June 11, 2025 • 24 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses Kevin Durant's viral Twitter exchange with a group of critical fans, why it feels like KD is almost trying to convince himself that his post-Golden State Warriors playing days haven't been a failure, the 4 pivotal games in NBA history that led directly either to the formation or the disintegration of a Super Team, whether Durant or Larry Bird will go down in history as the greater player all-time, and which team makes the most sense in any potential KD trade this offseason. Finally, J-Mac hits us with his Best Bet for Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up straight Firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight
Fire for Wednesday. Je to eleven feels like an eternity
since we had our last NBA Finals game. We got
Game three tonight in Indiana. I'll have a best bet
at the end. We had a guest schedule for today.
She had to push it to later in the week.
(00:32):
She's a big deal on Instagram. I think you'll enjoy
the interview. And obviously we're now on YouTube. My son
last what was it last August, was like, Dad, you
gotta be on YouTube more. I got kids telling me
in school they saw your take on so and so
on YouTube. Why is Kevin Durant yelling at you on YouTube?
And I'm like, I'm not on YouTube, So I guess
they put some HERD clips on there. So I started
(00:54):
a YouTube page. It's a lot of work, guys, obviously, listen,
everything in life is a lot of work. And my
son's like, Dad, mister beast took like years years before
his YouTube blew up. I'm like, bro a, I just
don't really have an interest in it blowing up. I mean,
you have to really put a time energy. I got
two jobs besides the YouTube and the IG and the Twitter,
(01:16):
and then you know, I got to drive you guys. Right. Anyways,
I don't need to ramble, but I bring up YouTube
because one of the bigger things that I'm on there
for is that whole Kevin Durant Teta tet and I
kind of want to start the pod here talking about
Kevin Durant because I got a text from a couple
of my boys kind of laughing at Kevin Durant. I'm like, oh,
(01:38):
what did he do now? And essentially, you know, it's June.
Kd's probably biting time until he gets traded. You can
only watch so much WNBA, and so Kd's spending all
his days on social media, and it's like, well, that's
not healthy. It's not and all these people because it's
(02:02):
the Internet and there's really nothing going on outside of
you know, a pretend civil war out here in California,
but there's just there's not a lot happening in sports.
But sports fans are online all the time. People are
online all frickin' day. Man. Listen. I'm on on social
media during the show, obviously, but honestly, when I get home.
I like, I try to power down. I'm like, there's
(02:23):
no point in this, there's no win. You know, where
can I invest my money? Where can I plan a trip?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Where can I go, get a workout in, get some
shots up, you know anything? Watch a show like I
don't want to sit online. It's just not healthy. And
I feel like Kevin Durant's falling into that. A guy wrote,
I think it's time to admit Kevin Durant's trajectory after
leaving Golden State is very underwhelming. And I'm like, Okay,
that's been said a million times. What's different? Why did
(02:50):
KAD respond? Because he was online and Kevin Durant doesn't
follow this guy. He must have searched his name or
somebody said it to him and KD goes. I highly disagree.
Want a debate, guys, this is one of the fifteen
greatest players in the history of basketball jumping online to
debate with sports fans who are anonymous. This guy is, Oh,
(03:11):
it might be a girl, Hannah hoops ha Na looks
like an image of a girl, but at this stage
in the game, who knows. You never know who you're
talking to. I can side note I cannot imagine dating
in the social media era. I mean, I've talked to
so many people who meet someone on one of these apps,
bumble hinge whatever they are, and they're like, wait a minute,
(03:33):
your photo does not quite match your person, like this
is what was fifteen years ago? And sometimes I mean, hell,
there's guys getting catfished on you. Just Manti Tayo, who
I guess is an announcer now or he's gonna join
that morning show, Good Morning Football. I didn't even know
(03:54):
he was in sports media, So Manti Tayo got catfish
famously thought he was talking to a girl. He was
talking to some and so I don't know if Kevin
Durant even cared whether it was a man or woman,
boy or girl. And then of course, you know Jabroni's
set their notifications anytime Kevin Durant has a damn word online.
So some random anonymous dude, what have you done since
(04:17):
leaving Brooklyn was a failure? Phoenix currently is a failure
and you're about to jump ship to the next best
available team. Lol. I mean, I guess this guy was
watching The Herd or I don't know, listening to this
podcast over the last six months where the Suns have
been failing. The last time he was in the playoffs,
they got swept by Anthony Edwards. They also got swept
(04:39):
when he was in Brooklyn, Yes with a super team
by Jason Tatum and the Celtics. And it's like, yeah, okay,
there's nothing new here, but this is what's new. Kevin
dur Brant replies to this RANDO All Stars fifty forty
ninety all NBA efficient buckets. Brother, I also so got
(05:00):
a career high assist one year, hit thirty k points,
won a couple gold Olympic Golds, and MVPs. What a career.
And I'm still going I love my life. You guys
know when somebody's really selling themselves hard, Oh I love it,
they don't, and they're trying to talk themselves into loving it.
(05:23):
I mean, there's so many examples of Oh I love
this house. Oh it's the best. Meanwhile, you look around
it. It just needs a ton of odds and ends. You've
got to do stuff. It's constant upkeep. You love the
idea of the house, you don't actually love the house.
