Pardon My Take - Celtics HC Joe Mazzulla, Nuggets HC Michael Malone, NBA Play Ins, Gregg Doyel creeped out America + Fyre Fest
Episode Date: April 19, 2024Gregg Doyel has successfully creeped out all of America with his weirdo lines in Caitlin Clark's introductory press conference and subsequent column that made it worse (00:00:00-00:11:53). We talk NBA... Play In Games, Sixers survive and the Bulls are on a collision course with the Celtics which makes Hank very happy (00:11:53-00:19:37). Robert Kraft continues the worst offseason ever for an Owner and Hank shares his QB Draft big board in preparation for the draft (00:19:37-00:39:00). Celtics Head Coach Joe Mazzulla joins the show to talk about the Celtics, getting choked out, alpha male challenge with his dad, the Town, his scouting reports on quizlet and tons more (00:39:00-01:16:45). Nuggets Head Coach Michael Malone joins the show to talk about trying to go back to back, Jokic, his championship tattoo, keeping his team ready and more (01:16:45-01:54:50). We finish with Mr Pears second NBA pick and Fyre Fest of the week (01:54:50-02:07:26).You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/PardonMyTake
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Hey, pardon my take listeners. You can find every episode on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music.
On today's pardon my take, we have a two for for the people. Great NBA preview for the playoffs. We have head coach of the Denver Nuggets, Mike Malone, who we had on last year. Great guy, great interview.
And then Michael Malone.
Michael Malone.
I already fucked it up.
Michael Malone, we said we would protect him.
And then we also have head coach of the Boston Celtics,
Joe Mazzula, who I'll just say must listen to interview
because he won us all over.
He's the man.
Yeah, we're going to talk play-ins.
We're going to get Hank's draft big board. He actually came through with it.
Just QBs?
QB big board.
I thought it was top 10.
No.
It was top 10.
I was replacing Billy's QB bracket.
Oh, okay.
All right.
So we're going to get his QB big board.
He's watched the film.
We got Fire Fest and we're going to do a redemption pick with Mr. Payer, the worst gambler of
all time.
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Okay, let's go and then a lot of work to be done.
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The crown is yours. Today is Friday April 19th and PFT. You like that? The heart. You
like that? I do like it. Because if you like that, there's gonna be more of that coming.
I love you. Yeah, I love that. That's how Greg Doyle wishes that interaction had gone. Yeah.
He's like, I'm in love with you, sir. Yeah, we're gonna talk about the plans, but we have to talk about Greg Doyle and
the most cringe worthy press conference I've ever seen, which if you didn't hear,
can we actually put in the audio?
I don't know. I don't think we should do that to the people.
Yeah, we're gonna put in the audio. No, this is Greg Doyle, uh,
talking to Caitlin Clark or introductory, uh, press conference.
I don't even know. Like I've watched it so many times.
I've cringed every single time. He went he did the heart emoji to Caitlin Clark asked if Caitlin liked it
and then followed up with one of the weirdest things ever. When he said, Okay, we'll start
doing that to me and we'll get along just fine. And then and then he then he then he wrote a column
on it. Yeah. And then he apologized in his column with maybe a weirder column.
No, it wasn't as weird as the heart thing, but it was almost as weird.
In the column, it was just all about him and how weird he is.
So I'm going to read just part of it for you here.
He said, what happened was the most me thing ever in one way.
By the way, right off the bat, him saying, well, that's just kind of who I am. I'm just Greg with three G's.
I'm just Greg being Greg. That's all he says. I'm sort of known locally,
comma, sigh, comma, right. Writing out the word sigh.
I'm sort of known locally,
sigh for having awkward conversations with people before asking brashly
conversational questions. That's his problem.
The conversation was too brashly controversial.
No conversational conversational questions.
He's brashly conversational.
Yeah.
Brashly conversational.
Good character trait to have for a reporter.
Yeah.
By the way, I've done this for years with Colts coaches, Chuck Pagano,
Frank Reich and Shane Stiken.
I've done it with Purdue players, Carson Edwards and Zach Eady.
I did it with IU's Romeo Langford, talking to them as
people, not as athletes.
Notice something about all those names?
They all, hmm, people?
They're all people?
They're all men.
Oh, shit.
So he doesn't know how to talk to a woman.
I think that part was clear.
Oh, we didn't need you to write a column that you don't know how to talk to a woman.
And then he said that he went through all the stages of grief, excuse me, the first
two stages of grief after this happened.
Okay.
Mourning his own passing on as an interviewer, I guess.
Brashly conversational interviewer.
He said, denial.
I didn't do anything wrong.
I gave Caitlyn her signature heart-shaped hand gesture as a way of introducing myself
and welcoming her to town. I did this during a nationally televised press conference.
What kind of idiot acts creepy on national television? Me. And then he was in anger and
he said, this is how I talk to everyone. This is how I, uh, the male equivalent would be
talking to, uh, Anthony Richardson. I have shown him the heart gesture and reiterated,
I like that you're here. Oh
And then he's creepy, but then don't worry. He had a conversation with a woman. Oh, thank God So we talked to a woman Greg Doyle
He talked to a woman someone that he trusts that's close to him and they told him that you can't talk that way to a young
Woman there's a line and he crossed it. I now realize what I said and how I said it was wrong wrong wrong
I mean, it was just wrong Caitlin Clark. I now realize what I said and how I said it was wrong, wrong, wrong. I mean
it was just wrong. Caitlin Clark, I'm so sorry.
Oh, you know what the craziest part is? He had another part in that press conference
that was almost equally as cringeworthy where he asked the Indiana Fever head coach. He
said, so you get the keys to that. What are you going to do with it?
You'll be able to drive that?
I mean, it it was that was
Like that would have led every story, but then he obviously did the heart thing do that. What does it wait?
Okay, well start doing that to me and we'll get along just fine. He asked the coach like
That might be too much woman for you have the keys to that damn what I would have thing over take that thing out for a
Spin it was it was very strange
Although it did make me think that when the Bears draft Caleb
Williams, you should go to his press conference and show your fingernails.
Yeah.
Like you like that?
Be like, if you come cry in my arms after a loss, we'll be just fine.
Yeah, if you paint my fingernails, Caleb, we'll get along just fine.
So it's obviously not the worst thing that's been done.
It's probably the most cringeworthy thing that's been done.
But the problem with Greg Doyle is he is one of the captains of the Skold Kings online.
So when you're a Skold King and you mess up, we get to dunk on you, buddy. We get to dunk on you over and over and over and over again.
And it was great because you're a fucking idiot. And that was so cringe-worthy you like that do more that what he should have done
He should just disassociate himself from that conversation and then wrote a column pretending
It was somebody that he doesn't like that said that yeah
you should pretend it was Dan Dachich did that to Caitlin Clark and then write the column about Dan Dachich and then do find and
replace and
Substitute Greg Doyle in for everything Dan Dachich is just getting to do a well-deserved victory tour
because he's had a long, long history with Greg Doyle.
My ass.
My ass.
Also, Greg Doyle, he had, I think his old tweets
started to resurface.
And here's one from 7-8-2010, which I, listen,
I don't love the old tweets thing,
but again, he is the Skolled King.
He is the person who would do this to other people. Yes he would be like cancel
this person for saying this 2010 was was truly the agree everyone away long ago again I'm
not I'm not judging on the tweet I'm judging on the cringe worthy press conference but
I just wanted to share it with you. Just realized my LeBron column references masturbation gang bangs and oral sex. Damn. I'm twisted
That was a decision yeah calling yourself twisted is
Calling yourself twisted is actually the worst part of this. I've got a twisted sense. I'm so twisted
I'm kind of edgy sometimes when I talk about LeBron
Yeah warning bangs you kind of gotta put a warning at the the start of his call warning these this column contains some serious
Hot takes yeah, how to fins you click the backwards button
Warning this author has been accused of being twisted by himself
and he does the the emoji the old-school emoji where it's the I
Guess that would be the greater than sign and then the colon and then the smiley face
So it looks like a guy that's smiling, but he's you know is that he's just said something
That's a little bit out of bounds. Damn. You like that do more of that and we'll get along just fine
Fucking weird. All right, we had to leave the show with that because I've just been laughing again
it comes down to the fact that he
remember we talked about him a couple weeks ago because he had the column after Purdue lost the national championship game
that essentially Danny Hurley is an asshole and Purdue has all the class. That's where
we're coming from with this twisted mind of Greg Doyle.
Yeah, Greg Doyle. And then Caitlin Clark got a shoe deal announced right after that for
eight figures, which is I think now
She's gonna be paid more than she was at Iowa. Yeah, actually, right? So she's making upwards of
What what do you think eight figures is ten somewhere between somewhere between ten and ninety nine? Yeah
I am enjoying the burning brush fire tire fire
Online right now of just a bunch of people getting into debates
about the economics of a league
and no one actually having any expertise on it.
Yeah.
It's very fun.
Yeah, it is.
People are showing that they don't understand
how the economy works.
Yeah, it's great.
Because some people are saying that the WNBA players
are paid too low, and then they're comparing them
to NBA players and showing
what percentage of revenue the players get in the NBA or how much money they get.
It's way less.
And so, but NBA players obviously make way more money than WNBA players, but the league
revenue is much higher.
So at the same time, they're making the argument that NBA players should actually be paid more
for what they're bringing, but their salaries are artificially deflated
By the collective bargaining agreement that they have so it just and the players are fine Yeah, no, I know I'm saying like they they make good money
But if you were to see like the percentage in league revenue compared to salaries
It's just fun on the NBA also brings in a fuckload of money. Everyone's going after everyone. I've just been like
Diving in fell. Yeah, Ravel is just sticking his, that Caitlin Clark would have had a shoe deal at
Iowa and all this stuff.
We also had, I saw.
Real quick with Ravel, his new company.
When I first saw his company, I thought it was called Clit.
I thought the name of his company was Clit.
You're twisted.
I'm a little bit twisted.
But you see, I know it's got an extra C in there. Yeah, but every time I see it
I'm just like Darren Revelle owns the clit. Yeah, it's yeah, he does he owns the clip
We've been there but it's just been every it's basically the Avengers of the internet just going at each other
Like Jamal Hill was going at good got leave which that's a fun fight
Then someone was calling him got dweeb which I loved Like this is just the kind of stuff that's going on
right now, all because of Caitlin Clark when we really
should be focusing on Greg Doyle doing the heart.
Jamel Hill has the race card, and then Doug Gottlieb stole it.
Yeah, exactly. But he wrote an apology. Yes. So it's fine.
Alright, playing games. The Chicago Bulls have advanced to
the Friday night game and the Philadelphia
76ers are officially inside the playoffs. Congratulations Max.
Congratulations Max. You made it.
We'll get to Mr. Pear later. But Max, thoughts on the game? You guys, that was a very classic
heat. Muck it up, make everyone look bad, almost steal one, but Joel Embiid just
starts hitting some threes and the Sixers are going to the playoffs against the Knicks.
Yeah, no, that's a game that the Sixers lose ten times out of ten with Doc Rivers and last
year's team.
Oh.
Nick Nurse actually can make an adjustment.
Halftime adjustments were very good.
And Nick Patoum, absolute beast.
Like what a performance from Nick Patoum.
He was a legend.
And shout out the chicken.
Yeah, the free chicken.
Shout out the free chicken.
Free chicken turned it all around for you.
Oh yes.
Oh yeah.
The stadium was absolutely dead.
They looked like shit.
I think Caleb Martin missed two free throws.
Free chicken for the crowd. Immediate
run. Sixers never looked back after the chicken. Shout out the chicken. Yeah, that made all
the we should do something on this show where free chicken like free free part of my cheesesteak
buffalo chicken cheesesteak. Yeah. Hank falls asleep on the podcast. Yeah, I like that. Ernie
doesn't wake up. Yeah, but Doom was awesome. I saw a great analogy for Nick Batum. This is from Screekey Shooter.
He said, Nick Batum is the LeBron James of Tobias Harris'.
Yeah. Okay.
Pretty much perfect. Yeah.
No, I like that. I mean, Tobias Harris still was absolutely terrible.
Yeah, I know. Well, that's the thing. It's like you expect one thing from Tobias Harris
and you get the LeBron Bron James Tobias Harris is coming up
Yeah, yeah, I mean he was awesome both sides of the court absolutely kept us in it and then I'm beat at the end of the game
Finally he has like a good moment in a in a must-win game
That those last three possessions where he went three and one yeah
And then and then of the pass to to uber I to get another and one now
I have to ask this question, Max.
So the Sixers are favored in the series against the Knicks.
Yannis, we don't know when he's going to come back and play.
That might be a problem for the Bucks against the Pacers in their first round matchup.
Is the East opening up for the Sixers?
No, I mean, the Knicks are a really good team the Nova Knicks
It hurts that I'm gonna have to go against my boys like this. Well, it's kind of opening up for the Sixers
Yeah, it's all about and beats health like you can even see last night that he wasn't at 100%
He gutted it out towards the end, but that's it's a long playoffs. Yeah long play
Sixers and five right? I no longer think Sixers and and five I do think the sixers and sixers will win you forgot about the Nova cats
You know cats are good the the no Nova Knicks also max you brought up a good point and bead finally has a big moment in
a playoff game
Unfortunately the playing games do not count and I didn't say playoff game
I said muscle must win, but it doesn't count. So it actually doesn't he didn't have that
No, he did. No, none of these stuff
Talked about this for three years
I watched it. This is what had his his career high in 42 points does not count
I watched it so but the stats don't exist playing game legend play. Yeah, I guess I don't
I think once the playing game happens, you can't even you have to pretend it never happens
Also by definition not a must-win if they had lost this game
They would have gotten to play another good point true
But that was such a game that everyone was like so dialed in to be like, oh playoff and beads back
Yeah, he struggled out the playoffs still doesn't understand. No, but you guys I mean that would be the area right now
Not be the narrative right now. It was not a must win. BFT, he still doesn't understand must win.
Still doesn't get it.
Still doesn't get it.
Max, I'm with you that I've been buying in on the Sixers.
Because if you look at the bracket and look how it shakes out for them, for the reasons
we just went through, Hank, because Yannis is going to be limited, plus they have Doc
Rivers.
And then the Knicks, they don't have Randall in their 500 team without Randall.
So it feels like the Sixers get in and beat back.
I was very high on the Sixers.
