Play-In Tournament Delivering Once Again

early and the latest on Damian Lillard. It's more of the same bullshit, but we're gonna get into it because it's the news. Happy the playoffs are here, Nick my man, so do me a favor. Drop that generic gas beat. You should be Rihanna. It is the end of the season and at this point we're all pretty much playing hurt.

Someone I met today, an insider friend of show, Jake Fisher, told me, I sound like I have been smoking two packs of cigarettes for the last two weeks at night, so sounds like my voice is starting to go on me. But the show continues. The show continues because we got some things to do. Let's start first before we break down on what happened the first playing games. I have a gripe to get off my chest. Hey Adam Silver, can you use your hammer of justice to officially make

the playing games count as playoff games? Can we get some stats? Can those stats count for something? Because what most people don't know that stats from playing games don't count towards the regular season. They don't count towards the playoffs. They're just lost. They're just gone. They count for nothing, They're gone forever. Even Basketball Reference, which I couldn't live one day without, doesn't even have play in stats when you call up a player's season game log. So what

do you have to do? You have to go into the individual games themselves. Do you remember when Jason Tatum put up fifty on the Wizards in the twenty twenty Playing Game? Good luck finding that, good luck seeing that it was real. Jason Tatum's gonna tell his son that Duce Tatum when Duce Tatum's like ten years old, and then Duce Tatum's gonna be like, prove it to me. You can't do those stats count towards his career totals?

Who the fuck knows? I don't know. Fix this. Otherwise people are gonna think that the playing game is an exhibition game because finding summer league stats I think is easier than find stats for the play in games. I digress. Fascinating things happened in the first playing games. Mostly they have to do with the teams that lost though, So okay, Miami, they were the number one seed in the East last year,

might not make the playoffs this year. The Pelicans one of the most exciting teams coming into the season this year. They were at one point this season the best team in the West. They were number one in the West before if a Zion got hurt, we were all excited about what they would do. They took Phoenix to the brink last year. And you know what, They're gonna watch the playoffs from the couch. Three two one can coon, so it goes. The Wolves were considered to be one

of the best young hot teams. They made the move for Rudy Gobert so that they could win right now. And you know what they're doing. They are hoping upon all hope that they can they can beat the OKC thunder tomorrow or tonight. And the Raptors. The Raptors were so exciting. The Raptors. Everyone had these huge expectations for them. You have multiple players to play defense, and you know what you do, You get cooked by DeMar DeRozan and

Zach Lavine. You don't make the playoffs, and now you're rebuilding. All of these teams have had success recently, had high expectations, and now they're at the crossroads. You're gonna probably either see roster rebuilds or coaching changes in all of those scenarios. That's the thing. That's the thing about expectations. If you perform ahead of schedule and then you take a step back, oftentimes you pay a price. People are like, what are

we doing? What's wrong with Toronto? What's wrong with the Pelicans. It's like, I don't know, like CJ McCollum, Torres Labram, I don't know. His thumb also torn, like Brandon Ingram was insane, Like Herb Jones can't shoot threes, Like have you seen a three point shot? It's a push shot. It's a ten year old girls push shot. And probably even worse than that, What are we doing? And now we've got issues. Right onto the games and their implications. Hawks won sixteen one oh five to the Heat. I

thought there was no chance for the Atlanta Hawks. None Hawks pulled a major upset to the fact that all seventeen ESPN commentars picked the Heat to beat them. Dejon Tay Murray tweeted the jokes on you when he heard this, because the reality is, the joke is on all of us. It wasn't because we underestimated the Hawks. It was because we overestimated the Heat. The Heat fucking suck. Okay, we're gonna talk a little bit later about how Brian Windhorst

thinks that Damian Lillard's going to the Heat. And to that end, I say, for who for who do we want?

