Welcome in to the newest edition of the Justin
Time Sports Podcast. I am your owner and host,
Justin Jackson. And this week, it'll be a basketball
show. We'll be discussing the NBA Conference
Finals, along with some historic stuff happening
in the NBA, along with the WNBA returning and
opening weekend. Now, of course, you can follow
the social media handle at JTimeSports. I repeat,
at JTimeSports. Follow your breaking news, updates,
and coverage. And, of course... As always, don't
forget to sit back and get ready to learn something.
We'll be right back. Louisiana till I die is
where I'm from, I can't replace it. Some people
minds are obtuse, but I like to be adjacent.
Giving my opinion like I'm Nick Wright or I'm
Jason. ESPN better watch out cause I'm coming
for the spaceship. We even tweeting on Twitter,
you can meet us in the spaces. Highlight clips
of sports news, yeah, you gotta embrace it. We
never had it easy, we just came from the pavement.
I might be controversial, but I like to make
my statement. This is just a ton of sports, come
and get your weekly takes. His opinion from the
heart, he can never show you fake. He can never
show you fake. He can never show you fake. If
you winning or you losing, he gonna tell it to
you straight. He gonna tell it to you. He gonna
tell it to you. He gonna tell it to you. This
is Just In Time Sports. Come and get your whoopie
taste. Come and get it. He gonna tell it to you
straight. To you straight. Welcome into the show.
It's going to be a rather quick or a more quick
show of what's going to do purely basketball
today. Not a whole lot of football going on.
No need for you guys to really keep all super
informed about that. But if there any if there
any is sorry, any major football stuff coming
on or coming out whenever as the show continues.
We will definitely get on that and be reacting
to it live, recording this a little right before
we record the JTS After Dark episodes, literally
right before. So I'm going to go from this pod,
the audio pod, right into the JTS After Dark
episode that you can find on the IMS Productions
YouTube situation, which will be, of course,
put in the link tree for you guys to be able
to easily access that as well. Our conference
finals in the NBA have been set. I'm recording
this on Monday night. You'll hear this Tuesday
morning. Excuse if I sound a little weird. I'm
a tad bit nasally. Feeling a tad bit under the
weather. But in turn, the conference finals,
I definitely want to put a show out for you guys.
I was going to do it last night to come out this
morning, but I fell asleep. That could hit me
kind of hard. And so I am doing it tonight to
put out tomorrow morning so you guys will have
it before the conference finals. Anyway. Enough
of the behind the scenes stuff. We have the three
seed Knicks against the four seed Pacers. And
we have the one seed Oklahoma City versus the
six seed Timberwolves. Now, it's kind of debating
how I want to attack this show. If I wanted to
go break down analysis and then go back to how
this is historic or do history first and then
get into the fun stuff. Let's go to the fun stuff
first. So in the East, we have the Knicks versus
the Pacers. Welcome back to 1990s. And it's kind
of dope. It's a dope moment all around because
Kevin Harlan's on the call, who's a known Knicks
person. And then Reggie Miller is on the call
for TNT. It's TNT's last playoff series in the
modern era. And Reggie Miller will be able to
do Knicks and Pacers. That's about as storybook
as you can get it. A rivalry that made Reggie
Miller famous. The Knicks versus the Hicks. A
rivalry that... Big City versus Small Town. I
mean, the Indiana Pacers and the Knicks were
like the NBA fans rivalry of the 90s. So the
world was Magic versus Bird in the 80s. I'm sure
a Pacers fan. By the time the 90s hit, Jordan
is running the league with the Bulls. And so
what became interesting in the second half of
the 90s was, especially when Jordan retired,
was who's going to take over the East? It became
a battle between the Knicks and the Pacers. Hicks
versus Knicks. I think winning time, Reggie Miller.
And that kind of became the rivalry in the NBA.
So much so that multiple specials have been made.
Beefs were made. Spike Lee refers to Indiana
as the birthplace of the Klansmen. It is a pure
basketball fan rivalry. Knicks and Pacers. It
was almost like the NBA's darling Knicks. And
the team, nobody wants to win the Pacers. And
now they're squaring out again for the chance
of the finals. Honestly, it's very similar to
the 90s. There's no kingpin in these. And we'll
get to that in a second. This series, both teams
took advantage of situations of injuries. Neither
one of these teams were paid to be picked. When
the brackets come out, it was supposed to be
one in two season needs, Boston and Cleveland.