That first half especially though last night did not make me confident in them.
Yeah, no.
But that's the heat coming in with a good game plan, making things sloppy.
You're going to have bad halves of basketball like that,
but it's good to see them bounce back for once.
We've had halves like that against the Celtics,
and then they just win by 50.
Like bad first halves, they look sloppy,
and then they just give up.
And it was nice to see that they didn't give up.
They made an adjustment, looked good in the second half,
switched some things up, put Tobias Harris on the bench,
put Nick Pattoom in the rotation. It was good up put to buy his heirs on the bench putting Nick Patum in this in the rotation
It was it was good to see it was good to see it and be you can get a little bit more healthy max
He didn't have his a game
Only things are looking up things are looking up. Okay Hank from your perspective
I'm curious to know as a Boston fan who would you rather play in the first round the Bulls?
Yeah bulls why do you want to punish me? Why the Bulls? No, I mean the heat obviously, you know have had success against us
No, Jimmy Butler. No, I know but still it's like you just don't just
Don't matter about the heat. Yeah, don't mess with it. If you play the Bulls, it's much better
I can go to a couple games Dick. That's Eddie's gonna come with me. Yeah
I'd much rather put it. He said that yeah, I said I did actually say I would go to one game
The you just want the free win, which it would be a free win, but that's okay. Yeah. And it's like, just don't, don't tempt fate. Like you just want the free win.
I just want the free way and I'm, I want to go to a game. I'm stuck in a spot where the
bulls were awesome against Hawks who are an unserious organization. That's just don't,
they don't believe in defense. They do not believe in defense. Also, Trey young is their quote unquote best player. The only time I was nervous during
that game was when Trey young was on the bench because that's when they kind of came back
in the game a little bit. And it's I'm stuck because I love Kobe white. He was awesome.
I'll come back. He was awesome. Uh, Demarja Rosen like is one of the most likable guys
out there and the most minutes in the league. Yeah. I mean, he's awesome. Demar DeRozan is one of the most likable guys out there.
And-
By the most minutes in the league.
Yeah, I mean, he's the best.
And they try so hard and they don't have a ton of talent.
And so when they get on the court,
I'm like, I want these guys to win.
But then I remembered that Jerry Reinsdorf
likes nothing more than getting a couple extra
playoff game ticket gates
for a team that has no chance of winning. But at least he's going to contribute that money towards his other organization, the
White Sox.
Well, actually, unfortunately, for the future of the Bulls and the White Sox, Jerry Reinsdorf
probably spent all the money last night because he got C-Red towels for everyone on their
seats and Red Panda.
Oh, Red Panda is coming.
That budget is probably blown.
Yeah.
Good for him. He was what the fans want
Yeah, it is a very like shitty situation where it's like I know they're not good enough
They could maybe win a game against the Celtics
And I also know that Jerry Reinsdorf nothing would make him happier than being like see we made the playoffs
And we got two extra games at home to make money
But then they get on the court and those guys like it's hard not to root for those guys who are trying really hard. Yeah, Kobe White seems like a good dude
to root for. Oh, he was awesome. Awesome. And and yeah, and DeMar DeRozan is the best.
Like he's just he's the best. So we'll see what happens on Friday night. We'll see what
happened. No Jimmy Butler, probably no Alex Caruso. I'm I honestly just if my if I had
to give you my take on the game
It's gonna be a one possession game with three minutes left than who the fuck knows about Jimmy Butler playing though
Yeah, like playing on a sprained MCL. Yeah, pretty impressive, but then it swells up it gets worse
So he's probably out for the playoffs. Yeah, they said two to three weeks. Oh
It's just all breaking for Hank. He's just got that Hank smile on his face. All right, you know what?
Let me get this Hank smile off your face.
Oh no, no, no, no, no.
Your football owner's a fucking dickhead.
So the report comes out after the dynasty documentary where Robert Kraft does an entire
10 part documentary essentially tearing down Bill Belichick. We're like, all right, enough,
enough, enough. The report comes out that Bill Belichick, we're like, all right, enough, enough, enough.
The report comes out that Bill Belichick, part of the reason why he didn't get a job
this year was Robert Kraft called Arthur blank and essentially was like, he's really difficult
to deal with.
Don't hire him.
So in the response to it, I think the crafts said that they did not say anything negative
about Belichick during that interview process, but owners might talk behind the scenes over the course of a frustrating season
It would have been funny if he just came out and he's like I did not say anything to Arthur blank all
Communication with Arthur blank was done through craft LLC. Yeah, not my words not my words
So where are you?
This is tough because it does feel like Robert Kraft is like kicking a dead
body at this point. Like why, why would you go that extra mile? Like the breakup happens.
Why go the extra mile and make sure that he doesn't get another job? That's crazy to me.
Yeah. I feel like he, they're like, it's kind of the same thing with Brady where they, in
the documentary, they made it seem like, you know, Brady just wanted like some atta boys and some some thank yous like it was probably the same with Kraft
where he felt slighted for whatever reason just ego.
But what and Belichick's not the type of guy to be like thank you so much Robert like and
kind of kiss the ring because he was giving him the rings.
Yeah.
Um, but he's he sounds like a scorned ex.
Yeah, he's had a bad off season, I would say.
It hasn't gone exactly how he thought it would go.
And he's entering territory where it's like he's going to start getting like booze, which
is insane.
But like he is he has set himself up for that, where they're going to do an event maybe like
it's like Tom Brady, like the Tom Brady they're doing Tom Brady Day 612.
And I think they're giving him a statue or whatever at Gillette and I could see there
being like booze or something where like that's gonna that's gonna rattle it.
It happens done it to himself and it happens in sports from time to time where the owner
deludes themselves and thinks that they actually are what fans are rooting for.
It's like that's just never the case.
It was always Brady and Belichick.
It's never the case.
And yeah, I don't it sucks because now I mean
he's he set himself up for for disaster because it's like they have a four and a half you
know win total over under this year. They're not going to be good and everyone's just going
to come at his neck. Oh that that statue unveiling is going to be a big day for you though. You
have to nail that one. Yeah, they got to give him a bigger statue than AI. I mean they'll
they'll do it. They'll do it right. Yeah, the AI statue. That was bullshit.
That was a joke.
That was bullshit.
Tiny little statue.
Tiny little statue.
As a fan of the commanders, there's one thing that we can do well that's honor our former
players with statues.
Correct.
And that AI statue was garbage.
That's every statue that goes into the practice facility is outside.
But why does Rocky get such a big statue?
And why in real life?
Because it's not in front of the practice facility.
Rocky's not even real.
It's not in front of the practice facility.
This was like a bad take
that the internet didn't know that all the other statues
in front of that facility existed.
And then they were like, fuck.
But I'm sticking with the take.
Why don't they just get bigger statues for everyone?
They just don't value any of them.
Also, why do they unveil it that way? It's an aesthetic. You why don't they just get bigger statues for everyone? They just don't value and also why do they unveil it? It's an aesthetic. Yeah, but don't you guys know you guys don't know?
Architecture don't don't know architecture don't unveil it that way then don't do the fucking reveal like that when it's like oh
Why did AI seem so surprised? Yeah? He was shot AI is always surprised
No, it's not architecture. It's a statue. It's not a building. We're talking about. It's it's a it's an aesthetic
You don't appreciate the greatness that Alan Iverson brought to the city of Philadelphia landscaping architecture of course I come on
I grew up on AI that was that was like the first fan. I ever was of anyone
Landscaping and architecture yeah landscaping architecture. I think that's a thing you weren't looking at your dad first
First Jersey ever balls. Yeah, I don't know everyone was the first year I had
to man their dad I also had a Brett far of Jersey Wayne Corbett do you ever take
a picture in that prefer of Jersey with your cock out I was like four so
probably yeah probably the same so I wasn't too I was a naked boy too.
Big meaty clankers.
Quick break. I'm it's only going to take 20 seconds. So you should buy, buy, buy, buy rough and rowdy tonight in West Virginia. We have 20 new fights,
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It's going to be awesome. We've had a bunch of old fighters in the past. Shout out all those guys, but tonight
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If you got nothing to do tonight, buy rnr.com.
Even if you have something to do by rnr.com support us.
It's going to be awesome.
Back to the show.
All right.
So Hank, uh, did you have your draft prep?
Cause we're have draft week coming up
We have Todd McShay coming on the show on Monday and then we have Daniel Jeremiah on Wednesday
Do you have your draft prep ready? Yes internally? Yes, okay
This is a big occasion for you. How do you want me to actually or do you actually one of these guys is gonna be your?
Quarterback. Yeah, so I broke down the film for everyone. I didn't I mean I can rank them right now
I have just kind of notes on everyone and I do have my consensus of who I would prefer the Patriots to take your own
Consensus your personal consensus. Well, yeah, you know you can trust the analysts out there, but like until you make your own decision
Do you know what a consensus is though? Yeah, it's me myself and I made a claim came to a consensus
All right, so do it in order then, right? Yeah, do it in reverse
order so we can get the unveil of number one. So start at the bottom and then go to one.
Okay. JJ McCarthy. That's, he's the bottom. He's the bottom. He's the he's the he's the bottom of this entire exercise. So Michael Pratt is ahead of him. Spencer Rattler
is ahead of him. Oh, I just did that I did that I thought I was
going for the people the Patriots are going after Oh,
top five. Oh, okay. So top five. I'm not well I'm not worried
like it's it's number five. I thought we were getting all the
quarter the Patriots aren't drafting Spencer Rattler. Okay,
three. Why not? Yeah, why not? Because that's just not what you wouldn't know you didn't watch the tape
Is he I think he's dating Katelyn Clark?
Saw Instagram comments definitely not okay, maybe not
Greg Doyle is dating McCaffrey's son in his head alright
So wait Hank you have you have your top five which means that you must have watched the film on the other
Quarterbacks if you knew that these were the top five good point Pft. How many?
What's the other quarterbacks? I'm supposed to watch Michael Pennex wash them Bo Nicks didn't watch
Bo Nicks who is bonus?
No, like he's
Where's Bo Nicks projected to go probably like could be a first rounder probably a second rounder? Okay, probably should have watched him
Okay, I got Bo Nicks. I mean I got Michael Penning Jr. JJ McCarthy Drake May Jayden Daniels okay
sorry so JJ is your fifth JJ is my fifth and what are your notes short throws okay everything
across the middle but throws it well across the middle okay better zip than Drake May
that's a that was that was a big contributing factor I really I really care about the zip and how quickly the ball comes
Out okay, uh guts. He runs big ball sack. Okay, okay. All right number four
Wait, wait, but those are all those are all positive traits. Why is he ranked number five? What's his downside?
These other guys must be incredible. He doesn't throw it didn't see any long balls are all the long balls wide open
Okay, sure throws. He was it's a which again. You know you kind of watching
It's like he seemed that he was a game manager system court how long was you YouTube video that you watched 13 minutes, okay?
All right, that's a good amount of film
Number four
It's Drake may oh
He slid
He's deceptively fast. Okay, quite quicker than I expected. Great at selling
pump fakes. That's good. sliding. He's smart. Jane Daniels. There's a lot of runs. He's
taking a lot of hits. Drake may a lot of slides like gets out of the pocket and moves around
well but slides knows knows when to slide. That's good. You know, franchise quarterback.
You want them there for a long time. Can't be taking big hits. Yep.
Does he try to kick his opponents in the balls
when he slides?
I didn't see any of that.
Okay, because that would be a good system fit for you guys.
Well, no, we got rid of him.
And that was Robert Kraft.
Bellatrix wanted him out.
Quick feet.
Okay.
But this was the biggest deterrent
and the thing that I see happening the most the ball seems very heavy in his hands
Oh, so he's got weak wrists
Maybe it just just seems like it takes him a long time to get the ball up and out and it seems like he's putting
A lot of effort into throwing it it seemed you know he's playing in the ACC
The film that I was watching if you're you know simulating NFL guys come at him
It seems like he's gonna take a lot of hits guys are coming at him
He's not gonna be able to get the ball fast enough because it's heavy in his hand all heavy in his head. How do you like his frame?
The little short but good frame no no issues with this frame. I don't know remember that picture took with Sam Howe
He's actually six four
Look short and film that I was alright, but yeah, that was that was
Ball seems I like I want it. I want it. I want to see a QB. No world short
I want it well, it's like that's the perfect size for a court
Yeah, no
I guess if you know what if he was doing which quarterback could play in the NBA 6-4 would be short
But if he was that big you'd think that he would be able to just zip the ball. It's heavy
Okay, got it memes had this exact same take
Having his hands. No, he was like he was like Drake Mase too short to be a good quarterback
I looked at him. He's 64 and he's like well. He looks short. Okay, we had this exact conversation short energy
He plays shorter than his body. Okay, all right next
Michael Pettix jr. I think he the only reason he's he's this far up is just cuz he's a lefty
I'll just say that bias lefty bias. I would just love to have a lefty quarterback
You know leading my franchise as a lefty myself, so beautiful throwing motion
Accurate does a little bit of a heavier ball as well a little slower coming out
Seems a little bit interception prone a lot of a lot of throws off his back foot which again you're trying to simulate
How this would look in the NFL guys coming at him if he has time to set his feet
He's accurate, but it seems like he will kind of you know get a little wild throw off his back foot throw a duck
He does the fadeaways, but the thing about his fadeaways are they're insanely accurate
Like he will put the ball on a dime on an outroute even though he's falling away from the ball
But that's one of those things when you're you know playing in
College and you're the guy that works when you're playing that FL and everyone's fast
That's not gonna work. Yeah, but he's a lefty. So he you got bumped up above Drake May
Yeah, I think lefties look like college if they look like witches in the NFL. Yeah, two of them to a good or bad
It's good. Okay
Yeah, uh, Jane Daniels is number two
I know that will kill. It is number one. Oh nice. Okay
Jane Daniels, I didn't even watch I just
We're not you told me a million times. We're not taking Caleb Williams. I
Was thinking of this is just like Patriot Patriots. Yeah
Jane Daniels throwing on the move great great on the move quick feet gets out of the pocket maneuvers maneuvers
Sacks and stuff well does take a lot of hits little Josh Allen smaller though than Josh Allen
That's definitely a concern again franchise quarterback. You want this guy as your as your QB for 10-15 years
He scrambles a lot takes a lot of hits that's that's a concern but
great He scrambles a lot, takes a lot of hits. That's a concern. But great, fantastic, the best QB I've seen at hitting the sideline in the corner of the
end zone.
