Curious to know what it's like to be in Michael Malone's huddles in Denver. This podcast can tell you exactly what it's like. And we've also got pulse checks of the Phoenix Suns of the Boston Celtics, highlights from all of Chris haynes travels this week through the Rocky Mountains, and to review, regrettably of all the injuries that are stacking up across the association. All that's next here on this edition of This League Uncut.
Welcome to This.
League Uncut in rule of twenty four hour NBA news, this news, you'll Chris Hans, it's so time, works time, it's so time. This League Uncut is underway and on fire. This should be a good one.
Everyone, Welcome in to another edition of This League Uncut. Mark Stein here with Chris Haynes. I'm a little rattled. I have to admit, did a radio interview earlier today. We're taping this on a Friday, and they kept calling the pod the League Uncut instead of this League Uncut. So that has me shaken up.
Then you just stopped you just stopped them in that track.
Now, correct.
I was too polite, even though it was twice I was too polite. And then you know, even though I'm on the run and traveling and running around and.
It's been a crazy week, but then I see that.
What Chris Haynes reported on this pod days ago about the Nuggets not being able to go to the White House, but it's on TV and then it causes a national firestorm.
So I'm just I'm shaking by all this.
Man, the aggregators, they dropped the ball on that episode last week. I don't know aggregators a day. Usually up to the time, they're usually on point. Sometimes I want them to tone it down sometimes but most times.
But in that case, you know what, it's actually my fault. Maybe maybe now that now that I think about it, I probably should have put it. I probably should have written it after the pod, which I do sometimes when you when you drop some gems on here, and then I'll put it in my next notebook and say, hey, you should have listened to our episode. And Chris Haynes said a b or C. I did not do that this week, and so maybe that's my fault.
And we didn't. I don't think we tweeted that tweeted out that we didn't tweet that tip bit out. Also, well, you know why promoting the pod, So it's ultimately Ryan's uh, Ryan, Ryan's not in charge of.
It's not Ryan's fault. I'm just I'm just trying to go at him. I'm just trying to go at him and get him rolled up since he blamed you for the whole Aaron Haynes incident.
Yeah, that's true. Well that's fine. Didn't go ahead. You well within your right to do so. But yeah, Ryan.
The tweet tweeting the notes, Well, how are you man?
You had four days in Denver.
I'm tired.
Man.
You did two games, you had a one on one with Kevin Durant, you did a live stream with KCP. I'm sure there were multiple large breakfast consumed like tell us about your Yeah, tell us about your trip to the Rocky Mountain.
I'm exhausted. I just got home not too long ago. But that KCP interview I had with the Bleacher, the Bleacher Report live stream stein I had it scheduled to do that at twelve pm Pacific time. So new and Denver, Denver all week. I was there Monday through Friday. Denver all week was great. The weather was excellent and you know. That's one of the reasons why I don't like going to Denver, because I don't like I don't like the snow and all that stuff. I'm not a fan of it.
I lived in Cleveland for two years, been there, done that. But the weather was good. But Friday morning, snow is popping off. So I'm like, damn, all right, But my flight was supposed to land back here in California at ten thirty am, which I'm like, that's fine. It takes me thirty minutes to get home. I'll have an hour
before I got to sit down with KCP. But you know what, due to snow delays, another delay, another delay, stein And not only that, my flight didn't have Wi Fi, so my flight was scheduled to touch down at noon. So I'm like, fuck, man, damn, like what I'm what I'm gonna do. So right before my flight took off, I text my producer a tell KCP, you know, I'm gonna be about ten minutes behind. I don't want to cancel. I'm gonna be about ten minutes behind, and I'm going
to do it at the airport. I don't think she. I don't think she told them I'm gonna do it at the airport. I just told him justa be ten minutes behind. My plan was to find a lounge in the airport, a quiet lounge, but of course no such thing. And so I'm in the food court area. I pick a table way in the back and starn. There's just people on the intercom. Hey gate, see six thirty seven, your gate chains going to LA going all through.
You thought the airport should just stop functioning because you had a live stream.
I thought, I don't know what I was thinking. I thought I could find a quiet.
Attention all Southwest customers.
Chris B.
Haynes a Bleacher Report needs thirty minutes of quiet for his live stream. We will delay all updates.
