The Green With Envy 2025 Awards featuring Jaylen Brown, Nico Harrison, Jayson Tatum, and more!

Summary

Green With Envy: 2025 Awards – Episode Summary

Podcast: Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Episode Date: January 5, 2026
Hosts: Will & Greg
Main Theme:
The episode marks the first show of 2026, featuring Will and Greg handing out their “2025 Awards”—mixing Celtics updates, personal holiday stories, and playful, creative year-in-review superlatives. The hosts take a deep dive into Jaylen Brown’s unprecedented MVP-level rise, discuss Celtics’ roster developments, key NBA happenings, and highlight personal and community moments—all laced with the duo’s signature humor and storytelling.

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Key Segments, Topics, and Insights

1. Holiday Catch-Up and Celtics State of Play

• [01:01-05:45]

  • Hosts exchange stories about restrained gift-giving during the holidays, emphasizing memorable gifts (personalized towels, pet-themed hats, and new bedding).
  • Both reflect on small, quality family moments over material excess.
  • Memorable Moment: Greg's custom hat featuring his dog Blaze (“Danielle got this hat for me… she sent an old picture of Blaze… just nice because we kept the presents to ourselves limited, right?”—[04:33] Greg)

• Celtics Recap

  • Will summarizes recent Celtics events:
    • 4–1 road trip, now half-game back of the Knicks for 2nd in East
    • Derek White’s “seven block game,” Joe Mazzulla wins Coach of the Month
    • Jaylen Brown’s 50-point explosion vs. Clippers ("number one topic in the NBA"—[09:14] Will)

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2. Jaylen Brown’s MVP Case: In-Depth Analysis

• [08:50–24:32]

  • Award Discussion Launches: Greg starts with his “You Get Your Chance At The Playground Award,” paralleling Jaylen Brown’s moment as the Celtics’ lead guy—and not choking under pressure.

    • Quote: “Jalen Brown has his chance at the playground right… And he did not have chicken nugget fingers whatsoever. He got the ball, told the kid to go deep, and he threw a hundred yard dime.” ([12:04] Greg)

  • Jaylen’s Dominance

    • Greg: “There’s no difference between him and SGA this year. The only guy in the league I think there’s a difference is Jokic.” ([12:57])
    • Both marvel at Jaylen shutting down Kawhi, comparing his game to peak Kobe and even Michael Jordan.
    • Quote: “I’m sending out texts… Jalen looks a lot like Kobe Bryant. Like, I don’t know that there’s a difference between what Jalen is right now, and Kobe Bryant was at his peak.” ([13:23] Greg)
    • Will calls out the national NBA conversation shifting—highlighting when critics acknowledge “Jaylen Brown looked like the best player in the world tonight.” ([13:49])

  • MVP Pathways & Tatum/JB Dynamic

    • Will: “Jalen Brown is having the MVP season that Jason Tatum never could have." ([14:40])
    • Explores media narrative, injuries opening the MVP door, and how the Celtics may well have two top-10 players.
    • Greg: “Right now is the fully realized, built-in-a-lab two-guard in the mold of MJ and Kobe… reaching its highest potential.” ([22:08])
    • Discussion of Jalen’s efficient midrange shot profile vs. Tatum’s heavier three-point diet.

  • Notable Quotes:

    • “The consistency that we’ve seen out of Jaylen Brown over the last six weeks...mind-blowing.” ([19:06] Greg)
    • “I just feel lucky that we have Jalen Brown to carry us while Jason Tatum is out… It’s Jalen Brown’s team right now.” ([22:08] Greg)

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3. The 2025 “Obscure, Long-Winded” Green With Envy Awards

• [24:32–58:34]
  Format: Each award combines personal anecdotes with NBA/Celtics analogies.

A. The Random Cousin Energy Award

• [26:59] Will: For Ugo Gonzalez, the Celtics’ own change-of-pace difference-maker.
  • Compares “random cousin” at the holidays to Ugo’s unpredictable but uplifting impact: “When he comes in the game, it’s a different vibe, different energy...most of the time it’s uplifting… Occasionally doesn’t go great.” ([29:49])

B. Grandpa’s Big Secret Award

• [31:51] Greg: For Jalen Williams, Thunder—recognizing those who surprise post-fact (Williams’ hidden wrist injury in the playoffs compared to a family’s “legendary” and very adult secret).
  • Hilarious and memorable moment; hosts lose composure discussing the ‘legend’ ([33:29]; [34:51])

C. It’s On My Plate, So I’ll Eat It (But I Don't Really Like It) Award

• [37:19] Will: For Anthony Simons
  • Simons compared to unexpected banana cake: “He’s here, not what I expected…you learn to adjust expectations, make him palatable.” ([39:07])

D. We Probably Shouldn’t Have Three Dogs and a Baby Under One Roof Award

• [43:05] Greg: For the Lakers
  • Compares holiday logistics with dogs and a baby (chaos potential) to the Lakers’ lineup with Luka, LeBron, and Austin Reaves (“three dogs and only one basketball”)—concludes the fit is dysfunctional.
  • Will offers: “He’s clearly entering his Jordan-on-the-Wizards years, right?” ([46:12])

E. I Got This! (Maybe I Don’t Got This) Award

• [48:45] Will: For Josh Minott
  • Minott’s up-and-down play compared to Will’s attempt at clipping his baby’s fingernails—starts great, ends in disaster, falls out of rotation.
  • “We both just gotta stay ready. We’re part of the stay ready crew now.” ([52:52])

F. The Dead Know Nothing Award

• [52:56] Greg: For Nico Harrison
  • Parallel between lighting hair on fire in ignorance (inspired by a Dorchester author’s book) and Mavericks GM’s shortsighted Luka/AD trade.
  • “Nico no longer has a job…I no longer have some of the hair on my head because of that…” ([54:22])

G. Excited But Need to See It (Marty Supreme Award)**

• [56:02] Will: For Jason Tatum
  • Tatum’s looming return compared to highly anticipated Timothy Chalamet movie about ping-pong—excitement high, but “gotta see it.”
  • “I just don’t know, I gotta see it. I need to see it.” ([57:54])

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4. Special Community Shout-Out: The Killa Mentality Award

• [58:34–63:20] Greg:
  • Honors Chris Kowalski, their friend and two-sport D1 athlete at Boston College, battling colon cancer.
  • Promotes “Killa Mentality” hoodies (link in show notes) to raise awareness and support his family.
  • “Chris, we’re praying for you, rooting for you, man… Hopefully everybody can at least go click on the link and check out Chris’s story.” ([60:33])
  • Poignant closing note on resilience and supporting your people.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Jalen Brown has his chance at the playground right this year... He got the ball and he told the kid to go deep and he threw a hundred yard dime… That’s how great I think Jaylen Brown is playing right now.” ([12:04], [13:23] Greg)
• “Jalen Brown is having the MVP season that Jason Tatum never could have.” ([14:40] Will)
• “Right now is the fully realized, built-in-a-lab two-guard in the mold of MJ and Kobe game… reaching its highest potential.” ([22:08] Greg)
• “It’s Jalen Brown’s team right now.” ([22:34] Greg)
• “When you throw something new in the mix, it brings this different energy… Random cousin energy award.” ([26:59] Will)
• “This award goes to the big dumb idiot, Nico Harrison, who decided to throw caution to the wind and for temporary satisfaction decided to… trade Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis…” ([54:22] Greg)
• “Chris, we’re praying for you… It can affect men as young and as healthy as someone like Chris.” ([60:33] Greg)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:01] Start of main show, holiday catch-up, and awards overview
• [08:50] Beginning of Jaylen Brown MVP deep-dive
• [12:04] Jaylen’s “playground” moment (Greg’s analogy)
• [14:40] “MVP season Tatum never could have” debut
• [19:06] JB’s consistent dominance remark
• [22:08] “Built-in-a-lab two guard” comparison to MJ/Kobe
• [26:59] Start of awards segment (“Random Cousin Energy Award”)
• [33:29] “Grandpa’s Big Secret”—episode’s funniest moment
• [39:07] Anthony Simons = Banana Cake
• [43:05] “Three dogs and a baby” Lakers analogy
• [48:45] Minott nails/fingernails story
• [52:56] “Dead Know Nothing” – Nico Harrison
• [56:02] Tatum “Marty Supreme” anticipation award
• [58:34] Killa Mentality/Chris Kowalski community shout-out

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Episode Tone and Closing

Genuine, playful, and Boston-rooted—Will & Greg blend die-hard Celtics insight with offbeat, human stories. They deliver both sharp basketball analysis and award show absurdity, honoring Jaylen Brown’s rise, discussing roster quirks, and closing with heartfelt support for their community.

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For full Celtics recaps, unique analogies, and endearing long-winded awards—and for anyone who needs to know why Jaylen Brown is the front-runner for MVP in Boston—this episode is a must.

