April 22, 2025 • 26 mins
On today's episode, Jason recaps his vacation and brings in the sights and sounds from Japan! Jason dives into the news of Nico Iamaleava officially leaving Tennessee for UCLA. Jason explains why the Knicks are in trouble after the Pistons took Game 2 at the Garden, highlighting Cade Cunningham's play thus far. Plus, Jason gives his picks for Tuesday's NBA playoff action!
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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, Pam, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight Fire
or Tuesday, April twenty second. Oh boy, it's good to
be back back in the saddle. Got more asks this
time than any other vacation before. So when is the
pod back? Got a buddy traveling because you know spring break.
Obviously in Los Angeles they break it up like four
(00:33):
different weeks for private school, public school, LA County, not
La County. And he's like, j Mack, when's the pod?
Come on? Come on, man, I'm on the road. I'm
gonna be with my kids. I need some material. Well,
here you go. Unfortunately, it doesn't start out great, as
my Knicks just dropped one to the Pistons. I was
on the Knicks for game two. I thought, well, jeez,
(00:53):
they pulled away in game one, ripped the Pistons hard
out with a twenty one nothing run. Yes, I paid
attention while on spring break, though not closely or closely enough,
I guess, and Detroit came out and gave two and
just refused to go away. And yeah, we'll talk about
it shortly, but obviously spring break warrants a brief mention
at the beginning of the podcast. So since we moved
out here to La mostly we've been doing this standard issue.
(01:17):
Hey let's go to Hawaii, Hey let's go to Cabbo,
because those are close, easy trips and there are easy,
relaxing vacations. But now that the kids are a little older,
your boy's been pushing for Hey, man, we got to
get out and see the world. You guys are old
enough to travel. I don't know how many dads agree,
but when we had like two, three, four or five
year olds, I didn't want to go do international travel.
No way, that's not fun. They're not gonna remember any
(01:39):
of it. I didn't do any of it myself. I
kind of wish I had when I was a teenager.
But you know, we weren't like, you know, well off.
We were firmly middle class. And so last year we
did London and Amsterdam, and this year we decided we'll
go to Japan for spring break. And it was phenomenal.
I thought, without a doubt, Japan was the most impressive
best country that I've visited on the planet so far. Folks,
(02:03):
the people super nice, culturally, the everything Japan stands for
just awesome. The cleanliness of the city, and of course
the food was unbelievable. We only had one vomit in
our group the whole time. I will not reference what
it was about. We do come from a my brother's listening,
and it wasn't him. Him and his wife travel with us.
It was just it was awesome. The food was legitimately phenomenal.
(02:26):
I posted a bunch of stuff on ig did not
go on Twitter. Had to avoid it. It's too toxic,
it's not worth it. But to sum up the people
of Japan, how nice they are. Everybody's friendly. Now we
had heard, hey mean, you don't have to worry about
even putting your stuff in the safe in the room.
You don't have to worry about your passport. Nobody steals
any they just don't do that. And I was still dubious.
(02:49):
You know, I'm that guy on the subway who's putting
the backpack in front of him because the train is crowded. Nut,
gotta watch your back. And you didn't have to worry
about any of that stuff. I mean, it really was
just the culture there is just awesome. It's one of
hey man, it's not a crush to get on the subway,
to rush to a seat, you know, kind of form
(03:10):
a line, and if you sit down, great, If you
sit down and an elderly person comes up, just get
up and let an older person sit down, and it's
just like everybody's kind of on the same page. It's
pretty pretty awesome. Anyways, So one night we went to
we start out in Tokyo and then we kind of
decamped to the countryside in the mountains for a couple
of nights in Matsumoto, and then we went to Kyoto
(03:31):
at the end of the trip. Kyoto is way more
touristy than we thought. I thought Tokyo would be touristy.
Kyoto just extremely touristy, and it just didn't have the
feel of I thought Tokyo was great. Matsumoto, though, in
the mountains was awesome. And we go to this castle
one afternoon, a phenomenal castle, and we decide, you know what,
(03:54):
let's just let's we're not going to take a cab.
They're kind of expensive. Even though the yen right now
is awesome for a Maria because you're traveling mare your
money goes far. Everything's cheap. I mean, we were eating
six people for dinner for like sixty bucks, seriously, and
now we're not drinking a ton because you're exhausted at
the end of the day and you're going to bed
and waking up and do it again the next day
because there's so much to see. But we go out
(04:17):
one night to this castle or afternoon and then you know,
we're ready to go home, and instead of doing a cab,
and there's no subway in Matsumoto, we decide let's just
ride the bus. This can't be that hard to navigate.
But it looks like we had just missed the bus
and there's nobody else at the bus stop. And finally
people are coming to the bus stop, but it's for
a different line and we're like, oh jeez, starting to
get dark. And again we're not nervous, we're just tired.
(04:38):
We want to get home. So I call up chat
GPT and I know you guys will laugh, but honestly,
Chat GPT was huge for me. You go in a
store and you have a request. I just put the
audio in a chat GPT. How do you say men's
bracelet or whatever? How do you say men's jeens whatever?
And it comes out on chat GPT in like two seconds.
You just show it to them then okay, yeah, and
(04:58):
then they show you. So I to this lady, you know,
where do you know where to find a taxi cab stand?
We can't find one. We had the map and it
wasn't really showing it, and this lady, you know, this
is the Japanese people in a nutshell. The lady takes like,
you know, fifteen seconds to realize, let me think where No, no, okay,
and then she's like, I'll show you. But essentially and
(05:20):
she walks us down this huge city block, turns and
kind of points over and we're like, oh my gosh,
that's a taxi. She doesn't stop there. She literally walks
into the middle of the street and flags down a
taxi and essentially the guy just stops, opens the door,
and we get in. I was like, this is the
(05:40):
greatest lady ever. And I turned to like, you know,
give her a tip or something. They don't want any tips.
