Finals Game 3 Recap, Rodgers Missing From Camp & Jerry West Reflection

Bobby Canavali. Watch Unstoppable now exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

baseball team. The Celtics have been your team ever since you had a Ray Allen fathead on your wall growing up, and you, I mean technically you were you know, you were obviously alive for their last championship, but you weren't a Celtics fan in two.

about this? Lamar sent this tweet that I missed. He sent it just hours after he sent that picture of the probiscus monkey with the long nose saying no, not cousin Nick's list. That's my guy for real, just kicking from the net. One hundred emoji and then a Raven's colored heart, which made me feel a little bad when I did the exact same list on television yesterday. But I like Lamar, I root for Lamar. I just gotta be honest. There was never a man, There was never

a more obvious. This has to be some marketing ruse than Joey Jessnup banned from the Nathan tot dog eating contest. Chessnu versus Kobe Yashi's gonna be on Labor Day on Netflix and who could have seen this coming? The Lakers are gonna interview JJ Reddick this weekend, but we've got to start with Game three of the finals and these Thermo nuclear Luca takes so de monse go ahead.

And in fact, I texted with Brian this morning and I'm not going to you know, I'm not going to reveal private text, but I will say what my first text was too hard on Luca exclamation point, and I will I don't think Brian would be mad. I will reveal his first text back to me, which was that's been a big problem for Luke in his career, people

being too hard on him. I sent some sarcasm there, Brian, and then we went back and forth and I also told him a take I had that he replied to with don't go with that, but I am going to go with it at some point. So here, here's the thing. Wendy crushed him, absolutely crushed him. Everyone since then has joined the crushing. Here to me are the fair criticisms, and then I will get into where I think we've

lost the plot a bit fair criticism. It's the god Doog NBA Finals, and you cannot give up five on four transition baskets because you are either barking at the ref or laying on the ground trying to sell a call that can't happen. That is on Luca, undeniably, that's on Luca. I'm going to say another one. It is the NBA Finals. Your team can't win without you, which

is an important element here. Even if you think you're getting hosed by the refs, which Luca always thinks, he usually has a bit of an argument, but there is clearly a boy who cried Wolf element to it, which is if you're always complaining, then we don't know if it's actually a missed call. There was a sequence early in the game when Luca throws It was kind of an encapsulation of what is got to be frustrating for Luca.

He throws a perfect lob to Derek Lively, Lively misses the dunk, they get the offensive rebound, Luca drives to the basket, gets fouled twice on the play. They don't call either foul. They say Maverick's ball, and then the Celtics challenge and it's like, well, he got fouled twice, but the ball went off him, so the calls overturned.

the pod, but he complained every time. So in that instance, maybe if he didn't conduct himself the way he normally does. If you then go to the refs and say, man, I got fouled twice on that and now it's gonna be Celtic's ball, maybe they feel like they owe you one. They're never gonna feel like they owe Luca anything, And that's on him and the way he treats the refs from opening tip to the end of the game, that is a fair criticism. Him being hunted defensively is obviously happening.

That is a fair criticism. I think what we are seeing is that there is one guy in league history that's been able to have that type of offensive workload demand from game one to Game one hundred and still be able to go on deep playoff runs and have everything left in the tank on both sides of the ball. It's one guy, ever, and Luca's not quite in that same shape as that guy, And so Luca's fitness is a fair critique. The way he lets the refs get

in his head is a fair critique. And the fact that the Celtics were able to hunt him on defense, those are all fair critiques. Here's another one. They needed him toy for them to beat this team. He's got to score thirty five a night. He hasn't done that yet. They Kyrie did it last night for the first time. So those are all fair critiques. I was ready to crown Luca the best player in the world. That can't happen, now, okay, So all of that is legitimate and fair, and this

is part of the process. And in Wendy's defense, what Wendy he was saying more this morning than in that clip that's going viral last night, is that he believes one day Luca will be a more complete player, will be holding the Larry O'Brien and the Finals MVP trophy. And we'll say I learned from twenty twenty four usually about how it goes. I think there were right there. Wendy was kind of making some Lebron illusions where Lebron talked about learning from twenty eleven. Now that was a

