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at ringer NFL. Ring or NFL. I'm

1:20

a man. I remember when I

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value most Learn

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more at State farm.com. What's

2:11

poppin? Real ones. Logan

2:13

Murdock here. Raja

2:15

Bell in transit. Howard motherfucking

2:17

Beck in the cut. He

2:20

is live from Boston. I am live

2:22

from Studio Six in

2:24

Los Angeles in the Spotify hub. It's

2:26

good to see you, man. We're here to talk finals. What's going

2:28

on? How you doing? You doing good at Bean Town? I'm

2:31

doing great, man. I have

2:34

met my goal of averaging at

2:36

least one lobster-related meal per day.

2:38

I think my lobster roll counts

2:40

up to like three. So

2:42

it's been good. How many lobster rolls do you

2:44

eat before you get tired? No matter

2:46

how good lobster rolls are, you do get

2:49

tired of lobster rolls. What is your threshold?

2:52

It's impossible. I once spent a week in

2:54

Maine and just like did nothing but lobster

2:56

the entire fucking week. So yeah, I

2:59

cannot overdose on lobster, apparently. The streets say

3:01

that Maine is fire. Like that Maine is

3:03

a great place to go. Like I, as

3:05

being on the West Coast, that's just not

3:07

some place I would go for, you know,

3:09

leisure because it's just so far, but it

3:11

seems like a vibe. Yeah, it was not on

3:13

my radar. It was not on our radar at all growing

3:15

up in California, but we've been living in New York for

3:17

20 years and we're like, hey, there's other states in the

3:19

Northeast. We should look, go look at them. And yeah, Maine's

3:22

gorgeous. Speaking of happiness in the

3:24

Northeast, the Boston Celtics are up 2-0

3:26

in the NBA finals. One,

3:29

two games in very Boston

3:31

Celtics fashion. The first game obviously was,

3:33

you know, they get into the big

3:35

lead and then they kind of hold on.

3:37

And then the second game, I

3:40

think the second game was a

3:42

true testament to their dominance in

3:44

the series thus far. And

3:47

also foreshadowing, I think the

3:49

dominance that's about to come. It

3:51

was, it was at least watching it last

3:53

night away from the arena. It

3:55

seemed like no matter

3:57

what the Mavericks tried to do offensively.

4:00

the Celtics always had an answer, you know,

4:02

whether that be Drew Holliday, whether that be

4:04

the multiple offensive options that they had. The

4:07

Mavericks offense was basically Luca

4:10

Doncic to go figure it out and

4:13

you're not gonna have any help. You're not gonna have any

4:15

help. And that's just the way

4:17

this is gonna go. Is that indicative of how

4:19

you feel like the rest of the series is

4:21

going to go or was this confined to these

4:23

first two games if you had to guess? No,

4:25

I think with the exception

4:28

of the fact that the Celtics have shot

4:30

terribly and Tatum has been

4:32

kind of blah. The

4:35

series so far, Logan, I think has

4:37

just shown us exactly what most of

4:39

us expected. You know,

4:41

not everybody, not everybody, but I think the majority

4:43

of- Not me. But yeah, you

4:45

know, you had to be different.

4:48

I think most of us going into the

4:50

series, looked at it and said,

4:52

all right, both teams have a great one,

4:55

two punch, very differently constructed one, two punches.

4:57

If you were to call that even, if you wanted to just call

5:00

that even, whether it is or not, if you wanted to call

5:02

that even, the fact was

5:04

three through whatever favored

5:06

the Celtics heavily, just

5:08

heavily. Drew Holliday, Derek White,

5:11

Porzingis if he was healthy, turns out he was healthy

5:13

enough to have an incredible game one. He's now a

5:15

little banged up again. Al

5:17

Horford, they just had more guys

5:19

who can, on

5:21

offense, do something with a bow on their

5:24

hands, on defense, guard multiple positions, make

5:27

life tough on Luca and Kyrie. I

5:29

feel like this has played out, I don't

5:31

want to say exactly as expected, because again, I

5:33

think the Celtics could be and should

5:35

be even better than they've been. But there's

5:38

a massive talent deficit between these teams

5:41

after you get past the

5:43

two stars for each team. So that

5:46

to me is the top

5:48

line takeaway. I am not surprised at all that the

5:50

Celtics are up 2-0. Yes,

5:53

they played with fire a little bit yesterday or last

5:55

night as they were apt to do. I

5:57

can't remember who posted the clutch stats with.

6:00

in the last several hours, but the

6:02

Celtics team has been great in the clutch all season

6:05

and in the playoffs. So the Mavericks

6:07

just don't have enough. Lucas clearly

6:09

banged up. And

6:11

the Celtics, because they can play everybody straight up,

6:15

there's just not a lot of places for Luca

6:17

to find open shooters because they're

6:19

not open. And you

6:22

know, between Horford and Porzingis, I think they're taking away a

6:24

lot of the lobs. Like this, this Mavericks

6:26

team was thriving off of lobs to Gafford and Lively.

6:28

We're just not seeing a lot of that. Several

6:31

people have well documented, including our colleague Michael Pina,

6:33

that they've just taken away the corner threes that

6:36

the Mavs thrive on. So

6:38

it's made the Mavericks who at their

6:41

worst can be kind of stagnant and

6:43

isolation heavy anyway even more

6:45

so. And I thought it was really striking in

6:47

the first half. And Luca

6:49

managed to start finding guys a little bit more in the third

6:51

quarter and they made a run. But

6:54

the first half especially, it was like Luca

6:56

pounding the ball, Kyrie pounding the ball and

6:59

not much else going on. And there's

7:01

just not a lot of dynamism in that offense if

7:04

you can play them straight up like that. If

7:06

you're not helping off anybody, then it just all

7:08

kind of stalls out. Well,

7:11

that's the tough part about when

7:13

you're playing at this stage of

7:15

the season, when you

7:17

have two high octane scores and

7:19

not much to put around them, right? And I'm

7:22

not saying that the Mavericks supporting

7:24

cast hasn't been really good this season. I

7:26

think they have been good in spurts, right?

7:28

You talk about Jones, PJ Washington is a

7:31

big example, Lively too.

7:34

But none of those other guys can create

7:36

their own shots. And the only person other

7:38

than Luca that can create his own shot

7:40

on the roster is Kyrie, who

7:43

had 16 points on 18 shots and has struggled

7:45

to kind of get his rhythm. But more than

7:47

struggling to get his rhythm, I don't think he

7:49

even has this Mojo, right? Who stole this Mojo?

7:51

Karim, do you know where his Mojo is? Do

7:53

you have any idea where his Mojo is? I

7:55

don't know. Where the

7:57

hell is his Mojo, Beck? because

8:01

historically speaking, you've been around Kyrie,

8:03

you've seen him in finals, right?

