All-Star Game Reactions and Playoff Races with Sarah Todd

Sarah Todd, welcome back to the show. What a joy it was to have you the first time, and what a pleasure to have you returning, isn't it. Also the co host of the Unsalvageables podcasts, formerly covered the Sixers and Warriors. So you're you're in Utah. You were there

for the for All Star Weekend. I was there for twelve hours of All Star Weekend because it is my four now five year old's birthday on Sunday, So I just came for a brief ten hours to do a little panel shout out to Steve and the NBA folks. But it was a blast. What a joy the NBA All Star Game is. But what's it like when the

NBA All Star Game comes to you takes over your town. Yeah, it was a lot, honestly, what they You know, there's a lot about All Star that I love, and especially when it's not in the city of which I cover the team that's hosting. Yeah, but it's just I mean, it's NonStop coverage basically all year and then weeks of pretty intense coverage leading up to the All Star break, and when they're setting up for the All Star break, like in Utah, that means that the team has to

be on the road that week before. And so like, I finished out a game in Memphis on the tail end of a four game road trip, drop maybe an hour and a half of sleep, got on a flight back to Utah, landed, got some stuff together, and then immediately went over to a T and T crew availability and like did interviews and just immediately started as soon as I got into town on Thursday. Yeah, And so Thursday through Sunday night, it was just NonStop, and so I honestly could not wait for it to just be

Monday and to sleep in. All that being said, though, like once it gets to All Star Saturday night, it does like you just remember, like why this is such a fun event, you know, because the skills competition and seeing Jordan Clarkson, who was just absolutely imbibing for most of the weekend, and watching watching just like trying to trying to slog through the skills to competition, and Walker Kessler and Colin Sexton are hilarious and so just funny

to watch that whole thing. Three point contest. Damian Lillard wins it. He's a former Weaber State star and so he has roots in Utah, and so that was bad weekend. Had no clue that Weber State was in Utah. Yeah, I'm honestly most don't. When I moved to Utah took this job, it took like four months before I learned that Weber State was in Utah. So absolutely excused that

you didn't know. And then the dunk contest, I mean that just got me so excited because I've had conversations with like people within the League office leading up to All Star and I was like Mac McClung, is your guys, like that's who you're announcing is going to be we're going with? And then I absolutely blew everyone's pants off. And so that was just very fun. And then All Star Night. I know I've see a lot of people that are like, what are we going to do to

make this game more competitive? Like nothing, We're probably gonna be doing nothing to make a game more competitive, But please more of this I want. I think it's a good a good time for people to be trying out new new wrinkles, such as Damian Lillard pulling up from half court, like behind half court, pulling up casually. We're now seeing like Zapruder film analysis of like how his

shot works because he like has the ball in his palm. Yeah, the the entire for the entirety of his shot, which is very strange and like it doesn't make any sense. But it does also like his shot and his range doesn't make any sense, so I guess we should we should accept that. But it's he needs to start doing that in games. And thank you to the All Star

Game for making it possible. If you want to watch a competitive game, like, there are what eighty two times thirty mini games that you could go and watch to watch something more competitive. Yeah, go watch those. This is what the All Star Game is about. It's about watching Damian Lillard pull up from beyond half court, right, jeemie, honest car a seven point lead at the half, just

a kid, do it seventy. He did not even cross out for it any His facial expression did not change, Like this is an expectation and we have to be honest about this. I saw a lot of people complaining about it on Twitter over the weekend, when the reality is, if you're a forty something year old dude like myself, the game's not necessarily you know, targeted at me, Like I'm not the target audience while I may not be first in line for a post Malone concert or whomever

you like. Did the halftime folks were it was good, It was entertaining. It was it was, it was. It was something that was very clear the NBA is trying to make it a more inclusive experience. And you know, I to me, most of the complaints just rang, you know, kind of sounded like the old guy yelling at the clubs. Absolutely, And I mean you're not in a regular game, Like you're not going to get the chance to like not only watch you know, weird lobs and weird dunks that

wouldn't happen in they other game. But then there's a few minutes section where it kind of everyone just sort of cleared out and it just became a Jason Tatum versus Jalen Brown content one on one. Yeah, that's exciting. That's done. Just let them work it out. It's like wait when like somebody holds people back and it's just like now they need they don't hold anyone back. Um. Yeah.

