H-Town Hoops and Trade Talk with Ryan Hollins

current Rockets analyst. Host of the podcast NBA Rookie Life, Ryan Hollins on today's episode, I'm Jack O'Brien and I'm Jebory Davis kin for Milesbury, and this is still Miles and Jack Gott Matt Boosts nailed it, Bryan, what's going on? Thank you so much for joining us with our usual host out on paternity leave. But we're we're thrilled to have you in here. Hosted the NBA Rookie Life podcast of the NBA and I heart drafted in oh six

by the Bobcats. Played for the Bobcats, Maps, Wolves, Cats, Celtics, Clippers, Wizards, Grizzlies. What's going on? Man? How are you doing. What's going on? Guys? Thanks for having me. Absolutely, We're thrilled to have you. Congratulations on being an amazing athlete. That's cool to have played in the n b A I did not play in the NBA, Jabari, I don't. I don't think you didn't play in the NBA, did you? Honestly, my coach

has had it out for me. That's really that's the only way that we could be kept out of the league of vast conspiracy. What's going on in how how are you feeling about? Let's start with the Rockets. Actually, another tough year, but from years like this, great things bloom. We've seen it happen before, and it's always good to hear from the people who are who are watching the whole thing, to kind of hear your perspective. What are some bright spots, what are the glimmers of hope that

you're seeing down there? I think you you get a chance to watch these kids grow and develop. And I think the coolest thing with with rookies and second year guys nineteen and twenty year old, so like they develop and get better in this season. So you can see from just training camp to now, vast improvements where you know you'll you'll have a veteran guy and they are who they are, they know who they are in the league. But watching that process, you know, makes everything that much sweeter.

And then to have moments to have a glimpse it might be two possessions in a row, three possessions where you're going, oh man, that you're you get like kind of like that can be in the future and you you see those things, but um, it's it's fun. And yeah, rookies make a lot of mistakes and you know that everything is new to them and you have to be patient with that product. But you gotta understand, like watching these guys develop, watching them get opportunities. And I remember

being a young guy in the league. I didn't get a chance to just play and like iron my kinks out. And I think that's the a golden time for these young guys to learn on the fly and to get better and to improve, and you know, just the opportunities that they have, I think it's really cool to see. But the excitement that they bring to the table. Yeah, the mistakes are there, but the development and you get that instant gratification you know right away will have a

Jalen Green that you'll see his handles get better. Jabart Smith Jr. Will improve the second time guarding a Jana sounds of the coopo. You know, I prompt goon, Hey can you put the ball in his hands? Yeah? Man, he goes and gets you the youngest player in its center in history to have a triple double. So you're starting to see these guys do these things in this season and kind of like find their way in the league.

It's that that little wabbly you know, dear that comes out and starts all of a sudden, gallops and runs off. So we're excited to see our young guys move forward. And from my standpoint, it's it's fun because it's it's a lot of energy and guys, you never know what you might get, especially with a young player. Yeah, Jalen Green has had I'm and what one of the most fun people to watch in the league going to the basket.

It is just yeah, it's it's wild. We were Jabari and I were like, I thought he was like more guard sized than Jabar is, Like no, I'm pretty sure he's like six nine, six ten, but but he's just he just jumps that high. That's he he just plays with his head at the rim. So yeah, he's pretty cool to watch. Ryan. You mentioned somebody and I'll you know, Jack can tell you I'm the leader in the al shaneguon you know, you know fan base right here. Uh. The name of the dream is that the big Fellas dream.

Watching how he plays it is it is my man. Look, I was I was already. I was already there as a rookie. I've been impressed by what I've seen in this second year. But can you speak directly to that? You know, you mentioned some of the you know, some of the growth that you've been able to, you know, witness your with him up close, he speak directly to that.

It's his footwork and like you gotta understand, like a young Ryan Hollands in the league was like just rebound, don't get pushed off your positioning, and it's like not Alpia, go lead a team to a victory. Whoa, Those are those are pretty big asks that is getting getting put on the young guys. But it's interesting, like the more of a role that he's been given, the more he's almost seemed comfortable. And it was that unknown he was

the m v P in the Turkish League. So everybody's like Turkish League, all right, but anybody that young that is an m VP of a league with a bunch of grown adult men that probably smoked cigarettes and have multiple kids, and you know what I'm saying, like these are real. This is like and then like you're the m v P. They're like it means something, but um, he's just fun to watch and for him learning his accountability and what he means to the team, it's really cool.

