Welcome in. We'll driving Nick Great Episode three point fifteen. After a eventful and somewhat exhausting weekend from New York to Memphis to Vegas, landed back here yesterday morning. That's why we were not able to be on the air Tuesday. Little programming note, however, a couple programming notes. Actually, let me see if I can straighten this out a bit for you guys. There we go. That should be better.
My apologies. Tomorrow morning. A bonus show to make up for Tuesday, talk Lakers, Warriors, Instant Reaction, anything that should be up and live first thing in the morning, and if you're on the West Coast, probably while you're still sleeping, so that'll come tomorrow Tuesday, our annual way too early
NFL over Under show. Normally we would have done that this past Tuesday, however, we weren't on the air, and so our friends at DraftKings have released the full slate of NFL team win totals, so we will take our first bite at that on Tuesday. However, we got to get right into it. I thought I knew where we'd be starting the show, given you know, the Internet over the weekend, But then the Internet over the last forty eight hours, I was involved in a different piece of
the internet. So that's in what missed the cut, But it didn't actually miss the cut. So here's what missed the cut. Demons. Great to see you, Tyreek Hills Stokes trade rumors again, whatever he wants the attention. I love Tyreek, but we know what's going on. Greatest player in Syracuse basketball history, one of the greatest Olympians ever, one of the best pure scores of his era, a no doubt first ballot Hall of Famer, Carmelo Anthony. And then there's
this the headline from People magazine. Dude trap Vis Kelsey and his quote sports friend have beef. So I was playing Demonse in a poker game in Vegas when this got sent to me, and now it's everywhere on the internet, and I cannot believe I need to address this. I mean, it's on People, it's on I think, that's Al Jazeera, it's on US Weekly. It's so I am so incredibly oddly frustrated by this because I think it is so
recklessly unfair to Travis Kelcey. So let me reset exactly what happened, not restate, not clarified, because everything that I said, Demanse was totally one hundred percent clear the recreation of this in the headlines. I didn't misspeak, I didn't misrepresent has but the headlines to me are so this is what happened. So New Heights with Travis and Jason Kelsey shouted me out after I invited myself on their show to be their salary cap expert. Right, that's that's what happened.
And Travis said, I offten love Nick Wright, and I said, as an aside, I was like, you know, I actually haven't spoken a lot to Travis since he and Taylor got together. With the timeline being I said, we don't really talk during the seasons. We always, you know, we have a kind of annual event of being able to get together at the Chief's Super Bowl Parade, But two years ago at the parade was cut short by a tragic shooting, and this year the parade was canceled by
the Philadelphia Eagles. So those two times we didn't talk. And then the one off seat where that you know, where normally there might be and again I Travis, I am dear friends with Adam Lefko, who is an actual dear friend of Travis's. They I think one was at the other's. Yeah, I think left I think Travis was at left Goo's wedding. When the when Travis and Taylor were in New York City for a Yankee game and they did a live shot at Travis and Taylor, I'm like, Hey,
that's Lefto and his wife sitting with them. They're dear friends. Trav and I have a great relationship, but we don't hang out. We you know, I don't. We've never talked on the phone, might text or DM occasionally, but I leave him alone during the season and then the last offseason he was the busiest man in the world. So that's what I said. So I said, yea, So this being like represented so unfairly up to an including in the Times of India that as if Travis has cut
off people in his life or gott in Hollywood. It's just total horseshit.
I feel, like you said, I've been passing as well, Like I remember when you said it, like I remember the tone and everything.
It's definitely a reach.
You know, Listen, anyone, if I felt like I had screwed up, I would apologize. But anyone that watched the show or saw it got the exact right read of it. Where I feel badly is I don't expect, certainly Taylor or Tailor's people to watch the show. They're welcome to, and I don't expect Travis to watch this show. And if it's represented as if someone is trying to you'd be like like, oh, we used to be super close.
And then this guy like, that's not what it was at all, And so I got I know that this was I think the producers when they first like brought it to my attention and pitched me on it. I probably the tone of this was supposed to be this is hilarious, and it would be if I knew all the parties involved. Also we're on the exact same page. But I just I do feel that it is a
level of fame. When I texted Wild's the People headline after Daniel texts it to me, and I said, I really think Taylor Swift might be the most famous person
in the world. Like, I truly think she might be the most famous person in the world if just someone at my level whatever that is of notoriety having an aside about her boyfriend friend and the last time we talked, if that touch is enough if her fame gravity is so great that People magazine and the Times of India are like, this will get us some foot traffic on
the website. It's incomprehensible that level of fame. And so maybe maybe there maybe when you're that level of famous, you're just used to things being so kind of out you know, misrepresented her out of whack, but it is that was an insane and an insane realization of the reach that a true global icon has, of which Taylor Swift is. So there's the not even clarification, but the true story. And then you got a question for me.
Yeah, do you think you're gonna start a rebranding now in light of these events?
Because I was called not my name but his sports friend. What's right with sports friend? Okay? I mean yeah, I mean that's the other thing. It's also a kind of confusing headline because it would it would appear like if you just read the headline, it sounds like they're talking about another professional athlete rather than me, because sports friend, I would think that you're talking another professional athlete. So that was, you know, one kind of brush with the
media machine associated with the world's most famous people. Odd forty eight hours because it was my second brush with that of the week and demons go ahead.
Yeah, so over the weekend you saw Memphis and Lakers face off. You happen to be court side. Bakers showed out, they got the dub. But the bigger piece of this story was like what happened after the game.
