PMS 2.0 1358 - Quentin Richardson, Shams Charania, Jeff Teague, Udonis Haslem, Darius Butler

Hello beautiful people

and welcome to beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana on this NBA Finals.

Quednesday, 2-11.

This program starts right now.

Finals!

Happening for the first time here in Indianapolis, Indiana in 9,126 days.

It hasn't been since the year 2000 that this beautiful state of basketball has hosted an NBA Finals with this beautiful piece of hardware on the off.

To be clear, this one behind me, not real.

This one, actual Larry O'Brien trophy, I will

do it, do it, do it, do it, don't be scared.

You got it.

Damn it!

Yes!

Do it!

I don't love it, but last year I didn't touch it.

And the Pacers lost in the Eastern Conference Finals.

This year I get an opportunity to touch this beautiful gold piece of legacy-making hardware that'll transform this city into not only being the state of basketball but the franchise of basketball.

Tonight, in a series that's tied 1-1, where the Pacers won into Oklahoma City, stole game one, lose game two.

Tonight, our city is going to be on display as Game Bridge Fieldhouse is about to be upside down.

SGA is obviously a living legend who is an MVP and a superstar in this league for a long time.

There's a lot of beasts on that Oklahoma City team, but in this city,

on this day, in this state, I think tonight's going to be a great time.

The man talking shit right there is a 13-year NBA veteran, friend of the program, co-host of the Knuckleheads podcast, ESPN NBA analyst, ladies and gentlemen, Quentin Richardson.

Hugh Rich Darius Miles, who's 6'100, made his trip up here to Indiana this morning to celebrate this NBA Finals.

The Toxic Table is here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt.

I appreciate you born.

Good to be here, man.

Finals.

Good shirts.

Let's go.

Ty Schmidt, you're from Iowa.

The NBA Finals are obviously something that you've looked forward to your entire life.

But now that you're here, the energy is palpable throughout the city.

Is it not, Ty?

Yeah, without a doubt.

I mean, you know, the Eastern Conference finals, that was one thing.

That was sweet.

We're talking about the nba finals here okay you talked about legacies being made as soon as we're done with game two all the talking heads hey tyrese halberd and this guy's not a superstar see we talked about it he can't he can't do it against the big guns in oklahoma city i am so excited for tyrese to maybe you know have another i don't know 30 point triple double tonight i think that's coming i think it's in the air i really do

We'll have a conversation about this Pacers team with Sham Shirania here in a matter of moments.

One half of the hammer.

Dodd.

Cowboys, AP Tone is here.

Tone, what are the lines we should be looking at for tonight's game three of the NBA Finals?

Tonight's line is minus five and a half to Oklahoma City Thunder.

Once again, the Pacers are being disrespected.

They were disrespected in game one with that line and they won that one.

They are once again dogs at home.

They have not won a game three yet.

OKC has not covered as a favorite on the road yet.

Something is going to give tonight.

Yeah, absolutely.

And nine-year NFL vet, a man who calls Indianapolis one of his homes, travels here for four four days a week all year round to do this particular program, was a legendary member of the Indianapolis Colts.

Ladies and gentlemen, Darius J.

Buzzer.

DBGR is crazy, dude.

Debut.

It's great energy in Indianapolis.

There's a lot going on around here, including the official transfer of power of the Indianapolis Colts to the Ursai daughters.

Casey and Kalin and Carly did their first press conference yesterday.

I had no idea what to expect of this new generation of Indianapolis Colts.

What were Carly, Kaitin, and Casey going to be like as owners?

Feels like they are setting a tone early about the standard.

Then you got the Pacers doing their thing.

The Fever are going to get Caitlin Clark back soon.

It feels like Indianapolis is becoming the sports hub that it's always been known to be.

Trending, trending in the right direction tonight, man.

The energy that I know is going to be in the building.

I can feel it already out here.

The energy is going to be crazy.

The team brings it.

The team always brings a juice.

We start one in okay.

Well, I'm saying we, because, you know, I'm here.

Obviously, I'm a health fan.

He needs a fan.

Threw a juice.

But I am a Yes Sirs fan, as he is right now.

So I'm excited.

I'm excited.

Yes, sir.

I am.

Tonight, I am.

Hallie, hey, it's a big, big, I love that shirt you got on.

I love the shirt the boys got on.

It's a big moment for Hallie, man, because the superstar conversation is out there, and this is when your team needs this most, and this is when you step up and really make a name and a legacy for yourself and the whole program as a whole.

Okay, Quentin Richardson, let's talk about this.

The NBA talking heads have an interesting way of doing things.

You know, the old heads for a long time hated the common or the game that is now too soft, too weak.

These guys aren't this.

Now the whole conversation has become who are the superstars of the league?

Whenever you have two young superstars leading two young teams to the finals, it feels like a lot of the old heads, especially in sports media, have not come to respect them yet.

Is that an accurate depiction of how Tyrese and SGA are kind of being talked about at this moment?

Or what are your thoughts on that whole superstar narrative that's being talked about right now?

Yeah,

when I played in the league, man,

that word wasn't such a lightning rod.

We looked at it as players the way, even now, the way I look at it when I talk to my peers, me and D,

are you an all-star?

Are you all NBA?

Were you an Olympian?

Why?

Do you have a Max deal?

Why?

Super Max?

What?

If you got all of them, you can call me what you want.

You can call me what you want.

If I got a Super Max, if I'm an all-star, if I'm Olympian, you can call me whatever you want.

The bottom line is I'm doing the same things that the superstars and the all-stars are doing.

I'm right there with them.

So you can call me what you want to call me, but I'm here.

How do you feel about Tyrese Halliburton?

Last year leads a team to an improbable Eastern Conference final.

They get swept.

This year, they come back.

Coach Carlisle, obviously, an absolute dog, a wizard on the chalkboard, and also his culture and his motivation.

Pascal Siakam has been a beautiful trade last year to fit into this culture.

Feels like Nemhard can go.

Neesmith can go.

Literally the entire team can go.

Tyrese Halliburton though is the, I don't want to say the engine, but basically the straw that stirs the entire drink.

How do you feel about how Tyrese is handling the job that he has been put in?

And how do you think he is doing with his Pacers team?

I kind of look at him.

Like when I played for the Phoenix Suns in 05, Steve Nash, it was the proverbial star that

stirred the drink.

We had all of these guys that could score and everything, but if it wasn't for Steve distributing the ball and making things go the way it went, we weren't as good.

That's what these pacers are.

If Halley isn't being the Halle, the great version of himself, they're going to struggle because a lot of those guys rely on him to deliver the ball and set them up and to get them those shots.

And when you have a team like that that's predicated off that, when they stop him, it kind of stunts everything else and they got to go to plan B and figure things out.

Yeah, Miles Turner, obviously a man, name that I mentioned or didn't mention in that group.

He's been here 11 years, has been a phenomenal pacer.

He's up, I think, after this year.

We'll talk to Shams about that here in a matter of moments.

Let's pivot now to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

SGA is unbelievable.

This guy, so I wanted to believe the narrative that everything he did was bullshit.

I wanted to believe the narrative that he was the free throw merchant, that he was a foul artist and everything like that.

Watching him play against the Pacers, he might get to the foul line, but he's not like that is his entire game.

He is a weapon.

Coach Carlow actually said, you can put 34 points down on a score sheet for Shea before the game even begins.

Do teams just concede that?

Like, hey, we know SGA is going to get his points.

How do we stop everybody else?

Or what is the mindset you think for stopping that offense?

I mean, that's what he's become.

If you look at it, this is his third season in a row, averaging over 30 points.

He's entering a class where only Will.

Kobe, Michael, those type of dudes.

And when you get started putting in boxes and classes with those guys, he's put himself in that position.

Like, he scored 20 points over 60 times, 25 over 65, 30 over like four.

He's showing that it does not matter.

No one in the league can stop me.

I can get 30 on anybody.

He's literally going about his business that way.

And if he has an off night, it could probably be like 24, 26.

He's put himself in that position now.

Yeah, everybody compares Tyrese's stats to like SGAs and everybody else.

Two different roles on the team?

Absolutely.

Two different players.

They don't even do the same thing.

So whenever people talk about Tyrese and they immediately go to points, how do basketball heads feel about that conversation?

I think they bring it up because there's that stat sitting out there of when he scores 20 points, the record that the Pacers have.

And I mean,

that's a good point.

But I mean, at the same time, who is Tyrese Halley Burton?

How many points has he averaged for his career?

He's not a 20, like, he can, but that's not really what it is for him.

He's a ball distributor.

He gets the, he's an extension of the coach on the floor.

He gets everything right and gets everybody situated and put people in places where they can score.

I think you said yesterday, or maybe a couple days ago, I forget.

You said people see Halley hitting these game-winning shots, and they're like, oh, this guy is a scorer.

That's what he is.

It's like he can score.

Yeah.

He is certainly a dog in clutch time.

I think the stats are going to come out after this season that he's maybe one of the greatest clutch players in the history of basketball.

But that's not his mind.

His mindset is how can we get the entire team rolling?

And they've certainly been able to do that.

I think his overrunner on assist tonight's is 9.5 or 8.5.

So like that, I mean, that's all season long.

He is the highest in that category.

And then his points is 16.5, 17.5.

So it's like, it's like the sports books knows what he is.

A lot of people know what he is, but I think you're so right.

Like him hitting all these game winners makes people think like he's filling up 30 points at night.

They want more.

And the thing about Halley, he's been historically efficient over the run.

So, obviously, against this OKC defense, it's been a lot tougher.

And you talk about SGA and what he's been doing on the offensive end, obviously, the MVP.

But he's a beast on that defensive end, too.

Yeah, he gets his hands on a lot of basketballs.

That whole team is you, they get grinded, they suffocate you.

And if they keep it going, they're a tough, tough team to beat.

But Holly got to be efficient.

And I think he does have to be a little bit more aggressive early on if you really want to beat this Thunder team.

If you look at what the Thunder do, listen to the post-game comments of Esney Edwards.

He's a 30-point dude, and he was like,

I can't get no shots.

And he was like, I don't feel like I'm playing bad.

I just, I can't get attempts.

I can't get field goal attempts because the way they're guarding me.

When you look, it's hard for you as a scorer to when you cross that half court and you look at the basket and you see four other sets of eyes, you see arms in the lane, and everybody.

I understand what you're saying.

Oklahoma City bops a lot of wood.

Pause that, but yes, they do.

They do.

They listen.

And then, like, have you looked at Lou Dort?

Yeah, the Dorture Chamber.

It's one of the greatest things of all.

You know what house?

That's...

A brick wall?

What is that?

A brick machine?

Like, he shoots bad shots?

No, he is.

He is.

Listen, that dude is a unit.

And he can, like you said, he can move.

He can move.

He can move his feet out there like for him to be that big and strong he shouldn't be able to guard a tally tyrese hallebert okay so if the pacers win all their home games going forward they win an nba title right they stole home court advantage

by winning game one that is uh that is just a matter of fact so if they win tonight obviously if they win uh friday night and then they win game six which i believe is next Thursday maybe, they just have to win their home games.

How important is home court advantage?

And obviously the Pacers have been able to go into other people's barns and get wins.

But it feels like with what Oklahoma City's fan base can bring and what I think tonight is going to be like in Gambridge, is it a mental advantage?

What is the, you sleep at your own house?

Like, why is home court such a big deal whenever it comes to basketball?

I think it's more so it comes down to the fans.

It comes down to the fans than you being in your building.

I think, you know what I'm saying?

That's why guys work so hard to get the best record during the season so they can have that.

Because when you're, like, if all else fails, that crowd can ignite you you feeling down you doing this or that they get tj mcconnell to come in and make a little diving play and the crowd goes nuts and then like that can really ignite teams and teams can draw from that so i think to me that's the biggest difference when you talk about the difference in home court advantage like that especially when you got a fan base like here in indiana and a fan base like there in okc these are two of the better like more collegey atmosphere teams that we have in the league okay so okay see i think coach carlisle even mentioned it whenever he said that our fans are going to have to show up tonight for game three.

He said we would get on a little bit of a run, and then Oklahoma City fans would not relent.

Like it was like it would continue, and then almost you felt like them fighting momentum for the team.

And then the hoop can look bigger, I assume, whenever you're at home, you get rolling?

I just, I mean, yeah, the fact of the matter is, these are, you play here more.

Like all of the other arenas you go to once or twice here there, you play here all the time.

So you used to it.

You used to the depth perception behind the rim.

Everything that's in the arena, It's just, you just more locked into it because you're here all year playing.

Yeah, and you got John Mellencamp sitting there falling.

I don't know if that's happening.

No, Diddy.

About Jack Knight.

It's still a heater.

Let's never forget that.

It was like we were talking about after game two, though.

Like, there were a couple moments in that game where the pacers would hit a couple threes and they'd cut the lead to like 12.

And it was like, okay,

here comes the run.

And because it was in OKC and the crowd was still behind them, like, boom, Thunder go on an 8-0 run quick and kind of just squash it and it gets back to 20.

And it was kind of like that the entire game.

You felt like, hey, if this is in Indiana, if this was at Gainbridge, like that 12-point lead, maybe they, you know, get a couple more steals and cut that down to six, and then now we got a real game, but instead, every time the Pacers got a little momentum, OKC went right back down and got a bucket immediately.

Got some stats from Hembo here on basketball efficiency for the Pacers in this particular series.

Sure.

The Pacers have led for a total of one minute, 53 seconds, and a third.

That gets it done.

Pacers shooting has been night and day this series when the ball moves with energy.

Oh.

Shooting off passes, they're 51 of 92 for 55%.

Shooting not off pass, they're 25 of 72, 35%, which is what you're talking about with the Oklahoma City defense.

We're able to move with pace against a lot of teams.

It feels like this Oklahoma City team has been able to match.

So whenever Oklahoma City scores or whenever the Knicks scored or when the Bucs scored or when the Cavs scored, we were able to push that thing down the court and the other team had no idea.

They scored two.

Bang, we just knocked on a three because we're able to move with efficiency.

It's like the Oklahoma City team gets back.

They're able to run.

They like focus on the defensive end and making it difficult.

They obviously also have Dejineau, who's a great coach.

Indiana has done a great job defensively when grinding out Oklahoma City possessions.

The Thunder have shot

one for 17 in games one and two in the final six seconds of the shot clock.

So if the Pacers make Oklahoma City earn it, it feels like Oklahoma City's going to miss it a little bit.

Will Indiana win in transition tonight, Ass Hembo?

They've scored 23 transition points in games one and two.

That is nine points fewer than their per-game average entering the finals, which is exactly what I just chatted about.

And will Tyreese Halliburton get anything easy tonight, Ass Hembo?

In 73 minutes in games one and two, he's drawn only two fouls.

Yeah.

He has not attempted a single free throw.

Wow.

What more?

Feels like these refs are working a little bit.

And then the thunder playoff scoring margin when they're home, plus 236.

When they're on the road, minus 48.

They are 0-7 against the spread on the road, 8-3 against the spread at home.

And that's because the away fan base is

making it rough on her.

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is senior NBA Insider for ESPN.

Friend of the program, a man who has incredible hair, and he's very handsome.

Friend of the program, Shams Shirania.

What's up, what's up, Shams?

What's up?

Good day, Shams.

Sir, it's good to see you, man.

I just want to mess my hair up.

Crown the king.

The hair still looks good, brother.

The hair still looks good, brother.

I appreciate the sunglasses, by the way.

My eyes are very sensitive to the sun.

Yeah, you're a journalist.

We understand there's some some softness in this entire thing.

Shams, welcome back to Indianapolis, Indiana.

We're thankful to have you.

Look at the fans.

Look at them.

There's a lot more people than last time.

I agree.

It was fun being here two weeks ago.

I'm glad to be back.

I agree.

A couple weeks ago, whenever we did this, we gave about a 12 to 24 hour heads up to the city.

And, you know, a lot of people have jobs out here in Indiana.

This is a working city.

The fact that people showed up for us, we're very appreciative of it.

And also, this backdrop here is is maybe the nicest in the city.

Shout out to Gainbridge.

Shout out to the Pacers.

Shout out to the Simons doing all this for the city.

Like they're rebuilding the city almost downtown.

It's got a new restaurant over here, a new area.

I mean

the Pacers are really doing it here, so we're thankful.

But anyways, let's get to tonight.

Any news that we need to know about heading into game three of the NBA finals, Sean Chiranho?

So, I mean, what we saw in game two, and really in game one as well, is like Oklahoma City, their defense absolutely stifling.

You know, the one thing obviously that caught my eye Tyrese Halliburton was limping after the game in Oklahoma City he wasn't on the injury report everything I hear there's no concern about his status tonight all the feel is he's fine he's gonna be good to go he but what what did catch my eye again is him limping right there and he said he had a lower body injury I did some digging on it I am told it is a ankle issue some soreness that he's dealing with but listen Pat around this time of year and Q Rich knows this this late into the playoffs guys are gonna be dealing with all kinds of nicks and bruises and all kinds of different things.

But this is an ankle issue for Tyrese Halliburton that obviously he's going to play through.

He's at three days in between games.

He's going to be a go tonight.

Okay, so we should not be worried about Tyrese Halliburton.

Tyrese Halliburton told us, don't worry about him yesterday.

So

I don't expect

this to be an issue.

But again, this is something to keep an eye on.

Okay, thank God.

