Colin Cowherd Podcast - Jokic Is “Inevitable”, Mavs Are “Lopsided”, The Knicks Have Juice, Embiid NEEDS To Win

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five I go workout. I did it this morning. And then from the workout there's a Bristol Farms, a grocery restore right next to my gym, and I usually go there and get a piece of fish that I'll have for lunch. I grew up on the coast of Washington State. I like my seafood. My kids like their seafood. So I did that this morning, go work out the incline, cardio, blah blah blah, And I go to the store. And I'm not blaming the store at all. This is happening everywhere.

And I get a little smoothie in the smoothie bar, and then I go get to fish, piece of salmon. I grew up in Westport, Washington, which was along with Waukegan, Illinois. We used to battle of small towns for salmon capital of the world. That was the marquis that was in the town. So I grew up with a lot of salmon, a lot of fish, a lot of oysters, a lot of clams. So when I'm not somebody i've been, I'm very lucky. I've done well, and I'm very grateful for that.

I don't spend a lot of time checking my food bills. I kind of go get what I want to get. So I go to the grocery store probably twice a week. It's about generally, it's always been about forty five bucks, forty eight bucks. That's now become sixty dollars. So when I notice it. I think I don't really check this stuff that much, so if I'm noticing it, it feels like, oh, I think a lot of people are. So this morning when I checked out with my piece of salmon, and

it wasn't a gigantic piece of salmon. It was pretty pretty slim, a small like lunch portion, it was nineteen and a half dollars, and usually that's closer to thirteen or fourteen for a small piece of fish. Now, I know fish is a luxury. Some people can't afford it. Whatever, some people can't. I'm lucky, so sometimes we outthink the room. I watch a lot of these political shows that I don't normally watch, but I will now be engaged from

about late April May all the way to November. I'll watch them more than I usually would in election years, and watching all these political pundits. The only thing that's gonna matter in this election, because you know, the trial with Trump is going to, you know, beat him up. There's gonna people be people win or lose that are going to move off Trump independence with But I told this to my daughter. I said, you know, we never talked about grocery prices. This morning, I went and got

a piece of salmon. It was nineteen dollars. It's usually like thirteen, fourteen. A year ago, a year and a half ago. She goes, Dad, that's all my friends talk about how expensive food is. She was like, that's a big topic of conversation. She's like, you know, cause we're all live and check the check. You know, we really know when we go out eat sum at home, we can only do appetizers. All we talk about is the

grocery store and how expensive it is. And I was thinking about this, is that the election is going to come down to this. If the cost for the average family continues. If you're driving through McDonald's and it's twenty two dollars and it used to be thirteen. So now you need a second bill. Not getting seven dollars back on a twenty dollars bill, then Biden's in trouble. That's the election. You can talk about Ukraine, you could talk about.

That's the election. Incumbents win. When the economy's good. It doesn't matter exactly where the stock market is or where the housing market is. If people are getting the most out of their check, they're generally happy and don't want change.

People freak out with any change, especially political change. So as I say that, the reason I tell you that story is as I was watching the Lakers and the Nuggets, and you know, whenever it happens, it's you bang on the officials, and you bang on Darvin Ham, and you bang on DiAngelo Russell and once again, you know against the Nuggets. All Laker Nugget games look the exact same, But it really comes down to this. They get an automatic bucket second half, third quarter, or fourth quarter every

time they need it. With Jokich, that's the series. The Lakers don't have an automatic bucket. Now, ad offensively is usually good three out of four games. Reeves, di'angelo Russell can be good, but can dry up Lebron. You know he's not going to give you the full energy he gave you six years ago. Jokicch either gets the bucket or gets the ball to somebody that gets a bucket.

And that's sort of the difference in the last nine games where Denver beats the Lakers, is that their number one offensive threat in the second half of games, he's an automatic, He's a pat from a top field goal kicker, and you're just not That's the series because the gate the Lakers have the size, they match up with Denver. But it's just third quarter, fourth quarter, six seven, eight

possessions that matter. You have a much higher statistical chance to get a bucket with a Jokic than you do with Lebron or ad all Right, we bring in Jason timpf hoops tonight and over the next six to seven weeks. This is what we do. We chop it up. We give middle Coff. You know, we're a nice company. We give middle Cough a little vacation time. Jason could take this in August and September, November or whatever. Well, he doesn't take November off. He's an NBA head. All right,

let's bring him in. Jason temp Okay, my theory, my thoughts about Yokic fire away. What do you see?