Neither one made it. Cleveland suffered a bevy
of injuries. At one point, they didn't have three
of their five starters in the game. Donovan Mitchell
was on one leg for the vast majority of the playoffs.
And it caught up with Cleveland ultimately. But
give credit to the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers,
over the last 40 -some -odd games of the season,
were a 60 -win team, pace -wise. The problem
with the Pacers was they started off either right
at or right below .500 for, like, the first 28,
30 games of the season. They were, like, 14 and
16 at one point. And then they rip off like a
56 to 60 win pace the rest of the season and
play just as well, if not better than Boston's,
your Cleveland's, your New York's. They just
started off so bad, people kind of forgot about
them. And they're the Pacers. They don't get
a lot of national love. The best player is Tyree
Tyler -Burton, the guy with the funky shot who
didn't play in the Olympics. Like, they don't,
you know, Rick Carlisle was the guy who presided
over the team that got rid of Luka and Porzingis
and Brunson, one of which who's seen the title.
one of which who's seen Clutch Player of the
Year, and one of which who's seen the finals.
So, you know, this situation where Carlisle is
getting my national respect, they got rid of
Buddy Heald for Siakam. Like, you know, the Pacers
don't get a lot of national love, right? That's
the downside of being in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Knicks, however, or the Pacers, rather, continue.
They were a really good basketball team over
the second half of the year. This team, pretty
much the exact roster, was in the conference
finals last season. So this team is used to being
together. They're used to playing playoff basketball.
They understand how it works. Tyrese Halliburton
is one of the more clutch players in the NBA,
especially in big moments in the playoffs. And
they have earned the right to be here. Yes, would
Cleveland have given them a better fight or maybe
even taken them out had they been healthy? Sure.
But they weren't. Ask the Warriors how health
decides playoffs. The Warriors' dynasty is built
on the fact that they didn't play starting point
guard in the 2015 playoffs. And in 2016, they
had a Draymond Green suspension, and they had
a Kevin Dupran, and so on and so forth. But the
Warriors' dynasty began on the cornerstone of
players being injured. The NBA has an 82 -game
season with a more than likely 18 -20 game playoff
run. If you're lucky, you can go 24 -25 games.
If you're unlucky, you can play 100 games in
a season. So a war of attrition is half the war.
And speaking of war of attrition, the Knicks.
So the Knicks, I think, were going to beat the
Boston Celtics anyway. I truly believe that.
I believe the series goes Knicks and six regardless
kind of thing. But it was greatly boosted by
the unfortunate Achilles tear of Jason Tatum.
Now, in the game, Jason Tatum tore his Achilles.
The game was over. the Knicks up like 13 points
or something like that with three minutes left
Boston was not going to win that game anyway
but and then or sorry not but but and then in
game five Boston blows the Knicks out so I don't
think Tatum was going to blow them out less you
know I'm saying like I don't think Tatum's gonna
be around the Knicks one they're in game six
I out the Knicks play with a reckless I play
with a controlled fury, controlled fire, a sense
of we have to win this game because we cannot
go back to that building for game seven. Things
happen. A lot of NBA players say that damn leprechaun.
Like, things happen in that building. So, because
of which, they play with an aggressiveness and
a level of urgency that I think Boston couldn't
have matched even with Tatum. and therefore the
Knicks were always going to win in six. So that
starts with the East. Again, Knicks, Pacers,
bring back the 1990s. You're going to have Spike
Lee, Korsak. You're going to have Reggie Miller
on the call. You're going to have the team from
French Lick. Not quite, but it feels that way.
The Hicks from French Lick, Danny and the Pacers,
and then the big city Slickers, who most franchises
around the NBA laugh at the fact that the NBA
media has loved the Knicks and they don't ever
win anything. And then out west, we have the
expected one seed Oklahoma City Thunder and the
Shockers of the Timberwolves, the sixth seed.
The T -Wolves have beaten LeBron James, Luka,
and the Lakers. They have also beaten Jimmy Butler
and the Warriors. And I say Jimmy Butler and
the Warriors because Steph Curry, similar to
what the Pacers got with Andrew Luck to the Cavs,
the Timberwolves played the Warriors without
Steph Curry the last three games of the series.
