Offseason Outlook and Book Promotion

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Sean Fenassey, lifelong long suffering Nicks fan is here to talk about how he experienced the Kicks championship from afar some frozen moments from he and I that we will all try to remember from this incredible anomalous weird run And then Fred Katz, who was there for all of it including in San Antonio for the clinching game. Just talks about the sights, the sounds of a team spraying champagne, drink at tequila, celebrating a championship, hugging family members plays from he'll remember forever, Jalen Brunson's place in Nick's history The OG and Oi Tippin as one of the most consequential final swinging plays in the history of basketball. just all things. Nick title run. a little bit of off season talk sprinkled in Yanis in particular And Darren Fox in particular in Spurs future, Spurs are going to be fine. We talk about all that that's coming up on the Zacklow S showow. Sunday edition of the Zack Lo show. we don't normally record on Sundays, but we make exceptions for NBA championships. And one thing we do on this show is we pause every year and we luxuriate no matter who wins, no matter what the circumstances, We before we pivot to Ganis and Chet Hgrin talk and all this stuff everyone wants to do We sit with the NBA championship because it is so hard to win. It is such a monumental accomplishment. It is the point off all the other hundreds of podcasts we do about trades and free agency signings in the draft is to get to the point that the New York Ks just got to ing off a historic Anomalous Almost insane sixteen and three playoff run with the greatest playoff point differential in the entire history of the NBA for a team that won the championship. For the first time in fifty three years. The New York Kicks sit atop the basketball world Sean Fenassey, you have waited a long, long time. You have moved. to the west cooast where you must have been feeling an enormous amount of FOO watching the city explode last night How are you feeling? How did you watch the game? What have you been doing for the last twenty four hours? Zach, thank you for having me here. This is Very special. I never, I never, ever, ever that I would this moment. I am beyond myself and truly truly having The best twelve hours I've had that I can possibly remember in my life. I'll tell you how I watched the game. I watched the game the exact same way I watched every single game in this series and every single game in the previous series, which was seated on my couch and then occasionally deciding to make the decision to move to my bedroom And I've watched most of these games with my five year old daughter This is by far the latest she's ever stayed up in her life And I watched every single game through gritted teeth mostostly frustrated and scared. And the reason for that is not because I didn't believe in this team or love this team and love these players It's because I have forty three years of previous NX experience to measure them against. and the franchise historically always hurt me. And I feel like it changed man I feel like a new person. I actually think something has changed inside me because of all the things you just described. the point differential, the record over the last six, seven weeks of basketball The way that they won, the way that they comported themselves on and off the court throughout this entire stretch. the way that Brunson instantaneously ascended to the rarest of air for New York athletes. I did feel FOMo and yet I'm really happy that I didn't freak out and decide to fly to New York or something and just ruin whatever mojo is going. I'm as superstitious as the next guy. And so U Even though I was just with my family last night I also was with All my friends on the internet for like fourteen straight hours, I stayed up ttill three o'clock in the morning, just listening to podcasts, looking at tweets Reading recaps, just you know, absolutely reveling in everything that I never thought was going to happen. So I'm in the best state that you've ever found me Zacho Wy misses a three with like three seconds left rebound ricochets. It's officially over after OGian and Oi hits a free throw to put them up for that three misses. When that three misses, you could hear the crowd pop in San Antonio. likeike I don't know what percentage it was. I had friends at the game who estimated it was forty, fifty percent. It was loud and it was loud every time the Nicks did anything good What does Seaan Fenesy do at the moment that that three hits off the rim and you know, it's actually over. I can exhale. It was the one moment throughout this entire stretch where I needed to just place my daughter to the side. She was sitting on my lap. She had picked up a Bruunson, Brunson, Brunson chant And I needed to just get up and just wander around the room for a minute and try to Catch my breath. It was very, very similar to game four Game four Absolute. It was like a three hour surgery Like I felt like things were being taken out of me actively throughout that game. First in the first half because of how painful it was and in the second half because I felt like I was being rebuilt in real time And this game had the exact same feeling at the end of the game where something leftft my body Maybe it was just the maybe it was the demons that have been haunting us for so long. Maybe it was something else. I don't know. but I felt transformed and just wandered around the bed for about three minutes, my wife looking at me as though I were some sort of ghost And then I picked up my daughter and I just pointed, pointed to the team and I just said When I was u F years old in nineteen eighty six My My and your New York Mets won the World Series And I said, I don't remember that happening I know that I saw it. D't I have no memory of that moment And my daughter, who's four years and ten months old, I said to her Just watch this. and try to remember this becausecause there's no guarantee that this will ever happen again. you really have to revel in this. And this is the sort of this made her a Nicks fan for life. And if it didn't then we're going to big problems But But you know, to watch her get so invested in this and to do it with me and to have that moment together was super special. Do I wish I was screaming like a maniac? on the streets of Manhattan, I do, I do. I would have had the time of my life last night doing that, but I also wouldn't have traded it for the experience that I had Um First of all, your description of the clenched teeth I just don't think a five game series can ever be better than this. It's got to be the greatest five game series in the history of basketball anyway. I mean, every game. It feels like I was only at three of the five games Um one in San Antonio and three and four in New York, which really where the games to be at most of all for various reasons And I feel like this series has been going on for five weeks because every game was just dislikeed just white knuckle. wall to wall, which is why I chuckled a little bit when Wby after the game said, we absolutely dominated Most of the series Most is the wrong word. Victor Webinyama You dominated partarts of the series partarts of every game The problem that you had is that the Kicks then dominated O parts of every game And where that all netted out was Four extremely close games that came down to the wire, five extremely close games that came down to the wire And you w one of them. So I don't like I understand that you say things in the heat of the moment and whatever but absolutely dominated most of the series just isn't true. It was just like like I live surrounded by Nicks fans in Connecticut. My entire life for the last month has been Answering questions about what the game was like to be at, What's going on? Are they actually going to do this hearing people's hot takes on the game, the Nicks Webinyama I had told you earlier today I was in a public place trying to take a little outdoor snooze for fifteen minutes and I just overheard this woman say that Victor Webama seems like a really obnoxious guy and I'm like, okay, this guy, I guess this is just gonna be another two hours Um It's just been absolutely all consuming and it was just the tension of every game was unbelievable. and some of these big moments will will live forever. and you mentioned game four I was at the game I was watching it happen brick by brick by brick and I don't mean that to facetiously about the spurs. I just mean the makeup of a comeback slash collapse like that And it was like an out of body experience. I was up on the bridge of MSG, the very top with a great view of all the action and it's happening And you realize it's happening, like, okay, it's twenty one It's eighteen It's fifteen It's thirteen And it was just like, but is it really happening? What's happening? Is this actually going to happen And then just the combination of Heart missing the layup Webenyama missing the free throws Castle get putting the spurs back ahead just the the swings of emotions And I watched the Anonobe tippet. I almost never do this. I stood up in my seat because there's there's an elevation behind us. so I'm not in anyone's way. And I just had my hands on my head like this just and I don't care who wins. It's just so excruciating. And Brunson misses that shot And I've how many times you rewatch, have you hit a hundred times yet? well over, well over There are multiple plays in the last three games that I've watched over fifty times And An Anobbe is wide open and the thing that stands out re watching a play, which I didn't really download in real time with my hands on my head and my mouth agape is he's calling for the ball. He wants the ball. He's open. Because in a decision that has not gotten enough scrutiny and may never get enough scrutiny The Spurs decided that the greatest defensive player on the planet needed help. against a point guard that he's a foot and a half taller than with four seconds left and no time for that point guard to really do anything And Anonobbe calls for them these guys hands up. And as soon as you realize he's not getting it He rushes to the rim with the urgency of someone who thinks I will die to win this game. I will do whatever it takes to win this game and he goes up and gets it. And I just sood there like this until the game ended And then after the game ended As MSG became a karaoke bar for thirty minutes and nobody left and nobody moved. That game alone was A movie, a marathon, whatever you want to Whver you want to say and all these games are incredibly intense. It's just it's felt like a fourteen game series because it's been so good as a as a fan as a die hard fan, it's felt even longer than that. This is felt and especially because the previous five or six weeks of playoff basketball had not felt like that. I mean, they they just So thoroughly dismantled. the two previous teams that these games being so intenseive felt so brutal. And I just have very little experience with this as a fan, you know, I watched the Mets in fifteen, I watched the Subway series. I watch the Kicks in ninety nine and ninety four. and I just don't have a ton of championship experience and long series, not single game elimination series are historically painful for teams. I cannot imagine what it must be to be a Spurs fan right now. you know, I know they have five titles since two thousand, but was That was nightmarish the way that the same script went over and over again over again. I want to say a couple things about what you just described. One I didn't have any feeling for what was happening in that moment at the end of Game four. I didn't see OG calling for the ball I didn't see the fact that Brunson took what was ultimately not a very good shot, but was not such a dissimilar shot that he hit in Weemby's face about two minutes earlier in the game I think the fact that he hit that shot in that game Maybe maybe that encouraged Wemby to try to like he consistently would make mistakes in an effort to make up for a mistake that he had made previously in a game. I felt like I watched him do that defensively a lot But the thing that I wanted to ask you about that has been on my mind and I have been texting Bill Simmons this for a week now is And I don't I don't know if a single reporter has asked either Mitch Johnson or Mike Brown about this I feel like three games ago A game two The Nicks very clearly realized that the Spurs had a game plan that they were not going to move away from, which was they were going to play full effort from the first second of every game and that the team was not well conditioned enough to make it to the fourth quarter. It's true for Wenby, but I think it's also pretty definitively true for Castle, Vell and Fox and those guys If you watch their defensive effort and the shots that they took in the fourth quarters of the last four games, They looked gass in those games and you described Weenby trying to come out on Brunson to defend that play. when he turns his back to go towards the basket after while OG is midfight, he's not even leaving his feet he is routinely not leaving his feet in the fourth quarter. And so what I'm wondering about And you being the elite analyst that you are. was that was that it was that Was that a strategy that NXA deployed that actually like falling down so brutally in the first quarter of every single game since they started pressing in game two. Were they wereere they playing possum in some way knowing that they could get back into the game offensively in the second half? becausecause it was the same script every single game So so my buddy Matt asked me that exact question three hours ago because Brunson had the quote after the game. Like I guess we don't really start playing until n o'clock and he said, why do you think