Damian Lillard returns to Portland and Doc Rivers does Doc Rivers things

about it. I will get into some news from around the league, by the way, like Magic's tweets are not him right, Like that's that's Ai, that's Chad gbt anyway, news from around the league, including Darvin Ham and whether he's gonna get fired, whether his seat is hot right now. And we, of course, because it's Friday, get Trist's killer crazy ass stat of the week, which is a wild one this time around. Gotta fix these fucking my Rain's Anthony so my man dropped that motherfucking beat.

That was heart wrenching, Like I really miss him, I really miss knowing there's a moment where this man couldn't put up seventy on my for my team, in my building, in my po dunk city on the water, in that rivertown that's industrial as fuck where it rains like nine months of the year. And you know what, that man gave his all for my shit city. I love portl I love Dame, and no one loved it like he did. I miss Dame time, I miss the ticking of his finger on his fake watch in the game. But it's

no more, no longer a Blazer. He's off in Milwaukee doing his thing, and as a Dame psychologist, a Damologist, as they would say, somebody actually whose whole career, my career has coincided with Dame's career. My first year covering the league was Dame's first year in the league, and obviously he's the most intriguing player of my career, of my lifetime. He's the best Blazer of all time, and so coincided with my rise in the business. He says

he's happy in Milwaukee. He does, but outside, like when you start asking him about the like non basketball elements of the job, I would say he's not very stoked basketball park quite stoked playing with Gianna's bunch of vets. Outside of that, not super stoked, body language, demeanor's lack of full smile when they he smiles the biggest when they ask him about Portland. That's when he goes ear to ear. Hey, Dame, what's it like to be in the visitor's locker room? Was it weird for you? Cheez

smile ear to ear, Yes, it was. I don't even know where I'm supposed to go. He wishes he was still hooping in Portland, no doubt. He wishes he was with the family. He brought his whole family to the compound. I think there's like forty people living there, plus his kids. He misses them after shoot around, after practice, after his lift, like he gets to go and, as he would say, get full from his people. But no, now he's probably in some random one bedroom palatial condo in the middle

of Milwaukee with like nobody. If you listen to what Dame said before his return, here's some of the quotes that I thought, were you get some sort of feeling of Catharsis or closure by playing in this game, like sort of checking the box off of playing here as a visitor.

again before I'm done. This isn't a relationship that he wants closure on. This is like when you date somebody and you guys have to go off and do your own thing. They've got to go to law school. You're changing careers, you're following your passion. Maybe you were an accountant and now you want to be I don't know, like a general contractor for a design company. I don't know. You guys got to go your separate ways, but in the end, you want to make each other, you want

to get back to one another. That's Dame in Portland. They want to get back to one another. So do you need closure? Do you need that last final call to be like, where did it all go wrong? No, nothing went wrong. I want this, you want that. We can't do it together right now. We'll see each other in like five years. And then you ask him, like, what's it like in Milwaukee. Of course he's like, I love playing with the honest, But first, it's been a

massive transition, he said. It has been a very tough struggle to be without all the things that I like, being around my family, my kids, my house, my commute, the facility that I was used to. All of those things had me crying in the club. You listen to Dame again and I just get immediately a little teary eyed, a little stuffed up. It's sad because there's like only one player in my lifetime I've ever seen love a city ever this much. It's like not the same with

every athlete. They get drafted, they come and do their job. They probably force their a trade somewhere else when they're unhappier, they don't get what they want. The only player that comes close to the Dame scenario is Kevin Garnett. Wanted to stay in Minnesota, felt like he couldn't get it done there. Wanted to own the team, felt absolutely gutted when they would not say him. The team went back

to Minnesota to finish his career. It was like the final abort button that was in glass, encased in glass, encased in Moore glass. Did not want to push the button, had to push the button, did not want to what's crying when he pushed it? Dame said to Brook Oldenholzer. She asked him like, and he said, listen, there are sometimes decisions you must make that even you hurt yourself in making in the process. You can see the pain

on this man's face. Not even Damon Stodemeyer. David Startmer grew up in my little town, my little Rivertown, played for the Blazers. He didn't give a shit about our team. You didn't care. We had him come to our middle school to say stuff to us. He showed up. I think late, like by days. Do you think Dame Willard doesn't No, Dave as Milwaukee Bucks comes back to Harriet