Will the Timberwolves have won anyway? Possibly.
But Steph Curry was giving them fits. He was
blowing their defensive assignments apart. And
even games that were close, you know, late without
Steph. Just imagine that Steph on the floor.
Those games go differently just for spacing purposes.
And that best player has to guard Steph instead
of getting Jimmy. And it just kind of trickles
all the way down. But kudos to the Timberwolves.
They played their game. They played an aggressive,
vertical game. They played a very physical game.
And so kudos to them for constantly battling
at any and all times, especially these legends.
Ant has now knocked off Kevin Durant. He's now
knocked off Devin Bucker. He's knocked off LeBron
and Luka and Steph and Jimmy and Dre. Impressive
collection to him. I saw a graphic ESPN made
where he's collecting legends like Infinity Stones.
Impressive path for him so far. But now he faces
his toughest test, and that's the one seed Thunder.
They were the one seed for a reason. They're
the only top two seed left. So it's like in the
NCAA tournament, they track the ones and the
twos, how many of the expected players still
left. There's one top two seed left. Now in the
West, interesting enough, nobody picked Houston.
People thought it'd be one, two, one, three.
Cavs, Celtics, OKC, Lakers for the conference
finals. Instead, it was none of those things.
Oklahoma City are there as well. They also benefited
from injury. Now, would Oklahoma City have won
game seven anyway? Probably. They came out again
with that level of desperation that New York
had in game six. Like, if we keep it close, Jokic
is going to beat us. I mean, that's kind of what
the mindset was. We have to blow them away because
this game is a five -point game with six minutes
left. Jokic is going to beat us. And Oklahoma
City played basketball how I wish more teams
in the playoffs did. Excuse me. But it's only
beneficial if you are able to have the depth
if needed to play this way. How they played,
Jokic was incredibly physical. But we can go
10 deep. So if a guy picks up a couple of fouls,
the next guy comes in. And then the next guy.
And then the next guy. We're going to continue
to rotate bodies. And the refs are going to call
them all. Jokic probably should have shot 30,
45 free throws. 30, 35 free throws, easy. Whatever
his number was, should have doubled it easily.
He was getting bumped, pulled, grabbed, slapped
over, yanked, dug under. They were doing anything
they could to keep him from either getting the
ball or getting into position. And it worked.
The ref eventually started to let him play, and
the Thunder ran the Nuggets off the floor. However,
in this series, you enter Michael Porter Jr.
with the left shoulder. He was supposed to take
46 weeks. He said, screw that, I'm playing. You
get a Jamal Murray sickness, and you get a Aaron
Gordon grade two hamstring that he played through
game seven with. I don't know how he would have
played in game one of the next series, just from
a physical standpoint. However, he played in
game seven. Actually, he played pretty decent
all things considered. He played great all things
considered. But if you don't know about the hamstring,
he played pretty decent. It just wasn't his level
that he would have been playing with up until
that. point but absolutely great series between
Oklahoma City and Thunder and the Denver Nuggets
that is my favorite series so far that is series
I watched every single dribble of because I was
glued to the TV I rearranged schedules to get
to Oklahoma City Denver that was a hell of a
series between the two MVP favorites which congrats
to Shea it hasn't been announced yet but congrats
to Shea for winning it Again, a little bit of
suspiciousness that the NFL held the announcement
after those two played. I would have loved for
Shane to get it before game seven and make Jokic
watch it and kind of just gauge Jokic's reaction
to not being league MVP while being across from
the guy who is league MVP. So that is going to
be interesting. I think they actually announced
it before. I think they're actually going to
announce it before one of the Timberwolves games,
in which case Ant's going to see it. And although
Ant has nothing to do with the MVP race at all,
he knows that's the next guy. And so that'll
be interesting how if Ant takes it up a notch
trying to get SGA the release MVP. But I come
on here contrite. I come to this podcast today
talking about a take I had. I'm a man of my takes.
I enjoy my takes. My takes usually are backed
up with fact. They're not often feeling. They're
not conjecture. They're not innuendo. They're
usually based in fact with my personal spin on
them. That's the way a take works. A good take
from a credible source. People have a history
or they have a reason and then they say their
take on what they predict will happen. And then
go on from there. And I bring that up because
last week on this very podcast, I came in and
said, hey, Denver is going to win the title based
on history, based on how it's worked for all
of history after 1979. But if you include the
60s, except for those weird time in the 70s,
this is how it works. The best player in the
world. two top 10 or three top 25s win the title.