Like the other moment that really stands out to me is the lebron lob off the backboard where it like hits the corner and is flying in the wrong direction. He still catches it and dunks it. It was one of the cooler things, one of one of my favorite dunks in All Star Game history. In the books, people are just, I don't know, bored by it. I feel like the All Star Game is underrated at this point because all the hoops heads are like there's no defense and I'm just like I don't care, like in the

whole different thing. Yeah. My co host for my podcast, Greg who Jubari knows and loves. Greg made a great analogy because he was able to go to the All Star Game. He got tickets from a friend who got tickets and didn't have to pay for him so excellent stuff because it's incredibly expensive and stupid that regular people can't go. But that's a different conversation. Anyways, Greg made

a great analogy. He was like, I don't go watch a action like a dumb action movie, because I think there's gonna be great acting and it's gonna win, it's gonna win Academy Awards. I go because, like I want to sit back and like watch stuff blow up and like have some fun. And that's the All Star Game. You're not going because you think you're gonna see one of the greatest performances ever. You go because it's fun.

Like that's why you watch it, right, It's fun. Also, the picks, like the team picks on the court pregame, that's that's fun. That was a blast. It was hilarious to see Janis forget that John Morant was a starter. Yes, just like open mic literally literally getting like primary process of like Jannis and Lebron's brains working in like live and you know, getting the dead jokes from Lebron, getting to see who the real MVP is of of the NBA with who went first out of the starters? Was

that who went first? I forgot that's right. Was wait, who was it them first? Who who embi It was mbad right, that's right, it was Joel Embiid And so that's who Lebron thinks is the best player. But you probably know more about basketball than Lebron uh NBA writer anyways, So that was cool to see. I don't it's not like I enjoyed that for selfish reasons or anything. It's a blast, though, it's like a long party. I wish that they would have been like a little bit more

like feisty about the picks. You know, like as soon as Janice let out that John Morant was going to be like his starter pick. Yeah, so then when him first, yeah, it got his starters and that was not who Yannis picked, and so it was like, oh, Lebron, you gotta take job. That's who he wants, right and didn't he should have done it? Yeah, but yeah, it is it's like being in a fantasy draft with people who like are playing fantasy for the first time, just like had no strategy.

We're just like picking the wrong people. Uh. It was. It was a mess, but it was it was fun to see, and like, I don't know, real heartbreak as Yokich gets picked second to last and then has to like select himself, like walk up to make sure Lebron doesn't pick market In. Well he what happened was? I mean, if you were to believe this, and I actually do,

because Yogi was a apologizing to market In after the game. Wow, Yoga was kind of like Caddy corner like diagonal sitting in front of marketing In and didn't know marketing In hadn't been pick. He didn't know. He thought he was the last one on stage, and so when that's why he just walked to Lebron and and like he was cut down because he thought he was last. And then uh, and so we we will never know. Probably if if Lebron was actually going to pick Lowry, I mean, that

would have been a statement. That would have been a huge statement, if he was like, yeah, we don't think you should be the MVP for a third year in a row and therefore, um, but anyways, we'll never know. Yeah, we'll never know, Sarah. I know, I know it was in your backyard. I know there were all types of asks, but where did anything go on beyond the you know, behind the scenes that the cameras might not have been

privy to any any interesting stories or funny stories. There was a lot of stuff that was very funny, just seeing sort of the Jazz people that I that I know that we're working behind the scenes, and how like strapped for time and how crazy everything was with it. So like Walker Kessler, the Jazz is rookie, he was on the Rising Stars team. He was kind of giving shoutouts after the Rising Stars game to everybody who had

helped make the whole thing go and work. And Adam Cloukey, who is the equipment manager for the Jazz, he was like the equipment manager for All Star and so that entails like moving people's stuff from one locker to the other when the All Star teams were picked, because no one knew which locker room they were going to be in, and so like just and then at one point, because Cloukey was down on the floor most of the time