So you're okay, yeah, we can play it if you're just listening on YouTube, or if you're just listening to the podcast and not watching on YouTube. What you're seeing right now is the like NBA cameras close up of Lebron and I dapping up after the game. And then my favorite part is your mom just standing there like fixing her hair like that cut out the full video which somebody got from the crowd, which includes the Lebron hug to your mom, which is just one of the
coolest things you know ever. And also you know who I thought about when I saw that this video because this happened Saturday night and it all these videos came out Sunday, you know what I mean. I didn't publish any of these, I didn't amplify, but it somebody somebody put out this far form video Sunday morning. And then the other videos came out and caught fire. I gotta tell you, and I know this is not what probably is smart podcasting. They're like, you're bearing the lead, but
I don't care. I what I thought about when Lebron went in for the hug to your mom right after a hard fought basketball game and she reciprocated and gave him the hug. I only thought about.
You, thank you, thank you. Oh my god. Yes, yes, I was litering.
To Somebody brought this up at work and I was like, my mom would never hug me if I was in that state.
Ever, go ahead, what do you know?
I agree with you. This isn't a hypothetical. We saw it happen a hundred times. A hundred times Demonse had an awesome either AU or high school basketball game, or when we came out to San Diego and watched you play in college and you had your career high twenty nine or whatever.
It was not a full like that.
Maybe a side one maybe.
Maybe That's all I could think about was you. I was like, oh man, this is unbelievable, and it's so funny that you said the same thing. Okay, So I don't even know what or how people and then I want to talk about the actual game, even though no, I don't think anybody cares about it right now? What are how people want me to say about this? Like I what did I say the other week? One of the benefits and this is not my quote, obviously one of the benefits, and never lying is never having to
remember anything. I have never once ever misrepresented in over or under exaggerating my relationship with Lebron. It's always been well I should, I mean relationships of all, but it's the audience has kind of been on the journey. I consider Maverick Lebron's right hand man and one of the smartest business people I've ever met, a good good friend because of my really and I have a something of a business and something of a personal relationship with Rich.
Because of those relationships, I have a secondary relationship with Lebron where you know, the occasionally were in the same circle, very occasionally. It's happened a couple times, and so it was. I said on this show repeatedly when I knew we were going to Memphis, and when I knew that I had gotten, and when I knew I had gotten when I purchased the courtside seats that that interaction was certainly
on the board. Now it was going to be one hundred percent conditional on the Lakers winning, because anybody that's watched Lebron throughout his career knows if they win, he'll he usually has a postgame interview, he'll linger a bit on the court, and if he has friends or colleagues or whomever courtside other pro athletes, he'll stop by dap
them up. If they lose, it's straight to the locker room. Now, what didn't get caught was the pregame interaction when I was standing with John Morant's dad, T and Lebron came over and said hello to both of us, and then he and Tea had a brief conversation. I don't know what it was about. It was private, but I don't. I don't. I was not as shocked by that as I think the audience was. The Internet, I should say, and this is where maybe my ego can get the best of me. I was a little offended is too
strong of a word. I'll go nonplussed by the number of people who were asserting what a life changing event this this was for me or the oh Man finally, you know, after all those years of good pr finally gets his acknowledgement. That's not what it is either, However, I do. I am a die hard sports fan. It is why I do what I do for my entire life. The NBA, up until really Mahomes got drafted, it was the NBA was a clear number one in my personal sports fandom, with the NFL a all by itself but
a clear number two. The last half decade of the NFL has kind of changed it to where now if I'm asked, I say, the NFL regular season is my favorite. The NBA playoffs are my favorite. Like my favorite sport to watch over the course of the year is the NFL. My favorite two months of the year of the NBA playoffs. But with all that said, I for the majority of my life my favorite sport in the world was the NBA.
My favorite athlete ever is Lebron and so yeah, it's super dope that he and I have even that level of I don't know if you want to call it relationship whatever it is, mutual acknowledgment respect. I'd call it mutual respect, Yeah, is how I would is the way I would put it. And I also think for him.
It was.
Bent. It was good timing in that because of everything that he has been involved in in the last month, it was a reminder to the audience. I don't I'm not anti all an everyone in the media. Yeah, I'm you know what I mean, I'm not. I don't think that everybody. It's there's certain there's one person in particular, and then maybe a handful of unnamed but we know who they are retired athletes in the media that I
have a problem with. But otherwise, you know what I mean, Like there can be a level of and the other thing about Lebron's relationship with the media is if you ever see any of his pregame interviews, which are almost always done with the local media that covers the Lakers and then whatever team they're playing, he has seemingly real, not just cordial, but incredibly friendly relationships with a lot
of those guys. Mike Trudell, who covers the Lakers. There was the video of him giving Trudell a hard time because he was wearing I think a man you sweatshirt, and Lebron owned is a Liverpool guy because he either owns or owned a piece of it. He had when he was with the Calves. Maybe still a really good relationship with Ali Clifton will host road tripping with Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson. So I think that's all there.
But yeah, so I knew once that clip, once the first like far away clip came out, I knew this was going to be something that in some capacity was going to be addressed. But I was probably not as shocked by as everyone else. What I really was thrilled, though, Demons, even though I knew you probably would take it personally as you should have that Lebron who has met your mother once before, recognized her the and you know, acknowledged her.
So that part, that part was pretty cool. And then we can get to the game.
Go ahead to though, wait so wait or do you want to get to the game or do we There's actually one more piece of video that we have not shown. It actually has audio. We're gonna show you guys.
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, no, no, no, is this the one? Is this the one your mom sent to the group, to our family group chat.
It's a little yeah, one hundred percent, it's a little bit more up close.