8:06

I've seen him in big games

8:08

before. And he seems

8:10

to always have that chip on his shoulder

8:12

and always have some

8:14

sort of killer instinct. And I'm not saying that

8:16

the killer instinct isn't there, but he

8:19

doesn't have that oomph to

8:21

himself. He doesn't have that swagger that he

8:23

used to, me and Raja upon in the

8:25

last episode, that he's

8:27

being a little bit too nice. And it'd be

8:29

a little bit too diplomatic and I think that's affecting

8:31

his game on court. But what have you

8:34

seen just on the ground from, has

8:37

it surprised you what his attitude has been?

8:39

And how have you thought

8:41

that has translated to his game? Is

8:43

it too early in the show

8:46

for Kermit to bust out his British accent

8:48

so he can do Austin Powers saying he

8:50

stole my mojo? Let's

8:52

do it, let's do it, let's do it real quick. He stole

8:54

my mojo? Does that work? Is

8:56

that good? Does

8:58

that work Mr. Beck? Does that work for you

9:00

Beck? Does that work? Phenomenal, thank you

9:03

Kerb, I needed that. It

9:05

was a long night, I'm really tired and

9:08

a little punchy. Cranky, Kyrie

9:10

lost his mojo. Okay, sorry, sorry, go

9:12

ahead Beck. Phenomenal. No,

9:16

I mean, there's, it feels like there's

9:19

a little bit to that and I

9:21

actually agree with you in some weird

9:23

way that seeing Kyrie be so placid

9:26

and self assured and philosophical

9:28

about everything. You almost

9:31

think like maybe he's too

9:33

comfortable being this new evolved version of

9:35

Kyrie, then he's a little the edge.

9:37

Although that said, I don't remember

9:39

what the stat is. Kyrie's

9:41

like, and 12 or something

9:44

in his last game, last 12 games against

9:46

the Celtics. Is that in Boston or just

9:48

overall against the Celtics? I

9:50

believe part of it, I mean, he hasn't won

9:52

in Boston in years. I think it was since

9:54

2021. I think he maybe won one

9:56

game. It's been a while, but

9:58

look, like, you know. all it's, you

10:00

know, psychoanalyzing aside,

10:03

the fact is, and again,

10:06

this is why the Celtics, I think,

10:08

were heavily favored by just about everybody.

10:10

They've got so many different bodies to

10:13

throw at Kyrie, so many guys who can stay

10:15

in front of him. So one possession, it's Jalen

10:17

Brown with all that length. Another possession, it might

10:19

be Drew Holliday, who's one of the best defenders

10:21

in the NBA, Derek White, Jason Tatum,

10:23

like there's just, and it's the same

10:26

thing with Luca. Like the Celtics don't mind just

10:28

switching everything. All the time,

10:30

and sometimes the Mavs are going for multiple

10:33

switches, and it doesn't matter, because whoever's in

10:35

front of you is still somebody who can

10:37

at least contain or cut off your passing

10:39

lanes and make it difficult for you.

10:42

And maybe Kyrie and Luca are making it harder on

10:44

themselves by trying to do a

10:46

little too much in isolation. But again, no one's,

10:49

you know, the Celtics aren't really doubling

10:52

off anybody, so, you know, if there's

10:54

no rotation, then there's no open

10:56

man. I just

10:59

think that, I

11:01

don't know if Kyrie's being psyched out by the crowd or not,

11:03

but it is really loud in there.

11:06

There are a lot of Kyrie sucks chants. They

11:08

are booing him every time he gets the ball.

11:10

None of this is new. And

11:12

I didn't hear anything, like I wasn't in the ball for

11:14

game one, I was back at house, but game two, I

11:17

was in there. I didn't hear anything from where I was

11:19

sitting that was over the top, but

11:22

they're consistently booing, and they're doing the Kyrie sucks

11:24

chants. And does that rattle you? He's

11:27

been in the league long enough, you'd think not. I'm

11:29

gonna chalk most of this up to the fact that

11:31

the Celtics are just that great defensively,

11:34

and Kyrie can't get loose, can't get

11:37

to his spots. But yeah, he's

11:39

been abysmal. I

11:41

ran into Shaq last night after the game, just

11:44

crossing paths in the press room.

11:47

And it was a very quick exchange, just kind of what's up, how's

11:49

it going, blah, blah. And he goes, Kyrie's sticking

11:52

up the joint. I'm

11:55

guessing he said the same on air, so

11:57

I hope I'm not divulging any like. very

12:00

hot take from Mr. Shaq. No, it's not the hottest of

12:02

hot takes. I think I can divulge that publicly.

12:04

And I'm sure he said it on air because

12:06

he was doing the NBA TV thing last night.

12:08

So that's pretty much it. And

12:10

like, again, like the Mavericks don't have, as

12:12

you mentioned, they don't have a lot

12:15

of guys who can create their own offense. And

12:17

so if it just becomes the

12:19

Luca and Kyrie show kind of taking turns, that's

12:22

not going to produce a lot of efficient scoring. It's

12:25

really interesting to see, because

12:27

I don't know if we've ever had, you've

12:29

been in a league, run a league longer than I have, but

12:32

I don't think we've had a situation

12:34

where a

12:37

guy who was a vet of a team, go

12:40

to another team and place his little homies

12:43

who are now two of the best two-way

12:46

players in the league all of a sudden.

12:48

And now they're like, I'm talking about Kyrie,

12:50

Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, whom

12:52

played, were young guys

12:54

when Kyrie was on the Boston Celtics.

12:56

And now it wasn't, it was a

12:58

very rocky road when Kyrie was on

13:01

the Boston Celtics, that's well-documented. But

13:03

now to now come back around and you

13:05

face your vet, who wasn't great to

13:07

you in the finals. And I

13:09

know there's some animosity there. They're

13:12

all good off the floor,

13:14

but I know that they, like you even see some

13:16

of the stuff that, that Jaylen

13:18

Brown is doing with his defense. He's talking shit.

13:21

We'll talk about Jaylen in a second. This

13:23

is actually my transition into Jaylen Brown. It's

13:26

been really fun to see

13:28

him transform into this

13:30

version of a player,

13:32

right? Where two years ago,

13:35

he was trying to prove that, you know, not only

13:38

is he the best player, but

13:40

that he can, he can lead

13:42

a team. And there was some legitimate questions in 2022, if

13:46

he could do that 2020 last season, if he

13:48

could do that. And now he's kind of

13:51

had this metamorphosis as the best player on the

13:53

team in real time. What

13:56

have you thought of how he's grown over the

13:58

last couple of years? What does

14:00

this mean if he continues to do

14:02

this? Because he's on track right now to be finals

14:04

MVP. What will it mean

14:07

for him, not only league

14:09

wide before himself, if he's able to

14:11

continue this metamorphosis and to the best

14:13

player on the roster? It's

14:15

pretty rare. And it's funny, obviously, we spent

14:18

a couple of days here kind of laughing

14:21

at and having fun with Jason Kidd,

14:25

going all Phil Jackson and throwing out this.