and the execution for the Lakers was atrocious. As I sifted through those two runs, they had one good offensive possession and the totality of those two runs, and you know, I did this whole rant on the show about execution and all the different things that the Lakers have to tighten up, and the reality is is they have to play perfect, yeah to beat Denver. Yeah, And no one plays perfect, and that really is the issue because like even in those even in those runs, a lot of

it is just Denver flexing their muscles. And what happens is that Denver kind of just does that all game long, and then you hang onto the rope and you hang on for dear life. And the Lakers were on it for about a quarter and a half, you know, and then when they let go, like that ten to ozero run in the second quarter was less than two minutes, that the thirteen oh run in the third quarter was

less than three and a half minutes. Ironically, I thought the big swing factor in the game was Delo and Austin. Both were just clearly dead on arrival, Like both of them were just not ready for that game, and that put the onus of the shot creation all on Lebron, and one of the consistent themes for the Lakers all

year is when Lebron gets tired, he gets sloppy. And when I hate going after Lebron like this because I thought he was mostly awesome, same last night, but he was the primary culprit of those two bad runs, and it just was like he got tired, he got sloppy.

There was no one else there that could execute the offense without him kind of initiating things, and the wheels came off, and so, yes, there's a pathway, Yes there are adjustments, there's a bunch of different things the Lakers can do, but the reality is is like expecting them to do that four times in the next six games.

I don't trust Darvin Delo doesn't work for me. We need another player. And by the way, Draymond and Lebron are close. Those guys are looking for another big body. Steph needs somebody next to him that can give him thirty two minutes and twenty six points. That's what he's looking for, and not a shooter. Not somebody's gonna take the ball out of his hands too. And by the way, Steph can play off ball on ball, and so I think what you're seeing. I almost felt a little bit

last night like Lebron was out of gas. But he gets frustrated. It's like D'Angelo, you gotta have one good game against these You gotta give me one, brother, you gotta give me a twenty nine point game. And I think this series is really hard on Lebron mentally, because he is really at this point.

and harder. Even the altitude matters. What are the repercussions? How do you look at this roster if they lose in five?

up their defense could really help. And so I was kind of against that take. But once we got into this series as the matchup, I kind of team ran around to it based on the fact that last year I thought the Lakers kind of let go of the rope because it was like, hey, guys, we made it to the Western Conference finals. Like you know, a round

of applause. We still had a successful year. There's no version of this that's not a disaster if they lose, right, which I think makes it so that you are more likely to get a more desperate, more engaged effort in this first round series. And honestly, that first quarter and a half was the best the Lakers have looked against the Nuggets in two years plus.

twenty one to ten. So like a disaster on the glass, which you could just tell from reading from watching the game, right, But like there will be games in this series where that swings more towards the lakers favor, and if Lebron and ad also play well. I think they'll get a win or two. I think this is going five or six games, But I obviously would be absolutely stunned it if Denver didn't win. But going into the offseason, like, honestly like it will look appealing for Lebron to kind

of examine the landscape of the league. I just don't think he'll leave unless it is a slam dunk home run, big market, clear chance to win the title, like obvious type of move, like something like to the Knicks or to the seventy six ers or something along those lines. If something like that were to materialize, I could see him doing that. The problem is is, like Steph hasn't played very well over the tail end of the season's final twenty two games or so. He's been kind of

a shell of himself. And I think, honestly, the idea of him jumping up to Golden State, I don't necessarily think that improves his championship odds all that much, and so I don't think he'll for that.

the field and at least forty percent from three. He averaged twenty eight points eight rebounds in tennisis on fifty eight percent from the field and forty five percent from three. They were great when he was on the floor and got blitzed when he was off. I said this on my show the other day the other day, and I believe it. Post All Star break, Luca and Jokich are the only two guys playing better.

Jordan and Leuel Sender. Kareem seventy one won the title with Milwaukee, and he was emerging as as as the great player. Right, there's very few players that they sort of break through a threshold. So Kareem was like created the first time in league history, the unstoppable shot. We'd had a lot of good players, nobody had an unstoppable, unblockable shot. I think Wilt blocked Kareem a couple times, but mostly nobody could touch it. And then there was

Magic who broke through. We never had a six eight and a half point guard. Like it was just a match yep in hell for everybody, it's like that, that's not the way it works. Dave Cowens was a center in the seventies. He was six eight, Magic hit a finals guarded Caldwell Jones, He guarded a center and he breaks through and then there's shack. Nobody with that power ran the floor like that. It was a freight train.