You can't tip anybody there, And yeah, I was just
like this, that was amazing. This lady took time out
of her day to walk us down this huge block,
around the block and find the taxi stand and then
get us in a taxi and that was just like commonplace.
Everybody's so nice. It was highly recommend Japan. I'm not
(06:02):
gonna lie, guys. It was an awesome trip, and the
kids appreciate it. I know there's some of you guys
out there who are up for traveling with your you know, two, three, four,
five year olds, and we'll do some beaches. Sure, we'll
do luck Florida and Hawaii and the Disney resource and stuff.
But I'm not doing any international travel with like a
seven year old. I just don't think it's worth it.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
That's just my opinion. And the parents will say, well,
I don't want to miss out on that just because
I've got a seven year old, and I would say, well,
can't she just wait? But you do your thing. We
did ours and so last year we did londond at Amsterdam.
This year we did Japan. We're trying to do some
international and it was awesome. Really really liked it. And
the drawback is I tried to call up Fubo one
(06:44):
night in Tokyo to watch the Lakers game, and of
course Fubo is blocked in Japan. However, you could wait
six days and then watch the game. And I'm like, well,
I'm not doing that. So I just decided I'm not
going to try to watch the games pointless, and then
I decided to catch up with them on YouTube, the
condensed version highlights, and of course buddies were texting me,
(07:06):
are you watching this Lakers embarrassment and blah blah blah sucks,
And you know, it wasn't just that. It was like, okay,
see you up sixty baby, and you know, I'm like, okay, guys, sure,
whatever it was, it was an awesome trip. And then
I did get to watch the end of the fourth
quarter of Warriors Rockets on a bullet train as we're
going by Mount Fuji. I mean, it was just the
(07:28):
technology and I was able to watch that on It's
not called HBO Max, it's just called Max. So I
didn't even know that, but I called up the box
score and I see that it's on Max. I was like, well,
I've got the app. Maybe it'll come up. Boom, there
it is. And Sef Curry awesome, Jimmy Butler very good,
Fred Van Vliet, and Jalen Green horrendous. Anyways, that's enough
(07:48):
about my travels in basketball.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
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Speaker 2 (08:03):
The draft is this week. NFL Draft obviously massive. Working
on a draft guest for tomorrow or Wednesday. I gotta
play catch up. But guys, shockingly, it doesn't look like
I missed anything. I don't know. I keep looking, and
it seems like Shadoor Sanders may go three. If he
doesn't go three, he's probably going nine. If he doesn't
(08:24):
going nine, then if he doesn't go nine, then I
guess the slide could happen beyond that. But it appears
all intents are as of right now that Cleveland's not
gonna take him to two, and they want Travis Hunter
the generational talent, and Travis Hunter looks like a hell
of a good player. But yeah, I would disagree, but
(08:44):
we'll do more draft. NBA playoffs obviously are huge right now.
Before I get to that kid, I quickly so. I
hosted The Herd two weeks ago, and the Friday morning
of the final show, this story pops up that tannes
See and their quarterback Nico Blah Blah Blah whatever his
name is, He was holding out essentially of spring practice,
(09:09):
looking for a new nil deal. And I was saying
to the staff, like, guys, this story is amazing, and
they're like, well, his dad has refuted it. You know,
let's just hold off and wait. I was like, all right,
but instantly you could tell HM, why is he missing
spring practice? He wants a new deal? Like you, guys know,
I'm very pro anil. I want the players to get paid.
They deserve it. Holding out of spring practice for extra
(09:32):
money that's probably a bridge too far from me. I
thought it was a horrific look for the QB. However,
we know that teams are desperate for good players. And
the kid landed at UCLA. Of course, UCLA's quarterback was
(09:52):
supposed to be a guy they just recruited through the
portal from app State. So he went from app State
to Ucla and he was going to start start. I
hadn't played a game yet, and Ucla said, hey, you
know what, man, we like you, but we got a
chance to get like a stud future NFL quarterback. We
got to go after him. I'm sorry, and I saw
a lot of I read a couple articles about this
(10:15):
earlier today, like, oh my gosh, the system is broken.
I don't know that it's broken. I think this is
a one off, unique case. I will say that I
don't know how this quarterback and again I get it,
chase your money, get your paper. I can't hate you
for it. I just don't know how you can get
(10:37):
to the point where it's spring practice and then say, Yo,
what's up? I need more money? Now. This is different
from the one.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
I think.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
It was a kid at UNLV who played like the
first two games and was good and they were ranked
or something like that, and then next thing, you know,
he's like, whoa, I need to hold out you. I
never got the money you promised me. That's different from hey,
I want more money. You know you get that. Like,
apparently this guy was just suddenly unhappy with his deal.
(11:08):
Did he hear that I don't know another quarterback out
more than him, or he felt he was underpaid or
he outperformed his deal. It just felt like there was
such a long time to deal with that. Why wait
until now that? I don't love that again, can't kill
the kid. Don't know his situation. There's stories I read
though it doesn't feel great, and I know the college
(11:30):
football fans are going to panic and think this is
the end of the world. It's not. Okay, it's not
the end of the world. This is not great, obviously,
but they could bounce back from this.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Tennessee's got their new guy, the kid from app State
by way of Ucla for like eight minutes, and it
will sting if they don't go back to the playoff.
Tennessee member went to the playoff, got smoked by Ohio State.
Nico did not look great in that game, but he
had an overall good season. He's considered an NFL prospect.
I don't think he's like a first round or anything,
(12:01):
or lock for a first round or I think he's
a good quarterback. But I think that story is going
to be huge, and it is interesting that he landed
at UCLA. Ucla was awful last year, and awful football
means less revenue football, big generating sport. Maybe the UCLA
guys just said, hey, we got a chance to go
(12:22):
grab this dude. Let's go get him. Now. On the
UCLA basketball front, they got screwed because they're they're seven
footer from overseas. I think we talked about this on
the pod, but like a week before the vacation, he
had his deal locked in for UCLA and then he said, Hey,
I want to go back to Spain, you know, and
(12:43):
see my family. And they had a break. So he
comes back and he's like, hey, I need some amendments
to my deal. And he asked for crazy stuff, not necessary.