different circumstance. I don't think people think that Luca's melting down the way people think Lebron did in that series. So all of those criticisms are fair, okay, But here is what also must be said. No matter what you think Luca's defensive deficiencies are in that game last night, in the thirty eight minutes he played, the Mavericks won by nine, and in the ten minutes he sat, they

lost by sixteen. So whatever you think he takes away defensively, which is legitimate, whatever he adds offensively is significant enough that even last night, which people are calling the worst game of his career, they beat the Celtics handily. In the thirty eight minutes he played and got whooped. In the ten minutes he didn't. Now that speaks to why it is very important that he not foul out and why he has to find a way to stay on

the court. So I think those criticisms are fair, and then we will get to the fouling out thing in a moment. But it looked demonde like you want wanted to say something, So go ahead, Uh.

scariest offensive player in the league. Hands up rolling his eyes, woe is me. Luca can get in his own way. And so I think that though those are all fair criticisms, now let's talk about him fouling out. I thought the fifth and sixth fouls could have gone either way, but you can't put yourself in that position for the sixth foul. I thought the fifth foul jailing, you could have called a hook on Jalen Brown. They didn't, I thought, or

was it Tatum? I think it was Tatum and the sixth foul was a to me a fifty to fifty call because Luca's feet weren't set, but there was a push off it felt to me. Tell me, if you agree to monse As someone who's watching rooting for the Celtics, that if they had called that a charge and Boston had challenged it, they wouldn't have overturned the charge. They called it a block, Dallas challenged it. They didn't overturn

the block. Do you think that's fair, like that was a judgment call that could have gone either way.

blaming the refs. But here is what I want to say about Luca fouling out and the reactions to it. You have a player who is an offense unto himself, unlike almost any player in league history, whose team is in the NBA Finals thanks to him more than anyone else by a massive measure, who in a critical championship in the balance finals game gets hunted repeatedly, defensively, loses his composure a number of times, and fouls out of that game. I just told you about Steph Curry in

game six of twenty sixteen. Now I also told you about Luca. The difference, I guess there is Steph's team was trying to win a championship that game rather than stave off elimination, and Luca was whining earlier than Steph was. But Steph did end up culminating with throwing his mouthpiece into the crowd, hitting a fan and his wife saying the league was rigged for ratings or money. She doesn't

know which. Now, I, once again, trying to be the bastion of fairness and consistency, crushed Steph for that crushed him. So Luca's gotta get similar heat. But my colleagues did not. Nobody was out here saying this is you know, Steph Curry, and now he had already won a championship, he had won two league MVPs. I understand that, but this idea that we've never seen something like this, we actually saw

something exactly like it, very similar. A guy who was unimpeachably brilliant offensively, whose weakness on defense can be exploited in the playoffs, and smart teams will hunt him getting in late foul trouble of a critical finals game, fouling out and losing his s. We've seen it. And that's why I push back a little bit on some of the nuclear level Luca takes, because I do think we need a bit of a breath and recognize, hey, the

criticism is warranted. When you are trying to become the best player in the world, you are held to a best player in the world standard and you need to overcome, You need to be a plus when your team's only expecting an A. All of those things. Also the pendulum swinging so far in the other direction. As if Luca is the reason the MAVs lost, I reject out of hand.

Luca is Kyrie was brilliant last night. Luca is the reason they're in this spot now, demonsay, and see from the look on your face and the split screen you disagreed to a degree, which is fine. I think most of the audience probably does.

that is fair criticism. The hyper ventilating about the about him fouling out of the game, as if we've never seen that when we saw it in a very famous moment in the NBA Finals with a player whose roles and responsibilities to his team are very similar to Lucas, which is you create our entire offensive system is thanks to your one of one talents, and we're going to have to hide you defensively. That's where I felt like the criticism was out of whack and so and that's

what I texted Wendy. Wendy disagrees. I also do want to say, I don't there is There aren't three people in basketball media that I have more affection and professional respect for than Wendy. So I'm not attacking him. I just I thought he has such a respected voice that if the and he's so rarely goes after anybody, that if like, let me use another person, I'll you steven A, another guy that I'm friends with and that I respect.