We'd never seen anything quite like that then. Obviously Michael Jordan was great, but we'd seen great athletic, dynamic wing players. We'd seen that. He was just the best ever. Steph's shooting range breaks through like transcends time. I think Lebron's Swiss army knife ability to do everything at an absolutely a level. I mean, Larry Bird couldn't defend like Lebron. He wasn't the athlete of Lebron. Lebron was literally everything. And then I watched Yokitchen. I'm like, I covered Sibonis

in Portland. This guy is like Sibonis in his athletic prime. Because Sabonis could hit a three, not like this, could pass not like this. I look at Jokich and I'm like, you know what it is is that players used to come into this league with potentially the great ones Jason with one really great skill. They could shoot, they were ball handlers, they were they were rebounders and defenders. They weren't even Kareem. There's limitations on passing, there's living on

ball handling. Lebron's one of those. Oh hell he does everything well. And jokicch I think, is taking it. He's the first big in my life, like a true center, a refrigerator wide center. What even defensively, he's not as bad as everybody says Lucas become a He's actually become a good defender. I watch Jokis and I'm like, is he Europe's Lebron where you're like, oh god, he's an A and everything A minus? Defensively, I just never seen a player like this.

that I think he's eclipsing. And it sounds crazy to say, but honestly the separating piece because I actually think they're on similar levels as a playmaker. I think Lebron over his career has been underrated as a playmaker, and Lebron was like Jokic in the sense that he just always made the right read and made you pay every single time. The difference is is not Lebron, not Kobe, not MJ,

not even Steph. There's never been a guy in the modern NBA era that has a shot that he can consistently get to that's gonna go in two thirds at the time.

the time. And you mentioned that he's refrigerator wide, and that is the key because, like I know this vividly well because when I was in junior college, I had to play the power forward in center a lot, so I was consistently battling with bigger players than me. I was six six pretty strong. I was two hundred and twenty five pounds, but like so, I had to strength advantage. But most of the guys were towering three four inches over me, And the way I bothered them was by

bothering their base. That's how you bother a taller player. You get up underneath them. You disrupt their energy transfer from the floor to the shot, and if you do that, usually they'll miss more frequently than they normally do against a player where they have a good bass. Yokich is impossible to disrupt his base, like you just can't do it. When he catches around the rim, there's guys shoving on him. They're trying to knock him off balance, but he like

there was a late fadeaway. He hit over Lebron in the fourth quarter of or the late third quarter of that game last night where Lebron James a two hundred and seventy pounds is like trying to bump Jokic and he gets to a little turnaround over his right shoulder and he goes straight up and down completely unimpeded. And that's the problem, is like you can't actually get Jokic to bother before his release, and when he gets to his release, it's going in two thirds of the time.

So there's just no easy answer for him. I know it's crazy, and I know it's heretical. In all these it seems like recency biased, But like I don't know about you, Colin, I can't remember a time in my time watching basketball. I can't remember a player that was this inevitable offensively. There's literally nothing you can do.

in love with him. I just love him. Now, he's just the constant, you know, he's just one of those players that he'll never be given his just due because he tends to be the fourth or fifth best player on a good team, the Bubble Laker team or this team Ice in his veins, fourth quarter big shots. He just doesn't care. There's a reason he keeps playing on winning teams. He hits a lot of big shots. So the construct of the team, Jokic, I think the word

you used, inevitable is perfect. So it's twenty twenty four, and let's talk about something really really important. If you're ever injured, check out Morgan and Morgan. It's America's largest injury law firm, and they're there for you. Over one hundred offices nationwide. Think about that, more than a thousand lawyers with over twenty billion. That's a B twenty billion

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That's for the People dot com slash Colin, or pound law pound five to nine from your cell Morgan and Morgan has a proven track record of fighting for you to get a full and fair compensation if there's an unexpected accident in your life. This is a paid advertisement. So I want to talk about the Sun's Minnesota. So you know, it's interesting if we tend to give basketball players a little bit of a pass. So you know,

in baseball there's the five tool player term. You know, Barry Bonds could hit Ron Steele, you know everything defend. And in football, we like our quarterbacks. You really get penalized Jared Goff, he's not mobile, right, not Super Bowls. So we like our quarterbacks and our baseball players to have multiple tools. And I'm watching Kevin Durant and I'm sitting there and I'm like, and I understand scoring seventy five percent of the game. Defense is twenty five percent.

But he's not a big assist guy. He's a willing defender, not usually a great defender. It's not a big rebound guy. He is a great get a bucket guy, but he doesn't want to be a leader, you know. And I'm watching that series and Minnesota is pushing Phoenix all over the floor. And at no time Lebron in his prime or out of it, what it's set timeout, he'd go to the huddle. He would call out guys. D Wade

would do that. A lot of the great players in the league really lead Steph cree Lean into Draymond Green's not even he is a great player, but Draymond will call you out. And I'm watching him and I'm like, this is just a bad two and a half hours of effort. This is an awful effort. They're being pushed all over the floor. Aunt Edwards has taken over the game. Dynamic player, but I wonder sometimes with KD. You know,

he's a wanderer. When he left Golden State, I made the argument, I said, if Mahomes left the Chiefs and Andy Reid for the Jets, we crush him. We're like, are you out of your mind? He went with Kyrie and We're like, well, you know, he's got a different personality. He left the Warriors, suck it up, get along with Draymon, And I watched and I thought, do we give Kad a pass? Because in a sport that is very much artistry. He is one of the great shot makers of my life.