Thank God, especially with how much shit has been talked about Tyrese Halliburton over the last couple days.

This feels like a Tyrese Halliburton game.

Yeah.

21 points, pretty much, and 10 assists when they win in the playoffs.

It is like 12 points and 6-7 assists when they lose.

So the point being, they haven't lost much this playoffs.

And so having him play at that elite level, obviously very important for this Pacers team to win tonight.

Agreed.

Anything out of the Oklahoma City camp, or are they completely healthy and ready to go?

They're ready to go.

But one thing we saw after they make that big change, completely healthy, putting in Kaysen Wallace in into the starting lineup to start the series, I think that that was a shock not only to people in the series, fans around the series,

executives that are watching the series,

but they kept that starting lineup in game two.

And Mark Dagonal, the Thunder coach, he's changed the lineup so much this year.

What's his name?

Mark Dagonaugh.

But we kind of.

But I think we gave him the nickname Dags.

Dags.

Dags over here.

Mark Dagona.

To kind of simplify it for us here.

For who?

You're saying for us simpletons?

Listen, Pat, you butchered his name.

What?

I ain't trying.

What?

I'm trying my best.

I didn't butcher it as best.

Connor did a couple weeks ago.

No, I don't know.

None of us, right?

Coach Daggs changed the starting lineup.

He sticks with it.

We assume he's going to do the same thing.

And he stuck with it in game two, too.

I think there was even some thought there, like, okay, you know, I was on the ground in Oklahoma City.

There was some thought, okay, he must be going back to Isaiah Hardenstein, going back to that double big lineup.

But he stuck with it.

I expect it to be the same.

But this is a coach that is always going to try things.

What I love about the Thunders from one to really 10, 11, 12 deep on this roster, they're willing to go into their depth.

Kenrich Williams, Jalen Williams, these guys sometimes barely ever play, but they can play.

Jalen Williams can get triple doubles.

Aaron Wiggins wasn't much of a factor in game one, comes in basically is a hero in game two.

Okay, so let's talk about some things from this series that'll be off-season conversations.

Obviously, Miles Turner, he has been here for 11 years.

We love him here in Indiana.

He cut a promo after winning the Eastern Conference finals.

That was wonderful.

I think he's done great things in the city.

We believe he is up, I think, if our last conversation is accurate.

What does it look like for Miles Turner going forward?

I assume a lot of people are going to want big Miles on their squad.

How old is he, and what does it look like this offseason?

He's going to be a free agent, and it's crazy.

He's essentially, what's his exact age?

Do we have it?

He's 29.

29.

He's been here for 11 years.

11 years, so clearly a guy that is still young in age, very young in this league.

There's going to be a couple teams that are are going to look at him.

The issue this offseason, there's one team with salary cap space, and that's the Brooklyn Nets.

And so, what other teams make sense from a sign and trade perspective?

I do know of a couple teams at least that are looking into sign and trade possibilities.

But listen, the Indiana Pacers know they need to have Miles Turner back.

They can't afford to lose him.

So, he is combined for a big payday this offseason.

I expect the Pacers to do everything they can to keep him.

There's mutual interest.

Miles Turner!

Miles Turner!

Miles!

See, I'm surprised Q Riches, he's never seen this many white people on beat.

That was incredible work by you guys.

There is mutual interest.

But Pat, the most interesting thing to me is the Indiana Pacers have not paid the luxury tax since the 2005-2006 season.

By giving Miles Turner a deal that he's likely going to be in line for, they will be entering the luxury tax for the first time in 20 years.

I'm told the organization is prepared and expecting to pay the luxury tax next season.

Hell yeah, Simon.

Back-to-back conference finals runs this season.

I think they want to give this core a chance, win or lose in this finals, they want to give this core a chance to try to get back again next year.

Get back again the year after that.

We're going to win.

Thanks.

I don't need to win.

Ty has a question for you.

Shams, there are some reports that came out that said, hey, there's a good chance KD is going to be moved within like the next couple weeks here.

And then we started hearing, hey, guess what?

He wants to go to the Knicks, even though they don't have a head head coach.

What do you know about the KD situation and where do we stand right now?

The Kevin Durant situation is ever since the NBA trade deadline, I think everyone around the league understood this is someone that's going to likely be on the move.

And I'm told the Suns, Kevin Durant's business representative and boardroom CEO, Rich Kleinman, they're working on his trade as we speak.

The teams that are mainly featured right now that have interest in Kevin Durant to trade for him, this is ongoing interest.

And I think this is the focus right now.

It's the Houston Rockets, the San Antonio Spurs, the Miami Heat,

the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the New York Knicks.

I do expect potentially some wild card teams to get in the mix as well.

Because listen, this is Kevin Durant.

For him to be on the market, he's the biggest domino right now that's fully available on the market.

And last season, we saw his play.

I mean, he was one of just a few players.

I mean, he's the best mid-range shooter in the league, the best shooter off the dribble, the best shooter

when you have a defender in front of you in the mid-range show.

He's still playing at an elite level.

Obviously he wants to compete for a championship.

But those five teams, I'm told, that's the focus of the trade conversations right now.

Talks are going to pick up and escalate between now and the NBA draft, June 25th.

One other thing that's going to be a key point here, he's entering the final year of his deal.

at over $50 million.

So whether he wants to extend what his future is, that is also going to play a part.

Okay, so the Pacers obviously are so focused on winning a title we haven't got a chance to really dive into Kevin Durant coming to Indiana.

We'd love to have you here, KD.

The Darantula would be great in Indiana.

Also with Tyrese, all KD's got to do him and Neesmith just chilling.

I mean,

we would, hey, we got great apartments here, Don Tan, Kevin Durant.

We got great food here.

And we got a team that works their asses off.

So I think you would love it here.

But out of those teams you just mentioned, what do you think is the most intriguing or most likely?

Well, you look at Houston.

Obviously, they made a good run to the playoffs this year for the first time since 2000.

I think they're a team that has the potential pieces to make a deal happen.

San Antonio is an interesting one as well.

And there was mutual interest between Kevin Durant and both of those teams at the NBA trade deadline.

There's been interest with the Timberlolls as well.

That would be Ant, right?

Minnesota?

I mean, if you're the Timberles and you can keep Anthony Edwards and you can keep Nas Reed, you can keep Jaden McDaniels potentially to to make a deal.

I think that would be appealing for them.

And then the Knicks, they did make an offer from what I'm told at the NBA trade deadline.

Of course, no deal happened then, but the Knicks are going to be a team that could get involved, that are involved here, and could make offers again.

And Miami, that is another team that I'm told has been engaged with the Suns over the last week.

DB's team.

Whatever, yes.

I expect that.

If you can bring Kevin Durant in with Tyler Hero, bam out of bio, I think that's another thing where if you're Miami, you can compete.

And this is a factor as well.

I know the Pacers are in the East.

We're not trying to talk down on the East, but there are some teams in the Eastern Conference that are viewing this conference as wide open.

And if you can go get a Kevin Durant.

It's not wide open.

If you can get a Kevin Durant.

Who's a Kevin Durant away?

That's going to be the question that people are going to have to ask.

Hi, you mentioned the Knicks there.

Q has a question for you.

Yeah, yeah.

It's a lot of talk.

I mean, obviously,

after the season, they let go of Tibb.

So what are you hearing about the Knicks coaching situation?

Who's going to be the next coach for the Knicks?

What I keep hearing from people on the league queue is like, what are the Knicks doing, right?

What are they doing?

When you fire a coach who made it to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years and you don't really, it doesn't seem like they had a direct path to a coach, whether it's someone that's available like a Taylor Jenkins, a Michael Malone, a Mike Brown, whether it's a coach from another team.

Like, this is not the first time a coach from another team might move.

But as I reported last night and this morning, the Knicks made permission requests over the last 24-48 hours on Chris Finch of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Ime Udoka of the Houston Rockets, and this morning, Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks.

All three were given swift denials.

I'm told, I'm told, like, like these were the reactions.

Teams are saying no, hanging up.

Teams are saying F no.

Teams are saying like having the owner call

and say,

we're not doing this.

And so I think those were the reactions that I heard from those three denials.

And so now the Knicks, where are they going to go from here?

I think one thing, they're going to keep an open mind on all these candidates.

I do give them credit for trying to see what could be out there with some of these available coaches.

But again, this is a very unorthodox process by the Knicks in their front office and James Dolan, that ownership group.

But if they end up with a coach that they wanted

from the beginning, maybe it's someone we know.

What about you, Seans?

Why don't you go coach them?

Not a big idea.

Big City Sean.

I learned storyline.

And you don't have a guy.

And you asking guys that are already under contract with somebody, that's beyond.

How do those calls usually go?

No, has anyone been internally?

It's usually, can we have permission to interview?

Your head coach.

Your head coach.

And And mind you,

all of these guys had multiple seasons on their contract left.

And yeah, you're right.

Jason Kidd got traded from the Brooklyn Nets to the Milwaukee Bucks over a decade ago for second-round draft compensation.

This time around, Dallas said, no, Jason Kidd is staying with the Mavericks.

He's not going anywhere.

I don't know if now would be the time for Jason Kidd to want to leave the Mavs.

I think if you talk to him middle of the season after they trade Luko away, I think you could have got him potentially out of there.

But with what they're building, shout to Nico down there, too, by the way.

Nico might have this whole thing figured out, legitimately, down in Dallas.

They might have a squad.

Jason leaving right before that would be wild.

I appreciate the fact that James Dolan is basically just seemingly flying by the seat of his pants right now.

We'll find the right guy.

We'll get it done.

Q.

Rich, I have a question for you.

Tibbs gets fired because players, do coaches get fired in the NBA because players don't like the coach?

I don't understand the power structure of how this works.

Tibbs got fired because Dolan didn't like him.

What do you think the thoughts are on how or why he got removed?

I don't know the real answer to that, but I mean,

from everything that you're hearing, and it sounds like that came from above.

I mean, you know what I'm saying?

When you hear from the players, they all signed off on Love and Tibs, like Jalen Brunson and company.

But from what I hear,

you know, the streets is talking.

It sounded like Dolan wanted it to be done.

It sounded like he wanted it to be over with and he wanted to go in a different direction.

Because like Denver firing their coach and GM when they did, what, eight days before the playoffs started or whatever.

It's like, who did that?

How did that come to be?

And then now I guess you're still asking questions.

Because in my eyes, the way I view the basketball league, basketball players, is like they're in charge.

Like the head superstar on the team has more power than everybody else.

I'm not saying that's different than the NFL with quarterbacks.

I think there's a select amount of quarterbacks that obviously have more say than anybody else.

But in the NBA, it feels like the superstars have more power than maybe any other sport.

So it's like whenever Malone gets fired, I just assume, well, the players had to sign off on this for this to happen.

But we never really get an answer either.

New York is a very special place, though.

So I don't know if all of the rules to go for everybody else go for them.

Happened in Memphis though.

It's a different place.

Memphis got it.

Memphis did it.

Denver did it.

But listen, Denver, Josh Cronke, in that organization, the governor there, he put his name on it.

He's been in the media.

He's been very upfront about why they did it.

And listen, it led to some success.

He felt like the team wasn't going to make a run unless they made a change.

They made the change.

They got to the second round, one game away from the Western Conference Finals.

This is a different situation.

There hasn't been much, of course, coming out of of the Knicks.

But listen, they have always moved in shadow.

They've always moved in this cloak of secrecy.

But now is a point where you get denied by three teams in the span of 24 hours.

Yikes.

And

like to get three coaching denials in the span of 24 hours, that's not something that bodes well.

Desirable, yeah, that's our desirable faith.

What did you expect?

See, that's the thing, is like these coaches are under.

You don't expect that you're about to go take somebody's head coach and they're just going to say, sure, take them.

Like, what?

No.

I I think these teams are taking offense to it to an extent.

That's my feel for it.

They should.

Because, again, these guys aren't a touch.

Whoa, whoa.

That's how a lot of people feel.

Now, I'm not saying that's how we feel,

but there's a chance.

The words of others do not necessarily reflect the words of ours.

But with that being said, there's a lot of people that feel that way, and it sounds like there's more teams starting to feel that way as they continue to try to poach their player.

Duck New York.

Yeah, I agree.

I duck them too.

You got to duck them.

Exactly.

You got to duck him.

Coaches are.

With the Knicks.

D-Bot has a question for you, Sean.

Yeah, you talked about KD being on the move.

Obviously, the other big fish.

And I think the last time you were here, you pegged this as the most craziest off-season ever.

Giannis.

Yes, that was right.

That was the proper word.

A lot probably hinges on Giannis and the Decumpo and his future, right?

And I know there are some comments.

You know, he made a broad, you know, he's a guy that's always been loyal.

If he can win in Milwaukee, he, of course, wants to win in Milwaukee.

His biggest issue has been: been how does this team stay competitive and compete in the Eastern Conference?

Because there's going to be Damian Lillard's out for an extended period of time next season, if not the entire season.

They have one first-round pick they can trade, and they don't have many high-value contracts.

So, can you bring some of your free agents back?

Like the free agency of Brooke Lopez, Bobby Portis will be very, very important to this team.

Gary Trent is another guy that I think is going to be very important.

Can they bring those three guys back to the fold?

And how does that impact Giannis?

Is there any other move you can make around the edges?

I will say on Giannis and Decumpo, unlike Kevin Durant,

whoa.

Bobby Porter's got a team.

Kevin Durant is someone that I expect around the draft there could be some movement with.

Like I think there's a very good chance Kevin Durant is traded

before the NBA draft, June 25th.

With Yannis and Diddekumpo, from what I'm told,

his status will not be tied to the NBA draft.

It won't be tied to free agency.

It's much more likely that his future plays out into July and into August in terms of him seeing the landscape of not only the Bucs, seeing the landscape of the league, seeing what other teams do.

I mean, listen, when you're a star of that caliber, the league moves how you want it to move.

The league will move when you're ready to ask for a trade or if you're ready to then say, I'm staying.

I want to be back.

Of course, around the league, there is a level of skepticism.

Because Yannis DeCumpo has been loyal.

He's been there 12 years.

His brand is all about loyalty right now.

So there's a level of skepticism.

Does he really go through with it?

There's a difference between being open-minded and, from what I'm told, exploring other options.

Actively exploring other options.

There's a difference between doing that and asking for a trade.

He's in the process of figuring out exactly what he wants to do.

Actively exploring other options.

He's watching film of other teams, trying to see which team.

He thinks he can be the front train.

You see what they're doing.

You see where can

you potentially get to

that can make a deal with Milwaukee, that can make it happen.

And then the biggest point is having to go in there and ask for a trade.

I think everyone around the league looks at this summer as probably the period.

If you're going to do it, it's now because of where they're at, with their situation, with the roster.

They're depleted with their assets.

And realistically, this is a team that's lost in the first round three years in a row.

So can this team take a step to contend?

So if you're staying now, you're probably looking at this as a lifer, if you're honest.

Okay, and go ahead, Q.

With his loyalty, though, don't you think by him even having this open like this kind of lets you know that I'm out the door?

Because he never does this.

He shuts it down almost every time.

So to me, the fact that he's actually telling them that I'm exploring or doing whatever he's doing, to me, that's letting you know that, like, hey, I'm definitely like could do something right now.

I think the way the Bucks view this is this is something that they're fine with Giannis.

Like, in their minds, he's always going to be exploring every year.

What's his best path?

And what the Bucs are kind of selling Yannis at Decumpo and what other teams have essentially been sold on as far as the Bucks path is you essentially take somewhat of a gap year, you retool this team.

But from my understanding, I think John Horst and Doc Rivers genuinely believe this team can compete in the Eastern Conference.

Now, whether you think it's that old adage that the East isn't where it probably the West might be, whatever the case, we'll see if

they can compete

in the Eastern Conference.

I get it.

I get it.

I'm just telling you how they feel.

And the other point is also selling Giannis and to DeCoupo on.

Can I hug it?

Can I hug it?

Do it.

Do it.

Hoist it.

Wow.

Heavy.

That thing is heavy.

That can go real good and real bad for you.

I didn't touch it last year.

I'm just saying.

I didn't touch it last year.

That's the point.

I wasn't around it last year.

The other thing, if you're the Bucs, is like what makes Giannis and Kumbo comfortable here?

And one thing that they have pitched him on also is having the ball in his hands a lot more next season.

He played, obviously, when you're playing with a guy like Damian Love.

He's trying to love the ball.

He ain't going nowhere.

He's a dog.

Dog.

Hey, he's a good vibes guy.

That's what I'm saying.

Anytime I see him playing basketball, everybody's smiling.

If Yankee watching him stays, I don't think there's going to be any surprise if Tenasis Andacumpo might be on this one.

Okay, that's good news.

All right, last question.

We appreciate you taking the time to travel to Indianapolis.

Obviously, it's your job.

You're getting paid to do it, but you're the best.

Connor has a question for you.

Yeah, Sean's.

I loved your last answer.

My favorite part being when Q Rich looked over here at us like, you're the biggest idiot that's ever spoken about basketball.

Definitely one of my favorite moments since you've been on.

But what did I say?

I don't even know, to be honest.

But if this is the most craziest offseason ever, you know, Giannis and KD, that's cool.

But are there dark horse teams?

Are there dark horse players?

Like, could we see a Donovan Mitchell type move where a team hasn't, you know, gotten over the hump?

A Mobley even with Cleveland.

I know Scotty Barnes has been kind of throwing around some trade scenarios.

