B (3:35)

I don't know. I mean, you lost back to, back to the two best teams in the Western Conference. I'm not going to stretch for a silver lining there. The Celtics have been awesome. They can potentially be more awesome with a fully functioning Jason Tatum. And we're now seeing, like the highs and the lows of the Tatum comeback, right? Like the exhilaration and the emotional thrill and boost of seeing him come back the second game where he really started, it feels like settle in there. But there's been some, some, some moments where he's maybe struggled a little too. And then last night they rest him because did, after all, have an Achilles rupture 10 months ago. And you don't want to push it too hard. So I think what's going to happen now is as we go through these last 15 games or whatever, Tatum, some nights is going to play and some nights is not going to. And I think the, the Celtics deserve great credit for having how seamlessly they reincorporated him. But when they lose without him or lose with him, I think you're going to start hearing some of those, oh, hey, is the rhythm off a little bit? Because, guys, you know, some nights Baylor Shireman is a starter and some nights he's a bench guy or what, you know, the, the, the domino effect, the ripple effects every time Tatum plays or doesn't play. And I think those are fair. Although overall, I, I think, you know, they have, they've done pretty well in reincorporating Tatum. But no, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not finding Silver lines. I mean, Jalen Brown shot last night to, to tie this thing before the Thunder won. It was phenomenal. But no, no, no. Silver linings and losing back to, back to the two best teams in the Western Conference. All it does is reinforce the fact that we all believe the Western Conference is winning the championship.

C (5:10)

Yeah. There.

D (5:11)

Yeah. Yeah. But I, this is going to sound crazy, but I did walk away feeling a little better about Boston matching up with okc, even though it proved to your point, Howard, the point that I think we all were making was we don't see them beating the better teams in the Western Conference. I actually think I, I, if I'm being honest, I, I feel a little bit better about the way they match up in a game like that. Now, granted, I mean, they were without Derrick White and Jason Tatum, but like, okay, and OKC was without what, J Dub and Hartenstein. So like, I'm not sure exactly what that looks like, but in a weird way, yeah, I think, I think I feel a little bit better. Even though I still don't believe when push comes to shove, they will beat one of the better Western Conference teams. That comes out to your original question, Logan, about does it make me feel better about them in the Eastern Conference? Yeah, I don't know about that. But as far as the way I saw them match up with those two squads, and I would have liked to have seen the real real with, with San Antonio, maybe we get to that at some point, this pod, maybe we don't, but that was taken away from us. I do in a weird way feel like there was a, a silver lining in that locker room. I wouldn't have felt like that as one of their coaches. I probably wouldn't have felt like that. But, but viewing the games, I think I came away feeling like, huh, matched up a little better with OKC than I thought.

C (6:38)

I was looking at it under the prism of, I mean, they got blown out a couple weeks ago in Denver, right. And I was looking at this stretch against these two great Western Conference teams and I was like, oh, this is going to be not only a big test for Boston, but it's also going to be, if I had to guess, two blowouts. I was going to just be like the, you know, the, the margin between both of those teams, at least on paper, is pretty wide. And to see how they played, considering that was pretty impressive. And you know, Cavs are kind of up and down right now. They just lost it to Orlando and I think that's, that's probably their, their biggest competition at the moment right at, you know, New York notwithstanding. But I, I just, I think I was just more surprised at the fight that they, they had between these two games. And like you said, and we're. And that's a great transition though, Raja, going into the San Antonio game, because I just want to go to a text message that, you know, we do this very periodically throughout the podcast. And now this was on the, on the heels of the ABAM out of Bio barrage, which we'll get to in a second. But one of the things that Howard said on Wednesday morning was I'm going to need a solid 5 minute Raja rant on Friday. Now, I didn't know what this was going to be, right. I didn't know what this was in reference to, but Raj's response was, I'm locked and loaded. And the Jalen Brown of it all. Stand in the corners, my guys. I'm going for 80 on Friday.

D (8:06)

Yeah.

C (8:06)

Raja, the floor is yours if you want to start. Let's start with Jaylen Brown and then we can go to the Discourse and all of that. But what do you have to say? What was on your mind on Wednesday? And let's, let's just get it out of the way. Let's go.

B (8:17)

And why stop Haiti?

D (8:19)

Full disclosure, I've been here before, right? Like two days before a game. I feel great. I woke up this morning, I didn't have the legs just keeping, oh my God. Not, not going for 80. I felt it and shoot around like just the legs weren't there. So 80's not in the 80's not in the cards for me today, but I will. Let's start with the Jalen Brown. Did, did he deserve a technical foul? 100%. You give him a tech in that situation, you keep it moving to have the other ref come in. And with everything on the line, with Boston's first time out here in San Antonio, getting to look at them against San Antonio, with his MVP case on the line, with all the storylines, you walk away and don't engage and kick him out of that game in that way. I thought it was, I thought it was poor referee. And I thought we as fans got robbed. I thought if, if the TV execs are being a buck, they fucking got robbed. Like I think everybody got robbed in that scenario. And that's not what refs are there to do. If, if you can walk away as a ref, you are supposed to walk away. If there is a way to do. It's not unlike police officer ring. Like if you can defuse a situation, do that.

C (9:36)

Don't.

D (9:36)

Don't, you know, kick one of the best players in the league who's in the race for MVP on a national broadcast against, you know, the spurs out of a game. I thought it was premature. I thought it was probably. I don't know how. How many years that ref has. Has reft. But maybe a lack of experience. I just didn't appreciate it. And I wanted. I had more. I had more vigor in what I was going to say a couple days ago. Like, today, I'm. I'm over it. But, like, I thought it was kind of shitty, and I felt like we all got robbed.

C (10:08)

I agree with you. I mean, that. That is even the worst. Not Even the top 100 worst yelling matches from a. A player, you know, arguing a call, which, by the way, I think Jalen was right in that. In that instance where, you know, he did get. He did get pushed out of bounds. It did look like a foul. And then he goes back and he yells at the. Or he talks to the ref like, yo, that's a foul. It seemed like the ref was like, oh, okay, cool. Like, I got you bet. All right, cool. And that was that. And then there. Then he said something else. There was a technical, which I thought even the first technical was a little out of pocket. And then he seems like Jalen's trying to get clarity and then gets, you know, starts yelling and then gets gets teched up again. But I agree with you, man. Like, we talk about this. This matchup was everything Howard at the NBA wants, right? They want stars. They want. They want story lines. They want players to be in. Star players to be in the game during these moments. I get. Me and Howard have always. Or me, Howard and Raj have always talked about how, you know, not only should the refs not take control of the game because it's really not about them, but I think that gets even heightened when it's a game like this, right, where all eyes are on you. And. And we also talk about, like, the gift and the curse of, like, players getting star treatment. You know, everybody has to be playing fair, but players coming are coming to see Jalen Brown and Victor Women. Yama. Right. One take is a lot, but it takes for a star. It usually takes a lot to get them ejected that early, and I don't think that that reached the threshold.

D (11:47)

Go ahead, Howard, real quick. Sorry. Go. But do you. I've said this before, and I will say it again, having heard some of the exchanges that I heard between star players. And refs and seen some of the best refs, some of the most egotistical refs, guys that you would be like, no, he didn't. He didn't say that to that ref and stay in the game. And I've heard it firsthand. You are supposed to walk away from that. You are not supposed to engage him. And it wasn't even the ref that gave him the first tack to kick them out, was it?

C (12:20)

No, I don't believe so.

D (12:21)

No.

B (12:22)

Like, there's the second Tech came from.

D (12:24)

Yeah, completely inexcusable. Sorry. Go ahead, Howard. But that's inexcusable.