But I want more from him. I watched that game and I'm like, you have to get physical. I want more from you here than twenty seven points which I get every night from you. Am I being too harsh or is any of this rings somewhat true?

of different things while he was there. But I think, honestly, basketball just kind of determines most of it his decision makings, even when it comes down to leadership. And Kevin Durant has said this on Twitter before, but like he doesn't necessarily view leadership as like something that you say to

people or that you're very boisterous and visible doing. He's very much a lead by example guy, and honestly, like he's got an opportunity here in this series because he's got the best capability reversing the trend of this series. What happened in that that game was what's happened to Phoenix a bunch this year is sometimes they get punched in the mouth in a physical game and they wilt. We talked about this early the last time we really

did show Yeah, oh yeah. And there's a separate conversation we could have about how like this the game is getting super physical and like teams like Minnesota are benefiting from it, right, like teams like the Clippers are benefiting from teams like the Knicks. Like it's actually playing into

the strength of the more physically minded teams. But one of the issues is the different than what they did in their last regular season matchup, they put ant on KD in the regular season matchup, and they put Jade McDaniels on Devin Booker. This time they move Aunt over to Bradley Beal and so KD had Carl Towns on him and to your point, thirty one points, super efficient, eleven for seventeen. But the Sun's offense was terrible in

that entire game. And the main thing that he can do to turn that around, and again it's it's less about him barking at people and yelling. It's about him in terms of his approach. He needs to focus on Kat as an entry point to get the defense and rotation so that they can play more team basketball. That game, they had assists on fewer than half of their made field goals. That team has been good post deadline because they've been getting assists on sixty six percent of their

made field goals post deadline. They look good when they're driving and kicking and playing for each other. And when you have the three star build, if you play your turn, my turn, it's diminishing returns and you don't benefit from the of all the talent when you play for each other. And now Devin Booker and Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant are attacking closeouts. That's when you have the force multiplier

element of having all of those stars together. And so what I want to see KD do is, yes, help set the tone physically, that's going to be something they all have to do. But I think he needs to embrace that Carl Towns matchup as an opportunity to beat him off the dribble and be a playmaker, because if he does, I think that'll loosen things up for the Suns. But again, like I think you've seen enough from Katie over the last few years that he didn't really care what we think about him.

you used to. We always used to talk about tandems. But I do think you have to have really high end third players. I mean, Jesus is is KCP the fifth best Nugget. That's a really good fifth player. Derek White is your fifth best Celtic. That's a really good NBA player. Wa PJ. Washington is your third best player. He's about a twelve thirteen point a game gay, not a bad player at all. Probably should be your fourth

or fifth if he's a third. And I'm just I'm throwing it out there as a guy, I think kind of as a you know, thirteen points a game. But it was interesting. So teams did well. Older teams tended to do well, the Lakers, notwithstanding, who had a very very good road first quarter. But as I watched the Clippers just take it to them again, I noticed the same thing Suns, te Wolves, Clippers, more physical Clippers in the paint. And I was wondering this in a regular

season with diminishing returns. That is largely the Milwaukee Bucks social team today. It's like, hey, the part of the year that nobody cares about is over.

and the crowd's on fire. It's national TV. They don't get on national TV, and they just bring a ton of energy. Indiana's young, you know, you're kind of the regular season as a less of a pulse. But that was kind of my takeaway on Dallas and the Clippers. It was just like home team, a lot of energy, super physical, old guys, a lot of pride, and Dallas just wasn't quite ready to play. Is that fair?

the other way. On the other end, James hard and ball screen comes screaming downhill, kick out to Paul George. He misses the three, but Kyrie Irving just is standing in the corner and Terrence Man just sprints right by him, grabs the offensive rebound, kicks out to a mere Coffee at the top of the key, and he hits a three, And you're like, whoa, Like, It's just it's like going from chill mode to a blender on the opposite side

of the It's crazy the difference that it makes. And I mean, honestly, like, I think that also kind of plays into what we were talking about earlier with physicality, as the league has allowed more physicality and defenses have been given more power. Yeah, the home teams that are feeding off of that are benefiting from it. I think the athleticism helps as well. And I think, honestly, experience

helps a certain amount. I thought the Pacers game in particular. Yeah, Like, the Pacers are the third most efficient jump shooting team in the league according to Synergy, and the Bucks allow the fifth most jump shot attempts in the league perc Entergy. That should be a matchup that favors Indiana at one point.

have to deal with. They every single time down the floor brought Luka Doncic, got him switched on to James Harden or Paul George and attacked him every single time. It was crazy. Like now, tylu is famous for this, and I've seen this personally as a Lakers fan, as he every single time we play the Clippers. It's like, attack Austin Reeves, attack Austinariess, attack Austinaries, like that's what they do.

gafferd can't guard Zubach. Let's just post him up every single time until they take him out of the game. They took Gafford out with like eight and a half minutes left in the first quarter because Zubach scored on him three consecutive times in the post. It's like, okay, now we're going after Luca. And they started just attacking Luca and that's how James Harden got going. He hit three buckets in a row on Luca. Then he got in a rhythm and then he started hitting the tougher shots.