that this happened over and didn't he didn't say playing possib, but he was just curious And I said probably part of it is just random like D Nicks missed some random shots, the S spurs made some random shots But I do think part of it is Spurs just come out in a gear defensively that when they hit it They're really hard to sc. like wheny had four blocks and it felt like I barely sat down to start the game. he had four blocks And for whatever reason, They just couldn't sustain that year as the game went on and the Nicks, they don't turn the ball over. They don't make a lot of mistakes. They They are a very good puzzle solving team And they solved I said with Bill last night, their offensive rating. people are going to look at the stats in five years but like one hundred and eleven points per a hundred possessions. That's like dead last in the regular season. They had a horrible offensive series. They won because of their defense because of the spurs malfunctioning on offense And I will always say like look, man That offensive number looks bad They're facing an insanely good defensive team in number two, I think in the regular season. the best defensive player in the league Tim to game to do one thing, which is think about how to stop your team. with a refereeing regime that has decided with the exception of Carl Anthony Towns, we're just going to let everyone beat the shit out of each other the entire game. And I don't really care what the numbers are The Nicks had a good enough offensive series and that's all they needed to do to win the finals. and that's what happened. But I really do think the Spurs came out shot out of a canon couldn't quite sustain that level of intensity. And I took a lot of shit from Spurs fans before the series when I said I think the Kicks are deeper than the spurs and like neither bench acquitted themselves like super well. the Nicks had no bench points for like the entire first three quarters of the game But like Carter Bryant kind of couldn't play in the series. Harrison Barnes didn't end up playing much at all in the series got played out of it. Cornett was played to the fringes of the series by the end other than a Harper and and Kelvin Johnson was like a bit player in a lot of these games too. They just didn't have guys that they trusted. to play big minutes And I think that fatigue was and Wendby has never played minutes like this ever. And yeah, you had two days of rest between games, you know, four and five and all that. but He's he's being asked to do so much and he runs the floor so hard in both directions and a stat that I just aropo of this. in the first half of last night's game I kept writing in my notes, he's not rolling the rim. he's not rolling to the rim He rolled to the rim on only nine screens, according to Genius IQ tracking data in the first half And seventeen or eighteen, I think in the second half. someomeone clearly said to him in the locker room like you I know, I know it's hard I know that you're tired. You just got to summon everything you've got because when you roll to the basket good things happen to our offense and when you don't, We don't really have a lot of levers that we can pull against this team. and I absolutely think that fatigue was a factor more so for the Spurs than maybe the Nixson. there's one play that I want to talk about later with you where I think that happened. But It was just bizarre how thirty one, fifteen in the second quarter of the game last night U and two of the next fifteen points to that point. We're going to talk about sort of frozen moments that we will always try to remember from these this game and this these playoffs. One of them two of those fifteen points came on a pretty blatant OGN noi double dribble that the world will forget about in my notes and Victor Wbenyama will never forget about because it was like, wait, what just happened? He was baffled And thir thousand one fifteen, I'm sitting there watching the game like it's my I was acting like in my in my my heartbeat, my pulse was like it's zero zero. Like I know what's going to happen and it's going to be close at the end Yeah. I think um there were A number of completely bizarre place in this game and it had that incredible rock fight feeling Um, I just I was noticing this throughout the game. This isn't a frozen moment, but I believe Wendby went to the bench five different times. Yeah. think includluding late in the game when I was really surprised they took him out and so immediately was like, I'm going to the rom. R here. It was four and a half minutes. I think it was a six point game, maybe a four point game at that point and he brought Cornett in. And as soon as he did that, I was starting to feel this before this, but as soon as he did that I was like, it's over It's over if he can't if he is so gassed that he can't stay on the floor right now and some of it it felt like in the third quarter it was a little bit of Mitch Johnson over cororrecting for the criticism that he got after letting Wamy play forty four minutes in game four. And I understood that. But you could tell at the end of the first quarter When Binyama was as dominant, I would say as we've ever seen a big man, at least in my life watching the sport the way that he protected the rim and was so clearly in the heads of the Nicks. And they actually made an effort to go to the basket against him in the first quarter. But I do think There was something and maybe it wasn't a coached idea, but there was a mentality amongst the team that was like, we're going to make him work. We're going to make him work from second one. If Castle's going to D me up ninety four feet then we're going to go to the basket and we're going to try to tire him out And by the time you get into the third and fourth quarter of this game, you can see him just not elevating. It's the third game in a row where he took a ton of jump shots in the fourth quarter and Some of them were good shots, and some of them were not, and some of them he made and some of them he missed As soon as you see the fact I don't know if he's asking to come out of the game I don't know what the decision making is but with four and a half minutes to go You know In an elimination game on your home floor, For him to come off the floor, I was like, is this did they just hand this to us? This is because you knew exactly what Brunson was going to do because it was the same thing that he's done in every single minute in which Mbinyama was not on the floor, which is he just attacked. and his shot making last night and his feel for the moment and every touch was unreal. It was pantheon level stuff. He was not that through the entire series But last night, there was never a there was not a scintilla of doubt that he wasn't going to be in control of the game So don't I'm kind of fascinated by it with a little bit of distance as a, you know Set aside euphoric fandom for a second I couldn't help but noticing the rhythms of the team and even Harper who is? a magnificent player and terrifying He even seemed to just be out of gas. He missed two free throws. he missed that lay upp at the basket in at the end of the fourth quarter. Those two shots were shots that he was You know, he was hitting those shots in Oji's face in game three. Like there there was just they had just kind of run out of energy. I thought U Castle was played really lousy and I thought Hart and Bridges had him in a straight jacket, all game five I don't It was just one of those things where I was like, is this just a much better conditioned team? They didn't have to play two seven gamees series. They did not have to play OKC to the limit Even still I'm like, and you know, Bridges famously is a is a freak when it comes to conditioning. Heart is a freak when it comes to conditioning. These guys can play forty eight every night To me The decision making of the Spurs, Brunson's just fearlessness in any situation. OGs tipp in. And somethingomething about the togetherness of the team, the fact that They never talk shit They never took individual credit for things. They just I'm obsessed with watching these Brntson interviews Every Brunson interview is just unbelievable to me. It's not just because it's heartfelt, but he just is deflecting all praise. All praise. He's sitting next to his dad and they're both like, yeah, we didn't really see this as possible. But we talked about it and we hoped it could happen The NBA champion NBA finals NBP and he's like, I definitely didn't see this So Okay, number one Rest versus Rust. I'm always taking rest every time in the playoffs. I was telling everyone before game one I think the Nicks will play well tonight. I'm not worried about the layoff. I know they looked rusty in game one against Cleveland, which feels like nine months ago the Landrew Sambid shot hit the rim and went up and fell in I just I just would rather be rested. I just don't want the wear and tear Um They definitely made a conscious decision. We are going to make Weembenyama move on defense. We're going to go out of our way to try to drag him up the floor in the pick and roll when we can. And when we can't, I know one of the emphasis they had was If he's hanging around the baseline, we want our corner our corner shooters to drive at him, to engage him and make him guard to drive, close out, rotate to another person off but we just want him moving around all the time. You mentioned his defense at the beginning of game one Maybe the maybe the like, um, mostost courageous slash saddest moment of the NBA finals was Landry Shammot putting his head down being like, I'm going for it. I'm going to give it a shot. Let me and it's just like I don't like I think Landriy Shammot just disappeared into like a into the timepace continuum somewhere like in a black hole Um Okay, let's go through before we get to the other frozen plays I just don't think enough can be made of the Anonobe Tippin. It's the greatest play in the history of the Kicks with apologies to about ten other people who haveve made ten iconic plays It's Are you pleased as a Mets fan that it's become known as the OMG Tipp in? Do you get a little bit of a kick out of that? I am. I have a screenshot of the New York Post cover now in my photos forever. It's I mean, it's a perfect nickname for an indelible moment. And I agree with you. I don't think you can overstate. Now I will say, I think I heard Bill say this last night when you guys were talking too, but I do think that towns would have just dunked the mist put back to because he's standing right behind him and also not being boxed out. Extraordinary to me that I mean, that's another thing that there's just something about the weird grittyiness of New York basketball where it's like box out is the thing that you hear screamed at you by your father who's your coach, your whole life. And you know the Kicks are just a great box out team. This is the team of Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart. They just box the fuck out on every rebound and it's amazing watching them. And to see two different guys being positioned for that at the most important moment of the game, it felt once again like youthful and discretion on the part of the sppurs Um Let's let's u Let's talk about One of my frozen moments was going to be that Harper mislayup at the end of the game because I want to go through the end the end game of the Kicks actually winning the championship And so Um with like thirty seven seconds left I mean, this is what I wrote at my notes Jayen Brunson makes one of the single best passes of his entire career a wraparound pass that skips T nicks in like the rotation order and hits heart at the top of the key. I mean, that is That's the championship in his hands. It It's not the shooter you necessarily want But it's a guy who's made some big shots for the next It's the championship in his hands the level of tension in that moment as that shot went up I cannot overstate like my eyes were bugging out watching the flight of the ball. It misses And Harper goes coast to coast And All of New York City. This is a twenty year old kid going one on whatever at the end of an elimination game of the finals Reckless, maybe All of New York correct me if I'm wrong, All of New York City was probably like This fucking guy' terrifying. I'd rather have it be pretty much anyone else on the spurs. He was the only guy with any juice in the game at that point too. I mean, there were not there was not a single spur who was making any meaningful offensive impact in that quarter or even in the third quarter. So yeah, I thought for sure it was going in. I think it was twenty seven seconds when he took that shot. So So Ananobbe is tracking back And he sees Vasll on the right wing And there's a moment where it looks like he might veer that way as Harper is dribling up the middle But he also sees bridges Printing his ass back probably get a catch of a cell or at least disrupt a passing angle and kind of pivots his body back to get in front of Harper And if you freeze it at the summit His hand is just like just almost on the ball. But he's falling backwards a little bit and he doesn't have as much elevation because he's backpedaling But he does just enough to disrupt that shot and Harper leaves it short at the rim then rebounds the ball. with twenty eight point three seconds left. exxactly twenty eight point three U Spurs down to F to five seconds is like the No one knows what to do segment of time Do we foul or do we play for the stop I would err on the side of Fouling Dpurers apparely didn't even think about it They foul and then the free throw thing starts Castle has the put backack to make it ninety two ninety. And then the other frozen moment is They wait seven and a half seconds to fou Mcale Bidges U at the end of the game And like they were trying for a turnover They