hear me? Hear me.
This is on leash. Are you listening?
Can you hear me? Hear me.
This is on leash. Are you listening?
Can you hear me? Hear me.
This is on leash. Are you listening?
Can you hear me? This is on leash.
Are you listening? Can you hear me?
Peace out, Philly. Next.
Wow, what is going on everybody? Welcome back BT Unleashed.
This is going to be a a massive week on the show.
Hopefully everybody had an outstanding weekend.
What's going on? J Rod is in the house.
I'm here. Obviously.
We'll get you calls, we'll get you chats going.
Let's just jump right into it, man.
I got a lot to do today, some housekeeping, but let you know
of course. Today's show, as always, is
brought to you by my friends at Sullivan Prepaid.
Of course, Sullivan is a you can find them online trial law1.com,
trial law1.com. Remember the name Sullivan
Propane and buy pre meal sausage pre meal sausage the way sausage
should be. Find them at premiofoods.com or
in your local grocery stores. Now, before I get into the
Knicks, let me give you guys a heads up, a nice alert for the
Show coming up on Wednesday. I mean, I wish they would have
played better this weekend. I might have some tough
questions for my buddy Booty, but we will have the Yankees
skipper on the Show on Wednesday at 10:30.
I don't know if I love the way Booty managed the bullpen over
the weekend, but you know, listen, you, you would have to
hope that this is just a little blip here.
Although the Yankees have not played particularly well against
teams with winning records, they're one and eight against
some of the better teams in baseball.
So not a really good weekend out there for the Yankees, not a
good weekend out there for the Mets, but an absolutely
phenomenal weekend for the Knicks.
And listen, you just got to you got to establish something here
like I don't want to hear. I really don't want to hear it
because I don't think it's truthful.
I don't want to hear. Now we can celebrate and we can
think big and we will. And when the Pistons and the
Calves knock each other around, who knows?
2345 more days. Knicks get the chill and the
fact that the Knicks won and the way that they won without OG on
an Obi and being able to keep him on ice is massive to the big
picture. But what I don't want to hear is
is that this is the Knicks team that we watched all year.
It's not. I'm already getting the tweets
today. You owe Mike Brown.
I don't I don't owe Mike Brown anything.
I never once said that Mike Brown wasn't a competent coach.
So see guys, this is this is what I don't get right.
I mean it, it is euphoric in nickel and right now, and
rightfully so, rightfully so. You can really start thinking
big now. You can really start dreaming
and you better believe that the Knicks have a real chance to win
a championship. I'm not afraid to say it, but if
this was the team that we saw all season, well, then guess
what? I wouldn't have had the opinions
that I had during the season. There was a reason why I was
down on this team. Not really coming into the
season, I thought the Knicks would be, you know, 5455 wins.
I've said that I'm on the record.
There's plenty of receipts out there.
I thought that Tom Thibodeau should have been fired.
With all due respect to Tom Thibodeau, time for change.
I Mike Brown wasn't my first choice.
That's obvious. I wanted Malone.
I was thinking other, other directions here.
But once Mike Brown was hired, I I said me, I'm like, OK, he,
he's solid. He's not going to, you know,
shake the earth in terms of enthusiasm.
But what I liked about Mike is that he coached in big markets.
He coached big stars, big names, big expectations.
And he's got a really good offense.
And I was excited to see what the Knicks offense, not to
mention the implementation of their bench, which Mike Brown
has obviously done. Like I was excited about that
stuff. And then the season started and
then they won the cup and after they won't.
You want to tell me it's a cup hangover?
I mean stop man. You make it seem like it was a
grueling 3 week stretch. Oh my God the Knicks exerted so
much energy. How could they possibly recover
from winning the mid season cup stop already.
But for those of you who are looking for an apology or those
of you who, and there's a lot of you out there, you know,
spoiler, you're not going to get it.
But those of you who think that or or try to position the way
the Knicks have looked the last month or so that this is the
team that we were watching since late October, that is a fallacy
that is not true at all. I'm going to give you some
numbers to back it up. First of all, before we even get
into the numbers, what a shellacking.
What was there 70% Knick fans in Philly?
I mean, what happened? Not that I really care, but what
happened to Philadelphia, the sports town?
My God, I mean yesterday was amazing.
Yesterday was kind of the way it started out.
It was like, are they going to win by 51?
Like like again, like it it had that look and when do started
knocking down those triples, boom, boom, boom, boom, I'm like
it's over and I felt go. I felt good going into the game
because when indeed plays, you just see how limited he is.
Limited he is physically. He just can't move.
And the Knicks are connected in a way now that they just were
not connected all season. I'm sorry.
You know, you, you guys want me to to paint a different picture.
The picture that I'm always going to paint is I'm going to
tell you what I see and well, first I'm going to tell you what
I expect to see coming into a season or coming into a game or
coming into a series. Then I'm going to watch.
And then if I'm proven right, not not that I'm looking to take
victory laps, but OK, I was proven right.
If I'm proven wrong, I've always been mad enough to say my bad, I
messed up. I was wrong on that.
I told you the Knicks would beat the Hawks in six.
I thought the Knicks would beat Philly in five.
I was wrong by one game. They beat even 4.
They broom them, they swept them.
But again, guys like this Knicks team can win the championship.
And I know it's going to get tougher and it's going to be AI,
fully expect the Pistons to win, you know, and advance.
But it's going to be a more physical matchup.
It's going to have a different, like, aesthetically, it's going
to look very different. Not that I don't think the
Knicks will be able to do many elements of what they've been
doing recently, but you know, and again, I don't even want to
get to the matchups, but I'm just saying like Kate Cunningham
is a big guard, different problems for Brunson, whatever.
But understand this guys. The Knicks from December 31st
till January 19th were two and 92 and 9.
Like I don't know the the Lakers with Kobe and Jack.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't remember too many times
where they lost 9 of 11 games or Michael and Scotty, either
iteration, you know, with Rodman or with Horace Grant before
that. Yeah, I don't I don't, I don't
remember those guys, you know, losing 9 of 11.
I remember the Celtics with Berta, Mikhail losing 9 of 11.
I don't remember Magic and Kareem and James Worthy losing 9
of 11. I don't even remember Hakeem
Olajuwon and the Rockets, who really only had Hakeem and a
bunch of really good role players ever losing 9 of 11.
Maybe they did, but like in the NBA, it's not like baseball so
many games and there's like A at some point, invariably there's
going to be a bit of a malaise that enters the baseball season,
even for the almighty Dodgers, right?
Dodgers don't have the best record of baseball right now.
You know, last year the Dodgers were amazing and then they got
healthy and they got their pitching back and then they
became really amazing again, right?
So basketball's different when you look for whether it's a
month, and I don't mean like if your star is out, then that's
totally different. But when you're healthy, and the
Knicks were pretty healthy this year, when you're healthy, there
shouldn't be such wild fluctuations in performance.
Now, the only way there would be a while.
And this is where I give massive praise to the Knicks.
I mean, it's a great day. I'm not here to criticize
anything, but I've got to at least contextualize.
So I'm getting tired of the tweets.
Oh, you. Well, this I owe nobody anything
except what I see. And what I see right now is a
team that I think has a real chance to win the championship.
And what I saw during the regular season too much really
was the opposite. A team that didn't look
connected, a team that didn't have a great identity.
Yes, they had Jaylen Brunson who could drop 40 and could beat you
that way. And obviously some nights Cab
was going to put a big numbers, but I didn't know we didn't see
this. And anything that's presented
other than what I just said is a recreation of the reality of
what the Knicks were during the regular season.
There was always a pecking order of those that we really thought
like NBA championship DNA, obviously the Thunder, right?
And then of course, we wanted to put the Knicks there.
But every time they played the Pistons and with Tatum, this
before Tatum came back, with Tatum out and with the Pacers
ravaged with Halliburton. I mean, when the the measuring
stick games for the Knicks this year did not go that well, they
just, I know they played well against Denver.
I get that. I know they beat the Spurs.
I get that. But like in terms of the East,
they didn't just lose by a couple of points to the Pistons.
They were punked by the Detroit Pistons.
So if you were emboldened by that, God bless you.
Maybe you've got a vision and the ability to foreshadow in a
way that I don't because what has happened, what had happened
was right. So again, just to reiterate,
December 31st, January 19th, I know there's a couple of day
hangover from the cup. Understood they were two and
nine. Now let's get to Cat, because
this is where every single thing changed.
Even with the foul issues in this series are like the Hawks,
right? Karl Anthony Towns in December
averaged 2.3 assists per game, in January he averaged 2.9.
In February he averaged 2.5 and then in March he averaged 2.8.
What do you know, the last month of the season, the regular
season, is when the Knicks started doing a lot of really
running the offense through the pick and roll with Karl Anthony
Townsend, Jalen Brunson, and in April all those twos 23292528.
His assist total during the regular season balloon to 6 1/2.
In the playoffs, it went up to seven.
So don't tell me that they're playing the same way.
Now. You want, if you want to tell me
that this was by design and that Mike Brown held some elements
out until. Oh, OK, I I can get behind that
a little bit there. I could because Mike Brown's a
very innovative head coach. But all the other stuff, again,
it's really just a, it's a, it's a recreation of the reality of
what we've watched for the last five or six months.
This Knicks team was not the team that I was criticizing
because if it was, I would have been leading.
Listen, if anything, I get too giddy.
If anything, I get too excited. If anything, I jump the gun, you
know, Aaron Rodgers, Aaron, sometimes I'm overly, I'm
delusionally optimistic. I, I do admit that I'm not a
fatalist. There are certain.
And if I had Joe on the show the other day and Beningo was great,
I mean, if you didn't catch that interview, you got to catch that
interview from, you know, obviously burying the Mets and
Stearns and Cohen and you know, the Pete Alonzo stuff and
everything else to acid trips and concerts and what happened
with his first marriage and golf.
Like it it, it was great. And I love Joe.
And Joe was obviously a dear friend.
Obviously, if you watch the show, you can tell that, right?
But Joe and I are very different.
And I've always said this, Joe leans more to the fatalistic
side because Joe's older by about 20 something years.
He's seen a lot more, you know, damaging, uninspiring implosions
that I have. He's also a Mets fan.
I'm not. So that's times 2 is a Jets fan
and that's Joe. I'm the, I'm the guy, I'm the
lunatic, I'm the moron. Put whatever word you want in
there. I'm the dope.
I'm the crazy, unhinged psychopath who came in when
Rogers got hurt and said playoffs with Zach.
I mean, so and that Timmy Boyle can spin it, you know, So I am
definitely more positive than not.
I look to illuminate the good and I like to lean into that.
I like to jump into that. Now, even though what happened
in Milwaukee this weekend, I still think the Yankees are
going to be terrific this year. I love their pitch.
I'm not getting to the Yankee. I'm just saying like I'm not
gonna let three games. Even though the bullpen did not
look good, I don't think Aaron Boone had a really good weekend.
Whatever, like I'm not going to like flip on a dime like that.
Like I believe that the Yankees will be there at the end.
And coming into the season, I was much more optimistic than
not about the moves that the Mets made.
I, I, I understood what they did.
I thought it was time for change.
I thought the Mets would win 91 games and be a wild card team.
And if you're a wild card team, you just don't know what's going
to happen. So I come in, especially the
Knicks, who I love. I come into every Knicks.
I mean, I, I'm not talking about when they had like, you know,
Noel Vonleh and, and guys like that, you know, we just you
look, this is a 20 tree or like this is a 23 win team no matter
what they do. I'm not talking about that.
But like in these last, you know, the last half a decade,
basically since Brunson's got here, the Knicks have been, I've
been very positive about the Knicks, very optimistic, but
I've also been very real about the Knicks and the Karl Anthony
Towns that we watched for a good chunk of the season.
All right, maybe I got to stop calling him soft.
Maybe I was a little heavy on that.
Maybe I laid that on a little bit thick because I would always
say he's sloppy and he's soft. Remember that the S words,
right, playing on the alliteration.
He's soft and he's sloppy. And I would say that a lot.
And then, you know, the McHale bridges bury him.
But but at the time it was applicable because Cat didn't
know his role. It wasn't year one, and there's
a finite window to to morph into a championship team.
I'm as stunned as anybody that the Knicks look the way that not
that they're winning, not that they're back in the conference
finals. I am literally flat out,
straight up stunned that stylistically that their entire
DNA has changed in a month. It's changed, which is reason to
believe that this version can win a championship and it's not
a hot take. It's not like, oh, let's just
push this forward. Nick's going to beat the
Thunder. No, I'm enjoying this and I hope
that the Pistons and the Cavs beat the shit out of each other
for a few more days and that that thing goes to seven,
although I don't think that it will and that O GS hamstring
continues to heal up. Rest up, OG, rest up man.
Your boys took care of you and and I hope that we get
everything that we've been waiting for forever, all the
years, right, that, you know, you hold on to hope.
Maybe we're going to get the lottery.
Maybe the ping pong polls going to balls going to go our way.
Maybe we're going to get Zion Williamson.
You know, maybe we're going to get this guy.
Maybe this this is the savior. This is the year that the Knicks
get lucky. It has been a sad a a very
morbid, uneventful run most of this century as a Knicks fan
where we were just watching a very different NBA game, jealous
of the dynasty that the Warriors became, jealous watching guys
like LeBron and Kevin Durant and young James, not playoff James
Harden. Young James Harden just
destroyed the regular season and all these and you know, Nokich
and Jamal Murray win a championship and really, really
just almost like banished to the outpost of NBA of NBA fandom.
And then something different happened and I don't know,
Wyatt, I don't know. I don't know exactly.
Like I, I can't give you the precise moment that it clicked
where Browns like, all right, let's unleash the pick and roll.
Now 65 games in, let's start playing this way and everybody
follows suit. And we'll have guys cutting on
the baseline and we'll get back door dunks and bridges will have
even more open looks and we'll take away some of the stress and
some of the responsibility off of Jalen Brunson's plate.
I don't know. I mean, if that really was a, a
a carefully constructed plan that was kept in the garage
until, you know, game number 65 until now, well, then he's even
better than I thought. Like I thought I I know Mike
Brown's competent, but if that's the case, I mean, maybe the
guy's a genius. I don't know.