Like he matched up against Sibonus first time he saw Sibonus. Sibonus, you have checked him. Like he's playing lights out this year, balls moving through his hands. He's similar like yell Kitch where he's like the point guard. He's the creator, he's the playmaker and like kind of like watching Al Pete watch him and then go yeah, I can do that. You know, I can. I can. I can break you down off the dribble and you know, kick the ball to a guard. I can in theke shade offense, I can,

I can. I can do this. And I think he's been on somewhat of a terror since then. But for me, it's cool to see and if you hadn't seen him best footwork in the league. Um feel for the game, sneaky bounce, will go ahead and punch on you. Like he's got a lot to him. But like you can legit play through alp on the block and he can will and deal and then he's got some showtime. He likes to have fun and um, he's an enjoyment man. But like you see our young guys like kind of

make a play and they're like they're excited. Oh like that, they're surprised, like like they're they're shocking themselves with some of these plays that we see on a nightly basis. Why is it always the players from overseas that have the footwork? What did what did he? Did? He play? Like soccer? Hacky Sack? Is Hacky Sack secretly the like national sport of Turkey because I feel like peckim we always heard it was because of soccer. Indeed, I guess

it was soccer, right, soccer and also volleyball. I don't know why that would be such great Soccer is like like how we're like, who basketball? Football? They yeah, yeah, And I'm how he played soccer. You'll see him in Big bobon Bobon is walking around seven five, and they're like they're like they'll walk out and like dribble the basketball first, like that's the thing that they do with their feet. Yeah, there's a level where like guys like I played soccer in high school and I didn't get

any more footwork. That didn't help me out. So like there's some things that just guys just have, you know. So he's talented and then obviously when you're not that athletic. He's more athletic than you think, but you're not that athletic. In a sense. It was like, you know, Ryan House, just go dunk a basketball. But he's like, Okay, how did I how can I be to like I have to have a left hand. I didn't have to have a left hand to dunk the basketball. They have to

have a left hand. They're working on things and drilling things, and expectations are different, the coaching is different. I played overseas and just the attention to detail, it's not the same. But the ask is there and he he has it and and I think that is a level where there there there are more skilled because you gotta be like you know, like if you just go down and just dribble past people. Why would I have to work on

the nuances the game. And I think that what we are seeing though is from the guard spot American players. The skill set has just taken a leap, and we can thank Steph Curry for that, the dribble step backs, the dribble combinations, Like our guys on on this side are doing a lot of things. And then with the emergence of small ball, you know, the league has changed

from a spacing perspective. So I would challenge back that the league is come around from a skill perspective, especially when you're seeing you know, seven footers, you know, driven through the last, coming down, shooting pull ups, and this is something common that we're seeing where you know, your your college coaches, your AU coaches, your high school coaches are giving those fours and fives the freedom. So I would you know, clip back and say that the skill

set is raising from our American players. Yeah, we we talked about like the league feels progressive, like it feels like people, but like you just mentioned with plant playing against someone and then like building your game, taking taking a piece of their game to like add to add the year game, I feel like that's happening constantly, just league league wide, and it really feels like we're seeing it,

especially with some of the smaller like guard play. Recently, Jack, I was stepping to the gym, and the first thing I was told is, you're never gonna take that shot in the game, right, You're never gonna shoot at three in the game. Why are you shooting it right? Like, You're never never work on that, never getting through, never be better like I was told that. And I was a shooting guard, but that has more to do with

what my shot looked like. Yes, sorry, Jack, I don't know about all right, let's talk speaking of young people of whom a lot has asked of I. I do just want to talk about Lebron because he's he's hitting a somewhat of a big moment in his career, I would say, taking over the scoring title from Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Again, it feels like it's could could be a bigger deal than what we're making it. But this has been an

opportunity for you know. I think ESPN did a thing where they were like, what are some of your favorite shots from over the course of your career? And I did a thing where I was like, oh, let me go back and just look at his career and that there's actually there's a thing on YouTube that is just a cut up of all the game winners from throughout

his career. And it's wild to look at the video quality of the early game winners because like we we have watched him, like some of these are against Gil Arenas and like brand and Roy, and he looks the like his his movement, his you know, confidence with the ball, like everything just looks still so smooth and and like we're just watching a time traveler like move through different eras of the game and just be adding things to his game. So I don't know. Jabari and I were

talking about our favorite game winners from Lebron's career. My pick was in the playoffs first the Raptors, where he just brought the ball up the court and like did a running fading to the left shot, like falling out of bounds bank shot somehow, even though he was like didn't really have the angle on it. But it was a point in his career. It was when he was back in Cleveland, when you know, it was known that they were gonna win, Like as you're watching it, you

know what's going to happen. It was the time that like it most reminded me of like when I was a kid watching Jordan's in the nineties finals, where you knew he was going to steal the ball and like hit the shot as it was happening, just because that's just what he did. Now, the big thing is make sure you do not foul anybody here on the drubble. It's gonna be under three throws up the plutter. Good nice that is for you. I'm just wondering you played

in the league against you. Are there ever times as a player where you're almost caught up watching the show as well? I mean, look, I'll say this. I with Clay Thompson. I was on the King's you know not the shift gears from Lebron when he had that thirty five points in the quarter yea in Golden State's office. There's like a picture of me like yelling at Clay