14:27

That was a beautiful tactic of a divide

14:29

and conquer, even though it was truth in

14:32

there. But it was so transparent. And

14:35

Kidd has this great way of

14:37

just deadpanning things, where when

14:40

Phil Jackson would do this back in the day, there's kind of this

14:42

twinkle in his eye. If he throws out

14:45

some little line, and I'm trying to remember a

14:47

good example, but when he would have those moments,

14:50

you knew exactly what Phil was doing, because there

14:52

was a little bit of a smirk, a little twinkle

14:54

in his eye, and he knows he's throwing something out

14:56

there that we're all going to run with, and that's

14:59

going to fuck with the opposition. And Jason Kidd, because

15:01

he's sort of monotone and sort

15:03

of sounds the same no matter what he's saying,

15:06

he could have just said, the sky is blue, or

15:10

I like peanut butter and jelly, or

15:13

Jalen Brown's their best player. And it all sounds the same

15:15

the way he's saying it. It's all just very matter of

15:17

fact, as if these are just obvious,

15:20

basic things. He

15:22

did it with a question

15:24

that was a very open-ended

15:27

question about, hey, what's the challenge of dealing

15:29

with Jalen Brown? Well, Jalen Brown's

15:31

the best player, and so da, da, da,

15:33

da. It was very matter of fact. Anyway,

15:36

I admired the very subtle shit-stirring

15:40

by Kidd. I didn't think it was

15:42

necessarily going to have any impact on the Celtics. Those

15:44

guys have been together too long. This

15:46

team has been there,

15:48

done that. I didn't really

15:50

think it was going to do anything, but hey, why not? Why

15:53

not go for it? What's really

15:56

rare, Logan, when we see

15:58

one-two punches in this league? It's

16:00

usually pretty clear like okay, Michael and Scotty.

16:02

We know who the the alpha is there

16:05

We don't go back to our stupid Batman

16:07

and Robin shit, but like we know who's

16:09

who's number one, right? it's

16:11

always been pretty Understood that it's

16:13

Tatum and then Brown And

16:16

I don't want know that we should why

16:18

was that though? Why why do you think

16:20

that was because we're on this point right

16:22

now. We're seeing I mean Why

16:25

do we anoint Tatum so fast and I'm not

16:27

even saying if we were wrong to do that

16:29

I'm just asking the why of it all and

16:31

why did why were we quick to take when

16:33

did Tatum just show signs earlier? In

16:36

your mind, why did we anoint Tatum as

16:38

the face of the team? First

16:41

I don't know that we anointed him. I mean, I think it was

16:43

just kind of universally understood whether

16:45

it was the Celtics themselves and

16:48

the way they Constructed

16:50

things or whether it's other Coaches

16:52

and scouts around the league and yes the media

16:54

too But like I think it was just pretty

16:57

clear like Tatum was the more polished and more

16:59

well-rounded player Jaylen Browns, you know

17:01

huge strides You know

17:03

what? It might have been that 20 It was the 2018 playoffs

17:06

when Tatum just that was so

17:08

defining when the Eastern

17:10

Conference Finals when Tatum dunked on

17:12

LeBron And when that happened Jaylen

17:15

Brown was all coming off the bench and it was

17:17

just it it was a difference in series.

17:19

He had a moment Yeah, I mean I I

17:23

think that those moments have make an

17:25

impression But I also just think that

17:28

Tatum had the more well-rounded

17:30

polished game Was better with

17:32

the ball in his hands for sure Jaylen Brown obviously a lot

17:34

of turnover issues and you you cringed, you know in the past

17:37

at least every time you put the ball on the deck and

17:40

so I don't I don't think it was unwarranted but

17:43

where I'm going with this is that if Jaylen

17:46

Brown wins Finals MVP We're getting ahead

17:48

of ourselves and and right now

17:50

like through two games like Tatum is probably

17:52

not Finals MVP But like it might be

17:54

Drew Holliday If poor Ziggas has

17:57

another big game, it might be poor Ziggas like that

17:59

sounds ludicrous I know but but I

18:01

don't know how the next couple games are gonna go and how

18:03

long this series is gonna go but If

18:07

it's if Jalen Brown wins finals MVP,

18:09

it will sort of stoke this discussion,

18:12

right? Like oh, we always thought it

18:14

was the one-two punch was Tatum

18:16

as the one and now maybe it's the other way

18:18

around I don't know that it matters or anybody

18:21

should actually care Michael Pete and I

18:23

were walking back from from the game last night after

18:25

filing our stories and just kind of talking about this

18:27

And about the way that they know on

18:30

an individual level Tatum. It feels like he's losing

18:32

some ground Because he's

18:34

struggling in these finals because you know

18:37

Even with the Celtics being a 64 would seem this

18:39

year, right? He wasn't gonna be

18:42

any better than fifth in the MVP voting and Pina's

18:44

response at one point when I was like kind of noting some

18:47

of this He's like and the thing

18:49

is it doesn't actually even matter and I said, you know

18:51

what you're right Like if they were the championship, yeah None

18:54

of them should care and we'll all dwell on it

18:56

because this is what we do We have to rank

18:58

people within their era. We have to rank people historically

19:00

We have to talk about who's the alpha and all

19:03

this stuff check out the ringer player rankings If you

19:05

get a chance check out the player rankings on the

19:07

ringer if you get a chance to say yes But

19:09

this is what we do, right? But I think most

19:11

players not all but most would say you know what?

19:14

I don't care. Maybe I don't win finals MVP. Maybe

19:17

I never win regular season MVP maybe people don't think

19:19

I'm a top five player and I'm only top 10

19:21

or top 12 or something if Tatum

19:23

and Brown stick together for any length of time

19:25

and this becomes championship one of Potentially

19:28

several I don't think

19:30

either of them are gonna care necessarily whether they

19:32

got the accolades like you do early in your

19:34

career again That was the lesson of I hate

19:37

to make it another Celtics reference But that was

19:39

the lesson of the you know, the 2007-18 right

19:41

like Pierce had done all kinds of great things

19:43

on his own individually Garnett had Ray Allen had

19:46

None of them had won at the level that

19:48

you really need to or that you want to

19:50

they all sacrificed They went to championship. We know

19:52

the story But and

19:55

Brown and Tatum were younger than those guys were at that

19:57

time But they

20:00

seem pretty comfortable with this arrangement.

20:02

Like I don't think anybody's complaining

20:04

Logan, this is not Shaq versus

20:06

Kobe. They're, you know, and

20:08

then this. And I think they've always

20:10

been to a certain degree comfortable with each other.

