Transcript of Is It Time For Nikola Jokic To Demand A Trade? | Hour 1 New

This is the Dan Levitard Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

This episode of the Dan Levitard Show is presented by DraftKings.

DraftKings, the crown is yours.

Wow.

What's that song from, from Pro Gems?

Like, yeah, that's all of them.

All of them.

Yeah, that's Creed, actually.

No, no, that's not—

I just heard—

No, that was a heavily inspired. Yeah.

Yeah, just hurling insults.

Yeah, change my life, gonna try on a train.

John Zaslo. Now that's a good song.

Oh, we have that.

I love that one.

Is that the same one? Dave, have you ever heard that? Have you ever heard, uh, the Pearl Jam hit John Zaslo?

I, I, I haven't, but can I be honest with you? I'm a little down in the dumps and I don't know if I'm really spiritually ready to, to press forward because your fledgling hockey franchise once again failed. Well, I mean, that's, uh, that, that's silly.

And I don't know, because you hurt my feelings.

Live life in the rearview. No, well, listen, no, my wife just hurt my feelings. I mean, I, I just, uh, during the break, I, I left here and I went into the kitchen where I met my wife, who just, uh, got out of bed apparently. And she said, you know, I just, uh, I could hear you through the floor, you know, yelling while I was asleep. In fact, it awoke me from my slumber. And she said I just had a dream about a goose. I was dreaming about a goose and I woke up and I realized, no, it was just your voice going, "Meh, meh, meh, meh." That's all I could hear through the floor. That's my lover. That's the woman with whom I lay bare. And she's comparing me to a goose.

Yeah.

I put myself on top of that woman on more than one occasion. She's been on top of me. And she just compared me to a goose. I don't know.

She must hate Fridays.

I'm shocked that's the first time.

Talk about Pearl Jam all you want.

Mäh, mäh. Roar, roar. Love that song. Well, I don't know if we're gonna make you feel any better here because I do want to know how you experienced 2 nights ago, Dave, as a huge Pittsburgh Penguins fan, you, you were out on them. You didn't even like hockey anymore. Was not an important sport when the Penguins were down 3 games to none, but then they win the next 2 and they're a road win— they're a goal away from forcing a Game 7 back in Pittsburgh. So I'd imagine that they sucked you right back in. So how did you experience the sudden death to your season?

Listen, we like to have fun, and yes, I like to puff my chest out about championships won in the past, but they are getting— let's be honest here— a little far in the rearview mirror for me. But maybe it's a rationalization on my part. Something that's happened to me in the last decade, maybe 15 years, is some of my favorite seasons are, are watching a team that I know has no chance of, of winning the title. That's what happened with these Pittsburgh Penguins. The achievement was making the playoffs. They were supposed to be among the worst teams, if not the worst team, and all the NHL really knows what I'm talking about. And so they exceeded expectation. This was a borderline miraculous run given the collective thoughts about how good or how bad this team was going to be. All that being said, down 0-3, who gives a crap, the hated Flyers, let's turn the page to baseball. Except then I have to watch the Pirates, so then that slowed me down a little bit. But Um, when they got it to 3-2, I started to entertain— I— it would mean as much to me to rally from down 0-3 because you hate Philly, hated to hate against the hated Philadelphia Flyers, especially if they could, if they could put that level of shame and pain on Philadelphia.

Oh, it would have tickled me something. And I think really at that point, if that would have happened, the Flyers would have just had to fold up shop and no longer be an organization.

And while they would have contracted.

Well, no, I don't, I don't know about that. I think as, uh, as an empathetic organization in the same state, maybe the Penguins might have absorbed them, sort of like the Steagles back in WW2. Maybe we could have done them a solid like that, but there would be no coming back from that as a Flyers fan. I mean, as it was, it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean that the Penguins deserve to win or any of that, but they dominated not just the overtime, but really they did the much better of the play for literally like the last 4 games of the series, and it just didn't lead to victory. And so I'm bummed out, but I am— I can temper my sorrow there by recognizing what I knew before the playoffs started. They weren't going to beat the Carolina Hurricanes anyway. I just would have loved for them to have vanquished the Philadelphia Flyers and disgraced them. Instead, I'll just say this, man. Meh, meh. I'm a goose? My— from my lady love, the mother of my children, she compared me to a bird.

The woman you lay bare with?

That's the one. That's the one.

