Transcript of Reacting To The Celtics Collapse: "They Are Historic Losers" | Local Hour New

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

Just an incredible weekend of hate watching. Unbelievable. Like a legendary weekend. Weekends like this, they don't come along very often. So when they do, I think you need to take a moment and just appreciate it. Good morning, everyone. I don't know if this crew has worked together yet. We got a fun crew here today. Look at, look at everybody. We got Dave Damashek here.

Yeah, good job.

That's my mate, sir.

What a pleasure to join you in your moment of pleasure. Pleasure of hate watching everybody else. What's Amin doing back there? Stay on target, Amin. Come on, man.

Look at him.

I love the t-shirt. I don't know that I love the, the eating.

Finishing breakfast.

It's breakfast flan. Come on, it's a tradition like no other. Also, May the 4th be with you.

Oh man, did we have some fun this weekend. Saturday night, we'll start with Saturday night. I went, I did date night. I mean, you know how it goes, sometimes you got to treat the ladies right. Did date night on Saturday, took my wife out. Uh, what are you pointing at for?

You had your finest Stone Cold Steve Austin t-shirt on.

Well, I, I not going to lie, when I got dressed, uh, you know, we, we went for the early bird, uh, quarter to 5:00 PM dinner, uh, 6:00 PM movie.

Quarter to 5:00? What does that mean, in the fours? You had dinner in the fours?

You can't be serious.

Quarter to 5:00, you eat at 4:45?

It—

we, we went to dinner at 4:45. Yes, 4— it was 6:00 movie.

All right, eat after though.

No, I wanted to get home Game 7. Come on. And which was a problem in and of itself because when I was getting dressed and I'm getting ready and I come out of the bathroom and my wife looks at me and she goes, "Wow, that's what you're wearing to take your wife out on date night, huh?" And I had to change my pants because I was in shorts. Like, I was in the same kind of shorts that I wear here, you know? So I shamed a little bit.

No backwards hat though?

No, no, no.

The shorts were bad, but the "Arrive, Raise Hell, Leave, Stone Cold Steve Austin" shirt stayed on.

No, I let the dome out on Saturday night. No hats, alright? And we get to dinner, yes, 4:45, 4:45 we went out to dinner, because we got to make the 6 o'clock movie. And she starts to put two and two together, because like the TV's on at the bar, but there's no basketball on yet. And she sees like the, you know, the promotion for the game that's coming up for Boston and Philadelphia. She's like, "Hold on a second, are we seeing the 6 o'clock movie because you knew that you wanted to get home in time for Game 7 tonight?" Now, we went to see Devil Wears Prada 2. Now, if you know anything about me, okay, you know two things about me. You know, A, I'm not— I'm never a cuck, alright? Listen, stop sending me pictures of chairs in hotel rooms. It's enough already, alright? Nonstop, every day, I'm getting empty chairs in hotel rooms. I would never sit in that chair. Everybody knows I'm not a cuck. And number two, everyone knows I love Devil Wears Prada. So I bought the tickets to the movie, like, A week in advance. Dave, how would I know that there's going to be a Game 7 before Game 6 is played?

That's what I said to my wife. I go, fair, how would I know? I, I, I, like, I, I, I can't predict the future. This is a coincidence. All right. And then we get home. Got home in time for like the start of the second quarter. I mean, what a night. The Celtics, they cough up the 3-1.

Wait a second, wait a second. You were on Friday when we yapped. You were very excited about Devil Wears Prada. How about a quick 10-second review?

I enjoyed it very much. Not as good as the first one, but how can you expect it to be as good as the first one? I loved it. Laughed throughout the movie. Anne Hathaway looks great, of course. Miranda Priestly, I mean, come on, running— she's in charge of that magazine. She's never going anywhere, all right?

Miranda?

I loved it. Emily Blunt looks great. All the characters in the first one, they're all back in it.

All right, I just didn't know. So this— that wasn't the highlight? No, that was just the warm-up for the main event.

Absolutely.

The main— we praise the way they look as opposed to their acting.

Well, it's a movie.

First and foremost, they look great.

What are these guys talking about?

It's a movie about fashion.

Chicks were hot.

The movie is about pretty people. That's what the movie is.

They wrote hot chicks, man.

So we get home.

His comment on the performance: Emily Blunt looks great.