C (12:29)

I just wanted to say before Howard goes, Raja, that was a quick 20 points in the first quarter.

D (12:35)

Hotter than I thought.

B (12:36)

He's just starting to heat up.

D (12:38)

Yeah.

B (12:40)

No, I mean it. The league cannot be happy with the outcome. Whether that's technically by the books. A fair second tech is something else. Right? The thing we never know in these situations, or very, very rarely know, is what was actually said, because it's the content of your complaints that gets you texts and that gets you ejected. It is unusual, at least a little unusual, that in this case, Tyler Ford, who was the crew chief, hits him with the first Tech and he's the veteran ref. And so, so Yash Mehta, who's the younger ref to your question? Raja, he's in his sixth season. He hit him with the second Tech, which is the one that gets you automatically ejected. A little strange because Tyler Ford, with as the more veteran ref in the crew chief, could have taken care of that on his own if he thought he needed it. Maybe. So Yash heard something that Tyler Ford didn't. I, I don't know. But it, it's. The outcome sucks regardless, because this was a, A, you know, national game of huge import, two marquee teams. Everybody wants to see this game. And the second Jaylen Brown's out, I'm like, do I still need to watch this game? Do I care now? And, you know, certainly casual fans are. Are going to be like, yeah, you know, this, this is. This has just lost a lot of its luster. So, yeah, not great. I'll just say, generally speaking, again, we never know exactly what was said and what triggered it. And I would say, yeah, you got to show some restraint under the circ here. But. And so early in the game, besides, players these days, Raja, get away with so much more than players of your generation, like the referees are, are. Are subject to so much more verbal assault from players in this era of the NBA than they Were during your time. Because during your time, refs, for better or worse, were almost like all powerful and you had the Steve Javies and the Joey Crawfords, the Danny Crawfords and you know, the, the tolerance level was a lot lower and guys would just get tossed. And if you shot your mouth like you could not just keep carping all the time, like Luca would have been ejected every game back in the early 2000s and maybe that would solve the Luca complaining problem. But like they, they get a lot more leeway now. The referees are, are by design. They have to absorb a lot more. And so most of the time the bar for giving a guy a tech or especially the second tech is pretty high.

D (15:13)

Yeah, look, I got, I think it's kind of my point though a little bit, Howard. Like even in that day and age where you were getting tossed more easily, I mean, I don't spill tea, but I heard, I've heard refs called real crazy stuff. Real, real crazy stuff by people that, that fans would be like, no way. And because of that player's stature and importance and the magnitude of the game that was taking place, refs decided to let that go. And so I know and, and what, in that situation, while I don't, I didn't hear what he said and we don't have to spend much more time on this. What I wanted to do, what I did was went back and like slowed it down to see his teammates reactions. Right. Because his teammates reactions will tell you a lot. If his teammates reactions are like rolling their eyes like, oh fuck yeah, he's got to go, bro. You can't say that. But they genuinely looked kind of surprised that the second Tech came in and that, that gave me just a little bit like if I'm, if I'm trying to like investigate what actually happened without knowing, like, I don't think he could have said anything that egregious.

C (16:22)

Right.

D (16:22)

Because his teammates wouldn't have reacted the way they did when he got tossed. And so that was just my two cents on it. Man, we don't have to stay here. I just. And for a young ref, you can make a mistake. Like I just quite frankly love more transparency from them because I'd love for somebody to come out and be like, you know what? Probably shouldn't have done that.

C (16:39)

But see, but see, but see, they do have, they have had a little bit more transparency now because you like especially the last two minute reports, if something happens, there's a pool report. They, I think the league has done a, a better job of Trying to be more transparent with their refereeing.

E (16:53)

Right.

C (16:54)

Yeah.

B (16:54)

No, and there was a pool report on this one, but it's. But it's. It's usually the referee, and it wasn't in this case. Again, explaining. They said something and so we had to call the tech. And this whatever true transparency would be like, give me the fucking transcript. I want to know exactly what they said. Now, we're never getting that, but do I want to know exactly which lines are crossed when a guy gets tossed, like, which word did he invoke or whatever? Like, Luca got tech the other night again, for doing that stupid money thing he does, you know, with the, like going like this to the refs with his, you know, his thumb and fingers to indicate, like, they're on the take. And he's done that so many times. You can't go there. I'm sorry. So the verbal version of that that we. So you can see Luca making the gesture, but we can't hear what Jalen Brown said or what other guys said for too much. Yes, I am. But I want to hear the culture.

C (17:42)

I think if we can't, I will

D (17:43)

say Johnny Manzell in it. We can't Johnny Manzellit. Like money.

C (17:47)

Apparently not. Like, no, you can't do that. You can't do the big balls. You can't do none of that in your day. From your day. But no, they. I will say this, though, Howard. You got to check it out. My. Maybe my algorithm on YouTube is different than yours, but every so often after games, they will have like the. The court mics on and they will tell you exactly what is being said sometimes on the court. And also, like, you could live read. There wasn't. There were like a 100 cameras in San Antonio and you could see what Jaylen was saying if you were a lip reader. It wasn't that. In my backyard, I have seen so much more than what Jaylen did.

B (18:27)

What I'm saying, give us a transcript so we can judge for ourselves.

D (18:32)

Yeah, I mean, it's fair. He was great.

B (18:34)

You should have transcribed it. If you could read it all, you could read his lips, then you transcribed.

C (18:39)

That would be awesome.

B (18:40)

Great service.

D (18:42)

That's actually one of my favorite things in my algorithm is the bad lip reading from. Yeah, I love those. They're fantastic.

C (18:49)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. When they, like, up the volume on the. On the player court and they're just like, walk you. And it's like, it's. It's some. It's what I look forward to, to be honest with you. It's great. Great jokes, you know? Anyways, we done on this one? You want to talk? You want to. Want to get to Bam Discourse or you got anything else?

D (19:09)

No, I'm good on it. Like I told you, I didn't have the legs to be.

C (19:13)

Yeah, you kind of. You kind of. You kind of puttered in the second quarter, bro. I'm not gonna lie. You hit a three and just kept chucking it, you know, like. Like BAM was accused of doing in Miami.

E (19:23)

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C (20:53)

Wow. This episode is brought to you by Men's Warehouse. What you wear depends on the occasion. Like, are we talking awards, courtside seats, or just watching the game at home at Men's Wearhouse, they've got you covered with a huge variety of clothing and styles, from clothing like suits, sport coats, dress shirts, tuxes for more formal events, to casual clothing like polo shirts, shorts, and jeans for everyday wear, the Men's Wearhouse experts can help you work out your look while their on site tailors guarantee your clothes fit you perfectly. Men's wearhouse has over 600 locations nationwide. They are here and nearby when you're ready to love the way you look. So, wow. This is. This is one of those things that I was just kind of like. I was. It was one of those things that happens after a podcast where it happens after you. Right. The day you record and you're like, because you really want to talk about it. But right now, we have had so much discourse around the BAM metabio stuff. This is. And it's been days and days. And I'm just annoyed the fact that we're on the last day of actually talking about the discourse and the backlash of the discourse. But let's. Let's take our crack at it. So I caught wind of this game probably like going into the. To the fourth quarter, like, where you get the alerts. You're like, oh, shit, Bam out of bios at 70 points. What the hell is going on here, right? And then I immediately got on league pass and was like, let's watch this. And I found myself cheering for Bam out of bio, like, cheering for NBA history. You don't get to see this very often, right? And then, you know, I. I saw all of the fouls, the intentional fouls on both ends, the free throws. And then I started getting the text messages. I remember, I'll go back. I. I saw the free throws that I'm cheering for. Bam. And I'm wanting. I'm actually cheering for, for the fouls because I want to see history. I'm actually doing that full transparency. I'm like, yo, let's get Bam to 83. This is a big moment for him. What. What the hell is going on? I don't even know how he got this many points. And then as soon as the game is over, I'm. I'm looking at the interview. It's great. They're pouring water on them. They're doing the whole thing. And then I start getting text messages from the group chat talking about how Bam ain't and how the Heat aren't and how.