tub in middle school right now. In fact, he is so important to city, so important as a player that Adidas named a building after him in Portland on the week that he came back for the first time, and they've never done that in the history and their entire building, like the entire business. That's Dame. They played a two minute video they did Laditas did it, and then the Blazers did it, and it made me a wreck. It

was every moment that we remember. It was rip City after he hit that big shot against the Houston Rockets, it was the Bye Bye wave, it was his whole team, Mobbingham. I remember every moment that those were and where I was in the process. I remember walking around the streets of Nashville, Tennessee before the NFL Draft, waving by bye to everyone I saw. I thought that was gonna be the year. Are we going to be able to stand up and punch Golden State in the fucking mouth and

win a championship. I felt like we could do anything. The Game seven against the Denver Nuggets, where I was in Bali, Indonesia, I had to set my alarm for like three or four in the morning just so that I could watch that. Fell back asleep. Had to buy a VPN because they won't let you watch it over there, just so I could listen to Evan Turner go fucking crazy, knowing that they would trade him, CJ going nuts, Meyers

Leonard going nuts. Then going back to Portland after BALI just to see him in the Western Conference Finals in my fucking city with all my people who helped me get to that place in my career, where I could come in there with the media pass. That was game anyway to the game, because that's what's important too, Right, How did he play? How did the Blazers play? The game ended pretty fucking exciting. Blazers took a ten point fourth quarter lead. I think we were like fifteen point

dogs to the Milwaukee Bucks. Something crazy. I mean, they should have been eat our ass, right, should have beat their ass. And the Bucks cut into it in the final minutes until Day made a steal, threw an alley oop to Giannis dunked for a one point Bucks lead. Then Anthony Simons did his best Damian Lillard impression drove down into the lane for a floater hit the go ahead. The Bucks took it over with seventeen seconds left. The best that they could come up with was a Brook

Lopez thirty footer which missed two free throws. Later, the Blazers had a three point lead with five point one seconds left, the Bucks were out of timeouts. Blazers bailed them out, calling a timeout, And this is where we get Doc Rivers. This is where the Doc Rivers character comes right into the plotline. He had plenty of time to call a play, and you would think anybody, I mean, you just heard a whole soliloquy about Dame. Who does the ball go to when it's Dame time? When it's

Dame time, who does the ball go to? Yannest? No, it goes to Dame. But what did Doc do? Doc said, when they zig zag, Dame takes the ball out of bounce and gives the ball to Janice. Yes, Jannie, the guy who can barely make seventy percent of his free throws. That man needed to hit one hundred percent of his first free throw in order for this plan to work. After the game, they asked Doc, why'd you fucking do that? And this is what he said, what about that man?

made no sense. This is coming on the heels of Doc Rivers saying that he wouldn't wish coaching this Bucks team on anyone. I can tell you that just from a day and a half, this is gonna be a challenge. What you mean the team that's number two in the East, second best record in the NBA. You mean that team? You think you wouldn't wish that challenge on anyone? No, No, I wouldn't wish that challenge on you, sir. I wouldn't wish you to have that job. This is the worst

possible situation for Dame. Someone good enough, with enough pedigree, enough, with enough reputation high enough to not be fired despite his mediocrity, and not anywhere good enough for Dame to win a chip and come on home. And you know this man, you know this, which is fine. I guess Dame's gonna be looking to get out of Milwaukee at the same time, Shadon and Scoot and AFRENI, you are gonna be heading to the finals. That's my team, right dere every but he's going down. My team's on to

come up. And then Dame will be like thirty seven, he plays twenty five minutes a game like Carmelo Anthony did in his final years, and then he will get a chip in the one place that he actually wants to win it more than any other place. Portland, Oregon. Shout out to Dame. I love this man, greatest human to ever put on a jersey in my city. We love you right back, brother, We always will, we always have. I'm sorry for all the means. All right, let's move on.

Last episode, we dug into a new rule in the NBA dictating that you must play sixty five games in order to be eligible for the major awards like MVP, but also all NBA, which is, as you may know,

tied to many star player contracts. Turns out that the worst possible thing that could have happened in the two days since that pod dropped Joel Embiid, who at that point and still at this point, could only miss a handful of games in order to be eligible to win the MVP, seems to have I don't know why forced himself into a lineup to play against the Golden State Warriors in a nationally televised game, probably because of public pressure, people saying that he was a pussy and a bitch

or whatever, you know, whatever mean things people say. And guess what, and guess what. It didn't work out well. He had to leave the game due to re injuring his knee, as I've said so gracefully before.