trying to make a miss from the band shot. And a funny thing about that what he did is I'm sitting there with my boy Carl, and you shout Carl Andrey legend legend right there, man, legendary power forward and um, you know, like back and forth just on some hoop talk on the bench, We're like, hey, man, how good do you think Clay is? You know this time when it was like step show, they weren't like well, I

don't know if they were world champs. Yeah they were good, they were running, played different, But how good is Clay? Like you hit on Clay? He and Carls like, man, I like him, And I was like, yeah, well he doesn't dribble much, you know, he just shoots like you think he could really like, you know, win with that, Like how good can he be? Before? You know, like Clay's hit one shot, another one and he keeps going. Then we're like all right, time out, you know, just

being embarrassing and throw another defender at him. You know, it's a bank, it's a runner. He's going to the post. And at the point he like he hit tent straight and were like, dude, me and Carl like looked at each other. We had to look like after like the eight shots like yeah yeah, he's like yeah, he's like and we see the NBA record, So you become a fan of that moment um. I would say one that I had to give respect. I could be a fan

of is um. I was on the Celtics when Lebron went off for that like thirty five fifteen and three performance. We're three too, we're coming back. Um, we got the big win in Miami. We stole one at their place. We're in a prime possession, the kind of ahead of schedule from our standpoint of what we're gonna do. We're like, let's go seven. We had KG, Paul Pierce, Rondo, Ray Allen. We're like, we had the veterans. They may be younger, but we're gonna grind them out. The moment's gonna get

too big, Lebron's gonna fold. It's not gonna happen. And um, he came out in that game, and uh, we figured we had Dwayne Wade like locked up, like not locked up, but Dwayne beat us, I think, you know, in game one or two whatever, And we're like, Dane Wade can beat you. He's a world chance. We gotta respect him. So, you know, we adjusted shifted our pick and roll defense.

We were kind of sitting on way. I don't want to say we hadn't figured out, but we did a decently good job on him where it was kind of like our mindset was like Dwayne Wade versus the execution of Paul ray Rondo and and KG. You know that was kind of like three man games. It was our execution versus down there. One on ones were like, we we got him, and Lebron came out and we threw everything at him but the kitchen sink out of the

locker room. And I mean literally we were double teeing him from the elbow and he was just turning and fading over those double teams. Who was getting to the fail line like he was just in his stoke zone. Katie was talking crazy to him. The fans were buying. I saw a kid with a with an expletive where kn't say Lebron shirt on that I couldn't believe that, you know, come on, I could believe thee would be wearing.

I'm like, wow, you know this was this is like war and Lebron hadn't like gone to war and been successful in a moment and that was remembered like the main wage team he's just joined. The Wayne Wade was like, nah, this Lebront, that was the moment. I wasn't cheering for him, but like you had to give him his respect. Everybody in the back room gave him his respect, and it was like, listen, he's better, he's that dude, he's he's

the king. Put the hat on him. Um I was there for and it was tough to stomach because we were probably gonna roll over the thunder that year in the championship. They were just super young. They were super super young, and it was like their first or second year together. Um, so that one stunned. But you, I feel like you had to get out respect, whereas due

for LBJ. Yeah. Yeah, I go back to the billboards all the time, the fact that the town he grew up in when he was in high school had billboards up from Nike and Adidas that were billboards aimed not at other not at people, just at Lebron, like advertisements to Lebron being like please please sign with like that's Truman show, like your world is just the world is

like built and revolving around you. There's just so much pressure from such a young age and the fact that we're here this many years later talking about how he's about to overtake the scoring title, which wasn't even the thing that he was like talked about when when he came in as being like a scorer primarily, but Jabari name one of the person actually met the hype. I was gonna ask you, like to be honest with you, like we we always hype folks, and you know, oftentimes

they deserve the hype they've done it. But I can, I personally cannot think of another player that came in with the hype and the focus and you know, to Jack's point, with all of the attention being on them and not just meet, it exceeded the closest thing we might we might say, and I lead this to the to the O G s, the ohheads, the time in on that. If I'm wrong, I would say Magic Johnson Blow came to l a showtime Lakers. He had a

squad behind him. Now it's not not not that, but like magic of like he came in that dude, the young guy earned his respect one championship jump center. Like I would say magic in a sense of kind of maybe the hype that became like what he was supposed to be, you know to a degree. I mean that game that that championship game with him versus Bird in the n C Double A title was as big as anything that had happened in the n B as like, you know, so he was already a massive star. But yeah,

that that's I feel like similar. Yeah, and you're preaching to acquire with magic praise. Look, you know you want want won the high school title as a senior, when a college title, you know, two years later, won an NBA title the year after that, you know, three titles at three levels and four years is pretty crazy. Bar, you start glowing. Wait, wait, do you go like that odd show? He said, But it does, it does ja. Bar might be a Lakers fan. He might be a