and he's running around taking care and stuff. Jason Terry, who's an assistant coach for the Jazz, he walks into

the arena, but he comes in from the concourse. So he's walking down the stairs of the stadium during the All Star Game and he gets down to security and security holds him up and it's like, you can't be down here, Oh no, And I'm watching this happen and I'm like, this is very funny because this is Jason Terry and the security card clearly does not know the situation right, And Jason Terry had to yell over too Cloukey the equipment manager to get him permission to go

down onto the floor. Thanks. So that's it's just a it's a funny mess what All Star ends up being. Yeah, all right, the dunk contest did sees the zeitgeist. You know, everybody on Twitter was talking about Mac McClung. I went to Georgetown, so I was a Mac McClung nowhere prior to this. I'm also a Sixers fan, so we go way back with him seventy two hours. So it was it was exciting, like this is somebody who is a like YouTube viral dunker already, so I had a feeling

something was coming. I loved the immediate attempt of erasure for everyone who didn't know who Mac McClung was. Like immediately on Twitter, everyone was like, uh, we all knew who he was. He was a famous high school dunker.

It's like okay, yeah, Like if you're in the niche community of people who like were on the receiving end of that viral YouTube moment whenever that happened, sure you knew who he was, but like most people did not, right gay subscribe to ball his life, but he came with I mean every dunk, like no missed dunks very

well selected. It's the dunk Countess is weird because like I think Trey Murphy the Third did a pretty good reenactment, if not an exact reenactment of my favorite dunk of all time, the one that like Vince Harder opens his dunk contest win with like the reverse three sixty windmill, and everyone was just like, yeah, okay, that was like those cool. So you have to like do something like you're still working with the same ingredients, but you have to like combine them in new ways that people feel

like they haven't seen before. Like so you have to be like building on top of like not every dunk, because not every dunk like etches itself into the cultural consciousness, but like you have to be like, all right, so everybody knows Vinca's dunks. Everybody knows like these handful of dunks from these dunk contests, and he seemed to do that.

He seemed to do a pretty good job that. Yeah, I mean, I think the problem for Trey Murphy was that, you know, he did a pretty good dunk to start out, but then mc McClung's first dunk was the best dunk of the whole dunk contest. Like he jumped over somebody on top of somebody else's shoulders. Yeah, and like not only did that at but then kissed the ball off

the backboard before dunking it. And mc McClung is small, and so he's a tiny, tiny man, and so the fact that he was able to clear those people and it wasn't even like they like really ducked a lot to get him the night or that he pushed off of them a lot. Yeah, cleared them. He just jumped over to humans on top of Yeah. Yeah, that was wild. That first dunk would like won it for me. After that first one, I was like he could just do mid junks from here on out, Like he just won

the dunk contest, but he didn't. Everyone was really really good and like noticeable, not in slow motion, it was like noticeably like cool everything. Yeah, that first dunk was so cool because because the other ones were incredible in real time, the first one was so good because I don't think anybody saw him like touch the back the basketball off the backboard until they slow it down, and then everyone lost their minds because he'd done more than he even thought he did. It's like a magic trick.

Slam Dun Doggian. He was signed this week by the seventy six ers to a two week contracts. Congratulations. I'm worried about the guy. Hold the other guy at some point, I gotta see if he hit the ball. That's any rough night in the name on the back. This is what are you? This is what you guys need to know. Look at the NBA follers, the All Staller, all falls, how they are reacting to it, how they know I'm not saying it. Jack. I think that's an excellent point.