Yeah, she looked great. Okay, don't forget Anne Hathaway, a great looking girl. So is Anne Hathaway. Look great girl, great looking girl.

Oh, call them girls.

That's right, Japanese. And I'll tell you, Meryl Streep, she's a brassy broad. No one better than Meryl Streep, everybody knows that.

How does she look?

How does she look?

She looks great. I mean, she's like a babe. She's Meryl Streep. I mean, you know, it's Meryl Streep. What do you want me to say? It's a great movie.

Any new babes?

Nah, nah, nah, nah. I just want the old disappointing I only want the old characters. Do you want me to tell you Stanley Tucci was handsome? He was handsome.

He's a fraud.

Really?

I tried to steal Anthony Bourdain's whole lane, man. Nobody cares.

It was a pandemic.

Relax.

It was a pandemic. We all needed something. Okay, I love Stanley Tucci. I've sat idle behind all the time. I'm going to say it now. He did a great job on Italy. He did a great job.

You and I park our cars in the same garage, my friend.

No, we don't. I use that in a different tent and I don't like it.

What the hell?

Dave uses it in the tents that I don't like, so I am a non-parker in any of your garages.

I don't like it either.

I've never seen this before, Tashay. What a slap in the face. I've never heard like I trying to park your car in the garage figuratively with a pal and, and getting stiff-armed.

Oh wait, wait, garage, the single car.

No, I wonder why he's more offended by me than Dave.

If you were Zazz, you'd be doing the street parking and then watching someone else park into you.

Correct, which is why that garage door—

solid 10 seconds on Devil Wears Prada 2.

Looked great.

So I get home, and now it's time for the main event. And boy, did the main event come through. I mean, the Celtics, they were so bad. You missing threes? Shoot some more! I mean, that performance by the Boston Celtics Chef's kiss. All right, beautiful way for the season to end. And can I tell you something I don't want to hear from the Celtics fan? All right, this whole— all season long, oh, this was supposed to be a gap year, this is a gap year. Like, and the bragging the whole year, gap year, gap year. Guess what? You can't then now call it a gap year. All right, when you choke away, when you blow a 3-1 lead to the number 7 seed. All right, can't— expectations change. I don't wanna hear about a gap, you blew it.

Listen, you're not an empty vessel, you're rich and full, but that vessel is full of hate and nothing but.

Why?

I texted you and Mike Ryan over the weekend because it was clear from both of you, nay, from everybody within these four walls over the week, Why do you hate Boston so much? What, what is the root? It's not like, ah, we've had some, we've had some tough series over the years against them in various sports, and Tom Brady kind of had his way with us more often than not, and it's all yielded this reality. But you guys hate—

yep, boss, hate them.

What gives?

Yeah, well, you want to take the first shot at it?

I mean, we, we do have a huge rivalry there, like we've had battles with them, so if we want to stick to just in basketball terms, yes, we have had nasty battles with them. I mean, that— it really is as simple as that for me. I hate their guts. I hated them from 2010 to 2014, where the Heat owned them all of those years, routinely sent Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo's stupid face home for the end of the season. And then of course the rivalry resumes in the 2020s. 2020, '22, '23, '24. It's a team that we face every single year.

And it, it's not just, you know, I'm stuck on basketball. Like hockey, the Bruins and the Panthers have had some really passionate series. I mean, you can date this one back to Hill Flutie. They, Boston and, and Miami have this really angry rivalry.

That was Mike Ryan. It's funny because I'm old and I remember when they were both independent football teams, college football, in the age of independent, when it was powerhouses filled that— Penn State, Pitt, Army, Navy weren't powerhouses, Rutgers, Temple, Syracuse, and BC, and Miami really emerged and really broke things up. It can't go back to that though. The Hail Mary from Flutie.

It always bothered me. I wasn't even alive when it happened, and I— it pisses me off every time I see a highlight of it. I think you mentioned the Patriots and Dolphins. Sure, somewhat. But on the, on the totem pole of like the, the Boston rivalry rivalry, it's pretty low.

So I've always been under the impression as an outsider that it got ratcheted up extremely with Pat Riley because Pat Riley hates the Celtics. From when he was the Lakers head coach.

But we only started to get that around 2010. Like, Riley got here in '95, and yes, there's a massive hatred with Riley in Boston and vice versa, but that was never a thing here. Like, we immediately—

It was more tied to the Knicks.

