I know my rent's gonna be laid a bat a week, y'all. I'll work my hell.
I still can't pay shall but I guys just enough trying to get off in this club had me a good time.
Be all. My time is a hey, let's get it now.
Time Welcome back in a Friday on ESPN seven hundred. As you know, when Zach Harper joins us a little pitbull and friends, you know where you can have the time of your life. ESPN seven hundred is excited to announce the first ever, the first ever Monster Jam World Finals. And I believe, I believe the Athletic is gonna be seting Zach Harper out to this event. Uh, the Monster Jam World Finals coming to Utah July fourth and fifth.
Listen to Sean O'Connell and the Drive for your chance to win tickets or get yours now at ticketmaster dot com. Of course of serious excent m The Athletic Cinophobe Podcast. And yeah, like I said, I believe out here in a couple of weeks for the Monster Jam World Finals. What's up, Zach Carber.
I'll go anywhere if it's free.
Oh it's not free. I thought you're covering the event. I thought, you're credentialed for Monster Jam.
Well if they if they pay for me, it's free for me, so I'll do it.
Yeah, I thought that that was that was kind of part of the gig. But no worries, no worries. I won't put you on the spot on the Monster Jam World Finals. It's a loaded lineup. Yeah, yeah, I like Grave Digger.
What I mean if if Grave Digger is still around, absolutely.
Grave Digger still around, still contending for titles usually year in, a year out. So I think I dug myself. I dug myself a hole here pretending like so you there's there's different events. There's like a there's a like a freestyle thing where you do cool tricks and like backflips and stuff. Some of those trucks do that. I think that parts judged. There's a I'm trial event, I believe, and then I think there's some truck that just smashed
stuff a lot. I'm not exactly entirely sure, but a lot of loud noises and and big grumbling trucks at at Monster Gym.
I love that. There's almost like an Olympic figure skating aspect to this of like, well, there's a freestyle where we're going to judge.
She oh, and it's and there's a little listen. There's an aspect of it that's beautiful. You see, like a fifty truck spinning on one wheel, back and forth, over and over again. Oh, I'm in ballet. It's ballet of steel, Tony Parks. Have you ever ever in the arena for Monster Jym?
I did.
Yeah, it took Actually my youngest went with us too, had the little headphones and all of that. She had a good time. She liked it good, she really. I was not quite sure how it was going to go. I thought, you know, we might be leaving a little bit early. No way, she loved every bit of it.
The final.
It's actually a great show. It's a really good time.
Ticketmaster dot com, trust me, get the tickets now it's the World Final. Get them before you're gone. Now that we spent several minutes on Monster Jam, how about an NBA Finals Game seven, Zach Harper, what level of surprise would you say that we are seven games in considering that the Indiana Pacers have been less healthy, less depth.
I think obviously they were by almost all accounts, the heavy underdogs coming in and yet here we are a Game seven, and the Indiana Pacers, who all playoffs long, refused to die.
The only part that surprises me is that we got here because of last because of what we had. What we knew going into last game is that Holle's hurt. Right, Halle has a calf injury. So I've thought this whole time that the Pacers could play with the Thunder. And that's not so much about, you know, any short coming to the Thunder. I just think the Pacers are really good and they've been. They've been one of the best teams in the league since January first, and so I
think people have underestimated the Pacers for a while. I think people have just kind of thought it's fluky or you know, you know, maybe due to injury. None of that. They were they were beating Milwaukee before Dane got hurt. They were beating Cleveland regardless of injuries. Like they've just been the better team in every round up into the finals.
And and they do have depth, they do have a style of play that counteracts a lot of what Oklahoma City is good at, and so it doesn't shock me they've been able to hold but once Hallie was hurt and you know, and we saw how limited he was in game five. Yeah, I expected them to lose last night. But if you told me going into the series it was going seven, that would not have shocked me at all.
The natural follow up there would be, what where do you think Caliburton is?
Now?
That's that's usually an injury that is kind of lingering, kind of one. You you're and we talked about the KD. You think we don't need to go into Achille like that's that's kind of a freak thing that isn't necessarily as top of mind as I think some are making it out to be. But a castrain is one of those lingering, kind of tough injuries to get all your explosiveness out, all your last movement. He looked pretty good last night. Definitely a lot better than in game five.
I mean, if you get a one hundred percent ish Tyrese Halliburton, what are what are your thoughts on a game seven? Like how close do we get to tass up range?
