Hey, pardon my take, listeners.

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On today's part of my take, we have our good friend JJ Redik on the show to talk some ball breakdown, the NBA playoffs, what happened to the Lakers, what happened to the Suns, what's going to happen going forward. We're going to do Hot Sea Cool Throne. We We have some awesome playoff action to talk about Tuesday night, and also the Lakers got bounced, so we'll talk about that as well. And then we'll finish with Listener submitted, FAQ's great show, and it's brought to you by our friends at DraftKings. It's Kentucky Derby Week. Are you ready for the greatest two minutes in sports? Saddle up with DK Horse, an official DraftKings affiliate. Right now, new customers who download the DK Horse app can get a 100% deposit bonus up to $250, just to deposit $25 or more and complete the play-through requirement. Wager on your favorite horses, then watch the races at Churchill Downs Live right in the app. Draftkings has you covered with a one-stop shop for all things horse racing. We're going to have Randy Moss on on Friday. We're going to get some pics. I'm going to be betting the Oaks on Friday.

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Okay, let's go. Now in the street there is violence and a lot of work to be done. No place to hang alone, washing. And then I can't lay all on the sun. Oh, no.

We're going to wrap down to electric avenue, and then we'll take it higher.

Oh, we're going to wrap down to It's part of my take, presented by Marcia Sports.

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Seven points in the final 25 seconds tonight. Finish with 46 mandatory points. He said it was a mandatory win.

They were mandatory points.

He was right. It was mandatory. I want to see this series go seven.

Same. It was a great game. The mecca was rocking. Jalen Brunson was balling again, and Tyrese Maxie came in snatched souls. Joel Embiid was hobbling. He didn't have his best stuff. Tyrese Maxi basically saved... Did Tyrese Maxi save his legacy while also a legacy game? It was a double legacy game.

A double legacy by Tyrese. I think it's like you got the old dog and then the young pup, and you get the young pup to breathe some life into the old dog. And Embiid, he was not himself tonight. His leg was definitely hurting. He said he had a headache before the game, and he was feeling it pretty bad. But Max, he brought all the energy at the end of the game. And they're going to need it. They're going to need it because they have to try to close it out on the road in game 6 in Philadelphia.

Yeah, that's going to be a big-time Knicks home game down in Wachovia Center. That was That was a great game, though. That was a great playoff basketball game. I thought for the last two minutes, I was like, poor Max. The Sixers essentially just didn't let him turn this game off. Because I actually thought, weirdly, the first half was when the Knicks... You don't lose the game in the first half, but they had the Sixers on the ropes. They felt like the Sixers were dead. It felt like the Sixers were ready to quit. Felt like half the team was ready to quit. They cut it to five at half. Then at the end of the game, Tyrese Maxi, just with two of the biggest shots, the and one Mitchell Robinson. I don't know how you follow there. Then that three that he hit that was just so perfect. What a game. Max, you're back. You're alive. What are we thinking? Series of the Year is back alive. Joel Embiid may not be able to walk, but you have Tyrese Maxi, so you have a puncher's chance.

Yeah, Tyrese Maxi was unbelievable tonight. It was really something special to see. I can't believe that we've had this game and game two both in the same series. I would love to know. They both have to be 99% on that ESPN thing of teams to lose and then win probability. Both times that they've lost. Maxi was absolutely incredible. The four-point play no one's talking about. The fact that he was able to get Nitaro.

We just talked about it. Everyone's talked about it.

We just talked about how you can't follow there.

Everyone is talking about how great that play was.

But the three-Hey, say how good that play was.

It was an impressive play. The fact that he pulled it off was insane.

Jake, talk about that play.

It was so amazing.

Everyone's talking about that play.

Literally everyone's talking about the play.

Okay, no one's talking about the Logo 3 that he had to tie it up.

It was awesome. It does feel like this is a trade-off from game two. Yeah, last one, you should have won. Now, you still win back.

I was just thinking about When I went through that run of tweets being like, I can't believe we lost that game. I can't believe we lost that game. I can't believe we lost that game. Immediately after this, we were driving to softball. The only thing I was thinking, I can't believe we won that game. I can't believe we won that game. I can't believe we won that game.

It was over. There's 28 seconds left. It was a six-point game. Josh Hart had two free throws after that. But six-point game, you get the four-point play, then Josh Hart goes one for two. That was over. You should win games when You're up six points with 28 seconds left in the NBA. Now, Max, is Embiid going to be able to walk?

I don't know. Embiid, honestly, the turnovers were really, really bad from him tonight. But I was a little bit impressed that he was able to make an adjustment for his game, knowing that he wasn't going to be his dominant self, driving to the basket, backing down Mitchell Robinson, because he isn't strong enough right now to do what he normally can. But he was passing the ball really, really well. It's just that sometimes he got reckless with it with the turnovers. It sucks that he had the turnovers because this would be a moment that you could look at him be to be like, It was nice to see that. Yeah, he's hurt. He's obviously playing hurt, but he was able to do something still beneficial for the offense. But the turnovers were just so fucking bad.

And credit to you, you never gave up on Tobias Harris. He had a huge game. That's with your guys.

I think later in this show, I gave up on Tobias Harris, but yeah, we had a really big game.

That's a good thing you also didn't give up on Buddy Healed because Tyrese Maxie gave credit for the win to Buddy Healed today. He gave him a quick shout out. He said he was on the bench. I guess that was the only minute that Maxie was on the bench. He spent talking to Buddy Heel, and he was upset. He had missed three three throws, turned the ball over. Buddy Heel grabbed me and said, Listen, dude, you know what you can do. Go out and make up for it. I really appreciate Buddy for that.

Yeah, Buddy was like, You got to go shoot shoot because I'm not going to. He got it done. So please go shoot. But yeah, that clip, they showed the wide cam of Maxi after regulation, and he was just so fucking pumped up and to steal that moment from the Knicks because that crowd was crazy. Knicks fans are crazy. It was just an awesome play off game. Also, shout out to your guy, Patum, with incredible, incredible defense, both at the end of regulation and the end of OT, being able to stay with Jalen Brunson as he drive to the hoop. He had two huge... I think the first one was a block. I don't know if the second was a block, but he was just all over him. Those were game-defining plays, being able to stay with him there.

I thought there was no way Brunson wasn't making that shot. He got a step on Batum, and Batum just so long, he was able to block that shot. Again, no one's talking about that either. No one's talking about that.

I just talked about it.

It was a great play defensively. Then at the end of overtime, I think he got in the way. Brunson wanted to pass the ball, and I forget who it was in the corner, made a step towards the basket, and Brunson passed it out of bounds. But he probably wouldn't have fucked it up that bad if Patum was in his face.

Yeah, no. It was an awesome, awesome game. I wanted to go seven. We're going to watch game six with Max. We'll have clips for it. Also, tune into JJ Redick. I give him an idea for how to give Joel Embiid more minutes, which I actually think nick Ners might do in game six. If we can get him the message, my idea might work. All right, other games. These are the games. Game fives are the best because you can't fuck around a game five. We saw the Nuggets. If they had let the Lakers stay around and get into game 6, your problem's, now you have the Sixers still alive and you have the Bucks still alive, which was crazy because it felt like with no Damon, no Giannis, the Pacers, I think the Pacers probably thought this, too. We're just going to show up and win this game easily. And then Pat Bev happened. He was fucking insane in the first half.

This was second quarter.

Yeah, he was awesome. He was everywhere. He was basically like, He did the two small on Tyrese Halliburton, which that's why I love Pat Bev, because he got embarrassed on the game winner, game three, I want to say. Yeah, game three. But it doesn't matter because it's just next fight. He gets off the mat, and he'll do it too small on him, no problem. But the Bucks, they dominated, too. Bobby Portis, Chris Middleton, everyone's stepping up. Bucks. Are the Bucks going to win this series if Giannis comes back?

The Bucks are alive for sure. What happened in the last game was they just had everybody get hurt or ejected from the game. Bobby Portis didn't get ejected this time, and then Middleton, his knee's okay. I guess they'll be fine. I think they'll be fine. I don't think that they're... They probably won't be favored to win this series, even with Giannis coming back. But if they can get it to a game seven, then yes.

I think Giannis was a game time decision today. I feel like this is when I have to take a step back and realize that I am actually a pussy in my own real life. But when I project on other players of sports I'm watching, I'm like, Dude, how can Yannis not play tonight? How can he not play? But he's really injured.

You just got to want it. I want to play. We've been desensitized to injuries. We're like, Oh, it's a sprained MCL. You can play on that. Because like Philip Rivers did one time, we were like, Oh, that's not a problem.

Yeah, I tweaked my knee. I'd play. I would play. I'm just going to say right now, you can't keep me out of game five with the season on the line.

Yeah, I would come hell or high water, I would play in a game five unless I got less than six hours of sleep.

Yeah, then I would probably be like, You know what? Game time decision, I'm out. I'm sick. I don't feel good. Also, the Cavs, Magic, the series. Now, this max applies, no one's talking about. My two thoughts from this game were, Paulo is that guy. He was awesome, ran out of gas. Then Evan Mobile is just an absolute freak defender because that block on Wagner, where he was like, it It was a pick and roll at the top with Palo. Magic fans, I understand, are like, Give it to Palo. He live and die with Palo there. Give it back to him. But I think he had a step, and just Evan Mobley is so good that it doesn't matter if you have a step on Evan Mobley, he'll recover and he'll block the shit out of you. It was awesome. And no, Jared Allen. And Evan Mobley stepped up.

Yeah. Mobile, he's been a guy that for the last three years has had two different times each year where people are like, I think Mobile is becoming a superstar. It's been a slow progress for him. But defensively, he's a beast. He's a monster.

He's so good defensively.

And my good friend Marcus... Yeah, it was Marcus Morris, right? Made those threes down the stretch. I love to see that. I love to see the Morris contribute whenever possible.

My question is, if this goes seven, are they going to put it on something other than NBA TV?

No, this feels like it's NBA TV.

It's NBA TV all the way?

The Pacers have to win two consecutive championships to get off NBA. The finals will be on NBA TV if the Pacers are in it.

Oh, man. Yeah, it's a slap in their face, but it also makes sense. No offense to either team. But yeah, you just see the schedule like, All right, NBA TV again. I guess that's what we're doing.

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Should we talk about Monday night at all? We should. Well, you know what? Let's talk about Hank.

We could talk hockey for a second. Oh, yeah.

Let's talk hockey for a second. Let's talk hockey for a second. We're going to have some hockey. We're going to have a hockey guest on Friday and possibly Monday as well. We're going to get more into hockey. I know that we haven't had Biz or Whit on. They have busy schedules. Biz is doing TNT. Whit is making everyone in the world angry. Series are ending, though. We have Series The Islanders are out. The Jets are out. Who else is out?

Panthers have knocked out the Lightning.

The Lightning are out. Yeah, the Lightning are not swept. Or no, they won one game.

I thought the Bruins were going to win tonight because the Leaps didn't have Austin Matthews.

Yes. But what happened?

They actually lost to the Leaps.In.

Overtime?i think.Oh, my God.I.

Think it was overtime, yeah.

Damn, Hank.

Can you confirm?

Got to keep it interesting. Just got to win one in Toronto now. It's tough to win in the playoffs. The Leaps are a good team. They battled through adversity tonight, and we got to come back stronger, put Swam in the net, and we're going to win.

Now, we might say that this was maybe Ryan Whitney's doing. We'll get into Ryan Whitney a little bit later, but I feel like this one was for Ryan.

Yeah, but I think we're talking about on Sunday, but the NHL playoffs, it's usually there will be multiple game sevens in the first round and some of these tight series, but it hasn't been that way this year. The Nights and Stars series is awesome. That one feels like it's going to go seven. But every other series is, and obviously, we'll see what happens to Leaps and Bruins, but a lot of these series are over and we're already on to the second round.

I thought the Islanders were going to win tonight. I really did. Mims? I thought so, too. And then they scored eight Two goals in eight seconds, again. Yeah, that was bad. Suck.