B (23:06)

Not our group chat, we should clarify.

C (23:10)

Oh, not our group chat.

D (23:12)

I missed that.

C (23:13)

I got other friends, guys. I got Other friends, Ladies and gentlemen, I have other friends. Contrary.

B (23:17)

Just be clear. Just be clear. Don't indict us.

C (23:19)

Oh, my bad, my bad. It wasn't our group chat. But then I look at other group chats. Baming free throws. This was a terrorist. Is a travesty to basketball. Free Kobe, you know, let it like you and just ugly. Just. Just hating, for lack of a better term. And it made me think of a lot of different things about how we look at the discourse and how the discourse has gotten out of control with the NBA, right? Or specifically in sports in general and the world at large. Right. And I think this backlash was a blow up of a few different things. One, I think that the way our social media has fractured our opinions, you can either have one opinion or another, right? There's no middle ground whatsoever. The second thing is he broke Kobe's record. And Kobe is obviously a. A symbol of a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Right. And the third thing was we weren't expecting a guy like Bamboo to bio to be breaking this record, right? Like 81 was such a symbol for a lot of things, right? Like it would. I quite frankly thought it was going to be a guard or someone that actually is like a. Is purported to be a proficient scorer. Right. And then the last thing was the backlash of the Heat trying to get him the record, which I thought was just BS because that's what happens when someone is close to a record. The team tries to get it for him. I remember watching Klay Thompson both times when he scored against the Pacers and he had the scoring record against the Pacers and then when he had the scoring record against the Kings when he had 30 and a quarter and his. The. The team was damn near breaking his back trying to get Klay Thompson the ball. And so when this was happening, I was like, I was saying to the screen, get bam. The ball. And the fact that he was able to score and make history was a great thing, but the discourse was out of control. That's my 75 cents on it. I want to hear the panel and like have a great discussion on what this means for the discourse. But I'll go to Raja first and then Howard. What did you think of the record and what did you think of everything else? Apps after the record and all of the things that you saw after the record and how we, how we kind of talked about this as a basketball community.

D (25:47)

Yeah, there's a lot there. And I'm. I'm sure I'm gonna leave A lot out because. Because I'll just get lost in what I'm talking about. But I. I, too, was alerted sitting on the couch with Ty, who was like, oh, Bam out of Bio's got like, 30 in the first quarter. And then he was. You know, we were watching. We were watching a movie together or something like that. And then Bam Ida bottles got X, Y, and Z. So we literally turned in. I mean, tuned in as the Heat are fouling to continue, you know, to get extra possession so Bam can get the record. I'm going to be honest with you, I did not love the way that

C (26:20)

looked at the time.

D (26:22)

This is just me being honest. I thought he would have still gotten the record without them fouling. There was still like, a minute 35 on the clock. Bam, though, if we're being honest, was.

C (26:36)

Was.

D (26:36)

Was heard and caught on mics telling his teammates not to foul. So, like, he wasn't complicit in that. He didn't ask them to do that. Which brings me to his 83. And when I went back and rewatched it, he made a lot of incredible shots. 83 points is remarkable. It's. It's an incredible feat. And it's. You know, look, nobody knows better than me what. What the Kobe fan has done, you know, since his passing, right? Like, and. And that's okay. But to take anything away from Bam because of that, I think is unfair to Bam. It was an incredible feat, even more so because he was a guy that you didn't necessarily see breaking that record, you know, the free throws of it all. Well, let's go. Let's go to the field goal attempts, right? Like, I heard. I was watching one show did morning after, and they were talking about he shot 43 shots. And, well, you know, Kobe and Those dudes shot 38. It was five. It was like five more shots, right? Like, if I'm not mistaken, you know, yeah, he got a lot of free throws, but if you watch that, like, he was. He was getting fouled, you know, like, the Wizards aren't. Aren't a great basketball team. That's not Bam's fault. I just. I felt like, you know, Bam's post game, in all of his excitement, I think he could have handled the post game well better with the Will me, Kobe, like, I didn't love that. I'm just, you know, telling you what I did and didn't like about it. But 83 points is an incredible feat, and nothing should be taken away from Bam Adebayo, you know, because he broke Kobe's record. And people are in their feelings about that. I'm sorry, that's just. It's not fair to him. Now, if you say, like, I didn't love the way they fouled down the stretch, I'd say, hey, look, when I tuned in and saw it, I didn't love it either. I agree with you, though, Logan. Teammates, typically in that space, aren't really worrying about the optics. They're trying to get you the record. But let's again say that Bam was not the one telling them to foul. That wasn't Bam asking people to do that. It was his teammates. And that's what good teammates do. When you get close to it, they try to help you get over the hump. And so that would be fair if you said that to me. But trying to discredit his 83 and it's a front to basketball and all of that, like, miss me with that. That's some weird shit that people have done posthumously. And they don't love when you break the record. Like, I don't get down with all of that. That's not my lane. I don't do that. And I don't think it's fair to Bam to do that.

C (29:20)

I think that. Oh, I. I want to. Before I get to Howard, I just want to just say Kobe statline. He was 28 of 46 from the field. 46 shots. You need 46 shots to get to 81.

D (29:32)

It was 46.

C (29:32)

Okay. All right, 46. Yep. 7 of 13 from three point range. Now, Bam was out. Out there chucking, especially down the stretch. I forgot what his was, but he was definitely not as efficient from 3 point range. And he was 8 of 20 from the free throw line. Howard, when we talk like you have been covering the league for a long time, and one of the things that was just so striking to me after this, and I remember I was alive for Kobe. I know you guys think I'm young, but I remember the time when Kobe scored 81. And I remember just even the difference in that versus this. When Kobe scored 81 points, it was, oh, my God, this happened. This is crazy. This is awesome for the game. This is something that we need to celebrate. This is. We didn't think this was even possible to get to this point in the modern NBA with the modern defenses. That was what we were saying around this time. And the fact that almost immediately, not just pundits and, you know, fans were hating on Bam, it was other players and coaches that were just kind of poo, pooing. On what he did and what does that say about us as a basketball community? Right? Like when someone makes a feat and this is coming on the heels. Also, we were just talking about Sunday, how Jason Tatum was just talking about how this league is a brotherhood and everybody has my back and they're just so excited to have me. Not even like two or three days later, the whole league is on a guy for getting a record that we had no idea could even be broken. Not even a record, but like passing a feat that no one thought could be passed. Why are. Why are we here and why. How can we get back to celebrating this game? Because I feel like, forget us, we have to be critical. Like, I think the league has to be The. The media has to be critical. I think that is important. But as a basketball community, when a feat happens, I think we should celebrate the feat.

B (31:32)

So because this happened a few days ago and in between our shows, right, we had this long Runway to kind of think about this. Are we even going to discuss it? Is it still relevant by Friday? It's def. Definitely still relevant because everyone's still talking about it. So I feel perfectly fine that we are too, especially because we hadn't addressed it yet, but it gave me a lot of time to listen to and read about everything else that everybody was saying and just kind of think about exactly what you're asking, Logan, which is like, my God, why are we here?

C (31:56)

What?