I'm told it was not necessarily money. It was, hey,
I get to go back to Spain whenever I don't
at this summer, I can come back. I don't have
to practice with the team in the summer. And like
(13:03):
all this ridiculous stuff in the UCLA was like, what
the hell's going on here? Somebody must have got to him.
And of course he lands at Dundunda Dunn, Michigan. Yes,
in the Big Ten. That will be interesting college basketball.
But listen, this is the world that college basketball is now.
I know the purists will say, you can't really love
your team because you can't follow guys for two and
(13:24):
three and four years. That just stinks. Yeah, it's probably
not fun, but that's the way it is. I remember
in and I think I've used this line before. Free
agency killed the game from Last Boy Scout. I'm sure
some people will say free agency kill college football. But
you know what, the players are making a ton of money.
(13:44):
The ratings are through the roof interest nationally has skyrocketed
thanks to Deon Sanders in Colorado, Michigan with Harball, then
Ohio State's incredible run. Like college football is having a
great moment right now? Now? Is this gonna last? If
this stuff gets out of control? We've got quarterbacks circling around,
(14:07):
going to three four teams in four years, that's possible,
but I don't know that we're there yet or even
close to it. I just thought that was an utterly
fascinating story. You don't get a ton of great college
football in April outside of the draft, but that story
of the Tennessee UCLA quarterback situation was fun. Now to
the NBA Playoffs. My Knicks needed a twenty one to
(14:28):
nothing run in Game two Game one to come back
and win. Detroit was in control. Well, Detroit was in
control for much of Game two as well, before a
late Knicks run tied it and the Dennis Shooter had
a big three to propel Detroit to victory. I did
hear Grant Hill making some comments, oh, Jalen Brunson looking tired, tired,
(14:48):
legs a lot of minutes this season. He said that
about Brunton and Bridges. Bridges had a brutal fourth quarter
over four missed three threes. Here's why that comment's interesting.
Grant Hill, former player, probably talk to the players and
paid attention to what went on with the Knicks, and
specifically Bridges and Heart and Thibodeaux, and I wonder if
(15:10):
the players are planting that stuff now with grand Hill
a trusted voice. Now, grand Hill did not allude to
the players saying anything. He just was like, they're tired legs,
missing threes. You wonder if the minutes are getting to them.
I have a different theory. I mean that that's one theory,
but I have a se another one. So you guys
know by now, if you're an NBA follower, the Thompson
(15:32):
twins ones on Houston, I'm in, and then on Sar
Thompson is on Detroit, I'm in. Thompson's better right now
on Sar on Detroit is not an offensive guy. But
if you watch that game closely, on Sar Thompson, long
tough defender picked up Jalen Brunson ninety four feet the
(15:53):
entire game that he was in now he picked up
a lot of fouls, but he was grabby, pushy. He
was in Brunson's grill the whole game. Now, Brunson let
the record. State did end up with thirty seven, but
it was on twenty seven shots. He was twelve of
twenty seven. Jalen Brunson six turnovers, not his best game.
(16:13):
I believe Thompson, yes, did wear him down. And this
is another factor. Thompson fouled out. He picked up his
six foul. When the score was ninety to eighty Detroit.
Thompson goes out, Dennis Shuter comes in. Nick's going a
fourteen four run. We know Dennis Shuoter is not a
primetime player. Okay, he's bounce around the league guy because
(16:34):
he's Dennis Shuter, and that's what he does. Fourteen to
four knicks run ties the game. No Thompson to slow Brunson.
Brunson can make a or offense happen. Shreoter cannot stand
in front of him. But then what happens. Shooter, who's
an offensive guy, hits a big time three. He ended
up with twenty points. He had a pretty good game
coming off the bench, scoring defensively, He's a he can't
(16:56):
guard anybody. Dennis Shooter hits the three, and that was that.
If I'm the Knicks, and I told you guys about this,
I am a little nervous for this series. I have
been for before it was even settled. I was like,
I don't know that I want to play Detroit. Okay, now,
the alternatives were not great. Indiana looks really friggin good.
Milwaukee shockingly could get Dame Lillard back here for Game two.
(17:20):
That would stun me with this blood cought situation. So
the options weren't great for the Knicks. And I'm just
telling you right now this Game three Nicks Detroit. Let's
see when it is. It's on the twenty fourth, Because
I'm dumb, I have to look at a calendar. Uh,
that's on Thursday. So the Knicks get an extra day
of rest for I guess the travel. And that's a
(17:42):
big game. That's probably the biggest Detroit Pistons game since
like two thousand and eight. By the way, that was
the last time they won a playoff game two thousand
and eight. I was not at Fox. I had not
sold the website yet. It has been a long ass
time since his team's have been relevant that Detroit Pistons
arena is going to be juiced up. And I know
(18:06):
the Knicks are veterans and they've been through some battles,
but I wonder if you were a boxing scorecard eight quarters.
Nicks obviously got the fourth quarter of Game one. I
don't know that I can find another quarter the Knicks
definitively one. Now. I know they got the fourth quarter
in Game two twenty seven to twenty five, but like, guys,
(18:30):
I'm talking definitively one, like that was their quarter. They
owned it, they dominated. The Knicks have won one quarter
essentially in the series. Detroit hasn't won all the others.
A couple have been like basically even. But this is
not a bad Pistons team. And Kate Cunningham is emerging.
I think he's gonna be one of the bigger stories
in sports. Here on Tuesday, now, I am recording this
(18:53):
before Denver the Clippers is over. Sorry, getting off the
plane on Monday didn't sleep a ton. I'm jet lagged
to Hell and I was falling asleep during Nix Pistons,
So I should have waited for the Clippers Game ten,
but I just don't have it in me, I'm too tired. Sorry.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
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listen live.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
So in the event that nothing crazy happens in that one,
I think Kate Cunninghan is going to be your big
sports story. He is twenty three years old. He had
thirty three points, twelve boards, only three assists, but he
was largely unstoppable. He made more free throws than Jalen Brunson,
(19:43):
something that never happens now. This game was listen a
little controversial in that the Pistons were twenty eight to
thirty four from the line the Knicks sixteenth of nineteen.