little bit of a Lakers fan. Yeah, but it's unreal. You want to appreciate until it's done. Yeah. Absolutely, all right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk about the big headlines in the league from the last week and some of the performances that blew us way. We'll be right back. He end. We're back, and obviously the big headline from the past week. It happened over the weekend. I was in a movie and I thought I thought the world was ending. My phone was going

off in my pocket. I was like, what I need to like leave the theater and make sure my kids are all right, But yeah, Kyrie to the MAVs. It's being reported is Kyrie for Spencer Dinwoody, Dorian Phinney, Smith, a first round pick, and several second rounders. Uh. There was a brief period where it appeared the Nets maybe trying to add a third team to the deal in order to acquire more firepower. Um, but that didn't seem to gain any traction or what didn't get confirmed, I guess.

So the deal is going through as previously reported. But yeah, Ryan, as a as a player and a teammate, how did how did you react to the trade deadline when the rumors involved someone you were gonna go to battle with on a nightly basis? Uh? What what does it do to you when your name is involved in trade talks? Well, I would say, Um, I was never, you know, outwardly involved in trade talks. Me personally, I was always blessed that I was able to peacefully negotiate the trades that

I was a part of. They were expected, you know, and I feel like, you know, from a player's standpoint, I was never some mega superstars, So I felt like I've done everything I could for the teams that I was on my time had either run its course or you know, I wasn't being valued the way that I felt like I should have been, and I you always

looked to be going somewhere that I was valued. I'm ecstatic for Mark Cuban also because Dallas I think this is probably then the biggest name they've been able to acquire via trade. And I think, you know, Mark has missed out on a number of free agencies. He's always all market, is always in the mix with a player,

and hadn't really been able to bring it home. And I think this is the biggest name that Mark has been able to make the trade for and and and bring in as far as in terms of guy that's a world champ, a guy who can still go a superstar mentality. And I think when Kyrie sees the love that he's gonna get from Dallas and and Mark Cuban there,

and you gotta make a start. Like I'm I'm thinking, I can't imagine looking on a scout report, but like, all right, so we throw the house at Luca and then when we all rotate that way, we gotta and he skips it that way, then everybody gotta shift right back over there go guard Kyrie. So that man, that's gonna be a headache. I can't even think of how to uh you know, how to scout it. And I think Luca is so good. Luca is so good that the problem he runs into is like, hey man, he

can't do this for a seven game series. He needs help. Like he he can't do this for all eighty two games. You know, at some point he's gonna, you know, be tired. You know, he needs to help. And I think this maybe answers that call or that challenge, because Luca Dunton is a certified He's a certified dog you put. You mentioned him with Lebron, you mentioned him with Bird, you mentioned him with Magic, and we said earlier with Kevin Durant, Luca that name, you you mentioned him with Steph Kurr.

You don't bat an eye. He's in that conversation with those type of guys. So, um, I'm I'm happy to see what it is and I'm happy for Kyrie, And UM, I think he gets intriguing guys that we look forward to say, hey, you know, did they lose those assets for nothing? You know, are they gonna be able to

um sign resign him? This is gonna be a quiet Leonard type of deal, you know that the Dice roll that Toronto rolled, and then he ends up going to l A, you know, and I think, hey, or is this gonna be the Paul George move where no one really saw him staying in Okay see, and he was like Paul was like, they gave up draft picks, they committed to me. These people rock with me. I'm gonna stay here. You know, in Dallas is a beautiful city. Man. I played in Dallas. I played for Mark Cuban. It's

a fun city man. And as an owner, Um, you know, Mark doesn't rock away. He steps up, So I'm happy for him. I'm intriguing to see how it works. And the NBA drama keys rolling fellas. Yeah, there are some questions I think people have about like, well, what you know, they're both ball dominant players. They're both uh, you know,

not the foremost defenders of their positions. But at the same time, the more I think about it, the more I hear you talk, the more it's just like, I don't know, man, that that level of shot making, like two of the best, if not the two best shot makers in the league, Like just the two players who I'm like, how how do they do what they do?

Like it seems almost supernatural. Their ability to put the ball in the basket, like at so many different levels that so many different angles that's going to be hard to defend, would be would be my hot take. Alright, let's let's talk about some of the best performances of the week. Uh mad boost These great performances of the week is the is what we've cleverly called this segment of the show. You know, just just first of all,

Clay Thompson still out here doing it, you know. Uh he put up forty two on twelve of six team from three on. Okay, see um in a blowout win without Steph Wiggins, looking like he's back in the form we saw him in during last year's title run. And yeah, I don't know that. I love seeing Clay go off. I also want to talk about Keegan Murray with thirty to the Kings and scoring and win over the Rockets.