That has been the case every single year since
1979 and every single year since 1960 minus the
weird 1970s. Boston and Denver both qualified
left. Two teams left, Boston and Denver. The
minute Tatum blows his Achilles, Boston's disqualified.
They left Denver. Now, if Gordon pulled up his
hamstring, I know that's pretty much it, but...
I go to this because this is going to be a historic
finals. This is going to be a historic champion.
For the first time, we have so many A, first
-time champions, but B, we have so many champions
that don't fit the standard mold. For instance,
who's the next best player? It's Jalen Brunson.
Is he the best player in the league? No. Is he
a top 10 player in the league? Probably not.
So that means the best players in the... 11 to
25 range. That means you have to have two other
players in that range to qualify. Cat and OG
Ananobi don't fit. They're out of the history.
Pacers, the best player is Tyrese Halliburton.
Okay, he's again in that 11 to 25 range. That
means two other players have to be in that range.
Miles Turner and Benedict Matherin don't fit
in that category. Great. Oklahoma City Thunder.
Shane is going to be MVP. You can argue he's
the best player. Okay, you're wrong. It's Jokic,
but you can make the argument. Cool. Who is his
second best player? It's either J -Dub or Chet.
I wouldn't say either one of those guys are top
25. Well, J -Dub might be. Neither are top 10.
J -Dub might be top 25. Chet is not. So that
rules them out of the historic thing. And then
Minnesota, it's probably top 10. It's top 10.
But then nobody else on the team is. Julius Randall
and Rudy Gobert. So for the first time since
the weird 70s, we're going to have a champion
that does not fit the historic mold that we've
established since 1970. For instance, I will
go through the list of champions since the 1970s.
Remember, this is effectively called the lost
years in the NBA. This is where the phrase, the
traveling cocaine circus, and the league became
too hood. All of this started in the 70s. The
Lakers, with the final MVP being Willis Reed.
Willis Reed is most notably known for being a
Knick. Oh, no, I'm sorry. The Knicks win with
Willis Reed being the player. Man, this 1970s
Lakers. Not a great team. Now, 1971 has Luau
Sendor. Luau Sendor became Kareem Abdul -Jabbar.
He has a case for being the best player in the
league. The next year, the Lakers win again.
I'm sorry, the Lakers win their first title with
Wilt Chamberlain. They actually show this in
winning time. Jerry finally wins, and Jerry West
finally wins, and it's like he's just lost. Like
he lost nine times. He even got the final repeat
in 69. He lost nine times, a lot of it to Boston.
I mean, he finally went in 72. He's an older
man. He just, like, doesn't care. The Knicks
win again in 1973, again with Willis Reed being
the MVP. Boston wins their 12th title with John
Havlicek. Golden State wins their first with
Rick Barry. Boston wins again with JoJo White.
Portland wins with Bill Walton. Outside case
at Bucking History, Bill Walton might have been
the best player on the planet when he won that
title. He was a sixth man, I believe. Washington
Bullets win with Wes Unsell. Then Seattle Supersonics
win with Dennis Johnson. And then the 1980s start
with Magic Johnson winning. And then we get to
modern history. Okay. I say that because that
is an area of history that no one cares about.
Not a singular soul. No one cares that Lew Alcindor
won. Okay, people care about that title. You
almost got to tell Nick fans they won in the
70s. No one cares. It is the lost time in NBA
history. That time is so forgotten about. That's
when the finals were on tape delay. That's when,
like, the game would happen on Tuesday. You would
read the box score in the papers Wednesday morning,
know who won, and then the game would come on
the night on TV. If you're lucky. It might be
two nights. If they had, like, you know, Elvis
special was on or something. You know what I'm
saying? It was a time of cocaine circus. The
finals on tape delay. It was the era of history
no one cares about. People like blanked it out
of their memories. It doesn't exist for the vast
majority of people. Well, NBA, you have a ratings
problem. You're not going to have your seventh
different champion in seven years for the first
time in history. Even those weird 70s had a couple
repeats. The Knicks won and the Lakers won twice.
