On this episode of the Heat Check, why are the biggest stories in the NBA still fucking terrible reffing?
These guys are Jabbronis.
We get into the reffing shenanigans that are afoot surrounding the Pacers, Celtics and the Lakers Raptors game. You gotta hear this quote from Dark Oh, it is incredible. We also do a deep dive into the news around the league, including Draymond's return, the Bucks defensive disaster, and Eric Spolster's huge extension.
That happened on the heels of a big divorce. Congratulations to Spo. You get to keep all that money plus a lot more.
Get right into it, Anthony and drop that motherfucking beat that should be Rihanna. Oh okay, can we just be done with all this refin bullshit? That's the thing I'm fired out, fired up about today. The one big thing, as it were, all season long, We've got the refs on some bullshit tossing Jokic for saying the B word. Why did I say the B word? Saying the word bitch? Why did I say the B word? Like I'm on an FCC, I say fuck all the time and it's like oh, saying the B word, blowing calls and crunch
time favoring one team over another. We got two huge stories though, from the past two days, and they both involve referees. Let's talk about the Celtics game first, because that one is also egregious game on Monday night that was once again marred by shitty reffing.
Once again, the league came to the defense of their.
Awful, no good sad sack, terrible, mediocre lazy riffs with three point two malicious. With three point two seconds left in a tie game, Jayalen Brown drove into a triple team and was straight mugged by Buddy Healed. They called the foul, but here's the kicker. Rick Carlisle is uh pocketing challenges like gold coins, so he throws the challenge the little thing that they do with their finger, and the call gets reviewed. Right to the shock of everyone,
including the pacers. The call was reversed no foul, despite very obvious evidence that our man Buddy Healed struck.
Down Brown on the head. Splat.
On the other end, Porzingis gets fouled for a touch fowl gets called for touch fowl on Ben Mathrin who then nails two free throws and that was game.
And the Celtics, if you.
Might imagine, they have not calm down since, no.
They have not.
Alen Brown was irate, incensed and I don't mean nag champa, I mean screaming that's bullshit while he was on the floor. He has not calmed down in the postgame either. He said, I think you obviously hit me in the head. I think we definitely need to do some investigation.
That's all I'm gonna say.
He went after the ref James Williams and asked if he saw Buddy hit him in the head, and he was like, no, I didn't, nope, which only made things worse. He said, that's what pissed me off, because I know I got hit in the head and you see it on the replay. It's pretty obvious I got hit in the head. Then you look at me in my eye and tell me that you didn't see it. I think that needs to be investigated. You cost my team a game, and of course I'm pissed about it.
It was pretty obvious. I'm not gonna lie.
Like seeing a man hit another man in the head is not something that you just can't see when it's on video. Buddy Healed tells Joe Miszula, Hey, I foiled him.
I did. Angels were on my side, he says.
After the game, Missoula has not calmed down either, keeping those crazy eyes on peak, he says, I just can't wait till four o'clock, referring to the NBA's last two minute report.
I just can't wait for four o'clock. You know how bad it is?
So even lebron James, who has been doing the lord's work trying to get Darbnham fired, pouting talking about how his son could actually play for the Lakers, when he knows that his son, Bronnie James can barely play for the USC Trojans. And he knows that because he goes to every Trojan game where Bronni's getting like fifteen minutes a game, averaging four point seven points or something per game. I think it's like six point seven. But still now
for the effect, it's not much. So let's be real, Braun, your son can't play for the Lakers anyway.
He is wouldn't even wish Ricky Rubio a.
Sincere retirement because he was all pissed off because they're losing games. He tweets about the game. See what I'm saying. JB clearly got hit in the back of the head. They reviewed the play just to reverse it and say he didn't. Man, what good ass game to have an ending like that. And y'all see why I be going gorilla ape shit out there. When it happens, he does g gae shit. Lebron absolutely loses his.
Mind when a call is not called in his favor. So okay, So the NBA releases.
Their final two minute report, and of course, because they are the mob, they say.
That there was no foul on the play, even though.
They do say Porzingis's touch fowl should have not been called, probably should have gone to overtime.
But the lengths folks that the league.
Will go to cover up for their own to really just make a mockery of the sport. Bad refing, the bad refings is shocking. So can we please not have these refs in the mix anymore? Can we not have the refs be a major plot line this season? Because someone on Twitter did a little investigation, what do you think they found about James Williams. So James Williams is not only from Indiana, went to school at Indiana and as shockingly reffed a ton of Pacers games. Do you
know what the Pacers record is? A team that's been in the dregs for a while.