So it's a good reminder of what's at stake in tonight with the Rockets and the Lakers, where the Lakers are going to try and close out Houston in a Game 6 and avoid a Game 7, in a series that they led 3 games to none. Now, can we take an unbiased— like, no one here is a Laker fan, no one here is a Rocket fan. I would assume everyone is rooting for the Rockets to win tonight because you want a Game 7.

Oh yeah, totally unbiased.

Who doesn't want a Game 7?

Everybody here is totally unbiased when it comes to LeBron.

This is an unbiased room when it comes to LeBron, alright? This is Miami.

Best two words in sports.

He plays in LA. This is an unbiased room, all right? But while everyone is going to be rooting for a Game 7, because who the hell doesn't root for a Game 7, are we all rooting for LeBron and the Lakers? But really LeBron above all else. LeBron to be the one, not the rest of the team, not Austin Reeves, not Luka, not Hachimura. Tony, thank you. LeBron. Are we rooting for LeBron to be the first ever to blow a 3-games-to-none lead in the history of the National Basketball Association.

The only rooting interest that I have is wanting to see a Game 7 and see LeBron in a Game 7 spot with the weight of that on him. We've seen LeBron in go-home situations in Boston. I was actually watching highlights of that because that's what dudes do.

Hell yeah.

Sometimes they get back to the RV after a late night of drinking and they want to watch highlights of Game 6 in Boston where LeBron James put the franchise on on his back. Blueprint. That's what they like to do sometimes, these dudes.

You don't want that, Dave?

I want to see Game 7 LeBron with that on the line because it will always be attached to his legacy. Not quite the same way that coming back from down 3-1 is attached to his legacy. That won a championship for Cleveland. But every time there is like one of these Michael Jordan, ah yeah, Buck guys, or any LeBron hater, anytime you mention 3-1 and the chase-down block, there's going to be some guy over there or gal that's going to be like, But he also blew a 3-0. I'm curious to see how sports plays out. I don't know what I want, and sometimes I like just sitting in front of the TV on my couch and letting the game tell me what I'm gonna start rooting for.

If I can put a meager hypothetical out there, meager, what if, à la Willis-Reed, out trots number 77? Does LeBron get the credit having Luka back in the game if they win a Game 7 against the Rockets with Luka there?

I'm not sure what that—

because I don't know if the chances of that are complicated too.

Like, will it be remembered depending on how he plays? Like, Luka bailed you out here.

He gave them the 3-0 lead.

I, yeah, I like—

well, I was about to say I like this. In fact, it's the exact opposite. What I hate is that the— that—

hold on, you meant to say what you hate is, but you almost said what you like is.

I was being snarky about the, the, the fact that the, that the advanced analytics people have kind of won the conversation because it is in my head like, well, one series is gonna define LeBron James? To a certain degree, yes, that is the answer. It will define him. Dan said before the series started, if LeBron pulls this off, it's his greatest chapter of his, uh, of his career. And I don't think that's really all that hyperbolic to say. So what's the other side of that? Blowing an 0-3 lead would also dent his legacy too. And people say that he's a 40-something-year-old man. And he's like, so many, so many great moments, and you're going to reduce it to that, that that somehow, uh, impact— yes, again, these playoffs are everything to the legacies of these guys. And the people who like to do math and apply it to sports, go off and, and do it with, with some other matter, not with sports. Singular moments, whether you think it's fair or not, are everything in sports, and they define who the best of the best are, not who the All-Stars are, who the icons for all of time are.

So it does matter if LeBron blows an 0-3 lead, because you know who never did? Michael Jordan. And that's who he's compared to.

The Rockets are a 3.5-point favorite tonight at home against the Lakers. When the Rockets win tonight, which I think they will, when the Rockets win tonight, the conversation the 48 hours leading up to Sunday, it's gonna be incredible. It's, it's, it's go— it doesn't happen very often that you have a team come back from 3-0 and force a Game 7. It's happened a few times. I think maybe like 3 or 4 times that team did not win Game 7.

Correct. But it didn't just never happen to Michael Jordan. It's never happened to anybody.

Right.

Right.

And you're talking about LeBron James, the face of this basketball generation with the Los Angeles Lakers, a crown jewel franchise. I can't even imagine what the narrative is going to be throughout the weekend.

