Best of The Herd

Summary

The Herd with Colin Cowherd — Best of The Herd

Date: March 20, 2026
Host: Jason McIntyre (in for Colin Cowherd), joined by Rachel Nichols
Produced by: Fox Sports Radio, iHeartPodcasts & The Volume

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Episode Overview

This vibrant Friday edition of The Herd, hosted by Jason McIntyre with guest co-host Rachel Nichols, dives deep into the hottest sports stories of the moment—most notably, Luka Dončić's stunning 60-point performance, the Lakers' resurgence, March Madness upsets, debates about college sports NIL value, and evolving NBA MVP rankings. Packed with data, banter, and original takes, the dialogue swings from NBA dominance to NCAA upsets and features engaging analysis on generational stars like LeBron James, Victor Wembanyama, and high-profile college talents.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Luka Dončić’s 60-Point Explosion & The Lakers’ Momentum

[04:20 – 07:28; 33:58 – 39:37]

• Luka's jaw-dropping 60 points scored on the second night of a back-to-back (after 40 the night before), carrying the Lakers against the Miami Heat.
• LeBron James' leadership called out, playing despite the travel/back-to-back situation and inspiring both Luka and Austin Reaves to suit up:
  • Austin Reaves on LeBron’s example:

    “When he said he was playing, I was like, I can’t let a 41 year old play and I don’t play. So signed up to play and so did Luka and grinded a win out.”
    – Austin Reaves [07:09]

• McIntyre draws sharp contrast between Dončić’s 60-point “authentic” game and Bam Adebayo’s recent 83, arguing for context in big scoring nights.
  • On the Lakers’ turnaround:

    “They are freaking out on the Laker bench when Luka goes to the free throw line to get his 60th point. An authentic 60, not a Fugazi 60.” – Jason McIntyre [07:28]

• LeBron’s triple-double at age 41 and historic greatness:
  • Only players over 40 with NBA triple-doubles: LeBron has four, entire rest of league has one (Karl Malone).

2. Comparing Luka's 60 vs. Bam’s 83

[07:28; 33:58 – 39:37]

• McIntyre contends Luka’s 60 is more impressive than Bam's 83 due to the context—road back-to-back, meaningful game, and lack of “gimmicks.”
• Bam’s 83 referenced as coming against a tanking Wizards team; hints that high-scoring games depend on context, opponent, and genuine team need.
• Rachel Nichols weighs in on “one-upmanship” among NBA elite, noting it’s fun for fans but underscores Dončić’s team-first mentality.

3. NCAA Tournament & NIL Spending Debate: The AJ Dybantsa Case

[11:05 – 15:38]

• BYU’s one-and-done tournament run despite signing #1 recruit AJ Dybantsa to a $7M NIL deal.
• McIntyre questions whether it’s worth investing so much in one star versus spreading NIL funds across multiple high-level recruits:

  “Are teams seeing this and being like, hey, we all know no man is an island. You cannot do it yourself.”
  – Jason McIntyre [11:05]

• Sean Miller’s candid comments on defending Dybantsa:

  “He puts so many fouls on the opponent that he wears out the other team… We knew he was going to score. We just wanted to make sure… we did as good of a job as we can guarding the rest of the group.”
  – Sean Miller, Texas Head Coach [13:47]

• Takeaway: Roster construction via NIL is still in its infancy; star power is great, but basketball remains a team sport.

4. Victor Wembanyama & The Spurs’ Rebirth

[20:29 – 22:30]

• Spurs clinch a playoff spot for the first time since 2017, driven by “unicorn” Victor Wembanyama.
• McIntyre defends tanking as an effective franchise strategy (“the Spurs are like very obviously the blueprint for how to do it”) and highlights Wembanyama’s transformative impact:

  “If you take Wembanyama away from the Spurs, they don’t scare a damn soul… The Spurs are essentially Wembanyama. And then you’ve got Castle and all role players…”
  – Jason McIntyre [22:30]

• Wembanyama’s attitude on playoff berth:

  “The key for me is to try to not care because we want to attack 82 games. I’m scared to become complacent. So I’ll be on the other end of the spectrum and try to not care at all.”
  – Victor Wembanyama [22:10]

5. NBA MVP Race: Shakeup and Rankings

[25:27 – 29:09]