these meaningless numbers against these meaningless teams. If he plays through injury risks, injuring himself. Oh, he's egotistical. He's chasing dumb awards that don't really matter. He just wants to get the MVP again. He wants to out best Jokich again. He's duck in Jokic and trying to out best Jokic, not worrying about the thing that matters most AKA competing for a championship. That's a lose lose situation. Brother, and

B deserves better than this. And B deserves better than this dumbass discourse, especially considering that we know that Joel Embiid is not like faking it. Joel Embiid has not ever been one hundred percent healthy in his entire career since he's entered the NBA. How many games has Joel Emid ever played sixty five games in his career? Why did we think he was playing sixty five games now? Just because like someone said, you must, Joel Embiid, you must play sixty five games. We will make it so

like we think that that's just gonna like work. You think this man was sitting out for no reason. What I mean, you're pushing this man to play past his physical limits that we know he has, which is fifty games. Joel Embiid's limit is fifty games plus then the playoffs where he might end up getting injured, so he's probably forty games. Okay, So it's every other game Joel Embid should play and be fucking thankful for those games because

this is the best basketball we've ever seen Joel Embiid play. Also, he plays like shit in Golden State, plays like shit for two against whoever was before them. And then it was like, we're not talking about the pressure being placed on him and this dumb ass rule. We're talking about

how fat Joel Embiid is. Not me. I didn't say that, but there's plenty of people on Twitter being like, oh, well, if Joel Embiid wasn't just such a fucking fatty, and then maybe he would stay in shape and maybe he would be able to like stay healthy through these sixty five games. They're like comparing Joel Embiid Desigon Williamson, like Joel Embiid didn't just win an MVP last year. It's absolutely insane. This is, by all intents and purposes, fucked up.

The discourse around Joel Embid is unbelievable. He one hundred percent needs to sit out until he is one hundred percent healthy again, but these stupid rules made him feel pressured. And not just the rules, the people saying, oh, you know, Joel Embid, you're not gonna be able to get win an MVP and you're playing so well and like blahlah blah blah, and like yo doesn't only miss one game, and you are a pussy, so you need to play

through this game. What? Like? No, Joel Embiid is now being reported that his ability to be at his best from here on out is in serious question. You motherfuckers are the reason that we're not gonna be able to

see Joel and be put up seventy three again. You fuckers are the reason that we're not gonna be able to see Joel andb splash middies all day every day and me make money betting on him to score forty You guys, you dummies, You magic lauding the sixty five game rule, and and let's be honest, Adam Silver, you're at fault. You're at fault, money grab feeling like the

economics don't make sense. The people who you're talking to and negotiating right now for these rights deals, they want the sixty five games because they think that the sport is being wided down because they don't like load management. Ah so if you put this rule in, you're gonna like squeeze an extra few billion dollars out of Apple TV. Congratulations, Now you get to watch Julia McLoughlin, who exactly Also Tyree Aliburton seems to hate these new rules as well.

He says, I think it's a stupid rule, like playing the guys in the league, But this is what owners want. So as players, we got to do our job and playing sixty five games if we're able to. So that's what I gotta do. Got to take care of my body to be able to play in these games. And I think you're seeing other players in the league kind of face the same thing. As long as the owners are happy, right whoo. As long as the owners are happy, right,

shots fired. Even Draymond Green is upset. I mean, he's probably always upset, although he's mistake games due to not injury, mostly the Tom foolery. Here's what he had to say on his podcast.

Turns out like we're diametrically opposed, when really the players want the same thing that the owners do. I just want to be healthy so that I can play the game, you know what I mean. The problem is, and nobody's talking about this. Tyrese Haliburton is on the cusp of losing a lot of money too because of games messed. He only has three more games that he can lose, and he'll miss out on forty million dollars because he's

not eligible for all NBA status. The solution, obviously is stopped tying contracts to awards, stop tying awards to games played, honestly, but that's a discussion for another day. For now, we just simply cannot have star players getting hurt just because they want to be eligible for this dumb mass award. He gets' paid more money. Ugly shit in an ugly game. Moving on, trade deadline's coming up fast. We're gonna have Jake Fisher on the podcast Monday to talk about that.

But for now, the rumors are are that the one team everyone and I mean everyone thought would be like, I don't know, sound like a Carnival Barker. There you are, apparently standing pat. All the signs point to the fact that the Chicago Bulls are not going to make a move. They're not gonna make one move. Chicuggo Bulls, this team, what the fuck? According to the Athletic, if the Bulls swing a deal before the February deadline, most will be surprised.