Keegan Murray rookie eight for twelve from deep. He's shooting from three on over six attempts a game as a rookie. Just you need if you need a six? How tall is he sees like, I just I love this this again. This is one of my favorite things to highlight the progressiveness of the league of one of the things we've

already hit on hitting on my second favorite team. Nobody knows anything when it comes to people coming into the league and you know all the the you know sports guys where we're out here with the well, you know this big mistake for the Kings. The Kings have done it again. They could. They missed out on a great piece, great opportunity to get a piece. Who who what? Who shoots from three at six eight? Like? Is one of already like a premier shooter in the league as a

rookie for the third place team in the US. UM, I don't know. Keepan Mary did? Did you? Were you on that game? It was? Um? The beautiful thing we talked about saponis earlier. Um, he's in a situation when veterans around him where he just has to play his role. Between Sabonus and Fox, those guys generate a lot of ball movement and a lot of corner threes. So when you start to simplify things for a young guy, he knows his role, which is to catch and shoot the basketball.

It first off started with him just kind of getting open looks and just being aggressive, and then it was like, well, he's not that open, he's just hitting these contexted threes. And then he got that like little you know, like you gotta get that pep in his step, like they start seeing the ball go in before it's if you know they even had the ball, they get that different a little run. He had that, So I think he's

it's extremely impressive, um because he's a fit. And I think that Sacramento knew they didn't need like a boom er bus potential guy. They needed a guy who could come in right now and play. And Keegan Murray, I think if you you know, you kind of followed him. He's a little older, but he's ready now. And Sacramento got a guy that's ready now. And if you even go beyond that, UM, I would say the trade that they made with Indiana Halliburton's like it won't for both sides.

It's not often you see those trades win for both sides. Um. Both all stars like both playing well and sometimes it's just it's just a change of scenery. And I think it's really cool for both sides. Someone didn't have to win and someone didn't have to lose. But I think um both ended up being really good fits because, like you said, how could you trade Halliburt? Why would you do that? Because we're better? Because it fits and then he's better there like like well you love to have him, yes,

but like it just it works that way. And because you the basketball media are underrating darn Fox because you you know, he hasn't been doing what you know, like when we've seen more of him, we know that he has this in him. Uh, you guys just don't know that yet. So yeah, this is the was the right move for the Kings. Yeah, I don't know that's it's exciting. The Kings are exciting the Kings. Do we think we think they're gonna be there in the in the Western

Conference Finals? They gotta shot it just much is anybody right now? Because you can look at those numbers and say it's a team that doesn't defend. I think they're under size. They're gonna struggle to guard the rim. It's just part of it. But you gotta understand part of their defensive numbers are so bad. There's an element of they play fast and their paces up so when you play fast, you're gonna give up shots on the other end.

But when you're scoring, you know, one thirty a night and you're giving up one twenty, Like that's just part of like you kind of man, I get Golden State vibbed from Mike Brown and that team, like in the sense that that they kind of run and then in a half court they'll get disciplined. They'll run their stuff

like they're in a sweet little groove. And I think that they've got to play just enough defense, and I think it becomes tough because you don't they don't have that a racer back there, Like the Bonus is a great defensiveverybody, but they don't have that eracer where man, we made a mistake guys like day that that that Robert Williams just came over and blocked the shot and helped us out. They don't have that part that that piece. But they do rotate, they do play together, and they

really pressured the basketball. So there there's I wouldn't want to necessarily match up with the King is right now in the playoffs. Speaking actually to that, you know, we've already discussed We've already discussed the Kings just recently we discussed you know, the Warriors earlier. Um, this is something that you know, Jack and Miles have discussed it, you know,

in weeks past the West. I personally have never seen it as I don't want I don't know whether it's competitive or whether it's just you know, like a higher level of parody or whatever the whatever you want to attribute it to. But the four seed in the twelve seat as still less than five games apart from one another. How does this shape up? You know? Like, so, who who's gonna be on the outside looking in when you know in another games or so, somebody's gonna be real upset,

somebody's gonna emerge, somebody's gonna be real upset. I think, what's tough right now? And you see you're kind of saying it with like New Orleans. You gotta be healthy in these moments. Health is gonna be such a big part of it. But like everybody can't go on the party. Man, there's a there's a you know that there's a fee at the door. The fire marshals out and parties popping. Everybody ain't gonna make it, you know, And I think you look back, what about two or three years now.