Paul George started attacking him. Like the real issue there is like Luca during the regular season can kind of float through, but he's gonna have to find a way to counter that. There's an easy schematic counter. They need to have Luca Hedge in recover. We won't get into it, but it's a schematic counter. They get you to protect to Luca in that situation. But Luca's gonna have to embrace that defensive responsibility because the Clippers will not stop going at him in this series.

Now it's a lot of odd players, animatic players like Harden and Rush in the postseason, Kawhi, Leonard's like non verbal. It's an odd roster. But if you start stacking up zero to seven, you don't get to Westbrook at six and seven very much. In the NBA, Like again, Dallas's third best players arguably PJ. Washington, good player. I'm not knocking a nice player. Kentucky kid, really nice player, I

think Kentucky. But it's like Okay, you start, you start going, Paul George is your third best, Like Paul's really really easy, you know, seven, eight time All Star whatever he is. So as I watched that series, I'm like, you know, last year I bought another Clippers hard and I just went it was a facial. I really bought into him. But they hadn't played a lot together. It was weird. I don't know.

play offense. Like that, to me is a really interesting kind of like subplot here is they the Clippers just got the ball out of Kyrie and Luca's hands and those other guys couldn't score well.

And Clay was a great defender, but the best cat and shoot guy, catch and shoot guy maybe a decade. So they they're guys that were great defensively where you had to protect staff, you didn't have a lot of size. They ended up being really valuable offensive pieces. And by the way, that's rare. You know, if Ben Wallace could have shot a three, he would have been, you know, an all time player instead of twelve a game. He's twenty two. So it's hard to find those guys. But

I find that when you have elite offensive players. That's why the pairing of Luca and Kyrie is a bit problematic. Oh, I've got to get a rim protector. Well, he can't score. Well, they still have to have it, and you know that's It's one of the reasons I do think the Lakers have a lot of promise because Reeves, d lo lebron Ad they can all score, right, so you can you can and it does matter. I think I feel like

the Mads are lobsided. It's almost like when Tennessee had Ryan Tannehill, like, we're gonna have to like be a little lobsided on the run. We've got a ceiling at quarterback. They ended up as a number one seed one year. But when they got to the playoffs and you play better teams and better coaches, they expose it. And so I think what the Clippers did. They exposed the Maverick said, you've got two guys on the floor, they're just not offensive players. But if you don't have them, Kyrie is

not even accountable sometimes defensively. So I think it's that's the downside to having highly offensive players. Most great offensive players do commit in their prime years. They get tired of defense or worn down, but they commit to it, for like Kobe, for an eight to nine year period and then at the beginning you're not very good. At the end, you're not very good. But I felt like watching Dallas it's they're a little obsided.

to fly around in rotation. But to your point, that ended up being a major offensive issue in this particular matchup today, And like PJ. Washington, I agree with you.

I think he's probably their third best player, and he has more offensive pop in general, but he's like a low thirties catch and shoot guy, so generally speaking, as long as you can kind of shade the floor in a certain way to where he's catching on the perimeter, you can close out short and you have a better chance to contain that and it and like essentially, like they're actually the opposite of the Suns in the sense that like the Sons were like, no, we're gonna have

really good off ball offensive talent, and they have that. So Minnesota's like, Okay, we're just gonna stay home off the ball and make Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and Bradley Beale play one on one and two on two in ball screens and make them make tough shots over our elite perimeter defenders. And Rudy Gobert the Clippers are, like, the MAVs are the exact opposite. They don't have great off ball offensive talent, but they've got good defenders in

their off ball players. So the Clippers are like, We're just gonna throw the kitchen sink at Luca and Kyrie and make these guys score. And so what you're seeing is the problem with both because the Suns can't contend physically in a lot of certain matchups in the MAVs can't score against these certain types of matchups, and so it's it's kind of just an interesting conversation about team building, Like you need, like Aaron Gordon's an interesting example. Aaron

Gordon is a Swiss army knife in his own way. Yeah, he can attack mismatches in the post. He can guard Lebron James, Jimmy Butler, Kevin Durant, those guys credibly, But at the same time, he's like a really functional piece in their five out offense. So like he's a super versatile basketball player, but if you dive into it, you're like, he's a if he jumps shooter, he's not the most efficient guy in this spot, blah.

thirteen rebounds, eleven assists. The great teams all have that guy like he'll give you eleven. But he's totally Rodman with the Bulls, totally prideful in being the tough guy, the bouncher at the bar, the ugly player, the on the floor guy, and takes incredible pride in it. And I think that's Gordon. So I want to go, let's finish with this Nicks sixers, So I picked this is just a big mistake. I think the Knicks essentially are a one man offense and not even a highly functional offense.