Yeah, we immediately inherited the Knicks rivalry. The Celtics and Riley and Danny Ainge should shut the fuck up. Like, that didn't happen until like—

Settle down, Scott Jennings. Come on, man.

Like, whatever year that was, I don't remember exactly.

Well, and for me, like, that's why I, I don't really have strong feelings. I'm agnostic about the Knicks because for me, in, in my lifetime, the Knicks have been until literally right now totally irrelevant.

Yeah.

And the Celtics, when I was in high school, it's the Big Three era of the Celtics win, and then the Big Three era of the Heat assembles and just wipes the floor with them over and over again. And then they're still talking and talking and talking and talking. And then they approach 2020 with talking and talking and talking about this great team they've assembled. And then bam, stuffs them at the rim. And we know the rest of everything from there. They're a bunch of front-running chokers. Like, that's who they are. That's what Boston is like.

They have their one—

they have their one. No, that's what Boston is. That's what the Boston Celtics franchise is. Yeah, the Boston Celtics.

Some allegations.

The Boston Celtics are a bunch of front-runners. This team only knows how to win when they have a giant lead, when they're beating up on teams in series. This is the third time time in 4 years that they've lost a series where they were giant favorites. They lost to the Knicks, now they lost here. This team beat a bunch of teams that didn't have their superstar. They front-run Tatum and Brown. Mazzulla as a coach makes no adjustment to say go out there, be more talented, shoot more threes. It's ridiculous what, what Boston has done to assemble this type of reputation that they have.

It—

I can't understand it for the life of me when all they are is a bunch of front-running chokers.

It keeps getting worse. They lost in the Conference Finals to the Heat, and they won a title. Then they lost to the Knicks in the second round. That's right. Now it's the first round. What's next? They missed the whole thing.

They might miss the whole thing.

Just—

hey, look, they blew more 3-1 leads this year than the Miami Heat did, I'll tell you that. And they won the same amount of playoff series.

There's a lot of things that bother me about the Boston sports fan. One of the things is they approach every conversation from a sports fandom superiority complex because they won a bunch of titles back before anybody was alive.

There's 8 teams in the league.

I think that's a really fair point, and you can really indict the Montreal Canadiens with the same thing too, right?

I mean, in my lifetime, the Miami Heat are a more prestigious franchise.

The Miami Heat have won more titles!

Holy hell, now you're getting crazy! It's true!

You get in your lane, Damashek!

I don't know if you're right, that just hits my ear as a wild statement.

Let me explain why. Let me give you the reason why. I've been on this mission for years now. Hey, Dave Dameshek, who's won the most Super Bowls?

Tom Brady.

Like, as a franchise?

Tom Brady's Patriots.

Patriots.

OK. Steelers and— right, go ahead.

Sure, sure. Pittsburgh Steelers. All right. What if I ask you who's won the most NFL championships? Nobody knows that off the top of their head.

Probably Packers, maybe?

Nobody knows it off the top of their head.

You know why?

Cleveland Browns can claim one of those.

We collectively agreed. Implicitly, silently, we thank you for your service pre-Super Bowl, pre-NFL merger, but you are in a box in the attic that we never look at again. Yes, sir, right.

The other night I was staying in. At least that was a plan. Then the text from my buddy Eagle Eye comes in. Mike, we've got the games on. I say, yeah. I grab a pack of Miller Lite and immediately my plan's gone. Now it's playoff basketball. Every possession feels huge. Baseballs on another screen, and I, I somehow care about that too. Everybody's got takes flying. Nobody's watching just one thing, and we're all way more into it than we ever expected. It was one of those nights that you take a sip, you look around, and you think, yeah, this was the right move. That's why I reach for Miller Lite. It's clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients. Just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs. The original light beer since 1975. And it still hits different. 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, 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

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Don Lebatard, Lightning, Panthers, what do you think?

Stugatz, look at this face while I tell this to you, okay?

Because I don't want be any kind of confusion. You look me right in the eye. Panthers are going to take that ass, man.

This is the Dan Lebatard Show with the Stugatz.

Modern NFL history starts with the merger, starts with Super Bowl.

Close.

I think it's right. I think it precedes the actual merger. I always say Super Bowl— pro football history becomes relevant when the Super Bowl era begins. Yes. They're different markers, but for different sports. I don't think you count in the NHL— Original Six doesn't count. '67 is the start of the club.

