Transcript of Yaxel Lendeborg vs. Luka Doncic | Postgame Show

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There is nothing casual about football season. You can tell yourself you're just gonna watch one game, and 6 hours later, you're emotionally invested in a 4th quarter between 2 teams you don't even care about. That's what I love about this time of year. The entire weekend becomes football. You're texting friends, tracking games, second-guessing coaches, convincing yourself you saw something before everybody else did. And then Monday comes around and you get to do the whole thing again. Those are the weekends you remember. And for me, some of the best ones have usually involved some good people, a great game, and a cold Miller Lite. No matter what triumphs are in store this season, legendary game days start with Miller Lite. Cold, crisp, refreshing, that clean finish. And it's part of plenty of memorable football weekends. Make game day legendary. 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. Game time is Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

That's right, it's Thursday Thunders presented by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours.

Hold on a second, Juju. I'm gonna give Zaslow the platform to finish his point. For some reason, he didn't notice the giant clock in front of him that said we had 2 seconds left in the segment, and he decided that he was going to give a, a really long Substantive answer, and he couldn't do it in 2 seconds. So, Zazz, go ahead and finish your point.

I think my biggest question is, if you have a gun on the Titans facility, you can't play for the Titans, but you can play for a different NFL team. And that to me, like, I don't understand that logic. And we could say that about when a player commits domestic violence. You can't be on our team anymore, but you're free to sign with any of the other 31 teams.

As opposed to what though? The standard, uh, in your— look at Chris Cody dancing back there because someone—

Good idea to do this with music.

Someone wasn't worse than him today. That's what he's dancing about. It's not the music. I'm aghast.

I don't know about that.

What, what's your ruling, Tony?

My ruling is he's been— Zaz is always terrible, but Chris has been especially terrible today.

I'm usually great. Juju, what do we have for Thursday Thunder, sir?

Salute to everybody who cashed in last week on Thursday Thunder, man. I'm still enjoying my winnings. How about you? Let me put them down so I can read this week's docket. If you don't know, now you know. Aaron Rodgers has a new trusty dusty friend and his name is Jeremy Bernard. I'm going with Germ to go over 4.5 catches this Sunday across the pond.

Matthew Berry told you about that last week, right out of the box. Aaron Rodgers just found— he did. Never mind DK Metcalf. Bernard's the guy I want.

And guess who told you before he told you? Good old Thursday Thunder, baby. Next leg, Marvin Harrison Jr. I don't know if he's a Maserati just yet, but he got his main driver. And I think for that first home game, he gonna get my boy at least 2.5 balls this Sunday. You got to know. And last leg, sad news coming out of LA. Davante Adams is out for 8 to 10 weeks, 6 to 10 weeks, whatever it is. It ain't this week. So Matthew Stafford is gonna do what he does best, rely on Puka Nacua and them tight ends. So I'm going with Coby Parkinson for over 2.5 receptions this Sunday. Lock it in.

Why are you choosing him instead of Higbee? Parkinson's not catching the ball at all this season. They're not even throwing it to him.

Get your own Thursday Thunder and we can discuss that down the road.

Yeah, did you not catch the note about Davante Adams being out? Math has changed.

Okay, they're gonna do the 4 tight end thing again.

They run 13 personnel more than any other team. Even with Davante Adams in the game, they still run a ton of 13 personnel.

Yeah, Dan, shut up.

Salute to Ferguson.

Uh, thank you.

They should trade Stafford, right, Jeremy?

Yeah, they should. I'll double down, triple down on that. They should trade Stafford. I bet you do. They're 2-4, they're bad. They should trade Stafford.

Men.

Oh, they're gonna go like 12-4, 13-4. They're gonna win every game.

Why would you double and triple down on that?

Oh, because it got me so much aggregation, Dan.

Yeah, that's all that matters.

Engagement, baby.

That's all that matters.

Of course.

That's all anyone on the show cares about, right? I'm going to stop doing the things where I give real analysis.

Your analysis before this was real analysis.

Yeah, and it was good.

Okay.

No matter how much you guys try to undermine me, I'm good at this.

Engagement.

That's why he's still with the Marlins.

Yep, that's right. Thanks. That's good stuff.

That was—

you're a good teammate.

That was cruel what you just did to him. What the fuck was that? You just lashed out at him in a way that was really cutting. Before I get to some of the things here with Juju, the MVP of the day, I want to get to the polls in a second as well. Let's get to the sound that I was promising, that I was saying that I've just— I mean, it's crazy that a rookie in his first game would go up against Luka and then have this to say afterward.

I got to see what the NBA is like, man. A lot of flopping, a lot of foul baiting, a lot of praying to the ref, man. Interesting first game for me, for sure.

You obviously, the back and forth with Luka, you know, we all saw it.

Looks like at times maybe trying to get in your head.

Like, what did you make of that and how you felt like you handled it?