Is there kind of other big-name players and teams that might be trying to make a splash here?

I don't see those three that you mentioned right there, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Scotty Barnes, but there are always in every offseason.

There's going to be wild card pieces.

We'll see.

I don't know them quite yet.

That'll go on between now and the NBA draft, but I will tell you, like, you have the Giannis situation, yep, and that's more of a slower burn, right?

You have Kevin Durant, which I think is active as we speak.

But the other big ticket item I think this offseason is the Celtics, and what are they going to do?

And the primary focus, from my understanding, with the Celtics offseason, has been Drew Howard, Christas Rosinghas, Sam Hauser.

Their trademarks.

Now, our teams making big offers

and calling about Jalen Brown and Derek White 100%.

The Celtics prefer not to trade him, from my understanding.

But listen, if they get a big offer, they have to look at everything.

And I think they're going to get offers on the three guys that they're focused on.

They're going to get offers potentially on Derek White and Jalen Brown.

And I think between now and the draft and free agency, they're going to evaluate what makes sense from a value perspective, and that's where they're going to move.

Everybody but Tatum?

Essentially.

Okay.

Big change is coming.

Maybe Missoula is going down to New York.

He's staying.

Britchard and Britschard's staying.

We're going to take a step back.

I'm not expecting that one, Pat.

All right.

Anything going going to take place today?

Any more breaking news going to be coming out of the Sham Shirania Twitter account?

You never know, but if it is, I'm right there.

You're the band.

Ladies and gentlemen, senior NBA inside of the next man.

Man and then.

Yeah, you did do that.

I saw that happen.

You broke out the fresh

Alexander McQueen.

Them brand new right there.

Hey, just real quick.

You thought he said something incredibly dumb?

Why'd you give him a look about what?

No, it wasn't him saying anything incredibly dumb.

No.

But

it was when he said the Bucs can compete in the East or with the East.

Yeah, he was saying that it wasn't him saying it.

He was saying that Doc Rivers really believes that that Bucs team can compete in the East.

And I don't really think they can, with Dane Litter not being in East.

So you're saying the theory that was being hypothesized.

It was crazy to me.

They can't compete without Dane.

Where do you think Giannis goes?

His style of play, play, can it fit in everywhere or no?

Yeah, anywhere.

He can play anywhere.

He can play for the Pacers?

Anywhere.

Pacers, anywhere.

The craziest thing is my destination for

the best plot for Giannis and KD, in my opinion, is the same place.

It's the Spurs.

I think they can fit in seamlessly, and I think the Spurs have assets where they don't have to completely deplete the roster in the team to where they can make the move and still have a team to compete with.

Connor's been pitching this trade proposal for Giannis with the Mavs, I think.

They should just trade the number one pick for Giannis, just one for one.

They get Cooper Flag.

They're not a little bit more.

Mavs.

Okay, but they're throwing a little sweetener.

Maybe Gafford, maybe Clay Thompson, you throw something in there, but they're talking about Cooper Flag being a $500 to a billion dollar type player as far as the market comes.

Do they not think about that in these trades just because Giannis?

I don't think they're going to do that.

I think Nico has had enough of the trade in this year so far.

I think he's going to just, you know, the fans are pretty hyped about Cooper flag.

So, ladies and gentlemen, joining us now

is a lad who went to

Pike High School here in Indianapolis,

Indiana.

Currently, the coach of them, NBA champion, all-star, host of the Club 520 podcast.

Ladies and gentlemen, just team.

Legends, absolute legends.

Pike high school week, huh?

Nah, we lit.

Hey, first of all, Jeff, thank you for representing Indianapolis, Indiana so damn well.

You're a legend.

Appreciate you, having give back to the city.

317 is tattered right there on your forearm.

I respect how much you've given back here and remained here, even though you didn't necessarily play here.

With that being said, your Club 520 podcast is unbelievable.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, taking over right now, and you should be incredibly proud of that.

Thank you, thank you.

No problem.

Thank you for adding to the sports media world.

Thank you for sticking around.

Thank you for coaching your high school.

And thank you for letting the world know that Indiana is a hoop state.

I don't think a lot of people understand how many greats have come from this state and how serious basketball is.

Can you explain a little bit about that?

Nah, basketball is everything here.

You drive around the city, you'll see goals in every driveway, every backyard.

Basketball is king here.

And growing growing up here, playing basketball my whole life here, I think I'm a better basketball player than most people from like Chicago or any of those areas because I grew up.

Oh, shit.

Oh, it makes sense.

Damn, Q.

Oh, my fault.

I forgot he was here.

Q, where are you from?

Man, I'm from the Hunters.

No disrespect, Indiana, Indianapolis, but like, we're not going to do that.

We're not going to do that.

Like, Shot Town pay these country boys nothing.

You hear me?

Now, listen.

Listen now.

Listen.

Chicago

is a best.

We breathe that now.

We do that.

We do too.

Pike High School, they want no problem with Whitney Young High School.

He knows it.

We try to set up a game, actually.

And y'all are seeing in well for y'all.

Let's talk about high school hoops here.

The arenas here in Indiana, it's like 10,000, 15,000 for high school hoops.

How has it been getting back into coaching high school, and what are your thoughts?

Nah, it's been great.

Every time we play, it's a sold-out gym.

I get booed, or they talk about the podcast every single time, but it's cool, man.

It's been a lot of fun.

I mean, giving back to the kids, I absolutely love that.

But our team should be pretty, pretty good this year.

You kind of won it all, right?

Nah,

it's some good teams here.

What's your problem, Q?

I thought he won.

Hey, I thought he was.

Hey, okay.

We in real.

You got a work in progress.

Okay, I've seen it.

Rebuild.

You just got there.

I see you.

Let's talk about this Pacers team.

Obviously, you understand the buzz that's around the city.

Last year, Eastern Conference finals, we get swept.

Nobody's even allowed to talk about it almost because of how it ended with Boston.

Now, this year, back again, now we're in the finals.

How do you feel about this particular team and the way Coach Carlisle is running them?

No, it's an exciting team.

I think they play a beautiful brand of basketball.

Everybody gets a chance to be great on the floor.

I didn't expect this from the Pacers.

I'd be lying if I said I did after the way they started the season.

But Tyree's been magnificent.

In the last minute of a game, I mean, he's the guy you've been with the ball.

But I ain't gonna lie, I'm probably not a fan favorite right now because I think OKC is gonna win the series.

Yo!

Oh!

Indian kid!

Yeah!

Oh!

I gotta be real.

I'm watching.

The prodigal son.

The prodigal son.

D-Buck has a question for you, John.

Hey, we were talking about up here with Shams.

I know you played with Giannis.

I believe you told a story about how different his energy is with his brother around.

How do you see that really playing out for him, and where do you see him fitting if he does move from Milwaukee?

I can't really picture a team without Giannis in Milwaukee because he's just been there for so long.

But if his brother is anywhere around that city, he's going to be there.

And I said it the other day on a podcast, like, man, if you want to sign Giannis, you probably should sign his brother because they're connected.

But if I've seen him leave, I'm sure he probably wants to go to a big city.

So I would imagine like New York, somewhere in New York, Brooklyn, or Indiana.

Indian, yeah.

Y'all guys want Yannis here?

We'll take anybody, brother.

Kevin Durant, if you're good at basketball, we'll have you.

Kevin Durant needs to come here, too.

Oh, my God.

You just need to sit there just like this.

So let me ask you that.

Who would you trade for Kevin Durant?

Nobody.

We're just signing.

Let's bring it in.

Brother, we'll give the first-round pick for 2045.

That's how you guys operate in the NBA.

Are you giving up the 2033 and the 2045 first-round pick?

KB for a three-year-old.

Exactly.

If you was in Sacramento, you probably could make it happen.

Connor has a question for you, Jeff.

Yeah, Jeff, I love the podcast story you told on there about pushing LeBron just because why not?

It was incredible.

SGA feels like one of those guys you would probably just shove at the end of the game.

How would you guard a guy like that?

And how frustrating is it when you know, hey, if I bump this guy, you know, he might flow back and draw a foul on me.

But if I don't bump him, he's going to go right by me and score.

Yeah, he's kind of impossible to guard.

He's like James Harden in the area where I play, you couldn't couldn't touch him.

It was kind of, you couldn't really figure out a way to stop him.

For the Pacers, I think you just got to eliminate everybody else.

Like last game, Caruso had a big game, Aaron Wiggins had a big game.

You got to take them guys out the picture.

SGA is going to get 30 points.

I mean, it's proven he averages 30 every game.

So if we could eliminate everybody else, I think the Pacers got a really good shot.

I got the Pacers actually winning game three, though.

Oh, don't damn it guys.

Snip, snip, snap.

Snip, snap, snip, snap.

How the end are you out?

What are you?

Listen, I'm just a

Let's just see a good game.

Let's see a seven-game series.

So, take me inside the locker room.

I don't know your guys's

culture well enough whenever it comes to game planning.

So, the coach will actually say, or you guys will all have an understanding, SGA is going to score 35 points.

So, if we see him lighting it up, we still are not changing our strategy at all.

We're kind of just sacrificing SGA having a massive night, and then you're just trying to eliminate the other pieces.

Yeah, pretty much.

Like, that's a full mindset that everybody has.

I mean, I would say cute.

It's not necessarily necessarily like you're going to let him.

Like, you do your work.

You try and make everything difficult as possible, but you can't hang your head or get down if he scores because he's proven this is going to happen.

You can't let that...

Like, deter your energy.

Like, yeah, you try to stop him.

You don't just let him score 30, but you understand.

If he gets his 30, this is normal.

We have to kind of try and suppress any of these other dudes.

Like he said, you can't have Wiggins, Caruso, just guys popping up out of nowhere, getting 20 and 18.

Like, Wiggins hasn't had 18 or 20 to hold playoffs, I don't think.

Yeah, Caruso going crazy, just is wild.

Hey, dog.

Hey, Paison, let's relax, dude.

Okay, let's relax here.

Indiana needs this.

He understands that.

Kuros tells us that a big, like, kind of mantra for you guys, especially if you're playing a good offensive team, is you bop wood.

Do you bop a lot of wood?

Did you bop a lot of wood?

I don't know if y'all watched the podcast, but that's a wild statement.

What?

It's an all-NBA defense.

That's an all-NBA defense.

You bop wood.

It's best.

They do that at Duke.

Like Will Jahowski started that.

They slacked the floor by that.

Yeah, bopping wood.

No, we say slap the floor.

I'm sorry, smack wood.

Okay.

Crazy.

That's a mindset.

I don't know.

I get it, yeah.

Tonight, I'm bopping wood.

You got to sign up for that.

Start to finish.

I slap the floor.

I never slap the floor.

I didn't do any of that.

I'm not bopping wood, slapping wood, any of that.

All that is a crazy pause.

Jesus fucking.

This guy's not committed to any defense in that.

I can tell.

I can't tell.

Unbelievable.

Is that what you sign up for, though?

Nah.

Ty has a question for you, Jeff.

Jeff, when we talk about the Pacers, everyone talks about their pace and how difficult that is.

And then you got a team like OKC who can actually kind of match it.

How demoralizing is that when they've been kind of just running everybody else out the gym and then you get to the finals and it's like oh shit this team can actually play like do they need to maybe like slow down a little bit and look for better shots or like how does that because it almost seems like they're playing right into what okay see

well they got to be them I mean what makes the pacer great is their pace they have to be them and the thing they do have to do great

guys got to make shots I mean Tyrese is the head of the snake.

Tyrese got to be aggressive all the time.

Like, if that's making plays for others to get into the basket and scoring, he has to be that.

And the last game, I don't think he was as aggressive in the first half, but I think we'll see a different Terese tonight.

Jeff, I know you're a professional legend in the sports world out of Indianapolis, Indiana.

This is Mackenzie McAfee.

She is also going to be a legend.

A legendary world.

She's beautiful.

My wife just surprised me with her down here.

Obviously, the city has come out.

Baby girl, you like the Pacers or no?

We're doing Pacers?

High five for Pacers?

Boom.

I gotta change my pick, man.

I'm going for the Pacers.

Here we go, McKenzie.

Thank you.

D-Bud has a question for you, Jeff.

We've talked about defense.

Pat goes to it, calls it different.

You talk about slapping the floor.

You play for Tibbs.

Obviously, a defensive-minded coach.

Knicks go all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals, and then they let go of Tibbs.

How do you think?

I know the players came out and spoke positively about him, which I feel like most guys will, but how do you think they really felt about Tibbs?

And what was it like playing for him?

And who do you think would fit in with that Knicks roster as it is constructed?

I'm imagining the guys that played a lot like Tibbs.

But if you didn't play much, you probably didn't like him.

I mean, that goes for probably most of the locker room.

But if I was a player that played for Tibbs and I did, and I was a starter, I loved him because I knew I was going to get a chance to make my money because I was going to be on the floor all the time.

Yeah, but as far as him getting released from the team, I was surprised because they made it to the Eastern Conference Finals they ain't been in 25 years.

But it's like, I get it too, because they needed to play some more people, they needed some more pieces, and they needed to use their bench.

And I think they had quality players on the bench, we just never got a chance to see them.

But as far as I can help that team, they need a scoring guard that can also help, you know, be like a combo guard and help Jalen Brunson.

I mean, it was so much pressure on him to do everything: bring the ball up, score the basketball, run the plays, even though they ran all the plays for him.

Yeah.

But he just needs somebody else that can relieve some pressure with that scoring.

Him and Cat.

Gotcha.

I didn't like watching Brunson play basketball.

Every time he touched it and had any space at all, he was...

It's good.

Is that who he is?

Is that what he's going to be for the rest of his career?

Like,

it was unbelievable to watch, especially because of his size.

And obviously, in real life, I assume he is tall when he's walking around, but on the court, he's not as much.

He'll go into the paint.

I mean, he's going into the big ass, creating enough space, and it's falling every single time.

To your point, it felt like he was the only one really being dependent upon.

It's like, can he do that for the rest of his?

Is that what we should expect from Jalen for the rest of his?

There's no way he can keep that up for the rest of his career.

I mean, I think he's going to be a 20-point scorer for the rest of his career, but I think.

It was unfathomable.

As soon as he would get the ball, you just knew what was happening.

And up close in person, you know, he's a guy that also gets fouls called.

I think a lot of scorers get a lot of fouls called on them or whatever.

So that was like another thing.

People were calling him flopper, flopper, flopper, which is certainly an advantage to his game.

But if he had it, he was knocking it down.

He was cold-blooded.

It'll be interesting who the next coach is, whether they still play that way, because his usage rate was through the roof.

He had the ball all of the time doing whatever he wants.

So it'll be interesting if the new coach, whoever that is, comes in, if they take that same approach as like give him the ball and get out the way.

Or they try and, you know, some guys have schemes and like sets and offenses that they run.

And it'll be interesting to see who the next coach is and how that dynamic works.

I saw a lot of Knicks fans saying put Brunson on the bench, and I was agreeing with them.

Yeah.

Everybody on the other team would like you guys to do that, just so you know that as you go forward.

Go ahead, D-Bun.

No, I was about to say, you talked about calling sets.

I feel like I didn't see many sets, and I don't know, Ben, from the outside looking in, I would assume different coaches call more sets, more set plays.

But I just felt like the ball went to Brunson and it just stopped.

I mean, and I remember Kobe years ago talking about, I think, James Harden.

And like, look, you can average 37, you can win the MVP, but you're not going to win a championship like that.

Is that kind of how y'all see it as well?

Yeah, for me, that's definitely how I see it.

I mean, you got to have more movement, especially with all the guys they have.

I mean, Mike Kill Bridges was a 25-point scorer when he was in Brooklyn.

We know what OG and Anobi could do.

I think you got to move the ball and use some of those pieces.

I mean, some of them on max deals.

Yeah.

Crazy.

Yeah, like, I mean, OG was the highest paid on the team, so him not to even get that many touches or to be even part of the offensive scheme like that.

I think it was kind of tough to watch.

Speaking of leaving the Knicks,

have you ever seen somebody be able to jump besides Obi Toppin?

Nah, Obi Toppy is different.

Is he the most explosive player to ever play?

Legit.

Is he the most explosive?

I don't know about that.

I think he got a unique combination of the knife.

He's definitely a leader.

He's got bounce.

But you got to take into consideration he has crazy long arms.

His arms have a lot to do with how he can dunk so effortlessly because the length on his arms is crazy.

He did a double pump dunk in the fourth quarter against the Knicks to take the lead.

Got fouled.

They didn't call it because he's Obi-Toppin.

If he was anybody else, they would have called it.

But he hits his head off the rim, seemingly on a very regular basis.

And he's shown up for the Pacers a big way.

It's like every player we have has shown up in their role.

How important is that for a team that's going to have success?

And is that Carlisle or who is that?

It has to be Carlisle.

Carlisle is unbelievable.

Yeah, all these guys got unbelievable confidence.

They take shots that you normally wouldn't see.

Some of the role players, I would call them, take shots.

I think Nimhart in game one, he did a between the leg, between the leg, step back, three.

And a clutch moment.

And usually your star player or your go-to guy has the ball in those moments.

And for him to take that shot, just let me know what kind of team they have.

They have a real life all-together one-unit team.

Okay, Jim.

Carlisle don't get enough love, man.

He's one of the best coaches in the history of the game.

He's a championship coach.

He's got pedigree.

Every team he's coached always have an identity.