And my guess is Kevin Durant is out here trying
to pump himself up because he is super frickin' pissed
(05:45):
off that leaving Golden State.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
What fuck?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I guess it was a summer of twenty nineteen that
was like the biggest mistake of his career. Leaving Oklahoma
City was a genius move. I mean it worked out perfect.
He goes to Golden State. He's the best player on
two championship winning teams. I believe that team is the
greatest team in NBA history. I don't know that there's
much of an argument. Guys. They went sixteen and one.
(06:12):
That's the best record in NBA playoff history. They annihilated
their opponents. And oh, by the way, the one game
they lost the Boston Celts. No, no, not the Celtics.
What am I saying? The Cleveland Cavaliers set a record
for most three pointers in an NBA Finals game. I
think they hit twenty six or twenty eight, some number
like that. It took a historic performance to beat those worst.
(06:35):
I had predicted four to zero and I was looking
amazingly genius, and I think it was three o. And
then of course the Cavs showed up and didn't get
swept because of that, and that one hurt I had
money on sweep, it would have paid really well of
memory serves. And like he just left to go hang
out with Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn and create his own thing,
(06:57):
and like, listen, man, sometimes guys leave, you know, successful
companies are like, I'm gonna start my own shop. And
I don't know that Kevin Durrett technically started the Brooklyn thing.
It feels like it was more of a Kyrie thing.
But either way, he went there and they just didn't
pull it off. Now you could argue, well, they had
injuries in the playoffs and James Harden and the tow
(07:18):
on the line against the Bucks in the playoffs, and yeah,
you know what I mean, that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Sometimes guys unfortunately get unlucky, you know. I mean, if
Katie doesn't go down with the Achilles against the Raptors
they win three straight, does he stay in Golden State?
I don't know, how do you leave that? I mean,
(07:39):
it's really unbelieved. That was one of the you know,
if you look back on the NBA the last forty
or fifty years, if you just look at two results
that kind of changed the course of the NBA, well
you could say three, I would say the Lebron performance
against Detroit when he was twenty two with like he
(07:59):
had like twenty five points straight in the fourth quarter.
Some that's one of the best performances I've ever seen.
But that game took down the Pistons. He gets to
the finals. I'm of the belief that that team. Danny
Ainge saw that and was like, well shit, nobody's beating Lebron.
We gotta go get KG and Ray Allen. That then
gets Boston a stack team. Lebron says, I've got I
(08:21):
can't I can't do it here. My guys can't get me, dudes,
I've got a bounce, and that's when Lebron forms the heatles.
The next massive, enormous game was a Game five, no
Game six in Boston. It was five or six, but no, no,
it had to be Game six. Celtics were up three
(08:42):
to two and could have closed out Lebron at home,
and that's where Lebron had like forty five, fifteen and five.
I mean, you go look it up on YouTube. He was.
He just refused to let the heat lose. They had
lost to the MAVs the year prior, so when Lebron
does that, he essentially saves the Heat. They go on
to win the series, they beat the Under in the championship,
and they move on and get rings. The next one
(09:02):
had to be Game six in OKC Klay Thompson's nine threes.
I keep forgetting the number, but it is incredible to
watch that game back and as a result the Thunder
losing seven, Kad ends up leaving for the Warriors. If
the Thunder beat the Warriors in that series, if Clay
(09:23):
doesn't go nuclear, does Kad leave after going to the
finals to a team he beat? Probably not. And then
I think certainly that that injury against the Raptors in
Toronto getting that title triggered Katie to leave again. And
you know, those four moves in what like a twenty
year span, so much change about the NBA. And I
(09:47):
like Kevin Durant as much as the next guy. I
don't think his market right now is as robust as
Shams is willing to tell you and you guys can
go do the homework. Shams is very tight with Kevin
Durant's guy, Rich Clemban, and clear all the reporting on
KD is coming from one one one guy right as
(10:07):
Cham's so you do the math there and tell me
who's pushing what. So I just don't know where kd
ends up going. And it's weird because he's he's taken
so many hits here the last few years that I
actually had somebody tweet at me, Oh yeah, Kevin Durantz
better than Larry Bird. And you know, he tried to
throw a couple numbers at me in the playoffs. We'll
(10:29):
look at Kadi's stats in the playoffs. I mean, oh
my gosh, and who would win one on one? And
I'm just sitting here, like, is the Internet that dumb?
Are we really doing this? And like, I'm not one
of these old school guys, olders better, I'm not. I'm
definitely not. Larry Bird as a rookie was first team
All NBA. He was first team All NBA, meaning when
(10:52):
they picked the best players in the league, he was
one of the top five the first nine years of
his career, Like, I mean, can you even fathom that? Now?
I know a lot of guys came into the league younger.
Michael Jordan didn't come in younger. Larry Bird actually went
did he spent some time in college Magic, did a
(11:13):
little bit at Michigan State shack LSU. Some of the
all time greats did go to college, but like Larry Bird,
comes into the league and was first team All NBA.