Now, Let's be honest.
It's not we're talking about peak Lebron James Miami either. We're talking about the Pacers. Do you know what the Pacers record is? When James Williams is reffing on the floor, just guess thirty five and three? Are we serious? I don't even think the seventy three and nine Warriors had a thirty five and three under one ref. That does not make the NBA does have to investigate the Pacers their past history. Should not five and three against Muncy
Central High. I am telling you something is wrong. And if that isn't bad enough that one ref scenario, we got another full blown conspiracy on our hands, courtesy of our man Darko Razovich, ra haf Rakovic, whatever you know what I'm talking about, raw Hakovic, ra Hakovich. I think that's it. The Raptors lost to the Lakers last night. It was an awesome game, very back and forth, very high scoring. Raptors were taking it to the Lakers, but.
They handed out in.
The fourth quarter, twenty three free throws to LA, twenty three free thows to the Lakers in the fourth quarter alone, and just two to the Raptors. Do you think the head coach felt some kind of way about that?
You're sure? What do you think he said?
Probably something mild meek, Hey, we got to check these refs out.
Here, something.
No, it was an all time epic rant. You must hear here.
It is.
Thank you Doug, Thank you Doug.
That's that's that's outrageous what happened tonight.
This is completely bias. This is shame. Shame for the referees, shame for the league to allow this.
Twenty three free throws for them, and we get two free throws.
In the fourth quarter, Like how to play the game?
I understand respect for all stars and all that, but we have star players on our team as well.
How's possible as Scottie Barnes.
Who is all Star caliber player in this league, he goes every single time to the rim with fours and trying to get get to the rim without flopping and and not trying to get foul calls. He gets two free throws for the whole game. How's that possible. How are you gonna explain it to me? They had to win to night if that's If that's the case, just let us know so we don't show up for the game.
Just give them a win. But that was not fair tonight.
And this is not happening first time for us. Scottie Barnes is gonna be all started. He's gonna be the face of this league. And what's happening over here during the whole season, I've been calling the back it's a complete crap.
Do you feel like you're getting any explanations at all?
That offensive foul? Did you did you see like get any ap?
No? No, there is no explanation.
They just they just come up there, they review what and they see what they want to see. They don't want to hear us what we got to say. They don't want to hear the players. They don't just want to protect us. Over again, they got three six free throws, twenty three free throws in the fourth quarter.
What are we talking about? What are we talking about?
How are we gonna supposed to play?
There's a one off.
You feel this happening to your.
Team at It's happening a lot.
But I'm telling our guys be professional, keep fighting, keep going for the next one, but on kill the when.
For how long?
This is incredible? I love Darko. I want to hear Darko talk about anything. It's giving me real forty year old virgin vibes. And I tell you what, it was epic. Here's the context to Darko's mountdown. So Toronto went ten for ten from the field to close out the game, twelve for twelve if you count the pair of baskets that got way for offensive fouls. In other words, the Raptors offensively were perfect down the stretch, still could not close a one point gap. Why twenty three free throws
to two free throws. The disparity of the free throws were crazy. And when you play as well as Toronto did, I just don't think you should lose a game like this. I just don't think you should.
The Lakers are widely.
Seen as getting, let's be real, a very favorable whistle Lebron Jay James, any team he's on, very favorable whistle? Why because, like you said, he goes ape shit whenever he doesn't get a call.
I'm curious is Lebron gonna weigh in on this one?
Too, because I feel like he's very interested in refs fucking around and getting calls wrong.
It feels like maybe this would be one he would want to get involved in.
Also, Darko was furious at Ben Taylor and his team, and he did not hold back by the way Ben Taylor has had He was the one that Fred van Fleet was saying was fucking terrible. I think Ben Taylor has a grudge against the Toronto Raptors. Now the NBA has another roughing controversy on their hands, and as Jalen Brown said so poignantly, so classily, so perfectly, the shit's gotta be investigated, and these fucking refs have to stop putting themselves into the spotlight before.
We all lose our damn line.
Let's move on a lot of quick hitters to catch up this midweek episode from the Heat Check. We start with a little update out of Brooklyn. So last week we talked a little bit about Ben Simmons. We noted that the Nets put out a release in December twenty if that Ben was increasing his on court work and they would update his status in two weeks. So to my quick math on the calendar, it has been two weeks and we have no updates on Ben Simmons and
what's going on. It's been crickets over there in the Brooklyn organization.
Nothing.