That's a difference of plus twelve at the free throw
line for Detroit in New York and New York drives
a lot. New York drives and shoot threes. I thought
(20:04):
New York kind of got screwed on the whistle in
the first half when they shot one free throw and
the Pistons had like twelve or thirteen. Detroit cannot shoot straight.
Beasley if he's off. Tim Hardaway was oh for eight
over six from deep. They just benched him. Beasley won
for eight from three. So basically, Hardaway and Beasley, your
two three point gunners were two of sorry, one of fourteen,
(20:24):
and you still won. I was on the Knicks last night.
That was a tough loss. I really thought after Detroit
got their heart ripped out they would just roll over.
It did not happen at all, which says a lot.
They got a good coach and Bickerstaff, they got a
good star in Cave Cunningham. And I floated this on Twitter,
who would you rather build your franchise around John Morant
(20:48):
or Cave Cunningham, And overwhelmingly the response was Cave Cunningham obviously,
and usually you don't get that. Jah Moran obviously a
very talented, high flying acrobat. He's also a little spotty
off the court, shall we say. Kate Cunningham is a
pros pro. He did miss an entire season at the
(21:09):
beginning of his career with the ACL. I think he's
really good man. He's just a tough matchup. He can
score going to the hoop against almost anybody. He's got
good connection with the kid Jalen Duran, the young big
fella out of Memphis, man if those shooters can make
any shots. Look out and I don't want to keep
(21:32):
forcing the issue, but keep an eye on Thibodau in
this offseason. I know he's beloved, but that style just
can grate on you. And I wonder when you've got
guys like who's the Bodenholzers out there? He's good, you know,
he wants to get back in after the Phoenix disaster.
He got fired. Phoenix went one and done with their
(21:53):
last two coaches. That would take you out of the
Kevin Durant running. I'm assuming, but it seems like he's
probably going to sin as we've been speculating here for
a while. Michael Malone to the next with all that talent,
I think it's dangerous. Let me quickly talk about tonight's games.
I see the oh we got three pacers, Bucks, Dame
(22:14):
Lillar questionable may play coming back from the blood clot
Memphis at Okay, see okay, see one by I believe
sixty or they won by maybe fifty. They were, but
they were up by sixty. I don't know, some insanity.
That's the one game where I this highlight. It was
like a thirty eight to six run or something. Absurd
(22:35):
bottom line. We know, okayse he's really freaking good. But
what we don't know is is Memphis like, hey, we
got punked, we're bouncing back. Memphis first half is plus nine,
Memphis first quarter is plus it's not, it's not. I
(22:56):
don't see first quarter yet for tomorrow, because that one
will be very interesting. I would be looking to grab
Grizzlies first half or first quarter one of them. I
think I think there, you know again, it's twelve minutes.
Okac's gonna come out. Hey, we just destroyed these guys.
(23:17):
We Gucci, it's all no need to put And I
think Memphis obviously's gonna Desmond Baines a really good player,
Jaron Jackson, John Moran, they got dudes. They'll be fine
for a quarter or half. I don't think they're gonna
win the game. And then of course the nightcap Lakers,
Lakers are finest five and a half. Huh yeah, I
(23:38):
like Lakers guys. And just a couple quick words to
wrap up on the Lakers. Yes, Minnesota shout the lights
out twenty one of forty one from three? Is that
gonna happen again? Lakers fifteen to forty one on threes,
so essentially the same amount Memphis made six more six
times threes eighteen in a game they won by twenty
(23:58):
two the last five minutes for garbage time. That's kind
of sort of the game, interestingly, and I don't know
why it hasn't been talked about. Lebron did not have
a great game. But if you remember in the second
to last regular season game, he had like left late
with like that hip growing thing. I couldn't tell if
it was a hip or growing It might have been both.
He had like eight days off. But if you watch
(24:19):
other than in Game one, other than that like chase
down block, you didn't see that vigor and energy that
Lebron usually brings. I do believe he brings it tonight.
I think Luca will have more than hold on. I
have to just check. Did Luca have one assist in
the opener? Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Lucas got it.
(24:41):
So the question is did Luca come out and try
to dominate or does Lucas set everybody else up and
then dominate later. Well, I think the big counter is
they've got Lebron to dominate later. Lucas should just go
off early with a splash of Austin Reeves. I don't
really worry about this. I'm sure you guys have seen
the Anthony Edwards video where somebody's like, Anthony, where's your kid?
(25:01):
He's like talking to because Anthony Edwards is going through
some baby mama drama, and Anthony Edwards ultimately just lands on, Yeah,
my dick is bigger than you're just shouts it at
the guy in the front rock So Anthony Edwards he
is that guy. Funny. I don't think the Lakers have
any problems in this. I got Lakers in Game two winning.
(25:22):
I still have been six in the series. That was
my pick at the outset the series. I don't get
is Clippers Dedver no clue where that one goes. Otherwise,
I think everything's kind of cut and dry, like Boston
in five or six. I like the Calves over the
Heat Warriors. Rockets will be close, but it's tough for
(25:43):
me to pass up on the Warriors for the series
when they've got essentially the two best players. No disrespect
to Jalen Green or Shengon, but Curry and Butler are
Hall of famers. Like they got the two best player,
they gonna win the series would set up a Warriors
Lakers second round, which, oh my gosh, NBA would love that.
Lakers got to get it done. I think they get
(26:04):
it done tonight. All right, I'll be back, rallied and
ready for Manyana. It was a great spring break. It's
great to be back. Don't know what the Jets are doing?
Oh oh oh should I we're not going to talk
about the Aaron Rodgers, Yes, I got sent it to me. Aaron.
Glenn kind of shut him down. I kind of love that.
