Lakers Lose, Celtics Crumbling & Wright-Ins

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But before I bring Dior in, let me discuss what is not on today's show. Not making the Cup for today's show, the Knicks survive despite a late heat run. Tiger will not be playing in the PGA Championship as he's having ankle surgery. And I wasn't invited to our technical ace Victor's birthday party. Victor, I gotta tell you, man, this is a terrible move by you. And here's why I am the perfect person to invite to weddings and birthday parties. What do you mean? Not true?

party itself is not the draw. The drinking without potential consequences or guilt is the draw. Like, oh man, there was a big party last night, so it can't be held accountable. So I'm just saying, I'm just the honest person. Yeah, I probably don't want to go to the party, but I'll send you a nice gift, all right. I filibustered long enough the Lakers lost, we got to talk about it.

That would be devastating for the Lakers. No, Anthony Davis and blowing the three to one lead is absolutely on the board of potential out now on Moore, Saint Anthony Davis and on concussion protocol in a moment, first, though about last night, nothing about last night was surprising. I

am now forget that stupid Corgie that's going viral. I am a documented eleven for eleven incorrectly picking the winner of every single Lakers playoff game, including last night when I picked the Golden I'm sorry when I picked the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors were not going to lose three straight. They were not going to be eliminated at home, and the Lakers were just by nature going to relax a bit net because they knew they had Game six

at home waiting for them. But you got to win the game six, and I believe they will win the Game six. I even believe they could win the Game six if Anthony Davis doesn't play. It would take a throwback Lebron performance. But when we say throwback, we don't mean throwback to twenty eighteen. I mean throwback to mid January. The month of January, Lebron averaged thirty five points per game. Now, that's before he injured his foot, and he has not

looked quite the same since then. But I wouldn't give the Lakers a zero percent chance of winning a home playoff game against the league's worst road team, even if AD is out. But it does drastically change the math on the series. And I'll talk about what happened in last night's game pre Anthony Davis injury. In a second, but first I want to have an honest give you my honest thoughts on the NBA when it comes to concussion protocol. And this is not about Anthony Davis. This

is something I have said publicly and privately before. It's not a very popular opinion, but my job isn't necessarily be popular. It's to be honest, totally understand why football needs a strict and distinct concussion protocol. I get that. Hockey, sure, those sports makes all the sense in the world. Basketball, in my opinion, is a little different.

if a guy once he is here. Let me back up a bit, if they think you may have suffered a concussion in that game and they say you cannot return to that game, I'm totally fine with it. Even if the player's like, no, I'm good, I want to go. I want to go, because there is the possibility that they are not of their right mind. They just they might they're not seeing clearly, they're not thinking clearly any of those things. But once we are a day removed, if a player has all his faculties about him and

is told in basketball, listen, you suffer a concussion. You're not exhibiting any symptoms. You feel fine. However, if you were to go play and you were to suffer another concussion in such a short window of time that damnage could be terrible. I am okay with that player saying, I hear you, I understand that I am choosing to play, just like I'm okay with rock climbers. They say, oh my goodness, this is incredibly dangerous, and it says, okay,

I hear you, I am making the choice. It is trickier in sports where concussions are part and parcel with the sport, almost the cost of doing business. But in basketball they are so rare that I am okay. And I know some doctors out there probably hate hearing me say this, and they vehemently disagree. So be it. I am okay with If somebody says, all right, I understand the cost benefit analysis, I've done the risk profile of this.

I am comfortable taking that risk because I want to try to win a championship, because I want to keep playing. And so I don't know what's gonna happen with Anthony Davis now if he plays. There were some things last night that make me even more optimistic about the Lakers' chances. The Warriors were absolutely lights out from three in the first quarter of that game, and they could not separate.

