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AP News Radio
76ers hire former Raptors coach Nick Nurse, AP source says
"The Philadelphia 76ers have hired coach Nick nurse, weeks after he was fired by the Toronto Raptors, according to AP's sources, nurse led the raptors to the 2019 NBA championship after they beat the 76ers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Nurse will replace Doc Rivers, who was fired after he led the 76ers to their second straight 50 win season behind NBA MVP Joel embiid, but again failed to lead them to the Eastern Conference Finals. I'm geffen coolbaugh.
AP News Radio
Caleb Martin helps Heat to 103-84 Game 7 win over Celtics and spot in NBA Finals
"The Miami Heat denied history and made some of their own winning game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals one O three 84 over the Boston Celtics to punch their ticket back to the NBA Finals. Jimmy Butler scored a game high 28 points to help Miami become just the second number 8 seed to reach the NBA Finals. The heat won three straight before dropping three straight in the series NBA teams are 151 and O all time when leading three zero in a playoff series. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum had 19 and 14 points respectively for the Celtics. Get them cool ball, Boston.
AP News Radio
White's putback as time expires lifts Celtics past Heat, forces Game 7 in East finals
"The Celtics had become just a 14 team in NBA history to force a game 7 after being down three games to none. Derrick white scored on a putback with one tenth of a second left to give Boston a one O four one O three went over the heat in game 6, tying the series at three games each. White says after he inbounded the ball to Marcus smart on the Celtics final possession, he was left unguarded. Smart flash hit him and there really was nobody on me. So I just faced to the corner and then when he shot it, just try to crash, ball came to me. I made a shot. The Celtics will try to become the first NBA team to win a series after being down three games to none when they host game 7 Monday night. I'm Mike Hempen
AP News Radio
Celtics thrive on 3s, beat Heat 110-97 in Game 5 to extend East finals
"Derrick white had 24 points, including 6 three pointers and the Boston Celtics dominated Miami Heat won ten 97 on Thursday night in game 5 to extend the Eastern Conference Finals. You can go top to bottom of someone that hit a big shot at a crucial time. And they're a good team. They're always going to come back and attack us. So we can never be satisfied. Jason Tatum and jaylen Brown finished with 21 points apiece as the Celtics claim their second straight win and trim Miami series lead to three two. Duncan Robinson scored 18 points for Miami which host game 6 Saturday. Geffen kuba, Boston
The Dan Patrick Show
A highlight from The Best of The Dan Patrick Show
"Plan. You choose what you want. Thanks to Verizon. All right. Play the day, stat of the day, poll question, all of that forthcoming and a few other items here. John Morant, the police department did a welfare check after he had a cryptic message on Instagram saying goodbye to his mom and dad, his daughter. Turns out he was saying goodbye to, I think, social media. And at least that's what we're told so far. The NBA has not disciplined him yet. And that's something I want to, I want to ask JJ Reddick about that. What does he think will happen with Jay Morant? But John Morant, it, you know, got my attention when TMZ was reporting it. It wasn't ESPN reporting. It was TMZ and it felt like there was more to it. And thankfully not. But I wonder what exactly, and it's a good thing to leave social media right now. If you're John Morant, I don't think you have to do it in the way he did it. You just leave social media. But with the cryptic message out there, I think we thought the worst poll question today, Seton, what are we going to go with? Well, we got one from Paul and we've got a slew from the toddler slew from time. We could start with Paul's though. I'd rather my team get swept in a series or lose game seven at the buzzer. Okay. This is something that Todd brought up yesterday where do you want