He won three straight MVP Awards. I'm just telling you
I hated the Boston Celtics with every fiber of my
being as a little kid. Now I was little. I
didn't really know. I just knew. Oh. I was born
(11:34):
in New York. Oh, we go to New York on
holidays because my film is from there. Oh, Oh my gosh,
I'm a New York guy.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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listen live.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And I think I've told this story before. My dad
had a business trip in it in LA like literally
one of the few business trips he had, and it
just so happened the Knicks were playing the Lakers. So
the first two games I ever went to were Nicks
versus the Lakers, And of course I fell in love
with the Lakers, how could you not? And Lakers had
a heated rivalry, shall we say, with the Celtics in
(12:18):
the eighties, almost every year they seemed like they were
battling in the finals Magic and Bird, and I was
like team Lakers, team Magic, and I was very, very
very anti Celtics. And I still can respect it. I'm
sorry Larry Bird had a better career than Kevin Durant.
I don't know how you can argue that, Like, you
can't tell the story of the NBA without Larry Bird, you,
(12:42):
I mean, it's tougher for sure, then if you tried
to do that without Kevin Durant, Like obviously k D
to the Warriors significant, but what Larry and Magic did
for the league in the nineteen eighties, you know, we
don't need to talk about that again, but essentially they
created the modern NBA. And I don't know, I just
(13:05):
I can't put Durant ahead of Larry Bird in any way,
shape or form. And I wonder where Kadie's gonna end up.
And it's weird. I know, I had a guy. So
we had a men'sley game on Monday night and your
boy did not play well. Something's wrong. So I've been
hooping a lot lately and lifting. You know, summer's coming up.
(13:25):
I'm trying to get jacked. I know, laugh all you want,
what are you doing trying to get Jack? Give me break?
And I made the mistake a couple like three weeks
ago of playing three days in a row. I played
Saturday morning, then I played in a league game Sunday,
and then a league game Monday night, and then I
played again Wednesday. And after the game Wednesday, like my
back was hurting, my knees were hurting. My knees haven't
(13:47):
stopped hurting. So it's not like right on the knee,
but it's like the muscles around the knee are just inflamed.
And I feel like, based on CHATGBT, which is you know,
one of my favorite doctors that I probably have something
called jumper's knee. So I have to just ice it
every day. Listen, I instant as you're icing your knees,
you know, typing stuff, doing your taxes, whatever, and then
(14:09):
you look up you're like, oh my gosh, I'm like
every NBA player from the eighties and nineties would sit
on the bench with huge ice packs on their knees.
That's where I am, except I'm not in the NBA.
It just it's a weird, strange feeling and like, you know,
being really ineffective is frustrating to me. So I'm having
(14:30):
a bad game and I'm a realist, so I pull
myself out and I'm just like disappointing. This guy who
we beat last week is like, oh, J Mack, hey,
I heard you got this is literally during the game.
You know, he's dex to be on the bench and
he'sa liked y. Oh J Mack, I heard you guys
on the radio, and I got to ask, you know,
I'm probably your age. I don't understand this, but I
heard you guys talking about the face of the NBA,
(14:52):
and I gotta be honest, I don't get it. I
don't ever remember growing up saying who's the face of
the NBA. And I was like, oh, that's a good point.
And he's like, it was probably Magic or Larry and
then it was maybe Isaiah Thomas and then Michael Jordan.
But like, this guy's about my age, and I guess
he watched a lot of NBA and he's like, but
(15:13):
I don't ever remember like turning on a radio and
hearing that, and I'm like, it's probably because of social media.
With social media now, anybody anytime can start an interesting
discussion top ten point guards all time, best players all time,
And whereas in the eighties and nineties, when you do that,
start that discussion, it's local. It's your friends, whoever's at
(15:33):
your lunch table, whoever's at the party you're at, you know,
in the car you're riding with. That's it. Now you
float something like that, and if you have something crazy
like Kevin Durant six's best all time, you've got the
potential for two million people to weigh in on what
they think about that. And that is when it goes
viral and radio hosts or producers see it and they're like, oh, oh,
(15:55):
that's a topic. This guy had Katie top six all time.
And I think that And I didn't explain it this
in depth, but I think that's how those discussions kind
of come about. Is social media and social media is
hurting helping well, however you want to phrase it. Is
it lazy? Yeah? Probably, But at the same time, I
definitely think that I agreed with him, Like I don't
(16:18):
remember ever thinking, well, Magic's not the face of the
NBA anymore, it's now Michael Jordan And I don't even
remember the talk about the best player of all time
in the eighties. You know, I did not listen to
sports talk radio. There was these guys when I was
in high school called like the sports junkies in DC.
I don't really know them. I think I might have
(16:41):
gone on their show, like when I had the Big
lead once or twice, or maybe it was their station,
but not their show. I was in DC for my
people one O six seven. This was back in the day.
I don't know if it's changed, but it feels like
the advent of the Internet and blogs, that's when you
get these lists in these discussions, which some people say
are cheesy. But Kevin Durant gets roped into him a
(17:02):
lot because he's so polarizing. I got a buddy who
used to live out here now he moved to Georgia,
and he is, like me, a huge Knicks fan. I mean,
he posts on ig wearing like an Anthony Mason jersey
and stuff, and he swears up and down. His favorite
comment is Kevin Durant is not a real champion. He
didn't win a real title. He went and joined the
(17:23):
worst and ordinarily I chuck him up as crazy and
being a joker. But if you go on the internet,
you see lots of people saying that, and I definitely
don't agree with it, but I think at worst, Katie's
fifteenth all time. At best, he's probably ninth. Now again,
everybody has their own list, and Durant clearly is going
(17:45):
to weigh and you will not see Steph Curry jump
in on a Twitter debate. He doesn't give a shit.