• McIntyre challenges consensus that SGA (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) is a lock for MVP, ranks his top five:
  • #5: SGA
  • #4: Nikola Jokic
  • #3: Jaylen Brown
  • #2: Victor Wembanyama
  • #1: Luka Dončić
• SGA’s numbers are “down a little” from last year; MVP field is more open than the straw polls suggest.
• Rachel Nichols discusses her MVP voting process:
  • Importance of team success as a tiebreaker.
  • Example from last season:

    “When the votes actually were tallied, even though it was so close for a lot of people… I am picking SGA last year and so did so many other people. Okay, it was close in people’s minds, but the vote was like 70-30.”
    – Rachel Nichols [39:53]

6. March Madness Shockers and McIntyre’s Bracket Wisdom

[04:46 – 05:04]

• Early NCAA upsets: High Point shocks Wisconsin, Duke survives Sienna.
• McIntyre touts his bracket-picking prowess, having picked High Point as a first-round upset.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• LeBron’s Unprecedented Longevity:

  “LeBron has four [triple-doubles over age 40]. The entire rest of the league has one. Karl Malone.”
  – Jason McIntyre [07:28]

• On Luka’s 60 vs. Bam’s 83:

  “Bam last week, 83 points, there was some gimmicks involved…60 (from Luka) earned, a little more impressive than 83 given.”
  – Jason McIntyre [07:28]

• AJ Dybantsa’s college impact:

  “If you could get the number one recruit, top five recruit, you take him, obviously. But…did they get the value that they spent on Dybantsa?”
  – Jason McIntyre [11:05]

• Sean Miller on defending a top NBA prospect:

  “What we talked about is a jump shot by him is a victory for us… puts so many fouls on the opponent that he wears out the other team.”
  – Sean Miller [13:47]

• Wembanyama’s attitude after playoff berth:

  “I know it sounds arrogant, but he just sounds authentic… I don’t want to get complacent.”
  – Victor Wembanyama [22:10]

• Rachel Nichols on NBA scoring feats:

  “If it was easy, everyone would do it. You know how you know it’s hard? People don’t do it.”
  – Rachel Nichols [36:27]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Luka’s 60-point night and Lakers uplift: [04:20 – 07:28]
• Austin Reaves on LeBron’s leadership: [07:09]
• Discussion: Luka’s 60 vs. Bam’s 83: [07:28; 33:58 – 39:37]
• NCAA tournament & NIL spending, Dybantsa’s one-and-done: [11:05 – 15:38]
• Coach Sean Miller on A.J. Dybantsa: [13:47]
• Victor Wembanyama’s playoff-clinching night & interview: [20:29 – 22:30]
• MVP race reshuffled, top five rankings debate: [25:27 – 29:09]
• Rachel Nichols details MVP voting process: [39:53]

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Style & Tone

The episode is high-energy, opinionated, and blends stats-driven sports talk with playful banter. Jason McIntyre (standing in for Cowherd) brings data and irreverence, Rachel Nichols adds nuance and clarity, and guest voices contribute expertise. The discussion oscillates between light-hearted and hard-edged, maintaining the show’s tradition of bold sports commentary.

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Summary Takeaways

• Luka Dončić is having “pure” historic scoring games and leading the Lakers’ post-season momentum.
• NBA MVP race is more competitive than current odds suggest; Luka, Wembanyama, and Jaylen Brown are legitimate top-tier candidates.
• Scoring feats must be weighed in context—opponent, circumstance, and method matter (as in Luka vs. Bam debates).
• NIL-driven roster construction in college basketball is still a wild experiment; huge spends on single stars may not be worth sacrificing depth.
• Victor Wembanyama is the transformative force for the resurgent Spurs, and his mentality signals sustained relevance for San Antonio.

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For anyone who missed the episode, this breakdown captures all the sharp analysis, surprising stats, and candid player/coach commentary that keep The Herd essential listening for sports fans.

Transcript

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Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio and noon to 3 Eastern, 9am to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the [e-mail] or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.

[Colin Cowherd]

This is the Best of the Herd with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio.

[Jason McIntyre]

Hello and welcome. It's Friday here on the Herd. It's me, Jason McIntyre, in for one more day before Colin Cowherd returns. I'm joined by Rachel Nichols. We've got a splendid Friday show for you. I mean, I could have gone with any adjective. Rachel Luka Doncic drops a 60 piece

[Rachel Nichols]

on the second night of a back to back on the road where he scored 40 the night before. It's only 100 points in 26 hours.