to have that pain, the agony of losing game seven? And my point is, yes, I want to game seven. I don't want to go four games. If you said to LeBron, hey, you want to get swept, you want to go game seven and you lose in dramatic fashion, I think you'll go down. You'll go down firing. You want an opportunity there. Now we do bring this up because there was a sweep in hockey. The Florida Panthers swept the Carolina Hurricanes. Although I don't know if it was a sweep according to the Hurricanes head coach. Here's Rod Brindamore. The unfortunate part of this is he's going to look back and everyone's going to say you got swept. That's not what happened. I watched the game. I'm there. I'm cutting the game. We're in the game. We didn't lose four games. We got beat, but we were right there and it just could have went the other way and we could have been four games the other way. Okay. Paulie, would you check how many games were in this series? Yeah, it wasn't best to nine, Dan. It was best to seven. They lost a four to zero your Hurricanes. Now is that a sweep? I don't want to call out Rod Brindamore. I don't want part of that. Okay. I'm not, I'm not going to go there. Did the Nuggets sweep the Lakers? Felt that way. Okay. Yes, Dan. Technically, but you know, once he wins, once he loses, there's other things involved. You can't just go by the four games to nothing thing. I get what he's trying to say. You didn't get embarrassed, but you did get swept. I mean, no, no, you did. Let's wait till all the cards are counted. You, you got swept. Every game was competitive. They had Matthew Kachuk and you didn't pretty much. That's what it came down to. Yes, Paul. To be fair, we're not hockey experts. Maybe it's not called a sweep in hockey. Okay. Hey, all right. It's a sweep like that. It's all right. Play it again. Just so I can understand what, what coach Brindamore is talking about. The unfortunate part of this is he's going to look back and everyone's going to say you got swept. That's not what happened. I watched the game. I'm there. I'm cutting the game. We're in the game that we didn't get. We didn't lose four games. We got beat, but it's, you know, we were right there and I just could have went the other way and just, we could have been four games the other way. It could have. And if it had gone four games the other way, it would have been a sweep. He goes, we got beat, but we didn't lose four games. We did not. I mean, we did, but we didn't like lose them like that. Yes, Don. We cannot lose and still win in the national hockey league. They score more goals, but they didn't outscore us in there. Yeah. They won every game of the series, but that doesn't mean that we just happen to not win any of those first four games. It's really what it is. If we played longer than, you know, maybe we would probably would have got one. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Golden Knights versus the stars. And there could be a sweep. Well, I don't know. Is there going to, would it be a sweep? If yes. No, they would just lose four games. Okay. Not a sweep though. Okay. Once again, not hockey experts, but I thought it was a sweep. Yes. More with the hockey callers. They're calling it. You guys don't know anything. You guys want to just talk hockey. We're talking hockey. You got Zamboni. Maybe they call it something else in hockey because they don't sweep the ice. They Zamboni these. Yes. I do appreciate the positive spin because sweep sounds like a harsh word. Like, you know, maybe you got blown out. You didn't even have a chance of winning one game. They were competitive, but technically I got swept, move on and accepted and wait till next season. Okay. One goal games. How many did you win? None. How many did they win? Four. That'd be a sweep. But they played better than what a sweep. They did. They did. They did. Yes. Yeah. It still counts as a sweep though. It does. Yes. Four zero. Yes. Yes, it does. Yes, Paul. Florida Panthers. Are Panthers indigenous to the South Florida area? And I'm just asking. That's one of those mascots. Is there a background there? Is there a hook there? Panthers. Well, I don't know. Carolina Panthers.