The Lakers had found a way for large parts of that game to score effectively, efficiently and somewhat easily on that Warriors defense. And it was a three point game with a minute left in the first half. The very end of the first half was brutal. The Lakers then cut it to seven, cut it to eight, cut it to nine. Then Ad goes out with an injury, and the wind is out of the sales. And so nothing from yesterday's game makes me feel like, Oh, the Warriors

solved the problems the Lakers present to him. And I know Steve Kerr has talked about wanting to wear down Lebron and Anthony Davis. Well, that knife cuts both ways, because you absolutely run the risk of wearing down Steph Curry, the smallest guy out there that has the ball in his hands all the time, and he played. Steph played another forty minutes last night seven game series in round

one high minutes throughout this series in super high usage. Now, speaking of Steve, the other noteworthy thing about last night's game is the referees basically decided we're gonna let them both sides play with reckless abandon That obviously impacts the Lakers far more than it impacts the Warriors because of their styles of play, and because Draymond, if you give him that latitude, will, to his credit, take as much

advantage of it as is possible. I do think Steve Kerr had a little gamesmanship when he was whining about the alleged flopping on what were clear and obvious illegal screens. And I think that he got a very favorable whistle yesterday. But that is part of playoff basketball. Part of playoff basketball is working the refs, setting the narratives and getting a favorable whistle at home. And so we'll see what

it looks like in Game six. Gonna I'm gonna guess Anthony Davis is gonna play, and if Ad plays, the Lakers win. If he doesn't play, it's gonna take a thirty five, ten and ten from Lebron, which would be an epic performance. But that is obviously a lot to ask of a guy in year twenty at age thirty eight.

to me. They are a poorly coach team that for two straight years has been bad in clutch situations, whose second star in Jalen Brown, seems to be going through his own stuff. You don't know if you're gonna get start to finish. Good performances from Jason Tatum in two of the last three games he's or back to back games or two last three, I'm not sure he's the first quarter plus of the game, he's hasn't made a shot.

And Philly, on the other hand, has been the best team in the league from a record standpoint since the middle of December, the best team in the league since the All Star break. They have the league MVP. Harden has played a few of his best playoff games in years, including two of his best playoff games ever in this series. They are a deep team and no one wants to

believe in them. It was legitimately surprising to me how many people who voted for joe El Embiid for League MVP did so evidently believing that he was not going to play anything like in MVP. Once the playoffs started, and he was excellent in game five. He was very good until the very end of Game six, and I sorry, I'm trying to help your Mike dieor and I'm sorry. I had the excellent until the very end of game four, I should say, but then Al Horford started giving him

real trouble. And this is setting up very nicely for Philly, which the only team left in the playoffs that has home court over Philly is Boston. So if Philly wins, they have home court in the conference finals against almost assuredly the Heat, maybe the Knicks, but they have a home court either way, and then a home court against anyone that comes out of the West. And Embiid's knee is looking stronger. This is setting up very well for them, which is why if they were to lose these two games,

it is a devastating blow that we talk legacy. Joel Embiid currently the only MVP in league history to have never made a conference finals. He can change that tonight. But if they lose tonight and then lose a game seven, some tough questions to answer in Philly flip side. If the Celtics get bounced in round two, major changes are coming to that team. The head coach probably isn't going to be back. They didn't ever really even want that guy's I mean, that was a kind of break glass

in case of emergency situation for their head coach. Now, Jalen Brown made all NBA, so they can give him the Supermax, but he sure doesn't seem to want to be a Celtic. And for the Celtics, over the last seven years, when they have had minimal expectations, they have far exceeded them, and when they have had big expectations,

they have fallen short. I'll do this off the top of my head, but the Celtics, dating back twenty seventeen, they have little Isaiah Thomas, Jalen Brown's a rookie, Jason Tatum's not even there yet, and they find themselves in the conference finals, where they of course get rolled by Lebron. Twenty eighteen, big time expectations. They draft Tatum, they trade for Kyrie, They sign Gordon Hayward. Gordon Hayward breaks his leg in Game one. Kyrie then gets hurt late in

the year. Going into the playoffs, they're seemingly without their two best players. Minimal expectations. They find themselves in the conference finals again against Lebron, up three to two. Lebron has two magnificent games and they lose, but still everything's looking up. Twenty nineteen, they are the overwhelming favorites in the Eastern Conference. They flame out in round two, four straight losses to Milwaukee. Kyrie's a disaster. They go nowhere, essentially.