[Jason McIntyre]

People are sick of the Lakers. But I'm sorry, we have to talk about obviously NCAA tournament. My guy Boozer didn't quite look like baby Jokic in the opener against mighty Sienna. Duke prevails. Couple of good upsets. High Point shocking Wisconsin.

[Rachel Nichols]

But you picked that.

[Jason McIntyre]

I did.

[Rachel Nichols]

Remember I asked you about first round upsets and you picked High Point.

[Jason McIntyre]

I tend to do well in the tournament bracket. Not totally busted yet. Got a couple great guests on the show. Pro Bowler A potential all NBA first team rookie guy. Maybe we'll see if he gets on the first team. And then Michael Rubin, your friend Fnatic's co founder, joining the show, talk flag football in the final hour. But I have to start with the Lakers. Normally it'd be automatic NCAA tournament, right? Not so fast, my friends. Look at what the Lakers are doing, folks. The story keeps getting crazier. I mean, seriously, they can't be beat right now. So in NBA parlance, last night for the Lakers was supposed to be a scheduled loss. Okay, they play Wednesday in Houston, game ends, they got to fly to South Beach. Apparently they land around 4am, get to the hotel at 5. As you heard here yesterday on the show, when you hear that, you're like, okay, let's assume Luka's going to sit. Lebron, I mean the old man, 41, he's going to sit, probably rest. Austin Reeves, you don't need to risk injury. You're in the middle of a long road trip. So as the story goes, J.J. redick said, anybody tired, who's healthy, who's ready to go, and LeBron James was the first one. I'm in LeBron. That's leadership, my friends. That doesn't sound like somebody who's pouting and whining about next year or whether or not he fits alongside Luka and Reaves. That sounds like leadership. And LeBron saying he's going to play. Instantly, everyone fell in line. It's Luka, it's Reeves. And then the real surprise happened. Luka Doncic on the second night of a back to back, as Rachel said, he scored 40 against Houston. He dropped a 60 piece, folks. 60 points in 38 minutes. Last night the Lakers stunned the Heat. And listen, Miami's not a great team this year. They're top eight in the East. They have a player named Bam Adebayo who scored 83 points last week. I think we'll reference that in a moment. But I want to go to Austin Reeves, who talked about the Lakers. They're not, they're not settling anymore. They, this is a legit championship team. And listen to how Reeves talks about their new mentality.

[Austin Reeves]

When he said he was playing, I was like, I can't let a 41 year old play and I don't play. So signed up to play and so did Luka and grinded a win out. It's not an easy one, especially with the pace that that team plays at. But second half, especially that third quarter, we played some good basketball and then down the stretch took over the game,

[Jason McIntyre]