Oh, okay.
Like J.J. McCarthy just throws everything over the middle.
J.J. and Daniels, deadly accurate to the corner of the end zone, deadly accurate to the sideline.
That's huge in the NFL.
That's the thing I like the most.
What about his elbow?
Elbow's weird, but- Did you ding him? I definitely ding I like the most. What about his elbow? Elbow's weird, but...
Did you ding him?
I definitely ding him for the elbow.
And again, it's like if you get hit and you get hit in the elbow, then...
Yeah, I feel like it's just...
You can see his bone coming out of his arm.
This has been a great exercise for one reason.
Hank has just, without realizing, admitted that he really wishes he could have both of our quarterbacks. And also said that the quarterback
that he's most likely gonna get
is ranked either fourth or fifth.
So I love this exercise.
This won't hurt.
Is Ryan Thomas Jr. in the draft was another question I had
because he's a stud.
What are we, Google?
No, I just, I have to, I guess I didn't do my followup.
These are just notes I was writing as I was watching this
I
Don't believe so
But that you want him?
Yeah, I mean his receivers like I think all this deep balls were just wide open
I think that's a receiver a receiver talent thing if it were up to me. No, he's not wait. I
Think we talked about him with McShay
Ryan Thomas Brian Brian Thomas. Yeah, maybe it's Brian. I was just he said right
I was listening to the video. Oh, so it probably was Brian. It is Brian. Okay
You didn't watch you just listened well, no to the thing saying they didn't have fucking subtitles
I was like Brian like touchdown Ryan Thomas Brian Thomas. I heard I heard Ryan, but clearly it's Brian
That guy's stud
If it were up to me Marvin Harrison jr. Trade up Michael Penex, that's that's my best-case scenario draft
Okay, so you draft you draft Marvin Harrison third overall.
Yep.
And then you trade up to what?
I don't know.
To get Ryan Thomas.
To get Pennex Jr.
Got it.
Pennex Jr.
Probably top 10?
Is he projected to go top 10?
Probably not.
Maybe.
It depends on if there's a run on quarterbacks.
I thought he was late first round.
But it happens from time to time when
there's a bunch of first-round graded quarterbacks
Once a few of them get drafted then teams start to freak out and that's how we ended up with like
Who is it?
Brandon we didn't get in draft in the first round
Yeah
but it's
teams might have gotten smarter because like will levis fell because it was like alright everyone could just wait and get them in the
Second round but there is that phenomenon of wanting to get that extra your control to.
Yeah. Like the Lamar Jackson trading back up into 32 and getting him.
So that's that's my that's my now.
So I guess I'll watch some more some more film.
Maybe there's other guys that they could trade up for the Spencer Rattlers.
Yeah. Yeah. He just he just said we just did an entire exercise
where he's like, I really want PFT and big cats quarter. So you have you have Caleb number one Jade and Daniels number two
Yeah, and then a long sounds like there's a big gap big gap
Panics you panic shooter big gap. Yeah, Drake made JJ McCarthy. We'll be undrafted
But but strength now Jade Drake Drake may can be good. He just got a got the head grow
Yeah, he can he can get some strength there. Yeah, you can do some bicep curls No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, heavy ball. All right. This was great. Do we have anything else before we get to our
interviews? This is great. Yeah. Oh, John T Porter that he's gone. Yeah, he was gambling.
He's betting against the Raptors in some games. Yeah. Like betting on them to lose. Ban for
life. What was this about? What if this was Jokic? I don't think he'd be banned for life.
But I also don't think Jokic would ever do it because he's making enough money that that
would be the dumbest thing ever. That's why it happened is he's a fringe guy
NBA money is so ridiculous. I don't think he was getting that much crazy thing is he was betting parlays against himself
So he was betting the unders and like rebounds. I forget what else maybe assists points
And he put down 80 grand to win. I think, $1.1 million on a John
T. Porter underparlay.
And it hit, obviously, because he was controlling it, and then the sports book was like, well,
we're just definitely not going to pay this out.
One of the dumbest things ever, one of the dumbest ways to go about it, how much action
do you think that sports books see on any given night on John T. Porter prop bets in general?
Right. It's probably nowhere close to $80,000 ever. Yeah, he was on a two-way hank. So he was getting nothing
Hey, I mean they had to do it. I
Think that's the right move like you can't have someone betting on against yourself
Yeah
so if it had been different if he had bet his
Overs in a parlay and if he had bet
on his team to win and that had actually happened, what do you think the punishment would have
been?
Probably similar because he's a fringe guy. It's also he was telling other people too.
He was using proxies to bet him, which that is very, very bad because then it's just the
integrity of the game. So yeah, the NBA probably had to do it. And it also, I know people will then make an argument about gambling
and like the legalization gambling without the legalization of gambling. This probably
never gets caught. Yeah. Yeah. Every sports book has things in place where they see these
like giant anomalies. Yeah. And then they flag them to the league. I wouldn't be shocked
if there is maybe a little bit of a correction where some of the
fringe players don't have props on a night-to-night basis.
That would make sense just because those are the guys, like, Jokic would never do this
because he's making hundreds of millions of dollars, but a guy who's the 10th man on a
bench who knows that if he bets something, checks into a game for a minute, and then
comes out, he can win.
That is, I can understand where people are like,
this is kind of a weird area where it can be manipulated.
Yeah, I like his excuse, too.
He was saying that he had like a headache
or his eye hurt to come out of a game.
Got hit in the shoulder and then he's like, my eye.
Yeah, my eye hurts so bad I can't play anymore, Coach.
Can't play.
Okay, let's get to our interviews.
Incredible interviews. We got Joe M Missoula Boston Celtics head coach
Wins us over big time and then we have Michael Malone
Denver Nuggets head coach we had him on last year great interview great guy
And then we'll do fire fest and we'll have mr.
Pera come back out here before we get to coach Missoula
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Okay, here he is, Boston Celtics head coach Joe
Mazzullo. Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. It is Boston Celtics
head coach Joe Mazzullo getting ready for the playoffs. The number one seed,
the best team in the NBA in the regular season this year. Coach, let's start
there. How are we feeling just vibes
going into the playoffs because you've been coaching a team that knew they were the number
one seed for a long time, knew that you were in the playoffs for a very long time. How
are we feeling knowing that this is the start of the new season?
Yeah, I mean, I think you hit on a great point there. The balance of, you know, you have
to understand that you're a really good team, but you gotta understand that none of that really matters as much anymore
because everyone's got the same record.
We're all zero and zero.
And every series takes on a life of its own.
So we've had a really good week of practice.
I think it was good for us.
A couple of those games that we had at the end of the season,
it didn't necessarily go our way.
But I thought we handled the regular season about as well as you can from a mental standpoint.
And we got to go into the playoffs with that same balance.
We are a really good team, but we can lose at any time
if we don't do the little things.
And so it's important to have that mindset.
Yeah, do people think that this season's been easy
for you guys just because you've had so much success?
Is that something that kind of gets lost in it,
that it has been a grind?
Yeah, I mean, I think obviously on the outside, it probably looks as like, you know, we didn't
hit a ton of adversity or, you know, we only had two game losing streaks. It could look
that way. But you know, I kind of said this a few times, it could be just as hard handling
winning as anything else, because you can get complacent. You know, you could get prideful.
You could take the details for granted. And I thought the coolest part about our guys this year
is they never took winning for granted.
I thought they handled it really well.
Like every film session, every walkthrough,
every practice we had, there was a high level
of attention to detail and execution.
And even though we were winning,
the guys wanted to grow and get better.
I think that says a lot about just who they are as players.
Yeah.
All right, so enough of the cliche basketball talk.
Let's get to the real interview.
When was the last time you were choked out?
The day after we lost to Atlanta, I kind of punished myself there.
I took it really hard on myself.
So can you explain the jujitsu?
Cause like it was that story came out last year.
It seemed really cool cause it's like just learning about other guys and in the height of their profession they have these
hobbies. You have a jujitsu instructor who for a while you didn't know lived in Colorado
and would come at the drop of a hat and and and do jujitsu sessions sessions with you.
And also he talked about feeling the pressure of playoff basketball
and it's similar to being in a choke hold. So you're just, you're just getting choked
out by this guy who's flying in. You have a guy flying in to choke you out.
So we'll start there. So when I, um, the coolest part about, you know, becoming the head coach
or the Celtics and like, you know, achieving your dream at a relatively young age, you
kind of look back and you look at all the stuff that you regret. And so like two of my biggest, not biggest regrets, but like two things I wish I stuck with
were chess and martial arts. So I did those as a kid growing up. And you know, once my dad passed
and my kids started to get older, I started to like rekindle the passions of the arts, like chess,
piano, martial arts. And I started to rekindle those with my kids.
And then I get the job and I'm like,
all right, like, you know, coaching is Celtics,
you're in a fucking fight every day.
Like, so let's just simulate that.
And I was like, let's rekindle my love of the arts.
And so, you know, my assistant and I,
we find a jujitsu instructor
and I fell in love with this guy like right away.
So apparently he was in Denver when we called his office was in Boston,
but he was living in Denver because of COVID. And we were like,
can you come by the house tomorrow for like the, an initial training session?
And he just was like, this is a, you know,
apparently this is the head coach of the Celtics.
It's like a once in a lifetime opportunity. I'll be there tomorrow.
So this guy gets on a red eye
and shows up to my house full,
Guy Black Belt, like standing in the driveway.
Like we have our first lesson in the guest house
in the guest room of our apartment.
And from then on in, he he's the guy that I go to
to help simulate the stress, the pressure, the anxiety,
like all the shit that you gotta be able to overcome.
Like if you're not doing that as a person,
then you can't do it as a coach.
And like, I give my players, our players,
so much credit, like being in the arena all the time.
Like I feel like one of the ways I can connect with them
is by feeling like them.
So like on a day where if it's a back to back,
hey, I just trained too.
So like I'm tired too. So it gives me a way to connect with the guys, but it gives me a way of being
empathetic. Like I know what they're going through. No coach understands what their players
go through, what they sacrifice physically and mentally. So if I can get the shit kicked
out of me from time to time, that's something that helped me get better.
Yeah. I like that strategy a lot. And for listeners out there don't do not look up online guys to fly in to come choke me out. That's a bad Google search to have on your head.
We lose the Atlanta game right? We blow the 30-point deal and I'm just pissed right? So I go to the gym.
We find a gym in most cities and for like two hours we're just like I still got a little piece of like the
black eye from it. Yeah. So do you do that?
I mean, I appreciate what you said about how you want to put yourself through strenuous
situations so you can empathize with your players and be tired just like they are.
Do you find that the more you get put in those situations where you're either getting the
crap kicked out of you or you're getting choked out, you're able to stay calm in those moments?
And that translates to being in a game in high pressure situations?
Yeah, so one of the things Alex does,
he's tremendous, is he finds these concepts and themes
that correlate to competition in general, right?
And so one of the themes is like most people tap before
it actually, like before the submission actually hurts,
right?
It's like the fear of being in the submission
is when you tap.
And so like that can be applicable
to handling championship expectations or success or being in a tough is when you tap. And so like that can be applicable to handling
championship expectations or success or being in a tough spot and like, you know, thinking that you
can't get yourself out of it. So, you know, it's a little dark, but like one of the things in most
submissions is you do want to find a comfort level because there usually is a way out. You
just can't see the way out because of the stress that you're under or because of the panic that
you're under. So like you're breathing skyrockets and you don't even notice the exit strategy
because you're in a disadvantaged situation. So that's kind of one of the concepts that
we work on is like, okay, you know, you're in this disadvantage. Can you recognize the
exits? Can you recognize the contingency plan, you know, using your, the details and the
skill?
That's bad. I would have tapped out the minute he showed up in my driveway.
I'd have been like, all right, never mind.
I'm tapping out.
Like, I didn't.
If a man with a black belt and a G is knocking on my door,
I would just move.
Yeah, just start tapping immediately.
Just reverse.
Two of the other cool themes are like,
the closer you are to winning,
the closer you are to losing, right?
So like, you saw it at UFC 300,
where Jalen Turner knocks the guy down, walks away,
and then loses next round.
And then you see, you know, when Waley Zhang,
like pretty much chokes her out.
Most people can't handle the fact
that you think you beat your opponent,
but now you still have to fight them.
Oh, yeah.
Like that's a major mindset shift in a game of like,
okay, they look like they're dead, but they come back to
life. How do you shift your mentality to like keep winning?
Or like in Jalen Turner's case, like you knock the guy down, but
he gets back up. Now your expectations like haven't been
met. Yeah. So you like, so we work a ton of those like
situations like, okay, you know, one minute left in the round,
you're in a disadvantage situation, you got to get yourself out of it. Or, one minute left in the round, you're in a disadvantage
situation, you got to get yourself out of it. Or like one minute left in the round,
you got to go for the kill. You've got to find a submission because if you don't, if
you give your opponent life, then he could come back and kill you.
That's genius. You can see how applicable that is to basketball, especially a seven
game series where there are those ebbs and flows where it's like a team goes up to oh and you're like
Alright, they won and that's just not how it works. It just always there's always a wrinkle and a team can get momentum back
Wow, alright, that was a I mean it does
Answer it sounds like Sun Tzu you mentioned before we start taping you read art of war
Do you take like we listen to art of war when we train? Oh, yeah
What's an art of war lesson that you can apply to basketball?
Also, what we use with our offense like what the guys is now
This is I don't you know, this is obviously different from when he wrote it, but like there's only five musical notes
There's only five primary colors and mixing all those together, you know having the simplicity of only five
But when you add them all together you get this beautiful
You know this this array of colors or the beautiful music, uh, using
simplicity to, to, you know, get complexity out of it.
Um, and really just like how you view your opponents, like you have to have the ultimate
respect.
The most respectful thing you can do for your opponent, uh, is understand that they can
beat you at any time.
Yeah.
But you can't have too much respect, right?
I think it's a balance and it kind of talks about our team. So when we were fighting the first couple months, once we started fighting, he stopped
around and he was like, you have too much respect for me.
You're better than you think you are.
But because I'm a black belt, you're treating me as if you suck.
He's like, if you believed in yourself, and if you knew that you were better than you
were, you would actually, you could have tapped me, you could have beat me a couple of times.