Yeah, I I really don't know. But listen, I have been
surprised. We've all been surprised by
playoff, playoff games, right? Situations like, wow, this team
lost that series in seven. I was a surprise or a wild card
game or an NFC divisional matchup.
Wow, this team went into, I don't know, Gillette Stadium or
up to Buffalo or out in San Francisco, whatever it might be,
and they won a game that they weren't supposed to win like
that. Sports that happens all the
time. Wow, this team got to the final
four. My God, there's been a lot of
surprises. That's that's the beauty of
sport. What's different here is that
this is a transformation. This is not just playing good
ball at the most opportune time. They are playing so differently.
And because they're playing differently, they now officially
have a chance to do something that hasn't been done since
1973. I mean, they are just knocking
the stuffing out of everybody. So you're down 2 to one of the
Hawks series. Now it's go time.
All right, All right, Knicks won 50 plus games in a regular
season like they were supposed to do on autopilot.
Check. They did that.
All right, Knicks first round, they have homecourt advantage.
They're supposed to do that. OK, Knicks win the first game
against the team they're supposed to be fairly easily.
OK, Then they lose game two. I like the way that look.
Then they lose game 3 like and I never thought they would lose
the series, but think about what?
Even in real time, think about what's transpired since then. 16
point Rd. win, 29 point home, 16 point Rd. win, 29 point home
win, 51 point Rd. win. Plus 39 at home, +6 at home,
plus 17 on the road, plus 30 on the road.
I mean, it's and it's really all because of the way they've
changed. I got a good stat for you since
February 1, All right? Kat and Brunson are the number
one NBA duo in points per direct on ball screens.
Nobody's been more efficient. Nobody's done more.
They were not doing that in late October, November, December.
Even when they won the Cup, they weren't doing that right.
January, certainly we're not doing that when they lost a ton
of games and they had that Cup hangover.
They have recreated who they are.
They have maximized the personnel and that is a tribute
to everybody in the organization.
That is a tribute to Leon Rose because there were many points
where you know, we're like, alright, dude did did he fired
that bullet for Bridges? He gave up all the was that the
right move? Got no complaints with it now
and really last year against the Celtics when he was making
winning plays at the end. I didn't have much of an issue
with it and neither did you. So Leon Rose credit check the
head coach adjustment check, Jalen Brunson has made some
internal and then obviously on the the court external
adjustments check Karl Anthony Towns how to make the most
adjustments. So we give him a double check.
OG's remain steady, Deuce got healthy, the bench got healthy.
Brown trust the bench and the Knicks are absolutely rolling
people, absolutely dismantling people.
It is amazing what the New York Knicks have done.
So let me get my Guy J Rod up in here.
Jay, what's going on, buddy? How are you?
I mean, not the clap, because all right, that was that was
awesome. Man, I like I have not been this
happy about a playoff when like a Celtics.
This is like A to me this equates as like a Celtics first
round play like like to my joy of just seeing Embiid fall like
this, it's. Just oh, so it's not it's not
pro Knicks, it's anti 6. I get that.
I got. You see his quotes after the
game. You've never seen him like this
saying I don't know if I'm going to be here next season and.
And. To the credit of the Knicks,
this is now two straight seasons where, granted the Tatum injury
occurred, where they have in the second round, dismantle the
team's roster. Where?
In the offseason following this team's looking completely
different than. Next.
Yeah, I mean, you got to listen. This is more about the Knicks
here, but Philly needs to take a Wrecking Ball, number one
through their sports fandom and understand what it's like.
You know, don't tell me about it's money.
Hey, there's a lot of Philadelphia 76ers fan.
I want to hear it. Like if the Sixers were gonna
ask yourself this question, Philly was up, you know, three
games to one or three games to none.
Yesterday's that place packed. Of course it is.
Are there, you know, 8000 Knick fans?
Of course there's not. So don't give me the convenient
excuse that there's more Knick fans and it's economically
driven. Stop.
I mean, Philly as a sports town has lost its soul.
They have become front runners and they are very, very distant.
Very, which I I get this part. They're very disengaged from
this team and I don't blame them.
They've got to take a Wrecking Ball to the roster.
And even if you get back, you're not going to get a ton $0.60
back on the dollar for MB Ship him out, give Maxi the ball,
give Edgecomb the ball and just let those cats cook.
I mean, because if if you try to keep running this back the way
that they're built, it will get worse and worse.
And you will not only will you not get better as a team, you
could stagnate the early, you know, great years of some of
these really good young players where and beads getting in the
way. I mean, you know, and Maxi after
the game yesterday, he's like, listen, I it's ridiculous that
he was talking about the fans. You know, it's, it's, it's,
it's, it's unfortunate and, and, and it is, but it's not my
problem. It's their problem.
So the Sixers right now have no chance to win a championship
unless they were to do something with Giannis over the offseason.
This team is. Obviously regressing fast.
So they are an afterthought. They are no longer, and they
really haven't been a true player in the East because their
best player is physically unreliable and his skill set and
the way he moves and the pace in which he plays does not match
the skill set of their other young guns who were terrific.
So put filthy aside all right, big time.
But but like go back to what I said before, because this is
really important. Like if you saw, if you you know
what, hold on a SEC, I'm going to I'm going to actually I'm
going to actually do it for you. I'm just going to read a couple
things, you know, So after the game yesterday, I tweet out
whatever I tweeted out, you know, great job, but I'll find
it here and I'm going to actually read you some of the
comments here. This is what I don't get about
fans. Like, I mean guys and I, I
really don't care. I truly don't.
OK, so I tweeted this yesterday. I've been surprised by teams
winning a playoff game or even a series many times.
Not sure I've ever seen a team flip a switch quite the way the
Knicks had this season. And I'll stand by that.
Right. If you believe this is the team
we've watched all season, you're full of shit.
It wasn't not even close. Amazing transformation, right?
And then obviously I give them a ton of credit.
And then, you know, people like this team.
This was always the team. You just had a little Carter
blah, blah, blah, you know, and then and then I get the people
parachuting in and this is this is hysterical, man, where people
like you're not a good Knick fan.
You're a front runner. See, I now I'll let others be
the ultimate judge, all right. In my opinion, I'm the best
Knick fan. Number one, I've seen
everything. I didn't see Clyde and will the
saw. I shouldn't say everything, but
I saw the 90s Knicks, obviously, and I never checked out this
century when many of you did and you could pretend that you
didn't. Don't tell me that you were
watching some of these wretched teams.
You weren't all right. I know you weren't.
And that includes a lot of people in our business this
right? So I wrote this as well as
impressive a stretch of Nick basketball in my lifetime.
I mean that right, because even the 90s teams, they would have
to grind it out, win by four or five points, right?
One game after another, seemingly better than the last.
Coaching, offense, defense, starters, reserves.
Absolutely incredible run. More to do, yes, but right now,
nothing to do but salute my little emoji.
Salute, right? You know I do that when I tell
you to like and subscribe. And now, right now, hold on.
This is where you get this. Yeah, this is I'm, I'm reading
this now and it's amazing. There's a bunch of stuff about
me and Sal. I I won't bring Sal into it, but
because we had slightly different takes on the Knicks
coming to the air slightly, but the amount of people who who
selectively it it it really is just it's amazing and it speaks
to the infantile nature and the inability to critically think by
so many people Like that's what it comes down to.
People can no longer critically think like they think that one
opinion OK is that you have to remain married to that forever.
All you checked out on the next. I did listen.
I did say that the previous whatever that Knick team was
this year, I don't mean I mean this year, the team that was
playing poorly and we're not running the offense with the
pick and roll and through Cat and all the other things that
they've done, which we know that team was winning nothing.
So yes, I got on the coach, Yes, I got on Cat.
Yes, even the great almighty Jalen Brunson caught a little
shrapnel because ### dribble ## shot hunting.
I'm like, you're not winning a championship this way.
I said it. I stand by it now.
If the Knicks we're getting ready for the Eastern Conference
Finals after sweeping the Sixers and they played the same way
that they played during the season when I was critical, well
then that's one thing. It is a completely different
same players outside of Alvarado, right?
Same players, but it's a completely different style and
it's a completely different mode of attack.
And if people can't see that then they're idiots.
I just don't I don't know what to tell them.
I I give up. It's.
Not their problem and and this is.
Something you know, I'm I'm beginning to realize about
sports fans, it really is divided into two.
You know, you've got you're kind of, you know, and people kind of
your fans like Jerry, like Jerry Ferraro, you're cautiously
optimistic fans who no matter what happens, and this isn't a
bad thing, this is like, but they keep a a pretty optimistic
view on the team regardless of what happens.
If things really go downhill, they'll look at it realistic,
but you know they're riding with their guys.
And I think Ben. Stiller yes, exactly, exactly.
And I think that typically leaves, you know, a very
positive outcome at the end of the season because either win or
lose, you were with your guys. But I think it's it's almost
more fun to be that realistic sports fan that day-to-day.
Take it how you will look at the team, assess them for what they
are and then, you know, spit it out and then look at the team
where they are now and go, OK, they're looking great.
They're looking great. Deuce is looking great.
And what I think the best thing is, is I mean sham it.
He went from being not even playable.
I mean, maybe not even playable, but not even playing to ball in
I've always. Liked Shamit.
I, I remember telling Sal last year, I'm like, Shamit's got to
play more. I have always liked Shamit.
I've always been a believer. I've got like that, that I, that
I can stand by, you know, because people were glad to be
like Shamit. I'm like, dude, Shamit could
play. Just because, you know, you
might not know about Shamit. Nick fans are like Shamit or or
respect Shamit or just whatever it is doesn't mean that you're
right. Like Shamit's a good two way NBA
player, period. On the Clippers, he was awesome.
Like I remember running through his Clippers numbers.
Yeah, he's a baller, but they yeah, you're right.
And especially the CAD assist numbers, just playing them
differently. What is he averaging almost 8
assists right now at least. For the change, well, but think
about this bears repeating, right?
And I'm trying to think of I'm going to give you an example.
Let's say I'm not saying it's going to be a great example, OK,
But I'm going to try to correlate and and and show
something here. Let I'll take the I'll take The
Jets. All right, just for a moment,
let's say the first month of the season, The Jets come out, Frank
Reich, right? And they've got all these
weapons, you know, four guys that are sub four 40s.
I've talked about it. Great team speed and because of
that and because of the fact that they actually have a
quarterback, right? I'm not a great one, but
certainly a competent. They come out in the first month
of the first five games of the season.
They throw it 3540 * a game and they're trying to air it out and
they kind of abandoned the run. Not that they'll do that with
the priest. I'm not saying it's a great
example, but follow me, right? And then they recalibrate after
that fifth game and say they even win two of those first five
games, but you know, it's not sustainable.
The rushing attack is like 27th in football, right?
And then Glenn knocks on Reich's door or whatever and they they
have a come to Jesus moment. As a staff, we need more
balance. And they flip it.
And now instead of being 7030 pass, they are now about as
close to 5050 as you could be. A lot of play action established
the run, you know, move the sticks, not look at the score 30
plus, but just killing the clock a little bit and they become a
better team. And let's just again, this is
this crazy world. Now I'll take the example even
further. Let's say they make the play
offs, right? Nine wins, they get in 10 and 7
whatever. Well, if I'm on the air and
they're 2:00 and 3:00 or 1:00 and 4:00 because they're trying
to air it out like, you know, Jim Kelly with the Bills run and
shoot back in the day, I'm like, this ain't going to work.
And I'm shitting all over them. I'm this is not good.
This is not how you going to win.
And then the next five games, they totally changed their style
and their success. And I jump in.
I'm like, oh, OK, now this is a team that I can get behind.
That's not a flip flop, you idiots.
That is watching what's changed, that is watching the evolution
of the team and how people don't comprehend that.
To me, it really is it. It just speaks to the inability
of a lot of people to really, truly critically think I, I
really believe. And by the way, something else
too, Jay. And we'll get these calls.
I see a long line of calls fired up.
We'll get it. So you bring up like my buddy
Jerry, right? Jerry was on the show the other
day. Check it out.
If you didn't. Great.
And I'm going to get Jerry back on long format, you know, get
into the that Entourage story that he was telling us that, you
know, when he didn't think he was going to have to go shoot a
scene and he was in the trailer banging 1 back and they had to
shoot and they were out of their minds.
That'll be one of many stories you'll hear from Jerry.
I love him. I've known him since 2006.
He's a good buddy, right? But the difference between me
and Jerry and the difference between me and Ben Stiller and
say, even like Fat Joe, I don't think really Fat Joe tweets a
ton. I know he's a big Nick guy, but
like those guys, they can just be fans.
I've got to have opinions based on what I see.
It's kind of how I've made my living now.
I'm making a living differently now.
But you can't go on WFAN and like, yeah, Nick, Nick, Nick's
let's look, OK, you know, I don't know.
I don't know if I love what I'm seeing, but that'll be fine.
Like you've got to get a little more micro and analyze things
and hold things out now to really be respected.
And I think to have the equity within the fan base, which which
I do think that I have. I I think that people for the
most part respect my opinions, even though some are nutty,
because I do base it on some numbers, some facts, I'm
passionate, whatever. But to to do that, you, you've
got to be able to then say you were wrong.
Not it's not, Oh, I'm I was wrong, but no, no, yeah, I, I
was wrong. But here's why I'm wrong because
of the change in approach to the game, which again goes to Mike
Brown and cat first and foremost.
And then residually you get a little Brunson, you sprinkle
little little bridges and here we are.
And here we are on the on the on the precipice of, you know,
certainly the Eastern Conference finals.
I mean that, you know, maybe, but I mean, it's just it's been
it has been as exhilarating and ass kicking at that I've ever
seen as a Knicks fan. It is when you have the national
commentary, people love to dump on the Knicks, right?
Whether it's Barkley, whether it's Jack, whether it's
whomever, right? I mean, the platitudes and
because they've earned them that people are bestowing upon the
Knicks. It's not because just have a
little bit of a different opinion on these Knicks now,
because if they're hating on the Knicks, I would have changed my
tune and just be nice to them. They are changing their opinions
and they are beginning to to really get in the corner in
terms of conviction with what the Knicks could do this year
because the Knicks aren't the same team that we watched for
80% of the season. Bottom line, bottom line, bottom
line. All right, let me get MM Liano.