you see the celebration and you could just tell the vibes are off the charts right now. I mean, they are freaking out on the Laker bench when Luka goes to the free throw line to get his 60th point. An authentic 60, not a Fugazi 60. Okay, LeBron, by the way, got to give him some props. You see on the screen, 30, 15 and 10. And our stats team came up with this whopper. This is crazy. Guys over the age of 40, in the history of basketball, in the NBA triple doubles, LeBron has four of them. The entire rest of the league has won. Karl Malone. I could not have guessed Karl Malone. That's how dominant LeBron was on the night of a back to back. And again, we're like four weeks removed from. Does LeBron fit with this team? Hello, narrative killer. That's what LeBron's doing right now. Now I just want to really quick wanna drill down on Luca's 60 for a moment. Because somebody smart recently said, oh, Luca, 27 years old. He's like an old 27. I mean, he only has three dunks this year. I don't think he's first team, all NBA. All he does is whine. Listen, Luca is shredding everybody. He's torching the league and he's torching the media. Anybody wanted to push back on Luca? Hey, man, just take it. You were wrong. Eat it. He had 60 points and you could argue Luca's 60 a pure 60. They needed it. They had to come back in the fourth quarter to win this game. Luka's 60 was more impressive than Bam's 83 last week. Now, I know you think, hey, Jay, save that for hot take happy hour. I don't need to. That's a legitimate take. That's credible. Bam last week, 83 points. There was some gimmicks involved. Hey, let's intentionally foul so Bam can get the ball back. Get to the free throw line. I mean, they were up a billion. He barely shoots threes. He's just shucking all game long. And again, 83 points is amazing. Obviously I'm not knocking that the path to 83. Not as pure as Luca's 60. 60 earned a little more impressive than 83 given. And here's what Luca's done in this eight game streak, folks. He's on fire. 40 points per game in the last eight games. He is, I mean, just doing an unbelievable job. Somebody in our meeting this morning had a funny line. You know, Bam's 83 points. It's kind of like when you hit a home run and you're up 19 to 2 and the pitcher is a guy who was playing shortstop two innings ago, that they're just joking around and that home runs like does it really matter that much? Again, not taking away from Bam's 83. Just putting it in context what Luka did last night. 60 on a back to back against a good team. Remember the tanking Wizards were Bam's opponent during the 83. I'm just continue to be blown away by the Lakers. They, they have a huge one in Orlando Saturday. I know there's NCAA tournament games. It's the weekend, it's going to be like 85 degrees out here in LA. Everybody's going to be at the beach. Just keep one eye on Luka and the Lakers who seem to be rolling toward the NBA finals. All right now I'm going to pivot to college basketball and you guys know I love to geek out during the tournament. We had some amazing guests this week. Casey Jacobson, Miles Simon. Everybody seems to be under the consensus that AJ DeBonsa, probably the number one pick. It was Darren Peterson for a minute and now it's pivoted back to DebonSA. Boozers lurking. Darius Acuff is in the mix. Caleb Wilson as well. But AJ DeBonsa, let's talk about him. So yesterday the BYU star scores 35 and has 10 boards. But BYU lost to Texas. There's some great sound, we'll play for you in a minute from Sean Miller, the coach of Texas. How do you stop him? We can't stop him. I mean AJ debonto was insane. If you've seen the highlight reels online, I mean they're throwing double teams at him. He's doing whatever the hell he wants. You cannot stop this kid. I see like a young Tracy McGrady. You know, some people say they see a little quicker. Paul Pierce. Bottom line is A.J. deBonsa is going to be an NBA pro. Maybe the first pick overall. I just had a, I just had a question though. He cost in the 5 to 7 million dollar range. If you look online, he allegedly got $7 million. I'm just wondering. BYU. Last year they made the sweet 16 guys, good run, lost Alabama. Alabama made like 75, three pointers. Crazy game this year. They get AJ DebonSA. They're like a middle of the pack team in the Big 12. Now they did lose Richie Saunders, their second best player. Obviously that hurts, but for five to seven million dollars we'll go with seven. For seven million dollars they got one game in the NCAA tournament. It's over. I'm not saying they would not take AJ Do Bonsa. If you could get the number one recruit, top five recruit, you take him, obviously. But we're in the infancy period of nil and how to pay players and build your roster. And we've talked a lot in the NFL about how, man, once you pay that quarterback a ton of money, it's tough to build a roster around. It's even tougher in the NFL with 11, you know, 11 offense, 11 defense. Special teams basketballs should be easier, right? Five guys pay them, right? Michigan's doing it. You know, Duke, BYU interestingly, has DebonSA at 7 mil. I'm just wondering, are teams seeing this and being like, hey, we all know no man is an island. You cannot do it yourself. It is impossible in this era. There's just too much talent. Would BYU have maybe fared better if they had go, I don't know, two guys for 2 million and a $1 million guy. And oh, by the way, that trio, hey, let's, let's run it back next year. We're not going to the league yet. And again, I'm not saying you don't take debons. I'm just asking a question, like, was the value, did they get the value that they spent on debona? And it's not a knock on the kid. He brought the major pub right there all over newspapers, online. We're talking about him on this show. When do you talk about BYU basketball and national TV shows? Not ever. And they got high profile games. And again, he was exceptional. But they're one and done. It's over. We don't get any more debonsa. And to me, that it's just a little annoying. Here's Sean Miller, the Texas coach, on trying to stop the potential number one pick in the draft.