Thank you NBA for the playing the game. Man, this this playing game about to turn up. Okay, So there's gonna be something you know, you know really you know, really cool to see and look forward to. And I think, man, a lot of people don't understand, like it's it's tough on my young Rockets because more than ever I see the Rockets going into games and these are like must win games at this time of year, like we can't afford to drop, well, we're gonna drop five spots and

lose this game. And teams are for our poor young guys man, like they're coming at them in a different way man, every night, because this race is so tight, there's no nights. All. I want to say. The Rockets might have played three or four teams as young as they are this season, like like kind of like hey, like go go pound for pound, like you know, like in terms of age, and you know, like I think we've seen Detroit, San Antonio, which is they still play

hard at heck and um Orlando. Maybe it feels like huge, like a lone stars. It's like it's like yeah, man, so it's tough, it's competitive and it's tough. Yeah, I

do want to talk about real quick. Cam Thomas is going out of his mind, put up forty four off the bench in a win against Porzingis and the Wizards without Kyrie and k D and then also have forty seven and a loss to the Clippers in a starting role for the Nets right after the Kyrie trade, making him the youngest guy since Lebron to score forty four

or more in back to back games. And Jabara, you were, you were asking a good question like how many cam Thomases are out there just waiting to go off, just like waiting for for their moment to just get the ball something get fed? Ain't many. I don't think it was an act neither, It ain't many. I think that young boy in Dallas what had twenty seven, I forget his name. The other night man, Jade Hardy, Jade Hardy is on Dallas kind of had a similar kind of like, hey,

you don't need to bring him in. I could do it. Like their performances. And I think that's the fun thing about the league. And you know, I think our question is this is this for real? You know, is it's for real? I think that the league is training in a way where, you know, We're gonna see more of those moments because it's such a three point uh dominant league. I don't want to just say that guy don't defend anymore. It's just it's hard to Like when I was in

the league, spacing wasn't near the same. Your power forward shot fifteen footers. You couldn't contest the paint and run them off of the three point the excuse me, the free throw line. That's three point line. Now you got chase these guys off the line at twenty six ft you know, ft away from the basket. So it's hard to defend, you know. So, um, I think you will

see more of these performances. And I think that I think that you have a number of these guys now there's more of a role where before they were like they were, well before, these guys were like gunners. They were gunners. They were selfish. That guy's too small, he's not a point guard. He can't play in this league just scoring. Like you got a lot of those guys now in the league to do that, and I think

you we will see more of those performances. All right, So I want to I want to talk about a thing that we've been we've been calling a business decision for the past like three episodes. We've been talking about players who when they're about to be dunked on. You know, John said, jump with me if you want to go viral.

And sometimes when people make a business decision and like they might jump, but then the rest of their body goes dead, like they're trying to defend off like a bear attack because they know what what about to happen. So just just the phenomena of business decisions, you know. We we saw Norman pal baptized Julius Randall after a poor business decision. Uh that's uh. We we saw in the Lakers Pels game, a d make a very coherent, visible business decision on a brandon Ingram dunk in the

second quarter. Is that something? Do you remember ever making a business decision Ryan in your career? Yeah? I have. I mean, were you just too late? Like I get like like but here's a big part of it too. I remember like Matt Harpring ripped me off the rim and like clothesline me and like I hit the floor like back first, and it's like like like and the referee was like you have two free those get up and go and I'm like, this guy just assaulted me

in forty states. There's no call two free throws what so you can't do that like just the same o G like no dunk rule, no more, like you know, like you can't just get away with it. So I think that's why you do see some more of the business decisions. I think there is like like come on, man, like you can't be soft like like like some of that like came you don't forget the Internet highlights, you know, And somebody was even telling me that the other day

that you know, this was unheard of. I've never checked my phone until after the game. I would never be in a movie and hear my phone buzzing. It would be on silent Jack. It was, and it was just blown up my hip. I was like, these kids are on their phone at halftimes, they seeing highlights at halftime, like you come in there on there like that's like players and being played today are on their phone at halftime.

I would have been, man, what if one of the bests would have jumped down my throat they saw me on my cell phone a half you know, So it's it's it is, it's a it's a different era. So I think it's a mix of you can't flame, you foul, you can't just go hurting players anymore, and some of these guys are making them, you know. So what we grade the business decisions now, but there are more than ever Who would you make the most business decisions against?

And the reason why I asked the questions because look, you came into the league when Shack was still there. It was in the back half of his career. But you're still They're still active, still moving around. You know, Duncan was still around. Who were the guys that made you make the most business decsions? Man? I really didn't. I just like I just tried not to be late. But Shat Shat got me, and Maria Stodomar got me, and the business decision wasn't mine. It was Kevin Love.

I was something so mad at Kevin. Kevin Love was like getting backed down by a MARII and like at the last second, like he like whipped his shoulder out the way and then like in turning, I just get facial and like, all right, if you you know, you bump them, I'm gonna come come meet him upstairs. And you like like like Kevin has just set me up.

The marge Dot of Brus set me up. So yeah, I was just always early and like you know, you kind of have especially as a shot blocker in your mind, the guys who can go like, hey, I can't be late with him, like you know, so I would just be lebron Wade. I would be outside the block. I wasn't waiting for them to get there. Um. You know, so we have this, you know, fantastic play that we watched for years, Shack it's backing me down. I'm thinking this is just gonna be just like shoot around. He's

backing me down. The help is gonna comes, gonna kick it out. Roads are around the corn and we're gonna get a contest of three box up rebound that we go to. Let right, he's backing me down, nobody comes, backing me down, Nobody comes. He's backing me down. Nobody comes. At this point, he's size eight. Teens are in the paint. He turns elbows me across the face and duns over me.