20:12

I remember talking to Marcus Smart a few years

20:14

ago. He was like, they've always been friends. I

20:16

mean, you guys might not have seen it, but

20:18

they've always been in a good place.

20:21

They've always been good, you know? And now I

20:24

think more than anything, this is

20:26

just a coming of AIDS for Jaylen, which is a

20:28

good thing to see, right? And we always ask, and

20:30

I brought up Marcus Smart. We always ask,

20:32

the biggest thing that I'm impressed with, we

20:34

always ask who was going to fill the

20:37

void of Marcus Smart in

20:39

terms of leadership. Now we're

20:41

seeing that with Jaylen, and I'm

20:44

impressed by that just to see how far he's come

20:46

in the leadership category, right? Because he had to find

20:48

himself in order to do that. And

20:50

he's in a good place with that. So I think

20:52

that should be the story. I know it

20:55

likely won't be. The other

20:57

side of it though, just from a game

20:59

on court standpoint, I wanted to talk about,

21:01

use this to talk about Jason Tatum. He's,

21:04

I think he's made 12 shots all

21:07

series. He's not shooting the

21:09

ball very well. He is doing other things very

21:11

well. He's getting his assists, getting his boards. But

21:15

we talked about how, what's

21:18

been affecting Kyrie. Is

21:20

it something that's been, is that kind

21:22

of the, not necessarily, is

21:24

it a mind thing that you think is

21:27

affecting Tatum or you think is just the

21:29

defense that he's facing right now

21:32

that is influencing

21:34

how his games have been from

21:36

a shooting perspective? No,

21:39

I think it's more Tatum just missing shots. And

21:42

that's the thing. Like I think if

21:44

you're the Mavericks, you're feeling, I

21:47

don't, actually based on what I saw from them last

21:49

night post game, it doesn't seem like they're necessarily taking

21:51

any moral victories out of any of this. But yeah,

21:53

like they're a possession or two or

21:56

a mistake or two away. You know, Luca has eight

21:58

turnovers and characteristic of him. but they're

22:00

not that far off from maybe stealing a

22:02

game. At the same time though,

22:05

like the

22:07

Celtics are up 2-0 and their best player, yes, I'm

22:10

still gonna say Tatum's their best player, their

22:13

best player has been pretty

22:15

awful. Like he had a great assist game last

22:17

night. It was a great playmaking game. 12

22:19

assists was his career high for playoffs

22:22

regular season or anything, but

22:25

probably Tatum's not gonna keep shooting that poorly.

22:28

And I think like if

22:30

you're the Celtics, you're feeling pretty good.

22:33

You're up 2-0 and your

22:36

best player has not played his best by

22:38

far. And this is the team

22:40

that's been great on the road. So I don't

22:42

think they're worried about playing in Dallas. By the way,

22:44

can I do my, they

22:47

just held serve rants again with

22:49

some stats. Get in your fucking bag,

22:51

get in your bag. Cause Jason Kidd

22:53

did it last night. I was waiting for it. I was

22:55

waiting for that they just held serve. I can't remember if

22:57

he actually used that terminology, but it was the, you know,

22:59

they did what they're supposed to do. They won their two.

23:01

How many cliches have you heard throughout the finals before you

23:03

get the held serve in your held serve bag? I

23:06

mean, that's, that was the main one. There have

23:08

probably been others. I haven't been mentally cataloging, but

23:10

last night I was waiting for it. I was

23:12

waiting for the justification. The team

23:14

that's down 2-0 always has to do this. If you lost

23:16

the first two on the road, you have

23:18

to say, well, they just held serve. They just did

23:21

what they're supposed to do when they're home games. Now

23:23

we'll go do that. But it's bullshit. And this is,

23:25

this is, these are the lies NBA teams tell us.

23:27

Real quick. So in the playoffs, in

23:29

a best of seven series, the game one winner wins

23:31

the series 75% of the time. And

23:34

if the home team won game one, they win the

23:36

series almost 85% of the time. In

23:39

the playoffs, the team that wins the first two

23:42

games at home, which the Celtics have just done,

23:44

win the series 92.5% of the time. And

23:48

in the finals, the team that wins

23:50

the first two games at home, they

23:52

win the series 84.4% of the time. So

23:56

it's not just holding serve. If you're the

23:58

team without home court advantage. you really

24:00

need to win one of those first two games

24:02

and steal home court because you're gonna

24:05

have to win on the road at some point. Offhand, I don't think

24:07

the team has done that since

24:10

the heat in 06 if I

24:12

had to guess. They just ran the

24:14

table after losing the first two games. Yeah,

24:17

that might be it. That might be it.

24:20

I'd have to look it up. And a lot of that

24:22

had to do was they had three straight home games going

24:24

back. That was the old 2-3-2 format. Yeah,

24:26

yeah. I missed the 2-3-2 format. I like that

24:28

better. Yeah, but the players don't. Yeah,

24:30

I don't know. It's all about me. Fuck

24:33

them. But no. Anyway,

24:39

what it really means is you now have to win four

24:41

of the remaining five against

24:44

a team that you have not been able to beat on

24:46

their home court yet. That's what it really means. And it

24:48

usually means that you're down 2-0 for a reason, that you're

24:51

probably just not good enough to beat that team. So they

24:53

didn't just hold serve. It's not

24:55

as simple as that. The Mavs are in a tough

24:57

hole right now. It's

24:59

the reason why I like just watching

25:01

it last night. The

25:03

Mavs, they can say,

25:06

oh, we're one or two plays away

25:08

from stealing a game. But they

25:10

damn near have to be perfect to even win it,

25:12

to win a game in this whole

25:14

series. Like they

25:17

held the bosses sell 6 to 45% from the field and

25:20

25% from three-point range and lost by seven.

25:23

And it wasn't even close. They

25:25

cannot manufacture offense whatsoever outside

25:28

of Luca. Maybe

25:31

they'll probably, they might have a game. We

25:34

always see it, the momentum game

25:36

at home, right? Where you just beat the shit

25:38

out of a team. Maybe it's game three, maybe it's

25:40

game four. But when the chips

25:42

are down, if like two

25:44

of the bosses Celtics are on and

25:47

they're playing shut down defense, they win the game.

25:50

They're so much better than the Dallas Mavericks.

