Well, well, well, the league announced the all star starters. Is that time already? The Bucks and Pacers are on the rise. We may have a flurry of deadline action and more to discuss with actor and comedian Jackies Neil, who you know from maybe The Daily Ziece. He also might know him from Grand Crew comedian Flash, the live show that everybody should be attending on the regular in Los Angeles, also drop Out TV and today's episode. I'm Jack O'Brien.
And I'm producer Jabari being from Miles and this ismas Miles and Jack, I'm mad boo.
And sometimes.
Sorry guy it luka do ch test.
Okay, there you go and be driving spinning fat number eighteen.
That's good.
Secure the Suffox or NBA Champions over the couple to.
What's up?
Hello? Three?
I'm doing that yogish three from the other from the other side of the court, and I'm airballing.
That was that was annoying when he did that. Sometimes I just annoyed when he can like do stuff that.
And you know what, you know what was even more annoying about it too, is that like he had like a perfect flicker of the wrist too. It wasn't just like it wasn't just like a throw. It was truly like he shot the basketball. Yeah, it was.
It was one of those things that's like, oh, you would have been the best darts player in the world if you decided to crazy. Anyways, Ja Keith, We're thrilled to Jack.
I'm thrilled to be here.
So last week we chose as our game of the week the Rockets versus the Cleveland Cavaliers. Have you heard of these two teams.
I've heard of Rockets, I've heard they go on into space. Right, I don't know what a Cavalier is, Rockets, Calves. I do know the teams. I didn't know about the game.
It is amazing, like how strange a name can be, and it's just like part of ours again, like you just name a team. I feel like the only team that has resisted this is like the Wizards still doesn't feel right for some reason. Everything else it's just like, yeah, it's thunderous. You know, you could give a team, call a team the Cavaliers, and I'm sure at the time people are like what And now it's just like, yeah, the Calves, man.
The Calves. Yeah, we'll showing it up.
I know I know we you know, not not speaking on gun violence or anything, but let them be bullets.
Bro.
What I'm saying, bring back the old school Ridgers.
You know, the Rockets went into Cleveland came away with a one point thirty five one victory. I think it was there, like the Cavs fourth loss in a row.
Yeah, they're on a on a little side here, they're little scared, which will happen?
Yeah yeah, well allow it, well allow it.
It's amazing because, like you know, before this little skined, they were uh like thirty six and four or something something crazy like that, thirty five and for an amazing
record going into the All Star break. And you know, when you have records like that going into the All Star Break, you start to like think about, Okay, where are you gonna stack up against like the top teams in history, the Warriors thirty three and seventy three and nine, the Bulls seventy two and tens, or even the myriad of sixty nine and thirteen teams, And like.
When teams are here, ninety plus.
Percent of them have stretches like this, so you realize how hard it is to do what those teams did during the season is so crazy.
Yeah, they were on pace to win seventy games, and I would like count it counted. That's just in the math. Yeah, that's money in the bank.
And now I truly would not be surprised if they lost fifteen to twenty games this year. I think they'll still be like number one seed, but like, yeah, they gonna lose, they gonna lose a few months.
Yeah, I just want them to stay away ahead of Boston. That's all I ask of you. Cleveland.
There's still six games up in the lost calm, so that's goode.
And Boston's been on a bit of a slide of their own. They lost to the Lakers. You know, Jalen Brown is kind of having a down year right now. Up to this point, he's not He's not playing quite as well as he did last season. So it's check low. Yeah, we won't. We won't dig into it too much, although I do have an overall theory about that. I want to get you guys thoughts on about who is overperforming and underperforming this season. But first I do want to
talk about this game. The Rockets won by six, swear it not for a last second layup. So I mean from Garland it was. You know, he made a layup to cut it from six to four, which made it seem closer than it was. But my revelation from watching this game is that amen Thompson. Am I getting that? It's amen?
Say it, but to say it both ways and you covered your bases?
Amen?
Yeah, an say amen Amen Thompson put up a triple double and is just like he had just some blocks and like put back dunks. That the speed with which he gets off the ground like he obviously has boosties. That is what this podcast is for as to tell people when somebody has boosties. But also just like the speed he jumps at just like he looks like he's just standing there and then he his head is at the rim a split second later. Is it's wild? He is incredible and such are defender and so good around
the rim. He's the truth. He's going to be I don't know like what he's going to be, but he's gonna be somebody who is fun to watch for a long long time. It feels like what year is he?
Again?