He was last seen on November sixth, when he had two points in thirty three minutes in a four point loss to the Bucks. Since then, we have seen no hide nor hair of Ben Simmons in a uniform. Lots of fit fits for the league, lots of you know, sweaters, multi colored cardigans, lots of ice. You know, Ben Simmons one of the best dressers in the league, but no Ben Simmons in a uniform. So to that, I say, it's very incredibly sad. I've never seen a player with
the stranger career arc than Ben Simmons. I don't doubt that he does have those back problems, but like if you've got back issues and you also really don't want to be somewhere, the back issues are just tough to overcome. You're gonna need to be one hundred and ten percent in order to feel comfortable to come back.
Why because you probably don't want to be there anyway, right, And so if you don't really want to be there, then you got a little tweak, You got a little paeni, a little swarmness, and you're like, I'm just not feeling up to it. I'm just not ready to go out there. The nets won't even let us hear from him.
They treat him like he's in witness protection. He's played forty percent of his games as a net, and it looks like that number is going to continue to shrink because he's obviously nowhere close to.
Seeing the court.
I mean, it's just very bizarre. I'm not sure if we'll see him before the All Star Game.
I don't think so. I mean, that's what I'm month from now.
At that point, would anything be shot shocked if you got shut down for the rest of the year Because this team is going nowhere very fastic. What is happening with Ben Simmons. Nobody's asking either. It's almost like we don't care. He's a lost cause. If Ben Simmons was playing to the caliber or the level that he was playing in the good times of Philly and then he was just shut down for months on and we would
be wondering where he is. But the fact that his production has gone down so severely, we think it's like a joke. We think Ben Simmons is just not even requiring an inquiry.
We don't care.
We don't care when he's coming back to the court, the point of the court, because he's not effective anymore. Just like a very unique player, a very unique arc. In his last game, he scored two points. He also had fifteen rebounds and four assists, and he was a lockdown defensive player.
And it's the way that Ben Simmons was marketed. Really, that's the problem.
As a point guard, guy that can score, a guy that's gonna be an all NBA caliber dude defensively and offensively, but he's not.
He's a player that can help a team win. He's just not who he thought he was. And that's okay.
From the sound of it, or I guess the lack of sound of it, It's gonna be a long time before we see any Ben's.
In a uniform again, all right.
Moving on, Draymond Green's back in the news because after about three and a half weeks, he has been cleared.
By the league to come back.
Woj Is reported that next Monday at Memphis should be Draymon's return to hoops. Imagine being gone so long on a suspension, you have to recondition yourself to get there, and Draymond said, to be honest, he'd be fine to come back right away, but he didn't think that it was the right thing for the team, right thing for him.
Maybe he injures himself.
Maybe it's bad for the team's success, even though the team, Let's Be Real, is dead already. But that's not really why he's in the news. He's in the news because he dropped this episode of The Draymond Green Show. It was the first thing I listened to yesterday, By the way, I woke up, opened my little eyes, and I went to the good old YouTube, and I watched the whole thing, all fifty one minutes of it, all the entire breadth and detail of his suspension.
You've probably seen.
Viral clips by now, like Steve Kerr and him out in the lawn of his house, crying, holding hands, kumbayawing, listening to Enya.
He nagged, chompa something like that. He comes over. We had a good old cry.
How Adam Silver talked him out of retiring, even though he's in the middle of this deal which worth hundreds of millions of dollars, which is obviously false. The fact that he's upset that Kevin Durant so that he needed help, the fact that he was very butt hurt by what stephen.
A said so interesting.
Stephen A does not believe that Draymond Green was ever close to retirement because he said this, brother, Draymond Green thinks about his future every day and it's got dollar signs attached to it.
In facts facts, He's not turning down that money.
Mostly though, the interview was a fascinating look at how somebody who loves the limelight and says that they want to stay out of it is also devastated by it and yet still attract to it like I'm off to a flame.
He will not stop making content.
We know that from this big long YouTube episode. He's got a big deal coming out with Volume. I'm sure it took him a year and a half to concoct and figure out that deal, so I'm.
Sure there's a lot of money on the line. I promise you.
No matter how much his therapist tells him, hey, you should probably stop making content, He's not stopping making content.
That deal is done a lot of it.
I think the things that are dangerous to him and the issues and devastation can come from the stigma of having to ask for help, not just like a male thing, but also from where.
He comes from kind of thing.
And Draymond was very clear about that he needed and needs help. He needed to talk to somebody. He's wanted to go to therapy, but was terrified about it. He was very clear about where he grew up in Saginaw, asking for help was not really thought about on that subject.