They hang their hat on something.

Whatever their identity is, they show up as that.

And I think when he gets through, man, he's going to finish up and go down as one of the best coaches ever, man.

Carlisle

is

a dude.

I agree.

Wild bapple ganger for Jim Carrey.

That's a fact.

I mean, like, even the younger, they were showing pictures of him back whenever he was with Reggie Miller when he was an assistant coach here.

He looks like a young Jim Carrey.

And then, whenever he's now, he obviously looks like an older Jim Carrey.

And what he does and the way he coaches, we love it here in Indiana.

I think it fits the state and the city perfectly, especially with the way you like to watch basketball.

Speaking of fitting the state perfectly, Jeff, you're the man.

Thank you for representing this city.

Wipe that South Hat, baby.

Wipe that South Hat, Southside, baby.

Where's Where's my Indians hat?

Cleveland or Indianapolis.

That's true.

Hour one is wrapping up here in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana.

It's been 9,126 days since this city has hosted an NBA Finals game.

Tonight will be absolutely insane.

Hour two, we have Udonis Haslam joining us and others.

Be a friend, tell a friend something nice that might change their life.

My daughter's here somewhere.

Let's go find her.

See you in the next hour.

Goodbye.

Thank you, Jeff T.

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Finals

are happening here for the first time in 9,126 days.

It's been since the year 2000 that the Indiana Pacers have hosted an NBA Finals game, and tonight it is about to be electrifying inside of Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Dead Center of Indianapolis, Indiana.

Look at that scene.

Dude, yeah, we are very lucky to be down here.

Shout out to the Simon family and the Pacers for trying to rebuild this entire part of the city.

This is one of the best backdrops we have ever seen in this state, and these people have come to hang out with us during their lunch hours.

It's a beautiful day here in Indiana.

It could be a great night if the Pacers are able to take a 2-1 series lead in the NBA Finals over the Oklahoma City Thunder in a pursuit of

Mr.

Beautiful Larry O'Brien.

Yes, sir.

I'll tell you what, I tried to pick this thing up earlier.

It is heavy.

I don't know how you weaken it.

Basketball players have been able to live this up, but I do appreciate it, and we are lucky to be here.

One half of the hammer.

Cowboys AP Tone is here.

Tony, any updates on the betting lines that we need to know for tonight's game three?

It has not moved.

It's been five and a half all week long.

The series price is Thunder minus $5.50 to win the series now.

SGA is the same exact as minus $5.50 to win the MVP because if the Thunder win the series, that man's going to be the MVP.

But I don't know if you heard during the break Q.

Rich was shooting.

He's obviously never seen White Man Can't Can't Jump because he didn't talk about Billy Hoe at all, but he's saying it's too windy for him to shoot out here.

Yeah, a little right to left.

A little bit right to left.

See, that's the thing about you very, very, very good basketball players.

Yeah.

Did you play much pickup outside when you were growing up?

When I was growing up, yeah.

But that's a long time ago.

A long time ago.

We got keys to every gym when we're in the NBA.

So whenever we go shoot in a different city, we can show up at a university or a high school or maybe even the NBA gym.

Guys like us, we got to come outside.

Yeah.

We got to be outside.

We got to deal with the elements a little bit.

Were you not making shots during the break?

I didn't make one.

I didn't make one.

I only shot two.

I said the wind comment when I was watching Sean shoot, though.

I was just noticing that the button.

Yeah, Sean's had a rough outing out here as well.

My daughter McKenzie put a couple up, put them down.

I appreciate it.

Awesome.

Star of the show.

Thank you.

Star of the show right there.

Yeah, that's the second time Mackenzie's come to the show and been on the show.

That was a real surprise there whenever Jeff Teague was giving a great answer.

Jeff Teague, who I wanted to pay respect to, and I appreciate him coming on the show.

First time he's been on Club 520 podcast host.

And then right over here, I see my daughter, and I'm like, oh, oh, my daughter.

My daughter is here, and it's great to see her.

It's great to see all of Indianapolis.

It's great to see the Toxic Table at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt.

Con man, you live downtown.

You pay taxes to this city.

Obviously, you would like to see the Pacers have a big night.

Yeah, I need a big night.

And we talked to a lot of X's and O's.

You know, I'm worried for one just because I haven't heard one Let's Go Pacers chant since we've been here.

Basically, all we hear is about the Thunder crowd.

That's all we hear.

That doesn't count.

They had to give it to him.

Yeah, hey, this Thunder crowd's crazy.

He has had a forced left.

And they've kind of been snoozing.

And the game three.

Look,

I'm just telling you how I see it.

Okay, and the game three thing, one of the game threes was on the 8500 day.

You can kind of throw that one out the window.

You've never won on the 8500 days.

You can throw that one out the window.

The one before, when they played Cleveland, that was the one where I looked around while I was in the arena like, oh, maybe these fans don't care about basketball.

Maybe this isn't the state of Indiana because I've been told they're loud and rompous, but I haven't heard much cheering today for the Pacers.

What are you talking about?

They're trying to watch the show.

They're trying to be a part of the show.

I suppose, you know, it's a great way to be part of the show.

Awesome Pacers chance.

That'd be nice.

We got the finals trophy right in front of us.

I've heard Obie Tompin chanted.

That's it.

I haven't heard any Pascal, anything else.

This Larry O'Brien is going to be staying here in Indianapolis, Indiana for at least the year.

Might be.

I'm not saying it should be.

I've already done too much.

I've already done too much.

I'm very thankful that they beat the Knicks with everything that kind of happened with me in that whole series.

Sure.

Oh, yeah.

Like, very, very happy that I wasn't the jinx.

You know, I wasn't the curse.

But I'll tell you what, get a chance to lift this bad boy up.

I would like to do that again with a parade here in Indianapolis.

And Ty Schmidt, I know you've been talking about what the city would be like if there was a parade coming through town and how many whiskeys you would potentially take down in celebration of the tie.

I mean, I have no idea if you can even put a number on it.

I think we might be just doing bottles, you know, because if the

weekend of Bernie's you're getting carried out of there without a doubt.

Yeah, that's Thai football.

Without a doubt.

This game tonight?

Yeah, without a doubt.

Carried out.

I mean, you might actually have to drag me out.

I don't know if you're carrying me out.

Puke everywhere.

I'm selling the farm for a Pacers championship.

Might shit my pants.

I don't know.

That's, I mean, we'll see.

We'll see what happens, but that's why the Pacers need to win tonight.

Q Ritchell Bopwood, you poop your pants.

We got good things happening here in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Nine-year NFL, not together.

Not together.

We've heard stories of that.

And also, not going to judge if that's what you're into.

Sure.

Nine-year NFL vet, Darius J.

Buller's here, D.

Boy.

Speaking of Bob Wood.

I'm excited as well, obviously.

Ryan here, Pacers compete for a championship.

My Florida Panthers competed for another Stanley Cup.

But in the break, me and Tone just kind of passing each other.

A lot of basketball talk, which we love.

But, boy, I can't wait to a football season.

Well, game day the game day commercial was on when when you guys were down in bloomington everywhere else and i was like oh my god it's just so everybody's getting excited for the chicago bears huh that's what's the bears bears again this man is a die-hard chicago bears fan this is 13 year nba thank you rich is that kayleb williams on your floor look no no it's rex girls the chicago

uh the bears are gonna be okay Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm looking forward to it.

It's been a long time coming.

A lot of hurt, hurtful years I've been enduring.

I couldn't even say anything to my friends about football.

Yeah, I've not been able to talk about football.

But basketball up there, too, right?

Not really.

Yeah.

It's not the same thing.

Hockey, not the same.

I don't cheer for the Bulls because once I got in the league, that was over with.

I was a Michael Jordan, that era of the Bulls fan coming up.

And once I made the league, it was like, forget the Bulls.

White Sox, yeah.

White Sox champions.

White Sox, Cubs, Blackhawks, everything else, Chicago.

Everybody's good?

All those teams are good?

Yeah, we got championships and everything.

Since when?

Check it.

I don't, I mean, we have championships and everything.

And also, you guys.

And everything.

And Zito just reminded me, Chicago native as well.

We also have the Pope.

True.

Oh, it's Pope.

Damn.

That's a good point.

God bless you.

Don't forget about the fire they bought at the Bears Stadium, Lynn.

Oh, yeah.

So let's talk about the NFL a little bit since we're all talking about that, or wanting to talk about that.

Here in Indianapolis, we are in the middle of a massive transition.

Obviously, Jim Merce passed away two weeks ago.

Rest in peace to him, him and thank you to him for everything that he did for the city.

Thank you, Jim.

And for the Colts.

So many things behind the scenes that nobody will ever learn about.

And I'm sure his family members don't even know about because Jim Mercy would literally just watch the news, see a story, and then he would have Pete Ward go and try to take care of it.

And then he would tell the person, don't say anything because there's, you know, big tax stuff and everything else that could potentially happen.

So just kind of keep it behind closed doors.

Don't want to out anybody for anything, but that's literally how Jim Merce operated here in Indianapolis.

So he passes on, he passes passes on the team to his three daughters.

And we all wonder to ourselves, yes, these three ladies have grown up in the league.

They've grown up around some of the greatest of all time at all the key positions in the sport of football and in the league of the NFL.

When you talk about quarterbacking, they've had Peyton Manning here.

They've had Andrew Luck here.

They've had Bruce Arians here.

They've had Clyde Christensen here.

And the girls have been around all of them, talk to all of them, hopefully learn from them.

When you talk about front office, well, Bill Pollion was around for a lot of their developmental years where they were able to ask questions and learn from Bill Pollion, who's a Hall of Famer in the general managing.

And then I just mentioned a guy named Pete Ward.

Pete Ward has been the CEO of the Indianapolis Colts or the president of the Indianapolis Colts since they got here in Baltimore, has handled so many different deals and negotiations and seen the league come from one thing into this mega, mega league that it is today.

So, when you talk about three girls that are potentially ready for the opportunity, I think the Ursa daughters would certainly be ready for the opportunity.

But we have no idea how it's going to go.

We saw one particular quote get sent around via Twitter and basically everything they're saying right now is about how they're expecting to be the best.

They're expecting this team to be great.

They're expecting everything to get better than what it was.

And she also talked about how some people have maybe made fun of her for wearing a headset on the sideline and have a play sheet on her arm and how she's been in different various things.

Her quote about that was, how do you know who's making the mistake if you don't know what the hell is going on?

She basically said I was wearing that headset so I could learn how these things all take place.

She didn't play football growing up.

She didn't get an opportunity to be in the huddle or in the meeting rooms and she has tried to take every opportunity to catch up on all the information.

She said sometimes people will say a wide receiver ran the wrong route.

Well, what if actually the wide receiver was tagged the wrong route and it wasn't the wide receiver's fault?

It was either the quarterback's fault or the offensive coordinator's fault.

She's been on the headset for the last three years.

There's been a lot of people that have questioned it.

But all she's done is taken notes, realized what people have done, gone to meetings, try to learn everything about it, so that when she inevitably becomes the owner like she is today, she can be confident in her role.

Here's her speaking about the standard of the Indianapolis Colts.

And I want to let the Ursa daughters know, the owners of the Colts, I love what you're doing here early to set the precedent.

Mike,

we are very confident.

Having said that, I think, you know, as my dad said before he passed,

you know, Chris and Shane know that they have things they need to fix.

And, you know, we talked about not micromanaging people, but also

we have a standard here and it hasn't been good enough.

And,

you know, winning is great, but I would even take it a step further and saying, you know, we're really committed to being the best.

And if we're the best, we will win games.

And I think Chris and Shane are totally capable of doing that.

And we're confident that they can.

I love what she's saying.

Listen, we want to be the best.

We don't just want to be good.

We don't just want to win games.

We want to be the best.

Chris and Shane know that they need to do better.

What did you hear there, Darius J.

Buller?

Like you said, it was a little more to the quote that I heard at least and just her speaking out on what the standard is.

Obviously, standards is championships.

The long-term commitment, I don't think she made any long-term commitment to Shane and Chris.

I think they could get it done as well.

But look, it's a standard of the standard.

You've got to get it done.

This city is looking for another championship.

They're looking forward to contend.

Pat talked about the great quarterbacks that we have here.

We haven't figured that quarterback situation out since Andrew Luck left.

So that's step number one.

If you don't have a quarterback, you don't have a chance.

But they've been getting prepared.

My last year playing here was 2017.

And Carly was very hands-on then.

So I'm sure she's more than prepared to take on this role.

And they've made some great moves this offseason.

They really opened up the checkbook, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

Brought in Denny Dimes to compete.

Starting quarterback job, we'll see how that works.

Drafted Tyler Warren.

I'm super, super happy about that.

Got some great pieces on the outside.

John Taylor, one of the best backs in the league.

So I'm excited right now.

It is June, but I am excited about the coach's future for sure.

Made a lot of moves on the defensive side.

I think what you hear from Carly there about the expectation of being the best sounds like she's going to be willing to pay, though, too, right?

Yes.

Like anytime you hear an ownership say these types of things, it's like, all right, that's going to fall on your shoulders as well on how we're able to get these contracts done.

Feels like they're ready to go all in.

Yeah, I thought that was awesome.

It was like, hey, listen, this is our money.

This is our family's money.

Like, I want to know if we're the coaches and the GMs that we're paying millions and millions and millions of dollars to, like, I want to make sure we have the right guys.

I'm not just going to, like, listen, I understand that I didn't, you know, grow up in the football world or I haven't been a coach or whatever the case may be, but it's like, hey, we're not just going to throw money willy-nilly around and be okay with that and just let a guy lose year after year after year.

So a little accountability, like, it was awesome to hear.

Yeah, and, you know, I talk about how

Mackenzie's got some stuff to say, too.

She can't censor herself.

She's going to wait until it's just a digital.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She's going to be ready.

Yeah, she doesn't.

She can play the piano a little bit.

She bats on it.

But whenever you talk about like,

and this might be the wrong way to look at it, but I think whenever there's a new ownership or new management or anything like that, everything they do is setting a precedent.

Everybody is watching everything that they're doing.

Players, agents, coaches, front office, other teams, everything they say and do is going to be magnified because it's the first time they're doing anything.

A guy exits the front office shortly after Carly gets in there.

She starts talking about standards and what she wants.

It's like, I think these are all great precedents that are being set by the Ursae girls who now take over the Indianapolis Colts.

Yeah, I mean they're saying all of the right things.

Like when you, when new ownership, and it's not exactly like new ownership because they were born and raised in all this, so they they know what to do.

Their dad taught them a lot, but they were saying all the right things.

And I think setting the precedent and saying that, you know, Chris and Shane Steichen, like, it hasn't been perfect yet.

They believe in them.

They said the same thing about AR.

Like, his start hasn't been great yet, but they still, they said they show believe.

They're not giving up on anybody yet, but they're saying like hey the clock is ticking we need to get this done now.

There was a couple times where Carly was giving an answer as Mackenzie has exited the stage.

Good job, pretty girl.

Yeah, give us a round of applause.

She's awesome.

That is so cool.

Anytime I get to see her.

What did you just mention there?

The

about how they were they said, hey, AR, Shane, Chris, it hasn't been great so far, but we still have hope in them.

Yeah, so when she was talking at the press conference, you saw her, there was a couple times where she could have gone one way, yeah, or she went another way.

And it was like you see her trying to figure out, like, do I bury here or do I take high road or how do I word this particular high road?

Because everything is magnified now.

Yep.

She's been doing media for the last few years.

She's been at the owner's meetings for the last few years.

Whenever you're the official owner, you could be the owner, which I think they all were alongside Jim Mercy.

I think it was the family.

But now that you're the acting owner, she's the one from the Colts in the room.

It's like, feels like she's done everything she possibly could to be prepared.

Got a lot of.

Yes, sir.

Nice.

Yes, sir.

That guy's fired up.

Yes, sir.

Oh, that's Engine 11.

That's firefighters.

Fire department.

I appreciate you.

Hey, Engine 11, I like that.

Good call.

Good line there.

It feels like she is, and she's a lawyer, I think, originally.

So we're talking about a big brain.

Intelligent.

Yeah, I talk about a big brain.

All the girls, obviously, big brains, but like, I think her willingness to want to learn, but there's a lot of people that want them to fail.

For sure.

I mean, I was looking at the internet.

There's a lot of people.

Really?

Yeah.

i they might be fake people on the internet might be bots something like that there's a lot of fake stuff on the internet yeah that's a lot there's a lot of there's a lot of things being said in the same fashion by a lot of different accounts seemingly oh okay much regular yeah much regular basis now than it had in the past on the internet but nonetheless there's people that are going to want them to fail i think they know that as well i think they understand the position they're in and i think they're excited for it well and if you're some of the players on the team too like we're talking about them talking about chris and steichen but if you're a player on the team that's been paid, you might have been comfortable last year, but now there's new ownership and they're talking about getting, you know, possibly having changes if things don't get better.

Then, if you're Jonathan Taylor, I won't go there with Pittman, but if you're some of those guys who are vets, who are Ballard's guys, I mean, you guys talk about it all the time.

They bring in a new GM, that GM is going to want his own guys in there.

So, even if you're one of those dudes who's been paid and you feel like you're an established vet and you're safe, like that, that's just not the reality.

So, you also have to ball out.

I mean, you talk about new GMs and how they operate.

I just broke some Colts record, went into free agency.

I was told by the new GM at the time, there is no loyalty between us.