It's kind of it's kind of related to both of you guys point about the All Star Game in that it we I honestly think it's more indicative of us being spoiled as consumers, as basketball fans. The fact that we can look at what what Trey Murphy did and just go like, oh, okay, when in reality it's all incredible. Every single every single one of every single one of

the dunks throughout the contest were pretty incredible. Yeah, I mean, I will say except for the one who's the guy that it was a Jericho Sims that put his arm into the net. He lifted himself up with the net. Oh, his his off hand raised himself up with the net. And I but I'm absolutely guilty of what you're talking about, Jabari Like as it was going, I'm like live tweety, I'm like Trey Murphy mid like, and I famously could get net when I was at my peak athletically, so

I probably could have done that dunk. So that was probably that that probably gotten the way of my enjoyment of it. But you have the course pull yourself up with what Yeah, of course the next question what strike that? From the rick? Um? So a fun All Star weekend. We're heading into it. Let's take a quick break, we'll come back. We'll talk about where we're at at, where we're headed, some exciting new team members, and just who's hot who's not. Um it sounds like a burn book

or something, but well, we'll talk about it all. We'll betternot dot Com after the break and we're back, and I mean, Dame, let's just real quick. I mean, because the real reason I want to talk about it is just continuing to be impressed by Like I think, you know, they're in twelfth in the Western Conference. Doesn't seem like it's happening for the team. Maybe they start letting damn

pull up from backcourt. I'm just saying it's it's a thought. Um. But so they're five and five over the last ten, but his numbers over the last eleven are sixty point, thirty points, forty two, forty two, twenty nine, twenty eight, thirty three, thirty eight, forty thirty nine. Like, it's insane, man, that's not fair. It's just like my favorite human to watch when he's locked in, like just yeah, it's he

knows what's about to happen before. One of the things that I said to Jabari when he was on my most recent podcast episode is that the Trailblazers like they tried to like up their defense. They got motist tyble at the trade deadline, a couple other teams in the West, like the Lakers, were making moves to trying to improve and get some depth, and there's all these teams in

the West, they're like trying to do stuff. And then Kevin Durant goes to the Suns, and if you're any Western Conference team, you gotta be like, just stop, just stop, right, why would you do that? And so if I'm Dame, I'm absolutely pulling up from half course at this point, you can do it every Yeah, yeah, I mean the Nuggets currently have a four game lead in the lost column,

one game off the pace for top record. Overall, it feels like they're ending up in first, right if Hils like Denver is probably going to be the team that any other team faces in the Western Conference finals, Like they're the team to beat at this point. But the West is so weird and the Suns have Kevin Durant now, so like, who knows what can happen. I don't know if Tyree and Luca are gonna go crazy and the

Mavericks are gonna like shoot up the standings. I don't I don't know what's going to happen in the West. It's very strange. Yeah, I didn't hear you mentioned about the Lakers shooting up, But that's okay, I know, I did not. I know you were thinking, it's no, I'm just looking at the dock here. So we have in the in the section, so like top of the Western Conference, top of the Eastern Conference, and like all the other

teams that are mentioned have a justification. Milwaukee one, twelfth straight, Philly second hottest team, Cleveland fourth, Nuggets, four game lead in the last Calm Grizzlies. You know they're struggling a little bit, but Clippers currently occupy the fourth spot. Lakers. That's it. It's just like, remind me to talk about the Lakers. That's what people need to hear is they are the team that I'm watching because I care about

my good friends Miles and Jabari. I care about the health the happiness of the town that I live in, and I'm always rooting for Lebron first after the Sixers. But I don't know that it's happening this year for them, and it feels like people are like, yeah, they're gonna make up the ground. They'll be there, they'll be there, and I just don't know. Sarah already burst my bubble on her show Why not do it? Here your assessment

of your assessment of the new Lakers players Sarah. I'm well documented at this point of not being a believer in either Jared Vanderbilt or Malik Beasley, but but especially Jared Vanderbilt, because I think that you know, when you're selling that bill of goods to a fan base, what you're selling is like high energy. He's a rebad wounder. He's like Dennis Rodman light out there. He's all over the place. He knows the angle and he just doesn't

that's not true. I think I'm pretty sure that if you go back and look like defensive rebounding percentage for

every team that he's been on has been worse. When he's on the floor, he's the kind of offensive rebounder where he kind of crashes in Troy Palamalo style from beyond the three point line for an offensive rebound that he doesn't have a chance at getting, and then he ends up on the floor and then the rest of the team is running back, and then he's not playing defense, and so then you're just playing five on four at that point. Like he's very good at doing that one