Is this is he's not a rookie right? No, he's the second year yeah, second year player?
Yeah? Man, Like look, man, I I Am.
It's so weird because you know, we are old, so we've had we are now to the place where we've been through many generations. You know, I grew up in the Jordan era. Some of us may probably grew up in like the Magic and Bird era. First in the Jordan era, but we are around that time frame. And then we had like the Kobe the Tim duncan you know that era which kind of coincided coincided with the Lebron era, although he's been playing for seventy eight years.
Been in so many eras.
Yeah, but now and then like the era throughout most of our adulthood, which is or which are the people that kind of share ages with, which is like the Steph Curry's, the Kd's, you know, the Lebron's and all these players like they are they are on their way out, like they you know, in five years most of them will not be playing, except for Lebron James.
But like like that, now he's gonna he's gonna outplay them all.
He's gonna outplay one of his competitors' sons.
Yeah, and then but still, but the crazy thing is you still have a generation or era under that you got the ganisus. You got the Ads, you got the I mean the Cats, the Anthony Edwards, you know, wherever he stands.
But but like.
These past like two three years, this new like rookie sophomore, junior class. It's like showing like the NBA is gonna be in such crazy athletic, lanky hands the next like ten fifteen years. It's like really crazy. Man, I can't even imagine what we're gonna be talking about and seeing from some of these players, like five years from now. It's like gonna be nuts.
It's so fun. There's so many good young players. It's yeah. The So we always talk about the shot making we think is important in basketball, and it's uh we we think it's good in the NBA. These guys are good. It makes good shots.
I think, uh, I think the side to side movement is the most important.
Okay, it's just fundamental, fundamental, fundamental, back and forth, side to side. All right. So here's my big theory. By the way, like de Berry said, Cleveland still is a six game lead in the lost column. That's that's all all we need from you, Cleveland. Just keep it right there, keep it right there. So while watching this game, they were talking about how Houston is not shooting that many threes this season. Probably the team that is most outperforming.
They're expected win total heading into the season. Is there a team that is outperforming and like what people expect could from them more than Houston than Houston?
Oh, okay, I mean Cleveland.
Cleveland would be the other Yeah Cleveland. Yeah, yeah, for sure good but like, yeah, not this good.
Not really, man. I mean like we thought, okay see would be here because.
It would be good. We didn't know they'd be this good. And they're on my list of outperforming.
Also, yeah, I guess I thought they would be like top three in the West, top.
Three in the West, but they're on a they're still on a like historic pace, like they they.
Have the best record in the league right now. Yeah, because I think.
I think they would be like close to seventy wins if they kept up this pace, which I don't expect them to. But it's just wild that they're there at all. Yeah, like I thought they you know, everybody was picking them in the West and I was like, that's like, that's right, But it also felt like it was the sexy pick because like they picked up Crusoe and Hartenstein and like the were like both people that like, you know, it
was like a smart thing to like those guys. You know, it was like, oh, those guys are defensively they do things that like people don't respect. So I thought maybe though, okay, see love was like maybe a little bit overblown. So yeah, I didn't I didn't expect it to go up this many spots.
But yeah.
So my thesis that I think Jabbari's gonna tell me I'm wrong about is that the moneyball smart like advantage for a number of years has been threes are worth more than twos. They're worth so much more than twos that the team that shoots the most threes has like a mathematical advantage. Uh. And you know, you can see it by the fact that the number of threes the
teams are taken still like keeps going up year over year. However, when you look at the teams that are over performing expectations this year, other than Cleveland, who is still like kind of toward I think they're fifth and overall three point attempts, Boston's number one, But I'd say Boston is actually underperforming. They're expected win total. Lakers are overperforming they're
expected win total. I think heading in, I don't think you know, at least the smart basketball people that I read and look at, I think had them either in the play in category or below. Like I think a lot of people.
They're still time and they're still they will end between seven and ten.
So they're currently last in the league in three point attempts. Clippers over performing expectations. They're twenty seventh in the league. Okay, see overperforming. They're twelfth in the league. But they're doing it with an MVP performance whose main weapon is a mid range game like that. You know, Shay is a mid range assassin, like that is when they need a bucket, he's getting to the rim or getting into you know,
the paint, or just mid range and scoring. Like So, yeah, Nick's probably about where, like I think a lot of people had them being good, but they're maybe a little bit over expectations. They're twenty fifth in three point attempts. Detroit overperforming they're nineteenth. So I'm just wondering, is the three day not Not Like I'm not going to go full ESPN talking ahead and be like the three is dead because obviously it's not. Boston still towards the top
of the league. They're shooting the most threes any team has ever shot. But is there some strategic you know move whether it be just like how people are defending the three, like you know, people are overly selling out to you know, close out on threes or something that the smart teams are taking advantage of, the smart coaches are taking advantage of. That's that's my question.