If stephen A had said the exact thing, Wendy said, I don't think it sets the conversation the way it did when Wendy did it, because stephen A says very bombastic if you will things all the time, it's part of the gig. It's just like I do, by the way, so it's not a shock at all. I mean, yeah, he's polarizing and he's out of here giving takes because Wendy so rarely crushes somebody when he does. To me, it signaled to the whole basketball world, Oh, it is

going to be feast on Luca today. And I think by the way that I name another guy that I have massive respect and affection for. I think Van Pelt felt the same way, because Van Pelt later in the postgame said, man, I'm still processing Wendy taking a blow torch to Luca, and so I thought that was a touch too harsh. I smart people can disagree. I thought it was a touch too harsh in part because I

didn't see, yeah, twenty percent of it. When Steph fouled out and the Warriors were in the midst of losing the three to one lead, I didn't see that. So that's where I fall on the Lucas stuff go out, I.

what is happened? It felt like a one off meltdown, even though he did then the next year fling his mouthpiece into the crowd again, but he hadn't done it up to that point in his career, and he had track record matters, and he had earned such massive goodwill, and he already was a champion, So you couldn't have the take Steph Curry's defense is gonna stop you from winning a championship? That my My pushback is really twofold. One is I just think it was a little too

harsh the general Luca conversation today and last night. And the other one is the idea that, oh, with Luca playing defense like this, the MAVs can't win a title. That I think that he should be better. I think at twenty five, you're supposed to get better across the board, like he's not a finished product. I think all that's true, But I also think the MAVs can win a title with his defense as it is. I think last night, I think that other guys have to pick him up

because of what his deficiencies are. But the idea that he and last night. The reason I brought up the plus minus is people can show me as many clips as they want of Sam, of him losing Sam Hauser, him losing Jalen Brown, of all of it. The fact of the matter is this, even in that game, which was one of the worst defensive performances he's had all postseason,

when he was on the court, they won those minutes. Now, let me also be fair in this regard for you move on getting joh ten percent better defensively, twenty percent better defensively, in my opinion, is what moved Joker from a great offensive player who I was not comfortable calling the best player in the world to best player in

the world. And I thought one of the reasons the Nuggets didn't end up in the finals this year was he slipped a little defensively, and so that it is fair to say Luca needs to do the same thing. And it is fair to say that Jokers plus minus was always great and he was still subject to criticism. I'm not arguing Lucas shouldn't be criticized. I'm not arguing he played well yesterday. I am arguing that I think it's been in the last twelve.

for their biggest problems. Now, obviously the MAVs aren't a bad team, and that's I'm kind of mixing metaphors there because I think the MAVs are necessarily blaming Luca. But I to the day is going to be across sports media annihilate Luka Doncic today, it just is there. Today is going to be a if you're trying to win a championship, here is the list of players you would rather have. And if you make that list and you have more than two people on it, I think you're

being disingenuous. If you want to say you're trying to win a championship you'd rather have Joker, Sure, And if you want to include Giannis, no problem. But if all of a sudden we go from one game of what's wrong with Jason Tatum to actually Jason Tatum is better than Luca, we've gone too far and so like, So that's just kind of what I'm pushing against. So there's the Luca part of it. Now demands let's get to you know, the team that actually won the game.

some gaudy records, undefeated on the road. Sweet. I don't think any team ever has swept the conference and the NBA finals and they are they're going to finish the year. What were they They were.