And I realized, never again guard these guys like that double teammate coming because live on a d C, no double team came, and I was, you know, I was out. I was out out to sail, so you know what like a you know, like I just gave Shack the greatest contest ever. But still like you you know, you learned. You learn that lessons your teammates and when the lights come on, they don't you know, they care about you like you thought they would. All right, Ryan, we're gonna

take a quick break. We're gonna come back. We're gonna put you in the hot seat for the rapid fire round of questioning, the fastest round of questioning in the history of podcasting. So just you know, get get loosened up during the break, and we'll be back. And it's gonna be so fast. If you put a hat on, the hat would's been around on your head like that.

That's how fast this Well, we'll be right back, and we're back, and it is time for the rapid fire round of questioning, where we might try and slow things down. You gotta keep us on pace. You got you gotta just move your chest. It's it's like they are there any wrong answers? Yeah, And in fact, we prefer wrong answers. We prefer answers that you haven't even thought about. That's how quick they're coming out of your mouth. All right, Jabari, would you like to do the honors and take the

first question? Sure you don't want to go Yeah, no, I'll take it. That's right, Um, all right, Ryan, if you could bet on any So we were recently talking about how the Pacers had somebody hit layup, pre throw, free pointer, half court shot and they won five dollars for hitting all those shots in a row, because I guess they have high expectations for for their shot making ability in the state of Indiana. If you could bet on any fan base to make the in arena challenge shots,

which fan base are you betting on? Houston man in the crowd? What are you now? If you're expanding outside the world of sports to just any fan base, can be Star Wars fan base, start t fan base, UM, Olympic darts, Olympic archery. I probably say I probably say the golfers and offers have an eye for the ball. They have a good eye. I think a golfer would would would knock the shot down. Definitely translates with Steph. He's got that pretty that pretty swing and the ability

to He's a pretty good shooter too. I think I take Tiger. I take Tiger over Brady and it just make that shot. Oh, that's yeah. We should we should change this question to be about like other athletes athletes, which athletes should you? Would you take? But you've never seen shoot shoot a basketball before? If a golfer does it, do you have to do the golf clapper? Can you accordingly? They drained half, They secretly want to just turn up

they want it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, Bran, if you get all I have to ask is if you could just keep us going. You know, we we we slowed down there that that question took a lot longer than what we're The standard is here. If you don't mind, I appreciate it. So I'm coming to you with this basketball refer Oh boy, basketball reference has yours. Oh you knew fake news. So for the for the benefit of the listeners, you know, feel free to let

Google be your friend. But Basketball Reference has Brian's nickname as Booty Call. Can you shed some light on the origin of that, or if it's not safe for this podcast, can you give us some other really good Oh Tony Tony Allen. It's one of those homies that you have that doesn't know and like sign if he don't got nothing to say, like he just feels like he always has to say something. He's that and he's that friend. He was doing an interview Ryan Honna is playing great

for you guys. He's showing up. He's been here through camp. You know. He comes in, he doesn't miss a beat. What what do you guys? What do you have to say about him? Kill? We called him the call, We call him he ready to go to Why would you say that? I have never been called that in the locker room or my life, and most importantly I have children, So basketball reference, you're gonna get a defamation lawsuit from me if you don't change that soon. Kids, Man, what's

wrong with it? I've never been called that in my life. Man. Listen, listen, come on to me and call you that. Call me that if you like, and we'll see how that ends up your Nighteings and my Night's equivalent of like microwave from the eighties, the modern equivalent of booty call. Yeah, when you call, he's ready to go. Um. Anthony Edwards recently acknowledged a three bag per day habit of hot

Cheetos fries. What was your wildest eating habit when you were a young athlete, and what was the wildest thing you witnessed diet wise when you were in the league. I was told at my eating was equivalent to an NFL defensive tackle. Um, I couldn't gain a pound. My metabolism is just ridiculous. You called it the gift and the curse. I can eat anything I want. And the joke would be that instead of like dessert, I would just order more food for dessert like treis Um eating habit.

My boy, shout out Adam Morrison before the game, he would eat like a like a six ounce six or eight ount steak, full mashed potailoes, everything before an NBA game as a rookie. And Jabari's stomach just turned as he thought about that and then going to the game and play, and he was like that was his thing. And he'd go into the our little like entertainment room

and he'd eat it. Where where's he's just like ordering in from like Morton's to the to the It would kind of make it for him and bring it with like a little top on like it was this thing. It was the It was the oddest. Adam did it and he lived by it. And yeah, all right, keeping it going, we'd all star are weakened in mind. We've asked this question, you know, several different ways, but I'll come to you it. Actually I'm gonna remix it a little bit. You can put together four dunkers all time.