A further note, so if if you could go to go to bleacher Report or even YouTube, believe that the interview, the full interview is up on YouTube, bleacher Reports on bleacher reports page. So you could see me interviewing KCP TA say, people sitting right behind me talking, chatting, and I'm just muting, unmuting, my my, my, Mike the whole time. Mutant, I'm muting, mutant, I'm muting. It's just a whole bunch
of chaos going on. The back and I had to apologize to the to the viewers for that, for that display.
Or was he just rolled?
He was? He was laughing. He was laughing at all. He was he was laughing. He rolled, He rolled with it. Man, I couldn't.
Well, he should be laughing because the Nuggets look fantastic. They just took care of Boston in the supposed NBA Finals preview. That Jokic guy is a problem, breaking news. He's a major problem.
He is. He is a problem. Stein. Let me tell you this. I was gonna say this story since we're talking about the Nuggets. You know, I get to listening to I've listened in and heard almost every coach in the NBA as far as how they conduct their timeouts and their huddles. Mike alone, if he's not number one, he's definitely one of the top two as far as far as inspiring, motivating coaches in those timeout huddles. Coach
Malone is cussing people out in those huddles. He's like he is just but he does it in a way. It's a loving cussing out way. You know what I'm saying, If that makes any sense, It's a loving cussing out way that you're just motivated and you just like he just he has the words to galvanize a team and starting so the way the Nuggets in their break before they go into you know, go back into the game, they'll go one two three together, one two three together.
And so I'm listening, I'm in the back listening to Malone and he's just going off, inspiring his guys, encouraging them, going off of them again. And then he's like, all right, let's go one two three. And I said, I said, silently together. I thought I was part of teams. Don I did? I said it. I said it silently. I was together, like I was in it. He had me transformed like I was about to get in there and helped him doing this five minute stress side side. I kid you not, I said together, I.
Said, I'm the guys are from what you see, their guys are locked in.
They're not tuning him out. They're not rolling their eyes.
They oh no, no, no no. And he's one of the rare as you know, he's one of the rare few coaches who can be himself and do that. No he does. They're not tuned out. They listen or another thing too. So I asked him about his approach after the game because I was just curious cause I'm telling he had me ready to go to war. And he was like, you know, he said, all I can do
is be myself. He said, it's definitely helped that I've had success and I won a championship and I got I have some tenure, So that definitely gives you confidence that you could continue to be yourself, he said. But Chris, another thing that I do. He says that when I'm in those huddles, I touched the players. I may touch them on the knee, pat him on the leg, pat him on an arm, and the players will look up, look up at you. And he told me who. My mind is kind of gone now, but he told me
who he got that from. But he said, that's like a personal that's a personal touch, a personal interaction they have. And when the players look up, and he said, it does something, just a tap on the leg when he's in that time of huddle and Stile, I'm telling he's one of the best motivating these guys, getting them ready. I said together, I was with them for that two seconds. He's really good.
Well, look, the Nuggets know exactly who they are. They have ultimate belief at the toughest times, and that's something that the Celtics frankly can't say they have.
The Celtics have been the most.
Dominant team in the league this season, but what are they lost for thirteen games? Amid those fourteen losses, there have been no shortage of games that crunch time. Didn't just look bad, it looked ugly, and they are still a team that generates a lot of skepticism and questions. Whereas you know, that's why as stacked as the West is, I just don't see how you can pick against Denver because they have a level of belief now and that's what winning a championship does. And I'm glad Mike Malone
admitted to you that the championship is a factor. Michael Malone, let's say it properly, because I'm sure that gives him the confidence to coach the team exactly the way he wants to, which is doesn't happen in every city. Not every coach in the NBA can coach his team exactly the way he wants to with as much freedom as Michael Malone surely has. So I mean, it's just yet another element of what makes the defending champions from Denver dangerous.
But they've got a great duo. I mean, Jokic is Jokic is the MVP.