so they won. They were fifteen and three in the playoffs, seventy two and ten in their regular seasons, so that team ended up being eighty seven and thirteen. Pretty unbelievable. The next year, by the way, that Bulls team ended up being they were sixty nine and thirteen in the regular season and then lost four games in the playoffs, so that team was eighty four and seventeen. So it's that the record and the metrics are going to say this is an all time team. We can get to

that part in a second. First, let me give them their flowers. I actually think the maps. So here's the other thing that I find so interesting about the Luca conversation and the conversation of this series. The MAVs are not losing because of their defense. They're just not will you can show me as many clips as you want. The fact of the matter is, if going into these finals you had told Jason Kidd the Celtics are gonna score one oh seven, one oh five, one oh six,

he would say, sign me up for it. The Celtics offense because they haven't had that red hot from three game, like, you know, shooting for forty attempts. The because they haven't had until last night, the simultaneous Tatum and Brown scoring explosion game. And when they got it last night, they were They didn't really get help from the other guys. The Celtics offense has just been okay despite whatever issues

the MAVs defense has. The reason the Celtics are in this position is the Celtics defense, their scheme, and their personnel has been legendary, and that must be credit must be given. You. You forced Kyrie Irving into two impossibly bad games. You frustrate did Luca enough last night to where you're up twenty and he's pressing in the fourth quarter and the Celtics defensive personnel last night without Christaps, I mean, the MAVs were up twenty five to twelve,

and then the Celtics were up twenty one. So in a basically a two and a half quarter span, the Celtics out what's that? So they were up thirteen. They had a thirty four point turnaround. I mean that it was a seventy nine to forty five run, if you will, in the middle middle of this game. They held the MAVs last night. How many points did the MAVs have

at halftime? The MAVs at halftime had fifty one, So they held the MAVs last night to fifty one in the first half, nineteen in the third quarter, which is when the game was decided, and then the obviously went on that little run. But you have held the MAVs under one hundred every game these playoffs. Like, I'm gonna try to look this up very quickly. I should have looked it up before, but this is where I'm trying

to give Boston credit because they deserve it. Did the MAVs have three straight games under one hundred points all year going into this. I'm looking it up right now, so this is all right, So this is pretty remarkable. All right. If you remove the final two games of the year, and I'm doing this in real time, if you remove the final two games of the year when the MAVs rested everybody, they scored less than one hundred points one two, three, four, five five times all season

in the regular season. In the playoffs, well there's a yeah. I mean there's a one forty seven yeah. In the playoffs. The MAVs going into this series had been held under one hundred four times back to back once. So going into the NBA Finals, the Dallas Mavericks had been held under one hundred. Again, let's just throw out the final two games of the year when they were resting everybody. They had been held under one hundred going into the

playoffs five times. Going into the finals, you include the playoffs, they've been held under one hundred nine times back to back once the first two games of the Clippers series and they actually won game two. And they have now been held under one hundred three straight games. Dusty just texted me, first time three straight under one hundred since December of twenty one, and I'm without knowing I'm gonna go ahead and check and see was Luca even playing? You know what I mean? Like, was he was in

that stretch? Was was Luca active in December of twenty one? And the answer to that question is, like I thought, no, So, Dusty, if you're watching for the first thing's first studio, has Luca ever in his career been held on his team been held under one hundred points in three straight games that he played in. My guess is no. So that's where the Celtics defense deserves all the credit in the world. That was not the script I saw coming into this series.

I obviously was wrong about this series. That's undeniable. I obviously undersold the Celtics. That's undeniable. I'm just you know what I mean, I was wrong, and I'm that there's no yeah butts about it. They won yesterday without Chris STAPs and by the way, good thing they did, because

I don't think he's playing again in this playoffs. And if they had lost that game, particularly, it'd be one thing if they had lost it because the MAVs just crushed them, But if they had blown that twenty one point lead, then we are having and they don't like now we're having a whole different conversation. But they didn't. They held on, They kept their composure when it looked like it could go a totally another way. And now

they're a game away from being champions. And I would guess I don't know this for certain, but I would guess this is the first time in Luca's career he's played in three straight games where the team didn't score one hundred points. You can now ask the question about history, de monsay, unless there's something else you want to ask me.

then they are guys, then they are I understand. I disagree. And my argument is that pretty simple, simple one, and people gonna say it's caveman thinking, But to be a historically great team in this sport, you've gotta have There were too many of the historically great teams that had historically great players.