Okay, So let me give all right, before we play this, all right, this is this is borderline is the wrong word, but it's fine. But I also, if we're going to play this, I want to I want to give the full background here. So there were two guys and you see it in the In fact, I don't know before we do it, producers tell me, can we play the vo close shot again? Because I want to give these
guys credit. So it was a father and son that were sitting next to us courtside, and you see the father has his phone out and he's trying to grab a picture with his son and Lebron. Uh, and it doesn't happen. The child, no, not the small child. Black guy with the blue hat and his son right next to you see that there, not the little little kid, not the redhead. It's black father and son right next
to your mom. So that guy had his camera out recording in case, you know what I mean, he was able to get a picture with his son and Lebron. He did didn't end up happening. I then asked him because of the hug with your mom and Lebron, I was like, hey, can you send me that video later? You know what I mean? I think it'd be super dope to have and so he said yes, And is that actually a pain for him? I think he had to send it me a drop boxer for so long. So I want to shout him out because his name
is shown Hornbuckle and his son is Tristan Hornbuckle. Uh and there on Instagram at shown Hornbuckle and at Tristant Hornbuckle too. But so this one is dope because there is audio and because you hear what Lebron says to your mom, So go ahead and play that, then we'll talk about the game. So I don't know how well that played on the podcast, but it is such pairing if you're listening on the podcast, it's worth going back
to YouTube. Bron and I dapt I thing kind of motion like, hey, there's there's my wife who again they've met once before, and his total like disposition changes from like you know, the the what's the word kind of like affirmative DAP to just like, oh, great to see you, and then drops a hey their sweetheart as are a hug, which maybe led to you know what we were discussing earlier. So that was dope. That was what le see.
The look on ye.
That that was that was dope, and you're and now, I mean, your mom can send that to her grandmother, who's ninety one years old and the biggest Lebron fan in the world was.
Probably a little annoyed too.
The oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, oh yeah, because well it
doesn't matter the there was Lakers thunder. Maybe this is john because of what happened between Lebron and stephen A. That there's I assume there's cameras on Lebron at all times every game, but maybe it's like, you know, pre and postgame more now posts that because Lakers thunder in LA the day after Thanksgiving, the exact same interaction that happened this week between Lebron and I happened there at Staples, except it was longer, with a longer conversation, and there's
no video of it anywhere. And so but the reason I the reason I bring that up is that happened about sixty feet from where your grandmother was sitting. She was in like row three, a section over, and then I walked back to the seats and she was not joking, adamant, why didn't you bring him over here?
Yeah?
Well so yeah, so, but so that was that was that busy weekend, fun weekend, I.
Do you want to talk about? Vegas?
Went to Vegas to do some commentary for the World Poker Tours squid Hunt, which is coming out here in a few months, and while I was there lived a poker player's dream, which is got invited into the big, big mixed game in Bobby's Room and Bobby's Room which is the world's most famous poker room inside the Belagio, and then ended up wrapping the World Poker Tour stuff in time on Tuesday to where the same guys who were playing in that mixed game, we're playing the exact
same format on stream at the pokerhost studio at Aria and I played in it. And this is again I know some of my poker stuff. You know, the audience doesn't understand this. They really, if you're not a poker player, won't understand because the mixed games that we played were just stick with me here for a second, but doogie but doucey drama, ha, deuce to seven, single draw, duce to seven, triple draw, uh big oh, and one other
one I can't even remember what it was. Ras. So here's what was so cool for me about that demanse, and it was the limits were two hundred four hundred. But again it's a limit game. So like if you're playing a two hundred four hundred no limit game, you're gonna not feel comfortable if you're not sitting with In the two hundred four hundred no limit holding cash games, you probably need at least two hundred thousand dollars in
front of you to feel comfortable, and probably more. The two hundred four hundred limit games, you could sit with ten grand and feel comfortable, and twenty is plenty. So they just play very differently. Because no limit you can bet any amount at any time. Limit games, if it's two hundred four hundred, the most you can ever bet on a single one bet is four hundred dollars. Again, that part doesn't matter, But here's I'm just giving you guys the full context of it. Here's why it was
so cool. Those games that I just described to you, six of the seven as of Sunday night, I had played in my poker career zero hands of never played any of them. However, because I'm such a poker nerd and because I really care about learning the games, I have watched the best in the world play them on stream hundreds of hours. So it was a real test case of how much can like studying learning prepare you
to actually do. Because normally someone first time they'd been playing wouldn't be playing two hundred four hundredy'd be playing three dollars, six dollars whatever. But I felt like, no, I know how to play all these games. And I gotta tell you, I think I played great. We'll see it when the stream comes out. I won money. I like for the one percent listening Diard poker nerds that'll
get this. I got Pad's poker Patrick Lennard, who is one of the best poker players in the world, to break an eight induced to seven triple draw with a check Ray's bluff. That was the single best move anyone at the table made all night. And it was and I made, you know, a few thousand dollars profit and more than held my own. And so again, I think I made a ton of mistakes throughout the course of the night, but that was fine. It was my first time doing it, but it was not a it was
it was it went great. So that was that was as thrilling as anything that happened this week, and playing in Bobby's room than playing with those guys. Shout out one of the guys that was in the game, David Baker. He's the two time winner or one time winner of the Super Contest. And then one another thing. He's one of the best NFL handicappers in the world. He won the Westgate Super Contest years ago. And he was in the game. Nacho Barbero was in the live game, not
the streamed game. A bunch of guys. There were three knicks at the table. Shout out to the other knicks. Everyone was great. And so oh and the guy's whose game it was Crazy Mike. It was the Crazy Mike mix. And so shout out to all those guys. It was awesome. I had such a great time. Okay, now thirty minutes into the show to the actual basketball, go ahead.