I kind of do, just telling him like, we don't
(26:24):
want you. What's wrong with that? You didn't want them?
You're getting disrespected because you're not very good. Aaron. All right,
back to more
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Pam, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight Fire
or Tuesday, April twenty second. Oh boy, it's good to
be back back in the saddle. Got more asks this
time than any other vacation before. So when is the
pod back? Got a buddy traveling because you know spring break.
Obviously in Los Angeles they break it up like four
(00:33):
different weeks for private school, public school, LA County, not
La County. And he's like, j Mack, when's the pod?
Come on? Come on, man, I'm on the road. I'm
gonna be with my kids. I need some material. Well,
here you go. Unfortunately, it doesn't start out great, as
my Knicks just dropped one to the Pistons. I was
on the Knicks for game two. I thought, well, jeez,
(00:53):
they pulled away in game one, ripped the Pistons hard
out with a twenty one nothing run. Yes, I paid
attention while on spring break, though not closely or closely enough,
I guess, and Detroit came out and gave two and
just refused to go away. And yeah, we'll talk about
it shortly, but obviously spring break warrants a brief mention
at the beginning of the podcast. So since we moved
out here to La mostly we've been doing this standard issue.
(01:17):
Hey let's go to Hawaii, Hey let's go to Cabbo,
because those are close, easy trips and there are easy,
relaxing vacations. But now that the kids are a little older,
your boy's been pushing for Hey, man, we got to
get out and see the world. You guys are old
enough to travel. I don't know how many dads agree,
but when we had like two, three, four or five
year olds, I didn't want to go do international travel.
No way, that's not fun. They're not gonna remember any
(01:39):
of it. I didn't do any of it myself. I
kind of wish I had when I was a teenager.
But you know, we weren't like, you know, well off.
We were firmly middle class. And so last year we
did London and Amsterdam, and this year we decided we'll
go to Japan for spring break. And it was phenomenal.
I thought, without a doubt, Japan was the most impressive
best country that I've visited on the planet so far. Folks,
(02:03):
the people super nice, culturally, the everything Japan stands for
just awesome. The cleanliness of the city, and of course
the food was unbelievable. We only had one vomit in
our group the whole time. I will not reference what
it was about. We do come from a my brother's listening,
and it wasn't him. Him and his wife travel with us.
It was just it was awesome. The food was legitimately phenomenal.
(02:26):
I posted a bunch of stuff on ig did not
go on Twitter. Had to avoid it. It's too toxic,
it's not worth it. But to sum up the people
of Japan, how nice they are. Everybody's friendly. Now we
had heard, hey mean, you don't have to worry about
even putting your stuff in the safe in the room.
You don't have to worry about your passport. Nobody steals
any they just don't do that. And I was still dubious.
(02:49):
You know, I'm that guy on the subway who's putting
the backpack in front of him because the train is crowded. Nut,
gotta watch your back. And you didn't have to worry
about any of that stuff. I mean, it really was
just the culture there is just awesome. It's one of
hey man, it's not a crush to get on the subway,
to rush to a seat, you know, kind of form
(03:10):
a line, and if you sit down, great, If you
sit down and an elderly person comes up, just get
up and let an older person sit down, and it's
just like everybody's kind of on the same page. It's
pretty pretty awesome. Anyways, So one night we went to
we start out in Tokyo and then we kind of
decamped to the countryside in the mountains for a couple
of nights in Matsumoto, and then we went to Kyoto
(03:31):
at the end of the trip. Kyoto is way more
touristy than we thought. I thought Tokyo would be touristy.
Kyoto just extremely touristy, and it just didn't have the
feel of I thought Tokyo was great. Matsumoto, though, in
the mountains was awesome. And we go to this castle
one afternoon, a phenomenal castle, and we decide, you know what,
(03:54):
let's just let's we're not going to take a cab.
They're kind of expensive. Even though the yen right now
is awesome for a Maria because you're traveling mare your
money goes far. Everything's cheap. I mean, we were eating
six people for dinner for like sixty bucks, seriously, and
now we're not drinking a ton because you're exhausted at
the end of the day and you're going to bed
and waking up and do it again the next day
because there's so much to see. But we go out
(04:17):
one night to this castle or afternoon and then you know,
we're ready to go home, and instead of doing a cab,
and there's no subway in Matsumoto, we decide let's just
ride the bus. This can't be that hard to navigate.
But it looks like we had just missed the bus
and there's nobody else at the bus stop. And finally
people are coming to the bus stop, but it's for
a different line and we're like, oh jeez, starting to
get dark. And again we're not nervous, we're just tired.
(04:38):
We want to get home. So I call up chat
GPT and I know you guys will laugh, but honestly,
Chat GPT was huge for me. You go in a
store and you have a request. I just put the
audio in a chat GPT. How do you say men's
bracelet or whatever? How do you say men's jeens whatever?
And it comes out on chat GPT in like two seconds.
You just show it to them then okay, yeah, and
(04:58):
then they show you. So I to this lady, you know,
where do you know where to find a taxi cab stand?
We can't find one. We had the map and it
wasn't really showing it, and this lady, you know, this
is the Japanese people in a nutshell. The lady takes like,
you know, fifteen seconds to realize, let me think where No, no, okay,
and then she's like, I'll show you. But essentially and
(05:20):
she walks us down this huge city block, turns and
kind of points over and we're like, oh my gosh,
that's a taxi. She doesn't stop there. She literally walks
into the middle of the street and flags down a
taxi and essentially the guy just stops, opens the door,
and we get in. I was like, this is the
(05:40):
greatest lady ever. And I turned to like, you know,
give her a tip or something. They don't want any tips.
You can't tip anybody there, And yeah, I was just
like this, that was amazing. This lady took time out
of her day to walk us down this huge block,
around the block and find the taxi stand and then
get us in a taxi and that was just like commonplace.