25:52

And I'm so embarrassed that I picked the

25:55

Mavericks in six. You don't

25:57

even understand, Howard. I'm out here. I

25:59

was so confident. it in that pic. What

26:01

a hater I am, huh, Kerm? Fuckin' hater. But I

26:04

get it. It's fucked the Celtics on this side too,

26:06

so I get it, man. But

26:09

where do you see the rest of this series

26:11

going? I'm not saying predictions, I'm just saying, you

26:13

know, just a foreshadow. Like, I'm not saying who's

26:15

winning it. Like, based on

26:17

what I just said, and based on what you've seen,

26:20

from just the disparity in, not

26:22

talent, but just the disparity in

26:26

roster construction, where

26:28

do you see this series heading? I

26:31

think it's over. Yeah,

26:33

probably. I mean, look, I said

26:36

Celtics in six, but in the back of my

26:38

mind, it was, you know, but we

26:40

don't know what Porzingis looks like, so let's see what

26:42

he looks like. If Porzingis looks really good, it

26:45

might be Celtics in five, and

26:47

Porzingis looked incredible in game one, not

26:49

so great in game two, and then

26:51

he got banged up, and we'll see

26:53

what that means for game three. Porzingis,

26:55

my God, talk about overdramatizing. Porzingis was

26:57

asked afterward about, you know, are you gonna

27:00

be all right to play in three? And he

27:02

said something like, if I have to

27:04

die out there, I will. Something

27:07

like that. Hey, man,

27:09

how, how, how, I've seen it on

27:11

television, me and Kyra both see it

27:13

on television. How is the crowd when

27:15

Porzingis comes to the floor? It feels

27:17

like he's a fucking rock star in

27:19

Boston. I mean, it feels like to

27:22

the point where he just waits, where

27:24

he just waits even like hella late

27:26

on purpose, just to come out and

27:28

to get the heroes walking before every game. It's like

27:30

he's milking the shit out of him. Drop the lights

27:32

and start playing like the Rocky theme or something, or

27:34

just like, you know. Because he does the hands and

27:36

stuff too. He's like, yeah. It

27:40

really is something. No, he's become Willis

27:42

Reed, the Willis Reed of Boston or

27:44

something. But dude, I mean, he's,

27:48

Porzingis is a extremely tough cover, and the dimensions

27:50

he adds at both ends of the floor for

27:52

the Celtics are just impossible for the Mavericks to

27:54

deal with, as long as

27:56

he's mobile enough. So, you know,

27:58

he might be the difference. between like if he

28:01

is banged up if he can't go on in

28:03

game three or if he's you know

28:05

slowed up a little bit I think

28:07

that that you know gives the uh the

28:10

Mavericks a little bit of wiggle room or a little opportunity

28:12

there but I like I'll stick with what

28:14

I said from the beginning which was Celtics and six

28:16

but I this is starting to look like Celtics in

28:18

a shorter series you know maybe it's

28:20

five I'm skipping the next two games

28:22

because I've uh I've got to

28:24

go home for some uh some good family stuff but

28:27

I'm assuming I'm coming back here in about a week

28:29

for a game five there

28:32

you go all right let's take a quick break then

28:34

we're going to talk a little Lakers much to Howard

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31:08

right, and we are back. It

31:10

is 10 36 Pacific time here in Los

31:13

Angeles where

31:17

the Lakers are waiting patiently or

31:19

impatiently on

31:23

the decision of one Dan Hurley, who

31:25

at the 11th hour, depending

31:28

on who you read, was

31:31

approached by the Lakers with a massive offer

31:33

that was impressive and

31:36

compelling and all of the things.

31:39

Yet he left Los Angeles

31:41

on Friday without signing a

31:43

contract and said

31:45

he'll take the weekend to think it over. This

31:48

is coming on the heels of the

31:50

pursuit of JJ Rettick, which

31:53

has been well documented and kind of weird. What

31:56

the hell are the Lakers doing Howard Beck? Oh

31:58

my God. I

32:00

don't know. Sometimes I wonder if they

32:03

know. Kerm is

32:05

crying, right? Kerm is in a

32:07

very bad place right now. I'm

32:11

sorry, Kerm. I really am. This

32:14

has been among the more peculiar

32:16

coaching searches we've seen from

32:19

the, you know, JJ

32:21

Rettick candidacy to JJ Rettick

32:23

being kind of almost

32:26

universally acknowledged and reported as being

32:28

the front runner to the,

32:30

you know, 11th

32:32

hour Dan Hurley, but he's

32:34

been their top target all along. Huh?

32:38

We didn't even hear about that. As many

32:40

leaks as we've gotten from the Lakers over

32:42

the years to just now, yeah, it's weird.

32:45

It's all a little strange and I'll just

32:47

leave it at that. And so as

32:49

we record this on Monday afternoon, I

32:52

believe we are 20 minutes away now

32:54

from what I think

32:57

is when Hurley's supposed to make some sort

32:59

of announcement. And I

33:02

don't know what that's going to be, but let's assume

33:04

he stays at UConn.

33:06

I just don't see him like going back to the

33:08

East coast and making it. And I mean, we're speaking

33:10

this really early. I just don't see him going all

33:12

the way back to the East coast to announce that

33:14

he's going back to the West coast. Depends

33:17

on where the press conference is. It seems weird. I don't

33:19

know what the location may or may not have to do

33:21

with it. It would be,

33:23

I don't know. I

33:26

just know that if he turns them down, if

33:30

he stays put, and

33:32

you've now made a big show of chasing him,

33:36

we're going to blow him away. We

33:38

want him to be a long-term coach

33:40

who establishes a culture and a system

33:42

and a continuity. And

33:45

then you don't get him? Well,

33:47

where does that leave them? But where does that

33:49

also leave like JJ Redick or JJ was actually

33:51

the front runner before.

33:56

Now it looks like he's your second choice.

33:58

Like how did that happen? Does that go

34:00

over? Where does that leave Borrego? Is

34:03

there some other dark horse that

34:05

we don't even know about yet? Like,

34:07

ah. Just feel handy just gonna come out and just

34:09

coach the team. Is that what's gonna end up happening?

34:11

Feel handy just gonna come out. Well, if they're not

34:13

gonna have any candidates, like, feel, come back. Somebody

34:16

already beat me to this joke on Twitter, but

34:19

Frank Vogel's available. I

34:23

can't see, I can't see Kurt right now. I don't know

34:25

how that went over. He's

34:27

just giggling in the back. I laughed. It

34:29

was funny at least. I'll give you that. He

34:32

let him do a championship. How

34:35

do you fumble a coaching search this much,

34:37

man? Because even the Hurley stuff, right? And

34:39

we don't know if he's gonna be the

34:41

coach or not, but even the Hurley stuff,

34:44

it seems like they're just grasping for straws, right?

34:46

Like, if you have been courting

34:49

JJ Riddick this whole time, first of

34:51

all, why haven't you come to an

34:53

agreement, right? And then you

34:56

go to the hottest coach

34:58

out there who seems to be at this

35:00

point, the very least is trying

35:02

to gain leverage. What's going on? Here it is.

35:06

What's up? Tweet from Mr. Breaking news on

35:08

real ones right now. Breaking news. From Mr.