If Jalen Brunson's not in, They're like watching Villanova. The margins are tight, they're not explosive offensively, but they play good defense. They give you great effort. So my take on the Knicks coming into the playoffs was because of Thibodeau. Their effort in the regular season is so strong. Seventy five of the eighty two games they win games on effort because in the regular season, I mean, you're resting players. Guys don't give you that. The older teams, the Milwaukee's,

they're nights. Milwaukee just didn't you show up to play New York Alhay shows up to play. You get to the playoffs, everybody's efforts high. But I'm watching that game and there's about seven minutes left, and I'm like, yeah, I think Philadelphia's got more good players. I mean, if you have mb and Maxie have two stars, I can get a jumper from Buddy Healed. I've got, but toom I've got, you know, Tobias Harris. And I look at

the Knicks and I'm like, they really are Villanova. I'm like, they have a self belief, They defend on every possession. They have guys that could finish with nine points. They all come at the right time, and I think in the East that's good enough. In the West it would get flushed out. But I watched the Knicks and I'm like, I just keep doubting them. I love Brunson, but I'm like, I mean, they got to have Julius Randall, they got to have nineteen points. What am I supposed to make

of the Knicks. I mean that's supposed to beat Now. Some of it could just be you know, Knicks energy the garden. But I watched that, I'm like, I can keep banging on Philadelphia. Philadelphia's got good players. There are a lot of good players here.

Last year happened twice in the first round as well. The Warriors lost in Sacramento Game one, came back and won the series. The Sun's lost of the Clippers came back and won the series. So like it does happen, and this script might get flipped, but the dynamic was actually crazy how much the Knicks dominated this game in the margin. So here's some this is this stat is amazing. Colin the half court offensive rating, which means just half court possessions.

to nineteen. For fifty three to nineteen. Yeah, they absolutely bludgeoned them on the offensive glass and bludgeoned them in transition. So like the Sixers have a simple pathway here. Yeah, if you can, if you can keep up with the dirty work, you'll probably win. You have more skill in the half court. You saw Tyrese Maxi dicing them up in that third quarter.

and no one could guard him. But then like he'd run into like Andre Gudala or like roy or Kawhi Leonard, he'd run into like a random guy that could kind of match up with him physically, and then it would make Lebron work harder. And honestly, that was when you'd see the best of Lebron is when like it's not easy and he'd still find a way, right. And like

we even see that sometimes with Jokic. It's like you watch him go up against Embiid and it's like, WHOA, Embiid's big enough to like kind of hang with him, right, and it makes things difficult. Mitchell Robinson has the unique ability to give em bead a little bit of space but also close the gap and contest. And so the one thing if I'm a Knicks fan, the one thing where I'm like, Okay, we got dominated in the half court.

Maybe the Sixers can turn this around. The one thing I'm clinging to is what if Mitchell Robinson gives and be just a bad series, because then this could get ugly because Tyre Smax he had some trouble with Deuce McBride too. There he could kind of match it with him with his quickness. And so I think the Knicks have some ability to close that gap in the half court offense, but the Sixers have to close that gap in the margins or they're just going to get run out of this series.

and beat had a shot against the Knicks. I'm not even there may have been an early whistle where he turned his body sideways, he threw it off the glass, and I was like, the hell was that? Who? It doesn't even look like it was just a it's a move that Dame would make. It was like, you're like, seven to two, you can't do that. But in the weaker Eastern Conference, it's just inexcusable. You've got to win

a second series. I mean, the first series is against the dog, usually now the Knicks or no dog, but there is it. I wonder what the ball movement is when embiid is in, because I do feel there are times when it slows down a little use by the way, you saw this with Julius Randalls sometimes in the Knicks, like he's out, the ball moves sometimes with Bigs that by the way, no Joannis today with Milwaukee, the ball's moving, they're you know, Dame's controlling it. The tempo is better.

I just if he loses to the Knicks, now, what do we say. I know he's great, but it's like if you're a great quarterback in the weaker conference, I gotta have some playoff wins. You know, you got to give me some of those. It'd be one thing if you're facing Mahomes and Josh Allen and Lamar in their prime. If you're facing the NFC guys, I need some do Wu's Matt Stafford gets a super Bowl. He's better than that division. I get that conference. I don't know where

I land on Embiid. Yeah, I know he's talented, but he needs to win more in April and May. I'm just he does. How do you land historically with Embiid?