Yeah, do you want to you don't want to talk about the game right the Memphis.
No, because we're gonna get to Memphis and later. Yep.
Yeah. So Jokic has been cooking. He put up sixty one against Minnesota the other day. It's his highest scoring triple double.
And to acknowledge he's the best basketball player he's ever seen besides besides himself. Yeah, but the big story of that game was Russ kind of choking there at the end. He got the steals, smoked the layup, and then fouled the three point shooter at the end.
Yeah.
And then last night smoked another layout Yeah with a few minutes left, and they needed that. They lost to the Spurs. So we'll get to Joker in a second. I don't I don't take joy in being right on this, But of course we were going. Anyone that has spent a season watching late stage Russell Westbrook play for teams with championship aspirations, all of them knew, and all of them thought it would be different for them until they realize it's not. I was one of those people once.
So here's the deal. Russell Westbrook over the last nearly full decade has been totally unable to contribute to winning basketball, and four contenders have been like, we can change him,
and all four contenders were wrong. So he he leaves the Thunder and they pair him with James Harden for a Rockets team that thinks they can win the championship just a year and a half removed from winning sixty five games and taking the Durant Warriors to a game seven in the conference finals, and it of course goes terribly. They divorce after one year. He's brutal in the playoffs, and then he goes to the one place, the one place that the Russell Westbrook experience made sense was Washington
because Washington's like, hey, man, car keys are yours? We would just love to win forty games, and Russ delivers averages another triple doubles. It's all Russ all the time, gets him into the playoffs, and then in those playoffs you're gonna be like, oh, what did you do? In the playoffs? He averaged the triple double. In the playoffs, he shot thirty three percent from the floor and they
lost in five. Then the Lakers were like, we can change him, and the Lakers missed the playoffs the one year he's there in full, have to get off him and promptly make the conference finals without him. The Clippers, we can change him. And with the Clippers they're like, oh,
he's better here. He's accepted his role, and in his one full season with the Clippers, they make the playoffs, and in those playoffs he plays nineteen minutes a game, averages six points on twenty six percent from the field, twenty three percent from three and they move off him, and then the Nuggets, we can change him. It'll be different here. And the playoffs are approaching, and you got
a little sneak preview of what to expect. And again, I take no pleasure in this because I have such respect for Russell's career and the way he approaches playing hard at all times. What I do take a little pleasure in is Nuggets fans who got a little chesty at the beginning of the year. Demon's a lot of like, do a Twitter search for these three nouns Yokich, Lebron, Russ and see how many tweets pop up from November and December along the lines of, oh, why couldn't Lebron
get out of Russ? What Joker is?
Well?
Why oh oh oh, you know, Russ got blamed for everything in LA but put him with a guy like Joker, and look, guys, this train is never late. It's never late.
Russ also has like lost a lot of his athleticism, and I think that's kind of like, oh, that's obvious he's getting older. But like on that layup that he smoked, I was telling Daniel like a few years ago, Russell was dunk in that.
Man, I just yes, that's exactly right. By the way, that's the that's another time where the exact take you gave was the exact take. And this is a compliment that Brew gave yesterday, oh, which is yeah, that that was. It might have been wild one of them, but either way, it was that used to be a dunk and it's not anymore here on this one. And so uh and it there what it in life? What awesome is what all what often is your greatest asset becomes your great liability.
Russ going one speed at all times, Russ, you know, playing a certain way. Russ's relentlessness is what made him him, and now it's what makes him a total liability to winning basketball. Also, by the way, that yeah, to winning basketball. And it's a disase it The Nuggets aren't deep enough to be able to just put them on ice. But man, oh man, like, I I don't know, I don't know how you can put him in critical playoff games. And here's the other piece of it. I thought of that sequence, Demanse,
the missed layup was the least of the problems. Missed layups happened. I thought it was a bigger problem that after missing the layup in a one point double overtime game with ten seconds left, he stood under the basket, arms up, whining for a beat, which then allowed the Timberwolves to get the advantage. And obviously the worst part of the play was not only did he foul a three point shooter, he fouled a three point shooter demonse
on a fake contest. There was like there was that that wasn't one of those Oh man, I I almost locked it and instead I hit him. No, I mean it was a fake contest. And then I don't know if you saw Rob Prez's video then when he's lead even the court with the fan, yeah, I mean, buddy, like.
I feel the russ is. It's unfortunate. Man, Why do you need the camera on the man's face for so long when they make a mistake.
Well, that's like the drama. I mean, that's how I mean. I get that.
It's like, this is a guy who messed up. But yeah, he's gonna stop chirping the fans. You you screw it up, and the fans are gonna.
Right like now, listen if it comes out the fan, you know, dropped a slur then, of course whatever, but I but my feeling was it wasn't that.
Going up there just off of Westbrick.
Yes, Westbrook, exactly exactly, And so like it's it's a tough now, our resident Nuggets fan, Daniel, I still believe in Russ. Good luck with that man again Westbrook. This decade, this decade, guys, it's twenty twenty five, this decade in the playoffs, thirty seven percent from the field, twenty seven percent from three, three and a half turnovers a game in thirty one minutes. Can't win that way, you just can't. And so rough Spot, I know you have some follow ups here, go ahead.
Well, yeah, even with Russ, with Russ playing the way.
He is, could you still consider counting out the Denver Nuggets with Jokics being on the team.