35:10

Woj. Connecticut's Dan Hurley has

35:12

turned down the Los Angeles Lakers six years,

35:14

$70 million offer, and

35:16

will return to chase a third straight national

35:19

title sources to the ESPN. That is fucking

35:21

amazing. Kerm right now, put the camera on

35:23

Kerm. What is your reaction right now, Kerm?

35:27

This franchise is a joke. I'm

35:31

gonna keep it a beam, man. We can talk about

35:33

how important it is. Who's

35:35

coaching Lakers? Who isn't? It

35:37

starts with the front office. I need the bus

35:39

family to sell the franchise.

35:42

Get your billions, get your billions, chill

35:44

out, sell the franchise, rob

35:46

a link up, pack them up. Get

35:48

them out of here. Let's start new.

35:50

Let's get a real front office in there. So

35:52

we don't have, like, this was, what

35:55

was the point of this? What's the charade of

35:57

all this? This is embarrassing. It's stupid. Now it

35:59

doesn't matter who. who the coach is, they're still

36:01

gonna come in there being like, well, I definitely

36:03

wasn't the first option. If they

36:05

don't get JJ Rettick, I definitely wasn't the second

36:07

option. This is embarrassing. That's all I'm saying. Wow.

36:11

We're getting this all in real time. I'm glad we

36:13

talked about it. There was some debate

36:15

whether we should talk about the charade of a fucking

36:17

coaching search. The timing ended up perfect. And now we're

36:19

here. Now the timing ended up

36:21

perfect. Howard, your

36:23

thoughts right now in real time

36:25

as you're gathering them, what's going

36:27

on? Oh man. What

36:30

a mess. What a mess,

36:32

especially because, and people can say, oh, well the

36:34

Lakers didn't do this. This was just reports. Like

36:37

these reports came from somewhere folks and they

36:39

came out for a reason. They

36:41

made a big production of this and now it's

36:44

blown up. It's

36:47

done. It's gone. And you're back to where you

36:49

were. JJ Rettick versus James

36:51

Borrego versus, I don't know, whoever's

36:54

behind curtain number three. I

36:56

don't know where this leaves them. But it

36:59

does not, part of the

37:01

problem for the Lakers is that people, understandably,

37:03

already kind of look at them as skew

37:05

as an organization. They've had a

37:07

lot of fumbles the last several years,

37:09

well both with personnel, with coaching hires,

37:11

with coaching firings. And when

37:14

the process unfolds like this, it

37:16

does not inspire confidence across

37:19

the league. From fans, from media,

37:21

from rival teams. Everybody looks at it and

37:23

just shakes their head. It says, what the

37:25

hell are they doing? And

37:29

this has not moved the ball forward. If anything,

37:32

I think this once again puts

37:35

them in a bad light where it

37:37

looks like they're just kind of grasping

37:39

at straws. And

37:41

listen, this could all turn out fine. They could

37:43

get a great coach. They

37:45

could hire JJ and he could turn out to be a great

37:48

coach for all we know. It's

37:51

impossible to tell. Trying to predict

37:53

who will become a good coach, especially if they've never

37:55

done it before is an

37:57

impossible task. Like we need to stop. even trying

37:59

to predict these things. Whether, you know, there was

38:02

always already the speculation about Kudan

38:04

Hurley make the jump or not, college coaches to

38:06

the NBA, blah, blah, blah. We

38:08

don't know. Sometimes it works, sometimes it

38:10

doesn't. Sometimes a guy has the exact right

38:12

resume and it still

38:14

doesn't work. I just think that

38:17

sitting here on June 10th with the Lakers still not

38:19

knowing who their head coach is and

38:22

going into, you know, whatever

38:25

next season is. Is it the last season of

38:27

LeBron's career? Next to last? None

38:31

of this is good. Whoever

38:33

is the coach right now will

38:35

go into it clearly knowing that they weren't the number

38:37

one pick. And that

38:41

makes them a lame duck. And

38:44

whoever gets this job, do

38:47

they even make it to March, right? Depending on

38:49

how the season goes. It's gonna

38:51

be really tough. And if you're JJ Rettick,

38:54

it's hard to come back. It's hard

38:56

to come back into that, whatever

38:59

the negotiations was. And I'm sure that'll come

39:01

out in due time and

39:04

how this kind of unfolded. But

39:06

it's

39:08

gonna be, if it's JJ, right? I don't know

39:10

if it's Borrego. It doesn't seem

39:13

like it will be him. It seemed like it

39:15

was either or with Dan Hurley or JJ. But

39:17

if it's JJ indeed, he's

39:19

gonna go into a locker room that

39:22

knows that he's compromised. And

39:24

then add that on top of the fact that

39:27

he's gonna have the internal questioning of

39:29

if this team really wants me. Because

39:31

the fact of the matter is they

39:33

clearly at the 11th hour saw something

39:36

in you or didn't see

39:38

something in you to go elsewhere and offer

39:40

somebody else a

39:42

massive offer. What was it you said, six years, $70

39:44

million? Was that what it was?

39:47

Something like that, yeah. You clearly, yeah,

39:49

you clearly, clearly somebody else that this

39:51

team that you wanna go work for

39:54

wants somebody else. And you're

39:56

gonna have to think about it every time you make

39:58

a mistake. And there's, there's, there's. There's fans

40:00

that are with a big microphone like Kerm

40:02

and Jomi and all these people that are

40:04

going to be on your head. And then

40:06

you have the LeBron element on top of

40:08

that. It's going to be a

40:10

tough go for it's going to be. This

40:14

is going to be pretty big and I

40:16

don't really want to like speak in hyperboles,

40:18

but this is going to have ramifications for

40:20

some years. As long as LeBron is there,

40:22

there's going to be that influence. There's going

40:24

to be because they can't get from under

40:26

it, right? They're not going to LeBron's in

40:28

LeBron's not going anywhere, especially now. He's kind

40:30

of emboldened and they're probably going to get

40:32

the guy that he likes. But more than

40:34

anything, if it's JJ Rettick, it

40:37

is going to be a tough year to

40:39

follow the Lakers. Sorry, Kerm, but it's going

40:41

to be tough. I mean,

40:43

listen, they're going to be a circus

40:45

next year, no matter what, though. Well,

40:47

they always are. They're in terms of

40:49

content. Lakers that's built in. But listen,

40:51

if I'm JJ Rettick and I'm sitting

40:53

at the press conference tomorrow as the

40:55

Lakers new head coach and you say

40:57

like, hey, JJ, there

40:59

were reports that the Lakers through this

41:01

massive offer Dan Hurley who turned them

41:03

down. How are you

41:05

feeling about stepping into this knowing that you

41:07

were not necessarily the first choice? It's like

41:09

a very easy one to answer. It's very

41:12

like every everybody has an ego and I'm

41:14

not saying this doesn't matter at all for

41:16

PR purposes or just impression purposes, right?