B (31:56)

Like this is the. The backlash. The backlash to the backlash and then the cycle after that and after that and after that. I think it's a lot of different things. And the Kobe mystique of it all and the fact that Kobe died tragically, you know, and is. Is gone, all of it feeds into it, right? It. That it was Kobe, that it was his modern day record. And we should say it that way, right? Wilt still has the record. It's a hundred. It probably. And I, I hope will never be broken. I want. I want that one to stand forever. The Mystique of Wilt's 100 point game and the, The. The fact that it's not on film anywhere. The fact that we just have audio. The fact, like it's been exhaustively reported. So if anybody's doing the stupid conspiracy of like, oh, we never saw it, so it didn't happen like all the way off. Like, Wilt scored 100 and it was ugly then too, but all the way off with your stupid.

C (32:44)

Also, by the way, Howard, by the way, if you look at, if you look at the written accounts and people who were there. You know what they said? They said that they were fouling to get Wilt to the hundred. Yeah, it's the same, but the.

B (32:56)

It. It happened, right? So like, get out of here with your, like, you know, we never landed on the moon and the earth is flat and Wilton score 100.

C (33:03)

Just someone's scoring 80. It's not Raja.

B (33:09)

Anyway, the Kobe mystique of it all matters, and the fact that he's gone matters. There's a sentiment here, a really strong sentiment. It's not just among Kobe stands, it's among a lot of people, I think, in the basketball community. But I think it's only a small sliver of this overall picture. I think there would be less backlash if. And there's several things here. One, if the end wasn't so ugly and blatantly manipulative. Right? Yeah, Wilt did his thing back in the day, but we don't have and didn't have in real time the ability to see what it was and go like, oh, oh, come on, stop. Just bench him already. You know, we didn't. We didn't have that. So put. Put Wilt's achievement From the early 60s in a whole other category. Kobe went to the line seven times at the end of his. But that was a close game right up until that point. And he did stay in long enough to get to that number. But he wasn't chasing a specific number at that point, right? Like, there was nothing to chase unless he was going to try to get 100, which he could. He couldn't have done. Like, literally couldn't have done that night. So the. So first point is the end was ugly and blatantly manipulative and it left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. I'll get to that back to that point in a second because I was texting with some coaches over the last couple days. The game was so lopsided. It was a 28 point game with 6:43 left and Bam had 72. So why are you still in the game? And we would normally say that too, right? Hey, don't leave a guy in because he might get injured if, you know, if the game's out of hand. I'm not saying Raja, not about a record. I'm saying in an ordinary game, if you have a 28 point lead with 6:43 to go, you're like, okay, it's time to pull the starters. There would be less backlash if the Heat. Excuse me, if the Heat weren't so sanctimonious. About Heat culture. Like this is a thing and it bothers people that much more, including other people around the league. I do think, and Logan hinted at this and I, I really, really believe this. If a true scorer had gotten it, somebody that we would expect to chase it, if Ant Edwards had gotten it. And in the exact same way, right? Mostly in the, in the first three quarters, then got to the fourth. It's a blowout, but fuck it, I'm gonna stay in. But it's Ant and, and, and we just, we just expect like he's a gunner, he's a scorer. If it was Maxi, it was Donovan Mitchell. If it were still somehow, if Kevin Durant could do it at this age, if it were Luca, even, even with Luca's baggage, I think it would be more celebrated and more accepted if it didn't come from like the, like 74th best scorer in the NBA. He's not quite that low, but, but Bam does not typically even average 20 points and his previous career high was like 41 or whatever. I think the fact that it came from such an unlikely player. And then on top of it all, of course we have the Wizards tanking and the fact that they've got like a G League team out there, which facilitates this whole thing in the first place. But as I noted on Blue sky the other day, in real time, I said, if you want to blame Tanking, fine. It's playing a role here, but everybody else is playing the Wizards too, and Nobody else scored 83 points. So. And so anyway, I'll, I'll, I'll leave it on. This Raja like Bam could have checked out any. At any point after the third, early in the fourth, and he still would have been a freaking legend because There were only 15 games in NBA history above 70 at 72 points. If he'd stopped there, he'd have tied wilt for the eighth most ever. If he stopped at 74, he would have the fourth highest ever behind Wilt, Kobe and Wilt. Again, I'm not saying he should have. I'm not saying if you, if you don't have a mark in your sights. And again, he didn't actually get a record. He got what is kind of like the effective record. It's the modern day record. It's the one that, that we can grasp because we saw it. It's the one that's on film. It's the one that involves Kobe. And so it's not that it's not a record, but it's not the record. Right? But he could have. There's a lot of places where he could have stopped with the game out of hand. And he's still. We still. Instead of having the discourse we're having now, we would have said, holy shit, did you see Bam get 75 in a little over 3/4? Because to the point if you watched the earlier parts of the game, Bam was just kicking their asses. And that part was organic. The organic part made him. Made that game already legendary. It was the superfluous stuff at the end to chase a number that turned people off. And so with that, let me just read you a few quotes that I got in conversations with NBA coaches via text. These are. These are snippets. Total bullshit. Bush league Heat culture is no more. Washington should have knocked him on his ass and unfair to Wizards and Keef, meaning the coach, Brian Keefe. Like, embarrassing. And I. I followed up with one of them. So what? How do other coaches feel about it? He said they all thought it was poor sportsmanship. Now, this is a few coaches. I'm not going to say this is representative 30.

D (37:59)

I don't that shit up. Oh, soft asses. Whoever text Howard that shit. Y' all are fucking soft.

B (38:05)

I'm just letting you know, this is not.

C (38:07)

They put the a. All of them. They didn't put their name on.

D (38:11)

Motherfuckers. That text Howard that shit. You are soft.

B (38:16)

Just letting you know.

D (38:17)

Go ahead, Howard. Sorry.

B (38:19)

No, hey.

C (38:19)

They won't say it. Disposed face.

B (38:21)

And I want to be clear before Roger had to knock them on their asses. Speaking of knocking people on their asses. Just to be clear, I don't know that this is representative of, like, I didn't text every freaking coach in the league. But this is a sentiment. And the sentiment among the coaches that I texted with was that they were far from the only ones who felt this. I don't know what it would be if you could pull all of them or what. I just want to make clear, like, this is not necessarily representative of everybody. This is not scientific. I am not the Gallup company.

D (38:56)

All jokes aside, I said before I said anything else that the last two minutes when I tuned into that weren't ideal for me. I did not love that I said that. I also don't think they necessarily had to be doing that for him to have gotten the record. That's neither here nor there, though, the taking Bam out. And it would have been better. While that's a good explanation for maybe why some people feel the way they feel about it, but why does. Why does Bam like, why can't Bam

B (39:31)

go for a record?

D (39:32)

Like, who does Bam?

B (39:33)

It wasn't a record.

D (39:33)

Why.

C (39:34)

Why is.

D (39:35)

But. But like, in his mind, it is to. To today's culture, to today's basketball culture. That's a record. So, like, why can't Bam go for that? Like, he doesn't owe it to anyone to say, hey, sub me out of the game, man, because his last five minutes are going to be ugly also, bro.

C (39:50)

You know what? If. If he was within reach, if he was in the reach and Kobe was alive, Kobe would tell him, go, go for the record, bro.

B (39:57)

Like, oh, can I.

C (39:58)

That's.

B (39:58)

Can I jump in on this? Can I jump in on this?

C (40:00)

What? Yes.

B (40:02)

The record is mixed on what? On. On Kobe. On this note, a lot of people asked me because I covered him way back, and I wasn't at the 81 point game. That was after I'd moved to New York. And I did not see that game that night because that was literally the week my daughter was born. It happened before she was born, but we were on, like, lockdown, like, on, you know, baby watch.