Usually his jump shot falls apart, he starts turning the basketball over a ton in his offensive effectiveness craters, and every single year, the Embiid fans will be like he was hurt and they're not wrong. Like you go back, you go back. Last year he was dealing with a balky knee. What was it two years ago when he had the broken face on the Toronto the Flukey play at the end of the Toronto series. I think og and Andobi hit him with an elbow in the face

and he really struggled. And this year he has the same excuse, right, Like he came back from a meniscus injury and clearly it's bothering him. I mean he left the game in the second quarter last night, so like, obviously he's having issues, right, But the bottom line is, at a certain point, if a guy gets to the postseason every year and it's hurt every year, you have

to kind of bring that into the calculus. It's like with Kawhi, I vividly remember you and I sitting down going like, man, that was crazy.

that environment. And so at the end of the day, like I feel bad for him because I think a lot of it is just kind of he's a giant human and there's a certain kind of risk factor that comes along with that, and I don't want to blame him necessarily, But regardless of what the external circumstances are, the on court product hasn't been enough. Now, one thing I'll say, I was really impressed in how he played last night while he was on the floor against a

really tough, physical New York Knicks team. But again, like we talked about with like Igudala and Kawhi, if Mitchell Robinson presents a challenge for him, he has to find a way to solve that puzzle. Why because the other great players found a way to solve that puzzle when they ran into it in the postseason.

that was just personality in the Lakers Brandon Kobe. But most centers don't move the needle. They don't play a dynamic, quick, twitchy game. It's fun. Derek Rose to me in Chicago, Oh, okay, the Bulls. You know there are certain players ant's great, but it's Minnesota. But I was watching the NIXT game and I thought to myself. We always talk about market size doesn't matter in the NBA because players can get rich everywhere. I don't deny that. But games in the

Garden are different. They are just different. They just look different. And I'm watching that game and I'm seeing the celebrities and I'm like, I stayed on that game and I was like, it had juice. I'm sitting there and thinking, this is great television. It's like watching the football game Michigan Big House, Jason. It feels bigger than an Arizona Wildcat game. It just feels bigger. And I'm watching the Knicks and I'm like, boy, the league could really use

Celtics Knicks. And I don't think Jalen Brunson's I think they need another star. But you know, there's been this sort of malaise and the regular season and people talking about ratings, and the NBA is fine, it's content, it's gonna do fine. It's more international, it's still great. The players have never been better. But I'm watching the Knicks and I'm like, they're incredibly likable because they play their ass off. They get everything out of every player. Brunson's

a great story. It's New York it's the Guard and the fans are so starved they might as well have a ticker tape parade. After they won, the fans were going crazy out in the street, and I really did. I was watching it, Jason, and I thought, I've been in TV for twenty some years, and I'm like, this is great television. This is completely magnetic television. And I'm sorry if that game's in Charlotte, it doesn't feel like that. I mean, how did when I want that? I felt,

Oh my god, this feels like a conference finals. This is what New York and the Garden are doing to this sport. That's what I felt.

Madison Square Garden, you dropped everything and you watched. And so to watch them play meaningful basketball, and I don't even think the Knicks fans are aware yet that this is just the beginning. Like I think this is the beginning of a long era of really good Knicks basketball. We've talked about it before. I think they're really well positioned for a move this offseason. I I one hundred percent agree there was that that game. It was It was easily the most magnetic and entertaining game of the

night yesterday. I actually have a follow up question, con I saw a report yesterday that the the talks have stalled out, the TV talks for the NBA with Turner and with Disney. What did you make of that?

tolerate it. I think the fines would be levied and much and I think they were years ago, the late David Stern, So I do think there are some social issues. I think the load management's turned a lot of people off. The game is getting like baseball and hockey. It's very international now, so it's just harder to follow a guy if you don't. You know, he's in Lithuania instead of Duke.

The reason I know Zion he played at Duke. He blew up a shoe at Duke, and so, you know, there's part of it is we're this is society is we're all distracted now. I mean our phone, my usage rate. I was on the phone during the NBA. I'm on my phone constantly right Like, my usage rate goes up at four hundred percent during the NBA playoffs. So we're distracted. So we don't follow the path and the journey of players. You do, you're an expert at it, but most people don't.