[Sean Miller]

We understood that he has the ability to score like nobody else. What we talked about is a jump shot by him is a victory for us. Among the many things he does, he just, he puts so many fouls on the opponent that he wears out the other team. And we were able to, you know, play him. And again, I see he had 12 free throws, but these guys were able to play all the way to the end. You know, we knew he was going to score. We just wanted to make sure that we did a great job rebounding and that we did as good of a job as we can guarding the rest of the group. And I think that's really why we were able to win.

[Jason McIntyre]

And that's a great point. Rebounding. They grabbed 16 offensive rebounds. Some Texas center nobody had ever heard of had nine offensive boards. BYU couldn't get rebounds. They couldn't make shots. Look at the non AJ debonsa players, 13 to 31. I think the number was 3 of 15 from deep. They didn't have a well rounded roster. They had a superstar. That's it. And Texas of course had a better roster. I, I had, you know, BYU in my bracket, so I lost this one. But I watched a Bonsa. I think it's very clear. Like listen, I did watch the Duke game. I was sweating. That boozer looked fine. We'll talk about him maybe a little bit later. We'll definitely touch on High point. But I thought the story yesterday was debonza because when you look at the NCAA tournament today, a lot of great games coming up. I just wonder, are teams going to start saying let's spread the wealth around, let's retain guys for more than one year. It was nice having A.J. he's definitely going to the league. Let's just not wish the Sacramento Kings upon A.J. deBonso. All right, we've got a wonderful show coming up. There's an NBA team kind of flying under the radar. We're going to touch on them next. And then a five time Pro Bowler stopping by later in the hour to talk about the big NFL trade that just went down.

[Colin Cowherd]

Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS1 and the iHeartRadio app.

[Jason McIntyre]

Hey, this is Jason McEntire. Join me every weekday morning on my podcast Straight fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical sports pod. Pushing the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate stats to help you win big at the sportsbook and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and listen to Straight fire with Jason McIntyre on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Jason McIntyre]

Network back here on the Herd. Obviously the Lakers, the biggest story in the NBA right now. Apologies to the Thunder who have won 10 straight. It's just not as special guys. Sorry. But a close second to the Lakers has to be Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. Anytime someone wants to be like, oh, tanking's killing the NBA. It's so bad. The spurs are like very obviously the blueprint for how to do it. This is crazy. So they have drafted in the top 10, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. That's four bites at the apple. They have been awful for so long. I had to look up their last playoff series winner. You ready? 2017. I'll name some of the guys on the roster. Lamarcus Aldridge, Kawhi Leonard. Wow, talk about a turn back the clock. Patty Mills, Tony Parker in his late days. That's how long it's been since the spurs have a playoff series win. And last night, of course, the spurs are facing the Phoenix Suns. Really good game. Suns are plucky. There's a chance they sneak in as a six seed. And who do the spurs go to when it matters most? Victor Wembanyama. There he is. Isoed will fade away. Tough shot. And folks, the San Antonio spurs are going back to the playoffs for the first time in forever. I mean look at this. He's isoing from the three point line. That's just spectacular. He's a unicorn. He's fading away. Nobody can stop his shot. I'm so happy for Victor Wembanyama. Here he is talking about the spurs headed to the postseason.

[Victor Wembanyama]

Of course, the first instinct is to be proud of it and to love it because you're part of it. But the key for me is to try to not care because we want to attack 82 games. I'm scared to become complacent. So I'll be on the other end of the spectrum and try to not care at all.

[Jason McIntyre]

You gotta love this guy. I don't want to get complacent. I know it sounds arrogant, but he just sounds authentic. Complacency. I'm kind of. I understand him. So, you know, I play in the men's basketball leagues. We happen to win a couple championships this week. And I was texting a former NBA player this morning to try to get him on my roster. He's already taken by another team. So it's like you can never settle, folks. Whether it's, you know, losers like me in a men's basketball league or Victor Wampanyama carrying the spurs to relevancy for the first time in eight years. Seriously, like he. And he's not. The fact that he's not complacent, it just blows me away. So I saw this number about net rating, and it kind of ties into mvp, which we'll get to, I think, later in the show. So The spurs are 16 points better in net rating with Victor Wembanyama. 16. There's a column out there today, and we're not going to get into it about how Wembanyama should be the mvp. We've been talking about that on the show for. For weeks. When. If you just. If you take one Benyama away from the spurs, they don't scare a damn soul. They are nothing special. You take SGA away from OKC, you're probably still a 48 win team. There's a ton of talent, the great roster. Well done, Sam Presti. But the spurs are essentially Wembanyama. And then you've got Castle and all role players, which is really nice. I like how they're built. But Wembanyama is everything for them. And you can see the leap they've made. What is this, his third year in the league when Benyama is doing things, you cannot stop him, folks. And again, I know people are banging on the Utah Jazz and all these teams. I'll stop the tanking. Tanking works. They got Wembanyama.