And so it was a really cool like balance of like what humility really is.
Like humility isn't like, oh, I suck and this guy's a black belt.
It's like you got to find the right balance of knowing like I'm pretty good, but this
guy's better.
I can still, I can win, but he could also beat me.
And that was a major shift in our training was when like I didn't have too much respect for him
But I had like enough like appropriate fear you hear a lot of people like talk about that like that's a real thing
You can you can by the way in this room right now Hank our producer is a diehard Celtics fan
He's smiling ear to ear because you can feel you can feel it's shifting in the room that PFT and I are becoming huge
Joe Missoula guys yeah minutes into this interview like he he can, he's, he's looking, smiling, being like, yeah, I told you this is my guy.
All right. So, so,
there's very few of those around. So I appreciate it.
Yeah. PFT, do you want to ask a question about the town or do you want me to?
Well, I, I had, I had a question for, I was just going to ask you how much a dollar bill
weighs.
Ooh, I mean, that's great. I gotta think about that scene, right?
So they're in the bar.
Yeah, okay.
It's not even worth its own weight.
It's not even worth its own weight.
Do you have it playing behind you right now on a big TV?
So let's clarify that.
So as an assistant, I watched it two, three times a week, easy.
That's too many, just so you know.
Well, you gotta think, like, we's too many, just so you know.
Well, you gotta think, we do most of our work
after the games, and so you gotta stay up late at night.
I never liked waking up with work to do from the day before.
So when I was an assistant and I would have to turn in
my post-game edits, I would go home and just work
from 11 to 1 a.m., and so I needed something
to keep me up or keep me going
So there was like a three movie shuffle
That I would turn on in order to get me through the game
So that I could get to bed and the town ended up being one of them
so like I'm not something that I'm like
You know, I obsessed with to the point where I'm still watching it
But that was that was a part of my postgame process that kind of helped me. Okay. What were the other two movies?
That was a part of my post-game process that kind of helped me. Okay, what were the other two movies?
Whiplash and The Dark Knight.
Oh, okay.
Those are good ones.
Those are ones where if they're on TV, I will always watch it all the way through.
Yes.
If I stumble upon it.
Yeah.
But you did-
You have to watch those three movies.
Yeah.
I think you're downplaying your obsession with the town just a little bit because you
did make t-shirts from the town.
Well, I mean, there's's so many great. Like lines from that, like the one, the one where, uh, he fought, where he finds
out that, uh, Dougie McCrae's, uh, sleeping with the, uh, with the, with the bank
manager, Jeremy Renick's like, smart.
I'm blowing the assistant manager.
Am I being smart?
And like, he just flips out like, like, out, like, randomly throughout the day, like, this company assistance
will just, like, throw phrases out there from the movie.
Like, I mean, anytime I walk down North End, I'm like, say your prayers.
Yeah.
I love that.
That's fantastic.
And I would imagine the tie-in with Boston probably has a lot to do with your, uh, your
love of that movie too, where it's just like, okay, this makes me feel like a Boston guy
watching this. I went to Fenway the other day and I was where it's just like, okay, this makes me feel like a Boston guy watching this.
I went to Fenway the other day,
and I was literally looking at exit strategies.
Yeah.
We were just trying to rob Fenway.
I was like, we could probably really get away with this.
Yeah, yeah.
Are you-
How could you not go to Fenway
and think that you couldn't rob it?
Yeah, yeah, the blueprint is right there.
I was thinking about that this morning, actually.
I was just driving, I was like, fuck, I really want to work Rob Thinway park. It would be
awesome. Yeah. You can't look at our armored truck the same. No, definitely not. Definitely
not. Uh, are you in there with her? He ties his pants into his bootstraps. Yeah. That
guy is a boy scout. Yeah. Are you you are you officially retired from trying to block shots? I got forced into that
Okay, so for people who don't know there was the Suns game this year the cells were playing the Suns and
Jalen Brown stole the ball in the backcourt dunked the Suns called the timeout
but they'd already advanced the ball and I can't remember who it was was trying to heave one from about
40 feet and Joe Missoula got onto the court and tried to block it after the whistle.
But you were, were you reprimanded for that?
I was slightly a little slap on the wrist.
Okay. So I mean, I liked the energy though. Like the guys probably liked it.
I mean, that's art of war at its finest. Like how I don't understand,
I don't understand how you could give your opponent any opportunity to feel good
about themselves on your half of the turf.
So we've been doing that for two years.
Like we do. It started last year where at Cleveland,
Donovan Mitchell took a free throw and one of my assistants just watched them.
And I berated him. And I was like, bro, what are you doing?
Like you can't allow the best player on the other team to just take a shot in
front of them. I don't think there's anything more insulting
than allowing your opponent to do that. I mean, and so we just put a stop to it from then on out.
And so we've had about four or five, you know, really, really good closeouts by the staff.
And unfortunately, that one was on, you know, live TV and people saw it.
And you know, so we can't do it anymore.
But it's one of those little it little, it's a gamesmanship thing.
Like, you know, NBA basketball is competitive
and you know, I just think you gotta be able
to find any little advantage that you can.
And so I'm not gonna let a guy,
and he had been shooting the ball well the entire game.
So like, what if that one kind of gets him the rhythm
that he needs to make one?
That's true.
What about if a fan takes a shot? So hypothetically, if the ball goes into the crowd, the guy in the rhythm that he needs to make one. Yeah. What about if a fan takes a shot?
So hypothetically, if the ball goes into the crowd, the guy in the first row gets
it and then they want to put up a shot from the sideline.
If they're, if they're on your team, if they're hypothetically again, a Celtics
fan, would you want them to shoot it and let it go in?
Absolutely.
Okay.
Cause we have actually a guy that's here that lived out that hypothetical situation.
Hank got the ball
What game was that Hank? I was Warriors finals game three, I think
Yeah, yeah, but he didn't have the courage to put up a shot
He did the pump fake on it instead of actually taking a shot. Come on Hank. Do you wish he had shot that? Yes
I got Jordan pooled him to bite though. He
So he like jumped at the pump. Yeah, he was ready to he was ready to block me, but yeah
Maybe yeah, you gotta shoot that you gotta shoot that let it be known
So Hank is a massive fan of yours is big Celtics fan
And he's agreed he's agreed to shave his head and his beard if the Celtics win the NBA championship this year
So there's a there's a lot at stake here. Hank, do you have any questions for coach?
Yeah, I got a couple.
I saw J.J.
Reddick and LeBron were talking about how like every player in the league will kind
of when they're down, they'll look up their highlights.
You know, they'll go on YouTube.
How often do you look up 2010 West Virginia versus Kentucky
2016? Never, never.
It's never, never.
Oh, that was such a lucky game. Sweet 16 never never it's ever never oh
That was such a lucky game From like from my standpoint and you know the one thing I always try to prevent is like the older you get the better
You were and I was I was not good
First start John walled on his cousin. I don't want that to ever become a thing where it's like the older
He gets man. He was such a good player. It's like no I wasn't I was like the worst player on the court at all times in the Big East
What about how many times did you have to hit huggy bears treadmill a?
Decent amount yeah, we've we've had huggy on a bunch of times and that treadmill
He doesn't sound like it was fun
Hey, it depends on what your're definitely trying to fun us.
My fun is not running.
My fun is being as combative as possible in a high stress situation.
So there was a few times where we would exchange words while I was on it and he wasn't.
And I let him know that he couldn't, he wouldn't have been able to run on that treadmill.
Yeah.
I think you just like depriving your brain of oxygen in any form, whether you're getting
choked out
or running long distances, you just like,
you like getting that runner's high going.
It's better than an arm bar.
Yeah, true, true.
You don't wanna get an arm bar.
Yeah, we don't.
Or a leg lock, you don't wanna get leg locked.
Hank, you got anything else?
Yeah, who, you know, vibes are good,
it's after a practice, maybe after a win,
who's the guy on the team that will kinda chirp you the most
or like is the most outgoing to try and get a who's who's the guy on the team that will kind of chirp you the most or like is the most out outgoing to try and get
a rise out of the other guys on the team like who's the guy that will kind of
come at you a little bit to get the other guys going who are players that
come at me yeah like chirp like you know it's it's it's like after a good
practice after a win like they're just kind of you know they'll chirp you
though to kind of get a laugh out of the other guys they probably do that more
when I'm not around.
I think that's probably like the nature of coaching
is like if your team's not making fun of you,
then you're not a coach.
Probably like, you know, I'm sure they also probably spend
zero time thinking of me outside of basketball,
which I'd be perfectly fine with also.
But after practice, you know,
it's a really cool environment.
I've really enjoyed being around these guys.
You know, what you learn is like,
you can go to each guy and kind of,
each guy has their own thing that you can bust balls with.
You know what I mean?
Like, so I try to do that after every practice
or shoot around is like,
just get a quick touch point with the guy.
And like, if it needs to be a serious conversation,
but I don't really enjoy being serious ever.
If not, it's like, you know, what can we bust balls about?
And so I really enjoy that. So you're like Derek, like, like, you know, what can we bust balls about? And so I really enjoy
that.
So you're like Derek, like, thank God you shaved your head.
No, Derek's more like he loves sarcasm. So like we'll pick something and just like, just
stop mocking it with like severe sarcasm. I like that. I liked that. Like, we lose one
game and it's like, oh my God, how could we ever lose like? Or like he like will have like a turnover in no game, and I'll be like bro. What are you thinking?
Mm-hmm does Paul Pierce just live at the practice facility?
No, but I enjoy having him around he comes around a decent amount
Yeah, good. Yeah, we we did a little research on you. Maybe some some questions that you didn't think that we would ask you
Those were ones. I love the most. Okay
the first one is that your your dad and you went to a baseball field together when you were a kid and
Something unusual happened. Would you care to elaborate on that?
That is one of the reasons why I am today and I think it's an important thing in
Society is the alpha male challenge. It's kind of what me and my brother call it. Okay
yeah, yeah, what's off that day and is the alpha male challenge. It's kind of what me and my brother call it. Okay. Yeah.
Yeah.
What's off that day?
And, uh, he put his money where, you know, he, he tried to have me put my money
where my mouth is, so it's a little rainy, uh, baseball field on the side of the
road, uh, head out there and he closes the gate, kind of like where the guys do
batting practice and, uh, he just said the winner walks out of here alive.
And did you, who, did he win or did you win? I mean, so I remember vividly, like it was a little bit of rain.
I saw some mud and I really didn't have a plan.
So like my goal was to like get mud throw in his face and kick him in the nuts.
And like, you know, at least like try to, you know, get him a little bit.
But he had mud wasn't great, catches my heel.
And then it's just a pulverizing beat down.
Get back in the car.
And he gave me like the will the will farrow old school.
If you tell anybody about this, I'll kill you.
Alpha male challenge.
I love it.
So we end up going to we always ate dinner.
Most of the time, my grandmother's house, like typical Italian family.
So I'm just sitting there like in mud like sniffing crying like just eating my food like the
Loser that I was at the time and like just no one's talking to me and I'm just licking my wounds
The alpha male challenge is it's just locking yourself in a fence and fighting your dad. Yeah
Okay, I like that. Yeah, what about that on in? It was like, you know, you better if you if you're gonna run your mouth
like you yeah
Yeah, what about the fact that you're a head coach in the NBA?
You know, obviously nice contract very successful still driving a minivan that 90,000 miles. I gotta get it to 100 G's
What what what's up with that? What kind of minivan? I mean, it's a
2017 Chrysler Pacifica. Okay. Oh, you're putting some miles on that thing. Damn. Yeah, it's a nickname free Willy. Okay
I'm shaped like a orca my favorite animal. Okay. Oh, that's good
Yeah, the time it made a lot of sense. I understand why it doesn't now but uh, you know, I I gotta finish it out
Okay, I like to. I see it through.
So once it gets to 100,000, are you getting a new minivan?
Are you moving up in the world?
It depends, I haven't really seen something that I like.
So it started because we were living in West Virginia
and we were always driving either to Ohio
or to beaches around the area,
like an ocean city or down south.
And so it made a lot of sense,
our kids were a little bit young.
And so I was like, and you know,
my kids had a bunch of friends living in the area.
And so we always had like five, six people around.
So it made sense living in West Virginia.
Didn't see all this happening.
Doesn't make as much sense living in the city of Boston
being the head coach.
Yeah. Yeah.
I like it though.
That's a commitment to the minivan,
going to 100K.
If you were to describe it from the outside, black leather interior, automatic doors, TVs in the back, you wouldn't know that it's a commitment to the minivan going to a hundred guys if you were to describe it from the outside black leather interior automatic doors
TVs in the back you wouldn't know that it's a minivan town always on for your
kids yeah I like that I like that a lot it's a good car yeah thank you have any
more questions for coach I got a tip for coach while you think about it hey I'll
take that all All right.
Okay.
So here's the tip.
So we are taping this right now on Thursday, Bulls Heat on Friday decide who the Celtics
play.
If it is the Bulls, could you please let the Bulls win one game?
That's just my only request.
But I got, so I've done a little scouting for you, whether it's the Bulls or the Heat.
I got one player I picked out on each team. So I'll start with the Heat, Tyler Hero.
Here's my scouting report. Scores in transition, especially after makes, have to connect and direct to take away pull-up threes,
prefers left-hand drives, likes to drive the slot.
And then for Kobe White, he runs in transition, half his shots are threes, no open looks, can't let him split pick and rolls.
So just a little tip for you. That actually is from, yeah, that's from Joe Missoula. So Joe Missoula's
Quizlet where he scouted every player in the NBA leaked online and everyone has his scouting
report for every player. It's a little dated now. What happened there? I mean, it's such
a funny story. It also shows how, how like
attention to detail. Cause it's just a huge PDF of every single player.
Yeah. So I, I won. I didn't see any of this coming. So I, I, I just thought I was going
to be like the behind the bench, you know, slap dick, you know, for most of my career.
And so I, you know, that was kind of my introductory to like people actually give a shit about
me thing. And I was kind of pissed about it.
But I mean, when I made my Quizlet, I was like, I didn't know how to make it private.
Yeah.
I also didn't think people were going to hack into it.
So I always work with rookies so that I would, I would give the rookies a well detailed
and Quizlet gives you different types of quiz that you can, you know, decide to get through
information on. So we would, I would, uh, the rookies and I would always take those before the game.