He's not doing that. Michael Jordan's not doing that, Lebron.
I don't think he'll say stuff on social media, but
he ain't doing that, And it just keep you keep
coming back to, like, hey, Katie, maybe you need to
stay offline, my guy, get out of the conversations. But
look at this. I just got an entire podcast out
(18:06):
of Kevin Durant chirping at somebody on Twitter. And he
didn't stop there. I mean, and this is where it
goes off the rails, and you just got to assume
your boy's trolling. So someone said that in terms of
individual success and accomplishments over the span of Kd's career,
where would you rank him all time? And KD, where
(18:28):
would you put yourself? Because you know, if you see
KD on Twitter, just tag him, he's gonna reply. Kevin
Durant said one. Now he's probably trolling, but he's had
a great career. Guys, he's awesome. The weirdest part is
I don't think there's anything resembling a bidding war coming
up for Kevin Durant. Now we will find out Brian
(18:49):
Windhorst was doing the rounds on the media. Ends like
Kadi will be traded in the coming weeks, likely before
the draft. I floated this yesterday, but like, it probably
does nothing for the Phoenix Suns, But would you do
Embiid and the third pick for Kevin Durant? And I
(19:11):
know that's gonna sound nutty, but the only the Sixers
can contend next year in the East, assuming they get
off Joel Embiid. They have to, and the only way
to trade him, because nobody wants to pay this guy
into his mid late thirties, is by attaching that number
three overall pick. And the argument is, well, KDE would
have Kevin Durant, Paul George, Jared McCain, Terrese Maxie. That's
(19:33):
not a terrible forsom. I mean, Jared McCain flashed last year.
He's the TikTok guy who played really well. You got
him and Maxie, you got Paul George and KD. I mean,
obviously those two forwards are a little older, but I
would I think they would contend much sooner than if
they had Joel Embiid. But giving up Embiid and the three, Now,
(19:53):
why would Phoenix do that? Why would Phoenix get a
bed with Embiid? Well, they can get a foundational piece
in the to pair with Hooker and I guess you
could say MBI. But I don't know how much logger
a bid would be there. It is kind of an
interesting thought exercise. I'm sure some people are gonna absolutely
flame me. There's no way they're doing that. But I
(20:16):
just I don't know that you can continue to run
it back with Embiid and this is gonna be your
best time to add a piece and make the deal.
So when horse polieves it's gonna happen, Schams is, you know,
totally in with the KD camp. I like Kevin Durant.
Although people can say, oh no, you said this, you
hate him. I mean say a lot of things about
(20:36):
a lot of people. That's my job. Got to have
a take. You know, I will close out before I
get to best bet real quick. I saw a report
that Aaron Rodgers got married. So if that's the reason
he waited this long to sign with Pittsburgh, it's kind
of sort of understandable he had other stuff going on.
(20:57):
Now here's the thing. How do you get married not
invite anyone or not have anything go on line at all?
I mean, I know he likes his secrecy, but I
didn't even know he was dating somebody. I mean, I
think he's gonna be an interesting story, certainly more interesting
than boring as Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
We can wrap up with You're Gonna Hate this bet.
I like the Pacers tonight with the points and money line.
So Game one, I think it was the Obi toppin
game he had five threes. They make it unbelievable come
back and Haliburton hits the game winner. But they don't
get there without the role player Obi top and showing up.
(21:49):
So in game two, guess who shows up? Caruso and
Aaron Wiggins, those guys where he combined nine of sixteen
from three. You're not losing with those right. Now, we
go to Indiana. Traditionally, who shows up in home games
(22:12):
role players? Okay, can Indy get a twenty piece from
Ben Matherin? Can can Ben Sheppard give me fifteen? Can
Thomas Bryant hit three threes? The way he did against
the Knicks. That's gonna decide this game. You know, Siakam's
gonna get his Halliburton's gonna have his twenty twenty five
(22:33):
and twelve assists or whatever. It's gonna be the role players,
and I do believe they show up now. I do
want to point out Game three has been historically the
worst game in these playoffs for ok See, they were
down twenty six to Memphis on the road. John Moran
gets hurt, or that's an l Jamuraan gets hurt. They
come back and win, but that was a bad performance
(22:54):
until the star of the other team went down. Against Denver,
they lose Game three to fall down two one. That
was the game SGA walked off the court smiling against Minnesota.
They trailed by thirty one at halftime. Get their asses
kicked total no show. Now two of those they were
up two oh and you could say, well, they were
just like not locked in the Denver game. They were
(23:15):
locked in. They just got out play. The only way
Indiana wins the series is winning tonight. So I'm gonna
go ahead and take Pacers with the points and money
line could use this given a last round did not
go so well for me, And I will say this,
do you trust j Dubb or chet Holmegrid to show up?
J Dub twenty two percent on threes so far in
(23:35):
the series. It's only two games, Chet twenty five percent.