It's the most, you know, I get that it can kind of be sort of you can, you can take shots at like this is the most sports talk radio kind of conversation to have, but really as a human being. LeBron bailed on Cleveland because he wanted a ring, and that's how he winds up winning them for you guys before he goes out to LA, and who knows how he'll finish off his career. But it does matter that if we go all the way back to the all-time Miami icon Dan Marino, that it does— it's as though we're expected to ignore the fact or to pretend as though that in the paragraph, the first paragraph of his bio includes like, never won a Super Bowl. So would you, if you are, how incented would you be? And ring culture is not a new phenomenon as much as people want to make it that. It's always mattered who wins the titles. That's why we know who they are because they endure through the generation onto where we sit now. Do you guys think you would be like, I like this town, I'm Connor McDavid, I gotta get outta here, man.

I gotta go somewhere where I can have a title or otherwise. That will always come up for the rest of my life. How say you?

I mean, you look at a guy like Mike Trout who doesn't feel that way at all. Like, there are some dudes who, you know, being happy with their life is the most important thing. Like, and that doesn't mean that they don't care about the championship, but just being happy with life is the most important thing.

Joe Mauer signed with the Minnesota Twins because he liked being in the Twin Cities, and it cost him a championship. But how about you?

I think being happy with my life is the most important thing. I, I, I, like, I want to win, of course, but if I'm happy with where I live, I'm happy with my teammates, I'm happy with my family's current setup, I'm happy with how much money I make, that's gonna mean a— that's gonna mean more than me— more to me than going somewhere and not definitely winning a championship, but it's all this is trying to win a championship.

Well, but the other side of that is, as you know from having bounced off these guys You know, we're all competitive to a degree. The difference between Michael Jordan and other all-star level talents in the NBA is, I mean, like that. People in fact praise it all the time, like, boy, Kobe, and he's a killer, man. Like, yeah, in any other walk of life away from sports, that guy's an asshole. Like, it's like, yeah, it's too much. Settle down, man. He wants to beat you at tiddlywinks. Like, I don't know anybody who plays tiddlywinks, but that's always the one they bring up. He, if it's ping pong, he wants to win. He said he'll kill you to win at ping pong. Like, all right, if you grew up in the neighborhood with one of those guys and everybody did, that guy was an asshole. It's like, chill out, man. Chill out. Would you, would you, Jerry or Jeremy? Either way. So that has to, like, if you're Connor McDavid, he understands right now as he's sitting up in Edmonton right now thinking like, is this really going to happen? Like, if I don't get out of Edmonton, I'm never going to win a title.

And am I okay with that? Is it more important to me to wear the, the wear the Big Oil sweater for the entirety of my career. I think I might be cool with that, but I'm not as hypercompetitive as those cats are.

Hey, it's Mike Ryan, and I want to talk to you about the random midweek hang that you have with your friends. Maybe it's an NBA game, you get a text, hey, come over, you want to watch the game? And maybe you're like, ah, I don't know, I kind of just wanted to stay home. And then you think about it after your buddy hits you up, and you know just the thing that'll make that regular hang, that regular midweek hang around the basketball game into a special time, into a Miller Time. That's right, this happened to me just last week. I grabbed a 6-pack of Miller Lite, said I was on my way, and next thing you know, we're arguing about rotations like we're on the coaching staff, yelling about a missed call, and the game's coming down to the final possession. It was one of those nights that you look around, you take a sip, and you think, yeah, this was the right call, and my friendship's stronger for it. Cheers to legendary moments with Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to MillerLite.com/Dan to find delivery options near you. Or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Going for 2 when you're up by 5. Switching the zone when man isn't working. Oh, and building your new stadium in the state your team actually plays in. In sports, some things just make sense. You know what else makes sense? Drinking Jägermeister shots ice cold. Drinking it any other way would be like punting on first down! Or letting your worst hitter bat first! Or like going for 2 when you're down 3 with a second to go! It wouldn't make any sense! So don't let the team down. When it comes to Jägermeister, drink it cold or don't drink it at all! Jägermeister.

Damn, that's cold.

Drink responsibly. Jägermeister Liqueur, 35% alcohol by volume. Imported by Mast Jägermeister US, White Plains, New York.

Dan Lebatard. John Zaslo. How you love that catchphrase. Bad news for opposing teams in the Triple-A. Stoogatz. This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stoogatz. I'm sure all of them there in Edmonton are handling this situation very, very well, very, very maturely. As the Oilers and Connor McDavid were eliminated last night. But the NBA, we had 2 series end and we had a Game 7 confirmed, that one being Sixers and Celtics. And I would make the case that all 3 of those games last night were shockers. I mean, obviously the Knicks winning by 51. The score at one point was 72 to 22. I checked my phone during the Guns N' Roses concert last night.