To me, at this point, teams are basically down to their last eighteen to twenty games. I think Jokic is at the top of the MVP charts. I guess we can argue about that if anybody wants to, and SGA is up there, Yannis and Luca I think a little bit further back, But the MVP award, to me, it's Jokic's to lose now Oklahoma City. If they win the West or the number one seed, that's certainly going to
help SGA's case. But I mean, whether you know what, it doesn't even matter whether Jokic wins the MVP Award or not. He's the best player in the world. I think if you polled the NBA, if you polled thirty front offices, and if you pulled players, and if everybody was telling the absolute truth, they would say that Jokic is the best player you're in the world. So they've got a star at the peak of his powers, a tag team partner in Jamal Murray who plays off him,
so well, they function so well as a duo. They've got role players who know exactly what their their roles are. With KCP and Aaron Gordon at the top of the list, they've got a great home court advantage.
Probably the best home court advantage.
Do you when you're walking the sidelines, do you feel it at all?
Yeah, I lose I lose breath.
Yeah, if you've got to hustle between the benches or run after something.
Yeah, run after it. And I know no, and I know people may think you're exaggerating, and you might be exaggerating, but.
There are times as the sideline reporter that you have to actually run and get somewhere. You could be on the opposite side and the team at the far bench there's an injury. You got to run over there.
Yeah, and you lose you lose your breath. It is definitely an adjustment, even walking up the stairs, you know, walking up the stairs, if you if you're see there is like when when I was when I was on the beat, our immediate seats would be probably about twenty seats up and you have to walk up the stairs to get to it in Denver, and now you feel it. It's definitely a factor. That's why I said it might
be the best home court advantage. Although I will say Stein, I've never experienced road fans that traveled like the Celtics did last night. I don't know if you heard the game or saw the game from I genuinely did not, Stein, they had less go Celtics chance And if you close your eyes and heard it with the sheer amount of people there, you would have thought you were in a Celtics arena like they they travel it was that loud.
But I still will argue that Denver, because of that altitude factor, probably has the best home court advantage.
Well, look, the other big story of the week, and you know, obviously we're going to focus I know we've been talking about the Nuggets a lot on here lately. But if you if if half of this podcast, if this podcast franchise player spends the whole week in Denver, we're gonna we're gonna obviously talk about the Nuggets.
So there's no way around that.
But I mean, the other big, really the big not the other the big story in the week in the NBA this week is just the injuries, injuries, the lore and you know, let's I think because the West is what we need to focus on, we should.
You know, Evan Mobley.
With a out and definitely with an ankle injury is obviously a significant injury for the Cavaliers, who've had numerous significant injuries to deal with this season. And then the Nets announced that Ben Simmons would be shut down for the rest of the season because of the back issues that have limited Simmons to fifteen games. But we're gonna put those injuries aside and focus on the West because Devin Booker was already playing with an injury he sustained
last week. This week, Karl Anthony Towns in Minnesota likely out for the rest of the regular season with a torn meniscus. Lebron James, shortly before you and I got together to start recording this podcast, ruled out of the Lakers game against Milwaukee because of this ankle injury that has been bothering him since leading up to the All Star Game. And then Stephan Curry sustains an ankle injury
Thursday night. The word is it's not necessarily serious, but I would counter and say that any Stephan Curry injury, even if it rules him out only a game or two is a massive deal for the Warriors who are fighting for their lives. And look, all these teams in the West are fighting for their lives. I mean, not
playing zone is ridiculous. The Sons have gotten themselves into the top six, but the fact that they have only been able to have their star trio together for twenty three games this season, I think is a major concern. But I mean, Denver just has to be just feeling so confident because of all this injury chaos happening around them. And again just that there's no team in the league that knows its identity better than the Nuggets.
Yeah, and what I will tell you Stein about the Nuggets again again, I know you don't want to spend too much more time on them, but everybody's been talking about their bench, their bench, and that's that definitely is a concern. But Stein, Peyton Watson that if people don't know who Peyton Watson is, if you've been watching these the Kolakis commercials and you have that one kid that's always with him in these commercials, that's Peyton Watson, that guy.
He was the one that jumped over the kola Hey yesterday to block Jalen Brown's shot. Peyton Watts guys athletic, He's long plays, he could defend multiple positions. He's going to be a stud. He's going to be a stud. Now will he be able to will he have the
maturity to really help them out in the playoffs? I don't know, but they're they're banking on him and they're trying to give him a significant role to see if he can to help help them out, because that, as we know, the bitch is probably going to is probably the weakness of the duggets. But if Peyton Watson could come of age pretty pretty quickly and he's he's looking really good in spurts, there'll be a problem.