So we like this. I watch a guy at Ohio State for three years, you're in Michigan. He's Microwavable. He goes to my Texans. I know who he is. I has in Jersey. I have an avisceral connection with him. In the NBA, increasingly the guys don't play college and so it's like Ugh and they go to bad teams at the top of the drafts. You don't see him for three years until they get into the playoffs. Wemby

because he's uniquely historically transcendent. We talked about him. So I think executives look at this and they say to themselves, the players are telling us the regular season doesn't matter. The league by not handing out punitive action, is telling us the regular season doesn't matter. Am I paying nine billion for playoff games? Like, I'm not interested? And I

think Fox don't for Fox or the Murdocks. But I do think people at our company have looked at baseball and they're like, we love the playoffs, but the one hundred and sixty two Braves Brewers or whatever, like, it's hard to get people interested. So in a distracted society where we're on our phones right long, regular season sports are dying. And so NFL's not urgency, World Cup's not every four years, Olympics aren't March madness, men and women aren't.

College football isn't UFC, isn't baseball hockey, NBA regular seasons on television are just not dynamic. And these leagues, the NBA, the I mean I mean, we'll have some great series here. These first round series are going to be really good. NICK sixers is going to feel like a big series because Philly and New York are just they jump off the television. My takeaway is league send messages to networks, and the messages the regular season doesn't matter much, and

I run Fox or ESPN or TNT. Okay, then let's have two packages. You know, I'll pay for the playoffs. I don't want the regular season, and so I think that's where that's where you know the NFL and I think March madness. It's like, well, I have to watch these games. These are all sudden death, you know, So what do I make of it? I make of it. The product's good, but the league is sending a message to the networks and it's come back to bite them in the ass, which is no load management. I've always

felt the league should have about sixty games. The first round should be three games, the rest of the way should be five until the finals is seven. There's no urgency. I mean, there's just literally no urgency in these games. It's like, I watch it because I love the NBA. The NBA will get its money, but you have to be honest about this. The stuff that's working is all creating urgency. I mean, the quality of men's basketball in the NCAA now is awful, Jason. It's the actual quality play. Yeah,

but the numbers were fantastic. So now women's basketball is much better today than twenty years ago. So the quality there is excellent. In Caitlin Clark story. But I think baseball, I mean, hey, have you heard about I mean, like Apple doesn't want part of the NBC and Apple are both unhappy with their baseball packages. Wow, Sunday Night Baseball. They want one hundred and forty million. Nobody wants to pay that. Fox would take it for forty million. We're

not paying one hundred and forty million. So I think I think baseball, hockey, and basketball. I think you have to look in the mirror as owners. You've never been richer. It's the best place in the world to own any investment in the world is English Premier League teams or American sports teams. That's where the richest people have their money. EPL teams only go up and American sports teams mostly go up. I think you have to scale back the number of games you have to demand starters play. I

think you have to have more urgent. I think what you have in the NBAG you have a two and a half month playoff, it should be a month and shorten the season. Now you say, the players will say, well, we won't make as much money. If everybody got ten percent less, you'd be fine. If Lebron could play fifteen less games a year, he'd be fine with less. Most players would be. But I think it's a reality of

what's happening, the distraction, the fragmentation. You cannot ask people to sit through these long hockey Baseball NBA regular seasons, especially when the players don't seem that driven by it. That's my take, and I love the league.

the NBA regular season is less. And to your point, like, I've always been a big believer in shortening the regular season because I think if you could get it down to three games a week in just a guaranteed two days off every single week in a row somewhere in there for the older guys, I think you just have better player participation in general, not to mention the increased

urgencies surrounding the games. And what bothers me about it is why can't you view the in season tournament and the play in tournament as the revenue drivers to make up for lost revenue in a shortened season. And if you did shorten the season, I don't I think you'd see an initial drop in revenue.

huge deal every year ago out there. I'm amazed by the event that Summer League is. Wait till you see what this Team USA thing is is going to be like in Vegas. Like, all of that is doing great, but the regular season itself is dipping further and further down the food chain, and that they do need to put more attention in that direction.

that half these games don't matter. Well, that's not great messaging.

years of my business. That Wednesday are like, God, wouldn't it be granted, tonight was NBA opening night, So you would push it back a month late August to the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. You'd cut it down to about sixty six sixty eight games. It would end July first, so you'd push it back a little longer. There's nothing going on in June and July early, and it would just be a real estate move. Like the NFL moved free agency to March. It was because they want they wanted

to take away some March madness. They saw opportunities. It would be a you're just buying different beach property. You'd move it back to after it that you have no shot to compete until after Thanksgiving. It's just it's just too much football. But then college football dims a little bit, and the NBA and then cut the games down. But you have the summer's wide open. I mean June and early July are wide open, and then June July first you crown your champion. You have the draft four days later.

Thanks for Flying United and FL camp. NFL camps open NFL camp's open three days later, and it's perfect. The NFL has been great at this. They just keep buying different real estate. Moving out of this the end. The NFL gives you June in the first week of July.