C (40:24)

So.

B (40:25)

And I said, yeah, I think Kobe, if he were alive today, would have said, saluted him and said, fuck yeah, if it's in your sights, go for it, man. Like, I do believe he would have said that. But I did some. Some deep diving on Nexus yesterday, which is, you know, the archive of all newspapers for all time, just to find some stuff. Previous games where somebody had like 60 something through three quarters. So in that same season, December 20, 2005, like a month before, Kobe gets the 81 feels, that was the game that he gets 62 against the Mavs. He outscored the Mavs 62 to 61 by himself through three quarters.

C (41:05)

Crazy.

B (41:06)

But the score going into the fourth was 95.61. It's blowout. This is. This is from the LA Times. Bryant did not play in the fourth, declining Jackson's invitation, meaning Phil Jackson to reenter the game if he so desired. Quote, that's not what we play for. Bryant said. That's not what it's about. It's not to score 70 points. We wanted to win the game. And the game was in the bag. It was in the refrigerator. That's Kobe Bryant's own quote, Klay Thompson when He got his 60 through three quarters against Indiana. Logan referenced this also a blowout game curtain play him in the fourth. It seemed like Clay was actually a little salty about it because he said, quote, it's unfortunate the two times I got My career high. I didn't get to play the fourth quarter. And, and, and I just want to say that Bam is not the only one who got crushed for this. Devin Booker back in 2017 had his 70 points, which he chased in a loss to Boston, and he got killed then, too. So this is not just.

D (42:03)

I think I've heard the Kobe shit too. Like, and it's not, it's not an affront to Kobe. Like, I, I. But like, Kobe was going to have the opportunity, at least theoretically, to have more games like that. And thus, like he said somewhere, I read it in one of those quotes that, like, I'll just get it next time or something like that. The fact that Bam isn't that type of volume, score or scorer in general, he's never looking at that opportunity again. I think that matters. Like, Kobe can afford to be like, yeah, man. Cause I'm going to go out there and guard him. Three nights later, he's going to give me 55 through three quarters. So, like, he's going to be right back at the table for an opportunity to chase it. Like, Bam doesn't get that close to that. And I just don't. I just don't love, like, us, anyone other than Bam and the Heat trying to tell Bam and the Heat how they should handle something like that. I don't get into counting other people's money. I don't get into telling other people what they need to do in their homes. That that's not my role. Like, you do what you do. And I didn't have a problem. I didn't love the end of the game. But I would say this to all the coaches and whatever, like, they don't love it. Guard that motherfucker, man. Don't Fallon.

C (43:16)

Hey. And they tried to guard like seven dudes on him. Yeah.

B (43:19)

And as Bam noted, they waited way too long to send doubles and triples at him. Like they were trying to guard him one on one through the first three quarters when he got all the points that allowed him to be in shouting range in the first place.

D (43:29)

And I would.

C (43:30)

Yeah.

D (43:30)

I'm just going to say again, I do think it is even more impressive for me personally that it was someone like Bam and Howard. I know you were saying that like, you know, the narrative of it being Bam might have turned off, you know, the portion of people that don't love it to the actual feat. And that's fair. But like, me personally, knowing, you know, how, how hard it is to hop out of your normal role in a league like that. And. And just go otherworldly out of your mind. Like, that's an incredible thing.

B (44:00)

Yeah.

C (44:01)

And I mean, I think that's why. That's. That's why I was cheering down the stretch, because I was like, bam ain't never gonna get close to this ever. At least ever. The numbers would suggest that he's not going to, like, in his career, it's probably not going to happen. Right. Like, I would say, like, the other scorers on that team were out, so he had to take more. Most of the shots and had to take. He's not going to have many more opportunities to do that. And that's why I was down the stress. Like, go, Bam. Do it. And also, man, like, it's once in a lifetime. And at the end of the day, man, even with the basketball purity, it's a game, dude. Like, if you want your player. If. They're a. If. And when you talk about Heat culture and people rolling their eyes at it, part of the Heat culture is we gonna hold our dudes down, we gonna hold our teammates down, we're gonna hold our players down. And in their mind, at that moment, that's what Spo was doing, and that's what he said. He's not going to apologize to anyone for that. And I. And I respect that. I respect that. He's like, oh, man, our guy is within striking distance. He has a chance at history. This dude who we love so much has a chance at history. We want to celebrate with him. We want to make this a great night. I don't have a problem with that. Now. Does it go against the basketball gods? Sure, but who gives a fuck, man? It's a game, dude. Relax. Relax. Like, let him have his moment in history and not Scully that with BS. And I think that that's where my problem lies with it, because these players get to a certain point, they're living out their dreams, and he has a chance to be in the same. Bam. Adebayo had a chance.

D (45:33)

He had 41 points at halftime, man.

C (45:37)

Right. But he had a. Like, in that moment, he had a chance. He had a chance, and he took advantage of that chance to be forever submitted along the lines of names of Wilt Chamberlain and Kobe Bryant. That's really awesome. Like, why are we like that? Why are we on that? That's the whack part in general. Like, when somebody as a. On a human level, works their ass off to get to this point, and then we shit on them. That's what's the frustrating thing to me. Right. And we're. We're shitting on the people that, like, help make that happen. That, you know, like when Roger's been a coach, when a player is cooking and like, you got love for that player, you've been through the trenches with that player, and you see them about to do something like this, like, you want to do everything in your power to make sure that they get what they want and, you know, get the acclaim that you think that they should get. And I think that that is just whack that everybody else is just like, by the way, will not say that to suppose face. There's a lot of coaches conventions and a lot. And the coaches have a big league wide group chat. I bet you they won't at us foe and say, you, you was whack and that was some. And you ain't. That's not gonna happen. But I just think that that is whack in general because we're supposed to be celebrating our players, at least from a league perspective, and celebrating this thing. Instead, we got coaches going subliminally talking about a player or subliminally like poo pooing on the record because he got free throws. It's the game, bro.

B (47:05)

I mean, I think just again, to be clear, like. And let me be clear about one other thing before I'm clear about this other thing. I don't care.

D (47:14)

Yeah, yeah. No, you were, you were. You were. You were framing. Why the. Yeah, yeah.

C (47:19)

Like, it wasn't you, Howard. It was more. I'm just giving you more of the sentiment. Yeah.

B (47:24)

I'm just telling you what you guys. What I've gathered after a couple of days of texting.

C (47:27)

You did a great job.

B (47:29)

Nexus. I'm just giving you context. I understand why some people are.

D (47:33)

Are.

B (47:35)

It's not that they're mad about it. I think they were. It's more like appalled by it or unnerved by it. Didn't like the way it happened. And it's not them. I don't think people. I want to be clear here. I don't think people are on bam. They're on the circumstance. They're on the way it happened. And no one is arguing that he legitimately got whatever it was. I think 70 through the first three quarters. Like, he was awesome. And again, I'm not saying he. He was obligated to bow out. I'm not. I don't want anybody to misinterpret. But had he bowed out at 72 or 74 points when they're sitting on a 20 something point lead with just minutes to go. Everybody would have. Everyone would have been applauding. There would have been nothing to criticize. The only thing to criticize was the way it would have found something in those last few minutes. So you open the door to this kind of backlash. When those last few minutes unfold the way they did with the intentional fouling and the doing everything to get the ball back and the challenging the ref call and everything else, that's when it became something that was not no longer about basketball. It became about chasing the record and taking extreme measures to do it again. I am not justifying or defending the people who are criticizing on that basis, but I am saying that basis was created by the Heat and deciding to do what they did. Eric Reed, the great announcer for the Miami Heat, at one point on the broadcast was saying, like, it looks like Bam's gonna go out now, blah, blah, blah. He was at like 73, 74, whatever it was. Everybody thought he was about to go out, and then they just decided, oh, no.