When you look at Minnesota, the expectation is I think that at least their hope is that they get Karl Anthony Towns back for the playoffs. I mean, they look, they've got nas read there. In the short term, they can probably survive this. I would still wouldn't I wouldn't be shocked if the Wolves still.
Found a way.
To hang on to the number one seed in the West. Is certainly not going to be easy, but they've got three games against the Nuggets though, three games left, I believe.
So that's that's going to be a huge deal for sure.
Yeah, and that all that all goes back to Denver, you know, skipping the White House for that that matchup in Minnesota on March nineteenth. They're going for it. They're going forward. And yeah, and I think stein Towns is an All Star player, but you know Na's over there. He's no joke that that guy probably the best backup big in the league, stretch big. So they're definitely still
going to be a force. And Anthony Edwards probably just going to even this is the opportunity for him to even take his game to another level because I do believe he has another level to go. He probably is going to have to carry this team a little bit more offensively, but I think he's up for the task, you know. So, So March nineteenth, dismiss of Minnesota.
March nineteenth, Denver, Minnesota. That's the game where the Nuggets, as first reported on the This League Uncut podcast and subsequently reported on TNT, reported by the same guy, though in both cases Chris the Nuggets the invite to the White House was the seventeenth, Is that right?
And they felt like.
The eighteenth They know it was the eighteenth.
They play on the seventeenth.
They could have gone to the White House on the eighteenth, but they felt like they needed to go straight to Minnesota.
That's it.
First March twenty ninth and April tenth, those two games are in Denver.
So it's going to get really interested. But this is this is why this part of the season is so great because you you know, teams are going for it right now. This is this is the coaches start shortening up their rotations, getting their rotations ready for the playoffs. Uh, there's not much experimentation during this junction of the season.
It's you playing your guys. Playoff is you know, just like you know, these last couple of games last I'll probably already say the last three games have been for that I've covered have been playoff atmosphere type games. Sons at the excuse me, Different Nuggets playing the heat, Denver Nuggets playing the Suns. Nuggets and Celtics been really good atmosphere, you know, playoff atmosphere type game. So I'm ready, stin, I'm ready for the playoffs.
Are you doing two games a week basically from here till the playoffs or no producer Ryan shaking his head. He's memorizer.
Producer. Ryan has memorized schedule.
Producer Ryan is on top of it.
We should bring on Charlotte Haynes and we should quiz them. Who knows your schedule better? Ryan Music.
All my money will be on Ryan. She has Charlotte's beauty supply of stuff on her mind. She's not worried about my schedule. No, I I have for the rest of the rest of the calendar. I only had three games left for the rest of the season, the regular season, that is three but a game each week, no, no, no, no, two weeks.
Well, as tired as you are today, maybe that's good. Maybe we maybe we got to dial you back to one game a week.
I need that because it's going to get Last year, I think I didn't come home really until, I want to say, until the conference finals.
The producer Riots keeping it real in the group chat, which I forgot.
March madness is coming, and that's.
Why that's why I'm on my Yeah, my high madness.
Is going to bump you down.
Yeah, That's why I'm on my hiatus.
You had a little chat with Kevin Durant. Give us the state of Durant at this point.
Caught up with k D very optimistic about what this team can accomplish. You know, he was very reflective and talking about his background because I asked him, like, you know, how long can you keep going? What? What still what motivates you at this age? And he was like, man, I still feel like I'm great at this game. And I love being great, you know, KD. I love the
way Kat talks about himself. He said, I love being great and uh, he said, and I wake up enjoying the process every day of being great and being town. And they talked about like, you know how you know, there were people in his neighborhood, in his community that kept him away from the streets, that told me, you know, focus on ball. And he said, as he gets older, he appreciates still more and more because he loves his
life and love loves what he what he does. And then he also, you know, you know what to talked about the people who criticize or critique him, stating that he's not a leader or he doesn't have a competitive drive. And you know, he said, listen, I don't listen to them. He said, everybody needs something to talk talk about. He said, my focus is on his team, and my my concern is what everybody within my organization think. He said, And they see me, they know me, and so they know
how bad I want to win. And he said he puts them. He said, if they're going they're going healthy. He likes their chances against anybody and so, but he did say there is an adjustment period, you know, trying to blend, blend, blend all their games together with Bradley Booker and dev A, Bradley Booker, Bradley Booker, Bradley Bill and Devin Booker. So he says it's an adjustment, but he's he's enjoying the process of learn and he said he feels like the team is forming some cohesion, and you know,
he credit the coach staff. So this is a very optimistic and positive KD with twenty games before we hit the.