Those two guys are not showing up. It's SGA is
gonna get his thirty to forty points. We know that
is he gonna get help. So I will go Pacers
one oh six, Thunder one oh two, one o six,
one oh two, Pacers go up to one and then
(23:56):
it gets really really interesting. All right, I could use
that hit. Talk to you tomorrow,
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up straight Firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight
Fire for Wednesday. Je to eleven feels like an eternity
since we had our last NBA Finals game. We got
Game three tonight in Indiana. I'll have a best bet
at the end. We had a guest schedule for today.
She had to push it to later in the week.
(00:32):
She's a big deal on Instagram. I think you'll enjoy
the interview. And obviously we're now on YouTube. My son
last what was it last August, was like, Dad, you
gotta be on YouTube more. I got kids telling me
in school they saw your take on so and so
on YouTube. Why is Kevin Durant yelling at you on YouTube?
And I'm like, I'm not on YouTube, So I guess
they put some HERD clips on there. So I started
(00:54):
a YouTube page. It's a lot of work, guys, obviously, listen,
everything in life is a lot of work. And my
son's like, Dad, mister beast took like years years before
his YouTube blew up. I'm like, bro a, I just
don't really have an interest in it blowing up. I mean,
you have to really put a time energy. I got
two jobs besides the YouTube and the IG and the Twitter,
(01:16):
and then you know, I got to drive you guys. Right. Anyways,
I don't need to ramble, but I bring up YouTube
because one of the bigger things that I'm on there
for is that whole Kevin Durant Teta tet and I
kind of want to start the pod here talking about
Kevin Durant because I got a text from a couple
of my boys kind of laughing at Kevin Durant. I'm like, oh,
(01:38):
what did he do now? And essentially, you know, it's June.
Kd's probably biting time until he gets traded. You can
only watch so much WNBA, and so Kd's spending all
his days on social media, and it's like, well, that's
not healthy. It's not and all these people because it's
(02:02):
the Internet and there's really nothing going on outside of
you know, a pretend civil war out here in California,
but there's just there's not a lot happening in sports.
But sports fans are online all the time. People are
online all frickin' day. Man. Listen. I'm on on social
media during the show, obviously, but honestly, when I get home.
I like, I try to power down. I'm like, there's
(02:23):
no point in this, there's no win. You know, where
can I invest my money? Where can I plan a trip?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Where can I go, get a workout in, get some
shots up, you know anything? Watch a show like I
don't want to sit online. It's just not healthy. And
I feel like Kevin Durant's falling into that. A guy wrote,
I think it's time to admit Kevin Durant's trajectory after
leaving Golden State is very underwhelming. And I'm like, Okay,
that's been said a million times. What's different? Why did
(02:50):
KAD respond? Because he was online and Kevin Durant doesn't
follow this guy. He must have searched his name or
somebody said it to him and KD goes. I highly disagree.
Want a debate, guys, this is one of the fifteen
greatest players in the history of basketball jumping online to
debate with sports fans who are anonymous. This guy is, Oh,
(03:11):
it might be a girl, Hannah hoops ha Na looks
like an image of a girl, but at this stage
in the game, who knows. You never know who you're
talking to. I can side note I cannot imagine dating
in the social media era. I mean, I've talked to
so many people who meet someone on one of these apps,
bumble hinge whatever they are, and they're like, wait a minute,
(03:33):
your photo does not quite match your person, like this
is what was fifteen years ago? And sometimes I mean, hell,
there's guys getting catfished on you. Just Manti Tayo, who
I guess is an announcer now or he's gonna join
that morning show, Good Morning Football. I didn't even know
(03:54):
he was in sports media, So Manti Tayo got catfish
famously thought he was talking to a girl. He was
talking to some and so I don't know if Kevin
Durant even cared whether it was a man or woman,
boy or girl. And then of course, you know Jabroni's
set their notifications anytime Kevin Durant has a damn word online.
So some random anonymous dude, what have you done since
(04:17):
leaving Brooklyn was a failure? Phoenix currently is a failure
and you're about to jump ship to the next best
available team. Lol. I mean, I guess this guy was
watching The Herd or I don't know, listening to this
podcast over the last six months where the Suns have
been failing. The last time he was in the playoffs,
they got swept by Anthony Edwards. They also got swept
(04:39):
when he was in Brooklyn, Yes with a super team
by Jason Tatum and the Celtics. And it's like, yeah, okay,
there's nothing new here, but this is what's new. Kevin
dur Brant replies to this RANDO All Stars fifty forty
ninety all NBA efficient buckets. Brother, I also so got
(05:00):
a career high assist one year, hit thirty k points,
won a couple gold Olympic Golds, and MVPs. What a career.
And I'm still going I love my life. You guys
know when somebody's really selling themselves hard, Oh I love it,
they don't, and they're trying to talk themselves into loving it.
(05:23):
I mean, there's so many examples of Oh I love
this house. Oh it's the best. Meanwhile, you look around
it. It just needs a ton of odds and ends. You've
got to do stuff. It's constant upkeep. You love the
idea of the house, you don't actually love the house.
And my guess is Kevin Durant is out here trying
to pump himself up because he is super frickin' pissed
(05:45):
off that leaving Golden State.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
What fuck?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I guess it was a summer of twenty nineteen that
was like the biggest mistake of his career. Leaving Oklahoma
City was a genius move. I mean it worked out perfect.