I thought it was a glitch.

It said 72 to 22. Like, how is, how is that real? And did you see, I think it was the Spittin' Chiclets account on Twitter where they tweeted out the score, and at the time it was 103 to 50, and the tweet said something like, uh, great sport you got here.

So what do they know?

I was wondering where you were going with spitting Chiclets with the basketball.

Right, right, great, because that's an elimination game. Great sport you got here. Down by 53 at home, the Atlanta Hawks. But that was obviously shocking. The Sixers, I think you could say it's shocking that they're going to Game 7. And the Wolves winning without Anthony Edwards, without Io DuSumu, without Dante DiVincenzo. That they kicked the shit out of the Nuggets last night. That was shocking. Tony, the most surprising result from last night was what?

Uh, Timberwolves beating the Nuggets in a do-or-die game for Nikola Jokic, for his legacy, for what we think of him going now 5, 10, 15, 20 years down the road. To lose to a team in the Timberwolves who do— who don't have their best player, who don't have one of their most important guards, and another guy off the bench who's an electric scorer. To lose to Jaden McDaniels, who called you out by name, first name, last name.

Jokic got punked so hard. The whole Nuggets got punked so hard.

The entire team, the entire series got punked from the jump for Jaden McDaniels, who, by the way, legend is born, star is born right now. Jaden McDaniels, you're watching the evolution of somebody who 4 or 5, 6 years down the road and be like, oh, that guy's kind of a superstar, which is a crazy thing to think about when they really put this Wolves team together. But 30 and 10 last night for Jaden McDaniels. He talked his thing, he backed it up. He sent Nikola Jokic back home. I thought to me that was the result where I was looking around saying, oh my God, I cannot believe now we're going to have to do an autopsy of the Denver Nuggets and their run for the last—

there's legacy stuff everywhere. In this series, because not only do you have the Nuggets side where people are doing the, oh no, Nikola Jokic team has never beaten a team with more than 50 wins.

I saw that yesterday and I didn't know that, which is pretty wild. Maybe you look at the teams they beat in 2023, capped off by winning the Finals against a 44-win team, right?

The Miami Heat, right?

It's crazy. And that Miami Heat team, like their best player was, was hobbled and wasn't himself. Like they— you look at, at at that side of it, that's one thing. And the future of that team with the Christian Brown contract coming up and what they're going to do to fix things. But you look at Minnesota, Jaden McDaniels, who you mentioned, is emerging in a way where now he won't be a star for 6 years though, according to—

no, but I said we're going to look back 6 years and be like, he's a superstar.

Yeah. And whether he turns into a superstar, you know, go-to number 1 guy or not, now you look at your future built around him as the wing for Anthony Edwards as your star. And you have these two emerging emerging in their own version of the, like, Jordan-Pippen dynamic where Rudy Gobert is the anchor of that defense. And by the way, his legacy looks different after last night because that's now back-to-back years. It's, it's twice where he has locked down Nikola Jokic, one of the greatest offensive players of all time, one of the greatest offensive big men of all time.

Said he's the greatest offensive player of all time, right?

And that's how someone that is supposed to have respect in this business views Nikola Jokic. And Rudy Gobert has been a punchline for a huge portion of his career, right? No matter how many Defensive Player of the Years he's won, we've all sort of laughed at— oh, he gets played off the floor in the playoffs. That's a huge moment for him. We were grouping his trade with Minnesota in with, you know, the Desmond Bane trade or the Mikal Bridges trade. Like, not at all the same thing. That was a massive franchise-altering trade for them. It's put them as a franchise into a place they've never been before. They were fledgling franchise. And now Rudy Gobert gets to cement himself in a place. Jaden McDaniels emerges in a fun way. They're going to be like America's team because of a lot of people rooting in some ways against Wemby and the Spurs.

They punked the Nuggets hard the whole series. They really did. Mike, you're angry with the Wolves now?

I'm really bummed. Why? I was looking forward to Joker versus Wemby. I thought that—

that's a good reason to be angry.