I'm gonna read two of the quotes for your piece. The first one was quote, I just love this game. I love the challenges, the obstacles that come with it. I enjoy the process. So that was pretty standard stuff. But then this is the I think this is the quote.
You're referring to.
I just enjoy getting up every day to do this shit. Durant said, there are going to be days where it to struggle, and there have been great days. I could be doing a lot of other shit with my life. I'm talented at this shit, and I enjoy being talented. I enjoy the camaraderie and the brotherhood that comes with this game.
It's that simple.
I enjoyed being talented. I love KD. Man, I love that guy. Love KD. Did I tell you my KD story? Stein, I'm not sure? Okay, I'll explain it. Me and KD. We we you know. That's my guy. I will always I will always have him in high regard because of what he did for me six seven years ago something
almost probably about six years ago. And no matter if we have semi rifts in between, because we've had we had, we had semi rifts in between, that I will always hold him in high regard for this six years ago. So it is he's with the Warriors at this time, and this was I was at Yahoo. I had just signed with Yahoo, and Yahoo gave me my my podcast. It was the post it up for Chris Haines's podcast. First time I ever had my own podcasts. They gave me a podcast, and so I asked KD, would you
be my first guest on my podcast? And he was like, yeah, I got you. Cool. I'm like great, great, So I tell Yahoo, I tell my production crew and everything, and that's when we were traveling. When I had my podcast, we would travel camera crews to go like we did it really legit, legitimate, So everybody knows. Everybody's pumped up. I'm pumped up. Kdi's about to be my first guest. Like great, great. So two days later, the incident happens where Draymond goes off on him in LA It says,
we don't need you. We can we won before you, we don't, we don't need and you know, like when kd's mad, when KDE gets into his mode, like he'll just shut you out, he'll cut everybody off. And so that happened, and KD didn't speak to media for that whole week after that Dremond incident. Katie refused to talk. He did not speak that whole week. Meanwhile, our podcast episode was supposed to record probably like in another four
or five days. So I'm like, oh shit, damn, he is not speaking to media and not just not speaking to media. You know how KD is sometimes Like even when you see him walk into the locker room, he ain't gonna look. He's not gonna look at you. You will clearly tell he doesn't want to be bothered. So I'm like, damn man, So my podcast is on a Monday. Now it's Thursday. He hasn't spoken all week, and I'm trying to be sensitive. I don't want to be texting
him like hey, you're still doing it. I'm trying to be Since then, so the Warriors are on the road trip and they ended up in Houston over the weekend. I wasn't going to attend that game, like this will be the last time I get to see him before Monday, when we're supposed to do this pod. So I go to Houston, fly to Houston and before the game, pre game, he's over there in the corner. Nobody is talking to him. He's at his locker stall. You can tell he doesn't
want to be bothered, has his earphones on. But I'm like, I gotta go say something, and not just go say something, I have to bring it, bring up that we got this pod scheduled in two days. So I go over there, tap on the shoulder, which forces him to take his headphones off his ear ears. He just looks up to me, looks up at me. I'm like, how you doing, bro, I'm all right, what's up? I'm like, eh, nothing much. Uh. I just want to know if you're still gonna be able to do the pod in a couple of days.
He said, Man, what the fuck? Man? I got a game. I ain't worried about that shit. Man, I got a fucking game to play. Man, leave me alone. Chris. I'm like, okay, well, you know, good to see you too. So I walked. I walked away in So I walked away not knowing anything. He didn't give me any confirmation or clarification nothing. That was it. So I'm like, fuck man. So I told the company, I said, well listen. KD hasn't responded. He I don't know. I don't I don't think it's happening.
So Monday comes around, and it was supposed to we were supposed to record Monday after go to State Wars. Practice was probably around noon. He's still and to this point he's still hasn't spoken to media. I'm talking about basic media, like answer a question after a game. He did none of that the whole week, and so I hit him up Monday morning, just the last ditch text because also my camera crew was already at the They rented a hotel suite so we can do the recording.