You have a ratings problem. People care about
dynasties. Do I think you should rig the league
for people to win? No. Do I think parody is good
in the NBA? Hell no. I think dynastic teams are.
The ratings were its highest of recent when LeBron
was in the finals every year playing the Warriors.
And everybody knew in August it's going to be
LeBron versus the Warriors. And in June, everybody
tuned in to watch LeBron versus the Warriors.
And you knew it in August. So now, you have a
nightmare scenario staring you in the face every
year in the NBA. The Pacers can very well beat
the Knicks. OKC can very well beat the Timberwolves.
So you're going to tell me the Indianapolis team
and the Oklahoma City team could be the NBA Finals?
Both of them are in the Midwest. Oklahoma City
is in Oklahoma. Straight up from that is Indiana.
Like this is like the Mississippi River Series.
Like this could be a disaster for the NBA ratings
wise. Minnesota is like your big city left in
the West. And, of course, the saving grace for
the NBA is the Knicks make it. The Knicks make
it, then all bets are off. It doesn't matter
who gets in, Oklahoma City or Timberwolves, because
the national media will run up and down New York
for the sole purpose of, you know, it's New York.
So they're going to run up and down to get as
many people to watch as possible because, again,
it's New York. So New York's saving grace. But
this is an interesting spot for the NBA. You
preach parity, but you want multiple big cities
to win. You don't want little cities running
around everywhere. The only thing worse for the
NBA would be if New Orleans won. And honestly,
New Orleans is a better city than Oklahoma City.
Just going to be honest. So you're staring at
a nightmare scenario ratings -wise. If you are
the NBA, potentially with, say, Indianapolis
and Oklahoma City being your NBA final cities.
That'd be like the NBA. That'd be like the NFL
sticking a Super Bowl in, like, Green Bay. Historic,
sure, but let's not be crazy here. Or sticking
a Super Bowl in, like, if St. Louis still had
their team. And it's like, no, there's better
financial decisions. That's kind of what this
is. There's better financial decisions available
to the NBA than Indianapolis and Oklahoma City.
That's all I'm going to say. That's all I'm saying.
I'm not saying conspiracy. I know conspiracy
is very popular in the NBA, and I'm about to
actually speak on one. But what I am saying is
that there's better scenarios for the NBA, and
if I were them, I would get back into the dynastic
business instead of the parody business, however
that may be seen. The ratings were up in the
70s and 80s. Who won all the titles in the 80s?
Magic and Bird with Spriggan and Isaiah Thomas.
The ratings were through the roof in the 90s.
Who won all the titles in the 90s? Jordan. Spriggan
and Hakeem Olajuwon. The ratings dips after Jordan
retires. Who won the titles? The Spurs. Small
market. No one can. When did the ratings spike
again? Shaq and Kobe. Ratings fall off again.
When did they spike again? When Kobe wins again
in L .A., ratings fall off again. When do they
spike again? When LeBron and Steph begin their
streaks. It's just the way it is. Dynasty is
selling the NBA. Not in football, but in basketball.
People at a certain point tune in to watch you
or tune in to watch you fail. That's it. It works
in boxing. It works in basketball. Again, not
so much in football. Apparently in the NFL, it's
great. Pairing in college football is amazing.
You want to keep as many areas of the country
involved as possible. It is awful for basketball.
The ratings dipped in the tournament after UConn
lost. People want to see UConn fail. Once they
fail, I have no reason to watch. They pick back
up a game for the Final Four, but still. Oh,
and then the draft lottery controversy is continuing
to roar. Shaq didn't help. Today, Shaq goes.
David Stern pulls him aside when he met him and
said, you want to play in the hot or the cold?
Shaq said, the hot in Orlando ends up with the
first pick. It's been rigged, and I went through
it quickly. Shaq to Orlando. Chris Wilber to
Orlando. Chris traded for Penny Hardaway. LeBron
to Cleveland. Mad to the Lakers. I don't think
the lottery was installed then, but Patrick Ewing,
of course. LeBron to Cleveland. They're going
to Chicago. Anthony Davis and Zion to New Orleans,
and the latest being Cooper Flagg to Dallas.
It happens. It is what it is. If the NBA is fine
with rigging that, they can rig the playoff system.