[Colin Cowherd]

Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific.

[Jason McIntyre]

Our number two here on the Herd. Weeks just flying by. Unbelievable. Jason McIntyre in propellin cowherd. He has checked in. By the way, he stopped ghosting me. I didn't reply on purpose. You know, I'm going to act cool. Like, hey, I can't reply instantly, so I'm waiting a day. Don't.

[Martha Stewart]

Don't tell me.

[Jason McIntyre]

Joined by Rachel Nichols. Who knows about texting. You don't instantly text back to everybody.

[Rachel Nichols]

Well, you never double text, right?

[Jason McIntyre]

Really? Is that a rule?

[Rachel Nichols]

If you're. If you're. If, like, you. You are in a relationship with someone, which is apparently you and Colin, you don't want to be like, hey, how's it going? And then if they don't answer you, be like, hey, how's it going again, or be, you know, or whatever. So my friends who are in dating situations always say, you know, don't double text. If the guy doesn't answer you, he doesn't answer you. Don't then go back because that looks very desperate. So don't double text.

[Jason McIntyre]

Jason, we should start a podcast about dating etiquette. Even though we're both married, I was gonna say. I mean, I don't know. I know some single people.

[Rachel Nichols]

I know. I know nothing about the day's current dating market.

[Jason McIntyre]

I hear dating in LA is very difficult.

[Rachel Nichols]

I mean, I think dating in general these days is difficult.

[Jason McIntyre]

What do I know, by the way? What do you know either? Neither know nothing about dating, but I do know a little bit about NBA MVP awards. Folks, he's on such a heater. I figure we gotta recalibrate the mvp. Now. I don't have a vote. Rachel does. So I'm gonna go five to one. NBA MVP candidates. Now, I know there's a straw poll out there that says SGA is a lock. Balderdash. Things change, results adjust. Matters. Let's go. Let's start with number five. Number five, sga. I know everybody thinks he's number one. No, he's not. How is he number one? Has he gotten better than last year? Like, he's a big favorite. Minus 1,000, but, you know, that's. I'm an underdog.

[Rachel Nichols]

Better.

[Jason McIntyre]

Listen. Yes, they have the best record in the NBA. Yes, SGA is immensely talented and great. He's had a couple of game winners, but. But they also have, like, the best roster in the league by a mile. And wait until the very end because I'm going to show you some stats that are going to blow your mind comparing SGA to other guys on this list. All right, let's go. SGA 5. Who's next? Number four, Nikola Jokic. You know, Denver's taking a bit of a step back, obviously. No, Aaron Gordon for a long stretch has hurt Nikola Jokic 4. It's not a slight. He's been amazing. But Denver's also sixth in the West. If he were amazing, wouldn't they be third? Maybe they will end up third and he'll rise up the charts. But I SGA 5 and again I have Jokic 4. And things are changing. Things are evolving. In the last two weeks, a lot has changed. The odds, by the way, have shifted significantly. And that's why I have Jokic 4.

[Colin Cowherd]

Number 3.

[Jason McIntyre]

I'm going Jaylen Brown, guys. Yeah. You like that? Jaylen Brown has been playing like that this year. I think we have some sound from him on the Celtics coming up later in the show. That's just extraordinary. I like Jaylen Brown a lot. I like a little flex that. He was working out at my gym leading up to the draft and I watched a lengthy line, shall we say, of NBA GMs roll in. I'm like, for Jaylen Brown, I didn't think he was this guy. He's him. I mean, Jaylen Brown is really carrying Boston without Tatum all season. They're the biggest surprise in the East. I mean, we knew Detroit would be improved. Nobody thought Boston would be top two without Jason Tatum. Congrats to Jaylen Brown.

[Colin Cowherd]

Number two.