So they just went anyways, and so here I'll make a last ditch effort Monday morning before practice cinema text Katie Man, I'm sorry to bout you, bro, but I just got to ask. Man, we got the crew there, just got to ask, if you know you're gonna be able to do it, text you back right away. I'll be there. He came and delivered one of the spiciest interviews that he's ever delivered before and just revealing everything, you know, the Draymond stuff, everything, and you know, he
was talking about retiring. That's a golden state war. He could tell his his mindset went another place later, but yeah, he was. He just it was just great. He gave me an hour or so and it was the first time he talked about the incident, first time he talked, and he was my first I was able to start my podcast with a bang first episode. So I'm forever grateful for him, regardless of whatever we get into to
get into it about the future now whatever. Him doing that meant so much to me, man, So uh yeah, that's my KDE story.
And I gotta go back and find that episode because I I sort of remember, but I don't.
I don't remember all that backstory. Did ESPN credit you when they used the quotes?
Yeah? Everybody, Yeah, everybody had to Yeah, that was he. That was the first time he addressed it. He did not talk to anybody the whole week. And he came and he sat there and we were We're in a hotel suite, me and him sitting down and what was
cool too? Starve the day before that, The day before that, that episode, he had did something to a reff I'm not a cuss the reff out during the game or something like that, and I was able to break I got a clip of it and it's in the it's in that podcast too, But I gotta I was able to break that. He was being fine a certain amount of money. He was like seventy five thousand and something like that right there on the spot before you know. So I broke it before it got announced, and everything
right on the spot to him. And it was funny because people were commenting about it, it was like, dang, look how Katie didn't even flinch when he found out he just lost seventy five thousand dollars, Like that must be nice. He's like, yeah, yeah, right, please please, but yeah, that's my Katie's story. And so he's always you know, I always hold him a high regard for doing that and keeping his word. Man.
So when you were around the Suns, I mean, look, the Suns, to me, there are multiple issues.
I mean, and you.
Know, as great as Durant remains at thirty five, ridiculous, just ridiculously good. But again, the main three guys there are they gonna get third games in as teammates before the playoffs. I mean, I think thirty is is a pretty safe over under, considering it's only at twenty three and there's less than twenty games in the season to go. So let's see if they can get over thirty. But then the other thing is, you know, they're in the best case scenario. They're gonna be the five seed and
they're gonna have to win. They're gonna have to win on the road in three straight rounds, and I just you know, just to get to the finals on the road three straight.
Rounds without continuity.
Questions about their depth, their bench, the reliability.
I guess we'll see.
I still maintain that they should have gotten a point guard. I will say this. I did report during the Sun's game and that they are looking to feel their last roster spot, that fifteenth roster spot. They're looking to feel fill that with a veteran player who has playoff experience. They're not they're not. They're not looking for a point
guard or a wing or whatever. They want the best player available with some postseason experience, not somebody that's going to play a lot, but it's more of a locker room presence. So that's something to look out for as it pertains to the Suns.
Well, Marcus Morris is out there, Isaiah Thomas is in the G League trying to get a look. Yeah, there's veterans out there.
Isaiah makes a lot of sense. Sean Isaiah. I think he just scored like thirty something in his G League debut yesterday. Isaiah makes a lot of sense. He's a point guard, has playoff experience. Somebody who's going to come in and be a good locker room guy like Isaiah makes a lot of sense.
So I kind of said we were going to stay away from the East, but now I'm going back on that because you just saw this epic battle that so many of us were treating as a potential finals preview. And look, I mean, to me, if the Celtics don't make the final, I mean, the Celtics have to win at all to really validate their season. But you know, I would say, at a minimum, they've got to make the finals and win the East.
What was their temperature after this game? What was it? You know, they blew that huge lead against Cleveland. Okay, fine, that happens.
I mean they were forty eight and twelve and lost a big lead against Cleveland. Whatever, But to go into Denver after the Nuggets had gone to Boston and won there. And you know, Tatum went under the microscope this week and has not been a fun experience for him. Everybody's now questioning his ability in the clutch. And look, I never really saw Tatum as an MVP a huge MVP
threat anyway. Even if Boston would have gone to Denver and won, and even if Tatum had played an amazing game, I just I And the reason why is just I just think again, I'm trying to step inside the head of voters. I just think Boston is so good and has so much high level talent around him, not just Jalen Brown, but you got former All Stars, Drew Holliday, Christoph porzingis Al Horford, They've all been All Stars, Derek White.