Transcript

[Greg]

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[Greg]

This is Mike Gorman and you're listening.

[Will]

To Green with Envy with Will and Greg. All right, everybody, Happy new year. It's 2026 and the boys are back. We've been off a little bit here with some of our holiday schedule, but fear not, we're coming back with a vengeance tonight. We got a lot to talk about. We're going to hit the Celtics road trip. We're going to, we're gonna hit Jaylen Brown, the mvp. Jaylen Brown, I don't know. Stick around. We're gonna talk about it. We're gonna also give you our 2025 awards. We got ourselves a jam pack show today. This is going to be a fun one. So sit back, relax. You guys know the deal. This is Green with Envy. Let'. What up, what up, what up? Welcome into another edition of Green with NBA 2026, the first edition of Green with Envy in the new year. As always, this is your boy, Will. We're checking in. How you doing? How you living? Hope everybody out there had an amazing holiday season. Obviously the content over here has been a little bit sparse. We're going to catch up on a lot of things on this podcast today, including our 2025 awards, which are going to mix in a little bit of update. Just what's going on with me and Greg. How was our holidays? We're going to mix it all in. You'll, you'll see the concept when we get there, but we're going to have some fun with it. But before we get there, of course, I got to bring in my best friend, co host and the coach of our podcast, the one and only Greg menenkis. Greg, happy 2026. Happy New Year, my friend.

[Greg]

Happy New Year, brother. Quick question before we get in all the basketball talk. What was your favorite Christmas gift that was either given to you or given Ariana this Christmas?

[Will]

Good question. So we as a. As a family, we limited a lot of the Christmas gifts that we were doing. And basically we just did two things. So we did on Christmas Eve with like, it was just basically me, my wife, her brothers Abuela, and then my cousins, which we'll talk about, came. Came as well. And so we just did like a little mini gift exchange where we like essentially secret Santa without the secret, like, you got one person and you gift. So we did that on Christmas ev. And then Christmas Day, we just did a white elephant exchange with like, you know, there's like five or six other members of the family that came and it was just that. So we didn't do a whole lot of gift giving. But the coolest thing overall and it. This is kind of to. To Mariana, but it was more to her grandma, is that as a family, we're gonna go to Puerto Vallarta in March as baby's first time at the beach. And Abuela didn't know, so it was like, really cool to, like, my wife Lauren, I got like, some towels made up that said, like, Puerto Vallarta 2026. Everybody had, like, towel. So it was cool to see her reaction. And she was really excited to be able to. To be at the beach for the first time at Mariana. So that was kind of a combo that. That was definitely, definitely my favorite from. From the holidays. How about you?

[Greg]

I gotta go with the hat I'm wearing, man. We were talking before we get on here, but you getting like, sucked into Instagram ads and. And all that. So this is actually. I don't know if you've seen this, but it's. So this is from a picture of Blaze, right? And it's like one of those Instagram ads, like, turn your pet into an article of clothing or whatever.

[Will]

Like, yeah, I got. I got one of. Of taco pooping that sits above Mariana's changing table.

[Greg]

There you go. That's great. So Danielle got this hat for me and she sent an old picture of Blaze. Blaze is actually right behind me right now as we're recording here. And it was just nice because we kept the presence to ourselves limited, right? I got her Celtics PJs, so she now has a mastering set of Celtics PJs where she can watch Celtics in spirit with me. And she got me this hat and we as together we bought like, brand new bedding and sheets and all that stuff. So we have a brand new comforter and like all these new fancy sheets. That house we've been enjoying. Yeah, how that's you. You got to do when you're in your mid-30s.

[Will]

Yeah, we, I mean, we do this. So usually what we do just like me and, me and my wife is just like, typically, we would buy. We would be like, all right, we're gonna go on a trip. You buy the plane tickets, I buy the Airbnb. That's kind of like something to that effect is what we usually do. But now it's just with the kids a little bit different. So we actually didn't officially get ourselves. Get anything for each other. We just decided, like, once the time is. Is right, probably sometime in January, we're both just gonna take a Friday off and have like a little spa day. And that will be us, like, treating ourselves. That's great.

[Greg]

Yeah. My toes. My toes and Danielle's toes are pretty janky right now. We both need a pedicure, dude.

[Will]

I've got some more nail related content coming up later in the podcast, so we can certainly circle back to that, but it's been a minute since. Since. Since we've been on here. You were traveling? I was traveling. I tried to. I honestly, dude, I still got some notes. I had a New Year's Eve day podcast ready to go. Couldn't find a room that just made sense to. To podcast in, so couldn't get it up. But I'm trying to sprinkle in some of the. Excited to put together a whole sheet. So it's like when you do the work, you kind of still want to find a way to. To use that. So I, I'll try to sprinkle it in here, but I just want to read through this here, Greg, real quick, because we're coming. We're recording here Sunday night. Shout out to the Pats. By the way, Pat's locking in the two seed. Drake made likely the mvp. Not the first time we're first or last time we're gonna talk about an MVP on this podcast. So we'll come back to that Shout to the Pats on this Sunday. But I just want to read through just a couple, like four or five quick notes that I have of things that missed and things that have kind of encompassed what's happened since the last time we podcast. We can just go from there and then we'll get to our awards here in a minute. But Celtics as of last night against The Clippers wrapped up a 4:1 road trip, now are a half game back of the New York Knicks for second place in the East. Crazy 30 plus games in that. That is a true and real thing that is happening right now on the road trip. Derek White had a seven block game, Joe Missoula won coach of the Month. Jalen Brown did not win player of the month, but dropped a 50 ball against the LA Clippers last night. And I want to hear your thoughts on that because you had some, some good ones going in our, in our group text last night. And that leads an interesting four game home stand coming up here against Chicago, Denver, Toronto and Wemby and the Spurs. Of course that Denver game a little less sauce on it with the Nicola Jokic injury, but Greg and Wemby might.

[Greg]

Not play in the spurs game.

[Will]

He's still out a little banged up as well too. So interesting home stand of which the Celtics could, you know, really make some noise here and continue this ascent up the standings, which is, you know, seemed unfathomable to be honest, like to this level when the season be before the season. And then I saw a tweet today where it's like, hey, remember when The Celtics went 0 and 3 to start the season?

[Greg]

We were like when are the Celtics going to win their first game? We were like it could be two weeks from now.

[Will]

We had them at like 2, 2 and 18 or some.

[Greg]

Yeah, I mean basically we had them having the season that the Pacers are having.

[Will]

Right? 100, 100.

[Greg]

When you think about the where the paces were at the end of last season, where the Celtics were at the end of last season and the talent drain from both rosters. And you in the past you've been comparing Pascal Siakam and Jalen Brown. Like people have kind of. We've always had Jalen well above Pascal, but a lot of just like general NBA fans kind of had them breathing in the same space. And Siakam was unbelievable in the playoffs last year. We're coming into this season. I think you could have made the argument like, oh damn, Pascal maybe caught up to jb. But then this year it's just been complete dominance from, from one guy and the other guy hasn't been able to keep his team afloat.

[Will]

Well, you mentioned the magic word. That's Jaylen Brown. Jaylen Brown is hot in these streets right now. It has been just, you know, if you've been online here since last night or during the game last night and all throughout the day today, like it is the number One topic in the NBA is Jaylen Brown's 50 point game against the Clippers last night. Who going into that game were riding a six game winning streak. Best defense in the NBA during that time frame. JB steps up 50 point game as well as of course the quote coming out after that he came to Missoula, you know, a couple weeks ago was like, hey, I want, I want, I want Kawhi basically. And you know, and really locked up Kawhi for most of that game last night. So Greg, despite what some of the trolls may say in our comments, JB is your guy. JB has been a guy that I think we've been very fair to. If I'm being 100 honest. You've been glowing to him. I think I've just been fair to him. I don't think this has been a super harsh.

[Greg]

I do. Like, honestly, I thought I was the biggest Jalen Brown stan out there. Like, I truly did. I was like, I have Jaylen Br. Like, I, I every year I would text you. Like, I think Jaylen's just better than Tatum. Like that was kind of always my take.

[Will]

It's our running joke every single year. I was gonna get a text at some point about that and I was like, yeah, we'll see.

[Greg]

And then like coming into this year, I guess I'll just do my, my first award right now and then we can address all the haters and all the trolls. Right? So my first award here, I'm gonna call this the you get your chance at the playground award. Okay. And I'm just going to explain what this is. So I was with James yesterday before his like fever really went rampant on him. And we were sitting there, he was running up and down the jungle gym. And I see to my right a kid of like a group of like elementary age kids, maybe middle school age kids playing football. And you know, I'm a former high school quarterback. I have some like pretty great random throws that our friend groups are, are aware of. Specifically the one where I hit the, the float on when somebody.