The Lowe Post
A highlight from Goldsberry and McMenamin
"You thought we'd have eight days off before the NBA finals. You thought this was going to be easy for the Miami. He might still be easy. Who knows? No, the Boston Celtics, the most confusing team in the NBA go and into Miami I don't think I've ever seen a team do the thing where they let go of the rope in one game in a playoff series and that letting go of the rope takes them to within a game of elimination and turns the series into a blowout and come back the next game and fight with with grit and precision and calculation for their season. Usually like I thought back to 2019 Milwaukee, Boston when Boston won the first game and then it just kept on getting worse and worse and worse and worse and three one Milwaukee and you were like game five seems like it's going to be a Bucks rollover the way this is going and it was a Bucks rollover and this was not Mr. Goldsberry. How are you, sir? I am well. It's good to see you, Zach. I watched that game last night with with very just open mind. I didn't know what to expect and it turns out we got the outcome of like you said, Boston getting off the mat and making you my friend get on an Amtrak train and travel up the Eastern Coast to game five and let me tell you this. If you're on the quiet car, be quiet. The quiet car is called the quiet car. Keep your cell phone conversations to a minimum people. Yeah, just cell phone or cell phone. No cell phone talk on the I don't know what the hell the rules are. Look, I am a you will not hear a peep out of me unless I'm unless I'm asked a question by the Amtrak staffers. Anyway, before we get to Boston Miami and and whether this is already perilous for the eighth seeded Miami Heat who need I remind you had a negative point differential and were not a team that appeared to be building towards some late season crescendo salvaging a subpar regular season were a team that got shellacked by the Hawks in the playing game and was wheezing to an ignominious demise against the Chicago Bulls who probably are looking at all this and saying hey, should we give Vooch four years nine billion dollars? We're right there. We're right there on the doorstep. You're not right there on the doorstep before we get to all that. I wanted to start with just quickly Denver Nuggets fans, you know, I love the Nuggets, you know, I love Jokic. You know, I love watching them play. We're going to have so much time to talk about the Nuggets that it is only natural that we are using this time to talk about the greatest player in the world suggesting he might retire to what the hell is going to happen to Boston if they win or if they lose the series to or if they win the series, I guess to the heat in this improbable run, but I do want to just lead off with Mr. Goldsberry. The Nuggets are in the finals for the first time in the history of the NBA history of their franchise swept the Lakers each win more clutch and impressive than the last seemingly. I just want to get your quick reflections on watching this Nuggets team and what if anything you have found your brain thinking about now that they're in the finals. Well, small -market quote -unquote Western Conference teams have been disrespected for years in sports media and the general NBA discourse. So welcome aboard that train Denver. You are being overlooked, but you have international stars that tend to get overlooked as well. Welcome aboard that train, but Nikola Jokic does look like the best player in the world. I was not one of those people who is saying that I was always honest guy over the last few years and Jamal Murray. So the combination Zach, here's what I'd ask you the combination of Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic the best duo in postseason history since I don't know what the answer to that is, but that's where my brain has been going, but they got a 50 -40 -90 split on 30 points. That's what Jamal just did. And then obviously Jokic getting a triple -double with 30 points and doing everything. I don't know of a better one -two combination that I've seen in the postseason in a very long time. Well, I was going to say I might have to pump the brakes on your maybe cut the brakes, like veer you off into the sandbags on the side of the road that are there for runaway trucks because they got to win a title before I start, you know, Jordan Pippen, LeBron Wade, all the Warriors. I'm saying that's a long time ago. That's a long well the Warriors not a long time ago, but the other ones you mentioned I'm just that's where my brain is going. I'm starting to think like that with these two guys in this exact playoff run. Here's where my brain is going. The great thing about sports is you never know when you're going to learn something interesting about a team and I think back to the end of the 1718 regular season. It was a season that started off disappointingly for the Nuggets. They had signed Paul Millsap in free agency. They were all in on Jokic. It was Jamal Murray second season and the integration of Millsap was clunky to start with the offense wasn't flowing. They kind of just were in they were a 500 team for 70 games, but they were still mathematically in the race for number eight and they had made a big deal of like our goal is to make number eight and in the last let's say two weeks of the season. They essentially had to win out to have any chance at number eight and I think they won six or seven in a row to end that season a lot of them against good competition. They like they did not one two three Cancun. They did not have half an eye on their summer plans. They went all in one every game and forced the winner take all for the eighth seed season finale in Minnesota, which they lost in overtime to the Minnesota team that had Jimmy Butler on it and Jokic went bananas in that game and nearly carried them to a win and sometimes, you