I'll take your word for it when it comes to the NHL, but when it comes to the NBA, Dave Dameshek, we had a time when the best players in basketball were not playing in the NBA. They were playing in another league that the NBA didn't respect. They looked down on their nose. Oh, look at them with all their Negros playing basketball the way they want to, like it's a playground, and their colorful basketball. And what is that gimmicky line they have on the floor? They look down at the ABA. But then when they played ABA versus NBA All-Star Games, guess who was winning? ABA was. And when they had the merger, and you look at that first All-Star Game, the majority of the players were what? They weren't NBA players, they weren't establishment, they were the ABA players. And when you look at basketball from 1960, mid-'60s, '67, right when that merger was, and you watch ABA basketball and you watch NBA basketball, you tell me which one looks more like basketball today. We would all say the ABA. That's what basketball looks like. What's that robotic, crazy thing? And yet we're gonna sit here and count 11 championships played in that old clunky style?

What? And that— but if we take it from the merger, when basketball became basketball like we know it and love it, all of a sudden the Celtics have They got 3 with Bird and Parish and McHale. They've got 1 with Paul Pierce and they've got 1 with Jason Tatum.

Underachievers.

5 titles. Meanwhile, the Miami Heat.

Damn, I think we have 3.

Well, never mind.

I was just going to say, no, we have 3, but we've been—

no, no, no, we have 3, but I think we've been 7 finals.

Like, it's not even close in terms of like the Celtics have been to 4 since.

It also starts with the inception of the Heat, right?

In '89.

You can't be—

oh, that's a good point.

That's '84, '86, '88.

Like, oh yeah, can't win the championships before your existence.

We do.

But look, at the heart of this issue, I mean, we can't ignore it. There's the racism angle. It's true. Like, we can use coded language like better sports fan, which is a trope that I think if you pull back some of the layers— and I want to be very clear, not everybody from Boston is a racist. I understand that. I understand that.

It's not 100%.

It's not 100%, just like not everybody from Florida is a meth head. But there are certain stereotypes that come with a track record. And you have to kind of acknowledge it. And the same way that there is race trafficking with a white Irish heavyweight contender against a minority challenger, like, it— that's a part of this. You cannot ignore it.

What are you talking about? Gerry Cooney versus Larry Holmes? When they made that fight, Gerry Cooney was overmatched. I agree. I mean, I don't know if that's a separate conversation, or I guess you've neatly tied it into this, right? The clock starts in the NBA, in my head at least, right after the merger, when Bird and Jordan arrived— I mean, when Bird and Magic arrived.

So if you say about '79, '76, '77 is the first year post-merger, which means, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, if you're keeping track at home, John Havlicek, zero titles in my book.

Since the Heat have existed, they have more titles than Boston does, period. And they had this incredible historic team that Paul Pierce tries to put in perspective with the Miami Heat. They don't even like come close to what the Miami Heat were in their Big Three era. They weren't close. They were underachievers. They won once. And now you have a team that's spiraling, that was bragging about their genius young coach who they're trying to make— oh my God, he's got 4 50-win seasons in 4 years, and Spo has 4 50-win seasons in 18 years. How about the fact that Joe Mazzulla has 3 series losses with home court advantage in 3 years.

He's lost to a 7 seed and an 8 seed.

Spurs only done that twice in 14 years. It doesn't happen. They're, they're underachievers. Their talent is paramount. Always. Every time. Everybody's telling us how incredible Tatum and Brown are. And yeah, you have this gap here, but oh my God, look at these finds. Look how great Peyton Pritchard is. He's so talented. He's a lead guy.

He's good.

He's a really good player. That's the point. You have all of this talent.

Boston really loves him.

Well guys, to be fair, when you have the opportunity to close out a series at home in a Game 7, you gotta start 3 guys who have barely played all year long, right? Just to get a different look. Oh my God. Do it, guy. The idea, you know, we did our postgame reaction and like we roasted him and I was like, okay, now for the rest of the media landscape to eviscerate this guy. And nobody, I'm like, how was this not? I went back and watched the press conference. I'm like, they— what? They didn't just like keep asking him, no, no, but how much pushback did you get from your staff, from Brad Stevens, from your players? You started Ron Harper Jr. in an elimination game because you want to try a different look. What the hell? This is a Game 74. This is the goddamn NBA Finals playoffs.