Everybody's so nice. It was highly recommend Japan. I'm not
(06:02):
gonna lie, guys. It was an awesome trip, and the
kids appreciate it. I know there's some of you guys
out there who are up for traveling with your you know, two, three, four,
five year olds, and we'll do some beaches. Sure, we'll
do luck Florida and Hawaii and the Disney resource and stuff.
But I'm not doing any international travel with like a
seven year old. I just don't think it's worth it.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Now.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
That's just my opinion. And the parents will say, well,
I don't want to miss out on that just because
I've got a seven year old, and I would say, well,
can't she just wait? But you do your thing. We
did ours and so last year we did londond at Amsterdam.
This year we did Japan. We're trying to do some
international and it was awesome. Really really liked it. And
the drawback is I tried to call up Fubo one
(06:44):
night in Tokyo to watch the Lakers game, and of
course Fubo is blocked in Japan. However, you could wait
six days and then watch the game. And I'm like, well,
I'm not doing that. So I just decided I'm not
going to try to watch the games pointless, and then
I decided to catch up with them on YouTube, the
condensed version highlights, and of course buddies were texting me,
(07:06):
are you watching this Lakers embarrassment and blah blah blah sucks,
And you know, it wasn't just that. It was like, okay,
see you up sixty baby, and you know, I'm like, okay, guys, sure,
whatever it was, it was an awesome trip. And then
I did get to watch the end of the fourth
quarter of Warriors Rockets on a bullet train as we're
going by Mount Fuji. I mean, it was just the
(07:28):
technology and I was able to watch that on It's
not called HBO Max, it's just called Max. So I
didn't even know that, but I called up the box
score and I see that it's on Max. I was like, well,
I've got the app. Maybe it'll come up. Boom, there
it is. And Sef Curry awesome, Jimmy Butler very good,
Fred Van Vliet, and Jalen Green horrendous. Anyways, that's enough
(07:48):
about my travels in basketball.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
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 iHeart Radio app. Search FSR
to listen live.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
The draft is this week. NFL Draft obviously massive. Working
on a draft guest for tomorrow or Wednesday. I gotta
play catch up. But guys, shockingly, it doesn't look like
I missed anything. I don't know. I keep looking, and
it seems like Shadoor Sanders may go three. If he
doesn't go three, he's probably going nine. If he doesn't
(08:24):
going nine, then if he doesn't go nine, then I
guess the slide could happen beyond that. But it appears
all intents are as of right now that Cleveland's not
gonna take him to two, and they want Travis Hunter
the generational talent, and Travis Hunter looks like a hell
of a good player. But yeah, I would disagree, but
(08:44):
we'll do more draft. NBA playoffs obviously are huge right now.
Before I get to that kid, I quickly so. I
hosted The Herd two weeks ago, and the Friday morning
of the final show, this story pops up that tannes
See and their quarterback Nico Blah Blah Blah whatever his
name is, He was holding out essentially of spring practice,
(09:09):
looking for a new nil deal. And I was saying
to the staff, like, guys, this story is amazing, and
they're like, well, his dad has refuted it. You know,
let's just hold off and wait. I was like, all right,
but instantly you could tell HM, why is he missing
spring practice? He wants a new deal? Like you, guys know,
I'm very pro anil. I want the players to get paid.
They deserve it. Holding out of spring practice for extra
(09:32):
money that's probably a bridge too far from me. I
thought it was a horrific look for the QB. However,
we know that teams are desperate for good players. And
the kid landed at UCLA. Of course, UCLA's quarterback was
(09:52):
supposed to be a guy they just recruited through the
portal from app State. So he went from app State
to Ucla and he was going to start start. I
hadn't played a game yet, and Ucla said, hey, you
know what, man, we like you, but we got a
chance to get like a stud future NFL quarterback. We
got to go after him. I'm sorry, and I saw
a lot of I read a couple articles about this
(10:15):
earlier today, like, oh my gosh, the system is broken.
I don't know that it's broken. I think this is
a one off, unique case. I will say that I
don't know how this quarterback and again I get it,
chase your money, get your paper. I can't hate you
for it. I just don't know how you can get
(10:37):
to the point where it's spring practice and then say, Yo,
what's up? I need more money? Now. This is different
from the one.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
I think.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
It was a kid at UNLV who played like the
first two games and was good and they were ranked
or something like that, and then next thing, you know,
he's like, whoa, I need to hold out you. I
never got the money you promised me. That's different from hey,
I want more money. You know you get that. Like,
apparently this guy was just suddenly unhappy with his deal.
(11:08):
Did he hear that I don't know another quarterback out
more than him, or he felt he was underpaid or
he outperformed his deal. It just felt like there was
such a long time to deal with that. Why wait
until now that? I don't love that again, can't kill
the kid. Don't know his situation. There's stories I read
though it doesn't feel great, and I know the college
(11:30):
football fans are going to panic and think this is
the end of the world. It's not. Okay, it's not
the end of the world. This is not great, obviously,
but they could bounce back from this.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Tennessee's got their new guy, the kid from app State
by way of Ucla for like eight minutes, and it
will sting if they don't go back to the playoff.
Tennessee member went to the playoff, got smoked by Ohio State.
Nico did not look great in that game, but he
had an overall good season. He's considered an NFL prospect.
I don't think he's like a first round or anything,
(12:01):
or lock for a first round or I think he's
a good quarterback. But I think that story is going
to be huge, and it is interesting that he landed
at UCLA. Ucla was awful last year, and awful football
means less revenue football, big generating sport. Maybe the UCLA
guys just said, hey, we got a chance to go
(12:22):
grab this dude. Let's go get him. Now. On the
UCLA basketball front, they got screwed because they're they're seven
footer from overseas. I think we talked about this on
the pod, but like a week before the vacation, he
had his deal locked in for UCLA and then he said, Hey,
I want to go back to Spain, you know, and
(12:43):
see my family. And they had a break. So he
comes back and he's like, hey, I need some amendments
to my deal. And he asked for crazy stuff, not necessary.