No, So listen, that's the shame of it is Jokic has one of the greatest games in NBA history and it gets squandered. Now again, I I saw Luca last year have a seventy three, ten and seven and then all year long before or fifth in the standings and be ineligible for MVP. So I'm not doing another MVP thing. Shay's team might win seventy games, He's gonna win the scoring title. He's were we are if we want a retro act. Here's the deal, Nugget fans. If you make
up this petition, I'll sign it. If you would like to retroactively give last year's MVP to Luca so Joker can win this year, I'm all for it. But last year the argument against Luca was Jokers team has the best record, even if he's averaging. You know, Jokers averaging damn near. His numbers are great, even if they're not quite as good as Luca's, but it's contributing to winning more. And last year Joker was the better defender than Luca. It's gotta be Joker and Luca in with four first
place votes. You can't then use all of your Joker arguments from last year this year and not end up with Shay. The logical consistency of the last two years, voting will would either go Luca last year, Joker this year, or Joker last year Shay this year. Joker already won last year, so it's Shay's now. Is Joker the best player in the league? Yes, is Joker the only person. And this is what Nuggets fans should take pride in.
Is Joker the only person you could put on that Nuggets team and they would have any chance of winning the championship. Yes, he's the only guy in the league, and they do have a chance. Not a good chance, but they do have a chance. The standings are we gonna get to the standings later in the show. No, So I'll do it here. Those two losses, however, because they lost the last night, now they sat everyone. By
the way, I should have put this out. Our friends at DraftKings might have been annoyed me, but I should have put it out. I gave it to Hubbs yesterday at one pm. The money line for the Spurs were ten point dogs and they were plus three eighty on the money line, and I said to Hubbs, I was like, this line is acting like Joker is gonna play. I don't think he is. He's played fifty three minutes the night before, like and Joker then got announced is out. The line dropped to damn near a pickham and the
Spurs won. So shout out to anyone who sniped that, because that, to me, I just couldn't be We knew Jamal Murray wasn't gonna be playing. I couldn't believe it. But here's the standings implication. Denver's now the four again. Some time left, not a lot though, five games left Houston sitting at twenty seven losses the Lakers, and at this point in the season, guys just count losses. You can make up wins, you can't make up losses, So don't talk about games back any of that. Count the losses.
That's what matters. Oklahoma City pretty comfortable with twelve losses, unbelievable. Houston's at twenty seven and clinched their playoff spot last night. The Lakers are at twenty nine, the Nuggets are at thirty, the Warriors are at thirty one, Minnesota is at thirty two, and the two play in teams that are good the Clippers and grit well, I don't know if they're good, but that are above five hundred. The Clippers and Grizzlies
are at thirty two. So Houston safe from the play in barring well, no safe from the plane entirely because they clinched their division. That keep you safe from the plane, I'm pretty sure it does. But here's what I will say about Houston. Houston's next five or last final five Demanse, Thunder, Warriors, Clippers, Lakers, Nuggets. So anybody that has some doubts is Houston. Well it's all the teams they could play in Round one of the playoffs, except for the Thunder obviously can't play them.
But yeah, I mean we're gonna find out over these next five. The Lakers right now would give anything demonse to freeze the standings because well, yeah, Denver Golden State play each other in Round one and the winner plays Oklahoma City. If you froze the standings, the Lakers side of the bracket would be Minnesota and then Houston or I guess maybe the Clippers, like the Lakers would love that road. I don't know that they'll get it, but
it would absolutely love that road. You too, the Daniel asking if I would you know, like to face the size of the Timberwolves. I again, the West is a monster and there's no you know, no easy outs right now except for Memphis. But they're you know, Memphis is gonna in my opinion, up the eight seed. So you're not gonna be able to get Memphis. And yeah, I would take my chances. I don't want to face any of the I don't want to face Denver or Golden State immediately, and I love the idea of being on
the opposite side of OKC. Like again there. I think the Lakers can win the whole thing, but it doesn't mean all paths are created equal. Here's I'll tell you who Denver doesn't want to face. Denver be fine with the Warriors. I think they've beaten the Warriors nine straight games. Denver doesn't want to face Minnesota, who has now beating them six games in a row, swept them this season, and then beat them game six and seven of the playoffs last year.
Would you give them beef? Doubt they if they were in a series year taking Minnesota.
I take it you have to pick Minnesota, all right? Those one six straight, they've won six straight against them. All right, Let's talk Lakers Warriors.
Yeah, so Steph is looking good. He's had a few games back since his injury. The other day he dropped fifty two. I had twelve three pointers. So the Warriors are looking pretty good, which is bad for your Lakers, who they played at night, and they could also be potentially playing them in the playoffs. Ye, how do you feel the Lakers got them? But they're coming off of a lot of rest.
Yeah, So I think the Warriors are everyone's making this Warriors eighteen and two with Jimmy eighteen and five since the trade about Jimmy, it's about what it's Let Steph go back to being Steph. Before the Jimmy trade was twenty two a game. Since the Jimmy trade's at twenty eight a game. On better efficiency popped off for fifty
two the other night. I if you are getting close to prime Steph, you're a threat when you have And it's also a reminder if you have one of the greatest players of all time, you have an obligation to always be all in. You can't throw seasons away because you might go another fifty years in your franchise and not have a player nearly as good as Steph Curry. Now, I think both teams desperately need this game, which is what makes it so fascinating because of what I was
saying about the standings the Lakers. If the Lakers win all of a sudden, they have twenty nine losses, Golden State has thirty two, and by the way, the Lakers have the tiebreaker over everyone beneath them in the standings, every single team. So you would a win tonight for the Lakers essentially eliminates any concern of falling into the play in And it doesn't lock up a top four seed, but it essentially does. And if for the Warriors, if
they lose, they're at thirty two losses. Memphis and the Clippers have thirty two losses, they're the seven and the eight. Minnesota's thirty two losses, they're at six. But the flip side of that applies as well. Golden State wins Demanse, the Lakers are at thirty losses, Golden State's at thirty one, and Golden State could potentially forget hitting in the play in end up with home court in Round one. I
the Lakers this year, it's one of the honest things. Ever, they are dominant against the Western Conference, So the Lakers in the Thunder have almost the same record against the West. Think about that. So the Thunder are thirty five and eleven against the West, which means they are thirty five and eleven twenty nine and one. No, is that right?