Another thing that bothers me about the whole Boston-Miami rivalry is, I mean, there are huge influential sports voices that come out of Boston that kind of dictate a narrative. I think we're kind of seeing like who—

there's not— you can't even name one.

Mike, who you talking about? The sports guy who— look, I go to Simmons because I want to drink his tears. I think he is a national tastemaker. The Northeast influence over sports is irrefutable. And I think maybe Boston's control of it is a little outsized. And I say that as, you know, part of a very pro-Miami media empire down here where we try our best to counter that. But look, it's true, they, they dominate the conversation here. And something is missing from the national narrative today. When I turn on the TVs, they should be absolutely flaming the Boston Celtics. This is a great—

there's time for that.

It's very—

it's only 9 AM.

It should have been wall-to-wall. This is a historic embarrassment. They lost to Paul George.

First time they've ever lost a 3-1 lead.

And it wasn't 2019 when they lost to Joel Embiid and Paul George. It was 2026. They blew a 3-1 lead against a franchise with guys at the heart of it that are the ones known for choking.

It kinda reminds me of Casualties of War with Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn and the scene in the courtroom where Sean Penn's walking down and he whispers into Michael J.

Fox's ear, "You're a television actor." I don't know whose voice that is, but I have a long-standing thing called the Ewing Theory. And my Ewing Theory asks this question: what are we talking about with How much pride are you supposed to have as a Sixers fan right now? They didn't have Jayson Tatum. He's their best player.

Who gives a shit?

They're better without him.

Who gives a shit? Yeah, if you're a Sixers fan, they were better without him.

All you—

nah, nah, it doesn't matter. You'll laugh. If I'm a Sixers fan, I would laugh in anyone's face who brought up you didn't have Jayson Tatum in Game 7, the same way that as a Heat fan, if you want to talk about 2023 and them not having Jayson Tatum in Game 7, I'll laugh in your face there too.

Look, the Sixers knew that not having Jayson Tatum was going to be to their benefit.

Okay.

But they thought it was going to be more difficult.

I have two things. Go ahead.

They thought it was going to be more difficult without Jayson Tatum.

Once we found out that JT was out, honestly, we felt like the game was going to be even harder. We knew that they were going to come out there and play free, open-minded. Like, Dwyane shot the ball 26 times. They shot 16 threes. He wasn't even thinking about anything, you know what I'm saying? And, you know, some of those were going to go in. And they did. You know, we knew it was going to be difficult. We didn't think it was— as soon as I found out, I told Joel, like, it's not going to get easier. It's going to definitely be harder.

That's their best player, Tyrese Maxey.

And I think, like, if you're going to do the "we didn't have Tatum" thing, that's awfully convenient for a franchise, as we've highlighted, when they won their championship against Dallas, they ran into a team that had lost a superstar every round on that march. So miss me with that bit of context. And given what we were saying about—

I haven't heard a Boston fan say that, by the way. Why would they?

They would never say that. Why would they diminish their own accomplishments? And I think Amin is right when the history of basketball won't really remember that. And I know we're only a couple years removed from it, but it was pretty spectacular. I mean, we haven't really seen that. And maybe it's because I hate Boston so much, I'm not going to let them forget that. I think that's an important bit of context. So much so that I still think, despite winning a championship, this core group of Boston Celtics hasn't really shown that they can pull together and overcome true adversity. And I think we saw that on Saturday night.

You know what's funny? You're saying this core group, and I'm saying I'm not putting this on the players. I think they did their darndest. They play hard, they're good. Their player development program is excellent. How many guys that we thought were scrubs ended up being rotation players? Like, for instance, Keita. Wow, this guy was barely playing a couple years ago and now he's a starting center. Except in Game 7, Game 7 of the playoffs, you're gonna start Luka Garza. Why are we not killing Joe Mazzulla? He's trying to be— I'm smart, I think outside the box. You guys use your laptops like this, this is how I use my laptop and it goes straight to my brain faster. Also, I'm empty on the inside, that's what makes me a great coach. And we just smile and nod and say, oh, there goes Crazy Joe Mazzulla, when absolutely he should have been front and center on every show. This dude should have been fired at halftime. No, quarter break, first quarter break.