[Will]

You are never gonna let that clip down.

[Greg]

It was the greatest throw anyone's ever made all time. But I, I digress. So I'm just.

[Will]

Do you still have that so you can send it out later?

[Greg]

I don't know. I'll, I'll look for it.

[Will]

I'll definitely look for it.

[Greg]

But I'm sitting there watching these kids play football as I'm like literally eating chick fil a nuggets in the most washed up form ever. And I'm like, oh, I just hope one the ball like rolls over to me right now so I can tell one of the kids to go deep and just hit him with a, like a sick pass. And lo and behold, the ball does roll over to me and I'm like, yeah, I get my chance to throw the ball right now. And I realized at that moment that I got greasy chicken, chicken nugget fingers. I'm like, I'm not gonna tell the kid to go deep. I'm just gonna throw it to the nearest kid towards me and just hit him with like a tight spiral and move on. With my day, he's literally 10ft away from me. So I grabbed the ball. I'm like, I got no grip on this thing because my fingers are so greasy. And I throw it and dude, I threw the worst duck I've ever thrown. It didn't even make it to the kid. It fell on the ground and he kind of like looked at me and I averted eye contact. I was like, I don't even want to do this. But that's what my award is inspired by. Jalen Brown has his chance at the playground right this year, where for the first nine years of his career, everyone told him that he, you know, wasn't going to get his chance to be the number one guy. People like myself have been on record saying Jalen Brown should be a number one option. I have videos, I have evidence out there to that proves it to all the trolls. But this year he got the ball and he did not have chicken nugget fingers whatsoever. He got the ball and he told the kid to go deep and he threw a hundred yard dime. He threw the pass that Tom Brady tried to throw to Randy Moss in 2007 and completed that pass, right, the pass that Jaylen Brown is throwing this year. And it's just been unbelievable to watch. To go from a guy who even me the what I thought was the biggest Jaylen Brown stand out there, had him like as a top eight guy, as the highest I've ever had him is playing like a legit MVP candidate right now. Like, to me, there's no difference between him and SGA this year. I think the only guy in the league that I think there's a differences is Jokic. Jokic I think is just on another level. I've watched enough of the Thunder and I've watched enough of the Celtics where I'm like, SGA is great in the all the stuff that he does, like he's deserving of MVP talk as well. But Jalen is right there with him. The two way impact that he has. He calls himself the best two way player in the game. And last night against the Clippers, by God, did he prove it against Kawhi Leonard where he made Kawhi look washed up. And I was like, damn. Like, this is the Jalen that we're getting to the point where I'm sending out text messages to multiple people, multiple group texts, like, not gonna lie, Jalen looks a lot like Kobe Bryant. Like, I don't know that there's a difference between what Jalen is. Right. And what Kobe Bryant was like at his peak. And I, I don't even think that's hyperbole. That's how great I think Jaylen Brown is playing right now.

[Will]

Jaylen's been amazing there. I just, just point blank there, there's no other way to say it. You know, I saw earlier, you know, like, I retweeted this. Ryan Rosillo tweeted Jaylen Brown looked like the best player in the world tonight. Like, that's. And he's actually been a guy I think's been pretty critical. Like, or like is. Is tough to give in to the, you know, to the best parts of JB and usually has a hard time looking past whatever the faults that you may have thought of Jalen Brown. So for a guy like that to come out and say that about Jim, I think that actually does speak volumes. I think again, all of the conversation today around Jalen Brown has been really, really refreshing to hear because he deserves it because he's just been that good this year. And actually tweeted earlier, Greg. And let's talk a little bit about the, the MVP case, right? Because I think there's a window. There's a window or there's a path wherever you want to look at had there's an opportunity. And I tweeted earlier, Jalen Brown is having the MVP season that Jason Tatum never could have.

[Greg]

I saw this tweet.

[Will]

Yeah. And it's, you know, when you think about it, like a lot of MVP is going to come down to there's going to be two important factors, right? The narrative, which JB is building in spades and he's got the statistical profile to go along with it. And with this Jokic injury, with, you know, other injuries around the league, like Giannis Lucas kind of, who knows if he's going to hit 65 games. And Lakers have their own thing. But like it, there's a, there's a world in which this Comes down to SGA and jv, like, there is a world. Now, obviously, I think for that to be the case, the Celtics have to probably be the number one seed, right? Like, I think that probably has to be the case just because jb, as good as his stats are, if you just line them up, they're probably going to be slightly less than some of these. These other guys, not by much.

[Greg]

Let me jump. Let me jump in real quick on that. So I, I agree they might need to get the number one seed, but we also have two games upcoming with the Thunder, right? And I think if the Celtics were to win both of those games against The Thunder and JB outplay SGA without getting the 1 seed, I do think that there's still a possibility for JB to sneak his way into that. Like, oh, it's not just SGA or yokids. It's SGA or Jalen Brown or it's. It's Jalen Brown or sga who's going to be the first one mentioned in that sentence. History will tell us it's going to be the guy who's won the. The MVP for. For an entire season before an sga. And Jokic. So JB is definitely got some ground to make up just because he's never done it before. But it's one of those things, like, once you do it, then everyone has to admit that you've done it, right? And he has a Finals mvp. It's not the same thing as a league mvp, but it is. It's worthy of its own flop quite a bit, right?

[Will]

Like, that's. That's. That's not nothing, obviously, right? Winning a Finals mvp. And so the path is there. And that's. This is one of the crazy things is that, you know, again, we talk about. You always text me every year at some point, hey, I think Jalen's better than Tatum, and usually at some point that backs off. Now, I don't want to get into a whole Jason Jalen thing because, like, it is what it is. Like, they're both great. I think what we're seeing right now is that likely they have two top 10 players, however you want to slice it. And of course, whatever Tatum comes back as, that's, you know, we'll have to evaluate that when that time comes. But. But that's what I think we're looking at here is the established fact that we might have two top 10 players that are the Celtics right now. And circumstances are opening where Jason Tatum is coming off four straight first team. All MBAs. And I believe his highest MVP was fourth place. As far as, like, where he finished. There's a chance that we're gonna go into next season. I'm gonna sit here and it's gonna sound really dumb and be like, hey, I think Jason Tatum's our best player. Even though Jalen Brown either just maybe won the MVP or maybe finished second in mvp, which is something Jason Tatum has never done. But these are the circumstances that have presented themselves to Jalen Brown of his own accord, of his own play, and they're all rightfully deserved, of course, with some of the injury caveats in there as well. But here's the thing I was thinking about, Greg. Take all the injuries out. Like, even the Giannis was having an amazing season, but the teams was never going to be that great. Jokic was obviously having an MVP level. He's probably the mvp. If he ends up coming back and can still make the. The games required limit, he might even still win, and he's the best player in the world. But I think you turn injuries off, and there's a good chance that this Jalen Brown season is a top four or five. Just straight up, like, no caveats, first team all NBA season. That's real good. Like, and I think it's going to get brought up a lot, the different injuries. And it's. It's not unfair. But I do think that this year is so great that it probably doesn't actually matter.

[Greg]

I really think this, the year that he's having right now is, up to this point, is better than any Jason Tatum, beginning of a season that I've ever seen. There's one season that I. I don't know the year, but there's one season where we're like, oh, damn, like, Tatum, Tatum's going for that mvp. I can't remember which year it was, but for the most part, Tatum's been a slow starter, right? And he turns it on, like, late in the year. So, like, to me, it was two.

[Will]

Years ago when he was leading the straw poll, like, quarter of the way through the.

[Greg]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you're right there. And I just think that, like, the way that Jalen is saying, man, like, I've made the Kobe comparison already. I literally got a text from somebody else saying, like, dude, he legit looked like mj, which obviously Kobe was trying to be mj, and, like, he looks so damn good right now. We.

[Will]

We.

[Greg]

As much as we love Jason Tatum, like, there were plenty of moments where, like, damn, like, this was. I. I Just, I kept expecting JT to go to that next level for the regular season where he would just like rip off like 25 straight games of. Of pure MVP dominance. And then he'd have like six or seven game stretches where you'd be like that. He's just not consistent enough to do it. The consistency that we've seen out of Jaylen Brown over the last six weeks or so, it's just mind blowing. Dude, he's doing it every single night, going head to head with the best players of the world and coming out looking like the better guy every single time. And when you put him stacked up against Kawhi last night, the very first possession that he was guarding Kawhi Leonard, I was like, oh, damn. Jalen Brown is like pissed off in this game. And he's here to prove that Kawhi Leonard is a. Has been, and he is right now. And that's exactly what he did last night with that 50 ball.