Oh, okay.
That was like, that was my way of learning the league because I went, came from D two
to the NBA. And then it was my way of like building a relationship with the rookies
that I worked with, like how detailed can we be and like, what are all the different
ways we can retrieve the information, whether it's like,
and some of them, some players learn differently. So some like matching, some liked showing
the blank, some liked, um, you know, multiple choice. So like it gave, it helped me learn,
but it also helped me learn how the rookies learn.
Yeah. Yeah. It's very cool. I mean, again, it's the attention to detail. Have you, have
you had a conversation with Derek White though about him? Uh, you had on his, uh, wants to throw his body into you and draw fouls. Have you
talked to him about it? Yeah, that was one of the things I was really excited about when
we got him is we'll get to the free throw line more. Yeah, it's smart. Yeah. I, it is
interesting though, that any, any coach can get instant access to your mind though. Yeah.
When they looked that up, you should have put some like fake, fake stuff. That is not, that's, that's, that's just scratch the surface about what's going on up here. Yeah. When they looked that up, you should have put some like fake, fake stuff.
That's that's just scratch the surface about what's going on up here.
Yeah. It's a quiz. It's just a quick, like, Hey, let's, let's look. You don't want to know what's really going on in my mind.
What's really going on in your mind. He's trying to rob Fenway park. Yeah.
I mean, literally how can I win every single situation or environment?
Like how can I, how can I win the environment environment no matter where I am at any particular time?
What are the threats, the strengths, and the opportunities?
Can you look at every single situation as a life or death situation from the standpoint
of this person's a threat, this situation's a threat?
I won't walk through revolving doors because if one of them gets stuck, then you're just
a sitting duck.
Yeah, that's true. I haven't thought about that, but now every time I go through a revolving door, then you're just a sitting duck. Yeah. That's true.
I haven't thought about that, but now every time I go through a revolving door, I'm going
to think about it.
I think it's stuck, then you're screwed.
So what about, okay, you go to get your coffee in the morning, stop and dunk your donuts.
And what goes through your mind?
How do you win that situation?
Just figure out where the exits are.
Look at the line on the way in, study all the people. Yeah.
Don't have your back to the door.
Like in a restaurant, I never sit with my back to the door.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You always got to sit to where you can have a vantage point of like everything that's
going on around you.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's fascinating.
That is.
And you never turned that off?
No, that's an unfortunate thing for my family.
So like you're at home, you're sitting on the couch, you're watching cartoons with the
kids.
What's your mindset then?
What can I take from this to teach my kid a lesson?
You can't just watch this just to watch it.
There's got to be something here that you got to learn from it.
Yeah.
I'm falling in love with Coach Missoula.
It's not all positive, right?
Like it's not I'm not saying I'm a good person for it.
There are a ton of negative ramifications to that type of mindset.
Yeah.
I like wife or kids come to you with like a very empathetic situation.
And it's just like.
Yeah, you're just telling yourself that.
Yeah, yeah, right.
You're breaking it down like it's yeah, like it's trying to trying to bust up someone's pick-and-roll strategy
You're just like no, okay. Well, you know, how'd you get to this point?
Yeah, no dad. I just said I have a bad day
Yeah, sometimes sometimes your wife just wants you to be like yeah that person was very unfair to you
You can't let that person be unfair to you. Yeah. Yeah, Hank. What was your you thought of one?
I yeah, you roll you roll a jujitsu mat on the on the floor after practice whole team tournament
Who's walking out there? No injuries injuries are impossible
whole team tournament
Who's walking out on top and so that's kind of the beauty of jujitsu is like you don't know everyone's a weapon
And everyone has a different weapon and you don't know that weapon until you get into the fight
Like if you ever gone to a jiu-jitsu class
one of the most
debilitating things to your own ego is like the three guys next to you that are like overweight just came from like work they can barely
Do like the push-ups and the sit-ups like in the warm-up?
But they're like brown belts and you get into a fight and you last like 10 seconds. And it's like, how did
I lose to this guy? Yeah. Like it actually teaches you to respect everybody around you,
but study each guy and like you study each guy's body type. And it's like, okay, like
if I get into a fight with that guy, like he seems more of like a leg dominant guy,
he'll probably have some like leg triangles or you know that guy's a little speed athlete so it you can't take anyone for granted and you have to have the
ultimate respect for everyone because everyone's a weapon in their own way like that's the beauty
of it so i i don't know because you don't know what any one person's capable of yeah i bet it's
brad stevens i bet brad has a plan too to kill everybody in the room yeah he seems like the kind
of guy that would have that speak speaking of brad has he ever told you you're coaching for your job? Um,
doesn't everybody tell me that? Well, yeah. I mean, your job is to coach. Yeah. Yeah.
Good point. I kind of tell myself that. No, we have an, we have an old friend, internet
friend who would always tweet Brad Stevens coaching for his job and people get so upset
He's like well his job is to coach. I
Tell myself that though. Yeah, it's a good mentality to have how much do you guys miss having Blake Griffin on the team?
This oh, yeah, man. He's awesome. Isn't he? Yeah, he was on the show on Wednesday. He just he was he's one of our good friends
I told this story yesterday like I have the utmost respect for him
so when I have the utmost respect for him. So when
I get the job and we signed Blake Griffin and I'm like, shit, like this guy was the
number one pick. Like I don't know anything about this guy. I knew everyone else on the
team for the most part. And I'm like, how am I going to coach this guy? You know, like
it, sometimes the hardest people to coach are like the guys that are a little bit aging.
Like they may still have it. They may not, you know what I mean? And so we make a decision to kind of be like,
we go away from him for a couple of games
or whatever the case may be.
And he comes up to me and he's like,
what do I have to do to get better?
And I was like, damn, like that said,
everything I need to know about the type of person
that he is, like of his stature and like experience,
to have the respect for a first time head coach who you know didn't
know what the hell he was doing to ask that question and to like take it serious to where
he was out there every single day like I have the utmost respect for him.
Did you tell him learn how to dunk again?
I told him we need to get a car out there so he could jump over.
Yeah yeah Blake is the best and he has he had nothing but high praise for you guys and he said that he was like very close
To wanting to come back
But he didn't want to he didn't want to cheapen it and like come back at the end of the year and not be with
The guys all year which I respect the hell out of I refrained from begging him to come back because he told me he wanted
To be with his kids and so like, you know
I know how hard that could be but I would have done a lot to get him back in our locker room. Yeah. So on that note, we always said, we'd
say that like Blake's the most important player on any team that he's on, regardless of how
much he was playing, just cause he's, he's a good guy to have around. He's kind of like
this, the straw that stirs the drink sometimes. Outside of like the superstars on the Celtics
right now, who would you say would be the most important guy? I would tell you like that range from like
Like eight and a half to like 14
Like those guys don't get enough credit because they they really hold the locker room together because they could easily
Shut it down halfway through the year or have like a negative mentality. You know what I mean?
Yeah, you know so like you like,, like, like, Peyton and Sam,
they have their minutes and they've gone through that grind of like the inconsistencies and they've
played their butts off this year and like have been great. But like the O'Shea, the Luke, the
Tillman, the Sfi, I don't want to forget anybody here, so help me with that. But like those group
of guys that like don't get it every single day
and then you have a guy that gets an injury
and now they're starting, or it's a second night
of a back-to-back and one of them's playing 20 minutes
and you're being hard on them
because you need them to help you win.
Those group of guys, really grateful because,
like you said, I don't think they get enough credit
for how they help the culture of the locker room.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, coach, this has been awesome. We really appreciate it. I got one last question for you. It's row back to row back question
RHO B a C k calm promo code take
Q-zips polos hoodies joggers shorts even bathing suits now row back calm promo code take
So we did have an inside source for this interview your brother. He brought up
Something about an Italian bakery. There's two of them maybe in your hometown and there's a big debate
about it. So can we settle the debate? Can you tell us the debate and settle it?
I mean, the debate I guess is which one's better.
Yeah. So which one is?
I mean, I don't want to do that to either company.
Okay.
I do want to talk about the Italian discrimination to the Big East conference
When I heard that I was like yes like you got a thing like Masamino
Carnoseca gavit like yeah, of course there's an Italian discrimination
So you think that's why they didn't get enough enough bids in the term of this year. Yeah, everyone's just tired of the the tallies
Max is pumping his
Rock this is bullshit because I was a fan. I'm not supposed to like you but that rock that was awesome
Yeah, you've even won over the Sixers fan here. It's hard to do. I
Mean, I don't know when you said that I was like there had like there's been so much mafia run through the Big East over the year
People are probably tired of it. Yeah.
Okay.
So who's on your Mount Rushmore of Italians?
Oh, good question.
That's a great question.
Thank you.
Great question.
Putting you on the spot here.
Yeah.
Oh, I know.
I mean, Mario Balotelli is going to be up there.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Play for the national team.
They're goalie also.
He's been around, really, Buffon. Buffonfong. Yeah, he's like 30 years. Yeah
There's a whole bunch of like naturalized citizens that have been you know up there along the way
Yeah, you can go with you can go old school like little Leonardo
You know DaVinci you can go with some some of that stuff. Yeah, Donatello all the Ninja Turtles all the Ninja Turtles
I think I think I appreciate Donatello and Leonardo. Yeah. Yeah, it should just be the ninja turtles
Mike Florio who's an Italian from West Virginia? So you got to mention him Mike Florio, but I think I think the ninja turtles are probably up there
Yeah, yeah all four of them
Italians you have your jujitsu guy come over dressed as as Michelangelo and choke you out
Or use of one of the who's the guy who's the one with the num chucks num chucks is Michael and Michael and party dude
Yeah, yeah, cowabunga. Yeah. Yeah, that's my favorite. Okay. Yeah, he's the best
Yeah, I would take you as more of a Raphael guy, but that's that's more calculating but Michelangelo
I feel more my personality.
Yeah.
Michelangelo is my son's favorite, so I flock to him.
OK, that makes sense.
It's good to have Italian representation in media
like the Ninja Turtles.
Yes.
No question.
Well, coach.
And bakeries.
Yeah, and bakeries.
Coach, this has been awesome.
You've won us over
Good luck in the in the rest of the in the playoffs if it's the Bulls I hope you can at least give us one game if it's the Bulls you got to come by the office and maybe put us through
A drill maybe choke us out. Yeah
If it's Chicago, we go through a jujitsu session at the facility
I've got done I'm in done and we work on like contingency plans exit strategies. Yes. I'm in. Done. And we work on like contingency plans, exit strategies.
Yes. Uh huh. Yes, yes. Always a way out. Yeah. I feel like you would hate going to an escape room.
Who? No, we went to one this year. Were you panicked in there? Were you like,
I don't know how to get out? I love that. I wanted to make a room in my house an escape room.
Because like you get so we move into so we I get the job right and we buy a house and you
know my wife's like super excited like it's one of the goals of her life like to have
the house like and she picked a really nice one and so what we have we have jujitsu mats
at the house so Alex comes over and he's like you know this might not be a good thing like
you know the guy that lives in the town home isn't the guy that lives in this
nice house.
You know, the guy that drives a car to work is not the same guy that used to walk to work.
Like you can't let this you can't let this change you.
So like all so then like the classes for that week were like all demoralizing to make sure
that I didn't like enjoy the fact that we moved into this house.
So I'm sitting in bed with my wife and I'm like, yeah, I mean, it's a nice house, but
we just can't let this get the best of us. Like we got a big, we got, we got stuff coming
up. We got to stay locked in. Like we can't let this change us. And she like almost started
crying.
Like it's my dream.
You are an idiot.
You develop a rivalry against the house every day. You develop a rivalry against the house.
Every day you're trying to beat the house.
Yes, absolutely.
Alpha male challenge with the house.
Walk into the house and like kick the door on purpose.
This house is shitty.
All right, well, coach, this has been so, so much fun.
And yeah, you have won us all over
and best of luck in the playoffs and we'll talk soon.
I appreciate it. And last thing I want you guys to know, uh,
I came into coaching, uh, because I think NBA players get, get a bad rep.
And there's a, but you always hear about college coaches or people say they
can't coach. I got the best group of guys. Um,
I think NBA players in general are misunderstood with what they deal with on and
off the floor, like what they put their bodies through.
And like just because they make a lot of money,
it doesn't mean that it's easy.
And so I got the best job in the world,
coaching the Celtics,
and I got the best job in the world
because I got great players and they allow me to be myself
and allow me to coach them.
And you know, I can't take that for granted.
So I want you guys to know that
and I'll come out anytime and bust balls with you.
Okay.
And just so you know what you just said,
that doesn't mean we can't say like,
oh, I would have made that free throw. Cause I will say that for my couch. Okay.
Good, good. All right. Thanks coach.
Joe Mazzullo is brought to you by our great friends over at proper number 12
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Okay, we now welcome on a very special guest. It is coach Michael Malone, Denver Nuggets, uh, NBA champs. We haven't seen you since
you won the NBA championship. So, uh, let us be the last people to wish you congratulations
on winning the NBA title. We had John last year around this time. Uh, and I want to,
I want to, we want to talk about playoffs, the season, everything, but the first question,
very important question, how are we doing with the Mike versus Michael thing? Are people following the rules? Are they actually following
the rules?
You know, I think I scared most people away when I was very rude to a Cassidy Hubbard
on the sidelines of a playoff game. But no, most people are following the rules. I think
the streets are talking. They know that if they don't call me Michael, my mother is going to come looking
for him.
No, I appreciate it. You got to put your flag in the ground. Let people know. We were actually
the Michael police last year when we saw people referring to using the wrong word. We would
jump down their throat and say, no, you get it right. That's a future NBA championship
coach right there and put some respect on his name.
Appreciate it. But yeah, it was great. We were rooting for you last year. Obviously we believed in the Nuggets from, I think like two years ago, we started to say, get ready for the Nuggets
because they're coming. They're a great team. So thank you for making us look like we know ball.
It's a very rare occurrence where we look smart on the show. So we want to make sure to give you
your credit for that. And I just want to say that I'm looking forward to another potential Michael Malone championship
parade because you had, you had the best time ever at that parade. And I think everybody
watching was like, yeah, if I ever won a championship, that's exactly what I would do. So how long,
how long did it take you to feel normal after the parade?
Oh, I tell you a while. And the worst part about that parade was that night
we went to Las Vegas.