Yeah? I mean I think I think it's basically a toss up. I really do like you give an edge to Okay see because they're at home and they and they are the better team. Don't get me wrong, they are the better team. But I'm I would look at it like I don't know, fifty five forty five sixty
forty max. Like I think Indiana is right there with them, because Indiana is really good if Halle is healthy, the you know, the the cast strain is forrigular, Like, I don't think you should just outright dismiss that whole KD
thing like I do think that's a major concern. I had that concern going in going into last night's game of Okay, we know he's gonna play because he's he's not he's not gonna sit out with the season on the line, like we knew that, but you have to be worried about something more serious happening to that area of the leg because we've seen a history of that before with overused players, with you know, guys on huge minutes, with guys with strains going into that and maybe rushing
back like that. That is a major concern. But this Indiana team, they've shown all postseason long like they can go into that hostile environment and steal a game, like I get it, Game seven, I know that you know home teams are fifteen to four in Game sevens, but also the majority of those games happened pre merger. So I don't know how much you how much stock you even put into that, Like this is this Pacers team has has stolen a lot of a lot of road games in this postseason.
Yeah, after six full games watching these two teams go back and forth, when it's all said and done, what do you think is going to ultimately decide this seventh game?
I think it's gonna be the turnover battle, like I really do. And I you know, they the the thunder in in their wins have have drawn about eleven more points off turnovers from Indiana than than in the than in the lost And so when they turn, when they turn Indiana over and they turn those into points, you know, obvious, it sounds obvious, but that's something that you know, we saw in Game one they forced twenty five turnovers, right, a lot of those were live ball turnovers, but it
only resulted in eleven points. And so it's why even though you had a lot of empty and non existent possessions for Indiana, they weren't giving up points on the other end, so they were able to be in a position to steal that game on that Halliburton shot at the end. And if Okac is, you know, ending those possessions for Indiana but not converting on the other end, not making them pay, then Indiana's going to be in
a position to steal the game again. They have to convert all of those opportunities, or the majority of those opportunities into quick points the other way, because you know, talking to players around the league, talking to coaches around the league, that the way that Okay see turns you over and then gets those quick strikes is very demoralizing. I mean, it is a tidal wave on top of you that that just all of a sudden, it's twelve O run, you call a time out, and you don't
know what like, you don't know where you've gone. It's very much like those Warriors teams in twenty fifteen or twenty sixteen, where in the blink of an eye you're wondering, how are we down twenty? It was just a five point game, Zach.
There's and Tony and I were talking about this in this last segment and you kind of mentioned it a little bit to start this one. There's a lot of folks who still feel like some of this is fluky from Indiana, right, the big bounce against the Knicks, all all of the above. But if that's how you feel, you probably haven't been watching this team since I'd say about Christmas. They really turned it on, and I think
Rick Carlile has done a phenomenal job with them. There's a little tinge of like him being unheralded still after what he did in Dallas, after what he's done since then, there's still a hesitancy. I feel like to credit Rick Carlyle, and I'm not saying he's not working with a good roster, but I don't know that you look at this roster and think NBA Finals rights, it's got to be one of the better coaching jobs in Tony. I said this in the first segment since maybe Rick Carlisle in Dallas.
Yeah, yeah, I mean he's look, he's got a history and he got remembered. He got a raw deal in Detroit, right, yep. He got them in tradition to win a championship. And everyone's like, oh, yeah, well, Larry Brown got them over the hump. We'll give Rasheed Walls to those Rick Carlisle rat distances let's see what happens. Right, Like that was a made Like, yes, Larry Brown did a great job, don't get me wrong, But that thing turned when when Rashid Wallace ended up on that team those final couple
of months in two thousand and four. And so Rick Carlisle has been one of the best coaches in the league since he's since he got his first head coaching job, and I think he's one of the ten best coaches in NBA history. I mean, he is phenomenal, and he is someone who has been historically very difficult on point guards because he knows the importance of that position, and he's you know, he and Kevin Pritchard now have a
superstar and Tyre's Haliburton. And if people don't want to accept it, okay, you're going to in a couple of years and you're just late like that, Like Haliburton is great. He is a great point guard already and he's a superstar. And they looked at it, you know, two years ago, they saw what they have and they said, Okay, we
have to build this identity around this player. And so they decided we're going to run everybody out of the gym, like We're just gonna build a deep roster that runs everybody out of the gym, and we're going to play this way. We're going to run off missus off makes off turnovers, doesn't matter. We're running all the time. But
we have to figure out a way. You know, they did this last you know, after last season they said, all right, well now we have to figure out a way to do this, but also play some defense, which they figured out midway through this season, and they did that, and that's all. Rick Carlisle just makes these adjustments here and there, like this isn't always the way he wants to play, but he sees what rosters in front of him and he just makes the adjustments on how to maximize that talent.
I've always loved that about him and I've admired that about him, and you look at the success he's had in the history of his career. Now with Indiana, they say, Okay, we are going to allow you to run this the way you need to. We're going to support that. We're going to have proper alignment from the front office, the ownership, everything that you need to where we're speaking the same language,
we're moving the same direction. How much of this NBA Finals, with the way Oklahoma City was built and the way that Indiana functions, should be a reality check to different front offices in this league and ownership groups looking in the mirror getting real about their gap between the perception of how they run and what they think they are and the reality of what they truly are.