basically trapped Brunson in a rugby scrum at half Court and we werere muling him and there was no call. So they almost got the turnover That A amount of elapsed time. I think ended up biting them in the asset at the end of the game where they just didn't have any time to do anything down four In that moment, the take fowl that they had on heart at twenty seven or twenty eight seconds I was actually screaming past theall Runson and past the ball Runson when heart grab down. soon as he grabed because I actually I know enough to not want Josh Hart on the line in that moment. I love Josh Hart. He's a legend forever. He should also have a statue. likeike he is a beloved New York Nick, But that's not the player in that rooss on that lineup that you want at the line. In fact, there were a number of players who didn't want at the line because the Nicks missed a lot of free throws in the in the fourth quarter of this game I was desperate. that he would look for an outlet pass, but he didn't. and they flled right. I think Fox fll them right away. it was the right play because you just can't you can't risk The Nick's milking the whole clock and then a long rebound at a deflection and the game is over. Yeah. the the other foul that you're talking about where they burn clock off. I couldn't understand why I don't remember who was who made it with the ball up up. Maybe maybe it was Brunson the whole time who made it up around the sideline and then went around to half court And then he, you know he's just clearly being fouled by two different players as he's approaching the half court line. didnn't call that foul and it was Really weird and maybe it was because it seemed like they were trying to make a basketball play and not intentionally fouling him. And then there was obviously an intentional foul on Brges and And Bridges who's a good free throw shooter but I thought the broadcast was really good about this where they were just like this guy has taken so few free throws in this series and has been so not at the center of the offensive action of this series. is a tough spot to be in as a free throw shooter and he missed one of two And When he missed one of two I was like Well, this is not over. Like there's just there wass just a not overness to this entire thing. And I've heard people say this The You know this is the franchise of the LJ four point play. So just being up for even with eight seconds left doesn't mean anything to us. It's like we've seen teams come back from this in bizarre ways. and this has been We don't talk about this too much Z, but a bizarrely officiated five game series bizarrely And whether you want to say it was in one direction or another The number of miss callalls, the regularity with which guys were being pummeled in ways that would never be allowed in a regular season game. the and then just the technical foul str. I was like, everything's on the table here unt until it's zero, zero, zero on the clock, this is not over. So I was never feeling like Okay, we're completely good no matter what happens Let's take a quick break, talk a little bit about some other big picture stuff, including the what if of a game six The Zach Lowe showh is brought to you by Fanel Another NB season is in the books, but the funund doesn't have to stop there. This MLB season Fandal is giving you a chance to call your shot with daily dingers. Just make your free pick on who's hitting a home run. and if you're right, you'll get a profit boost to use on your next bet. Head to fandl dot com slash low to opt in and make your daily dingers pick, play ball and swing for the defensces on Fandal and official partner of the MLB twenty one or over in select states or eighteen and over in DC, Kentucky, Wyoming no purchase necessary. opt in required. bonus issued is not withdrawable profit boost tokens restrictions apply including any token expiration and max wager amount See terms at sportsbook. fle. com gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler All one, eight, eight, seven, eight, nine, seven, seven, seven, seven, or visit ccpG dot org slash chat, Connecticut This episode is brought to you by Micolobe Ultra. How ready are you for the FIFA World Cup twenty six? Every decision matters here, even yours because Micolobbe Ultra, the official beer sponsor of the FIFA World Cup twenty six is giving you a chance to win a million dollars worth of tickets and prizes Micolob Ultra from the pitch to the poor suuperior is worth paying for. Enter now at mickelob Ultra d. com slash superior acccess slash FIFA World Cup twenty six. Miclob of Ultra FF World Cup twenty six superior acccess, no purchase necessary open US residence twenty one plus begins on december first, twenty twenty five and ends on july thirty first, twenty twenty six Multiple entry periods visit wWW. micloob ultra d. com slash superior acccess slash FIFA World Cup twenty six for free entry I said with Bill the other night. last night and I believe this I think this is like in terms of like literary narratives The Kicks winning and the sppur iss losing And Wy coming out, a little bit scarred basketball wise and As Kind of a polarizing figure at least to the largest fan base in the NBA, maybe other than the Lakers fans is just a home run for the NBA. It's so much better than Oh He already did it like it's already his league and not only does he not do it, he averages twenty six a game in the finals on forty two percent shooting. He, u accumulates a whole bunch of flavgrorant fowls, some called, some uncalled And I think we would have been looking at a suspension. in game six And that's another reason I was kind of glad as a neutral fan that the Nix oneon last night is because if they come back at MSG and beat the spurs with that weby, it's just so antic climactic and we're coming off the finals that ended on the most the saddest possible antic climactic moment with Halliburton last year I just think it's it's awesome for the league that he comes back. he leaves in this state with these things to work on in his game And the flip side is closest thing the NBA really has to a Red Sox Cubs style drought ends with this incredible One of a kind team that has no players on it that I have ever made first team all NBA ever And put together in such unusual way And I, you know I saw some feedback on social media Um I checked, I shouldn't have checked Some people think I'm getting a little caught up in the moment For the Nicks being a little hyperbolic when I describe it as a totally anomalous playoff run And I don't apologize. L I'm not getting caught up in the moment. but first of all, I get it caught up in the moment for every team that wins a championship because it's the point of the whole goddamn enterprises to win one. And asest as the next fifty three year drought testifies to, it's very hard to win one. like Some of these teams have had repeats in dynasties, they make it look easy. It's hard to win one. So hell yes, we should celebrate it. It is absolutely anomalous There is no team that is like this team in terms of it was a pretty good regular season team. S flaws some warts some down periods fifty three wins like not doesn't scream like, oh, that's a clear Championship contender and then whoos two months later, sixteen and three, fifteen and one in its last sixteen playoff games. the greatest point differential in the history of basketball Like it doesn't happen closest comp is the two thousand one Lakers who won fifty six games in cruise control in the regular season and went fifteen and one of the playoffs. But it's not a comp. That was a defending championship team with Shack and Kobe. It's like a completely different thing. The only other team that comes close is the twenty twenty three Denver Nuggets who had fifty three wins on the dot, I think, sixteen and four in the playoffs plus eight. The Nicks are plus fifteen. It's absolutely outrageous. And I do not want to hear I don't want to hear Well, they didn't have to play Boston. Guess what? Boston got their asses exposed in the second round by Philly who was healthy for a week. And it turned out that Nemias Kada was Nimias Kada and Luca Garza was Luca Garza and they didn't have enough sides and now they're going to do some stuff in the offseason to address that. They didn't have to play Detroit. Detroit lost to Cleveland. They didn't have to play Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City was injured and lost to the sppurs The Spurs had lost more than three playoff games in a series. the Nix just beat them four out of five I'm sorry that they didn't have the the ideal storybook path The other thing they did was they beat the living shit out of everybody that they faced in the Eastern confonference, embarrassed them, ran them off the floor announced to the Cavaliers to the Sixers and to the Hawks after two one point losses. theirir losses were by one point, one point and four announnce to all those teams, you are not even in our universe. Get the fuck out of here, talkal to us next year. You don't belong on the cps with us. So I don't like am I getting caught up in it? Yeah. I get caught up in it every year. One of the reasons I got caught up in it and this is what I want to talk to you a little bit about is I just love New York City. It's my favorite place in the world. I lived there for twenty years I have a deep fondness for it. And so you're godsdamn right, I'm getting caught up in it and I don't apologize First of all, I just want to show you that I'm wearing my Phip Semour Hoffman t shirt today. There you go. My favorite actor of all time, and that was a rant suitable for Gust Robertoz. You don't what my wedding Charly Wil is. My wife and my wedding song We got married in Croatia. And we forced a Croatian band Beautiful band to play Empire state of mind. That was our wedding song. That was our first dance wedding song. What did you get married? What year did you get married twentyteen. Okay. I was gonna to say I got married in two thousand nine and there was a there was pandemonium on our wedding dance floor when Empire State of Mine came on. So it's funny that you mentioned that. I mean, look, I spent yesterday We went Okay. I'm just now I'm going Sean. just'orry I'm I' to let you cook in a second. go New York City changed my life. It changed me as a person, it changed me in I became a man. I became who I am living in New York City For twenty years, my first apartment was five hundred fifty dollars a month a basement apartment, a windowless room, Cat ladady's apartment where the cat lady's cat Susan would come into my room every night and wake me up and I would be like, get the fuck out of here, Susan. five hundred and fifty dollars on the Upper East side per month. I paid my dues in New York City. I love it is beyond special to me Um I I This was a home finals for me. I could have come home. between games two, three, four, I decideed, you know what? I want the hotel in New York City all week because I want to feel it. I want to soak it up My wife and daughter came in on an off day between the between the two games to have dinner with me on eighty fifth Street I walked from twenty fifth to eighty fifth because A was beautiful and B I just wanted to see All the Nicks fans. I wanted to see all the decorations The New York Historical Society has Abham Lincoln, wearing a Carl Anthony Towns jersey and Frederick Douglas wearing Brunson jersey. There's there's stuff everywhere. I wanted to see it And again I grew up not only not a Nick fan hating the Kicks And I wanted to see it And I wanted to feel it Um And you know, like some people recognizeed me and would just shout go Nicks, one guy recognized me at dinner and said never get never bet against Nova. never bet against Nova. I just And to see those videos last night. I just think there's it's just there's one city that's going to look like that when it's basketball team wins a championship and it's New York And I apologize for nothing. I love New York City I went in yesterday morning to a a Croatia World Cup kickoff event in Long Island City, a neighborhood where I used to live at a bar called Annabelle's Basin where I used to go all the time because My wife wanted to go, but also like I want to see it. I want to see what it's like day of Day of the morning of them possibly winning the championship And everyone at there was one thousand people to say I don't know how many people were there Was wearing like a Croatia jersey and a Nick hat or a Nick jersey and a Croatia hat. It was just awesome. So I don't know I don't know what the fuck I'm saying, man. I don't care if I'm going overboard. It's New York City. Listen, man, it' New Yorkity. I lived there for ten years as well. I was born in the state. I went to college in the state. I'll be a New York Nick fan until I die. I'm an extremely extremely sad sports fan I root for the Kicks, the Mets and the Jets. The Jets are the most historically unsuccessful team of the last fifteen years in North America. The Mets, you and I have a niche niche sports segment on your show talking about how painful it is to be a fan of this team. and the Kicks has been Disastrous give or take three times this century You can say that first meo season, you can say that first Amari season and you can say L insanity Aside from that until Julius Randall and Tom Tibidau arrived in New York franchise was depressing It was painful to be a Nicks fan. And here's the thing for me. I'll try to put this in context personally U Four of my like eight best friends are from Philly And I watched, including Chris Ryan, who works at the Ringer and a number of other people who people would know And I watched them go through this with the Eagles when the Eagles won the Super Bowl And I was so jealous. and I was happy for them. I was actually happy for them The Eagles are not rivals of any team