I had a lot of respect for him, you know, just because just watching— I didn't really watch the NBA much, I just watched highlights, seeing them, you know, kill people all the time. But then being in there firsthand, just watching all the whining and complaining, I lost all respect, man. Like, that was awful. Like, like, me getting frustrated, it's not about like— it's not about like the foul being called, it's about like him complaining the entire game. And then you get the foul call, congratulations, bro, and then you talk to me like you did something great, bro?

Come on, dog.

That's just weird, you know? So it kind of like, it kind of threw me off for a little while because, you know, like I said, I had so much respect for him. Gone, man.

So Jaxel Lundberg is his name. The Warriors got crushed yesterday by the Lakers. And do you know how rare it is for me to have the feeling of, yeah, he's totally right and totally wrong?

It's the last time he'll ever say anything in front of a microphone again.

Like, totally right. And don't do that. What are you— what are you doing?

It's like what Zazz just did to me.

This is— we can thank NIL for this a little bit because he comes into the NBA with credentials. He's 24 years old and rooks in that league are typically like 19, and they definitely wouldn't be saying stuff like that. But Yaxel's totally comfortable doing that. He probably is a little too comfortable because he's still ultimately a rook, but It's a different type of dude. This is a 24-year-old man.

Well, you say different type of dude and 24-year-old man, and I will tell you that even though I'm saying right now I have never heard a rookie talk about someone else in the league who's respected like Luka that after Game 1, it's not the craziest thing in that segment. To me, the craziest thing in that segment is that he said, just seen highlights of him. Don't, don't— I've not actually watched an entire game where I would understand who and what Luka is. I've just sort of seen him here and there, and now I've lost all respect for him. Not some respect for him. I've lost all respect for him.

Luka's been in the league—

Yes.

I'm sorry, Juju. Luka's like already thrown up a Hall of Fame career, and yet Luka's only 3 years older than this rookie.

You were saying, Juju?

I just want to put one question to the entire room. Put Luka Dončić's championship rings in a box and put Jaxel Lundinberg's championship rings in a box. Shake them next to your ears. They sound the exact same. What happened to keeping it real? I like this from the young brother. That's what's gone from these sports that has fans on the edge of, oh, I'm checked into basketball this year, I'm checked out this year. No, no, no, no, no. We like this. This is what the Caitlin Clark and the Angel Reese stuff is about. My boy says he played against Luka and his ass was complaining all game. I'm a dog. I'm sorry, I don't respect that. Yes, I'm 24, but I can speak my mind. I don't see what the brother did wrong. If you check ball next— check. I like what Draymond said. We get to play him 3 more times. Check ball next time.

The rings in the box is actually more complicated than it sounds because I think it's 2 to 1 in terms of rings. There's Spanish League, EuroBasketball, national titles. It's confusing.

Lundenborg is right in everything he said, of course. I mean, I don't think there's been a player maybe ever who complains more. than Luka does throughout a game, but this isn't going to be beneficial for him. Like, like he's— it's, it's— he didn't help himself by saying this. There are going to be players in the league who do not appreciate a rookie being so outspoken when talking like that. Like, it's— he didn't help himself yesterday, but it's great.

I think he helped himself. He helped himself, in my opinion. He helped himself a lot because that's the thinking of people around the world. Like, like you said, Chris might not have helped himself with, uh, Kemba Okamper this morning, but there are people around the world that appreciate Chris for speaking up against that bigotry. And that perspective having its own lane makes me want to jump up and get me a Chris Cody jersey. And so that's the other side, I think, of that argument. Sorry for interrupting.

Here's where I think he is wrong.

Who, me?

Always you. You didn't have very much respect If you've lost all of it and you never watch the guy's games. Like, you can't say, I only know him from highlights and now I've lost— whatever respect you've lost, you never had very much to begin with if you're not actually familiar with any of what we're talking about, including how do you not know that he whines? Like, we all know that he whines. We, we all of us are bothered by how much he whines. Many people have lost a lot of respect for for Luka because of that. But whatever all of your respect is was never very much respect.

This is someone who consumes basketball the way Gen Z consumes basketball, which is just like TikTok mixtapes.

That's crazy though.

This guy is not watching— clearly he went—

Luka went to the Finals, but he clearly is not watching basketball. But what I'm saying is crazy about that is this is your craft. That's one of the best in your craft. I don't care whether you're Gen Z or not. How can you not know that you can learn any number of things by caring slightly more about the study of someone who who's better at this and will always be better at this than you will ever be. How do you not understand that?

I think you're falling for the banana in the tailpipe because I'm pretty sure Jaxel Lundenberg has seen Luka Dončić play a basketball game. He's at the postgame press conference being tongue-in-cheek. I think when he also brought up the fact that Luka only scored one time on me, that half-court shot, like he said a lot more than the clips and the highlights that I guess we consume.

He had 28, but not on me.

Okay, look, that's what I'm saying. This is exciting. Let's get to the real juice. Y'all mad because he talking? Keep the brother talking.