I think, Uh, I think we're an interesting part of the NBA right NBA, like you know, culture right now. And I think with the emergence of the dominance of players like Jokic, the expected dominance that we're gonna see from players like Wimby and like a lot of these players who can shoot the three, who can stretch the floor, but they are playing you know, from the paint on a lot more than like, you know, the twenty fourteen
through twenty twenty two teams, you know. So I think like because of that, you are seeing that like nope, you are seeing that, like not many teams can do what the Warriors did because not many shooters are Steph Curry right and like and even though the three is king and this that or the other, like the only team that is truly one. I know Boston last year one and they were a heavy three point shooting team, but like, they did not win that series because they
were shooting a lot of threes. They won that series because they just overpowered the team that they were playing and just like had better players.
Yeah, it works better when it's a weapon and not an identity.
And not an identity.
So not many teams have the identity that led to championships like the Warriors had, like and so I think a lot of teams are seeing that, Okay, yes, the three is not an identity anymore.
It's a weapon.
I don't think it's going away. I think it's a weapon that can work. But I think, like with all these players who are coming in who are dominating from you know, inside the three point line a lot more, you're starting to get to a point where it's like, you know, people were like, oh man, Shaq couldn't play in today's league, and I was like, yo, yes he could.
If you put them on the court. Y'all ain't shooting threes no more because.
You have to go guard, you have to feed, and you're starting to see like, oh man, like the weapons that we have probably are better suited not just keeping them posted out to the three point line. And also, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, if talk around the NBA is like, ain't nobody watching as much as they used to, and maybe like having one hundred and thirty to one hundred and twenty six scores
isn't as fun take on a consistent basis. And so because of that, you're also just seeing more defense, more you know, in the paint play and things like that.
So I think it's only good for the league.
Yeah, I think you guys both know you may make excellent points, and now Jack, I'm not going to disagree.
In fact, I agree wholeheartedly.
The reality is this we you know, it has been a copycat league.
For a long time.
So to most to Jaquiz's point, from twenty fourteen to twenty twenty two, you saw a lot of teams that were really trying to you know, recreate that you know, Steph and Clay Wheel, which like, good luck with that. But the reality is you have more and more teams these days that are just acknowledging what their realities are. Like if you've got a Steff Hey, great, let that guy go out there and shoot. You know, A thousand
and three is a game, but you can. You know, what I'm intrigued or what I'm hope with, what this UH instilled within me is the hope that we are going to have varied and you know, varied offenses.
Again, it's not all.
Going to look exactly the same UH and and hopefully enough of these teams can ignite and you can you can find out that there are more than one way to win. So you know, as long as you can be competitive doing it, you're doing it your way.
Please more of it?
All right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll talk about some things from around the league. We'll talk about All Stars. We'll be right back. And we're back, and we have the All Star starters. Were we're in. They're in. They just came hot off the press. I know, people know about it for a couple of days. So we got Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, Big Cat, Karl Anthony Towns. Has he been a starter before?
Yes, he has, let me go. Okay, if it was.
Far too confidently, I was like, no, let me go dope.
Check if he has it's been one time yeah, but I mean.
He's he's surprisingly high on the MVP voting, Like I mean, Ben, Yeah, he's been incredible. Yeah, Jason Tatum and Jannis Ontkumpo the Greek freak ever heard of him? He I think was the top vote getter. So it's gonna be he and Lebron are the captains. Yes, that Lebron James was the top vote getter. Will be a starter on the Western Conference. So we have like the you know, this is Jannis's ninth time as an All Star, Tatum sixth, cat fifth time as an All Star, but he's not been a
starter before. Jabari is confirming Donovan Mitchell six times. Jalen Brunston is making it for the second time. Lebron James is making it for the twenty first time, his twenty first All Star Game. He was drafted the same year as Kirk Heinrich.
He hasn't played for fifteen years.
Heinrich.
Same with the next guy he's about to.
Do, Kendrick Perkins. He was drafted. It's not not he played with Kendrick Perkins. He was drafted the same year as Kendrick Perkins. Kendrick Perkins has been a commentator for a decade, it feels.