chance the Hawks suck. The Heat missed fifteen layups I think it was like saran wrap was around the rim. You had Quinn Snyder coaching his little ass off out there. You spoe, look and shook. They out rebounded the Miami Heat by a gajillion. I think Capella had twenty one rebounds. The high low action between Bam on Bam and Lowry it was like mouse and the house, Mouse in the house. It was one of those scenarios where you're like, oh, yeah, like it's never really close. He can make a couple

of runs and Atlanta just keeps extending said lead. You could see the riding on the wall as it went on. You can see almost the future of the two teams in front of you playing right. You're like, oh, like, actually, the future is kind of bright for the Hawks. I can see what they're trying to do, Like, oh, I see guys moving without the basketball. I see it, and you see Miami and you're like, oh god, Miami, I think is done. Kyle Lowry, where's he been? Came out

of retirement for this game. He played. I think he played all the minutes. I think he went on a fast for the he had over thirty. It did not matter. Trey played well. Dejonte played well on Yeka Akongu was incredible five for six, twelve points twenty minutes plus seven. Sidik Bay was everywhere. That team looked good. It was really cool too to see how the Hawks moved without the ball. It's exactly the type of offense that Quinn Snyder wanted to run in Utah. It's just like so

simple a change. I don't know, is it weird to say that, Like when you move without the basketball, when and just continue to do it and pass to those people who are moving that it's like hard to get open shots. It's weird that people just don't do that. They just stand around the perimeter and hope that they're

gonna get open. It's like very obvious and simple that, Hey, when you don't have the ball, why don't you cut, cut to the lane, cut away from the lane, literally instruments some sort of motion offense, and then pass to the guys that are moving like that. That's what it was. Bay was everywhere looking like Gary Payton the second cut

into the basket, deflecting balls, hitting timely three. He's like, oh wow, like Cideique Bay, get him out of Detroit, get him with a real coach and Jesus Christ sidek ba's pretty good. Now, the Hawks take on the Celtics, and I'll just say this, the Hawks already have dismantled one franchise in the East. You better watch out or Jalen Brown's gonna go somewhere else. I'm not saying that the Hawks have a chance to beat the Celtics. I'm just saying that they're not going to roll over. And

Quinn Snyder's for real. Quinn Snyder is coaching this team much better than Lloyd Pierce or Nate McMillan ever did. This is what a real coach looks like. Let's see how Rob Williams looks, because Capella and a Coongwu are coming for him. If his knee isn't right, we'll have to see. I'm really excited too to see Trey Young versus Marcus Smart. Trey averages twenty six, eight and three against Boston in his career. He's already had thirty one,

four and eleven this year. And then outside that in Miami, the nails in the coffin, they're already dead. The bulls are gonna slice them and dice them and eat them for breakfast. No chance. It's time for South Beach to go on vacation. It's been an incredible year, an incredibly bad one, and it's time for them to make some choices moving forward. Lakers won o eight Wolves one oh two. Oh my god, what was that game? The game stunk. It was the most It was the most dramatic and

bad fourth quarter I think I've ever seen. I think that the Wolves put up twelve points in the fourth quarter. Lebron James was a freak. He played forty five out of the fifty three minutes, including all of overtime. AD chipped in. Oh yeah, by the way, Lebron had thirty ten and six with the steal and two blocks. Anthony Davis was really good twenty four, fifteen and five. He had two steals, three blocks. And listen, the problem for Minnesota and for Karl Anthony town is that Karl Anthony

Towns is just not that guy. You can't have him be the tone setter. You just can't because when he's setting the tone, he's fouling guys and getting into trouble. He had I think two fouls in like two minutes. All of a sudden, he's sitting on the bench because he's got three fouls in the first half or something like that. You have to figure out a way to stay on the floor, Karl Anthony Towns, that's the point. You have no center. Rudy Gobert is nowhere to be found.

He's been sent away from the team jettison, and that's all you have is you. It's crazy. The Wolves still had a chance to win. Even with all that, they still had a chance to win. Mike Conley is really good. You see why they brought him in. Anthony Edwards was again nothing. He was dealing with the shoulder issue. I think he was zero for nine from three, continued to chuck.