C (49:02)

He was like, 0 for 8 on, on, oh, we're gonna take Bam out here. I was like, oh, Bam's not coming out. I don't see anybody.

B (49:08)

Well, I thought he was too. For a minute there, it looked like. Like he was moving toward the bench. And it looked so. And. And Raja, just real quick, like, Kobe would have been the first to say, you're not guaranteed to have another shot at 70 or 80. You're never guaranteed. Um, Harden is another one. By the way, I meant. I should have mentioned this one. He had 60 points through three quarters in a route of Atlanta in 2019. Mike Dantoni benched him for the fourth quarter, one point shy of Harden's personal record and the Rockets record. So he benched him before he could get either his own personal record or the Rockets record. And we could say, oh, Harden would have other chances too. But, like, I don't. I don't know if how many more chances he got after that to get 60 or 80.

C (49:44)

Whatever.

B (49:44)

I'm just saying it's. There is an established precedent of guys getting 60 plus through three quarters and not playing once the game was out of hand. Again, I'm not saying that that should be the rule, but this has been more the custom than not.

D (49:59)

That's ok. That's okay. Just because it's your custom doesn't mean it has to be mine. Like, I might not be from the same place you're from. And as far as the Mike d' Antoni of it all, I love Mike. I don't think anybody listening to this podcast, whatever, wonder where I stand on Mike d'. Antoni. I would have cursed him the fuck out if he took me out of a game. Like, for that. At least Kobe, it was by his own volition, right? Like Phil would have put him back in the game and Kobe elected not to. And I'm not saying that Kobe would have thought he had an opportunity to score 80 again or that would be in his sights, but what I'm saying is he was a prolific scorer, so the opportunity was much. There was a much greater opportunity for him to have another look at something like that than there will ever be for Bam. But because of the nature of his game and the way he played, like he was going to shoot the ball and score the ball, if anyone can attest to that, it's the dude who's on every Kobe like, highlight tape getting served buckets. So, like he. That's all I'm saying about that. Like, I, I'm not saying that he could have predicted he would have got a shot at the 81, but by the nature of the way he played, he was going to have more opportunities to be in the vicinity than Bam. And that was my only point at that point. But look, again, I hear you. There have been people that have elected to come out of games or coaches have elected to sit them when they're in the middle of a potential modern record setting night. But just because they did that, this is always my. It doesn't mean that I have to do that. And it's just weird to me. It's just kind of weird and goofy. Like when somebody throws six touchdowns or seven touchdowns and breaks a record. Like, we don't go back and be like, oh, well, two of them were slants. And then the Guy ran for 90 yards after he caught the ball. Oh, all of them weren't 75 yard bombs. We don't do that. Like, there's no qualifier. The motherfucker broke the record. Like, so, like, I don't have to start qualifying. And the modern record, I think, I

C (52:01)

think that's the NBA thing. No, I think that's truly an NBA thing because in the NFL, they celebrate everything. They celebrate every little thing, bro. Go ahead.

B (52:10)

I have, I have no modern NFL takes because I stopped watching it a long, long, long, long time ago. But I was a massive 49ers fan, as you guys might recall, early in my, in my existence. And it was you. It's because of that. It's because of, of the NERs that I wanted to become a sports writer. Right. Like, that's my origin story of my career. I will tell you, back in the day, Joe Montana's passing stats were constantly poo pooed because it was like because of all the yards after the catch, especially from Jerry.

C (52:37)

Right? Yeah.

B (52:38)

Like that was. That was a big thing. Oh, Montana doesn't really pass for 3,000 yards. He passes for like, you know, X amount and then it's all Jerry Rice just make. Making moves and breaking up like that. So it definitely has happened in the NFL. The only NFL reference I will make on this podcast.

C (52:53)

Quick, real quick. You're right. Cliff in all Caps talked about the Miles Garrett sack record and the Michael Strahan sack record also got a lot of scrutiny because Brett Favre just slipped and gave him a sack like this though. Like this. No, not really. No. It's really hasn't been like this on. Because the NFL does like. I think it's going to be annoying, but I think specific to the NBA, this discourse is going to follow Bam for the rest of his career in basketball life. I truly believe that just because of who he is in company with. Right. I don't think that it's. I don't think that the Miles Garrett and the Strahan stuff is going to even. It's probably gonna get brought up amongst like underground heads, like NFL heads. But I, I think it's going to be a mainstream discussion with Bam out of bio for the rest of his basketball career because of the names that he did it alongside. I think that that is unfortunate.

D (53:48)

There won't. The, The. The first time that he won't. There won't be an asterisk by this record for him is when the ties of the world. The. The who. I watched it with my son when, when he has kids and they talk about it because they didn't see it. You know what I mean? But like, for people that witness it, I agree with you. For his career, there's going to be an asterisk by this. And I, you know, I, I just think that's unfortunate, but like, it's what it is.

C (54:13)

I want to, I want, I want to bring up Howard alluded to this quote, but I want to read it in full. This is from Eric Spoelstra defending his, his actions in the game the other night, which I'm going to start it off. It's great. I apologize to absolutely no one, period. I. I've seen people say you've got to be a purist. I'm a Darwinist in this league, really, you can do anything you want in this game. You can approach it however you want. If we get criticized for what we do, there was probably irony with these two organizations. There's nothing wrong with what the Wizards are doing. If you tank and you get a great pick, I don't care. Like, you can do anything you want in this league. You can approach it however you want. We don't do that, and we have the 14th pick. Do something that you're trying to do to get out of the number one pick. I've seen teams hack a Shaq. Debated or not debated, who cares? You can do whatever you want. You can foul three point shooters. You cannot foul three point shooters. You can take the last shot in the game that's already over or don't take it. Who gives a damn? Like, you're allowed to do what you want. I don't even believe that. Thoughts?

B (55:16)

Raja agrees.

D (55:18)

I look and I don't. Yeah, that's why I say just play it all the way through the whistle. Like, I've said that before on here, right when you guys asked me about those. Those, like, last second, someone goes in there and goes to get a steal, and now everyone's butt hurt because he laid it in before. Like, come on, dude, just play ball all the way to the end. I'm with Spoe in a lot of that. Like, you do whatever you want. Just because you may have elected not to approach it like that certainly doesn't mean that I am obligated to act accordingly. I just. I. That's not just basketball. That's life, mofo. Like, you might, you know, you might choose to do it that way. Good for you. It works for you. It doesn't work.

C (56:01)

You're smoking like a true Miami Hurricanes fan right there.

D (56:04)

But, dog, we used to. We used to do this with kids, right? Like, we used to do this with kids where, like, you know, when you first have kids, you think that, you know, the. The way you read it and the way everyone tells you to do it, and that's the way it's got to be done. Until you meet another family that's got, like two or three great kids, and you start talking and they ain't do none of the shit you did, and you're like, oh, there are different ways to do this. Like, just because we did it, like, that doesn't mean they have to. And vice versa. Like, I. I just. I don't get it.

B (56:33)

One other piece of this, and it. It actually underscores Everything about this conversation and about this controversy, and especially when we compare it to discourse around, you know, Kobe's 81 or what book did or anything else, literally anything else. And this is just going to be. I could just cut and paste this disclaimer on every conversation we have of this nature. We live in the noisiest of times. We just do. Like, 10 years ago, this podcast didn't exist. 15 years ago, no podcasts existed. We didn't have 24. 7 debate culture on ESPN. We didn't have 24. Seven debate culture on everything. And now everybody has a podcast, Everybody has an Instagram channel, Everybody has a TikTok. There are independent creators who are doing the exact thing that we're doing right now and discussing this. So sometimes these things feel way bigger than they actually are or way angrier than they actually are. But it's just because there's just so, so many more voices and because the media ecosystem is optimized for takes, and

C (57:39)

which is why we do what we do.