and he dies on every screen. He's really bad at making contact when he's setting a screen, and so if they're hoping to get This is je Vader about the one that everybody was like, we got some defensive toughness coming from all of us. We're excited about this is her saying, not just the wet blanket. You know, I want to hurt your childhood memories too. She didn't John

just want us said in the future. She wants us to be retroacting, said, I feel like anytime someone is described as selling a bill of goods, it's not usually a good thing for them. No, that's because he's a fraudulent out player, like a competence man. Just Yeah, the evidence that you need is that three teams who were like, we need to think about getting better for the future

have now traded Jared Vanderbilt and Milik Beasley together. Rice the Denver Nuggets were like, oh, we're building something good here. We need to get better. Let's get rid of Jared Vanderbilt and Milik Beasley. The Timberwolves were like, we're going all in. We got to do something. We gotta go with Aunt and Rudy go back. We need good pieces. Yeah, who cares Jared Vanderbilt Mileek Beasley send them on their way. The Jazz are like, oh, We've got a really good

foundation here, our rebuild might be a lot shorter. We need to start making room for better players. Well, let's get rid of Jared Vanderbilt and Mileik Beasley. H Jabari is currently doing the blinking white guy meme. No, I'll stay, I'll stay. Drew scan I believe is the person Drew Scanlin reaction is another name for it don't know your meme, but colloquially known as blinking white guy. I mean, I

have a legitimate answer to this. My honest answer is much like sometimes a matter I am always you know, it sounds like you got it locked and loaded, man, really, because I'm because I'm measuring my words, because I'm measuring my words here, but I'm always in the I can save I can save them. So my my opinion is, while you know, cinnamon and sugar may not be the best option in a chicken dish, they're gonna go well in the cake that we're baking over. They're really good

at oatmeal. The ingredients may not have worked well in the previous respots, but here in Los Angeles, at least so far through like what two games worth of action? Okay, and I'm going to be that's statistically significant, so I think we can count it as a win. I think it's a great point that, you know, if you have something as bland and sad as oatmeal, then adding cinnamon

and sugar probably seems really exciting. Smari. You saw the first half of the later season, right, Yeah, I mean everybody, Wiggins really gave us all hope that like, you just bring somebody in who's been like a man for other teams and fan bases and then suddenly, yeah, suddenly he's an All Star and you're winning a title. So let's see it. Can't wait to eat my words with cinnamon

and sugar. Yeah. So Milwaukee one twelve in a row heading into the break, tied with the Celtics, and the lost column tiebreaker head to head is March thirtieth in Milwaukee, Philly second highest team heading into the break, oh and two versus the Celtics this season, I'm still feeling second round ish for them, but I would love for that not to be true. Um. I feel like Cleveland could

make noise. I really do. For some reason. I'm just like they they have that like under the radar end up in the Eastern Conference because I feel like it's not going to be Milwaukee Boston because just these past few years, it's never like the two teams that everybody's expecting heading into the playoffs. And I I could really see Cleveland matching up with either a Boston or a Milwaukee.

We'll see. Yeah, it feels like Cleveland is kind of the Memphis Grizzlies of this season, where the last couple of years that everyone was really excited, like, oh, it's a fun young team. They're all happy and like they're playing fun. It's it's great to watch. That feels like Cleveland because now with the Grizzlies, it's like everyone's kind of over Dylan Brooks and and like the shine has worn off on John Morant kind of being like the young upcoming guy. I think I think everyone just expects

him to be great at this point. Yeah, and so now it's like, oh, well, what's Jared Allen gonna do? And like Donovan Mitchell with Darius Garland, like that's fun. And so I think that there's a lot more fun expectations for Cleveland. They could they could make noise. You always they're just shutdown defenders. They're shutdown, like they're they have five of the top eleven defensive players in the league, which is wild. So they're gonna be They're gonna be dangerous.