It's not that the Bulls can make a trade, but there's a prevailing belief that the front office won't commit to something substantial. That means no Zach Lavine on the move. That means no Demartin Rosen on the move. That means no Patrick Williams, not even Alex Crusoe. All of the rumors, all of the time that we've had those rumors, none of them are gonna come to fruition. Just a good old fashioned cock ts is what we have here, folks. Are the Chicago Bulls the new Toronto Raptors. Cock teas

and trades, never pulling the trigger. Mark Eversley is now out there just Missillou's you'ering the whole league, the bit, except for we want these players less than we wanted them, so it's like weaved crazier. The biggest question is like, what the fuck are the Chicago Bulls doing. There's not anything left for the season to salvage. They're not good. They're twenty three and twenty six or in ninth place. There maybe had a fifty fifty percent chance to make

a playing game. It is as bizarre. They're nowhere good enough to win, not committed in the least to rebuild, least in Toronto, they eventually became sellers. We're gonna have to see how this Chicago situation develops. Moving on, man, our guy, Darvin Ham, he's on the hot seat. Producer Anthony Irwin is out here leading the charge. Get him, fucking get him. No, the Lakers are shit show. As we know, everyone including Lebron James, is tired of Darvingham.

All the players are throwing him under the bus subtly, not so subtly. Jason Tempt of Hoops tonight tweeted, I can't remember a team under treat and achieving relative relative to talent and health like this Lakers team. How bad are the Lakers? Well, when the starting lineup for a Thursday's nationally televised game against the Celtics was announced, a game where Ad and Broun were scratched early, very early, because Ad was hurt and Broun was held back, Chris

Wood simply tweeted, lol. Well. They also mentioned that Christian Wood was going to be coming off the bench. Christian Wood thought he was going to be starting. Darvin Hamm responded, We're constantly looking for balance with our lineup, and it's not a popularity contest. We're looking at how to mix and match our players that will be most effective in helping us get a win. Also, they asked Christian Wood, Hey,

what was that loll about? Was that about you not starting and you thinking that Jackson Hayes starting over you was an absolute joke show? And he said, oh no, my bad. I meant to quote tweet something. I just I just accidentally tweeted it without the quote tweet. And that is a lie. That is a lie. Lebron James is out here tweeting emojis of what are those things called sand those sand time things? Hour Glass out here, tweeting emojis of the hour glass tick tick times running out,

I am out of here. I thought that might have been the announcement that he was partnering with the DraftKings for his new NFL Pick show that he's doing, which is absolutely wild. But no, he's like, yo, you guys need to make a move. It's a shit show. Producer Anthony Irwin says he thought for a while the season could be salvaged by firing Ham, but I don't think he's sure of that either. Check out his podcast by the Way Lakers Lounge for more details. But for now,

Darvin Ham's gotta be getting fired. Lebron Jada tweeted, like I said, this hourglass making lots of people speculate he's gonna be gone after this year if they don't make a move. Moving on, it is time for Trista's crazy ass killer stat of the week, and holy shit, it's a wild one. Roger Sherman tweeted the following, which I had to fact check because I did not believe it. Ryan Archie Diacono Kano, which I've tried to say like

a million times. You're just gonna live with it, okay, Like I tried to say as many times as I said to a tug of Ioloa before he fucking won the national title of the New York Knicks. Is in his eighth season, part of the bench mob, fourteenth or fifteenth mini on the squad. As as such, he's expected to play mop up minutes, and he's done that this year twenty times. But incredibly, unbelievably, I did not know this was real. He's not scored a single point this season,

not one. He's played nearly forty six minutes this year across twenty games, not made a single shot. My man, Ryan Archie Diacano is Archie dia No, No, because he's not making shit. He's zero for six from the field, all three pointers, he's grabbed eight wards and dished four assists. Why is this noteworthy? There is not a player in the history of the NBA that has gone more than ten games without scoring. My man said, you know what,

take that, I'll double it absurd. All I know is when this happens, the Knicks bench is gonna go absolutely ape shit. But who knows how many more games it's gonna take For him to score a point. That's all the time that we have for this episode of the Heat Check. Come back Monday for an on new episode. Check out the feeds for past episodes of many episodes which drop unexpectedly, like the beat in a screw like song. Do not forget to follow the Heat Check the rest

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