They have so much high level talent around him. I think that's the kind of thing that really hurts Tatum's case more than anything, more than his clutch numbers, more than a game.
Like last night.
But this has not been a fun week for the Boston Celtics. So, like, what was the vibe you took from your time around them?
Jason Tatum told me that even though they haven't lost much this season, he said, this is the first time where each loss really hurts. He said, because they're they're far and few. And he said that you know, he hasn't he said, he hasn't felt that way about losses in other seasons, which I think speaks to the fact that this is a dominant team and they have high hopes and they've been there before and they believe this. You know, this is the best team that they've ever
assembled since he's been there. But he also told me this. This group is great at getting over losses quickly and move it on to the next next game, and so they still feel good. Coach Missoula told me this. He said, who are we supposed to lose to? Like, you know, when you go through? He said, when you? When you? He said, how they say it? He said, when you look at the schedule, when the schedule first comes out. He said, we're not going undefeated. He said, so we're
gonna lose some games. He said, who do you want to lose to? He said, we've lost the good teams? He said, what would it be better if we lost the bad teams? He said, you know what, what what would you expect? And so, yeah, we expect. I guess that's reasonable. Yeah, that's a reasonable TA.
But you know what, you know what, you know what.
The lesson out of this podcast is I like when you do two games a week, because now I'm just I've been I've asked you about the Nuggets, the Suns, the Celtics, and you just saw these teams.
It's beautiful. I think you should. I think you should do two games every week.
Yeah, well, I would like to get to another city. I don't want to be well cases Miami. I'll stay in Miami for a week. Why don't you pitch that they took me off of my Miami assignment that I had April fourth. They switched it to a Atlanta at Dallas. Can you believe that's tun Atlanta at Dallas. But I was able to contact a hierarchy at TNT, and I found out that that game could possibly could possibly be moved as well because they assigned they reassigned me to
that game, not just me, the whole broadcast crew. They reassigned us to that game. Thinking Trey Young, you know, before Trey Young went out with the injury, so I can get off. Most likely I might be off.
Why are you rooting to get off a game that would send you to my city?
Yes, Tine, you know Stein Listen, Dallas is nice, but Miami would that would have been my only time being in Mif.
You're already off Miami. So why well, well, let me tell you're not gonna touch back in Miami.
Hold on, hold on, hold on, now, hold on. Remember this game is April fourth, Miami. It was Philly at Miami. There's a chance Joel and Bed could be back by then. Why wouldn't they switch it back? And so I again, I contacted some hierarchies and they are I just want to let them know, Hey, let's not rule out.
Are you saying you think there's a chance Joel Embid could be back in early April?
Slight? Very slight, very slight. But listen, I'm telling you, I'm telling the hierarchy come on now, let's not you know, let's come on, let's give us time. Be patient. You know I don't just leave. Be patient. That could be a big game. Joelan Bid back with Philly. Miami is playing well, let's not get too hasty now.
So are you basically telling me that you're you're not going to be in Dallas that night.
I'm telling you I don't want to be in Dallas that night. I don't know what I will be. That's what I'm telling you.
The last time came to Dallas, I sent him to an A plus steakhouse. Now he won't even come to my city. He's asking to be reassigned to avoid coming to the two one four.
Stei Miami April fourth, that's around spring break in Miami. Stei. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, there's just no there's no competing against that man. Come on, now, you should You should understand, goodness sakes, you understand everybody else know where I'm coming from.
All right, Chris Hanes, Before you say anything else, I think we're going to put a bow on this one.
But we covered some good ground here.
Unless I just want to am I my cutting this off too soon? Is there anything else that.
You need to say or discuss before we go?
M my team in my Filipino league, we made it to the final four. I actually set you my stats from the last game. I was Player of the week in the last the last weekend's game.
Wait a second, Wait a second, wait a second. First of all, I misread what you said. I didn't realize that the twenty five next to your name was your point total and not your jersey. As our eagle eyed producer producer Ryan Music spotted a teammate of yours, Liam Mecdo.