Wasn't aggressive, It didn't use his athleticism at all. It was just one of those scenarios where you're wondering, where is the guy that shows up in these big moments. Will the fighting frenchman o huh, Rudy Goldbert, oh monjour Rudy. Will he be a factor in this next game? We'll have to see. As for the Lakers, man, you gotta

give him a gritty win for that. They look like they were on the ropes, They look like they were dead, and now they take on a Memphis team without Steven Adams, without Brandon Clark, and a Jaron Jackson who's just basically like Karl Anthony town is a guy who's a undersized five who should really play four, who's always in foul trouble, and the backup is Xavier Tillman. So it's not really a great scenario. Is Anthony Davis going to eat these

boys for lunch? Probably as long as Anthony Davis is healthy, the Lakers should win this series. A d Loo was a massive disappointment against the Grizzlies last year in the playoffs. How will he redeem himself. We're gonna have to see. But he's up for a contract, and if he doesn't play well in the playoffs, I don't know that the Lakers want to extend him. To me, the X factor has been a shooter. He was incredible in that game

against the Tea Wolves. Everywhere he was pretty much the only guy that you could rely on to hit timely shots. He was deflecting balls, he was defensively everywhere. It's gonna be interesting. It's probably the best matchup for the Lakers that they could ask for, because why because the Grizzlies can't shoot threes and neither can the Lakers. That's pretty much it. You saw Darvin ham go away from all the guys that he traded for, which I thought was hilarious.

They were all sitting their asses on the bench and it was just the normies. Austin reeves, we need to have a big series for them. If there is an upset in the first round that happens, I think that this is it right here moving forward, Bulls won on nine Raptors one O five. What a fucking game that was. Raptors get out to a massive lead. Credit to the Bulls. They do not give up. They turn their season around. Everyone thought that they were dead. All they did was

pick up. It was just Pat Beverly, wasn't it. It was just him. All of a sudden, there are one of the better teams in the East since the trade deadline. This team is now dangerous. They upset a Raptors team that most people thought would have very little problem winning this game. I think the Raptors closed as six and a half point favorites. Midway through the third, the Raptors were up fifteen points and then the Bulls just locked in. Oh my god, you can't let Zach Lavine slice you

like a hot knife through butter. I think he had what fourteen fourteen in the third quarter. Can't you You can't do that. You cannot do that. That's the problem with fucking around with a team with a couple of superstars and a couple of gritty defensive dudes. Levine had almost forty, had thirty nine points, DeRozan had twenty three. You had those two things together, and that's hard to compete with. They missed eighteen of thirty six free dos.

Why what happened? Well, Demart de Rosen brought his nine year old daughter there and she screamed blood curdling, bloody murder in the six in Toronto. He brought her to Toronto so that she could scream murder every time that a Raptor went to the free throw line. Now, it's a long offseason for the Raptors. Just like Kylie Anderson said, you've got a lot of decisions to make during the summer. Nick Nurse probably gone, Pascal may be gone, Og may be gone, Fred van Fleet for sure gone, Gary Trent

probably gone. So we could have just the Scottie Barn summer and that's it. It might just be a rebuilding team and a bunch of draft picks. OKAC one twenty three. New Orleans Pelicans won eighteen. Man, man, oh man, was that a good one? Okase He's a gritty, little fun team, aren't they. Lou Dort was incredible. He was hitting threes upon threes. He was making your reign. The Pelicans were containing Shay and you had to say to yourself, at some point, he's going to be able to break through.

And you know what, Giddy and Dort went off thirty one for Giddy, twenty seven for Dort, and then Shay still figured out a way to get thirty, a quiet thirty. But man, he didn't have a free throw in the first half. Starting five for OKC, all under the age of twenty three, all five played thirty two minutes or more, with Shay, Giddy, Dort all playing an average of forty minutes, scoring eighty eight points combined. Look Out, OKAC now moves to play the Wolves, and this is a matchup nightmare

for the Wolves. Denver waits. Both Okasee and Minnesota could be trouble for that team in different ways. We're gonna find out how good Denver is soon. Enough, we got some tea, some news popping from around the league, and it is some hot hot tea. Spencer Dinwity. This it's just so great. I just love it so much. It was just I have been thinking about it and talking about it to friends all day. Guard for the Brooklyn Nets, Spencer Dinwittie who also used to be a guard for

the Brooklyn Nets and was traded. So Kyle Kuzma, former Laker wing champion, currently exiled in Washington with the Wizards, have officially reignited their beef. Did you see this? There is there's a lot to get into, right, I'm gonna give you my thoughts. I'm gonna explain it. But for

those who don't remember, let's give you a little backstory. So, Dinwitty and Kus were teammates right for a hot second, well, because Dinwitty was added to the Wizards when Russell Westbrook asked to be traded, right he was included in that like fifteen person trade and then moves to Washington. Dinwitty was just coming off of ACL surgery and the Wizards needed a point guard and during his very short tenure, because he was traded from the Wizards to Dallas for