know, you have a tendency to look away at the end of the regular season even to a team that's like I have what chance do they really have at forcing this one game winner take all thing kind of like Phoenix in the bubble like what chance do they really have at trying to get into the playoffs? They're so far behind and you look at them and you're like oh there's a toughness here. There's a determination here. There's a will here that is interesting next year. Not only do they make the playoffs they get to the second round of the playoffs and they lose in game seven at home to Portland CJ McCollum carries the Blazers over to the finish line. Dame is totally gas Portland to their credit finds a way to win Heartbreaker for Denver. That's that's 1819 1920 bubble weird season bubble. Kind of like the Nuggets run to the conference finals kind of was a little bit dismissed like a lot of the runs in the bubbles were in the bubbles. The bubble were dismissed humiliated the Clippers in seven games coming back from 3 -1 had come back from 3 -1 against Utah in the first round and I think the double 3 -1 comeback is part of the reason that people didn't quite know what to make of that was like was that where those collapses by the other teams or they comebacks by Denver the first three or four games that Utah series like they couldn't get any stops were those more indicative of what the Nuggets were people kind of didn't know those were real to me like I remember writing a preview of game 7 of Clippers Nuggets and I knew that all of the discourse was about the Clippers and how disastrous this would be for the Clippers in the first year of Kawhi and PG to blow a 3 -1 lead when they were just loaded for bear that season and I made my preview about the Nuggets instead and about building from that game in 2018 against Minnesota to that game in game 7 and of course they obliterate the Clippers in game 7 flash forward to the next year out of the bubble in comes Aaron Gordon they look just utterly dominant Jamal Murray gets hurt at the end of the season and they go through this two -year waiting period and they're off over here to the side people kind of zones yokich MVP like that's awesome. Look, he's carrying these guys couple MVPs to their credit. They win around in 2020 to 2021 rather before losing to Phoenix in the second round in a sweep that was not great, but they want to playoff round so without without Murray. It's a big deal the next year. They lose to the Warriors in the first round the Warriors end up winning the title. They're off to the side.
The Dan Patrick Show
A highlight from Hour 1 - Celtics Avoid Sweep
"You have a question. Did you vote already? Yes, I did. All right. Yep. I voted for the seventies. Oh, let's go. Yes. Some Stevie play some. Oh, there's a bunch of good ones. You just forgot them. Sticks. Kiss foreigner. Yeah. That's best for your cookout. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Eat the midweek results so far. Yes. Forty five percent of the vote. Seventies. OK. Crushing. All right. Crushing. Nobody wants to hear any music from the odds. Not at all. Yeah. Yeah, Paul. You know, my wife asked me the other day before we get to sports. What was the first song you remember hearing as a child where it's like a hit song that you're like, oh, I remember where I heard it or where I was. And she asked me, I remember being at a pizza place and someone played crocodile rock by Elton John. And I was like, oh, that's that's a very popular song. And I was a kid and I thought it was cool. Do you guys remember the first hit song you kind of remember as a child? Todd. I remember being at my friend Greg Bieber's house, Brian Bieber, actually. And he had Glass Houses, Billy Joel. And I hadn't heard it before. And I just fell in love with that cassette. It's still rock and roll to me in particular. And I had to run out to Sam Goody or wherever and get the cassette of Billy Joel, Glass Houses, because it's still rock and roll to me. OK. Yeah. Marv, do you remember the first song that you heard? Yeah, I remember vividly. My mom was a big Anita Baker fan. So she had the song Sweet Love. It was just, you know, very, you know. Yeah. Paulie knows about it. Yeah. What about you, Seaton? I don't know if it was the first song I ever heard necessarily, but the one that I was like, whoa, what is going on right now? Motley Crue Shout at the Devil. That was like, I think that's 1983, 84 maybe. So I was, you know, five, six years old. And I was like, hell yeah, this is awesome. I think it was The Beatles for me. And there were a couple of them. I just remember Help, Strawberry Fields. But those were the ones I was like, man, they're like three minutes or less. And they're all like catchy poppy. And they stayed with, still stay with me. It's one of those where you hear the song and it takes you back, you know, many, many, many years ago. Yes. You know, it's one that really jumps out from that time, too, that is definitely one of the earliest songs I can remember is Rod Stewart Infatuation. OK. I remember that vividly, like sitting in my house at a piano looking at the cassette tape of Rod Stewart Infatuation. OK. Not the Rod Stewart song I would pick out of all the great Rod Stewart songs. But yes, Pauline. In fifth grade, we had a teacher and he had us each bring in an album for like a Friday, almost like a play thing. And he had a record player. And I didn't have a lot of albums, so I borrowed my Sharona by the Knack from my sister, which was the number one song in America. But my friend, Corey Milton, who sat next to me, brought in the Sugarhill Gang and never heard any rap before. I don't think anyone had heard Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang. That was fifth grade. Why do we always mention somebody's name? Like, you couldn't say my friend brought in Rapper's Delight. I don't know. It's got to be Corey