So that's two conference finals seventeen and eighteen. Nineteen doesn't work out for him. Twenty twenty was twenty twenty oh in twenty twenty is is that the that's the bubble? You know?

is clearly the better team. They are the deeper team and Phoenix. They were getting nothing out of their bench, so they started playing different bench guys. But you see why Terrence Ross and TJ. Warren weren't playing earlier because while they give you a bit of a threat offensively, defensively they bring nothing to the table. And you can't just play you can't play competent playoff defense with those

guys getting significant minutes. That right now, the Suns. Not to mention sham at others, the Suns are a two man team. There is not a single player now that Chris Paul's hurt on the Suns other than Booker and Durant that would crack the Nuggets rotation. Jo Kich's Yo Kitch. Booker and Durant are the three best players in this series.

The next seven guys are all Nuggets, and that includes DeAndre Ayton, who you've gotta think that tonight could be his final game as a Sun. I like the Nuggets to night a lot, all right.

can pay you even more. So Jaws contract that he has already signed would have gone up in value by thirty nine million dollars. Wow, had he been All NBA. And he wasn't All NBA because he missed a few weeks in the middle of the season because he went on IG Live from a strip club with a gun in his hand. So it is not an exaggeration to say that dumbass video cost him thirty nine million guaranteed dollars.

It's crazy, and you know he came close just for just so you guys understand, he finished with out of this so six guards, make it six forwards, three sinners, right, He finished seventh amongst guards in voting, so first guy out for the All NBA voting, he still could have made it. Like he wasn't ineligible because of the incident. He just he missed Timon so not enough people voted for him. But so jah, I mean, Jock cost himself thirty nine million bucks. That is a takeaway. I thought

dearon Fox was too low. He was third team. I didn't like I Listen, nobody loves Luca more than Luca was first team. That was crazy. His team finished in eleventh place. Like, I don't love that the two first team guards, Shay and Luca, both of their teams missed the playoffs entirely. You guys said, don't make it all about Lebron. Well, I do have to acknowledge this part on Lebron. This is now nineteen years in a row.

He's on in all nbaighteen. The next most all NBA selections from anyone is Duncan, Kobe and Kareem with fifteen each. Lebron's at nineteen, Bird and Magic combined for twenty. Lebron is at nineteen. And however, what is interesting is Lebron was got the least amount of votes of anyone that made any of the teams, so he came in fifteenth out of the fifteen guys that make it. The guy who came in sixteenth, oddly enough, was Anthony Davis. So Anthony Davis. You know, Lebron kind of took AD's All

NBA spot, if you will. He came in sixteenth. Lebron came in fifteenth. Nothing else really jumped out at me. I think it is interesting looking at the playoffs this year that Booker missed, but it's because he missed time. But he's been unbelievable. Jannis was unanimous first team, which I found noteworthy, Embeed getting his first ever first team. Janni's Tatum, Embiid were pretty clear cut to me. Your three forward spots, the question was the guard spots, and

also Damian Lillard. Despite Portland's terrible year, he did make it, which ended up costing. You know, some people would have said Josh should have gotten that spot, or Jalen Brunson should have gotten that spot. Julius Randall was the one Nick represented, but I think the All NBA voters actually did a pretty damn good job this year. And Jalen Brown made All NBA, which does mean he is now super Man eligible. All right, take quick break, come back, we play a game, our game right end, and also

we discussed the Bob Huggins situation. That's all next, well's right.