41:19

And I get everything you're saying, but

41:21

this is a very easy answer. If you're JJ

41:23

Rettick, it's listen, Dan

41:26

Hurley's one back-to-back National Championships has been coaching his

41:28

whole life. I have not coached yet. I think

41:30

I'm going to be a great coach. I'm

41:33

certain I'm going to be a great coach, but you know,

41:35

I don't begrudge the Lakers. It's

41:37

no slight at me or anybody else. They considered

41:39

that they would go and chase one of the

41:41

best coaches in the country who's been doing this

41:43

a long time and has won back-to-back titles like

41:45

that's that's pretty simple. So you can get over

41:47

that initial hurdle. The bottom

41:49

line is still whether or not JJ

41:52

is the right coach at the right time for

41:54

this team. And what does his staff look like?

41:56

And can he find the right kind of assistance

41:58

who can match? or

42:01

offset all of the things that he does

42:03

not have yet, having not done this before. Like

42:06

it's really important to put together a great staff. And

42:09

one of the other problems with waiting too long

42:12

in the cycle to hire a head coach is

42:14

that sometimes great assistant coaches get yanked off the

42:16

market too. And you might miss the opportunity

42:18

to get guys who would make a

42:20

great staff. Yeah,

42:23

it's just

42:25

gonna be a tough goal no matter

42:27

what, man. And even if

42:30

for any coach, that's

42:32

a first time coach, this Laker situation

42:35

is a lot to ask. I mean,

42:37

we just saw it with Darvin Ham, right? And

42:40

the spotlight's gonna be on you. LeBron's only

42:42

a year older. And here's

42:44

another thing with JJ. This

42:46

goes bad fast. The

42:49

internet is gonna go crazy. Like it's gonna

42:51

be ridiculous. It's like all the old clips

42:53

are coming up. There's gonna be, it's just,

42:56

JR said don't do it. So I'm gonna believe

42:59

JR, this is not the right move, man. Like

43:01

JJ, I get it. It's probably the ego trip

43:03

that he wants to be the Lakers coach and

43:05

all these things. But a

43:08

better situation to get what you want

43:10

as a coach is not the Lakers

43:12

situation. But,

43:14

you know, there it

43:16

goes. Sorry, Kerm. Is Kerm okay? I

43:18

can't see him. I don't, Kerm's

43:21

not okay. He's staring in the distance

43:23

right now. Disassociating real fast. That's me

43:26

right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

43:28

His sparks suck, his Lakers suck. It's

43:30

tough right now. Sparks won last night.

43:33

They did win last night. They beat the Aces last

43:35

night. Let us have that. Let us

43:37

have that. Are there at least like good free snacks at

43:39

Spotify headquarters in LA? Is there something to like just drown

43:41

yourself in? Well, no, they didn't have a Sun Chips today.

43:44

They didn't even have my Sun Chips today. They didn't even

43:46

have a Sun Chips today. What is going on? Everything's gone

43:48

wrong for Kerm. No cheddar Sun Chips. It's just, it's not

43:50

a good question. It's not been a good morning for Kerm.

43:52

He had to get here early to do Midnight Boys. Pew,

43:54

pew. And then they didn't have

43:56

his fucking Sun Chips. Anyway, great segue into

43:59

a. Segment we do every

44:01

Monday for Howard

44:03

motherfucking Beck, the motherfucking Mondays, and we're

44:05

gonna have a motherfucking accent Howard Beck

44:08

coming on. What's going on, what's

44:10

going on, Carm? What we got going? We

44:12

already did the intros, yada, yada, yada. Life

44:15

sucks today. Let's do these questions. We'll

44:18

do the non-accent one first, so we'll do the

44:20

accent last. Only two questions today.

44:22

First one's from Andrew. We're gonna

44:24

kinda, this is up from a couple weeks ago, so we're

44:26

kinda detaching from the finals and

44:28

the playoffs and looking towards the future. Real

44:31

ones, I enjoy listening to your

44:33

show, provided he has a

44:35

very healthy career, plays 15 to 20 seasons, and

44:38

is surrounded by a solid team for

44:40

most of those. Can Wim Bamyama become

44:42

a top five player of all time,

44:45

or possibly the GOAT? His defense already

44:47

seems prime for an all-time level, and

44:49

his offense seems to have incredible potential.

44:51

Given his innate physical gifts and his

44:53

cerebral understanding of the game, it seems

44:55

he has the potential to affect basketball

44:58

on both ends in ways that have

45:00

yet to be seen. What

45:02

do you guys think? He could be top five all

45:04

time? Howard hates these predictions. I

45:06

think I wanna go first. I'm gonna go first,

45:08

just to get Howard's mind right. I'm

45:11

just over at the beginning. He has all the

45:13

tools to be a top five player of all

45:15

time, and it's not like it's, and he absolutely

45:17

showed that potential in this first year. I mean,

45:19

him going toe to toe with Durant, his

45:22

first week in dominating during stretches

45:24

was a big deal. I

45:26

don't know if he's gonna play 20 seasons. That's

45:29

a really hard task, especially just

45:31

his body type, right? Yeah. But

45:33

I do think he has the capabilities

45:35

to be able to be a multi-time

45:37

MVP, be a multi-time

45:39

champion, right? I think he has a lot

45:42

of tools. He reminds me of Kareem in a

45:44

lot of ways, just with the body type, but

45:47

also the game. He has the Kevin Durant-like game,

45:49

and he's been able to... He

45:51

can imagine a seven, three-point

45:53

guard, or that can do everything on

45:55

the floor, right? At in-spartz, but

45:57

then he can also go to the... go

46:00

into the post and dominate and he can also be a

46:02

rim protector, right? All those things suggest he

46:04

could be one of the all time greats. I just,

46:06

I don't know how long it's gonna be though. I

46:09

don't know. We'll see what happens. But this rookie year

46:11

was everything that you would want it to be. If

46:13

you're projecting that he could be that good when

46:16

it's all said and done. I

46:18

would just say just as I

46:20

didn't wanna start predicting a Nuggets

46:22

dynasty based off one championship, I

46:25

don't wanna start predicting. They

46:27

did that. You didn't do that. They did it.

46:29

Well, I pushed, but remember I pushed back against

46:31

it. So just as I would push back against

46:34

too soon proclaiming a team of a potential

46:36

dynasty based on one title, I'm not gonna

46:38

proclaim a player, a potential

46:40

all time great based on his

46:43

rookie season. There's a long

46:45

way to go. There's a lot of

46:47

course that has to go right for him.