[Will]

Yeah, it's. It's that it's really hard to kind of wrap my head around what I'm watching with Jalen Brown right now in this moment. And so, you know, with him, something I think is really interesting is like, right, like scoring in the NBA is not the end all, be all, but it is like an interesting way to kind of look and measure throughout time. Especially when you look at a round number like 50, because, like scoring 20 points in a game, it's, you know, it's not quite the same as. But an offensive boom. You can look at all the different numbers, but when you see that now Jalen Brown joins only Larry Bird, and Jason is the only guys to do it more than once for the Celtics, like, that's impressive within itself. Then you look at how many times Jason Tatum has done, it's a reminder like, damn, Tatum is that good as well. And so now you just think about these two kind of going forward and where Jalen's put himself. And it's. Again, I'm trying not to compare the two of them, but something that does stick out to me, Greg, is when I think about Tatum at whatever you consider to be his best five, six week stretch or whatever versus what we're watching with Jalen Brown right now. And I wonder if you feel this way. I'm enjoying it a little bit more with Jalen Brown. And I wonder for. If that's for two reasons. Reasons. One, it is unexpected. And so sometimes when you're so surprised, there's just this different level of joy that comes along with it. And I think the other part is with Tatum. For the last couple years, he's averaged about nine or ten threes per game. And I've always been like, I think really the way he takes his game to the next level is he should shoot six and a half, seven threes a game. Like, that's. And cut out some of the. The chasing step backs that just don't need to be there. And Jalen, it's kind of just done that, right? She's been a menace from the, from the mid range. And the thing is, for me, it's always so easy for Tatum when he cuts out some of those trash threes. And Jalen doesn't really take any trash threes this year. Now he's taking them in the past for sure, but he's really cut that out of his diet. And of course, he's just been an absurd shot maker, like something we haven't seen outside of those mj Kobe, which is part of why he's getting those comparisons. But I'm curious for you, has aesthetically, like this peak of Jalen felt a little bit more. More appeasing than. Than what we've seen out of Pete Jason Tatum, which is.

[Greg]

Yeah, I mean that, that's a lot of the reason why I would text you like, hey, JB might just be better than Tatum is because I just like prefer the shot diet that Jalen Brown has more than what I see out of Jason Tatum. I think Tatum does so many things amazing on the court that he's able to do because of his physical gifts like the, the pick and roll that he's able to run. It's just a little bit of a higher level than what JB is capable of. And JB is now maximized his spots on the floor where I don't think Tatum has ever maximized his spots on the floor. I think Tatum has gotten close where we've been like, oh, that's like really special what, what Tatum is, is getting to. But like right now is the fully realized like two guard, like built in a lab two guard in the mold of MJ and Kobe game that Jaylen Brown has, it's like reaching its highest potential right now now. And he's also been an unbelievable defensive player as well, where all the kind of like old. The bad habits that we saw to Jalen early in his career, those are like, well beyond him now. He's just locked in on both sides of the court. And I just feel lucky that we have Jalen Brown to carry us while Jason Tatum is out. Because when Tatum comes back, dude, like, he can just slide into a number two role, and he's got. He might have to, like, check his ego at the door, right? But it's Jalen Brown's team right now. The Lowe's closeout event means the final savings of the season are here. It's your last chance to get deals on seasonal decor, tools, flooring, and so much more. Refresh your home, check off your project list, or simply stock up on the brands you trust. Shop now to grab amazing deals before they're gone. Lowes we help you Save. Valid through 17. Selection varies by location, while supplies last. Come to DSW for the shoes, stay for the fun. Because let's be honest, if shoe shopping isn't fun, are you even doing it right? So go ahead, try something new. Try something different. Good different. Try something that feels like you. You know, the real you. And then definitely brag about it later, because at dsw, you've got unlimited freedom to play with sneakers, boots, and everything in between. For every style, mood, and occasion, you'll definitely find shoes that get you at prices that get your budget. Dsw, let us surprise you.

[Will]

Yeah, I've been. I've been. It's too early to have that conversation, but once we get closer to that end of February, March time frame, and we start thinking, hey, maybe Jason Tatum's coming back, I'm really interested to see where Jalen's at at that point in the season, and I'm. I can't wait to have those conversations of, like, hey, what do we think is the best fit, fun problem to have? Yeah, it's gonna be. It's gonna be awesome to talk about. I had also won the award here that was just basically for Jalen Brown, so I'm gonna skip that one because we just covered that. Unless there's anything else that you want to add about Jailer, because Jalen Brown deserves the first 25 minutes of this podcast. So is there anything else that we haven't hit that you were like, I did want to mention this about Jalen Brown.

[Greg]

I mean, I just think it's cool that he's getting the. The MVP buzz. You know, we talked about it a few weeks back where, you know, small, small change compared to podcasts like Bill Simmons. Right. And I know he made a. He made a case for JB to be on his first team on BA just last week, and I'm sure he was at the game in LA last night. So we're. Two nights ago. Yeah. So I'm sure He's going to talk a lot about it on, on tomorrow's pod, which I'm excited to listen to, but I think the narrative is now there. And it's not just like the Celtics podcast that are talking about Jalen Brown being an mvp. I mean, dude, we had Drew Carter on two weeks ago and we were like, where the are the MVP chants? Chance right now he's getting them on the road. Yeah.

[Will]

Well deserved, well deserved, man. And also, yeah, you see, you see the girl he's doing salsa with on the stream? He's winning. He's winning. JB. JB's winning right now. Okay, all right, let me go to. So I'm gonna skip my Jalen Brown award that I had here.

[Greg]

Can I hear what it was called?

[Will]

It was, it was going to be called the this is different Baby girl is a star Award. And it was just going to be about how, you know, having, having a baby girl at Christmas is a little bit different. You know, you've been around kids at Christmas, but when is your kid, it's just a different feeling. And so we, it's a new feeling with Jaylen Brown. He's. He's the new star that we have here that we've always kind of had. He's been there, but it's a different version of Christmas.

[Greg]

And just to critique myself, I didn't land the plane on that first award category, but I will next one.

[Will]

But just for the folks listening, this is going to be the most long winded obscure awards. Basically that's the description I took from Greg is, is what he just gave you as the first one. So we're gonna get a lot on that. A lot of exposition that maybe we land it, maybe we don't. End of the day, we'll probably talk a little hoop.

[Greg]

I'm gonna land the next one, I promise you.

[Will]

Okay. I like this next one that I got here. I think this is gonna be fun. My, my first award is called the Random Cousin Energy Award. Holiday. This is about the holiday season Random Cousin Energy Award. And I. This for me has a personal connection, but I think a lot of people, people could connect to this. So I, I briefly mentioned like over the holidays I spend it with my wife's family. They're from WAT and El Paso border town. And my cousin and her husband came and joined us. And also I should mention. Oh, go ahead.

[Greg]

I, I thought that like they were photoshopping themselves into pictures. I didn't realize they were in El Paso with you. I was like shout out to Them.

[Will]

Man, they, they, they took. So my cousin's husband basically, you know, made like a. One of those, like, travel vans. Like, he, he's a handy guy. He does all the type of. Whatever made it. They traveled all the way across. They're still, they're still somewhere out west. I don't even know where they are right now, but they're like, by the Grand Canyon. So they're doing a big trip across the country and they're. They came to El Paso and hung out with us. And then also even back to Thanksgiving, my wife's cousin, who lives in Philly, came and joined my side of the family in Boston. So I'm really connected to this random Cousin Energy award because, number one, I love the extra dynamic that this throws in. Now, obviously this can go bad, and this is why I think people can relate to this, because it can go a couple different ways. But I think every family has, you know, whether it's a cousin or maybe this is. It doesn't have to be a random because it could be something, could be a new person, could be, you know, a cousin's boyfriend or girlfriend or a new spouse or a new. Whatever that's in the mix. And it just changes up the energy, the vibe of what you got going on for the typical holidays, if you're very used to, it's just us, you know, X amount people. It's the same routine. We do this, we do that. When you throw something new in the mix, it brings this different energy that again, could go wrong. In my case, went very right. It's great having just like my side of the family with my wife's side of the family. And like, we're all kind of bonding over, like, different elements of like, you know, what they're. And they're asking questions about what are your traditions? They're sharing their traditions. They're bringing, like, stuff that we would do more, some doing different board games, different connections, all these type of things. Things. And so for me, this award is going to Ugo Gonzalez. This is the Hugo Award, because when he comes in the game, it's a different vibe, it's a different energy, and most of the time it's uplifting. It's changing the momentum of the game. It's bringing something different. Occasionally doesn't go great. He hits himself in the face. You know, the other night he shot a ball at the side of the backboard. Like, it's not always going to go great. I, you know, I think that'd be the equivalent of, you know, not Knowing the family dynamics, maybe that random cousin, they haven't been there forever. Christmas, maybe they make a faux pas. They say something they shouldn't, ask a question they shouldn't. But hey, you know what gives you an opportunity to bounce right back? And that's what Ugo Gonzalez does. So to me, I think uo Gonzalez embodies the random cousin energy award. What do you think?