Milton. It's such a good memory. Fritzie said, oh, yeah, I went over there. Oh, so now that makes the story real. Like, before that, I wasn't going to believe that you went over to somebody's house. Now that we attached a name to the whole experience, it makes sense. So I'm listening to music with Greg McCracken. He knew his music. Yes, he did. No, his brother did. See, that's for me. was more my older brother. We shared a room. So he's five years older than me. So he was way ahead of getting records or tapes or whatever and listening to that. So whatever he was listening to, I kind of glommed onto. I was the same way. One of my older brothers had like seven albums. And I remember one was Jimi Hendrix. One was Zeppelin. One was Creedence Clearwater. And I think there was a Stones in there and a Beatles. But that was all I knew about music, you know, as far as an album went. And you'd hold those albums and you would read the liner notes. And it was so important that you were listening to a whole album there, not just one song. Yes. And yeah, it would be like everything from probably Motley Crue to Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions and stuff. My brother was listening to all this stuff. And when we had Chuck D in studio years ago, I was just like, man, my older brother, I've been listening to you since forever because my older brother would always play the records in our room. And he just said, man, thank God for all the brothers. Huh? Hell yeah, Chuck. Yeah. Bobby Prenitis, the Wu -Tang first album entered 36 Chambers. I had no idea who Wu -Tang was. He was like, you're bugging. He was like, listen to this. You're bugging. Protect Your Neck came on. And when we had met the man on that scene, me and C, I was just like, man, the fact that I talked to him was unbelievable. I was like, I was a fan of you at 10. You were a sex symbol at 10. You're a sex symbol at 39. Like, I was like, this is insane. Welcome to the program here. Already in progress. We'll have a poll question. Got a stat of the day. Play of the day. All that coming up. The Celtics are still alive and they win comfortably. Why do I get the feeling this is going seven games?
The Dan Patrick Show
A highlight from The Best of The Dan Patrick Show
"You have a question. Did you vote already? Yes, I did. All right. Yep. I voted for the 70s. Oh, let's go. Yeah. Some Stevie play some. Oh, there's a there's a bunch of good ones. You just forgot them. Sticks. Kiss foreigner. Yeah, that's that's for your cookout. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Eat the midweek results so far. Yes. 45 % of the vote 70s. Okay. Crushing. All right. Crushing. All right. Nobody wants to hear any music from the odds. Not at all. Yeah. Yeah, Paul. You know, my wife asked me the other day before we get to sports. What was the first song you remember hearing as a child where it's like a hit song that you're like, Oh, I remember where I heard it or where I was. And she asked me, I remember being a pizza place and someone played crocodile rock by and I was five or six crocodile rock rock by Elton John. And I was like, Oh, that's that's a very popular song. And I was a kid and I thought it was cool. Do you guys remember the first hit song you kind of remember as a child? Todd? I remember being at my friend, Greg Bieber's house, Brian Bieber, actually. And he had glass houses, Billy Joel, and I hadn't heard it before. And I just fell in love with that cassette. It's still rock and roll to me in particular. And I had to run out to Sam Goody or wherever and get the cassette of Billy Joel glass houses because it's still rock and roll to me. Okay. Mark, do you remember the first song that you heard? Yeah, I remember vividly. My mom was a sweet love. It was just, you know, very, you know. Yeah, Paulie knows about it. Yeah. What about you, Seaton? I don't know if it was the first song I ever heard necessarily, but the one that I was like, Whoa, what is going on right now? Motley Crue Shout at the Devil. That was like, I think that's 1983, 84, maybe. So I was, you know, five, six years old. And I was like, Hell yeah, this is awesome. I think it was the Beatles for me. And there were a couple of them. I just remember help strawberry fields. But those were the ones I was like, man, they're like three minutes or less, and they're all like catchy poppy. And they stayed with still stay with me. It's one of those where you hear the song and it takes you back, you know, many, many, many years ago. Yes, you know, it's one that really jumps out from that time to that is definitely one of the earliest songs I can remember is Rod Stewart Infatuation. OK, I remember that vividly, like sitting in my house at a piano looking at the cassette tape of Rod Stewart Infatuation. OK, not the Rod Stewart song I would pick out of all the great Rod Stewart songs. But yes, Paulie in fifth grade, we had a teacher and he had us each bring in an album for like a Friday, almost like a play thing. And he had a record player. And I didn't have a lot of albums, so I borrowed my Sharona by the Knack for my sister, which was the number one song in America. But my friend Corey Milton, who sat next to me, brought in the Sugarhill Gang and never heard any rap before. I don't think anyone had heard Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang. That was fifth grade. Why do we always mention somebody's name? Like you couldn't say my friend brought in Rapper's Delight. It's got to be Corey Milton. It's a good memory. Fritzie said, oh, yeah, I went over there. Also, now that makes the story real. Yes, but before that, I wasn't going to believe that you went over to somebody's house. Now that we attached a name to the whole experience, it makes sense. So I'm listening to music with Greg McCracken. And he knew his music. Yes, he did. No, his brother did. See, that's for me. It was more my older brother.