Kristavs Porzingis. It was the Kristaps Porzingis trade, so he was there for like a few months. And apparently in those few months, Dinwitty and Kus fucking hated each other pretty much did not vibe at all. Dinwitty was traded before the season finished. Uh. And then when the MAVs played the Wizards before Spence was later included in the Kyrie trade back to Brooklyn, Spencer decided he was going to take a low key shot at the Wizards franchise, and if you're in the know, took an under the

radar shot at Kuzma. This is what he said. They're not playing for nothing for real. For them, it's just a showcase. They're over there just trying to get paid, not trying to play winning basketball. Oh my god. Kuzma took to Twitter and then said, funny thing is they the MAVs don't play winning basketball either. Game on. Remember, Kuzma thinks he's like different because he already won a ring. He thinks that whatever he's going through and doing does

not apply because he's already won. So he feels like he sealed his legacy. So then Spencer Dimwittie goes on fandual TV and they're like, hey, did you see that Kuzma's comments about you? How come he didn't like clap back? And he's like, yeah, I wanted to respond to that Kuzma tweet, but my agent told me to stand down, that we had bigger fish to fry things to do get to the playoffs. You know now that I'm not in that environment. I'm in the playoffs and he's not.

Oh boy. This, of course was after the Nets made the six seed the Wizards failed to make the play in tournament. So then Spence took it even further and decided to say the quiet part out loud, life.

the Lakers would have kept you. Right, part of the reason you left was to try to make more money, Like these are all things that are facts, and so at the end of my career, one thing that I want to be known besides a guy that did whatever it took to win in whatever spot he was at,

is a guy that was also very honest. And so like my complete response to you know, coups and all the other stuff to address it directly, I mean, I played with the guy, you know what I mean, we know what the priorities were, and you know a lot of times people thought I was talking about Brad or whatever anything like that. I look at Brad in the same night as like a Dame. I think he's Lord of d C. I think, you know, probably on a championship team, he's probably got to be paired with like

a Yiannis. He's probably one B, which is no shot. I know, on a championship team, you know, I'm probably the third guy, kind of like a Drew Holliday with a Chris Middleton and you know, Jannis or whatever. I'm very scared with who I am in my career. I'm I knowing a really good team, I can be a number two kind of like we are right here with the Brooklyn Nets. We got Micheale, We got me. We're still a playoff team. We're able to keep the ship right. But in DC, if you got three Max dudes for

Zengis Brad and KU's like, how you missed the playoff? Like, he doesn't. None of these things make sense, you know what I'm saying. Unless your priorities.

in the world have you won in this league? You've been bounced around like a basketball, My boy, Kuzma, you can thank Kyrie and KD for spearheading the thirty four wins before the All Star break. You're eleven and thirteen after the break for your playoffs. Oh, you think you're a second option? More like a second point guard. My man, I watched you for two months at the end of your wizard's tenure, being the second option averaging eight four

and four sounds good, but I'm glad you're hooping now. Last, but not least, The only way you'll ever be worth your contract is if the NBA finally gives you your wish of being paid in crypto. Check the markets downward arrow, my lord? Did that escalate quickly? So? Of course today Spence responded and he said, did you see Kuzma's tweet? The funny part about it is that there are a

lot of contradictions. He resorted to name calling dinshitty things like that, which I haven't heard since I was probably ten years old, things of that nature. I think at the end of the day, the biggest piece here was like a theory from eight Mile, the way Eminem approached the final battle. If you approach it with the truth, what do you have to hide? There's nothing there, right, So that's probably the last time I'll address because I want to focus on Philly, the team and what we're doing.