[Greg]

I think that's an unbelievable award. Well done. You landed the plane on that. I also love the. Just. This isn't basketball related. This is just like holidays related. The random people at like kind of bigger family events that happen for like a week long or even if it's just one night, how they can just like, like if they up. If they have a faux pas in one room, they can just move to the next room. Right? Nobody knows in that. The next room that they just messed up in the previous room.

[Will]

You know what the best thing is, is the next day when someone's like, hey, man, I really like the new guy. And then the person they had the faux pas with is like, I don't know, man, they're pretty suspect. And then you have these like two, like. What do you mean? I didn't see any of them.

[Greg]

Those are the Twitter trolls.

[Will]

Yeah.

[Greg]

Those are the key Nelsons of, of the, of the shack. Okay. I love it. I love it. That's great. I know we, we said that we weren't gonna do predictions, but did you have a prediction of who might win this award in 2026? Because that was the original gambit for.

[Will]

Yeah, that was the original. I don't have a prediction. I can make one though. And honestly, it's probably still Ugo. Like, it's just Ugo again. Because, you know, one of the things with Joe Missoula that I think is still very confounding is some of the minutes. And listen, everything's working. You can't question it. But the minutes with like, especially that quartet of guys in, you know, Minot's kind of fallen out of this race. I have him up here later so we can talk about it. But like, you know it. Jordan Walsh went from starting, but playing like five minutes one night, 13 minutes the next night, then he comes off the bench last night. He was awesome last night in that game. Ugo is. Has gotten to the point where he's basically playing every game, but he still has some games where it's like randomly 11 minutes and other games it's like 30 minutes. And then sometimes it's game dictated, sometimes it feels Like Joe's just doing it, and I can't really pick up up the reasoning why. And then Baylor Shireman, who knows? Sometimes I, I can't follow when Baylor Shireman's gonna. Gonna find himself in the rotation. So it's, it's, it's that it's a combination of those guys that it's gonna go to, you know, here in 2026.

[Greg]

All right, I love it. Ready for my next award?

[Will]

What you got?

[Greg]

Okay, I'm gonna call this award Grandpa's Big Secret Award.

[Will]

Okay, this is exciting. I'm at the back.

[Greg]

So this award is inspired by a moment I had over Christmas break where we're with Danielle's family and we're playing cards against humanity, right? And her Uncle Donald pulls a card that references.

[Will]

Excuse me, what was his name?

[Greg]

Donald. So his. It's spelled D A W N A L D Donald.

[Will]

Okay.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Will]

I thought you were saying Donald in like. I was like, are you attempting like a New York accent? Like, what?

[Greg]

When I first. I thought the exact same thing when I first met him. I was like, why are you guys saying it like that? So, yeah, his name is spelled D A W N A L D. Great guy.

[Will]

We call him Mock. We only say mock though. So it's Mark. Mark is. No, it's mock. You gotta say it that way.

[Greg]

Uncle Donald, who's the man? Who's the man? He actually hosted Christmas, right? So he pulls a card that references an 11 inch penis. And Danielle's cousin Becca, who's also amazing, just leans over and whispers something to Danielle. And Danielle just goes, oh, don't tell me that right now. And Donald goes, are you guys talking about grandpa? And then everyone in the room just starts laughing. And I just look at everyone. I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me that Grandpa had an 11 inch penis? And they, they're all just like, yeah, like, yeah, kind of family thing. But I guess Danielle, I like, I got her permission. I was like, I want to talk about this on the pod. Like, am I allowed to do that? She's like, yeah, you can do that. It's not a bad thing to talk about how, like my grandf.

[Will]

But I guess a 3 inch penis. Please maybe don't talk about it.

[Greg]

But I guess the night before they had been talking about it, which Danielle wasn't present for. So she got a text message the next day talking about like, hey, did you know grandpa apparently had a schlong? So this award is called Grandpa's Big Secret Award. And I'm gonna go ahead and give this award because this is all 20, 25. To Jalen Williams from the Oklahoma City Thunder, who played an integral role in the playoffs last year, including a legendary game five with the series tied two two where he drops 40 points. And after the season, we find out that Jalen Williams was playing the entire time with torn ligaments in his wrists that would require surgery. Jalen Williams reveals a big secret. Grandpa's big secret. What do you think? Did I land that one?

[Will]

One? I'm still blown away about this. I have so many questions. I'm still like, blown away by the story. Like, it's one thing to have like an urban legend about, like, with that lives within the family, but about it being his 11 inch dick. Like, was he a porn star? Like, how do they find this out? Like, what I mean, did he walk around?

[Greg]

He had like eight kids.

[Will]

I mean, yeah, you can, you can reproduce and not have an 11 inch dick. Like, that's, that's possible. Like this. I don't think the size of your penis sort of like, is like equivalent to how many kids you can have. It's not like.

[Greg]

Apologies to everyone who's listening to this podcast with their little kids right now, their family. We probably should have breakfasted.

[Will]

Put a little warning in there. Yeah, a little warning. I'll move off it. Just tell me, how does the family know? Like, like, like this is. That's. That's a very strange thing to be an open legend around the family.

[Greg]

I didn't ask. I will find out eventually. And I.

[Will]

How did you not ask? It has to be the first question. You weren't curious how everyone knows Grandpa has an 11 inch.

[Greg]

Danielle was kind of giving me the. She. I'm not comfortable with us talking about move on. Like, her grandfather, her grand, like, passed away within the past year. Right? So it's like, not something that I really feel like all that comfortable in the room.

[Will]

Huh. I said hopefully it was a big casket.

[Greg]

Jesus. Okay, let's move on.

[Will]

I don't even remember who won the award. Oh, Jalen Williams. Shout out to. Shout out to Jalen Williams.

[Greg]

Shout out to Jaylen Williams.

[Will]

Yeah, that's. That was a big secret.

[Greg]

Oh, I had also in consideration mentions Jalen Brunson, Alex Caruso, and Tyrese Halliburton.

[Will]

I like jail. I think, I think that's the right one. Because. Because honestly, like, from a basketball perspective, what that, what that did to me is like, yeah, everyone's got to shut the up about having these excuses, right? Like that dude just played. He literally needed surgery. He played through it. Like, he went through a bunch of criticism. Like, at different points in the post, he's like, I don't know. The problem with the Thunder could be Jalen Williams, isn't it? And it's like. And he persisted through it. So when. And like, I think the same thing for the Celtics when they get ding for like, it's like, yo, KP was out. You know what I mean? Like, that does matter. You know what I mean? They still persisted with that injury. So when teams. And I'm specifically thinking of like, I'm so sick of Cleveland Cavaliers. Like, we don't have Max Truce. We don't have Dean Wade. Like, shut up. Like, I'm sorry. Like, I just. They're a team. I'm just getting very annoyed with that. I'm like, they need to, to just be done with it. Be done with it. If that's your excuse. Like, yeah, looking at something like Jalen Williams. You know what?

[Greg]

You know, I just thought about what those jeans are in James somewhere. Will they be activated? Who knows?

[Will]

He's got potential.

[Greg]

Little guy's got potential.

[Will]

The legend continues. The legend continues. All right, let's. Let's get away from this topic. So. So that your fiance doesn't kill us. All right, my next award, I think. I think you'll like this one. It's called the. It's on my plate plate. So I'll eat it, but I don't really like it.

[Greg]

Okay. Love it.

[Will]

And what I'm specifically referring to. So I think it was. Maybe it was like New Year's Day or something or New Year's Eve. I think it was. My brother in law's girlfriend brought over a cake and like, it just looked. It looked good. I didn't know what it, like, which type it was like it had some like white frosting. I see this little bit of chocolate maybe in there. I was like, oh, it looks. That looks pretty good. And you know, I was up and around doing some stuff with the, with the baby. We're starting dessert. And I was like, yeah, yeah, throw me a piece on there. Of course it's dessert. It's hot. The holidays, like, fill me up. I'll figure out all the calories and, and how fat I am later. That's, that's, that's not the problem for today. And so I came back, sat down and looked good, took a bite, and it was mostly kind of like a. I don't even know what type. It's like a Banana cream cake or something to that. To that effect. Not what I was. Yeah, no, no, not what I was expecting. And it's. It's really weird. I love bananas. I eat like a banana a day. Basically. Don't really like banana flavored stuff anywhere else in my life. I don't. Just. Just not for me. So I bought. I. So I buy it. My wife looks at me, goes, you know, I like it. D. I was like, no. And they gave me this big ass piece because they're always like, yeah, the way it works in the house. They're like, the men are gonna eat, like, give them the biggest slice.

[Greg]

I mean, you're an inaugural member of the Belly Rub Boys.