Okay. Yes, agreed, Juju. But the sentence that you just said, he didn't score on me except for that half-court shot.

Draymond starting to hear footsteps in that locker room, and it's not for the on-the-court stuff. 2 points, by the way, for Draymond.

It was literally from half court.

It stared him down too after he hit it. And Steve Kerr, who got in the way of something I shouldn't— That's another story for another day.

Let's go ahead and do a segment we have not done enough of this year.

Oh, Dan, the NBA is back, and it's never too early to have a conversation about who should be the MVP of the league. And all I'm saying is, if we're gonna talk about MVP, we need to have a conversation about Todd Jerome. The Memphis Grizzlies, the first-place Memphis Grizzlies, They crushed the Jazz last night. Ty Jerome had 45 points. He was 17 of 25 from the floor, 7 rebounds, 6 assists. All I'm saying is we're gonna talk about MVP. We need to have a conversation about Ty Jerome.

Does anybody know who Zaslav's MVP of the Year was last year?

The MVP of the Day of the Year.

MVP of the day—

of the year was Tyrese Maxey.

How about that?

What did that leaderboard look like?

He had 4 of them. SGA had 3. Luka had 3. Wemby had 3. Jokic had 2.5. A name that's on here only 1 time, tied with Norman Powell, Jaime Jaquez, Aaron Gordon, Steffen Cassell, Donovan Mitchell, Anthony Edwards, Sali Altuntaş, Jamal Murray, and Deni Avdija is Jalen Brunson.

Salih Altuntaş. Where is he now? I miss him.

I feel like the 45-point game has been devalued by Ty Jerome doing it. However, if I reversed his name and made him Jerome Ty, I feel like I would respect—

That guy's an All-Star.

Every— I feel like— put it on the poll. @Le Batard Show, is Jerome Ty an All-Star? And @Le Batard Show, has the 45-point game been devalued by Ty Jerome? Uh, what did we screw up today here, Juju? What did we need to do better? What is it that you have in the way of critique?

Uh, we just didn't mention a couple of headline stories. Number one of all, breaking news, Kenny Smith got both knees replaced and is now walking straight as hell. You gotta see it to believe it. Oh man, salute to knee replacement. I ain't know that's how that worked. I thought you was doomed forever with them knees, so salute. Putting the word out. Also, Chris Dabb's Porzingis is contemplating retirement because of his autoimmune disease. Zazz, what you think about this? Like, does it line up to some of our suspicions, or is it—

Uh, well, you know, he, he denied the suspicions, all right? Like, he denied them. But, but to me, this, this bothers the heck out of me. He, he may have a career-ending illness Yeah, we gotta trade him, clean up our books.

That's—

that's weird. That's weird, right?

Yeah, they— I was surprised to see that he was about to be traded, that the Warriors were talking about trading him.

Gotta clean up the books.

And, and, and also, we don't totally understand what happened with him. Nobody totally understands what happened, where he goes from a pretty pivotal figure in the— in the— at the center, at the literal center of a Celtics championship To now not healthy enough to play meaningful minutes for anybody. And we don't really know what's going on with him. Like, it's been— there's been a lot of mystery around it.

We know what it's not.

Yeah. Take his word for it.

Also, just if you are a friend of Warren Sapp and you call that brother your friend, please call that brother and get a hold of him and just talk some life into him and let him know how valuable that he is, man, because right now he is He has a lot of videos online where he's losing it a little bit. This week he's trying to fight a brother in front of his daughter. It's just such a bad look, man. And like you said earlier, Robert Saleh, it would sound a lot better pre-incident. So somebody grab Warren Sapp before something happens, man. Salute.

Well, you say pre-incident, but he's had a number of incidents. And rare is the example that you have of public behavior after a football career so bad that you're like, oh my God, something here has happened to create someone so troubled troubled that he really, really needs help from somebody. Like, it's been too many public incidents where you're like, oh my God, if it's happening this much in public, how much are we not seeing that's not happening in public? Because it's been way too many incidents, and it feels Antonio Brown-like in nature, where you're like, no, something is really wrong here. Somebody get that person some help. Let's go ahead and update some polls here, Juju, at Le Batard Show. What do you have for us today?

Is Joe Rose the Jeremy of the Joe Rose Show? Come on, y'all. 87% of the audience says yes, he is. Will the Brewers outbrewer the Rays, or will the Rays outray the Brewers? 63% of the audience says Brewers are going to outbrew. In baseball, is beaning hitting a baseball player in the head? 53% of the audience says no, it is not. Buck 6 at 820, one word. 75% of the audience says yes.

Wow.

And before the last poll— matter of fact, I'm gonna just read the last poll. Are people going to watch the Super Bowl?

Oh, come on.

84% of the audience says yes. And those are your polls.

Depends on the anthem.

Uh, Juju, thank you. Stick around for a new episode of South Beach Sessions. I can't believe Tony has no idea who Patti Smith is.

No idea.

I looked it up and I still don't know.

You, you can't believe it?

Bye-bye.