But at the end of the day, I spoke truth and I got rebutted with a ten year old insult. He said, what have you done in this league? If we're gonna talk about my career and the things that I've done that are unique and possibly different. I led a team to the playoffs when their max players were hurt back in twenty twenty, averaging over twenty a game, So I won a lot of games there. I've been to the Western Conference finals with Luca and the MAVs been to the playoffs every year for the last five

or six years. And then on top of that, I would say people are blessed to be in situations. We don't get mad at Rick Fox for winning a championship with Kobe and Shack like some people are blessed and that's great, but we can't act like Rick Fox led them to a championship. Let's not do that, goddamn real quick. Rick Fox and Kyle Kuzma averaged the same amount of points ten in the playoffs on those championship teams for the Lakers. That's incredible. So now that you're caught up,

why is it like this between them? Here's what I've gathered and here's what I believe. Spencer Dinwoodie is what I call a tree shaker. He comes to situations and he assesses, he asks questions when things are not operating properly. The Washington Wizards do not, as you guys can see, operate properly. They don't make the playoffs. They're not a very good franchise, and they've kind of been sitting there in the middle of the doldrums for a very long time.

The Wizards are not the most organized, winning franchise in the NBA. Spence got there with I think Baby Holiday. I believe it was justin or Aaron. I think it was Aaron Holiday, and they were like, Yo, this place is fucked up. Can we all get some roles? Can we figure out what our roles are? Hey, like, I don't even care what my role is, just can we get one? And not in Washington, my boys, No, we don't have a winning culture here. You don't get roles,

you don't get an organization, you don't get direction. You just go out there and hoop. We're gonna win thirty two games this year and we're gonna be in the lottery and we're gonna pick up I don't know, some random kid, Johnny Davers from Wisconsin. Kuzman didn't want roles, what did he want? Kyle Kusman wanted to hit shots.

Kyle Kuzma wanted to take shots to the tune of twenty five of them a game, first to be a fashion icon and second to chuck so much that Beale and his other teammates were regularly pissed at him for ball hogging, and Ruey Hachimurray was supposed to be the guy, but Ruey Hachimura had his own mental health issues and they couldn't build around RUI. So what do they do?

They said, I guess we'll take this cous guy. KU's got mad at Spencer Dinwoodie, from what I can gather, did some snake stuff started spreading rumors to the media like Kevin O'Connor, and before you knew it, Kevin O'Connor wrote, the Wiz want to move in Wittie because he looks like a shell of himself and his teammates don't want

him here. Holy shit, shell of himself. I am no sleuth, I am no inspector gadget, but it does feel like the organization and the people who were at a deficit by accountability wanted to basically get the tree shaker gone. So they besmirched his name. So the comments made from the Wizards pretty bad, pretty bad, could have damaged his entire reputation, could have cost him his career, damn near ruined his career. If it wasn't for his time for with the Dallas Mavericks, he might not have gotten a

real opportunity. And I get that Spencer can sometimes say some crazy shit, and I get that he can be his own worst enemy. Sometimes we all can be. He recently said he has the petty side. He takes joy in the Mavericks collapsing because he has friends on the team. And you know what, they traded him and he didn't want to be traded back to COO's. I'm not sure though, that Kus is an honest guy. This Kus want to win. Who's want to get paid? This KU's want to be

the man. Well. He recently discussed this when he was talking about free agency. Here's what he said. It's not about the money I'm gonna get paid regardless of where I go here in DC too, but it's about where I work every day and where I can be the best version of myself aka, where I can chuck the most amount of shots that I possibly can. I can wear crazy outfits in the tunnel and I can be

the guy. So good luck Cou's, good luck in Detroit, good luck in Indiana, good luck in DC, good luck on a place where winning is not the first and foremost issue or priority. You'll make your money, you'll chill, you'll look good, and you'll take eighteen shots a game. And here's the thing that people won't talk about is that these rivalries have two sides, right, one with the most social clout Coups and Spencer Dimwidie, who's kind of a weirdo. Everybody wants to take KU's side because Kus

has a huge following, YadA, YadA, YadA. But eventually the truth comes out. And the question than I have is if Dinwiddie was such a bad teammate and such as shell of himself, like, why would Brooklyn want him back? Why would they trade for him again? Why would they ask for him to come back in that trade? Why would coach Vaughn speak so highly and reverently about Dinwiddie's leadership. Why can't you find anyone in Dallas who will say

anything but good things about Spencer Dinwidie. Why is it the only place that has labeled him some sort of malcontent, some sort of cancer, some sort of shell of himself. Is the one of the worst franchises of modern NBA. Mint Memory Why like, think about it, think about who's really at fault, think about what's really going on. I'm telling you, if it was like San Antonio who came out and said Spencer Dinwiddy he was a cancer and he's a shell of himself, or like Miami, he'd be like, Okay,

I get it. When Sam prest he's out here saying, yeah, we had trouble communicating with this guy, I would sit up and listen. But when it's the Wizards, the Wizards and it's Kuzma, come on now, side I'm giving you the side eye. I am skeptical. People see through it. As Barkley said, there's a reason most of the same teams are in the lottery. You're in and you're out.