Am I freezing or is someone else freezing?

You're freezing.

Shit.

Fuck.

Can you hear me?

Yeah. I don't know what happened. You're back now. All right. Memes. Can you say it again?

Which part?

The whole thing.

My bad.

That's my bad.

All right. Three, two.

Yeah, it sucks. He scored two goals in eight seconds, again. Not Fuck, I'm freezing.

That happened again? Again.

Again?

Are you guys there? Yeah, two goals in eight seconds. Yeah, we're here.

I'm freezing. Memes, can you say that again? I froze. It went two goals in eight seconds. Again. And it sucked? It sucked.

Wait, I think I just froze. I think I just froze. I think I just froze. Memes, what did you say?

So it went maxi three-pointer from the logo, two goals, 8 seconds. Again, the same exact thing as game two, except reversed. Actually, it went maxi four-point play, then maxi three-pointer from the logo for the tie. Yeah, but it went logo, tie, two goals, 8 seconds.

I think I froze again. You got to say it one more time. Sorry, you just have to.

The hurricane scored one goal, and they scored another goal seven seconds after that.

Oh, my God. All right, wait, hold on. Let's do this just so people who Who missed the game? All right, so I'm going to say it right now. Ready? Okay. The Hurricane just scored.

Man, that must have sucked for Islanders fans. Well, maybe we'll get another one here.

The Hurricane just scored again. That was how fast it was.

It was that fast?

Oh, no. Memes. Tough night for memes. Hank, I think we have to have an intervention. I want cocky Hank back.

It's like, I can't live. Cocky Hank. Let me live. How about that?

Cocky Hank. Cocky Hank. You're so much better than the heat.

Or It might be hurt. It's not about the heat. Dude, he's...

Hold on. He's only going to be a minimum of several games.

Hank, what did you just say? You said it's not about the heat. I thought we were taking this one series at a time.

I'm not doing this shit. I refuse to do this. I absolutely refuse. I'm not going to... You can't. No. I made one comment, then it's like, Oh, I thought you were a. I'm not doing this. I'm sticking my guns.

Also, the rest of the East is just going to be dead after this first round.

What happened tonight in Indiana, Max, or Milwaukee, wherever. Koggi, Hank. I just want you to just go heel-turn and just be like, I'm back. Koggi, Hank.

They have Giannis or Damon, and they still won. Teams can win. It's the playoffs. These guys are professional athletes.

They're here to win. What's his name? Damian. Oh, Damian. Was that a cell phone? Was it Damian or Damian?

Hold on, you froze.

Hank, can we... What about tomorrow? No. Please, I just want cocky Hank back so bad. You're not even going to negotiate with us?

I did negotiate with you last night. I If the Nuggies can lose this game, then we might be in business, but they didn't. Shit.

Do you have a side chat, a side podcast that you record where you are cocky, Hank, and you're not giving it to us?

Yeah, it's my group chat with my friends from home.

Okay, how about this, Hank? How about this? On Thursday's show, after the Celtics beat the heat for one, we'll buy you a mask, and we can see what... We won't call you Hank, we'll call you something else, and we could just see what the cocky Hank brain is saying. But we won't hold you accountable for it. So all AWLs have to agree, we will not hold whoever shows up to the studio on Thursday, accountable for what they say about the Celtics. Fair?

No.

That's good for the show.

You can clip every time we talk about the Celtics the whole year. I've pretty much said, We just got to stay healthy. And then what happened in game four when Porzingas goes out, it looked like he was done for the season. The fact that he might come back is a benefit. But if he's out, their whole game plan, the way the team plays is completely different.

A minimum of several games. That's not that bad.

But you saw the injury. It looked like it was a noncontact. He knew he was hurt right away. It looked bad.

I'm laughing about Woj. I've never seen an injury say a minimum of several games.

Who are you playing next round? Who do you want to play next round?

We got to make it past this round first.

But who do you want to play next round, Hank? I want Cocky Hank.

I want to beat the heat on Thursday.

How much money do we have to give you to get Cocky Hank back?

Was it AK?

Okay.

Is that the goal, right? You said that we can negotiate. We can negotiate.

I want to make a documentary. That's what I'm on the hook right now.

You want us to absorb him at the dunk bet.

Oh, interesting. But then, all right, I would be willing to do that, But we would need full cocky Hank. Okay. I would need to sign a contract and it be like, the minute you get down or do like, Oh, we're taking one game at a time, the contract is null and void.

I'll do that.

That's fine. We'll talk. We'll talk more on Thursday. Maybe we'll come with a plan, PFT. We got to huddle up to try to get cocky Hank.

I've got an idea. We'll take this offline.

Okay. All right. We'll bring it back to the people on Friday's show. All right. So the other series that we have to talk about is, I do think the Lakers might not be good enough to beat the Nuggets.

That might be the case. They are, though.

They actually are.

No, maybe not.

Did you see the stat of the minutes they led in the series?

45 minutes. They led for over 150 minutes compared to 50 minutes for the Nuggets. This is big. The Lakers actually won the popular vote in from your head.

Yeah, it's crazy. A couple of things happen. The Lakers, obviously, they get bounced out. Lebron says he's going to test free agency. Shams, I don't know. This This is the new... This is just some nasty work from Shams. I actually love it because who doesn't like the postmortem on a failed season? Shams has been doing this now. He did it with the Suns. He did it with the Lakers. He hit publish on an article that basically ripped the coach to shreds with anonymous sources, seconds after the team gets bounced. I got into it with Lakers fans say, I don't think Darvin Ham is a good coach, but the energy of Lakers fans saying, Well, we led for 75% of the series, and if we had played anyone besides the Nuggets, we would have probably won a series. It's so crazy to me. If your goal is to win a title, the Lakers were never going to win a title. They were not better than the Nuggets. That's just a fact. We have enough evidence now in two years. Hank, how can you say... You play the full game for a reason. Any team can be winning at half.

You play a full game, and usually what happens in a full game when you play more than 24 minutes, the better team wins.

Say this out again, PFT.

They were leading for 150 minutes. The Nuggets were winning for about 50 minutes.

This is loser energy.

Again, It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that they led for 150 minutes because at the end of the games, the Nuggets were winning four times out of five times. Now, you could make the case like, yeah, the Lakers probably would have a better chance against a different team. You know how you get to be able to play those different teams? You're better throughout the course of an entire regular season. If you do that for all those minutes, maybe, Hank, you can look up how many minutes They would have had to lead over the regular season. You can get a higher seed, and maybe you can play against, I don't know, the Suns.

This is where Lakers fans will say, Darvin Ham screwed up the regular season. I get it. There It was the stretch where he didn't start D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reeves. He tinkered with the lineup multiple times. It all was in the Shams piece. I get it. He's not a good coach. I still think that the roster is the problem, that they just don't have enough guys, and the Nuggets were a better basketball team no matter how many minutes the Lakers led. Execution and being able to win games late is what makes a team better. That's what makes you a better team, not leading a game at half. They led at half every single game. We said it after game one, every game goes the same. Lakers get a big lead, Nuggets start playing better basketball, and they win the game. And that happened four out of five games. And it's just crazy It's just crazy to me that people are like, The Lakers were just right there. They were so close. We did this last year when they got swept. Best swept you've ever seen. It's crazy. They're one and eight against the Nuggets in the last two years, yet there are still people out there that are like, The Lakers are so close to beating the Nuggets.

The best thing that the Lakers do is they make the Nuggets look awesome. They get the Nuggets in these crazy games and let the Nuggets just rip their hearts out down the stretch. And I appreciate the Lakers for that. And the mayor of Los Angeles actually wanted to contribute to the same discussion that Hank's having, the Loser Talk. Put this in the Loser Talk Hall of Fame on Loser Talk Mount Rushmore. Mayor Karen Bass. This was last night. Her name's Karen? Karen. She's a major Karen.

Love it.

She tweeted out, Tough season, but at least we won the in-season tournament. Proud of our team, Lakers. Heart, heart.

How about that?

That's a good silver line. Hank, you led. Hang the banner. Led 150 minutes in the first round of the playoffs and won the in-season tournament.

I think, PFT, you agree with me. Max, you agree with me, right? This is crazy pills that Lakers fans are like, We led for so much of the series that were this close to beating the Nuggets, even though we are one and eight against them in the playoffs in the last two years.

Yeah, it's a crazy stat that they led for that many minutes, but also you play a full game for a reason, and the Nuggets were better at playing full games of basketball. It's not that hard to understand. Right.

Do you know what happens when you play a full game of basketball? You get a better sample size on which team is better.

That's usually what happens.

Also being able to handle late game scenarios is a big part of the game, too. That has a lot to do with why the Nuggets keep winning and keep beating them. They're better overall. I think they definitely have better coaching. It's not to say that... Darvin Ham, I don't know if he's a bad coach. I don't think he's a good coach. I don't think he's a great coach. But I wouldn't say that this is on Darvin Ham. If you're tinkering with the lineup during the regular season, you're doing that because you're probably not that great of a basketball team and you know that you need to get better. So it's like chicken or the egg.

Right. I don't think Darvin Ham is a good coach. I just hate that he's getting 100% of the blame. I'm not blaming LeBron. This is not a LeBron hater thing because LeBron and AD were phenomenal. But LeBron and AD are two guys that had to carry an inordinate load, and you have one of them is 39 years old, the other who's injury prone in AD, and they just didn't have a roster with enough dudes to compete against a Nuggets team that is the best team in the NBA. If that's your goal is to win a championship, you do get measured against the Denver Nuggets. I mean, Saksha played them in the first round, but I also think the Timberwolves would have beaten them. I I also think the Thunder would have beaten them. I don't understand why we dilute ourselves into thinking that the Lakers were right there. They were a good team. They were never a great team.

Yeah, if there was a loser's bracket for this, I think I would. I think I would have the Lakers first in the loser's bracket, regardless of who wins in LA, Dallas. I think I would have the Lakers as the one seeing that.

Yeah. The other one, the Sun's article was crazy because Frank Vogel, poor Frank Vogel, he walks off the court and looks at his phone. Shams has an article ready to go. The start of the article is basically saying that Frank Vogel is a pussy and no one on his team respects him because The story goes, Frank Vogtle entered the home locker room at Footprint Center and lit into his team after his sons had fallen into a 35, 4 hole route to a loss to the Clippers on April ninth.

The head coach-That made it sound like his kids fell down into a canyon the way that you just read that right The head coach yelled so much that his voice could be heard outside the locker room.

There was only one problem. On this night, Suns players weren't buying it. The outburst seemed forced out of character in their eyes. It continued the next day's shoot around in Los Angeles, Vogtle tearing into the Suns before that night's road win over the Clippers. Vogtle's eruption left players rolling their eyes. Sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic, That's some nasty stuff. To be like, I got an anonymous source that we were rolling our eyes to our coach. That's the meanest thing you can do. To roll your eyes at your coach?

The article was pretty much saying, When Vogtle tried to get serious with the team, everybody was like, Get the fuck out of here. You're not a serious person. You don't want to read that about yourself right afterwards. No. Now, to dispute with what Windhorse did report earlier about LeBron James in Free Agency. Lebron, he tweeted out this afternoon, I've seen, heard a lot of reports about my future. I said it last night. I'll say it again. I do not know yet, as I'm only thinking about spending time with my family and friends. When I know after speaking with the fam, my counsel as well as my representation about it, then you guys will know. Until then, nothing. Love came. So we don't know about that report, but it seems like there's somebody that's on the Suns that is leaking information directly to Shams if it was ready to go that quickly after the season's But he's fired. What sucks is everyone knows that he's going to be fired, right?

I think Darvin Ham is probably more likely to get fired than Frank Vogtle, but I also don't know. The Suns are just a mess because they're stuck. They can't trade Bradley Beal. Their only move is they can trade... You can't trade Devon Booker because he's your future. Your only move is you can trade Kevin Durant. So they're fucked. I was thinking earlier, the timing of these articles, and the Suns weren't going to beat the Timberwolves. The Lakers weren't going to beat the Nuggets. But you have to think it can't be great for vibes when a series is going on and guys are giving anonymous sources about how much they hate their They're more concerned with making sure that right after they lose, the spin zone goes their direction than actually winning the game.