He goes to Golden State. He's the best player on
two championship winning teams. I believe that team is the
greatest team in NBA history. I don't know that there's
much of an argument. Guys. They went sixteen and one.
(06:12):
That's the best record in NBA playoff history. They annihilated
their opponents. And oh, by the way, the one game
they lost the Boston Celts. No, no, not the Celtics.
What am I saying? The Cleveland Cavaliers set a record
for most three pointers in an NBA Finals game. I
think they hit twenty six or twenty eight, some number
like that. It took a historic performance to beat those worst.
(06:35):
I had predicted four to zero and I was looking
amazingly genius, and I think it was three o. And
then of course the Cavs showed up and didn't get
swept because of that, and that one hurt I had
money on sweep, it would have paid really well of
memory serves. And like he just left to go hang
out with Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn and create his own thing,
(06:57):
and like, listen, man, sometimes guys leave, you know, successful
companies are like, I'm gonna start my own shop. And
I don't know that Kevin Durrett technically started the Brooklyn thing.
It feels like it was more of a Kyrie thing.
But either way, he went there and they just didn't
pull it off. Now you could argue, well, they had
injuries in the playoffs and James Harden and the tow
(07:18):
on the line against the Bucks in the playoffs, and yeah,
you know what I mean, that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Sometimes guys unfortunately get unlucky, you know. I mean, if
Katie doesn't go down with the Achilles against the Raptors
they win three straight, does he stay in Golden State?
I don't know, how do you leave that? I mean,
(07:39):
it's really unbelieved. That was one of the you know,
if you look back on the NBA the last forty
or fifty years, if you just look at two results
that kind of changed the course of the NBA, well
you could say three, I would say the Lebron performance
against Detroit when he was twenty two with like he
(07:59):
had like twenty five points straight in the fourth quarter.
Some that's one of the best performances I've ever seen.
But that game took down the Pistons. He gets to
the finals. I'm of the belief that that team. Danny
Ainge saw that and was like, well shit, nobody's beating Lebron.
We gotta go get KG and Ray Allen. That then
gets Boston a stack team. Lebron says, I've got I
(08:21):
can't I can't do it here. My guys can't get me, dudes,
I've got a bounce, and that's when Lebron forms the heatles.
The next massive, enormous game was a Game five, no
Game six in Boston. It was five or six, but no, no,
it had to be Game six. Celtics were up three
(08:42):
to two and could have closed out Lebron at home,
and that's where Lebron had like forty five, fifteen and five.
I mean, you go look it up on YouTube. He was.
He just refused to let the heat lose. They had
lost to the MAVs the year prior, so when Lebron
does that, he essentially saves the Heat. They go on
to win the series, they beat the Under in the championship,
and they move on and get rings. The next one
(09:02):
had to be Game six in OKC Klay Thompson's nine threes.
I keep forgetting the number, but it is incredible to
watch that game back and as a result the Thunder
losing seven, Kad ends up leaving for the Warriors. If
the Thunder beat the Warriors in that series, if Clay
(09:23):
doesn't go nuclear, does Kad leave after going to the
finals to a team he beat? Probably not. And then
I think certainly that that injury against the Raptors in
Toronto getting that title triggered Katie to leave again. And
you know, those four moves in what like a twenty
year span, so much change about the NBA. And I
(09:47):
like Kevin Durant as much as the next guy. I
don't think his market right now is as robust as
Shams is willing to tell you and you guys can
go do the homework. Shams is very tight with Kevin
Durant's guy, Rich Clemban, and clear all the reporting on
KD is coming from one one one guy right as
(10:07):
Cham's so you do the math there and tell me
who's pushing what. So I just don't know where kd
ends up going. And it's weird because he's he's taken
so many hits here the last few years that I
actually had somebody tweet at me, Oh yeah, Kevin Durantz
better than Larry Bird. And you know, he tried to
throw a couple numbers at me in the playoffs. We'll
(10:29):
look at Kadi's stats in the playoffs. I mean, oh
my gosh, and who would win one on one? And
I'm just sitting here, like, is the Internet that dumb?
Are we really doing this? And like, I'm not one
of these old school guys, olders better, I'm not. I'm
definitely not. Larry Bird as a rookie was first team
All NBA. He was first team All NBA, meaning when
(10:52):
they picked the best players in the league, he was
one of the top five the first nine years of
his career, Like, I mean, can you even fathom that? Now?
I know a lot of guys came into the league younger.
Michael Jordan didn't come in younger. Larry Bird actually went
did he spent some time in college Magic, did a
(11:13):
little bit at Michigan State shack LSU. Some of the
all time greats did go to college, but like Larry Bird,
comes into the league and was first team All NBA.
He won three straight MVP Awards. I'm just telling you
I hated the Boston Celtics with every fiber of my
being as a little kid. Now I was little. I
didn't really know. I just knew. Oh. I was born
(11:34):
in New York. Oh, we go to New York on
holidays because my film is from there. Oh, Oh my gosh,
I'm a New York guy.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And I think I've told this story before. My dad
had a business trip in it in LA like literally
one of the few business trips he had, and it
just so happened the Knicks were playing the Lakers. So
the first two games I ever went to were Nicks
versus the Lakers, And of course I fell in love
with the Lakers, how could you not? And Lakers had
a heated rivalry, shall we say, with the Celtics in
(12:18):
the eighties, almost every year they seemed like they were
battling in the finals Magic and Bird, and I was
like team Lakers, team Magic, and I was very, very
very anti Celtics. And I still can respect it. I'm
sorry Larry Bird had a better career than Kevin Durant.