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

in a few minutes. But legendary college basketball coach Bob Huggins has been suspended, had a salary cut a million dollars, and he's gonna have to go undergo sensitivity training and some other things because he repeatedly uttered the worst homophobic slurs that exists while joking around on what I can only describe as what must be one of the worst

radio shows in America. And I was debating how I wanted to discuss this, because I think it is actually there is a larger discussion to be had, but I think it is important to hear exactly what he said

in the full context of what he said. So we are going to play about forty five seconds of Bob Huggins audio exactly how it aired on the radio station WLWAM, So there is not going to be any beeps here, so there is This is my full disclaimer that you're gonna hear some really awful language, and we'll play it here in the next thirty seconds. So if you want to hear the discussion, we don't want to hear the language,

just come back to us in ninety seconds. And this is also my apology for anybody that is unmoored by hearing this homophobic slur. I am not doing it for shock value or for any reason other than I think it is important to hear it how exactly how it was uttered and then uttered again, and hear his and the host's reactions to it. This is a conversation about

getting athletes out of the transfer portal. Huggins alludes to sex toys having been thrown on the court during a game, and here's the audio from w l W. Let's play it.

League museum. He said the in word league museum. Woh wow. That to me is far different than this because that so the reason I bring that up is I am not saying there are certain things that no matter the context, no matter anything, if you say it, you're axed, You're done. The in word is probably the most hurtful word in the English language because there is some what's the word, I don't want to say, a plausible deniability, but it is not as one hundred percent cut and dry. This

was intentional to hurt people that I am not. I didn't even put it on the show. I'm not saying that guy should be fired. Bob Kendrick, my very good friend, Bob Kendrick, who runs the Negro League Museum in Kansas City, who gave that man a tour, came out with a statement saying, I heard it. It's incredibly unfortunate. But I come from a place of forgiveness and grace, and I think we should, you know, give that there. I would want more information on something like that. Talk to the

guy's colleagues. Does he use racist language a lot? Is there a reason to believe that maybe it was truly just a slip of the tongue those things, This is not that, and this isn't and.

I think some people feel like the pendulum swung too far in the PC direction that everyone's worried about pro and you're not supposed to say, like I'm gonna use the generic examples people use. You're not supposed to say homeless, You're supposed to say temporarily on hows and these things that people feel like it's swung too far that way, the language police, and now I think people feel like, not only is it swinging back to an equilibrium, but it's gonna swing further to where I.

my god. You know Bob Huggins caught on audio was having a private conversation. Someone was recording it. He didn't know it. He's on the radio representing a public university where his job is to help shape and mold young people. And he twice says the F word, the homophobic slur F word, in the way it is intended to be used, if you will, which is to try to masculate or demean gay men. He's talking about people throwing sex toys

on the court and then calls them catholic bleeps. And the fact that West Virginia believes they can get away with not firing him is to me a bit of a canary in the coal mine of folks are going to continue to try to push these lines and just say, bleep you. The power has shifted. We will do and say what we want. And I am not the guy that calls for firings or tries to gin up.

who makes more is the head football coach. The idea that you could be the public facing face of any major company in America. Say that and not lose your gig for it is unnerving to me and so and listen. I am on live television ten hours a week. I do this live. Trust me. I am always anxious about the fact that it takes one bad moment to potentially wreck everything I've worked for my entire life. But this wasn't a bad moment. This was an intentional punchline of

a joke, said twice. This wasn't a whoops, right, It wasn't a mistake. He said it with his chest like he it was. It was to illicit the exact response. He got giggles from those clowns, and and if people think I'm meaning too hard on the radio host. I did live radio for a decade. I absolutely had people that had come on the show, be callers or guests multiple times that said wildly out of line things. It is your job in that moment.