Yeah, you have to be. Sean said that article ready to go. In the event that they lost. It was time. He probably scheduled it knowing that they were going to lose.

Dude, imagine what's on his hard drive right now because he's probably got one for every single team. If they lose, he's ready to go.

He definitely has one for past NBA champions. That ended up winning the entire thing.

Yeah. He's got a Hank. He's got a nasty one for the Celtics if they get bounced before the finals. You know that. And he's got a real... Oh, he's got a vicious one for the Bucks for sure. For sure. Yeah. That's going to be Doc Rivers. Oh, that's going to be must read. Yeah, just think about it. If you're a coach in the NBA right now, you have to have alerts on for Shams, and you have to just stay up at night being like, When is this article going drop on my head, and how bad is it going to be? Last thing we had to talk about, we had a bee delay. Bees are back.

I love the bee delay. It's my favorite part of baseball. I love the early season brawls. I love the bee delays. I love the weird injuries. That's what gets us through these dog days in MLB until the All-Star break.

Yeah, the Arizona Diamondbacks had to delay their game against the Dodgers because there was a bee colony set up in the netting behind home plate. They killed those bees, did they not?

I don't think you can.

I think they probably killed them. Do they rehome the bees?

There might be some laws. Have you ever talked to the bee freaks out there that are always reminding us six times a year that bees are dying at an alarming rate? They're the worst.

There's no way that they didn't rehome these bees. They fucking killed these bees. They took a fire hose to these bees.

They bring in a beekeeper every time it happens, and this guy has to find the queen. The game of baseball is delayed until this guy in a giant white suit finds the queen. It's a whole thing. It happens in baseball. At least once a year, what is it about baseball stadiums that's so attractive to bees?

I don't know. It's true, though. They just love They love hanging out at the ballpark. They actually, if they could figure out a way to make bees count as fans for baseball, baseball might be back.

Mm-hmm.

Let me just use that as attendance. The White Sox.

Hey. A lot of buzz about this year.

Yeah, there we go. The White Sox and A's need to just get some B colonies in the outfield. They should be like, Our attendance was crazy tonight. Okay, let's kick it to ourselves back in studio. Hot Seat, Cool Throne, JJ Reddick, FAQs, and tune in on Friday when we negotiate the return of cocky Hank.

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My Hot Sea It is us.

Uh-oh.

For not realizing the story that Caruso told about the guy who told his grandfather got a hole in one, and then his grandfather died before he could tell him it was a joke, and he made the whole plaque.

That was Ryan Whitney. That was Ryan Whitney. Famous, if you've seen his work, bear fucking.

Great artist. The artist, Ryan Whitney. Okay, so with the Whitney thing, a lot of people are very upset about a cartoon image. Although I will agree that it's a weird choice that Whitney specifically typed into the AI generator, make the polar bear female and have a person- He didn't way.

He didn't create it. Ryan Whitney will ever sniff ChatGPT or whatever.

He did not create it. Whoever made it. Whoever made it, typing in like, give the bear a skirt and a purse.

It would have worked just the same if it was just two bears fucking each other. Yeah, but it's one of my favorite internet controversies that Whitney's involved in right now. If people don't know Whitney, I actually think that his tweet didn't even say, This is so funny. He was like, This isn't right, which if he's agreeing that it's not right- He's posting it for awareness of not to share it. Yeah, it's an AI image of a bear in a Bruins' jersey, fucking a bear in a maple leaves Jersey, and people are very upset. They immediately went to sexual assault, and I can't believe you posted this. It's one of my favorite controversies because it just reminds me that we might be the only sane people left because I saw that image, and I didn't think I was just like, Oh, this is just stupid, like fans talking shit back and forth. It's bears. They're AI bears.

I saw the image, and I was like, Sports. I thought about sports.

They're AI bears.

The polar bear was crying.

It's like getting mad at whatever, Calvin pissing on a team's logo. Right.

Yeah.

That's actually- Tiled pornography. Yes. Good point, Hank.

He said, Leifs fans, I feel for you guys, this ain't right. So if anything, Whitney's agreeing with you. This ain't right.

He's on your side.

This ain't right.

I think yesterday was a big gap in things to be mad about online. So you just need somebody to be pissed off about. And that happened to be Whitney.

We stand with Whitney. Unbelievable that an AI... It was great, too, when people would just... I saw some people replying, and then someone would be like, Oh, so any cartoon is okay? It's like, Dude, it's bears. What are we talking about? They're AI. It's not real.

The Taylor Swift stuff, I understand where she's coming from because she's a human being. Correct. These are bears. Also, the bears aren't representation of actual bears that exist that we all know and love and care about. They're just generic bears.

Also, here's a little tip. You got to always look for context clues. The bears are fucking on ice. First of all, I don't think bears know how to... Well, actually, no, there's probably Russian bears that know how to skate.

Oh, polar bears, for sure.

But in the background, there's two Bruins banners and then a Maple Leaves banner. This isn't a real arena.

No.

This isn't real. This isn't a real arena. I saw that. I was like, Oh, my God, this is a fake arena.

Are they title banners? Or are they just- No, they're just banners.

At first, I was like, Oh, my God, the bears are fucking. This is a horrendous image to look at. Then I saw the banners. I was like, Oh, no, you're stupid, Dan. That's not real.

It could be one of the outdoor games.

No, it looks like- Is that inside a. Yeah, it looks like there's a roof.

It could be the stadium series.

It's all Bruins fans. Then there's a Maple Leaves banner.

It could be neutral site, neutralize.

I'm going to say... Yeah, actually, you know what? I'm 100% I'm confident I'm going to say this image isn't real.

I'm going to look at it real quick. It might be real. No. That might have happened. The banner thing. I think this might be at Fenway Park.

They wouldn't put up a Mapleleaves banner.

You don't think during the stadium series, they represent both teams at all? No, definitely not.

No, come on. It's also got a roof on it. Not real. Confirmed, not real image.

Not real. I don't know how that hot seat turned to that, but that makes sense.

Well, you brought up Brian Whitney. He's best known for bears fucking.

That is my favorite recurring bit, though, that sometimes people do. If they're submitting questions for guys on Chicks or FAQs, they'll just tell a story from a movie and see if it's a movie that we haven't seen. I like that. Bad job by us.

Also, it's crucial.

It wasn't on the Chicles podcast. It was on a different Oh, so that interview on the golf podcast.

That's not our fault.

Do we think there's any chance that Caruso was just pounding the story off on his own?

He did say a car.

Yeah, he heard. Okay.

Then my cool throw, and it's not really diva wide receivers, just cocky wide receivers. Talked about a lot on the show the last couple of years. Patriots, Javan Baker, that they drafted, had this quote. He said, Bring your popcorn. I make people in wheelchairs stand up. Oh, I like that. You love that. You love that. Cheers. Yes. He's that electric that he cures.

Paralized. Paralization. Yeah.

Yeah, that's nice. I like it. He's also pumped up. He's probably feeling himself because they got Joe Milton.

Yeah, that's maybe future diva wide receiver type quote, but it's not in a bad way. That's how you want your wide receiver to think.

I wish they would actually make him prove it.

Like, bring him to a hospital, have him catch some balls, see if someone can walk again.

He's like one of those mega church healers, the faith healers? Yeah. Is everybody... That's going to be a hot ticket for Patriots games. If you have a disability, show up and see if he can heal you.

Shouldn't this guy be used in modern medicine more than the NFL? Isn't he squandering his abilities? I mean, he literally can cure people being paralyzed. I think- Someone's got a neck fracture, and they're like, Oh, fuck. If I caught a shutdown in the corner of the end zone. I can walk.

You have to meet them halfway. If you really want to be healed, then you'll buy a ticket. Buying a ticket to a Patriots game like a dream seat, sideline pass, probably cheaper than getting back surgery. Yeah.

Okay.

Got to catch some TDs now. You're excited.

You're back to being excited.

Yeah, I'm excited. Okay.

Very excited. Very excited. I saw that shirt design. You look very excited. Very excited. In the Drake May shirt.

Still need people to subscribe on Spotify. Just hit that button, subscribe, get numbers up, and then maybe we'll release the Drake May Hank Lockwood shirt.

Is that a real picture that's on there?

I didn't even think about that. It might not be real.

That would be worse than you think so?

No. I think more people would stand up for a made up female polar bear, then would stand up for- Do you know what?

We should probably have Triggs update the picture and put a leaf spinner and a Bruin spinner in the background so that these people can figure out that it's not real.

Not a real image.

Yeah. Okay.

Pft, your Hot Seat, Cool Throne? My hot seat is Jake Paul. Jake Paul is on the hot seat because they just announced the parameters for the fight against Mike Tyson. Although Mike Tyson is a heavy underdog, I think he's plus 300, they said that there's going to be no headgear for the fight, and it's going to be an actual heavyweight title fight. It's going to count on their official professional records. 14-ounce gloves, but no headgear, contrary to the rumors that came out that they were going to wear headgear. So knockouts are allowed. Also, I didn't realize this, but it's going to be Taylor Serrano in co-made event, which actually makes... That should make real boxing fans want to buy this fight, too. Yes, agreed. I'm pumped up because I think everybody that is... Most people that are paying attention to this would just like to see another Mike Tyson knockout. Yes. Just bring us back to the glory Days. That's all I want. He could be 90 years old, and I would still believe that he'd be able to knock somebody out with a box. Without a doubt. My cool throne is Dave and Busters.

Busters is on the cool throne because they are now allowing customers to bet on their arcade games against each other. So If you're competing against somebody, if it's a pop a shot, if it's a ski ball or anything else where it's like one on one, you can actually put wagers in and bet against each other at the table, at the games. I would like to see this expand a little bit, and anybody that's inside the Dave and Busters should be able to get in on the action and then bet on those guys. Then we should be able to watch on a closed circuit TV in this office and bet on two random guys that go to Dave and Busters and compete against each other in ski ball. This is the future of This is the future. Everything should be gamblable. Yes.

Dave and Busters.

Wow. That's what I would like.

They're next level.

I love that. Yeah, it's really good.

All right. My hot seat, I have two. One is inside the NBA because MBC is supposedly getting closer to making an NBA deal, we might lose TNT NBA, which that would be a tragedy. They'd have to figure out a way to keep Chuck and the guys. Chuck is, by the way, having a legendary run right now. But Kenny and Chuck and Ernie and Shaq, they have to be somewhere. What are we going to do if they're not on TNT and TNT doesn't have broadcast rights for the NBA?

For the good of the league, they should just go wherever the NBA goes. Yeah.

Would the NBC do weeknight games?

I think so. We just can't have Charles Barkley not in our lives.

I don't know how the contracts work with that, but they should just understand that for America, they should allow that show to go wherever the NBA lives. Or you know what? Tnt, they could just do that show and not have the rights to the game. Just watch it. Just be like, Everybody, turn over to Turner, whatever channel that's on, after the game, and you're going to get Chuck, Kenny, Shaq. Just keep the show going without the rights.

We can't have that. We can't lose that. People were excited, though. They're like, Roundball Rock coming back to NBC. Listen, I love Roundball Rock. You listen to that song and you're This is '90s basketball. I just want to remind people who maybe don't watch college basketball. Roundball Rock also has been back for a while on Fox. Now, when I listen to it, I think like, Oh, here comes Creighton versus Xavier at 11:00 AM.

You know the best start to your day possible is watching the live video of John Tesh performing Roundball Rock, where he's just bouncing around the room directing the orchestra. That gets the blood going.

My other hot seat is a single better in New Jersey. I feel for this guy because he probably was his own business and then woke up on Monday and was like, What the fuck? It was the I think you should leave meme where he's sitting in the back with the Tim Robinson sitting in the back. The courtroom? Yeah. He's like, What the fuck are they talking about me? It's a story about one of the sportsbooks in New Jersey having a huge month. Basically, it's all because one guy has been losing a lot. They said, When we remove New Jersey from the equations, this sportsbook has a 2.9% market share in the States. It operates in. It's New Jersey's market share in March was 23.5 because he's described as the biggest losing player in the regulated market by a mile.