I did not draft you.

And it's like, I thought I did pretty good.

I thought I did okay, but I understand there is an arrest.

There is a mug show.

There are some tweets.

I could see where you're coming from.

But with that being said, I like this place.

I was pretty good.

You were in an office somewhere else whenever all that was happening, but they do.

They have their own vision of the team.

Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen, a lot of pressure this year.

I think that's how we like it.

But I think there's also a lot of high hopes because there's a lot of talent on that roster and the Ursa family has paid a lot of people on that roster.

So for them to continue to not make the playoffs and be a winning organization, I think we'll see that change.

Let's go to another winning organization that has a lot going on right now.

Pittsburgh Steelers have a new quarterback.

His name's Aaron Rodgers.

How do you do?

Mr.

Rogers.

No hesitation.

Exactly.

Exactly.

He's straight in the program.

Hey, shut up.

I think that's a boo with the Pittsburgh Steelers, not a very boo.

I think it's the quarterback.

A lot happening with Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh right now.

Diggs, what is your take on how the Steelers-Aaron Rodgers relationship has begun life?

I mean, I don't have to get a take.

Everyone saw the videos of him out there on the practice field yesterday, just absolutely slinging around.

I mean, look at that.

Have you ever seen a better throwing motion?

That's a four-time NFL MVP.

Hugh, do you know that four-time?

Unfortunately, I do.

And the Steelers basically got him to.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I'm Chicago.

I forgot that.

You don't have to say that.

Don't say that.

He was out there slinging around yesterday.

He was slinging to DK.

The Steelers got DK Metcalf.

Metcalf this year.

It was easy for you to say, Mr.

Metcalf.

It wasn't easy.

It was, Mr.

Metcalf.

Aaron's

not some MAGA guy.

But no, they looked great out there yesterday.

He talked to the media.

He said, you know, he's done things for ego in his past.

He didn't make this move for his ego.

This was for his soul.

He wanted to play for another legendary franchise like he did for the Green Bay Packers.

The Steelers are very similar.

Everything went well yesterday.

He said it started with Coach T.

The respect for Coach T that he has is a big reason why he's there.

And he's looking to bring number seven back to the city of Pittsburgh.

Yeah, he was asked what a championship would mean for him at this stage of his career, and he turned and said, Well, this would be seven for Pittsburgh, right?

That's what it's all about.

It's like, great answer.

Great answer.

He was also asked about a piece of jewelry, I believe.

Oh, yeah.

Left ring fingers.

I didn't wore a ring or anything else that wedding ring.

Yeah, it's it's a wedding ring.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

How long have you been doing?

It's been a couple months.

A few more here.

A few more.

Talk a lot.

Hey!

Congratulations!

Congrats, Eric.

Exactly.

Yeah, is he married then?

He's wearing a wedding ring.

Is that when he's married?

Yeah, for a couple months.

Do you guys not listen?

So I'm happy for him.

If he's happy.

We would like to let you know, Aaron.

We are incredibly happy for you if you're happy no matter what the case is.

You can see clearly he did not want to really talk about it.

Let's move along.

But it is very notable, especially when you're a quarterback.

Exactly.

You know, because it's going to be on there.

Different weight distribution.

Happy for it.

Aaron, we're happy for you, buddy.

Happy for you.

Let's talk about the Detroit Lions.

Obviously, this is the brand new

Lions.

And because of that, Dan Campbell now is only...

28 wins away from being the all-time leader in winnings for the Detroit Lions.

28 wins.

Now, obviously, 17 games in a season.

This dude is awesome.

Okay, your thoughts as basketball player on like super meathead-like coach in football?

I love the enthusiasm.

I think he translates to his team.

Like when he first came, he was talking about biting limbs and stuff.

I was crying, laughing, but like you, you've seen

different people like that in sports resonate with a group of guys.

And like you see the impact he's had on that team.

And I love it.

Every time I see him, it's like he's the dude.

Get your heart, your blood boiling and going.

So, Carlisle is like an attention-to-detail, accountability-driven coach.

I think, I think he's like pretty well known as being like a hard-nosed coach.

How many different styles of coaching is there in basketball?

Feels like there's a lot of facilitators trying to make everybody happy.

Feels like there's some, uh, what was Phil?

Phil was like a guru, spiritual.

Carlisle was pretty attention to detail.

Like, what is the normal head coaching attitude?

I think, like you said, it's a lot of different ones, man.

It's a lot.

Some guys, like, like you say, really get after it.

And really,

the coaches that I like are the ones that don't back down.

They're not afraid to get up in whoever faces.

I like the guys that address the top guys first, and then it just flows down through the team.

Because if you could check the superstar, everybody else is going to fall in line.

Like, he's handling him like that.

We know what'll happen to us.

So, I like those coaches.

Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a three-time NBA champion.

His number is retired in Miami.

Feels like he could beat everybody's ass in this entire state.

Ladies and gentlemen,

you Donnish Haslow.

Man, you came up here with the championship.

He got the championship ring on that kid.

Holy shit.

He got a championship ring on, too.

That's how you feel.

And the watch.

That is a nice watch.

But TV ready.

That dude is not off the rack.

Look at him.

Holy shit.

Nice shoes, boy.

Look at you.

Come here.

He's the outfit today.

Look, the domesticated version.

Domesticated version.

You showed up to work today, boy.

Look at that.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Got a ring on?

You said that.

How many years in the NBA in total?

20.

Geez.

20.

This guy's going to be collecting his 401k

as soon as he's done with an NBA salary.

You look unbelievable.

The championship ring looks spectacular.

Obviously, that's what we're all hoping for

here in Indiana.

The Pacers have never won an NBA title.

Whenever you think about the grandness of that, is that something that the players think about, the weight of that you think is on the Pacers' shoulders, or are they just worried about individual games?

No, I think the weight of it is definitely on their shoulders.

They understand they have a chance to make history.

It's not easy to get to where they are.

Obviously, I think nobody would have picked them to get this far.

But me, loving the underdogs, I picked the pacers that win this series.

You loving the underdogs, I picked the pacers in winning this series.

But if it's one thing that I do think they have...

There you go.

Finally.

That's good.

That's good stuff.

Let's go, Ricky.

Okay.

That's good stuff.

Yeah, great stuff.

Great stuff.

We appreciate you doing that, too.

Tricky, Ricky.

Rick Carlisle.

Yes.

Tricky Ricky.

I think Rick Carlisle is going to let these guys know what time it is.

They're going to understand the moment.

They understand that they're fortunate to be in this situation.

They will not take this for granted, and they will give their best version and give their best foot forward.

I'm with them.

You're undrafted, so I think that's potentially why you love the underdog story.

I think you're also a guy that was a culture setter for teams.

Yes.

We have a guy named James Johnson.

Have you seen this guy?

That's my guy.

That's my guy.

Okay.

He was my young fellow.

Okay, so

that makes a lot of sense.

With that being said, I've heard he has a black belt.

Everybody just says, like, I heard he had a black belt.

Like, he is a real deal.

Oh, I seen it.

I seen it firsthand.

Okay, I love that.

I'm going to ask you about his role and you think the importance of it because I watched it against the Knicks.

So there was three Knicks fans that were sitting front row.

I just so happened to be in those seats that were next to the bench.

Felt like I was part of the team.

We got a big win that night.

Yes, you did.

So there was a timeout happening, and there was three Knicks fans that were front row.

And this guy was a great shit talker.

Obviously, clearly out of New York, had a little bit of an accent, but he was targeting Tyrese Halliburton in this timeout loudly.

Okay, coming over my shoulder.

James talks to this man, says something

horrendous.

I would say something very, very, very,

I mean, just a shot right across the bowel.

That guy immediately turns his attention off of Tyrese, talks to James Johnson the rest of the game.

That's leadership.

Bingo.

That's leadership.

Like, I literally watched his role unfold in real time.

Everybody thinks he's like a guy that'll come and clean up or like a body guy if there's a fight.

But I saw him literally take a shit talker away from Tyrese to him.

That role seems to be very vital.

Also, a lot of clapping, a lot of upping, everything like that.

Is that the role?

And is that how you kind of felt throughout a lot of your career?

Yes, and that is a very important role to be not only a protector, but also a connector.

And James Johnson is a guy who not only protects those guys, but he connects those guys in the locker room.

When we talk about being a part of something that I was a part of, when you talk about culture, that's a brotherhood.

That is something that is not just built in practice from those practice hours.

That is spent time off the basketball court, getting to know one in each other's family, getting to know how somebody got to where they point.

And also, it's something that me and James always say, have enough heart for everybody.

Have enough heart for everybody.

If this guy doesn't have enough heart, don't worry about it.

I got you.

If you don't have enough heart, I got you.

Don't worry about it.

We'll be fine.

I remember when there was a conversation, I think, about Jimmy and Spo getting into it a little bit.

And I don't remember if you came out publicly and said it or if everybody else was saying it for you.

UD will fight for a coach bolster, anybody.

Yeah, I was going to whoop Jimmy ass.

So it's okay.

And I love Jimmy.

That's nothing against Jimmy.

But before I let one guy take down this locker room, I whoop your ass.

That's awesome.

It's very

wide.

All your teams.

There's 15 other guys here that got the right mindset.

Before I let this one guy take down these whole 15, I whoop your ass.

And so

you talked to Mark Messier the other day, and he's considered like the captain, and he was giving a speech basically for the Edmonton Oilers, if he was their captain.

Do you find yourself doing the same thing for teams?

Because I just heard your leadership on display for that one comment, let alone over 20 years in the NBA.

Do you feel like you get in a moment where you're like, I wish I could say this to this team or this at this particular time?

All the time, all the time.

And that's why I got into TV because I sit at home watching games and I started to complain and throw shit at the team.

Excuse me.

I started to complain and throw shit.

You're good.

Oh, okay.

I can say it.

I started to complain and get frustrated at home, and that's why I got into TV because I always have something to say.

Even now with social media, now you can reach out to these young guys.

How many young guys got DMs from me?

And I ain't sliding in your DMs for the wrong reasons.

I'm sliding your DMs to give you advice.

I don't even know you, have never met you, have never played with you.

But if I'm watching your game and you're not playing the game the right way, you might get a DM from OG about, that's that bull.

Let it out.

You could have said it there once again and figured that out.

I would have loved it.

And I like that you're sending DMs to guys and telling them, hey, on the defensive end, Q Rich says it all the time.

We need to bop some wood down there.

Yeah.

Bop it.

Bop Bobby.

I don't know if I use the term bop some wood, but something like that.

You can probably take it after this.

Bobbin wood, everyone's doing it right now.

You were,

I think you still are, in player development for the heat.

Yes.

Do you just kind of look at like a player like Pascal Siakam and show guys like, hey, this is how you can go through the G League, do it the right way, and then become all NBA, become a champion?

What is kind of your

strategy for developing

i i love i love using guys like pascal siakum guys like myself because at the end of the day you got a better chance of being me a pascal than you got of being lebron yep sure that's just the reality of the situation i think everybody looks at what lebron is and what he's capable of and i take nothing away from you know what he does on the basketball court and how hard he works but at the end of the day Everybody ain't gonna be 6'9, 270 and can run a 4'3

and can jump 48 inches in the air.

That's just not the reality for everybody.

So I like to lean in on the hard work.

I tell everybody, don't trust me, regardless of what I say.

I can say anything.

Trust the work that you put in.

The work is never going to lie to you.

So I love workers.

I'm always going to bet on a guy that's going to put the work in.

Work ethics is the greatest thing on earth.

It's the greatest trait to have.

See Ockham, you talk about being 6'9,

being able to run a 4'3.

He's unbelievable.

Oh, yeah.

He ran the Knicks off the court.

I mean, it was very clear when he did that.

He wins the MVP, and his wingspan might be eight foot.

It's and he's

been that shit.

Reminds me of a guy you play with, Reggie Wayne.

Oh, yes.

Let's just get out there and go get it, don't he?

Just get out there and go get it, don't he?

I know them hurricane boys now.

I'm a hurricane guy.

I know all the hurricanes that came through here.

Edge, the Edge Regions, the Reggie Wayne.

I know all them guys.

I know you didn't play with EJ, but he was here, though.

Oh, I love Edge.

I heard Edge speak.

Uh, he spoke at Mr.

Ursay's funeral.

It was maybe the greatest speech of the entire day.

Very Edge, very you, throughout the entirety while honoring Jim Ursa.

But yeah, the U has a great history here in in Indianapolis.

Reggie's so smooth.

I think that is a great way to describe Pascal because he's just so damn smooth.

Debunt, South Florida, boy, has a question for you.

South Florida, boy, first of all, thank you for everything you did for the team, for the organizations down here.

For game three with the Panthers, even with Bam on the drum, needed that big asshole.

But we talk about leadership, hard work, work back,

all that.

We had a conversation, I think, about Mike Beasley with the one-on-one.

You talked about if he was drafted to a different team, maybe things have went a little differently.

Now, I know.

So, like,

heat culture.

That's one of the buzzwords, almost like Patriot Way in football.

What is it really about being in that building with Riles?

We had Bron on, he mentioned it too.

What is it about being in the world?

He's with you 20 years.

Heat life.

That's true.

So, what is it about being in that building that's kind of different than other buildings?

I'm looking at some of these free agents, Giannis, KD, potentially on the move, that could potentially fit in down there.

What is it about that building?

Who can't fit in down there?

The thing about heat culture is heat culture is about something that's always going to be bigger than you.

That's the first thing and foremost when you step into heat culture, that it's always going to be bigger than you.

Even the superstars, it's going to be bigger than you.

It ain't going to be bigger than Riley, but it's going to be bigger than you.

So when you step into that arena, you understand you're stepping into an atmosphere where you're asked to sacrifice from the jump immediately.

I understand what you did when you was at Chris Bosch.

I understand what you did when you was at LeBron.

I understand what you did when you were here, D-Wade.

That doesn't matter anymore.

We all have to sacrifice.

So when you talk about heat culture, it's about sacrificing, man.

And that's a foreign language to a lot of guys when they get in this position.

It's easy when they say, Q have to sacrifice or you D have to sacrifice, but then when the coach say, I gotta sacrifice, this is a, who, me?

Me too?

No, not me.

So now when you have 15 guys, 16, 17 guys, on the same page, one accord, willing to sacrifice for one common goal, I think that's when you get into heat culture.

And a lot of times you just don't have that in every locker room because you have superstars.

But we had the big three and the little 12.

And the little 12 was just as valuable as the big three.

And you don't have that in every locker room.

A A lot of times you have the superstars, and the other guys kind of just hang out over here.

Now, I said from this point, because he's in a specially unique situation, because he was there for his whole career.

I'm a person that's been in a lot of different locker rooms and can speak to why that's different.

Because when I, you remember when I got there, that's my dad.

When he was there, the first day when I got there, him and James Johnson in the gym, I got straight off the plane.

When I say straight off the plane, don't take me to no hotel, nothing.

I got my bags in the locker room.

First thing you do, strip down, waiting body fat.

Then you go run until you throw up.

And I'm not, UD.

Am I, when I got to that day?

I came down in the locker room.

UD was sitting there.

I'm over here just laid out.

UD and JJ, UD say, I ain't even going to do much about a lot of you, boy.

He like, they trying to see if you're going to quit.

He's like, they just throwing a kiss.

He's like, they throwing, you ain't supposed to be doing the stuff you doing yet.

He was like, you ain't give up, though.

He was like, he's like, Bill going to take a picture of your throw up every day.

I thought the workout was done.

I done threw up down here at this

He come walking down there and snapped the picture.

Said it's

his, what's his quote?

It's a great day to work.

Great day to work.

Great day to lift.

Great day to live.

So it's not like that everywhere you're saying.

Listen, the thing that makes it different, because yeah, everywhere you go.

Can you win in 2025 like that?

2026?

Yes.

Yes, you can.

Yes, you can.

But like, the difference is this.

Because, like, I've been places, say, like, like, Bill, the guy we're talking about,

he come say, dude, you got a workout, you got to lift.

He gonna tell you that and walked away.

Other places, you got people that's going to try and massage the situation and work with you, and we could work.

Nah, look, this is what you got to do.

If you don't want to do it, go up there and talk to Pat.

It's frowned upon.

It's frowned upon for the guys that quit.

It's frowned upon and not being in shape.

Yeah.

It's frowned upon from the other 14 guys.

So before Pat has to say something, before supposed to say something, the guys in the locker room have already policed this situation.

I don't know how.

If you quit now, then you could quit in the fourth quarter.

I don't know how you.

Hey, I love that.

I just got back from Paris Island boot camp camp for the Marines.

Love everything about it.

But it's like, that's their mindset.

It's like, we need to, it needs to be hard now.

Because whenever we're out there together, obviously it's different than a basketball game or a football game, but we're going to need you when we're out there.

So we're not scared of hurting your feelings right now because we're going to need it inevitably.

I do wonder in basketball if in 2025, 2026 that can go.

Because I think Carlisle kind of has a similar operation.

And they talk about the cardio.

J.J.

Rennick mentioned it with the Lakers.

We need to be in better shape.

in pockets.

E-May.

He's not playing no games out here.

Papavitch, before he stepped away, wasn't playing no game.

It's places

where there's a real culture in place.

Obviously, Miami is a standard, but I mean, it's still pockets of teams around the league that they're operating that way.

Well, how did it work with Shaq then?