The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
A highlight from Denver Sweeps L.A. & LeBron's Future
"Sports capital of the world, manics. What doesn't Miami have going for right now, the Panthers are up three zero in the Conference Finals, the heater up three on the Conference Finals. Messi is going to sign with inter Miami. I think the Marlins are leading the MLB in one run win games. This is it. This is where it's all happening. I think we had an F one race here a few weeks ago. You can't ask for much more. All right, we're going to talk a little bit about the heat Celtics series. I don't know. I'm not Rohan was going to throw it in the welcome to Miami song from 25 years ago. I just decided to move past that. I just thought whatever he was talking about. My eyes kind of glazed over. Checked out. I didn't care. You just sports capital of the world, whatever, whatever. I was Rwanda. I was sitting there. I was sitting next to Nick for Dell from ESPN before game one or during game one of the Celtic seat series. And like that first half is going on, the Celtics are rolling and they're up by double digits. They could have not even before. And I was thinking about texting you being like, there's no way Miami beast is watching. There's no way. And then the whole thing just completely unravel from there. So we'll talk more about that series specifically. The buzz around Joe Missoula, the Celtics coach, who is on thin ice, it seems like right now in Boston, but I want to start talking about what we saw in Los Angeles on Monday night. The nuggets, your nuggets Rohan, defeating the Lakers in four games, a tremendous performance in that game from Nikola Jokić, who has 30 points, a triple double, his 8th triple double in this postseason that moves him past Wilt Chamberlain on the list for the most triple doubles in a playoff. That's a decades old record that Nikola Jokić just zoom past. He still has at least four games to go to add to that list. We're going to get to the Lakers side of it specifically LeBron. But Denver has been one of those teams that has long believed it has been disrespected. That Nikola Jokić doesn't get the respect he deserves as a superstar player that they don't get the respect they deserve as one of the great teams in the NBA. Rohan did Denver prove something in this series with the Lakers. Yeah, I definitely think that they are turning the tides in terms of the national discourse about them. The awareness about them, you know, I went to Denver last march to write about kind of jokic, but also this phenomenon, right? Like jokic one, when he won his second MVP, he still didn't get a Christmas Day game. This a team that is not really, you know, put front and center by the NBA in many ways. And I think that they realize that. And when I talk to Michael Malone that day, you know, he's like, listen, it's not a rallying cry. We're not expecting to be the first segment on first take every day, but, you know, we also think that we have one of the best players in the NBA and we're not getting any kind of respect for that. And I think when you're in a matchup with the Lakers and you play the way jokic did, I think this is the first time a lot of casual fans, a lot of people who are even bigger NBA fans just don't get a chance to watch the nuggets play, right? Like they play they're kind of more of a West Coast team, their games are on late. They don't have a ton of national games. They had a Christmas Day game this year, but it wasn't the marquee one, so I definitely think that they are starting to not only win over fans, but even people who are like, why did jokic when two MVPs, that was an analytics MVP, the nerds wanted him that, et cetera, the fact that he's had this, it's a historic playoff run. He's averaging a triple double. There's something I'm probably going to write about. We're obviously in a little bit of an era where stats are higher than they've ever been before. But you could put his playoff run up with the best of KTs, the best of steps, Lebrons, and you name you name the NBA great. He's right up there with any of them. So I definitely think that I don't know how much longer Malone's gonna be able to play that nobody respects this card because I think a lot of people are gonna pick them to win the finals no matter who they're playing and I think a lot of people now are seeing why jokic won those two MVPs. Well, the nobody respects jokic card never really made a lot of sense. He won two straight MVPs. You are respected. You are noticed by the voters. Herring, I look at the nuggets as being a proof of concept of a couple things. One, the draft works. Like if you draft well, you are going to have success. They draft a call to jokic in the second round. That was as brilliant a pick as it was lucky, but they get him to be the tent pole of that team. They draft Jamal Murray. They draft Michael Porter junior when Michael Porter junior had about a dozen red flags around him because of that back and they stuck by him and he was excellent. It has been excellent during these playoffs. There are testament to the process, the draft process and seeing that play out in developing players internally.