It's a guy that bets against Yukon.

What the fuck? Could you imagine just waking up and seeing this and being like, They just call me the biggest loser by a mile? I'm happy I don't live in New Jersey because I would definitely be like, Wait, is it me?

That one guy might be betting against Yukon and also betting against the Oakland athletics every single day. Combination.

And betting against anyone to beat Scottie Scheffler. Yeah. God damn, that would suck so bad.

Whoever it is, it's a big hater that's lost a lot of money. Yeah.

And then my cool throne is scouting because we had some post-draft stories come out. Albert Breer had a long story about how the 4-6 quarterbacks got selected, Michael Penix, Bo Nicks, JJ McCarthy. And we had this anecdote from the Bo Nicks meetings with the Broncos. So Bo Nicks, the Broncos went out to Oregon to do a meeting with him, and Sean Payton saw that Bo Nicks had a backpack and asked him what's in the backpack. And Nicks, this is now Albert Brewer, Nicks reached inside, grabbed the roll of tape that he explained he'd need for his ankles if he were going to train. He also pulled out a spare pair of football cleats and a lacrosse ball that he said he'd use for rolling out his back. And what wasn't in the bag was just as significant. Everything was football-related, all of it.

That's good.

And they fell in love with him there.

When the world's in that bag, what's not in the bag? That's just code for he didn't have any weed. That's also against the Fourth Amendment to just check a guy's backpack.

Yeah, I just like the stories that come out.

How did the Broncos end up with Bo Nicks? Well, let me tell you a story. Sean Payton asked Bo Nicks what was in his backpack.

Every quarterback should have to empty out their backpack and show what's in there.

What happens if Bo Nicks on that day had a Game Boy and a burner cell phone and, I don't know, a thong?

Yeah.

He probably wouldn't be on the Bronco.

An AARP card. That's what Michael Pennix had. Hold out a pistol. Yeah, that would actually rock. I would draft that quarterback. He stays ready. Stay strapped for that.

This is my gun for anyone who shit's on football.

So along with the draft, I learned something last week about the draft. I meant to share it with you guys. Because we've talked about on the show before what would happen if there was just straight up free agency for every player coming out of college football? It would roll. What would that look like? So that almost happened back in, I think it was the late '70s, early '80s. There was a guy that got drafted, got injured two games into his rookie season, couldn't play anymore. He sued the league to try to make money based on how much he could have got if he was a free agent coming out in terms of the signing bonus. And he won that case. And then he won the appeal for it, too. So This was going to be established law that the draft was, I guess, against labor laws. Yeah. And then the NFLPA made an agreement with the NFL, Okay, we understand that this goes against the existing law, but we'll agree with you to do the draft because we think it's better for the current veterans that are in the league, and we like where this is going.

Every other league, not just the NFL, every other league, professionally, was going to have to end the draft if the NFLPA didn't reach a handshake agreement and be like, We know it's against the law, but we're going to let you get away with it to the NFL. Shout out the NFL. Shout out the NFL. Although maybe not.

This is Mike Florio's big, big topic. He loves talking about how there shouldn't be a draft.

Yeah. I mean, you can make the argument that it's been great for players to have this draft the way that everything is shaken out over the past 30, 40 years. Everyone's gotten rich. But also, we don't know what it would have looked like if they didn't have the draft, if it would be the same league that it is today. But it was all based on whoever the leader of the NFLPA was shaking the commission's hand saying, We're going to agree. We're good. We're going to agree to let you break the law on us. Pretty crazy.

All right, Jake, your hot seat, cool drone.

Hey, guys. Happy to be back.

Jake, very cool.

My My hot seat is Cheeseball Man.

We had a huge dilemma in New York City, Union Square. Thousands of people gathered to watch a man eat cheeseballs, and he promoted it all over the city. It was a giant tub of cheeseballs, and then he showed up, and now people are calling him frauds for eating a much smaller tub of cheeseballs.

I think this is also stolen valor from Philadelphia. Correct. It's all based on the Rotisserie Chicken guy, which developed organically, and the guy only made a big deal out of it when he reached his 40th consecutive day of eating a chicken. Cheeseball Man in New York saw that and said, I want a piece of the action. He also only did it for one day. One day. I'm not impressed in this. This is bullshit. No, I did this 20 times high in my best friend's basement when I was 18 years old.

He should have So one, he... False advertising. The fact that he didn't do the big cheeseball thing, I wish people had stood up and been like, Hey, this guy's a fraud. You said you do the big cheeseball. The other way this works is, yeah, he should have done it. If he wanted to do it, he should have done it like the chicken man, where he would have been like, I'm going to eat one cheese ball a day until I finish this entire container, and then on the last day, I'll eat an entire container.

Or he should have eaten a container every day. That's what would have been impressive. Like eating one container in one sitting, that's not something that should draw a crowd.

It also pissed me off everyone on Twitter being like, Oh, this could only happen in New York. It was just a worse version of the chicken guy in Philly.

I like that part of it just because it pisses you off. Only in New York.

Yeah, well, this is wrong. Yeah, only in New York can you do a worse version of something in Philly. Yeah, so that was interesting.

Only in Philly can you see a home game for the Knicks.

True. Lebron, though.

Oh, yeah, Max is convinced. Lebron is going to be a free agent. Oh, my God. And so Max is thinking, what if he just comes to Philly?

I actually would die for this to happen just because the podcast would reach a new level.

Did you see that when Horst said that LeBron is going to see free agency this summer?

Yeah, I mean, It just happened. Well, I knew that he was going to have free agency. I think he's doing this. He's going to test free agency so that he can be like, Lakers, you're going to sign Bronnie, right?

Yeah.

No, no, no. Sixers are going to draft him at 16.

At 16? Yeah. Wow. To bring LeBron.

I 100% think that would be worth it. If you're even in the conversation for getting LeBron, just take a flyer. Use your first-round pick on Bronnie just to lure him to town. Because if it's even, if he's got four places he wants to go, if one of them has a son, that's where he's going to end up. Basically, kidnapping. Yeah, just kidnap Bronnie.

Yeah. Okay.

Your cool thrown, Jake? My cool thrown is Travis Kelsey. Signed a big two-year deal. There's the retirement rumors, but two years, 34 million.

He's back.

I got a question. This might be getting into waters that we don't want to get into.Be careful.But I got a question. He signed a deal to be the highest paid tight-end in the league, right? I believe so. Do we remember a certain player who was married to someone who was very rich, a billionaire, who would take less money because that would help the team because he knew he was married to this woman?

I remember that.

Does Did that ring a bell?

I remember that.

Hank, do you know the answer to that? Who was that? Tom braided. Oh, that was Tom braided because he was married to Giselle. Do you think maybe Travis, Kelsey, and Taylor Swift, the relationship isn't that rock solid because otherwise he would say, Hey, why don't I take less? I'm going to be fine because she's a billionaire and we're going to get married and have kids and all this stuff.

I think he knows that there's a prenup coming. Interesting. There's a big prenup coming for that one.

I'm just saying he could take less money knowing that if he gets married to Taylor Swift, money will It would never be an issue for him.

You know what? If Taylor Swift was a real fan of the Chiefs. That sounds nice. Yeah, listen.

Well, the argument doesn't work as well when Tom braided and Giselle did break up.

No, but that's not what this is about. That's not what this is about. In my opinion, if Taylor Swift was as big of a Chiefs fan as she pretends to be on Sunday. Correct. She would realize for the good of the franchise that she should not do a prenup with Travis Kelsey, therefore letting Travis Kelsey sign unvalued contracts with the Chiefs and extending their championship window.

Travis Kelsey is sitting on their bed and Taylor Swift walks over and gives him a little kiss on the forehead and says, Don't worry, sweetie.

Money's no problem for us. Sounds like she hates the Chiefs. Yeah.

Again, I'm just asking questions.

Yeah, it Swift's pretty strong. They were at Mahomes' charity event.

But how strong knowing that he just took the most money being like, I need to make my money now.

They should do Monday Night Raw. Mahomes did it.

Travis, Kelsey, and Taylor Swift? Yeah.

Yeah, that would rock.

That would rock. Swifties would become wrestling fans.

Basically, what we're saying is that Taylor Swift should give up half of her money to men. Is that too much to ask? No. I thought we were about equality.

Equality matters. 50%. If she was a true Chiefs fan, she would be like, Hey, Travis, take the league minimum and let's go win another champion.

Yeah, rings. What? What, Hank?

It sounds like she's- These are all good points, right?

She's only about her personal engagement ring, not a Super Bowl ring. That's what it sounds like to me. I think that people out there will agree with on this.

You have to be selfish sometimes, and I think he deserves this title, the highest paid title.

No, he has to be selfish because Taylor Swift is being selfish.

She has forced his hand. She's turning another man into a monster.

She could basically be like, Hey, let's get some star wide receivers and offensive linemen. Let's do all this. You know what? I'll pay you $43 million a year to be my boyfriend, and you can get league minimum.

I'm seeing a pattern here. Matty Healey was a great dude before Taylor got her hands on him. Yeah.

Listen, here's what I'll say. If in the future, Caleb Williams and I ever start to date and I'm a billionaire, I will take care of him in that hypothetical. But he's making a lot of money. No, I'll say, Hey, take league minimum. Take less money, sweetie. We'll be fine. There's a couple of hoops we have to jump through. We have to date. Also, I have to become a billionaire. But if we get to that point, I'm at least willing to share unlike Taylor Swift.

That's what a supportive partner looks like.

Correct. I'm as progressive as they get.

It's good to see that there's still some good people in this world. Yeah.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Please clip that. Yeah. We're just asking questions. That was a great conversation. It's important to have this conversation. A great segment.

We haven't done that in a while.

Yeah, copy, clip that, and then tag Stool Presidente. Yeah.

Okay, let's do our interview with JJ Redick. Awesome interview getting into basketball We're going to talk about the playoffs. We're going to talk about what's happening with the Lakers, Darvin Ham, Suns, everything. Let's do it. Jj Redick.

You ready? Showtime. This Friday, summer starts with the Fall guy.

We'll do it later.

Let's make a spicy margarita.

Make It's a bad decisions.

Yes. Audiences are falling in love with the most entertaining film of the year.

Fall guy.

Fall guy.

It's what the poster said.

See Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in the movie Critics Say, Exist to make you happy. Do you want to make it out? No. Because I don't need it. It's not what I'm right now.

Where are you into?

Talking. Yeah. The Fall guy. Only in Theaters Friday. Rated PG 13. Maybe inappropriate for children under 13.

Okay, we now welcome on our very good friend, recurring guest. He is a Media Star. You can check him out on Old Man and the Three. You can check him out on Mind the Game pod, or you can listen to any of the ESPN basketball games that are going on right now in the playoffs because he's on all the time. It's JJ Redick.

I appreciate you going into all the many things I'm doing right now in terms of the media landscape. It's a lot on the plate. We're putting out content for Old Man and the Three and Mind the Game, and Obviously traveling a bit for NBA playoffs. Very excited. Yeah, very excited.

This is actually great that you're joining us right at this second because this morning, the Lakers got bounced in the playoffs on Monday night. Nuggets win the series. Four 4-1. The Lakers won one game in the last two years against the Nuggets in the playoffs. I've been getting into it with Lakers fans this morning because there's this idea when they show the stat that the Lakers were leading for 150, 160 minutes, that the Lakers were right there. And now, Darvin Ham is getting blamed by a lot of Lakers fans. I contest that the Lakers did not have a championship roster that was deep enough, that had enough two-way guys, that had enough bigs. And Darvin him, while you can criticize him, and I'm fine criticizing him, he was dealt a hand that was very difficult to beat a team like the Nuggets. What do you think about that?