That's all I'm going to say. But you need to
get more big cities involved. I say un -conference
that MFA. Just play 1 through 16 for the playoffs,
but you have to balance the schedule out. Who
cares? But that's, to me, the best way to get
more cities involved because what if that first
-round matchup is Oklahoma City, Indiana, and
you get it out the way early? You know, I'm just
thinking here, spitballing here, because again,
the NBA is dangerously, they actually have more
parity than the 70s, and they're getting to the
point where people care about as much as the
70s. It'll never be taped late again, but the
apathy for the NBA is growing. And parity is
not helping. Neither do these small cities. But
up next, we will touch on the WNBA and what's
happening there. Welcome back into the show and
welcome back into the WNBA regular season. As
it got started just last weekend, there's actually
games going on now. Number one pick Paige Beckers
is leading her Dallas Wings with her and Enrique
Gumbawale's Dallas Wings against the Seattle
Storm. Nneka Agumake and crew are in Seattle.
I think Skylar Diggins is in Seattle. Yeah. And
so they're actually playing right now. But the
WNBA opened last week, and they had kind of showcase
-level games. They had one of the league's best
players. Many are trying to crown her the best
player, Nafisa Collier, going up against Paige
Beckers and her WNBA debut, her regular season
WNBA debut, rather. You had... Atlanta played
Connecticut. Again, a team with a veteran star,
Brady Negrano, Ryan Howard, and that crew versus
the Young Bucks in Connecticut, the Kiki area
fans, and so on and so forth. And then, of course,
you had the game everybody wants to see, the
game that many people around the WNBA community,
honestly, it's on Twitter. It's on my Twitter.
and in my interactions, are kind of getting tired
of, and that is Kalen Clark's Indiana Fever versus
Chicago Skies and the Angel Reese. I think this
rivalry would be more of a rivalry if the games
were even. So, of course, when they came in,
what was the first thing everybody said? Oh,
it's going to be the W's Magic versus Bird. That's
what saved the NBA. Magic versus Bird. People
were painting it as, oh, it was two crazy talented
players from the college game, and they came
in at the same time, and they were the same size,
and they went to two historic franchises. Bird
went to the substitute. By the time he got to
the team, he already won like 13 titles. Magic
goes to the Lakers. By the time he gets to the
team, he already won four or five titles. You
get most of the titles between the two teams.
East Coast, West Coast, and it was crazy. But
the further history goes along, the more they
tend to kind of paint over or minimize one part
of the bird magic rivalry that made it what it
was. One was black. One was white. One was...
I mean, they were both mid -American kids. Magic
was from East Lansing, Michigan. Larry Bird was
the hick from French Lake, Indiana. They were
both Midwestern kids. So what kind of help that
is, neither both understood racism. Both knew
it. Neither one lived in it heavily. So, of course,
in their childhood, they came into the draft.
Bird was covered under the magic. Bird was in
his early 20s. Magic was like 19 to 20. Magic
was like 19 to 20. When they got to the NBA.
Both childhood, especially their teenage formative
years, had they grown up in the South, would
have been during Jim Crow. Jim Crow doesn't get
outlawed early 70s, late 60s, somewhere in there.
Yeah, like the 60s. So they would have had their
early years in Jim Crow. And even when Jim Crow
was canceled or was legally outlawed, you didn't
have. It wasn't like they snapped their fingers
and everything was perfectly kosher. Like, no,
the people who didn't like and wanted to, you
know, I'm trying to think of the word, but wanted
to hold down, oppress black people before, wanted
to do it after. People who had a beef with and
who disliked white people before, disliked white
people after. At no point with a stroke of a
pen in the Supreme Court did racism disappear,
right? It may have been more illegal. But it
didn't go away overnight, right? But anyway,
so that is what spearheaded Magic vs. Bird. Was,
I'll be honest, racial tensions. High -level
racial tensions. And that is what I've tried
to avoid. And I really wanted WB Media outside
of myself. I wanted high -level people. in the
WNBA media space to go and try to quell the racial
aspect of Caitlyn versus Angel. So when they
went at it in college, and Angel does the you
can't see me, whatever, Angel got that from Caitlyn,
who hit it to an opponent a couple of rounds
before. It was almost like turnabout is fair
play. Oh, I can't see you, so Caitlyn, Angel
does it back. That became a racial symbol. Caitlyn
walks away. Angels point to the ring finger.