[Will]

Exactly, exactly. So I'm sitting there and I'm like, all right. I, like, I don't want to be rude, so I'm gonna have to, like, force this down. So I'm doing it little by little. Eventually, again, I, like, find a way to get up and go, you know, do something with the baby. And I'm kind of hoping in the back of my mind, like, yeah, maybe they' cleaned up and be like, I think he's done. They'll just throw it out. They threw out everything except for my slice of cake. So I came back, and then the cake is still there.

[Greg]

So now you're forced to eat it.

[Will]

So. So now I'm forced to eat because I'm like, now there's. Everyone's got eyes on, like. Like, it's very obvious if I just sit here and don't eat this cake. Some coffee comes on. I'm like, okay, cool. Let me take some coffee. This will. This will kind of coffee and cake goes together. Even I just help make it a little bit better. And so eventually we get through it. So it was there. It was on my plate. Didn't like it, but I made it through.

[Greg]

Okay.

[Will]

This award for 2025 goes to Anthony Simons.

[Greg]

Okay?

[Will]

He's here. He's. He's playing with us. He's not what I expected. I thought it was a different type of cake that I was getting. It came out. It came out in the preseason. He couldn't dribble. And I was like, oh, this isn't really what I thought that I was getting as a player. And so I've had to learn to adjust my expectations, try to figure out how can I make Anthony Simons palatable. And Joe Missoula has finally started to help this, and he's become an insane plus minus guy. Over the last, like, 12 games, I had this here for the. The pod I didn't do. Which it was. This was about. This is two games ago. It was plus minus. He was 10th in the NBA over the last 10 games. And the two best Celtics lineups in that time frame were both featuring Anthony Simons. And a big part of the reason why is because. And I called for this about a month or so ago when we were debating Joe Missoula and his use of Anthony Simons was Simon Simons. Like I said, he's not the cake I expected. You can't just be like, hey, Simons, go run the offense and like, get us some buckets and let's give Jalen a break. He's actually much more of a complimentary piece, and he needs to be out there with at least two out of the three main ball handlers, meaning Jalen Brown, Peyton Pritchard, and Derrick White. And those are the lineups typically with Keda, which has been the big. Although Garza's been really good on this west coast.

[Greg]

They've been awesome.

[Will]

Something we didn't. We didn't mention, but typically with a big. Big. And Simon's production has been much, much better. It's not going to be, I think, what we envision, but if this is the version we're getting. Give me the cup of coffee. We're gonna get through this. And Anthony Simons. I'm trying to hang in there with you. You're my banana. Piece of cake. My piece of banana cake. Whatever it is.

[Greg]

It's a banana. William. What could it even cost? $10?

[Will]

I got. I got my family watching some Arrested Development too, which was one.

[Greg]

Oh, it's great, dude. I'm. I've come around on an. On an. I. I've adjusted my calibration on. On what he is as a player and what he is going to be for the Celtics team. There's nobody I would rather have shooting a wide open three pointer on this team than him. Like, any time he. When he gets the ball, that thing is up and it's going in, and I feel great about it. And you know what I've really noticed? Jalen really looks for Ant anytime. Jalen's coming up the court, sport, and he knows that Ant, like, might be trailing him on the wing or something like that. He's going to find him. And that's the. I think that's the mark of like, trust between players is like when you can see them looking for each other on just like through the television screen. It's something like you can pick up if you watch a team in person, I think it's a lot easier to see that stuff. But, like, Jalen is constantly looking for Anthony Simons. Remember when, like, Sam Houser was first breaking into the rotation and we were like, nobody looks for Sam. Like, everyone's like, with the ball will sometimes find its way to Sam and then he'll knock down the three. But nobody was, like, seeking out Sam Houser in the first couple years in the rotation. People are seeking out Anthony Simons, and the fact that the best player on the team is seeking him out, I think says a lot about who he is as a player.

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[Will]

Yeah, what you got?

[Greg]

Okay, I'm gonna call this one the we probably shouldn't have three dogs and a baby be under one under one roof rule. Say that again. You probably shouldn't have three dogs and a baby under one roof award. So this is inspired once again by my experience this Christmas, which actually went a lot better than I expected. So Danielle's family, they all get together and people travel from different parts of the country, and some people that are within driving distance don't want to board their dogs, so they bring their dogs, like, totally get it. There's a new element here, right? James is here. So having three dogs who have histories of like, kind of getting into little scuffles around a baby.

[Will]

I already don't like this.

[Greg]

Not great, right? Just, like, tons of anxiety for me and Danielle. So we, like, got ahead of it and we sent messages to the family like, hey, for everyone's safety, to put the dogs in a good position to be successful, to put James in a good position to be successful, let's make sure we follow these ground rules. And it actually went a lot better than, than I expected. There's only one moment where I was a little bit uncomfortable, but everything else, I was like, oh, everyone's like, really? On their. This is great.

[Will]

To be clear, your dog is not there, so none of these are your dogs that you own, so it's a little bit different.

[Greg]

Yeah, yeah.

[Will]

All.

[Greg]

All different dogs. And James has been around them before, but never all three at the same time, to my knowledge. So I'm gonna give this award to the Los Angeles Lakers because they've got three dogs. They've got Luka Doncic, they've got LeBron James, they've got Austin Reeves. There's only one baby on that team, man. There's only one basketball. And it's probably not a good spot for all them to be on the same team with a baby, you know, like, those three dogs, they need their own space, man. And it's just not right for all of them to have to share the ball, to share the rock. It doesn't look good when they play together. Austin Reeves is out right now, but since LeBron's come back, they haven't looked like the same team. The defense is an absolute mess. And it's gotten me to the point where I'm just, like, I'm kind of out on Luca right now. Like, I just don't think he's as good as I thought he was. I now have Jaylen Brown over him. I think that, like, LeBron is probably about as washed up as someone can be with who's still putting up the stats that he's putting up. I just think it's time for them to, you know, get those dogs their own homes and keep the baby safe.

[Will]

I thought you were going to say J.J. redick was the baby. Media over the last, like, two.

[Greg]

That's a, that's a better take. If I said J.J. redick was the baby. Can we just redo that whole segment? No, that was great.

[Will]

Yeah, I thought that's where you go with it, but. No, I, I, I, I totally agree with you. The Lakers were, were kind of surprisingly, like how well they were playing, you know, pre LeBron coming back. And obviously it's not just LeBron coming back. I think it's the, the combination of all those, I think is the point of your reward. Like, it's not one isolated thing. It's like LeBron, for whatever he's doing, even even though it's like the most washed version of him, is still very Good.

[Greg]

It's.

[Will]

I saw someone. I'm stealing this from somebody who said it. It's. He's clearly entering his Jordan on the wizard years, right? Like, that's like, that's what it's like. Oh, this is still really impressive for a guy who Jordan was 38, you know, LeBron'. Whatever. It's. It's still very impressive, but I don't know if it's helping you win basketball games, especially for just what that team needs. And now it's just accentuating Lucas defense, right? Like, that's everything that's been for a LUCA team that you're building. Give him another ball handler and surround him with defense and a big. With a lot threat. Like, those are like, in some shooting, those are like the. The staples of what you want to do. And now, much like people always thought going into the season, like, those three on the court together, you're just not gonna be able to defend. Like Rui Hachimura and DeAndre and Marcus Smart. Whatever combination you're throwing out there, they're not solving the problems of what you have with those three. And so going all the way back to us talking about, you know, Jalen Brown in his potential MVP case, like Luca, if he qualifies, it's gonna be another guy that's in the mix. Like, the defense is going to be so sticking out so much that it's because of how much it's hurting the Lakers, that. That's where you look at it. And I'm like, yeah, I get it. He averages three more points per game and he averages, you know, more assists and rebounds. But you can't tell me that he's helping his team win games the way Jalen Brown helping the Celtics win games, especially. Yeah. And you and he. You know, I love Derek. Derek White. I think the debate of who's better, Derek White or Austin Reeves, like, it's as much as Derrick White does a lot of. He's. He's making a sneaky all star bid here in the last, like, 15 games. Like, Austin Reeves is probably the better guy, better player. If you're just taking one guy out of the two, you can debate that, that's fine. But the point being, like, it's just complete. It's apples to oranges what Jalen Brown is doing for his team versus what Luke is doing. Doing. Throw the stats out the window. So I'm with you. I like that award. I think it makes a lot of sense, and I think the Lakers are kind of interesting to see if they do Anything here in the next month and a half before we hit the trade deadline. And then who knows what offseason looks like when it comes to LeBron James.

[Greg]

I barely heard anything you said because I was so mad I didn't do the JJ Redick as the baby thing because that's just so much better. But I. I'm shocked that you think Austin Reeves is better than Derek White. I think Derek White is clearly a better player there. But let's move. Let's move on to your next.

[Will]

Yeah, that's for a different day. I think it's. Yeah, I think you can look at it different ways depending on how you're framing it. All right, I've got two more awards here. How many more do you think we should. We should do here? Because I know we have a special one that we're going to do at the end. So how many. How many more you want to go through?