I root for, but I was all I could feel when they were going through that first championship run six years ago was like, I just really want this for myself one day. I just really want this monkey off my back. If you compound that with, I've been working for Bill Simmons for fourteen years ve known you for almost as long I've watched Bill get the moon and the stars when it comes to sports f. It really hass been unbelievable. I mean, what Boston has been able to experience as a sports city is just absolutely unbelievable. And you know, if you're a Yankees fan or New York Giants fan, it's different It's different. Like you've tasted glory this century. To be proximate to so many people and to care about so many people who have had this kind of happiness and this kind of joy and to have not had this It genuinely made me a different kind of person. Like I was getting angrier and I just don't feel angry. Like I just don't feel I do feel like I said this to my wife last night and then I woke up again this morning and I said to her, I just feel like there's a piano off my back. This is and I have an amazing life. I love my life. I have so many things that have gone my way and I feel so lucky. But when I watch sports, I'm a different person. I'm pissed off and fearful And all of a sudden Poof Done Like and it doesn't mean that my teams will always win now and forever more And it doesn't mean that the character of New York City as a sports town will change foreverm, But we will always have this. And on the literally, I have three insanely active Nx fan text threads Every single one of them I just sent, we will always have this and they can never take this away from us no matter what. We will always be able to talk about this team and what they did and you provided all of those data points about the strength of their run and the way that they dominated teams through the first three rounds of the Eastern Conerence path and the way that they took four out of five from the sppurs and six of eight on the season. Let's not forget, they dominated this team this season The fact that they went up against one of the most bizarrely gifted players in NBA history and routinely made him look bad. Put all that down. L forget about all that stuff They can't nobody can ever take this away. We will always be able to talk about this and share this and have this. And so I think that it kind of dawned on everybody simultaneously. I think it actually dawned on us after game four Because after Game F, there was this collective like, wow, three one There's no way they're going to beat us three times in a row. Like we really felt that way, but you couldn't say it You couldn't enunciate that feeling because of how afraid we are of everything that's happened on us in the past as fans when the Tippin went in, and I think it's right that you've circled back to it a couple of times in this conversation. somethingomething happened where we were just like, oh my god Oh my Godd. L this can't happen for us. The tip in is such an important moment for obvious reasons, but also because when I did my live show in New York in March A segment that me and Jacobbe and Howard Beck did were just like let's draft the craziest moments of the last thirty years of Nick's history And just going through that exercise, even though you cognitively know this to be the case, having lived it It just hammers home How many of those moments bad things and great plays that happened to the Kicks. that happened at the expense The Nicks And the great moments for the Nicks and there are some great basketball moments Starks is Dunk losing series. Ewing put back. they don't end up finishing off the job in the finals and all that A lot of them are just like L insanity, which is just a regular season moment to end all regular season moments, but ends up yielding like, you know terms of playoff equity, not all that much at all And it's just like the endless list of like Charles Smith and Reggie Miller and Tyrees Hallibton and Double Nickel and all this stuff that has happened to the Kicks They have now in the post merger modern history of the NBA They have a play that was their play that happened to them, that happened by them, that was done by them. That is their moment. I think that is just like Are there any I asked you for frozen? you have any other frozen like you I want to ye, just let's go. list off your like. I want these to be embedded in my brain forever. Sure There were a couple of landerry shamot plays. and I'm citing this because in one of my text chains, we were going back and forth about how the Nick bench had been brutal for the previous two games. They was giving them nothing. Duce McBride was a zero in this series. and it was sad because Duce was a really good Nick and was a really valuable player this season. Mitchell Robinson had a broken hand. couldn't finish those lob dunks the way that he had all season even though he gave him good defense and good rebounding. We saw Jordan Clarkson minuts. We saw Hk Porty minutes that were valuable yesterday, but I bring up Shamnot because he hit a big three in the fourth quarter and then he hit a huge layup in the fourth quarter in which he got injured And when he go ye and he he slid on a wet spot underneath the basket he hit a layup that I think maybe tied the game or put the game in maybe made it a two point game And when he hit that layup, it was such a complicated feeling for me because on the one hand, I was like, good, Shamot got his moment, which I knew was going to happen, which I texted people. I was like, I'm not giv up on Shamot. He was so good in game one and game two in San Antonio. He was not afraid. and he was not afraid in that game. And when he got hurt, my here was my fear Towns had five fouls at that point And Shamit got hurt. And I was like, if this game goes to OT, they don't have enough bodies. They cannot survive over timee without shhamit and without CA That's one moment. The second moment is the mitch offensive rebound, which we have not mentioned. Mitchell Robinson on a missed free throw literally just manning up on Wbinyama afterfter Wembinyama got position on the inside and Mitch just big boy him out of the way. And turns wheny turns to face him to make sure like I'm going to be I'm going to make sure I see you and look you in the ee and I'm between you in the rim and Mitch is like, it don't matter. It did not matter. He muscled him the same way that when Mitch got te got t the technical foul, which got reversed. I think that was in game two, eventually rescinded by the league. It was the same thing where they were kind of having like a physical standoff And Wenby was using all of his might and he could not overpower Mitch because Mitch is a grown man. This is his eighth season, as he has been saying. Mitch not only gets the rebound, but immediately outlet passes it to the sideline and then the Kicks whip the ball around. and he could have gotten fouled by Wembinyama in that moment and that would have sent him to the line because they were in the bonus And he does not get fled. And if he goes to the line, we know what happens. It's probably over to him but wouldnt wouldn't it Wouldn't it have been the all time greatest thing If he goes to of Well it would have. it would have. I mean, like N has happen N from this decade We love Mitchell Robinson because he plays so hard and he does things that most other players cannot do. And he's an athletic freak. I mean, he is truly, his skills are insane given how big he is. So I want to cite that one. And then the one that is the most important one to me, which was not in the final moments of the game. There were six minutes to go, maybe six and a half minutes to go And Brunson was at on the left side at the three point line and Wemby once again came out to challenge him one on one. and Brunson takes him off the dribble And he gives him not two, not three, but four stutterstep hesitations and uses his body and then moves the opposite hand and lays it off the glass and they score. And that went cut the game from six to four And that was really the time when you were like, o the Russian is cut. He like he can't, he's not leaving his feet. He does not know Brunson's timing Interior defense did not collapse on Bronson in that moment in a way that is confusing. If you watch that play, it's hard to even understand what the defense is doing other than just saying like, tip your cap. to JB because he has moves that confound defenders, especially in these big moments when everyone is nervous and afraid of fouling. And that clip, that moment, I have watched it over and over and over again today. I sat there with my daughter this morning, holding my phone up trying to explain to her the things he's doing with his footwork and his headwork that confuse this alien who's on the court. magical shit. and it is the perfect poetic metaphorical moment for the team is and what they were facing and how they won I'm so glad you brought that up becausecause it was high on my list And I've watched it a bunch of times. It is It is the culmination Of all the videos you see of young Jayen Brunson on the playground with his dad honing his footwork and working on mid range jumpers and you know, wrong foot takeoffs and all that It's a switch. It's another play where we talked about earlier They clear the side of the floor when when when Binyamas is stuck on I think it was Anonobi. And then okay, you come set a screen. We're going to bring him up. And there's some confusion among the spurs and then they switch. and it'ss it's literally David versus Coliath basically. It's Seven five versus six foot nothing And he beats them right to his right like Victor kind of opens up a little bit says I'm if you're going to be me, it's going to be the right And he hits him as he gets in the paint with a shoulder into I mean, it's probably not even Victor's chest. It's probably his gut and Victor and it moves Victor back. a half step. And against pretty much any other player in the NBA. That's enough Jayen Brunson has enough space to finish that shot. But this is not any other player in the A, it's Victor Win Beam, and it's not enough And so he takes one more hard dribble. kind of hesitates like a little hesitation stops on a dime. Victor gets stood up a little bit and off balance And then all Jen Brunntson is not only small for an NBA player. He doesn't have a big wingspan or long arms or anything. and he sticks that right arm out. as far as it can possibly go and just says, God, I hope this is long enough. I hope this is far out enough and flicks that thing up It's It's a one thousand out of one thousand on difficulty and creativity and it does cut the lead as you mentioned before. It's an all time. it's an all time move by an all time New York Nick player at this point. It reminded me a lot playing high school basketball because I was not a great high school basketball player, but I played basketball in high school. and There would routinely be things that would happen to me when I would try to defend players that were clearly better than me. And they would just beat you in ways. They could do things that you could not do And there is a spirit breaking that happens when someone does that to you on a court. And even if you're the fiercest competitor in the world, when someone has a move in their bag that you don't understand, and look at Wenbenyama's reaction, look at his osure lookook at his disposition after that basket He is exhausted. and he looks defeated And this is probablyrobably the single most powerful defensive force in the sport. It was it was everything. I didn't I clocked it in the moment. I was like, o, okay. That was crazy. That was crazy that he did that. But as soon as people started circling it and saying this, you can look at it over and over and over again and you can see the whole series in that moment. It's amazing. He was never scared of Wbinyama He made step back threes over him He he did he led the dance his way on that drive And I think that was emblemat. The Kicks did not ever play scared of Lemonyama. That's not to say that they did not have their healthy share of drive oh, kick it out. That'says the Spurs would ironically say, appropriate fear. But there was never any sense of like, well, we're just never going to go to the rim. We're never going to get in the paint. played him Like he was mortal. And I think that that's how you had to play him. Sometimes you're going to have the Lander Sambot challenge that goes bad, but you're also going to have OGN and Oi dunking against him from the corner. You're going to have fouls. You're going to have other stuff. Kat went at him a bunch of times in the first two games of the series. They didn't play scared of him And I think that Brunson drive is emblematic of that. All right, Sop Fedasy. I got to be bring in Fred Katsz who is writing a book about this team and was there last night. But any parting thoughts, any And the bets one eight to one to boot today. They beat the braves two out of three. the hated braves like what else could go right for you Um I saw Toy Story five this morning with my daughter. It was an incredible movie. That worked out well. Things are just, I sat by the LA. River with my family having brunch this morning and a blue heron landed in the middle of the L.A. Rriver and we sat and watched it enjoying our brunch. And I was like, what is happening right now? This This is unbelievable what this world can give us if it just turns in your direction for a short period of time. I'm feeling great. Listen, the Mets, I'm sure we'll talk about it more soon in the future I'm simultaneously as rage filled as I've ever been a fan And yet I have not given up. And I will not give up It's actually I'm so I'm so thrilled Um that I I have I I was wondering could I sustain a subpar season