46:50

They need obviously a supporting cast. He's

46:52

gonna need a co-star or two along

46:55

the way. He's gonna have to stay

46:57

healthy. But does

46:59

the outline of Wemban Yama suggest

47:02

all time greatness, not just really

47:04

good career or outstanding career, but

47:06

potentially top 20, top

47:08

10, top five. Yeah, the

47:10

outline of what we've seen suggests that

47:12

that's possible. I just,

47:14

I feel like we always get ahead of

47:16

ourselves trying to project

47:19

that. But my gosh, the

47:21

guys, the potential is off the charts.

47:24

We know all the basics here. The

47:26

height, the length, the ball handling skills, the

47:30

ability to protect the rim, but also

47:32

to do just about everything you can

47:35

possibly do on offense, handle, shoot, pass.

47:38

He's got the work ethic. That's the one thing

47:40

that I always think is overlooked when people start

47:42

trying to project young guys. There's

47:45

a lot we don't know about a guy's just

47:47

his head, right? Like how dedicated are they? How

47:49

committed are they? How much do they care? Are

47:51

they a good teammate? Everything we

47:53

have learned so far about Wemban Yama suggests

47:55

that he checks all of those boxes. And

47:58

so that's the stuff that bodes, I think. And

48:00

the desire to write like he he like

48:03

he has this competitive instinct that I've

48:05

been seen as well to compliment that

48:07

Yeah, and there are guys who like

48:09

they have the physical tools and they

48:12

look the part But they don't

48:14

care enough or they're not dedicated enough

48:16

or they're just you know,

48:18

not as smart about the game

48:20

They're basketball instincts might have been like there's none

48:22

of those concerns with him He like

48:24

I said, he checks all of the intangible

48:27

boxes in addition to all the tangible

48:29

boxes so Sky's

48:31

the limit but I'm not gonna get into

48:33

how high that sky is if that makes

48:35

any damn sense. Probably not All

48:38

right, here's it. Here we go. Let's

48:40

see what he got. Let's see what current has

48:42

the accent question See the past couple weeks

48:44

I've been gifted, you know people from the

48:47

UK with their British accents I got to

48:49

you know, do my impersonation this week those

48:51

from Australia. I'm gonna be real with you I know those accents

48:54

aren't too far apart. I don't

48:56

feel comfortable doing the Australian accent But for y'all

48:58

I'll try we'll see how it goes. Just gotta

49:00

put the disclaimer out there before I even get

49:02

going So it's

49:04

it's from kids. That's his name. He

49:06

says fellas. It's kids from

49:08

down under Let's talk about

49:10

ruins on the Celtic side so far

49:13

and then see this shit So far

49:15

in the finals who you give him

49:17

the mantle to drew holiday Jaylen Brown

49:20

or Derek white I don't

49:22

want to just talk about stats I want to talk

49:24

about hustle and having the stones and giving

49:26

everything before Before walking

49:28

off that floor. So who do you guys

49:30

have for say news MVP? Oh I

49:33

think we answered it so far, right? It's kind of too

49:36

early to tell I'm gonna go

49:38

because we're kind of making predictions, which is something that

49:40

Howard Beck loves I'm gonna go

49:42

I'm gonna go with Jaylen Brown just because he has the

49:44

platform to be able to do that Right, like I don't

49:46

know he he can he's gonna be able

49:48

to have the shots. He's gonna be playing the

49:50

lockdown defense He just he has the

49:52

name. He has the stature on the team So

49:54

I think that it could be it's gonna be

49:57

jail. He's also just had some of those highlight

49:59

impact plays where we're gonna remember certain

50:01

blocks, break away dunk. That

50:04

dunk on Gafford. Yeah, yeah, the dunk on Gafford.

50:06

Just everything,

50:08

everything. Jalen Brown

50:10

is having, statistically it doesn't leap off

50:12

the page, but he's having an outstanding

50:14

series. But all that said, like who

50:18

the hell knows how these next couple of games are going to

50:20

unfold? Does Drew

50:22

Holiday go off in another couple of times? Do

50:24

we get a weird Andre Iguodala type year where

50:27

it's not one of your top two

50:29

players who ends up winning

50:31

MVP just based on their all around

50:34

contributions? And I know Iguodala was a

50:36

really special, unique case, but

50:40

this could still go a lot of different directions. And by the

50:42

way, again, on the

50:44

belief that Tatum is their best player still, despite

50:46

everything and despite what Jason Kidd might say in

50:48

a press conference for other purposes, Tatum's,

50:52

I don't think he's gonna keep shooting this

50:54

poorly. So if Tatum just goes back to

50:56

producing at the level that we're normally used

50:58

to seeing, and that helps them close out

51:00

the series. We're still due for

51:03

a Tatum game, man. We're still due for a Tatum

51:05

game. Or maybe a couple. Like this could very easily

51:07

still go right back to him. So I mean, we're

51:09

two games in it, who knows? We'll

51:12

see, thank you. One last part of this question

51:14

he asks, as a second course, when are you

51:16

guys gonna start a

51:18

real one's Hall of Fame? Send

51:21

these individuals a real trophy,

51:24

real ones should be a recognized award.

51:27

Open the budget, Spotify. That's all I gotta

51:29

say, open the budget. A

51:32

Hall of Fame for who? We could start for

51:35

real ones, real ones. Oh, yeah, we

51:37

have the real one of the week, but like

51:39

a real one Hall of Famer, like you're a

51:41

legend forever crystallized. We gotta do certificates, probably certificate.

51:43

That's probably cheaper than a truck. Do we keep

51:46

track? Do you have it like curved? You're gonna

51:48

spreadsheet somewhere? I don't know. Ayo, do we have

51:50

any body that keeps track of all the real

51:52

ones? Starting today, every

51:54

real one of the week will officially

51:57

be canonized. You're officially canonized. Four

51:59

years in. Real One of the Week. Everyone before this,

52:01

except for me, I'm a two-time Real One of the

52:03

Week. I know that. I do

52:05

remember that. Everybody else, I'm sorry we forgot

52:08

about you, but starting today, in

52:10

June 2024, if you're a Real One of

52:12

the Week, you're now a legendary.

52:14

We'll never forget you. It'll be written down

52:16

on a document somewhere. For sure, on a

52:18

Google Doc somewhere. Okay, well,

52:21

if you want great content

52:23

like this, make sure you

52:25

send your email. I haven't

52:28

said this over the last

52:30

few weeks, and I need

52:32

to just do it. Realonesmailbag@gmail.com.

52:34

Realonesmailbag@gmail.com. Realonesmailbag@gmail.com. What's that again,

52:36

Kerm? Realonesmailbag@gmail.com. What's that, Howard

52:38

Beck? I believe it's realonesmailbag

52:40

at gmail.com? You

52:45

motherfucking right, and that's been another edition

52:47

of Motherfucking Mondays. I'm Logan

52:49

Murdoch. That is Howard Beck. That's Jonathan

52:51

Kermer. We out this motherfucker. Bye!

52:55

Bye! Bye!