I don't know how you can argue that, Like, you
can't tell the story of the NBA without Larry Bird, you,
(12:42):
I mean, it's tougher for sure, then if you tried
to do that without Kevin Durant, Like obviously k D
to the Warriors significant, but what Larry and Magic did
for the league in the nineteen eighties, you know, we
don't need to talk about that again, but essentially they
created the modern NBA. And I don't know, I just
(13:05):
I can't put Durant ahead of Larry Bird in any way,
shape or form. And I wonder where Kadie's gonna end up.
And it's weird. I know, I had a guy. So
we had a men'sley game on Monday night and your
boy did not play well. Something's wrong. So I've been
hooping a lot lately and lifting. You know, summer's coming up.
(13:25):
I'm trying to get jacked. I know, laugh all you want,
what are you doing trying to get Jack? Give me break?
And I made the mistake a couple like three weeks
ago of playing three days in a row. I played
Saturday morning, then I played in a league game Sunday,
and then a league game Monday night, and then I
played again Wednesday. And after the game Wednesday, like my
back was hurting, my knees were hurting. My knees haven't
(13:47):
stopped hurting. So it's not like right on the knee,
but it's like the muscles around the knee are just inflamed.
And I feel like, based on CHATGBT, which is you know,
one of my favorite doctors that I probably have something
called jumper's knee. So I have to just ice it
every day. Listen, I instant as you're icing your knees,
you know, typing stuff, doing your taxes, whatever, and then
(14:09):
you look up you're like, oh my gosh, I'm like
every NBA player from the eighties and nineties would sit
on the bench with huge ice packs on their knees.
That's where I am, except I'm not in the NBA.
It just it's a weird, strange feeling and like, you know,
being really ineffective is frustrating to me. So I'm having
(14:30):
a bad game and I'm a realist, so I pull
myself out and I'm just like disappointing. This guy who
we beat last week is like, oh, J Mack, hey,
I heard you got this is literally during the game.
You know, he's dex to be on the bench and
he'sa liked y. Oh J Mack, I heard you guys
on the radio, and I got to ask, you know,
I'm probably your age. I don't understand this, but I
heard you guys talking about the face of the NBA,
(14:52):
and I gotta be honest, I don't get it. I
don't ever remember growing up saying who's the face of
the NBA. And I was like, oh, that's a good point.
And he's like, it was probably Magic or Larry and
then it was maybe Isaiah Thomas and then Michael Jordan.
But like, this guy's about my age, and I guess
he watched a lot of NBA and he's like, but
(15:13):
I don't ever remember like turning on a radio and
hearing that, and I'm like, it's probably because of social media.
With social media now, anybody anytime can start an interesting
discussion top ten point guards all time, best players all time,
And whereas in the eighties and nineties, when you do that,
start that discussion, it's local. It's your friends, whoever's at
(15:33):
your lunch table, whoever's at the party you're at, you know,
in the car you're riding with. That's it. Now you
float something like that, and if you have something crazy
like Kevin Durant six's best all time, you've got the
potential for two million people to weigh in on what
they think about that. And that is when it goes
viral and radio hosts or producers see it and they're like, oh, oh,
(15:55):
that's a topic. This guy had Katie top six all time.
And I think that And I didn't explain it this
in depth, but I think that's how those discussions kind
of come about. Is social media and social media is
hurting helping well, however you want to phrase it. Is
it lazy? Yeah? Probably, But at the same time, I
definitely think that I agreed with him, Like I don't
(16:18):
remember ever thinking, well, Magic's not the face of the
NBA anymore, it's now Michael Jordan And I don't even
remember the talk about the best player of all time
in the eighties. You know, I did not listen to
sports talk radio. There was these guys when I was
in high school called like the sports junkies in DC.
I don't really know them. I think I might have
(16:41):
gone on their show, like when I had the Big
lead once or twice, or maybe it was their station,
but not their show. I was in DC for my
people one O six seven. This was back in the day.
I don't know if it's changed, but it feels like
the advent of the Internet and blogs, that's when you
get these lists in these discussions, which some people say
are cheesy. But Kevin Durant gets roped into him a
(17:02):
lot because he's so polarizing. I got a buddy who
used to live out here now he moved to Georgia,
and he is, like me, a huge Knicks fan. I mean,
he posts on ig wearing like an Anthony Mason jersey
and stuff, and he swears up and down. His favorite
comment is Kevin Durant is not a real champion. He
didn't win a real title. He went and joined the
(17:23):
worst and ordinarily I chuck him up as crazy and
being a joker. But if you go on the internet,
you see lots of people saying that, and I definitely
don't agree with it, but I think at worst, Katie's
fifteenth all time. At best, he's probably ninth. Now again,
everybody has their own list, and Durant clearly is going
(17:45):
to weigh and you will not see Steph Curry jump
in on a Twitter debate. He doesn't give a shit.