And I started early that day,
so I didn't last late into the night, unfortunately.
But the parade was awesome.
My wife was next to me on the fire truck.
She kept on telling me to slow down, slow down.
And I really didn't know what that meant.
If we just won a championship,
and I definitely went all out.
And hopefully we can find a way to celebrate another parade because this city turned out
and that was one of the coolest moments of my life was not only winning a championship
but celebrating with a city that had waited for 47 years to win their first NBA championship.
Yeah, even Yokoch had fun at the parade. That's how you know that it was a good parade. So,
all right. So last question about last year and then let's turn the page. All focus on
this year. Uh, how many times have you looked down on your arm and been like, I really did
get that tattoo. Sometimes I forget I have it. And then obviously I get out of the shower.
I look in the mirror and I remind myself, I got maxi the minor and he's, he's going
to be with me every step of the
way moving forward.
Yeah.
And I did save some room though for some more trophies and more tattoos.
So we'll see what happens.
I like that.
So you said almost immediately after you won, you might've even said it before you won your
first title that the goal was to establish something long-term, to establish a dynasty
in Denver.
When did you start thinking
that it would be possible to even compete for multiple championships?
You know, I go back to the bubble and I know we lost to the Lakers in the Western Conference
finals, but that's when I felt, you know what? We have a special player in Nicole Jokic,
we have a special player in Jamal Murray, and now we have to make sure we bring the
right pieces in to help those guys. And we we have to make sure we bring the right pieces in
to help those guys.
And we had injuries after the bubble
where we weren't whole in the playoffs.
But finally being whole and healthy and adding guys
like Aaron Gordon, adding guys like obviously
Contavious Caldwell Pope.
We have Michael Porter, who's just
continued to get better and better.
And last year having veterans like Jeff Green and Bruce
Brown and a young
player and Christian Brown who showed out and helped us want to play a finals game on
the road in Miami. And it was a we knew if we were healthy, we had a chance to meet anybody.
Yeah. And last year was the first time in a while where we were completely healthy and
it all came together at the right time. So talking about this year, you've
been coaching for a very long time.
This was the first time that you're coaching
and you have a championship team that just won a title.
What were the challenges like day in and day out?
Coaching a team, knowing like, you know,
we talk about all the time with sports,
there's a switch that you can flip.
Was there moments where you're like,
you could feel that maybe the focus wasn't there
because everyone's been there, done that, and they're just waiting for the playoffs? Was it a different
set of challenges as a coach to get that motivation day in and day out because you already hit
the top of the mountain and you got to climb back up?
Yeah, it definitely was. I mean, and that was our whole mindset going into this year,
starting a training camp in San Diego. And, you. And I told our players, listen, we've
gone from being one of the 29 teams that's
hunting a championship.
And now we're going to be the team that's
being hunted by everybody else.
And with that success comes responsibility
to understand that and to own that.
And now that means you have to work harder every day.
You have to be more prepared and understand 82 games this year.
You're getting everybody's best.
Yeah. And I tell you what, we tied a franchise record for 57 wins this year.
We went 21 and six out of the All-Star break, tied for the best record in the NBA.
I give our players a ton of credit for
handling that responsibility in a very mature manner.
Were there times this year where I felt like I had to jumpstart the guys and remind them of that? Of course, 82 games is a long season, but here
we are, number two seed, getting ready for the first round. And again, I think our players
have done an outstanding job of handling that success while also not being satisfied and
staying hungry because we want more.
Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned responsibility. Do you feel a sense of responsibility knowing
that you have maybe certainly a transcendent player in Jokic,
a guy whose skill set we've never seen before in the NFL,
or excuse me, the NBA, and a guy who moving forward
could be in all time?
Great.
Do you feel responsible that you have to make sure
that he's able to tap into all this enormous potential
and tap into his ability to the highest extent? Is that something that you have to make sure that he's able to tap into all this enormous potential and tap into his ability to like the highest extent? Is that something that you think about? Like I don't want to let this guy down.
Of course, and for Nicola, but for the other players too, you know, we won a championship last year and I think we did something that I don't think any other championship team has done. We went younger in hopes of trying to repeat. So now developing Christian Brown, Peyton Watts and Julian Strother while having our
five men starting lineup who we know what we're going to get from them every single
night. But I always feel a responsibility to not only help Nicola, but to prepare our
team to put them in the best position to have success. And if we don't win a game, the first person I look at is me,
what could I have done better?
What could I have done differently to help my team?
And we always bounce back, we always stay together,
very connected group.
And that's why I love coming to work every day
because I feel our locker room of players,
my coaching staff, our front office, our ownership group,
I think we have something special that I don't think you find in all pro sports very often.
Yeah. All right. So bad memory question, but I'm very interested in your response. So you
guys were fighting for the one seed Friday night. You lose the Spurs, uh, get the two
seeds still an incredible season. Like you said, franchise record and wins. But what Wemby did on Friday night,
can you tell us standing there and watching him? Like, has there's never been anything
like that in the NBA in terms of just his ability? Like he's so much bigger than everyone.
He's shooting threes. Did you ever catch yourself while playing him at any point this year being
like, what am I even watching right now? This is insane.
Oh, definitely. And obviously, you know, we played them four
times. And what was really impressive about watching Wembe
this year, from early in the year, to we played him in game
81, is the improvement within one season. And early in the
year, you could tell, wow, this guy is really tall. He can block
shots. He's pretty skilled. By the end of the season, and I think Pop did a great job, and that's
why he's a great coach, you saw Wembe handling the ball in the open court, you saw him shooting pull-up threes, but
the one thing that really jumped off the page for me, that I saw a huge improvement, was Wembe's ability to be a
playmaker, his passing ability. He was making all his teammates better. And for me, that's always a mark of greatness.
Yeah, you can be a really good player,
but can you make those around you better?
And obviously, it was a tough loss for us.
But yes, you're watching Wemby, and you're saying, wow,
this guy is the future of the NBA.
He impacts the game offensively, defensively, playmaking.
And he's a competitor.
I mean, he's only going
to get better. He's going to get stronger, but I don't see any weaknesses in his game.
Yeah. I mean, it was the game that he scored, I think 17 points in three minutes and it
was just like, what is going on right now? It's, it's, it's, it's crazy. He was shooting
pull up threes from 35 feet. You know, you're not used to seeing that from a player at seven
four or whatever he is. You see that
from Steph Curry, but now you have a seven footer doing all those things. And it's kind
of like, wow, this guy is going to be unguardable at some point.
Yeah. With the longest arms ever. So it's almost like he's got the arms of a seven foot
six guy and he's seven foot four. It's like impossible to stop something like that. How
do you, how do you go about game planning for a great individual player like that? Cause
we saw it just a couple of weeks ago in in March
Madness in the NCAA tournament, where Hurley strategy against Edie was basically, you know,
he's going to get his points, and we can let him get his points, but we're not going to
let everybody else on the court beat us. When you're going up against a superstar player,
and obviously in the NBA, everybody's good, right? Everyone can shoot the ball. But is
that is that more often than not your strategy of just accept the fact that the superstar
is going to do some damage and try to limit everybody else?
Well, I think it depends on the player, the matchup, who's around that player.
There are definitely games and opponents will all say, listen, we know he's going to get
his, but they're at their best when everybody else gets going.
So you let that certain player maybe get his 25 to 30 points, but you take with a three
point line for their other players.
Then there are certain nights where you say, listen, we can't let this guy get off.
He's scoring way too easy.
We have to send a double team.
And that's not just in the post.
That may be a player on the perimeter, like an Anthony Edwards, like a Jaylen Brown, who
are just really tough covers on the perimeter where you may Anthony Edwards, like a Jalen Brown, who were just really tough
covers on the perimeter where you may have to send a secondary defender and then look
to fly around behind that.
And obviously, you know, Danny Hurley, a tremendous job at UConn winning another title and his
game plan against Zach Eadie in the post was terrific.
They took away all the Purdue shooting and made E Edie be the one guy that was scoring.
And then there were times where they decided to double team, but their multiple effort
and fly around mentality was outstanding. That was what impressed me about Yukon was
just their defense on the ball, off the ball for 40 minutes was just incredible.
So I had a question about that. So it's a, you know, New Jersey high school players are
having a moment right now with Danny Hurley winning his back to back. You're, you know, you went
to a Seton hall prep for a couple of years in New Jersey, trying to go back to back.
Did you play against, uh, it would be Bobby, right? Like he was at the time. Did you have
games against him? Oh yeah. No, I played against Bobby and, uh, you know, the other St. Anthony's
players, uh, Jerry Walker, all the guys, Jasper Walker,
different players.
But Danny was younger, but Bobby was more my age.
And obviously, Bobby was an incredible player
at St. Anthony's, at Duke.
And unfortunately, his career in the NBA was cut short.
But yeah, I mean, that era of tri-state New York City,
New Jersey basketball was incredible.
You had Talentine High School who had Malik Sealy, Brian
Reese, Adrian Autry.
You had Kenny Anderson at Malloy.
There were a lot of great players in that area
at that time.
And I always look forward to playing
against a guy like Bobby because he
was considered one of the best point guards in the country.
Yeah, tough, tough New Jersey high school players into coaches are having a big moment
right now. The other, the other one I had for you was your start in coaching. Uh, Greg
Campy who just won his first NCAA, uh, tournament game with our guy, Jack Goukki. Did you talk
to him after at all? Because that was, that was a very cool moment. And for people who don't know you, you basically got your start, uh, like
doing anything for him way back in the day at Oakland university. He's been there for
40 years and he finally gets that one big moment beating Kentucky.
Well, you know what the great thing is? So I got that job at Oakland because my father
was an assistant coach in Detroit with Chuck Daly, and they used to practice at Oakland
University. So my father had a relationship with Campy, and when I was getting out of college, I wanted to get into
coaching, and my father put in a good word with Greg Campy, who hired me. Now Oakland was Division II at the time, but I
was a volunteer assistant coach. And the coolest part about that job was Barry Sanders used to come over and play open gym.
And here he is, arguably the greatest running back in NFL history, who loved hoops.
And having a chance to play with him was a memory I'll never forget.
But Coach Campi and I have stayed in touch.
My father passed away this past October.
Coach Campi was one of the first guys to reach out to me.
And when they beat Kentucky that night, I hit him up right away. I'm sure I was one of a thousand messages, but for him to
be there for 40 years and him to have that kind of a win behind the unbelievable shooting
of Jack Goukey, uh, was incredible. And I was so happy for coach campy, the, the Oakland
program and obviously coach can't be his entire family.
Yeah, wait, wait, we got to, you just glossed over something. Barry Sanders playing pickup
basketball. What was his game like? Well, I tell you what, I couldn't get over the
size of his legs and the size of his neck. He was incredible athlete. Uh, and
it's funny, man, he was just, he was for the player he was and all the success he
had and all the records that he had, very, very humble, very quiet,
but loved basketball, wanted to come in.
My sister Kelly actually worked for the Lions at that time,
so I got to know him a little bit.
Unbelievable person, just humble, selfless, loved to hoop.
And you wouldn't even, if you didn't know who he was,
you'd think he was just a regular guy
in there playing hoops. And that's what I loved about him't know who he was. You think he's just a regular guy in there playing hoops.
And that's what I loved about him.
Yes, he was a great running back who carried those Lions teams for years.
But I was just impressed with how he carried himself as a man.
What was his comp though?
Player comp.
Player comp?
Oh, I'm trying to think.
I don't know.
Nate Robinson.
OK.
Yeah, that's good.
Yeah, that's a very good one.
Did he travel with the ball a lot? He just stopped dribbling? Strong, explosive. Yes. I don't know. Nate
Robinson popped into my head. I like that. Yeah. I mean, it would be amazing just to
go try to guard Barry Sanders in any sport would be incredible. Do you know, Jack?
He was on my team. I made sure he was on my team. Yeah. Smart. That's a smart move. You
should bring Golke in for a tryout. Yeah. He needs a look. The kid can shoot. Well, I tell you
what, you'd be Brown who I got to know. My father was on his staff back in the day. One
of the greatest coaches in the history of the game of basketball. And he'd be Brown
had a saying, shooting makes up for a multitude of cents. If you can shoot the ball in today's
game, there's a place for you. And what Jack Goukey did on the biggest stage in the country was really, really impressive.
And I think there are a lot of Jack Goukey fans. I think it can't be even talked about
it that night after they won that game. People from Louisville were buying Oakland gear.
Yeah. They were where it is and rub it in the Kentucky fans' faces.
Yeah, so let's give them a try because we're big Jack Goukis fans.
We actually had them in our office and we have a full court basketball court, so he
got to do a workout.
We got to do some drills with him.
He can shoot.
We'll tell you right now.
We'll be your advanced scouts.
As advertised.
I don't know if you knew this.
Guy can shoot.
Fill it up.
Here's my question.
At a big cat PFT, who is the better shooter?
Who's got the shot?
That would be big cat.
Yeah.
I'm more of a facilitator.
Yeah.
You should, listen, next season when you're in Chicago,
you should come by because we do run fives on Friday
and it's probably the worst basketball you could ever watch.
It's like those when you run a pickup
basketball and maybe the first game is like, ah, 15 minutes. And then the second game,
everyone gets tired and it's like 35 minutes to get to 11. And you're like, this is just
atrocious to watch. I look forward. I will stop by when the schedule permits. I'd love
to stop by and see you guys. Yeah. Yeah. Coach us up. Um, I actually have a pointer for you.
I know that you've accomplished a lot as a coach. You can always get better though, right? We're
always looking to improve around the margins. You're great at, uh, at getting in the ref's
face at giving them a piece of your mind when you feel like your players been fouled. They
don't call it. I saw it a couple of times at Aaron Gordon this year. You're not afraid
to let the ref have it, but there's one player that you don't do it enough for.
And that's Jokic when he's trying his like three quarter length three pointer when he's
getting fouled and they never call the foul on him. And it's a foul to get him on the
arm. I know that the refs are like, Oh, this is weird. Why is he shooting it from the opposing
foul line? I think you need to get in the ref's face when they don't call that and let
them know that's a foul.
Well I tell you what, so to clarify, they are calling the foul, but what they're not
giving them is a free throws.
They're saying it's a non-shooting foul.
And the funny thing is, I've had a lot of conversations with the refs as well as the
league about it because I don't think people understand how smart Nicola is.