resume or have have better individual you know, superstars. Sure, but when we're talking about the greatest teams of all time, just off the top of my head, if we are just going through the last since nineteen eighty, right, you've I'm going to try to do this kind of in order, so to speak, the eighty three six Ers, the eighty

six Celtics, pick your favorite showtime Lakers team. I think there were at least two Bulls teams better than this Celtics team with Michael the one Lakers, the twenty thirteen Heat, the twenty seventeen and eighteen Warriors. Like now, we're up to no teams just off the top of my head. So I think all of those teams were better than this team. But there is no yeah but about a championship. And I will not abide folks who try to retroactively say, well,

their path in the East was easy. That part's correct, and their path in the finals was easy. They are making it look easy. But the MAVs were playing unbelievable basketball with a guy who looked like he was poised to become the best player in the world. So I don't think that this is an easy finals. They are making it look easy and so.

It's a similar boat the Celtics are in. If we're gonna end up thinking of this Celtics team as good as their record is historically speaking, then it's going the title defense and everything that comes next plays a piece of it, especially because they bring everybody back. They've got this whole team locked for next year, so we'll get to see it. I don't think that's unfair. I don't think that is a double standard.

Horford retire maybe? I mean he's old, Uh, he does have he has one year left on his contract though, so I mean they don't have to worry about losing him to free agency, but he could retire. But yeah, that's kind of their Bruce Brown version of it. Go ahead, de Monte.

in the NBA Finals in Game seven. The next year, they lost in the conference finals. The next year, they lost in the conference finals. The next year they lost in the conference finals. So that four Pistons team made the conference finals in three, then won the championship the next year, lost in seven in heartbreaking fashion to the Spurs, and then made one, two, three more conference finals in a row and never broke through. So here's my point.

If that O five Pistons team had won the title, then I think people might look back on that four Pistons team and say, man, maybe they were better than we thought, you know what, I and so. But because they didn't, and even though they were still really good year after year after year, they were just banging on the door like they they never quite got into that all time team room. Now, they didn't have the regular season the Celtics did, and they didn't have this dominant

of a postseason that the Celtics did. So take that for what you will. All right, Demansey, what's a finals MVP question before we move on?

I guess, the question asked Celtics. Well, there's that question. The other question is this, would the Bucks have made that Dame trade if they knew Drew was gonna end up on Boss? I think the answer that's no, you know what I mean, I don't think they would have done it if they knew that. And so I.

and it's different stakes, all of it. But yeah, I mean, this was It's so the reason I liked Embiid's tweet is I said it on first things first, after Game one, I have, you know, I keep all my folders that I write all my notes on. I wrote, literally, I should take a picture of it and tweet it out Later today I wrote something along the lines of do the Bucks does someone in the Bucks front office deserve

a ring if the Celtics win the title? And so, I mean I and Drew's been so good for him, so good for him, and yeah, so that's what Embiid was talking about. So it's not a bad sports take. You just might not want to hear it from Joel Embiid.

in the point of the year. So so, yeah, where where do you stand on it?

dance around it anymore. He's an absolute phony. He is the worst type of leader anyone can have in any organization, which is the self righteous, preachy get the bullshout out of the building that doesn't have to do with winning. We are locked in. We're doing all this. By the way, I'm flirting with being the vice president. And also I just can't you know, I can't afford the flight switch fee to move around my trip stop it and to have the the the idea. So here is here is

one thing that I will say. And every time I tweet about this or I post a clip, it's just these morons in my mentions being like you must be on your fourteenth booster, guys, I could be the biggest anti VACS conspiracy theorist RFK junior tattoo. And still think Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback leader of the Jets, is a charlatan. The idea that it is almost become because he was criticized for non football things that now folks are trying to pretend all of the criticism about football things are

related to that. There are thirty two starting quarterbacks in the NFL. How many of them are unexcused missing mini camp one last year it was zero, the year before it was zero, the year before that it was one. Any guests on who it was Aaron Rodgers, So don't tell me that this. In the last four off seasons, there has been one. There have been two times what's

thirty two times four one hundred and twenty eight. There have been one hundred and twenty eight possible instances of a starting quarterback being fined for missing mandatory mini camp. The whole world is one hundred and twenty six, one hundred and twenty four and oher on not being fined Aaron Rodgers is five hundred. He's two and two, and so that is that's just objective fact.