Give me your four dunkers, Joel Green, Aaron Gordon, Okay, see where you going, Zach Levine and um m M number four. I'll say so No Jordan's no fence, no VC, I'll go VC. Okay, like honestly, like we just rocked with Bean and Mike. They was doing stuff. He's seen guys jump further like an honorable mention, Nate, Nate Robinson, honorable benching Like like Nate, like I could slide Nate in there because he brought he brought the energy with it. He was little. We could rock. We were shout out

Nate Robinson. Man all right. And then similarly, same same time machine that we just brought those players from their prime with, you can now get in that time machine go back and watch any single NBA game from throughout history in person. Which game are you choosing? I could watch any game in history, Um NBA game, I think that I want to see the Malice of the Palace dog. Yeah, I mean not not a finals game, not a serious matchup at down the stretch of a season, down the

playoff put a game in like November. Okay, my mind went and said, let me see Magic jump Center, you know, and the sky hook and and then I was like yo that like yo, like the brawl like in person, I don't want to be fighting, and I don't. I just want to watch like, oh he just went he's in the hands, like I think like seeing it, like the people up close and personal got a different view. Yeah. Yeah, I'd say that was one of the more interactive fan

experiences that we got history experience. Forgive me, guys, no, no, all right. Then finally we have a question that we ask everybody. Is it going to be Jack or Jabari for what you gotta pick? And I'm not leading the witness at all. I'm just you know, you know Jack, that guy or you know me. I'll go to Jabari. Man, we break streaks here. We are here to break streaks, so like there's no rhyme or reason. I just had to pick one of you whatever. And Jack was on

at least a three streak. Yeah, Jabari, you sold it slightly. I didn't. I did. If you want to change your mind, that's fine. My mind went there. You listen, we said, don't even think about it. You clearly didn't, UM when you made your decision. That's that's fine. Ryan Holland, has been such a pleasure having you on the show. Uh for like percent of the show, such a pleasure. You nailed it and then, but thank you so much. Where where can people you know find you? Follow you here?

You all that good stuff? First off, my my day job is with the Houston Rockets. Shout out for the Rockets, Um, color commentator. I'm living the dream. I can't believe they still allow me in the building. I wasn't supposed to be there as a player, and now I get to be there as an analyst and get to talk about the game that I love. So I'm having to blast myself and Craig Acroman just have fun on the broadcast and NBA Rookie life. You gotta check out a pot

it just started. It it's a short, it's a fun listen. Um, I'm gonna get NBA's future stars on, have those young guys on talking about their experience and what they're going through as rookies. I'm gonna have some of the o G the Legend of Veterans on. I'm talking about their rookie experience, and I think people need to know what these young guys go through. Imagine, imagine like dreaming about something,

you live through that dream. So just kind of getting these guys, and I think it'd be real fun as the pod developed to look back and hear some of these guys how excited that we were, how bright they were, and uh, we we have some fun with him. But it's it's it's really cool and you can check it out anywhere through my heart and the NBA. So I am a blessed happy man to sit around and talk basketball. Man. Guys, you know we could we could do this a lot longer,

Like I really really like basketball. Yeah, man, this was really fun. Thank you. We are happy men to have had you on. You don't sound happy, Jack, You know I took that loss a little hard. I'm not. I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm choking back a sob as you can see, I mean the listeners can't see, but there are tears streaming down my face. But that's you know, that's normal. It's normal. It's it's what happens sometimes when you lose um. But yeah, honestly, Bryan, thank

you so much. What anytime, guys, huge fans and you know, keep up, keep up the work, seriously, keep it up, keep going. Man. We did we had hoop talk. Is it keeps our spore going? Awesome? Man, We'll certainly try all right, Ryan arab Boost. These listeners of the week were Paul Garaventa, Uh one of the greats for making sure we saw an absolute bomb from Dame where it wasn't even like the shot clock was running down. He

was just like, so you're not gonna guard me out here. Look, we've seen long shots before, but he was legitimately standing just inside the half court him, him and step to that. At the All Star Game a couple of years back, when they were just like trading mid court shots, just casually pulling up and drilling them every time, was that last season? That was last year, last year of the year for yeah, it was recent, but this was like

an actual game. So yeah, I appreciate how the players just continue to push the boundaries of what we thought. You know, what we once thought the game you should or or did look yeah? So you can follow us on Twitter at Matt boost These. We are back next week with a whole another episode of the show. Until then, Bye bye, happy NBA. Watching this has been Jack and Jabari signing out. I don't know how to sign out like it. I just want to keep talking. This is

I don't mean to laugh. I'm laughing because you said bye bye by my and my famous sign off, bye bye