What's up, Mike? Appreciate that, buddy.
One key thing about the Knicks teams that they're all in their
prime. True.
Bronson's 29, Cats 30, OG 28, Bridges 29, Hearts 31, Mitch 28,
Deuce 25, Alvarado 28. They're not old.
They're not too young. It's their time.
Well, yes, ABS that's a great point.
You can leave it up there. Give a little love there for the
Super chat. True.
Now if Bronson was 25 and Cat was 26 and they were just
beginning this journey and OG was in his, you know, 23 or 24
years old, just a couple of years in the NBA.
And like Bridges is in his mid 20s and like Mitch was just
granted 2 years ago. Like when you have pointed
criticism, you got to understand guys, it all, it is all
reflected and and largely based on the time timeline of the core
that you're evaluating. Like why do you think?
I mean, aside from being tired of the same script, you know,
too often with Brian Cashman, whatever part of the reason why
the energy for the Yankee fans like it.
We got to it's got to be now like let's go.
You got to go all in and all the stuff over the winter, like the
running back Yankees, which is not true, but all that stuff.
And I respect people who say that they're not totally wrong,
little wrong, but not totally. That is all derived from the
fact that Aaron Judge, the clock is ticking.
He's basically, he's mid 30s. Same with Garrett Cole, you
know, So when you look at that, there is going to be a, a
different level of accountability and hope and,
and, and sporting anger and it's all one twisted, jumbled
delivery of emotions that that really I, I think are defined by
what type, like the the prime of the team.
Another example, maybe a better one would be the Giants this
year. As long as the Giants have
incremental progress with which I believe that they will on
their number one, they've got a great coach now, or at least a
really, really good one, a great mate, really good either way,
close to great. You know what he won, He's got
one. I'll say great, I love horrible,
right? But Jackson Dort's going into
Year 2. He missed a couple of games last
year. Like, if the giants are one in
three and you know, they're not committing 15 penalties a game,
they'll lose a couple of tight ones, maybe Dort makes a
mistake, whatever. Don't you think the level of
analysis should be a little different than, say, what Bill's
fans are viewing? Like that prism with Josh Allen
or even, you know, as Mahomes comes back from injury or
Stafford with the Rams? It's different.
Even the Lions, you know, with Goff, who's been around for, I'm
not saying he's he's on that level, but he is their
quarterback. And they were almost in the
Super Bowl, you know, a couple of years back before the
commander smashed them. So I don't I don't know.
I just think that the Knicks now are it's been it's a couple of
things. It's it's it's like this tsunami
of a perfect emotion where they incrementally built up the
talent base, obviously, and even before that, which is Randall
and Tom Thibodeau playing hard, playing competitive.
Then they got, which we always respect Randall for that.
Then they got better players, Then they took it up a level.
Then they took it up another level right.
Then they, you know, change the coach and now it looks like
they're taking it up another. Like how many more levels are
there before you actually get through to me?
I don't think there's any like I I don't know that you'll ever
have a more perfect situation than you do right now.
Well, again, a lot of this stuff is a regurgitation.
I won't do much of it. But think about, you know, the
Pacers who knocked him out, their stars done all right.
Obviously, Tatum's a champ. Tatum's a champion, great
player. And, and, and he gamely competed
and was still really good when he came back for the Celtics.
Ruptured Achilles, then pull his hamstring.
His Achilles rolled up like a lampshade to the back of his
calf, connecting from the back of his ankle bone all the way up
to his calf. That's a problem, right?
Pistons are young, good, tough, dangerous, viable, a real
threat. I'm not worried about the Cavs
for whatever reason. But you know, I'm just throw
them in there. Knicks will beat the Cavs, and I
even think the Knicks will beat the Pistons.
But the Pistons are just beginning their journey because
Kate Cunningham is one of the best players in the game and
he's an absolute pup. You know, Jalen Bruns has
becoming a bit of an OG now. He's been around a little bit,
You know, more 35 point games than this guy in NBA politics,
more 40 point games than this Bernard King.
Like, you know, he's not 23 years old.
So when you have a payroll, when you've exhausted all of your
your draft capital and all the equity for trades, right, when
you've changed coaches, when the players that get the bulk of the
minutes or the ages that they are, yes, there's going to be
pointed criticism even during the regular season, which is
largely a waste of time in the NBA.
I don't want to hear it. I don't.
Well, you know what, I'll take that back.
I do want to hear it. You can by all means call me up
and disagree, but we're going to get after it here.
If you can tell me with a straight face, right, That what
I said when I said it about the Knicks, that that was wrong back
then, we'll flush through it. And you know, if you can truly
convince me what you can't, but I'll be open minded to give you
a chance to try to do it, then I might have to say, you know
what, you got me. But everything that I've said
has been rooted in the reality of what I was watching in real
time, which the last time I checked is actually the
description one of them also entertaining and all that of my
job. So it's just, it is, it is so
fun. It is so awesome and it is so
fun and it is so awesome because they have grown, they have
evolved. They have really truly accepted
their roles in a way that I they they just weren't doing earlier
in the year. And exhibit one in and I'll get
the calls here. Exhibit one in training camp was
Carl Anthony Towns. Hey, Carl, what's your what's
your role in the offense this year?
I don't know, Still trying to figure it out.
All right, I'm saying to myself, I didn't love it.
And I remember bringing it up on the show on on when I was still
in the fan, but I didn't make a big deal out of its training
camp. You got a new coach who's very
different from the previous coach.
He'll figure it out. He's a talented guy, even if I
thought he was a little soft. Whatever, he'll figure it out.
And then mid season he was asked again.
Yeah, I just, I don't basically, I don't really know what's
expected of me. I'm supposed to think that
that's a team that's going to win a championship.
Why would I think that? But what's happened since I do,
and it's not a flip flop, guys. It's a contextualization of the
entire season. All right, J Rod, everybody's
got to be happy today. Everybody's got to be pumped up.
Let's go mix. Let's go to.
New York to New York go. Who's up first here, Jay?
What are we? We've got Dan from Port
Jefferson Station. All right, Danny is out east.
He is on Unleashed. Dan, what's going on, buddy?
How are you, Danny? Hello, Dan.
Yes, Dan. I'm here all.
Right, Dan? Let's go, buddy.
Come on man. Hey B Dave, what's going on?
What a master class. Like the way they played in this
whole series, honestly. I mean, I feel like they didn't
really sweat at all. It was like and.
I was expecting a little more of a push but really get it,
especially with their fan base. What what an embarrassment.
They just. Embarrassment, dude, Dan, you
know what's crazy too, Dan? When the Celtics and the Sixers
were playing, in my mind, I'm like, I think I'd rather play
the Celtics like from from, not even from forget about like the
non tangible stuff like Boston, NY, forget about that.
But and you know, they beat him last year.
More about I just thought the matchups were a little bit more
favorable. I was never worried about
Philly. I respected him beat if he's
healthy, I know he's a beast and I and I know that Maxi is
terrific and edgecomb's a good young player and I've got a lot
of respect for Nick Nurse and he's been through the ringer.
He he buried his brother. Just yeah, prayers to the Nurse
family. Just awful.
So, so much more important than basketball.
But I actually thought that the Sixers, at least, you know, when
things were still shaping up in the first round.
I'm like, I don't know. I think I'd rather play Boston
in a in a weird way, they I don't think they would have
swept the Celtics. Yeah, I know.
I was. I was on the fence.
I didn't know really who I wanted to play.
I mean, I was more thinking about homecourt if anything.
I feel like, you know, BD, the team.
But when I was most surprised by, and I brought this up, I
called you last week, I was talking about Maxi.
That was my biggest concern and I feel like he was.
I, I want to, I want to ask you this.
Do you think it was his, the defense on him or was it just,
he just wasn't aggressive? I feel like his aggression
wasn't there. I think it was a couple of
things #1 the Knicks play very good team defense, so you've got
to give him credit there. First and foremost #1 #2 you
know, without him, Bead, he looked a little different, you
know, and Bead just kind of gets in his way a little bit.
He just does. Yeah, you know, and not that
Sprewell was the kind of player like Maxi.
Different games, obviously both fast, but not exactly the same
kind of skill set. But a loose interpretation.
Patrick kind of got in the way on that team.
With all due respect to the great Patrick Ewing, the 94
Knicks where Pat was the centerpiece versus the 99 Knicks
where of course Pat was hurt and jacked up against the Spurs, but
that was now Sprewell and Alan Houston and lesser extent Larry
Johnson. So a little bit of that.
Pat was older, Pat was slower. Pat was used to having the
offense funneled through him. It wasn't it wasn't seamless.
Maybe a little little bit. And also with the pinky injury
and Tim Legler talked about this, you've.
Got. Yeah, and you could see the rap
when you've got a tendon in your, a tendon issue in your
pinky, you know, that's, that's, that's a problem.
Yeah, it's hard to get that release and get that that smooth
release on your shot and. For sure, well, even, but Danny
even just catching passes, even just, you know, rerouting the
ball like that pinky man that is.
It's a small thing, but yeah, it does make it's a big factor,
especially when you're a scooter and a guy like him a.
Little. Bit man.
But I I want that like that sequence by by Bronson in the
second-half when he just crossed up, he just like put Barlow in a
blender and just put he gets the reverse layup right on them bead
and then Deuce gets the steal right after that and he hits the
three in the corner. I'm like, that's the nail in the
coffer right there. It's already like over.
But I'm like, that was it? I'm like that, that I was going
nuts. Me too.
That that was just Showtime. That was like, let's lay it on
thick and let's dance on their graves.
Thank you for the call, Dan. Now, that sequence was awesome.
You know what's funny, You know, when I first heard this from my
dad, right? You know, the 69 and 73 Knicks,
I guess we're a little different in the sense that Pearl was not
there for the first one. He came in 73, right?
And then obviously Willis Reed was jacked up, limping out,
hitting two shots against the Lakers, then not playing.
But the thing that my dad always told me, the characteristics of
those Knicks teams, right, were great unselfishness and great
IQ. You know, Clyde seen the floor,
Bill Bradley being as brilliant to basketball, football player
not as great even though he was really good, but as brilliant an
IQ as maybe anybody who's ever played the game, probably up
there with Bird and somebody got magic.
Some of those guys, right, Kobe and you know, the way they just
they played with purpose for each other.
That sequence that Dan just brought up when I mean that
first of all, that move by Brunson, the only way he could
finish was to go reverse under the rim.
Otherwise it's getting shoved down his throat.
But then what happened right after it?
First of all, Deuce with the quick read switched from his man
and reading the eyes on the inbound from Embiid.
Lazy pass Embiid so lazy it got flops like a Fishman all over
the just. I'm so tired of Embiid, right.
So to read the past was great. But then to me, I even think the
most impressive part of that play was Bridges.
It's almost like The Sixth Sense, like there's my guy in
the corner not even hitting the floor.
And I used the word connected and connectivity to describe
these Knicks a lot. Not during the season, but the
last month or so, Certainly since the play offs started and
certainly since game four of maybe not the first couple of
games, but certainly Game 4, the Hawks and and the sweep of
Philly. Just like all 5 fingers making
one powerful potent fist, right? That play, it just gave you
everything. If there was like one thing that
you had to show the world, hey, what are these Knicks about?
Nobody. Like they just came from outer
space, right? Let's say there's basketball in
the outer space. So they kind of know what the
sport is, but they don't know the Knicks.
They don't know any of the teams.
They don't know any of the skill sets.
Hey, you guys, welcome to Earth here.
You should check out this team. They're called the New York
Knicks. Haven't won in a long time, but
check out this sequence. We'll check these guys out.
And then the alien or the Martian or the little person
from wherever says, oh, how do they play?
Just pop it on. Just go to X, go to YouTube.
How about this little 7 second sequence?
Oh, that's Jalen Brunson who basically gets a bucket when
ever he wants. And then, Oh yeah, watch the
Knicks defense and then watch how they are linked almost like
they've got literally the same DNA and that pass by bridges in
the corner. Not even like, oh, is he open?
There wasn't a thought. It was steel bag tip boom
corner, boom 3 lights out. Absolutely gorgeous.
Just a great, really just a great encapsulation of of how
they play. Gorgeous stuff.
All right, Jay, what do we got next?
Who do we have next? We've got Brad from Mineola
Smithtown. By the way, guys, if you just
check it in, welcome to the show, like it, subscribe it, you
know, we got a decent amount of viewers up there.
We got to get to at least three bills today.
Come on. But make sure you guys do what
you're supposed to do with the likes and all that stuff.
What's up, Brad? How are you doing?
No. Something happened.
He like, removed himself from the thing immediately when I
pulsed him up. Little stage fright there.
He's back. He's back.
There's Brad.
All right. Brad, can you hear us?
Yeah, I had to do your trick, J Rod.
No, I'm good. He's learning.
Look at J Rod teaching everybody.
Nice dude. All right, so BT you were alone
in the some and I was in June, I believe last year and I got call
today and I got called today because all I was saying was the
reason why the Knicks are not going to win anything is because
cat is fat. He can't run up and down the
court because he's fat. He can't do this because he's
fat. It's time to eat crow.
He's point cat. It's absolutely incredible the
change that he that he made. It could be the fact that he's
now figuring out how to play in New York one, it could be that
he's now engaged. It could be now that he's more
of a mature individual. Listening to his press
conference last night and obviously it was emotional
because of his mom and everything like that.
I think we found what we were expecting from Kat and it might
have took this long for that to happen.
Well, interesting. No, no, listen, he, he deserves
a lot of apologies. And you know, I, I, I'll throw a
few out as well. I never called him fat.
I never body shamed the guy. But what I did say about Cat is
like, you know, for for dude, I wish he had a little bit more
muscle. Like, you know, he's what is
that? Listen, but that's also that's
also DNA. Now that's also genetics, I
should say, not DNA genetics. Like some people.
You can live in a weight room and you just not going to have
that definition. Like he's not yoke, he's big.
You know, he's he's kind of strong, but listen to the
criticisms of Cat and he's incredibly skilled, which is the
main point. Remember when he was trying to
post up Westbrook earlier this year?