gonna be there until he wasn't there. I'll say that again. Aaron's teammates did not know he wasn't gonna be there until he wasn't there. And so people are wondering, since Aaron was there for all of the optional stuff this offseason, why the Jets didn't handle this from a pr perspective better,

which was six weeks ago. Have as an aside during a press conference, when you're singing Aaron's praises about him being there, just say, and you know, we're really glad he's here because you know, we know he can't be at mini camp and blah blah blah. And then at some point, someone follows up and they're like, wait, did you say he's not gonna be at Mini camp? Be like, yeah, we've talked about it. We know it's not a big deal. He's got something going on, and then it's not a

story the first day of Mini camp. So why didn't the Jets do that? Everyone is assigning just raw incompetence to that decision, and it's the Jets, so raw incompetence is always on the board. That's not my theory. Here's my theory to Monsey. I haven't heard anyone else say this, but to me, it's so clearly what happened. Why didn't the Jets let the media know? Why didn't they let his teammates knowing? No, No, that's not it. I believe they knew. I don't think that. I mean, that's possible.

I guess that they're lying that they've known for months, But I believe they knew. Here's my theory. They were hoping he'd change his mind. They were hoping that at some point he would be like, hmmm, international vacation or the only two days I'm required to be in this building in a three month stretch, we can you know what I've made the most money of anyone in the history of professional football. I can move some flights around.

They were hoping that, and again raw speculation. My guess is the last day of the OTAs there was a bit of a you know, hope to see on Tuesday Arin. It's like, ah, like, maybe he'll surprise us. The other option is they're just totally incompetent in all phases. I think they were hoping he'd change his mind because objected, and someone would the Jets is pissed, someone important with the Jets is pissed, or else they call it excused.

They simply say he's excused, and this idea, well, they can't say he's excused because then they have to excuse the Sonrettic. No, they don't. And the other thing is they could just excuse a Sonretic, but a Sonrettic. I mean, this is the incompetence. The Eagles traded a Sonretic because he wanted a new contract they didn't want to give him. The Jets traded for him without getting the Sonretic stuff locked in. It's just so he's upset didn't have a deal.

So that's my theory. My other theory is a very simple one, which is when Aaron does talk about this, he will be sanctimonious. He will not so subtly scold Robert Salah like, well, yeah, you know, I don't you know, we had talked about it, so I don't know why it was, you know, made quite the deal it was. And then he will just talk about the fake news media and everyone making a big deal out of nothing because the guys in Peru or Portugal or wherever the

hell he is. It's just so embarrassing. Quick break right back after a one hour long a block What's Right? Welcome back in What's Right? With Nick Wright, episode two forty four on what is almost Celtic's coronation Day not quite demands some somber news. Yesterday in the sports world, let's get to it. Go ahead.

What's crazy about his playing career is that you could argue it wasn't as good as his executive career, and one of the great what if it's an NBA history demon say this is worth looking back and finding the video of Jerry West. So he builds the showtime Lakers that they actually when they announced pat Riley is going to be the coach, Doctor Buss announced Jerry West was going to be the coach at the press conference and

Jerry West said, no, I'm not not doing it. At the press conference, like doctor Buss surprised him, You're gonna be the coach?

showtime Lakers. Jerry then trades for Shaq, drafts Kobe, and you know, executes a draft day trade for Kobe. It should be noted Kobe was the thirteenth pick of the draft trade, acquired for Vlade divants. It's not like it was a Lebron can't miss won the lottery situation. Jerry

West saw something in him. Brew told a story off the air yesterday that one of the reasons the Lakers fell in love with Kobe was because when they brought him in for a workout, instead of just having him work out, they had him work out against Michael Cooper, who was aging but was one of the best defensive players in the league in his heyday. And Kobe did great in that workout. And so Jerry was a visionary. He was the reason demands. The Warriors didn't trade Clay