[Greg]

Let's see. Two. So I. So I got one more and then the special one.

[Will]

Okay, cool. So that means I'm gonna do. I could do two more. I'll give my two, but you give one and the special. Special one. So that works out cool. All right, so this next one here I mentioned, we're going to come back to Josh Minot. This award is going to Josh Minot. This is the time to step up. I got this. Actually, maybe I don't got this award. And this comes from something that happened in my life this morning. I mentioned we're coming back to fingernails here. So my daughter's fingernails just grow like crazy. And usually this is a job. Job for my wife. She's handled it most of the time. I've done some of the ones where. When we had. Like that. When she was so small, you have to use, like, basically the. What's like the. It's like the power grinder.

[Greg]

Yeah, we gave you the grinder.

[Will]

Yeah, yeah, we have that and that one. It's just. It just takes a while. It's longer. Keep her still. Like, it's like that one I've done, like, here and there, but it's usually like, I gotta do it like, two, three fingers or toes at a time or whatever. Yeah, her fingers are long enough now, and they. The nails are growing so much that we can use a clip. Clipper. And so this morning, you know, she was like, here, why don't you. Why don't you try the. The clipper? Because they are getting a log. And I was like, I can, you know, put on the game face. I can do this a little bit like, like, you know, Josh Mina. No one, no one gave him a chance in Minnesota. We gave him a chance here. He's like, hey, Josh, you're gonna go into the starting lineup and I'll tell you what, first four fingers, we're flying, baby. We're clipping them. We got 1, 2, clip, pop, 1, 2, clip, pop. And we're like, all right, we're cooking with gas here. Josh Minot. We were. He was a revelation earlier in the season. We were like, this is the guy. This is the guy that we've been waiting for as the third athletic wing that goes with the Jays. And then we got to the thumb and you know, the thumb once again. It's kind of a time crunch. I'm sure you've gone through this with James or, you know, whatever your guy setup is. And so, you know, we've got it all set up. Whatever music's playing in the background, she gets a little antsy and clip, clip a little bit of the skin. Didn't, didn't go. Didn't, didn't go the way anyone wanted. Baby starts crying. I feel like crap. It's. It's just not great situation. And so, you know, this is Josh Minor, where, hey, it was. It was great until it wasn't. And then you kind of faded to the background. And, you know, now Josh is kind of out of the rotation. We're wondering, you know, when's he gonna get his shot again? I'm sure he's going to, but it's got to stay ready. Don't know when. That's. That's me in the clip game. I'm on the bench right now.

[Greg]

What kind of nail clipper are you using? Because I feel like you maybe were set up for failure here, similar to how Joe Missoula is maybe setting up Josh Minot for failure by slipping him in as a small ball fight 5.

[Will]

It's a little baby nail clipper, like, like the baby version of what you would use. I don't know how.

[Greg]

Okay. But it doesn't have like a built in guard where you, like, are not going to get the skin.

[Will]

No, it's. It's like a cheaper one from cvs I think we bought while we were traveling. So I know, I know the one that you're talking about, and I think we do have that one as well. But I think this was more like we still just got back from traveling the other day, so it's like we're still like, we spent today trying to reorganize our life, basically. And it was just like, oh, this one's here on the T. Just try this one. And again. First four fingers, clean as a whistle. We're. We're cooking, baby. She's. She's grabbing the inside of my mouth now. No more. No, no more.

[Greg]

No.

[Will]

That hurts.

[Greg]

So many scratches on me from that. From. From my little dude. It's. It's.

[Will]

It's brutal. You got a little strong boy. Real quick, the grip little children have. Holy, dude.

[Greg]

They're like.

[Will]

He gets a hold of it sometimes and I'm like, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. And I'm like, alien.

[Greg]

Yeah. It's crazy, dude. If. If I remember, you were like a scissors family to cut.

[Will]

Oh, that's We. You're correct. And it's wild that we did that. I can't. I can't imagine.

[Greg]

I'm like, I remember, like, your mom went to cut my nails one time when I was a kid, and you were using scissors and I was like, cutting your nails.

[Will]

What. What was happening? I don't know.

[Greg]

We were like. I was at your house and like your. I. I had like a hangnail or something. Your mom had to cut my nail. But I remember she, like, pulled out some scissors and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. What is happening here? Because I, like, still clearly remember it. Right?

[Will]

Yeah, you were right.

[Greg]

Yeah. So I. You know, man, it happens. It happens. You'll. You'll bounce back. Josh Mining. I think we'll get another chance. You'll get another chance and you'll succeed.

[Will]

Exactly. That's why he gets the award. We both just got to stay ready. We're part of the stay ready crew now.

[Greg]

Love it. Okay, my next award is called the Dead Know Nothing award award. And this is inspired by the first line in the new book by dorchester author Mark McDonough, which in turn was inspired by Mark witnessing this very thing happen to me one summer about eight years ago. The very first line of his brand new book, the Dead know nothing, reads, father Franklin went to light his cigarette on his stove and accidentally lit his hair on fire and stuff.

[Will]

Dead.

[Greg]

That happened to me. Except I was smoking a cigar. Never smoked a cigarette in my life. And I walked outside all those years ago when Mark and my mom are out there talking, and they're just like, what. What is on your head? And I'm like, what are you. What are you talking about? They're like, did you dye your hair recently? I'm like, no. Like, what are you. What are you talking about? They're like, oh, my God, dude, you just lit your hair on fire. And this award, it's 2025. Will the person who lit their hair on fire can only go to one person? Who do you think this award is.

[Will]

Going to lit their hair on fire?

[Greg]

I'm.

[Will]

I'm gonna say time. I. I don't know. Celtics.

[Greg]

Not Celtics.

[Will]

Yeah, I figured it was no Celtics. Really? I'm trying to think of, like, pop culture. Who set their hair? No.

[Greg]

NBA. NBA.

[Will]

Oh, NBA. Give it to me. I'm. I'm blind.

[Greg]

Nico Harrison.

[Will]

Okay, okay, that's a good one. That's a good one.

[Greg]

So this award goes to the. The big dumb idiot, Nico Harrison.

[Will]

Well, see, if you had phrased it that way, I would have got it right.

[Greg]

Who decided to throw caution to the wind and for temporary satisfaction, decided to try and smoke a cigarette lighting it on the stove. By trading Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis and Max Christie in a first round pick. I mean, it's pretty self explanatory there. Nico no longer has a job. I no longer have some of the hair on my head because of that and Father Franklin and the dead know nothing does his work well. So shout out to Mark McDonough. Shout out to Nico Harrison.

[Will]

Now, some might say. Are you being a little contradictory here, Greg? I think you just validated Nico's trade with some of your comments about Luca Doncic earlier.

[Greg]

Okay, so I had another award that was going to talk about Luca, but we don't have time for it. I do think when you. When you look at that trade, the justification for it just makes no sense. Saying we're trading Luca because we're worried about an injury. When you're acquiring an injury prone guy who's seven years older and not getting draft capital to compensate yourself for. So, like, I. I hear you. I know you said that in jest, but I do think that Nico's general shorting of Luca could have been a brilliant move. It's just the way that he went.

[Will]

About it, the execution of it. So, so absurdly. But actually, it's funny. I literally thought about this the other day where I was like, damn, Nico's idea. Not horrible. The execution is just so. Such an abomination that there's no justification for it.

[Greg]

Lit his hair on fire, man. Lit his career on fire.

[Will]

Lit his career on fire. See you later. 1, 2, 3. Cancun. Have fun out there, Nico. All right, I got one more here and then we'll go to you for your last one. This last one here is a little bit of a combo of a 2025 predictive 2026 award. Okay, so this is the excited but need to see it. Marty supreme award, which is going to Jason Tatum. So the reason for this award here is Marty supreme, the new Timothy Chalamet movie that's. That's out there. I'm excited to go see it. I love everything. I love everything shallow is bringing to the table these days. I think Chalamet just gets it, man. He seems. He just seems like the man he seems. Listen, I know he's a Knicks fan guy, guys. We would kill to have a celebrity be as into the Celtics and as cool about it as Timothy Chalamet is to the Knicks. Like, the Celtics would love to have that. We don't. It's okay. Maybe, you know, maybe ao. Debbie, let's. Let's. Can. Can you be our Celtics fan? Somebody. Somebody with a little bit of. A little bit of gravity right now. And Timmy's got that. And I. I just like his promo. His. You know, the. The clip of him. White boy of the year with Anthony Edwards is just a 10 out of 10. Like, everything about it is great. He's doing all the promo for it. He's. I was talking about this with our guy, Lip tag. I was with him for a Today. Like, I love that he's. As an actor, Like, I want to be the greatest. Like, he's just straight up. Like, not like, hey, artist, objective. Everybody likes their own flavor. Now that I'm going for it. I'm the goat. I'm coming for the goat. And by all accounts, this movie hits those notes. He's showing out for it, but I gotta see it because I don't really have enough, like, Timmy Shalom movies that I'm like, yo, here's where the, like, Dune's cool. But other than that, I don't really got anything else I can point to that I'm like, I really like Timothy Shalamet to say, like, he's a great actor. Besides, he just seems like a cool dude, and I want to like him as an actor. Yeah. With Tatum injuries coming back, I see all the clips. I'm loving the pr. I'm starting to dream of what this looks like. And I think just like Marty Supreme, I could see it being awesome. I've heard it's awesome. I've heard Tatum's rehab's awesome. I've heard he's ahead of schedule. But until I actually see it, I just don't know. I gotta see it. I need to see it. So Jason Tatum you're getting the excitement excited, but need to see it. Marty Supreme Award.