Yeah, here's the deal. We can't ascribe the end result and have that be an indictment on someone without the context of how that result happened. And the Denver Nuggets are the defending champion. They approach the regular season as well as any defending champion that I can remember going back probably to the Golden State Warriors with Steph and Katie. They approached it trying to get a one seed. There's oftentimes a little championship hangover. They were rolling. They were healthy. Jamal Murray has been banged up for going on like two months now with shin splints and some calf issues. So they were healthy relative what they were in the regular season. And it's not a great matchup for the Lakers, and it's not a great matchup for anyone, really. I think this Minnesota team probably matches up as well as anyone in the NBA versus the Denver Nuggets. I'm really fascinated by this series. So to lay the blame on Darvin Ham when you're playing against the defending champions and you lose a bunch of close games, you lose on two buzzer I don't buy that. I don't buy that. Now, I'm not in that locker room.

I'm not in those huddles, so I can't speak to that. But if we're just basing it on the result of losing in the first round, I don't I'll try that. I want to say one thing real quick, because this has been bothering me for about... What time is it? 11 o'clock? This has been bothering me for about 10 hours. Okay. That last play, I do have a problem with that last play, the Jamal Murray game winner. So you've got two guys on the left side of the court for the Nuggets. Kcp was on the left wing, and Torian Prince's man was in the left corner. They basically clear out a side, allow the ball to get to the middle. Roy Hachimara and Tori and Prince, they're literally in no man's land. They've overloaded a side. You can afford to put Roy Hachimara in help, and it looked like Tori and Prince was telling him to go there. Is that on Darvin Ham? Right. Is that on Darvin Ham? I'm not buying that. If you're a basketball player at the end of the game, Hey, Tori Prince, guard two. Stunt for me. Let me help on this pick and roll, right?

That's just basketball. And Hatchimor had a great season. Him being in the starting. I'm not placing the blame all just on Hatchimor. I'm just saying there are certain plays within a game that can decide a game that aren't on the coach.

Yeah. So So even more, though, I think, and I've heard this in the media, people being like, Well, if the Lakers played anyone besides the Nuggets, they're the second best team in the West. I just don't think that's true. I think the Thunder are better. I think the Timberwolves are better. This idea that the Lakers have a championship roster, they just ran into the championship team the last two years. Ad and LeBron were incredible. They were heroes in this series. They just didn't have enough dudes to play against Denver for seven-game series or probably play against the Timberwolves or probably play against the Thunder. I really do think it comes down to their roster wasn't deep enough, and they didn't have enough guys that they could rely on who could play two ways and give it a bunch of different looks. And then when you're the coach and you don't have those cards that you can deal out of your hand, it does make you look worse.

Yeah, that's the NBA, and that is the danger of going into coaching.

Yeah, which you're not going to do.

Definitely not. That is the danger, right?

100 %.

Talent wins, depth wins, roster construction, how pieces fit, all that stuff. That is the ultimate thing. And look, it's funny because you look in, let's just say regular season, D'Angelo Russell had a great year. Austin Reeves had a great year. Hatchell Mora was more than solid, and you had two guys who were going to make all NBA teams in Anthony Davis and LeBron James. I think some of it speaks to not only... Everybody's like, Oh, the depth of the West, the depth of the West. Here's my argument for the NBA right now. I think the overall talent depth, meaning the amount of really good players in the NBA, is as high as it's ever been, and that depth of talent is spread out more than it's ever been. There's not the concentration of three really good players on one team, three really good players on another team. There's the concentration of two or three really good players on a bunch of teams. So I don't think this Lakers This team was a bad team. I just think they were good relative to the rest of the NBA.

It's good, not Championship contenders. That's what I come down to. The media wants to tell us that the Lakers were on the cusp of winning a title if they didn't run into the nuggets back to back.

You're listening to the wrong media.

Yeah, it's first take.

You're on all the time.

That's where you're not going to get any coaching. You're going to miss yelling at Mad Dog and Steven A. Smith too three times.

We do love you on TV, though, because sometimes it feels like you and Steven A or you and Mad Dog are speaking two different languages.

Mad Dog will be doing the hot take, screaming at the camera about the old nicks from the 1970s, and then you're just trying to break down the game in front of them. It's like you're trying to educate people. Mad Dog is trying to make people mad. It's like this conversation, you're probably never going to reach a consensus agreement in this conversation, but it's very entertaining TV.

Yeah, You can make a career out of, I don't want to say antagonizing people, but I would say having strong opinions, even if I believe some of those opinions are not rooted in reality. But at the end of the day, all of this, and you guys know this, Dan, you talked about this when you came on our podcast on The Old Man and the Three. I guess that was probably a year and a half ago. This is all an escape. It's all entertainment. Yeah. When we were talking about doing this Mind the Game podcast, and I thought there was a lane for education, for trying to make the average fan a little more intuitive when watching a game. That's all it is. It doesn't mean that the entertainment portion or the debate shows are bad. People want to escape. People want to be entertained. And I think there's There's a world where you can have both. Yeah, I agree. Sometimes if you do it well, you can do both at the same time.

I absolutely agree.

So another team I wanted to talk about. I think we settled the Lakers. They're a good team. They were not a great team. If you put the best coach in the world, I still don't think the Lakers are winning the title this year. That was my semi-defensive, Darvin Ham, who I don't think is great.

Are you playing to the algorithm right now? No. Are you playing to the Lakers algorithm?

It just crazy me when a team loses and everyone's like, The coach has to be fired. It's like, But maybe the team wasn't that great.

Yeah, I don't know if the best coach in the league could have taken the Lakers and had them beat the Nuggets because the Nuggets in their own way, they're a super team, but they're a homegrown super. They've got great role players. They've got star power. They've got guys at multiple positions that can go out and get 30 on any given night. And then you've got Jokić. That's just a piece of a puzzle that you can't solve. I'm excited to see what happens in the next round because maybe you can educate us on this because Because I'm fighting an internal battle in my brain over which way the Rudy Gober, Jokić matchup is going to go. On one hand, I think that Gobert is such a good defender that they're going to put him one-on-one on one on Jokić, which could go a couple of ways. It could have Jokić just go out there and dominate him because he's not getting help, or it could go like they're going to try to eliminate Jokić's ability to kick the ball out and hit open threes when you do draw as a double team. So can you talk us through what that matchup is going to look like and if the Wolves have a better chance than most at beating the Nuggets?

Yeah. So if you go back to last year's playoffs and games this season, a lot of times, and The Wolves now are not the only team that does this, but a lot of times, teams will cross-match with Jokić, because Denver really wants to score in the paint, and it's not necessarily on drives. It's out of cuts. It's Aaron Gordon in the dunker spot. It's obviously Jokić when he gets a deep catch. It's Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. On back cuts. They're not like... Oklahoma City, for example, is a heavy points in the paint team, but they drive 63 times a game. They lead the league in drives per game. Shai Gilgildas Alexander has the most drives per game in the NBA, right? They drive the basketball. Denver wants to be in the paint, and they do it a little differently. So the counter to that is, and it's also to keep Gobert at the rim, is you You put Karl-Anthony Towns on him. You put Nas Reid on him. You put Kyle Anderson on him. And Gobert can still sit back there and protect the rim because Aaron Gordon is a non- shooting threat. A lot of teams, I say this on broadcast all the time, That shot that teams are willing to live with against the Denver Nuggets is an Aaron Gordon three.

And so that cross match eliminates some of that need to double because as Jokić gets deeper, Gobert is right there at the rim. And as he often says he can be in two places at once, just like a Wembenyama, right? These guys are that smart, and that big, and that long, that they can be in two places at once and still maybe get a late contest, but also be there to clean up anything, any dump down passes to Gordon. So that's what I would expect Minnesota to do. And even going back to last year, if you remember that first-round series, Jamal Murray was incredible as he was throughout the playoffs. Jaden McDaniels punched a wall the last regular season game, so he missed that series. Series. He's an outstanding defender. He showed some of that in that Phoenix series in round one. So I would expect Jaden McDaniels to be on Jamal Murray. No Nas Reid either last year. I'm not trying to create an argument for why Minnesota is going to win. I'm creating an argument for why I think this is going to be high-level, intense six or seven-game series. Both these teams are outstanding.

Yeah, I'm very excited for that series. Another question I had. We saw the Suns get bounced in a sweep to the Wolves. Are we done with the Super teams? Because if you look around, it does feel you have the Nuggets, homegrown, you have the Celtics, homegrown. The Knicks have done a really good job with their roster, the Wolves, homegrown, the Thunder Homegrown. A lot of these teams now that are ascending feel like they've gotten the pieces the long term way instead of saying, Oh, here's a star. Let's add them to the roster and throw away all of our role players. Do we think this is finally... The Suns were... I saw your whole clip about a failed experiment. They're long term invested in these guys, but I don't know how... They don't have a lot of flexibility in changing that roster.

Correct. I said at the beginning of the year in one of our season preview podcasts, this year could be, and whether it's like stamped, meaning it's final, but it could be at least the beginning of the of the super team. Part of that is the new second apron in the CBA. And just a brief explainer of that. We have a salary cap. You can go to a certain point over the salary cap. You pay luxury tax. There's a first apron and then a second apron. Once you get to that second apron, you're essentially hard capped, which means you're really limited in what you can do in terms of transactions. So you have no exceptions. You basically have to sign players for minimum contracts and sign your own draft picks. And obviously, the outside Outside of this year, the Suns don't have any draft picks from 2025 to 2030. All of those are either traded away or they're swapped, meaning they can't trade them because teams can swap. Let's say, 2027, you can swap with them, right? So they're extremely limited by that second apron. And it's because of them going all in on Kevin Durant, them going all in on Bradley Beale.

Bradley Beal has a no trade clause. So So, yeah, in some ways, the proof, at least to me, over the last few years, it goes back to the depth of talent. But the proof to me is you need to build through the draft and then be positioned with a good salary cap situation, with good young players, with draft picks to then make an impactful trade. Denver did that. They drafted Jamal Murray, they drafted Jokish, they drafted Michael Porter Jr, they drafted Payton Watson, they drafted Christian Brown. They used players they drafted to go out and get KCP, Aaron Gordon. Those are the timely trades. And all of a sudden, all now, all the pieces fit, and they've got one of the best, if not the best starting five in the NBA. Yeah. Boston, right? Brown, drafted. Hayton, drafted. Marcus Smart, drafted. Turned him into Porzingis. Rob Williams, drafted. They stole Malcolm Brognen from Indiana two years ago. They used Malcolm Brognen and Rob Williams to go get Drew Holladay. So you have to draft well. That's my point. If you want to build a team now, you have to draft well. But this is why I say it's not necessarily the death of the super team, because certain owners are always going to operate a certain way, and certain owners are always going to think they can shortcut it and buy their way to a championship.

Yeah, that's what I would think. We're talking about that on Monday's show. If we were owners, that's how we would operate right when we got a team. We'd just be like, Yeah, let's get...

Katie? Yeah. Let's go build2K team. Let's go build a 2K team.

It's exciting for the NBA that it does feel like we're getting away from that where there aren't the shortcuts and the teams that put in the draft and make the savvy moves and trades are being rewarded. That's good for the league, in my opinion.

I agree, and I think it helps the overall product, which the product should be the game. The product should not be transactions. Yes. And look, people are going to live in that world forever. It's what gets people excited on social media. The idea of getting this person in free agency, the idea of getting this person in a trade, I get it. It's exciting, and everybody plays 2K, and everybody likes to build out their rosters and get their packs and get their cards and then decide which player they're getting rid of. We all want to be a GM in some ways, right? I get it. However, because of more parity, I thought between parity, the depth of talent, the rule changes around minimum games played where you had so many guys. I mean, LeBron and AD played the most games together. They played in their Lakers tenure. Kawhi played more games since, I think, 2016 or throughout 2017. So these things have created a better regular season. And if anyone was paying attention to that, instead of just using the same old talking points about how load management does not really exist anymore. You can't rest two stars in a nationally televised game.