They don't have Kevin Love anymore, So all right, Brian, can we go back and just cut out the whole Cleveland thing? So Miami's coming out is what she's saying. Yeah, but we did talk at the beginning of the season. I forget Jabar. You probably remember which guests brought it up that we haven't had the same four teams, haven't had a single team repeat in the conference finals of the past like a few years. I could see that

happening again this year. I could see, you know, Nuggets wouldn't be surprising then, you know, because it's probably not gonna be Golden State and it's probably not gonna be the MAVs at West or it could be, but I think it would be surprising, and for different reasons than it was last year. I'm absolutely pulling for the Sacramento Kings to just be really real weird. Yeah, light the beam in the playoffs, get them to a Western Conference finals, just make it fun for them, and then the Nuggets

can shut them down from there. All right, So I got you guys both covered Nuggets, Kings out West Philly Cleveland in the East. I'm not done. I'm not claiming Philly, but you're not confident. My weird superstition is the like I just go in pre disappointed and then everything's gonna be okay. Yeah, it's been great for getting them to the second round every year. But there was a hat that I was wearing up until last year that it seemed to coincide with them losing in the second round.

So I've stopped wearing that hat. I now have a Dodgers hat, and they lost in disappointing fashion the playoffs, so I think the jinx might be off them. We'll see. But this is the sort of in depth basketball analysis you get on Miles and Jack cut mad Boosties. In my preseason prediction, I'm just looking back here, which it always makes me laugh because inevitably I am just incredibly wrong on so many things. So I'm fine with laughing at myself about this. But I've got Sixers over Bucks

in seven. Oh wow, So you didn't know about the hat yet at that point. Yeah, I'm sorry to say, unfortunately, which Boston like. When the Sixers play the Celtics, it like just doesn't appear to be very close, Like they just don't. Yeah, the two teams like that that it's just such a bad matchup. So if you're assuming they have to go through the Celtics at some point, I just I don't love it for them. Now, if Milwaukee goes ahead and kindly knocks them off, then I do

think we have a better chance. But we shall see. They're just so quick and I think they give a lot of teams trouble. The Celtics, I think they're a good young ball club that has a bright future. I don't know. If you saw a couple of their players in the All Star Game that was wild, that's I mean, it's cool. I guess it's not cool, all right, I'm gonna say it. It's not cool to score fifty five

in an All Star game. Run it up. I am that person where if someone gets to like even if it's against my team, like the other like last week before the break with Dame had thirty in the first half, I'm I'm I'm of the you know it gets six, go ahead if you're you know, they had the option to go out there and stop them kind of Yeah, I mean that's a record, right, nobody's ever put up more than fifty five in an All Star Game. I mean,

that's what the NBA was saying. It feels weird that that's actually the case, considering the scores that are at All Star games. But yeah, that he is the single game All Star record holder because back when he played, Wilt Chamberlain just played with his feet during the All Star Game and they don't count those points exactly feet. Yea, man, I got the Wilt poster behind me. There it is Nate McMillan was let go by the Atlanta Hawks. Bad news there, I don't know. Oh, also, we we do

just we we have to recognize Lebron. The photograph of Lebron's business decision in the All Star Game. I think it is it who's dunking and Lebron is just has his whole body oriented in a different direction like it is. I think Lebron is a boost. He's listener, first of all. I mean that's I probably don't need to say. I think that he's clearly a boost. He's listener, and he

recognized that we've been talking about business decisions. But we didn't have the photograph that was the perfect illustration of the business decision. And he he did it for a It's his body is oriented like he's saying, hey, look over there, as somebody's dugging on him because he's just like gone completely out of his way. Yeah, it's Tatum one of his fifty five points. Um, let's take a quick break. We'll come back. It is time for the

fastest segment in podcasting. We'll be right back, and we're back, and Sarah Todd, it is time for the rapid fire round of questioning. Just the first answer that comes to mind on these especially if it's wrong, you know, go wrong and strong. We we love just speed and we just love to have the pace just too. You know, I love being wrong. So this is great. Jabari, you want to go first, you want me to go first. We'll be questions. You'll be responding, okay unless okay, no, no,