He sees it before it happens. And so he knows the player's about to come up,
and he'll stop around 70 feet from the basket, raise up and let it go. And I asked the ref one
time, I said, be honest, the reason you're not giving him free throws is because of where it
happened. Because, you know, well, what right-minded player is going to shoot a shot 70 feet away? And
I go, but you shouldn't be worried about the location. It's more about,
is he in his upward shooting motion? And it's an ongoing debate. And hopefully at one point,
we'll be able to get that. But if I have to get thrown out one time, I obviously, I have no
problem doing that. I, with the day that he gets that call is going to be incredible. It's going
to be amazing. He's been trying for it for so long. It also might ruin the NBA forever. The second
that he gets that call, because then everyone's going to be doing that. But I want to see it happen the first
time. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I want to see it as well. I think he deserves, he's probably
run over 12 in those attempts and hopefully we'll get it one day. Yeah. So speaking of
Yocic, is there ever a time where you're like, Hey, can you shoot more? Cause he's so good
at sometimes, you know, like a game will start and he's just facilitating to everyone and he's maybe passing up shots to get everyone
else involved. Do you ever have to say like, listen, thank you for passing to everyone,
but I need you to shoot because every time you shoot it, it goes in.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, he's one of the more efficient players that we've ever seen. And that's why
obviously he's a two time MVP and potentially a three time MVP.
But there are times where I have to say, listen,
you need to be a little bit more aggressive.
Certain teams choose to double team him from the get go.
Other teams choose to play him straight up,
it's pick your poison with him like we touched on earlier.
But there are games where he's such a great passer, he's always reading the defense,
and he wants to get other people involved.
That's why he's great because he's gonna be one of the top
three assists for game players in the league every year.
But yeah, sometimes it's like,
Joe, you gotta be more aggressive.
Look to attack before the double team,
or when you have one-on-one coverage, go to work.
He's proven to be unguardable,
and that's not a knock on anybody.
That's to speak to his greatness and his ability to find and solve any riddle thrown at him. And
we've seen him do it time and time again and none better than last year during our run to the to the
finals and ultimately winning our championship. But he is a great player. He's a great passer.
He's really unselfish. So usually I trust him 1000% to read the game and play the game the way he sees
But there will be an occasional time where yeah, hey, listen like go to work
No look to score and and he we know he can do that
Yeah, I think he's in really great shape too
I think that's a very underrated part of his game is his conditioning people look at him sometimes and he might not have like the
Muscle definition on the biceps and some other guys have. But I feel like people don't give him credit.
Do you think he's, you think teams underestimate how in shape he is?
I couldn't agree with that more. And I think the perfect example was you go back, I think
six years ago, our first time making the playoffs. We had a game in Portland that went four over times. I think
Nikola played 60 minutes and I don't know how many players can do that and play effectively
and efficiently. But Nikola, you know, I think people always judge athleticism on how high you
can jump. Well, that's the only way you're going to judge his athleticism where you're going to
say Nikola's not a great athlete. But it's more than just jumping. It's hand-eye coordination. It's the ability
to have unbelievable stamina. He loves horses. And I say you like Secretariat, man. He's
got a huge heart. Nicole can run for days. And you look at how much we play him. And
now that the playoffs are about to start, how much more we're about to play him, because
we know that when he's on the floor, good things tend to happen for us. I think it goes back
to that picture that always goes around of him as a kid. And so people see that picture and they're
like, Oh, this guy can't run, but no, he's, he's always out there and he's always running. Yeah. I
I do think it works to your advantage though, that they, that sometimes teams don't really recognize
how great of shape he's in. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I think the other thing that you talk about the athleticism, I think the other really
common misperception about Nicole Yockey is, oh, well, because he's not a good athlete,
he's not a good defender.
And I don't think that could be further from the truth.
I think Nicole is actually a very good defender.
And you don't have to be a good defender to be a guy that's jumping and blocking shots
above the rim. He has unbelievable hand-eye
coordination. He's one of the top guys in the NBA in terms of deflections.
You guys have seen him break up a lot of passes with his feet and his
timing anticipation. He's one of the few players in the NBA that's got over
100 steals and close to 70 blocks. So I think that's also an area that
people try to pick him apart, but he's proven people wrong time and time again.
So one thing you're a lead at, and I've read a bunch of stories and it's very clear when
you talk about your team is your ability to connect with each guy person to person and
like the stories of you going to visit Yokech at his home. Did you ride a horse by the way
when you went there? So I didn't ride the horse, but Nicola let me ride the carriage.
Okay. All right. That counts. He took me to practice one day and he goes, coach, come on.
And he told me what to do. And I went around and he was really mad at me because he said,
it was a practice and I was supposed to go a lot slower. I was like, man, her man. I was like, let's go. And, uh, yeah. So I did that one time and
it probably never let me do that again. That's fantastic. So your ability to connect with
guys, you know, one-on-one, you know, when you, you had that quote about Jamal Murray's
injuries and how he's going to be back, I think, you know, when it comes to coaching,
the best coaches are able to get their teams to trust them on such a level that it's like, you know, what I'm doing is going to get you
to a place where you can win a championship. Was there a moment in these last few years
where you could feel like my team is finally in, like they're finally all have bought into
what I'm selling and they all are going to trust me. No matter what I say, they might
not agree all the time, but they trust that what I'm doing is trying to put them in the best spot.
Yeah. I mean, that's a really good question. And I go back to, um, you know, the bubble,
but even our first time making the playoffs, you know, we played San Antonio in the first
round and here we are playing the spurs, right, and Coach Popovich, and we won in seven games.
And that was brand new for Jamal,
that was brand new for me, that was brand new for Nicola.
And I think that's really helped that Nicola
and I have been together for nine years,
Jamal and I have been together for eight,
and then we've added pieces around.
I think Aaron Gordon's been here for four and a half now,
Michael Porter for five.
So what you have with that continuity
creates chemistry and trust.
So I've never felt like I had to win them over.
I felt like we've always been connected.
And for me, it's never been, this
is what we're doing and this is my way, the highway.
What I learned from a guy like Coach Popovich
is when we talk about trust as part of our culture, I got to trust our players. So last year during
our run to the finals, we're going through games and scouting reports and opposing plays. I'm giving
our players input. What do you guys see? What do you want to do in this play? So now I'm empowering
them so we all feel a part of it. And so I'm not a dictator. I'm very much a coach that wants to give our players input.
And not so I hope it fails, but hey, you're out there playing.
And I think through all those conversations and all the time
that we've been together, I think
that's allowed us to get to a place where we trust each other.
It's not just them trusting me.
I also trust our players. And we have great dialogue within that.
So off that question, you mentioned Aaron Gordon, who has been phenomenal for you guys.
And what is it though, putting a guy like Aaron Gordon, who's with the magic, he's the
best guy in the magic. Then he comes to the nuggets and his role is going to be a little
different and he's not the best guy anymore, but you need him to play winning basketball.
How does that process work when you have a new guy on the team
and you're like, look, you were the man,
you're still the man, but there's other guys here
who are going to be the man,
and you're going to play off them a little bit more?
Well, I think Aaron Gordon deserves the credit here.
I mean, I could sit here and say,
hey, we had conversations about this and that, which we did,
but ultimately, it's up to the man. hey, we had conversations about this and that, which we did.
But ultimately, it's up to the man.
It's up to the person, the player to understand I'm coming to a team that's really good.
They've won.
They haven't won at the highest level yet, but I can help them get over the hump.
And the funny thing is, right when we got Aaron Gordon after that trade deadline,
we beat the Clippers in LA when they were fully loaded and healthy.
And that's when I think we all realized
that we got a chance if we stay healthy
to win and win big and win a championship.
Unfortunately, injuries happen that year, the year after,
but then we finally had that chance last season.
But Aaron came in understanding that,
listen, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to help this team.
I'm playing next to a great player who's one of the most unselfish players,
highest IQs and great passers.
I'm just going to play off of him.
I'm going to play off of Jamal Murray.
I'm going to defend, I'm going to rebound, and I'm going to be completely
selfless in everything I do.
And I think guys like Aaron Gordon, guys like KCP embody being being truly selfless every single day because when
people talk about the Nuggets, it's Nicole Jokic, it's Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter,
Aaron Gordon, KCP don't get as much of the attention, but they're all just as important
in our success.
Yeah. I mean, it's awesome watching a team come together like that, where you have pieces
from all over the place and it's everyone kind of steps into their role. It's, it's
beautiful to watch when basketball works that way.
Yeah. And Christian Brown too. You mentioned him earlier, like as a spark X factor is he,
what would he have to do to get into like the starting rotation? Cause I know he's great
in certain aspects of his game. I think, I think I've heard you talk about him in transition
before and how that is a key factor in his game. Is that a guy think I've heard you talk about him in transition before and how that is a
key factor in his game. Is that a guy that you see ever becoming a rotation guy? Well, I mean,
he's the rotation guy for us now. And when we've had injuries, he started a bunch of games for us
this year. His versatility is what you love about him. He can be a small fold, a two guard,
and he's actually been, when Jamal was out for a while this year, Christian's been our backup point guard at times.
So there's not a position he can't play.
And you talk about transition.
I felt probably maybe halfway through this season, Christian wasn't playing the way I
was hoping he would have played this year.
He didn't have the same aggression, didn't have the same defensive disposition that I
thought he needed to have.
And I called him in, we met, we watched film from last year of how he helped us win,
even clips from him in the NBA finals.
And I said, this is what we need from you.
For you to be the best player for this team, we need you to be more aggressive.
We need you to be tougher, we need you to be more disciplined and
to lock down on defense. And to his credit credit from that meeting through the end of the season
I thought he was tremendous for us. He's put a lot of time into his game. He's shooting a three ball really well
He is a hell of a finisher
If you go back to that Minnesota game some of the dunks he had in transition were just incredible
Highlight dunks with his left hand on a guy like Rudy Gobert.
But he's an important piece
because he can fill so many holes.
And for me with Christian, CB is what we call him,
it's always about his intangibles, man.
He's got an edge to him.
He's one at every level.
I wanted to go out there and just be a dog
and get after people, hit people, be aggressive.
And when he does that, he's a difference maker.
And the other young guy that I think has really improved this year is Peyton Watson.
Peyton Watson is doing things defensively, blocking shots at the rim.
A lot of plays defensively that most guys in the league can't make.
So Peyton didn't play at all last year.
He's in the rotation this year and it's gonna be a great opportunity for him.
He's coming playoff to really step up because we all know the playoffs is a lot different than the 82 game regular season
Yeah, you guys got a lot of weapons coach. We asked this question to everybody. It's a fun little segment that we do
It's called it's called who would you rather play in the first round of the playoffs?
The Kings the Warriors the Pelicans are the Lakers
Well, the lucky the good thing for us is that we know we're either playing the Lakers or
the Pelicans. They have their playing game down in New Orleans tonight. And we're going
to I like to play whoever wins that game.
OK, that's smart. That's what's going to happen. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good answer. Good answer.
Good answer. Yeah. That's the best answer we've ever had in that segment. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good answer. Good answer. Good answer. Yeah. That's the
best answer we've ever had in that segment. Yeah. All right. So I had a couple of last
questions. So we're ball knowers. We know ball. Uh, and these West playoffs are going
to be great. There's so many talented teams. The one seed though, the thunder, they have
had an incredible season. Some people, non ball knowers are being like, well, they're
too young. They don't know how to get through the playoffs. Uh, non ball knowers are being like, well, they're too young. They
don't know how to get through the playoffs. Uh, we obviously know that they're so talented.
They could, any team could win the West. Uh, well playing them though, and seeing like
their young talent kind of go from, you know, they were not a playoff team last year. Now
they're in the playoffs. Obviously they had to do with a lot of injuries guys coming back.
But how, like how impressive is it watching a team that young? I think? I think their roster age is like 23 years old. It's pretty crazy.
Oh, it really is. And one, you have to give credit to Sam Presti. Their GM has done a
terrific job of handling the roster and building that roster up to what we see today. Very
young but very talented. A lot of high lottery picks in there and it's not just about bringing talent in they brought talent in
That fits that complements each other then you go down to mark Dagnall who I think is coach of the year in the NBA
I think he's done an outstanding job of building that team on both ends of the floor
And then you mentioned the players. I mean Shay Gildge's Alexander is an MVP candidate for a reason.
Unbelievable talent, can score the ball, can guard.
I think he led the league in steals.
You have Chet Holmgren who unfortunately isn't a rookie class but
Victor Wembenyama.
But Chet Holmgren, we look at his upside and
his ability to impact offense and defense.
Young Jalen Williams, that guy is just,
he's becoming a go-to player for him and he'll be a future all-star in my opinion.
Lou Dortz, one of the best defenders in the NBA.
And I give a guy like Josh Giddy so much credit.
There was so much noise around him early in the year with the investigation,
all the stuff off the court.
He was being booed in every arena he played in.
And he fought through that.
And I think he's quietly a really important piece to that team
because he can play make, he rebounds, he defends,
and he makes all of his teammates better.
So I don't buy into the whole, they're too young to win it.
Last year, people thought, well, we've never won a championship,
they can't win a finals.
And I go back to year one, we beat the Spurs in round one and we took the Blazers to a game seven and the
second round. It's they have the talent, they have the coaching. And I think these Western
Conference playoffs are just going to be so fun to watch. I would not be surprised if
there are a ton of upsets. Yeah, it's going to be crazy to watch. Have you, have you done
any, any breakdowns or even thought allowed yourself to think about the best teams
in the East or are you just in the mindset of let's handle our business in the West?
Yeah.
I mean, I'm just locked in on the Western Conference.
The funny thing is going into our game against Memphis, game 82, all the games in the West
started at the same time.
And I knew all the different like, this team wins or this seed.
In the East,
I knew Boston was won, and after that I had no idea what was going on. So it's going to
be hard enough getting out of the first round this year. So we're going to take it one round
at a time. And if we're able to get out of the Western Conference again, then we'll turn
our attention to whoever is coming out of the Eastern Conference.
Yeah. All right. So I had one last question. It's a row back question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com promo code take 20% off first purchase.
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So we talked about the Hurleys.
Have you thought about maybe getting on the court
and pushing a player during action?
No.
Did Danny do that?