Yeah?
Twenty nine and one against the East. The Thunder twenty nine and one against the East, thirty five and eleven against the West. The Lakers are thirty two and thirteen against the West, the second best record of the Thunder by a mile in the Western Conference. Thirty two and thirteen the Lakers are against the West, which means the flip side to that is they are fourteen and sixteen against the East.
Role this year. Say it again, they're bad on the road this year?
Correct?
Really?
Oh yeah, so the Lakers have been an awesome home team, a bad road team. But you're West and East. You pay you know, you play half your games against the East at home, half on the road. So the Lakers are at home. They need it. They're playing a good team. I like the Lakers. The tricky thing to the Lakekers is for when you look at their final five games, you can't do what you can do with most of the good teams, which is be like, oh, oh, and the Lakers don't have five left. Hold on, Lakers have
seven left. That's right, because they have the fire games. Yeah, but regardless most teams you'd be like, oh, well, chalk up a win against the Pelicans and Blazers. Lakers liable to lose to any bad team, but they also are excellent against the good teams. Uh so I'm really excited to see the night it Also, it could be a playoff preview. If it is, I hope it's not Round one, not because the Lakers would have, you know, couldn't beat the Warriors. But I just don't want a guarantee that
one of the two is out of there. And round one. There is a team that I am certain is out of there and round one. It's the team I saw in person on Saturday. Go ahead, demanse.
Yeah, so they've been struggling over the last few weeks. They've won two of their last ten games. The Grizzlies.
Nine games left to go.
They fired their head coach, and now they're at risk of falling into the play and Jahn Morant's holding up the finger guns. I think they're doing an investigation on him right now. But yeah, let's talk about the state of the Grizzlies.
Okay, so just literally a minute ago, Shams tweeted, let me read it to you exactly. Uh sorry, hold on, NBA issued warnings but no further penalties to Grizzlies, Jamorant and Buddy healed along with the teams for the gestures. League ruled the celebrations were not intended to be violent in nature, but inappropriate and should refrain. All right. I want to make this clear. I don't care about the gun part of this. That's a different discussion. The pantomiming
guns and the it that distracts from the point. Here's what I care about, demands any type of taunt or celebration when there's ten seconds left in a game, your team needed that. You let the other team's guys score fifty and you just lost to continue a four game losing streak, days after you fired your coach, and you're being a goofball. That's what I care about there. I And like I said, I talked to Tea at the Grizzlies game. I like Josh Dad. I like him historically,
I've liked John. John this offseason needs to decide who do I want to be in this league? Because you've gone from your numbers have gotten worse over each of the last four years, your health has gotten worse over each of the last four years. Your team has gotten worse over each of the last four years. You just fired your coach and you're out here being a goofball, like and that was go ahead.
So you're talking about John Ranty in the face of the league a year ago, correct, like maybe maybe a little over a year.
Yeah, gun stuff, but yes, of course. And and even when the stupid gun stuff was happening, nobody questioned his skill how good he was? Right, So like that's the nobody. Nobody was wondering how great he is. He's never got better as a shooter. In fact, he maybe has gotten worse from three misses forty of the games with injury. Doesn't seem to take winning seriously, the hell's going on?
Twenty five years old? And the to me, the most notable piece of the entire incident between he and healed was the look on Steph Curry's face, because Steph Curry's face was like a look of honestly, like a disappointed parent, like what are you doing? Like like, what what are you doing? The the reason I'm saying I'm not focused on the gun piece.
Of it is.
If the if the Grizzlies had just hit free throws to go up seven with ten seconds left and John did that celebration, I would feel totally differently, which means I know. For me, it's not about the gun piece of it, and again gun in quotes finger guns like it's about being ready to party when your team's falling apart. It's pro sports man, it's the playoff push. You just fired your coach. You just it was four straight losses against the four teams most likely to stand between you
and a championship. They lost to the Thunder, then they lost to the Lakers, Then they lost to the Celtics, then they lost to the Warriors, and you're being a goofball.
Like.
I just I don't like it. I don't like it at all. Finals are here, and the only thing for sure is it's the last time you're gonna have a chance to bet on college basketball this season. It's been an amazing ride to get here, an unprecedented run to this point, with four of the four best teams, including four of the best teams in recent college basketball history, getting there. Maybe there will finally be a shocking outcome, or maybe we're just going to keep seeing the best
show you why they're the best. More on that in a second. Get in on all the action, expected and unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbook with live betting, exclusive content, promos and barlays. DraftKings is the ultimate college basketball destination four March. Ready to make your first bet, check out the matchups, and pick a team to win. It's that simple me personally. You guys know, I was in on Tennessee. It didn't work out. Now we pivot. We got it, We pivot.
Thus far, this has been a tournament where the best team wins. The best team is Duke. I personally like Duke minus five and a half tonight at even money. It's not tonight this weekend. I also personally like Duke to win the championship at even money. So Duke minus five and a half in their game on Saturday at even money, Duke plus one hundred to win the whole thing at even money. Better late than never. It's what I'm going with now that Tennessee's gone. Lines and odds
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call one eight hundred. Gambler in New York call eight seven to seven eight hope in why, or text hope in why, which is four six seven three six nine. In Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven, or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus age in eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus betts
expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co slash b ball. All right, demanse, let's rapid fire through the rest of these if we can.