He's not doing that. Michael Jordan's not doing that, Lebron.
I don't think he'll say stuff on social media, but
he ain't doing that, And it just keep you keep
coming back to, like, hey, Katie, maybe you need to
stay offline, my guy, get out of the conversations. But
look at this. I just got an entire podcast out
(18:06):
of Kevin Durant chirping at somebody on Twitter. And he
didn't stop there. I mean, and this is where it
goes off the rails, and you just got to assume
your boy's trolling. So someone said that in terms of
individual success and accomplishments over the span of Kd's career,
where would you rank him all time? And KD, where
(18:28):
would you put yourself? Because you know, if you see
KD on Twitter, just tag him, he's gonna reply. Kevin
Durant said one. Now he's probably trolling, but he's had
a great career. Guys, he's awesome. The weirdest part is
I don't think there's anything resembling a bidding war coming
up for Kevin Durant. Now we will find out Brian
(18:49):
Windhorst was doing the rounds on the media. Ends like
Kadi will be traded in the coming weeks, likely before
the draft. I floated this yesterday, but like, it probably
does nothing for the Phoenix Suns, But would you do
Embiid and the third pick for Kevin Durant? And I
(19:11):
know that's gonna sound nutty, but the only the Sixers
can contend next year in the East, assuming they get
off Joel Embiid. They have to, and the only way
to trade him, because nobody wants to pay this guy
into his mid late thirties, is by attaching that number
three overall pick. And the argument is, well, KDE would
have Kevin Durant, Paul George, Jared McCain, Terrese Maxie. That's
(19:33):
not a terrible forsom. I mean, Jared McCain flashed last year.
He's the TikTok guy who played really well. You got
him and Maxie, you got Paul George and KD. I mean,
obviously those two forwards are a little older, but I
would I think they would contend much sooner than if
they had Joel Embiid. But giving up Embiid and the three, Now,
(19:53):
why would Phoenix do that? Why would Phoenix get a
bed with Embiid? Well, they can get a foundational piece
in the to pair with Hooker and I guess you
could say MBI. But I don't know how much logger
a bid would be there. It is kind of an
interesting thought exercise. I'm sure some people are gonna absolutely
flame me. There's no way they're doing that. But I
(20:16):
just I don't know that you can continue to run
it back with Embiid and this is gonna be your
best time to add a piece and make the deal.
So when horse polieves it's gonna happen, Schams is, you know,
totally in with the KD camp. I like Kevin Durant.
Although people can say, oh no, you said this, you
hate him. I mean say a lot of things about
(20:36):
a lot of people. That's my job. Got to have
a take. You know, I will close out before I
get to best bet real quick. I saw a report
that Aaron Rodgers got married. So if that's the reason
he waited this long to sign with Pittsburgh, it's kind
of sort of understandable he had other stuff going on.
(20:57):
Now here's the thing. How do you get married not
invite anyone or not have anything go on line at all?
I mean, I know he likes his secrecy, but I
didn't even know he was dating somebody. I mean, I
think he's gonna be an interesting story, certainly more interesting
than boring as Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
We can wrap up with You're Gonna Hate this bet.
I like the Pacers tonight with the points and money line.
So Game one, I think it was the Obi toppin
game he had five threes. They make it unbelievable come
back and Haliburton hits the game winner. But they don't
get there without the role player Obi top and showing up.
(21:49):
So in game two, guess who shows up? Caruso and
Aaron Wiggins, those guys where he combined nine of sixteen
from three. You're not losing with those right. Now, we
go to Indiana. Traditionally, who shows up in home games
(22:12):
role players? Okay, can Indy get a twenty piece from
Ben Matherin? Can can Ben Sheppard give me fifteen? Can
Thomas Bryant hit three threes? The way he did against
the Knicks. That's gonna decide this game. You know, Siakam's
gonna get his Halliburton's gonna have his twenty twenty five
(22:33):
and twelve assists or whatever. It's gonna be the role players,
and I do believe they show up now. I do
want to point out Game three has been historically the
worst game in these playoffs for ok See, they were
down twenty six to Memphis on the road. John Moran
gets hurt, or that's an l Jamuraan gets hurt. They
come back and win, but that was a bad performance
(22:54):
until the star of the other team went down. Against Denver,
they lose Game three to fall down two one. That
was the game SGA walked off the court smiling against Minnesota.
They trailed by thirty one at halftime. Get their asses
kicked total no show. Now two of those they were
up two oh and you could say, well, they were
just like not locked in the Denver game. They were
(23:15):
locked in. They just got out play. The only way
Indiana wins the series is winning tonight. So I'm gonna
go ahead and take Pacers with the points and money
line could use this given a last round did not
go so well for me, And I will say this,
do you trust j Dubb or chet Holmegrid to show up?
J Dub twenty two percent on threes so far in
(23:35):
the series. It's only two games, Chet twenty five percent.
Those two guys are not showing up. It's SGA is
gonna get his thirty to forty points. We know that
is he gonna get help. So I will go Pacers
one oh six, Thunder one oh two, one o six,
one oh two, Pacers go up to one and then
(23:56):
it gets really really interesting. All right, I could use
that hit. Talk to you tomorrow,
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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