Yeah, he did that in the finals with like when they were up 15
with three minutes left, he just kind of blacked out and he pushed cam Spencer to be like,
go and go and run the play. Uh, have you ever caught yourself getting too, too far onto
the sideline shock? A smart does it as well where he's basically a six guy out there playing
defense in the corner. But have you ever had to like stop yourself and be like, Oh, I'm, I'm basically standing on the court right now.
Yeah. I mean, I, I sometimes I'm like, uh, you know, the, the scene in old school, I'm
having an out of body experience, man. And I find myself like, why am I on the other
side of half court coaching my team years ago? Terry stops was coaching in Portland
at the time he took a screenshot of our game and I was all the way on the other side of the court and the other coaching box.
Sometimes my wife will and my daughters will make fun of me because as the game is going
on, I am, that's why I like, we don't have to wear suits anymore. I can, I can get in
a defensive stance, do my slide up and down the sideline like I'm gardening,
like I'm having any impact on the game.
But no, it does. That does. That absolutely has an impact. The coach getting up and, and
slapping the floor a couple of times. That's that absolutely has an impact.
I think the players might be laugh at it, but I think they respect it. I'm not a guy
like there are certain coaches that you look on the sideline, they'll be over there sitting
on the bench with their legs crossed.
Yeah. And I actually said to my assistants, if I ever sit on a bench with my legs crossed, punch me in my face.
I said, I am a coach. I'm into the game.
It's an emotional game. And, you know, you're all competitors, man.
You don't get to this level if you're not a competitor.
And, you know, sometimes I definitely overdo it.
And I got to remind myself to calm down a little
bit.
But the end of the day, my mother always tells me, you got to be yourself.
And that's what I try to do.
Yeah.
Maybe if you just get one technical, then have the Jokic brothers be your get back guy.
And so if you get too far out there, they come down, they grab you back.
Well, that was one of my best moments last year of winning the Western Conference finals. Yeah. The NBA was going to hug Naminah and Strahinah,
Nicola's big brothers and really big brothers,
and then taking me like a rag doll and throwing me in their hand.
I mean, those are moments that you'll never, ever forget.
And that's what I love about our group.
It's not just our players, but we have a very connected group.
And I love being a part of it.
Well, hopefully you get some more of those moments coming up in the next couple of months.
Coach, we really appreciate your time. We love having you on, and best of luck in the playoffs.
Let's not wait a whole year if you guys win again. Let's have you on right away.
So maybe at the parade, we'll have you zoom in at the parade if it happens again.
I tell you what, that would be awesome to do. If not, I will see you guys in Chicago
and always being great being home with you guys and let's do it again soon.
All right. Thanks coach. Thank you coach. Appreciate it. And don't worry. We'll police
anyone who says Mike. We got you. We're your silent protectors. We got you.
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Okay, we'll wrap up the show with FireFest.
I'll actually go first this week with my FireFest because it's the fact that we have a gambling turtle
that's going to probably cost me a lot of money.
Well, he's 0-1 right now. 0-1.
Why are you on the money line?
I wish there was some sort of metaphor though big cat for
Something like kids fable that started out very slow
Reminded us that this was a marathon not a sprint. Okay, so I have to stick with mr.
Perry saying he might he might be the money line guy
We don't know we might have gotten accidentally a money line turtle tortoise
Tortoise tortoise is a tortoise is a tortoise Russian tortoise all tortoises are turtles
So is that true? Can we say max only so oh well max is max easy that he's all tortoises are turtles
Where'd you find that out?
No, no, no, oh
He's got oh all tortoises are turtles not all turtles are tortoises, so he's a tortoise, but also a turtle
So that might have been the turtle pick oh
Yes, he's looking so cute missing pair very gorgeous mr.. P. What's on his mouth?
Yeah, he's looking at him. He's got a lot of white house. What has he been doing? You've been drinking milk
It's calcium powder. They need it for the shell wait, so you put that on him
No, you put it on his food and then oh no way look at you means
He looks like a coke guy means is really he's doing a great job as a zoom in on his face and just make the I fucking
love cocaine meme out of him look at this guy. Why do you have a
Excuse me. Why do you have a Jersey underneath me, why do you have a jersey underneath?
Did he poop on you? And cum on you?
Apparently that's what their pee looks like.
Is white? Okay.
And what if it's a female Taurus and they'll squirt?
We don't know if he's male or female.
Yeah.
It's a mister.
Oh, you've checked it? Nope. Oh, okay. So we don't know if he's female. Yeah. It's a mister. Oh, you've checked it?
Nope.
Oh, OK.
So we don't know.
All right, so that's my fire for us is that whatever this turtle picks,
I'm going to bet.
And we've somehow gotten ourselves back into this situation where
a turtle is now deciding whether I win or lose money.
He's going to be good.
Yeah.
All right, so he's going to pick the Bulls Heat game.
Hank, why don't you go with your fire fest while mr.
Pear picks
No real fire fest for me, I'm in this sleeping sleeping the other day dozing off not great
Yes, especially after you slept until 1130 on last. Yeah, I might have a sleep problem
I've just been waking up early, which I think is a good thing long term. Okay
He's taking his time he's not moving all right can you just let us know keep going with your fire?
I'm just addicted to
Watching old masters broadcast before I go to bed and I that that's been keeping me up
What have you been watching? Did you ever seen Scottie Stradler?
Greg's right great state like 2002. I've been it's their four-hour broadcast
But I'm like, I'll just turn this on and fall asleep and I've watched for like two hours get really into it. Yeah, you are addicted to golf
The it's good. It's good. It's a good watch. You're in Jim dance
He hasn't moved he has not moved folks. He is not move
I think if he doesn't move by the end of the fire fest we have to just do a
Game to go to overtime. Yeah. So wait, why
don't we put food down? Yeah. Put some food down. He's not going to move if there's a
max just show show him your ass. All right. So no fire. Fire Fest is just Hanks watching
too much golf. Yeah. Okay. PFT. Good. Fire Fest. My Fair Fest kind of along the same
lines of also taxes. I did fire find I would like to clear for the record
why were people asking yeah well people were chirping me and like they're saying like I'm
gonna get audited and shit like I take the most out of my taxes so that I don't have
to to taxes not do taxes but like so it's not you know it's not like oh fuck I'm gonna
be down up here he's moving going to the heat oh no we're going to the heat he might he
only turns right so far yeah we're gonna have to figure this problem out he's moving. He's going to the heat. Oh no, he's going to the heat. He only turns right so far.
Yeah, we're going to have to figure this problem out.
He's not an ambiturner.
Okay, keep going Hank.
So you did your taxes even though you did them late?
They're on the way.
We're good.
What's today's date?
It's the 18th.
Do you owe money?
I will owe money, but I'm not going to get like-
They were late?
Go to jail okay
And if I have to pay a fine I pay it
All right PFT. What's yours?
Along the same lines as just the tortoise that stinks at gambling I've I tried to do something good and tried to
Get some advice and learn from experts on tortoises so we can find out more about our beloved mr.
Pear and I signed up for an account on tortoise forums
Okay, and a lot of hot discussion going on on tortoise forums tortoises in the news to find out more about our beloved Mr. Pear. And I signed up for an account on Tortoise Forums.
Okay.
And a lot of hot discussion going on on Tortoise Forums.
Tortoises in the news, advanced tortoise topics.
And I made a post there under advanced tortoise topics
asking for advice with a gambling tortoise
because I assume this is a problem
they've dealt with in the past.
Yeah.
They know which types are good, which types are not good.
I got banned from Tortoise Forums.
What? They hit me with a ban hammer.
The mods came after me after about, it was one post.
You're the John T. Porter of Tortoise Forum.
And I specifically said, we're not doing weird sex stuff
with them, because I know a lot of those freaks on the Tortoise
message boards are into weird sex stuff.
Yep, you let that be known.
I let that be known, and I had several real questions
about the Tortoiseise and then they
hit me with a ban hammer right off the bat.
So I am no longer blocked by OJ but I am banned by tortoise form.
Wait, OJ unblocked you?
No, he's dead so he's not blocking me.
Right, but is his account?
No, but he can't be blocking me if he's dead.
But his account's still blocked.
The account still blocks me.
Yeah, we gotta get that fixed. No, I'm okay with that. I'm okay. But his account still blocks me. Yeah, we got to get that fixed. I know
I'm okay with that. I'm okay. I wear that as a badge. But the tortoise form thing is
it's a real issue because we are going to have questions about it and that's the place
to go to get your questions answered. I'll sign up. There's yeah, you should and then
do a little like intro post about yourself. Yeah, I'm not trying to have sex with any
turtles. No sex stuff. We've been very clear about that maybe I'll say listen guys I'm not trying to have sex with my turtle he also is a
tortoise we're not gonna talk about that part yeah just let everyone know yeah I
are separate I looked around on the forum though and there's some great
great topics like what did your tortoise do during the eclipse was a hot one that
was in the advanced topic section what are are you doing in the middle? Oh He's 50s turning. He's trying to escape. I think he's leaving. He's leaving this guy. Mr. Pear
He's got a problem. I mean we we can do if he leaves we could say oh pick
He's looking at the balls. He's like 60% bulls right now. Okay
All right. All right. Um
Yeah, I don't, I don't really
have a fire for us other than Mr. Pair. You want to do a Taylor Swift album review?
Yeah. Uh, wait, no, actually, no, I don't cause it isn't officially out yet. Right.
But it's, it's out by the time this is released. But Swifties have been very upset about leaks.
Oh, doxing each other. They've been in fightingfighting in the Swifties. Well I did hear one song that I did not care for on the album.
Okay.
So wait, you listened to it before it came out?
No, I was forced to listen to it.
Okay.
I was forced to listen to it.
Are there any music videos?
Somebody kidnapped me and they said you have to listen to this.
I said no, Taylor's Queen, let's not take away from her streams.
Yeah, is there any videos I could watch?
I don't have any videos of it.
OK.
Just yet.
Let me know when it's in video form.
I've heard that there might be a very interesting video
of her and somebody else.
Oh.
Are you watching?
There's one song that I don't like at all,
and I don't think anyone should listen to.
It's about how her boyfriend's friend is super annoying
and always trying to get him to schedule things
and trying to get him to stop coming to her concerts, trying to get him out to drink beers and just carry on and
be a big psycho jock. Don't listen. And that's not who her boyfriend is, but he has one bad,
really bad influence of a friend. That's very unorganized. Yeah. Okay. So whatever that
song is about, I don't like it. Yep. Agreed. Uh, Jake finishes off. Is he just not moving
in? He's not moving. He's in the it? It might be a no-pick
Or we could just keep it running the bulls, but he's in the dead center. Yeah, we'll keep him going come on
Mr.. Come on. Mr.. Bear rush greatness. All right Jake. What's your other day?
I was walking back from the grocery store and started pouring
Right in the middle of the walk. Oh
I didn't like to get wet we did have a crazy a couple crazy weather days thanks Hank oh that's our our our baseball game were
canceled yeah but it was like there was one day where it was awful it was
raining then 70 degrees and raining again nice little like Florida mix it up
mm-hmm weather's been fine it's been fucking 70 no there's just one day where
a little rain did you see your mr. Pear voice to me? Oh, I'm excited for your softball team. I want to play
I also think Hank is not gonna be a good pitcher. He's not taking it seriously what I
Asked who was pitching and they everyone's like, I don't know and then it seems like you're pitching out
I'm gonna come and and
I'm gonna come don't want to come don't come and max are you the
manager pug where the hugs the manager with the hugs hug will you will there be a short
hook on Hank if he's not throwing strikes yeah it was a zero tolerance policy love that
yeah all right I'll be ready I'm gonna softball so they're gonna get hit like it strikes is
one thing I'm fine with that but well no if you don't throw strikes, they're just gonna walk on no I'm saying that's fine
Yeah, if we're giving up runs, that's and there's nothing I can do. That's my field
It's softball sounds like you're okay with getting shelled. Yeah, sounds like you're giving up meatballs. It's softball
Sounds like you're throwing it too slow. I have no choice. We'll see it's game zero cut me some slack
All right, I'm gonna show up in a big starter jacket with just over my right arm
I'll be ready. Maybe I'll stand maybe I'll just sit in my car. We should find out
We should find out what teams are playing against Hank and then we should get you in the starting lineup for one of those teams
Just take take a take a take him yard. Yeah. No, just take pitches walks are way more embarrassing. It's crowd the plate
Oh, oh is he gone?
Not really.
He popped his head out.
I found how you can tell the difference between a male and a female tortoise online.
Should we check?
Yeah.
Maybe he doesn't like the food that's being presented.
What is it?
Lettuce?
Let's check next time he does a pick because he's already he's in the middle of a pic right now
We can't rush this yeah, if somebody take a while
All right should we do numbers, and then you just want someone just want to stay with a camera
And we can just have our pic be whenever he decides
Yep, and maybe maybe max or memes say what the pic is after we do numbers so people who are listening can get the pic
That's fair all right numbers. Oh oh he's walking towards the bulls eight go mr. pear go mr. pear oh
go mr. pear go mr. pear he's going to be loose hauling on he's doing it he's
doing it and bulls let's go mr.'s go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go,
let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go,
let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go,
let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go,
let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's
go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's
go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's Pear. I love you, Mr. Pear. Alright, numbers.
840.
I'm gonna go 73 for Mr. Pear.
61 plus 12 is the number for a turtle.
61 plus 12 is 73.
20.
20 for Max.
18.
3.
He's hungry.
99, Po.
Are you?
I just fed him.
Supposed to eat one time a day.
He did all that coke. He's not hungry. Supposed to eat one time a day.
He did all that coke. He's not hungry.
Max, we should go on the Mr. Pear Barrel.
Seventy-nine!
Love you guys. I'm walking away, I don't know what to say, I'm saying anyway
Today is my day to find you
Shine away, I'm coming for your love again
Shine away, I'm coming for your love again Take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me on, take me pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all the pain, all I'll be stoned and let away I'm starting to learn that my heart is okay
Say I'm a thief
It's no better to be saved than something
Say I'm a thief
It's no better to be saved than something
I'll be gone
I'll be back
I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be gone, I'll be say, yeah, is it level?
Just to play my part, really
You all the things I've got to remember
Shining light, I'm coming for you, play light
Shining light, I'm coming for you, play light Come and take me away Take on me
Take on me
Take on me
Take on me
Take on me Take me on
I'll be yours
Take me on
Take me on
Take me on Me, I'm a chain of fire