I don't care. Got to be little. That was weird like you guys. That was quick about something before. Okay, that was a test. That was a test. Okay, okay, I'm ready. Um, all right. So the Jazz, the Utah Jazz, the Jazz of Utah have eight first round picks over the next four drafts. So we're going to give you the option between the guarantee of getting Wemby as the top pick this year and then forfeiting all of those picks, or you don't get Wemby and you get to essentially

build out an entire roster with all eight. It seems like a pretty straightforward I'm taking yeah, like that's the right answer. But I am wondering, like if there is a like mathematical or like statistical thing where people are like, actually, you could use all those eight picks. But yeah, no, that's the right that's the right answer, right. I mean, they've got fifteen picks over the next seven years, so you give away eight, you still got seven to work

within deals. Taken with it, answer is yeah, they answer is Wemby. This was a dumb question that I wrote into the dock. So you're welcome keeping it going, Sarah. And again, you gotta keep us in line. You know, as soon as you answer that question, you should be asking for the next one. I'm not trying to chastise you, but it is your fault, all right, keeping it going.

Jalen Rose recently said that men should be spending a minimum of one hundred dollars on a haircut, and look that's gonna that's a little bit out of you know, that's a little bit too steep for my taste. But what is the one single item for routine maintenance that you're willing to pay top dot? I spend like three hundred dollars on my hair every time it gets done, and so I completely understand. At the same token, dudes can get their haircut for thirty five bucks. I don't care.

It's so easy. Go to sports clips, no one cares. Not Nextari can't get three ninety nine for a big raise? Yeah, and is Jalen Rose's hair too good to be true? Don't care? All right? Jobari back to you. You heard that, she said. Yes. I would also like to say paying for my hair is making me broke constantly, so I wait a very long time to do it, all right. Uh. You can go back in time and watch any single NBA game from throughout history. Which game you choose, Oh,

I've got this one. Uh, when Larry Bird takes the floor the day after Magic Johnson announces that he's HIV positive, that's the one that I'm watching because that's the one that makes me most emotional every single time I think about it. Wow, what what? I actually don't know the story of that game. So the story is that I know the story of right. But Larry finds out and he talked to Magic and he just, you know, they'd become friends over the years, even though they're like a

friend of me is basically you know. And he he said that every morning he used to wake up and like look at the scores and see what the night before, Like what did Magic have? What do what do I have to go against? Like he was always comparing himself and trying like that was the competition, even if they

weren't playing a game against each other. And so the next day he goes out into the court and like every time that he is in a time out or there's like a moment of stoppage, like Larry basically starts crying because he's realizing that like the person that who has motivated him the most is just no longer a part of basketball, and he like doesn't see the point of being out there. Wow, that's beautiful. Look I can tell you where I was no giber seven nineteen Yeah,

I can too. Um wild, that's a great answer, all right, and you know what, I'm not even going to complain that it was a little bit slow. All right, boy, I have to play the Miles role in honor of all right. What is your boldest postseason or even play in prediction for this year? Uh? My boldest play in prediction is that the Warriors are in the play in and they get knocked out? Oh wow? Are they like putting anything together right now? I don't know if I

believe that this is supposed to be fast? Why are we talking right now? Oh? Wows right, I'm something. I'm sorry, man. What do you get better on any fan base making arena challenge? If you Sarah Ca bet on any fan base to make the inn arena challenge, shots, lay up, free throw, three point or a half court? Which fan base would you bet on? Oh? My god? Detroit? Oh wow, I bet you. I bet you. There's more ballers Detroit or Atlanta. There's more ballers down there than than there

are in some of these other like small markets. Now I'm going to come in and add the jazz to the mix. I got to travel to the All Star Game briefly to do a panel. I had to get back for my son's birthday. As I mentioned, but so I missed like the main events, but I did get to witness like the shooting booths at the crossover events, and there was a lot of wetness on display. And I don't know if it is the Jazz fans or if that was people traveling there for the All Star Game.