Yeah.
Aaron Rodgers was seen working out with his new teammate DK Metcalf in Pittsburgh.
Are you excited to see that Tatum next year? Nah? I'm kidding.
He hasn't signed yet. What's going on with Aaron Rodgers? What's going on there? Guy's taking his time.
I don't understand why the Steelers. Here's the deal. I understood why the Steelers were letting him dictate the terms when he had a bunch of options. He could go to New York. Maybe Minnesota was interested. He's out of options. The Giants signed two quarterbacks, Minnesota's not signing him, Tennessee's drafting their quarterback. Pittsburgh, you're the Pittsburgh Steelers. Call Aaron's agent and say, we need to know within the week or we're out. The leverage has shifted back to you.
He wants to play for you, So why hasn't he signed. My guess is he doesn't want to either he doesn't want to be on the hook for the full off season program, or more accurately, he wants to be able to potentially pressure you into not spending your first round pick on a quarterback, be it Shador if he slips, or Jackson Dart if you love him and he thinks if he hasn't signed yet but has made it clear, oh I'm going to sign that. You guys won't draft
a quarterback because it could upset it. Don't let him run things. He has nowhere else.
To go, and if they do draft a quarterback. What's he gonna do.
If he if he hasn't signed yet, then maybe he just won't sign. Okay, you know what I mean? Like maybe then he will you know, retire or wait for to see if there's an injury somewhere or whatever it is. But you can't let a guy who's never played for you and hasn't been in good for been good in four years dictate your draft plans and your offseason plans. The damn owner of the team came out yesterday and said, yeah,
we thought it'd be done by now. I've never seen a team that has no history with a player when the player is not still awesome jump through these hoops. It's just baffling to me, all right.
Next, Jerry Jones still hasn't come to closing a deal on Michael Parson's actually taking a shot at his agent during the process. He said, the agent is not a factor here or is something to worry about. And I don't know his name, and so my point is, I'm not trying to demean him in any way. But this isn't about an agent. Why would Jerry Jones say something of this sort.
So here's the deal, and I actually think this is a real story, because there's only two possible truths here. Okay, one truth is he forgot the agent's name or doesn't know it, David mulla Getta. If that is the case, David's not an obscure agent. He negotiated with Sean Watson deal. He negotiated Malik Hooker, who's a cowboy, his deal. If your general manager does not know the agent's name for your best player, then it's time to take the car keys away from him. And people are like, oh, well,
he wasn't He definitely knows his name. Okay, that's fine. That's door number two. Door number two is he does know his name, and he's being unnecessarily and intentionally disrespectful and combative with someone you have to work with. That ain't good either, you know what I mean. Like, either he's telling the truth and that's a problem, or he's just saying it to piss the guy off and that's dumb. Like there's there's no there's no win, there no win whatsoever.
And it really Jerry Jones, for a long time was one of the best things that Cowboys had going for them. He has quickly become their single biggest impediment to winning, and for a franchise with that history and a brand of that caliber, it's just it's just unfathomable that they are the worst run team in the league, but right now they appear to be the worst run team in the league.
Let's seem like a gay.
Yeah, I mean it doesn't. It's just an Yeah. I certainly didn't seem like you know that we'd be going to the same parties. All right, let's do mock drafts.
Demonse, Uh so, yeah, you're one of the top mof mock drafters last year. You haven't said too much about it this year. Do you have a mock draft for the folks out there Monday?
First things, First, mock draft one point zero. I think I had the world's eighteenth most accurate mock draft last year.
Wow, yeah, I remember eighteen. I didn't know that was the.
Might have been twenty one, it was somewhere. It wasn't in the top fifteen, but it was in the top twenty five. I remember that. I'll have to look it up.
Double digits.
Yeah, it was. There were I mean there were hundreds and hundreds done by media member Schrager crushed. Schrager had the most accurate. Uh so, yeah, Monday on the TV show, the first mock draft gets revealed.
All right, next, all right, so yeah, Cooper Flags looked like the real deal throughout the tournament and obviously throughout his short college career.
He'll be eighteen when he hits the NBA. Do you think that he's.
Gonna be a real deal or he's going to be more of a bust or flame out?
I mean, obviously not a bust, but well, no.
You can't say obviously. I mean, the only way you can be a bus is if you're a super high draft pick, and the only be a super high draft picks if people think you're gonna be awesome. But no, I think he's good. I am not. So you guys know, I'm not, you know, watching a ton of college basketball during the regular season, and so I hadn't It's not that I hadn't seen Cooper Flag, but I had, you know, not watched him as closely as the people who are
college basketball diehards. To me, he's been better than advertised. I thought his game against Arizona was spectacular, and you guys just hurting the DraftKings read I'm in on Duke I mean, he has just been. He's so far and away the best player in college basketball. And here's the crazy thing, Demonse, he doesn't turn nineteen until December, so he's gonna be the same age. He's gonna be the age Lebron was when he came into the league. Like he reclassified so he should be a high school senior.
But he's a college freshman. He's tall, he's strong, shoots it well enough good, IQ can defend. No, no, no, I now do I think he's gonna be like a super uperstar. We gotta wait and see that. But he is the no doubt obvious number one pick. All right, let's go to the final four. Before we get to the listener questions.
Uh So Saturday, Florida and Auburn face off before Duke and Houston face off in the final four.
Do you have any predictions for this?
I'd like Houston to win because I like Kelvin Samson and you know we used to live there. But the tournament has been chalk, and I am going to stick with chalk. Duke over Florida and then Duke wins it all.
What is Duke Kevin? I think I've been hearing it all week.