Stephen A said this about Draymond quote, as a black man, when you are confronted by the consequences of your own actions, it's one thing to be suspended, but when the label is therapy and that you need help, and you think that narrative is being created about you, it hits you different.
Stephen A knows about this too, because remember he ended up getting fired from ESPN, and he said he had to do a little soul search in himself, a little changing of his mindset and getting past the patterns of his behavior from where he grew up to But it's hard to ask for help under even the best the circumstances. And when you grow up without resources in a culture that looks at therapy as weakness.
When you get.
Resources even ones to seek help, to find someone to help you sort your shit out, which is, by the way, very expensive. You know you can it's like four or five hundred dollars per session sometimes for therapists, even just mediocre ones. So the resources are kind of a critical component to getting the help. But even when you have one hundred million dollars, I get it hard to get the help that you need.
Draymon's gonna be back on the court. He promises, no antics. How many days until we get antics? We move on.
Just a few days ago, Yanna said this in his postgame after another just terrible defensive performance by the books. So he said this, we have to be better. We have to play better, we have to defend better, we have to trust one another better. We have to be coached better, every single thing. Everybody has to be better.
Everybody.
It starts, It's best part. It starts with the equipment manager.
Have you ever heard those lines? Ever?
It starts with the equipment manager. He has to wash our clothes better.
Is there a stain?
Is there a stain on Giannis's clothes that he shows up to the game and there's like a little piece of smudge on his jersey, the leaders. He has to wash our clothes better. The bench has to be better. The leaders of the team have to be more vocal. We have to make more shots. We have to defend better. We have to get better strategy. We have to be better. We have four months to get better.
So let's see this boy's out. He's out.
I don't think I don't think he's staying. I know he signed an extension, but I don't think he's staying.
I don't think Dame's long for Milwaukee, and I don't think Giannis is long for Milwaukee. Honestly, can you blame mom?
There's so many better places out there in the United States to play basketball than Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Oh, shade to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with big shade to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
But let's go back to Giannis's comments.
You called out the equipment manager all the way from the equipment manager to the head coach.
By the way, because this man was slandered.
The Bucks equipment manager tweeted out a photo of Gianni's game jersey, pristine, white and clean. So he's like, listen, I don't be calling me out for fucking washing your clothes. They can't be more pristine than they are right now. The Bucks clearly took that to heart, because the next day they played the Jazz at home.
What do you think happened there?
Milwaukee showed their hearts of champions by getting blown out yet again, giving seventy seven points up in.
The first half to a team many.
People don't even know who's on that team outside of Lori market, and they fell behind thirty in the game that they lost by sixteen points on Pride night. God damn it, the Milwaukee Bucks. They have no pride, they have no shame. They lose to the Bucks. They lose to the fucking Houston Rockets. And I know Dame wasn't there in the game, had personal personal reasons, big eye emoji type stuff.
Like probably sortain stuff out and we'll see it's probably not good, let's be honest. And that took someone the floor.
With one hundred and nineteen defensive rating, so in addition by subtraction to a degree, defensively, but I'm starting to think Adriene Griffin doesn't know how to use his players defensively. That scheme that he has involves pressuring the ball well above the three point line. But there's Nobody on the team that can move their feet like Drew Holliday.
Nobody.
Dame is a turnstyle and he's trying his best. He is, his deflections are up, his steels are up, but he's he's a turnstyle. Let's be honest, Drew's not there anymore. You got opposing point guards blown by the first point of contact, and then you've got the slow foot of defensive guys like Brooke Jannis conaton portis coming up way more exposed front of ram just easy blowbys. Now, Jannis and Lopez are too far away from the rim to do what they do best protect it. Fans are clamoring
for Marcus Smart or Alex Crusoe. I'd be clamoring for Marcus Smart as well, But what does it cost to get either one of them? How does that put that team even further closer to contending. The Bucks are gonna win a lot of games because they have Honest and they have Dame, and they're both very world class offensive dudes. But it's hard to see this team that's as composed making a deep run in the playoffs.
I just don't see it. The last time I said that, though.
They won a title so let me just keep my comments. Tell my goddamn self, the bucks inability to play defense will be a major story moving forward, and we're gonna be keeping.
Our eyes closely up on moving on.
Big news out of Miami where the Heat are surviving, not thriving. They are currently in fifth place, but they're one game out of ninth place, so they're basically in ninth place. That's how tight the East is. They're twenty one and fifteen. That's a forty eight win pace, which is pretty much what they do every year. Forty eight wins, eight seed, seven seed, sometimes three seed, that was one seed, and then given the disaster of this offseason, that's pretty pretty good.