The league implemented enough policies. Those policies worked. The in-season tournament was an overall success. The plane has been a massive success. To me, the product right now is better than it's ever been in my time in the NBA, going back to 2006.

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Let's not completely trash the Lakers this year. They won the in-season tournament. That's huge. Their mayor. The mayor of LA congratulated them. It's not a lost season. They had a lot of success. They won one out of two tournaments this year.

Also, I think Greeny put up a banner that the Lakers would have maybe beaten the Thunder or Timberwolves goals if they had matched up against them in the first round.

They would have matched up well.

Yeah, they would have matched up. So that's huge.

Yeah, it's a good season. That's winning basketball in LA, and I'm glad to see it. So how would you fix Phoenix? Because it seems like they don't really have- Can I ask you a question?

These are going to say, Those banners fly forever. I feel like you're laughing at those banners.

This is a serious question. I want to ask you this question. Why do you think, and I don't know how much you got. Actually, you guys joke around, and it's sometimes a bit, so I'll take you off the table. But why do you think that people like to talk about hypotheticals so much? And why do people like to listen to people talking about hypotheticals so much?

Because it's fanfic for dudes. It's like this is gossip magazines for Guys, this is how we use our imagination. Guys, once you stop-That's a great point. Once you stop reading books in high school or college or wherever, where you give up reading the fantasy books that you used to when you were a kid, this is what you spend your mental energy on. You just imagine, what if LeBron went to the Celtics. Yeah.

Could they win? Yeah, you could never be wrong in a hypothetical world, too. We could debate it forever. I think specifically for the Lakers' hypotheticals that have been happening, I think that's just, and you know this, being on first take from time to time. Talking about the Lakers and LeBron is what people will tune into. So when they're down 3-0, you can't be like, Oh, the Lakers are cooked. You have to instead do 20 minutes saying, The Lakers would have beaten everyone else. Yeah.

You can't let go of that cash flow. Actually, you know what? It's crazy to say. Maybe JJ, maybe you bring this up next time you're on. If the Dallas Cowboys signed LeBron at tight end, would they be able to compete for a Super Bowl? Combine all their favorite things together.

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, That's good.

I say no. I think you probably have to add Aaron Judge maybe as a tight end. Yeah, Aaron Judge, tight end, LeBron, wide receiver. Just get everybody. Who would be a better wide receiver, LeBron or Michael Jordan?

Good question. Who's more entertaining? I mean, Patrick Mahomes or Steph Curry?

I love those. Patrick Mahomes now.

Patrick Mahomes, he was on Monday Night Raw.

Yeah.

He gave his rings.

Curry low-key watch.

Would you guys listen to someone talking for 20 minutes about Anthony Edwards' hypotheticals? Yes. I find him pretty fascinating.

Okay, I actually wanted to ask about him because he's such a killer, and I love that. That's what sports... I know there's a million things, reasons to watch sports, but at the top of my list is watching a guy elevate his game in big moments and have that shit to him where he's not only going to kill you, but he's going to do the suck it, he's going to talk his shit. Just watching Anthony Edwards, are you watching it being like, this guy is going to own the league for years to come? Like, he has that it factor both on and off court?

Ultimately, the face of the league and whoever is the guy, You have to win at a high level to do that. So that remains to be seen. However, he's certainly going to be in that conversation for the next 10 years. He is entertaining as a player. He's got the game that I think people gravitate to the same way that Jordan had a certain game, Kobe had a certain game, AI had a certain game, Steph, right? There's the flash, the fundamentals. Some of the footwork stuff The staff that he does is so underrated. And then he's got, as you said, the shit to him, right? Yeah. He's brash, he's competitive. I find it fascinating, by the way, because I remember this, and I want to say I was finishing up my career. But when he was coming out of Georgia, the question marks around him were like, Does he love basketball, and is he competitive? It's crazy. And you watch that guy play in the play-offs, and you're like, How is that ever a concern? Yeah. I don't know. He's remarkable. Katie said this the other day after game four. He's like, That guy's my favorite player to watch in the league.

I've had a number of players, even in retirement, where I'm like, I want to watch this guy. I want to watch this guy. Now, Anthony Edwards has moved into that tier one of just like, If he's on, I'm watching the T-Wolves.

Yeah, I'm like, I was bummed that they swept the Suns because it's like, Oh, we just got robbed of a couple of Anthony Edwards games. Off night, it's every other night. I'm like, Oh, where's my Anthony Edwards game tonight? I want to watch him dunk on people and talk shit.

Katie laughing. Katie was just like, he couldn't do anything except just laugh when Anthony was on. He knows. He's like, Yeah, this guy is This guy's awesome. I like watching him play right up close, right next to him.

It's perfect timing, too, because I know that you don't love these debates, but it does feel like these playoffs are a little bit of a passing of the torch playoffs where you don't have KD, Steph, or LeBron in the second round, and you have some of these young, whether it be Anthony Edwards or Jalen Brunson, what he's doing with the Knicks, some of these younger guys ascending. It's just always fun when that happens at the same time, and you're like, This is great because these are the guys who are going to be watching for the next decade.

We're working on a project right now. I think it got announced. It's like the drive to survive of the NBA playoffs. Okay. We're co-producing producing it. I remember going back, Jason Gallagher, who I think you guys know, who's been around, our head of production. We're working on it on the three, four, two side, and going back to our conversations all the way back in October when the season started, that was the whole thesis for us going into this season. I said this Phoenix Suns thing, that's going to be interesting to watch. Rostered, do the pieces fit? Do they have enough depth? Is there redundancy with their best players? It's going to be interesting to watch. How much does LeBron have left in the tank? Golden State, are they going to be good? I don't know. It feels like Minnesota is going to be pretty good this year. It feels like Oklahoma City is probably going to make a jump. There could be a passing of the torch. Now, I had no idea that Jalen Brunson was going to put together an MVP-type season. And certainly, if Jokic wins another one, then some of this conversation is moot, and it's just like, No, Jokuj is the guy.

He's the guy, right? But yeah, this is interesting because Kevin's out, LeBron's out, Steph's out. And those guys have, I don't want to say carried the league, but they've certainly been as integral as anyone for the last 10 to 15 years.

Yeah, it's interesting. You brought up the Jokuj MVP thing. It's important to have this debate. Do you think that if Jokuj won his third MVP, he would be the worst three-time MVP winner of all time?

Jokić, to me, is already a top 15 player of all time, and I know that that's maybe a hot take. I don't really care.

You took Kevin Durant out? What's up? You took Kevin Durant out of the top 15?

No. Oh. No, I didn't.

You got to take someone out.

Who was number 15?

Kevin wasn't close to 15. Okay, you got to wait. You put him in, you got to take someone out. I only I only do 12. I usually only do 12. That's why I use the 15 because that gives me wiggle room that I don't want to take anybody out. I can read you. You know what I mean? I've only ever done a definitive 12, who I think is the 12th.

The other three time MVPs are Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson. Would that make Jokić the worst three-time MVP winner?

I don't feel that way. So who would you take it? I don't feel that way.

Moses?

I say this all the time. You guys love to bait me into these things where you compare eras.Legit question.No, you do. It's fine. But I'll say this. The best players in any era would be fine in any other era, save for maybe one era. The players that killed in their era, they should be celebrated, and they should be recognized as all-time greats. So why would we not recognize Nikola Jokić as an all-time great?

See, what you're doing is- Why are we changing it for modern players?

I think what you're doing is you're adding Jokić to the top 12 of all time.

I didn't say that. I didn't say that.

If we looked at it, I think you're probably top 15. If we looked at it, I think you're probably top 15. It's more like 25, and you're just... Someone's got to keep you honest.

Someone's got to keep me honest.

It's us. That's our job. We got to keep you honest.

It's going to be a JJ Reddick top 12 tracker just to make sure that you're not fudging the numbers.

I'm taking Wilt Chamberlain out. He's gone. Jokuj is in. See how easy that was? Okay.

Do you think he actually dropped 100 points?

Do I think Wilt Chamberlain did? Yeah. Yeah. Unless I've been given reason not to believe. I mean, he had the picture with the sheet of paper, right? So you have to believe it.

Yeah, that's as good as gold. Yeah. Can't lie about that. You should just respond If somebody does ask you that question about Jokić, just say, He's on my Mount Rushmore of three-time MVP winners.Oh.

There we go.Yeah.There's.

Only four guys there.There we go. You're good. Back to the Suns real quick. How would you fix the Suns? Because that, to me, seems like riddle that's very hard to figure out. You mentioned Bradley Beale's contract.

Am I interviewing for jobs right now? What is going on?

No, I'm curious because the Suns, it seems like they've dealt their way into a black hole where it's like, I don't know how they get out of this over the next five years, but there's got to be some way out, right? If you're being creative, how would you fix the Suns?

Winshare is per 48, which is the stat that is most closely associated with whoever wins the MVP. All time in the NBA. Number two is Michael Jordan. All right, that tracks. Number one is Nikola Jokić. Just want to throw that out there. Now, you guys don't like advanced stats, but oftentimes, they just reinforce what the eye shows us.

I love him. Here's an advanced stat. Michael Jordan was 6-0 in the finals. I love him. Keep going with your point.

How many times did he get to the final six? Okay. Phoenix. It's interesting It's a very interesting question. I would look at team building in a very holistic way beyond just, Oh, we got to trade this guy or trade that guy, or we got to revamp the coaching style. I wasn't in that locker room, so I don't know. I would say, in general, the exit interviews are oftentimes very revealing, and you have to look at any roster master any team and look at how personalities mesh together and how skill sets mesh together. And it's not easy because all 29 teams are also competing for something and also want to win a trade or win a transaction. That's the difficulty of being in the front office. But if you can find the right formula, and it might take three months, it may take six months, it may take three years. But you have to be willing, I think, as an owner, you have to be willing to be patient with that. And look, that's not a shot at ISBI at all. I think we've seen a number of new owners come in and make moves right away and want to win.

And that's not really how the NBA works. And they learn, and they get better, and they become great owners. One of the best examples I have of an owner who didn't do that was Steve Ballmer. Steve Ballmer took over in 2014 after the Donald Sterling saga, and he was like 15 and 16. I remember he would meet with us. We would have dinner with him. He would ask us questions. He made no big decisions other than, I think in '16, we had new uniforms. But in terms of our roster, nothing big, coaching, nothing big. Then in '17, Lawrence Frank went from our coaching staff up to the front office. Lawrence Frank spent like a year going around literally the world and going to different teams and saying, All right, man, United, how do you operate? All right, Seattle Seahawks, how do you operate? And he figured out how to build out a proper infrastructure in the front office. If you remember, we really didn't have a front office under Donald Sterling, right? It wasn't until Balmer got there. He took his time. He didn't make any crazy transactions. He took his time. And Obviously, Kawhi's injury probably keeps them from a championship, but I think they've done it the right way.

It's interesting with the exit interviews. You've been through a few of them, I would imagine. How does that go? Who conducts them? What questions are asked and how honest are guys?

I was always honest, especially later on in my career. Every team is different. There were some teams where you would have three different ones. You might have one with the owner, you might have one with the front office, you might have one with the coaching staff. Other ones, you just have one. You'd have one with the front office and the coaching staff. I think in Dallas, I actually had all three together. It was Cuban, Donnie Nelson, and Rick Carlyle, and They were just like, Hey, you didn't play. Trade didn't work out. Probably going to retire. Feel free to just let loose. Tell us what you think.

Yeah. That's got to be nice to just unload and be like, I've been thinking about this for a while. Here you go. Get out of a pen and paper because I'm going to go off for a while.

I would just pit everyone against each other. I'd be like, I just finished up with KD. I'd meet with Bradley Beale. I'd be like, I just finished up with KD, and he said it was all your fault, Bradley.

What do you think? Like an interrogation.

You know what's It's funny. Not necessarily teammates, but there's been some people that work for organizations that I played for that did exactly that. Yeah.

They're all trying to save their own job.

It's really interesting.

Yeah, they're all trying to save their own job. Who Who was that person? Can you name their name?

Guys, we've gone over time. All right.