There's so much smartest guy in the room, uh, when it comes to Joe Mazzulla. I, I'm not over it. I'm not so over— I've been so over Joe Mazzulla. And like, how about this? Imagine this: you just blew a 3 games to 1 lead for the first time in the history of the franchise to a team who you hadn't lost to in the playoffs since 1982. Another team who you have— who has never overcome a 3-1 deficit. And a player in Joel Embiid who has never won a Game 7. And here's Joe Mazzulla after the game giving you this garbage.

And a lot of times in the world today it's an either-or society, but there's a duality to everything. And, um, you know, the year we won, I felt just as empty as we did when we lost. And the duality of going after something bigger than yourself with a group of people is you're always gonna have— there's two sides to every coin, and you have to— when you go after greatness, you have to accept the other side of that. And too many times, you know, it's all about winning, winning, winning, but you have to surrender to the idea of you're gonna— you're gonna— when you're going after that, you're gonna fail. And, you know, we've failed by not winning, but we stick to the process of being able to do that. But I think that's just kind of the duality of how things work. It's not an either-or thing. It's It's both and, and you feel both of those things, you know.

Can you imagine, you're a fan, your season just ended, you blew a 3 games to 1 lead, and you gotta listen to that mumbo jumbo bullshit.

Noz says he's so much smarter and better than us. There's no better feeling than losing a Game 7 at home after you were up 3-1. It's in fact feels exactly the same as winning an NBA championship.

He never describes the good side. He's like, it's not an either or. When's the good side? I felt just as empty when we won the title. When do you feel good exactly, fella?

Dan Lebatard.

Our Panther group chat, we're confident against the Lightning. This is a different team.

You're a Panther group chat.

No, no, I think there's a— no, but dude, you're, you're so wrong on that. We've been terrified of this team forever, and I think there's a different energy where the Panthers, they want the Lightning.

Stugatz.

I want t-shirts made for this Panther run, what could be this Panther run. Our Panther group chat, we're not afraid of the Lightning.

That's a tagline for World Rawr 3.

This is the Dan Lebatard Show with the Stugatz.

That's—

by the way, I like what-if-ing stuff. Um, so is the, is the grand what-if, if you're a Celtics fan, is what if the Udoko off-the-court stuff never happened?

Udoko, that's a fine But yes, what if he keeps it in his pants?

I deserve it.

But if you go park his car in that garage—

if you go back, they have 2 titles right now, right? 2, 3 titles.

No, I don't know about that. Like, what has he done in Houston with an equally good team over in Houston?

Obviously the West— I think he's done a good job in Houston.

Yeah, I would say equally as good. I, I— look, this is the beauty of sports, right? It's not like, oh, all I needed to do was add some sugar and then all of a sudden the recipe ends up being great. There are so many moving variables, not the least of which is Ime is a very, very demanding guy. And so how would those guys respond? Maybe they needed a Joe Mazzulla who just comes in with crazy ideas and does somersaults. Literally, I'm not making that up. Somersaults into the locker room and telling players, I bet you can't do that. Like, maybe they needed a goofball to just kind of like experiment and all those things while they would just go out and play. The problem The problem is when the goofball has an idea like, I got it, let me start 3 of my scrubs in Game 7. They'll never see it.

They'll never see it coming.

And again, the, the Tatum injury stuff is lame. They, number 1, they had opportunities to close out this series with him on the court. And your argument is against the Philadelphia 76ers who are perpetually injured?

Oh my word, right?

Consistently diminished, right?

They lost, they lost to them in 7 a couple years ago where Embiid was hurt and Harden was hurt and all that stuff. And everyone, all everyone said is Harden choked in that series. He had a 40-point game to stave off elimination in that series, but we never talk about it. We never talk about the injuries. Like, well, you guys lost, that's all that matters.

Well, that's not the only lame stuff coming from after the Celtics choke on Saturday night. How about it? Not even immediately after the game, 24 hours to digest what took place. Your star player, Jaylen Breen— Jaylen Brown, I don't know, he's playing video games on like a stream or something. I don't know what's going on there, but he's on one of those live streams, and, uh, here he'll, uh, he'll tell you a little bit about Joel Embiid's game.

I mean, this is my personal opinion on basketball. Some of y'all might disagree. You know what I mean? But argue with your grandma. Flopping has ruined our game. Joel Embiid is a great player, one of the best bigs in basketball history.