high school and high school getting beat up. This was what was was said while people were attacking me because of who I am, which is talked to any gay man you know above the age of thirty and ask them if that word has been hurled at them in the midst of physical violence. My guess is eight out of ten are going to tell you, yes, if you have any type of conscience hearing that can change your behavior. But that does not mean there should not be true

repercussions for that behavior. And when people are like, oh, losing a million dollars for a word, guys, words are, for the vast majority of us, the most powerful thing we have. Most of us. Do not fight, do not shoot, do not stab the most of the most powerful vehicle we have to cause joy or pain in another human being. For the vast majority of us is our words, the messages we send, and the idea that, oh, you shouldn't lose your job, Then what the should you lose your

job for? And if you're West Virginia, and there's the tricky part, you were setting yourself up to be such a laughing stock. Because here's the fact of the matter. If West Virginia, when he comes back from his suspension, loses ten straight basketball games, he will be fired. So don't act like there's nothing you'll fire him for. And

here's the other thing. If he used in the same type of joking manner, whatever it is, the ward there, he would have been fired, I believe, because I can't effectively coach college basketball and everybody knows you're a racist. But because West Virginia determined we do we think we have any gay guys on the team? Do we think this?

It's not gonna affect his ability to recruit, right, And so it is because he singled out a marginalized group that West Virginia decided was not important enough to what he does to have a real, real significant impact. And and by the way, I'll say this, I'm thirty eight years old. Okay. I graduated high school in two thousand

and three. I was in college three to seven. Absolutely I have on my record throwing around gay and even that word while joking with my high school buddies, and probably, if I'm being honest, my college buddies, and I can't. I can say is a different time? Wasn't that different of a time twenty years ago? Not that I'm proud of, but I became more aware of the impact of it, grew up, matured, and not anywhere in my vernacular. Bob Huggins is a sick see something, Your old grown ass

man doing this publicly for laughs. It's shameful behavior. All right, You want to try to have some fun before we get to listener questions and comments. Yeah, let's turn the page. What game are we playing? Oh you've got the whiteboards? Wow, demons always stunk at the white boards. Oh look look at what do you look at? First of all, look at the image. Do you ever wrote something nice on our white boards? It says, let's play a game of

write ends? Thank you scoot? All right, let me have the marker and then go ahead and ask the first question.

me a break. So on a neutral site in the Chiefs only three and a half points better than the Lions and Jared Goff, give me a break, all right.

Because if he follows up last year's playoff performance of the four touchdown comeback and then playing hard against the Chiefs, but with another good playoff performance, people are gonna have to recognize that I was right about him all along.

to I can't go as NFL's on right now. I think, you know, if you're in a relationship and you love football and your significant other doesn't they understand, Okay, Sundays during the fall, plus Monday nights and now Thursday nights. If all of a sudden it's like and Christmas and Black Friday and the day after Thanksgiving, there's a saturation limit where the significant other says, no, you're missing the game. We're going wherever, We're going to the in laws to

do shopping, whatever it is. And the reason that is risky is because the moment you break the seal of you can miss games, all of a sudden, it might be like, oh, I was able to watch highlights. I Oh, I was okay. It stops being such definite appointment viewing. You've got to be locked in all Sunday. Well, honey, you missed last week and you were fine, why can't we go do something this week? So I think, you know.

Mark Cuban said years ago about the NFL that pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered and that they're being risky and how much content, like how many days on the calendar they're trying to eat up. I agree with that. I think a Christmas tripleheader and a Black Friday game will be temporarily exciting and potentially a bad long term business move. All right.

I don't know that's gonna happen.

an old timer. Demons like learning how sports betting worked and then having real NFL gambling takes, and you last week when we were going back and forth on stuff. Those are my five favorite moments. So I don't have a singular favorite moment, but those are my five favorite moments. What did you write? Go ahead?

been big on that. With that said, how many games do I need to pick the winner of correctly in a row before somebody writes something. Somebody should have written something last year about my fifty to one Super Bowl exacta coming down to the final weekend of the NFL playoffs, somebody maybe should write something about my Lakers fifty to one pick that I gave out on this show that right that before tip off yesterday was down to four

to one and now it's at six to one. And I mean I have on television before every single Lakers playoff game said who was going to win? And it's not like I'm simply saying every time the Lakers. I've picked correctly when they were gonna win, when they were gonna lose for eleven games in a row. So I don't know, all right.