[Jason McIntyre]

I'm going with Victor Wembanyama. Victor. Big Vic. The man, the myth, the legend. As Teron Armstead just told us, as Rachel's told us, he's going to own this league for a decade. I think everybody would agree. The guy's just extraordinary. I love watching him. He's become a must watch for me in the league. For the longest time, Steph Curry was that man. And then it was kind of, well, LeBron was right there and. And Luka's up there. You know, some of the guys are this like, Jokic for me is not. Oh, my gosh. Jokic is playing. I gotta turn on the tv. SGA is certainly not Victor Weminyama. Hell yeah. Checking in at number two on the MVP list.

[Colin Cowherd]

Number one.

[Jason McIntyre]

Let's hear it for Luka. Luka, legend. His stats this month are staggering. He is absolutely off the charts. He had 40 on Wednesday and less than 24 hours later, he had 60 guys. I mean, he's averaging 39 points per game on the second leg of back to backs this season. 39. But I, I was told he's an old 27 and he doesn't dunk anymore. The guy had nine threes last night. He's unbelievable. There's just too many accolades for me to get into here for luca. But I have Luca number one. He is my MVP vote as of right now. The the fictitious vote that I don't have. But that's my list. I know you probably don't like it.

[Colin Cowherd]

Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd, weekdays at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the iHeartRadio app security usually means extra

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[Jason McIntyre]

All right, let's move on to the NBA and Luca 60 last night so it comes on the heels. And I actually thought, I'm like, Luca scored 60. That's weird. Oh, it was against the heat. Oh, that's right. Bam just dropped 83. I wonder if this is a get back. Hey, Bam, you're not that special. Remember, Bam was. I mean, there was more criticism for his 83 point game than I think he anticipated. Some of it warranted, some was over the top. I mean, 83 points is tough to do, but after Luka dropped 60 on BAM last night, and again, here's Bam cooking against the Washington Wizards. Rachel's tanking Wizards. That was last week. He scored.

[Rachel Nichols]

That was an unnecessary stray. Thank you.

[Jason McIntyre]

But here's Bam on Luca after Luca scored 60. Not. Tell me what you think here. I know it's like the. To be in that mode. As people can see, it's not easy to get 80. A little debate among the staff here. I think he was saying that in jest. Not everybody seems to think that he's smiling, you know, stroking the goatee. It's like, it's tough to get 80 Trump. Tough to drop an 80 burger. Luca had 60. Oh, my gosh. He had nine threes. How could Luka go from 60 to 83? Like another 23 points? No way. Now it was on a back to back. It does show. Yeah, 83 is hard, and that's why Bam gets props. But my take was the 60s, actually more impressive because it was on a back to back on a brutal travel spot. And oh, by the way, it was a game that mattered against a good team. Nobody tanking in this one. He'd had their full arsenal of guys. Tyler Herro played, Norman Powell played. And, oh, yeah, there was no gimmick stuff with, like, intentional fouls, jacking threes that you wouldn't normally shot. Everything was within the structure of the offense. I mean, he's 9 of 17 from 3. He only took 30 shots. He didn't, like, get to the foul line. What was it, 44 times? A little gimmicky. And again, I'm not blasting it. This is just the reality. So let me play it one more time, and then we'll get Rachel's reaction. Here's Bam out of bio after Luca scored 60. Tell me, is this a dig or is he being serious? I know it's like to be in that mode. As people can see, it's not easy to get 80. So, Rachel, is he joking or serious?

[Rachel Nichols]

No, he's not joking.

[Jason McIntyre]

He's serious.

[Rachel Nichols]

Yes.

[Jason McIntyre]

Wow.

[Rachel Nichols]

He doesn't think it's easy to get 80. And by the way, he's right. It's not easy to get 80. Like, one thing I always say about these. When people are saying, oh, you know, he did it this way, he did it that way. If it was easy, everyone would do it. You know how. You know, it's hard, people don't do it. So it is hard no matter how he got it. However, I also think that Luka Doncic watched BAM get that 83. And remember, Luka got 73 in a game when he was in Dallas.

[Jason McIntyre]

That's right.