I also noticed it would have been easy for me to say Jazz fans because there there's this phenomena church ball, and a lot of the Mormon churches out here, like almost all of them have basketball courts, and so like kids really do grow up, Like there are pickup games. If you ever ever want to find a pickup game, there is one every single day of the week in Utah to find. Yes, and so they they they do

be putting up shots. Are those courts carpeted? And the reason why I ask is because I played, I played against I played in some Mormon establishments and non Mormons establishments that have carpeted basketball courts. I'm sure that some of them are. I mean, the two that I have seen have not been carpeted, but I'm absolutely certain that some of them are. Yeah. Also, do people in Utah not have cold receptors? On their skin, because I did witness a lot of people just walking around in shorts,

and it was in the twenties. Was that you were you were just watching dumb people. It's fine, okay, yeah, alright, fair enough, all right, coming up to it and shout out to our listener at Blunt Doctor, he actually responded to its rapid fire questions from last week, and he says he would go with the Knicks because he thinks they're all knowledgeable, but the problem is they all wear

suits and he can't trust someone in right. I think that's the like, that's the point you were making about Lakers, is that like when you get like, if you're picking from courtside, you're going to get a lot of people who are like venture capitalists, that's like warriors new fans, Like, you can't go and make a half court shot if you're trying to take a picture with an iPad from the stands. Yeah, So, I mean you definitely have to be pulling from the upper part of the arena, but

that that's still inbounds. So I think that applies to all all teams, all fan bases you got, you gotta just not be pulling from Although Masson square gardens got good seats everywhere, So maybe maybe it is all suits never knew. All right, Sarah, the last one. You're down to the last one. This is the biggest question in the biggest topic that we've we will have discussed throughout this out. Jack or Jabari m oh no, that's real, this is real. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. Uh, I've just

known Jabari longer. What is we have? We have reclaimed Black History Month? With this result, we are back. Yeah. Time time equals blood and blood is thicker than water. Yeah that's great, makes sense. Take that. Sorry, I'm just have mad boosts Sarah and Jabari got mad boost Mac. Take that Mac like Joe Biden would say if you just owned someone. Uh, just call me black Mac McClung right now, because I just don't joint you. Oh take

that black klunk all right now? I got you. I thought I thought it was like a Joe Biden style. Take that back, No, I get it. Yeah, So reclaiming glad, glad to take the l if if that's what's required to Yeah, all right, Sarah, as always, what a pleasure having you on the show. Where can people find you? Follow you? All that good stuff? They can find me on all the socials at NBA Sarah, and you can read all of my stuff at desiret dot com. There

it is. And do we think that was a they didn't like misspelled desert and just kind of stick with it there. Yeah, I know that's what we actually meant. We meant desiret. Yeah. If you want some fun facts, uh, desiret um. I guess And I'm probably getting this totally wrong, so apologies to the LDS community, but I think that that word has some roots in LDS scripture, and before the state was named Utah, it was actually named desiret. Wow. Sounds like a smaller desert, like a cigar cigarette type

of thing. But I like it. It's the it's the sorbet of deserts. There it is. And if she got that back wrong, she's canceled. Guys. That's right. I've been canceled so many times it doesn't matter, all right. Tweets of the week from within the NBA, somebody pointed out, you know, Michael Jordan funding the Make a Wish Foundation at a record breaking was it? How much was it? It was the most anyone's ever donated to Make a Wish Foundation? And the tweet was a picture of him

and it said fund them kids, Fund them kids. But no clue what that's in reference to, no idea. And then you know, for our Boosty's listeners of the week, we asked them specifically for their favorite all star dunk contests, and the Twitter pool results were fifty four for Levine versus Aaron Gordon, thirty two for Vinsanity, voted for Nik versus MJ in nineteen eighty eight. Yeah, all right, I'll

allow it. I mean, if we if we're going to say that the dunk contest is progressive, and you know, the vinsanity thing was a moment, but maybe maybe it's one of those moments he kind of had to be there for. But that that was the one that blew my mind when it happened. But yeah, if you if you independently take the Levine Gordon dunks, they're probably a little bit more impressive built on top. I do independently take them, you do independently take them as individual dunks.

That's probably fair. Then and Arbusi's listener of the week was at Big Swinging Dial, who quote tweeted and responded with nineteen eighty six spud Web versus MJ, which was was also a whole vibe. One spud explode on the scene a little bit like one Mac McClung, but the spot was still pretty wild. Shout out to Bake, Swing and Dill for just a's a heck of a name. That's right, so make sure you give us a follow on Twitter at mad boost fees. That is going to

do it for us this week. We are back next week with more NBA action by