The Dan Patrick Show
A highlight from The Best of The Dan Patrick Show
"We have who should be, what should be the lead story today? The Nuggets advancing or LeBron possibly retiring. Right now, eighty one percent of the audience say the Nuggets advancing. Chris Manick, Sports Illustrated senior writer. He was there last night, game four, and he joins us probably on very little sleep, if any sleep at all. But Chris, thanks for getting up with us. The lead story should be the Nuggets advancing or the possibility of LeBron James retiring. You know, if you say anything but the Nuggets advancing, you've got a swath of middle America coming after you for the disrespect that's been shown the Nuggets. But when you have arguably the greatest player of all time dropping the most significant hints about his future, not including basketball, that has to be the main story. And, you know, I was in, as you said, Dan, I was at the arena last night. I listened to Darwin Hamp speak first, then went over to the Nuggets side to report out some stuff on them. But I was watching on my phone the LeBron availability. And from the very beginning, it had a very strange vibe to it because he was asked by multiple reporters about next season, you know, what the roster needed. And a couple of times he just wouldn't delve deep into the future of this team, the future of himself. And then at the very end of that media availability, kind of unprompted, he says, I've got a lot to think about this offseason. So, you know, this was LeBron wanting to put this out there, wanting to convey this message during this media availability. And look, what it means is certainly open to interpretation. This was probably the most draining season of LeBron James's career. When you factor in his age, when you factor in the mental toll it had to have taken on him early in the season to be going through all the stuff with Russell Westbrook and the dysfunction of the team. And then you have one of the one of the only major injuries that LeBron suffered during his career. And then you have to factor in the minutes he's playing that just physically wears him down. So it could just be, Dan, that he was exhausted physically and said and said what he said because of that. Or as we've often seen with LeBron, it could be a leverage play. It could be him, you know, putting this into the universe to put pressure on the Lakers to do exactly what he wants them to do this offseason to make the team better or else he'll walk away. Yeah. But didn't we have this last year when he had a leverage play and he brought in Russell Westbrook? Now it's Kyrie Irving. Maybe. I mean, look, one of the biggest surprises in recent memory for LeBron was that he signed that extension last summer. Like there was no need for him to sign that extension. Like a one year extension was always going to be available to him. I understand the rationale by signing that extension. And he took the topic of him leaving in the offseason off the table. And that, you know, in theory, at the time, eliminated a potential distraction. But he didn't need to do it. It was a surprise that he did it. He's always been about leverage, Dan, whether it was in Cleveland signing all those one year deals, signing the short term deal with the Lakers more recently. This could just be that. Like, you know, he's he's always been able to use his power to get what he wants out of an organization. You're right. It was Russell Westbrook a couple of years ago. That, you know, absolutely was a disaster. But if LeBron feels like he can't do it without a true reliable second star and look, we can debate the reliability of Kyrie Irving all day long. But if LeBron feels he can't do it without Kyrie Irving, you know, there's there's some value in putting it into the universe that he could walk away. Yeah, there's there's nothing that's accidental with LeBron. It's all calculated.