I mean, this is the ego of sports right, because it's a great question. Everyone should be looking at this and saying, Okay, this is the plan, this is what
it is. Because I think you saw OKAC and the way they had their shortcomings last year, and I think they saw what Boston did and they said, okay, let's trade Josh Ginty frosscrus so we're going to go get Isaiah Hardenstein, which they had their eyes on already, and they knew that's going to give us more of a style of play of what Boston just did, and that's
going to complete us, right. And you could very easily to be like, wholla, Josh Giddy's a good young player, and we want to develop this and we want to have at center so we are super versaal and all this stuff. But they kind of checked their ego, saw what other teams were doing and went out and just
had this uniform you know, top to bottom. They have a uniform plan throughout Indiana, uniform plan throughout Look at what the Knicks just did, right, I mean, we had a roller coaster with Tom Thibodeau where they get to the conference finals and it's this referendum on Wait a second, I thought Tom Thibodeau's whole thing wasn't gonna work and make a deep playoff run. It was this whole like backlash to the backlash of fives. And then he loses
game one, it's all he's got to be fired. And then he does get fired, and it's a backlash that like why are you firing him? Like there is no uniform be through so many of these organizations because you just have people's fragile egos getting in the way, whether that's the owner, the front office, coaches, players, whatever, and when you see that ego get checked and it's for
the betterment of that culture. And for a long time, I know people rolled their eyes, but for a long time Heat culture was for a long time, Spurs culture has been a part of that. You see extended success and you're seeing that with the Pacers and the Thunder right now. And if you don't look at that as an organization as a model of that's the type of culture we need to have and emulate, then you're just not going to have long term success.
I mean, speaking of long term success, Zach, which of these two teams even though it I mean you look at Sam Presty Oklahoma City, the draft picks that they have stockpiled up, the young talent they have stockpiled up, still a lot of them on rookie scale contracts. I mean, they're clearly built for the long term. What is your read on on what Indiana has to do to to
kind of get to that point? And what are you know, maybe the two or three other teams that we're not talking about during an NBA Finals that you feel have that similar kind of window, because I do feel like there's also a lot of teams that are at the end of their window in the next year or two.
Yeah, I mean I think for you know, the Thunder, it's very they have a lot of flexibility, they have a lot of options ahead of them. They just stockpiled everything real impressively, and let's say they let's say they lose on Sunday. I would expect a very twenty fourteen Spurs run next season, where they like, I think they'll win seventy plus games and they will just mow through the playoffs and probably go like sixteen and two and
leave no doubt about who's the champion. I think that would fuel them in a way that is just destructive for everybody else. But also keep in mind the second apron in this horrible collective bargaining agreement that the league and the players have agreed to is designed to end these you know, these long runs, and so I like, I can't be against that enough. I think it's a horrible idea, But I guess that's a conversation for another day.
I mean, Indiana has to keep this core together, but they have to keep building out player development and building out as as their role players become too expensive. You have to have just that stream coming. Miles Turner will be a free agent this summer if they win the title. How much is that worth for you? How is he
played well enough to warrant a big contract? Or do you have to make a tough decision down the line of, look, we can upgrade at this position, because that is that's a I mean there are games he has two rebounds right and doesn't and isn't that effective. And there are games that he's been a shutdown guy against Chet and been phenomenal, so that you know, those are tough decisions to make. I mean the team the most obvious team to me who could like extend in the way that
we're seeing from Okac is Houston. Houston has a lot of young assets, a lot of draft picks of teams that are about to fly. I mean, they've got all these suns picks and look at what you know, what's happening with Phoenix like Houston is. You know, they're they're kind of slow playing it. We don't know if they're going to make a big splash offensively this summer. They look like an organization that is willing to take a
longer road. They know what they have now, they have an identity, they have a great coach, and I think that that's the team. And then obviously the Spurs, right like Wenby is an alien and he's you know, as long as he can stay on the court, I think
anything is possible. I mean, I think they be smart to cycle in these stars, you know, to play next to them every three to five years, because if you extend him for fifteen years as a superstar, you can have these different timelines just come through while he's just this this staple there. So I would say the Spurs and the Rockets are the two teams I look at as the most stable to be that next Okac.
All right, what is in the history really of any sports, but also the NBA, what's your favorite Game seven?
I mean, I know.
You have memories in this whole thing. I mean, yeah, so there's there's a number of Game sevens, but then there's the special game sevens. Is there one to you that has always meant more to you?