I'm like I just watched the last three eightnings of the game with my daughter today. Like I'm like no one in the National League has run away. Lindor is coming back Why not? whyy not? What am I going to do? giveive up like it This is a fun time. All right Seun Fantasy, we will do We have some very good Mets corner content knock on wood coming up We will do it soon. Go enjoy luxurate in the championship. That's what the whole point of this says. Thank you for your time. Thank you Zack. I appreciate you Somewhere out there is a Chevy truck. person who drives it. It's a Chevy person Probably no one. Your buddy, your sister, ones who always show up, do the first to rise, the last to leave. They always have that little extra something, and maybe you've got it too. Chevrolet, togetherether let's drive. Visit Chevy dot com slash trucks to explore the lineup This episode is brought to by Netflix. The T mobile home runun Derbies right around the corner might be one of the best showcases of pure power and off sports baseballs Biggest sluggers. with some legendary Announcers, Puhos, Rizzo Bonds, Sabathia L Duncan Yeah Hunter Pence, Matt Fast Kurzian, a whole bunch of people And it's the one night where you don't swing to make contact. You swing. to make history. I'm interested is who what Bon says about this actually. Anyway, it is all live from Citizens Bank Park In Philly, watch the T mobile Home rununs Derb liive Netflix Monday, july thirteenth at eight PM Eastern five PM Pacific Fred Kats from the athletic. Fresh from San Antonio on no sleep just witnessed the unthinkable the New York Kicks afterfter fifty three years winning the championship What was the scene like last night? I mean, you wrote a wonderful story for the athletic highlighted by Oj and and Oi trying to Kila for the first time in his life and it apparently not going so well. reallyally just like not If you don't drink, you got to start somewhere else. Not the best place to start, but what are you going to remember from sort of the scene? I mean, those clinching games are kind of chaotic because you can't get back out onto the court. You're just waiting and waiting and waiting and trying to find people as they come up, but like what are you what are you always going to remember I don't know if it was the first time OG tried tequila. He definitely reacted as it was as if it was the first time he tried Tquila. I will always remember the sound that he made after he tried to chug it realizing that it was significantly more difficult to drink than water. and then Making making a sound that actually sounded a little like that and then just complete and utter screeching as the guys around him started laughing And then like two seconds later being like, you know, what's screw it. One more try And then having an even worse reaction after that It was It was such a beautiful mix of jubilation, wholesomeness and like genuine physical pain. Like I have to imagine he's just holded up somewhere for the next like six months after going through what he went through in those two seconds. in the two sips. I love I love the post Championship celebration, even though we are sort of isolated away from a lot of it. We do get to see like when they're in the locker room and they open up the locker room, you get to see all the chaos it's just wall to wall bodies, your suits getting get and it's going to be soaked in champagne, all that. And I'm just like an unabashed lover of that moment because I I'll hug the coaches, the front office guys, the players. I know because I just know like neutrality aside, like I don't really care that your team won versus this other team I do care that you as a human being got to see the fruits of your labor and you work so hard for so many years and so many people don't get to experience it. And this is like what you did it all for. I just I find it just like life affirming to be around in a lot of ways. and I'm sad I wasn't there last night A hundred percent, it's a great vibe Also on top of that You know the way that the world is now All these players have their brands and their images that they put out about themselves, right? And it's like we see these very sort of curated versions of what their personalities are and these very sort of picked out versions of what their personalities are It's pretty rare that we get to see guys just like guard completely down. just like I'm grabbing this bottle of tequila and I'm going to take this shot. And it's pretty rare that you see guys like that and see a whole room of guys like that to be for there to be so much just an overpouring amount of happiness out of that room It's it's a it's a really nice energy to be around and it's really great. spepeaking just as a reporter, it's really cool to be able to see be such natural raw versions of themselves. and be so comfortable in doing so without any fear of judgment or anything like that because That feeling is something that can't really relate to, you must just feel completely and utterly invincible and on top of the world. And that's how everybody acts when they get there and it is absolutely positively how they should act U I went over with Sean fantasy Frozen moments that you either want to remember because they were pivotal moments in your mind from either last night's game or any other part of the finals and you feel like they're going to be forgotten because of when they happened in the game or whatever. We did a lot of the end of game stuff. or just frozen moments that you want to remember because you were there and you saw this incredible thing happen like the Anenobbe tip or whatever. is what qualifies for you I' tell you what a lot of my answers have nothing to do with anything that happened on the court. Great. A lot of my answers were stuff that happened after, just like the really human moments. Like I witnessed I think probably the most Carl Anthony Towns thing that I've ever seen Towns is like this incredibly kind of sweet guy, like notoriously unbelievably sweet, famamously sweet guy, right And as he's walking off the court, there's this tunnel that goes to the back in San Antonio and the tunnel is completely clogged up It's just Gazillion media members waiting for guys to leave the court after the championship ceremony and there' gazillian coaches and players who are trying to make their way through and somehow there fans who have gotten there and are clogging it up and all of these Nicks fans in San Antonio stayed late to come, you know, cheer on their guys. and the guys are finally after the ceremony starting to come off the court and go to the locker room and they're like having to squeeze through to go to the lock room. It's like one tiny little lane for them to get through and a security guard is clearing them out. There are these Nxs fans to the side who are just freaking out. it's the best moment of their lives and they're just bugging And Kat comes by and he's going to the locker room and he's holding the championship trophy He's like, clutching to his chest and there are these Nicks fans who just start screaming just like cheering so loud. They're so excited. They're all dcked out in Nick's gear and Kat just turns to them in this almost like Almost like the nicest kid in fifth grade When you bring some they bring in lunch and somebody looks at your lunch and you're like, that looks good and the nicest kid in fifth grade is like, do you want to split it So Cat looks it these guys and says Do you wantan to touch the troph The cat leans into the stands and is holding out the trophy. as these fans are touching the championship trophy. And I promise you This was like three men and I have I have never seen three men lookook so happy at one time in my entire life, Cat made these guys lives The hilarious part about it is's this unbelievably sweet moment where Cat's like, I'm in the greatest moment at least of my career. and his inclination is like He's thinking, you know, I'm in the greatest moment of my career. and my inclination is, I'm just going to Im share it with everybody around me instead of be here But the result was that the line completely clogged up and nobody knew why because Kat's blocking the whole line. So everyone is in the back being like, can we get this fickaking thing moving and being such New Yorkers about it and being totally perturbed as Kat is just like being and the sweetest guy ever holding out the trophies to let the fans touch it. It was this it was an amazing moment. I will never ever forget watching that happen. It was it was so beautiful Um, and You know better than most. It didn't There are universes where it does not go this way for Kat. I mean, you wrote at the end of last season when the Kicks were eliminated about some of the issues W within the team, and I'm going to paraphraseing and you can tell me if I'm paraphrasing wrong. One of them was pererhaps a sense from teammates that He didn't take U defense and sticking to the scheme defensively sereriously enough. And then this season, it felt like every time the team hit a trough He was the lightning rod, sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly. What's my fit in the offense? defensively am I giving enough It did not, it did not have to go this way And something clicked into place frame. this was the best stretch of defense he's ever played ever totally outplayed when Binyama in the first two games. of the series. He obviously emerges as a passing hub in the playoffs in a sustained way that we've really never quite seen from him before and just sort of buys into like, yeah, I'll be the third or fourth leading scorer on the team. like cool. I'll do everything else And even despite that The nightmare scenario for the Nicks unfolds in the finals three games in a row, which is Our backup center has a broken hand Um Starting center is amazing, but he's going to get in foul trouble. That's our n mission area. O backup to the backup is Huuck Porty and Sohan And yet They find a way to win two of the three games. I thought some of the calls againstat were bad. I don't want to relitigate that. But it's a tribute to all the other guys who had moments and stepped up that. That was That was the roadmap for the sppurs to win the series or one big part of the roadmap and it happened and the Nicks still won two out of three games, but but on cat like It could have gone other ways and like even in the summer when Janis was like, hey I want to go to the Nicks. That's my one team. likeike who do you think was going to get traded in that in that scenario one hundred percent and It was a complete and total turnaround of I'm must say a reputation because I think And not not character of reputation. If character is who you are, reputation is who people believe you to be I to say was it was definitely a turnaround in reputation. It's amazing what an incredible playoff round can do for you and what getting a ring can do for you. And I think people will look at him differently. I think also You know, those those things that we wrote about you know, over the last two years, like those were all those all existed. Those were all tr sure differenceces between this and maybe other things that happen in a locker room People in that locker room liked cats There was never a a sort of, oh, get this guy out of here sort of feeling from the team. I mean, maybe there were from certain fans or whatever. But that was never the case with the players. Those guys liked Kat. They appreciated Kat as a human being. And there were kind of natural frustrations that came along with, you know being teammates and competing for a while and whatever else. And as they got to know each other better, I think they all kind of became a lot more comfortable with each other They all started to speak a lot more honestly with each other about things they wanted to accomplish And this team, not just cat, everybody, this team found a connectivity that showhowed off so much. my favorite thing about baseball compared to other sports I love, you know, I love baseb about basketball Com compred to other sports I love. you know I love baseball, but baseball it's like If you've got a team of all average players, Probably eighty one and eighty one And basketball, if you've got a team of all average players, you might be thirty two and fifty and you might be fifty and thirty two. And it really just depends on how all of those average players played with each other. And the Kicks are not a team of all average players. They're a team of tremendous talent, but they're also a team that is significantly better than whatever their aggregate talent is because they were able to create that connectivity. And Kat was a ginormous ginormous part of that, especially starting in game for the Atlanta series, especially in the Pilly series, especially in the Cleveland series, especially like you say Th thoseose first two games against San Antonio when Jayalen Brownson is not hitting shots, like not hidding shots and Kat the first half of game two in San Antonio. is other than Brunson Game five is is probably the best half anybody played in that entire series. I had Jon Chrisrce who covered him with the Wolves for many years on as my guest on my show right after that pod. I rightan after that game that night and I said, I think it's maybe given the stakes is the best half Carlthyowns has ever played And he didn't he was like, I think you're right. like that's how good, that's how good it was Um just I mean, and you talked about the clicking into place I've said it over and over again. You could see them find this place off and on in the regular season for a week here, a game here and then it would escape them and it's unquantifiable. It's ungrraspable. It's not something you can see or touch B you can see it, I guess, but They found it. After a game three in Atlanta. and they