Like, yeah, okay, I bet you he can't even dribble the basketball anymore. I mean he could bows and say he could barely dribble then, but like to an NBA level, he could cross me up in a heartbeat. But like like and I'm only saying that, like it's just so how crazy because he hasn't played basketball in ten years?
Dude, is Kendrick Perkins? Like if you that, that's a good point because if you look at what Kendrick Perkins game looked like when he would was a rookiear like a second or third year player, Like you'd be like, oh, wow, Kendrick Perkins, Like I now now I see Like he
he was a threat. He was like, you know, really athletic out there and like and if you compare that to like what he looks like playing basketball now, you would be like, these aren't the same people something that you know, one hundred years have passed between these two same with Luke. Walton also drafted the same year as Lebron James Lebron James.
Luke coach against Lebron and one of those finals like or or did he coach?
He coached Lebron.
He coached Lebron to the Lakers.
Yeah, crazy, like years ago. He coached years ago.
Lebron has been with the Lakers for like six years.
What I'm making is like you look at like Luke Walton, Kendrick Perkins, Kirk Heinrich in their second or third year, they are you know that compared to right now, you'd be like, these are these different people, which is what you'd expect that was a lifetime ago. Lebron James is better than he was when he was like in his second year.
I feel like, oh yeah, yeah, he's a better basketball player.
Like how still athletically gifted? Which is still I mean.
Does you know dunks? That seem impossible to me?
Yeah, it's crazy, man.
Kat seems old to me. Katie's six less All Star Game appearances than Lebron.
Just a little bit of added on top of that. The average NBA career is four and a half years. Lebron has been a Laker for seventh seed. This is the seventh season. They were saying he was done prior.
To even getting here, and this is year seven for him here.
Yeah, I mean, you know, listen, I love a Lebron. I'm not.
I'm not a Lebron hater anymore in my life. I haven't been since like twenty twenty one, proud of you and even and even then even then, Like I haven't been like a full blown Lebron hater since like two thousand and eighteen.
And by the way, the very first piece of media when I was starting, you know, the LA podcast network that became like you know, the iHeart West Coast podcast, and I was like, we got to do a podcast with Jacquise and Carl Tart and Edgar. The first podcast I listened to is you and Carl Tart arguing with you being a Lebron.
Oh, I was a Lebron hater, baby.
Oh, if you made some hater ray from my hate, it would be as thick as clay.
Slimy and things. But no, I love Lebron, man, I
love Lebron. He's he's he's goaded. But you know, let's also be real, like, you know, there he has shown moments where it's like, oh, yeah, Lebron has been playing for twenty two years, right, and and so like I have a question for y'all, do y'all obviously what the All Star Game is is what the All Star Game is, and like, he does deserve to be a starter because simply because he's earned it, just like Jordan was the starter his last couple of All Star games, even though
he didn't earn it on the court, he earned it with his legacy, right, So Lebron is there. I have no problem with him being a starter. Obviously, if we were just going off stats, Lebron Champs will not be starting this game.
It's just a fan vote.
Do y'all think there is any in the past four or five years, any All Star appearances that he's had where he didn't even deserve to be an All Star that year, not even a starter because like that, you know, we get why he's the starter. It's a fan vote, But like if it wasn't a fan vote, if it was based on blah blah blah, are there any seasons where you're like, maybe he didn't deserve it that year in the past like five six.
Years, It feels like it was a couple of years ago.
I think he had been out for an extended period of time, but you know, he got voted in by the fans. YEA, there was probably an artis probably an argument at that point yeah, you know.
But not play wise, No, I mean you think he's still like it's all star level player like every single season.
I think this is the first year like and this is probably gonna get get going to get me in trouble. But I think this is the first year where you can you can say like, okay, it kind to the point that you just made like, oh.
He is forty because you know.
There's some old man, you know, you know, stuff going on at different times.
And once again, I am not knocking Lebron James.
The fact that he's in year twenty two is absolutely absurd and I will always marvel at that. But yes, there are different there are definitely some signs of Okay, let's uh, let's keep him healthy for the list.
Let's try to do one more run with him more, one more deep runt.
Yeah, so this is actually did you guys see this chart where it had it was a gallop pole? I believe ooh they picked presidents. Mm, so this is okay. Now, this is sports Poll thirty years of intelligence. They asked Americans what their favorite athlete was and then just have it charted by who's number one in any giving year. From nineteen ninety five to two thousand and six. The
answer is Michael Jordan. Yeah, okay, And then it's gone by quarter, so uh six to two thousand and ten, it's like late two thousand and nine, No, late so six to late twenty ten. Wood, Oh yeah, sorry.