Because it felt like, at least in Shaq's documentary, he would basically talk about the first two months of the regular season is when he's just getting into shape, and then by Christmas, he's living.

How was it in Miami with Shaq then?

How was it?

They had to alter it a little bit for Big Flock.

He wasn't on the 5% body fat scale like everybody else.

But he used to put oil on when they was trapped on the street.

Yeah, I would get into that.

He got down to about 10, 12% body fat, which was great for him.

Yes.

But he used to put baby oil on.

So when they try to pinch him.

When they try to pinch you to take the body fat,

it used to slip.

It used to slip.

So he probably was about 15, but after it slipped, it was about 10 to 12.

The best is when I got there, no, when I got there,

they would tell the stories of like how

they had to get a new scale because he would try and hide the scale.

They had the joint, did you?

What was it?

Animals on these scales, right?

This is the move.

So we had guys that would be trying to get around the scale.

Every Friday it was a weigh-in.

So Thursday nights, guys were drinking the things that you do before you do a colonoscopy.

Just so you shit your pants off.

Oh, look.

Oh, night, yeah.

A.Q.

Shipley is the person I'm referring to.

He had to lose like 12 pounds every Thursday night.

He'd get on a scale and he would try to sneak just one finger on the thing in front of him.

You could lift off like five pounds if you just press the button.

Like making all these rules, it sounds like Shaq with the baby oil was

the right player.

I think AQ Shipley maybe should have been lubing up a little bit.

Yeah, but seven foot three, 300 pound, greased up.

At least three.

I was like, yeah, you go ahead and take your body fat by yourself.

I'm going to just wait outside.

Connor has a question for you.

Yeah, but with that era, the shot, like you played through both of them.

There's old clips coming out of the finals in 2006 and there's two guys on the block and now everyone's out on the perimeter.

How was that transition for you as a player and just kind of watching the league change as you know from 2006 for the next 20 years?

I mean fortunately for me I was undersized anyway.

So once the league started to change a little bit,

the guys that could guard multiple positions kind of came into play.

I was one of those guys that guarded multiple positions.

The thing that changed for me was when the three-point line became the most important thing.

You You know what I'm saying?

It was just we don't want anything but dumps and threes.

We don't want any mid-range.

So once the mid-range got taken out of the game, I think that changed my career a little bit.

But I think.

You made some threes, though.

That was crazy.

I couldn't believe that.

But you made some threes.

You know me.

Perception ain't reality.

Mid-range.

How are you able to shoot with that pinky?

Oh, this one?

Yeah.

Yeah, but I feel like that would jab.

Not at all.

Not at all.

Off the ball.

That's just like a guide hand.

It ain't really doing much.

Yeah, but I mean, that thing's not guiding anything.

It's saying turn right.

You just put it on the side of the basketball.

Yeah, it don't matter.

How long has the finger been like that?

You said that pinky game.

Long as I can remember.

Pinky.

Long as I can remember.

What's the point of getting it fixed?

I'm probably going to break it again.

That's what I said.

I'm just going to break it again.

Jersey or basketball?

Basketball.

Just bang.

How many busted fingers in basketball?

I've broken them all.

They've all been broken.

Well, carrying around all those rings.

A little heavy down there.

They've all been broken.

But guess what?

Never missed the game, never came out.

Hell yeah.

Boom.

That's what I'm talking about.

That's Udi.

That's good.

Town has a question for you.

Yeah, UD, you've been on so many good teams.

You talked about all those teams that went to the finals.

I mean, as an eighth seed, you guys went to the finals.

You went Shaq and Wade, the big three.

What was the one constant with all those teams on why they went to the finals?

And do you see that in either of these two teams?

We weren't the best team, but I think

we were the most...

Connected team.

Yeah.

We were the most connected team.

And that's what I learned from the great leaders.

I think all the leaders that I played with, the Shaq's, the LeBrons, the Alonzo Mornings, is regardless of how good you are, how good you coach, if if you don't really mess with your teammate like that, if y'all don't really get along, if y'all haven't created a brotherhood in this locker room, because I tell you what, it's easy to punch in from one to two or whatever your hours are, but when you're playing for a brother instead of a teammate, it just takes it to a whole nother level for you.

So I think the power of connection, and that's what you guys have here.

These guys are talking about Indiana, the power of the brotherhood.

Come on.

You know what I'm saying?

To me, that beats a talented team seven days a week and twice on Sunday.

I'm taking the brotherhood.

I'm taking the connected guys.

Okay, you picked the Pacers in this series.

Go ahead, ahead, D-Bud.

No,

on that note, like, obviously, lifetime Heat fan, you were there.

2011 Heatles, he goes up against the Carlisle coach teams.

What is it like being in the trenches against a team that's coached by him?

Obviously, that was a much different team, very different makeup.

But I feel a lot of similarities with this Pacers team.

What's it like being in the trenches with Rick Carlisle?

I'm telling you, Tricky Rick is a hell of a coach.

Rick Carlisle is a hell of a coach.

And not just offensively, because we talk about what they do offensively, but defensively as well.

He threw a zone at us in that finals and you would think that 15 grown men can score on a zone.

We didn't know what the hell to do.

Went all the way to the finals and could not score against a zone out of all things.

So Rick Carlisle threw that.

So, you know, for me,

I look at Rick Carlisle and I look at that team and I say to myself, he's the X factor.

You have a lot of guys.

You have Obi who's going to step up.

Benedict finally got it going last game.

He's a guy who you depend on offensively as well.

Miles Turner got it going.

But I think Rick Carlow is the X Factor.

Okay, let's talk about Daggs on the other side.

People are saying he's an incredible coach.

Obviously, he's younger than Coach Carlisle for the Oklahoma City team.

What do you see from their squad that he potentially brings?

He's a hell of a coach.

And also, he's a Gator, so go Gators.

I got to give him that now.

I got to give him that.

I got to give him that.

I got to go, man.

You guys might have a football team again.

You know that?

Basketball champs.

Yeah, basketball champs might have a football team again, too.

Oh, yeah, that QB.

Yes.

And also, Napier's like culture, like, settling in there.

Yeah, they turned it around, not give up last year.

Yeah, but I love what he does.

And one thing what I'll say about Dagonal is how you can tell that he's a good coach, is that he got a young team playing the right way on both sides.

It's not just playing offensively the right way, they play defense the right way.

They hold each other accountable.

The five guys on the string, you can tell guys are rotating and pulling triggers.

You can tell they go through dummy defensive practice.

Yeah, you can tell they dig the elbows, they take their 2.9 on each side, they do everything.

So they're very well coached.

Digging elbows, bopping wood.

Bopping wood.

That's Coach Carlisle team.

We had a lot of problems up here today.

Yeah, yeah.

You do.

I'm wondering what's going on.

What should we look for?

You guys need to relax with the way you think about stuff.

You guys are saying it.

We're talking basketball.

This is sports programming.

Yeah, that's what we're doing.

Yeah, UD.

I'm talking basketball.

Bop Wood.

UD.

What should we look for tonight at the beginning that's going to indicate who's going to win this game?

Can we tell?

Well, I think both teams are going to be more settled in.

I think we've only had six lead changes in two games, which is crazy.

You know, I'm saying six lead changes in two games total is crazy.

So I think this will be more of what we're accustomed to.

A lot of lead changes.

I do think Tyrese Harlenberg will be a lot more aggressive in the first first half to set the tone of the game.

Even if it's not in full court and half court, I think he needs to target those bigs in the pick and roll.

They're in the drop coverage.

That way he can get to his pull-up three.

You also got the throwback to Miles Turner.

So he's need to attack the five-man.

On the other end, when I look at OKC, man, I was a little disturbed because once again, I picked Indiana.

It was scary to me that they went on that run in the second quarter without SGA in the game.

That made me a little nervous if I'm Indiana.

So I'm looking for those guys on OKC to look at that lineup and say, okay, we went on a 19-2 run with SGA on the bench to finish out the second quarter.

We can go with this lineup a little more.

So I'm looking for them to play that small lineup with just one big, but to have Wiggins, Kason Wallace, Caruso, and J-Dubb running the point.

That was a good matchup for them.

That was a good lineup.

All right, we'll look for that.

Obviously,

need to do pick the roll with the big man, pick it, get the five points.

Do the whole thing.

Got the five-point

elbows.

Yeah, dig elbows out.

Chopwood.

Chop wood.

Bobby.

Chop wood.

Bob.

We appreciate you so much.

Are you on TV today or are you just always dressing?

I'm on TV today, but this is domesticated OG.

No, it ain't.

Don't try to get him fooled.

Now, listen, he shows up and he looks presentable like he's supposed to be for work.

He's dressing in flip-flops if he ain't doing this.

He got flip-flops, confident going.

Yeah, as you should.

We heard that.

Chicago turned Florida boy.

You don't wear gym shoes no more.

A lot of flops off.

Yeah, yeah, no, yeah.

Once again, once again, I just look like this.

Don't run up on me on the streets playing.

I'm not the guy.

It just looks like this.

Now you are the guy.

We classed in 98, too.

You know, we same class of high school.

And this guy been playing against each other for years.

Since 15, that's when we first met each other.

Yeah, because I'm camping.

In basketball, you guys, like in high school, are basically playing against guys that you know are going to make it, right?

We met each other in New Jersey.

What was it, Teenock, New Jersey, ABCD, Adidas camp?

We got this thing, we say real, recognized, real.

So when I got to the camps, I'm like, don't want to hang out with those guys.

Don't want it.

Them Chicago guys look like the kind of guys.

They look like my kind of guys.

these these look these these chicago guys look like our kind of guys you know what i mean jeff teague buried chicago in the first hour i don't know if you heard him yeah he buried right to his face well he actually was looking this way said indiana's better at basketball yeah indiana's better at basketball

incredibly fly looking tough guy ladies and gentlemen you don't have to

My dog.

Yeah.

All right, appreciate you.

Thank you, guys.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Tony.

Thank you, Dick.

Thank you, Rich.

Hey, thank you, UD.

Q Rich.

Thanks for just crumpling that plastic bottle.

That's what that was?

Yeah, just squash a plastic bottle right into your microphone.

Oh, my bad.

I didn't know I did that.

No, it was awesome.

It was a nice little, it was a good moment.

Kept it alive.

UD's a dog.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Since days ago,

the dog.

You said since you were 15 years old, you guys know each other?

Yep, met each other.

It was NBA camp, actually.

NBA camp, Teenac, New Jersey.

Yep.

Him just talking about the culture.

It's so much more similar to football than I realized.

Because I always just thought.

What down there?

What's that?

Down there in Miami.

Yeah, but then he started talking about here in Indiana.

Then we started talking about Oklahoma City.

Then he started talking about Missoula.

He started talking about all these other coaches that are like Ime, I think, is also a hard-nosed coach.

It's like basketball is much more accountability-driven than I imagine because I always thought it was just, I mean, yeah, I played pickup basketball.

The guys who are on the floor are the ones that are going to decide this.

It's like, there's so much more to it if you want to be great.

I love hearing that.

Q, was uh, like, when it was the Heatles, big three, like, was he the leader on the team, or was it D-Way?

Do you know?

I don't know who they would say, but I know he was he was one of them.

Yeah, it's not a locker room that he's been in, and he's not going to be one of the leaders.

Those type of things are natural.

You can't just pick and choose.

They just rise, and you can see it.

It oozes out of him.

He's a leader.

Everything about him, he shows leadership.

And any room he's in or team he's going to be a part of, he's going to be one of those guys.

I love hearing that leadership matters because I think sports kind of create those at a more rapid rate than anywhere else.

Listening to Mark Messier, what was that, yesterday?

Yeah.

Case want to ice skate through a wall.

Yes.

And then you got UD in here talking about what players need to do and teams need to do.

He said he's sending DMs while watching games.

Can't be having it.

That's not our league.

I love the care.

I love the compassion.

And I love the leadership.

And I also love that we're getting free food, I think.

Yeah, I believe they're bringing some food up.

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the official chefs of the arena, wanted to make us some food.

I'm not 100% sure.

What?

Yes, sir.

Come up, please.

Thank you so much.

Chef.

Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef, Chef.

Thank you so much.

What?

Hell yes.

Okay.

Chef Albano?

You got it.

Chef Albano, can you turn again, right?

Over here, face this way so we can get you on camera, showcase that beautiful face, Chef.

Chef, what do we have here surrounding the Larry O'Brien trophy?

So Levy's bringing it to the table today to support this wonderful championship.

Brian, here we got some awesome food.

Hell yeah, Levy.

Thank you, Levy.

We're going to start out with our three-point combo.

You've got Italian meatballs, Italian beef, and chicken parmesan.

Oh,

three-point combo.

This is Steph Curry in food.

Okay.

All right.

Next up, we got our Indiana pork stir.

We've got a grilled brat, bacon jam, a crispy pork tenderloin, bacon, and a little bit of spicy brown mustard.

Yes!

This sandwich has a bone in it.

I don't think that is.

No, I have to do a little demo here for you, Pat.

Okay, hold on, let's make sure the candle gets it because it feels like this meat might be moving.

Go ahead.

All right, so we've got a one-pound brownosaurus bone here.

Okay, slow-smoked overnight.

We're serving it on the bone, but watch this.

Watch it!

That was insane.

Hey, good meat bone.

Right off the bone.

Bomb that you can bomb at me.

All right, right here.

This is for our friends from Smoking Goose just down the street, locally crafted.

Pork belly and cheese curd sausage.

Killer.

Wow.

Pork sausage sauce.

Yeah, that is super glizzy.

And

last item here, a little different.

This is a tuna pokey nacho.

Oh,

really tasty.

Not the hokey pokey.

Not some fresh tuna.

The tuna pokey nachos.

These look delightful.

Chef Albano, thank you so much for bringing these out.

Thanks for sliding your meat off there.

Hey, and

this is unbelievable work by you guys and the entire crew.

Thank you.

Go Pacers.

Thank you, Chef.

Thank you, Chef.

Chef got some pizza to him.

He lost her.

You lost her.

Love to see me.

Where did they fly the Italian food in from?

There's no Italians really out here in Indianapolis, but

who would I be not to eat Chef Albano's meat here before

we get out of here?

We have about eight more minutes here on ESPN before we go digital, and what I want to let you know is going to happen in the digital portion of this.

Chew Rich is going to try to accomplish the impossible, which is make a few shots in the wind, which

I've heard is going to be a difficult attack.

We'll also talk to the co-host of the Knuckleheads podcast, Legend Darius Miles, who is here.

And we'll also break down everything else happening around the sports world.

Before we head off to digital land on this beautiful NFL Finals Wednesday, June 11th, let me

take down this slow roast overnight meat that Chef Albano brought out here.

Would you like to try some of this kosher meat?

I think DB wanted to try to design it Lizzie.

Here's a little pork tendy with a little bacon mash.

Swine, my brother.

Here's a three-point meat for you.

And then there's some chicken pork.

This is the tuna hokey pokey, which I think we should keep right here.

I think we should keep that probably in here.

Okay.

Cheers to Chef Al Bono.

Cheers to the Pacers.

Cheers to the city of Indianapolis.

They cut this.

And we appreciate the hell out of the free food.

I'm supposed to just pick up the entire.

Yeah.

They don't cut this thing or no?

I believe that tuna is actually fresh cash in the canal as well.

Well, you don't want to go in that canal

Just a heads up.

It's a direct path to jail

from what I've been told

Allegedly.

Allegedly

Allegedly.

There is a story never mind.

Let's talk about some good shit happening around the world.

Jeffrey Lurie, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles,

is donating $50 million to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for an autism research and development.

Thank you, Jeffrey Lurie, for doing that.

Especially with how much we're learning about autism and the numbers of people that are having this at more, it's more rapid now than ever before.

Jeffrey Lurie putting up his own money, 50 million, it's the largest donation, obviously, in this field to do some research behind it and hopefully combat it a little bit is a beautiful thing.

I always like when rich people do the right thing.

Yeah, that's awesome, man.

Definitely.

Like you say, autism is a huge thing, and we're becoming more educated about it, so that's definitely to a good cause.

Especially as somebody who has a two-year-old, you know, I have a daughter and hopefully continue to grow the family.

It's like these are always things you got to think about now with like her development and other kids that you meet.

How's it going?

Jeffrey Laurie said, let's at least try to play a little defense against it.

I love that.

Not always are billionaires,

you know, philanthropic with their money.

A lot of billionaires potentially do things to offset other stuff and they don't actually want to give.

This feels like something of genuine want.

This is just like how Jim Mercy operated.

And I think if you listen to the speech that was given at the funeral with a lot of the other owners, there's a lot of people saying, hey, if you have the means, you should.

That's kind of what Jim Mercy operated like.

And I love to see other owners doing it as well.

Yeah, it's awesome.

Like, you talk about it, and it's definitely growing and growing and growing.

$50 million, I assume, is going to go a long, long way.

You talked about it being the highest donation of all time for

that.

Like, owners, like, was it at the funeral?

No, I do not believe he was.

Because I was saying, I wonder if he was, you know,

moved by it, yeah.

Yeah.

A little draw, a little inspiration.

I hope that comes, and I hope the world continues to get better by people who are in a position to make the world better.

Let's talk about some good stuff happening in baseball.

Did you hear about a home run robbery?

Ty, I believe there is a highlight maker playing baseball right now.

Yeah, Denzel Clark for the Oakland A's is an absolute beast.

You can see this is

Nolan Chanel, and this might be the best catch in the last 50 years of baseball.