never left it. And so Everybody wants there to be this like dramatic team meeting between games three and four of the Hawk series or somebody talked to somebody and this happened like What happened is it just like because their offense you wrote about it right away did look a little different starting in game four. But it's not as if they then built the entire offense out of cat playing that way. that that sort of cat as the hub faded in and out from that point forward. So it wasn't like a complete stylistic reinvention or anything like that thing happened because like the Hawks were confident after game three. The Kicks were like down to one. This is a real trouble spot for them Yeah, I don't know. That something did or didn't happen. I have asked that question to so many guys in that locker room and now they won the title. Maybe it'll be easier to get a real answer out of it because they're they're going to look back on this is just like every single thing was a step towards that got you towards greatness and there's only going to be positive memories this season for these guys and so maybe they're more likely to talk about it. The answer that I've consistently gotten when I've asked just like what afterfter game three in Atlanta, something had to happen All of them say the same thing. all the players, everybody, they all say the same thing. They all say We all just realizeed we're too good to be in this position Like we should not be down to one We should not be losing in the way that we're losing this series And this is the way that all of them have related to me. just that this is not the spot that they should be in And they kind of realized, all right, everybody throw whatever sort of ego you've got to the side throw whatever sort of role you wanted to the side. Everybody, you better cut as hard as you can cut You better screen as hard as you can screen Because one of the things that I did think was really interesting following game three of the Atlanta series was like they totally made so many of those schematic adjustments But like the biggest, you know, air quotes adjustment they made was that everything they ran was so crisp Even once they started running the stuff, they were running in the regular season a lot more It was like their screens were so on point. They were just holding their screens. Their cuts, they took off when they were supposed to take off They They' spacing, their spacing is so good. People think of spacing as just like if you can shoot, you're going to pull people out, but it's so much more. It's so much different than that. like their their ability to notice, okay, Landry Shamot's ability to notice, okay, I'm going to shift two inches over this way. It's going to open up a pass. or Hose Alvarado noticing in game four. you know what? if I cut in this direction, M's not going to notice and they're going to have to switch off and make And so I talked with Ian Begley after that game about I thought Alvarado and Anonobi consistently cutting from the slot or the top of the arc down toward the rim at the exact right moment to confuse the spurs zoneish defense was like a really important part of the series. N andobi was consistently excellent at it and Alvarado Everybody's got to have a moment for you to win the championship for you to win sixteen games. Clarkson had a moment. McBride had his moment against Philadelphia Hport he had a moment in the closing game of the season. Mitchell Robinson had moments in the last two games of this series Alvarado's moment was that game, one of his moments that in game one and like it was just massive was It was, it was it was huge. He was so big for them. off the ball and just is like giving them a just secondary ball handler to be able to restable to restestabilize Brunson and get him in better spots in that game for and then You know, as you said, he was so good at those slot cuts. so good corner and what was happening was like there was this one possession in game four when they have the huge comeback and he's in the The right corner. Almost I actually talked about this with Jose After the game He almost grand theft Alvarado Wemby on offense where like he's in the corner and Weny's technically guarding him, but he's really doing that one man zone And Alvarado kind of, you know when he does the grand that, Alvarado I don't know if he does this intentionally. I should ask him. When he sneaks up on guys, he actually sneaks as if he's cartoonishly sneaky. You know he like he's like a caricature of a cat burglar in like the pink Panther or something.. She like actually bends over and tiptoes as if they're going to be able to hear him on his first two or three strides And he did that and kind of dipped out below the baseline behind Weby and Weby couldn't see him. And Wembe doesn't move And Alvarado gets all the way to the other side of the court. By the time Weby notices, they have to switch a guy onto Alvarado. And that means Weemby has to go on to OG An andobi, who ends up getting a corner three on that possession later because of that. And it's like just these unbelievably precise movements, these incredibly aware movements. They were so Unbelievably locked in. there's a play that I've constantly referenceced from the Philadelphia series where like they were trying to attack and beat in pick and rolls And Huck Porty was in the game andbede was guarding him and they call up Huck Porty so that he'll set a screen for Brunson And they Philadelphia immediately pre switches Ibed off of Hook Porty Immediately, Huuck forty just turns around and goes back. everyverybody on the court calling out to everybody where to go. but everybody's already doing their assigned thing And it's like U Porty never really plays. He shouldn't be able to immediately recognize. Okaykay Mbed got switched off of me. We're not running this for me. We're running this to go against Ibed. let me run back And then McBride, in this case, is going to go up and set the screen. But they're doing all this in such coordination preparation and the communication and the intensity about each decision. reached such a level that I had never seen Quite honestly, from any team that I had covered so closely And that is why their champs because of that sort of level of execution. Well another Obviously big winner from the playoffs is Mike Brown who was deemed. let's not forget good enough to be our coach by the Sacramento Kings and now he's an NBA champion a year later I've said it throughout the playoffs like they are One of the signs of a well coached team is When the other team makes an adjustment Um you adjust to it immediately. There is no three possessions of lag time before you kind of digest what's just happened, what assignment they changed, what weak spot they opened up. You see it and it's predatory. It's right away and the Nicks were on it. The Nicks were coaching from a headad. in terms of mentality and a lot of these games. And boy, Mike Brown, I mean, I guarantee you everybody with the Warriors is thrilled for Mike Brown. They all love him. E like he's a he's a really popular guy within the league I'm going to give you a frozen moment for me, and then you can take one I think this is one that's going to be lost to history The spurs are up eighty five eighty three last night with four minutes left in the game Brunson isolates on the right baseline against Dylan Harper, I think. misses a jumpshot Um No Nick is in position to get a rebound. Webinyama tips the rebound into Devin Vassel's chin It bounces off his head off his fingertip onto his fingertips as his foot is on the baseline. and a sure fire defensive rebound becomes a sort of bizarrero turnover reset for the Nicks That then becomes Brunson drawing a three shot foul on Debon Vll and making all three free throws and putting the Nicks up eighty six, eighty five. That's an example of a play that like That's going to be completely lost to history. and like I didn't even realize until I rewatched it today that when Benyama had actually tipped the rebound. I just thought Vasll had mishandled it or was slipped out of his hands or something. Whenb tips it. And it literally hits hisella in the face and it bounces off his face and it's just These are the things that happen when you win a championship Take watch, you do one, you do one Um a little a little more obvious, but I just I gotta give Ojan andobi his due. I guess this didn't get scored as a block U on on Dylan Harper with like twenty eight seconds l Did Dylan Harper goes to the rim OJannaovi contests it Dylan Harper is magical Magical, Like, oh my goodness, how is that guy a rookie Every time he rises at the rim. I'm like, okay, well, this is there's no way this is not going in and there's no way it's not going to be some sort of fantastic type of finish that I've never seen. He's going to just like reach three a half feet above the air and then he's going to levitate another seven feet. That's just like what he does every time. And nobody can contest D' in Harper at the Rom Except every single time watchanonobbe does it. And and he had What will go down as one of the greatest blocks in NBA finals history in game four. when he blocks Harper. at the RM or blocks Fox Fox I say I should say Yeah Blocks Fox at the rim. He had blocked Harper at the Rom and transition earlier in the series but he blocks he blocks Fox at the Rom in transition and then it's not even his best play of the next ten seconds because he gets the tip in to win Game four and that will now be there's nothing that OGN andobi can do now for that not to be his legacy There's literally nothing that will ever happen to him that like When you hear OG An Aobbe's name now, that tip in that is the first thing they are going to think of when you hear OG twenty eight seconds left. Harper' coming at him. I believe it was a two point game, ninety to eighty eight should have tidied up and OG just kind of slowly backs up He times it perfectly. He goes right up with Harper Harper's layup hits off the front of the rim because OG contests it perfectly when he goes straight up I thought that he blocked it at the time. I thought he got a finger on it. I guess he didn't technically do that. It was just a tremendous contest That guy, he didn't end up winning finals NVP and I'm not saying he should have Brunson was so unbelievable in game five. I mean, just just Absolutely insane in game five. I think that could be a moment of its own. J Brunson's entire game five performance. I'm going to give you one to say O G But the way that he guarded in this series, his transition defense was outrageous He ended up shooting fifty percent on corner threes in the playoffs rageous numbers and an outrageous playoff run. and I just thought the fact that insside the last thirty seconds that he could have a moment that could help them win the title Even on a night when his shot wasn't falling in the way that it had for the previous two months U I just thought that was just one extra unbelievable defensive play by one of the best defensive players in the league. I'm going to give you one I'm Brunson And then we can do the Brunson discussion Because of how frenetic the last minute of the game was and how many free throws and offensive rebounds on free throws and fouls and all that there were I feel like the actual game winning basket, the basket that put the Kicks in the lead for good is and it is kind of not being discussed very much and it also because it happened really, really fast. And I think it's indicative of a lot of things and it's surprise, surprise, a Brunson floater And It's a minute left in the game thereabouts Castle is kind of pressing him at half courourt and Bronson just beats him off the dribble. I mean, that's one of the risks you take when you're pressing is that you're going to get beat off to dribble. you're giving the guy angles and whatever And you do it because Weby's back there And indeed Weemby is back there And he's on Mitchell Robinson because Kat has fouled out of the game by that point And Brunson just goes. he goes into the lane And you can see Victor Turn his head away from Brunson. I watched this like twenty times Turn his head away from Brunson to tell the cell who's on the wing near him. Hey, I'm stepping up here You got to go take Mitchell Robinson. and protect me and get my back And then he turns back. And I think he turns back to look at Brunson and Brunson has arrived a little bit faster than he expected him to arrive And Brunton gets off the floater And when Benyama doesn't jump. And he doesn't really turn around to box out Mitchell Robinson. He's just kind of stuck in no man's land And I look at that play and I think it's it's a mix of everything. I think Brunson got there faster than when Miyama expected I think whenbinyama was justifiably worried about Mitchell Robinson's offensive rebound, which I which is an was an factor all series. And in fact, the last basket of the third quarter was a Mitchell Robinson tip and I believe his only basket of the game on a Jail and Brunson floater that went but beyond a challenge I think also I talked about this with Sean. I think One binyama was tired at the end of these games and worn out And One of the ways that can manifest itself is your processing speed is just five percent slower And that's all Jelen Brunson needed And like you will just not see very many High stakes shots at the basket that Viictor Wemanyyama is glued to the floor and doesn't contest and doesn't contest the rebound It's a great move by Brunson. It's a classic Brunson shot And I think it wraps up a lot of stuff that happened at the end of these games that went the Nicks way over and over again. it put the Nicks up ninety eighty eight and they never chlled again. the Spurs never tied it again. And it's like It's not going to get lost to history. It's going to get