Sorry, no, no, it's okay, okay, all.
Right, well we'll go over all right. Next comes a single quarter where it is a football.
Player, which is two thousand and ten.
Twenty ten a quarter in two thousand and ten.
Just twenty ten oh one quarterball and it's a football player.
Yeah, is it? It can't be Tom Brady we all hate him, is it?
You got it for a single three month period, it's Peyton Manning. He gets a couple three month periods later. H Then there's three month where it is back to an NBA player. That's not Michael Jordan, it's Kobe Yep. Yeah, I would have never guessed Kobe. I would have assumed that.
That would that Celtics in the final second.
Yeah, that Kobe was like, you know, oh that we appreciate you as a player.
Now that it goes.
Back to Jordan for another three years, that's purely lebron hey, bro, because I would have voted for think.
About it in twenty eleven, twenty eleven through twenty like mid twenty thirteen, that's the number one most popular favorite pro athlete. And like granted, so in the height of his career, it was like twenty percent of people all have the same favorite athlete, and then like once it becomes Tiger, it's like in the like seven percent of people have the same favorite athlete. So now we're back to Jordan and it's like down around six seven percent
where Michael Jordan is people's favorite athletes. Trades back and forth between Jordan and Peyton Manning, but it's mostly until twenty sixteen. It becomes another a different current NBA player again in twenty sixteen.
I mean I would say, I would say it's Steph.
It's Steph for one quarter and that's it for the entirety of the whole thing. He gets it for one quarter. That's just shocking to me. Then it goes back to Jordans for three quarters.
Come on, that Lebron Hayte was pure man, that was pure in twenty seventeen.
In twenty seventeen, it becomes Lebron James. Yeah, yeah, when he wins the title with Cleveland. Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's when a lot of Lebron hater's leg was like, you know what, yes, yeah, right, what else is there to hate now?
Wait?
Actually momentarily him in twenty seventeen when people were mad that a KD had joined Stephan Oh, because he won it in twenty sixteen and it was still Jordan, So they gave him one quarter just because they were mad about about the KD stuff connection.
Yeah, and that they give him one quarter, then three more Jordan, then Lebron for three quarters, so he has it for a total of a year. Then it goes to somebody whose name you've already mentioned, a football player, Tom Brady. Tom Brady in twenty nineteen for a quarter that I could see that a little bit, and then another two straight years of Michael Jordan.
This, I love this, so it's unbelievable.
And then back and forth between Brady and Jordan, and then it's Brady like twenty two through twenty three, it's Brady, uh, then Jordan for like still last year for uh two quarters, and then Messi gets it for a single quarter of all of which to say, Michael Jordan remains king like it's unbelievable how popular he is and always has been. But also like I mean, look at who, like you know, Lebron kd Are are you know, players who are still great but they've you know, people like who they grew
up with. Like that's gonna be a thing for a long time. And everybody's like, oh, the NBA is like hard because like they don't have stars that are as popular coming up, Like you know, Lebron wasn't as popular coming up, but now he's the guy. It's still not as popular as I mean, Jordan is like people have a religious relationship with they do.
I mean, you know, listen, here's the thing that's interesting to me is if Lebron were to say, like this is my last year and did a retirement tour, Lebron would be the most popular player on the planet of any sport. And I think that would extend for you know, a few years even after he retired, because Lebron does do a lot of things, like he'll probably go to Hollywood, He'll probably you know, so Lebron will have his hands
in a lot of cookie jars of popularity. It's just he's been doing it so long and it's just like when is he gonna stop? But I think people, even though he only got one quarter in there, which is crazy to me, I think people underestimate how much of a thorn in Lebron's career Steph Curry was and still is to a degree, like that stretch where they played each other five straight seasons in the finals or three
or four straight seasons, whatever it was. And then also just like Steph's popularity even though like Steph isn't like Lebron James popular like Steph is. Basketball fans get mad at me when I say this. Lebron James is obviously the goat of his era from two thousand and three
to now, he's the goat. But Steph Curry changed the game way more than Lebron did, Like in my opinion, like he like you, Steph Curry literally changed basketball where on all levels where you have eight year old shooting three point shots, you know, like and that's not that's not taken away from Lebron. Lebron which was just doing things that we had seen already. He was just doing them at an exceptional like level that nobody has seen from those skills. But like Curry was like changing the game.