I mean that that Cavs Warriors one is pretty fun for the end of it. But I don't know if people remember, like how ugly of a game that was. The game? Yeah, the last five minutes are amazing. The first forty three were pretty rough, Right, that was a pretty bad one. One of the worst ones I've ever watched was that. Look, I'm as big a basketball nerd as anyone, but Spurs Pistons and in five really rough.
I think that was like an eighty one seventy four game, And I don't even know how they got to that many points. So it's not bad. I think I think it's I think it's heat Spurs twenty thirteen. That was like, I mean, Lebron went crazy. Obviously you're coming off the the Ray Allen shot in game six. Lebron went crazy. He had a great game. Tim Duncan had to throw
that game. I mean, this is seventeen years sixteen, seventeen years into his career, Tim Duncan, and all of a sudden, he was like he had this fire inside him of you know, I'm gonna will my team to victory and it didn't work out. That was a great game. I think to me that NBA Finals Game seven is probably the one that just I could rewatch over and over again.
For me, it it just it can't be anything other than the three one comeback.
Yeah, hey, put on the last five minutes. I'll sit right now. I'm gonna do some chores in the first I get it. I get it. It was.
It was let's say a tight It was a tight contest. There was not a lot of back and forth action. Man with with what context surrounded it from the build up to it, knowing it had never been done, knowing that whether you agree or not, there is some type of legacy moment on the line, not only for Lebron James, but also for what at that point was deemed maybe the greatest team of all time, seventy three and nine Golden State Warriors.
Right. I'm not into watching Draymond Green his degree, and I.
Don't think they scored for like a seven minute gap in the fourth quar until three.
But my favorite thing about that to your point, Zach, here's what I loved most about that game. The tension that was there.
Oh yeah, everything. I was at home sweating, like just doing nothing the whole time. So I think a conditioned.
See, I think that's what we're going to have coming up. I just think you get into this and you want the unconscious part of your brain to take over as a competitor. But the situation rises, the moments rise, and before you know it, you start thinking with that conscious
part of your brain. Things slow down, things get tight, and so that I get the feeling that's what we're in for, that we're in for a game seven that's been nothing like the first six games, close, tense, tight, and just every basket feeling so precious.
I think you're right, and I think we already saw some of that tension in game in Game six, right like we saw we saw Okay See kind of turtle up a little bit the last like eight minutes of the second quarter, the first five minutes of the third quarter. I don't know where that team went, Like they weren't on the court. I don't know where that team was.
And I think that shows some of their youth. And it's not like Indiana has a ton of experience, but this was a young team, chance to win a title on the road, and they just they just didn't show up. And they talked about they were very accountable after the game and it'll be different at home. But now you get to see does Indiana fall into that same trap? How did they respond? Or they've been so unflappable this entire postseason run. Do they just stick with Okay See
the entire time? I mean, I get it, the ratings are down and these are not two sexy markets and everything. I really, if you are even kind of a basketball fan, I know I just sound like a company man right now for the NBA, but like I truly believe like you were missing out if you don't watch this Game seven like it's been a great series. It has been a truly great NBA Finals, and I think the finish could be spectacular.
All right, Zach Harper. Folks will probably want to get your coverage of Game seven and or reaction of Game seven. They'll get it next week on the drive here, but maybe over the weekend serious XM stuff. What can they look for in the next few days and around Game seven?
Oh yeah, I'm doing serious XM tomorrow from eleven to two Mountain time on serious XMNBA radios and check that out and then look. Subscribe to the Athletic. But I get it. Not everybody wants to subscribe to things and pay for things. But you can get the free newsletter, the Bounce. Just go to the Athletics dot com slash the Bounce. It's free. It's one of the only things that we do is free.
So there we go The Bounce free at the Athletic and then I uh, I'll plug it for you, Zach. We do appreciate when they subscribe. It helps Zach get paid so he can gallivant around. He can gallivant around private jets and islands during the off season. That's what we want for Zach Carper what we're trying to get mister Worldwide. Thanks man.
Good talking to.
One of my favorites, the NBA daily assist Zach Harper at Talk Hoops is where you get him.
Uh.
He does a Cinophobe podcast as well, which is like a super popular movie movie reviewing podcast. It's if you look at certain metrics, it's gone like bigger than a lot of his mainstream NBA stuff. He's, uh, I guess wearing a couple of hats in that regard. Really fun to to chat with Zach Harper, and like I said, maybe he'll be in town for Monster Jam in a few weeks.
Uh.
Tony Parks Porter Larson filling in for Spence Check. It's on the Drive on this Friday afternoon. Of course, we'll be with you until about six o'clock. Today's best to follow, and then a weekend of coverage of MLB baseball, and then Sunday it is the NBA Finals Game seven coverage at five, tip off at six with Mark Keestersre and co Right here. Howard Beck is up on the other side, right here on the Drive on Utah's number one sports talk