Phil,

this dude got called up like two weeks ago, two, three weeks ago.

Like I think, yeah, like May 26th maybe was his first day in the bigs.

He's had three of these highlight catches already.

Here's another one against Toronto.

I believe he's actually from Toronto.

Just robbing another homer casually.

Like, you know, you see the first one, and he makes that one, which is an incredibly tough catch.

he makes it look so easy and then the last one i everyone talks about that one against the a's being the best one i think this is his best of the three against the orioles just full send right into the ball

broke the wall yeah exactly and to hold on to the ball through that like this guy is arguably already the best center fielder in baseball he's only been in the show for like three weeks so just so i mean the a's absolutely stink so this is kind of the only thing to watch when you're looking at the oakland a's the pitcher's reaction every time is awesome Yeah, the pitcher knowing that they just gave up a home runner, a big hit, and then him saving their life is fantastic.

Same pitcher on two of them and then a new one.

Yeah.

So they love this guy.

So this is Golden Glove awards.

Without a doubt.

Yeah.

And is there a Golden Glove in every position?

Yes.

Okay, so if he doesn't play the entire season, you said he just got caught up a couple weeks ago.

Yeah.

Is he still?

Is there any contention for said awards because of the highlights and because of how he'll play?

So Golden Glove is more like fielding percentage.

I mean, they definitely take into account guys making plays like this, but it's pretty much like how clean is he going to play.

If he's not having a bunch of errors and he has a high fielding percentage, then he'll have a good opportunity.

But obviously for baseball, you make a couple catches like this and kind of get on everyone's radar.

Yeah, there's a good chance that he's going to win the gold glove this year.

And they're playing in a minor league park this year, right?

Correct.

Okay, so he's climbing minor league walls.

I can't wait to see him climb all the walls.

Maybe get some pinstripes on him or Pittsburgh Pierre.

We're okay with our center fielder right now.

His batting average is absolutely dog shite, so he's kind of a one-dimensional player at the moment, which is okay.

It's okay because he's in Oakland.

But yeah,

why not?

I'll take pinstripes on him.

Chew, Rich, you live in Florida.

Do you golf at all?

A little bit.

I'm toying with it, getting better.

Okay, you know what's happening this weekend?

I do not.

The hardest tournament of the year is happening in the...

beautiful eastern hills of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the U.S.

Open.

In Oakmont, a place that you used to caddy at as a young buck, is primed and ready to kick some golfer ass this weekend.

Yeah, I caddied there going into my senior year of college.

Unfortunately, drinked.

Did you do this?

No, I did not.

You know, the Greenskeepers are the highest of high jobs there.

They're held to a different standard than the Caddys.

But they've talked about all week long how the rough is insane.

There's videos of all the golfers dropping it in the rough and not being able to get out and stuff like that.

There was a golfer yesterday who putted it on one down the hill 120 yards to about three feet.

All the golfers are saying that this is the hardest course that they have ever played.

Rory said he shot an 81 here here last week and didn't think he played very bad.

He said he birdie the last two to shoot 81.

So yeah, it's going to be awesome.

The dentist,

the dentist Matty Vogt leads everything off tomorrow morning with the first T-shots.

That'll be fun.

But yeah, it's going to be awesome all weekend long in Oakmont PA.

90% of the course, though, is in Plum PA, just so everybody knows.

Yes, everybody knows Plum Senior High School is where the ballers ball and the players play.

Yeah.

In the East Hills of Pittsburgh, they will host the U.S.

Open this weekend.

Scottie Scheffler, the odds-on-favorite, because of how great of a golfer you have to be to win any U.S.

Open.

We continue here in Indianapolis, Indiana, as the NBA Finals

are here for the first time in 9,126 days.

We appreciate all these people hanging out.

We appreciate you watching at home.

We'll continue on YouTube, ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, and TikTok Live.

Be a friend, tell our friends something nice that might change our life.

Pacers in six.

We'll see you tonight.

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I really got them going.

Now it's just us.

Now it's just us.

Now it's just us.

We're no longer on TV.

We're no longer on the airports,

televisions across the country, cafeterias, and all that type of stuff.

Did you feel like they performed better in the second hour?

I think those fans had a great hour.

Yeah, no doubt they performed better, but when we're talking, like, I don't want to take lines from her already, but Carly, you were say Gordon, right?

She said the standard is the standard, okay?

I thought Evan Cohen said that.

No, sorry, no, he is.

That was Evan Cohen.

Well, Evan Cohen said that.

That was Dan Orlovsky from Evan Cohen.

A little different.

I would never say what Dan says because he is such a potty mouth for one.

But two, I hate the guy.

But think about three here, okay?

You know, the standard, you never know.

It depends on the day.

I love it.

The standard's the standard, okay?

So what the Patriots fans have done, which has been great, it can't be the same because we're talking about the Thunder fans who are way up here, levels above everybody, which is just what people have said.

I'm not saying this.

The old basketball coach, Rick Carlisle, said that too.

These fans are different.

So, if Indiana wants to get there, they got to be different.

The whole Lex Gold Pacers, it only works so many times.

Maybe they better have a different type of chip.

Listen to this.

Listen to this.

Andy.

Ah, not bad.

Pretty daunting.

Pretty daunting.

Not bad at all.

Are you going to be out there?

Andy.

Hello.

Oh, shit.

That's what SDL is.

You lead in those?

Dandy!

Hello!

Coach Daggs is like, turn it down in here.

I hope so.

I've never heard it before.

They get a little louder every time, too.

I like it.

Dandy!

Hell!

You feel that, Kirich?

Kirich ain't making shit.

I like it.

I like it.

I hope so.

If Dagono knows anything about coaching, which he does,

he's going to have them ready.

Did the Clippers even have fans?

I can't remember.

Damn.

Hey, come on, come on.

I'll do that.

We have fans.

I mean, we were the little brothers.

We were in the background where the Lakers were winning three-piece.

So we got it.

But, you know, we started a little movement, and now you see what's going on.

The wall, the wall.

You get out to the wall?

No, me and D.

Miles got a lot to do with the early years.

I was in the Intuit Dome Saturday.

This past Saturday was in there.

Phenomenal place.

Yes.

And Ballmer's focus on toilets.

I had to run and go to the bathroom during show.

Didn't miss a moment.

Not a single.

There was no line.

Because I have to go to a place in the arena, normally closest to the commentator's desk.

I'm going into the public's bathroom.

I'm going to the bathroom with the WWE universe during most shows.

Have somebody with me.

Are they security?

Not really.

They're just like kind of a producer.

It's running alongside of me.

So we run in there.

Normally everybody's kind of blindsided by it.

Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

And I'm like, excuse me, can I get in front of you to piss?

Because there's normally a line or whatever.

Have to have that conversation every single week.

Ballmer's place, no lines.

Wow, of course.

Right in there to pee.

It might have been the greatest, most convenient arena I've ever been in in my entire life.

Does that mean the Clippers are ever going to win or no?

I hope so.

I hope so for most.

They deserve it.

I mean, Balmer, too, but I mean, the people that have been there for a long time.

You know how it is in these organizations, man.

They deserve it.

You got to understand, when we first got drafted, and you were pro.

Think about this.

We practiced at Southwest Los Angeles Junior College.

Yeah, you talked about that.

Yeah.

Good point.

That's a nice facility.

Yeah, yeah.

Talk to you.

Nice part of Texas.

Bro,

my high school facilities were better than that.

I'm not lying.

We couldn't take showers after practice.

We would have to put towels on our car seats and ride to home and go take a shower wherever you live.

In the NBA.

In the NBA.

And then the next facility we got was like a, it was called a Spectrum Club, but it was like basically like a high-end 24-hour fitness or something.

It was like, you would come out of practice and be like 70-year-olds getting their milkshakes and stuff over here.

Like,

then they got their their own facility.

That's Donald Sterling.

That's crazy.

He spared no expense.

Yeah, I thought he did.

No, he stoned all of L.A.

and he still didn't give us a facility.

That was crazy.

He says he was a really good guy.

Yeah, that's a good idea.

I've seen that from the Clipper show.

I was at the Espys after that.

After.

After the whole.

Oh, yeah.

Yep.

Sterling.

Yeah.

Yeah, the phone calls and

voicemails.

That's what it is.

We learned a lot about Sterling.

Oh, that was what we did.

We learned a lot about him.

And Drake was the host host of the Espies.

Oh, right.

And he sang a song, Sterling Never Loved Us, something like that.

And everybody started singing.

And

I'll tell you what, I became an enemy where I was sitting.

I want to let him know I'm not on Sterling's side.

I'm on everybody.

It might appear, I understand.

It might look as if I'm on it.

I am not.

He didn't love me either.

This guy, I don't think he loved anybody.

To hear that you guys were practicing in a junior college gym, though, that is a wild thing.

That's like what was happening in Cincinnati for a while.

Cincinnati Bengals, for a long time,

had to travel down to the University of Cincinnati to practice in their bubble.

So they were in the Super Bowl.

They were going to play in the Super Bowl against Los Angeles Rams.

Won the AFC.

Improbable win with Joey Burrow being a dog.

It snowed so bad, they didn't have an indoor facility.

They had to travel to the University of Cincinnati down the street to prepare for the Super Bowl, to play the biggest game that you could potentially be in, because they didn't have anything.

They have since put up a bubble, so they have an indoor facility.

Okay.

New people in charge.

They've obviously paid Jamar Chase.

They've paid Dee Higgins.

They paid Joey Burrow.

They have a team that's ready to go.

Now we're learning about the Shamar Stewart situation where they're putting a clause into the contract that nobody else has.

We talked about this yesterday because Florio has reported the inside look at why Shamar Stewart hasn't signed with the Cincinnati Bengals fans.

And we just read this, talked about it, talked about how ridiculous it was.

Cincinnati Bengals fans are not happy with us talking about this.

Oh, what else is new for you?

They're not happy with us talking about this at all.

They're saying that we are a part of the problem, that we are the ones that are just blindly following.

I believe I was called a boot licker by some of these Bengals fans.

And I'm like, what are you doing?

Supporting a team that didn't even have an indoor facility when your team was in the Super Bowl and now trying to wedge a clause in and nobody else does.

And also a Trey Hendrickson situation.

Now, they clearly point out TJ Watts not at minicamp.

Are you going to talk about that?

We have, but Trey Hendrickson has come out publicly and said, hey, let's get this sorted.

The Bengals are right back into a Bengals situation.

I feel like Duke and them will be able to figure it out, especially with this new Bengals feel.

But it's wild that they seemingly go through the stuff that nobody else goes through.

Also, TJ's gonna get paid, okay?

I don't, it feels like Trey may not get paid.

Our owner, the Steelers owner, didn't come out and say, you know, TJ should be happy with what he's getting paid right now.

The Bengals, they did do that.

And it's not like this is a one-off with Trey and with Shamar Stewart.

This has been a long, long time.

Remember, they were charging $700 for the watch parties and stuff like that.

You know, you talked about the indoor facility.

But this is not a one-off for the Bengals.

It's not like we're making shit up, and you know, they've been this first-class organization for the longest of times.

Um, so the Bengals fans are the worst.

We've said that many times, they're the worst fans in the NFL.

I think we can agree with that.

Coming from Mr.

Lewis fans, that guy, that guy in the Bengals jersey gave me a thumbs up.

He's like, You're right.

So, you know, this is

I think they're a good fan.

Well, now, with that being said, it does feel like your fans

get disrespected the easiest.

the softest yeah i don't want to say the softest either because they're oio you know so i don't want to say they're soft but they do feel personally offended a lot for things that they shouldn't be offended by they should ask they should be asking the same questions we are of their ownership but i think they feel a loyalty to ownership to fight and they do for a lot of things that they should not be fighting for i think personally it's also not their fight like not having an indoor facility we were getting attacked for mentioning that it's like you should not be attacking us we are trying to make your team better here every Every other team in a four-season climate has an indoor facility in 2020, 2021.

So like you guys not having it, you shouldn't be attacking us for pointing this out.

You should actually be wondering why your team that you care so much about is doing things at that level.

That's how I feel.

But some Benglas fans are like, nah, there's no reason to attack us.

Shamar Stewart's lucky to be a Bengal.

And he should want that clause in there.

And if he can't play, he shouldn't be paid.

It's like, well, nobody else is doing that.

Well, that's because the Bangladesh are smarter than everybody.

It's like,

that's not how it works.

It's a perfect example of them bringing it on themselves as an organization.

You talk about the Shamar Stewart situation.

Like, this is something we all know is going to get figured out, but it's not like they're debating between or negotiating between five or ten million dollars a year on a contract.

This is something going into a rookie contract, and you're trying to put a brand new clause in this guy's contract that you've never done with anyone else before.

And then, if you look at this prospect specifically, off the charts talent-wise, but didn't have a ton of production in college.

You drafted him in the first round.

So, this is a guy that needs every rep he can get in the offseason, and you're going back and forth about something that's going to get figured out.

The TJ Watt situation, we see this type of situation in the NFL and the NBA, probably every year when it comes to trying to reset that market or get up to a number that has reset the market.

So, that'll get done, I think, as well.

But this Jamar Stewart situation is just another thing in a long line of bungal mishaps.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

By the way, the last time TJ sat out, Mandatory Minicamp, he kicked the door down to get his deal done.

And then he set the record for most sacks of the season.

Oh.

Say you should do it again.

Look for that.

Aaron Rodgers, quarterback, too?

Four-time MVP, Aaron Rodgers?

Five-time.

You're singing quite a different tune, it seems like, this week.

Five.

Well, that's my quarterback.

I'll take a bullet for that guy.

I did tell him that

I didn't want to phrase it as if you win, because I didn't want to add any negativity.

But I texted him, I said, when you win for the Steelers, that city will murder people for you for the rest of your life.

That's right.

He has not responded, but I know the message got to him.

Okay.

I was super worried.

I sent it in this week, and there was an article about a 41-year-old man who died doing ayahuasca down in Peru or something.

I was worried it was Aaron for a second, but then they tweeted he was at camp.

So, like, we're good.

Teas and peas.

That was right next to each other.

I do wonder if we're still ayahuasca.

I think he may have closed that chapter.

He's a married man now.

He found himself.

Unless he got married to

the mother.

Mother Ayah.

Mother of the Iowa.

Yeah, he committed his life to the author.

I I can't even think about him marrying ayahuasca.

Yeah, there's a chance.

If he's happy, hey, we're happy for you, Aaron.

I don't know what that is.

See?

Yeah.

You don't know what that is?

No.

It does feel like quite a Caucasian thing.

Jordan Poir.

Well, true, true, true.

Jordan Poyer is a big, big advocate of it.

Basically, you go down into the jungle, okay?

And there's some teas that are created by a natural ayahuasca plant down there.

And basically, it is a spiritual experience that is to reset kind of how you view life and change perspective.

I guess it's been happening for hundreds, thousands of years or whatever.

Aaron went down there.

I think he was looking for some answers, looking for a different light.

I think a lot of military folks do it.

A lot of people at PTSD do it.

It's been around a very long time.

I think

you go through a lot to get to the point of the DMT being released and you getting to the life-altering experience.

But

I think you it's coming out of the attic and the basement.

I think you're

quite a time experience.

Same time.

Yeah.

You know what I'm talking about?

It's euphoric.

We're talking eee.

Yeah, yeah, I'm good.

But it changes your life.

And I think Aaron gives a lot of credit to it for changing his mental and his perspective on things.

And after he did it, he won to win the MVP two times.

So it's like he's a big advocate for it.

I don't think everybody's just supposed to do ayahuasca, but I do believe if you have some stuff going on, it has been an answer for some people.

And for others, no.

No.

I don't know if I have the commitment to do it.

Yeah, I've never heard of it.

No, I take an edible and I have to call an ambulance, so I don't think I should be doing it.

Your heart does say, get me out of here.

Weak mind, weak heart.

Can't be doing strong man.

Thank you.

That's what they say.

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a

basketball legend.

Everybody knows his name.

What you don't know is the fact that he has a size 18 shoe, and he's had that since he was 16 years old.

Ladies and gentlemen, co-host of the Knuckleheads podcast, legend legend Darius Miles.

No shake.

I ain't shaking your hand.

Let me put this over your shoulder here.

Yeah.

Boom.

Boom.

Hey, you didn't want to walk all the way down there because the knees are hurting?

Yeah,

yesterday.

You know, he bone on bone.

No cartilage in either.

How tall are you?

6'9.

Okay, let's talk about it.

How tall were you in sixth grade?

About six foot, 5'10, something like that.

6'5?

6th grade?

About 6th grade, about 5'10, 6' around that time.

And whenever you got to high school at the age of 16, you had a size 18-foot.

Yeah, when I was wearing the 18 when I was like in sixth, seventh grade.

So we all knew you were gonna grow into it and become this massive man.

Yeah.

And on the basketball court in high school, obviously McDonald's all-American, superstar, legend, went to the NBA out of high school.

You kind of knew that, everybody knew that whenever they were kind of directing you as a high schooler?

People used to say it, but where I'm from, you can't believe it until it be right in your face, in front of your eyes.

How was the NBA experience as a high schooler?

It was great.

I had the opportunity to get drafted with Q.

We got the opportunity to go to the same team.

So

after the draft, our first private jet, we got on the jet, flew from Minnesota to L.A.

and you know, it made it an easy transition having Q and Keon and Corey and these guys that I played against

was bigger brothers to me being the opportunity to play with them.