slow more replay and all that, but it It's kind of in a in a pile of stuff that happened at the end That was a great example of Jalen Bronsson's brilliance and I mean that with his mind, not like his basketball brilliance. and I say that because I think that shot was made in the second quarter you know, throughout It's funny because I thought about the third quarter Mitchell Roberintson Tippenss. so you're you're going back further Yeah. So I think I mean I think you're totally right on the tip end where he was he was glued. I know the exact player talking about. He was kind of glued to mitch there and having him there as a lb threat is That's the type of spacing that Mitchell Robinson provides Early in the game. The first like What would it have been nineteen minutes of the game The Kicks have zero points in the paint And you bench points for a lot longer than this. Yeah They started the game, I think, over thirteen on shots in the paint But part of the reason why Brunson is so good in the playoffs is because he is so keen on detail and figures out these little ways that teams are guarding him and then figures out how to exploit them throughout the C ofa series So we'll have a bad shooting night the first couple of games like you did in this series. And then I'll start to figure it out The Kicks cannot get to the rim. Victor Won Byam with the first quarter and a half of this. I mean, he was great defense. He was like Godzilla was he was like Godzilla had play was playing for this first I mean, the first quarter and half two quarters of this game. by Weby standards The defensive performance was completely and utterly outrageous. It was just like, oh my goodness How are you supposed to do anything here with about Five minutes or so left in the second quarter Nixs were on a little bit of a run. This is when Brunson started to get a little hot. It' on like a tiny little run. They were down thirteen and I think it was Josh Hart hits a three And then Bronsson ends up hitting a three off of an offensive rebound And on the next possession with about five minutes left in the quarter. Brunson drives on, I think it was Fox and he goes left to that same spot on Fox Brunson loves to release his floater at around eight feet or so. Instead of doing that She gets the basically the nail And he kind of pulls up on Fox a little bit early. And I think it caught Fox a little bit by surprise where he pulled up His feet were technically in the paint Just barely. It was the next first pain points of the night I think That was right around when Brunson decided, you know what? no one's getting all the way to the paint tonight All these floaters that I do normally from six to eight feet, I got to do them from ten to thirteen And the rest of the night, we saw him rose from that like shallow pained area instead of the deeper mid pained area And I didn't really see the spurs adjust to him on that because he was getting to those areas. and with so much ease and because he's so skilled and so crafty and so quick that it's just hard to pick up on that It's just really hard to pick up on that when it's happening in real time And so B Bronson releases that floater that you're talking about with a minute left He's barely in front of the free throw line That's a that's a far it's a floater fundamentally, but that's a far out Foater That's a tough floater to make when you're on the run. It was a difficult shot even with them by castle and Just another example of him having this Quite frankly, basketball genius understanding. of the geography of the court. and how to exploit every single area of it to his advantage and that's what makes him as great of a player as he is. Tal about Joh Brunson. because Bill said Bill and I did our Instant reaction show on his pod last night I said, I'm not ready to have the Brunson Is he the greatest nick of all time conversation. I said, well why not And just kind of the play devil's advocate Obviously, you know, Patrick Ging has twenty three thousand career points in New York. Nick Jayalen Brunson has something like seven thousand. So like whatever And I said like forty five points. In a serious close out game when the rest of your team at forty nine and you're just trying to limp across the finish line one last time O what is he fifteen to twenty seven? someome efficient kind of shooting line Finals MVP, only the second nick ever to win Finals NVP, Clyde Frasier never did Willis Reed oneon it twice He's now averaging twenty nine point four points per game in the playoffs as a nick That's number one all time for the Nicks He is already third all time in postseason scoring. just raw points for the Nicks. and he's won medium sized playoff run from passing Wal Frazer and moving into second. And if he stays with the Nicks, he'll pass ewing and be first Um He's only ninth all time in franchise scoring regular season, but if he stays with the Nicks his whole career and stays relatively healthy, he'll definitely pass everybody by ewing and be second Um And this is just I said last night, forty five points in a close out game finalsP. I don't know. is that worth twelve thousand regular season points for a team a franchise that hasn't won the title in fifty three years? It's worth some unquantifiable amount of regular season success whether he's the greatest nick now or not I think he's going to go down as the greatest nick of all time. And if you wanted to really vociferously argue it because of what he's meant to the franchise, because of how this entire thing started with his contract from Dallas with the Kicks with him not getting an extension in Dallas and then signing with the Kicks with him taking less money. He's the third highest play player on the Kicks now and next year. enabling all this and by the way, they're going to have to do this dance with the second Apron now Mitell Robinson's a free agent. Andandw Shamit's a free agent. They're only thirteen, fourteen million dollars under the second apron and have no idea what they're going to do. Maybe they'll just go over the second apron and say fuck it. We just wasn't the title. God knows how much money we made I if if if I met a fan And they were like, Zach, Jonan Brunce is the greatest nick of all time. neverever watched Walk I'm thirty years old and I don't know who Walt Fraasier is other than the fancy suits and Willis Reid and this and that. L like, look, man, I can't really argue with you. of like got off L like if you want to say that, that's completely fine. He's going to be. He's going to be, whether he is now is up is up for debate, but he will be Yeah. I think the way that I would phrase it is he's on track to do it, but I think longevity matters You know, Ewing did it for a decade and a half and Clyde did it for a long time. Willis Reed did it for a long time. He's been a for four years and I think I could make a very good argument that this is the best four year stretch that any player has had. Let's just round up and be and be fun twenty nine point four points per game in the playoffs and sixty one playoff games. you know what it sounds nicer? He's averaging thirty a game in the playoffs for the New York N. Yeah It's crazy. Fucking crazy. It's crazy It's incredible which is why I say he's very much on track. Like He's going to be a neck for a very long time I don't know if there is a player in the NBA who I feel more confident will end up forever on the team that he's currently on, right? Like can you Is there one guy It's literal family. like they they they they it hurt them to trade Divin Cenzo. emotionally because he's part of the Villanova extended family This is literal Fam, like ins it was there one year too is one here. Great year And it was tremendously important. He had a fantastic year, but it was one year. Jle Bronsson is is is Probably and also just from the reaction of the fan base. like It would be like the Yankees trading jetter You know? It's just like He is going to be a nick an incredibly long time, if not for the entire rest of his time in the NBA. And so he's going to have a long time of putting up numbers leading them on playoff runs and he's going to be the all time leading playoff scorer and he's probably going to have other crazy playoff moments And he's only twenty nine years old and there is a chance that he could do this for a long time coming. And This team is well positioned. I mean, you say they've got some second Apram worries next year. It's like could find a way to avoid the second apron if they wanted to next year. And if they didn't and they went into the second apron next year They have they have a pretty realistic way of just being in there for one year and then ducking it the next year and getting back down. likeike how much money did they just make? with all these home playoff games and everything Yeah, what do you think is going to happen? Is Mitchell Robberins? I mean, Mitchell Robson is going to have suitors at the mid level or maybe a little south of that because of his injury history and his minutute stuff The league knows like this is a prototypical player you want if you run into Weminyama specifically, But do we expect him and shhamot to I mean, Shamot's a freaking hero now in New York Yeah. I mean I'm not sure what to expect on those guys, to be honest when I talk to people with the Nicks about it They are just so giddy about everything that's happened with this group. They're just like keep everyone together. Keep everything the same. We're not even thinking about any of that stuff. We just want this group to be together for the rest of time. They're all so happy and the vibes with this group are so incredible. to end the year that they just want everybody to It's like a front office guy from another team texted me this afternoon. Hey, what are you hearing about Miami's offer for Janis and like, you know, should we jump in and what what his boss? I'm like can you just let can you just let me bathe in the championship? Because again, I don't I just this is me every year. I love I love the culmination of a season And he texted back man' yesterday's news, the draft is inine days I was like, all right, you want to talk about Yonis You know, Miami, Boston, you know, is there a wild car team? Is there a three team trade? I don't think it's Houston. I think Houston seems to be out Uh you know, Portland, I don't really buy Brooklyn. I don't see it the sppurs, the thunder the Kicks would appear to be out Fred, like the three teams very far in the finals would appear to be out Um You know, Toronto's got some assets. I don't really see a non sccardy but, you know, if Toronto put in Murray Boyilles and for first and four swaps and and filler maybe they I don't see that happening though U Maybe I don't know. I dont I think that may be too rich for their blood, but the bucks want Scottty B. I don't know. I don't know. I want to luxurate and I'm glad that the next f the next people are like, ask give us a few days Yes, totally. I brought up they like just no, no, leave leave me alone on this at least for a little while. So that's one hundred percent the vibe that I got on it. I think they would love to bring back as many of those guys as they can Mitchell Robinson is the longest tenured Nick. He's been with this organization for for eight years and I could definitely see a world where he is elsewhere next year because of all of those cap concerns that we talked about for what it's worth. If they didn't go into the second April next year I don't think it I mean, we talk about them making a lot of money. If they didn't go into the second April next year, I don't think it would be because of luxury tax payments. I think it would be because they thought their C department thought it was this strategically wrong move to go into the second apron at this time. And it's because when you go into the second apron, you lose all of these resources for team building. You lose the ability to make most kinds of trades, you lose the ability to make most kinds of free agency, sign ins, etcetera If there's one thing James Oolan will do, especially after winning a championship He's going to pay. He's always paid and he will He will he will pay. I've gotten exxactly zero concerns about how much they're willing to pay if they avoid the second apron I think that would be on their front office, which is one of the most measured and kind of notoriously really good departments. in the NBA deciding that this is not worth it from an actual roster building strategic standpoint. That being said, like my opinion do it with a team that just won the title And it's not like it was some flukish sort of group. And it's not like it's a group with a bunch of guys who are past their prime All of your rotation players, sa for Jordan Clarkson are thirty or younger it's if you're not going to do it in that circumstance with a group that likes playing together that had no drama whatsoever. There was anything of consequence If you're not going to do it for that When are you going into it And maybe the argument is maybe a smarter cat person than me would argue you should literally never go into it. It is literally never worth going into. Maybe that's what someomebody would make an argument for and I would hear them out on that But like if you're not going to go into it after you win the title and when you have a chance to do it Again, not saying they will do it again. It's really, really hard to repeat and everything went right for them. They stayed healthy, whatever else. but like It's not like there's some old decrepit team that's about to fall apart next year. They've still got guys in their prime and guysuys who are probably going to be as good players next year as they were this year. And if you're not going to do it now I don't know when U canan I do forty five seconds of rapid fire off season takes just to