So like Curry, and Curry also is now what sixteen seventeen seasons now and still playing. He's also a starter, still playing at the top of his level. Yeah, like these players occurred. Jordan played thirteen seasons with the Bulls. We don't count the Wizard years. He played thirteen seasons with the Bulls, two of which were not full seasons, and he was icing his knees by ninety five.
Yeah, like that was it. That was his career.
Eleven seasons and two half season, Like that was his career.
He can't get his ground Jordan Era. He can't get that love.
He can get.
I mean, look, if he wouldn't have got injured, I think those Wizards would have made the playoffs both years because he was still doing good. I know, like we frowned on those Wizards years. But like a lot of people don't like to acknowledge that a lot of the down time of those Wizards years was after he got injured and he was a forty year old man who had taken two two to three year breaks in his career.
So like I'm gonna get documentary about the Wizards years coming, you know, like something's gonna be like Actually, when you look back at it, like though he was incredible, what he was doing was wild because he was he was still twenty.
He was still with about twenty bro. I guess all these young players who like didn't respect him anymore.
How old was Jordan when he was with the Wizards forty one?
Yeah, like forty and forty one.
So this this year of Lebron's see of Lebron's career.
Yeah, with but he also took like three years off so he had to get back in basketball shape.
Yeah, that's true.
And also it was the nineties and early two thousands. Technology was put some ice on your knees. Yeah, now you know players have science behind their health.
Yeah, where are you gonna say, just say, actually, thirty eight thirty nine.
Thirty eight thirty nine, we've already had. We've already had Lebron's seasons that were the Wizards years. The hate for Laura, I mean it's just Jordan came first. I mean they're like he changed how everybody thought about basketball. I get it, but I'm just saying like that what Lebron is doing is so ridiculous, Like he's already been through the Wizards years and is still doing it like took dragged the Lakers to the Western Conference Finals in all of the Wayne's years.
Talk to me when Lebron, when Lebron James go back in time and play two years in college, talk to me when he go play for the Cleveland Indians farm team, and talk to me when you take a couple of years off. Indeed, yeah, he should have.
Done all those things. To the point, that's actually a really good point.
Talk tell me how great he is.
Okay, yeah, actually I'm never gonna talk about this again until that happens. All right, let's take a quick break and and we'll come back with my don't look now of the week. And we're back, and I mean, just closing out the All Star thing real quick. Wemby would have liked to see him a starter, But he'll be in there, and would have liked to see him a starter.
He'll be in there well, you know, once the coaches are added in, and then they'll be split into three teams and playing a single elimination tournament against the winners of the Rising Stars Challenge. I'm not sure how it all is gonna work. It's gonna be interesting, but yeah, just around the league, Bucks are playing well. They're in
the fourth fourth seed at the moment. Pacers went from a nine to fourteen start to twenty five and twenty now five games over five hundred, So look out for the Central Division.
Yeah, every team but the Bulls.
Maybe the Bulls started out looking.
Yeah looking at you know, I mean I think they I think they will still make the play in and then you know, probably lose the first game and go home. But you know, yeah, we are who we are.
You are the second most three point attempts of any team this year, behind the Boston Celtics.
Just more proof why the three is dead.
And then just the other big question is like where is Jimmy Butler headed. He's now been suspended for a third time by the Miami Heat, and.
He's suspended for the season right with the Heat at least, And definitely, yeah, and definitely you think they're gonna you think they're gonna trade him more punish him by keeping him there.
He obviously don't want to be there.
Yeah, it feels like it would be smarter to have something on your team via a trade than not.
But I don't know, I could see him keeping Jimmy Butler there for the entire season, truly out of spite.
We would take him. We would take him and give you the seventy six ers, would take him and give you Paul George. Just so I will speak on behalf of the seventy six ers organization.
F y, they need you to speak on behalf.
The Bulls will take you, take them and give you one of our statues outside of the United Center.
They can get the Jordan statue.
What so you got Jordan's, You got Eddie Curry? Yeah?
They you have no We're keeping Eddie Curry. Man, you can't come on that Chicago kid keeping Curry.
You can have Jordan's.
All right, we will take them. But I have no idea what's what's going to happen there. I don't look now of the week, Oh you know, I'd really love to give it to these Lakers, winners of six of seven, just a game behind the Nuggets for the fourth seed in the Western Conference. Uh, connect is connecting, connects starting
to starting to make from deep. AD's last four games have been bunk bron Is, you know, double digit assists and three of the last four Vanderbilt, Who's always been my X factor, just by the fact that he never plays is finally back playing again. Like having a perimeter defender like Vanderbilt and then Davis behind him makes the Lakers pretty scary. But I gotta give it to the Rockets. They beat the Celtics. I mean, I guess you both beat the Celtics, but the Rockets beat Boston in Boston.