Remember that? And he got shoved out of the
post. OK, the other thing too, Brad.
And This is why. And I'm and I'm giving him his
praise and I'm, I'll even, you know, apologize to an extent.
Although what I said, what I said it, I meant that I was
right. Because think about this now.
If you are the type of Knick fan who doesn't watch every game,
you may have missed this. If you're like myself and
evidently like Brad, who's called about the Knicks in June,
this was back on The Fan and many others like you who watch
every game you will remember. And it used to drive me nuts.
Firstly, always complain to the reps Always complain to the reps
Always, right? No, not the way.
No, not, not the way he. Used to the way he does now, I
agree, you know. But then but Brad, the other
thing that he that he did, and I remember I didn't, you'd have to
really dive deep into my timeline on X, but I had video
of it because it bothered me so much.
He would go to the rim, kind of get knocked off his off his
path, you know, off balance, missed the shot, not get fouled,
complain about it. Couple times he was on the floor
and he would stay on the floor while you had five on four the
other way. And literally I one time I
counted this where I was at my most aggressive against Cat, 12
seconds it took him to get down the court to actually get into
the frame. It's not acceptable.
So we have not seen that in well over a month.
He has made adjustments. What's been the impetus behind
those adjustments? I, I don't know, maybe Brad just
gave him, gave us a couple learning how to play in New
York, you know, retooling his game, Mike Brown empowering him,
Jaylen Brunson tweaking. Like, I think they're all
interconnected. But Cat deserves an immense, an
immense amount of credit. He is balling.
Quick, quick. Two more things, right?
Yeah, obviously you follow college.
I always loved Landry Shaman at at Wichita State.
Just never really got the opportunity and he's getting it.
Yep. And we did this without OG
Ananobi. I know, I know it's amazing.
It's I said that at the top there.
I know you have one other thing. So why don't you hit me with
that? No, I mean the ability to keep
OG even if the Knicks and they won game three, but you know,
you knew there was no way he was going to play game 3 and I just
once they won game three, you knew there was no way he was
going to play game 4. You knew it.
Perfect. BT I'm just going to say this
for all those Knick fans that lived through the early 2000's,
the late 2000's, the ones that loved the Christmas Day games,
the ones that loved those games in March, that they beat teams
that they shouldn't have beat. But you knew that this team was
not good enough. Enjoy this, we are 8 wins away
from a championship. They go buddy.
And I hope, and I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope that we're in the
same bar and we can cheers when they win, when they go down.
The County of the Heroes love you.
BT I love you too, man. Thank you, Brad.
Appreciate it. But I love you guys too.
Yeah. Oh my God almighty, the county
of the heroes that would be that would be the wildest Canyon of
heroes of of all time. I mean, maybe outside of, you
know, honoring, you know, war heroes.
I mean, I know the 86 Mets was pretty bonkers, but not the
entire, you know, a lot of Yankee fans, more Yankee fans
and Mets all the Yankee championship, a lot of met fans.
That's kind of offset a little bit the Rangers.
You know, I was that was pretty wild.
No doubt in 94. Not everybody's a hockey fan,
some Islander fans, some devil fans, you know, although mostly
Ranger fans of the tri-state. I I, I, yeah, I can't even
imagine what that day would look like, but I'm beginning to allow
myself to wander there. And that's OK.
You know, some of you will live by the mantra one at a time.
I I am capable of doing both. Sometimes, not always
successfully, but I am capable of sitting here today after
stomping 2 teams and now you have two other teams beat each
other up for the right to play the Knicks while the Knicks,
while the Knicks chill and relax and do some advanced scouting
that the other teams will not have the luxury of quite doing
all the Knicks because they're worried about scouting each
other. And you know, playing that
series. And I can be excited in the
moment. You know what I just watched
yesterday. And I can also allow my mind to
wander to the Canyon of Heroes, to maybe the Thunder, to, you
know, the Knicks representing the Eastern Conference.
I'm not saying they're definitely going to get there.
You know, Pistons would be a handful.
Again, I wouldn't be really too worried about the Cavs.
But that is that's something I've always lived by.
Like when you're when you're a big sports fan, I listen, I've
said this, part of the balance of being a sports fan is riding
the highs and being emotionally vulnerable when you're high.
Like, isn't that kind of the fun?
I mean, jeez, if you can't walk around today as a Knicks fan
thinking you have a chance to win a championship, when can
you? I mean, when can you do that?
You know, like even with Patrick and all those great teams and
great, really good teams and all those wins, I'm like, Jordan,
don't worry about Jordan there. You know, So even like when they
were dusting teams like the Cavaliers early with like Harper
and ELO and Brad Doherty or the Nets, you know, with DC and
Drozen, great. Drozen was so good.
Kenny Anderson, my guy, Kenny, those guys, the Hornets, a young
Hornets team with LJ grandma. You know, they beat a lot of
those teams early. You know, I was always terrified
like, God, how the hell are we going to beat this dude?
How are we going to beat Jordan? How, how?
And then even the year when Jordan wasn't there in 94, I'm
like, Pat, you got to outplay a Lajwan.
And I I knew at that point that Elijah Wan was better.
And he really, Sally used to get so mad when I talk about this,
but it's true. He would defend Pat, which I
get, but I mean a lot. If you remember the 94 series,
Hakim Alajwan absolutely destroyed Patrick.
I know Patrick set a A finals record for blocks and he had
some rebounds. Pat shot like 37 1/2% from the
field that series. He was just thoroughly outplayed
and I was worried about that going in because I knew how good
Hakim Alajwan was. And to this day, I think Hakim
maybe outside of Jabbar, Not that I'm not going to put Hakim
better than Jabbar, I wouldn't do that.
But when I think about maybe the two most underrated players in
the history of the game, well, you think about the GOAT
conversation. It's always like MJ for us old
heads, the Unks, LeBron for the newer, younger fans, right?
A couple of Kobe's. And I love Kobe, but he's
definitely not in that conversation as the greatest of
all time. It's just not, you know, it's
not Shaq. You know, maybe you want to
throw up Russell as an all time winner.
Wilp is the all time statistical dominant beast that he was a
little magical little bird. Nobody ever says Kareem.
So I've always defended Kareem kissed to me, Kareem Abdul
Jabbar, you know, 6 MVPS, 6 championships, most indefensible
shot in the history of the game and the most points for about 30
years before it was broken, before the record was broken,
right? So Kareem is is painfully either
ignored or disrespected or glossed over.
And I think Hakeem Olajuwon is next on that.
Maybe Tim Duncan, Duncan's in that category as well.
Either way, just kind of a little bit of a referendum on
the old time greats. But like, if you can't juggle
both and that's on you. I got no problem juggling.
I'm thinking championship. I'm thinking, you know, I'm
thinking, thinking Pistons, I'm thinking Cavs.
I'm thinking more Pistons, but I'm thinking Pistons and Cavs.
Thinking NBA Finals. I'm thinking about being one of
the two teams left. I'm thinking about watching
Jalen Brunson and Cat on this massive stage.
And yes, I would be very worried about the Thunder.
I get it. I could do both.
I can process both. And we don't have one brain
cell. You know, maybe some of us
killed a few along the way. But, you know, how do you not?
How can you not mentally juggle both?
I don't, I don't get that. All right, Jay, who's up next?
Got our friend St. from London. St. is into his house.
What up St. How you doing buddy?
I'm good, brother. How are you?
I'm. Awesome, awesome.
I'm glad to hear it. I first want to just pause and
give a shout out because I feel, man, that we spoke this into
existence talking about Breece Hall and this man gets his
contract. Oh yeah, I was that.
We weren't worried about it. I knew it was going to happen.
I didn't know about the guaranteed money.
I thought it might be a little bit more than the 29 or 30 he
got, but hey, he's young, he's good, he's fast, he's valuable.
Love it. Pumped about.
It love, love it too. And you know what?
You, you literally stole my word.
I, I think we're mentally dancing, man from across the
park because I literally was going to come on here and say
they are playing transformational ball these next
man. I, I mean, look, Bridges is
bridging the gap. No pun intended.
Brunson is just brunting it up. Deuce is shooting like Tony KU
coach since you're going back to the 90s.
Legitimate 6 man even though he's starting, his OG is out.
Cat is playing like Yokich, which is just absolutely
insanity. I mean, I don't know, and I
don't know what these people are sitting here busting your ass
about doing Twitter or whatever, but I've been listening to you
for way too long and I know exactly how you felt about the
Knicks, so I would ignore that. Oh, no, I'd just like to have a
little bit of fun. Don't bother me, I just pointed
out, yeah. I would, I would, I would ignore
that because honestly, like most, this is the gift and the
curse of being in the Knicks fan, right?
It's like you got you got the ones that are die hard that will
always go. It doesn't matter how
insignificant we were for all those years.
MSG the Mac is always going to be sold out and they get away
with charging those extortionate ticket prices, but also then you
have the other next man that's like, well you're you're you're
a front runner. You just come into the party
like you know, where, where were you?
And. It's like I've been.
Suffering my entire life like where were.
You like? And I'll tell you what, I always
say this to a lot of people that have, you know, an affiliation
with very successful teams. You can't know joy without pain.
So when there you go and get and get mad that their team is not
performing or their team that's used to winning everything has
the most championships. So I don't respect patriots fans
because like The thing is like you're you're you're upset that
you are losing. Brabel's brought brought you to
the promised land. That's great in his first
season. But you cannot know joy without
pain. But.
That's I love that that's. Good, man.
So it's like if you can't, you can't, you get mad at your team
and you can't exile from your team or put them on the back
burner or the shelf because you are just used to winning.
But you haven't. You haven't lost.
And nobody, and you know this, nobody's lost more than us than
us. That's right.
I wanted to bring the positivity, but I just feel that
it's unnecessary for you to take those shots.
I know you got to step up a lip and you can take it, but.
But I but you know what? I just can't see anybody beating
the Knicks right now. And just like you said, if
you're not, if not, if now is not the time to hope and dream,
then when is it? And.
I swear to you, come. On man.
I swear to, I swear to you like my dad.
We're talking about it last night.
He goes, oh, who would you rather face, Kate or the beard?
I was like, I don't give a shit about either one of them because
we will absolutely smack them into next week.
I love it. I'm not.
I'm not interested. I'm not interested.
Bring them all. OK, Steve, I was at the last
game at the Garden, March 5th, where we lost by three.
My brother took me there. He still lives in Washington
Heights. I was whinging.
I was whinging about wanting to see the game, but the tickets
were extortionate and he made it happen as a surprise.
It was fantastic, $20 beers. You know how it goes in the
Garden. I know it all, man, I know.
Those two last shots that we could have forced it to
overtime, we didn't. But you know, the fan base was
still happy. We're just like.
We didn't win, but. You know, I don't care if we
meet, if we're destined to meet. OK, See, I reckon we can.
Let's go. Hey, by the way, what is that
expression again? Joy and pain?
What you say without joy? I said you can't know or
appreciate joy without pain. Remember the song by Rob Base?
Do you remember that joy? Come on, come on, pain.
Keep it going, Keep it going. Well done man, well done money.
Great way to start the Monday. Let's go.
I'll talk to you, brother. Yeah, keep.
Keep it easy and keep bringing the positive vibes.
Keep doing the unleash and actually just embellish me for a
minute as you hang up on me about what you think about The
Jets and how this Cave Club, Nick and Breece Hall things are
going. Thank you so much.
You got it, my man. Yes, Sir.
Yeah, Club Nick sounds very
sound. I'm not going to go nuts on that
because a big Nick day, but he sounded very impressive at the
at the rookie workouts. He's I'm a winner, confident but
humble, great perspective. You know, not going to go nuts
and say that the The Jets stumble the pond their their
franchise quarterback here. But what he projected was was
really good, really good. It just reminded me.
So I was texting with my sister yesterday.
J Rod right, wished her a a happy Mother's Day, obviously,
right and St. just called and and he's obviously crossed the
pond and my sister was getting on a flight to to finish up her
studies at Oxford, right. That's where my sister is right
now at Oxford. I don't even know if it's her
third or fourth degree. I've lost count.
Dude. I have no idea.
Oh, dude, I am. Yeah.
She's the smart one in the family.
I am convinced that if I sat down to take one test at Oxford,
I honestly don't think I would get one question right unless it
was multiple choice and I stumbled upon it.
I don't know how she's got 3°. I don't know.
I don't even know. What she what is she currently
studying? A.
Lot of AI stuff, a lot of stuff like that.
She was in. Finance, she was in finance for
about 25 years and she made a really great pivot, very high up
in finance. Finance, she see, she went to
Oxford. I guess that would have been her
junior year. She was undergrad at Boston
College and then went to Oxford her junior year and then
obviously graduated from BC, went into the finance.
Well, I didn't get into the financial sector right away, but
that doesn't matter. A couple of years after that,
she did. Didn't know if she wanted to be
a lawyer, didn't know if she wanted to be a doctor.
Just brilliant. And like she's the kind of
person that would be a professional student if you let
her. Like she loves school.
It's some she loves it. Like she loves going getting on
a plane to go and challenge her mind at Oxford.
Like I like sitting behind home plate watching my kids play
ball. Like that's the that's that's
the joy that she gets from it. How the hell she's doing it now.
Do you know the Rob Bass song? Do you know that song?
Joy and pain? Keep it.
Going. Keep it.
Going that sunshine. In passing, but never.
I'll check it out. You're young, buck.
Sing it now. God's children.
All right, you know what? Let's do this here.
We have a lot to do. All right, let's slap up the the
booty promo. So we've got Yankee manager
Aaron Boone. Not tomorrow.
We will have Aaron Boone on the show on.
Get it up. There you go.
At 10:30 on Wednesday, it is confirmed.
You got back to me. I wasn't sure it was going to be
11 or 10:30. 10/30 Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
And again, hopefully Booney has a couple of good days here.
I don't want to get the grumpy Booney when he comes on.
The shadow did not like the way the Yankees looked in Milwaukee
over the weekend. So that's coming up on
Wednesday. I told you I'm going to have
Tiki on this week. Not confirmed yet, obviously.
I mean, it's a little bit easier.
No, no, no, no disrespect, Tiki. It's a little bit easier.