Yeah, I couldn't imagine being 18, 19 years old.

Like Miles Turner has been here for 11 years and he's 29 years old.

So he literally came to the city as an 18-year-old, 19-year-old, given a lot of money, given a lot of expectation, and then also a huge workload, which is what the NBA is.

82 games, traveling on the road, everything like that.

What doesn't get talked about enough, you think, about the NBA experience?

Is it how grueling and grinding the entire season is because I don't think that gets chatted about because of how big you guys are with how much you have to run and travel and rest let alone on planes with you eating your knees like everything you do is that kind of not talked about you know enough you think no it's not talked about uh i think i seen something with paul george where the uh this year his body just wasn't working right for him where he couldn't really get the opportunity to get out there and play.

You don't know the

strain and the wear and tear you give your body.

You have to eat right.

You have to get your proper rest.

There's a lot of stuff that comes with it that you don't see.

You just see when the game comes on at prime time and you're expecting us to deliver.

And sometimes your body just won't let you deliver.

How about the ayahuasca?

You do that?

Who?

Connor has a question for you.

Yeah, Demiles, Cooper Fly's going to come in at 18 years old.

I think he obviously reclassified to go to Duke.

And now he's going to be one of the younger guys picked one, it feels like in recent memory how long is it going to take because with Wemby it was kind of a hey get ready Wemby's coming but now it's been two years the Spurs haven't been in the playoffs obviously he missed everything after the all-star break last year but it feels as though a lot of times especially with those top guys if you're not good immediately it's what the hell is going on with this guy what how long do you think it'll take Cooper Flag to kind of get to a level that everyone's like okay he's arrived and what is the biggest biggest learning curve, you think, from high school to the NBA?

Is it all the time you have off?

I know Pat and Debut have talked about it with the NFL.

A lot of free time.

I mean, the first season, yeah, you got free time.

But what is the biggest difference, you think?

I think the best thing for Cooper Flag is that the Dallas Mavericks got the number one pick.

Me and Q got drafted to the worst team in the NBA.

These guys won 17 games out of 82.

Him given the opportunity to be coached by J.

Kid, have AD there, have Kyrie there.

A team that's ready to win now, it's an easier transition to kind of plug him in and not have a big expectation for him right away.

Like if he went to Utah or the Wizards, everybody expects him to come in average 30, triple doubles and all that stuff, and it was going to be hard because they were going to get in their butt whooped.

So, you know what I'm saying?

The best thing he got in this situation is the Dallas Marriott got the first pick.

Well, what is the,

will he be able to do his shit in the NBA?

Do you think he has to put on on weight?

I remember when Kevin Durant came out of Texas, they're like, he's too thin, too thin.

He's going to have to put on weight.

This era, you don't have to have weight.

Back in the day when you had real powerfuls and real centers in the game

that were super strong, Charles Oakleys and stuff.

Yeah, let's talk about it.

Like, you had to put on weight.

You had to put on weight to compete with them.

But this day, it's just more about a skill.

It's more on the perimeter.

Even the centers play on the perimeter and shoot jumpers.

I love it or anything.

I love

the game.

Yeah.

I love the game.

I love every stage of the game.

You know, from the 70s, from the 80s to the 90s to now.

It's just, you know, it's evolving.

You know, I wish I could have got a chance to play in this.

We're not the OGs on the porch saying, get off my line.

Like all versions of this.

I wish I could have played it.

We like all versions.

We understand.

Yeah, this game caters to what I did when I came out.

I was a tall, 6'9 guy who can dribble, play on the perimeter was fast.

He would be nuts in his day.

And it caters to my game.

Like I was more of the prototype coming off of KG, getting drafted at 96.

To me getting drafted in 2000, just seeing the Kevin Durants and these guys that being 6'9, they can shoot, dribble, and do everything.

Size 18-foot

shaking people would be wild to watch.

Yeah, I assume those things...

You know,

bopping, bopping, bopping wood.

Bopping wood for sure.

Bopping wood for sure.

Go ahead, Ty.

I guess this is for both you guys.

Did you have any idea of the cultural impact this was going to have when you started?

That you'd have, you know, like sixth graders in Iowa, white kids who went to Catholic school doing it after that.

That's Ty.

He's talking about Ty.

He's talking about himself.

We were all doing it.

We were all doing it.

It was the tightest shit ever.

Did you guys have any idea that was going to take off the way it did?

No, we didn't.

But one thing I do appreciate about this era, because we got like kind of how AI got crucified for the things he did with the tattoos and the cornrows.

We got kind of crucified for celebrating when we was one of the worst teams, you know what I'm saying, in the league.

So we didn't have the best of record.

We had a decent record.

We was coming up, but we celebrated on teams.

And, you know, back then that was more offensive to teams.

Like, teams took that a certain kind of way.

But if you look at the league now, guys got their own signature celebration.

They celebrate after every three-pointer, throwing up threes, all that stuff.

So I just feel like we just helped the culture out and transition to another level.

And we really didn't know, like you say,

the reach of it, it was no social media, none of that.

So we didn't know until like, you know, you come back all of these years later and we create a podcast based on that and you see the response.

Like that's like, that's when we really got to see, like, damn, like, they was really, you know, rocking with us.

And then everybody doing that, like, throw one up, do that.

Like, it's like, yo, that's crazy.

And then, like you say, hella, hella stories about

guys that are now young adults or full adults that was like yo man my whole sixth seventh grade team used to do that like whether it's you know people like we had a big following in asia they was making comic books of us over there that we didn't even understand what they were saying because it's growing like in japanese and stuff like that so it was like it was it was

Looking back in hindsight and coming to the point, it was like, damn, we really had a lot of people running around doing that and we had no clue.

One of the greatest celebrations of all time.

I mean, easy to do and looks cool.

You know easy to do and looks cool.

How do you feel about John Morant's grenade?

Well I'm sorry.

Sorry, not grenade.

He's taking the words other people are saying.

Throwing them at him that he doesn't want to hear him.

He doesn't want to hear it.

We love him.

We actually did a full brainstorm for him whenever there was a conversation about him no longer doing the gun.

We said, listen, we need John Morant playing.

We don't need suspension.

We don't like that you're being unfairly targeted in your eyes, but this is your life.

You got to deal with it.

Get a sword out.

Yeah.

Chop somebody's head off the head off.

Anything you want to do.

It was cringy when I seen it for the first time.

But

I just want the grenade.

No, it's the throwing of the words.

No, I thought it was going to be another suspension.

I'm glad it wasn't.

I'm like, y'all, I just want to see the kid play and be great.

I want to see him get back to superstar status, you know, because he has the game.

He has the aura around him to be there.

And just leave leave all the stuff off the court alone.

Agreed, we need him as a superstar.

Keep doing your thing, John.

Darius has a question.

Yeah, speaking of kind of off the court, Jordans, he talked about the cultural impact of the celebration.

We know the cultural impact of Jordan.

You guys have been Team Jordan for a long, long time.

How did that come about?

And what was that like?

Yeah, remember what, how did that come about?

I want to know how that came about.

We

doing our draft and when we were getting drafted, we always been Nike guys.

So we expected to be with Nike.

But,

You know back then the contract shoe contracts and stuff wasn't wasn't big.

It kind of hit a little point at a certain point.

So and one was sending us a bunch of girls, right?

Trying and one was just trying to get everybody

sending us a bunch of stuff.

So we had so much stuff that only thing you could wear was and one because they were sending it every day.

So we had we went to Santa Barbara camp.

We was going there since high school.

Every summer we're going to Santa Barbara.

Michael Jordan flight school.

Michael Jordan flight School.

So we get to Santa Barbara and Mike sees us with the A1 girl.

And he was like, man, I thought y'all was Nike guys.

We was like, yeah, but they ain't giving us no deal.

We thought we were going to get a deal too.

And he was like, yeah, I don't know about y'all wearing that.

So he's like, all right, I'm going to make a phone call for y'all.

So we went back to the hotel.

Next morning, our agent called us.

It was like, man, what y'all do?

He was like, what?

He was like, man.

Nike just sent me a contract where they're going to pay for your endorsement, but you're going to be sponsored by Jordan.

And you know, the roof went off after

another knock at the door, and we getting like five, you know, them old school TV boxes that was like this, like five boxes full of just Jordan.

My grandmama was wearing Jordan.

How much Jordan we was getting.

That's crazy.

Let's talk about the Knuckleheads podcast a little bit.

How often do we release them?

Q-Rich, how long has this been going, and what is the plan?

I don't know when we started it.

I get asked it a lot.

We started five five and a half years ago.

Let's go.

Yeah, so right now we're in the middle of renegotiating our contract.

We are no longer, we had five, five and a half dope, dope, amazing years with the Player Tribune, but now we are leaving the Players Tribune and we are in the midst of signing with new folks.

Oh, this is up to something season.

Up to something season.

Okay, I like that.

We're looking for these NBA type deals, free agents.

Let's talk about some of the free agents.

Giannis is going to to be moving potentially.

I guess that would be a trade, not a free agent.

Miles Turner is about to be a free agent.

He's about to get paid here.

Kevin Durant potentially on the move.

What are your thoughts on any of the big names that could be

shifting?

I feel Giannis should stay.

I always felt LeBron Cleveland championship was always bigger than any other championship he won in any other city.

When you win a championship in the smaller cities, it means more.

It's almost like that's a 2-3 championship.

Hell yeah.

It almost means like one championship is like 2-3 championship for this moment.

And I feel like he can get the most money in Milwaukee.

They will eventually build something to brahme him, and I think it'll be good for him to stay.

All right, we appreciate the hell out of both of you for traveling up here.

Q-Rich, will you shoot a couple shots here for maybe some giveaways?

Where do you want to shoot from?

Would you like to shoot from the stage?

Would you like to shoot from down on the court?

No, I'm going to shoot from down on the court.

I ain't like you.

I ain't nice like that.

Oh, okay, okay.

Well, before the the show started you know i had to test the waters a little bit uh the hoop looks big q rich i think your microphone works down there too right yeah okay you want to head down mobile

d miles anything to say to q rich before he attempts to win some people some money

uh you know this is my oldest

boy

the wood do you hear what you started this is my oldest boy so i got a lot of faith in him.

Garris has faith in him.

Cheer it, hold on one side.

Bouncy ball.

That's a.

That's a rubber ball.

Yeah, very bouncy.

Rubber ball.

A little bit windy, we will say.

There's a little bit of a breeze.

You got double rims out here.

That's okay.

Yeah, well, yeah, double rim makes you a better shooter.

You will have a.

We have

five balls here.

How many shots will you make?

Two?

I hope.

Two and five.

You have the high school three-point line.

Yeah, that's a high school three.

Where am I shooting from?

I'm just three-point line.

You pick.

I don't care.

Where do you want me to shoot from, Black?

That's not me.

Hey, talking to me.

Three-point line.

This is me.

Hey, hold on.

What's his nickname?

Just so I know who we're talking to.

Oh, this is Darius Niles, aka the blackest one.

You know, when he was in the perfect score,

his co-stars all went on to become Marvel, Captain America, and Marvel heroes.

So we were wondering why they didn't bring him and make him a superhero.

So I donned him as the blackest one.

That's his superhero now.

Okay, shout out.

I don't know how to operate.

I could be a part of this faction.

I don't want to point things out.

I'm not saying it.

It's okay to say the blackest one.

The blackest ones, the blackest twos?

Yes, yeah.

They're right.

Yeah, the blackest ones.

Maybe threes.

Superheroes.

Superheroes.

We got one blend of milk and the blackest milk.

Anyways,

he thinks you're going to make the shot.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm not saying it.

Is that a good shot for you?

Because I need to judge how many you're going to make, how many shots, what's the number to make for the giveaway.

I need a lot of information here.

Out of five shots?

Out of five shots.

I think he's going to make two to three.

Okay, so the open.

Because

terrible

ball.

So if you make

three.

Yeah.

Q Rich, if you make three of these shots, we will give

30 people $500 who are currently watching

watching at home.

All you'll have to do is use the hashtag PacersIn6

and screenshot this screen after he makes three out of five.

Q Rich, I would like to wish you luck, sir, as you attempt the impossible.

With the wind the way it is,

with the sun, would you like a warm-up?

I'll take one warm-up just to see what's going on.

To the show.

Now I'm back to the show.

It was great talking to you guys, though.

Nobody else could hear us.

If you would like to take the warm-up, it would not count if it goes in, though.

We have to have some sort of rules and regulations here.

That's cool.

Okay, so you would like a warm-up?

Yeah.

Ladies and gentlemen, Q-Rich, a man who is a three-point shooting champion in the NBA, is

opting for a warm-up to kind of gauge the wind.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

See?

Oh, no.

Oh, shit.

Yuck.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

This is your guy, Darius.

Hold on, hold on, Q-Rich.

Hold on.

Be worried.

Would you like another gauge shot?

Nope.

You would not like another one?

No.

All right, Q Rich.

If you go three or five, 30 people will win $500.

You're watching it at home.

Q Rich?

All right.

We're okay.

Got four shots there.

Three or four.

There's one.

That's the end.

Oh,

he is one of two.

Oh, all right.

You make these two.

Yeah, these next two are good.

Good pass and rhythm.

There it is.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Oh, oh,

no.

Do you feel that, Pat?

The wind has certainly pushed up.

It is a bit breezy out here at the bicentennial.

Oh, geez.

He's like an old school car.

It just takes a minute to warm up once again.

One more here.

Let's see.

That's wind.

Show him how it's done.

It is Wendiana.

Wendiana.

And I'm from Chicago.

I'm from the Windy City.

I mean, we set you up for failure here.

It is breezy.

It is.

That's okay.

You got to get me back to the Thunderdome indoors.

Hold on, Q Rich.

Hold on, Q Rich.

Let's just act like we're doing something here.

Hold on, Q Rich.

Have you tried that tuna yet?

So I think the tuna pokey nachos here are so damn good.

Man, what a show it's been, hasn't it?

These people have been great out here.

There was good meat slot.

Now, to end the show today, I think it's only right that we watch one of the greatest basketball shooters of all time kind of do his thing.

We're sitting in the middle of like a 20-mile-an-hour wind right now, 15-20-mile-an-hour wind gusts, out here at the Bicentennial Plaza outside a beautiful Gainbridge Fieldhouse in lovely Indianapolis, Indiana.

If you've never been, please come to our city.

We are incredibly.

Dog friend, I got dogs out here.

There's a service dog right here hanging around.

Put him to sleep.

Dog over there.

But to end this show in this wind, I think if Q Rich is able to make one three-point shot,

I think 25 people should win $500.

Sounds like a poor fair.

This will also be an omen on if the Pacers will win this evening.

Oh, man.

Yes, this is a universe ball

and a $250 winner ball.

He's not going to be booed out of here right now.

Hey, crowd, would you like this to be a universe ball?

The crowd is in unanimous decision.

They do want this shot to count.

One more time, let's take a vote.

Would you like the fate of tonight's game to ride on this particular shot here?

Yes, they're saying.

They say no.

Q Rich, thank you so much for doing that.

25 people can win $500, and the Pacers are guaranteed to win tonight.

If Q Rich makes this shot to wrap up this glorious

NBA final.

I'm going to throw these out to everybody.

All right.

For the people, Q Rich.

Guaranteed.

Y'all got.

Oh.

All right.

Ladies and gentlemen, just like the people said, that shot was not an indicator on what's a nightmares going to win.

Big thank you to Quentin Richardson for joining us today.

That ball looked like a tumbleweed back in the old school restaurants in the back.

Feel that, G.

Big shout out to Darius Miles stopping by.

Sean Shirania stopped by

Jeff Teed was here.

Hell yeah.

Gugaldis Haslam was here.

And all you wonderful people stopped by.

We appreciate you so much.

Toxic table, great work.

AP Tone, good job.

Darius Butler, incredible.

Back in the truck, good work, boys.

Back in the truck.

Are they giving it?

To everybody that set this up from ESPN in the production crew, Scott with the jib, the whole team with audio, camera, staging, lighting, you name it.

We appreciate the hell out of you.

Great work.

Not easy.

To Captain El Nikki, we appreciate the hell out of your service to you, Indianapolis, Indiana.

You're the man.

Thanks for hanging out over here.

And to all you watching at home, know tonight on ABC in that building right there, there's going to be an electrifying environment.

There's going to be a team that wants to get back in the lead of this NBA Finals.

And there's going to be a sport played that this state loves through and through.

That's a bald head of Q-Rich.

This is Larry O'Brien.

From all of us here at NBA team at home, sports are amazing.

The NBA Finals are tonight on ABC.

No Pacers.

Be a friend, tell the friends something nice that might change their life.

We're in this thing together.

Team on me.

Team on three.

Q Rich, Q Rich, Keurich, Keurich, be in the team.

Oh my bad, my bad.

I was trying to get some friends back.

Yeah, I understand.

Hey, you did a great job today.

The Pacers are going to make more shots than you.

Thank God for that.

Team on three.

One, two, three.

Goodbye.

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You've seen the headlines, heard the debates.

The three-point ball has created a monotonous rhythm to the game and others.

Has the three-pointer ruined basketball?

And how did we get here?

The rise of the three-point shot can be partially traced to an eccentric Kansas genius named Martin Manley, whose story didn't turn out quite the way he imagined.

I decided I wanted to have one of the most organized goodbyes in history.

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