Now thirty one and fourteen on the year, two games up on the Grizzlies, staying with him range of the thunder. It's so wild how good they are. I'm in toxin hit the game winner in Boston. So I mean, it's just it's too much fun. It's too much fun right now for the Rockets. I gotta give it to them. The official Jack O'Brien, don't look now, the official.
Yeah, I would say if I was, if I was to have one of those don't look now, I would say it's the Milwaukee Bucks.
Mm hmm.
You know, eight wins out of the last ten. You know, after all the talk about like Doc Rivers it was actually worse for the team and everything like that, which you know, I can understand why that conversation was being had, but you know, they are turning it around, and you know they still got Giannis, who's still top five player in the NBA right now, especially if he's on, he's
very unstoppable. And the team looks they look they look like they can make some noise in the East and get up there to the top three and and you know, be a problem for any team they play. So yeah, I would say the Bucks are looking looking pretty hot right now too.
Yeah, looking hot hot looks out of Noah.
If I had one of those, I would choose a Lakers. But you know that's you.
That doesn't that doesn't sound like the It is the rabbit fire round of questioning. Yeah, we throw a bunch of questions that you you gotta choose the right answer. There are right answers, uh, and there are wrong answers. And there's a chance that we might try and throw you off your game a little bit or just off topic. Okay, you just gotta just gotta not let us do that, Okay, or you can, it doesn't really matter. Brian, start the clock. Thank you, Brian. All Right, we're gonna open it up
with this or that. Brought to you by super producer Jabari Davis. These are imaginary, create your own players that are a lot of fun Jabari, you kick it off, I'll come go back and forth.
I got you, okay, yeah, yeah, all right, So you have this or that, who would be the more dominant player, Magic with Jordan's athleticism or Jordan at.
Six foot nine, Magic with Jordan's athleticism.
Yeah, I mean yeah, because then it's what are you gonna do?
It?
Said?
Yeah, because what else Jordan's gonna do with six nine? He was already dunking on people. He's not much else he was not is anything that he would do that he wasn't already.
That's fine, I gotta go. Jordan to sixth nine really unfortunate.
Yeah, I think it changes his game a little bit.
Maybe, Yeah, I mean that's true. So I guess that's the question, Like does he become six nine and then he like comes in the league as a post player or something like yeah, yeah, they're like this guy, this guy can really bang in the paint.
Yeah, Or is he six nine and he's exactly the same Jordan, He's.
Exactly the same at six nine, only three extras.
He becomes the.
Best I mean he might already be. He's probably the best perimeter defender, but like he.
Becomes Lebron, he becomes so with Jordan's he's.
Jordan slash a Kim at that point.
Yeah and maybe maybe, Yeah, I guess I was thinking of it, like, you know what else, what could he not do? But you give him three extra inches and now with that fade away, uh and yeah, I don't know, that's a good question. I already locked in, so you know, black Man don't cheat, so I'm not gonna change not change up.
Next we got Ai with Mike's height or Kobe with Steph's jumper. Ooh, that's good.
I think.
I think I would say Ai with with who's height Jordan's height? Yeah six, so like so like five six extra inches because we know whatever his listed height was,
he was only six foot. Yeah, yeah, I would say Ai with Jordan's height would be interesting because like he probably gets injured less because it's bigger, because he's bigger because he played a style where it's like you're too small to play this style, but he was just so good, So he probably gets injured less and like his jumper probably becomes better versus Kobe, like with the stuff jumper, Like.
It would be dope.
It would be dope, But like, do we really need Kobe going from forty shots a game to sixty because.
He was like, I'm gonna say, whoever, whichever one you picked, the one point barrier has been broken routinely by that point. On average, they're putting up so many shots.
They're putting shots.
Bro, if you gave Kobe's steps jumper, I think he honestly really would average like fifty shots like every single like like not not being hyperbolic.
Yeah, there would be no like you thought he didn't pass the ball before, Kobe would not have passed. Kobe would have passed to himself every single player.
Yeah, yeah, this is the best option, all right, keeping.
It going, ball ball, ball ball.
Yah. He wakes up screaming it all right. One for you of this type, it's a Keen with Shack's power or Shack with the Chem's agility and handle.