You know, Tiki's just not the manager of the Yankees to get
him on the show. I'm thinking I've got to see if
this is conducive to his schedule.
I don't know if it will be something around the Giants
scheduled release and the NFL will release everything on
Thursday. So Tiki not confirmed yet, but
we do have Boone on Wednesday at 10:30.
It's going to be awesome. What else did I have to tell you
how to tell you about the Yankees?
It's Big Nick Day, so I'm not going to do a lot of time on
this year. But so Spencer Jones makes his
debut and you know, I mean, listen, he ran into some amazing
pitching, struck out a ton. Nice to see him get his first
knock up the middle line drive base hit, made a nice diving
play in center. You know, hopefully they keep
running them out there. Stanton's nowhere near a return.
Good to have Rodon back. He's got to get the work out the
kinks a little bit. Dominguez is going to be out a
little bit here as well. But I just like, I just try to,
I don't know if you guys get the same feeling.
And I knew because I've seen a lot of his clips here that he
kind of changed the stance a little bit.
I cannot get comfortable watching that guy's batting
stance. I don't care if he's on a
heater. I don't care if Spencer Jones is
11 for 15 with four bombs. Like that wacky stance is just,
it's just, it doesn't, it doesn't give me Peace of Mind.
Like I try to Fast forward to October.
And not that I even think that he's going to necessarily be on
the roster in October. Maybe he is.
I, I don't know. I would think probably not,
excuse me, if everybody else is healthy, but I don't know, like
2 on two out, 8th inning, 7th inning, 9th inning, high
leverage spot, Yankees down a run, whatever it might be like
Spencer Jones going in there with that wacky wind up or that
wacky stance, I don't know. It just looks very
uncomfortable, man. And you know that he was feeling
it nervous swinging out of his shoes, which he does anyway.
But good to get his first knock, good to get his first RBI.
But gangs did not look good. But we will have over the
weekend. We will have Boone coming up on
Wednesday. All right, So let everybody know
about that. Aaron Boone in the house coming
up on Unleashed. Now it is a Monday and it's a
little time for something here. J Rod, let's get this out of the
way before I get back to the calls here.
I got a good burning question segment for you.
I think you guys are like this. Burning questions, of course,
brought to you by my friends at Sullivan Propane.
According to World and the US News and World Report of New
York's best personal injury law firms as general counsel to the
New York City Firefighters Union.
And they've done that for more than 4 decades.
And the proud law firm of St. John's Athletic, Sullivan
Papayne is New York's team fighting for New Yorkers for
more than 100 years. Find them online at
triallaw1.com. That's trial law1.com.
Remember the name Sullivan Papayne.
Shout out to my good friends over at the firm.
Hopefully they're enjoying the Nick run here.
All right, question #1 we got to have a little Nick theme here in
order list your 3 greatest Knicks of all time.
I'm going to piss some people off with this.
Now I know it's funny. Anytime Patrick is asked about
this, he says it's Clyde. Anytime Clyde is asked about
this, he says it's Patrick. You know, Patrick's got all the
records. Clyde's got the championships.
I've got to go Clyde one. Even though I never saw Clyde
dribble the basketball live once, you know, I I've got to go
with Clyde Frazier. I mean, come on, think about
some of the Game 7 performances. Think about you know, you talk
about Jordan, you know, and always getting in the Knicks
way. Think about some of the teams
that they had a battle like Wes Unseld and the Bullets back then
when they were the still the Washington Bullets, you know,
Jerry West and and just Elgin Baylor, the Lakers.
Come on man, I'm going to go Clyde one.
Sorry, younger Knick fans. I'm obviously going to go
Patrick Ewing #2 and I'm going to go, you know, I thought about
a little the Bush or a little Reed, a little Earl Monroe, but
Earl wasn't here for the first championship.
You know, Bernard King is my first favorite Nick, but he's
only, he was only here for five years and he, you know, I love
him. But no, I'm definitely not going
mellow. Some of you young people might.
I'm going Jaylen Brunson. Jaylen Brunson #3 I remember and
Sal thought I was nuts and we got into it and, and I stand by
it. To me, obviously Patrick's the
second. You know, you could even say
Patrick's number one for me. He's number 2.
So Clyde won Pat 2. But I remember saying on The Fan
back in the day that, and this was very early in Jalen
Brunson's run as a Knick. I'm like, Jalen Brunson impacts
winning night to night more than Patrick did.
And I believe that. And it's not a knock on Pat.
Now if yeah, I'm started, I mean out of time.
If Brunson wins the championship and he's here five more years,
is there a situation that, you know, he can usurp Pat at #2 I
mean, that seems like a bit of a stretch there.
And having impact on winning is different than for me, at least
the way I process the question, who's the greatest?
Nick? I'm going to say Brunson right
now is 3. All due respect to Pearl, all
due respect to BK, all due respect to the captain, Willis
Reed #1 all right, number 2 with the Wizards, the Wizards winning
the draft lottery. Who are your three biggest NBA
first overall busts? Not sure why I inverted the word
in there, but I did. Oh my God, this, this to me is
actually pretty easy. Like there's been a lot of got
like and again, operative phrase first overall.
So like if you thinking Darko Millisich when you could have
taken Mellow and and Wade and bought like, no, it's not Darko
first overall. All right #1 there's a clear cut
answer. I mean, it's got to be Anthony
Bennett. I mean, it's got to be Anthony
Bennett was taken first overall by the Cavaliers.
Cavaliers back in 2013. You could have taken Giannis.
You could have even had Rudy Gobert in four years as the
first overall. I even when they drafted him,
the whole league, the whole world was like, what?
He averaged four and a half, 4.4 points per game in 151 games
with the Cavaliers. He has the fewest points ever in
the history of the NBA for people who were drafted first
overall. He scored 600, didn't even score
700 career points. So bet it's #1 #2 you know
what's funny? I had Stephen A on the show
about a month and 1/2 or so ago. If you guys missed it, check it
out. And you know, Steven, if you
really think about some of the early viral clips with Stephen A
before he'd be as he was becoming this media mogul
monster that he is, remember Kwame Brown?
Like he would just eviscerate Kwame Brown and Kwame Brown is
the answer. I mean, you might even say Kwame
over Bennett. I wouldn't 2001 with the Wizards
and you know, you could have gotten Paul Gasol, you could
have taken Tony Parker. Now he was traded to the Lakers,
you know, 6 points, 5 rebounds. Just, you know, he wasn't ready,
man. He wasn't physically mature
coming out of high school. He wasn't emotionally mature and
he wasn't locked in like, you know, I, I wasn't around them.
So. But what I've heard is that
you're just a little bit lazy. Kwame #2 #3 This goes back a
minute. 1998 Michael Olawakandi from the Clippers out of
Pacific. I mean, when you take somebody
first overall out of Pacific, no disrespect to Pacific, you're
rolling the dice a little bit. And you know, the why He's third
is because he did play nine years in the NBA and you know,
he was like second team or all rookie nothing.
He was great, but it was rookie year. 9 points, 8 rebounds, all
right? He's a big, you know, from
weaker mid major competition. You know, there was at least a
building block, but it just never materialized.
So, and that's Wrath, by the way.
You could have had Vince Carter, you could have taken Paul
Pierce, you could have taken Dirk internationally out of
Germany. So those are the three for me.
Bennett 1, Kwame 2. Michael Olawakandi 3.
Really. All the Wakandi, all the
Wakandi. Either way works.
All right #3 baseball. This is good.
Who's coming up with these questions?
Better MLB story, the Cubbies or the Rays?
I mean, both teams are humming here.
So Tampa's 26 and 13. They won 8 of 10.
They're first in the American League East, their game or so up
on the Yankees, right? The Cubbies are 27 and 14.
They are first in the Central. They 2 have won eight of 10 now,
But here's the difference. I'm going to say that it's
Tampa. I'm going to say that it's Tampa
because even though their stadium is is is, you know,
piece of garbage, they're back in their stadium.
You know, they were out of play George Steinbrenner Field in
Tampa because the not the tornado, the hurricane rolled
through ripped the roof off. So, you know, they were they
were displaced at any time that happens, whether it's a home or
a stadium, you know it, it's a good story.
Even though they're a little bit in the Yankees way this year.
But I'm going to really go with the Rays because of the the
money here. So the Tampa Rays are 24th in
payroll. They just do things well.
They draft, they develop, they know when to get rid of guys
early. They know when to, you know,
that they rather than get rid of somebody a year too late, they
do it a year early. Price and some others at a
Longoria, they just so call Crawford.
They're so good at that. And then the Cubbies who are 8th
in payroll, top ten, $219,000,000.
So they basically got the same record just about they're both
playing great ball now, winning 8 of 10.
But the Cubs have $119 million more devoted to their payroll.
So I'm going to say the better story right right now, right now
has been the Tampa Rays. And again, three Bernie
questions brought to you by my friends at
sullivanpapaynetriallaw1.com. That's trial law1.com.
Remember the name Sullivan Papayne.
Good, good crop. A question today.
Hi, Jay. Big time.
Also, you know, another great little just dig at the Sixers
here. Yeah, go to like.
Over it. Go to #4 and five on those
biggest bus. All right, Maybe you got Ben
Simmons. Maybe you got Markel Fultz.
I thought about those. I I did.
I did. Now Simmons got hurt.
Simmons early on was I remember, to be fair, I remember watching
Simmons and I'm like, man, I wish I had him on the Knicks,
You know, 610, I know we couldn't shoot, but a
distributor, you know, rebound lead the I'm talking to early.
Simmons was thankful. Do you think it's injuries that
fully derailed his career or do you think it was more his
aversion to playing basketball? That's what I think, you know.
Combination of both. It certainly must be.
Yes, yes, I And it's funny because he had an aversion to
shooting. And Markel Fultz at a very
similar reflection where he just he he couldn't shoot publicly.
That was bad. I felt they were bad.
Where did he He was University of Washington, right?
Yeah. Markel Fultz.
Funny, I was at the 2017 NBA draft and I remember, like, I
mean, obviously the Celtics had made that trade for the third
pick, but I remember going, man, I don't want Tatum.
I want Markel Fultz. Are you serious?
Of course, dude at the time, I mean at the time, Jason Tatum,
dude at the time, I wanted Markel Fultz and then Josh
Jackson. Jackson.
Oh my God. I remember.
Yeah, sure. And and granted, Josh Jackson
did have a pretty decent rookie year, the rest of his career is
garbage. But Markel Fultz, I mean, if you
remember going into that draft, he was looked at as like the
next James Harden. Really.
That was like his player comparison at the time.
I'm looking at the draft now, right?
Yeah, no question. Absolutely.
So Fultz went first. Lonzo Ball went second.
Man Tatum third. Jackson 4 The Aaron Fox, good
score. 5th Jonathan Isaac 6 Lori Marking in, you know, by the
Bulls and obviously, you know, you moved around a little bit,
has become a good score. Jeez, if this doesn't make you
appreciate the Knicks where we are now.
With the 8th overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft from France,
point guard, the Knicks select Frank Nilikita.
Oh God. Over D Mitchell.
Yes, yes. And Dennis?
Smith. Was a player who went after him
and a lot of us Nick fans wanted Dennis Smith and he was really
good at NC State. Could jump, jump out of the gym.
I remember some real like in traffic where he would just cock
it back and yoking on some yoking on bigs in traffic.
I like Dennis Smith, Zach Collins from Gonzaga I believe,
and then Malik Monk, Luke Kennard from Duke.
Donovan Mitchell, 13. My goodness.
Justin Jackson, Justin Patton from Creighton, I remember doing
his games against Saint John's. Harry Giles.
Let's see if it really jumps. Jared Allen.
Man, this OG had a movie. OG was the 2020 third pick.
For Raptors, Was he picked by the Raptors too?
Was it? Was it the Raptors?
He was I, I thought that was a trade.
I think, I think the Lakers traded that pick to the Bucks.
There was some sort of trade around that, but I forget the
exact. I mean, not be a long time ago,
man. Tony Bradley, Derek.
White, Josh. Hard Wow.
You know, I think maybe it's just because Derek White, like
his hair is so messed up back in the day that you think that he's
been in the league for as long as like, I don't even know, not
a guy like Mike Conley, but you think Derek White's been in the
league for like a minute just because of his look.
Like I would not have thought that he was drafted in 20 T-17
alongside Tatum. I agree that's.
Me a long time ago. My God.
All right, Jay, who do we have up next here?
Let's get back to the call. Got our man's going as well.
Who? Got our buddy Seth calling in.
What up in a bit. I am not going to lie, I was not
expecting us next to sweep to Philadelphia.
I was thinking this was going to go at least 6, but we got our
first playoff sweep since 99 since the Hawks, right?
Yeah. Yeah, I remember that they and
they had to play that game where the Falcons used to play, I
think because Phillips Arena was getting some work done, if I
remember. I remember, yeah.
They were playing in. Was it the the Atlanta whatever
the which one was the Omni Falcon Dome, whatever it was
called either way. Yeah, it's been a minute.
Having said that, I mean, this was sort of what I expect, kind
of expected to. I mean, we only had to go six
against Atlanta. We were a little fresher and
Philadelphia had been easily been put themselves under the
gun. I'm going to claw them way back
from three, one down to Boston to win.
They were gassed. Yep.
Yeah, I know. Understood.
And their star player isn't reliable night tonight while
George is hanging it up. Yeah, he's he's I've got Paul's
a hell of a player. I've got great respect for Paul
George. He's a gamer, man.
He really is. But in beach shot, like he just,
I mean, he just can't move and he's such a flopper, dude.
I'm just tired of it. People say LeBron used to flop,
which still does. Nobody flops like this guy.
It's embarrassing. There was a video we flopped.
No, no, no, I disagree. No, he's a foul baiter.
Well, that's different than flopping.
I mean, that's that's kind of manipulating the rules like
that. There's a big difference, Seth.
I mean, it's did you see the video going around social media
where Embiid, who did he bump into?
He actually bumped into one of his own teammates and he flopped
when he hit his own teammate. It's just, oh, God, Sixers have
the Sixers future is as bleak as it gets.
Even though, even though Maxi's great.
And if you want to do a complete rebuild of Philadelphia set
around Maxi and Edgecomb, you gotta get rid of Nurse, Gotta
get rid of him, B Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, No, no.