Flops.

He know it. This ain't, this ain't breaking news. You're saying, you know what I mean? It is what it is. I can clip it up like I said. Y'all can post it on these paid accounts that y'all use, bought, whatever. That's just my opinion.

The worst thing that happened in the game was streaming. These guys getting on a microphone and a camera after the game and just say— because they say, oh, this way I own the message and it's da da da da da. No, that's not why. You want a forum where you can say anything and no one's gonna push back on you. Because he knows if he had gone that far— I know he mentioned it in passing in his postgame presser, but if he goes into length like he did there There's a roomful of people like, what are you talking about? You blew a 3-1 lead.

That's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. I like Jaylen Brown. I think he's proven on that roster that he's a dog, right? It's just such a bad look. You blew a 3-1 lead and you're out there talking about Joel Embiid flopping. I just— just shut up. Like, just eat the L.

It's just a byproduct of why this Celtics team is so weird, right? From top to bottom, you have Brad Stevens, who didn't want to be the coach, who wants to be the GM.

And then you got Joe Mazzulla, who's doing, you know, starting Baylor Shireman, Ron Harper Jr.

And, and Luka Garza. And then you have your best player who is out but has like identity issues in the sense of like he's not his own guy, right? Like he kind of takes from a lot of other people in Jason Tatum. And you got Jaylen Brown who had his best year ever, arguably, as far as an A1 lead guy. And then he goes out and does this. It's like, do we have a normal person in the building?

It's not the only excuse that Jaylen Brown was making 24 hours after losing the game and blowing a 3-1 series lead. Uh, Jaylen Brown also thinks the games are rigged.

If I had to like say this, there's some referees that need to be investigated, like just overall at all, to officiating. We had 3 of them in the last 3 games. We have, you know, at top of my list.

You were up 3-1 against the Sixers, who are a punchline with Playoff P. And Joel Embiid, and Joel Embiid, great game. I think like what, 30, 10, and 5, uh, in an elimination game. That's insane. That, that's— but he was doing the bullshit. I mean, he started stretching it out. He was, he was hurt. He came back in that game, he was clearly diminished. And we mentioned it on the live stream on Saturday night, the Sixers were doing the things down the stretch that would make you worry they were going to throw it up. Right? And Maxie came to their rescue. It had to be Maxie that got it done.

Hey, uh, you know what I was wondering? Uh, did the refs tell the Celtics illegal to be inside the 3-point line? You must only shoot threes and that's all you can do. And if you step— if you dare step inside this 3-point line, I will whistle you for a foul, 2 fouls, a technical foul, I don't know, but I'll whistle something. And the Celtics say, oh my God, it's not fair, they get to go inside but we only get to shoot threes. That's what the refs did, right?

And don't forget the challenge from Joe Mazzulla.

Oh yeah, and when we foul a guy, we gotta challenge. Man, that challenge still is blowing my mind. But guys, I just wanna say this, because I've said this to Joe Dumars before, he's no longer the czar of discipline in the NBA, now it's James Jones.

He's now giving away unprotected first-round picks.

Where's James Jones? Here's my camera here. James, whenever these guys come out here and start talking that, "Oh, it's rigged. Oh, these guys need to be investigated," you put the people's elbow on them.

That's right, James.

They should put him under the jail.

James Jones is my friend.

I'll tell him. I grew up with him. I'll tell him. Yeah, yeah.

Where at?

Sable Palm Elementary, dog.

I was, I was— did he go to Santa Fe with you, bro?

I'll text James Jones right now. He'll write me back right away.

Let him know.

I will let him know.

Tell him.

That's my dog, James Jones.

Say hey, people's elbow.

Based, based on what Mike said, on the 30-10-5 game, we got a stat of the day.

Start of the day, start of the day, it is the start of the day. Star of the day, star of the day, it is the star of the day. Star of the day, star of the day, it is the star of the day. Star of the day, star of the day, it is the star of the day.

Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey are the first duo in playoff history to go for 30, 10, and 5 in a Game 7 ever.

Wow.

Nobody else has had 30, 10, and 5 as a duo outside of James. Excuse me, got me James Jones on mine instead of Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid.

I don't believe he would text you back right away.

He's my guy.