I've not asked anybody when you say chalk the context clues meaning that it's linear, like what is it?
Like? What does it mean?
Same favorites? Wind?
Okay, chalk means.
It goes the way. I don't know, so a good I've always no, that's that you're thinking of?
What?
Yeah, it's got none to do with that. I I don't know. Let's find out together. Why Why is a favorite winning called chalk? Daniel says it's horse racing, but I want to know the So here we go from vocabulary dot com. The history of chalk dates back to the old days of horse racing, when bookmakers would set the odds for each horse by riding them on a
chalkboard at on track gambling stations. The odds would change during the pre race betting period depending on the amount wagered on each horse, so the book makers would often need to erase the post odds and chalk up new ones uh before beginning of the race. The bookies at the track had to be skillful with the chalk to keep their slate boards up to date with las ods.
In reporting on horse racing around the turn of the twentieth century, sports journalists often referred to bookmakers with such flowery appellations as the lively Nights of the Chalk and blackboard, or more simply knights of the chalk. Chalk gradually came to stand for the bookmakers and their odds making through the process through the process of matonomy, defined by the Visual Thesaurus as substituting the name of an attribute or
feature for the name of the thing itself. For instance, a racing column in the October fifteenth, nineteen oh three Atlantic Constitution reported the first race. The chalk figures made it look like five injuries and six favorites for the event. Those who followed the odds put up by the bookmakers could thus stay loyal to the chalk and bet on the favored horses, or they could look for an entrant with long odds that could potentially get a bigger payout.
A quote from April twenty seven to nineteen oh seven Washington Post encapsulates the ambivalence that betters felt toward the chalk of the bookies. Chalk scares many a turf speculator. Let him pick a horse to win, and if he thinks he ought to be the favorites and the bookies laid a big price against him. Nine times out of ten, the horse won't be played.
All right, listeners, I made a mistake.
No, I'm fascinated by this. Uh and all right, so now we know. So that's great, so that I respect that you weren't afraid to ask the question. Um, and I've always known what chalk meant. I didn't know it. That's where it came from. So chalk just means all the favorites winning. So when you're filling out a bracket, picking all one seats make the final four as a chalk bracket. It happened though this year, the first time it happened since two thousand's fault. Yeah, let's see what
happens next year on it. All right, Let's do a few listener questions before we get out of here.
Logan, Nick, why do you still not have an NBA Awards vote? What is the process in order to get a vote? And do you think you could get one in the future. You seem like you'd be a pretty good voter.
I would have thought, so, I don't know, And so I don't know.
Maybe it's your relationship with Lebron.
No, I don't I don't know who the It's fine. I really really wanted one a few years ago, and I tried to get one and I didn't. I think Kendrick Perkins got it instead, and I it just is what it is. So Zach Lowe gave his away, or gave his back. Shout out to Zach by the way for being back. Shout out to Simmons, congrats to him
for getting Zach with the ringer. Oh, speaking of awards voters, there there's a young woman who covers the Lakers who I've never met, but she she asks Lebron some of the most kind of the question she asked Lebron leads to some of his best answers. She asked him a few weeks ago, if you guys saw the viral clip of someone asking Lebron about why he's compared basketball to music or jazz, and then he went on a nice little soliloquy about how basketball is like listening to jazz
or different music. And then just the other day, she asked him about why it was important for him to bring back mine the game, and he gave a really interesting answer. Her name, and I apologize if I'm mispronounced, it is Claire Delone. She just tweeted she got an Awards vote, So that's awesome. Like, those are people that are at games and watching games and really covering teams. I'm totally cool with them having Awards votes. I listen. I shouldn't act like I'm not cool with other people.
I since they have expanded the pool to include people that talk about the sport, commentators and stuff, I would have liked to have gotten one. I don't have one. It's fine, Bru's got one and Brew, you know, so first things first is covered. But Brew has one from back his days, you know, as a writer, and he's had one forever. All right, let's do a couple more.
Uh, Brandon, do you think we'll look back on Giannis like we do Wilt, as in, how did someone so dominant not win more titles?
Well, Joanna's got a long ways to go to we think of him as Wilt, But I do think Giannis, you know, Dame's injury in the Buck's future, like Giannis's ability to compete for championships despite being one of three best players in the league is very murky in the short term.
Next, Uh, Jacob Santa Cruz local here, Nick, what is your favorite food spot in Santa Cruz. Would you would you love to try out a new spot. My suggestion to you is see bright DELI love your brother.
Well, thank you, Jacob. I don't know much about Santa Cruz. People have seen me wear the Santa Cruz hoodie. It's because Demands's sister, our older daughter. My older daughter goes to U see Santa Cruz. But I you know, I've only been. I haven't spent a ton of time out there, just you know, moving her into college, picking her up stuff like that. So I don't know, but I will try seabright Delhi, all right? Last one?
Uh bear if nick I was in New York City a couple of weeks ago and I got to and I got to stop by Trentage. Nice to see entrepreneurial ship runs in the family.
Yeah, shout out to Trentage. Danielle Store is doing great. Former home of this podcast. All right, great job, everybody. I gotta get to TV again. Reminder we'll do a quick show tomorrow morning recapping Lakers Warriors. So set you know, subscribe like rate review. That really helps. By the way, I don't know if you've looked demon say let me try to pull it up real quick quick. We are approaching two. We're at one hundred and ninety four thousand
and change, so almost two hundred thousand subscribers. It'd be sick if we could somehow get to two hundred thousand, you know, early in the NBA playoffs and then maybe pop a big number during a playoff reaction show. Add some subscribers, so subscribe on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, all that stuff. See you guys on TV in a few hours. What's right,