I'm told it was not necessarily money. It was, hey,
I get to go back to Spain whenever I don't
at this summer, I can come back. I don't have
to practice with the team in the summer. And like
(13:03):
all this ridiculous stuff in the UCLA was like, what
the hell's going on here? Somebody must have got to him.
And of course he lands at Dundunda Dunn, Michigan. Yes,
in the Big Ten. That will be interesting college basketball.
But listen, this is the world that college basketball is now.
I know the purists will say, you can't really love
your team because you can't follow guys for two and
(13:24):
three and four years. That just stinks. Yeah, it's probably
not fun, but that's the way it is. I remember
in and I think I've used this line before. Free
agency killed the game from Last Boy Scout. I'm sure
some people will say free agency kill college football. But
you know what, the players are making a ton of money.
(13:44):
The ratings are through the roof interest nationally has skyrocketed
thanks to Deon Sanders in Colorado, Michigan with Harball, then
Ohio State's incredible run. Like college football is having a
great moment right now? Now? Is this gonna last? If
this stuff gets out of control? We've got quarterbacks circling around,
(14:07):
going to three four teams in four years, that's possible,
but I don't know that we're there yet or even
close to it. I just thought that was an utterly
fascinating story. You don't get a ton of great college
football in April outside of the draft, but that story
of the Tennessee UCLA quarterback situation was fun. Now to
the NBA Playoffs. My Knicks needed a twenty one to
(14:28):
nothing run in Game two Game one to come back
and win. Detroit was in control. Well, Detroit was in
control for much of Game two as well, before a
late Knicks run tied it and the Dennis Shooter had
a big three to propel Detroit to victory. I did
hear Grant Hill making some comments, oh, Jalen Brunson looking tired, tired,
(14:48):
legs a lot of minutes this season. He said that
about Brunton and Bridges. Bridges had a brutal fourth quarter
over four missed three threes. Here's why that comment's interesting.
Grant Hill, former player, probably talk to the players and
paid attention to what went on with the Knicks, and
specifically Bridges and Heart and Thibodeaux, and I wonder if
(15:10):
the players are planting that stuff now with grand Hill
a trusted voice. Now, grand Hill did not allude to
the players saying anything. He just was like, they're tired legs,
missing threes. You wonder if the minutes are getting to them.
I have a different theory. I mean that that's one theory,
but I have a se another one. So you guys
know by now, if you're an NBA follower, the Thompson
(15:32):
twins ones on Houston, I'm in, and then on Sar
Thompson is on Detroit, I'm in. Thompson's better right now
on Sar on Detroit is not an offensive guy. But
if you watch that game closely, on Sar Thompson, long
tough defender picked up Jalen Brunson ninety four feet the
(15:53):
entire game that he was in now he picked up
a lot of fouls, but he was grabby, pushy. He
was in Brunson's grill the whole game. Now, Brunson let
the record. State did end up with thirty seven, but
it was on twenty seven shots. He was twelve of
twenty seven. Jalen Brunson six turnovers, not his best game.
(16:13):
I believe Thompson, yes, did wear him down. And this
is another factor. Thompson fouled out. He picked up his
six foul. When the score was ninety to eighty Detroit.
Thompson goes out, Dennis Shuter comes in. Nick's going a
fourteen four run. We know Dennis Shuoter is not a
primetime player. Okay, he's bounce around the league guy because
(16:34):
he's Dennis Shuter, and that's what he does. Fourteen to
four knicks run ties the game. No Thompson to slow Brunson.
Brunson can make a or offense happen. Shreoter cannot stand
in front of him. But then what happens. Shooter, who's
an offensive guy, hits a big time three. He ended
up with twenty points. He had a pretty good game
coming off the bench, scoring defensively, He's a he can't
(16:56):
guard anybody. Dennis Shooter hits the three, and that was that.
If I'm the Knicks, and I told you guys about this,
I am a little nervous for this series. I have
been for before it was even settled. I was like,
I don't know that I want to play Detroit. Okay, now,
the alternatives were not great. Indiana looks really friggin good.
Milwaukee shockingly could get Dame Lillard back here for Game two.
(17:20):
That would stun me with this blood cought situation. So
the options weren't great for the Knicks. And I'm just
telling you right now this Game three Nicks Detroit. Let's
see when it is. It's on the twenty fourth, Because
I'm dumb, I have to look at a calendar. Uh,
that's on Thursday. So the Knicks get an extra day
of rest for I guess the travel. And that's a
(17:42):
big game. That's probably the biggest Detroit Pistons game since
like two thousand and eight. By the way, that was
the last time they won a playoff game two thousand
and eight. I was not at Fox. I had not
sold the website yet. It has been a long ass
time since his team's have been relevant that Detroit Pistons
arena is going to be juiced up. And I know
(18:06):
the Knicks are veterans and they've been through some battles,
but I wonder if you were a boxing scorecard eight quarters.
Nicks obviously got the fourth quarter of Game one. I
don't know that I can find another quarter the Knicks
definitively one. Now. I know they got the fourth quarter
in Game two twenty seven to twenty five, but like, guys,
(18:30):
I'm talking definitively one, like that was their quarter. They
owned it, they dominated. The Knicks have won one quarter
essentially in the series. Detroit hasn't won all the others.
A couple have been like basically even. But this is
not a bad Pistons team. And Kate Cunningham is emerging.
I think he's gonna be one of the bigger stories
in sports. Here on Tuesday, now, I am recording this
(18:53):
before Denver the Clippers is over. Sorry, getting off the
plane on Monday didn't sleep a ton. I'm jet lagged
to Hell and I was falling asleep during Nix Pistons,
So I should have waited for the Clippers Game ten,
but I just don't have it in me, I'm too tired. Sorry.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
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 (19:22):
So in the event that nothing crazy happens in that one,
I think Kate Cunninghan is going to be your big
sports story. He is twenty three years old. He had
thirty three points, twelve boards, only three assists, but he
was largely unstoppable. He made more free throws than Jalen Brunson,
(19:43):
something that never happens now. This game was listen a
little controversial in that the Pistons were twenty eight to
thirty four from the line the Knicks sixteenth of nineteen.