Look, Dave hasn't really been paying attention to the NBA, but I think he would have been all right with the two kaiju doing battle to see who could fight for the—

you know about that kaiju, Dave—

to topple the OKC Thunder. And now I— we're not going to get that kind of series. And I was really worried because Minnesota presents so many problems for Denver that they would get in the way of Jokic versus Wemby, and they did. And I'm bummed for it because I don't think I don't think that series is gonna be nearly as compelling had Denver been in there.

On top of that, like, you look at the Denver team— or excuse me, the Minnesota team that Denver was facing, and 40% of their scoring was done by 3 guys who didn't play in the last game.

Yeah.

It's like— Is Edwards— like, what's his current status?

They said multiple weeks with the knee injury, so we don't know if that means 4 or does that mean 2?

He's a guy who often bounces back pretty quickly. 2 weeks. Maybe you can pray that he's back for like Game 4 of this series, but it's going to be tough to expect getting him back. The reality is like the Spurs should win this series in 4 or 5 games if he's not available. But what they just did to the Nuggets, like just attacking them, it, it makes you question everything their roster looks like. And they were without their 2 best defenders in Peyton Watson and Aaron Gordon. But you can't use that as an excuse when Minnesota is down not only Edwards but also DiVincenzo.

Well, you mentioned there what it means for the rest of their roster. So give this a listen here. Nikola Jokic after the season-ending loss last night.

Where do you feel like this team is, you know, in that bigger picture and how far away or not far away do you feel like you guys are from being, you know, a championship contender?

I mean, we just lost in the first half, so I think we are far away.

Do you feel like changes are like— what type of changes you feel like?

I mean, that's not for me, my decision, to be honest. Definitely. If we're in Serbia, we will all get fired.

If we were in Serbia, we would all get fired. That was just to note. His arms do appear to be bleeding in that photo. Yeah, you see he's got cuts there. If we were in Serbia, we would all get fired. Like, what? What country can we say that? Like, if If we were all in Canada, would they all get fired?

No.

No, they don't. Hey, good try.

They don't have losers over there.

Canada lets that fly.

Yeah.

Hey, you gave it your best effort.

I mean, Knobloch's pretty fired, yeah.

Well, but that's a different sport. It's a different sport.

Well, but I mean, we're talking about mentality here.

No, I think we're talking about mentality about basketball. You know, apparently in Serbia, basketball is a very big deal. Russia, definitely fired.

Gretzky, Wayne Gretzky fired the entire country of Canada and moved to Florida.

You're very in on the Gretzky hates Canada. No, I understand, but like, this is the second time you brought up the show. You're very in on that today.

He's backed it up. He's a creep. He's talked that crap to Wayne Gretzky at the Kimmel Show.

That is true. What about in France? Would the Nuggets all be fired in France?

Yeah, they love losers over there too.

Okay.

All right.

Denmark?

I think he's kind of saying fire our coach.

He specifically said not to.

I know, I know.

Was Jokic being politically correct?

Was he being politically correct, you ask?

Was he being politically correct by saying if it's in Serbia, the guy gets fired? Was he really saying like in Serbia everybody gets executed for this?

Yeah, that's what I was trying to read under and see what it was like in other places like that. Yeah, you may not make it back.

I know he said like we shouldn't fire this guy, but then he was like, but you know, in proper basketball countries they would.

It just makes me feel like they're in a position where he wants them to make changes to the roster. And that's going to be a tough thing for them to do because next year they have over $100 million committed to Aaron Gordon, who struggles to stay on the floor. Jamal Murray, who was god-awful in this series, and Christian Brown, who was worse.

Should we perhaps start throwing the question out there?

Ooh, I like this already.

Well, I didn't do this. I would have never— I would have never mentioned him as a possible trade target until Cronky came out and volunteered it.

Go on, go on.

And we are living in a post-Luka world where superstars don't actually have to ask to be traded one day, they can end up on a different franchise.

That's right.

Like, they did this. They're the ones that opened the door for us to speculate as to whether or not Jokic might be able to be had in an acquisition.

All right, you send them Bam. Let's start with Bam.

Boom. You'd send them Tyler and then a bunch of picks. Like, Bam has to be a part of it.

Bam, Pellei, Larsen.

You'd give up Larsen?

Well, I mean, it's like, Jokic?

Ooh, I don't know.

Oh, please.

I'm obviously kidding.

I'm obviously—

guys, good.

Rockets.