[Rachel Nichols]

Right. Which was sort of the closest anyone had felt like was to Kobe's 81. So here's a guy who not only breaks Kobe's mark, but blasts past Luca. And I'm sure Luca was sitting there going, oh, well, if I had the intentional fouling, I could have gotten 83 that night, that sort of thing. So I don't know how much Luca was thinking as he went out on the court last night. I'll show everybody, you know, scoring points. I mean, who knows? I didn't have a personal heart to heart with him before he took the court, but I can see that little, you know, one upsmanship on both sides. And by the way, we want that. Right? That's fun. That's. It's good to have guys being like, oh, look at me. Well, look at me. You know, that sort of thing.

[Jason McIntyre]

So I'm trying to look up the box score. It looks like Lucas73 came against the Atlanta Hawks in a close game. 148, 143. But I was watching the Lakers game last night, and Luka wasn't on pace for 60 at halftime. It wasn't even close.

[Rachel Nichols]

No.

[Jason McIntyre]

But the third quarter, they're down bad. Luca goes off.

[Rachel Nichols]

Yep.

[Jason McIntyre]

And so that's totally different than bam. Again, 83 is really hard to get, but Luca, when he beat the. When he beat the Atlanta Hawks, 25 of 33, 15 of 16 on free throws, hit eight threes. They needed all of them. It was a close game. In the fourth quarter, like, again, bam. I know it's 83. Let's say Luca plays the Wizards next week. Does he say, I'm Gonna go for 90? Does he try? I'm just asking. The Wizards are horrific. Sorry. They have no guards. They have no anything.

[Rachel Nichols]

Strays. Strays. We're not talking about the Wizards. We're talking about Bam and Luka.

[Jason McIntyre]

Come on. Yeah, but if Luka plays Wizards, I think he could go for. Do you. I mean, are other guys around the league saying 83, I could drop 84.

[Rachel Nichols]

I mean, you know, I think with the Lakers, the way their offense is working right now, we've been talking about three guys trying to decide what the distribution is on how they share. I don't think Luka is going for a vanity score because it's just not in keeping with the way the Lakers are doing things right now.

[Jason McIntyre]

Right now.

[Rachel Nichols]

So that idea that he'd be like, oh, I can shoot this and let me show you, you know, that sort of thing, I don't see that happening for the rest of this season with the way the team is and sort of the world they're on right now. But do I think Luka is eventually capable of scoring more than 83 in a game? Yes. With the way scoring is in today's NBA, I mean, some of these scores are just preposterous, right? I mean, I remember covering the NBA 80 something to 80 something. This is like a regular night. And so scoring keeps going up. More players get better at three. Luka's obviously already fantastic at the three. You know, could he break that one day? Yeah, I can see that. Of course, you know.

[Jason McIntyre]

All right, so let's get my MVP guys on the screen real quick because Rachel actually has a vote. Puts a lot of thought. I'm sure she sequesters herself from her family, crunches all the numbers. So how does the voting ballot go? Is it you vote for five, you

[Rachel Nichols]

vote and you rank them. So sometimes a guy who's getting a lot of second place votes and if there's a split on first place votes, could actually hop up to first because of those second place votes. I think the thing that confuses people, I want to use last year's race as an example. It was really close down to the wire on Shay versus Jokic, remember that? And it was really split among people who were doing the prognosticating saying, oh, I think it should be him. I think it should be him. It's so close. It's so close. I was sitting there, as you said, looking at all the numbers, doing all the situations, and it was so close. And the thing that really helped make my decision, and I know a lot of my fellow voters helped make their decision, was Thunder had the best record in the league and Shea led them to that. And sometimes winning if it certainly it's not always the most important thing, but it certainly isn't a tiebreaker and it is a very important thing. So when the votes actually were tallied, even though it was so close for a lot of people, And I'm waiting to the last second to make my decision. I am picking SGA last year and so did so many other people. Okay, it was close in people's minds, but the vote was like 70, 30, 70, 30.

[Jason McIntyre]

So last year SGA played 76 games. He's on pace to play closer to 68.

[Rachel Nichols]

Yeah, the injuries this year, injuries.

[Jason McIntyre]

Does that factor in? By the way, his numbers are down a little from last year in terms of points per game is down, assists is up a tick, rebounds are down, steals are down. So he's not having the great year he had last year.

[Rachel Nichols]

I mean, it just. He's playing very well.

[Jason McIntyre]

He's playing very well. Not as good as Luca.

[Martha Stewart]

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[Daniel Cormier]

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[Jason McIntyre]

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