For Eric Spolster in the Miami Heat.
Eric Sposter one of the best coaches in the league, probably the best coach in the league, which is why pat Riley decided to reward Spoe with an eight year, one hundred and twenty million dollar contract, making him the highest paid coach in the NBA at fifteen.
Million dollars per year.
The man deserves it. He's taking a broken down Heat roster to three Eastern Conference finals. You had to roll out Max Strups, you had to roll out gay Vincent. Gay Vincent came on the scene for Team Nigeria in Tokyo.
That's when that guy might have gotta shine. You had Caleb Martin getting his shun. The only reason you like Caleb Martin is because he plays with the heat. Let's be real.
You got all kinds of randoms Heywood, Highsmith making their way, Nicola Yovich, he finds ways to turn water into wine. Two NBA finals nobody saw coming. He's been the final six times and thirteen years. I think that's the best in the league pretty much, given the nature of the league.
What does this mean is gonna be around for a long asstime.
He's pretty young too, a lot younger than a guy like Greg Popovich. Since he took over in Miami, there have been one hundred and sixty seven coaching changes in the NBA, and by the time his contract is over, that number is probably going to be closer to three hundred. He's the last man standing. He is the man who wins the Hunger Games. We talk a lot about heat culture, but that culture comes down really to two guys set
in a tone, pat Riley and Eric Spolstra. Riley just made sure when he steps down because he's seventy eight. His legacy is going to continue through Spoe and I know that we really quickly. There's a total aside one thing that we like to talk about, and I like to talk about because everyone's like, oh, yes, Spolstra pulled himself up from his bootstraps.
Yeah, he's a working class man.
He worked his way up through the heat front office from a Vedo coordinator job on the Blazers and rags the richest story.
Let's be real.
We have to say it every time we talk about this bo because it's like we're shining the truth on the matter.
Eric Spolster is a neo baby, I'm gonna say it.
Yeah, his father John Spolstra, GM of the Portland Trailblazers for ten years, GM of the Nuggets and the Nets as well. So yeah, you know, I got that scrappy kid in the mailroom. His dad owns Paramount. Sorry, he's been tabbed. Like you being in the mailroom and him being in the mailroom is not the same you working in the mailroom. You're not gonna become a head coach
of an NBA team. Only the guys who have parents who have put them into the mailroom because they need their kid, who's a NEPO baby, to feel what it means to be in the trenches. Like that's a lesson for them. You or two are not the same. Okay, if you believe that, you're fucking out of your mind.
We all remember Spolster as the architect. Eric Spolster's dad is the architect of the Sambui debacle, where the Blazers passed on Michael Jordan, greatest player of all time, in favor of a man who had already had catastrophic stress fractures that caused the man to miss an entire year, followed by another stress fracture causing him to be in a cast, a cast for forty four weeks to miss
another year. Yeah, the Spolster family, thanks for taking a guy with catastrophic leg injuries instead of the guy who ended up being the greatest of all time. He missed one hundred and thirty three weeks due to injury over a guy who won a national championship on the last second shot.
But yeah, I'm not bitter or anything.
I mean, it's kind of miraculous that the son of that guy is the greatest coach in the NBA, maybe one of the greatest of all times, because, like clearly, his dad not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed in terms of talent evaluation. Maybe that's why Eric Spolster he's so good. How do I turn dogshit players that my dad chooses and make them into somebody usable? I love Spolstra, but let's not act like this is some sort of rags the richest story. That being said, he
completely fully deserves this contract. He's the best coach in the NBA. He has been the best coach in the NBA for a long ass time. Him getting extended means heat culture continues with its annoying, just absolutely inciting fan base, and they will be alive and well for at least another decade and we will be beefing until the end of time.
And I like them too, They just don't like me.
And you might be wondering about the timing of this news, Like, really, just January tenth, we get Eric Spolstra announcements of a contract extension.
Strange timing.
Apparently the extension was delayed until after Eric Spolster's divorce.
Was finalized, So fuck them.
Host pat Riley, the original Godfather and Eric Spolster doing his best Michael Corleone.
That's all the.
Time that we have for this episode The Heat Check. Come back tomorrow for all new episodes, because we give you content every single day, despite whether I want to or not. Love talking to you all, though I really do check the feed for past episodes and many episodes which drop every single day like the last leaf of fall.
Do not forget to follow the heat Check all season long.
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Big shout out to my new producer Anthony and stealing a game against the Toronto Raptors because he's a Lakers fan.
We'll see you next time.