It's a culture thing. And when someone comes in and tries to shake the branches and try to change the culture, that toxic culture comes for you because they don't want people who point out problems. If you point out problems, you're the problem. And now Spencer Dinwood, he gets that and hopefully has learned from that too. So like everybody's got stressful lives, I've got stressful life, You've got stressful life.

Then you realize that your favorite NBA player probably feels and has that same stress right, only multiplied by ten thousand, two thousand. The pressure of being or being a pro basketball player got so bad that Yannis onto Takupo, one of the nicest guys in the NBA, recently told Laurie Nicol of the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal that he nearly gave it all up. Then he nearly retired. Excuse me, what

did you say, he retired? Yes. The article explains it like this, Being Yannis means something he never envisioned when he became the best player in the NBA. Beingy honest is a spectacle. It's noisy. It's an approach, a wave, a hello, a camera in his face. It's someone on the side asking for a moment of his time when he doesn't have a moment to spare. He's always courteous and polite and still wildly approachable. Jannis himself was more succinct. Everybody.

No matter where I am, everybody is watching me. I don't think I have the time to turn it off and be myself, kind of just be me and all of that. The stress of being Yannis led him to almost quit the game in twenty twenty during the bubble. Yeah, Johannis almost retired before he got started in twenty twenty. I was ready to walk away from the game. I had that conversation with the front office, he says. Can

you imagine that conversation with GM John Hurst. It's like fring ring ring ring, Hey John Jannis online one, Oh hey, y honest, Hey, what's going on? Yeah, hey, John, love you. I really love the Bucks. It's so great to be here in Milwaukee. But I am retiring. My father has passed away, and I am hanging up my sneakers. I think I'm going to retire. Jannis Onto Takoumpo MVP. Jannis almost retired has to be maybe one of the most

terrifying conversations that a GM could have. It would be like if Lebron in the middle of his prime retired, MBID retired. Probably even worse than that, if you pulled one hundred NBA executives and ask him to name one guy that would actually retire in the middle of their prime, probably on it. I bet they would all say him

and get this. He had the conversation after signing his extension. Naturally, the Bucks were like, hey, you know that, like you just signed one of the largest contracts in NBA history, right, And he was like, yeah, but you can just take that money and shove it in your ass. I don't care about that. I care about joy. I'm a joyful person. My father didn't have nothing. He had us. He was the richest person on earth because he had his kids, He had this beautiful family. He had nothing. This to

me doesn't mean nothing. Also, Jannis counts hiss oreos. I bet he doesn't spend any of his money. All he needed was one contract and he's good. If he doesn't have joy for the game anymore, he's gonna hang it up. The level of panic this must have caused the Bucks would have been immense. You just signed him to a supermax deal and he's already ready to retire. What are we talking about here? Are we serious? What's happened? So? How did we end up with Jannis actually winning a

title and staying in Milwaukee? One word therapy? Jannis went to therapy. How did he get to therapy. Apparently he's this self admitted stubborn, proud guy. Well, he got the idea from checks notes Kevin Love. Kevin Love, who came out in twenty eighteen with his own mental health struggles and helped to destigmatize mental health struggles for the entire league, including Jannis, was so inspired by Kevin that he decided to seek help himself. With the encouragement of his family,

he started talking to someone. Apparently it helped a lot. He found someone who, he says, put me in a place to appreciate all of the things that I have that comes with being who I am. To be okay with myself no matter what the outcome of the game. I understand that I can't control that. I can only control my effort, how hard I work, how I try

to inspire people from what I do. Michael Phelps, Naomi Osaka, DeMar DeRozan, Brandon Marshall, A lot of great athletes have sought help for their mental health, so Jannis Yannis knew he wasn't alone. But the best part of it is that he sought out Kevin Love to tell him that Kevin Love was so impactful about going out into the public sphere and telling everyone how important mental health was. He said, I talked to Kevin and I told him how he inspired me to open up and help me