No doubt. Absolutely.
Hold on. Let me see.
Yeah. But the big question is, yeah,
who's a good, who's a good enough?
Well. Greg, qualified coach.
You don't have many of those in the NBA, and even when you do,
most of them get in through connections.
Nepotism. Yeah.
I mean, I don't know about most. I don't know.
I don't know if I'd say most of them, but no, a fair amount,
too. Yeah, I think Nick Nurse is a
good coach. I don't think he's great.
I don't even want to, you know, get into any critical analysis
now of Nick because of what he's going through.
But the man is a champion. I mean, how many champions are
are coaching right now? I mean, Mike Brown doesn't have
any. Tom Pivoto didn't have any.
I mean, Nick Nurse has a championship.
Rumors are Tom may be heading down to Orlando soon.
Yeah, I saw that. That would be it for a young
team. That could be pretty interesting
right there. No, I don't.
I don't disagree. Chicago won't take him back.
No, no, he's not going to Chicago.
There's no way he's going. I don't think.
No. All right, Seth, any.
Nothing negative to say, right. So Seth sounds pretty stable
today. One other thing I want to say
for Yankees. You want to say what?
A little bit of a farewell. Well, to a less known Yankee who
passed away recently. Who?
Bobby Cox. Yeah.
No, I did see that.
A life well lived. He was he was a Yankee,
obviously. I think he was 848584.
Yeah, 84. Yeah, I saw that, You know, rest
in peace to to just a great baseball.
Remember him for the Braves. No question.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know how old you
are. I don't.
I mean, I 38, yes. So I mean, we never saw him with
the Yankees. You know, he was more of a great
manager than a player. But no good acknowledgement
there. All right, Seth, good job today,
buddy. I'll talk to you, man.
Thank you. Seth, try to find something
here. Where's the Sixers?
I got to get their payroll. I'm just looking for one thing.
Pardon me. Cavaliers.
Cavaliers have the highest payroll this year.
Rockets, T Wolves, Lake are there?
OK, Sixers. So you get on the 76ers payroll,
right? I mean, I, I just don't, I don't
know, I don't know how you how how the hell do you work around
this? So.
This is great. I'm looking at it.
This is all stirred bro. J Rod next year and Beads making
59.5. And then it's all guaranteed.
No opt outs, no, no. And then it's 2728, he's making
64.3 now. The salary cap will go up, so it
won't be quite as punitive as it seems now, But 2829, he's making
$69 million. Paul George is on the books next
year for 54,000,000. So you've got, Yeah, you've.
Got Oh my gosh. I mean, that is, that is, that's
painful right there, man. You've got about $115 million
for two guys now. Edgecomb's cheap.
He's on his rookie deal, Max. He's making 40, then 43, then
46. He's worth it.
You're not worried about him. And you know, Grimes, his
contract is up. Uber's contract is up.
Drummond's up, Barlow's got a team option to 3.4.
Lowry's up. You know, Watford is up at 2.8.
I mean, it's really just those. I just, I mean, listen, maybe
they are one shrewd navigation. I don't even really know what
they have in terms of draft capital, but it's not going to
be easy for. Them other than, and this is a
move NBA teams don't really do anymore because it it always
ends up horribly. And with a contract this big and
legitimately probably be impossible.
Like you couldn't cut and stretch and wave and be like and
do something like that. And also, even if you force him
to retire, you'd have not force him to retire but be like yo
please. Like you'd still have to pay out
the rest of his contract track, correct?
I'm, you know, well, now there's insurance like so whether it's
Lloyd's of London, you know, the the not that the fan cares about
the Sixers getting a return on their investment.
They want to be able to, you know, bring some players in.
I don't, I don't know, I believe that there's some type of relief
like MB is getting every penny no matter what.
We know that. But that's like that's all
right. That's money coming from the
Philadelphia 76ers. I'm pretty sure they would be
granted relief. I just, I don't want to just say
something without being 100%. Yeah, I know there's a
concession or some sort of fine print in there that would give
them a little relief, but I, I don't know exactly how much.
I just don't see a trade Ave. with him at all because no team,
even a even a horrible team, isn't going to want to drudge
like their books up with somebody like that.
It's not like there's one year to go.
I mean, there's three years. To go, yeah, it's a long time
where it's like no team because, you know, teams in the past have
kind of taken on players who are kind of out of their prime, but
maybe bring a little pop to the fan base for one season.
A Russell Westbrook type for this.
That's a good point. Something.
Like that, but three years. The fans would come with
pitchforks and torches. Now, if they come at all, I
mean, they didn't even show up in Philly with pitchforks and
Knick fans came in for them. I mean, listen, I'm just kind of
thinking out-of-the-box and I'm not even, I'm not even saying I
would do this, but the way to do a trade like that and I'd have
to do a deeper dive on exactly what they have in terms of draft
equity. I don't have that in front of me
and I don't really care right now.
But maybe the only way that you incentivize A-Team to take on
those three big years, you know, at $64 million on the back end
couple of years from now with Joel Embiid, is to throw
Edgecomb in the deal. And do like a big deal where you
get someone else good back as well.
It's like a mat, OK. You know, I've been otherwise I
don't see if there was two years to go it then you if that's
different because it's one year and then it's an expiring deal,
which is a great asset in the NBA.
As you know, the three years changes the entire complexion
and the their ability to make A to make a trade.
Scary and how how you feeling about how you feeling about the
I know you feel great about this the Pacers the Pacers losing out
on the pick because it dropped the five it went to the Clippers
with the zoo botch trade. But it I know.
And did you see their their the tweet from their vice president?
No, I didn't see it. Let me pull this up.
He he he literally admitted to tanking which is like I'm really
sorry to all our fans I own taking the risk.
Surprised it came up 5th after this year.
I thought we were due some luck but Please remember this team
deserved the starting center to compete with the best teams next
year. We have always been resilient.
Sorry, not the vice president, the president of basketball
operations. Wow.
Well it's a tacit admission there.
I don't know if he straight up said we tanked, but you.
Know it was worth the risk. The risk of playing terribly.
I get. I get.
Yeah, but when Halliburton got hurt.
I hear you. That's interesting.
That's about as close as you'll get to somebody touching the.
Fire, yes, yes. And, and to say that, to say
that this team deserved a starting center like Zubot.
Zubot was worth the risk of, of, of what's the word of
compromising your, your lottery pick.
You would be pretty Dang happy with the 5th pick in this year's
draft, Darius Acuff. Potential I love him over Zubot.
I love him. And then Acuff is and he was on
my list when we talked about the NCAA Tournament.
I I. You said the top three players,
NBA player. You said he'd be the best going
forward, NBA player, and I think a lot of people agree with that.
Not that Zubach isn't a great center, but come on man.
No, he's not a great center. He's a good center in.
I guess OK, in not great. Listen, he's not a stream of
life, but like, yeah, it's not like you they got Rick Smith's.
Not that Rick was even great. He was not BT great, not BT
great, but like in the modern day, he's a guy you'd want as
your starting center. I agree.
Yeah, they always seem to get a
little host here, you know, in 85, remember they got the second
overall pick and Patrick got the first pick.
But they are resilient, like the Pacers are one of those teams.
Where? They're just a well run
franchise going back to Donnie Walsh like they it's never going
to be. I've got great respect for the
state of Indiana and I've got great respect for Pacer fans.
They're good even though the whole Nick Pacer thing, but
Pacer fans are good. They love their team, great
venue. I've been out there a couple
times. Great arena, you know, Indiana
high school basketball still like I love everything about it.
It really is, you know, blue collar.
It's a state I've got a lot of respect for like I like Indiana.
Been there a bunch of times for the final four and all that
stuff, right, So and the Super Bowl.
So I think that, you know, I'm going to separate my Knicks
stuff with them. Obviously.
I mean, I'm not ten years old. Of course I could separate it.
They always do a really good job.
Just what do you think that they're down because they're
never going to be an attractive spot for like glitzy free
agents. You know, we just not in the
middle of the weather is not great.
It's in the middle of the country.
It's kind of dank and it's cold and it's maybe got four or five
months, maybe five months of really good weather.
So you're not going to get the free agent imports and they
haven't had incredible success with the draft where they had,
they haven't had great fortune in terms of getting that top
overall pick, but every year, as long as they're healthy, they're
competitive. Just when you think they're
down, they they are. They are That's a good word.
They run their team well. So respect that, no doubt A.
Man, and it also, I mean, you know, he he's not the best, but
Hertz losing Mathurin too as well and not having and not
having another young player to kind of be like, right, we're
looking at this guy as well. But as you're saying, they'll be
back. He was killing the Knicks.
Mather. It was a handful, that guy.
We'll keep that. That's all right.
Knicks for years were an ISO offense.
Carmelo a big game thread. Brunson the big game thread.
Cat a big game. Never consistent team wins.
Interesting. All cylinders beginning to hit.
Matt under score hates under score.
Anything under score. Boston.
There you go. Yeah, even going back to like
that. Well, that's why any comparisons
to the the 73 and the 69 teams that were very connected, very
high IQ, very unselfish, you know, defense and play for the
guy next to you. You know, not that Pat didn't
play for the guys next to him, but Pat needed to get his shots
and the offense ran through Pat and they weren't a good
offensive team. And then Carmelo was obviously
get a gun and and didn't didn't play defense, didn't bring
anything well-rounded, great score, one of the best scorers I
think the NBA has ever seen. But you know, nothing like we've
seen with with this kind of like the way the Knicks play now.
It's a good point. Yeah, they pretty much have been
ISO dominant there. And yeah, I I guess this guy is
me. Aqua Giraffe 1988.
This guy, I guess he's talking about me.
This guy thinks the regular season in the NBA matters.
No, I've never said that. Do people really think the
Knicks came up with a whole new offense and game for the play
offs? They've been holding this back
till they needed it. I think that's a little wishful
thinking there. I I really do.
I I think that I mean, I don't know, man, and I'm not I can't
think of a team think of champions.
All right, think of the Champions.
Let me just go back. I don't want to go back to the
80s. That's always so in the 90s.
But like even starting with the Pistons when they won with Larry
Brown, like that was a very unique kind of team.
Ben Wallace, great defender, Chauncey Billups, big game shot,
RIP Hamilton, one of the best mid range jump shooters of all
time. Toughness, right, Good bench,
great coach. So that team didn't the last
month of the season change how they played?
It really was an extension from the kind of team they were when
Rick Carlisle was there. You know, Larry tweaked a couple
things, obviously, but it was, it was just an evolution, an
extension kind of right. They didn't play one way and
then suddenly just run the offense through.
Like, you know, Ben Wallace wasn't the defensive player of
the year, which he was. And then all of a sudden they
have Ben Wallace, you know, 25 feet away from the rim with 9
assists tonight. Like that would be a radical
shift in how they played. Didn't happen.
You think about the Spurs, the great Spurs, Tim Duncan.
Everybody knew Timmy was getting that, you know, All right, we
need a bucket. Let's get it to Timmy.
Jab. Step away a little 20 footer, 15
footer off the window, a little bank shot.
Try to stop him. Up there's Ginobili going coast
to coast. Up there's Ginobili, you know,
stick it a dagger 3. They played the way that there's
a little Avery Johnson, the nuisance or before that, David
Robinson. They played how they played.
Kobe and Shaq played how they played.
You know, there were nights where Kobe would get his.
There were nights where Shaq would get his.
When they finally became champions, they melded and they
became more connected and they were champions, right?
The Warriors didn't suddenly change how they played.
Now. It was a little bit of a
different version with Kevin Durant.
But you know, the first one with with Andre Iguodala, who was the
Finals MVP, you know, that was a team that, you know, Steph was,
I mean, they were just a pro Olympic shooting team.
You had Andre Iguodala as a real glue guy, kind of like Josh
Hart. And by the way, I was watching
Mike Brown's press conference after the game.
Very, very high praise. Mike Brown, he said that and he
coached with the Warriors as an assistant.
He said that, you know, he's right there with Iguodala as one
of those great connectors. I think he actually used the
word connectors, glue guys kind of like that.
So Andre was there and he played the way he played.
And Steph could always shoot and Clay could always shoot.
You know, again, Mark Jackson was there, laid the foundation.
Kurt came in, took the next step.
But then Draymond was always the tough guy, the lunch pail guy,
and then he got Durant. Then he just had to kind of
spread the rock around. But they didn't like change how
they played. So I'm sorry.
Like you can say that, you know this guy thinks the regular
season that no, I've always said that the NBA is a complete waste
of time during the regular season.
Matter of fact, what I've really always said in the, in addition
to it being a waste of time that depending upon what team you're
rooting for, there's probably only like if you're a
championship team or you're a young team and you want to see
how competitive, like there's different barriers there.
But if you're one of those teams that fancies yourself a viable
championship contender, there's really only 789 games that you
really got it. Now I'm, I'm going to watch them
all, at least components of every game.
I mean, I'm obviously busy as a dad and as a husband, but
there's not a night where I don't watch a second of, of 182
of 1 of the 82 games in the regular season.
Like this doesn't happen even if it's, you know, 5 minutes in the
second quarter. And if I missed that sports
night, S&Y highlights, YouTube, whatever it might be.
So I'm locked in. And this is not the same team,
just not. I mean, you could, you could
write, you can chat, you can tweet, you can text, you can
call, you can tell me whatever you want.
It's not true. It's fundamentally wrong.
They have played differently, they have evolved and to that
and for that they get an immense amount of credit.
And I have doled it out. I've been doled it out for a
while. I got no like, guys, just please
understand this. I mean, many of you know this.
I don't need to be repetitive. I don't mind being wrong.
I think what can sometimes be a
little frustrating, even though you just wind up chasing your
tail, it's like whack A mole. Like if you try to, you know,
respond to every critic or every doubt or everybody who claps
back on social media, I'm just not going to do it.
I don't care too old and I'm too busy.
I don't care what you tweet, really.
I don't. But it's it's very different
when you forge an opinion based on the personnel and the rest of
the league and what you anticipate Team X being during
the season, going into the season.
And I said they'd win 54 games, pretty much right on the money.
Check. And then, you know, I thought
they'd be in the Eastern Conference finals, check.
I did not think that they would win a championship.