That's a difference of plus twelve at the free throw
line for Detroit in New York and New York drives
a lot. New York drives and shoot threes. I thought
(20:04):
New York kind of got screwed on the whistle in
the first half when they shot one free throw and
the Pistons had like twelve or thirteen. Detroit cannot shoot straight.
Beasley if he's off. Tim Hardaway was oh for eight
over six from deep. They just benched him. Beasley won
for eight from three. So basically, Hardaway and Beasley, your
two three point gunners were two of sorry, one of fourteen,
(20:24):
and you still won. I was on the Knicks last night.
That was a tough loss. I really thought after Detroit
got their heart ripped out they would just roll over.
It did not happen at all, which says a lot.
They got a good coach and Bickerstaff, they got a
good star in Cave Cunningham. And I floated this on Twitter,
who would you rather build your franchise around John Morant
(20:48):
or Cave Cunningham, And overwhelmingly the response was Cave Cunningham obviously,
and usually you don't get that. Jah Moran obviously a
very talented, high flying acrobat. He's also a little spotty
off the court, shall we say. Kate Cunningham is a
pros pro. He did miss an entire season at the
(21:09):
beginning of his career with the ACL. I think he's
really good man. He's just a tough matchup. He can
score going to the hoop against almost anybody. He's got
good connection with the kid Jalen Duran, the young big
fella out of Memphis, man if those shooters can make
any shots. Look out and I don't want to keep
(21:32):
forcing the issue, but keep an eye on Thibodau in
this offseason. I know he's beloved, but that style just
can grate on you. And I wonder when you've got
guys like who's the Bodenholzers out there? He's good, you know,
he wants to get back in after the Phoenix disaster.
He got fired. Phoenix went one and done with their
(21:53):
last two coaches. That would take you out of the
Kevin Durant running. I'm assuming, but it seems like he's
probably going to sin as we've been speculating here for
a while. Michael Malone to the next with all that talent,
I think it's dangerous. Let me quickly talk about tonight's games.
I see the oh we got three pacers, Bucks, Dame
(22:14):
Lillar questionable may play coming back from the blood clot
Memphis at Okay, see okay, see one by I believe
sixty or they won by maybe fifty. They were, but
they were up by sixty. I don't know, some insanity.
That's the one game where I this highlight. It was
like a thirty eight to six run or something. Absurd
(22:35):
bottom line. We know, okayse he's really freaking good. But
what we don't know is is Memphis like, hey, we
got punked, we're bouncing back. Memphis first half is plus nine,
Memphis first quarter is plus it's not, it's not. I
(22:56):
don't see first quarter yet for tomorrow, because that one
will be very interesting. I would be looking to grab
Grizzlies first half or first quarter one of them. I
think I think there, you know again, it's twelve minutes.
Okac's gonna come out. Hey, we just destroyed these guys.
(23:17):
We Gucci, it's all no need to put And I
think Memphis obviously's gonna Desmond Baines a really good player,
Jaron Jackson, John Moran, they got dudes. They'll be fine
for a quarter or half. I don't think they're gonna
win the game. And then of course the nightcap Lakers,
Lakers are finest five and a half. Huh yeah, I
(23:38):
like Lakers guys. And just a couple quick words to
wrap up on the Lakers. Yes, Minnesota shout the lights
out twenty one of forty one from three? Is that
gonna happen again? Lakers fifteen to forty one on threes,
so essentially the same amount Memphis made six more six
times threes eighteen in a game they won by twenty
(23:58):
two the last five minutes for garbage time. That's kind
of sort of the game, interestingly, and I don't know
why it hasn't been talked about. Lebron did not have
a great game. But if you remember in the second
to last regular season game, he had like left late
with like that hip growing thing. I couldn't tell if
it was a hip or growing It might have been both.
He had like eight days off. But if you watch
(24:19):
other than in Game one, other than that like chase
down block, you didn't see that vigor and energy that
Lebron usually brings. I do believe he brings it tonight.
I think Luca will have more than hold on. I
have to just check. Did Luca have one assist in
the opener? Yeah, that's not gonna happen. Lucas got it.
(24:41):
So the question is did Luca come out and try
to dominate or does Lucas set everybody else up and
then dominate later. Well, I think the big counter is
they've got Lebron to dominate later. Lucas should just go
off early with a splash of Austin Reeves. I don't
really worry about this. I'm sure you guys have seen
the Anthony Edwards video where somebody's like, Anthony, where's your kid?
(25:01):
He's like talking to because Anthony Edwards is going through
some baby mama drama, and Anthony Edwards ultimately just lands on, Yeah,
my dick is bigger than you're just shouts it at
the guy in the front rock So Anthony Edwards he
is that guy. Funny. I don't think the Lakers have
any problems in this. I got Lakers in Game two winning.
(25:22):
I still have been six in the series. That was
my pick at the outset the series. I don't get
is Clippers Dedver no clue where that one goes. Otherwise,
I think everything's kind of cut and dry, like Boston
in five or six. I like the Calves over the
Heat Warriors. Rockets will be close, but it's tough for
(25:43):
me to pass up on the Warriors for the series
when they've got essentially the two best players. No disrespect
to Jalen Green or Shengon, but Curry and Butler are
Hall of famers. Like they got the two best player,
they gonna win the series would set up a Warriors
Lakers second round, which, oh my gosh, NBA would love that.
Lakers got to get it done. I think they get
(26:04):
it done tonight. All right, I'll be back, rallied and
ready for Manyana. It was a great spring break. It's
great to be back. Don't know what the Jets are doing?
Oh oh oh should I we're not going to talk
about the Aaron Rodgers, Yes, I got sent it to me. Aaron.
Glenn kind of shut him down. I kind of love that.
I kind of do, just telling him like, we don't
(26:24):
want you. What's wrong with that? You didn't want them?
You're getting disrespected because you're not very good. Aaron. All right,
back to more
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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