to the kind of better myself. And he was literally tearing up when I told him that that's crazy. The Milwaukee Bucks should probably give Kevin Love a ring. If it wasn't for Kevin Love, Giannis would probably be on a beach somewhere in Greece etn French fries or Chick fil A or whatever it is. Like, that's crazy. And now Jannis has his own foundation that gives access to mental health counseling for people who don't or not able

to afford it. From walking away from one of the biggest contracts in NBA history to now leading the charge for getting people who can't afford mental health care that they need while still playing basketball. Wow, what a winding road for your honis. On a personal note, uh, I know what it's like to be a little overwhelmed myself, so I would encourage everyone to go to therapy. It's done wonders for me so many others that I know.

So you don't have to face your stress alone. If you have the ability to do it, do it and if you don't go to Jannis's foundation because he uh, he's helping folks out again. Moving on, man, here we go again. Dame, Dame, Dame, Dame Dame, Why do you do it to us?

So he went on steven A's World last night, which you should not have done because Stephen A put the screws to him and he asked them the questions that everyone wants to know.

to get something done. I think we just kind of been on the with, you know, fully committing to either one. And I just think, you know, we at that point down where everybody, everybody wants to win it. You know, they like they believe that I deserve that opportunity.

So unless it's Victor Wambiama or Scoot Henderson, it's gonna be really hard to get Jalen Brown. It's gonna be really hard to get Pascal Siakam. It's gonna be really hard to surround Dame with guys who can play defense on the wing. I am so officially tired of talking about this. I'm so official, Like, just leave, Can you

just leave? This feels like when you're with somebody for a really long time and it's like, hey, I know that I've said I've wanted kids, and like you've said you'll think about it, but I'm thirty four and like, at some point I'm not gonna be able to have kids anymore. So if you don't want them, we gotta kind of figure out whether it makes sense for me or you, because neither one of us are gonna be

happy if we're not on the same page. And now Brian Windhorst is pitching that Dame is gonna go to Miami and that trash ass roster has enough trash ass pieces for Portland to trade Dame. They don't, they don't like. In order to get Dame, you're gonna have to give me Bam out of Bio. You're gonna have to give me Tyler Hero or you're gonna have to give me Jimmy Butler and Bam. And then Dame's not gonna go to Miami for no state income tax just to go

to the same whack ass situation he's been in. No chance. I'm out on that. Dame's either going or he's not. I'm tired. He's not going anywhere. Just lock it, book it, write it down. I'm done with this, not talking about it ever again until he gets traded. Let's move on. John Morant has countersued the teenage hooper he got into

an altercation with this past summer. The reason Josh Holloway, the teenager who sued him due to the fight, has damaged his reputation and the teen throwing a basketball at him could have been career ending pause pause pause pause, career ending A basketball thrown at Jahn Morant's head could have been career ending, a ball check, literally a ball check, an air inflated rubber ball at Jaw could have been what are we doing here? What are we doing? Jaw? Jaw, Jaw.

The deeper substance of the suit is that Jaw claims the Holloway lied to the cops about Jaw bringing a gun into the altercation, and that Holloway leaked details and violation of a court order. It's all too much for me. All of this Jaw stuff needs to go away. I

want one month to go without a Jaw drama. Even the Washington Post just recently dropped something that I didn't even talk about about Jaws Summer of discontent, and they discovered that, in addition to the multiple incidents being reported, that the local police buried all of these accounts. They didn't interview any of the people. They concluded that multiple departments failed to ask basic questions, interview key witnesses, didn't follow up with alleged victims. Like it's bad stuff. It's

bad stuff with Jaw. Hopefully Adam Silver put the fear of God into them, but let's face facts, Jaw needs a good long playoff run for no other reason than it will shorten his off season and all the time that he has to get into Shenanigans. What do they say, idle hands are the Devil's workshop. We gotta get Jaw out of trouble. That's all the time that we have for the episode of the Heat Check. Check back Monday. We are going to be on the road. Do not forget to check the feed. As an aside, I will

be from the West Coast. We will be out there for the first four games of our Dubs versus the Kings. Check the feed. Please follow the Heat Check. The playoffs are here, download subscribe, Tell your friends. Follow us on social at at this heat Check and at trist to crik on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter. Because we never sleep