Yeah, yeah. You also throw in Jović too, just because you can easily— you can easily change that jersey if you're a Nuggets fan.

Right, right. That is an interesting way to look at 9 firsts.

Given the advantages of both sports towns, who has underachieved more? Denver, which always claims, much like Tom Brady was a 6th round draft pick or Ryan Fitzpatrick went to Harvard, there is not a game that involves a Denver-based sports franchise where it is not invoked at some point. Like, you know, the altitude is real high. It really impacts the visiting team. I know the loss was in one of the two Twin Cities last night, but either way, another Denver team that has this apparent, uh, ongoing advantage over all comers is the high altitude that they've adjusted to and no one else does. Then they should win every title if it's such an advantage to them. Or is it Miami? Where everybody wants to live. Allegedly everybody loves to be down in Miami. Shouldn't they be able to lure more people than all you guys in the room? Giannis should be here, and this guy Jokic should now be here. Everybody, you know, if it weren't for LeBron, which I can't get a good read on whether or not after the whole thing is said and done if you like the LeBron experience or not.

This is an unbiased room here. All right, yeah, we didn't like it. We loved it.

Him or no? You like LeBron, right? But if it weren't for LeBron moving down there, then, then, then you are basically like Bill Walton in Portland kind of thing. Like, yeah, we won that one title a while ago. I mean, that's, that's our claim to fame is that we won a title 20-something years ago.

Wait, wait, what are you, what are you doing?

What was the last time a Pittsburgh championship was in your city?

What was the last time that happened? What claim? What are you claiming, the Rams now?

Miami have to You know where Jokic should be with us. Doesn't he want to be with us?

That's right.

Shouldn't everybody want to be down in Miami? Yeah, but teams don't land there because of the Miami Heat experience, apparently, right? Why isn't everybody clamoring to get down there? In other words, they're on their way for the Marlins.

Oh, the Marlins, I can't really speak to.

Tua seemed to want to leave.

Look, no, we broke up with him. He didn't break up with us.

Marlins have Liam Hicks. That's star power.

All right.

So don't, don't you tell me anything else.

Dan Levitard. My algorithm on Instagram is dance, all boobs.

Stugatz.

It's a good algorithm. This is the Dan Levitard Show with the Stugatz.

Hey, another destination supposedly that people desire, although I hear a lot of bad things in the news about what other Americans think about Southern California. Either way, a guy in Southern California, an old pal of mine, David Vasseur, who does Dodgers talk and all the stuff, he travels with the team and all of that, he's essentially their beat reporter. He said, I caught him on the radio last night saying about the Marlins that he's like, well, it's embarrassing that the Dodgers lost 2 of 3 to the Marlins, but you have to keep in mind that that was their World Series. How does that hit you? Does that hurt your feelings to hear that?

It's sour grapes, man. Like, the, the Marlins— hey, the Marlins—

sour grapes? Yeah, I don't know if it's sour grapes.

They lost, they lost, they lost 2 out of 3. Dodgers analyst to a team, to a team with like a, what, a fourth, uh, uh, uh, sixth of the payroll. And, and they've maximized what they're doing. Clayton McCullough is a former Dodgers coach. Like, he's doing a solid job down here, and they've turned themselves into a really competitive I got to tell you, I think it's ridiculous to phrase it that way. It's a 162-game season.

Yeah, I think it's ridiculous too, because I don't think baseball works that way. You know, like, I think that— I think you could say that in the NBA. Hey, the Thunder, they're the champs, so they're getting everyone's best shot every single night. In hockey, the Panthers, they're the champs, they're getting everyone's best shot every single night. And like, there can be nights where you're putting forth more effort in those sports. Uh, we could say in football too, but in baseball, if you're not putting forth maximum effort every night, it's such a hard sport, you'll get embarrassed out there. Yeah, like you can't— I'm gonna loaf it today because this team sucks. All right, well, you're gonna look really bad if that happens. I, I don't feel there's as much of a fluctuation in effort level depending on who you're playing in Major League Baseball. Does that make sense, Dave?