And I said that very definitively because the way
that they were playing, they would not have swept the Sixers.
They would not have beat they would have beaten the Hawks, but
they wouldn't have beaten by 51 and just drum them the way that
they did. And I am not sure if they were
playing the way they were in January when they lost 9 of 11
when cats role was not what it is now.
You know, I'm going to pick him to beat the Pistons.
I'm sure as hell going to pick him to beat the Cavs.
You know, we'll see about the Thunder from when we get there.
But the the evolution of this team has forced me to re
evaluate what I think that they could do and I just I don't know
how you can't see that. You know, let me give you
something. I gave you the top of the show.
We'll get back to the calls here, all right?
And you tell me whether it's Aaron Boone using the bullpen
like say, let's say in October, Bednar is no longer like we've
got concerns about the Yankees bullpen, right?
I don't even know if he's going to be the closer at the end of
the year in October and when it matters.
So to if I tell you right now, man, I don't know, even though I
think the Yankees are are are have a really great chance to
get to the World Series. If I sit here and say, I don't
know if they can win the World Series with this bullpen, which
I'm not so sure that they could. But then we get to October and
the bullpens different. The evaluation of what they
could do is going to be different based on the different
personnel, right? Or say if they take Bednar and
he becomes the 8th inning man and they take just throwing
stuff out there, Will Warren or Weathers or and make that guy
the closer. And it really works.
Like they flipped Holmes and Luke Weaver a couple of years
ago and it worked. There's different versions
within a season, man. There really is.
So you know, what do we got next here?
Jay, who's up? We've got Matt from Long Island.
What's up, Maddie? Maddie, what's up BT How's it
going, man? Good buddy, how are you?
Good. You know, first time caller.
Obviously I've been listening to you for years.
You know, I've been here since day one.
It's when. Oh, let's get Maddie's
connection back. That's that's a Maddie thing.
Hold on. See if we can't get him back in.
Can't get him back in. Try talking all right, so you
put them on on hold I mean this stuff happens on the radio too
so it's not a big deal put them on hold and then we'll see if we
can get back to Maddie get some other calls as well.
I mean listen what I'm telling it when I say like Bednar
becoming the 8th inning man or whatever it might be some some
other variation downstream. Let's say the Yankees actually
get a lead off hitter at some point, right?
Well, isn't that kind of a can? Isn't that kind of the same as
like a different version of the Yankees or any other team?
Because in in December, Karl Anthony Towns averaged slightly
more than two assists a game. In January it was 2.9.
In February it was 2.5. In March it was 2.8.
OK, in April it was 6 1/2 and in the playoffs it's over 7.
They were not playing this way. Get it through your heads.
Get it through your Dick skulls, man.
Oh, I know we all hold on to stuff here, but come on, How do
you not see that? I'm giving you hard numbers.
You can't refute math. You can.
You're just wasting time, You know, I mean, you sound like a
complete dope. They this is the way they
played. No, it's not.
It's not the way that they played.
They didn't have Alvarado, You know, let's say he's playing 25
minutes a night. But you know, Deuce was hurt for
big chunks of this season. It's different.
Bridges is is playing with a different energy and a different
tenacity, which is great to see. He deserves a lot of credit,
man. You know, as much as Bridges
drives us nuts, the guy does Rev it up a notch or two in the
postseason. Undeniable.
All right, Jay, do we have Matt? Do we?
Have Matt or no? Let's try it again, Matt.
My. Back end can you hear?
Me. What's that cool?
Good. Nothing much, man.
I was just saying, you know, I've been listening to you for a
while. I'm glad that you and Jake are
doing a show together because I've been when you're doing the
middays, I was kind of flopping back and forth between you and
Jake and I'm like, I'm like this these like my two favorite guys
are doing 1 show. I'm like this is perfect.
Nice, man. Yeah, I love it.
No, Jake's good, dude. We've got that Jets collective
show, myself and and Rich and Jake, of course.
We're going to go on Thursday after the schedule release just
to let you guys know about that. So we'll break down the entire
Jets schedule and something I'll let you guys.
I put it on X this morning. Something I'll get into more
tomorrow on this show. We've got a big Jet event over
in Atlantic City with a a ton of content creators.
I'll be there. Rich will be there, Jake will be
there, Connor Hughes from SNYI Mean, Brian Costello, the bunch
of big thing. Just a massive Jets beach, kind
of a pool beach party takeover in July.
It's going to be great. So I appreciate you listening to
us. Thank you.
Yeah, absolutely, man. And I might not be able to go to
the Atlantic City one because I just got back there from there
from a bachelor party. I don't think your wife will be.
Yeah. I.
Wouldn't be too happy about me going back there, but I wouldn't
you. Know that's not getting.
Nothing a good time Let's. Not let's not.
Oh no, let's not divulge too much here.
I mean, how was the bachelor party?
Was it good? Yeah, it was.
It was a good time. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't
lose too much money. You know, I actually, I was up
$175 on the, you know, on blackjack.
And then my friends were like, you gotta stay.
I'm like, I'm out. I'm out.
I gotta go. I gotta go.
Yep, Yep, Yep. Where do you get which hotel?
We stayed at the, actually, we were at a Airbnb and it was a
bachelor party and like the, you know, the, the guy, you know,
the main guy, the husband, whatever.
He wanted the groom. Yeah, he wanted everyone be in
one spot. That's great.
You know, I was like, yeah, let's just do it.
And honestly, it's a way better deal.
You know, you're not. We paid like $290.00 or
something like that. So it really wasn't that bad.
It was like 10 of us. Maddie, that's the way to do it.
I did something very similar for mine with my buddy.
My best man rented, I mean, they all kicked in, but we rented a
house basically on the, on the ocean in the Hamptons.
And yeah, like so to me it was just, it was so awesome.
They, they really stepped up big time to me, you know, a
bachelor. But don't get me fun.
Don't get me wrong, it's fun going to AC, but like if you
have like 9 different rooms, you want to be able before you go
out, congregate, take a few back, come home late, hang out,
you know, open one big. Did you guys play some golf or
no? We did.
We did, and then I didn't. What?
Seaview, where'd you guys play? I think he was sort of an M.
That's all right. Yeah, but yeah, I actually
didn't, I didn't sleep the night before.
So, you know, I I woke up and I mean, I didn't wake up.
I was up and then we just played golf and then I took a midday
nap. And yeah, like I said, it's a
it's a long, it's a long weekend.
I. Don't think I'll tell you, man,
the last bachelor party that I went to was mine, right?
And you know, I got I'm getting, I can't, I can't know if I could
do it for three or four days anymore.
But one of my buddies who's not married, I still got a couple of
really good friends who are married.
Man, I got to, I got to have one more bachelor party before it's
all said and done. Like I I've got to go to one
more like I just. You sound you sound like my
older brother, man. My oldest.
My older brother is 44 now. 43. Yeah, I'm 30.
I'm 30. You got plenty coming.
You got plenty of time. I don't even care if they're
married a week. I'm like, just just have the
bachelor party. I'm married.
I just want one more. No, and you know, I had mine
last year in OBX, but not not to get sidetracked here, but I got
you, you know, my, my wife, my wife actually is a, she's like a
Detroit fan and like a like a Michigan State fan or whatever.
So, you know, it's like, I feel like there's like an impending
doom coming cuz like. Is she from there?
Where's she from? She's, she's from Michigan.
She's like near, it's actually Brooklyn, MI, but it's near like
it's like 45 minutes away from Lansing.
I got you. Yeah.
No, I bought the Michigan for. I know the area pretty well
early in my career. No, a lot of love for Michigan.
Except, you know, if it's Nick's Pistons, that's for damn sure.
You got a little prom in the house.
She's she's, she's threatening, threatening to wash my jersey
because I haven't washed it, you know, since, you know, the start
of the playoffs. And I don't know what I'm going
to do, man. She's not really that big of a
fan. She couldn't name two players.
She knows Katie Cunningham, but that's it.
But she's, you know, she's like, you know, she's a typical girl.
She just like rides along with the blah blah.
Blah hold on Maddie, you're going to get us a girl I mean
that's that's there are a lot of women who are amazing fans now
you're. Like you're not one of them,
dude. Let's not get us in trouble
here, Maddie. How long have you guys?
How long have you guys been married for?
Like almost like just about it, like a year coming up.
Right now, I mean, listen, tell her, tell her that she just
can't touch the jersey. That's it.
You got to write down that's it. I mean, she's going to have some
rules that she's going to hit with.
You know, you as you get deeper into the marriage, you got to
hit her with this one early. I mean, if she touches the, she
can't touch the jersey. I mean that that's on you, Matt.
I told her. I told her I might be.
I might have to end it. Yeah, or just sweep her.
Instead, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But. I don't know what to do man.
Do I watch the games with her cuz I'm a pretty intense fan.
I was at last week's Wednesday game and I was freaking out.
I'm surprised I had hair left on my head.
Yeah, that's a tough question, man.
OK, it seems like the because she's a bit of a fringe fan.
Is that a fair description? Like, yeah, she's more of.
Like a It's like typical Michigan, you know, they're more
college people than professional sports people.
Not the Red Wing. I mean, it depends if you went
to Michigan State, sure, but I think Red Wing fans are amazing.
Lion fans are like Jet fans are awesome.
Just you know, I saw you get a little swap you.
You walk around, you see there's more collegiate.
I know you fans. I, I get that.
I Not to mention Eastern Central, Western Oakland
University, I mean this college, the University of Detroit, this
college is everywhere in Michigan.
Yeah, OK. It's a totally different scene
than New York. Totally different.
What do we do here? I.
I don't know if I should watch them with her or not because I'm
going to freak out. Well, if OK, if you don't watch
it with her, is she going to be like watching at home, like
locked into every possession or not really she's.
She's she's not really. Cuz we're probably your.
Buddies watching with dad she. She usually, we usually host at
our house, you know, we have, we have like a nice cool bar area
and like we usually have people over and she like she's usually
in the kitchen hanging out with the other girls and then she'll
check in. See how everything's real?
Types, dude, a lot of stereotypes women in the
kitchen. These stereotypes is that is.
That this is what happens. This is what goes on.
I'm teasing you, man. Here's what Listen, you got my
advice. Don't watch with her.
She doesn't. She's going to bring you down.
She's going to get in your way. Move on.
Go out with your buddies. Now, if I would say if she was
like a because here's the problem.
If she was a devout Pistons fan, like living and dying on every
single possession, knew the first three guys coming off the
bench, like knew that Danis Jenkins played at Saint John's,
played at Iona before that, which he probably doesn't.
Well, OK, there's now it would be intense, but at least like
that kind of fan knows when to not talk when things when things
need to breathe and you got to listen.
It seems like she's just going to get in your way.
So I I would hang out with the boys and just go to the bar and
just watch with your friends. That's that's what I would do
all. Right, that sounds yeah, because
I'm like, I'm like BT he's been married for a long time and I'm
like, he's going to give me some good advice.
Yeah, if it's good advice, Yeah, I don't know if it's good
advice, but it's it's advice, man.
Take the take the swing and then, you know, listen, maybe
you get to a point when the Knicks are up 3 zip, maybe you
want to or three, one you want to watch.
Throw her a bone. Then you can maybe watch the
game with her. A little older.
Word for word man, that's what that's what I said.
I'll watch the game when I guess elimination game and I'm feeling
good but nice. Maddie.
But I don't know, like I'm pretty nervous about the
Pistons, but. But we don't even know that
we're playing the Pistons yet. Let them beat each other, relax,
enjoy this start getting into the Pistons matchup yet.
I mean, they got a light. They got a ways to go in the
series dude. Yeah, and she, she was, she was
talking, she was talking, you know, shit to me.
She's like, oh, you guys are going to be cold by the time,
you know, the series comes up. I'm like, I'd rather not play
all these extra games. Me too with OG if OG.
I'm like, oh, I'm like, oh, I forgot.
You know, sweeping a team is such bad news.
You know, I know. I know, I know.
If OG was healthy, Matt, I might have a little like if he didn't
tweak his handy the other day, I might say, yeah, a little
different. But the more rest he gets
because he's not the quickest dealer.
He's had soft tissue issues before.
I think that this is great. Not to mention, you know,
Brunson takes a lot of wear and tear, hits the deck a lot.
Brunson had another cat, had another nasty fall yesterday on
his back. He's been hitting the deck a
lot, you know. He hits the ground hard, man.
He does. He scares me every time.
I'm like. I know I actually thought he was
a little bit jacked up yesterday for a second, but well, listen,
Matt, you get back and, and I gave you my advice.
I gave you my plan. It is up to you to implement it
and, and let her know what the deal is.
That's on you, buddy. All right.
I appreciate it being too. Have a good one, man.
Thanks, Matt. You got it, man.
Oh dude, I love taking these phone calls.
Jay, how great is this? Dude that is awesome, love the
advice. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's what it's all about. All right, So I'm going to give
you a chance to shine here. You ready?
Yes, Sir. I know you don't respect the
Cavaliers much, but Pistons up two to one tonight in Cleveland.
Give me just a no analysis. Who wins Pistons?
I think the Cavs are going to win tonight.
Really. Yeah, I do myself.
All right. Then the next game.
So at that point you would have the Pistons up 3.
This is all you. So you think they win tonight?
Pistons up three one Wednesday at Detroit.
You'd have to think they if that's the case.
I don't know, I see maybe I'd take Cleveland there as like a
little shocker, as like a little shocker game.
And then? Pistons.
Close it out. Really, I would, if anything, I
would flip it and I would say Cavs tonight, even it up, then
Pistons on Wednesday, 32, Detroit and then Friday at
Cleveland, you know, and then I listen, there's a chance this
thing goes 7. But the Cavalier, if the
Cavaliers win tonight, it's going 7.
If they lose tonight, it's a wrap, it's over, you know?
Here's my feeling. Here's my feeling out right now.
Tonight, Cade's going to have a baller game.
He's going to cook the Cavs. They're going to go up 31.
Next game is going to be a James Harden back against the wall,
even though he's been pretty garbage.
Next game, he's going to come out, He's going to make people
question. They're like playoff thoughts
about them. And then the next game he's
going to absolutely fizzle out. The Pistons are going to win.