But Caitlyn and Angel have been going at it for
years. That is not their first time bumping into
each other. Because when Angel was at Maryland,
Caitlyn was at Iowa. So that's not their first
time crossing paths with each other. Angel beats
her. It gets really racial on Twitter. A lot
of Midwestern Caucasian people stepped up and
attacked Angel for her actions. But at the time,
they were two college players. But that also
spikes women's college basketball's ratings overnight.
Why? That was a racial component. You bring it
to the WNBA, people go Magic Bird, Magic Bird,
Magic Bird. I mean, yeah, Magic Bird, Magic Bird,
Magic Bird. Magic Bird is 70 % racial in what
it was popular for. Middle America, let me be
honest, Middle America. Racial America had the
white hope in Larry Bird. The hoods, black America,
pop culture had magic. Both. One was set shot.
He did a couple of fancy passes, sure, but he
was a set shooter. He was a white guy with a
little bitty mustache, kind of Hitler stashy
in hindsight, but a little bit of mustache, you
know, high shorts. Look like your everyday white
guy that you would pass in the mall. Just a little
bit taller. And Magic was, he was Magic. He was
Showtime. He was flashy. He wore the jewelry.
He hung out with the rappers. He hung out with
the football players. You know, he was, he was
the superstar. He embodied a culture that white
America didn't get. Larry Bird embodied a culture
that black America didn't get. I don't think
either was intentional. That was just their personalities.
And it worked. Caleb the Angel is not that. First
of all, Kalen Clark is a better basketball player
currently than Angel Reese. Kalen Clark is a
better total player right now than Angel Reese.
I think Angel's the better defender. I think
Angel's the better rebounder. Kalen's a better
scorer, passer, shooter. And currently, it looks
like leader. And better ball handler. Okay? That's
number one. Number two, neither one of these
teams are title ready. Neither of them. Chicago
is building. Indiana kick -started their build
behind Kalen, but Chicago's building. They're
not on the same level. It was 93 -58 for a reason,
even despite the incident that happened. I don't
touch on that before I move on. That game was
a 13 -point game when the incident happened.
They're not on the same level team -wise. I always
think Magic was better than Bird, but Bird's
team was a little bit better, so they kind of
matched up in finals. I don't think that's the
case with these two teams. I think Kaitlin's
a better player, and she has a much better team.
But let's get to the incident. Let's get to why
this is a mainstream topic. So there's a play,
third quarter, late third quarter, if I remember
correctly. Third quarter for sure, though. Chicago
has the ball. They rotate it down. It ends up
in Angel Reese's hand. Somehow Indiana screws
up the defensive rotation, and there is literally
nobody on Angel Reese's side of the paint. Like,
not like... close to her. There's not a fever
player over there. So, Kaitlyn Clark's standing
at the foul line, kind of watching the play.
She turns, and Angel is about to do, like, the
slowest gather layup, because there's nobody
over there. Like, she's literally got just not
missed a layup. So, she's taking her time. She's
about to bounce it one time and lay it up, and
Kaitlyn hacks her. She swipes down, goes across,
because she, like she said, take fouls. Take
fouls. Swipes down across the wrist. One hand
on the wrist, one hand on the back, swipes and
kind of gives a push with the left hand. Within
seconds, Reese is up and charging. I mean, she's
quoted as saying, you crazy as F. What the F
is wrong with you? Kaylin walks away from the
incident, kind of holding her hand out to her
on the bench like, what, what? And what people
are not noticing and what I'm. And the announcer,
oh, it was the left -hand push that got reset.
And Kalen ends up getting a flagrant. To me,
it wasn't a – Angel called it a basketball play.
Kalen said anybody that doesn't play basketball
takes that foul. I think now the modern NBA,
you try to block that. You don't try to hack
that. Tonight, that's an easy wrap -up. Or you
wrap up. You may not necessarily – because she
kind of hacked and let her hit the floor. And
with a little bit of a left -hand push. But what
people are not noticing, and I haven't seen as
much discourse on social media, Caitlyn says
something to Angel. I don't know what it was,
but Angel hits the floor and she's like, if I'm
mad, excuse me, if I'm mad at your foul, I'm
touching the ground, I'm getting up. If I'm mad
at what you say, I have to let you say it first.