Yes, it does. And that's why I bellyache on and on about the baseball playoffs having too many rounds and too many teams in them, because inherently, I mean, like, one size doesn't fit all. Because it works in the NBA doesn't mean that baseball has to adopt it. I mean, I obviously— the, the North Star of all of these things is gate and TV, you know, is ad sales and all of that. And that's what motivates baseball to keep throwing in more and more postseason rounds. But inherently, the sport— the difference in baseball between the best and the worst is a lot closer than it is in basketball. If you— if the best NBA team plays the worst one in, uh, 10 best-of-7 series, it would be stunning if the bad team won even, you know, even won 3 games in any of those series. In baseball, the worst team in a best-of-seven series would beat the best. Like, the Dodgers would lose a best-of-seven series to whatever, the Colorado Rockies, or— shame the devil— the Florida Panthers, because of the nature of the sport.

Marlins.

I don't know that that happens often. Like, when you look at best-of-seven, that normally evens things out. It's possible, it's possible, but more likely than not, you're gonna have the best team get there.

You think the better team will win?

The Dodgers. Yeah, it's like the Dodgers have won back-to-back World Series for a reason. They've had their weaknesses, but they've been the best.

But the Braves Braves didn't, but, but the '90s Braves— I, I, I get what you're saying. Yes, that did win out, and that sort of say— I mean, the best thing for the NBA right now to sort of go back and forth is, is I think is Wemby winning it this year, and if not, then OKC, then OKC. Because what you want is the suggestion that these playoffs make sense, is that at the end of it, it's like, okay, I can let The Celtics are a great team, they're in the midst of something here. OKC is in the midst of something. Or the, the burgeoning star is now ready to take over the sport. Those are narratives you can get behind for the credibility of the, of the season and the postseason and all of that. I think the worst thing for it is— I— it's exciting in the minute, in the moment, but I think what damages sports more than anything is when you get too many underdog stories breaking through. The alleged underdog when everybody— it's what Syndrome says in The Incredibles. When everyone is super, no one is.

Great villain. Great movie. Great villain.

You kind of look like him if you had hair.

All right, take it easy.

All right. Ah, that goose is back at it.

I want to get to the other games last night. All right. And specifically, the Sixers forced Game 7 last night. Of course they did. Because did the Celtics shoot the 3 well? No. Oh, then they lost. All right. It's the dullest team. And so And now Jason Tatum left the game early. His foot, not the one that he had the Achilles tear, but the other one. There's a little bit of an issue there. So that's something to look for for Game 7. The Heat fan obviously remembers back in 2023, Jason Tatum, he got hurt in Game 7. The Heat won the game. They're going to win anyway. Caleb Martin was the best player on the floor. But the Sixers last night, they forced Game 7, 106-93. I don't think I'm being hyperbolic. And Embiid wasn't great last night. He was 6-of-18 from the floor, but still, Lots of rebounds, lots of assists. He was the best player on the floor in Game 5 for sure. All right. And I actually think it bodes well for Philadelphia that Embiid wasn't so great yesterday because you can't possibly expect him then to put together 3 great playoff games in a row.

So I actually think it's a good thing that he didn't play so great last night. Am I being hyperbolic when I say I think Game 7 in Boston, who, by the way, has not lost to Philadelphia in the postseason since 1982. And it's not like they've only played a couple times. They played dozens of times. I think that Game 7 in Boston, even though it's first round for Embiid, considering, you know, who he is now in the regular season, considering he missed the first few games this series, I think it's potentially a pretty big legacy game for Joel Embiid if they can come back from a 3, considering his history. He has not been a big-time player in big-time games. He's never been out of the second round, and I get it that this is just the first round, but against this Boston team coming back from 3 games to 1, it's in Boston. If Embiid has a great game, if he's the best player on the floor, the Sixers will win. If Embiid has a great game and the Sixers win, I think it's a pretty— I don't think I'm being hyperbolic when I say I think it's a pretty large game for Embiid.

It's, it's huge.

It's huge, Zazz, because we've talked about the litany of injuries that he's had playing in playoff, off, um, you know, the face, the Bell's palsy, the knee, the this, the appendectomy. Like, there's always something in his way during the playoffs and he can't really put things together. What I think of is the bounce from Kawhi Leonard, right? Like, that's another part where I'm like, oh, another thing that happened to Joel Embiid. Like, if he steps up and plays the way that he played a couple of games ago, like, this is a team that is very, very interesting. PG looked great last night. Maxie's their best player, to be honest, and I'm gonna keep, you know, banging that drum. Uh, VJ Edge comes a great wing. Uh, Quentin Grimes plays well. Oubre plays well in roles. Like, there's a— this team has a lot of facets to it where you're like, oh, wait a second, like, this team could make a run in the East, especially slaying Boston, who we thought was the best team all season. And then all of a sudden they got Jason Tatum back and everybody's like, oh wow, okay, Celtics going going to the, uh, to the Finals.