I'd love to see it. I agree with Amin. Put the elbow on him. I don't like this. And by the way, Jaylen Brown, go ahead and explain the math on why it benefits the NBA for the Celtics to go out. So why, why, why would it not be beneficial for the— it's better for the Sixers somehow, for the NBA, for them to advance to the second round. Than Boston. It's ridiculous.

You know what's good for our league? For those storied franchises to be eliminated immediately.

Now listen, right, exactly. By the way, the most storied franchise thing, that's another thing that I— Amin and I, I must say, park our cars in the same garage, Jon. Yes, the youngs tend to bend the knee with recency bias a little too easily, but the olds genuflect to history that really is mostly a mirage. The Bill Russell titles, I'm not invalidating all of it. Also, the skill set of Bill Russell is not transferable to the modern game.

Oh, what do you think?

You think about what, uh, Shaq would struggle against Bill Russell? If you believe that, then you really are a crazy old fool. But also, their series, their titles for Bill Russell Celtics that include best-of-five series. There's a best-of-three series somewhere in the mix, somewhere in there. The standard's just completely different. It's hard to even count it the same as you do a modern title.

Dave, I will refuse to join you in disparaging the great Bill Russell or any of those great players, those pioneers.

I'm not disparaging him.

The pioneers who built the game. All I say is thank you for your service and get back to that box in the attic as we talk about real championships. That are one with a Larry O'Brien Trophy, not that weird thing they used to put up back in the day.

I want to get back to all this. It's very, very exciting. What a weekend I had. Oh my God, the hate watching was in full effect, and I was, I was hitting the jackpot every single night. All right, but I don't know if you saw this over the weekend, Chris, uh, the new Miami Dolphins quarterback, he's called Malik Willis.

That's right.

He threw the first pitch People are freaking out, says he threw. Did you see this? He threw the first pitch at the Marlins game over the weekend, and here he is from the rubber. That's what you got to do from the rubber.

Whoa.

He threw it about, I'd say, 6 feet over where the right-handed batter would have been standing.

You're being generous now.

Now, what if the ball had been egg-shaped? I think he would have thrown it better.

I mean, he threw it behind where the batter would like— like the catcher would have been able to catch it if he was 7 feet tall and he was standing at the backstop.

The stats suggest he's much better from further out.

Yeah, Dolphins fans are freaking out. The internet's having fun with this. I want to make everyone feel a little better. I have some examples here of other quarterbacks who have gone on to be good. We got Patrick Mahomes, for example, throwing out a first pitch, doing the same exact thing.

Yeah, he's, he's bad. He's leading his guy.

Mahomes was a baseball player too.

Oh, that— oh, so that's really—

no, but that's gas.

Amin's right, he's leading the receiver.

That's a good quarterback.

But then we have Joe Burrow here. This is not a first pitch, but this is just him throwing a baseball. He's aiming for this white thing. And he just can't do it.

Oh!

Like, it's just terrible. He's missing way left, can't get it, and it's just—

It looks like he's gripping the ball with all 5 fingers too.

Yeah, look at his form. He looks like he's trying to throw a football. These guys are football players. What are we doing here?

And then this— it just makes me feel better, guys. Everyone relax, take a deep breath, Dolphin fans. It means nothing.

Dave, you know about throwing that ball with just your first 2 fingers and your thumb.

I do know about it, and John Elway perhaps did it better than anyone, the multi-sport athlete, the throwing thing. In fact, as a scientist, a couple of years ago, organized exactly this sort of thing. I had David Carr, high-end quarterback, and Cole Wright, former minor league pitcher, see who could throw a football better and a baseball better. We need to organize another one of those kind of things because it really is fascinating that you can't do both.

Mike Ryan, how are you not talking about those Cavs?

Big Game 7 win.

No, not those.

The other night I was staying in At least that was the plan. Then the text from my buddy Eagle Eye comes in. Mike, we've got the games on. I say, yeah. I grab a pack of Miller Lite and immediately my plan's gone. Now it's playoff basketball. Every possession feels huge. Baseball's on another screen and I somehow care about that too. Everybody's got takes flying. Nobody's watching just one thing and we're all way more into it than we ever expected. It was one of those nights that you take a sip, you look around, and you think, yeah, this was the right move. That's why I reach for Miller Lite. It's clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients. Just 96 calories and 3.2 carbs. The original light beer since 1975, and it still hits different. 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, 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.