Is there a stop snitching thing? You don't talk about another teammate when you're in those interviews?

I never felt like I don't think guys snitched on their teammates. I don't think it was like that. I think it was more when certain guys would be up for free agency or if... Even in 17, I had a terrible first round, and I knew no one had to go in. None of my teammates had to go into the front office or to Lawrence Frank or Doc Rivers and be like, Hey, we really have to bring JJ back. How's that gone for us? No, they'd be like, It's probably pretty much said. I was turning 33, and we'd gone on a four-year run and didn't get the result we wanted. I figured it was likely I was going to be out of there, and they weren't going to offer me a contract.

What's harder, the exit interview with your front office and coach or the exit interview that players do with Shams?

I've never talked to Shams, so I don't know.

A lot of players do.

And those articles are ready to go the minute a team gets bounced.

What about when Darvin Ham goes into LeBron's office and LeBron starts conducting the exit interview? What do you think he's going to say to LeBron?

Lebron's corner office? Yeah. You guys are ridiculous. All right, I got some basketball questions. Thunder. Unbelievable story. How the NBA usually works is teams have to climb the mountain. They have to have play off, get close, get close, then jump over the hurdle, the last hurdle. The Nuggets are the perfect example this last few years. The Thunder had been called too young, but if the Thunder can win it all, I guess that's the first question, can they win it all? And if they do, what happened? Do you see this team being able to actually buck all the trends and be like, Yeah, this is their first real playoff experience, and they went all the way?

I could see a scenario where they are in the NBA Finals and could win a championship. Yeah, I could see that scenario. What would have to happen? First of all, health. Second of all, I think you have to have in certain matchups a series where Chet Holmgren shoots the shit out of the ball and forces the defense into making some tough decisions, i. E, are you switching a five man onto Shay? Are you switching a five man onto Jalen Williams and not playing off of Chet Holmgren? He unlocks their spacing, right? All those drives when he's on the court, it matters. So him shooting the ball well, he's been one of the best defenders in the NBA this year. Lou Dort, we saw in the first round, just in Brandon Ingram shit for four games. So he's staying out of foul trouble, defending at a high level. Jalen and Shay, they have to be who they are. They have to be stars. I don't think another enough people realize how good Jalen Williams is. Oklahoma City, whatever you think of Chet as a second-year guy, rookie, whatever, Jalen Williams is a star in the NBA.

He's not a superstar, but he is a star, and he is a true number two. He's fucking phenomenal. And then they have to shoot. They were one of the best three-point shooting teams, not necessarily at high volume, but one of the best three-point shooting teams all season long, and they have to shoot it well.

Yeah. And you forgot Dorcher chamber, Lou Dore. I love I love watching Lou Dore.

I said Lou Dore. I said Lou Dore. Lou Dore is- He was in Brandon and him shit all four games in that series.

He's the best because having one of those guys is so important where it's like, we're just going to put him on your best player and just make life. Yeah, your best player still might score, but He's going to make it hard for him every single night.

Yeah. I would also say- How about Gidey? How about Gidey when they created separation there in game four, Gidey makes three straight threes in three minutes. There's another thing that has to happen. He's got Teams are playing off of him. He's got to be willing to shoot threes. If he goes through a series and makes 35%, all right.

All right.

He got a shot to win.

Much like the Mahomes and Travis Kelsey State Farm commercials, you know that they're going to They're going to be in the Super Bowl, probably. Same thing with Oklahoma City and the What a Pro Wants, What A Pro Needs commercial, where everybody's absolutely in love with that thing, and you know they're going to want to keep them around for as long as possible.

I know you're being facetious. You like that? Oh, that's right. I'm well aware of the discourse on Twitter right now.

What A Pro Wants, What A Pro Needs. It's so good. Whatever makes you happy.

We've neglected the East a little bit. We talked a little bit about the Knicks. They're playing against the Sixers tonight, so When this episode comes out, that will be old news. What's your official prediction?

Don't look at your watch. We got you for another 35 minutes. Easy.

No. Somebody from ESPN is texting me my schedule for this week. Oh, they're like, you're talking part of my take.

There's a sniper outside your house.

What game I'm going to have Friday? Sorry, guys.

What game? Do you want to announce it right now? What game are you going to have Friday?

I'll have game 6 in Dallas.

The East. Sixers, Knicks. Quick prediction. You'll look very smart if you get this right.

For this series or for tonight? For tonight. I don't do one-game predictions. Fuck one-game predictions.

All right, so just predict the series.

I think the Knicks are going to win the series. Okay.

Do the Knicks pose a threat to the presumptive Eastern Conference finalist, Boston Celtics?

They do. A lot has to go right, but it's hard for me to dismiss what exactly this Knicks team is, because we have talked for years now about this heat culture thing. You have to kill the heat. The heat are not going to give in. They're going to fight to the death, right? And I think this Knicks team is similar. They pursue offensive rebounds better than any team I've seen in recent memory. If you guys remember, 8-10 years ago, teams refused to send people to the offensive glass. The offensive rebounding rates plummeted. Everybody was so worried about transition defense. And this Knicks team is just phenomenal on the offensive glass. They've got a true lead Peter, and I'll say it, a true 1A. Oh, I like it. A true 1A. I agree. Jalen Brunson. A true 1A in Jalen Brunson. Yeah, they pose a threat. I said this when they made the trade for O Initially, I was like, All right, they won that trade. And it's not to say Toronto didn't win that trade for them either with getting R. J. And Emmanuel quickly. The Knicks became a better team because it was a better It's a better fit.

O. G. Is it a better fit. What else did that trade do? It allowed Miles McBride to move into the starting lineup. So the loss of Quickly, which I thought could potentially be an issue, Miles McBride, last month and a half of the season, 15 points a game, 43 % from three. He filled that role. O. G, with that lineup, he makes them better. So by the end of January, I said, Look, I think this is probably, depending on seating and how playoff matchup shake out, this is probably a conference finalist team. I would expect them to be in the... I've said that many times this season, that that is a real possibility. I'm not surprised that they're in a position where they got to win one more game and then one more round, and they're there.

As a future coach, let me throw out an idea for you that I've been working on. Joel Embiid always runs out of gas. Has any team ever thought about in the third quarter, because you know you got to sit him at some point because he can always run out of gas, sit him for seven minutes, take nothing but shot clock violations and then do nothing but follow the other team at the end of their shot clock and just hope that the lead doesn't get too big. You put in all your bench guys, you just pass the ball around, and then you wait.

Oh, I see what you're saying.

And then you wait, you're just burning time. You're literally running out the clock.

You're burning real time, too. Yes. You're burning because the fouls, there's a pause. You're taking all 24 seconds. So a seven-minute break could potentially turn into a 35 or 40-minute break in real Correct.

Basically, he can go take a shower. He can go through warmups again.

Have a meal, maybe.

Yeah, just be like, Oh, no, the fourth quarter is now the first quarter. Have you thought about that?

I haven't thought about that. It's an interesting strategy. If I get one more Knicks game in this series, I will ask nick Nurse about that. Okay. I'll pose that question to him in the pregame coaches meeting. I like that.

Put that on your PowerPoint for your next coaches interview. Here's a strategy.

You could use all your dead ball fouls, one right after the other, and then have substitutions at every single foul. Yeah. So you can get at least twelve minutes.

Have them walk real slow. Maybe get a big like, Simone guy and have him walk real slow onto the court. Utah sometimes does that with their defensive subs in football. Do that.

These are all good ideas.

All right. You're just outside.

You haven't thought about this. I got two more questions.

You're getting outthought. You're getting outthought on part of my take right now. Mr.

X's and O's never thought outside the game. Okay, I have a couple of last questions. I know you got to go in a second. You are with DraftKings. We're with DraftKings. One series we haven't talked about, Mavs Clips, which is going to be game five on Wednesday night. Awesome game. Can you give us a pick? And maybe we'll add one, and then we'll tell the people this is what we like. What do you think? It could be a prop, it could be a spread, whatever. Give us what you think is going to happen in this game.

I'm not great at one-game things. Actually, I did this yesterday for our YouTube video series, Islands in the League. Draftkings King presents that. It's like a 30-minute show, and the end of the show is we always touch on two or three lines or whatever. Based on the odds of this series, Vegas is basically... It's a pick-em series, right? I think it's like plus 185 plus 190. So not a whole lot of advantage to picking either team in a 2-2 series. Here's what I think. Luka is going to have a big game five.

Okay.

That's what I think. So whatever you want to do with that, I think Luka is going to have a big game thought.

Okay. I think we maybe go Luka and play off P.

Luka, play off P. I had Kyrie over four and a half assists. That would play into the Luka factor, too.

Yeah, Luka, play off P, and Kyrie. That sounds good. Sounds really good to me. Yeah, that sounds really good.

You like that, JJ?

I do. You like that? Also, James Harden off two days of rest.

That's true.

That's big for him.

When was the last time you played basketball? Do you still shoot?

Not really.

You got to come to our office.

Bro, I don't get Bulls games because they're so mediocre.

I know. They're the definition of mediocre.

But yeah. I've been promising my oldest son that we'll do a late summer, early fall trip to Chicago. Yes. If that happens, we will come through. He will obviously love to get in the gym. We did a random Sunday morning pickup with my travel team and parents, and we just mixed in four groups. You played to five, and then the next This group would come on. That was in October. That was the last time I played. But I was playing against nine-year-olds, so I wasn't really playing. Then I woke up the next day and I felt like I strained my calf, and I'm so fearful because of my Achilles injury my last year that I'm going to tear my Achilles. I Probably won't play again, to be honest with you.

I like how you said my travel team. I thought it was the team you travel with, not your actual nine-year-old travel team.

You know what is crushing to me? I had to stop coaching them after our last They just had one this past weekend that I wasn't at. So once the playoff started, I went to our Monday practice, and I just said, Guys, I'm sorry. I'm going to miss every weekend. I can't coach you anymore.

It's impossible. Okay, I have one last question, JJ. It's the rowback question, robackquestion, rhoback. Com. Promocode take 20% off your first purchase, Q-zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback. Com. Promocode take. This has been great.

We love having you on.

I love the rowback question, by the way. I know I say this every time I come on the show. We did this for a while. We did this for about six months last year. We had the rowback question, the last question.

Great gear. Do you think you're in good enough standings with Duke that your sons, no matter how they turn out as basketball players, will at least get the spot as 15th man?

Because that would be awesome. Like a walk on? Yeah, right.

I think you are.

I think so. Yeah. I think so.

I mean, that would rule.

I don't know what- They're going to the Duke camp this summer.

Oh, great. That sounds like fun. That sounds awesome.

First look.

Yeah, I'm sure they're going to learn so much. They're going to learn about the brotherhood. That's going to be great. It seems like a lot of guys are leaving the brotherhood.

Here's how you take a charge properly. Yeah. Okay, we're going to do... Here's 30 minutes on slapping the floor. Yeah.

Here's how if you lose the game, you can tell everyone that it's just a game and it doesn't really matter. But if you win the game, you go into the other coach's locker room and you try to coach the other team. These are all things you're going to learn.

No, you're anti Coach K bit. I've witnessed it and seen it for years.

I got to tell you, I'm starting... Yeah, Pete Godet.

Justice for Pete Godet. When was the last time you talked to Pete?

When was the last time I talked to Pete? Yeah, Pete Godet.

Justice. I don't know. Okay. Well, maybe you should reach out and just ask how he's doing.

It's sad Because he had to absorb all those losses, and then he doesn't even get the brotherhood reaching out to him to check in and see how he's doing. He's probably sad all the time with all those losses.

Brothers got to check on brothers. Yeah.

Pete, if you're listening, he's an AWL, a long-time stooly.

Pete probably does listen. He's probably like, You guys have my back.We care about you people.The only people in media.

This is the real brotherhood. Yeah.

Was this fun for you? Jj, you are the best.

We do like you, JJ.

We love having you on. Even when you had that weird rant where you made fun of fans and you're like, Fans don't want to learn. I even prefaced my tweet, not really defending you, saying, I like JJ a lot.