Yeah, like looking at both Eastern Conference games last night, if you would have said to me which road team is it more important for them to close out the series so they don't have to play a Game 7— we know the Knicks, they won, they don't have to do that. The Celtics, they didn't, they do have to do that. I felt that it was more important for the Celtics to close out this series. Like, I would have had total faith still in New York in a Game 7 in Madison Square Garden, but the Celtics— I think the Celtics are potentially in a lot of trouble. Because like I said, if Embiid is the best player on the floor, which if everything's equal and he's 100%, he is the best player on the floor almost every night, whoever they're playing. And the Celtics, if they don't shoot the 3 well, which they did not in Game 2, they did not in Game 5, they did not in Game 6, they lose. And there's not a whole lot of rhyme or reason to it sometimes. If they don't shoot the 3 well, They will lose. It doesn't matter if the game is in Boston.

And they kind of play better on the road than they do at home, which is another crazy stat.

Tim Tebow switch time. I will not let Boston get away with it.

Nope.

I will not. I will not. I will not let them sleep. I will not let them say, well, at least we won a title, because I will be right there to remind them that the time that they won the title, they went through an entire playoff run where every series they went against opposition that lost their best player due to injury.

All right.

We start bringing that championship into the light and it starts looking real funny for Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Joe Mazzulla.

What is, though, to Tony's point, I think more practically, and you talk about legacy and all of that, which is fair, but practically, I feel like the survivor of Sixers-Celts or the Knickerbockers is the answer to who's going to represent the East, right? So practically speaking, what it does for Embiid— well, but, but, but right. If Embiid survives this one, I mean, he has a practical great chance, about as good a chance as he'll have in his career, to get to the Finals through the East, right? Because it's only the Knickerbockers that will pose a challenge to whoever gets through this, this round 1 series, right?

I mean, yes, I agree. I mean, they would still have to beat the Knicks next round, but then they don't have to— like, they would face maybe Toronto or Orlando, which is kind of crazy. If Toronto forces a Game 7, then you are guaranteed either Orlando or Toronto. Potentially if Orlando wins too, in the Eastern Conference Finals. That's kind of nutty, but I— unless anybody has anything interesting about the Knicks win last night other than an unbelievably pathetic performance obviously from Atlanta, like, the Knicks are the best team in the East.

No, at this point it seems as though they are and that they're gonna be able to make their way to the NBA Finals unless obviously like Boston just gets hot from 3 again. And that's the thing where when Mike brings up the legacy of, of Tatum and Brown and Mazzulla, I think the thing that we can start to question if they don't win this Game 7, if they don't make adjustments to Philadelphia, is what kind of coach truly is Joe Mazzulla? Because you look at a guy who just— it was a front-running team that would get hot from 3, beat a bunch of teams, beat nothing, a bunch of teams that were injured in that run through the Finals. It was a bunch of blowout games facing teams that didn't have their stars until you got to Dallas, who had just gotten hot and made a run as a 5 seed. This is a guy who does not adjust. It's, hey, go out and shoot threes, be more talented than the other guys. And this would be 3 series in 2023 when they lost to the Heat last year, to the Knicks, and now this year where they would have been giant favorites in a series and blown it.

It would be a chance to question Joe Mazzulla and the type of coach he really is.

Great words coming out of your mouth.

I'm hard.

Tell me you don't look like the guy from Incredibles.

Hey, it's Mike Ryan, and I want to talk to you about the random midweek hang that you have with your friends. Maybe It's an NBA game. You get a text, "Hey, come over. You wanna watch the game?" And maybe you're like, "Ah, I don't know. I kind of just wanted to stay home." And then you think about it after your buddy hits you up and you know just the thing that'll make that regular hang, that regular midweek hang around the basketball game into a special time, into a Miller Time.

That's right.

This happened to me just last week. I grabbed a 6-pack of Miller Lite, said I was on my way, and next thing you know, we're arguing about rotations like we're on the coaching staff. Yelling about a missed call, and the game's coming down to the final possession. It was one of those nights that you look around, you take a sip, and you think, yeah, this was the right call, and my friendship's stronger for it. Cheers to legendary moments with Miller Lite. Great taste, 96 calories. Go to MillerLite.com/Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.