtics. It's the only reason. You said that feels stupid. It did. After it came out of my mouth, it felt like. They lost.

Lost two last year. They lost a Toronto last year. Yeah. I don't know. Like, I mean, they could. You know, has their defense been fixed, right? I do think that there are games where the Celtics or the Wizards could put up some real points on the Cavs. Right.

So, and you've got to remember, over a very large sample size, the Cavalier's defense was not some kind of sensational deal. Whereas the Spurs was, right? they were number one in defensive efficiency over the course of the whole year. So. Right. They just held the freaking rockets to 75 points. I mean, that's just, that's insanity. I don't know.

I kind of feel like the Spurs might be able to slow down a couple of the games against the Warriors, right? Maybe. I hope so. Well, and it's Mike Brown. I really, really hope so. Right? And it's Mike Brown on the sideline. And he's underwhelmed before, right?

It ain't going to be because of some kind of great strategy. If Mike Brown, some. It's going to be, I wouldn't even know what to say, any words to say. But you're thinking one, one game. I'm thinking one. You might be able to talk me into two if Kauai looks really good. Or maybe we get one of those games oners like you did against Memphis in game five. I will say this.

Yeah, I will say this. As a Grizzlies fan, it made me feel good last night because I was like, you know what? At least the Grizzlies were competitive. At least they didn't just lay down in a game six, right? They were up by seven with six minutes left to go on the Spurs. I mean, you have no dignity, Houston. Just none. No dignity.

None. That's so bad. Yeah. But, yeah, that's why, you know, that's a difference between Mike Connolly would never have a game. He's getting more. You know. I know you are. You said your chest was lit up like a care bear.

Well, take to the streets. Take to the streets of San Antonio. Wear a vest, right? Because I want you being careful. if you're really going to run in traffic with the Spurs flag, you might, there could be some real maniacs out there and you're really touching a nerve with that Spurs flag today. So just be careful on the streets, all right?

I'm going to try to. I went to, when I went to game three, the other game, but then by the end you could tell they were. Fourth quarter, when the Spurge were trying to pull away, he shot a three in the airball in Houston about. You're right. Last thing, I haven't gotten to read the article you wrote about King Arthur yet. Worth going to see?

Oh, no, the article is about Charlie Hunnam. Oh. Just as an actor in general. You haven't seen the movie? No, I went and saw Lost City of Z. Gotcha. Same as like if I go to a basketball game. Oh, I figured you had seen the movie when I pulled up the,

I just saw it just posted for this morning. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to go see it. It looks pretty good. It looks pretty good. It looks great. If you, anytime that you have, So it's like that's going to be a good movie, I think.

It's supposed to flop up, to be clear, and it's supposed to be bad. Enjoyed today. I mean, the joke's on me, man. I booked you thinking I was really going to get to talk some shit today, and I just, no, I mean, I just had to talk to you about the Spurs winning by 39, so it is what it is. That's what you get. Enjoy your afternoon.

Thanks, Sha. All right, homie. It's going to do it for another ringer NBA show. If you dig what you're here, go give us a rating and review on iTunes, and we will Talk to you on Tuesday.