just say I did it. I did yon us already. I did yan us already Teams have definitely asked Oklahoma City about Chet Homegrren in the wake of the Chet collapse and have been rebuffed The Sabona Charlotte thing, it's definitely true that there were talks, and it's definitely true that Charlotte was like, no, thank you. if you want picks, you're not getting picks Let's see. what else? U Yonas, I did, but I would be shocked if you weren't traded at this point. I'm not sure what else I wanted to talk about. I don't want to talk about that much off season stuff. that may be all I had on my real Oh Fx Obviously a complete disaster series for Derren Fox in a really underwhelming playoffs already the calls to trade him are like got to get rid of this guy Harper's ready Harper's ready. Like put him in the starting five. I don't care what you got to do. likeike probably can't start all three of the guards together. That didn't go very well this year Is Fox going to end up being the most expensive six man in the history of the league? I don't know I said earlier in the week that I think we're already at the point that if somebody offered me if I were Brian right, somebody offered me like a neutral is deal for Fox. like a deal where I'm not paying you to get off the contract, which hasn't even kicked in until july first Uh four years two twenty or something like that like I think we might just have to take this and get out ahead of this now because it's not going to get any easier And I just don't know who the team is. I mean, Bill throughrewout Minnesota me, who knows? I mean, like I threwout the possibility of like a team that gets yonest and just has left the cupboard bear just takes a shot somethingomething always shakes loose, but I don't know what the team is, but that was There's just no sugar coating that Fox was bad and Castle was bad in game five but Fox was bad the whole finals. That's the end of our off season talk Can I do one more fun thing for you about OG and and Obei Please My friend Doug I mentioned this with Bill last night. a genius. like a literal genius U texted me A game four and said, I think and an Oies tippp in had the single biggest impact on finals odds of any play outside of game seven in the history of basketball, maybe excluding like the series clinching shots by Steve Kerrn and John Packson and things like that, but maybe not even those. And then he did the math. He did the math in like a very mathy way being like here were the odds of the Nicks winning that game before the tip and what that would have done but the odd series and here's the delta and here's the And it made me think like Let's put together a list of other candidates for this. Here's my list. You ready Yeah I sent him the list and he did the math on the list because he's just this is what he does U Traymond Green punching LeBron in the balls The Bill Lamber Phantom Fou on Cream Abdel Jabar game six, nineteen eighty eight Tie games, some time left on the clock The Magic Johnson Junror Sky Hook, nineteen eighty seven game four Aima Ljant blocking John Stark's three pointer at the buuzzer of game six in ninety four with the Nicks up three two A low prob this is the kind of thing he factors in a low probability shot to begin with, but you know, whatever The Ray Allen shot in in u Miami San Antonio, game six Was his was his initial his initial baseline was that's the one But then he started talking about like, well, there's still overtime, there's still another game to be played, blah, blah blah. And The one, the only one he thought maybe Trumped it was Robert Ories three at the end of game five in the two thousand five finals that turned a one point in a two two series Spurs down to ers then up one win the game win game five have two games coming at home, lose game six. But like that's how I just thought that was a fun exercise. I couldn't I didn't go back pre merger, but post merger, those were the only candidates for most cononsequential non game seven final swinging shot. He did the math and he said the Ori one is the only one that compares and maybe exceeds the OG and and Obe Tippen It's a great exercise I really. That is crazy. You know who would love that? guy was a very mathematical brain, OG and and Oi Yeah He would love that As long as he's not drunk off Tquila today, you know. I don't think he was drunk. He's b at all back up. Here's another in an OB Brunson stat for you. You probably already know this. The Nicks had one hundred thirty one points in the fourth quarter. in this series ninety one of the one hundred and thirty one were scored by Brunson in Ananobe fifty six of the one hundred thirty one were Brunson alone Fred Kats for one hundred thousand dollars in the bonus round. Who was the third leading scorer for the Nicks in the fourth quarter of the finals? Oh Man, it wasn't cat I don't think it would have been bridges. Could it have been Landie Shammot Fred catatch, you're going home with one hundred thousand dollars! It is Lw Shamet with thirteen points. Fred Kats for a bonus bonus round now that you've gotten that one. seventy five million more dollars. Can you name the fourth leading score for the New York Kicks in the twenty twenty six NBA finals fourth quarters Oh, was it just when Jose Alvarado won off? Fred Kats, you have seventy five million one hundred thousand dollars. Jose Alvarado with eight fourth quarter points is the fourth leading score in the fourth quarter for the Kicks in the finals. Fred, you don't have to write the book you're writing on the Kicks anymore. You can retire. Congratulations. Thanks for coming on my game show Towns, bridges and hearts. Three starters who all played varying degrees of well in the series for whatever reason combined for fourteen fourth quarter points between them. five for towns, five for bridges, four for heart. Three for McBride for Mitchell Robinson. I don't remember the two Do you remember Mitchell Robinson's two fourth quarter points a lot donun had tip in. He had a tip in And then zero for everybody else it just razy I just think that's a crazy set. I don't know An any partying thoughts, anything we didn't get to. I'm out I'm out. I'm ready for the off season. I'm getting ready. I'm getting locked in Ready for Yonest to get traded at any moment. I'm ready for the top of the draft. I'm watching YouTube. What do you got for me, Fred No, I will I will just say that's a reflection of the fact that Part of the reason this team is so good. It was so good was, I think, because they had such clear role definitions. They knew who was the number one. They knew who was the number two. They knew what all of them were supposed to do. They understood how they were supposed to play. They understood what they were supposed to do that affected winning and they understood what they weren't supposed to do that if they did it would affect losing. And I think that's that honestly is a pretty good indication of that whole thing where it's like when it comes to notut cutting time It is the Jayalen Bronson showhow. and they you know what I never I have never for a second sensed any sort of we've seen it in any work environment honestly, where it's like there could be some manount of resentment or something like that it's the Jalen Brunson show and in Crunchime I have never sensed any amount of resentment from anybody there becomes the Jalen Brownson show on clutch time and Honestly, the only sense that I've gotten is kind of The opposite I was talking to Dylan Jones, who's a two way guy for them who wasn't active during the playoffs, but Great guy to talk Ooops with. veryery smart basketball mind and we were talking And it was after they were down fourteen in game one against San Antonio And now I was like, you guys just stay so composed. And he was like, we just know Jayalen's got us And I was like, that's That's a crazy thing to say and really truly mean And he wasn't speaking for himself, he was speaking for the team. And I think everyone on the team would have agreed with them It's a crazy thing to say and to truly mean. about an NBA player. and I was talking to I was talking to a head coach the other day Who is telling me? who was saying to me like You don't understand that the most valuable thing, like people don't realize the most valuable thing is to just have a guy who you can say Here you go. Please go win it Please go go win the game. You don't have to do anything Just please go win the game He's like people don't talk about it that simplistically. They talk about it more schematically and more analytically. And he's like the reason why is because those kinds of guys don't exist. They're MJ and they're Kobe And that's about it. I'm not saying that Chillen Brononson's as good as MJ and Kobe. I'm not saying that, but I am saying that like of everybody in the league right now I don't know how many other people who you can just say, just give them the ball. and Tell them go win the game and then they go do that thing I don't know how many people are on the list ahead of Jalen Brownson in terms of like, it's crrunch time You need a bucket Go get forty five in a close out game go figure it out And u That's why team is as good as it is because they have that element and that's why they outlasted the spurs at the ends of all of these games that were close that could have gone either way. and it's why they came back against Cleveland in game one And it's why they came back fiveive twenty point deficits in the playoffs over the last two years And it just, it all starts with that guy. and as furs will be back Maybe not in the finals next year I think the odds the betting favorite to win the title next year. So maybe may well be in the finals next year Um They'll be back one way or another. Wendby's not going anywhere. he's just going to get better Um They've got young guys, they've got cat flexibility. they've got draft assets. They're going to be absolutely fine But this was the next year and it was just an astonishing playoff transformation an incredibly dominant playoff run And it just so happens that Fredat from Fred Cat from the athletic is writing a book about it that you can already preorder. Fred, the floor is yours Yeah, yeah. it's called under the Bright lightights, The revival of the New York Knicks I have been working on it for I've been saying a year and a half, but it's really almost two years, Re really since September of twenty twenty four. and when I started it, it was Its just going be the story of the revival of the Kicks of this organization that was in the cellar for twenty years than and found its way back to relevance with the leadership of Leon Rose and Tom The Bidau The rise of Jayen Brunson and All of that kind of stuff and then they trade for Carl Anthony Towns and then they have a run to the Eastern confonference finals and then they fire Tibbs and they bring in Mike Brown and they go on this run this year and we're like the book is going to be d in October no matter what and they go on this run and now it is the story of how the New York Kicks. urned to becoming champions for the first time in fifty three years and sometimes Things just get lucky for you when you're telling a story. and so now I have the privilege of getting to tell the story of how this organization returned to becoming champions for the first time in fifty three years and it's a project I've been working on for Like I said, since September of twenty twenty four and I got the rest of the summer to write the ending of it so it will properly include everything from The playoff run and the title run and everything else and we' have a lot of details on who these guys are and a gazillion different anecdotes and a gazillion different behind the scenes stories. and I want it to be funny got some Some some really great I hope a lot of really great stuff already and have a lot of it written already, which I'm excited about. and you can preordder it. You can go anywhere where you buy your books. You can go to ammazon d. com, you can go to Barnol, anywhere you buy books, you can pre re order it It's under the bright lights, the revival of the New York Kicks I'm going to preorder it Fred Kats because here's one thing I know and I want listeners to really internalize this Books books are a tough business. And but you know, book reading is probably declining and all that Its it's a heavy lift to get some people to actually read a whole book and like even I don't have time to read as many books as I would like Everyone's busy Um The barrier to entry for people is hard. And I will say this, no one is going to out work, Fred Whatever good stories and details and funny anecdotes and behind the scenes revelations are there to actually be had by a reporter writing a book Fred is going to get them. This book is going to be worth your time and your money because no one is going to out work Fred. I can't wait to read it. We will have you on. I owe you seventy five point one million dollars for your game show performance tonight. Fred Kats under the bright lights Read them at the athletic, Read a great story. I would didn't even get into it about Fred's dad and the New York Knicks and urinating habits and read that on the athletic Fred, get some rests, have a beer. The offseason is here, extensions can be signed with their own teams can sign their own players starting now. So who the hell knows. But try to get some rests Fred That was very nice to you to say, thanks, Zach. Thank you for having me All right, that's it for today's Zach Lowe Sh. Not sure exactly when we'll be back, but we'll let you know. Thank you as always to Jonathan, Mike, and Billy on production. and thanks to the incomparable Seaan Fenacey and Fred Katz for their time and insight. Thanks to you all for listening to and or watching the Zach Low Sh. 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