So she Files are on their way to the ground.
Caitlyn is looking at Angel. You can see her
mouth moving and her head up and down. She's
saying something. Angel hits the floor, gathers
herself, and then gets up. So I don't know what
was said. I think that was the sticking point.
Is that someone, is that Caitlyn said something
to Angel that sent her haywire. Juxtaposed to
the file sent her haywire. But of course, that
just ramps up racial tension on social media.
We've got people, we've got African -American
people on Caitlyn's side, which, I mean, to me,
there is no side here. It was a hard foul. There's
no real sides here. If I had to pick a side,
no, I'm not going to pick a side. There's no
sides here. It was a hard foul. Two players got
into it. Flagrant and text were assessed. Move
on with your life, right? But, of course, the
discourse started with RG3 speaking up to my
own. Angels hates Caitlyn. There's legitimate
hate in her heart. You can just see it. Ryan
Clark responds to RU3 saying, basically, those
people you're pandering to will never accept
you. They've showed you time and time again that
they'll never accept you. Your skin's not going
to get any lighter, so on and so forth. To me,
again, there's no sides here. I think it's wrong
to claim there's hate on either side, Angel or
Caitlyn. I think if Caitlyn has a beef with Angel,
it's you beat me for a title. And if Angel has
beef with Caitlyn, it is I did as much for the
women's game as she did. and she has all the
credit, and I don't. It's not a jealousy. It's
a jealousy more than a hatred on both. Angel
has the ring. Caitlyn has popularity. I think
it's a jealousy on both sides. I don't think
it's a hatred on either. I do think the rivalry
is budding, though. I do think the rivalry is
budding, and I think now it's between the players.
At first, it was their fan bases. Now, I think
the players are getting into it because Caitlyn
fully saw it was Angel, and Angel fully saw it
was Caitlyn, and I think that... the players
now are kind of feeding into it a little bit.
Juxtaposed to year one, or even in the college
game, it was the fans. Now Angel said some things
to where she definitely didn't help. Kaylin has
too. Kaylin at first didn't say anything about
any of the stuff that was happening to Angel.
Kind of prompting Angel and Teaspoon and others
to speak up on her behalf. She didn't step in
in the offseason and spoke up. But, you know,
So it's a lot happening in the W right now. But
that is the main storyline. But I don't think
they play again for a while. So it's kind of
it will die down for a while. But of course,
it will spike back up whenever they play again.
But all in all, it was a great opening weekend.
It showcased the opportunity the WNBA has. They
are in desperate need to have a new commissioner
and a new leadership force. They need people
in there that are going to allow a new ownership
in there that are going to think forward thinking
and capitalize on what you have. Magic Bird is
unsuccessful at the NBA if David Stern, which
it wasn't David Stern at the time, it was Larry
O 'Brien, I believe, does not capitalize on the
fact you have Magic and Bird. Now, Stern is a
commissioner by 85. But anyway, doesn't capitalize
on the fact you have Magic and Bird. You have
your lightning rod. Lightning rods are useless
if it only strikes once. And especially if it's
only deemed a one -sided situation, it's really
useless because then people are going to think,
oh, Caleb. Like right now, people think, hey,
Caleb. And I've seen one tweet somewhere that
either WNBA or the league is telling her to do
this stuff or she has a hate in her heart that
she needs to get out of. And it's like it's going
to look bad on you at a certain point if you
don't capitalize. So that is what I would do
from WNBA. I try to figure out a way, rig it
or not, to make those two teams really good and
to make those two players the face of your league
and that rivalry your main point. That's what
I would do. And Asia Wilson. People have forgotten
about Asia. Her shoe kind of re -sparked her
interest. And Sabrina Nescu, who had one of the
greatest women's shoes ever. Like, you have to
capitalize on this moment. Your game is never
more popular. Your tickets have never been higher.
Your ticket sales have never been higher. Your
attendance has never been higher. Your ratings
have never been higher. You have to find a way,
multiple ways, to make this sustain growth and
success. But that is all I have for you today.
Jumping right off the audio show into the video
show. Hopefully you have the video show sooner
rather than later. Getting all this same stuff
from, of course, the perspective of Giant T -Mail
as well. This is your host, Justin Jackson, signing
out.