Does Shack still have his power? That's the same thing, man, because one of them.
Like, that's a good point. I'll take transfers to Shack, transfers to a Keem's power and a Gill.
Okay, Okay, that's a good point though. I mean I guess I would go a Keem with Man the dream shape.
Yeah, with dream Quake.
Yeah, and the King was a better shooter, yeah, kind of than Shack is or was.
But like that's the thing, like Shack is not even.
Offensively, because offensively, Shaq and the King both dominated and were great, and they just had different Shack's footwork was great. I think people don't give him enough credit for his footwork. That's why he was so good. It's just like a King was way better defensively. Yeah, uh so, which you know, which is why he was able to stop Shack so much when they played. And you know those championship years, especially.
Keem Wash size is kind of MBI like, okay, you know, like it's kind of yeah similar, yeah, but now it will go yeah yeah, but the body you have issues with getting injured in that case. All right, you can make any finals matchup, Jakeith, utilizing all finals teams from throughout history. What is the matchup you would want to see more than any other? Oh, for example, ninety six Bulls verse eighteen Warriors, ninety six Bulls versus you know, the heat the heatles. Who are you going with?
Yeah, I mean if the Warriors would have won the championship this year, this would be the easiest question. It would be the ninety five ninety six Bulls versus that twenty fifteen sixteen Warriors team, the two best regular season teams in history. But since they biffed the bed, they are taken out of that ekway. I think I would still go ninety five ninety six Bulls seventy to ten with the ring and oh there are two teams that
I would want to see them against. I think I will want to see them against that twenty thirteen fourteen Heat team.
Yeah, I think that you get the vers Lebron.
Get Jordan versus Lebron. You get Jordan versus like I got something to prove Lebron. Yeah, that would be that would be a fun matchup.
I think that's the right answer.
I think that's the one, Like I guess I would go if if it wasn't that, I would go with like, yeah, those twenty that first KD title with the Warriors first or second, really to be honest with you, and it would be, but it would be mostly just out of pettiness in spite, like I would just want to show people like, oh, yeah, like that Brandon basketball, like the Bulls Brandon basketball was better.
Yeah, you know, but.
But as far as like prime teams and like matchups and everything like that, that I think that heat that he Bulls would be.
It's fair Bulls. Oh one, Lakers is also very intriguing. I just I don't want to see the Bulls lose. Then having having Shack going against Luke lonely, you know.
I mean Robin, he would go against rob Ye.
I think that would be the match up because Luke Luke would be barbecue chicken baby.
Although Luke did okay against Jack like.
Look, Luke did like his thing against Shaq like as well as he could have the Australian brute that he was right.
I think he had it right.
Luke would have been okay, maybe not barbecue chicken trip on the barbie then Barbie.
Last one for you. Game of the week. You've got a choice. Friday night there's two different games at.
Bucks at Spurs or Sons at Warriors. Saturday night you got Lakers at n and then Sunday you got Books at Nicks. Excuse me, no, you got Grizzlies at Books.
Okay, Lakers. Knicks is in New York.
That is I couldn't And then we'll go on Lakers Knicks in Madison Square Garden Lebron and MSG and think, uh, you know that's a hard matchup to that's a hard matchup to be as far as storyline and Lebron and New York and you don't know how many more these you got. Obviously you know we think he'll at least
play again next year. But you know, Lebron could say, like, I think I'm retiring and this could be the last ever time he's at MSG, So like, I think, I think that's the matchup of the week right there.
All right, you've chosen correctly on every every question and specifically with that game of the week. Good good call, Jaquith Neil, What a great guest, What a great job by you. Where where can people find you? Follow you all that concern?
Oh you can find me in the halls of the United Center, crying and begging the guys for another Bulls Championship has been When the Cubs won in twenty sixteen, the memes were I not bulls and Bears in a couple of decades now bulls and bears.
So you can find me there.
You can also find me at Jackie Sneil on all social media or my website Jackieysneil dot com. A lot of dope stuff coming down to Pipe, so you know, check it out there.
Check them out. I'm on Twitter at jack Underscore O. Brian Miles is there at Miles of Gray. I'm on Blue Sky at jack ob and the number one Miles is there at Miles of Gray. He's better at social media than me and we are hashtag mat boost bees on the socials for show links and updates, and be sure to join the conversation on our discord. You can find the link for the discord when you search hashtag Matt boot and that is gonna do it. Another one
in the bag. Swish from Way Downtown and uh we will talk to y'all next week.
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