Thompson for Kevin Love in twenty thirteen. That was on the everyone in twenty thirteen. Everyone wanted to do it. It's like, we already have staff, we need more rebounding. Kevin Love was available. Kevin Love at that point was like putting up twenty and twenties all the time. They were going to do it, and Jerry West stopped it, and then they end up turning into a dynasty. Jerry West helped put the Clippers together in later years. Sadly he had a falling out with the Lakers. They continue

to be petty about it. It's one of the reasons they are embarrassing as a high level organization. Their statement on Jerry West was three sentences long, and in my opinion, they shorted him championships and so it's it's weird he has a statue there, but they still there's still bitterness between ownership there. It's clearly because.

the Grizzlies from O two to seven. This is the video I was referring to. So he takes over the Grizzlies in O two. The three draft is the Lebron Draft. The Grizzlies had traded their pick years prior for nothing. Really, you know, it was one of those picks like it's protected this, protected this, but they find owed it. They only got to keep it. It was protected for number one overall in the Lebron James Draft. Okay, it was gonna go to the Pistons otherwise, And that lottery happens.

And the final two teams left picking one and two or two and one are the Calves and the Grizzlies. And Jerry West is on the podium knowing if they open the envelope and it's US, we get Lebron James. If they open the envelope and it's Cleveland, we get nothing. The number two pick then goes to Detroit. So it's either the greatest prospect in sports history or nothing. No pick ended up being nothing. That pick ended up turning into dark O, but it obviously could have been d Wade, Carmelo, Bosch,

those were the next guys taken. But there is and Cleveland, Lebron's from Akron. There's all of that, but there is a whole another version of NBA history where Lebron gets drafted to a team run by the greatest executive ever and does he never you know what I mean. There's so many things there or whatever. But Jerry West was just a legend's legend. And the clip I played on TV yesterday was him recently relatively at a conference talking about how players come into the league these days and

they're like, he's a dog, he's a dog. This guy's a dog, and he just says, matter of factly, well, I was a wolf.

player in the league. Was the best shooter in the league. And justin all, it's why you know, most people have him as the third best shooting guard ever, Michael Kobe, Jerry, there's an argument he's the second best shooting guard ever. When I did my Top fifty, one of the reasons I cut it off of the last fifty years is because it is really hard to parse the guys from Jerry's era and the previous era. And here's the other

thing that I'll say that is sad. Before Kobe passed demons, if you said, hey, let's get the fifty greatest NBA players ever in a room, all of them were available except for Wilt and Pistol. Pete and Pistol died very young.

if he's ninety five or ninety six. He's like, I'm ninety five years old. I've got one foot in the grave. I just want to see the Celtics hang banner eighteen, which was a great quote by a legendary player. But it's just, you know, it is so many of these guys. And one other thing I'll say, uh, everyone should go

check out uh Dan Patrick on Jerry West. So, Dan Patrick is obviously a lot older than me and d so Dan Patrick is he's mid to late sixties looks unbelievable, by the way, but he's you know, he he Jerry West was his favorite player as a little kid, and then he became friends with Jerry West through the show and Dan, I've never I'm sure he's done it before, but I've never seen him do it. He cried on the air yesterday when we found out the news, and it was touching. In a great moment, I text Dan

and said how moving it was. The guy's a legend, made the Demons, He made the Hall of Fame three different times. He made the Hall of Fame three different times for three different roles. And obviously I didn't even say it. He is literally the logo. I mean, he's literally the logo. So just in all time, all time legend.

Let's the best questions that we have today, save them and let's add them to the questions next week because, by the way, if this thing gets wrapped on Friday, we're gonna have a lot of open space over these next few weeks. Today was a very long show and I kind of want to end it on the Jerry West stuff. Great job demands. Congrats to the Celtics thus far. Everybody pump the brakes a bit on the crushing Luca. I'll try to see what I can do about that on TV in a few hours.

to two hundred thousand followers. We're right around one hundred and fifty thousand. We'd love to get to two hundred thousand. Get demanday another plaque, so like subscribe rate, send a rating to do all that cool stuff. Thanks guys,