B (57:41)

We're very fortunate to be able to make a living doing this. But it is part of our modern ecosystem that, you know, the noise is what gets through and controversy and debates. And I don't. I'm not saying that that means that anybody's being disingenuous about their feelings on this. I think people are being honest about it. But if it feels more intense than it needs to be, considering this ultimately does not matter. This is not a life and death situation. This is not even the biggest controversy, probably the last two weeks in the NBA. And it pales in comparison to cap circumvention and a gambling scandal and tanking and all these other things that, that afflict the league that they need to deal with. This is not even on the top 10. But it gets this kind of heat because of the times we live in in the media ecosystem that we live in and are part of, frankly.

C (58:29)

And adding to that, like, what does this media system reward? It rewards, takes, and it rewards just a lot of bs. Like, the things that get to top of your algorithm aren't the conversations that me, Raja and Howard are trying to have, right? The nuance, the balance. It's like you have to have a slant. And typically, and you saw this after the bam out of bio thing. It's either one or the other. It's never a nuanced take of. That's not what gets to the top of the algorithm. That's not what the top gets to the top of the viewership. It is the. This this was great for the game. No, this sucked, right? Like, it's either one of those two things, and that's what's kind of like, kind of cooking our brains right now. Because you get one or the other, you have to have an opinion on everything. There's sometimes. And Raja and Howard can attest to this because they're always in the pre pod meetings. Sometimes, bro, we just ain't got to take, bro. We just. You know, this is a great game. Last night, it was. You know, it was a night. It was a nice shot. I don't know what this means. Huh?

D (59:30)

Speak for yourself.

C (59:31)

Are you okay? Whatever. All right, all right, all right.

D (59:35)

But.

C (59:35)

But, like, you get what I'm saying. That's what is. That's why we're here right now trying to pour some cold water on a lot of this fire right now. It's just like, yo, let's just calm down to celebrate. Like, something that was pretty. At the end of the day was pretty cool. Like, I'm really excited for Pam.

D (59:51)

Look, you know, I. I am, too. I. I would. Can I just add to this. This is the last thing because. Because it is all the way blown out of proportion. But, like, if you didn't.

C (59:59)

I'm just saying, you only got 41 on the night. You got 41 on the night right now, so it's probably, like five more I'm left in the game.

D (60:05)

Let me knock down these two free throws, though. I'm gonna get the 40.

C (60:07)

Okay, go ahead and foul for me.

D (60:08)

Go ahead. And you guys, let me get the ball back. Um, you don't. You don't.

B (60:15)

You don't have to.

D (60:15)

You don't have to necessarily love the way it went down again. I said I didn't love the last couple minutes of that. I don't think anything should be taken away from what Bam Adebayo did in terms of the remarkable night that he had. And. And. And, you know, like, he wasn't the one telling them to foul, to get the ball back. And I think that's important because I. No one can understand how hard it is to score 10 points in 10. Like, I see this all the time from dudes who think they're real Hoopers, and, you know, they're like, yo, how many would you get in an NBA game? And some asshole says, oh, I scored. I scored 10. If I knock down two threes, I get a foul. Like, shut up. Like, that. 10 points in an NBA game is ridiculous. 83 is crazy. So, like, you know, you didn't have to love it. And that's okay. But. But let's not take anything away from him.

C (61:11)

That's what I'm saying, bro. I. Me and Howard were at this game, we were at Lakers, spurs last month. And it was a fleeting thought. It was probably like the 10th best thought I had of the night. But I remember thinking, man, the Lakers are fully depleted tonight. There's no way I could even get a layup in this. There's no way I could even like post up Rui at all. There's no way I can do none of this. And, and in Staples, and in Staples is great media seats. So you can really see these guys up close and you can see just how tall, how strong they are. I was like, there's no way, bro. There's no way. My all time career high in like CYO basketball is like eight points. And I felt great about those eight points, but amazing. I had like four steals that day. I had like three rebounds and I was, I felt like king of the fucking world, bro. There's.

B (62:07)

I thought they should have pulled you at six.

D (62:09)

At six plus minus was crazy.

C (62:12)

I got crazy.

D (62:13)

I got it. I got into the. When I got into the NBA, the first few times I tried to get in like in. And I did not get in. And I had been a very successful college basketball player. I could not figure out how to get a bucket. I could not get a bucket. I mean, this is neither here nor there. Like, the conversation has shifted. But I mean, it. Is that. It is that crazy? I mean, you know, I didn't.

C (62:38)

What's hard about it? What's really hard about it?

D (62:40)

But no, listen, you just kidding. I played at the highest level of college basketball, right? Like, I played in mid majors is what they would call them, low mid majors. But we beat Michigan and we beat Alabama and we beat Penn State and we played Arizona and I had 20. Like, we played a lot of NBA players and I had a lot of success. When I got to those NBA camps, I'm telling you, I could not get a bucket. The speed, the, the size, the athleticism, the, the, the, the lack of time that you had to judge all of that. Like everything just got really, really fast. Really, really big and really, really athletic. Really fast. And it just, it's not, it's just not what you think. So when a dude is out there having 30 and a quarter, 40 and a half and 70 through three, like, that's bananas, man.

C (63:31)

I had to tell somebody the other last year because I'm just in. My friend group. I my friends know not to ask me hella basketball questions, but when they do, it's typically, what's up with the Warriors? What's up with Clay? Clay is trash. And I'm like, clay will bust your ass right now. As bad as he is at NBA boat shoes will bust your ass right now in a basketball game. 21 nothing. Which is just cream. You'll be over with.

D (64:01)

Come on. Come on. I don't mean to make it that. I'm just saying, like, we gotta put some respect on it.

A (64:06)

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D (65:15)

That's all I'm saying.

C (65:17)

I'm just. Bro, I'm just. Okay. All right. Anyways, it's Friday. We got a little segment we like to call Real one of the week. I think I'll go first. I will go with town's own Oakland Zone, Alyssa. Lou. It's, it's. It's a few weeks past, you know, the time she got two gold medals in the Olympics. But we had a big celebration for her at City hall where she got a key to the city, got the key to Oakland. Barbara Lee was on deck. Kehlani was on deck. DJ D Sharp was on deck. My dog Pilo was on deck celebrating her. It was a big ass celebration. I did not make it. You know, I had to work. But it was a great day for the city. It was a great day for her, man. Shout out to Lisa. Lou, man, Town Business Bay area stand up. Who is. What's the real one of the week for Roger? We'll give Howard a little time because you know this is still kind of new for him and you know he. He takes a little time to learn pick his role in the week before getting this. So Raja, who is your own of the week?

D (66:25)

I should, I should go with. With Eric Spolster and Bam out of bio for, for. For offending all your walls. Delicate sensibilities and just like oh my God. I should go with that. I should have went with that soft asses. But I'm gonna text Howard.

C (66:46)

Oh my God, this is so egregious. I gotta take how it go.

D (66:51)

I'm gonna go with Shay.

C (66:53)

Oh yeah.

D (66:54)

I mean he had a remarkable week, right? Like he. I mean it was the Golden State shot, it was the, the Denver multiple shots. And then last night it was breaking a real record. Like you know, Bam didn't break the record. He broke the modern record. But last night Shay broke the consecutive 20 point NBA record. 20 points in a game consecutively. That was set by Wilt at. What was it? 100. And how many, how many games was it?