So there's still some fluctuations in the event
evaluation of the young Kate Cunningham.
Remember all the turnovers last series, previous series 24 and
three games, 24 and three, which set a NBA playoff record over a
three-game stretch, 24 and three games.
But now he's going to be a mad. And that's another reason why,
you know, whether it's Panchero with the Magic or Kate
Cunningham, you know, with, with with the Pistons, like you got
to this is the time you got to kick the door and you have to
get to the NBA Finals. Knicks are in their absolute
prime. You know, they're well rested.
They're playing as well as they're playing better than I
ever thought that they could play together.
I just to be totally fair, I just did not envision this type
of, you know, growth, this type of explosion.
It's been, it's been insane how good the it's.
Just their big weight. Right now it's.
Awesome. And and I really liked that
point about the prime thing, like because yeah, you think
about it, the Knicks are at that age when NBA players win their
first championship, like 2829 years old.
I mean, granted, like guys like JT and JB, they did it a little
earlier, but how old was LeBron when he did it?
He was probably around 2627 ish right?
He had to be right. 12/20/13 that's.
Nine years. 18. 272718 High School, 27/9. 27/27/28 Like
those were really his, you know, obviously his prime peak years.
Steph Curry would have been similar age wise.
And so you think about it when you look at the teams, there are
two teams who are kind of in that age range and it's the
Oklahoma City Thunder and it's the New York Knicks.
Those are the teams with that kind of within their star
players have that prime peak age years.
It's the Knicks. It's the Thunder, man.
But I think the Thunders window, just because Shay is is younger,
is wider than the Knicks. Yeah, and they're also already
champions. And they have.
Chet, you know, and Chet, that's right, yeah.
Chet's another added piece where it's like, OK, he's like, he's
an incredibly young player where he extends their window, even
pass Shay Gilden I. Agree.
And I, that's a good point. Yeah, he had 24 the other night.
It was a playoff high. I mean, he's just sticking.
He's just sticking his toe in the in the pool.
I mean, Jet Holmgren's going to be a.
I would think the Chet's going to probably have 3 championships
when it's all said and done. Maybe a little ambitious here,
but let's shoot. If they win this year, it's 2.
No. Oh, if they win this year, he,
you know, I wouldn't say that's an easy bullseye that he ends up
with three, but I'd say there's a pretty good shot that Chet
Holmgren. Probably, right.
I mean, think about this. The Nuggets are just about aged
out. I mean, Yokich is still great,
but yeah, I think they're Windows, you know?
Probably Murray's not going to do it anymore.
As your second. I don't think Aaron Gordon, he's
a good and he's certainly improved as his career has gone
on. He's a fourth guy.
He he's a fourth guy on the championship team, not a third.
All right, man. What else?
What did we miss? How was the show today?
Pretty good. Dude, I mean, I thought it was
great. The vibes are high.
I mean, the chat was popping. You know, I think I think I love
and I think it's a good, you know, it's a good angle to to
further explore it. Just, you know, all these people
getting on you, getting on you for the for the reevaluation.
Yeah, I mean, it's wait, wait, they getting on me.
That's that's their problem. I mean it's.
Well, there is certainly one guy in the beginning and I kept, I
kept kind of sending the message trying to be like call in, dude,
call in. What was he saying He.
Well, here's kind of his main here was kind of his main point
that sort of sort of set his whole basis.
They are owed anybody who overreacted to regular season
noise when they had already proven themselves as regular
season. Hold on, wait, wait a second.
What what, what? What did the Knicks prove?
Were the Knicks in the NBA Finals last year?
With the Knicks, the answer is no.
No. What do they prove?
I mean, the Knicks like few other teams in the NBA, which is
why they had among the shorter odds in the NBA to get to the
Finals before the start of the season and one of the higher win
totals. The Knicks had demonstrated they
were a good team and a team that had a chance, if they were
healthy, to maybe mess around and, you know, do a little
something special this year. But nobody really knew what they
would look like, and nobody saw this version coming.
And if you did, you're lying. I'm sorry.
That is a very shallow way of looking at this season.
Now, I've got no problem saying that I was wrong, and I did
pronounce the Knicks dead. Like I'm not running from that.
I did. Maybe I should have said that
earlier, or louder. I did not think that this Knicks
team would win the championship. But we're not watching the same
Knicks team. Yes, we're watching the same
players, but we're watching a completely different style.
What don't you get? Yeah, no, I mean.
Jeez. It's, it's, it's pretty simple.
And it's like even looking at the Knicks last week, dude,
before game four of the Hawk series, every, not every Knicks
fan. I'm sure there were still the
people who are holding out their optimism, but most people I
spoke to, their hopes were not incredibly high.
To beat the Hawks or to make a real, real run.
To make a real, real run, not to beat the Hawks.
I mean, I've heard a couple people, you know, get in a
little that fearful. Not many, but, yeah, I think
that's fair. I think these past couple of
weeks have been a true the butterfly coming out of its
cocoon, the true, you know, metamorphosis.
Lapping those weeks. Baby.
Exactly, they look awesome. That's a good.
That'll be voice. How's the not bad?
Voice singing a little bit you've.
Got a good singing voice it's not terrible, it's not decent
fly away. That'd be a good one to bust out
this week when I I because I so I don't know if you saw this in
the stream yard, but I was doing like tests with the guitar
figure I didn't. See it?
I got I got it to work so. OK, yeah, no.
So if you guys missed the show last week, J Rod, who's a, he's
a bassist, right? Bassist and a guitar.
And we're going to have him do a little jam at some point.
Maybe we're going to have him riff the the BT Unleashed.
Theme song. Oh dude, that's that's so easy.
It's dead. In it.
Yeah. Like like the old days on when
they would have like, Nirvana on MTV, like the acoustic versions.
This is like Jimmy Fallon's. This is like The Roots right
now, playing with Jimmy Fallon. Yep, Yep, there you go.
All right, so before we get up out of here Wednesday on the
show, could you slap that up once more?
Looking forward to this. I told you we'd get him on the
show and we will have the Yankee manager on the show on Wednesday
at 10:30. So I'll start the show and I'll
do. I mean, I'm not even sure you
know, it depends what's what's topical that day.
But probably Yankees, I'm sure I'll get it, especially they
don't win against the Orioles. Like the last thing I need is
Booney coming in on A5 game losing streak.
I mean, you guys stuff this out. I don't want him coming in all
grumpy. But the best part about Boone is
he's locked in, you know, and he will not be.
Oh, no, we're not playing well. I can't.
Come on. He is a man of his word.
I told you. I told you.
We're going to get him on the show.
So we will have him on Wednesday at 10:30.
I've got to figure it out with Tiki.
I would like to do it something around something around the
Giants schedule. Obviously I've also got to work
around the Knicks schedule here. That's going to be front and
center. But we'll get Teek on for nice
longer format. You know, just really have a
nice bullshit session about everything.
Went back in the day. Obviously as a player, you know,
that's 10 years I spent with Teek on the show, on the air.
A lot of Rd. trips with you see Sal and I never really got to
travel, but when Teek and I were doing the national stuff, we
would go to every Final four, we would go to every Super Bowl and
we got some fun stories that will that will trace over some
we could tell, some we can't. So Tiki hopefully this week, but
definitely booty on Wednesday. All right, like it, subscribe
it, get it out there. The numbers have been great.
We set a record the last week we had three straight days.
It was Wednesday, Thursday, Friday where we were what what
was it? Over 55,000 views per day?
I believe so. Yeah, it right, 56 and Friday
was I believe Friday was 56. So that was that was the second
highest ever, but it was the most growth in any three day
sequence since we launched the channel.
Again. You know, I'm sure some point
down the road those numbers will sound very humble, but for right
now, I'm proud of them and you guys are really helping me get
there. The Subs are growing.
We're just going to fly by 25,000.
I remember saying to J Rod, I'm like, hey, you think we'll get
the 25 GS by the end of the month?
He's like, yeah, I think so. There's no doubt.
I mean, we're going to get it for 25,000 no doubt by the end
of the month. So you guys keep doing what
you're doing. I'll keep doing what I am doing.
I appreciate you know that appreciate the support.
Hopefully you guys are digging it.
The callers have brought a totally new perspective and
different energy, which I told you that it would and I told you
the a list guests are going to keep coming.
I was texting with a rod the other day, a rod.
Now I oh, Jay, real quick, Jay, I need your opinion on this.
Hold on. Let me let me just pull up Hold
on. So I texted Alex to get him on
the show and just to say what's up.
I hadn't talked to him in a little bit, right?
So I don't, I got to see how I interpret this.
He said, Oh, I like that. That's that's private.
I'll keep that to myself. You have to come watch a playoff
game soon in Minnesota, right? Come one game when I come one
game when I fly to New York after the game.
Now I'm sitting there saying, hold on a second, all right, I
know. That no.
No. No, no, no, this is what I need
help on. So I know he's inviting me to go
watch the Timberwolves playoff game, which would be now am I
going to be able to do it? I mean, logistically will be a
challenge, but I, I, I, I'm not saying I wouldn't.
I mean, especially if it's the finals.
I mean, Can you imagine? Here's my question.
And I know he's going to hook up with great seats and all, but
the way that last part was worded, come come fly when like
I'm thinking, is that an invitation for the private jet?
Oh, that's what That's what it sounded like.
That's what I thought, so I thought so too.
Yeah, yeah, that's how I mean, listen, not to you, not to air
it out, but yeah, that's, I mean, right.
Like that's how it reads. If he's flying back to New York,
I. Mean, I said something about
Dante di Vincenzo that sucks about Dante.
Love him. What a duty, because he's the
fucking best, Love him, blah, blah, blah.
Thank you, bro. You got to come watch a playoff
game real soon. Come one game, when I fly to New
York after the game, I don't know how else to interpret that.
I go, I I write back, I go, yeah, I go.
Totally, dude. He goes and his guy Nick, his
cousin, who's awesome, he goes chat with, chat with Nick.
Look at the playoffs schedule. We'll figure it out.
I mean, I, I, you know, I, I, it doesn't sound like he expects me
to slap down 300 bucks for an airline and just have tickets
and will. Probably not feel.
Like he's saying yo jump on the jet.
That's what I feel like he's saying.
I'd agree with you, man. You gotta you better ask him.
You better take him up on that. How do you ask him?
No. No, see that you can't ask.
No, that's the thing. That's the thing.
Well, what do you want? Me.
To do Alex, and just to clarify, Alex, does that mean should I
book my own flight or? There's got to be, there's got
to be some sort of Larry David esque like work around that you
can think of to where you can say it appropriately.
Yeah, I'll be like, no, maybe here's the way to parse it.
Because if I ask him, it kind of sounds not desperate.
I mean, the guy invited me to his home for his Christmas
party. So I mean, it's not like it's
out of it's like, I don't know him.
And we went and it was amazing. I maybe I'd do something like
this. Hey, airline, you know there's
not a lot. Here we go.
There's not a. Lot of flight options from New
York to Minnesota. What do you recommend based on
his answer? If he's like no, no, no, Just
when I come to me, come back with me.
That's the answer. That's too funny.
I think that that's what he meant.
No, I I think that's I think that's a a great, great way
dude. Also, that would just be sick.
Especially. I can stick with that even, I
mean, not even obviously Nick's Timberwolves finals would be the
the greatest. I think Spurs Knicks finals
would be the best product. I think Thunder Knicks would be
second best, but I do think Timberwolves Knicks would be a
great. You think Knicks Spurs would
have more buzz than Knicks Thunder?
No. Oh yeah, When they, yeah, 100%
champion OKC, I don't know. At that arena, let's be honest
now, Spurs fans are great. Thunder fans might be the in
terms of the game on court, like Vibrance, just crazy nutty I I
love the guard. There but.
OK, C is pretty nuts. I think Wembin Yama making his
first finals in his second year is just too.
It's just that's massive and also dude, he's the kind I I I
mean I don't love what he did last night.
That was horrific like that, not horrific, but it was like dude,
what are you thinking, bro? Why elbowing him in the face?
I know, I know. But but I think Wembi, like he's
the kind of player, he's got that fire in him.
I don't know the kind of player he could play like if he was in
the NBA Finals. Dude, that guy, he's young, yes,
but he's he's got something in him.
I know he's got he's got the will of God in him, bro, like.
You know what? I hear you and, and you make
sense. I I just don't think I want to.
Not that I'm scared of him, but yet.
Because not yet. Because he's still coming on.
Beat the Spurs. That's why I also think I like
it a little bit because it gives them a better chance.
But. OK, I would agree they they'd
have better odds against the Spurs and then with the Thunder
there in terms of Vegas. But do I really want to tempt
fate again? Last time they played the Spurs
in the championship, it was very you know, it was pretty non
competitive. It was a young, young Tim
Duncan, young Wimby. Do I really need this?
Like, I don't know. I don't know if I need to go
through that again. I don't know.
I think I brought that. I don't know.
I got to think about that. Let's see who do I prefer to
beat in the NBA Finals? What a what a nice question.
Nice to be able to ask that question, huh?
Who would I rather beat? All right man, starting to
ramble now. Let me bounce bro.
Two hours is where we draw the line.
Ski today, like and subscribe it.
Great job on the calls, great job on the chats.
We're going to get the other content out there.
We now put out two or three 33 separate videos each day broken
down so you guys can watch what you want to watch when you want
to watch it. You know, obviously the live
stream is is a big part of what we do with the sponsors and and
the calls and all that stuff. But also understand that not
everybody can watch two straight hours.
So J Rod's going to get to work on that Aaron Boone on
Wednesday. It's going to be great.
Hopefully Tiki this week. I'm going to try to lock that
in, get a little clarification if it's going to be a Rod's jet
or if I got to reach in my own pocket here got to get some
answers there. I mean, what am I going to stay
stay at a Rod's house? I mean I don't know.
I just don't know where this thing's going.
Who knows, it could be. Maybe it's my own Entourage
weekend. You know, we had Jerry on the
show the other day. Maybe I got my Entourage weekend
with Alex coming up, you know. Hey, honey, stay home.
I'm going hang out with Alex, man.
You can watch the games on TV. All right, man, let me roll.
Have a great Monday. Great job today, and I will
catch you guys tomorrow at 10. Peace.