You know what's funny? I asked a question. That's all I did. I didn't make fun of anyone. I asked a question.

No, you called us dumb.

You had a conversation with fans.

I said, Do fans even want to be educated? It's a valid question. Sometimes- Some people don't, and that's fine. There was no judgment. There was no judgment Management. I was more upset because Stephen A said that Kevin Durant has done a bad job of educating fans as if that's his job, right? Yeah, that's not his job. I thought it was Kevin Durant's job to go play basketball and be all NBA and to try to win a championship. That seems like his job. That's what he paid to do.

To your point, a lot of times we don't want to learn. No. A lot of times we just want to be bad.

We just want to talk about the Lakers if they would have beaten the Thunder.

When Duke beat JMU this year, I didn't want to learn about why Duke's offense worked. I was just like, Fuck Duke. These pieces of shit.

There are sometimes when I watch a game that I have to make a choice. Am I watching this game through a critical lens and actually paying attention? Or is it if I'm Just fucking watching it as a fan and just chilling, and it's entertainment, and I'll tune in for three minutes and then zone out and then tune in for three minutes. Then it's like, All right, it's the last eight minutes. All right, I'm going to lock in.

It's an escape.

I like just having basketball on. There's nothing wrong with that.

All his life. All right, well, JJ, everyone go check out his podcast and you'll hear him calling games. Do tell nick Nurse about my strategy. I think it would work. And best of luck for your future interviews for coaching jobs.

Thanks, guys.Thanks, JJ. For having me on.I.

Appreciate the conversation.Thank.

You for having me on.Yes. Not thank you for none of the fucking digs.

All right, thanks, JJ.

All right, guys.We'll.

See you, man.We'll.

See you, man.

Jj Redick was brought to you by Verizon, our great friends at Verizon. I'm really excited for the NHL playoffs. I love seeing teams advance. I love seeing overtime games, overtime hockey. I love the periods of the week. So many great periods in this year's playoffs. Unfortunately, the caps are out, but it does look like the Rangers are a wagon. Verizon's fast, reliable network lets you stream the games and the draft or on the go. You can watch at home. You can keep up with all the action. Verizon has you covered. Verizon is the best, by the way. I'm a Verizon customer. I've been a Verizon customer for a very long time. Same. I would not use anything else. Verizon makes it easy to save on streaming the Stanley Cup playoffs. For a limited time, they're offering a great deal on the Disney bundle, which includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. You can stream, select Stanley Cup playoff games, including every game of the Stanley Cup final on ESPN+. For those of you out there that might not have multiple TVs, in my main room, I've got two TVs I watch, but sometimes during this time of year, I need to have three games on, four games on.

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Okay, let's wrap up the show with FAQs. Henry? Yes. Faqs?

Hey, fellows.

Hey.

Hey. Long time, AWL, and this is something I've always been curious about. Every time Big Cat introduces a guest, he says, We have a very, very, very special guest.

Not every time.

He uses a different amount of varies for different guests, usually ranging from one to four varies. Correct. What is the What's the criteria behind getting more varies versus less? Well, I think- Did he make it up ahead of time or did he come up with it on the fly?

Not to answer for you, Big Cat, but also there's a couple of times I can remember where Big Cat said, We have a special guest. That's the ultimate. I think Screlly was like that.

Also, There's been a time where I said we have a guest. A guest, yeah. That was Aaron Rodgers. No, I don't make it up ahead of time. It's usually based on vibes. Usually, recurring guests get very, very, very. I think in person, the hype gets bigger. The hype gets bigger. Yeah, it's a way to just... It makes someone feel at ease like, Hey, you're very, very, very special. Just don't let any of the guests know that I do that for almost all of them.

I think Jameis Winston got a record amount of varies.

You know what? At some point in the next three months, I'm going to do an interview I'm going to try to hit seven varies. Just keep going. I got a big dog. Yeah, we're going to get a big dog.

Be the entire interview. Yeah.

Hold on one sec. Very, very, very.

We're going to get to skip Bayliss on this. Someone randomly asked me the other day, I was like...

Yeah. Hey, where's Mr. Per? I thought we were doing a pick. Mr.

Per is six and two. Mr. Per is a very, very, very, very- Mr.

Per might need a friend.

Mr. Per is having some issues with... Actually, we should get two turtles.

I think he needs a friend.

Or we put a rat in there.

Have them fight like battle bots. Yeah.

Mr. Per, he's going to pick the Clippers and the Mavs game because we've taken him off the show While he tried to figure it out, since he's 6 and 2, I feel like the people are owe to pick, especially because this is the biggest game. It's a game five.

But does that mean that he's red hot on the Instagram lives and we're just taking them off?

Okay, fine. Tune in to part of my take Instagram for Mr. Pierre pick? Yeah. All right, fine. No Mr. Peer Pick.

He has been awesome on those pics.

Yeah, I know. He's 6 and 2. He's hot as fuck.

Any more out of the office summer activities planned for the group? Enjoy the Disk golf in Dimblehead competitions.

Yes. We have a couple of trips planned right now. Yeah. Something brand. Beer Olympics. I want to say very clearly, as of right now, we're very committed to going to Beer Olympics.

We can't back out.

We won't. We can't.

I'm not in it. We can't, right?

We can't. We can't back out. As of this moment, we can't back out.

We cannot back out. We can't.

I mean, who could turn that down?

I'm feeling pretty sick already that week before.

Oh, okay. But yeah, we have, besides Grit Week, which obviously we're going to be doing Grit Week in August, we have a couple other things planned for some fun activities, and I do want to play frisby golf again. Although we were talking we want to play frisby golf non-camera, which doesn't really help this listener's question just because we've never done it without cameras. It'd be fun to just actually play the game, but we'll bring cameras.

We're thinking about doing it maybe on the special trip we have planned in July. Yeah.

We also have another trip in July of maybe the part of my bake, maybe hang out, do some pool games.

Do the mushroom golf.

We got some fun stuff.

We are definitely for July fourth week, Tim woods.Right?Yeah. Tim woods. By the way, did you guys see Tim woods tweet the other day? I got to try to find it. It was so Tim woods. I fucking love him so much. Fuck. Keep going, Hank. I'll try to find it. I'll try to track it down. I screenshotted it just to bring it up to you guys.

Hello, PMT boys. The topic is Soggy Sorrows. Is there a reason it has disappeared and can we expect it to make a comeback?

I think Max might have put it into Soggy Sorrows because he would be just wet all the time.

Much like the you guys not betting against JMU, I think one of you guys didn't want to do Soggy Sorrows.

Not true.

I absolutely did Soggy Sorrows after the double doink.

I didn't say it was you.

That was the last time I had a big loss.

It was other ones.

We've all done Soggy Sorrows.

Right, but that was my recollection of like, one of you guys were like, I'm not doing Soggy Sorrows. Then after that, I was like, Well, if you got like, I'm not doing Soggy Sorrows.

All right, fine. Here's the deal. We're going to bring back Soggy Sorrows. It has to be a team that has Championship Aspirations. If they lose, we'll do Saggy Sorrows.

But is anyone in the playoff?

Well, let's count the teams that have championship aspirations.

The Caps. We do Saggy Sorrows for the Caps.

No, they didn't have a Championship Aspiration.

They were in the playoff.

We did not have a Championship Aspiration. We did not have a Championship Aspirations. A minus 36 goal difference.

Who has Championship Aspirations?

I do not.

I do not.

Celtics.

Oh, okay. And Bruins? Yeah. Okay, so we'll do Saguih Sorrows if you those teams lose.

What about other teams? What about the Islanders?

What about The Islanders?

Memes.

They're already out.

We're going four straight in a row. Okay. Okay. What about the 76ers?

Memes is just like a walking Soggy Sorrows. Dead.

Okay, but But you have LeBron aspirations.

I do have LeBron aspirations.

So you should do Soggy Sorrow's if they don't get LeBron.

Do the bears have a change of aspirations? I found it. I found it. I found it. I found it. This woman tweeted, Oh, I'm going to read. We don't talk about it, but explicitly asking for consent can ruin a vibe. This woman quote to you and said, This dude's a dumbass. Have you ever heard a raspy mayai in your ear? It's divine. Tim woods replied, Asking for consent when you already know you have it is literally the best. There's no better thing in life.

I fucking love Tim woods. I love Tim Woods. He's one of a kind.

He fox? Definitely. With consent. Double consent. What was it?

Where were we? I'll go last one.

Where were we? If LeBron doesn't go to the- I'm assuming it was you based on how quickly you defended yourself, but you stopped doing Soggy Sorrows now. Were you bringing- I did not stop doing Soggy Sorrows. I did Soggy Sorrows. I Can someone find the list of Soggy Sorrows? I did it.

I've done it. I may have denied Soggy Sorrows at one point.

I was not the one who denied it. Hank, find me saying I denied it because there's not been a loss.

Well, it was behind the seat. It was like, Are we doing Soggy Sorrows? No, but Soggy Sorrows has to be a loss that actually It can't be like the Bulls lost a play-in game.

Soggy Sorrows has to be a real soul-crushing loss.

I remember doing it for Double D.

Yeah, because you can't water down Soggy Sorrows.

Right. So it's Championship Aspirations, which happens to be the Celtics and Bruins. Great.

Hey, PMT Gang. It's Matt from Oregon. Behind the Jeans, who is the biggest hog on the show? Thanks.

Not me.

I don't know that we've seen each other's penises.

Well, I guess-We have.

Have I seen anyone's penis?

Hank's got a decent wrench. Pft's got big balls. I have small everything.

I have meaty clackers.

Meaty clackers.

What about you guys in the booth? The crown is up. Knowing what we have in here, I think the Crown is for the taking.

Clackers. That's my answer.

Memes could have a hog. Shane might have a fucking... Shane might have a... Shane might have an OnlyFans. Dude, Pug.

I don't got a hog. Pug is dragging a wagon.

Pug, you got a wagon?

Pug, you got a wagon?

No, Pug.

Might be Hank. Hank might be the big dick on campus.

You might be, yeah.

Also, that's- Jake has been awfully quiet.

Jake, you got a big one? Maybe. Oh, okay. Maybe. Should we measure?

Why I'll go first.

Three and a half inches.

Are we talking soft?

No, that was hard.

Okay. All right, I'm the leader in the clubhouse.

Submit your score.

Shocking news, local sports podcast, not exactly packing babies' forearms.

It's like, What do you want me to say, dude?

Yeah, we're not... It is always funny whenever we do athletic competitions, people are like, You guys suck. Yeah.

That's why we talk about it. Yeah.

I just like the phrase behind the jeans.

Behind the jeans. That's good. Maybe we get all of us get caddies. They have to fill out a scorecard. No illegal stuff.

All right.

Good show, boys. Pug, three in a row. Let's do some numbers. Max, you ever got this? 20. Max, you ever gotten this?

Not yet.

You haven't gotten this?

Not yet. Pft, you ever gotten this?

You I didn't answer your question.

I said not yet.

That's not a valid question. That's a question.

Have you ever gotten this? Not yet. No. It's a yes or no question. No. Oh, that's-PFT, have you ever gotten it?

I haven't gotten it yet.

Yes, good answer Okay. Numbers.

18.

46.

20. 3. 8.

Combined with 40 and 6. Eight, 99, Pog.

Okay. 21. I'm going to go... That's good math.

That's not math.

That isn't math. I'm going to go 73. 73.

I love Hank.

Just combining 40 and 70. 43. Pug, if you win this one, is 99 bad for the league?

You might have to take it out. It's a hot ball.

Looks like a 61. 61 If you just combine 60 and 1, you would have had it.

Love you guys. I know what to say I'm afraid anyway.

Today is my day to find you. Shai, I'll be coming for your love of great. Shai, I'll be coming for your love of great. Feel less to say. I'll say it. I'll be so laid away. I'm in the fight because I'll take. Say up to me. I'll make for better to be safe this time. Say up to me. I'll make for better to be safe this time. You're. Hey. Oh.