C (67:21)

127. 127 of 20 points or more.

D (67:25)

The broadcast did like did you hear how Wilt lost the streak, by the way the broadcast said it last night? I didn't know that. He was ejected in the first quarter of the 127th game and, and only had like four points and then went on to string together like 90 more 20 point games. So like it would have been.

C (67:43)

Anytime you look at Will Chamberlain's stats, bro, like to be. I was, I was in the building the night Kobe. The night Kobe passed Will Chamberlain for all time points. And just the fact when you look at his individual stats for anyone to break a scoring record set by Wilt Chamberlain is bananas, bro. It's crazy. And I don't care what the modern game is versus that game. It is crazy.

D (68:09)

What ref I need to holl at is the one that kicked him out of that game. Like that's the mofo that I.

C (68:13)

He's not. I don't think he's. I don't think he's here with us. Let's.

D (68:17)

Let's go Joey Crawley.

C (68:18)

We do it in the afterlife.

B (68:19)

It was Joey. He was seven years old.

D (68:21)

It was Joe. No, but I'm going to give it to Shay for that. Not only for breaking the record, but like another game ceiling like tough bucket. I didn't see it because he came down and scored but like another tough couple buckets down the street.

C (68:35)

He got the title for the, for baddest in the league right now, Roger. Or is that.

D (68:40)

Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no.

C (68:41)

At this point. Okay, yeah, bro, okay, but real motherfucking

B (68:45)

bet real quick on the, the, the Shea thing.

C (68:50)

I.

B (68:50)

First of all, it's just awesome that we have like two really important Wilt Chamberlain reference points in the same week here, right? Like bam. Wasn't going to approach 100, but it was a chance to all once again, like marvel at that incredible feat that is one of the greatest and most probably most unbreakable stats records in sports. So we had the 100 point game in the discussion and then the streak, and the streak's a little more obscure, right? Like this isn't like baseball where like, you know, the, the Cal Ripken streak or that kind of thing or even AC Green's games plates, like those are fine. A 20 point game streak, like, it's hard to get your. Wrap your head around in some ways, but the consistency that requires is. Is absolutely incredible. Breaking any wilt record of any sort, period, is absolutely incredible. All of which is a good segue to my real win of the week. Because he may or may not have been referring to Shay Gil, just Alexander, but Jaylen Brown called out flopping or, or embellishing and Val baiting. And it wasn't clear necessarily this was about Shay, but it usually somehow involves him. And I'm not saying this to take sides on this and I think a lot of the discourse around Shay and the criticism is, is a little overwrought to say the least. But this has been an ongoing issue for the NBA and it's not, it's not going to get solved by players just not embellishing. Players are always going to do everything you can let them get away with. So this is an officiating issue and it's a league issue, it's a rules issue, it's a competition committee issue. And it takes stars like Jaylen Brown highlighting it to keep putting it on the front burner, to try to rein this in because it does turn off fans. And again, not about any one player. You know, like Joellen Bead's been accused of this, Jalen Brunson's been accused. Like there's plenty of guys who are viewed and their accomplishments and their scoring is viewed askew because of the way that they get their numbers and because of the foul baiting. Anyway, this was Jalen Brown last night. Quote, I don't know, maybe it all Works in the end, but I just don't foul bait, Brown said. I'm not looking to flop or anything like that, but it's almost like you've got to. It's almost like. Because there's a couple of plays in the fourth quarter where I felt like I drove strong, went up strong, and I didn't get the benefit of the doubt, but maybe I would have if I flopped. Maybe I would have been able to sell that call and those decide games. He goes on, we commend players for playing the game the right way, but we give the benefit to those who necessarily are trying to manipulate the game to their advantage. I just don't think it's basketball. Let's just play basketball. All the foul baiting, I think it's whatever for me. Again, I don't care. I'm not taking sides here. I don't care if this is about anybody. I just think that as a general problem for the league, it needs to keep being highlighted and by the players themselves, too. Because when it's coming from the players, that tells you the league. Look, we don't. We don't like this shit either. And we know it's turning off fans and it turns off us. So how they fix that, like, it's. It's hard, man. I. I do not envy the officials. I don't have any league for trying to find new ways to punish this or. Or curtail it. It's hard, and especially given. Given how quickly things happen in real time. Sometimes what looks like a flop in real time, you hear announcers going, like. Especially because it's the home announcers. Oh, he flopped. Like, Jokic got bashed in the face the other night and the. The announcers. Was it. The Thunder announcers were like, no, Lou Dort, man. Yeah, but, like.

D (72:05)

But you.

B (72:05)

But the replay showed he, like, he got smashed in the nose. Like. But we're so on. On alert for guys embellishing that even legit stuff sometimes comes off as. As, oh, I think that guy flopped. But, man. And it's hard for refs to pick up in real time, so I don't envy anybody. I'm not saying it, you know, not blaming, but, yeah, they do have to curtail us. I'm glad Jalen Brown called it out.

C (72:32)

I just want to say that I don't like that.

D (72:34)

He was 10. He was 10 for 25 for 34. He made one three, right? Shay, last night, 35 on 13 for 18, two for five threes. One of you shot a lot more free throws than the other. And like, Shay was looking for some calls down the stretch that he didn't get either. I don't like the timing of that. I'm all right with you, Howard, in that. Somebody had to say it, but I don't love the timing of that. Not real for me.

C (72:58)

Hey, Rogers, Past time to start hating. To stop hating. Excuse me? It's past time to stop hating. It's 20, 26. Let's stop hating. It's a lot of hate.

D (73:07)

Yeah, right now. I'm okay, though. Like, Howard, like, I. I just don't love the optics of that from Jalen on that particular game. Like, your sentiment I get, but I don't. I'm a Jalen fan. I've been on here. Say I like, I. I think he's a number one. Like, a true number one. I don't love the timing of that in a game like that. Having watched it really intently down the stretch. They both were looking like they got fouled on a few pull ups and. And you went to the line more than the other one. Like, I don't love that.

C (73:32)

Yeah, I think that I just want to. Before we get out of here, I do want to give flowers to Jalen Brown in general. Just like, to adding to what Raja said, bro, like, I don't. I don't. He's not going to get mvp barring, like, you know, just a massive injury from like three different players that we also don't want. And he's not necessarily going to get most improved, but he'll probably get like an all NBA team or something. But I just want. I wish there was something individual that he could get for the season that he's having. And I know that, you know, the numbers guys will say, well, he's not as effective as you guys. Nah, man. We see what we're seeing with the eye test and what the Celtics are doing, you know, this season with him at the helm. And I think that it's been. We always, I think on this podcast we always celebrate people who back up their words. And Jalen has been backing up his words that he's had both publicly and privately leading up into this season. So, yeah, great. Room of the week, guys. It was great to get in the lab with you, man. See you guys next week. Tap in. Ah, all the shits. Bye. Must be 21 years and older in present in select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and older and present in D.C. kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org backslash chatinconnecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org In Maryland, hope is here. Visit gamblinghelpma.org or call 1-800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 187 Hope and why or text Hope and why in New York. For Louisiana, call 1.

B (75:11)

Shot clocks big shots, upsets, aces TGL playoffs are here first Atlanta drive starts their repeat run against Los Angeles Golf Club. Then Rory's Boston Common Golf and Tigers Jupiter Links face off in their playoff debuts. Who will advance? Keep up its playoffs tune in Tuesday, March 17 at 6:30pm and 9pm only on ESPN and the ESPN app Monster Energy.

D (75:33)

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C (75:58)

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