[Greg]

I love it, man. I don't really have any idea what Marty supreme is all about. I have no idea. Like, it's a. What?

[Will]

It's a ping pong. It's a movie about ping pong.

[Greg]

Okay.

[Will]

All right, dude, look it up. It looks. It looks fun. It's one of those, like, stories. It's a. It's a sports movie of, like, a story that almost nobody knows, but, like, they took it deathly seriously.

[Greg]

Okay.

[Will]

And I think it looks. Looks great. So we'll see.

[Greg]

Great. I. I've only seen the, like, the still frame promos. I haven't seen any trailers or anything like that, but I. I think that's great. Okay. I'm gonna go to my final award. I was gonna give it to Jason Tatum. I might make a. A last second pivot now that I'm thinking about it here, but my final award is my Killa Mentality Award. Okay. And this one is in support of our childhood friend, Chris Kowalski. He also went to B.C. with me. He was one of the rare people that played two Division 1 sports where he was a baseball player for the first four years of his time at B.C. and then as a grad student, ended up walking on to the basketball team. So Chris is currently battling colon cancer. We will have a link posted in the show's description to purchase Kill A Mentality hoodies. I bought mine today. Where portions of the proceeds will go to helping out Chris's family to help spread awareness about colon cancer and how it can affect men as young and as healthy as someone like Chris. It's just like, absolutely shocking that this could happen to someone who was, by all accounts in phenomenal shape. Just had a baby. You know, the. Their family needs all the love and all the support. I actually was texting with him today. He said that he. He's gone through 15 treatments right now. He's got a 16th treatment coming coming up. Will, thanks for putting that link there in the chat. And he said that, you know, there's things that you can't control, but you just have to kind of stay the course. Right. And I think that it makes sense for J. Jason Tatum to get that award with all the stuff that's going on with his. His comeback, the Achilles injury. Not to compare a sports injury to someone potentially losing their Life at age 37. But I do think there are a lot of parallels in the way. Way that Chris is attacking his chemotherapy with the way that Jason Tatum is attacking his rehab. Also, I think this award could go to Jaylen Brown just for his, like, general faith, consistency. Hard work pays off that idea. You know, Chris, we're. We're praying for you. We're rooting for you, man. Hopefully everybody that's listening right now can at least go click on the link and check out Chris's story so that you might be able to encourage somebody to get screened earlier in their life or. Or something like that, because this was, by all accounts, something that just happened randomly, and now he's, you know, gone through 15 chemotherapy sessions with the 16th on the way. So we're. We're thinking of you, my man, and we're hoping everything goes well.

[Will]

Yeah, shout out to you, Chris. Hopefully, if you're. If you're listening to this man, we're gonna do what we can here to take our little platform here and help promote what we can. I put a link here for anyone that's live with us right now. Again, it will be in the description both if you're listening to this, either the audio version on Spotify, Apple, wherever, Listen to podcast as well as on our YouTub, or if you're just listening and want to go, it's fade-athletics.com under the apparel section. You'll see immediately the killer mentality sweatshirt. And yeah, it's. It's one of those situations where I like his mentality on it because it's something you just. You can't control. Right. And so you. You have to be able to. To kind of roll with it. And it's. You know, we're wishing Chris all the best. Him and his family, as you mentioned, just had a. Had a baby. So, you know, it's. It sucks to think about. And, you know, Chris, just. Just to be real with the audience, he's from Dorchester. Probably one of the more legendary youth players that we. That we played with. Right. Like, literally, I mean. I mean, you went to college because. What is he, six, five, six, five?

[Greg]

Yeah, six, five, six, six.

[Will]

But he was like that when he was, like, 12. Like, he felt that way when he was 12. And I. I think every time I saw him, saw him step to the plate, it felt like he hit the ball in the park every single time when we played, played Little League.

[Greg]

So anytime you got that kid out or got a hit off of him or even got on base against him, you were like, yeah, I'm doing something right.

[Will]

Yeah, I think I might have followed tip the ball once, and I was pumped. I was like, all right.

[Greg]

He literally threw like, 80 miles an hour when he was 12 years old and he was.

[Will]

And it was what, what? The little. The amount is like, what, 46ft? And so with his leg extension, it was. It was like 44.

[Greg]

Yeah, it was. It was crazy.

[Will]

He didn't have.

[Greg]

He also didn't have the greatest control. So am I gonna get hit in the skull?

[Will]

Yeah, it was. It was pretty terrifying. But, yeah, please, if you guys have the opportunity, check out the link support if you can. We'll give every opportunity for it. And yeah, Chris, just hope you can get better, man. And thinking of you and your family during this. During this time.

[Greg]

We did beat him in. In our Little League World Series. I just want to throw that up out there.

[Will]

That's a fact. That's a fact.

[Greg]

Head to head. We won.

[Will]

Didn't we turn like a triple play or some or something? I don't know. I can't. Maybe I'm making that part. That might be too.

[Greg]

Dude, the.

[Will]

The.

[Greg]

The, like, in my mind, legendary jumping catch at shortstop was robbing Chris Kowalski of. Of double.

[Will]

The things that we hold on to for those of us that didn't play high, high level in college and beyond. Remember that you got so far in this podcast. Ask Greg. You referenced a little League catch and a video of you throwing a football at the beach while drinking with your friends as two of the most legendary sports accomplishments in your career.

[Greg]

Wait, which beach are we talking about?

[Will]

You being a high school quarterback, too.

[Greg]

Wait, which one are you talking about? Which video?

[Will]

There was a video of us on the beach where it was you throwing the ball to our guy Garo against me. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

[Greg]

I'm not talking about. I'm talking about the one we were floating the river in San Martin Marcos where I threw the ball and hit that guy who was floating on, like, a fat stream.

[Will]

Double dimes. Double dimes. I can't believe I doubted that.

[Greg]

Dude, that was crazy. That was, like, the best throw anyone's ever made. All time. Like that. Like, literally, if you talk to anybody that was there, they're like, dude, that was the greatest throw anyone's ever made.

[Will]

That was. That was the same day where you didn't know what slapping the bag was, right? And then you just like. I think I was like.

[Greg]

I think I slapped the bag after making that throw because I was so excited.

[Will]

Yeah, and then you didn't remember that you have to close the bag of wine, and the wine just drenched down.

[Greg]

You like, you looking like gangrel.

[Will]

Gangrel. I was trying to Think of what it was. Yeah. Gangrel from, from wwe. Oh man. All right, that's gonna do it for this episode. Again, if you do want to support killer mentality, check it out in the, in the description here. That'll be wherever you guys listen to this later this week coming up. So Celtics here just looking at the week ahead. Monday it's a four game home stand. So Monday against Chicago, Wednesday against Denver likely will be live after that Denver game. No joke it but you know they, they put a scare into those Cavaliers I talked about the other night. Fell just short. Jamal Murray's been, been having finally his all star breakout year. So we'll check in on the Nuggets and the rest of the league after that game on Wednesday and then for the weekend we've got Friday night against Toronto back to back with Saturday and maybe hopefully we'll get to see Wemby for the spurs on Saturday. So we will have you guys locked and loaded. It's 2023 6. We're back in action. We're rocking and rolling. Jalen Brown might be an mvp. Who knows? Who knows what's going to happen? The possibilities are endless for 2026. Greg, been good to get back on the saddle here in the new year and excited for, for what's to come for us and for the Celtics.

[Greg]

I also put a link, I put two links in there. Ignore the first one. The second one is a direct link to Mark's book the Dead Know Nothing, which released on December 26th. Make sure you check that out. I had the pleasure of reading this in its early stages like over a year ago. So really you kind of get the finished product here because it's a phenomenal book.

[Will]

All right, shout out to our guy, Mark. All right man. We will be back later this week everybody. Enjoy the start of your week and we'll catch you guys later. It don't take much no more until I hit the floor Every time I hit this it's you I find it don't take much no more until I match.

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