Is that his name? Yes, he had thirty four? So how did you win player of the week? Who's voting on this?
Let me explain stot I mean, Lember reaching my stat line again? Twenty five points, eleven rebounds, eight assists, aight assists somebody's going to score off of those eight assists.
And it was Liam Leon.
Not yes, all those I can't say.
It's well, the rebounds that assists were not in the box score that we saw. We only saw points.
Yes, no, no, see Stein, that's why you don't be opening the message. Ryan, loose, Ryan, get on here, set them straight.
Or maybe or maybe I just maybe I cannot read is the real the real message here?
I was with you, Stein when I first looked at this graphic that he sent us. I only saw the twenty five points and the final score, and then it's at the very very bottom, twenty five points, eleven rebounds, eight assists, Player of the Week, Week six.
Christy, Look up and look at the pride with which he is beaming right now.
Just look at this man. Look at this man. Look at this man. The number he told a story about getting.
He told a story about getting KD on his podcast, his first podcast ever, so good and so explosive that every other outlet that covers the NBA had to credit him.
He wasn't smiling that big, not even close.
When we were talking about close, We're talking about twenty twenty five eleven in ate in a rec League game, and he looks like he looks like the proudest papa in the world, like he just became a father or something.
Stein people lie, numbers, don't That's all I'm showing you, right, Oh my goodness, That's all I'm showing you. So we made we made it due to my performance player of the Week. We made it to the final four and we play at nine to twenty. We win that game. We playing the championship game at noon. So I'm I've got here back home today. I'm gonna take a nap after this pod. I'm tired. I'm gonna go to the gym, get some shots up, may run a few games here, but I'm gonna get ready.
For you can't tonight. But if you get hurt, I'm.
Not gonna play. I'm not gonna play hard. It's just like shoot around, you know, shoot around, shoot around.
That's all shoot around. The shoot around shoot around is not playing.
Yeah, let's you know, just mo I'll just roam around the floor. You know, I won't be a big factors. Just get some shots up, get a little cardio.
So you got to play at nine in the morning the morning.
And so by the time we do our next pot. I will either be a champion or I will be a chump.
You guys have made the final four before in this league.
No, this the first time we did this. You're talking about the Sacramento Rec League, not the Filipino League. The Philipino League. No a, Stein, we have a chance to make history because we had a really bad regular season. I missed like two or three games because of travel schedule. So we're the lowest seed. We're the sixth seed. So the sixth seed made it all the way to the final four. And the team that we're playing at nine to twenty Stein, we beat them during the regular season by twenty.
So you're basically in the title game.
I'm not see. That's what you don't do, Stein. You do not disrespect the opponent. You don't do that.
That's what we do on this pod. We try to get you in trouble, lead.
You, and you don't do that. You don't disrespect the opponent. Man, you'll know what can happen. The basketball guys will come for you. But no, we're feeling very confident about what we can accomplish if we all come together for the common goal. And I'm gonna deliver before the game a Mike Michael Malone type pregame speech to get us riled up, which means I'm cussing everybody out before the game because we got we gotta get as.
Long as you end with one, two, three together whatever you.
Say, Oh yeah, okay, wait.
Well, Producer Ryan, I think we can truly say we covered many many bases today. Everyone. As always, please remember follow us, rate the show, review the show.
We'd love a five star review from you on Apple podcasts or Spotify wherever you get your podcasts. Chris and I am producer Ryan will be back together again as soon as possible after.
The playoffs. Do you even know the name of your team? I was gonna say, I don't know the name of your team. What's the name of your team? He's looking it.
Up for why you ratting me out? Star? The name of my team is Genebra. I don't know what that means. And and uh.
You're not curious. You didn't ask anybody like, hey, what's our team name?
All I want to know is who's on my team? That's all. And then I'll take it from there.
All right, Well, try to remember the speech because we might ask you to. If you guys win it all, we might ask you to like redeliver it to Ryan and I.
Okay, all right, I can't wait. I had to be a championship next part.
All right, everyone, thanks for joining us, and again we will be back very very soon with yet another edition of This League Uncut.
As we draw ever closer to the NBA. Thanks for being with.
Us, and that'll do it for us. See you next time. This League uncutt is an iHeartRadio production Put a Suck a Locket Chris Hanes and Mark Stein